Anyone, please?

Has any one used this? I have seen samples online and it looks interesting. I picked up Roar on the Other Side, by Canon Press, however it has too much Christian content for us. Was wondering if Art of Poetry is heavy on the doctrine or not, if it seemed effective, or other thoughts. Also, what age/grade would this be for? Thanks so much!

This is such a fantastic list! Thank you so much for taking the time to share it.

Have you checked out http://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.com ? Sometimes they have great deals on interactive learning. We use Word Roots, which is a software for Latin & Greek vocabulary words, Typing, Plato Science, Descartes Cove math, and Visual Link Spanish. I'm sure there are a lot others, depending on what subjects you're looking for.

I'm not sure where you might buy one, but I've taught some co-op classes in the past. I pretty much took a subject and then figure out how many sessions and filled it in. For example, with a 9-12yo Creative Writing class, we worked on Characters the first week by making paperdoll chains that had their physical characteristics on the outside and then on the inside had personality, likes/dislikes, how others saw them. The next week we worked on Setting. I got cheap dollar calendars and took the pictures and had them describe the setting, ie: what they smelled, heard, etc in the picture. Then we worked on Plot by using the plot pyramid. I can't remember what else. I think we did word collages, poems, biography interviews of the person next to them, made word-searches. It was a lot of fun to come up with stuff. Maybe you can have them develop an item or idea and teach how to market it :) That would be fun. Week one: come up with product Week two: make newspapers for all the products Week three: distribution Week four: showcase of student's advertisements

:thumbup:

Have you seen the PenAgain pen and pencils? Sold at office stores. They help a child/adult hold the pen correctly. Here is the website: http://www.penagain.com/

My son self-taught himself to use chopsticks and that improved his handwriting tremendously.

Another vote for TTT. We are not Christian, but it is definitely written from a Christian POV. I highly recommend reading it, or at least reading the 10 things to do before age 10. IMO: just the appendix and articles in the back are worth the cost of the book :)

Angela, That was an excellent post! My son is now in 7th and I think he has finally reached being able to think about Logic in this sense. I find it fascinating to watch him have debates with people, using his well thought-out opinions on matters to support his position. He definitely did not have the capacity for that 2 years ago. The only Logic that we did was questioning, questioning, questioning. I believe this taught him how to question validity and acquire the tools he needed to get where he is now.

I drink coffee and generally don't eat until 2pm. I'm not sure if that is healthy according to the books, but I've been doing it for years. I actually feel yucky if I eat breakfast. My children eat brown rice with eggs, oatmeal, wheat pizza, or whatever seems good...generally a complex carbohydrate and protein. And they eat all day - 8am breakfast 10am snack noon lunch 3pm snack 5pm dinner Every body is different...It really depends on genetics, metabolism, exercise level.

I don't blog myself, so I don't understand why people do, other than either to express themselves or share with friends/family. Although, I do read other people's blogs a lot. I find them interesting and often helpful. Sometimes I get great ideas from them, especially if I google search on something and a blog comes up in which some one actually has an experience with whatever I'm looking for. If it is helps you in some way, you should continue, regardless of who may or may not read it. If it is becoming a burden, then maybe temporarily set it aside?

Brown Cow plain. The cream rises to the top. Good stuff. :D

The Guardians of Ga'Hoole series is about owls, however it is geared for 9-12 age group. The owls are personified even though their habits are accurate. My son loved the series when he was 9.

We tried to do Spelling along with Vocabulary and found that it was just using too much time to get both done during the week, so we dropped Vocab from Classical Roots and plan on picking it up later...maybe around 9th...however, we do use Word Roots software once a week. It probably just depends on how much time she has scheduled during the week. Since she's good at spelling, maybe the time can be used better doing something else?

:lurk5:

Your thread title made me laugh so hard! week/weak rofl! As for a spelling program that is not teacher intensive...I'm not sure if I can think of any. However, a good program is Sequential Spelling, even though it is teacher based. The idea is that the spelling skills will be sequentially built. The word is said and the student writes it. Teacher checks, if it is wrong, it is immediately fixed and then move on to the next word. My son would do 1/2 a list a day (about 12-14 words) until we switched to Megawords because he wanted something more than lists. Sequential Spelling took us about 10-15 minutes a day. Megawords can be done on their own, but there is teacher involvement every few lessons. HTH! Thanks for the smile :)

If I were you, I'd just call and talk to Andrew. He is most helpful and doesn't mind answering any questions. From my understanding (I spoke with him a long time ago) the levels correlate with age groups and not experience. The lower levels are geared toward a younger audience. He uses lots of humor, so the younger students get a different instruction than the older students, however they are all the same in content. Seriously though, you can just call and talk to him. He's very friendly and my son loved the idea that I actually talked to the guy on the video. :) I think the number is on their website.

Have you looked into Sonlight at all? I was overwhelmed at times with TOG and switched to Sonlight. It is similar in philosophy to TOG, being literature based, however much better planned out and user friendly. The instructor guides tells exactly which book to read and which pages to read for each day. With the instructor's guide, it is pretty much open and go...well, as long as you have the books on hand. Student reads, and the IG has summaries of their reading or discussion questions. There is no fluff, no planning, no researching, nothing. It's all very straightforward and really easy to use. The LA portion (which is extra) isn't great though. We don't use their LA, just the Cores. We love Sonlight and my son even loves it.

We have this - just the book - and have never missed the CDs. I think the CDs is just Andrew reading the poems aloud over and over.

I'm exchanging TT7 for Pre-Algebra. My son didn't use the book for TT7 at all because he just entered in the answers on the computer. So, since it is about a $70 difference to not get the workbook, I was thinking of just getting the pre-algebra disks. When I told the lady that I wanted to exchange for just the Pre-Algebra disks, she told me that there is a big difference between the 2 levels and I would definitely need the workbook for Pre-Algebra because you can't just enter in the answers like in TT7. Is this true? If you're children used Pre-Algebra or Algebra, did they actually use or need the workbook? Thanks!

Really? Thank you! I figured something was going on because he was getting done way too fast. I double checked my invoice and it seems that I purchased it on Nov 20th, so maybe they'll still let me send this level back for the Pre-Algebra. Thanks again!

My son is doing TT7. He has been whizzing through lessons. I'm not sure if it's really easy since he just started...maybe it's all review right now? Or is the curriculum actually behind a grade or two? (And of course, today my 30 day return period expired.)

Again, these are great responses, as long as they refrain from becoming judgemental against people and stick to sharing personal experiences. I can't believe any one would be judgmental against others on this issue to the point of name calling and accusations! Sheesh!

I loved reading these. Such wonderful and diverse replies! So much honesty and a lot to think about. Perhaps it just comes down to the 2 things then: 1. Personality of adult/child 2. Baggage caused by parents or Appreciation given by parents Thanks so much! I'll go tell him he has to do the recycling and put the trash out now. :D