Singapore 3A, 3B Finish PLL/begin ILL Sequential Spelling Grammar Town/Practice Town IEW Geography IEW Fables MP Greek Mythology Oak Meadow 4/5 (American History) RS4K Biology I Latin - online Greek - online Geography - online Catechism - online Violin lessons Karate lessons

Black Ships before Troy

I think it is the insurance company. My husband had to prove all four of our children are ours just this past month (none of them are adopted) or else lose our insurance on all of them. When I questioned what was going on, the insurance company said that too many people were putting unqualified children on their insurance - grandkids, cousins, neighbors, nieces/nephews, younger siblings, etc.

Hi Erin, I hesitate to make judgments about others' schedules, but if your son doesn't have any learning issues - it is a bit light. :001_unsure: * LC I is an elementary program (3rd/4th) Memoria Press makes two other programs for older learners that both start at the beginning: First Form Latin (5th+) Henle Latin (8th+) I would probably use one of those * JAG is an elementary program (4th/5th) AG can be used as early as 6th and seems more appropriate in this case. * SOTW 2 is an elementary program (2nd-6th) I know some people use SOTW through the middle years, but they are generally on SOTW 4 for 8th grade, which is a meatier book. You sound unsure that you will even be adding additional reading. I would not consider SOTW 2 alone to be a solid preparation for high school. *A Child's Geography is an elementary program (1st-6th) Really, any program can be beefed up for older children. There are only two things I would keep in mind. 1) Will the child be bored using curriculum below his level? 2) Will the child be prepared for high school level materials next year? HTH!

Congratulations! My kids really like this site to work on their math facts. I know there are several others online as well - all free. http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/math-trainer-addition.html It seems like a good time to work on typing. Dance Mat typing is a fun and free online site for younger children. I would have them keep a daily journal for writing practice. It would be great for the children to look back on when the baby is older. We use the Mead composition books (super cheap at places like Wal-mart) that have lines on the bottom half and space for a picture on the top half. If you would prefer a curriculum - Draw Write Now is easy for kids to use without any parent involvement and you would only need one or two books. They are usually for sale on the WTM swap board for $6 or $7 dollars. And they follow themes so you could get a bit of history or science in as well. Best of luck!

I think this is a misconception about Oak Meadow, primarily because the syllabus is written to the student beginning around 5th grade. The student is expected to be working with a parent(s)/teacher for K-8. I don't know as much about the high school program, so I can't speak to that. OM provides teacher assistance specifically for families that do not feel prepared to step into the role of instructor. It is more of a family-centered curriculum, rather than a student-centered one. :) Copied from the Oak Meadow web-site, discussing their educational philosophy. At the heart of all forms of education is the important role of strong personal relationships. Children are not simply empty vessels needing to be filled — they are intelligent, creative beings eager to express new questions and ideas. The key to encouraging this innate intelligence lies in creating a caring, supportive relationship. In the very structure of our lessons, we encourage the involvement of both the family and the community, encouraging a network of learning relationships to support the young learner. Elm in NJ - Unfortunately we will not be doing OM 8 until the following year. It can be a challenging program and I think a buddy to work with through the year is an excellent idea!

Exactly. In fact, there are five other assignments in that chapter that have nothing to do with controversial topics. That assignment could easily be skipped altogether. :)

There is 1 one-page essay in lesson 16 that asks the student to write for or against a controversial issue. It gives about six examples of issues that can be chosen or the student can choose a topic on his/her own and those are some of the example issues. I haven't seen anything else in the book that covers controversial issues of that magnitude.

I spent all of my money on books as a kid. I had the whole collections of: V.C. Andrews Stephen King Dean Koontz Cynthia Voigt (sp?) Raymond Feist (sp?) by high school my taste had improved a bit to at least include the Bronte sisters Edith Wharton I remember being very disappointed in Peyton Place after all of the trouble I took to obtain it. :001_huh: What were my parents thinking??? When asked this year which Stephen King would be most appropriate for my youngest sister, age 11, who has asked to read them, I gave an emphatic NONE (EVER!) :D

I think you could skip Grammar Island if the child has a pretty good grasp of the eight parts of speech and can label them as well as an understanding of the main parts of a sentence - subject, predicate, direct object, indirect object and subject complement. I think you could skip Grammar Town if the child also has some knowledge of verb tenses, subject vs. object pronouns, coordinating vs. subordinating conjunctions, different types of phrases, independent vs. dependent clauses, and types and purposes of sentences. HTH!

Hillsdale has their whole curriculum on line. http://www.hillsdale.edu/academy/academics/curriculum.asp

I really like the Barnes & Noble sets. They are $3.00 a set or so. The are a bit larger than the standard sets. Mine have been used for about six years with three kids and still look really good

When I was in high school we were allowed to use one standard size playing card for major math and science tests. Thinking back it is really funny. It required even more care than an index card. First you had to use white-out because the cards were glossy and usually had something printed on them. Then you had to write with ink in order write over the white-out. And it is much harder to write small over white-out than on an index card. So you really couldn't get much information on it. Once you made a mistake you would usually have to white-out the whole card and start over. I probably spent several hours working on each card - much more time than I would have spent studying if I wasn't allowed any sort of cheat sheet. :D

We use individual white boards for each child. It is faster to make corrections, the kids cannot see the erased word "underneath" the corrected word so it helps the correct spelling stick and it doesn't waste paper.

I bought the IEW TWSS (used) and watched it a couple of times. Then I bought a few of the IEW theme books to add to the kids' history/geography program. That has been very helpful for us. It gives us the handholding and structure that I need. I own LTOW, but haven't had a chance to really look at it. I think we will probably do the IEW theme books again next year for a bit more practice on structure and then switch to the MCT academic writing the following year. I am hoping that that is all the writing instruction we will need (one MCT book per year for three years) and can turn our focus to writing within the context of other subjects rather than having a writing curriculum.

It is not textbooky. But, it isn't really easy to use either. It is sort of like SWB's Story of the World for language arts. It is basically a narrative style language arts program. The grammar and writing books have a story line and everything. The poetry and vocabulary books, while they don't have a story within them are still books you sit down and read with the child - rather than exercises like you would normally see in LA programs. I think the grammar is excellent. MCT makes it all seem so fun and simple. His layout and explanation is the best I've seen and the practice books that go with the grammar program are great as well. I first started the program before the practice books were written and it was much harder for me to implement when I was trying to find my own sentences. The practice sentences increase in difficulty and even use vocabulary words from the vocab program. I struggle with the writing program. The first book (Sentence Island) doesn't really have any writing in it. A few creative writing assignments. I like the layout of the next two books (especially Essay Voyage) but there isn't really any instruction. There are assignments and examples which are nice, but not really any writing instruction. I like the vocabulary program. There aren't any look in the dictionary or fill in the blank type pages. It is basically reading - which is interesting, and memorizing the words/stems. My kids respond well to reading and memorization so the program works well for us. I am on the fence with the poetry. I like it and it explains a lot, but I do not know enough about poetry to really take the program where it is meant to go. The poem recipes got the best of me. I would have to spend so much time trying to find poems to fit the recipes and would never be sure I had done correctly the poems we were analyzing. In order for the program to work for me I would need a teacher's "cheat sheet." I would need a book of recipes and poems already prepared that I could pull from as examples and even assignments. I haven't decided what we will do for next year. We will definitely work through the grammar and practice book at the beginning of the year. We may skip the vocabulary since the girls are doing an online vocab progam. I think we will skip the poetry. It can only get more difficult for me as the program moves on. And we will probably do the writing program but wait another year for it. The last three levels of writing are different, in that each book only has four assignments. They are term paper type assignments: a research paper, an argumentative essay, etc. I don't think we are ready for those books yet, but I would like to work through them later. Hope some of that rambling was helpful. The yahoo group for MCT users is fairly active and moderated by RFWP so you generally get good answers to questions about the curriculum. MCT also appears for explanations from time to time.

We had our first when I was 23 and dh was 20. I have told my girls I would prefer to attend college graduations first and weddings after, but we will love them the same regardless of the life choices they make. We do hold the expectation of college for each of our children and I think it is easier to graduate first. My dh decided to settle for a 2-year degree and choose a career that didn't require a 4-year degree so he could get a solid, full time job and better support the family. I was very grateful for the on-campus university daycare program which I utilized for our oldest two dds. It isn't cheap, but the care was excellent and it made going to college easier. I think going to college first is certainly the easier route. I do worry that our children will look to us as an example and not fully realize the many difficulties in trying to go to school and support a family at the same time.

I think it is nice to acknowledge, but not reward. My father and his sister made the local paper. My father made it through twelve years of school without missing a day. The only person during the history of the school to have a better record was my aunt (his older sister) who made it through thirteen years without missing a day. My father caught the chicken pox in kindergarten. :D I cringe to think of them going to school with colds, viruses, etc. Supposedly, they were quite healthy though. They both had to work/play in the family grocery from the time they were small, so they were exposed to quite a bit before starting school. But it is quite a feat to have both your children in school for 12 years without missing a day. After all, I skipped my first day of school in seventh grade and don't dare mention how many I had skipped by the time I graduated. :blush:

IEW I never would have considered myself an IEW type person. I always considered it way too structured and was sure everyone that claimed you could spot an IEW essay a mile away was absolutely correct. But, we were bogged down in CW and I felt MCT wasn't giving me enough structure. We were certainly floundering. So I purchased TWSS used and decided that wasn't so bad. I implemented a few things and purchased a couple of theme books - I love them! I am happier, the kids are happier and I see them applying what they have learned to their own writing. My dd9 is a true writer. She writes pages and pages a day. It was so fun to see her rereading her old writings and changing her verbs and adjectives to make her stories more interesting. And she is also going through to make sure she has a setting, good character descriptions and a plot that works toward a climax. All things she learned this year - amazingly the program has been best for her. For my older dd, she is just happy to have clear direction on what needs to get done so she can get back to her reading (without two hours of writing ahead of her.) For now, that is OK too. The paragraphs of both girls have improved this year and I am getting actual essays with structure from dd11. I still think CW will get the kids there in the end, but we are going to save the progym for later, and focus more on standard paragraph and essay structure for now. Since I do NOT require the entire list of quality adjectives, strong verbs, no banned words, etc., etc. in their papers outside the actual theme books - I do not feel they stand out as "IEW essays" the way I thought they would. They are simply more descriptive and better structured than they would have been last year. :)

Since you haven't received many replies, I will try and remember how we did it. If I remember correctly, there are 20 lessons. We did the grammar and poetry the first term (12-15 weeks) then we did vocabulary and writing the second and third term. Each had 20 lessons, so they matched up well. My daughter would read the chapter herself. We would discuss together any questions, analogies, interesting tidbits, etc. I think there was a small writing assignment for each lesson - a poem or simile? (Sorry, I don't have the book with me.) I would try and review the words with her daily. She works best if I orally quiz her on a daily basis. We would take the test when we had finished the chapter. We tried to do one per week, but some lessons would take more. Every second lesson was more difficult for my daughter because the chapters rotated between stems and words. The tests are cumulative, which was nice. So, nothing fancy I'm afraid. In one of his books, MCT talks about vocabulary and how he teaches it in the classroom. What it boiled down to was that the student was responsible for the chapter each week (or every two weeks?) regardless. Some weeks he would have time to spend a whole day or two on just vocabulary and some weeks he would never get to it at all, but the student should have read the chapter and prepared for the vocab test - the test always happens (on Fridays I believe.) HTH!

For children's fiction/non-fiction books I like Linda's Used Books. (for the main pages, scroll down past the updates and notices) http://www.doubledouble.net/books.htm

We work our schedule around my dh's schedule. He doesn't work the swing shift, but he works an odd schedule. He works six days, so the kids school six days as well. When he is off, they are off. He goes in around 3:30 or 4:00 am so he tries to get to bed by 7:30 or so. Since the house needs to be somewhat quiet, we school in the evenings. The older girls can be up until 10:30 doing school work. We generally stop school whenever he gets home as well. Twice a week he is home around lunch time, so the kids have the whole afternoon off. Twice a week he is usually home around 3 or 4 so we wrap it up then. When he works until dinner time we call it a day at 5pm (although the older girls usually do history and literature every evening.) I find it very difficult to school when dh is home so I don't even try any more. :D I think it is important for the kids to have time to spend with their father. And our months run much smoother when we work with dh's schedule instead of maintaining a strict time schedule and trying to convince dh to adjust to it.

I've never seen JAG, but the other three are secular (obviously excluding R&S.) Hake includes writing, MCT has a separate writing book. Both Hake and GWG would be similar to FLL 4. They both include diagramming and set up the year in a way similar to FLL. MCT would be very different. With MCT you analyze sentences rather than diagram. (Write the parts of speech below each word followed by the parts of the sentence, etc.) It is also a narrative type grammar program where I would consider the others to be more clear and concise. MCT is certainly the most teacher intensive. I would consider GWG to be the least, excluding JAG which I know nothing about. Hake and R&S would fall somewhere in the middle. The lessons in Hake are longer than the lessons in GWG. I've only seen the earlier years of R&S, but they seem to be longer than GWG but shorter than Hake. With Hake you would be starting at the beginning which is nice. Level 5 is their first level and I would consider it a smooth transition from FLL 4. With MCT you could start at level two - Grammar Town without any trouble. I'm not sure where you would start with any of the others. HTH!

I think OM is a great program and I am not suggesting otherwise, but there is not an answer key in the back. There are sample answers. Language arts for Oak Meadow 6 Lesson 1 - review the four kinds of sentences - write one of each kind of sentence Lesson 3 - review adjectives - write five sentences using at least one adjective in each sentence Lesson 11 - review verbs - write seven sentences using the seven verbs of being listed Lesson 16 - review punctuation - write eleven sentences using these rules correctly Lesson 21 - write ten complete sentences, shade the subject red and the predicate blue Etc, etc. Most of the chapters will also have assignments that say write an outline, write a paragraph or write an essay. There is a section in the back that offers guidelines on how to do these things. The grammar is fairly basic, but there are not answers. It would be impossible to guess what a student is going to write. :confused: As far as it being written to the student, someone needs to 'correct' the student's work. That is where it is teacher intensive. The course is written to the student beginning around grade 5 or 6. But someone needs to make sure the student understands the material and is capable of writing solid paragraphs and essays and needs to explain it if the student does/is not. This is true of nearly all curriculum and not specific to OM. The only difference is that when assignments say "Write sentences of your own" rather than rewrite sentences already in a book, there cannot be ready made answers for the teacher/parent. The student cannot self check his/her own work. I enjoy grammar and do not have a problem with this approach, but it is important to note, for those that do not feel so comfortable teaching grammar and writing.

I think primarily because it does not follow the four year history cycle. There is no history at all in K-2, 3rd has a very general world studies program and 4th is an intro to American. 5th - 12th follows a more school-like plan, separating American and world studies. The other issue is that it is very teacher intensive. You were asking about the grammar portion of 6th - it covers all parts of speech, many parts of a sentence and the standard word usage things. It also focuses on outlining, paragraph writing and essay writing. The only thing to keep in mind is that there is no answer key. The parent has to know the grammar and writing rules and be able to guide the student. If the lesson is on verbs the language arts assignment will be to write sentences using the different verb types. The parent must make sure the sentences are written correctly and that the student understands the material. It is the same throughout the entire language arts curriculum. If the focus for language arts is on writing paragraphs with a good topic or thesis sentence it is the parent that must know what a good thesis statement looks like and work with the student to understand as well. There is very little instruction to go with the language arts assignments. That is why the program has always offered "online support" so the student can submit the work to a 'teacher' to help grade and guide the student. I think Oak Meadow is a great program. I use OM K-4 as our primary curriculum. After that I use 5-8 as supplementary curriculum. But, it is teacher intensive and assumes if the parent is not using the online/mail in portion, that that parent is confident in grammar and writing and prepared to work with the student in these areas.