I haven't seen the Rutherford guides. The MP student guide has two pages per book (or chapter) of the Iliad and the Odyssey. Each two page spread includes Places and Characters to Identify, Comprehension Questions, Quotations, and Discussion Questions. The entire guide is about 100 pages. The teacher's guide has all the answers (so the same 100 pages only with answers) and also some additional notes, memory work and six exams with answer keys.

Probably not a popular choice on this board, but if I lived in the Ann Arbor area, wanted to send my kids to school and could afford it, I would send them to the Rudolph Steiner School. Clonlara is also based in Ann Arbor. I don't know anything about it, but they also provide a homeschool program that many people use. My SIL sent her kids to a Montessori school that she really liked. I think it was Peach Tree, but it only goes up to age 6.

Well, I'm very like you in using multiple resources.:) Reading the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid are a very large part of our school year this year. The MP guide is mostly comprehension and that is why I use it. One thing I especially like is the vocabulary section. (What I'm about to say is my own assumption, I've NEVER seen it stated anywhere,) but I think that Highlands Latin school (MP) puts a lot of emphasis on scoring well on standardized tests and the guides are developed with that in mind. I helped my cousin prepare for the GRE this past summer and found an inordinate number of the vocabulary words were words my children had to memorize from the MP guides. And we've only used the elementary level guides! So I'll use the MP guide to build vocabulary, check comprehension, assign memory work passages and give tests. This is the first year my eldest will receive a progress report with grades (from me.) So I also really like having the tests available. For additional depth and breadth we will be using the Teaching Company CDs on the three works by Vandiver along with the TC Famous Greeks DVDs that cover Agamemnon, Achilles, Hector and Odysseus. I also have the Kolbe literature guides which cover much more as far as discussion of themes and questions of morality and also includes essay prompts. And in case that isn't enough, I have the unit from Excellence in Literature and the suggestions from History Odyssey Ancients 3 on reading the Iliad and Odyssey along with additional essay suggestions. :D (In my defense, I didn't buy either of the last two for the purpose of studying these three books. I already owned them and they just happen to cover the books we are studying this year.)

The layout is similar to the Famous Men study guides. Each book (chapter) has the people/places to identify, comprehension questions, discussion questions, quotes to discuss. There are also passages for memorization and exams (3 for the Iliad and 3 for the Odyssey.)

My girls are memorizing passages from the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid this year. They will memorize 2 or 3 American history poems and 2 or 3 astronomy themed poems. They will have John 1:1-34 memorized in Latin and English as a requirement for their online Latin class and they've been asked (by me :))to teach their younger siblings 9 or 10 American themed songs this year. I'm sure they already know a few, but may have to learn a few more themselves.

Elizabeth Foss put together a two year curriculum program for girls that uses mostly books by LM Montgomery, LM Alcott and J Austen for literature. http://www.elizabethfoss.com/serendipity/literature-for-the-young-lady.html

First grade Mon: Math, Language Arts, Phonics, Gymnastics Tue: Math, Language Arts, Phonics, Religion, Literature, Science Wed: Math, Language Arts, Phonics, Gymnastics Thur: Math, Language Arts, Phonics, Religion, Literature, History/Geography Fri: Math, Language Arts, Phonics, Religion, Literature, Art

Sorry, I think it is more often referred to as Ambleside Online for all grades. House of Education is their Years 7+ program. http://www.amblesideonline.org/index2.shtml

Yes, we always do American/World history and ancient history. Normally I only do one ancient civilization, but this coming year we've decided to do Greece and Rome. We will be using the TC Famous Greeks and Famous Romans along with the Memoria Press FM of Greece and FM of Rome (with workbooks.) We will also be reading the Iliad, Odyssey and Aeneid along with TC lectures and study guides. I can't wait! We are also doing a one year American history survey before beginning the five year in-depth history cycle. Then I plan to do: 8th - HEO 7 timeframe and Durant's Oriental Heritage (Book 1) which covers Egypt, Mesopotamia and an intro to Japan and China 9th - HEO 8 timeframe and Ancient Greece 10th - HEO 9 timeframe and finish Ancient Greece, begin Ancient Rome 11th - HEO 10 timeframe and finish Ancient Rome, some Middle Ages 12th - HEO 11 timeframe and Eastern Civilization That's the plan anyway. :tongue_smilie:

I do plan to use the whole series, but we run two history cycles at the same time so the books will be spread out. I plan to use a break down similar to the House of Education Years 7-11 except in dd's 8th - 12th grade years. Along side that we will be doing another ancient history cycle over five years. Modern/American history I am still undecided. I do know that we will be using several TC courses, so I will look into the books each course recommends. We also have the 20+ volume Annals of America and will be drawing from them heavily for primary sources. I really like Boorstin, so I will likely have them read through his The Americans trilogy. Over the summer, at a library sale I picked up (among many other things :D) A History of the American People - Johnson, A People's History of the United States - Zinn and A History of the English Speaking Peoples Since 1900 - Roberts (this is supposed to continue Churchill's series.) But I haven't read any of them yet, so I can't comment on them. I also have VanLoon's Story of America, which I really enjoy but won't likely use do to time constraints. While I enjoyed it, I think there are better books out there to cover American history. All that to say I don't really know yet. I will be keeping an eye on what you decide to use though. :D

They are going to go much deeper than the other authors mentioned. I love this series, but there are a few things to note: They are huge. 700 to 1000 pages each. They are written for adults and cover topics of a se*ual nature, violence, etc. The books are dated in places as most were written from the 1940s-60s or so. I really enjoy his writing style and the way the books are organized. We will be using the series as a spine to our history courses in high school (along with his Story of Philosophy as well.)

Magic Lens I has 30 worksheets identified as 'lists.' They do match up with the WWW lists, but you do not have to use WWW with Magic Lens. List one focuses on identifying nouns, list two focuses on identifying pronouns, list twenty-four focuses on identifying phrases and sentence structures, etc.

If by level four you mean Magic Lens I - I broke it up according to the word lists. There are 30 word lists. The first ten lists cover the meat of the grammar book. We do approximately one segment per week. We end week 1 with the list 1 worksheet, week 2 with the list 2 worksheet, etc. Then we spend two weeks per Loop (there are two lists per loop.) It works out really well for us since we school three terms. Term 1 - pgs. 1-105 (lists 1-10) Term 2 - pgs. 106-162, Loops 1-5 (lists 11-20) Term 3 - pgs. 163 - 220, Loops 6-10 (lists 21-30)

You are only testing the stems (root words.) The vocabulary words are for discussion and to help the student understand the stems. Test 1, for lesson 1, is on page 22 of the home school edition (in my book.) It tests 20 stems.

We have three bathrooms. Dd12, dd10 and I are each responsible for one bathroom. All three must be completely clean before school begins each day - toilets and tubs scrubbed, sinks washed, floors swept, etc. Then the girls (and I) must look in on their assigned bathroom during lunch break and dinner break to do any quick cleaning necessary.

2nd grade 7 y 7 m 7 y 7 m 7 y 9 m 8 y 4 m 5th grade 10 y 7 m 10 y 7 m 10 y 9 m 11 y 4 m

Our 2010 schedule - just finished yesterday ETA: The morning schedule is for dd12 and dd10 (younger children have free time.) Afternoon schedule is for dd6 with ds5 tagging along. Older two work independently. Sorry the colors don't show well. It is easier to read with the color coding.

My dd is going to use the TC course - Conquest of the Americas in 9th grade. http://www.teach12.com/ttcx/coursedesclong2.aspx?cid=888

Replying to my own post. :D I just wanted to give this company a thumbs up. :thumbup: I went ahead and ordered my supplies late Thursday night. I spent exactly $75.01 in order to get free shipping and the package arrived today. Everything was just as I ordered it, well packaged and in great shape!

The first book of Will Durant's Story of Civilization, Our Oriental Heritage, begins with a long essay on the beginnings of civilization (maybe 40 pages or so.) I'm working from memory, but I think it breaks down the necessary components of civilization into about seven categories and talks about the whys of each catagory.

I separate our school year into three terms: September to December, January to April and May to August. We school fifteen weeks each term. That gives us somewhere between two and three weeks off each term. Once we reach our fifteen weeks we take the rest of the term off (and sometimes we are working to the last day of the term because we already took all of our days off somewhere in the middle.) Our new school year officially begins with the September term. May to August (term 3) is lighter than the other two terms because we are often finishing up curriculum and have to keep in mind summer commitments, more travel and friends/relatives being out of school.

Yep, definitely. My older girls have already asked me if I will. :D They are only children, who knows what they will want when they are grown - but if they would like me to I'd jump at the opportunity. My girls enjoy being homeschooled and think they would like that for their children as well. However, they have grand plans for themselves and can't imagine staying home all day every day. :tongue_smilie: If they live nearby and their husbands approve, I would love to homeschool my grandkids. And my dh would be thrilled to have grandkids in the house every day. But we had our kids young and it doesn't look like I can have any more. So even our youngest child will graduate my homeschool while dh and I are still in our late 40's.

Before I place an $80.00 order, has anyone actually used and received merchandise from discountofficeitems.com? They have free shipping over $75.00 and all of the school supplies I haven't been able to find on sale around town (and for great prices.) They even accept paypal. But, I've never heard of them and only came across the website today while searching for a place to order our Quartet markers. I would love to hear of a postive experience or two before I hit the place order button. :001_smile:

Some Florida high schools offer a 3 year college prep plan. It includes: 4 English (must include comp and lit) 3 Science (2 must be lab based) 3 History (World, American, Govt, Econ) 3 Math (Alg I, Alg II, Geometry) 2 Foreign Language (same language) 3 Electives

Here's our schedule. We start our new year on Monday. We have long days. :D Math - 5 days: 2 hours per day Latin - 5 days: 1.5 hours per day Geography - 5 days: 30 minutes per day Religion - 5 days: 30 minutes per day English - 5 days: 1 hour per day Composition - 5 days: 1 hour per day American History - 3 days: 2 hours per day and 2 days: 1 hour per day Ancient History - 3 days: 2 hours per day French - 4 days: 30 minutes per day Astronomy - 4 days: 1 hour per day