I bought their articles and stories download for my second grader. We have focused only on key word outlines and 3 dress ups for 4 months. The dress ups require a lot of hand holding and I usually pick out the sentence for him to work on. when we started, he dictated all of his papers to me. The articles from the download all have numbered sentences. I use IEW my own way. I don't move onto the next unit or dress up until they have a solid understanding. If you only do key word outlines and then write from the KWO the rest of the year, you'll have done plenty. Beth

I like IEW simply because I had no idea how to teach writing and needed a formulaic approach of how to teach it. I'm a formulaic person myself so it has really helped me get my kids up and running with writing. I am currently teaching my 2nd grader how to write with IEW and he is finding the writing process to be simple. He can write a nice paragraph without tears and likes to do it. Unfortunately, I feel like we may be at the end of our time with IEW since my son is going through his 4th year now and I'm not sure how to get him to the next level of writing. But, if you need a lot of hand holding, I would suggest IEW - especially using theme books along with the basic TWSS program to get an easy start. Beth

I am starting to like Saxon. My dd is doing the k program. She needed something that went slow and makes her feel smart. This is helping her to progress at a pace that suits her. Yes, it does have a lot of focus right now on shapes and sorting, but all the manipulatives get her excited to do math. I don't read the script, but use it to get the gist of what we have for the day. I also got Saxon 5/4 cheap to preview. I noticed that each lesson has word problems where I can EASILY substitute my favorite Singapore problems. i also still have weeks in the year free where i can teach the strengths of Singapore. I feel like I can get the best if both worlds- constant review and Singapore word problems. My ds is doing Algebra 1 yet still is advancing nicely with Alcumus problems and is now conquering level 3 in their Algebra level word problems so I know his math skill is not suffering. He just does well with the incrimental steps and is able to mesh them all together and use what he is learning. I know this curriculum gets bashed more than any other math I've seen here and while I do understand why, I wanted to show an alternate view. Beth

I was looking for a free art lesson plan for teaching Van Gogh's Starry Night and I found this site: http://www.mrsbrownart.com/index.htm She has power points on many of the art projects explaining a bit about the artist studied (if there was one that week) and how to do the project. I looked through one of the grades and while there aren't power points for each art project, there were 26 lessons - enough to get you through a whole year. The projects that didn't have power points seemed easy enough to replicate. She has different artists highlighted and different mediums that they worked with including some clay projects. It seems as if I found myself a new art curriculum for next year. Beth

I buy the books for the oldest student I have which this year means I bought dialectic. I also buy the literature for the ones who can read and write well because the activity sheets are specific to the book. I spend around $200-$300 a year buying mostly used. With year 1, I had almost all of the LG books because my oldest student had gone through that year. When we hit year 3, I will have all of the UG books for child #3 because I bought for my oldest when he went through the program as an upper grammar student and will have to buy Dialectic. With the youngers, I use story of the world or just deal with inter-library loan when we want more. Next year, I will combine my LG and UG kiddos together and just read SOTW to both of them or whatever I have on my shelves that matches the week. I do like owning the books because then I don't have to think about what I need week to week and just go to the bookshelf to get it, but I don't buy multiple levels for history. I think having multiple children with multiple ages is how this program is cost worthy. Beth

I have a daughter on her full vitamin program (fish oils, acidophilus, etc). She is still quite active, but has toned down quite a bit. At the beginning of the year, she could barely sit still to write two letters without squirming. I was wondering if she was just one of those children who will have a hard time learning anything and scaled back everything I had planned for the year. She can write a whole sentence now and I have hope that she will be able to learn. I call it being analog TV vs. HDTV. She is more analog and just easier overall to get along with. Beth

We use TOG and have now for 3 years. What I like is the flexibility with their online classes. I enrolled ds in a TOG online class for the dialectic discussion. I LOVE it. He is accountable to someone else for his work and he can participate in some great discussions. I also love that I can move my children up or down in the levels without having to buy a new program. For example, my ds 8 is a good reader, so I am having him read some upper grammar selections. There is an appeal with TWTM way of organizing things - it seems like the student can go on a rabbit track of their own interest. I do like that, but I know I wouldn't be able to get to the library on a regular basis and our library is small so we would always have to plan ahead anyway to reserve stuff from other libraries. So because of that, I would have to plan out the year anyway. TOG keeps it simple for me. Beth

If he understands Pre-Algebra, why not? I talked with my neighbor across the street who's husband is a math professor at the local college (he wasn't available). She told me that he had gone through linear algebra (a step beyond 2 semesters of college algebra) by the time he graduated from high school. I have my sixth grader doing algebra this year. I'm not sure at this point if he'll repeat algebra with AOPS or just go onto Algebra 2. Time will tell. Beth

You could review with some of Analytical Grammar's review books. There is a lot of parsing and diagraming in the review books - not much more. It would keep the parsing skills reviewed without too much pain and agony. Beth

My 6th grader is currently in Saxon algebra and having no problems with it. Saxon fits his learning style with the constant review and incremental steps. He makes computational errors in his work which show he knows the material, but is just a silly mistake. Just to make sure his word problem solving is good, he is also doing AOPS alcumus. His problem solving skills are doing just fine. He really likes math, but I can't see him joyously spending an hour on a problem just so he could get the right answer, KWIM? He likes the straight computation but can't see himself just doing word problems exclusively. Here's the question. At the rate he's going, he will be hitting calculus in 10th grade. Do I just let him continue through all the levels without slowing? I talked with my math professor neighbor across the street who by the end of high school, had finished linear Algebra (a class or two after Calculus). Or, do I switch to a more challenging program like AOPS? My dilemma is that he really does better with constant review. I'm hitting unknown territory here. Any help would be appreciated! Thanks! Beth

About 12 days following ear drum repair surgery, my daughter has developed facial tics. She'll smile, grunt, and get tense in her face. I'm calling the doctor tomorrow, but I have no idea why this is happening. She doesn't realize she's doing it. I'm wondering if it's a post traumatic stress thing since she had two surgeries in China before we adopted her? She is her regular self in all other ways. Anyone? Beth

I'm looking to get my 8 year old a pet of some sort for Christmas. I'm thinking hermit crab, salamander, fish--something that does not smell or take up a lot of time cleaning cages or tanks. Beth

He does really need to step down. There is more than enough thought out there that he is losing his cognitive abilities. Someone really needs to step in and stop the bleeding. Beth

My ds#3 was similar at 6. I love Singapore, but it doesn't have a lot of review if you don't get it the first time. At the time, my son just wasn't getting addition and subtraction. I stopped singapore and did Math U see Alpha. The manipulatives really helped him understand his addition/subtraction facts. Then, I finished out the year with Singapore 1B and now, at 8, he is on the Singapore math track again without any problems. I also have him do Horizons just for the review. For math facts, I have a Flashmaster which is basically an electronic flash card machine. I really wish Singapore had more of a spiral nature, it would keep me from always thinking of jumping ship with that curriculum. We've done well with it, but it does have it's disadvantages. And as a side note which I'm sure will get bashed somewhat, there's nothing wrong with Saxon for a kid who just needs more review. You won't get the understanding that programs like Singapore can give you, but they will understand math well enough. Beth

Not crazy, but then you would have trouble with resale if you spiral bound everything (if that matters to you). I keep three weeks at a time in my teacher binder, but I never look at it because I copy everything I could possibly want at the beginning of the year. I do like your idea of just having the teacher notes for me to read in a separate binder. I might actually read them. I could get rid of the two levels I don't worry about right now. Hmmm... beth

I know Saxon is not that popular, but I have a 12 year old doing Saxon (after completing Saxon 1/2). He just needs the constant review to keep things fresh otherwise he forgets. I've tossed around the idea of doing a second year of Algebra with a different book. We've been doing the Alcumus problems from the art of problem solving without much difficulty (although he does need to think about it a bit usually) so it shows that he does continue to have some decent problem solving abilities. He's currently working in the Algebra 1 first level section. So, I guess I'm wondering if doing Algebra again would be worth it. He really is understanding what he is doing. Beth

Yes---and the reasons Cheryl Lowe states are why I started this whole mess knowing what I know about my ability to learn languages. I think I've come to the decision to take two weeks for every lesson and go slower to see if that helps, but still keep going. I still think it's useful, but at half speed, it might get a chance to sink in better and not overwhelm the both of us. It still gives us the issue of having to possibly meet a "living" language requirement for future college plans, but I'll figure that out when/if we get there. Beth

There are a lot of reasons to do Latin, I guess my main ones are vocabulary development, the fact that it is a dead language and pronunciation isn't as important and making other languages (especially Latin based) easier to learn. I feel stuck in that I am not a linguist and learning a language in high school was very difficult for me. It was the only class I ever cheated at (not proud of that one). I had four years in high school and squeeked by with getting out of two semesters in college. My only year of learning a language in college was spent with a lot of tutor help and I passed with a "C" which I felt was well earned and the best I could do. I know that eventually I will have to figure out how to teach him/ enroll him in some class to get that language requirement done. I just don't want to have to put my 42 year old brain through this. Yes, my 12 year old is doing second form. I don't know if there's anything easier out there. Maybe I could cut the things like the Latin sayings and get everything else done... Beth

Where can I find a decent briefcase for dh that has some sort of warranty on it without costing too much? I don't mind paying a bit more if the thing will last him more than 3 years. Beth

We are in year 2 of our Latin studies. I just want to give up. I'm having to learn Latin right along with my ds and honestly, there are better ways I can spend my time than learning Latin - like reading the books we're going to discuss, cleaning my home better, having a few minutes of personal time...He's finding it hard - i can tell that languages are just not going to be his thing. There's challenge and then there's too much challenge where he questions why do I have to do this and I can't give him a good answer. I guess my goal right now is to get the minimum of language study done in high school so we can have it for college transcripts. It's hard to teach languages and I would LOVE to farm out that subject, but there are other subjects I'm farming (or will be in the future) that I consider to be more important in his education. Yes, DH was a Spanish minor in college, but DH is gone from 6:30 in the morning to 6 pm at night and is DONE for the day. He doesn't have time or energy to devote to educating any subject around here. Help! I am tired of teaching myself Latin (or any other language for that matter!). How can I survive this without too much pain. Beth

In early colonial days, there was a very high degree of literacy in their society - all without regulation and oversight - without government schools and without 13 plus years of formal education. The society demanded a literate people in order to participate in society. The articles the common farmer read were at a level that college students today have a hard time grasping. In order to just participate in society at that time would require people to have a decent ability to think and reason. I would argue that our society doesn't require or even desire the majority of it's citizens to be able to be as educated as those early colonist were. You can function quite nicely (although you are very limited in your options) in our society where much of the stuff we read (newspapers/magazines) is written at an 8th grade or lower reading level. And if you can't read? You can still get by. Tweeting and texting don't require decent spelling or grammar, you can get a lot of information through the television. Can't read about the issues or who to vote for? The television will tell you all that you want to know. I would argue until our society demands a people who can reason/read/write at a fairly high level, no amount of oversite by any agency will give us an educated society. You can force someone to be schooled. They can't be forced to learn. The problem is much larger than regulation of education. Beth

I meant the inquiry in action free download. Ellen mchenry's stuff involves too many games and learning games just don't happen if I'm involved. Beth

This really works for 3rd grade? I do like doing science based on experiments and learning through hands on activity. Is it too technical? I've noticed it is for grades 3-8 so a 3rd grader would be on the young side. I'm deciding for the average ordinary 3rd grader who loves experiments. Beth

I need to condition and clean my leather couches. Any products to recommend? Beth

I usually jump on the deals with betterworldbooks or other used places like this -especially when they have free shipping...So, I went looking for books I'll need next year. Their prices are HORRIBLE! They have been so.much.better in the past. I can get a new book for cheaper than their used book selection - with multiple books I looked up! I wonder if they marked all their books way up to accommodate the free shipping and percent off. Wow - won't be shopping there anymore if they keep that up. Beth