Hi Linda, We've not started French at high school level yet, so I don't have BTDT practical advice... I have been looking at using Breaking the Barrier French for our high school years. :001_smile:

Hi Teresa, The 2006 edition I have of PH Physical Science Concepts in Action has the ISBN# 0-13-166305-4. I bought this from Kolbe within the past twelve months. We are using the text with ds this year along with the Kolbe course plans. The course plans are great, lots of extra information & further explanations, written with a daily schedule. The plans also contain quizzes and exams. I also purchased Kolbe's answer key for the questions assigned from the text. Ds is a bright student and has struggled a bit with 1st quarter, but we are slowly getting back on track. I am finding it a huge advantage that I did have a fairly strong background in science, so I remember a lot from my "school days" As I've heard others comment before, it is a great course to help lay a strong foundation for future study of physics/chem. I'm glad we are using this text. Having said that, a DVD that goes along with this text sounds awfully inviting... :001_smile: Hth, Emily

We condensed a lot of the intructions for my dc. From memory there were a few we did in maybe 2 sessions. However we only used some of the younger levels, so it may be different for the older levels. :001_smile:

Your thoughts are very helpful. :) BtB might still work for us, will have to look into it further. Thanks again :)

Janette, Do you mind if I ask if you have any plans to carry on French for your dd? What would you use after Breaking the Barrier L3? How did you find the program? Many thanks for your thoughts! Emily

First of all let me start by saying we haven't used or seen the Memoria Press or Angelicum's Lit guides. We have used Kolbe's Elem Lit and parts of the Jnr High Lit. I think the guides/course plans are extremely detailed, obviously a lot of work has been put into them. The Study Guide sets include: vocabulary work chapter comprehension questions answers to above The course plans include day to day schedule written assignments tests/exams answers to above definitions of Lit terms, devices, elements book report guidelines One huge advantage is that you can pick and choose what books you would like to study. The Elem Lit set has 42 books, the Jnr High 30 books plus the poetry and short story sections. The only thing for me, as the teacher, is that you don't really have examples of all the literary devices etc... just definitions. I'm a maths/science kind of person, so lit analysis is a little tougher for me. It also does take a little effort in setting up the work for the dc, for us anyway. We do all our chapter work in exercise books, and assignments and book reports on computer. We use Kolbe Elem Lit for 4th-6th exclusively, we use parts of the Jnr High Lit as well as LL7/8, which is more open and go/fill in worksheets type program. Emily.

Hi Wendy, Not terribly sure about different editions - the one I have is the Third ed. C 2005. The first five lessons of our LCII are basically a review of LCI with some "New Grammar Lesson" concepts added in. There are various explanations in my LCII teacher manual in regards to grammar, sentence examples, pronunciation, comparing latin vs english word order. Does yours not have any? To be honest, it wasn't until we were well into LCII that things just started to click and we would have a lot of "a-ha" moments. I was ready to give up at several stages, but am now glad we stuck it out. I'm not familiar with Cambridge Latin to offer any opinions. I have heard that First Form Latin from Memoria is significantly better than LCII, as it has more practice - don't know if it offers more in the way of explanations as we haven't used it ourselves. Hope others can chime in with ideas or opinions on that perhaps! Emily. :001_smile:

Hi there, I enrol my children with Kolbe once they hit Gr.5. We follow mostly what they have in their catalogue, with a few changes here and there. It is easy to substitute in the lower grades, but as they get older I'm finding that I would prefer to substitute less. The Literature program is very thorough - Elem and Jnr High. My oldest is Gr.7, so can't comment on high school level Lit. or History. Your daughter is young, so you still have lots of time to decide :001_smile: Emily.

The amount of tweaking allowed depends on which diploma you are after. http://www.kolbe.org/diploma_types/ Summa - no tweaking, or a substitution must be pre-approved, but don't know how easy/difficult that would be Magna - substitutions are allowed but must be grade appropriate Standard - the most flexible ! All the requirements are set out in tables via the above link. There are certain requirements for honors work (summa) and the number of credits required for each subject (all types). Does that make sense ? I have two enrolled in Kolbe, oldest is only in 7th though. I use roughly about half of the course plans. We've stuck with Kolbe purely because of the flexibility. What we do use is very thorough. :001_smile: Emily

Not sure if this helps but my dc work up to MCP math Level D then we switch to Saxon 5/4. By Level D they have a good grasp of all the concepts. But by this stage they are tired of doing a whole unit on addition, subtraction etc... Saxon gives them that variety, lesson by lesson, as well as constant review. Pretty sure you could go from MCP Level C to Saxon 5/4. :001_smile: Emily

Sometimes it's fun to watch a DVD but change the language to have French dialogue. My children have found this very amusing. While it wouldn't 'teach' that much, it might be a fun way of listening to pronunciation... Emily.

Just wanted to add that I've had my ds enrolled in Kolbe for two years now, my dd is enrolled for next year. All books, lesson plans and anything I've ordered have all arrived promptly - and we're in Australia ! :) :) :) Emily.

Hi Greta, We're from Australia and I have a ds8 with very similar interests. His older sister and older brother both have penpals and he's been asking for one too... :001_smile: I'll send you a PM. Emily. :001_cool:

We have one of the Lortone rock tumblers (well it looks exactly the same...) and while I wouldn't say it is very noisy, I still probably wouldn't like it inside the house. Ours is set up in our garage as well and runs continuously. My ds12 keeps a rock diary - when stones/rocks have gone in with what grade of grit etc... We have umpteen piles, containers, jars of different sorts, sizes, shapes of rocks. It is no longer Dad's garage anymore !! :lol: Dh looked into making up a tumbler himself but in the end it was just easier to buy one. Being in Australia we paid a little more than the price that's listed on Amazon too... !?! We live in north central Victoria around the edge of what is known as a granite belt. About 20 mins drive from here you follow a little country road and the surrounding hills are dotted with huge granite boulders. It's really amazing. :001_smile: Emily

Thanks for your responses - much appreciated. I'll take a look at Ecce Romani, it sounds like a good idea. I was almost ready to say to him if he didn't want to keep it up - that's OK. BUT then he says to me a while ago that he thought he was really getting the hang of it all. He now does Latin as his 2nd/3rd subject of the day instead of last... Then he says he wants to learn Japanese too. And French because his sister is... I think I've realised we can't do everything - now I just have to teach him that. :willy_nilly: Thanks again!! Emily.