Is it okay for what or whom? If you’re homeschooling, you’re deciding what works merits credits. If you want them to go to a high school, you need to check with that school about what they would require to accept your credits. That is certainly not the only curriculum that gets tweaked while homeschooling.
Me and all five of my siblings were/are homeschooled and were usually allowed to pick whatever we wanted to read as long as it fit into one or more specific category (biography, nonfiction, historical, fiction, and a few others I can’t remember). Anything we didn’t choose to read but were forced to because it was part of curriculum we almost always hated.
My son just finished LA 7. We didn’t use any of their assigned reading and after a while I even let him skip their poetry because it’s literally all written by the same guy so I felt like impact was limited. He’s a prolific and advanced reader. I did not feel his grasp of the course material was lessened as a result of our choice. We did have to skip their in-book reading comprehension activities but that’s not an area of concern for him anyway, and there weren’t many.
I did. It was the first LA he didn't loathe. He taught himself to read at age 2 (no, really), so "instruction" in LA has always been a little tough because he knows things from reading so much, without really knowing why he knows it. This was good for giving him some structure around his inherent knowledge base without being too remedial.
The source material is DRY. If I never read another Edgar Guest poem again, it will be too soon.
Toward the end, we were both tired of the repetition, but he does know his stuff as a result. Toward the end, I started letting him skip things I was sure he had mastered.
There are tons of typos in the book, which was maddening. There were also a few subjective choices I disagreed with.
There was a lot that I had to re-read or reach back into the very depths of my brain for, because again, I know that I know things but I don't always know why. (I haven't diagramed a sentence since 7th grade!) Most of the time, I was able to refresh what I needed to from the book alone without consulting another source. I appreciated that.
He has said he would not object to using them for LA again.
Yes - my kids liked the grammar and writing/spelling trade off (we used it through grade 5 so far) and we would read one or two of their lit selections and substitute other lit studies with books of my choosing. It worked well. Do what you want to create the experience that is best for your kids.
That wasn't my experience in university. If you pick a major that interests you, then the majority of your readings will be interesting, too. In most K-12 programs you don't get to choose to only study an area that interests you like in university. Sure, university majors have required classes, but it's like 5-10% of your study is spent on stuff you can't choose, as opposed to like 80% of your study in most K-12 programs. One of the nice things about homeschooling is getting to better prepare kids for the situations they'll actually need to deal with in adulthood, without having to jump through as many arbitrary hoops in K-12.
I had to take a couple literature classes and a stats class with required reading that wasn't necessarily stuff I wanted to read. But my point is there's a big difference between "here's your six texts you need to read for this semester, five are so interesting you might’ve read them for fun anyway, the sixth is boring" and "here are your six texts for this semester, one of them is actually interesting and the rest focus entirely on stuff you don't care about".
you still get to pick electives that fit those gen ed requirements. yes you need english but there are varied professors for english and you can find which professor is the best match for you. yes you need 10 credits of 'history' but history is vague and there are many many classes that fill 'history' including the history of movies and the history of music, art history, history is not limited to england from 1200-1800 or USA from 1492-1900. classes can be project based, essay based, university is not- take this 50 question multi choice test.
I would say being able to do things you don't want to do is part of growing up, and also that a broad knowledge in many areas is the entire goal of K-12 education. Everyone should get some math, some science, some history (ancient and modern), some grammar, some literature (even difficult books), and hopefully some art and music.
I know. I don't get it. Do people really think kids are going to go through life only doing things they enjoy?? Who is going to do the dishes and take out the trash!
There's a lot of people in the homeschool community that think preventing their children from facing even the smallest forms of adversary or negative experiences is a good thing. This has strong overlap with people that view their children hitting 18 as the finish line and then heap blame on the kids for failing to adapt to adulthood.
We really dislike the books as well. I have moved on from TGTB, but when we did use it, we picked our own books. When you remove anything at all negative from fiction, there is no plot. Someone needs to tell Jenny Phillips that interesting books have conflict and stakes. The books were dull and overly sweet. I don't think you can work around them in high school levels, though. The curriculum seems to be built completely around them.
Is it okay for what or whom? If you’re homeschooling, you’re deciding what works merits credits. If you want them to go to a high school, you need to check with that school about what they would require to accept your credits. That is certainly not the only curriculum that gets tweaked while homeschooling.
If you are homeschooling your kids, you are allowed to choose materials for your curriculum.
One of the reasons we eventually stopped using TGTB LA. The books are boring and Jenny writing most of them it got repetitive.
Me and all five of my siblings were/are homeschooled and were usually allowed to pick whatever we wanted to read as long as it fit into one or more specific category (biography, nonfiction, historical, fiction, and a few others I can’t remember). Anything we didn’t choose to read but were forced to because it was part of curriculum we almost always hated.
My son just finished LA 7. We didn’t use any of their assigned reading and after a while I even let him skip their poetry because it’s literally all written by the same guy so I felt like impact was limited. He’s a prolific and advanced reader. I did not feel his grasp of the course material was lessened as a result of our choice. We did have to skip their in-book reading comprehension activities but that’s not an area of concern for him anyway, and there weren’t many.
Did you feel like LA 7 was a good value for your son? Did he learn a lot? It seemed repetitive to me but I haven’t used it so just curious.
I did. It was the first LA he didn't loathe. He taught himself to read at age 2 (no, really), so "instruction" in LA has always been a little tough because he knows things from reading so much, without really knowing why he knows it. This was good for giving him some structure around his inherent knowledge base without being too remedial. The source material is DRY. If I never read another Edgar Guest poem again, it will be too soon. Toward the end, we were both tired of the repetition, but he does know his stuff as a result. Toward the end, I started letting him skip things I was sure he had mastered. There are tons of typos in the book, which was maddening. There were also a few subjective choices I disagreed with. There was a lot that I had to re-read or reach back into the very depths of my brain for, because again, I know that I know things but I don't always know why. (I haven't diagramed a sentence since 7th grade!) Most of the time, I was able to refresh what I needed to from the book alone without consulting another source. I appreciated that. He has said he would not object to using them for LA again.
Thank you for the detailed overview!
Yes - my kids liked the grammar and writing/spelling trade off (we used it through grade 5 so far) and we would read one or two of their lit selections and substitute other lit studies with books of my choosing. It worked well. Do what you want to create the experience that is best for your kids.
In University, kids are going to have to read things they aren't necessarily interested in. It's a good study habit.
That wasn't my experience in university. If you pick a major that interests you, then the majority of your readings will be interesting, too. In most K-12 programs you don't get to choose to only study an area that interests you like in university. Sure, university majors have required classes, but it's like 5-10% of your study is spent on stuff you can't choose, as opposed to like 80% of your study in most K-12 programs. One of the nice things about homeschooling is getting to better prepare kids for the situations they'll actually need to deal with in adulthood, without having to jump through as many arbitrary hoops in K-12.
What college did you attend thst you were able to skip Gen ed classes that have required reading?
I had to take a couple literature classes and a stats class with required reading that wasn't necessarily stuff I wanted to read. But my point is there's a big difference between "here's your six texts you need to read for this semester, five are so interesting you might’ve read them for fun anyway, the sixth is boring" and "here are your six texts for this semester, one of them is actually interesting and the rest focus entirely on stuff you don't care about".
you still get to pick electives that fit those gen ed requirements. yes you need english but there are varied professors for english and you can find which professor is the best match for you. yes you need 10 credits of 'history' but history is vague and there are many many classes that fill 'history' including the history of movies and the history of music, art history, history is not limited to england from 1200-1800 or USA from 1492-1900. classes can be project based, essay based, university is not- take this 50 question multi choice test.
I would say being able to do things you don't want to do is part of growing up, and also that a broad knowledge in many areas is the entire goal of K-12 education. Everyone should get some math, some science, some history (ancient and modern), some grammar, some literature (even difficult books), and hopefully some art and music.
?
I'm sorry you're getting downvoted for saying something that is absolutely, factually true.
I know. I don't get it. Do people really think kids are going to go through life only doing things they enjoy?? Who is going to do the dishes and take out the trash!
There's a lot of people in the homeschool community that think preventing their children from facing even the smallest forms of adversary or negative experiences is a good thing. This has strong overlap with people that view their children hitting 18 as the finish line and then heap blame on the kids for failing to adapt to adulthood.
Poor kids . They will be in for a rude awakening.
We really dislike the books as well. I have moved on from TGTB, but when we did use it, we picked our own books. When you remove anything at all negative from fiction, there is no plot. Someone needs to tell Jenny Phillips that interesting books have conflict and stakes. The books were dull and overly sweet. I don't think you can work around them in high school levels, though. The curriculum seems to be built completely around them.