First time ever posting that my kid is above level, so please realize that I am not trying to sound anything other than happy and supportive for anyone else who has not had the amazing breakthrough in reading from Cheryl's version of the FSR plans. After battering reading into poor Clara's head so hard that she can now read the newspaper (but cannot spell a thing or write a sentence - sometimes success at one thing may mean temporary failure at another), I do not see her having problems with the SC 3 curriculum. I think that it sounds great, but if she can do it all in one year, shouldn't she? Or is this just perpetuating a cycle of getting behind and that hurting her? She can already do all of the SC 4 reading, and much more difficult reading, without trouble. I can scribe her writing, and she can be back up near 3rd grade by doing this. Math is a totally different topic, and has nothing to do with any of the rest of this until Junior High School. Clara almost completed another Latin program called Song School (we honestly just did not finish and knew we would be doing Prima Latina so did not worry about that), without a whole lot of trouble. So is the SC curriculum just going to be taking 2 years to get through one year of regular MP? I felt like it was really and truly different at the start. This is not a criticism, since it is the only curriculum that taught my daughter to read after more than 3 years of trying, and taught her so well that we are stunned on a daily basis. I just want to know for placement. Maybe Clara should be doing regular MP 2nd grade (even though she is in 4th grade) because it would match her math, spelling, and writing skills, and she would actually be ahead in another topic (reading). I would love to hear from Michelle Tef on this.
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JeJe Greer
Mom to:
Stella 10th grade MP plus Russian
Clara 7th grade half MP, half local co-op -
Re: SC levels versus MP regular levels
Hi, Jeje. While we wait to hear from MichelleT, I just wanted to clarify that SC 3 is intended as a one-year program, as is SC 4, but of course you can always accelerate these by teaching Mon/Tues as one day, Wed/Thurs as one day, and Friday as a third light date, then repeat. This will allow you to finish SC 3 & 4 much faster. The reading load (American history) would be heavy in SC 3, but it sounds as if reading has become her strength. She still needs the writing (Bible or AmHist) from SC 3, so be careful not to scribe everything. Teaching her to write well, of course, is part of her education. In SC 4, you would use primarily CS:LA, NAC, Prima Latina, and lit guides for teaching and practicing composition.
If you prefer to teach from MP, you could do this with adaptations for writing & math. Just be sure to have a plan for teaching writing through some incremental means.
Both SC & MP can be customized, accelerated, or slowed, so you have good options!Simply Classical: A Beautiful Education for Any Child (Memoria Press)
SimplyClassical.com -- catalog, curriculum, book -
Re: SC levels versus MP regular levels
Jeje,
What wonderful news about Clara's breakthrough in reading. After reading through your post I had a couple of thoughts about her placement. If Clara is able to write on her own (I can't recall if she had a physical issue with writing or just wasn't proficient) we now need to focus on that skill. Those muscles need to be trained. This is one of reasons against the higher level SC curriculum and complete her writing for her. If you have to scribe for her she will not get to the level she needs to be for middle and high school, so barring physical issues, gradually increase the amount she writes. This can be done at a slow enough pace that it happens over a period of one year which will fit perfectly for the MP 2nd grade. It sounds to me as if this placement would work nicely. I'm glad you are not against that placement level remembering those literature books are Lexile rated above 2nd grade. That level also adds expository reading which will be a proper challenge. This level also has the Traditional Spelling which will fortify her phonics. As always the recommendation is for mastery. If at any point mastery is not displayed, slow down and focus upon those concepts which need work.
All of this to say as if the 2nd grade level is the one in which Clara will be able to complete all the student work, place her there. Speed up where you can and slow down when you need to. Then move directly onto the 3rd grade because this level is quite a bump up in workload with more writing and oral reading in many subjects, you could easily do this level (accelerated) over two years and move directly into 5th grade. That would be the long-term plan.
I hope this help Jeje. I am in the office today if you want to call for more specialized placement help!
Blessings,
Michelle TComment
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Re: SC levels versus MP regular levels
I just wanted to let Cheryl and Michelle know that based on recommendations in another thread, particularly the really good ones from Christine, we are going to try to do SC3 and SC4 in 18 months instead of MP2 in a year. I ordered the SC4 manual yesterday, as well as Traditional Spelling. Fortunately it shipped already (!!!), and we are just going to continue with our intro to school until it arrives.JeJe Greer
Mom to:
Stella 10th grade MP plus Russian
Clara 7th grade half MP, half local co-opComment
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Re: SC levels versus MP regular levels
Simply Classical level one has multi-sensory components in it as well as book D done in a different order tha MPK. You can buy the phonics plans as a download if you go to the individual lesson plans, scroll to the bottom to special needs . It is SC1 phonics.Christine
(2022/2023)
DD1 8/23/09 -Mix of MP 6/7
DS2 9/1/11 - Mix of SC 7/8 and SC 9/10 (R&S 5, FFL)
DD3 2/9/13 -SC 5/6
Previous Years
DD 1 (MPK, SC2 (with AAR), SC3, SC4, Mix of MP3/4, Mix MP5/6
DS2 (SCB, SCC, MPK, AAR/Storytime Treasures), CLE Math, Mix of MP3/4, MP5 (literature mix of SC 7/8/MP5)
DD3 (SCA, SCB, Jr. K workbooks, soaking up from the others, MPK, AAR), MP1, MP2Comment
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