I would recommend Institutes for Excellence In Writing. We began using IEW last year, and it has improved my dds writing immensely. Plus, it isn't boring, and you can choose whichever edition of the materials that you would like to use. Over the summer, we used Fairy Tales, Myths and Fables so that my son could get used to the format. It's for 3rd grade. This year, we're using IEW History-Based Writing Lessons Ancients. All of the writing assignments are based on Ancient events: The Epic of Gilgamesh, Ziggurats, the Exodus, etc. There are three Levels in the History-Based writing lessons...A, B, and C, so you can choose to scale projects either easier or more difficult if you see that your child is mastering the concepts explained. If you have access to borrow the IEW: Teaching Structure and Style DVD set, it will help you as teacher to completely understand the concepts in each of the IEW Parent Manuals & Student Notebooks. I wouldn't buy them because they are expensive, but if you can borrow them I would highly recommend them. The DVDs contain a 3-day seminar for teachers that explains in more detail how to use the IEW materials. There are nine basic units to IEW books. They cover nine types of writing, and although these are not all of the types of writing a student will do in the course of his lifetime, they are the big basic types that will be used many times in years to come. If you look at their website, you will be able to see which History-Based book accompanies your child's grade/writing level. Their web address is: http://www.excellenceinwriting.com Additionally, once you learn the skills you can apply them to any text/subject. So should you begin with Ancients and desire to move to American History, you can repeat the basic nine units and just use your own source texts for the assignments.

Now I see that you are looking for HJ Elementary GEOGRAPHY! Sorry! No worries, VP has the ST, TM, TM CD's, Test Book, Test Bank CD, and Geomentry DVDs too. But again, I don't know if these are the edition you are looking for or not.

sells Jacobs' Elementary Algebra Student Text, Teacher's Manual, DVDs, Tests and Solutions Manual. I cannot tell what edition is being sold but, if you call VP, their customer service department can help you. I always ask for Gloria because she is very thorough and helpful. Their phone number is 1.800.922.5082 or you can send an online inquiry to info@VeritasPress.com.

Thank you for your responses. I will look into this further with our Challenge A director. At this point, we don't have any higher Challenge programs at our campus. But, maybe by the time that my dc get there we will. Maybe CC will change their Latin program by that time too.

We are currently a part of a CC Community that recently added the Challenge A program. I was looking at the materials that will be covered during Challenge A and saw that the students will be using Latin's Not So Tough, which has gotten bad reviews. Additionally, my dc will be ready to begin Henle when CC is beginning LSNT and I am planning to have them begin Wheelock when CC would have them begin Henle. I have read somewhere that students are allowed to opt-out of some of the Challenge classes and I was wondering how many classes are permitted to be opted out. When my dc is ready to begin Challenge A, she will also be on either a different level of Saxon or we may be using a different math curriculum altogether. I understand that the goal is to have all of the students studying and discussing the same thing in order to obtain a cohesiveness with the group but, I definitely do not want to use the Latin program. Also, does anyone know if the cost of tuition is decreased when you opt-out of some of the courses? I am also considering enrolling my dc in the Veritas Press Scholars Academy for the upper grades and would like to cut costs as much as possible. Thank you in advance for answering my inquiry.

Veritas Press sells Vocab Cards for Wheelock Latin. Here's the link: http://www.veritaspress.com/prodinfo.asp?number=095900 They are $34.00 but, there is also a grammatical forms summary with the cards. Hope this helps!

I was a little surprised when I read the article, too. We are using Shurley Grammar, Writing With Ease, and Latina Christiana I. I have found that our Shurley helps my dc understand Latin grammar, not the other way around. Shurley Level 3 is also farther ahead as far as teaching English grammar concepts than Latina Christiana is in teaching Latin grammar. In Shurley, we've already covered all of the parts of speech and in LCI, we're just now getting to the lesson on adjectives. I will say that when doing both LCI and SG simultaeously, they work well together, in that, when my dc have already learned what a noun, verb, adjective, etc., is/does in a sentence, it is easier for them to understand the Latin grammar concept when we approach it because, they've already learned the terms/usage in their English grammar lessons. If we only relied on our LCI for English grammar, I feel that we would be well behind the 8 ball, so to speak. I do not think that my dd would be ready to begin the IEW or EEL writing/grammar class that I am planning to enroll her in next year without her good 'ole Shurley and WWE. There is no way that she would be able to understand sentence structure at this point in her Latin studies. I am planning to continue Latin until graduation, but I don't think that I can replace English grammar, at least not at this point in their educational journey. But, that's just my 2 cents. :001_smile:

We use Shurley English and we love it. I started using it because the private Classical Christian school that my dd attended for K and 1st grade used Shurley. It is very comprehensive. There are jingles that the kids recite to help them to learn the parts of speech. Some people have complained that it is redundant but, as one parent of our former school said, "Our children will REALLY know their grammar!". But, that is exactly what I want for my dc. We are using Shurley English 3 this year. There are some new jingles added from Shurley 2 so, that has helped to keep things more interesting. At this point, both of my dc are able to parse sentences very well and they know the parts of speech that have been introduced to this point. Shurley also includes vocabulary and instruction in different styles of writing, e.g. letters, journaling, creative, etc. I use a different vocabulary & writing program but, if you wanted to use it, Shurley is very complete. Next fall, I'm enrolling my dc in an "Institutes for Excellence in Writing" course, which also covers some grammar but, I'm still considering using Shurley to supplement her coursework during the summers. I've really been pleased with the past two years that I have used it and the year that my dd used Shurley in school.

I've looked at several Latin programs and none of them go all the way through to 12th grade. We've used Memoria Press' Prima Latina last year and Latina Christiana I with Ludere Latine I and just the Lingua Angelica songs (not the LA student workbook) for this year. Memoria Press has also added (in addition to Latina Christiana I & II) First Form Latin and Second Form Latin. If you request a catalog, it outlines how they recommend teaching Latin from K - 12th. But, at some point they transition from Second Form Latin to the Henle series. (Their catalog shows all of this in detail.) Memoria Press' books are for individuals who have no Latin background and they are fairly easy to follow. I like the Latina Christiana I teacher's manual much better than the Prima Latina tm. It gives better explanations as to how to lay out your teaching schedule. The only requirement you have that MP doesn't fit is the pronunciation as it is Ecclesiastical. There is a course CD but, I've chosen not to use it.

Our family is using this book series: Learning About Sex for the Christian Family by Concordia Publishing House. There are 5 books in the series. They are graded by age and they have one set just for girls and one set just for boys. The third book is for ages 10-12 and it's called "How You Are Changing". The fourth books is for ages 13-15 and it's called "Sex and the New You". The fifth/last book is for ages 15 and up. It's titled " Love, Sex and God". I like the series because unlike others that I've read it doesn't explain the particulars of sex until the ages 10-12 book. My children aren't going to have much exposure to those types of things until they are older so I am more comfortable waiting until those ages to teach them about sex. If they were going to a school, I would feel the need to educate them sooner because I'd rather they hear it from me than from someone elsewhere.

I bought All The Right Type for my children. There is a tutorial and then the practice sessions have different types of space games. I think it was $30 and it downloads directly on to your computer. Both of my children are excited to learn typing on the computer using these games.

We're using Spelling Workout. I like it because it goes through all of the spelling rules. My dc enjoy the lessons. They like the different writing activities that go with each lesson. The lessons are short and sweet. I have one natural speller and one not-so-natural speller but, I'd like both to learn WHY they are spelling the way they are spelling so that's why we're using this program. TWTM suggested starting with level A even if your dc aren't in 1st grade so that's what we did. I think we finished level A in one month because we did two lessons at a time. We're in level B now and still doing 2 lessons at a time. We should finish this level in about one month, too. When we get to level C, we may need to slow down a bit since that will be on grade level with my not-so-natural speller but, if we do that's o.k. and if we don't....well, that's o.k. too! Last year, we tried Spelling Plus but either I wasn't using it properly or it just didn't work for us. I didn't feel that it was helping me to teach the rules of spelling and it was just list after list. My dc dreaded spelling and I wasn't too excited about it either. But, I know of several friends who have used SP and liked it fine. Maybe it's more about what a person wants in a spelling curriculum. Spelling Workout has helped spelling go a lot more smoothly in our family this year.

We used Memoria Press' Prima Latina last year and it was o.k. We're using a combination of Latina Christiana I, Ludere Latine I and Lingua Angelica this year and it's going fabulously. My dc love the LL I puzzle book and the LA songs. We're going slowly because of the ages of my dc and doing one lesson in about 1 1/4 weeks. This is our schedule: Day 1: Lesson, recitation, grammar & vocab drill, LA song Day 2: Recitation, Grammar & vocab drill, LA song & LL puzzle Day 3: Recitation, Grammar & vocab drill, LA song & LL puzzle Day 1: Recitation, Lesson quiz, LA song & LL puzzle We're also incorporating Roots of English for vocabulary with our Latin studies. It coordinates with Latina Christiana I lessons. Since my dc are so young, I'm planning to finish Latina Christiana I & II slowly and then go on to the First Form program.

We were a part of a CC group last year and we're going back this year. It was a great help to both me and my dc because it freed me from developing memory work and allowed my dc the opportunity to be in a classroom setting with other children. They loved it! There are many CC'ers on the boards and if you do a search I know that you'll come up with lots of threads about CC. Some felt that it was beneficial for their families and others didn't feel that CC met their needs. If you want to know if CC is for you, most directors have an informational meeting that parents are required to attend before joining CC. If you go to www.classicalconversations.com and click on your state, the groups in your area will come up and the contact information for the director of your group. I think that the directors also post their meetings on the web-site but, if not you can contact the director and request a meeting/find out if there is already an informational meeting scheduled. The meeting basically goes over what classical education is and how CC can help you to achieve that goal. Then, it's up to you to decide if it is right for your family. :D Hope this helps!

My dc have different sized lined paper for several of their curriculum workbooks and it doesn't seem to bother them at all. In fact, they haven't even mentioned it and they are both pretty observant/picky about things like that. My ds is still using last year's not-quite-finished kindergarten paper, which has giant lines for his spelling tests and my dd is using last year's not-quite-finished 2nd grade writing paper. I figure when they use it up, I'll just buy the paper that is meant for their grade. I do find that my dd's writing does get messier with the larger lined paper because she doesn't want to take the time to write using the entire space between the dotted line and the bottom line but, I have encouraged her that she needs to write slower to accomodate the size of lines on the paper to make her writing look neat. As we go along, I'm assuming that she'll do fine once we switch to smaller lined paper. We also introduced cursive last year but, not consistently. I bought a D'Nealian cursive writing workbook to hopefully do a better job of giving her lots of practice but, guess what !?! the line size in that book is different than all our other workbooks, too. :D Ah, maybe it just teaches our dc to be flexible?

Oh just go for it! :D We used Noeo Biology I last year and both my dc loved it. You get to make your own stethoscope and a bunch of other fantastic experiments. We're using Physics I this year because our CC group is focusing on Physics (haven't ordered it yet). But, it sounds like you've got a great deal with already having some of the books and the microscope. I think that combining I & II is a great idea. In Bio I, most weeks it was reading & summarizing 3 days per week and then an experiment on the fourth day. When it got to the human body, there was an experiment every day but, that was only for a couple of weeks. I don't know the scope/sequence of Bio II but, I can't imagine that it would be that difficult to streamline the two together. That way, if you see that Bio I's info is not challenging enough, you can substitute Bio II in that area to meet the need. Good luck!

www.rainbowresource.com has a wealth of curriculum at good prices. Their catalog, which you can request for free, is about 4 inches thick but, I remember seeing quite a few spanish curriculum choices in there that you may want to check out. Also they have a search function on their web-site so you can type in "spanish" and all the curriculum that they have will come up for you to browse. I just loved their catalog because it also has a review of each product to help you know if this is what you are really looking for or not. The web-site doesn't have the in-depth review of the products that the catalog provides.

Last year, we used Foundations 1: Preparation for Christ. It was written by a hs-ing mom and it is in chronological order. There are free coloring and other worksheets that you can print off that go with the curriculum. They have worksheets for children of different ages. We used the first worksheets after the coloring pages. My dc weren't as interested in the cross-word puzzles as they were the fill-in-the blank & True/False. My dc loved the coloring pages! Here's the link for the curriculum: http://www.homeschoolingbible.com/ Here's the link for the coloring & activity pages: http://children.calvarychapel.com/site/curriculum.htm We used Leading Little Ones to God during our family devotions the year before we started using Foundations in our home school. The only reason why we're not continuing with the Foundations program is because we switched to VP history and decided to do VP Bible together with history.

Last year we used SOTW I AND our library was doing renovations so many of the books that I was going to need would have been going into storage. My librarian asked if I could provide lists of books for each week that I would need for the entire school year. She kept the lists at the library and would pull the books out for me before they went into storage. They were then kind enough to allow me to check-out all of the books (which I kept in order on a shelf at home) and extended my due date on everything to May 31st. Any books that our library didn't have, she would request through Inter-Libarary Loan and they would arrive around the time that we were studying that period. We would read the books when we got to that chapter and then return them when we were finished with them. This process worked great for me but, what did not work great was providing the book lists. I did not have access to a copier and so I was typing up all of the books for each week on a separate sheet to submit to the library. What would work better....copy the additional reading sheet from SOTW book and submit THAT to the library. They usually need 3 -6 weeks advance notice to send out for ILL books and 1 week notice for books that the library has on it's shelves. This year we switched to VP history and there are far fewer books needed in their priority one resources. I bought most of them through www.rainbowresource.com and a few that I found with better prices at www.amazon.com. For the volume of books that SOTW recommends, we'd have broken the bank purchasing them all so the library was a good fit for us. With VP we're reading fewer books and I'm hoping to concentrate more on those few that we're reading. Since we're taking more time on each book and I have 2 dc that need to read them, I felt that owning the books was better than borrowing.

We used Shurley Grammar but, we did not do the writing portions. We just did the grammar portion of the book with the jingles to learn the parts of speech and the practice books. We used Writing With Ease for writing. It has been a good fit because what we've learned in grammar we've been able to apply to our Latin grammar too.

My ds is "technically" in 1st grade and my dd is in 3rd grade, however, my ds is doing all 3rd grade work with the exception of math. We're using Saxon and since it's incremental, I didn't want him to miss out on important concepts so last year I started him off in S1 and this year he's doing S2. He finds the concepts very easy but, I am still making him progress through the course so we don't skip anything important. I have read some on the accelerated learning boards and what I seem to understand is that some children are gifted, while others are advanced. Which means that if your child is gifted, he or she will be ahead in one or more areas for the rest of their educational career. But, if your child is advanced, he or she may be ahead in one or more areas for a short period of time but then fall back to a more "normal" level that is in line with his/her peers. There seems to be some question as to how to discover this without having your child tested and even then, it may not be apparent until your child is older as to which category they would fall into. (If I'm understanding what I've read.) When we were considering enrolling our dc in a private school, they did not recommend advancement (at that point my ds would have been entering k). They said any advantage he would gain now would probably be lost by 3rd grade. After hs-ing last year and seeing all of the 2nd grade work my ds was doing, I know he would have been bored to tears in kindergarten. His biggest weakness is the fine-motor skill of writing. Intellectually, he can do the work but, he gets frustrated with writing it down sometimes, although he is doing much better this year. I guess how I feel is that for the school district, he's in 1st grade but, at home I teach him at his learning level. I see that the learning curve for the curriculum that we're using greatly increases this year and I'm not sure that my ds will be able to keep up with his sister. But, I'm not worried about it because if I need to slow things down for him, I have the option to do it. We'll just adjust our days so that each child can progress at a rate that is best for them. So if he keeps on this track for this year, great and if he doesn't, that's o.k. too. We'll move him around so that he is still learning and being challenged but, not overwhelmed. KWIM? I know that the private schools in the area have options to send their gifted students to local colleges for courses in high school. If my ds continues on this two-year-ahead track, I will not graduate him early because I feel that from a maturity stand-point he needs to have those two addtional years of growth before going to college. But, I will seek out ways to get him college-level courses the same as what private schools in our area are doing. I think that is the beauty of hs-ing. I can teach my children where they are, give them the help that they need when they need it and be able to personalize and tailor their education instead of making them fit a mold that they may or may not fit into.

We started cursive last year but, we only the free printable sheets that I found on-line. My dd has letters that she does not form correctly and she gets frustrated because she cannot remember how to make all of the letters. This year (she's in 3rd grade), I bought a handwriting workbook for her to complete hoping that it will help her to incorporate cursive into her other areas of writing. Right now, she will occasionally write her spelling words in cursive on tests for the letters she remembers but, since I feel that I haven't done a good job of CONSISTENTLY making her write in cursive because of these issues, I don't make her write in cursive all of the time. As we go through the handwriting workbook, I will encourage her to use cursive writing more often with the hopes that by the time the book is finished, she'll write in cursive most of the time. I think that consistent practice is the key and since she hasn't had that (hoping the workbook with help to remedy this), I don't feel I can require cursive all of the time right now. But, slow and steady wins the race so hopefully, we'll get there eventually! :D

TWTM convinced me that I could homeschool classically successfully and gave me the basis for curriculum choice. The Core confirmed our family's choice to homeschool our children using the classical model. While Mrs. Bortins does make broad, generalized statements about the public school system, there is truth in those statements for some areas of the country. The statistics reported on my local news about the ps in my area just last week were appalling. Because of that and the violence that pervades the ps in my area, I would never put my dc in ps, except for some extreme unforseen circumstances. However, I know that there have to be some ps schools in this country who have not stooped to the level of a lower-than-mediocre education.....just not in my neck of the woods. But, for those parents who desire to give their children a quality education AND who still feel that ps is right for their family, I think that The Core gives some great ideas as to how to supplement that education if necessary. I felt that the main emphasis of the book was to show parents how far our educational system has come from it's beginnings and how it has affected our levels of knowledge, understanding and wisdom as a society as a whole. Also, I think that Ms. Bortins wanted to encourage parents that they CAN do something about it if they don't like the education that their children are getting and that she is encouraging a revival of the classical model in our public schools. I don't think that The Core was written to take the place of TWTM, but to compliment it, IMHO. I am a member of CC and have heard Ms. Bortins speak on other issues and she is very opinionated. I do not necessarily agree with all of her opinions, so I take what applies to me and forget the rest. :001_smile: Additonally, we use CC as an add-on to our at home curriculum, not the main core of our educational model....I use TWTM for that. I will not be giving up my WTM but, The Core was a great addition to my Classical Education book collection.

Thanks for your input. We have only finished SOTW I and were going to cram SOTW II & III into this summer/fall/winter/spring to do SOTW IV next summer and then start with VP 2 in 4th grade. My head has been spinning (and hurting) over how we're going to squeeze this all together and then after reading other people's posts who were asking about combining SOTW and VP together, I had my eureka moment. Why can't I just use SOTW as a resource text for VP? I could use the activity guide for the maps since it seems that from what I've read VP doesn't have maps. We're doing a separate art program so I don't want to spend a lot of time on crafts but, my dc love the SOTW coloring pages so we could use some of the coloring pages with the VP lessons and just integrate the whole thing. Then we'd only have to do 2nd & 3rd grade together this year and by next year, we'd be doing 4th grade IN 4th grade, ect., ect. I talked it over with my dh because I thought I'd already bought most of what I needed for this school year and I needed to make sure he was o.k. with the extra money needed to purchase the VP supplies and he was all for it! :thumbup: I'm also thankful that Bible can be incorporated with it because we've been doing a separate Bible curriculum and I haven't done a very good job of teaching the kids how it affects history and life in general. I think this combo will help me do a better job of streamlining and teaching more effectively. I feel like the spiritual aspect has been tacked on the end and that's not what either of us wants. What a relief! I talked with the kids about the change and they're excited about the new curriculum, too. I don't know why I didn't think of this before.....

VP stands for Veritas Press. VP makes 160 history fact cards. On the front is the Bible/History phrase along with artwork, some is very beautiful. On the back of the card is a 200 - 250 word explanation of the fact on the front along with another section that lists reference works that could be read to relate to the fact on the front. CC Directors have informational meetings but, they are to help explain the classical model and CC to parents who are interested in becoming CC members. CC is for K4 - 6th grade. All of the students learn the same memory work for each cycle. By the time the students are in 4th-6th grade, most parents want their children to achieve Memory Masters, which means that they are able to say all of the memory work for the entire cycle in one sitting with no mistakes for a teacher/tutor and the director. The idea is that the info will become so ingrained in their minds that it is second nature and they will use this memory work to hang the pegs of history on as they learn more of the whys through dialectic and how to express themselves in rhetoric.