Thank you to all who posted information about this series. It has been very helpful. Blessings, Brenda

O.K. ya'll you should never go to a curriculum fair when you have already decided on what you will be doing for the year!!! Or at least you should go with blinders on.....:) Anyway, I was able to see Biology Matters from Singapore this past weekend. Can anyone tell me about the rigor of this course? I loved the layout of the book, from what I could see....But don't know much about it.... We have used Apologia in the past....with older ds #1....But it is not our favorite. So, I had been looking at other options. And had looked at BJU Biology too, but it is too much for dd #1. Blessings, Brenda:001_smile:

When my kids were little, there was not a lot of science curriculums available for elementary. SO....we did Living Learning Books....and I added A LOT to it. We read, and read, and read, every library book we could find on each topic. We followed SWB suggestion to do Life science in 1st, Earth/Space in 2nd, Chemistry in 3rd, and Physics in 4th. We read and wrote narrations....read and wrote narrations..... Then when they got to about 5th or 6th grade we did Rainbow Science. This is a GREAT middle school curriculum. We did it in 5th and 6th and then started General Science with Apologia in 7th. We have completed through Chemistry with the Apologia series. We will do Physics next year. I taught my first two together (22 months apart) until big brother got up to General Science. And then they parted ways....Very sad.... We enjoyed those elementary days of reading on the couch together.....Doing experiments together.....Sweet, sweet, memories.... We had a post a few weeks back that you might search for....I think it was called "Do-over science"... Blessings, Brenda:001_smile:

:bigear:All ears here too....Write shop is one of the writing courses I have on "THE LIST".......for our 9th grade dd......The other ones include Jensen's Format writing, Wordsmith Craftsman, and IEW level C. Listening, Brenda:001_smile:

OOO, we will go check this out! I needed to find an alternative test for my dd. Blessings and thanks for the link, Brenda:001_smile:

Did any of you make an alternative tests for Apologia Biology? We don't want to throw out the original questions, but to ADD to them with some matching, Tand F, and fill in the blank. Or is there a yahoo group for Apologia that might have an alternative test? Blessings, Brenda

Well allrighty then! Sounds like we need to go check this out further, what cha think? DS wants to go talk to the teacher and see a text book. Sounds like a good game plan. Thanks for all the encouragement! Blessings, Brenda:001_smile:

Well, thought I had next year all figured out.....Had Apologia Physics purchased for oldest ds. And then today happened......Went to the used curriculum sale and saw one of the moms of a student that is in ds's honor society. She tells me that she is organizing a physics class for her son AND in addition to that, her friend, who by the way has her doctorate in physics and used to teach at Christian Brothers University in Memphis, is going to teach the class.:blink:What! Would my son want to participate with them? BUT, they will use Abeka Physics....We have NEVER used any Abeka for science. We have used Apologia or BJU for science. Anyone have experience with Abeka? What would you do? Would you just go with your original plan with the Apologia or go with the Abeka and the small lab class? And guess what.....oldest ds can DRIVE HIMSELF!!!! Blessings, Brenda:)

I'll go check it out! Thanks, bunches! Brenda:001_smile:

TOG units that I will be needing. I need TOG Year 3 Units 3 and 4 and TOG year 4 to be paired with SOTW 4. But thanks for the link! Blessings, Brenda:001_smile:

I have classic TOG years 2, 3, and 4. But I would like to find a list that pairs up SOTW with TOG. I know it is part of the redesign, but I would rather not get the whole new redesign and the new books for the redesign, when I only need the chapters for SOTW for each TOG week. Now, I can go through and find them myself, but I thought I would ask first and see if anyone had these OR knew where I could find these. I am mainly interested in TOG Year 3 Units 3and 4, and All of TOG year 4. 1850-present. Do you think if I contacted Tapestry, they might give these to me as an update to my TOG? Has anyone done that? Blessings, Brenda:001_smile:

We love Charlie Brown around here.....I think he lives in our house;). My oldest DS is much like Charlie Brown. Blessings, Brenda:001_smile:

All these posts have been very helpful....still praying and seeking God's face. Blessings, Brenda

explanations on the DIVE CD.....Seemed to "bring it all together". But I only saw a sample..... AUGH! What to do...what to do.....Curriculum turmoil.....(My very best Charlie Brown....AUGH!!!) Think I'll go pray about it some more.....:001_smile: Brenda

we would need to stick with the original questions in the text, if we are not interested in an Honors level program. Right? Brenda

Why would you use the DIVE CD questions and tests OVER the ones you get with the book. What makes these better for you? HOW does this make science better? Listening...... Blessings, Brenda

Heh, Ya'll Thanks for all the information and ideas.... Will have to get back to you tomorrow....Oldest DS may have come down with the swine flu. Don't worry though, DS says he must have the "runt" of the litter. He had his throat swabbed at the health dept. Will know something on Tuesday. Anyway, I have some ideas....been looking through the BJU book and comparing to our Apologia, that we used with oldest DS(one with the runt swine flu). What I MAY do is teach using the BJU text and tests, and then use the Apologia labs, as they tend to be more "homeschool friendly" and we already have all the supplies. We would only need to reorder the dissection "critters". (I was VERY surprised at how similar the labs were in both texts....hmmmm......) I know we won't use the BJU DVD's due to the cost. (Dave Ramsey might come and get us if we did that!) Trying to stay within the budget. But looking....just looking at the DIVE CD's..... But since this is our second time through with Biology, I feel more confident than we did our first time around. I think that helps. Don't you? Don't feel the need for DVD's or extra CD's though they would be nice. Will post tomorrow, as long as DS doesn't take a turn for the worse.... Blessings from the quarantine, Brenda:001_smile:

We finished R&S 4, 5, 6 and 7. Started 8 and went:001_huh: huh? Got about half way through. Sold it. Then we took a year "off" and did Winston grammar.....so we could focus on learning to write essays. This was in 9th grade. We called it grammar lite. But this is a great program. Works well for those hands on learners. Does a great job at teaching how to parse those sentences. That year EVERYONE in the family did Winston grammar. Saved a LOT of time for me. But I would not do this EVERY year. This year we have done a year with Analytical Grammar(10th). LOVE IT! It just BEAUTIFULLY finishes our study of Grammar. DS took the ACT in Feb.....and scored a 29 on the English Subtest. I think it is due in part to his R&S background.....And in part to Analytical Grammar. Looking back and planning for my littles. Here is what we will use with them. FLL 1st-4th (Know those parts of speech and basic diagramming) R&S 5th and 6th Winston Grammar 7th Analytical Grammar 8th/9th Analytical Grammar Reinforcement 10th-12th Hope that helps, Brenda (May not check back today.....This DS had throat swabbed on Friday for the Swine Flu.....Oh, joy.....Will know Tuesday if it really is the Swine Flu. Seems to be weathering well. He says he thinks he got the "runt" of the litter. HeeHee:001_smile:)

Is that where it says "if time permits"? I'll go back and study the TE a little more. Brenda

Well, got my used BJU Biology in the mail yesterday. It seems like A LOT of cover in a year. But it looks like an AWESOME-COMPLETE curriculum. But I'm ready to tweak it for our family. ;) Are there any things that you left out of this study(facets maybe).....Labs that you just didn't do....Or ways that you stream-lined this for homeschool use. OR did you just follow the lesson plans as written in the teacher guides? In other words, how did you make this work for your family? Blessings from soggy West Tenn, Brenda:001_smile:

DS did MR Algebra I in 8th grade along with LOF and MR Algebra II in 10th along with LOF. (Geometry was in 9th). His understanding of Algebra is incredible. He KNOWS algebra. He took the ACT back in February and scored a 27 on the math subtest. Also, we have been please with the help we have personally received from Mr. Firebaugh himself. He has answered any questions that we had in a timely manner. And his wife is SO sweet too. I didn't think that this program was going to work for my right brain, very creative dd who is coming along 22 months behind her big brother, but even though she says Mr. Firebaugh is a little dry, compared with CD or TT, she too is doing VERY well with this program and is GETTING IT! Woo Hoo! We will be keeping this for the WHOLE family. It is a keeper here at the our house. We will be moving on to CD PreCalc for ds in the fall. It is time. He is ready. You can read Cathy Duffy's review of this program in her 100 Top Picks book. Blessings, Brenda:001_smile:

My oldest two are 22 months apart. We have kept them together this year for history and lit. Next year we will add health, and maybe logic. In the future, we will do government and econ together. It is the only way I can get things done, as we have two more coming along. Hope that helps, Brenda:001_smile:

Just wondering if anyone has any information about this? It looks great, but I am not a science person. Brenda

Yep, I had already thought of just letting the guys TRY this out and see if it works for both of them first. DS #2 is just about 6 lessons away from finishing his 5th grade math. So, this would be a prime time to get the new 6th grade books out and see how they BOTH do with it. They are both very MATHY guys.....And older ds wants to see little brother do well......And he is a MUCH better teacher than I am...in math. It is his gift. He has already been tutoring dd (13) in pre-algebra when I just couldn't help her due to teaching someone else. Thanks for the encouraging words! Think we may TRY this and see how it goes..... Blessings, Brenda

My rising 11th grader came to me yesterday and said he wanted to teach his younger brother in math(6th grade):blink:. He is thinking of perhaps being a math teacher and this would give him a wonderful experience. And perhaps work on bonding these two before older brother goes off to college. Have any of you ever done something like this with your high schoolers? Any pros or cons you would like to share? We would be using BJU 6th grade math if big brother would be teaching.....TT if 6th grader works on his own. Blessings, Brenda:001_smile: