No, I didn't Marie! Too bad we are on dial-up!

I totally dig that she uses the word 'designed', I noticed that in the student chemistry text in pre-level 1. We are young-earth all the way though, so that turns my crank :).

Wow, thanks for that! We do have a few of those already (have to love Magic Schoolbus!)

Letter Factory is the best. My children watch it for fun and it WORKS. My 4-yr-old learned all her short letter sounds VERY quickly. Word Factory hasn't been too helpful though, blending is a more complicated skill.

Marie, what is BFSU?

Please do!

Perfect, thanks! We'll either do botany with the journal for lit suggestions OR RSFK Chem Pre-1 OR NOEO Chem 1, LOL, how's that for narrowing it down?

I wonder if anyone is pulling together lit lists for these courses :D!

Thanks also for that link to Real Science 4 Kids Shelz. It is awesome. My DD and I were up until 10 p.m. last night, and read 1/3rd of the student text together. She loves it, and I'm convinced she now knows more chemistry than most adults (not hard to do)! In any case, I'm wondering if anyone has lit suggestions for those courses somewhere? I haven't looked through the teacher's manual yet, just the student text. Online courses don't work for us because we're on dial-up, but I'd be MORE than happy to do it with her after we finish astronomy maybe... :).

I didn't realize the journals had booklists! That would certainly help. We already have a lapbook for this text, and we don't use the HWT penmanship style, so those are...sort of unnecessary for us. The schedule and booklist is nice though, but worth it? Hmm... Hey, on the astronomy front, I found this: http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com...Code=Astronomy And I HAVE that astronomy guide on my computer, I just need to buy some lit!

These are great reads! Very character building too!

Thanks Marie! I looked all over their website and couldn't find it!

So, I can't find any online samples. Where can I find the one for Pre-Level Chemistry? I like digital copies too. :)

Eavesdropping.

My DD is a bit of an achiever too KateMary (she's our oldest though). I actually count attitude towards her grade and it has helped SO much. If she gets a B because her work was excellent but she dawdled/complained etc. she REMEMBERS it, and really tries for an A the next day!

Hey, I like to hear the good AND bad Aime, so thanks for your input. Hey, on the astronomy front, I found this: http://www.livingbookscurriculum.com/mm5/merchant.mvc?Screen=CTGY&Store_Code=LBC&Category_Code=Astronomy And I HAVE that astronomy guide on my computer, I just need to buy some lit!

We're 'later Latin' people. I'm waiting until DD gets her phonics done (almost there!) and gets a better handle on spelling. Then we'll start :).

I'm totally ughing on Astronomy. I'm not sure why, I thought I would LOVE this program. The text BORES me though, I'm slogging through reading it aloud. I've tried to start it up 3 times and always stall out, but my DD is desperate to do science so we are trying again. I want something that uses real books I think, this is still too 'texty'. Looking into NOEO.

I never wanted to give grades, BUT my daughter asks me to grade EVERYTHING ;P. I mean, she wants a percentage score for copywork. Sigh. I give her letter grades for a lot of things like phonics, reading, history, science, copywork etc. but she does get a percentage for each day's math questions if we are doing a workbook that day. What a silly :).

Ooooh, Taira, I'm checking out the Noeo Science, and it looks GOOD!

I think SL is actually more spiral vs. Apologia being more mastery. Apologia bores ME though. No supplementary book readings! No biographies! It makes a good spine, but I need something more like SL but that sticks to a single subject matter :).

Homeschooling for the Rest of Us is a great, quick read for when WTM starts to overwhelm you, or you start to think thoughts like, "But, my 4-tear-old isn't reading yet!" ;)

You are right. I don't really count knowledge topics as being mastered or not. I'm not sure why, but I sort of compare camping out in one topic area to a mastery approach, and jumping around to a spiraling approach if we were comparing science to math. Apples and oranges though. Morning. More coffee....

Okay, I'll bite. What is GSWL?

Is there such a thing? We are doing Apologia because DD and DH, and yes I, prefer mastery in this subject - digging in deep so the dc actually remember something. BUT, SL Science keeps calling me. It's the schedule...and the real books. We love our Core K! So, is there a science like Apologia in that it's Christian and digs into a topic, BUT also schedules in supplementary books, like a biography, and living fiction on the topic? I'm doing Astronomy with a 2nd, so any suggestions on book choices will also be gratefully accepted.:auto: