My little man just finished Lesson 140 today. So, I have to say... yes—scientific calculator (Casio FX-300MS), yes—goniometer, yes—geometry panels, and yes—mmArc compass! (This SAFE-T compass is not preferred and sometimes can't be used, so we don't recommend it.) You will need the centimeter cubes and tangrams as well.

Well, you're not alone in jumping ship at this time. My little man would like to continue with W&R Book 5 next year, especially after looking at the sample, but I think it's time to veer back to WWS 1 after W&R Book 4: Chreia & Proverb, so that's what we'll be doing next year for 6th grade. Honestly, I remember WWS 1 looking much more intimidating the last time I'd picked it up, though that was some time ago. We're definitely ready for it now. ETA: No one saw that typo, right? :blink:

Interesting. My little man loved the Big Picture Bible Timeline in K (OT) and 1st grade (NT), but we just didn't get into the HTTA Record of Time. I'll be happy to pass along the bundle—Record of Time notebook, Placement Guide, and Figures on CD, if you think you'll get some use out of it and don't mind paying for the shipping. It may take me a little time to procure a box, but I'll be ordering a couple of things within the next few days, so it shouldn't be too long before one turns up that'll work. Just pm me if you're still interested.

Alongside RightStart Geometry, we're using VideoText Algebra: A Complete Course—An Alternative Approach to Pre-Algebra, Algebra I, or Algebra II! Here's a handy article explaining different Algebra recommendations.

We barely got started with HTTA Timeline in our first year of VP—OTAE—before the thrill of it fizzled out for us. My little man isn't big on coloring, and neither of us liked taking the time to cut out the printed figures. It's still sitting empty on the shelf with the Suggested Placement Guide. Perhaps precut stickers would have worked better for us, though I didn't spend the time or effort to look for any. I should just sell or give them away. We have the Big Book of History as well as Adam's SynChronological Chart that I purchased from Answers in Genesis, so it wasn't a big deal for us. He did, however, like the Famous Figures of Ancient Times. Did you get your hands on the VP's Lesson Plans? They have the some of the events/people scheduled for you, but not all of what HTTA includes on their CD are scheduled—just the most relevant ones to VP's cards. On a side note, I discovered and he excavated the Egyptian Pyramid Dig. We also enjoyed the Old Testament Activity-Pak alongside VP Bible. I'd forgotten that I have the New Testament Activity-Pak on the shelf and meant to schedule it in this year. My little man is now determined to complete it by the end of the summer. We also constructed a model of the Tabernacle. So... what I'm saying is that other things filled our time instead of the HTTA timeline.

Spell to Write and Read along with Cursive First. Using no other program, my little man literally spelled his way into (cursive) writing and reading. It seems as though most jump ship from WWE after Level 2 or 3, but we benefitted from doing all four levels before moving to the W&R series. RightStart Mathematics has been our primary math resource from the beginning. Most users switch to another program after Level B or during Level C, but we've successfully stayed the course—completing Levels A-E and currently working our way through RS Geometry—and are reaping the benefits. VideoText Algebra alongside RS Geometry. In our experience, these two programs perfectly complement each other. We love the practical application that RS Geometry provides, and VT's conceptual teaching only enhances RS.

VP's kindergarten and first grade Bible recommendations. Child's Story Bible by VOS Big Picture Bible Timeline Student Bible Atlas Children's Illustrated Bible also... ABC Memory Book Devotions for the Children's Hour by Kenneth Taylor As for character building... A Child's Book of Character Building, Book 1 A Child's Book of Character Building, Book 2 A Hive of Busy Bees, and Another Hive... The Miller series We loved all of the above!

Well, we used both of them, but we did things a bit differently. The Child's Story Bible was our primary, narrative spine for K5 (Old Testament) and 1st grade (New Testament). The Illustrated was a secondary, but still just as interesting for my little man. We read through CSB the first half or so of each year, completing the Big Picture Bible Timeline alongside it, and then we'd go back through the time period with CIB during the second half-ish of each year. Though the latter served as a review, it wasn't redundant or unwelcome because it was an engaging visual of what he'd already learned. When we began VP Bible in 2nd grade we were ready for more, so (in addition to our KJV) we used Guerber's Histories revised by Miller (as our narrative spine) and Victor Journey instead of repeating the aforementioned resources. If I had to choose only one of the two, I'd pick the CSB.

I found the files in the Diana Waring Yahoo! group to be most helpful when I was lining up her audios with VP's History.

Something that I should've mentioned sooner... is that the op consists of his original writing—no rewrites with this one. At least, none of which I'm aware or that were initiated by myself or daddy. Due to the content matter, I purposefully did not critique his work. I believe it held its own without any revisions. Also, instead of having him do the "Speak It" exercises at the end of each lesson (in book 4 anyway), he has to give an oral presentation with his completed essay in front of both daddy and I, to work on his elocution and such. This seems to drive him a bit more, and he eats up any opportunity to slip on a tie for a more professional presence—behind a tray table substituted for a podium—even if he's still wearing his PJs/lounge clothes. Lol! Perhaps we'll revisit those exercises over the summer, but the majority of them are getting skipped for now.

LOL! Thank you! You made my little man's day!

Thank you, Rose! You've brought up a valid point. My little man's propensity for a commanding tone within the chreia exercises has been a topic of discussion for us. I even contemplated drawing our time with W&R to a close, stopping after Lesson 6, and trying MP's CC or moving on to WWS I. That being said, I resolved to give W&R one more chance to prove its worth, holding out until after Lesson 7 to make a final decision. Hence, why this is a crossroad of sorts for us. When I consider the progress my little man has made in just the awareness alone and therefore the effects of his own writing, I see that he has gained or, rather, discovered his voice, which makes writing all the more interesting and worthwhile to him than just another writing assignment. He did all the legwork on this one, with very little or no consultation from either me or daddy. Something just clicked, and he owned it. I believe kiwik hit the nail on the head when she pointed out the fluidity of his 6-paragraph essay in and of itself. I was pleasantly surprised and even reassured by the results of this lesson/assignment; it fruited unexpected growth. Taking a step back and looking at the big picture, I'd have to say that I don't think W&R's Chreia is teaching nor is my little man necessarily practicing "that kind" of writing whilst learning the chreia style. More appropriately, I see it as an opportunity in learning to work through (and beyond) this age appropriate tendency.

Thank you! I appreciate the feedback. :)

2015-2016 Bible: VP Acts-Revelation Logic: The Art of Argument, Argument Builder Math: VideoText Algebra (Modules B cont'd, C, D, E, & F), CWPs Latin: LfC C cont'd, Latin Alive! 1 English: VfCR Word Wealth Junior, R&S 8, Grammar of Poetry, VP lit. suggestions Writing: W&R 5 and 6 WWS 1 History: VP Self-Paced 1815-Present Geography: Mapping the World with Art MP States & Capitals, A Child's Geography II Science: J.H. Tiner series (Physics, Mathematics), God's Design for The Physical World Arts: Suzuki violin, Christian karate, drawing Other: archery Revised 05/22/2015, 05/28/2015, 05/30/2015

No, the books listed on the cards are your primary (non-fiction) resources for teaching/learning. I use these PDFs each year to keep track of my little man's independent (historical fiction) reading assignments. They can be used by the do-it-yourselfers or the Self-Pacers. There are Level 1 and Level 2 lists, according to one's reading ability/maturity level. They can be found in the VP_Elementary Yahoo group --> Files --> then select which year in the cycle (i.e. OTAE, etc.).

I did try to line-up the matching Bible and History Cards that first year, as you can see from my G2 Year-at-a-Glance, but you could just do them and not worry about it. The 17 matching ones are listed below, by Card number: Bible (Genesis) - 1, 2, 3, 5, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21 History (OTAE) - 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, 15, 16, 17, 22, 23, 24, 25 VP's LPs do not line them up.

Well, knowing that I'd be using VP Bible and History all the way through their 5-year cycles during the grammar stage, I purchased the complete sets (used) of TMs and Cards for both Bible and History at the beginning of our homeschool journey (around K4-ish). We memorized all of the history cards in chronological order during our 1st grade year while participating in a CC community. There are 32 cards in each set, but OTAE and Genesis share 18-ish of the same cards. Regardless of that fact, I believe the Bible Cards are worth having anyway, especially in the grand scheme of what you're trying to accomplish. If I hadn't already purchased all of the TMs for History from the very beginning, I still would have bought them each year while doing the Self-Paced Courses, even though it's not necessary. But that's just me—I like to be thorough and informed. I only had the LPs for Bible and History that first year. I only use the Bible Cards, TM, recommended resources, etc. for doing Bible now. The lesson plans I was referring were our Year-at-a-Glance and Week-at-a-Glance, covering all subjects, for each year. These can be accessed through our homeschool blog --> click on a year --> scroll to one of the links and view via Box. They are downloadable. (The link for our blog in my profile.) M

My little man just finished his fourth chreia this past week. It is a crossroad of sorts for us. ------------------------- King Canute Canute was probably England’s most sensible king. He hated how the members of his court praised him far beyond what was true. They would go as far as saying that he could command anything in the world and it would obey him. One day, Canute finally responded to his officers’ flattery saying, “Learn how feeble is the power of earthly kings. None is worthy of the name of king but he whom heaven and earth and sea obey.†Canute basically rebuked his foolish officers when he said this. Unlike those around him, he did not try to flatter his way to power. We should allow Canute to be a model for us. We should try to not let the flattery of others get into our heads and make us think that we’re better that we really are. Another way of stating Canute’s saying is, “No matter how much power that kings think or are told that they have, none have any real power. No one can control any element of nature except God. Canute’s words tell us that kings have no real power. The only king who has any real power is the King of Kings. Don’t think that just because you become a leader that you suddenly have power unlimited. You also shouldn’t try to use flattery for your benefit. Remember, false praise is flattery, flattery is falsehood, and falsehood is a lie. Let us be humble like Canute and know when someone is giving us false praise. Herod the Great—who was the king of Israel during the birth of Jesus—is one of the most power-hungry men in the Bible. When he learned of the birth of the prophesied King of Israel, he asked three wise men to tell him when the sign of the King’s birth—a star—had appeared. After learning that the star had appeared approximately two years before, Herod then persuaded them to come back to him and tell him where the young king was so that he could worship Him, but his real intentions were to kill the baby. Thankfully, God warned the wise men of Herod’s plans in a dream, so they never returned to him. Their disobedience only enraged Herod, though, and he—learning in the scriptures that the king was to be born in Bethlehem—sent soldiers to kill all baby boys two years old and younger who were in Bethlehem. Unfortunately for Herod, God had already warned the baby’s parents as well, so they were long gone. Do not be greedy for power like Herod was. We shouldn’t hang around people like Herod, as they will do anything to obtain power. George Washington was many things—a general, a farmer, and the very first president, but most importantly, he was humble. During the war for Independence, when Washington was commander-in-chief of the Continental Army, he and his men braved the famous winter at Valley Forge. During this winter, George’s humility showed. Instead of having an “I’m the leader and you all serve me†attitude and taking the first log cabin that was built, he waited until all of the cabins were finished and all of his men were housed to even enter a cabin and live in comfort. After the war, George was voted to be America’s first president, but he—thinking that he was only a normal man who wasn’t worthy of the job—nearly declined the position. I hope that George Washington’s humility is as inspiring for you as it is for me. In our personal lives, we must remember that God controls the world. We don’t. We—just like kings—have no real power. Many people in the world will try to flatter you into doing many different things like giving them money. We must learn to discern whether or not people are flattering us so that we can ignore their flattery. Memorize Canute’s saying so you can know when someone flatters you like Canute’s officers did to him. ------------------------- Please, share your thoughts.

That's exactly how I was in the first year of VP's 5-year Bible and History cycles. I didn't have my little man do the Self-Paced History Course our first year. Even though he enjoyed the 30-day trial in the summer before our 2nd grade study year, I wanted us to do History and Bible together, and see what he'd retained from the online Self-paced Course, so I opted to use the LPs for OTAE and Genesis and teach them myself. Admittedly, it was nice having the hand-holding that first year. The LPs offered intros and discussion questions, as well as a general flow to our daily lessons, and listed the recommended historical literature reading assignments. We soon fell into a routine with the guided help of those LPs, and I was glad that I had them. By the end of that first year with VP, I was confident that I could proceed each year without the use of the LPs anymore. That being said, I was also pleasantly surprised by what and how much he'd retained from the Self-Paced Course sample lessons. The second year—3rd grade, I went ahead and signed him up for the Self-Paced NTGR History Course, and I continued to teach Bible myself. And that's been our way each year since. I consider it to be the best of both worlds. On a side note, I also switched to OLLY for my lesson planning in that second year (3rd grade), instead of using my excel spreadsheets, and I haven't looked back. ;) One more thing I should share is... even though we now use the Self-Paced Courses, I still make sure that I have all of the resource books on hand. There has been many a time when my little man has wanted or needed to recall or dig deeper into particular times, people, or events—before, during, and after we've studied them—whether it be for a project, writing assignment, etc., so that is what I'd recommend.

My little man completed RS A-E and is currently doing VT Algebra alongside RS Geometry. K4: RS Level A (1st Ed.) K5: RS Level B (1st Ed.) G1: RS Level C (1st Ed.) G2: RS Level D (1st Ed.) G3: RS Level E (1st Ed.) G4: RightStart Geometry & Singapore CWPs + VideoText Algebra (Module A) G5: RightStart Geometry cont'd & Singapore CWPs + VideoText Algebra (Modules A cont'd & B) G6: Complete VideoText Algebra (Modules B cont'd , D, C, E, & F) & Singapore CWPs G7: TBD... As you can see, we started RS Geometry in 4th grade and incorporated VT Algebra after Lesson 81-ish, completing 1-3 lessons per week of RS and 1 lesson per week of VT Algebra. Sometimes a lesson in RS G has multiple worksheets. In those cases, my little man completes one worksheet per day, so it could take 1-3 days to complete a lesson of RS G. He completes each lesson of VT in 2 days, as shown below. (Here are VT's suggested one-year, two-year, and three-year pacing plans. We obviously have our own three-year pacing plan—basically, their one-year plan... just tweaked a bit and spread out for the first two years. ;) ) Day 1: Step 1.) Quiz (Form B) over the previous lesson, with me checking only the answers, and letting him analyze the errors, in order to verify mastery. Step 2.) We watch the new lesson together, pausing and discussing as needed in order to cement the new concept(s). Step 3.) He demonstrates understanding by working the odd numbered Exercises in the WorkText, using the Course Notes. Step 4.) I check the answers, and we do error analysis together, using the Solutions Manual Day 2: Step 1.) Quiz (Form A) over the previous day's lesson, with me checking only the answers, and letting him analyze the errors, in order to verify mastery. Step 2.) He demonstrates understanding by working the even numbered Exercises in the WorkText, using the Course Notes (if needed). Step 3.) I check only the answers, and require him to do error analysis, using the Solutions Manual He slips in some CWPs when time permits, but usually 3 or so problems after working through a RS assignment.

My little man completed RS A-E and is currently doing VT Algebra alongside RS Geometry. K4: RS Level A (1st Ed.) K5: RS Level B (1st Ed.) G1: RS Level C (1st Ed.) G2: RS Level D (1st Ed.) G3: RS Level E (1st Ed.) G4: RightStart Geometry & Singapore CWPs + VideoText Algebra (Module A) G5: RightStart Geometry cont'd & Singapore CWPs + VideoText Algebra (Modules A cont'd & B) G6: Complete VideoText Algebra (Modules B cont'd , D, C, E, & F) & Singapore CWPs G7: TBD... As you can see, we started RS Geometry in 4th grade and incorporated VT Algebra after Lesson 81-ish, completing 1-3 lessons per week of RS and 1 lesson per week of VT Algebra. Sometimes a lesson in RS G has multiple worksheets. In those cases, my little man completes one worksheet per day, so it could take 1-3 days to complete a lesson of RS G. He completes each lesson of VT in 2 days, as shown below. (Here are VT's suggested one-year, two-year, and three-year pacing plans. We obviously have our own three-year pacing plan—basically, their one-year plan... just tweaked a bit and spread out for the first two years. ;) ) Day 1: Step 1.) Quiz (Form B) over the previous lesson, with me checking only the answers, and letting him analyze the errors, in order to verify mastery. Step 2.) We watch the new lesson together, pausing and discussing as needed in order to cement the new concept(s). Step 3.) He demonstrates understanding by working the odd numbered Exercises in the WorkText, using the Course Notes. Step 4.) I check the answers, and we do error analysis together, using the Solutions Manual Day 2: Step 1.) Quiz (Form A) over the previous day's lesson, with me checking only the answers, and letting him analyze the errors, in order to verify mastery. Step 2.) He demonstrates understanding by working the even numbered Exercises in the WorkText, using the Course Notes (if needed). Step 3.) I check only the answers, and require him to do error analysis, using the Solutions Manual He slips in some CWPs when time permits, but usually 3 or so problems after working through a RS assignment.

Well, my little man is doing the self-paced history, but I do have all of the TMs anyway. We use them from time to time. However, we mainly use the worksheets and such in the Bible TMs, since I'm teaching that myself. This is one of the advantages in doing both Bible and History. (I've been meaning to respond again to your other post about VP's Bible.) Most of my little man's writing comes from Bible, Spelling, Grammar, and Writing via W&R, but there are times when having the TM for History has been nice.

:iagree: Same story here. I knew from first impressions that BA was not our cup of tea, and further probing only confirmed my doubts, so you are not alone in being a dissenter. TO THE OP: As an educator, the use of secular resources is inevitable. As a Christian, some of those are better left alone. There are plenty of other options for math that will not cause spiritual unrest or concern. I pray that you will continue to fervently seek the Lord's will in this matter and that He will reveal whether or not it would be wise for your little ones to use this curriculum.

A few of our favorites: A Child's Book of Character Building, Book 1 A Child's Book of Character Building, Book 2 A Hive of Busy Bees Another Hive of Bees Wisdom and the Millers... and the rest of the book series

The beauty of VP's Bible and History is that you can do as little or add as much as you want, but it really comes down to a matter of preference. If you're looking for an in-depth Bible study, strong on application and doctrine, then perhaps VP isn't what you'd want. However, if you're looking for a chronological approach that will help to comprehend the whole story of Scripture, and prepare for more vigorous study, then VP could be your pick. It's comprehensive, yet flexible. (Exodus Books has a great review of VP Bible that is worth reading.) That said, you may be interested to know that VP's OTAE (History) and Genesis (Bible) are so close, sharing 18-ish cards with the same topic/event, that some think it's a waste to buy the Bible cards for that year. It wasn't an issue for us, since it made our first official year with VP a little lighter but still complete. (A runner-up chronological Bible study, though only a 4-year cycle, for VP Bible could be CAP's OT and NT Bible series—God's Great Covenant.) We're nearly done with our fourth year of VP Bible—only one year left in the 5-year cycle. For us, it's been a perfect spine. And I have to say that we actually enjoy the Bible songs that correlate with each year. We listen to our current CD first thing every morning on our study days. In the beginning, I lead our Bible studies, reading aloud and such. Now, in 5th grade, my little man reads independently and then completes the activities. Afterwards, we review and discuss. On a side note... we used the Child's Story Bible by Vos and the Illustrated Bible—both listed as primary resources on the cards—in Kindergarten (OT) and 1st grade (NT), so when we began the Genesis Bible cards in 2nd grade... we used the first few Guerber's Histories as our narrative spine alongside the Bible cards, our KJV, and the Victor Journey Bible. Although the self-paced courses now include Bible as an option, we still do it ourselves. We prefer this approach to any other.