Helen, This is only my second year hsing, and my first on my own (last year we went through a hs program through the local ps district), so I'm not the voice of experience you are looking for. However, let me be a voice of empathy! Everything you read about beginning hsing assures you that the first year is the hardest. It's true. So hang in there! It gets better! Most of the feelings you have described are just how I have felt at one time or another. Last year I spent days despondent and in tears and convinced I was completely failing my children. I wasn't keeping up, I was disorganized, I yelled too much, I didn't feel like I knew what I was doing...everything. But this year I feel much, MUCH better. My dc do not seem to have suffered any permanent damage. ;) And with a little more experience (and a lot of wisdom gleaned from this board!), things are progressing pretty well. Reading your post, one thing that stands out is that your boys really like being at home with you. That's saying a lot - you're doing something right! You mention that your ds can't wait for school to be done. Well, yeah, mine too (and I have a 9th and a 4th grader!). But how many kids in ps don't feel that way? Approximately none. How many in ps "love to learn"? IMHO, your dc stand a much better chance learning to love learning at home where they can go at their own pace and explore things that interest them than in a one-size-fits-all environment of ps. Honestly, I feel like there are trade-offs. I may never be able to teach certain things as well as an experienced ps teacher, esp. at the higher levels. (Literary analysis comes to mind.) BUT, that being said, for us it is still completely worth it to continue hsing. Because even if I can't match the ps in some things, I can possibly surpass them in others, and even if I couldn't, it wouldn' t matter. Because that's not why I'm hsing anyway. Yes, I want my dc to be solid academically, but it is more important to me that they are educated as complete human beings. I am far, far from perfect, but I can still do this better than any and all ps teachers, no matter how experienced. You are their mother. No one is better for them than you. In rambling around on this board the other night, I came across a post asking a similar question to yours. I'm sorry I don't know how to post a link here or I would. The post was titled "If you hs for academic reasons and found out a private school is doing a better job...how do you stay motivated?" The whole thread was good, but I was really moved by a post from Linda in Owasso. I hope she doesn't mind if I quote her here. (In fact I should have just quoted her and left out everything above. She's much more eloquent.) "Hi Dorothy, You have received some good advice, but your post really spoke to me so I wanted to respond. My husband and I are fortunate enough to have the income to afford the very best private schools for our two dd's. In fact, they both attended the top private school within an hour's drive of us (my older dd for 3 years and my younger dd for 6 months). Dh and I happily shelled out $1300 a month in tuition alone for our dd's to attend. We wanted the best for our dc -- no matter the cost. But, I learned that even though the school was/is fantastic.... it simply wasn't good enough for us. The private school my girls attended was for academically gifted students and required an IQ test for admittance. Everything about this school looked fabulous. The school included Kumon math as part of their curriculum for students age 4 & up. My oldest dd received the honor of placing 2nd in the nation in Kumon math for 2 years in a row. Little math whiz, huh? Nope.... not really. She'd learned the system, that's all. In the two years since we began home schooling, her annual Stanford test in math has risen dramatically. All children in this school wrote and illustrated a "book" in Kindergarten. Sounds impressive compared to a lot of other 5 year olds. But, in reality, the kid's parents did most of the writing. So, of course, at the end of the year when the class held its "Young Author's" party, to celebrate the children's accomplishments... it all looked good. The main reason I brought my children home to educate them was not however, merely the belief that I could do better. I probably would've continued dropping them off at 8 and picking them up at 3 if I hadn't grown to dislike them more by the day. Horrible to admit I suppose, but true. I did not like my own children anymore. My dd8 was rude, mean, disrespectful, shallow, hateful and cruel. She was being "socialized" by the kids at school and it wasn't a pretty sight. I do not keep my girls locked in the house. We are very active home schoolers. We participate in a wonderful Classical Conversations co-op, attend a church w/ vibrant programs for youth, and the girls play sports and various other seasonal activities. They're around other kids. A LOT. But, other kids no longer define what's "cool" or "appropriate" for them. They treat their father & I with respect and others with courtesy and kindness. My heart bursts with pride now when I watch them interact with others in a positive way. And I truly enjoy being around my children, which wasn't the case a couple of years ago. I know it's easy to doubt yourself. I know how hard home schooling is -- it's by far the hardest job I've ever had! I know how *good* private schools can appear. But I also know there's no writing instructor on earth who can inspire your dd more than you can. If you believe a private school is best for your dd, then by all means send her there. But, we've been in that private school and I'm going to pass." So, Helen, I don't know if any of this helps, but I hope you stay encouraged. Don't worry. You are going to do great, and so are your boys. Jennifer

Full disclosure here.... I sleep with my watch on, shower with my watch on, swim with my watch on, wear it with dress clothes, casual clothes, and no clothes. My watch is basically part of my arm. You know the saying if my head wasn't attached, I'd lose it. Yeah, that's my watch. :rolleyes:

A lot of the suggestions here seem really good. BUT, I am going to recommend something different. At my vet's office they had a great book detailing the different breeds and all the things to keep in mind about them before getting one, including temperament, exercise and food needs, and common health problems. The name of the book... I wish I could remember (it's not out at my vet's anymore). But I don't think it was too obscure; I think you could very likely find it at B&N or Amazon if you did a search. ETA: By the way, I used to work for an insurance company, and they would not issue a homeowner's policy to anyone who owned a pittbull, rottweiler, or chow. Now, I'm not saying this is my opinion, mind you. But they base everything on their actuarial statistics. In fact, from time to time a dog breed would be added to or taken off the list, depending on the stats. Food for thought.

I can't help out with information, but just wanted to thank you for the link. It does look intriguing. Do you have any idea when other units will come out? She says she hopes to put out a new unit every few months, and it looks like the last one came out in the fall, so maybe soon. Anyway, thanks!

Hello. I'm new here, and would really appreciate your wisdom. I've learned an amazing amount from just lurking here for a while. Ds15, 9th grade, needs a new writing program. From what I've read of CW, I love their philosophy, but it just seems too late in the game (and maybe too complicated) to pick up at Homer for OB and try to get the whole high school program accomplished. Plus, he was in ps through 7th grade, and I think this might just be too "different" for him. One thing I really like about CW is the model analysis and the way it has the student think about how their word choice and sentences affect emphasis. So, my question is.... Does MCT also accomplish this? From what I've seen, MCT is very big on using the "correct" word, sentence, paragraph, yes? Does this translate into something similar to what CW is trying to teach, albeit using different means? (Mind you, I am just speaking about this particular aspect of CW; I know there's a whole bunch more to it.) If I went with MCT, what level would you recommend? Thanks for your insights! Jennifer

Nobody? Rats. Well, maybe I'll be a guinea pig. (What! No emoticon for guinea pig?!)

I am doing RSK Earth and Space this year with my dd. She is 9, so really on the old side for the program. Nevertheless, we are enjoying it. It is certainly not enough on its own, but I don't think it is intended to be done on its own. We have used some of the books off of the reading list, and many more that follow the topic from my library. The websites listed are also good. I explored a lot of them before the school year began and pulled up some really useful material and experiments. We have also done several, but not all, of the included experiments. So all told, if you don't mind doing the legwork, this is a nice program. RSK doesn't have any materials for older kids. If they did, I would consider doing it again.

I had the exact same dilemma when my dd was in 3rd. I thought Pre-1 was a little light, but I just loved the little atoms linking arms to illustrate bonds. I wasn't sure if she'd absorb Level 1, but it had more information I wanted her to know. So I bought both. :blush: Probably dumb, although the little atoms were indeed a great hit. We would read all of a ch. in Pre-1 as an intro in one day, then read the same chapter in Level 1 split over two days. I think in general she could have handled Level I just fine. My son was in 8th that year, and he did Level 2 w/o having done Level 1. That was no problem at all. I loved that their lessons coordinated. It took him longer to cover a chapter, so I just filled in for dd with extra science materials to keep their pacing together. They each did labs on the same day; often dd just did labs with ds, or we combined them.

Cathy Duffy reviewed this curriculum. It's not so much content-based, as teaching kids how to research, analyze, discuss, and write about history in a step-by-step fashion. Anyway, it sounds very intriguing, but I haven't been able to find out much about it on the board here...or anywhere, really. They have a website, but no samples. :glare: Has anyone here heard anything about it, positive or negative, or better yet, used it? Thanks!

Wow. Strawberry Queen, you are the best! Thanks so much for typing that all out. It was incredibly helpful. Now I have a much better picture, and the picture is not as daunting as I worried it might be. Thanks for your help.

Ooh, I am wondering about this too.

Poor sweet baby. I agree she looks like a pointer, probably a German short-hair, not English. Or a mix with that in it. Kudos to you for helping her out. She looks like she can use some loving.

Hello. I'm new to the board and, unfortunately, to WTM, but am liking what I see very much. Here's a question I have about implementing WTM that I'm hoping you lovely ladies with experience will help me with.... I know according to WTM and WWE that your dc is to summarize a few lessons a week, beginning with oral narrations and moving into narrations that dc writes for herself. In speaking of third and fourth graders, WTM says to "help the child narrow the answer down to under five sentences." OK, I get that; we've been doing that with SOTW1 already. Where I'm a little lost is figuring out how to expand that to the "three quarters of a notebook page or more" mentioned later for 4th graders. Adding to the confusion, the examples of 4th year narrations in WWE are all one paragraph (about 4 sentences) long. Is it that the 4th graders are reading longer passages and are writing a few sentences for each x number of paragraphs/pages, which together make 3/4 page? I feel like I should get this, but not having done it before, I can't seem to get a picture in my head of what these longer summaries would look like. If anyone would be so kind as to help me straighten out my head, I'd sure appreciate it! :tongue_smilie: BTW, my dd9 is in 4th grade and I'm thinking of starting her in WWE2 for the last semester, since we have no prior experience. Does that sound about right? Thanks!

I substituted SWB's History of the Ancient World for the unreadably dull Roberts. What this meant is that I had to rearrange the HO Ancients 3 assigments to match the chronological order of HAW. Bit of a pain, but much better than trying to drag through Roberts. SWB's volume on medieval history is due out in Feb 2010, so I plan to use that as a spine next year (with or without HO) and then play it by ear his junior year.

:iagree: When I looked over Roberts, I immediately knew there was no way I was going to get my ds15 to read it. I sure didn't want to read it! Too dry, like others have said. I substituted with SWB's History of the Ancient World. SO much nicer to read. Ds seems to enjoy it. I adjusted the HO syllabus to follow the chronology of HAW, which was additional effort, but not too bad. SWB's volume on Medieval history is due out next month (Feb. 2010), so I'll have that for next year (although I haven't decided whether or not to continue with HO). After that, we'll see.

My son is in 9th grade. When he finished public school at the end of 7th grade, he tested somewhere around the 8th percentile (!) in spelling, although he reads fine. I got him a program called Tricks of the Trade, which emphasizes analyzing your own spelling errors and categorizing them according to spelling patterns. It seems pretty good, although, to be honest, we have not been using it as consistently as we should. To my surprise, what has actually helped him is the computer's spell check! I told him he has to type his own papers and stories, but I turned off the automatic spell-checker. When he runs the spell check, he has to spend time with each misspelled word, comparing and choosing the correct alternative. After correcting many of the same words and patterns over and over, the correct spellings have begun to sink in. Of course the spell-check has its weaknesses - today he had "except" where he meant "accept." Still, he's made definite improvement (although we still have a long way to go). Not exactly orthodox, but it's cheap!