I forgot to add that we use the weekends for art and music and to finish up history and science projects.

I work full-time outside of the home and homeschool a 2nd grader and 6th grader. We have always worked under these circumstances (5th year homeschooling) so we know no differently and it works well for us. My dds do a lot of independent work at home during the day (my dh is home and is the math teacher for both) and then we do school after dinner together. My 2nd grader during the daytime is currently doing: SWO B ETC 6-8 Reading Basket (I fill the basket with a variety of books at her reading level and she chooses one each day to read) Singapore 2B At night we do together: Song School Latin (3 evenings a week) FLL (3 evenings a week) WWE 2 (4 evenings a week) SOTW (three evenings a week) Earth Science - combo of R.E.A.L. Science and CKEES (two evenings a week) We also do read alouds in the evening which often correspond with history or science.

I just told my daughter to get dressed because I need to give her a spelling test this morning. Her answer: "I have to be dressed to take a spelling test?" LOL

Hi, I just saw this post and thought I would add my experience. This is our 4th year homeschooling and I have always worked full-time (gone from home 7:30 - 5:00ish). It has worked well for us - although I have nothing to compare to. My husband is home with my girls during the day. He teaches math with them and I leave plenty of other work that they do independently during the day (spelling, handwriting, ETC for my 1st grader and spelling, grammar, logic, latin practice, readings in history and science for my 5th grader). My husband also takes the kids to all the extra curricular events during the day (girl scouts, soccer, park day, play dates, etc.). He also has dinner waiting when I get home at 5:00 every night. This allows us to eat right away and start school at 5:30 pm. I'm in charge of all subjects other than math, so we look over the work they did during the day and make corrections. I do OPGTR, FLL, WWE with my 1st grader at night and with my oldest we do Writing Tales and Latin at this time. Then on MWF we do history and on T TH we do sceince (both of which are read aloud intensive). We usually wrap up around 7:00-7:30 pm. We use Saturdays as necessary for catch up and for art/music. I also incorporate a lot of history and science reading into our bedtime read alouds. I hope this helps...feel free to pm me if you have more questions.

Rose, I have used Calendar Quest by itself with my dds. I bought it at a convention without any of the other Brimwood materials and we read it in the summer after completing our first round of history. It is a fun book all by itself and we enjoyed it. I cannot comment on how much more you would get by combining it with the other materials, since I haven't even looked over them much. But, I can recommend the book as a fun and quick summary of world history and a nice overview of how our calendar came into being.

We used these when my dd (4-5 at the time) was a preschooler. We did All About Animals and All About the Farm. These worked great for us. We were also doing Saxon Math K and OPGTR. We would do activities from the All About books a couple of times a week. She loved them and they are very easy to use (once you do the photocopying). I have my books still and would be happy to sell them (with all the felt board pieces cut out, mounted on posterboard and velcroed). Send me a pm if you are interested.

You're welcome, hope it helps.

I sent you a pm - I have a chart lining up SOTW 4 sections with other reading including most (if not all) the SL books.

We have the Making of America. I don't own either Kingfisher or Usborne so I am not sure how this would compare, but it is a nice reference and written in a slightly more narrative style than most encyclopedias.

I am using Oxford First Ancient History with my 5th grader this year. I read SOTW to both my dds and then my older reads Oxford on her own and either writes a summary paragraph or an outline. It is fairly narrative and seems to work well. Unfortunately there are no further volumes after Ancient so I have no idea what we will use next.

No, no...I learned Every Good Boy Deserves Fudge...much more motivating!:lol:

The "History Books" we did together during history time, the "independent readers" I assigned to my dd9 to read, and the "Read Alouds" we have done during our nightly read aloud time. I am sorry that the books are not listed with corresponding SOTW chapters, but they are in order so hopefully you could pretty easily line them up with SOTW. We also added topics between some SOTW chapters to emphasize some of the fun American history topics, such as Statue of Liberty, automobiles, Wright Brothers, Amelia Earhart, etc. so some of the books below don't directly relate to a SOTW chapter. History Books Victoria Queen of England 1837-1901 Florence Nightengale – Zemlicka/ Turner Florence Nightengale: A Phot Illustrated Biography – Davis Travels of Livingston Tree of Life Charles Darwin – on the Trail of Evolution Voyaage of the Beagle Life and Times of Guiseppe Verdi Abraham Lincoln Young Abe Lincoln If you Traveled on the Underground RR Gettysburg Address – McCurdy (Ill.) If you Lived at the Time of the Civil War Ghosts of the Civil War The Drinking Gourd America in the Time of Abraham Lincoln Wagon Wheels Paraquay - Jermyn Elizabeth Blackwell The First Woman Doctor Alexander Graham Bell an Inventive Life Inventor's Times Picture Book of Thomas Alva Edison Thomas Alva Edison Young Inventor Railroad Fever Stories of Young Pioneers Buffalo Bill They're off Dakota Dugout Daily Life in a Covered Wagon Cowboys of the Wild West Going West Buffalo Bill and the Pony Express Westward Ho! If you traveled west in a covered wagon Rachel's Journal Building the Suez Canal Suez Canal - Bodden Feed the Children Countries of the World - Brazil Long Way to a New Land Arriving at Ellis Island Coming to America Story of the Statue of Liberty – Maestro Picnic in October Copper Lady If your Name Was Changed at Ellis Island Streets of Gold Teddy Roosevelt Rough Rider Story of the Sinking of the Battleship Maine Andrew Carnegie: Builder of Libraries We'll Race you Henry Croatia – Hintz Armenia - Hintz Will and Orv Wright Brothers a Flying Start If you Lived at the Time of the Great San Francisco Earthquake Earthquake! 1906 San Francisco Hero Over Here Going to War in WWI Where Poppies Grow Titanic Lost and Found Anastasia's Album Great Migration You Want Women to Vote, Lizze Stanton? Gandhi – Demi Gandhi – Hunter Binya's Blue Umbrella Day of Ahmed's Secret Babe Ruth Saves Baseball Balto Tut's Mummy Roaring 20's China's Long March Ride on the Wind Charles Lindbergh: A Photo Illustrated Biography Children of the Dust Bowl – Stanley Hindenburg – Obrien The Great Depression Franklin D. Roosevelt - Feinberg Armistice 1918 Amelia Earhart, Aviation Pioneer Good Fight Mercedes and the Chocolate Pilot World War II Days A Place Where Sunflowers Grow Always Remember Me Lisette's Angel Memorials of Survival So Far From the Sea Little Ships Greatest Skating Race Journey that Saved Curious George Albert Einstein a Life of Genuis Hiroshima - Yep Out of Bounds In a South African City The Fifties - Stacy Lives of Extroardinary Women Destination Moon Footprints on the Moon Race to Space Cold War – Bjornlund John F. Kennedy – Lanley, Schultz, Harper Picture Book of JFK Martin Luther King, Jr. - Adler, Kids Discover If you Lived at the Time of MLK Picture Book of MLK Picture Book of Rosa Parks Linda Brown, You are Not Alone Remember: Journey to School Integration The Wall Patrol: An American Soldier in Vietnam Story of Watergate - Hurgrove Jimmy Carter: Beyond the Presidency Rise and Fall of the Soviet Union Hamas: Palestinian Terrorists India Under Indira and Rajiv Gandhi Iraq - Hassig Chernobyl - Nardo Fall of the Berlin Wall November 9, 1989 Chinese Cultural Revolution Red Land Yellow River Berlin Wall – Epler Balloon Sailors Persian Gulf War – Gay War Began at Supper No More Strangers Now September 11, 2001 – Cornerstones of Freedom The 2001 World Trade Center Attacks Librarian of Basra Independent Readers Queen Victoria - Landmark At Her Majesty's Request Drummer Boy's Battle Behind Rebel Lines The Boys War COFA: Abraham Lincoln Shades of Gray Maata's Journal The Last Safe House Court of Stone Children Robber and Me Sing Down the Moon Bound for Oregon Terrible Wave Bully for you Teddy Roosevelt Blue Willow Shoes for Everyone Thimble Summer Wright Brothers – Reynolds Flying Aces of WWI Rascal Night Journey Impossible Journey Rose's Journal Rise and Fall of Adolph Hitler Hitler's Daughter Amelia Earhart Snow Treasure The Winged Watchman Combat Nurses of WWII Miracles of Maple Hill In the Year of the Boar COFA: Albert Einstein There Comes a Time Read Alouds Across Five Aprils Lincoln: A Photobiography Little Women Call of the Wild Caddie Woodlawn Great Turkey Walk The Great Wheel Old Yeller If you Lived 100 Years Ago The Good Master The Singing Tree Letter to Mrs. Roosevelt Journey to America Number the Starts Twenty and Ten Little Riders Diary of a Young Girl Hill of Fire

That was very cool! Great job.

I am doing ancient history with a 1st and 5th grader. Here is a copy of what I typed into a similar thread a couple of weeks ago: I read SOTW aloud and we discuss, do mapwork, and read additional literature from AG. My older dd has additional reading she does individually, mostly from Oxford First Ancient History, which I really like. She is also using the Learning Through History magazines (I have the Ancient Near East, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome issues). She does summaries or outlines of her outside reading and I have added a lot of historical fiction for her to read also. She is also keeping a timeline. It is working great. We went through SOTW in 1-4 grades already, but she is enjoying revisiting it and adding depth with her other readings. __________________

I am reading SOTW aloud because I have a 1st and 5th grader, but my 5th then reads The Oxford First Ancient History as her "spine." I really like this. Each section is two pages and written more in story form than encyclopedia form. It is easier to either summarize or outline from. We will also use FMOG and FMOR when we reach those periods. We also have a subscription to Learning Through History magazine and I have my dd read articles from the Ancients issues that relate (these are sometimes very meaty and I think it would be possible to use these as a spine). I don't know what we'll do next year since there are no further volumes of the Oxford book.

I see them at Rainbow Resource for $3.00 cheaper than Amazon. It depends on whether you will need to pay shipping at RR. I'm planning to wait and purchase them from RR with a large order with free shipping ETA: I'm not sure that the link to RR is working. Just search for My Nature Journal at RR the price is $14.95

In addition to the ones mentioned there are: Living Learning Books Earth and Space Christian Kids Explore Earth and Space Elemental Science from Pata in VA Trivium Academy's Plans for Earth Science

We switched from HWT to Zaner Bloser in 3rd grade. For us HWT for printing was working fine, but when I looked at the cursive book I just didn't like the style. I decided to use ZB because I like traditional cursive style best. The ZB workbooks are good and give lots of practice. You don't need the teacher's book and the workbooks ordered from ZB are about $10 a piece.

Thank you for the update Amy! I am thrilled that there will be more levels eventually even if my oldest dd won't be able to use them, my younger will. Thanks again and I hope your life settles down soon.

I know the WT website says that, although Amy plans more levels, she is not able to get started on them yet. However, I remember someone on this board listing out a plan for writing over the long run that included future levels of WT - it was written as though the poster had spoken to Amy and knew of her plans. Maybe I just read that into the post, but if anyone has spoken to Amy or knows more about the production plans for WT I would love to know. Thanks!

I am planning Song School Latin for next year with my then 7.75 2nd grader. I don't have it in my hands yet but I like the looks of the samples. My older dd has been using LfC for 2 years now and although the company is not completely secular we have had no problems using LfC. In fact LfC has worked great for my dd which is one of the reasons I am going to use SSL with my younger. It should, hopefully allow an easy transition to LfC.

The Elements: Ingredients of the Universe. Many here have said good things about it. It really looks fun and easy to teach.

I think they were having a special when I bought it, so it didn't seem too expensive to me (but it has been a few years). The rock labs using the kit were my dds favorite part of the program. We still get the kit out and do tests on the rocks sometimes. So, to me it was worth it.

I read SOTW aloud and we discuss, do mapwork, and read additional literature from AG. My older dd has additional reading she does individually, mostly from Oxford First Ancient History, which I really like. She is also using the Learning Through History magazines (I have the Ancient Near East, Ancient Egypt, Ancient Greece and Ancient Rome issues). She does summaries or outlines of her outside reading and I have added a lot of historical fiction for her to read also. It is working great. We went through SOTW in 1-4 grades already, but she is enjoying revisiting it and adding depth with her other readings.

Thank you - this is encouraging.