How does the notebooking work with him reading the books independently? Do you just assign a certain day to be notebook day and have him do a written narration/lapbook about the current topic?

I bought a TQ guide (AHYS 2) and have many of the recommended books. I'm going nuts, though, trying to figure out a schedule or even loose plan on how to organize history this way. Honestly, I'm tired of having to plan everything out myself since we already did that last year. We enjoy notebooking, so will incorporate that. I also bought the Binder Builders, but honestly am a little disappointed in what we got for the price. I always see TQ so highly recommended, but can't figure out how to implement it without having to do lots of planning every week. Anyone had success?

We just toss "prep" work like outlines, notes, and rough drafts. Final drafts are written into the composition notebooks that contain all the notebooking we do for all subjects. Composition notebooks are easy to save because they take up very little room and are so compact. These notebooks will be something they (and I) enjoy looking back at forever.

Truthquest American History for Young Students, volume 3 covers 1860- present. Many BF users also use TQ and vise versa.

My 5th grader is reading The Story of the Thirteen Colonies independently and absolutely loves it. I haven't tried reading others aloud at a younger age yet, but have a few on my purchase wish list for next year. Btw, I'm right there with you about owning too much history already! But with books that you can't get at the library, buying them used is such a good deal. I tell myself that I can always resell them later for the same price, but of course that is dependent on my being willing to part with them.

Another vote for both! We've used several MP guides and really enjoy them, but I'm considering adding CLE to the mix because I think my dc could benefit from that kind of teaching about literature as well. They are two very different programs, covering different things (except vocabulary and comprehension). Since most grades of CLE only take half a year to complete, there is plenty of time to do one or two MP guides as well.

Thanks for the replies. No, not particularly mathy in this case. She is very comfortable with Rod & Staff and I think the slow, incremental teaching of new material is just what she needs. She is half a year ahead, so we might be able to squeeze in 8 before officially beginning Algebra in 8th grade.

Can we do Rod & Staff 7 in 7th grade and still go into Algebra in 8th grade, without doing R&S 8 first? What have others done transitioning from R&S math into higher levels?

I like R&S 2 for its gentle introduction to parts of speech and grammar concepts, but I wouldn't consider any of it necessary. It is the only level that we do all orally and without the TM. We pretty much just read through lessons together on the couch. Everything is re-introduced at the beginning level in R&S 3, so you don't need to worry about being behind.

It also depends on far you want to get. Starting FFL in 6th grade will mean she can get farther in high school than just doing LC next. My 4th grader just completed FFL (after PL and LC) and did well with it, so I'd think a 6th grader with some Latin background would be just fine. But, if you want it to be a more relaxed subject then LC will still be good preparation for further Latin. If you do LC, make sure you get the Review Worksheets and the gamebook so that you have enough material to work with everyday.

OPG worked well for my first, but she was eager to begin reading and had figured out most of the rules before we ever covered them. I tried it with my son, but he was much more resistant to it even when I wrote the sentences on a board. I do think the amount of reading in some lessons can be overwhelming, but it is a good and solid program. The games can be fun. I will probably try something different with my next one since I sold our copy of OPG.

I just took a look at the Miller one. I don't see any images of the cover, but the book looks pretty sturdy and of decent quality. The lines look pretty small space-wise. Were they big enough to write in? What does the cover look like? Thanks!

We just finished a similar study! We read through an ever growing pile of library books, did a few experiments, and made some notebook pages. I loved it and learned so much myself. I think my dc picked up a few things, too. Here is the link to my blog post showing what we used.

Really, you can do either and be fine with FFL. We did MP language arts last year along with FFL and that worked great. I did eventually switch back to what we were using to grammar before (Rod and Staff) because my dd retained more with it than with EGR. WWE would be fine preparation for Classical Composition, which doesn't start until 4th grade. MP literature guides are also great preparation for their writing, though. They include copy work and some short composition exercises. I think it just depends on which style and format you prefer. If you are happy with the PHP materials, don't worry that they won't mesh well with MP Latin. FWIW, Latin is a core subject for us as well, and I really appreciate how the grammar reinforces what we are learning in English, which also in its turn reinforces the concepts in Latin.

This was our experience as well. Where I expected tears, my dc absolutely thrived! They love the predictability and the confidence they have gained through the incremental, step by step methods. Classical Composition is a favorite subject here, and that is one that I was so nervous about and had pretty low expectations beginning.

Ok, so it sounds like all of the models fit together to make one large skeleton, or at least beside it on a poster board? This is different than I had thought, but still pretty interesting. Did you feel like the projects were worthwhile?

I'm looking at human body resources and keep coming across this book. I have seen many of you recommend it here so I'm hoping someone can answer this question. We normally notebook all of our subjects in a composition book. Are these models something that we could feasibly put into a composition book, or are they really best in some other format? I so love having everything together in one place!

My kids LOVED Mark Kistler when they were young, so the lessons definitely started simple enough. I think they were 6 and 4, and even the 4 yr. old loved doing it. We had the 3 year subscription and used it pretty consistently for that whole time.

I have used two full cores (2nd and 4th), Latina Christiana, Storytime Treasures, and Greek Myths. My favorites have been the 2nd grade enrichment, the literature guides, Latin, and Classical Composition. I really like their geography and Classical Studies as well. Both Famous Men of Rome and Greek Myths were big hits here. The only issue for me is that I want to combine my kids for content subjects, and that just doesn't work well with MP because of the subjects we've already done. Since my oldest has already done GM and FMR, we'd have to do Famous Men of the Middle Ages, a 5th grade book, and that would be too much for my younger. I also like to do more with our history and science and do those subjects daily, not weekly as MP schedules them. We recently began Second Form Latin and I LOVE their Latin series. I also imagine that we'll continue with Classical Composition, used along with WTM writing methods. We'll do some of the literature guides and will keep at the poetry, too. I can see why some people describe the workbooks as dry, but if you take the time to do them along with your kids and actually get to the discussion and enrichment portions, there is a lot of meat there. The questions may look repetitive and simplistic, but they actually help kids pull out the main ideas of what they are reading and then articulate that clearly by writing out the answers.

Thanks, Silver Moon. I can see how a natural writer might not enjoy WWS. I have purchased two grade levels of WWE in the past and every time dropped it after a few weeks in favor of choosing our own copywork/ narration/ dictation passages from books we were reading. Classical Composition was an instant hit with my dd, so I should probably just stick with what is working. We do get exposure to different kinds of writing in our grammar program, so that's probably sufficient.

Which of these would you choose for an advanced 5th grader who loves to write? We have done CC Fable this year and it has gone well, but I'm intrigued by the variety I see in WWS. We also write across the curriculum, which I definitely want to continue to do. So, I don't want a composition program that takes so much time or requires so much output that she doesn't have anything left in her for writing about history, etc. WWS looks like it would require much more time to complete since the reading selections are pretty lengthy. Is it possible to use the ideas from WWS and apply the lessons to writing about our history or literature? We also use Rod & Staff English and complete those writing assignments (and do regular dictation), but I find those easy to adjust to fit our needs.

I'm still finalizing things, but here's what I think. Math: Rod & Staff (finish 5th, start 6th) Grammar: Rod & Staff 5 Spelling: Spelling Workout G or Rod & Staff 6 Latin: Second Form Latin Writing: Classical Composition, written narrations and outlines Literature: A few guides (Memoria Press and Progeny Press?) or just use WTM method History: hmmm... possibly SOTW 3. We're doing A Child's History of the World this year, heavily supplemented, and love it. If we do SOTW, we'll probably do it our own way without the AG and add in outlining from KHE. I don't want to do purely US history, but don't know what other options there are for that time period. Science: Doing our own thing with tons of library books, nature center visits, and experiments here and there. Probably start out with Anatomy and then do Astronomy, but will depend some on interest of kids. Logic: Mind Benders? Will continue with our weekly co-op, which is mainly elective type classes, and mom-made PE.

Some of you are WAY more organized about this than I am! I pick a topic, currently botany, and just find all the books I can from the library. We just read through them, about 20 minutes a day, making notebook pages here and there where helpful (usually drawing a diagram or illustrating a process). We do random experiments that are in the books, based on the kids' interest and the educational value of the experiment/ demonstration. Our library system has enough materials to last us about 3 months on plants, which I think is perfect. I do buy used books if they are especially great as a reference and worth having on hand for longer than 2-4 weeks. That's it!

We've done Nursery Rhymes, and Folktales and Fairytales, both K-1, and 2-3. My son really likes the cut/color/glue activities and the crafts but not the writing assignments. We actually end up skipping those half the time. It has not been very independent here, except for the time spent coloring and cutting. I have to prepare quite a bit and help out as they go. We only do them because my dc like them so much (my ds asked for one for Christmas a couple of years ago!?).

We now notebook pretty extensively. I did a blog post about how we do it here. We use composition notebooks and my kids either draw a picture or diagram, or I print an image from online. I try to give some parameters for what they include, and write out names of people and places on the white board to help with spelling and also for triggering ideas of things to write about. I do check their grammar and spelling, but am not overly picky if its a concept we haven't covered very much yet. My kids enjoy making their pages, but they enjoy looking back over them even more. They love to pull out their notebooks to show relatives their work, and I love how that results in frequent review of material we've learned! They are proud of their work.