Thanks Rachael - it was great to see this and have you go through and show it’s positives and negatives. Still interested to know what was added to it to really go deeper into how to write a paper etc . This is a really valuable review thank you
To be honest--back when I was doing this exact course, we didn't really have any materials that went deeper into paper-writing. We would do research papers regularly, based off of our history or science or whatever courses we were taking at the time, and basically "learn by doing"...i.e., learn to write a solid paper just by writing the paper and going through the process of reviewing it and editing with parents. Once I came back and re-joined the homeschool, I've done some targeted writing skill-building sessions with my sisters so that I feel confident that they're well prepared to write strong papers in college, to communicate and argue their points. For those classes, I have used some TpT resources that I like, but I cannot remember the names of the people who made them right now...I will try to look up their names and come back. I'm pretty sure Laura Randazzo was one of them. But my main point here is that we really haven't come across or used (at the high school level) any very highly structured writing curriculum in the long term. We've taken more the approach of giving challenging writing assignments, and then walking through the writing journey together, from planning to research to drafting, editing, and whenever I "go over" one of my sisters papers, I have always used their paper for real life examples of strong writing choices and weak writing choices. I had one sister who regularly used hypothetical situations as "arguments" in her persuasive papers. It was a long, and determined journey to convince her that no, hypothetical situations do NOT form the basis of strong arguments. And to replace that technique she had with alternate sources of building arguments, and showing her how she could create stronger arguments without writing about hypothetical situations.
Thank you for sharing such a detailed and thoughtful review. It would be wonderful if you could do a video on a collection of World Literature works suggestions. I would love that!
I don't know if you've used Sonlight's high school language arts but if you have I would love to see a review! That's what I'm thinking of using with Madison eventually.
We have used quite a few of Sonlight's high school HBL's--it looks like now they are offering an option just the Literature portion (with language arts), that's new to me. I think Sonlight's high school courses are very strong. I may be able to do a review sometime, but the HBLs we own are older, so they have updated and improved them more in the years since they were purchased.
haha! Yes, the excerpt approach fell a little flat for me, too. I get what they're trying to do with covering many different works and authors, but you only get to experience a few pages of each work.
Would you recommend this or TGTB or Sonlight Literature language arts for high school? Absolutely love your videos and perspective in homeschooling! Thank you so much! ❤
Between these three options, I'd go with Sonlight literature, I think their literature program is the richest and most varied. If a high schooler did need more work on their grammar, I do think that the Grammar & Composition workbook from Abeka is a very thorough, solid grammar book.
I can see my older kids needing spelling and I know that my older deffo needs spelling!!! We love green and Latin roots that TGTB is teaching at the moment to my son. I see him understanding words better!!! I’m not sure if we would use it for an extra year of language arts or choose something different.
I have another question…. 😅…… do you think I need the teacher’s guides or lesson plans, (not sure what they are called) for these books? Are they necessary? Also, do students write directly on this textbook or do students need to write on a separate notebook?
For the Grammar and Composition workbook, it is designed for student to write directly in the book, and you would DEFINITELY want to get the answer key unless you really, really like grammar and want to go through and figure out if they got every answer correct without a key to help. :) I believe they also have something like a homeschool lesson plan book--the main benefit of that book is that it schedules out what pages/exercises to do each day. That can be helpful but isn't entirely necessary, you can also just decide for yourself that your student will do the next two pages each day, for example. The spelling/vocabulary book could be completed without writing in it and with just writing in a notebook, if I remember correctly, and the literature book is NOT designed to be written in. There are also test and quiz booklets for these.
I have a question. I am very stressed out in choosing a grammar curriculum for my 9th -10th grader. I want to purchase the abeka grammar but I don’t want to do the composition, since writing will be IEW. Can I buy the grammar book and not do the composition, or do they go together, meaning you can’t do one without the other? I really want something that will prep my child for the SATs.
The book is called "Grammar and Composition" but in reality, the amount of writing instruction is pretty minimal/standard instruction on writing structure and best practices, etc. It would be no harm either to skip the composition related sections or to read through them for helpful info, even if you're doing IEW. The bulk of the book is more focused on grammar and usage.
I just wanted to let you know……I raised my hand! 😂 I’m always wondering in your videos…. Are those noises the children? Or the tropical birds? When you say, they’re weak on writing instruction….that’s what I’ve heard. Friends I have who’s Christian school uses only Abeka, they’ve told me their kids don’t know HOW to write a paper. They don’t understand the process. And I’ve also heard, Abeka is weak on critical thinking.
They are birds. Those birds always seem to get LOUDEST right when I'm filming. Our house is open-air so all the outside sounds are also inside sounds. And we occasionally get birds in the house...which is always a very exciting event for the little boys. lol. We do currently have a local family of monkeys that has been loud at times, but they're usually only hanging around near our house in the morning, and I film in the afternoon, so I don't expect there to be any monkey calls in my videos (some viewers have guessed that it is monkeys).
Good morning,can someone outside of america.for example from Haiti get home school from Abeka please? Then if this one get a current residence process (family reunification pending).
You can visit Abeka's website to learn more about their international shipping costs and policies--and can probably get more detailed information if you email them.
Writing is a particular area of passion for me, so I have a bit of a non-traditional approach to teaching writing: ruclips.net/video/bboLksR-q90/видео.html I know that my personal style for teaching writing isn't a good fit for everyone--I do have a video explaining the "Writing with Skill" structured writing curriculum for middle/high school: ruclips.net/video/RpKBtARwaTc/видео.html
Thanks Rachael - it was great to see this and have you go through and show it’s positives and negatives. Still interested to know what was added to it to really go deeper into how to write a paper etc . This is a really valuable review thank you
To be honest--back when I was doing this exact course, we didn't really have any materials that went deeper into paper-writing. We would do research papers regularly, based off of our history or science or whatever courses we were taking at the time, and basically "learn by doing"...i.e., learn to write a solid paper just by writing the paper and going through the process of reviewing it and editing with parents. Once I came back and re-joined the homeschool, I've done some targeted writing skill-building sessions with my sisters so that I feel confident that they're well prepared to write strong papers in college, to communicate and argue their points. For those classes, I have used some TpT resources that I like, but I cannot remember the names of the people who made them right now...I will try to look up their names and come back. I'm pretty sure Laura Randazzo was one of them.
But my main point here is that we really haven't come across or used (at the high school level) any very highly structured writing curriculum in the long term. We've taken more the approach of giving challenging writing assignments, and then walking through the writing journey together, from planning to research to drafting, editing, and whenever I "go over" one of my sisters papers, I have always used their paper for real life examples of strong writing choices and weak writing choices. I had one sister who regularly used hypothetical situations as "arguments" in her persuasive papers. It was a long, and determined journey to convince her that no, hypothetical situations do NOT form the basis of strong arguments. And to replace that technique she had with alternate sources of building arguments, and showing her how she could create stronger arguments without writing about hypothetical situations.
Thank you for sharing such a detailed and thoughtful review. It would be wonderful if you could do a video on a collection of World Literature works suggestions. I would love that!
Thanks for the suggestion! Glad it was a helpful video!
I don't know if you've used Sonlight's high school language arts but if you have I would love to see a review! That's what I'm thinking of using with Madison eventually.
We have used quite a few of Sonlight's high school HBL's--it looks like now they are offering an option just the Literature portion (with language arts), that's new to me. I think Sonlight's high school courses are very strong. I may be able to do a review sometime, but the HBLs we own are older, so they have updated and improved them more in the years since they were purchased.
Me! 🙋♀️ My kids are getting close to highschool age so I enjoyed this!
Oh, I'm glad!
Based on your analysis, I think I did this in high school! Lol. Wasn’t super memorable, but I definitely disliked reading only excerpts.
haha! Yes, the excerpt approach fell a little flat for me, too. I get what they're trying to do with covering many different works and authors, but you only get to experience a few pages of each work.
Great insight! 💕💕
Thanks for watching! :)
Would you recommend this or TGTB or Sonlight Literature language arts for high school? Absolutely love your videos and perspective in homeschooling! Thank you so much! ❤
Between these three options, I'd go with Sonlight literature, I think their literature program is the richest and most varied. If a high schooler did need more work on their grammar, I do think that the Grammar & Composition workbook from Abeka is a very thorough, solid grammar book.
@@SevenInAll Thank you so much! That's very helpful! 😊
I can see my older kids needing spelling and I know that my older deffo needs spelling!!! We love green and Latin roots that TGTB is teaching at the moment to my son. I see him understanding words better!!! I’m not sure if we would use it for an extra year of language arts or choose something different.
Greek and Latin roots are a very fascinating topic!
My kids are still in early elementary but this is interesting.
I have another question…. 😅…… do you think I need the teacher’s guides or lesson plans, (not sure what they are called) for these books? Are they necessary?
Also, do students write directly on this textbook or do students need to write on a separate notebook?
For the Grammar and Composition workbook, it is designed for student to write directly in the book, and you would DEFINITELY want to get the answer key unless you really, really like grammar and want to go through and figure out if they got every answer correct without a key to help. :)
I believe they also have something like a homeschool lesson plan book--the main benefit of that book is that it schedules out what pages/exercises to do each day. That can be helpful but isn't entirely necessary, you can also just decide for yourself that your student will do the next two pages each day, for example.
The spelling/vocabulary book could be completed without writing in it and with just writing in a notebook, if I remember correctly, and the literature book is NOT designed to be written in.
There are also test and quiz booklets for these.
I have a question. I am very stressed out in choosing a grammar curriculum for my 9th -10th grader. I want to purchase the abeka grammar but I don’t want to do the composition, since writing will be IEW. Can I buy the grammar book and not do the composition, or do they go together, meaning you can’t do one without the other? I really want something that will prep my child for the SATs.
The book is called "Grammar and Composition" but in reality, the amount of writing instruction is pretty minimal/standard instruction on writing structure and best practices, etc. It would be no harm either to skip the composition related sections or to read through them for helpful info, even if you're doing IEW. The bulk of the book is more focused on grammar and usage.
I just wanted to let you know……I raised my hand! 😂 I’m always wondering in your videos….
Are those noises the children? Or the tropical birds?
When you say, they’re weak on writing instruction….that’s what I’ve heard. Friends I have who’s Christian school uses only Abeka, they’ve told me their kids don’t know HOW to write a paper. They don’t understand the process. And I’ve also heard, Abeka is weak on critical thinking.
They are birds. Those birds always seem to get LOUDEST right when I'm filming. Our house is open-air so all the outside sounds are also inside sounds. And we occasionally get birds in the house...which is always a very exciting event for the little boys. lol. We do currently have a local family of monkeys that has been loud at times, but they're usually only hanging around near our house in the morning, and I film in the afternoon, so I don't expect there to be any monkey calls in my videos (some viewers have guessed that it is monkeys).
Good morning,can someone outside of america.for example from Haiti get home school from Abeka please?
Then if this one get a current residence process (family reunification pending).
You can visit Abeka's website to learn more about their international shipping costs and policies--and can probably get more detailed information if you email them.
I am raising my hand😃 ✋️
Hurray!
What would you recommend for writing?
Writing is a particular area of passion for me, so I have a bit of a non-traditional approach to teaching writing: ruclips.net/video/bboLksR-q90/видео.html
I know that my personal style for teaching writing isn't a good fit for everyone--I do have a video explaining the "Writing with Skill" structured writing curriculum for middle/high school: ruclips.net/video/RpKBtARwaTc/видео.html