Anyone else waiting on IEW to release Year 2 of Structure & Style for Students? I need Level B...it keeps getting delayed. So what are you planning to do in the meantime? I'm debating about either using Wordsmith since it's already on my shelf, or having my students do more writing from their history and literature. Lana

I'll be the dissenting opinion. I had such high hopes for Discovering Music. It looked like exactly what I wanted for a high school humanities class at co-op- art history, Western architecture, music appreciation, a little bit of European history - it looked fantastic from the samples! But when we started watching the videos, it was *incredibly* boring. Professor Carol's convention talks and the podcasts I've heard her on are fantastic. She's obviously extremely knowledgeable and passionate about her subject. I'm not sure why it doesn't translate into her curriculum. I think it would easily count for a half credit and could count for a full humanities credit if you used more of the assignments in the curriculum. I don't think I'd give a history credit though. It's not an open and go curriculum, there is some teacher prep time. I thought the videos would be more visual of art and architecture, as well as listening to the music, but it's mostly Professor Carol on camera lecturing. It would be nice if the required listening pieces were included on a CD or downloadable MP3, but you have to source those yourself (although she does have recommended sources like NAXOS). Overall, I think it could be an excellent course for a high school student who is interested in a Western Civ/Humanities type course. But it would probably take more planning and prep than I wanted to devote to an enrichment co-op class. I may revisit it for my own high schoolers to see if I can tweak it to suit my purposes.

I think this is the latest I've ever been in deciding what to use for next year! Even though we could just reuse what my older daughter did in 8th grade, I decided to branch out and try some new stuff next year. Grammar - Analytical Grammar, Season 3 Spelling - Rod & Staff, Grade 8 Vocabulary - Vocabulary from Classical Roots, Level C Writing - IEW SSS 2-B Math - CLE 8 Science - Apologia Physical Science History - Sonlight Core 100 Extras: Homeschool choir and private piano/voice lessons.

You can't go wrong with anything by Regina Jennings. She is a homeschool mom friend of mine and has written around 16 or so books. Hers are historical Christian fiction, but not overly heavy on the cheesy Christian stuff like a lot of authors are. I've read several and they are all very good quality writing, clean and lighthearted, but always with an element of light romance and mystery. Lana

These are great ideas! Thank you for sharing them. I write out a planner for her each week, but it's not big enough to write detailed assignments so I may need to rethink that. A couple of times she's done the wrong thing because she wasn't sure and didn't bother to ask. We have been trying a "bell schedule" the last week or two but I have not been consistent with following it. Next week I'm not going to allow her to work in her room so that I can redirect her focus when necessary. I think we might also try setting a stopwatch to see exactly how long it *does* take her to finish. She would like the challenge of beating the timer. A morning and afternoon meeting is something we both need. She needs the outline for the day, and I need to check up on her progress throughout the day. Implementing this one for sure!

Yes, we're using the combined TTC/WTTW syllabus. It includes reading To Kill a Mockingbird, Jane Eyre, and Hamlet. There are homework assignments, an allusions project, a couple of mini-essays, and 2-3 full length essays included in the syllabus, and it's definitely a full credit's worth of work. You're probably right, though, that most days will not require a full hour to complete.

Yes, my dd is 14, almost 15. I have had to change my habit of sleeping in, because I could see how my actions were affecting how long our school day was. Would you mind sharing some of the habits you changed? What skills did you help your daughter work on? I think this is an area we (probably mostly me) need to work on.

We started out trying to do too many of the choices in the geography. The videos and books are great but she could spend half a day just on that one subject. And she was neglecting her other subjects in favor of geography. So I am assigning less, but she can always pick up the unassigned books/ videos in her spare time and read them for fun.

That is so helpful to see it spelled out like that! I had not considered giving two credits for the geography. I also forgot to add that she has a half credit study skills class. It should be pretty low-key - we started with the Great Courses How to Be a Superstar Student videos and will move into reading some books like 7 Habits of Highly Effective Teens. Next semester she will have a half credit computer technology class. I think y'all are right about doubling up on the writing. She needs the deliberate instruction of IEW but we'll need to set those assignments aside when she has a WttW essay to write. She is doing IEW with her younger sister and I was trying to keep them together. I was trying to keep it to 5-6ish hours because of our outside commitments. We're at choir for an hour and a half each week and piano lessons for an hour. It's hard to fit in even 4 hours of work on those days due to travel time. And she is feeling a little stressed by the load. Some of that may be the high school expectations, but I think some of her stress is brought on by her lack of time management skills.

She needs the explicit instruction of IEW. We've just started the WTTW, so haven't gotten into any writing assignments yet. But my plan is to stagger the assignments so that if she's writing for one class, she's not writing in the other. The IEW is fairly easy for her, she just needs the practice.

I think I may be putting too much on my 9th grader's plate, but she also tends to dawdle on assignments and get distracted by everything else but what she's supposed to be doing. She's also a very methodical, slow worker and I can't make her rush no matter what I do! 😄 I need an outside perspective to help me see if it's too much and what I can do to reduce her load. Bible - devotional book, no more than 5 pages of easy reading per day, and some days there are only 2-3 questions to answer. I estimate this should take about 30 minutes at the most. Math - CLE Algebra 1 textbook. I assign all of the problems that are new material, and odd numbers on all the review work. Generally there are about 25-30 problems all together. My time estimate is 1 hour, 5 days/week. Writing - IEW SSS Year 1, Level B - we do this 3-4 times/week. Generally takes about 45 minutes to an hour. I think on non-video days, this should be more like 30 minutes' worth of work. Vocab - Vocabulary from Classical Roots, one lesson assigned once per week. Maybe 45 minutes of work? Literature - Windows to the World, about 4 times/week. I estimate that it takes about an hour, possibly longer once she starts reading full-length novels that are assigned. But some of the reading can also be done over the weekends. Science - Apologia Biology, taken as an outside class 1x/week. The class period is 90 minutes long, and she will probably have 3-4 hours of homework each week outside of class. Geography - Guest Hollow Geography, 5x/week. This is where we're really getting bogged down, I think. There is a LOT of reading, and I keep cutting more out. But she's probably spending 2+hours a day on it, not just because there's a lot to read but also because she's enjoying the material. I'd like to see this cut down to about 90 minutes at the most each day. According to my estimates, she should be spending around 5.5 hours on school. But she's easily working longer than that. We've just started back to choir and will be resuming piano lessons in September, so that cuts out even more time out of our day. Am I expecting too much? What could I (or should I) cut? Or, if the workload is appropriate, how can I motivate her to work more quickly and more focused?

That's not mean at all, that is natural consequences. I'm mean. If my kids did that, not only would they be washing their own dishes, they would be hand-washing ALL the dishes for a day or two.

I have no patience for people like that. With absolutely no communication from that parent for the past five months, *and* wanting me to make special accommodations for them, I would be HIGHLY inclined to drop that student completely. The parent obviously knew you weren't doing in-person lessons, since she didn't show up on your doorstep at the regularly scheduled time in the spring. So she's aware of the steps you took to adjust and accommodate for three months. There's no reason she couldn't have contacted you before now, even if there was a personal/family crisis she could have sent a quick text to let you know.

Central Oklahoma Homeschool Choirs is offering an online Broadway voice class. It's open to any student, not just those in Oklahoma. Here's the link to that class and the other online electives we're offering this year. COHC Online Electives

They are NOT cheap, but I loooove Hanky Panky Signature Lace French Bikini. They come up higher on my tummy (but not like granny panties) and don't fall down under my mom pooch. Don't ride up in the back either! The lace is very soft and they are the most comfortable *sexy* panty I've ever worn. Amazon carries them, but I found the cheapest price at my local Dillards.

If you are not picking up the car at an airport location, you should be okay with just a debit card at most rental companies. Airport rentals require you to either pay with a credit card or provide an itinerary (airline tickets or cruise). Hotel reservations don't count (ask me how I found that out. 😡😂) Lana

We had cheesy potatoes with smoked sausage and peas. It was so yummy!

Semi-related: Are the free videos available right now the same as the DVD seminar? I had planned to buy TTC for next year, but I don't want to spend extra money if I don't need to! I've watched the first 3 of the videos that are available for free right now, and they are great! Lana

Are the textbooks required to do this class? I can't determine if I still need to purchase the books or if everything is included in the self-paced class.

Planning for my oldest dd's 9th grade year has been tough, I almost forgot to think about younger dd's 7th grade year! Tentatively, I'm planning: Grammar: Analytical Grammar, Season 2 Spelling: Rod & Staff, Grade 7 Vocab: Vocabulary from Classical Roots, A & B Writing: Wordsmith (depending on what I choose for dd14) Decided to go with IEW SSS-1B with her older sister Lit: Various good books, both modern and classic and some to go with history Math: CLE 7 Science: Apologia General Science, possibly in a co-op setting History: Hakim's History of US, first 5 books (to Civil War) No history this year, going to focus on World Geography Geography: Drawing the USA, possibly adding in some state review with Memoria Press Build Your Library Level 7, World Geography Bible: Most Important Thing You'll Ever Study Not sure on this, we'll start with a couple of personal Bible study books. Extras: Piano/voice lessons, homeschool choir, maybe co-op, maybe art lessons Just can't fit art lessons into the schedule this year and we've decided co-op is no longer a good use of our time.

Where did you find the Hewitt syllabus for The History of US? Is the company active again?

We have used part of Jump In. It was okay, but neither of us were crazy about it. I have heard good things about The Power in Your Hands. I actually recommended it to our co-op for the high school composition class and it was well received. I'll have to take another look at that one. I already have both LAoW and EE on my list of potentials! BraveWriter is probably not in my budget, but I'll take a look at Lantern for sure. The class titles sound very much like what I am looking for. Thank you @Lori D.! You are a true treasure on the WTM boards. I always look for your responses to posts because I know they will be very thoughtful replies with a true fountain of knowledge and experience.

OK, I have more questions. I've been reading more about WTTW, and the general consensus is that there isn't a lot of explicit writing instruction, and that a student who isn't already familiar with a 5-paragraph essay may have trouble. Do you agree, and if so, what would you recommend for more direct writing instruction? My dd14 is a reluctant writer. She does well with grammar/mechanics and sentence structure, but struggles with putting ideas to paper. We have used IEW SWI-B this year, and it has been great for her. She (and I) would both do better with direct-to-the-student instruction where I am in a support role rather than the main instructor.

Thank you all for the great insight! I am about 95% sure we will go with this for next year now!

My dd has been working through the Figuratively Speaking book and reading a lot of the literature. I am considering Windows to the World next year for 9th grade, but it uses a lot of the same short stories and novels that she has read this year. Would it be overkill to use WTTW next year? We have not done any literary analysis this year, just read and discussed the stories. My thought was that the analysis might be easier since the literature would already be familiar. Thanks! Lana