My order arrived a couple of days ago, and I was a bit sad to see that the Easy French Reader is, as you said, a bit more advanced than I'd expected. Oh, well. I guess I can work on refreshing my own French with it! Tiffany

I agree, you would have the greatest likelihood of success if you do just one core your first year with Sonlight. I've used Cores 1, 2, 3, and 4 with two kids each time. This will be my first year doing two cores, and I know it will be interesting, but I'm willing to flex as needed. I'll be doing Core 6 with a 6th-grader (currently 11yo) and a 5th-grader (10yo), as well as Core P4/5 with my almost 4yo. The latter is very unstructured, so I don't think it will be a problem. Having looked over the reading for Core 6, I know it will be heavy, but I think my kids will be able to handle it. (I may let my 10yo skip a few things, just so she can keep up with her older brother.) I'm also comfortable slowing down a core just to spend more time on a topic, and/or adding books here, there, and everywhere as I see fit. Good luck with your choices, Tiffany

We are still using ours, and will be for the next several weeks. But I have a couple of ideas ... Have you posted this question on the MUS support group (the Yahoo one)? Also, I know the reps are our first point of contact, but if you could email Steve Demme or someone close to him directly, you might get a different answer. Particularly if you bought it directly from MUS (if you did). As a former retailer, I really think if you keep bugging them (always sweetly), you will eventually get what you need. It really is a customer service issue. Good luck, Tiffany

It looks great! BTW, the above URL (the one with the www. as a prefix) doesn't work, but the one in your signature line is fine. Tiffany

Could you ask your local library to subscribe to it? Tiffany

I have a good friend whose 12yo son has a subscription to this magazine. He loves it and reads it from cover to cover. We did borrow a copy once to consider subscribing to and found it good, but not amazing. My history professor-husband described it as being good amateur-level writing, meaning not bad for a journal not written by professional historians. (Not sure if that made sense. I haven't had my morning quota of coffee yet.) If you think it would inspire your kids to love history, then I'd say go for it. If you're still on the fence, then it's probably smart that you haven't hit the Check Out button yet. Hope this helps, Tiffany

I just ordered Vocabulary from Classical Roots A also, so I'll be interested to see how people like to schedule it. Tiffany

I've totally blown mine. I can't even bear to look at the Education category in Quicken because I'm afraid to know the total. It's a good investment though, don't you think? Tiffany

Try not to worry too much. If you think a classical approach is the best fit for you, then go for it! Perhaps you just haven't met the right homeschoolers yet ... I've considered myself a classical homeschooling mom for 6 years now, and I'm sure you'll meet plenty of others on these forums who speak from the same experience. Good luck, and let me know if I can help. Tiffany

Your system looks fantastic! How inspiring. Thanks for sharing. Tiffany

Only occasionally do I have a situation in which my kids need to work on more than one writing assignment simultaneously. (This might happen if they have an outside assignment for a co-op, or they're entering a writing contest, or something like that.) I find it confusing for me, as much as for them, to keep track of where they are in the writing/editing process if there are two many projects happening at once. Tiffany

Looks very interesting. Thanks for sharing. Tiffany

Art? Music? Tiffany

I think that, in one of the older editions of TWTM, SWB says you can use Rod and Staff on its own, without an additional writing supplement. I only used R & S through about 4th grade, but I didn't feel I needed to use a supplementary writing program alongside it. Tiffany

Those are great choices. Have you downloaded the free lesson plans available from the IEW site? Also, you might want to check out the IEW-Families Yahoo! group, which has tons of useful files and lots of wonderful support. As to scheduling, I'd probably try to have the kids watch it early in the week so they could then work on their assignments for the rest of the week. I'm not sure I understand how your scheduling works though, so either may be fine. Tiffany

Which IEW DVDs did you order? The Student Writing Intensive? Tiffany

You could continue the BOB books if she's enjoying those, plus add easy readers from the library. I used Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, but even that only took the phonics so far. I also used the Explode the Code workbooks until I felt my kids' grasp of phonics was really solid. And we read, and we read, and we read ... Good luck! Tiffany

It's been a while since we did Core 1, but I think it must have been an hour or so on average. My kids loved the books, and it's one of my favorite cores. Happy memories ... Tiffany

Well, I own all the teacher's manuals, but I hardly ever use them. Of course, I rarely use any teacher's manuals, so it's not just HWT. My kids got a lot out of the slate, and I just bought the Roll-A-Dough set for my youngest. More for fun than because I thought she actually needed it. BTW, where in the UP are you from? I spent summers as a child in the Wetmore area. Tiffany

I think it will be fine. We started Latin early (like probably 1st grade for my oldest), but it's not necessary. And if a later start allows you to feel better about how you're using your time, that's very important. We love Latin for Children! My kids find the DVDs very entertaining. Tiffany

I love IEW too. But what's great about homeschooling in 2009 is we have tons of choices, unlike homeschoolers in the '70s, who had a hard time even getting publishers to sell to them. Tiffany

We just finished SL Science 5 with a 5th grade boy and 4th grade girl. My kids loved all the experiments, but I personally most enjoyed the ones from Janice Van Cleave's Food and Nutrition book. I tend to be a procrastinator about doing science experiments, so we ended up doing a lot of them near the end of the school year. Hope this helps, Tiffany

I think that sounds like a very workable solution. We sometimes struggle with the problem of following a schedule, but then not finishing a particular assignment (i.e., math). So then it needs to become homework, but that tends to be neglected or forgotten about because Mom is busy teaching students. I believe it was my husband who suggested I try to find a regular time when the school day can be called "done". (My teaching schedule varies each day, but I'm thinking of changing that.) Now that I think about it, I'm not exactly sure why he was concerned about it. Hmmm. Maybe I'll come up with something more insightful after a cup of coffee. Tiffany

I totally understand your situation. I have an 11yo son, 10yo daughter, and a 3yo whirlwind (also known as a daughter). Previously, I've tried to keep the big kids on a MOTH-type schedule, but I'm experimenting with switching to some kind of checklist system. I'm working on making planners for the kids and plan to have them help me write their assignment sheets at the beginning of each week. (I think this is a TOG thing, right?) I'll look forward to hearing everyone's suggestions. And aside from that, I should say I had to do a double-take with some of the similarities in our profiles. I use Sonlight and IEW, plus I'm a violin teacher. My big question right now is how to create an end to the school day this year -- when I start teaching private lessons or when my kids actually finish their assignments? Any thoughts on that? Tiffany

I'd love to have the opportunity to do the same. My kids got to take a few one-hour classes with Andrew this spring, and it was an excellent learning experience for them (even though they probably knew most of what was taught from watching the videos). It sounds like you made a smart choice with SICC-B too. Good luck, Tiffany