The "Classic" ones come with blank squares that you can fill however you want *or* you can use the pdf teacher's guides which tell you how you can fill each spot. Your child can color the maps and can cut out the picture or word-search or chart or whatever and complete/color it and paste it into the portfolio. We follow their directions and ideas about 50% of the time. Many times, my daughter (and her homeschooling friend) will want to draw a different picture or summarize a different historical event, or we'll have taken a different direction and just be doing something a bit different. I like that it's flexible like that. For instance, in the Germanic tribes section, the girls colored a map of the migrations of the Germanic Tribes and the Huns, they cut out a picture of Attila. They did a short dictations about the Huns and wrote a report on Attila the Hun and matched up some famous tribal leaders with their names (all suggestions from the pdf file). But the next section where they were supposed to write a report on the effect of the Huns on the Germanic Tribes and Roman Empire didn't fit with what we were working on. Since we were working on Excavating English, I had them copy a language tree showing Germanic languages, then illustrate some Anglo-Saxon words that are in modern English, then write an Anglo-Saxon riddle and do a short dictation explaining ablaut. Then we caught back up with the pdf and continued on to a summary of Beowulf (which they had just finished reading), and draw a picture of Beowulf... Next I had the girls draw some Norse gods, write an explanation of the Danelaw, draw a picture of King Alfred with a short biography... Then instead of retelling a norse myth, they wrote out the Runic alphabet. Then they moved onto the Vikings... The "Jr" one (which I haven't used yet, but have in front of me) seems a bit more directed, so it'll be a bit harder for me to improvise (but less cutting/pasting). I think it'll be fine. I have a tendency to want to dig in deep and I need to remember to keep everything light for my younger girl who suffers from a disinterest in anything academic. I hope this helps! I think you can see some examples on the website...

Typically kids will start at age 3 and potty-trained, though whether that's a full day (i.e., daycare) program or a two-mornings-a-week thing is really dependent on whether both parents work. I certainly don't think pre-school is necessary for raising a great kid or a well-educated person, but I do think a really good quality preschool can be pretty awesome. My kids went to a fantastic Montessori preschool at 3. They loved it, I loved it. I couldn't wish for a better setting for them. They were able to do all the sorts of things I couldn't do with them at home (I was a full-time grad student).

Yes, they're printed on nice thick paper and bound in a 3 ring horizontal binder. With the classic one, the teacher's pages are PDFs and the portfolio is bound. The Jr one has the teacher's pages in the back. I've used the classic Medieval one and will start the Renaissance with my older daughter and it's working well. I'm curious about the Junior one which just arrived at my house this week. It's not as open ended or as extensive as the classic one, but that might be okay. I might move a few pages from my older daughter's in order to pad out the junior one... Also, the Medieval and Renaissance looked pretty secular to me (although it certainly had a fair amount of pages dedicated to the spread of early Christianity, and a definite European focus) while the Jr ancients one has kids assembling a scene from the Garden of Eden and a section on the birth of Christ. I didn't find it overwhelming or inappropriate, so I wouldn't rule it out if you're homeschooling secularly - there is also plenty of option for changing it. For instance, I'm thinking about adding in an Early Human section in addition to the Christian creation story.

I don't know whether research has much to do with it. Talk to any kindergarten teacher about the range of reading ability in their classroom. There will be 5 1/2 year olds who are still working on letter and sound identification and 5 1/2 year olds who can happily read full-length novels and both are entirely within the range of normal. In a lot of areas, kids aren't even taught to read until 6 or 7 (including our local school district). I always have to remind myself when I'm working with my kids (or other students) that we as parents and teachers aren't really in control of their learning. Developmental readiness matters much, much more than curriculum. It doesn't matter how many "walking lessons" or "potty training lessons" we try to give our kids, they'll get there when they're ready -- and our early efforts are futile. It's the same with reading and math and bike riding and anything... It's our job to be there when the time is right. I'd just keep it light and be patient and probe periodically to see if some things have clicked.

My almost 8 yr old has never been interested in books. It's just not her thing. The only thing that has worked to get her voluntarily reading is to offer to let her stay up a half-hour later if she wants to read in bed at night. So while her bedtime is 8:30, she can go to bed at 9 if she's reading in bed...

Thank you all! I'm looking into the Age of Mythology. Also, I stayed up late last night listening to those great history songs. I'm curious whether my kids will appreciate them as much as I do, since the songs are my generation. Still... awesome ideas - thank you!

:iagree: I imagine the "language exposure" class is more of a marketing tool than anything else. Parents like saying things like "My child has studied Chinese, Russian, German and French at school."

Minimus is great as a supplement. Also, you might consider signing her up for the ETC Latin Exploratory Exam. There is a CD of materials that are light and vocab focused.

I wouldn't worry... At 5.5, it's perfectly normal to not yet be entirely ready to read. Just give it a little time.

I'm attempting the ancients for the third time with my younger daughter - who is almost 8. In the past, I've found it really hard to engage her in history topics... even exciting and interesting stories (like Greek mythology or stories about mummies) leave her bored. She's a real action-girl, but I think she's maturing enough to pay attention for short periods of time. I'm determined to make it happen this time. I'm using Ancient History Portfolio Jr (I've used the classic with my older daughter and liked it) along with SOTW and the library and brainpop. What I'd like, however, are recommendations for videos (Netflix/Amazon Instant/Youtube) that she might find accessible. She does *not* do documentaries, except for those aimed at kids (like Magic Schoolbus). Any thoughts? All I can think of offhand are Horrible Histories and Jim Henson's storyteller Greek Myths. Also -- any ideas about games (like those at BBC kids)?

In my experience as a student/teacher of/parent of PSed kids, I've found that there are pretty much zero expectations at public elementary school for history and science content areas. There is little consistency between teachers, let alone schools, districts and states. I know when we were kids, we assumed there was some reason or method behind decisions about what we were taught... and looking at the state standards makes us think these standards might actually be seriously taught, but in my experience, science and social studies are more haphazardly taught based on the teacher's expertise and/or whims than on a consistent canon of information that kids should know. In other words, I wouldn't worry.

The problem is that there is a morphological way to divide "Syllables" that has spelling books encouraging kids to divide them like: Teach.er and a phonological way that would divide it like tea.cher. The truth is that syllables are a tricky thing to pick out and their existence is even questioned by linguists. So... while I think it's a silly thing to test on, I think the test writers want you to look at Consonant-Vowel patterns. For instance, English likes onsets (consonants at the beginning of the syllable). So look for CVC.CVC or CV.CV rather than CVCC.VC OR CVC.V

The only time my 9 yr old actually "plays" is when she's in the bath. I have all their Schleich (and Papo) toys in the bathtub -- wizards, fairies, witches, dragons, knights, princesses... Baths at our house last for an hour -- or until the hot water becomes too cold to bear.

I wouldn't worry. Knowledge of grammatical terms is not tested on standardized tests (that I've seen). I would focus on writing conventions (comma placement, avoiding run-on sentences, etc...) instead.

I've found it useful to have my kids use graph paper to write their math problems on. I insist on one number per box. Also, it's good for SM word problems because they're able to actually make rectangles for the bar models rather than the weird squashed-rectangles they do without graph paper. And it's nice to have it for geometry and area and graphing.

Thank you thank you! I knew I could count on you guys for good advice! I'm printing off this thread to take with me. I think the consensus is to stay on Oahu, so that's what we'll do. It's hard to accept that I can't see everything. But 5+ days on Oahu should give us a good beginning to exploring the state... we could always come back. :001_smile:

It looks like we have 6 days off and rather than trying to go skiing, we have made a spontaneous decision to go to Hawaii. I used mileage points and have now have 4 non-refundable tickets to Honolulu. But what do I do now? I usually mull over vacation options for months... But we're leaving in a week and a half! Should we just stay in Oahu? Will we have time to go to another island? What transportation options are there? Do we want to rent a car? Where should we stay? What should we do? Help me! Here's the family: Me: I spent a few months in Honolulu as a kid and have never visited any other island. I don't like the beach particularly and am more interested in cultural activities, hiking and kayaking. I do like tours. My partner: Loves beaches, will love Hawaiian kitch, probably quite happy in Waikiki. Also loves high adrenaline activities (zip lines, rafting) Older daughter: Volcanoes. Younger daughter: Beach, also high adrenaline activities. We're a little bit on the cheap side, but don't have to be on a particularly tight budget.

I found that my 7 yr old just wasn't ready for SOTW or other materials. We have done/are doing the Usborne World Atlas sticker book, geopuzzles and reading books like DK "Children like me". We're going to try again whis semester with History Portfolio Junior and library books/brainpop/online materials.

When I think about the idea of whole-to-parts or part-to-whole learning, it usually is in the context of language learning materials. Is it better to introduce to students a text to translate or a conversation to listen to and then focus on the structure? Or is it better to present the structure first and then give a context for it in a text? (Personally, I think it doesn't matter much... as long as both the "whole" and the "parts" get in there...)

We've had success with the Singapore "Process Skills in Problem Solving" (Fan Math or I-excel) http://www.singaporemath.com/Fan_Math_Process_Skills_in_Prob_Solving_L2_p/fmpsps2.htm They're not as challenging as the challenging word problems and they do a nice job of laying out how to solve the problems. I'd suggest going down a level or two to get the hang of the bar model.

Unschooling Montessori Waldorf

Growing with grammar

Don't worry a bit. These aren't holes. First, the state standards are rarely followed with any consistency within a school (let alone a district or state). But even if they were taught identically in every classroom by every teacher, no teacher would assume that all children in the class had actually mastered every state standard. A teacher would review this sort of thing before introducing it in more depth. But really... it may surprise you how haphazard it all is.

About an hour... 20 minutes of teaching, 20 minutes independent work, 20 minutes of my daughter gazing at the ceiling, petting the cat, drawing pictures in the margins.

I can only say that my daughter didn't care for the Sutcliff series and was annoyed that I made her read it.