Well.... I wrote my thesis on Jane Eyre, so I'm a bit fond of the book ;) As far as whether or not a boy would like the book, I taught Jane Eyre to my AP English class and the boys loved it. They even took it with them on a camping trip and stayed up all night reading it out loud to each other! Now, their enjoyment of the book was undoubtedly increased by my own enthusiasm about it and my discussion with them before they read the book. If you strongly dislike the book, your son may not enjoy it either. I always tried to set the stage with my students about what to expect and to give them a framework of interpretation. You don't have to like it. I remember one lit professor telling me that people either like Jane Eyre or Wuthering Heights but not usually both. Me? I don't like Wuthering Heights. Maybe you'd prefer that one.

I think it's a good plan. We don't use the workbooks either. My dd is quite advanced and would be bored silly with those activities. So, yes, tailor to your child's needs! My ds is in Homer B, and from what I've seen of Homer, your approach to Aesop will be more than adequate preparation. As an aside, I think the difficulty with Aesop comes from the fact that third graders can have a great disparity in terms of their abilities. Some third graders are reading and writing well, while others are still struggling to get things to click. So, what seems like way-too-easy for my dd might be just right for some other third graders. By all means, find the right level for your child and go for it.

from the website: BigBook 1 Hardcopy Available for Pre-order: 400 pages hole-punched and shrink-wrapped, with 5 dividers, My History of Rome pages, 3-ring binder, pronunciation CD (w/both Classical or Ecclesiastical) and online access to consult answer key and play vocab games. Pre-order for $105 + shipping & handling. Delivered in 3-4 weeks. You will be given online access upon purchase to use while you wait for the book.

Okay, so what happened? I thought dd liked Guerber. Is it the book itself that seems a bit much or having to coordinate chapters with cards? I've had to put a lot of work into our American History studies, coordinating lots of different things to get the course I've wanted. I agree that none of the programs out there, by themselves, was what I wanted either. I've honestly been thinking of writing something up myself for when my youngest comes up. My training is in writing and history so I think I could pull it off. I'm a big proponent of a biographical approach to history so I'm thinking of something along the lines of Famous Men of America. Not that this helps you any. Just thinking out loud. Is the problem here that you're wanting something pick up and go? I'm trying to understand your dilemma so I can give some unsolicited advice. :tongue_smilie:

Agreeing with Kathleen. The Scarlet Letter is a pretty standard American lit title, but the other authors could easily be covered through short stories. You don't want to miss "Rip Van Winkle" by Irving.

Oh, I love "Harrison Bergeron." I taught in to my AP English Class. We also studied "Barn Burning" by Faulkner.

What a great new website! Thanks for posting.

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This looks good. If you want to add in some other components, make sure to include some of the Puritans writings, like Anne Bradstreet. American lit college anthologies also include essays and sermons, like Jonathan Edwards' Sinners in the Hands of an Angry God. You could pick up a cheap used copy of a Norton Anthology of American Lit.(get an older edition), and that would give you the short stories, poems, essays, etc--not to mention that Norton usually does a really nice job introducing pieces/authors and discussing literary movements, like transcendentalism.

I'm 14 years older than my youngest sister. We were a huge sports family and she came to every game and most practices too. When her time came, I attended every game--even when I was married and pregnant. We always supported each other in our activities. It was a great family time, and I can't imagine ever feeling resentful for being included in the lives of my younger siblings.

You mentioned that your brother's family uses Covenant Home. Do they use the High School curriculum? I have a friend who is looking at this for her oldest 2 and she needs them to be able to work independently. She's got 6 kids and just had a new baby. Any info is appreciated.

Writing Tales has become so popular that I feel like I need to write a short defense of CW Aesop. We didn't do Aesop with my ds11. We did Imitation in Writing and Classical Composition: FAble and then moved into Homer. I am completely in love with Homer. We're in Homer B now and have moved away from the workbooks. As a former writing instructor, I am blown away with the way CW anticipates common writing problems with their writing exercises. I've written about this on another thread. Anyway, when it came time to pick out a program for dd (who was 8 at the time), I looked at WT, CC, and IW. I didn't chose WT because I didn't want all the grammar instruction and I thought that a lot of the exercises seemed like busywork to me. I've got a real no-nonsense daughter. She's a natural writer and doesn't need any "gimmicks" to get her going. And I wanted more flexibility than a workbook allows. I know that for lots of people it is a great comfort to have everything laid out for them. And I'm glad that people are finding them useful; I am *not* knocking them. But for someone with my personality, having it "all laid out" is torture. I feel so boxed in and like my teaching is constrained. So we chose IW and that was going well. But the more I delved into Homer, the more I wanted to be sure that dd would be prepared for Homer, so I picked up the Aesop core. I loved the flexibility (use your own models; integrate with other subjects!) and how the skill levels fed into Homer. Now, had I never seen Homer, I may not have been so impressed. It can be very difficult to judge the value of a program when you can't see the big picture. I bought Diogenes too so that I could see where Homer is going. I need the Big Picture! That's just me. I know quite a few ladies who get overwhelmed with the Big Picture. We are all different. So, my recommendation about writing programs is to try to figure out who you are as a teacher. If you are a tweaker and like learning the big picture and then doing your own thing, then the CW cores are perfect for that. If "doing your own thing" brings on a panic attack, then by all means chose a workbook. I think that it's great there are so many wonderful writing programs to chose from. What a blessing! So those are my 2 cents. We're happily in Aesop B now, using our own models. I'm pleased because I can see how what we are doing is preparing for Homer. And Homer has my son writing and thinking more deeply than the college freshman composition class I taught. And sadly, that's not an exaggeration! One more thing, I know CW takes a lot of heat for being so hard to teach, I have to say I have not found this to be the case at all. The goals for each lesson are clearly stated and build one upon the other. It's very systematic and easy to implement--once you take the time to read the whole core and get the Big Picture. I love it!

As usual, ditto. And thanks for saying that so much better than I could have. :D

Articles are a special type of adjectives.

Yes, that's correct.

Yeah, I read Huck Finn in high school and then again in grad school. I couldn't believe it was the same book! I got much more out of it the second time, and with the able guidance of my professor.

Well, with all due respect to your 10th grade literature teacher, I studied Huck Finn in Grad School under one of the world's foremost Twain scholars. He--and I--would have to disagree.

Yes, precisely.

Wow. I hate to be the voice of dissent here. But I find it shocking that anyone would argue that Uncle Tom's Cabin is the great American novel. In the academic circles I've traveled (taught literature in a university), it was always understood and outrightly spoken, that the book is not very good, and that it is generally only read/studied for it's social/political influence. Hmm. Here's a quote to show you what I'm talking about: Despite this positive reaction from readers, for decades literary critics dismissed the style found in Uncle Tom's Cabin and other sentimental novels because these books were written by women and so prominently featured "women's sloppy emotions."[40] One literary critic said that had the novel not been about slavery, "it would be just another sentimental novel,"[41] while another described the book as "primarily a derivative piece of hack work."[42] George Whicher turned his nose up at the book in his Literary History of the United States by saying it was "Sunday-school fiction" and full of "broadly conceived melodrama, humor, and pathos."[43]

Okay, Sue. Here's what we do. First I haven't ever even looked at the back of the book, so if there are mistakes there, I haven't noticed. Secondly, there is a good variety of passages. Not just poetry. I'm not sure what level you are looking at. I've got one in A and one in C. We're almost finished and we've had poetry, fables, long multi-paragraph selections from literature, hymms, etc. For dictating poetry, I simply teach them that each new line of poetry is capitalized. It has not been a problem, and it is a capitalization rule they need to know. With other selections, I've taught them about punctuating quotes and indenting and what a dash is and a semicolon, etc, etc. I teach on the spot whatever the passage requires. Sometimes, there might be a British spelling or an archaic capitalization used. Again, I point it out to them because they need to know it when they read literature. They will run into this stuff when they read. Having almost completed the year, I'm very pleased. My ds's spelling has improved greatly and I've noticed that his improvement is carrying over into other writing (not just good spelling tests, but better spelling overall in his writing). My dd is a natural speller, but can't remember to capitalize or punctuate to save her life! Dictation has been a good way for her to work on those weaknesses as well.

Great minds...

Karenciavo did this. Maybe she'll link an earlier post about how she combined them. She combined Omnibus I with TOG and took 2 years to go through it, I think. And yes, she like TOG for history and Omnibus for Lit/Theology. This was TOG classic, which she felt was lacking in the lit department.

Well... I suppose one woman's dry as toast is another woman's no-nonsense and focused approach. lol. I guess it all depends on what you are looking for. I really like that is was straightforward and no-frills. We learn a part of speech; we practice it all week; and we test on Friday. It doesn't take a lot of time and gets the job done. Both of mine really liked it, but maybe they are weird. My son, when he finished JAG, asked me if there was another level he can complete! He likes diagramming! Go figure!

Yes and Yes. There is grammar in Diogenes, but I can't see that it is integrated in any way or that it builds. The authors of the program believe that analysis of writing at it's most basic level is understanding how sentences work (i.e. parts of speech and grammar). That's why all the grammar. I agree that the grammar part of Homer is what burns people out, so if something has got to give, then I think it's the grammar. And to the second part of your question--about covering the grammar in a less intensive way--I think yes. We school year round, and CW doesn't take a full year--even with the Poetry supplement. In our off-times, we did JAG. I think it was quite sufficient. AFter completing Homer B and the Beginning Poetry this next school year, we'll cover grammar again, more in depth. I think I'll use Our Mother Tongue (AG looks good, but I've taught grammar too many times to justify in my mind the expense of AG. I can do it with something cheaper.) As an aside, what really got me excited about Diogenes was the Theory part of the Analysis. There is a whole lot of Classical Rhetoric covered in Diogenes! That seems to be much more integrated into the program than the grammar. You wrote: "And what do you think of the models in Homer? Now that you're doing in sans workbook, would you also try applying it to other models? Or do you LIKE the models and find their length or whatever helpful? Any comments on a good age/grade to start Homer A?" I'm comfortable using my own models with Aesop, and I think I'll use my own models when I go through Homer A next time. Right now in Homer B, I'm using the models for Homer that you can download from lulu for 97 cents. I like the models they've chosen and Homer B is a little more tricky for picking out models. I might branch out and try using my own models. We'll see. I do think it's very helpful and a great time-saver to have the models already picked out and ready to go. About starting Homer A, that's my great dilemma right now. DD9 ( a newly turned 9) is an advanced writer and seems bored with Aesop. At the same time, I'm worried that the advanced analysis of Homer will be too much for her. I might start Homer A at the end of 4th just to see. I'm unsure. For the average student, I would say, 5th grade. For advanced writers, I would say, proceed with caution and watch for signs that you've overloaded. I figure there's no hurry. I'm going to go through Poetry A with her next Fall and then I might do some writing across the curriculum using Aesop. I'm still thinking through all this for dd. She likes to write, but she's tired pretty quickly of rewriting fables and fairy tales.