Thank you SO much! I will look into all of these! :-)

Any ideas for a fun geography and science curriculum for a hands-on co-op? It would be for elementary age children? I am looking at curriculum and have been searching on here for some ideas but have yet to find much. Thank you!

I have my son vacuum three times a week! :) I sweep the kitchen every day and the hall and foyer about twice a week.

I will be changing to Rod & Staff this year after having many friends sing their praises! I also noticed it is a top pick from the The Well-Trained Mind.

Level 2 starts slower but builds up in dictation by the end. We started in level two and worked through it quickly to get him ready for Level 3. I think it would be okay to start with Level 3 though.

:lurk5:

:lurk5:

I am interested in knowing about ECC too since I plan on doing it in a year or two. It looks really good!

Classical Conversations has them up to 15's on their audio cd's set to songs. The only problem for you is that you would be buying a cd with all other kinds of memory work on it as well. Check it out. http://www.classicalconversationsbooks.com/cycle1audiocd.html

Thanks Dawn, I didn't realize it was set up on a four day schedule. I was so busy checking everything out at the convention, that I thought I saw a five day set up. Good! One less thing to do!

Okay, thanks to all of you, I have a plan to do MFW and make it even more classical than it already is. Tell me what you think.... I just purchased Year Four-Exploration to 1850 for my son with the 2nd & 3rd Supplement for my daughter. I will definately be adding books from the book basket (which there are MANY to select from) from my library. On top of everything that MFW will give them (and I have been really impressed with their book selections, activities, and especially their notebooks) I will be adding, for my son, Prima Latina, Classical Writing, Logic workbooks like Mind Benders, etc, Wordly Wise, Shurley Grammar, and Classical Conversations awesome memory work plan. Of course Math and spelling too!) I will also re-arrange the schedule to fit our needs. We do a four day a week schedule to fit in our Co-op. Let me know what you think!!

AH! Thank you Donna! I found the supplement in the catalog and see what you mean. I am more excited now to add her in! I did see in the catalog about the content being too difficult for 2nd & 3rd graders for 1850 to Modern but I am glad I can still have them join you in Bible, Science, Presidents and States studies, etc. Texas T, thanks for your encouragment of how easy MFW helps us to homeschool classically. I I am off to order!!!! :auto:

Surfside Academy....while I was at the convention, I was hearing of some people who use MFW with a 4 year cycle from Year 2 to Year 5 and skipping ECC. Of course I am new to this curriculum and someone here may confirm or deny this. I really like the look of ECC though so I will probably try it within the cycle.

Thank you Donna! Your advice has been VERY helpful. My son will be in third grade in the fall but his birthday is Sept. 7th, therefore he only missed the cut-off for 4th grade by seven days. He is doing 4th grade work at home already in some subjects. However, I want to be careful of the content because of his maturity level. I really like the fact that Marie has read every book and notifies us of any concern we might have about a particular book's content. Thanks for your help with some of the books so that I can be mindful of them. You bring me to another question when you mentioned your younger one joining in. I will also have a first grader in the fall, do you suggest purchasing the 2nd/3rd grade supplement or just letting her make a notebook with some color pages, etc..?? Thanks again!

Thank you so much for all of your help. I am feeling more and more confident that MFW is the curriculum for us and that I can do it classically as well. I am looking at "Exploration to 1850." How much time a day does it take to do everything?? Including a few books from the book basket?? Thanks again!