Another pleased user. We have years of happy, happy, happy memories with FIAR. I have many post about it so I won't bore you with a repeat.

I started using it 100% and my dd and I love it. However I have to work and she has problems moving the answer to paper as she gets mixed up. First she will be working from the correct spot, then jump to another part of the page and then even on the other page and be working the problems in the wrong order. I do still take it out and use the word problems when I can, but mostly need a wkbk for this one so she can see where she left off. I love the white board idea! And I may take back up with SU when dd is a bit older and more organized.

If you want a unit study which covers all subjects except math the I agree with RA. I actually prefer LA over HR, especially for the age range you are looking at. AWOA was the best year of hs I had with my olders.

Oh and if you mosey over to the AO board they have a weekly discussion about a lesson in the HONS book. I don't participate due to time, but it is really cool!

I love HONS and CLP Nature Readers! I don't generally go out looking for a specific plant or critter, because half of the time we have done that we get disappointed. There is so much variation. So we go out looking for something in general (3 types of leaves and bark, or 3 types of critters), or we just go out and look. A while back, maybe a year ago, dd and I read that worms are really transparent and the color you see is from the dirt they ingest. Well yesterday while we were in the yard we find a half of a worm floating in the bird bath. Because water makes things more detailed we were able to actually see the dirt inside the outer worm casing. It was totally cook and dd was beside herself. So we read about a year ago and experienced it yesterday. No dissection necessary in this case. Then this morning we were reading about galls ....again. We have read about these strange cocoon like things before. Well when dd was wading in the ditch she found a little branch of what we think may be Mistletoe and on it were 2 tiny, very sticky white balls. We took them inside to see if they were a small variety of galls (have no idea if they actually come in this size) or a seed of sorts. After taking it apart and looking under the field scope we determined it was a seed. You could see a green thing inside the white sticky ball, but it looked more like a teeny tiny bud. So while we didn't find a gall, we did still have a very interesting observation, and again dd was beside herself . We have only done a couple pages of journaling as we just don't have much time, but I want to get more into it as dd ages a bit. I love your large term projects!

I, too, would suggest Diana Waring's History Revealed. On her home page there is a short vid (little over 1 min) of a testimony from a student who didn't care for history prior to using HR. At the top there is a tab that says "Our Curriculum". If you click on that you will see the option to try it for free. YOu can down load a full 1 month unit of any of her programs and try it before buying. It won't include the audios, but it will have the rest. The one that seems to best fit where you will be taking up in time would be Romans, Reformers, Revolutionaries. With this program all of the basic info (and more) is provided via articles and audios. Then the student chooses which projects to do thru the unit. He chooses which topic he is interested in and where to dig further.

Editing my post to reflect your edit. :) The below is concerning LLATL (your original post): My olders have used Tan, Green, Gray, and both Golds. My youngest has used the Red and currently half of the Yellow. I have been very happy with it. My day is streamlined and I find that it teaches all areas of LA in a way that is child-friendly. I don't worry about there not being daily reading, because we get reading across the curriculum. I have been very pleased with how well it teaches the subjects.

Salsa

That sounds like a fun idea, Cee. Thanks!

We are about to start Rowing Homer Price. Does anyone have any ideas to add to these?

Just finished with the Josefina (AG) set plus Hanna's Cold Winter, and about to start rowing BYFIAR Homer Price. For bedtime read we just finished the Last of the Really Great Whangdoodles and started Ordinary Princess. Plus this and that.

Build the Great Wall of China with anything: sugar cubes, Legos, dirt, etc Paint Matryoshka dolls.

Yes, do check out to see if you are comfy with Ping. FIAR has not had decades of high popularity because they promote books which promote abuse.

AmieeM, if you want to see if FIAR would work for your child you could download the free Ping unit and get the book from the library. No cost- 1 week trial. http://fiveinarow.com/five-in-a-row/ There were some rows where we read the book 3 days instead of 5. Read, skip, read, skip, read.

Lauri Toys are fun and educational.

FIAR is not about lapbooks, despite popular belief. OP, you can easily do FIAR without doing any crafts and it still be fun and engaging. I agree with the others that SOTW would be better suited for a child a bit older.

I love the idea of SCM, but I certainly understand if that doesn't fit your needs. For science what about Christian Kids Explore Series? The way it is set up you have the basic info in the guide to read to your children. Then each child would have library books on the topic at there level to read that week. So say if you are reading about caves in the Earth and Space guide you could have your 1st grader reading a picture book about caves and your 8th grader a more in depth book on the same topic. The guide has fun experiments, notebooking pages, questions and more.

We used My Body as well. It has many parts plus a brief description of the function of each.

Thought I would give this a bump because these are soo neat. Thanks again Monarch Room Mom!

Ten pages???!!!! :scared: I agree with R & S. I have to move slowly with my dd and I have tried other publishers. The only full programs I can use with success are Mastering Mathmatics and R&S. At your dd's age I would go with the latter. MM is a 6 year program and your child would be coming in on the tale end of it.

I have History Revealed and I love it! I used it with my olders when they were in high and it was great! If I had olders (middle school) and a younger tagging along I would use it and add the Elem Act Bk, but using it for just youngers I wouldn't suggest. While the 1st unit in Ancient Civ would go over well with lower elem, it shoots up quickly. It would require a lot of tweaking and reducing. But then someone else may have a greater ability to do that than I have. Pre-read the articles and then *tell* them to your children. Get activity ideas from just the Elem guide. I tried the HR cds with my dd when she was in first and she loved Diana as much as I do, but got very little from the fast pace tellings. Now if one wants to use just the Elem Act Guide I can see that working well. In fact some of it would line up nicely with the lessons in SCM. There are puzzles, mazes, crafts, a couple of science exp., suggested reading, games, skits, and more. It would give some kick to SCM lessons; complement each other well.

So I am not alone in finding the sea creature chart cumbersome and confusing. =) Okay, then I can just use the Arithmetic Village *jewels* I already have and not worry with creating the chart. I haven't seen the pie poster yet, but it could be that I was so focused on trying to understand the sea creature poster that I totally missed it. I will look for it now. Thanks, Ladies!

If you use this, do you follow the instructions on how to present division as it is described in the TM? I am having a really hard time trying to visualize it. I stopped using the book once we reached division (about lesson 62), so to give my dd more time with +,-,x facts, but soon we should be picking this back up and I am lost. If you present the lesson the way described in the TM,do you have a better way of explaining it or pics of your set up? I appreciate any help! I have googled and found nothing.

I second Simply Charlotte Mason....the first guide IS Bible with history added in. Commentary readings, a look at art work (if you do the Stuff They Left Behind), and wonderful book called Ancient Egypt and Her Neighbors. Some of the suggestions will fly right over your younger's head, but they will all be getting the same wonderful Biblical lessons. Genesis Through Deut and Ancient Egypt

I like the ideas the ladies here have shared. And Magic Schoolbus is great. For use the fun part of the day was Five In A Row (website with sample week, by the same name). We loved the snuggle time reading a picture book and doing 1 or 2 activities/youtube/vid/etc and Bible verses for the character lessons. Memories that will be with us forever, and the icing is learning was happening. I kept phonics simple with Phonics Pathways and math with Rod and Staff 1. Pentime for handwriting. If your child does go back to school he won't need to be at any certain level for content subjects, so don't let that bother you.