I am seriously terrible at homemade anything - even with a recipe. :blush: I think Tom's is what my dd 11 started with a couple of years ago. I could go out and get that. Would it be considered safe for a seven year old? She still seems so young to me.

I have an academically average 6th grader. :) Things I am doing a bit different: combining reading and literature, covering writing through other subjects and definitely waiting on logic classes. Math - Key to Fractions and Key to Decimals w/ LOF Fractions and LOF Decimals (I decided to move away from Singapore after level 4, which she is still finishing. Math is such a struggle for her.) Science - Galore Park's SYRWTL Science 1 History - Galore Park's SYRWTL History 1 Literature - Literary Lessons through Lord of the Rings (her strong subject) Poetry - Kolbe Jr. High Poetry (stretched out to 1 semester, followed by Kolbe Jr. High Short Stories also stretched to a semester) English - online FLVS Advanced English 6 Spanish - online FLVS Jr. High Spanish 1 Art - online FLVS Jr. High 2D Art (drawing class) She loves creative writing and music. She takes guitar lessons and spends most of her free time playing her guitar, keyboard and recorder or writing stories.

What should I do about underarm odor in a girl of 7.5? It has really only become noticable this past week. Is there a very mild deodorant she could use? Just washing under her arms isn't enough. An antiperspirant isn't necessary.

We are in Week 3 of 8th grade: 1 essay per week in History or Literature (never both) 1 essay every 3 or 4 weeks in Poetry online English class - looking at the syllabus, maybe 5-6 papers over the year day-to-day writing in all classes (outlines, exams, paragraphs, informal essays, etc) Essays are approximately 1 page typed. I suggest 1-2 pages, but dd doesn't believe she will be needing a 2nd page for any of her essays. :lol:

Key to .... series.

Thanks for the suggestions. None of these look like they are going to work. But part of the problem is that I haven't quite decided how I want to use these books. I tried just reading them with my older two kids. I loved the books, but I want something more than oral narrations with the next two. However, I can't quite put my finger on where I am going.:001_unsure:

Could you please list any history programs that use the Genevieve Foster books (George Washington's World, Abraham Lincoln's World, etc.) for history? I'm looking for programs that schedule the books out and provide additional discussion/activities to go along with the reading.

Excellence in Lit I is easier than the other four levels. But there really isn't much change in levels two through five. I think Campbell has said that you can choose the one that fits your history (American/British/World.) The first level has fewer assignments and shorter papers. The last three levels are chronological but fairly independent units. Occasionally she will refer to a previous book within the unit and sometimes one of the paper choices will be to compare one book to another that was previously read. But there are always two or three writing assignments to choose from, so you could always check first, choose the other writing assignment or make up one of your own. She does state that you can skip a unit in the middle if the books don't suit you or your child has already read them. I have my dd doing the first three units of World Literature this year and then we won't hit the fourth unit for two years. :)

a Montessori school

When my 2nd grader hits 4th I plan to use Latin Road and Kolbe Elementary Literature.

My cousin is a 1st grade teacher and she teaches all of her classes to sing the ABCs that way - both forward and backward. My son taught himself that way as well - probably from watching the Leap Frog ABC DVD since they end the song lines with the letter sound and not the name causing him to remember the sounds better than the letter names. :001_smile: He still calls some of the letters by their sounds instead of their names.

My daughter will recieve 1 credit for English 9 and 1 credit for Literature. She will spend 5-6 hourse per week on the English credit and approximately 8 hours per week on Literature. I hope that isn't too abnormal. :001_unsure:

I think there are multiple reasons really. One is just the fact that I am teaching more kids and so have less time. MCT and PLL/ILL are both time consuming. Another is that my younger two are different learners than the older two. They like a more workbook/independent style. They have never enjoyed the snuggly read alouds on the couch the way my older two did at that age. My dd7 was so happy to switch from FLL to CW Primer. She is my quickest learner and likes to know what needs to be done and do it (on her own if possible.) A third reason is that my eldest is now at the test taking stage and I can see areas where I could have done more. My favorite thing about the Galore Park English books is that the first 2-3 sections of each chapter are about analyzing literature. There is generally a fiction work, a non-fiction work and a work of poetry for each chapter. I think these sections in GP are well done, do wonders in preparing a child for testing later, and come with an answer key so I don't have to always do all the work in making sure my kids get the right answers. None of my other language arts curriculum addressed literature passage analysis as well as GP and the kids enjoy the books. In looking back, I do not think my eldest got much out of PLL/ILL. Nothing really stuck. LM7 and PTIW did help her with writing though. My dd11 got more out of them, but she is a natural writer and speller so she would likely have done well with anything. As for MCT, I've never liked the writing so we didn't use it. I do like the vocabulary books, but my kids start Latin early and it just felt like overkill. The poetry got too hard for me to teach after the second or third book. It was so much work for a class my kids we're interested in. The grammar books I would continue with now except that I think the Bridge/Latin Road program covers very similar territory and adds in the extra Latin benefit. It also suits my dd7 more than the more story-like MCT grammar books. And a final reason is probably that I am more excited about teaching something new than something I've already read through/prepared for/graded twice before. :D

I was just thinking about this over the weekend. I am doing LLLotR now and was thinking it would be nice to have something similar for Harry Potter. I do belong to a yahoo group - HogwartsSCS which has some ideas. It is a bit of a pain though because everything is in individual zip files. And you do have to sift through a lot to find the more useful items.

current 8th grader: 1- Hooked on Phonics, First Language Lessons 1/2 2- SRA Reading, Classical Writing Aesop 3 - Primary Language Lessons, MCT Grammar Island 4 - Intermediate Language Lessons, Sequential Spelling 1 5 - Intermediate Language Lessons, Sequential Spelling 2, MCT Grammar Town 6 - Lingua Mater 7, MCT Grammar Voyage, GP SYRWTL English 2, Excellence in Lit 1 (first half) 7- Put That in Writing 1, MCT Magic Lens I, Excel. in Lit 1 (2nd half,) GP SYRWTL English 3 8- FLVS Honors English 8, Kolbe Greek Lit current 6th grader: 1- Hooked on Phonics, First Language Lessons 1/2 2- Primary Language Lessons, Sequential Spelling 1 3- Primary Language Lessons, Sequential Spelling 2 4- Intermediate Language Lessons, MCT Grammar Island, GP Jr. English 3 5 - Intermediate Language Lessons, MCT Grammar Town, GP SYRWTL English 1 6 - FLVS Honors English 6, LLLotR, GP SYRWTL English 2 7 - FLVS Honors English 7, SYRWTL English 3, Excellence in Lit 1 8 - FLVS Honors Engish 8, GP English Year 9, Kolbe Greek Lit Current 2nd grader: 1 - Hooked on Phonics, Classical Writing Primers 2 - Bridge to Latin (first half,) GP Jr. English 1, SRA Reading 3 - Bridge to Latin (2nd half,) GP Jr. English 2, Kolbe Elementary Lit 4 - Latin Road to English 1, GP Jr. English 3, Kolbe Elementary Lit 5 - Latin Road to English 2, GP SYRWTL English 1, Kolbe Elementary Lit 6 - Latin Road to English 3, GP SYRWTL English 2, Kolbe Jr. High Lit 7 - FLVS Honors English 7, LLLotR 8 - FLVS Honors English 8, Excellence in Lit 1

Beginning in January: Math - AOPS Geometry Science - FLVS Honors Biology English - FLVS Honors English I History - Kolbe Roman History (with TC lectures) Literature - Kolbe Roman Literature (with TC lectures) Latin - CLAA Latin II Elective - FLVS Computer Programming N/C - FLVS Traffic Safety

For us history and literature are combined. Daily - Read and discuss any study guide work (Kolbe) outline from a lecture (TC or open courseware) and/or summary/precis writing Weekly - 1-2 page paper, assignments vary timeline work Also - 5-6 exams over the year a few projects throughout the year, current project is putting together a Greek mythology notebook

I had separate my older two after 6th/4th. I felt like the oldest wasn't be challenged enough and the younger was often frustrated and not enjoying studies that were above her. On paper I plan to separate my younger two at 5th/3rd. As for science, I plan to have all my kids do Physical Science in 8th grade. My current 8th grader (just started, not finishing up) is taking Physical Science online through Florida Virtual School. We've never used them before - so if it doesn't work out she will finish Kolbe Physical Science which I really like as well and she had already begun. I just wanted her to have accountability to someone outside the home and a verified grade to give the community college when she goes. For 8th grade my daughter will do 4 classes online - Latin, science, English, Art. I will have limited involvement in these classes. I help when asked, do lots of quizzing for Latin and look over written assignments for grammatical errors. That's about it. Her math she does mostly independently. She is using Art of Problem Solving. But we also have Life of Fred and Singapore's Discovering Mathematics on the shelf if needed. I generally grade assignments, quickly go over new topics with her and work through some of the more challenging problems with her when she gets stuck. The only two classes I am very involved in are Literature and History. She and I have a three hour block daily where the two of us do these two classes together. I use Kolbe history and lit, Teaching Company lectures, open courseware lectures and lots of extra reading. It is a lot of fun for me and my dd tolerates it well. :) HTH!

I see college as the time to specialize. We will maintain the same balanced daily schedule through high school. Math/Science - 3 hrs History/Lit - 3 hrs Foreign Lang - 2-3 hrs Electives - 1 hr(ish)

upcoming/current 2nd grader: 2nd - 4th Bridge to Latin Road Latin Road to Grammar I CLAA Grammar I (online) 5th - 6th Latin Road to Grammar II Latin Road to Grammar III CLAA Grammar II A-B (online) covers prose/Cicero, intro to Greek 7th - 8th FLVS Latin I, II, III (online) self-paced, gives her high school credit CLAA Grammar III A-B (online) covers poetry/Vergil, continues Greek 9th - 12th ???? might continue CLAA classes might focus more on Greek might be something new and great that I don't know about yet :D upcoming/current 8th grader: 8th finish CLAA Grammar I 9th - 10th FLVS Latin I, II CLAA Grammar II A-B 11th - 12th FLVS Latin III maybe CLAA Grammar III A-B upcoming/current 6th grader: has asked to make Latin a back-burner class this year in order to focus on French and Spanish future Latin sequence uncertain :)

Kolbe Elementary Literature sounds like it would fit what you are looking for.

Thanks everyone! Map Trek looks perfect. I can purchase the set and use it with my little ones as well. I love these forums - always so helpful. :)

I love our history program and do not plan to change it, but I would like to add some mapwork, if I can find it. I do not want to prepare my own. I would consider purchasing a curriculum for only the mapwork portion if there is a great one out there. I don't mind having to go through and match the mapwork to the chapters in our current program. I'm looking for something that has the student drawing routes the people studied have taken, labeling the different groups of people in their proper areas, the growth of a people over time, etc. Not geography maps where we simply label the country being studied and its surrounding waters. Thanks!

We are beginning week 2 of our new school year. 6am - 9am Dd 13 - math (Art of Problem Solving) and science (online FLVS) Dd 11 with me - history (Galore Park) and literature (LLLotR) BREAK 9:30am - 12:30pm Dd 13 with me - history (Kolbe Greek history) and literature (Kolbe Greek literature) Dd 11 - math (Singapore,) science (Galore Park) and music theory (online CLAA) LUNCH 2:00pm - 6:00pm Dd 13 - Latin (online CLAA,) English (online FLVS) and Art (online FLVS) Dd 11 - Spanish (online FLVS,) English (online FLVS,) Art (online FLVS) and French (Galore Park) Note: I spend most of the afternoon working with my younger children.

My daughter is planning to cover two years this year. I have mixed feelings about this, but have let it stand for now. I do think it would be prudent to call the whole year 8th grade even if she works through both schedules. 8th grade: May-December (32 weeks) 9th grade: January - August (32 weeks) Math: AOPS Algebra I ---- AOPS Geometry Science: FLVS Honors Physical Science ---- FLVS Honors Biology English: FLVS Advanced English 8 ---- FLVS Honors English I (9th grade) History: Kolbe Greek History ---- Kolbe Roman History Literature: Kolbe Greek Literature ---- Kolbe Roman Literature Latin: CLAA Latin II (half credit each year) Art: FLVS Middle School Art (half credit added to 8th grade) Elective: FLVS Driver's Ed requirement (half credit for 9th grade?) The driver's ed class is more of an alcohol and drug awareness class that 14 year olds are required to take in Florida before they can apply for a driving permit at 15. FLVS claims it is worth .5 credit, but I haven't decided what to do with it. The Greek and Roman history/literature will also have Teaching Company lectures and Yale Open-courseware lectures added to it.