Oh, my! That's nearly unbelievable!!! Congratulations. What a tremendous blessing.

You can purchase the solutions manual directly from the publisher for $45.97. You have to supply proof of homeschooling, but it wasn't difficult.

Oh, Brenda! What a great idea! I'm teaching 20th C history and literature next year and I think I'll borrow this from you. By the way, what history spine did you use (if any)? Can you give me any more information? I don't mean to hijack this thread, but I'm curious.

I taught a two-year Western Civilization course using Spielvogel. I purchased the Instructor's Manuals along with the text, and adapted those for exams and essay ideas. We had discussions, too. We also read more primary source material and watched several Teaching Company courses. There were four major exams each year, along with an essay every other week or so, plus a major research paper each year. Our literature reading (of novels and Great Books) was done as a separate course, though I tried to dovetail as much as possible.

Three years of Latin (finishing Wheelock's) before beginning pure translation. Yr. 3 was mostly easier translations. He had had other sorts of junior Latin programs before tackling Wheelock's, like Latina Christiana. But he had three years of high school level Latin before the major translations. If I had it to do over again, I would have started him in Attic Greek in 9th grade. He would have been reading The Iliad by his junior year then.

Last year it was supplied for my son at the testing site (local public high school). They were very friendly and helpful there, though!

Ah! My son loves reading original works in Latin, and dearly wishes he had also taken Attic Greek when he had the chance so he could read The Iliad, etc in the original. Alas, maybe during college. He translated Vergil last year, and this year is translating Catullus and Horace. Next year will be medieval Latin. He said all the Wheelocks and Henle grammar was worth it to be at this stage.

The universal homeschool code is 970000.

Boy, I agree about Every Young Man's Battle. Way too explicit! I like Not Even a Hint by Josh Harris, though it has a new name now that I'm not thrilled with. Something with "lust" in the title. Oh...yes, that's the one you are talking about! It's very good.

Yes! I agree about being skeptical about the "style" part of IEW (or WriteShop for that matter). It's embarrassingly easy to spot IEW papers because of the call for "ly" words, etc. Even in my son's Torrey class last year I could spot the sentence openers of those students who had used IEW over the years! These were high schoolers, too. A better idea, in my opinion, is learning good organization for a paper, and then doing some practice on good sentence writing (for variation) with something like the Sentence Composing series or The Art of Styling Sentences. OR, another option is to use something like Classical Writing from the beginning. Imitation and analysis of really good writing is the best teacher!

I have seen several versions of this, and the best one (to me) stars Sorcha Cusack as Jane, and Michael Jayston as Mr. Rochester. It's a BBC production from 1973, I believe. I liked many things about the Timothy Dalton one mentioned above, but this one has more going for it all around than that one. Besides, Timothy Dalton is too good looking for Rochester! ;) The Cusack/Jayston one is available from Netflix. I would stay away from the one in which Ciaran Hinds plays Rochester. I like Hinds generally, but he was a horrible Rochester, which was too bad, because the gal who played Jane in that one was pretty good (except for the kiss scene!).

Certainly Jensen's essay writing program (Format Writing) is formulaic, and IEW is to a certain extent, especially in its beginning stages. Anything that tells a student to have, say, an introduction that includes three reasons backing up his thesis (which has to be the last sentence in the introduction), followed by three paragraphs matching the three reasons, followed by a conclusion that sums up and restates the thesis is formulaic! Most early programs for writing, however, are formulaic by necessity. I happen to disagree with Mr. Stobaugh if indeed he said that this type of writing is marked down on the SAT. I know many kids who have used the standard 5-paragraph essay format and received very good scores on the SAT essay. I also think some structure to academic writing is necessary, but it doesn't have to be the standard 5-para thing I described in my first paragraph. That gets boring fast! But as a tool for reluctant or beginning writers, it is very hepful!

Who was the guy and what has he written?

Both sons at 18, though the youngest will turn 19 the summer after graduation and the oldest had just turned 18.

We really like Fagles for both, because my son's lit prof said the translations were "readable, poetic, and accurate." Fagles also came out with a translation of The Aeneid a couple of years ago, fortunately, not long before he passed away (just last month). My son, who translated that in his Vergil class last year thinks it's the best tranny he's read.

Oh, yes. Nan reminded me that both my boys got lots of grammar--and I mean lots--from their Latin studies through high school. Stuff we never even hear about in English grammar!

Well, WTM recommends doing grammar all the way through high school, but I have not done that. My kids finished their formal grammar lessons in 8th grade with Rod & Staff English 8. If you mean Eats, Shoots, and Leaves, that's a funny and interesting book, but it's not one you would base assignments on. Veritas Press probably just has students read it (as my son's AP English lit teacher had her students read it last summer before the class began).

Very nice! I knew right off the bat what book she read before I even read your post. I'm impressed with her work.

Your mom's experience sounds like my son's experiences with Latin. He began Latin I (Wheelock's) in 7th grade, and by the second semester of yr. 3, he was reading "real" Latin, and it's been straight Latin translation since then. He's finishing up yr. 5 (Catullus/Horace). He did Vergil last year, and will take Medeival Latin next year. What a great education your mom must have had!

Heroes of the City of Man by Peter Leithart is excellent.

Here's the link for Sparks Notes. It's a lot like Cliff's. And here's the one for BookRags. There are lots of others, too. Glencoe has some interesting guides.

Kathleen's son agrees with Parans subvolare. :iagree:

Wow! That's absolutely wonderful. Congratulations to you both.

Yes, there is a full credit in history, literature, and theology. There is a chart in the back of the book that breaks down each reading assignment.

Paul Johnson's A Histsory of the American People gives a wonderful overview and is quite readable. It's great for high school, too.