It is wonderfully written. However there is a serious progressive/leftist slant, most noticeable in the last volume. It ends up being kind of funny how much faith he has in the government's ability to solve all of our problems. The series ends with Johnson praising the UN and saying how we will likely not have any more wars or problems now that the UN is around. Still I used the series and talked through the progressive perspective with my children--but I did a lot of research on my own and took pages and pages of notes so that I could offer a different view.

Furthermore, the Omnibus books are written by many different authors--who do not all share the same theological perspectives.

I purchased this for my newly turned 5-year-old daughter who is verbal and visual and has excellent fine motor skills! LOL. She had no reading or writing experience before we started the program. I love it! She loves it! It is perfect for her. Additionally she has two older siblings and was dying to "do school." That's one of the reasons I went with this more workbook-oriented program. It fit our needs. As soon as I started using it, I suspected that a boy might have more difficulty with this program. But it truly is a perfect fit for my daughter who begs to do school and loves all her shiny new workbooks. I would have never required that much writing on my own, but she has risen to the challenge. And I think it's been good for her. I am thrilled with my purchase. But I know it's not for everyone.

You were close. It's laissez les bon temps roulez.

Take a look at these. I have the World & US Timeline Cut Outs for sale if you are interested. PM me.

I love it! Here is a thread about it when it first came out.

Take a look at the Church History Lives series.

This looks interesting. I have been seriously eyeing the new Sony touchscreen. YOu can take notes on the screen with a stylus which I was thought was both cool and useful for students/teachers. Any other reason you went with the Astak over the Sony.

I would also highly recommend requesting a sample week from VP. I didn't really get the program until I saw a whole week.

I'm really curious about the MP products as well. I just love everything they do. I have used the VP guides and they are reading comprehension and hands-on activities. There's nothing wrong with that. I just don't think it's necessary for my goals at this time. I think I'm better off informally discussing and using narration with literature. But I am curious about the MP guides. They seem to be trying to do something different. They are also covering far fewer books in greater depth, so I would consider those. I started off using VP as written years ago and burned myself out bad. It's just too much...everything. Now that I am more LCC, I feel the liberty to pick and choose. The VP lit guides could be helpful for directing discussion but I certainly wouldn't feel the need to write answers to every question.

LOL about the timeline. It's always these little things that I forget to do! And yes, the writing is IEW. One thing I want to clarify. The literature that is in the history plans in what VP calls historical fiction. Their "literature" course which covers classic children's lit is a separate course. However, the history for MARR for example schedules Beowulf and Robin Hood among others. I consider that literature. I will however add some classic lit titles to be read more LCC-style, i.e. independently.

Yes, it is confusing. And yes, you have to call them. I emailed and asked for a sample week. The Scholars lesson plans script out the whole thing for you. You still need the TM and the cards and the books. The lesson plans walk you through everything and plan out every little detail for you, including telling you which timeline figure to put where. To see exactly what materials the lesson plans coordinate, go to the website, click on Scripted lesson plans, type in your child's name and grade. A screen comes up and then chose which history time period you want. Then click on which level you want--upper and lower-- and you will see a list of every book, timeline, map, etc that is scheduled. You will also need to click on the One Time Resource Pack to see the rest of the materials that are scheduled: kingfisher, CHOW, etc. The lesson plans include plans for both upper and lower levels. Again I think after seeing a sample week, things will click. I asked tons of questions and still didn't get it until I saw the sample. I kept thinking, couldn't I just schedule these books myself... Did I answer your question? I'm learning after 8 years of homeschooling that just because I *can* do it doesn't mean I should or that someone else couldn't do it better. The teachers who have put together these lessons have taught these classes for years and I am benefiting from their experience. oh and I forgot to mention Geography is in there too. So, history, Bible, writing, literature, and geography.

I just got a sample of the VP Scholar's Lesson Plans for the Middle Ages course and I am blown away. How can I describe this? History, Literature, Writing all integrated; all scripted; all done for me. These are way more than lesson plans and I am so glad I requested a sample week. I was thinking this was a planning schedule. No way. The sample week they sent me has background info on the historical time period and introductory material for the card, instructions on how to use all the resources (like Point to this map on page x of Kingfisher while saying this.), very specific instructions, 2 levels of assignments for upper and lower elementary, projects, writing assignments--including some cool assignments reading primary sources of the church fathers. The literature is scheduled each day and has discussion questions and answers. I love this! I am planning to use this with my 6th grader next year and I will not have to beef it up at all. It will be a challenging year of reading and writing by itself. In fact, I'm going to use some of the writing assignments with my 8th grader in Omnibus 2. I have used VP in the past and always thought I just must not be getting how to make this work. Now that I've seen the scholar's lesson plans, I get how this is supposed to look. What a great program. I would contact VP and ask for a sample week. You can purchase the history lesson plans separately--I think it also includes Bible. I initially thought the $49 was high, but after seeing the sample, I think it is reasonably priced--you are getting history, Bible, literature, and writing all in there--for 2 levels of students.

Take a look at Veritas Press Bible. They go chronologically through the Bible with the option of using the Bible or a children's Bible. They include crafts and hands-on projects as well as worksheets which can be done orally or written. There is also a Bible song to memorize the timeline of Biblical history.

It is a shame that there are no guides for the Guerber books, but you can accomplish the same thing by using the Famous Men series. You can then chose from the Memoria Press guides--discussion questions, activities, maps, timelines, memory work--or the Greenleaf Guides--discussion questions, narration prompts, some activities and a book list.

Take a look at the Lost Tools of Writing over at the CiRCE Institute website. It won't help with grammar, but it will definitely teach structure! (There was a good thread on this a few day ago. You many want to search.)

Try posting this on the high school board. I know there are some folks there who have done the class. The feedback has been very positive.

If you search through my posts on Classical Writing, you'll find lots of tips. I've written quite a bit about how to approach the Core manual to make it more accessible and user friendly. Good luck.

KFamily, I received your pm and thought I would respond here in case any one else is interested. Yes, I have used and loved both CW and Lost Tools of Writing. Here is my conclusion: there are many roads to Rome. How's that for an answer. :D Honestly, I can't believe how much I stressed myself out trying to decide between these two programs. They are both great. They are both going to produce good writers and good thinkers. They cover roughly the same material but come at it from different angles; in fact they are quite complementary that way and I know people who use both. However, I don't recommend stressing yourself out taking that route! Here is a thread from the Circe forum discussing how LTW fits in with the progymnasmata. I also copied and reread posts from people who understand rhetoric and good writing; their conclusions were the same. Both programs are going to the same place ultimately. So then there are other things to consider when making the choice. How much time/teacher intensiveness do you want? How many years do you have? Do you want to integrate? Do you want to combine children? These are the things that led me to go with LTW this year. It takes less time weekly; I can combine my children; and it was very easy to combine LTW with Omnibus--that was a huge plus for me. Your children have a large age gap so combining isn't really a consideration for you. Re: teacher intensiveness, it's apples and oranges. CW requires time in the lesson, working through concepts, etc. LTW requires teacher prep time up front, planning out the lesson, but less time weekly presenting it and more time of the student working on exercises and drafts on his own. Generally the LTW way fit better for me; however there were/are plenty of busy weeks where I don't get to writing at all because I didn't prep and I find myself thinking about the CW workbook ;) The emphasis on invention and thinking in LTW was a also a huge draw for me and I have been pleased. And switching to LTW allowed me to start giving my oldest tough essay tests for Omnibus. I tell him to use what he has learned in LTW to answer the questions. He makes a mini ANI in the margin, outlines his thoughts and writes up a concise 5 paragraph timed essay. I wanted to start doing that this year, so LTW was a good move for us. Again consider your goals. You'll get to that 5 paragraph essay with CW, just a little later. Re your question about speeding up the levels, by all means. That's one of the drawbacks of the CW workbooks, feeling tied to that schedule. But the core makes it clear that you can move on if the child has mastered the skill. Now that I have praised LTW, let me say this about CW. CW has a whole lot going on other than writing, grammar exercises, logic exercises, rhetoric exercises all integrated in there. That's part of the reason they go so slowly through the levels. So you have to be mindful of your goals. AS far as switching back on forth... some people combine LTW with classical composition because CC goes through the levels more quickly. Most people agree that CW is too complete and meaty to be used as a supplement. Having taught college composition, I can tell you that anyone completing LTW level 1 will be ahead of the game. So I wouldn't worry about that. Level 2 is almost finished and I have seen a copy of the Table of Contents. Level 1 covers the persuasive essay, level 2 refines the essay and covers judicial, narrative, comparative, and deliberative discourse. As well as new invention exercises and elocution (style). You can join the LTW yahoo group for more info about the levels. They plan to put out 4 levels. But even if they don't finish, I plan to complete levels 1 and 2 and then just assign writing topics in other courses, possibly covering a few progym topics here and there as well. There are other options for covering the progym than CW. CC, IEW's progym, the college progym textbook (whose name escapes me at the moment and I don't want to go to my shelf and look it up), whatever SWB has planned for that. I don't know if that helps at all. IF CW is working, you may want to speed it up and just stay with it. You can always switch over to LTW in high school, and CW will have provided a great foundation. Did I even answer your question at all?

The VP yahoo group has some chronological lists of books in the files section.

Simply Charlotte Mason uses Boy of the Pyramids as the spine for Egypt studies for 1-3 grade. Golden Goblet is a good one but has a more complicated plot.

Post this question on the Memoria Press Forums. Tanya will respond. Also on the website it says that after completing the phonics program students are ready to read real storybooks like Frog and Toad.

I use both the ESV and NKJ.

I agree with the other posters and just wanted to add that the problem with Unit Studies is that the information learned is random and disconnected. A student is left at the end of his education with a collection of facts without a unifying big picture to make sense of it all. Classical Education is the antithesis of an education that seeks to collect information. Classical Education is about obtaining wisdom.

:iagree: