Thanks for starting the discussion, Sonya.  I am very attracted to this method of learning/teaching.  I am almost finished with chapter 2 of Poetic Knowledge and I am enjoying the challenge of understanding it.  I read slowly and out loud hoping that it helps.  I like the term fat soul.  That is a great way to describe what we want our children to attain.  I have nothing to add at this time, but I look forward to following this thread.

Tiger Baby sounds interesting.  I loved the book about the Tiger Mom.  It was interesting to see her philosophy in action.  You definitely see the contrast between the lax American parents versus the Tiger Moms.  I personally strive for balance between the two.  I think kids need to be pushed, but how hard?

That is fine.  I will get busy reading and wait for your post.

I read What's Math Got to Do With It last year.  I found it to be very interesting.  I would recommend it.

Mandy - did you do anything with the speed reading course that Vivianne was looking at.  What were your thoughts?  I know Susan Wise Bauer is not a proponent of speed reading.

I am impressed, Mandy.  I have the book but have only read the sections as they have applied to my needs.  It is quite a book.

Hello Sonya,

Any updates on where we are with scheduling something?  I have the book and began the first chapter last night.  I want to make sure I am ready when you are.  Please let me know.

Thanks,
Krista

Great topic and I love what you mentioned.  We have been working on Fables in our homeschool.  What I love about this, and you can definitely implement this with your daughter, is that my kids are getting so creative and having a lot of fun changing the fables around.  We read the Fable several times and they we see if we can change some of the words by finding synonyms or changing the sentence structure.  I have them change the setting and whatever else they want.  I have not ever seen them have this much fun writing.  They laugh and try to outdo each other.  Now, my kids are older and are writing, but you could record or write down your daughter's stories.  She would probably love this.  My older daughter actually writes up more than one version because she enjoys it so much.

I love the ideas of the puppets and felt boards that Keri recommended, but then again, Keri has awesome ideas.  I just want to live next door to her.

Thanks for the reply, Keri!  I am seriously considering this.  I have always loved to have my kids memorize poetry, Scripture and all that good stuff.  This might be really nice to use with my three youngest, especially since we are learning Latin now.


Alex is adorable.  Reciting in her sleep is precious.

I think I will opt for that option.  Then I get it immediately with no shipping fees.  I tried to find it free online to read, but it was not working out.  I like free books, borrowed books and cheap books, but sometimes you just have to spend the money.

Okay.  Thank you for this.  Please keep me posted.  I have already learned many things from you on this forum, so I am interested to participate and learn more.  We are actually writing with the progym method this year and I love it.  Thanks for that!!

Here is a link to purchase an ebook.  http://books.google.com/books?id=_5418OyH8IYC

Would it be beneficial to be a part of the discussion if I haven't read the book?  I am familiar with classical education as I have been following The Well Trained Mind.  I love the subject, so I would like to participate.  Please let me know.

I was going to ask this question.  Thank you for the answer.  I love Little Reader French and I cannot wait, well, I guess I can, for the Spanish curriculum, so rapido, rapido, por favor.

Keri - I was rereading this post and noticed you mentioned Living Memory.  I looked around a little to see what that is.  Where did you get yours and are you happy with it?  It sounds intriguing, but Amazon doesn't have it.  Did you get a physical copy or an ebook?  I see you can by it through Lul.com.  I am curious to your thoughts.  Please share.  Thanks.

Oh, Tamsyn, that reminds me of Madlibs.  My kids LOVE these.  They are a really fun and funny way to learn grammar.  You can buy the Madlibs books, I am including a link so you can see them, or play them online.  Lots and lots of fun!!  So much so that your children will want to know the parts of speech so they can join the fun.

http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_sb_noss_2?url=search-alias%3Daps&field-keywords=madlibs

http://www.funbrain.com/brain/ReadingBrain/ReadingBrain.html

http://www.itsamadlibsworld.com/

Oh, Tamsyn, you know I am loving that poem.  It is so cute.  These are all great ideas.  I have not used the Simply Grammar books, but I did start First Language Lessons with my 3-4 year olds.  They are completely scripted, so you don't have to come up with anything to say.  You just read it to your child and have them answer you.  We would take this further and play naming nouns, verbs, pronouns and so forth throughout the day.  I really like that book.  It was easy to use, very thorough and my kids loved it.  There is lots of chanting to help them remember definitions.  Even now my 9 year old quotes these back to me when he is asked the definition of a part of speech.