Yes, we use them for literature alongside "real books". I like the daily questions they provide for discussion and comprehension. I also like the variety in the textbooks - a mix of fiction, biography, poetry, etc. We do book reports on the other books.

We are having to squeeze in Algebra 2 over the summer and are using Aleks.com. It goes a little faster than a traditional course because it gives you a pretest to see what you know and starts you where you are. Then, once you master something, you go on. Dd does about an hour a day and will be finished in 50 ish days. I wouldn't want to do this for every math class, but it has been a lifesaver for us this year.

We had a great time with TOG year 4 (classic). Really, the reading list was the best part along with the "Idiot's Guide to 20th Century History". It was nice to have the TOG guides as I was able to buy them used, but using WTM techniques (timelines, outlines, etc.), we could have done fine without them. We also added in "The American Experience" DVD's about the presidents from Netflix along with "1900 House", "1940 House" from PBS. (There might be more of those - been a while...).

She has done one year of Rosetta Stone French - no problems. Anyone have any experience of how this will prepare her for a textbook based French 2? How is Honors Algebra 2 different than regular Algebra 2? She did BJU Algebra 1 and MUS Geometry - did fine with both. BTW, she is going to ps because she wanted the experience of it. Most of her friends (all very nice) go to this school. We have peace about it - and it doesn't hurt that the principal, both counselors, and several teachers go to our church! Thanks in advance! Susan

You can look at sample pages on the BJU website and Christianbook.com.

I'm wading through this myself, and we too, live in the sticks! I can only speak to the ACT, but we registered online and were able to pick our local high school as a test site without a problem. My dd is in 10th and taking it for practice (today!). She will take it at least once more as she has not had Algebra 2 and will do much better on the math portion after that. She will take the PSAT this fall, but we have not registered for that yet. She should be able to take it at the local school as well. I did not think about it in time, but she could have taken the PSAT last fall for practice.

We do - our 10th dd. She was more nervous about not knowing her way around the school than taking the test - ha. Thankfully, there were some ps teachers who go to our church helping out there today. Since we know she will probably take it again a time or two, we are trying not to get too stressed out about this one.

If you just want grammar, you could do Winston Basic and Winston Advanced in one year and really cover a great deal. There are 85 lessons total between the two books. There is also Winston Word Works for usage.

Late in the post, but dibs on the yardwork! Seriously, if you read her blog and see how much effort she puts into the research, how far she travels to get original sources and accurate information, plus the editing process with her publishers, you would find it hard to believe that any obvious or "glaring" errors could make it through all that.

We are using the Literary Analysis course this year. We are not remotely using it as written, however. We watch the scope and sequence DVD to learn about the literary term or subject of the week, read the books, and write either a paragraph or 5 paragraph essay for the "goal" or "challenge question". I would have used more of the program had I not already had the Abeka 10th grade lit course as well (we are doing both). I think most people feel there is not enough explanation in the writing instructions (true), but I have used IEW in the past for writing, so we just incorporate what we know from that into the assignments. Now that I have had a year to get to know it, I feel more comfortable and may use more of the program with my next 2 dd's. The tests are nice, and I like the Biblical application questions as well. This is not a literature guide - so be warned. You have to know the book yourself, or get some Sparknotes in order to discuss the book if you really want it to be a full literature class. The lessons focus on a pretty narrow topic - at least in this course. We also skip the journal writing, writing style tips, peer evaluation and vocabulary. That said, we have had a good year and have a much better grasp of how to pick apart literature.

We dvr from TBN too, and the most recent ones are the American History series.

We are kind of in the same boat. We have used TOG in the past, but wanted a one year American history course. I bought a used copy of Omnibus III - it has quite a bit of American history with concurrent world history alongside. I also have VP history cards for 5th and 6th grades - referenced in Omnibus for additional reading. I also have some nice American history books - BJU, Idiots Guide to American History, half a set of History of US, and Don't Know Much about American History. I have been trying to mishmash these as I will have a 6th, 8th, 10th, and 11th graders and I want to teach this all at once. I think if I center everything around the VP cards it just might work! If I had to plan for a 10th and K'er, I would go with the BJU or Abeka texts along with the student activity/map books, or the History of US. For the K'er, I would raid the library each week for Lynne Cheney's books, American Girl books (for girls, of course), and junior biographys of famous Americans. A good USA puzzle would be great as well. For fun, you could have the 10th grader read the books to the K'er for a double punch.

For us it's not so much that he made a mistake, it is what he does from here on out that counts. There are plenty of fine people who did dumb things as a kid. Lets hope he learns his lesson.

My youngest dd is doing exactly this for 5th. She has finished 1/2 of the CLE units and is now taking a "break" from it by reading chapter books - for the first time! This is the kid I thought would never be weaned from easy readers with lots of photographs (not drawings). Slightly quirky for sure and she too, took longer to learn to read than my other two. I think it was mostly a confidence issue with her since reading did not come easily. Yesterday, she proudly announced she was almost halfway done with the book she started last week - a record for her. We have used Abeka and BJU in the past, but have enjoyed CLE this year. I love the WTM plan of reading, but have always included readers with all my dd's for a mix of short stories and poetry.

If you mean DVD's, yes, we are using them this year for 7th. We have had mixed results. My dd asked to do them because she wanted more independence, so we gave it a try. The BJU program, in all, is great, but it is quite different than TWTM and much more of a traditional school day. That is the part that didn't go over so well. She did not like being the last to finish every day. We ended up dropping the more tedious DVd's that we knew we could do on our own more easily - namely Bible, Math, and English. The science was really great, but it went a little fast for dd and I was ending up reteaching it anyway, so we dropped it as well. We kept the Spanish, World Studies, and Literature. We use Math-U-See instead of the BJU Math 7, Winston Grammar and Writing Strands instead of the English, Usbourne "The Natural World" for science, and Christian Liberty Press for Bible. It was a worthwhile, although expensive, experiment. It really cemented our love for the TWTM style of learning. We don't follow TWTM to the letter, but we love our version of it.

Home School Legal Defense Curriculum Market - www.hslda.org. You have to be a member to buy, but anyone can sell, I believe.

Thanks for posting this. We noticed that as well last night on the show and had quite the discussion. We agree that it was wine, but we talked more about why people think it would be grape juice. It even spurred my 15yo daughter into doing some research on the subject!

My cousin's wife has a brother who has Down's syndrome. He is 52 and her parents are in poor health. I'm not exactly sure of all the details of this, but a few years ago they rented him an apartment and get sitters to be with him (around the clock) when he is not at his day program. She and her siblings live fairly close, so they can check on him frequently and take him for short periods of time as well. He gets some kind of disability benefits that help pay for this. Another cousin has a severly disabled daughter who cannot be left alone for any length of time. She and her husband manage to take several trips each year with the help of local college students (they are paid), friends, family and neighbors who pitch in and watch her when she is not at school. This cousin has two younger children who will be able to help as well when they get older. They also use the college students in the evenings to help out so that they can maintain a fairly normal life for their family. The college students love doing this and gain valuable experience for their future careers in nursing, teaching, psychology, etc. and they can work for less money than a professional sitter.

I wouldn't beat yourself up for not wanting to do the Great Books, and I would especially not do anything you feel is elitist. It sounds like you want an efficient way to cover history and literature so your kiddos can concentrate on math and science. Nothing wrong with that. Although we are reading mostly Great Books, we are reading some "good books" as well, along with Abeka 10th grade World literature to get in some poetry and short stories. Our literature guide is Stoubaugh's Literary Analysis course, although I'm sure Lightning Lit is good as well. I am winging my way through Streams of Civilization 2 with my 10th grade dd and it is going well. I'm not sure how colleges view a Great Books education vs. a more traditional path. I hope someone chimes in on this!

We have quite a bit of family in the area and were just there last weekend. It is a fun, fun town! Half of them live between Harding Place and Woodmont Boulevard/Thompson Lane - two roads that roughly go east and west in the south/central part of the city - below 440 and west of I-65. It has wonderful character, great shopping, fun places to eat, and is close to downtown. My pick of the area! They all sent their kids to private or parochial schools, so no homeschool experiences to relate. I think would be a great place to homeschool with so much historical and cultural activites so close. Another family member lives in Brentwood (suburb south of town) and her husband commutes to Goodlettsville (north of town) - and he says it is not really a terrible ordeal.

Could you "schedule" his play? Work with him to make a list of the activities he likes to do, things you want him to do, etc? Weave school in and out of the play? Just an idea.

We were facing caring for my MIL after heart surgery, so I purposed to make this year as user friendly as possible for me and the kids. Not exactly curricula in a box, just materials that were very efficient. For example, 5th grade dd is doing Math-U-See, Winston Grammar, Writing Strands (too old for WWE!), Christian Liberty Press Bible workbooks, WTM style (classic) history and science - Usborne History of the World and Janice Van Cleeve's Science Around the Year, dictation once a week, reading chapter books and doing book reports, and Spelling Workout. There is almost no prep for me and I work with her maybe 30-45 minutes tops per day. As it turned out, my MIL did great with her heart surgery, and I find myself with extra time on my hands and tons less stress! We will keep this mix for next year as well.

Another good experience. I had mine tied the day I gave birth to our 3rd. Tiny scar on my belly button and only took pain medicine once after the surgery. No after effects except it took several days for the gas to go down that was used for the laparoscopic surgery. People kept asking me when I was due!!

We too, are Lial's dropouts. My 8th grade dd was overwhelmed with the format, I think. Much crying..... We stuck it out the whole year, but repeated Algebra I the next year with BJU and she did much better.

FWIW, we found most of what we needed of the classical literature free on the internet. It wasn't always the same translation, but it worked for us.