I watched and enjoyed, although it was a bit grim at times - but probably realistic to the times (with the usual dramatic license for TV). I definitely could have skipped a certain scene toward the end regarding the health of his daughter. PM me if you want more information, otherwise I don't want to spoil anything!

We started with year 4 classic and did year 1 classic last year. We are not using this year because years 2 and 3 just don't mesh with what we need to do the next 3 years. We will have 10th, 7th, and 5th dd's this fall and the high schooler really needs a whole year called "American History" and a whole year of government/econ for our umbrella program. I called the guidance office to discuss TOG with them and they told me how I could make it work with their requirements, but I just felt it would be easier to use a more traditional approach. We did not try to use every part of TOG either - just too much, even though we all liked the program. The kids will still somewhat be doing the same time periods in history - 10th will use Streams of Civ. 2, the 7th will use BJU World Studies and the 5th will use WTM.

We have never used 7th, but we have gone through the 6th grade science and health and enjoyed them. We will use Abeka Physical Science this year for 9th and it looks good as well.

My dd is just finishing 4th and her Stanford Achievement test scores came today. She did poorly on phonetic analysis of vowels - in fact she missed them all (the report said she did at least attempt to answer the questions)! She had problems with phonetic analysis of vowels and consonants last year - so at least we were able to improve in one area. I had her do "Explode the Code" books 6 and 7 this year in addition to reading aloud and silently. She reads well and has good comprehension. She also spells well. Any ideas? Thanks!

My oldest dd completed Rod and Staff doing the level that corresponded to her grade level. I agree that the 8th grade course is more grammar than I had in college! The 9th and 10th R&S books are pretty much review of 8th with more editing practice along with the composition assignments. I would not hesitate to use 7th in 9th and so on, in fact, that is what I am planning to do with my younger dd's. They have been doing R&S on grade level as well and we are going to chill for 2 years and "cement" what they know with Winston Grammar and Winston Grammar Advanced. For writing, we will use Writing Strands.

I too, am a somewhat lurker in search of 50 posts. I don't want to post unless I have something constructive to say - so I'm thinking this will take a while! We have homeschooled for 6 years, but I still am learning so much myself I hesitate to offer much advice :) Thanks, Susan A.

After 2 years of trying to learn multiplication, my dd finally got it within a few weeks of MUS Gamma. We had used Saxon and Abeka, which were great for our other 2 dd's, but our youngest is just a different type of learner. We started Gamma in February and finished it last week! She thinks multiplication is "easy" now!

We are using Algebra 1 this year. Last year for 8th we used Lial's and dd just didn't get it, so we repeated Algebra this year. As stated above, the teacher's manual does have step by step solutions, but after a while they skip the first few simple (for some) steps. This is a little frustrating. The activity manual key and the test/quiz key does not have step by step solutions and this has been highly frustrating as I had to work out the problems myself to see where my dd went wrong. As a result, I use the even problems from the review lesson in the student book for a test (the odd answers are in the back of the student book). That said, we have had a great year and I would use it again - I just would not buy the activity manual or the tests.

My dd had a similar experience with Lial's Introductory Algebra last year for 8th grade. It's a great course - just not for her. We did a month of Alek's after 7 chapters of Lial's and she did not even test out of prealgebra! I relied too heavily on the DVT doing the teaching and she does better when she can stop and ask questions as we go. This year we did BJU Algebra 1 (no DVD) and she says she understands it so much better (even though I am not crazy about the book - very time consuming for me). That said, we are doing Math U See next year for geometry. We will both watch the DVD lesson together once a week and stop and go as needed. Maybe we will get it right this time!

Bible - How to Study the Bible for Yourself (fall), What's in the Bible for Teens (spring), and The 100 Most Important Events in Christian History (daily snippets) World Literature - Abeka 10th with Silas Marner, Julius Caesar, and at least 2 other novels Grammar - still working on this, just finished R&S 9th and really just need something to keep up the skills, I did find Great Explorations in Editing that I plan on using with all 3 dd's. Writing - Writing Strands 7 and IEW Geometry - MUS with honors book World History II - Streams of Civilization 2 with extra readings Science - Abeka Physical Science ( did Apologia Biology this year, but scrapped the idea of Advanced Biology and not ready for Chemistry yet) PE - Homeschool Family Fitness Music History - The Gift of Music and Classical Music Start Up Kits 1&2 French - Rosetta Stone

Wow, these are from the school in my town! Small world..... Our dd's used to go there and the teachers were great for the most part. We wanted Christian education, so we decided to homeschool. (No Christian school in our area.) Thanks for posting this.

I'm doing it this year for the first time. I double checked that it was legal with HSLDA and my state. It is as long as I am a tutor and the parents are the official teachers it is legal. The moms and I discussed curriculum and goals, they bring their own supplies for their own kids, and I give them report cards every 6 weeks. I do one child for free (he has some learning problems and I was not sure how successful I would be - this left us both free to back out at any time - he just comes once a week now.) The other child pays a small amount that basically covers lunches for everyone. That's OK - I didn't even ask for money, they just wanted to do it. It did change the dynamic of our homeschool, but it has been a positive experience for all of us. I would do it again.