Name: ICHE Homeschool Conference
Start: 2025-06-05T00:00:00-05:00
End: 2025-06-07T23:59:59-05:00
Location: Bourbonnais, IL

Tagged: literature, Memoria Press, study guides

This topic has 3 replies, 2 voices, and was last updated 11 years, 11 months ago by Amy.

Viewing 4 posts - 1 through 4 (of 4 total)

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May 31, 2013 at 3:08 am
eawerner
Participant
Just curious if anyone has used them for the younger grades (1-3) and has any opinion about them. I’m wondering if the vocab list for possible new words would be nice to go over before an independent read to make sure they aren’t missing out on some meaning in the story because they didn’t know those words. Also, if they’ve helped your child slow down and really read the book instead of skimming it, or if it sucks the joy out of reading to have to answer any specific questions about the story. It seems like some of the question in the samples are very narrative in nature and others not at all. So I guess one could assign or just ask the child only the CM narration friendly questions?
June 6, 2013 at 4:16 pm
Amy
Member
Well I have 2 of them, I only bought the student books – which was a mistake. In hindsight, I should have bought the teacher’s book and worked orally (or bought both – but used them orally). Anyway, I decided not to use them – at least not now. But I also decided to do those two books informally. Or I might hand them to my 9yo and have him do them. He likes independent work & might enjoy them.
Anyway, the books are written by different people (and for different ages). For example, I am looking at doing “The Hobbit” with my eldest next year, and I really like the questions on Amazon’s preview. One of them (last in student book I assume) asks the student to compare “The Hobbit” with “The Odyssey”. Hmm, I might have talked myself into the book, LOL.
The two I have are “Little House in the Big Woods” and “Farmer Boy”. If you have any specific questions, I’ll try to answer.
June 6, 2013 at 8:15 pm
eawerner
Participant
Amy – Thank you so much for replying! It is good to know you think the TM would be worth getting. I hadn’t really considered those but will likely try them out if I decided to go for the student book.
I *think* the biggest benefit I can see for dd6 is going over the vocab ahead of time. Do they have a vocab section at the beginning of every chapter/lesson division? I would also LOVE some help coming up with narration prompts to ask her (not for her to write the answers to) after she has read a chapter. If you wouldn’t mind skimming either of the Little House student guides, how many of the questions can be asked in a narration friendly way? I want her to connect with the book and be able to talk to me about it, but I feel like I need some help getting the conversation started.
June 10, 2013 at 6:46 pm
Amy
Member
Okay Little House in the Big Woods has a 2 page spread for either a half or a full chapter. These are the headings:
- Pronounce and Spell (Wisconsin, scattered, fierce, hollow, whole, etc. – look like 12 words/lesson)
- Vocabulary (“Jack, the brindle bulldoy, lay on the ground.” – I do like how the vocabulary is in context. 5-7 sentences/lesson)
- Activity (seems to be mostly discussion ideas, some drawing & writing – one says to plan a party, another to make cookies)
- Comprehension Questions
I think some of the questions could be conversation starters. Or perhaps used to tie into other things. (Such as “How does Laura know winter is coming?” could tie into nature observation.)
I think Memoria Press has a guarentee, and their customer service is excellent. I’ve read that in Highlands Latin School they work on the answers to the comp questions as a class, then the teacher writes the answer in a complete sentence for the students to copy. So the students are practicing forming sentences with correct grammar & spelling.
Hope that helps you out!