My first-born daughter will be in 3rd grade next year. She is academically inclined, loves to read and write, is a whiz a math...a great joy to teach. They aren't all that way so I brag when I can :D Math: BJU Press 3 Writing: IEW Fun & Fascinating Grammar: IF Grammar 3 Homework Booklet Spelling/Vocab: Building Spelling Skills 3 Wordly Wise 1 (original series) Latin: Latina Christiana I History: Mystery of History Vol. IIB Science: Apologia's Zoology I Geography: Trail Guides - US Geography Reading: Good Books List with written narrations Bible: Apologia's Who Is God

Sometimes I think when our children hit a snag we are very quick to go looking for another curriculum that will be more friendly. I like friendly :001_smile: But there are times we may be missing the character building value of gutting it out. I also struggle with imposing deadlines. LIFE derails us more often than I would like. But I think being accountable to getting a job done to a certain standard by a certain time is a Very Necessary Skill. The ability to gut it out and the ability to meet a deadline...those are my picks :001_smile:

The longer I'm at this homeschooling thing, the less I suggest. I'm slowly learning that what works for me one year, doesn't work the next year. What worked for schooling 3 kids, doesn't work with 4. What worked when I was nursing a newborn, doesn't work chasing a toddler. What worked when I was 34 doesn't work when I'm 36. LOL! I don't know why. I change. The situation changes. I grow and learn and tackle things differently. I have given glowing reviews of curriculum before only to outgrow it a few years down the road and wonder what I was I ever thinking? I love to talk about curriculum and to hear about curriculum. I've learned to take everything I hear with a big grain of salt lest I be tempted to think that "life would be so much better if I just had xyz curriculum" . I also try very hard to limit my remarks to how a curriculum is laid out and how I got it to work for me. There is no such thing as the perfect curriculum. It doesn't exist. Hi my name is Rebecca and I am a curriculum junkie :lol:

I read that too. I think it was in the Veritas Press catalog. I had my 2nd grader in Saxon 3 this year. But as I was trying to figure out the Saxon sequence for my older kids I realized that there was no reason for her to be a year ahead. She started struggling about 2/3 of the way through and we slowly phased it out. Next year she'll be doing BJU 3rd grade and Saxon 5/4 in 4th grade.

It's my understanding that MP took Henle I which is the first year of Latin and broken it into 4 easy chunks...or at least that's the plan. 1st and 2nd forms are the only ones available so far. So I was thinking that a credit couldn't be given until all four forms were completed. The idea is for younger kids to get a head start on Latin. My 8th grader will be in 2nd form next year so I would love to know if I can start giving high school credit.

This just happened to me at lunch today. Aaarrggh!! Very frustrating.:angry:

:lol::lol::lol: Same Here :lol::lol::lol:

My oldest is in Algebra 1/2 right now. But I've had lots of questions about our future with Saxon myself. HomeschoolWithSaxon.com seems to have some very current and helpful information. Here's a link that explains at which point a Saxon student can list Geometry on the transcript (without having taken their separate Geometry course). Also this article claims that the traditional Saxon sequence (sans the separate Geometry) does use 2 column formal proofs. I remember doing those myself back in the day and loved the logical structure of the whole thing. It was difficult and I struggled a bit which I guess is why I was so pumped when it finally clicked. I definitely want my children to master the formal proof. I'm glad to see that they will have the opportunity to do that following the traditional Saxon sequence Alg. I, Alg. II, Advanced Math. Here's the link to a specific geometry article. I recommend reading through the past newsletters as well. There's just a wealth of information on how to be successful with Saxon. http://homeschoolwithsaxon.com/review-credit.php

I recently purchased Zoology I as well as one notebooking journal to use this fall. There was no way I was going to buy a journal for each of 4 children. That's crazy expensive. I wish it had been designed specifically as a reproducible. It wasn't...so I won't reproduce it. But it does give me wonderful ideas for notebooking pages that we can slip into page protectors in a 3-ring binder. The vast majority of the pages are black and white with a title, some lines, and some boxes in different spots for variety and there is a little naturey border or picture. I purchased an e-book with notebooking templates just like these (without the naturey pictures) that we use for history. So I will use her topics with the pages I can print off my computer and for naturey pictures we can decorate with stickers. I think the end result, will be better than if we had just used her pages, as is. There is also a page (probably one per lesson, I'd have to double check) of comprehension/narration type questions. We will do this orally. So those pages are wasted on us. As far as the color mini-book pages. It looks like there are 15, one for each of the 14 lessons, plus an introductory creation mini-book. They do look amazing...very well done and not something I could imitate anywhere nearly as well with white paper and stickers. But it still isn't worth the price of buying a notebook for each of my children. We will just have to put them together as a group project. And that will be O.K. (coming from a person who is not keen on group projects :001_smile:) In addition, the whole design of the notebook is not user-friendly, imo, as is. It's spiral bound with printing on both the front and the back. So for your student to have a nice notebook at the end, he/she would have to do ALL of the pages (I hate undone pages) Even if you wanted to tear them out and place them in your own binder you would at least have to do both sides of every page you choose to do (if you wanted to prevent undone pages) That would just bug me...not enough flexibility, as is, imo. But I'm glad to own one copy anyway. It looks like it will be a valuable resource.

I thought re-filling water bottles was a no-no because of the bacteria build up from your saliva. If there are blatant errors I think it calls the whole article into question especially since there were no sources cited for their so-called "facts." And THAT would be much more fun and educational to discuss with the kiddos.

I just read something about leprosy the other day. The reason a leper slowly starts losing fingers/toes etc. is because they no longer feel pain. Pain is a gift to let you know to take your hand out of the fire. Leper's bodies don't sense pain. They do not know danger is at hand and they inadvertently injure themselves. So in that sense pain is good.

We are part of a homeschool band program. I can't remember the exact tuition rate. It's less than $200 for one student for the year. Of course they only meet once per week for 1.5 hours and parents must volunteer 16 hours in the program or pay an extra fee (less than $200) It's very popular in our area and quite large. We're gearing up for marching band. I love parades!! It's quite funny to overhear people as they see this well-dressed, well-rehearsed, 80-100 member band with a homeschool banner wonder out loud "homeschool band? how does THAT work?" :lol: Do you have a decent-sized homeschool population in your area? Maybe in the meeting with the VP hubby could suggest that the school market to the homeschool community. Bring the price way down but bring in many more students. It would be a win-win.

I ordered just the CD of the Fighter Verses set to music. We've been listening to a couple verses at a time during lunch. LOVE the songs. They are very well done. It's been a painless and fun way to memorize Scripture. And I've been able to bring up certain of these Scriptures at times when talking with my dc. So they're sticking in my brain at least :001_smile:

This year I had a 7th, 6th, 4th, 2nd, and kindergartner (plus 2 littles) I did schedule one hour of one-on-one time for each of them...7:30-12:30...break for lunch. Then in the afternoon we do read-alouds and history/geography/science. School is done by 3:00/3:30 at the latest and I'm off to a part-time job. So this year I did a combo of one-on-one in the morning and all together in the afternoon. Of course, the older kids did independent work in the morning when I wasn't with them. I know what you mean about the kindergartner. She had activities to do without me, plus a lot of playing with the babies, and with older sister when she finished up. She did not do any school without me. Forming good handwriting habits is an issue at that age. But 1 hour for kindergarten, plus another hour of stimulating learning games/activities, plus another 2 hours in the afternoon of read-alouds and activities is awesome for a kindergartner, imo. Yes, my other children try to interrupt when I'm tutoring another. It's something that I have to work on with them and keep reminding them not to interrupt mommy in the middle of someone's Latin lesson or phonics lesson or writing lesson. I lose my train of thought and it's very distracting to the student as well. It drives me nuts. We are working on this. But I don't see how NOT scheduling time to teach phonics to the 5yo or Latin to the 11 yo will fix this. It's like talking on the telephone. As soon as kids see your attention is not fixed on them, they start pestering for it.:glare: What's more likely to happen if I don't schedule/plan for something is that the combined total of all the day's interruptions will 'cause that Latin lesson or phonics lesson not to happen at all. Then I feel guilty and move it to priority 1 the next day but something else gets shoved off to the side. And I end up on a merry-go-round only getting about 2/3 of our daily work done each day. At least it rotates :001_smile:

I haven't read the other replies you've received yet so forgive me if this has already been mentioned. The best way I've found to manage lots of students is to schedule everything. This year I had a 7th, 6th, 4th, 2nd and kindergartener (plus 2 littles) Due to necessity I also started working part-time outside the home. So school HAD to be finished by 3:30 at the very latest. I found a spot of wall and wrote out a schedule on small sticky notes and stuck them on the wall. (They were easily rearranged if the plan wasn't working quite right) The first thing I discovered when I assigned everything a time slot was that I wanted to do too much stuff. I had to prioritize and let some things go. Perhaps we'll pick up some of those extra things in the summer...we'll see. The second thing I discovered was how much time I frittered away not having my act together. I still struggle with this. At least now I can see the problem and make steps toward correcting it. The third thing I discovered was how much easier it was to be flexible with a schedule. A few times a month, something out of the ordinary will pop up on the calendar. I can easily check the school schedule and see (I'm very visual) exactly what will not get done that day due to an irregular event that I cannot plan for on a consistent basis. I can then determine if I want to shift things around just for that day or leave them how they are. I don't actually shift my sticky notes around for random disruptions. I usually just give verbal directions to my kids. However, I have been known to temporarily put another sticky on top of the schedule and remove it when life gets back to normal. The fourth thing this did for me was to seriously control my curriculum craziness. I buy waaaayyyy too much stuff and get carried away with all of the amazing learning opportunities that are out there only to realize there isn't enough TIME to get it all done. So I have learned to budget my time (and my children's time) just as I budget money. I do not have it all figured out, by any means. I'm a work in progress.:001_smile: Anyway, the tutoring aspect of homeschooling appeals to me very much and I was determined to spend an hour one-on-one with each of my kids going over new concepts and reviewing old work. We spend the morning in the 3r's plus Latin and combining children just isn't an option. In the afternoon we do get together for history/geography/science and read alouds. We also do Bible/Scripture memory together also but that's on Sunday afternoons. One more thing that happened was that I had to learn to tweak our curriculum or find more user-friendly options. I only have one hour with each child. This is not enough to sit down with each child in each subject and hold their hand. They must do a lot of their work independently. If I couldn't figure out how to get them moving independently with a certain program we switched...not every program, mind you. Again, prioritize. What is essential? Where do they need instruction. Where do they need immediate feedback? Math, writing and Latin are the biggies for us. I had some spelling programs that were mom intensive...Spelling Power, AVKO Spelling...no time for that. Spelling is an independent subject at our house aside from weekly tests. I don't even check their books. So dividing things up into what they NEED to do with Mom and what can they do on their own with minimal input from Mom was essential for me. I'm starting to ramble. Let's just say that scheduling saved my sanity.

We use the original Wordly Wise not the 3000. We all despised the exercise where you had to read a passage and then answer the questions using a vocabulary word. It took too long and was dreadful. The Word Root exercises in the original can be very difficult and time consuming. I didn't want to skip it because working with roots is very valuable. I got smart though and gave them a word bank and this helped tremendously.

Hits: Saxon 5/4 through Algebra 1/2 Apologia General IEW Middle Ages IEW's Poetry Memorization Mystery of History Vol. II First Form Latin Child's Story Bible by Vos Gets it Done: Analytical Grammar...my oldest does well, my 2nd hates it. Wordly Wise Phonics Pathways Misses: Fallacy Detective...I liked the book but my ds did NOT like reading this together. -trying Art of Argument Saxon 3 TruthQuest...I love the idea I just don't have time to read that many books. Beautiful Feet Medieval History...Foster books are great but the assignments were too large.

I was a severe math switcher myself. Miquon, Developmental Math, Making Math Meaningful, Saxon, MUS, back to Developmental Math. I finally landed on Saxon....for good! But I do not like the younger grades. My 1st and 3rd graders are using Bob Jones until they hit 5/4.

I'm happy to know that. We are trying Apologia elementary next school year...Flying Creatures of the 5th day...but are planning to do science for half the year and history the other half. I can't squeeze in a full year of both for my littles.

Who is Flocke?

#1 age 10 #2 age 3 #3 age 2 When #3 was staying dry and #1 was still struggling I took #1 to the doc. He was structurally fine it just took him longer to outgrow. He never did pull-ups, btw, just lots and lots of sheet washing....5x per week or more. It seemed that the outgrowing corresponded with the early signs of puberty. I think he had a hormonal imbalance though we never tried the hormone replacement to certify that that was, in fact, the case.

Thanks for the replies. After spending more time reading these boards and surfing around the internet I think I probably need to stick with Analytical Grammar. Apparently it is quite thorough. I think I will supplement with a little grammar homework booklet which covers usage and punctuation (since AG doesn't get to that til 8th grade) but which won't take nearly the time commitment as Hake nor the money.:D

My 2nd will be in 7th grade this fall. Here's the plan for him... Math: Saxon Algebra 1/2 Science: Apologia General Science History: Mystery of History Vol. 2B Latin: Second Form Logic: Art of Argument Composition: IEW U.S. History Vol. I Grammar: Analytical Grammar Season 2 Spelling: Building Spelling Skills Book 6 Vocabulary: Wordly Wise Book 5 Literature: Teaching the Classics Geography: home-grown projects on various states...no formal curriculum Bible: Who is God?

I have used Latina Christiana in the past and plan to use it again next year with my 3rd and 5th graders. My oldest two started with Prima Latina, LCI and were half way through LCII when they came out with First Form and then we promptly switched over to First Form. First Form is now Memoria Press's suggested "next step" after LCI. I'm not sure where that leaves LCII (oh well) I have had no prior Latin experience before LC and I do enjoy it. I did not splurge on the DVD's. I fiddled around with Latin for Children, Lively Latin, Minimus and came back to LC. To memorize the 2nd declension we just repeated the endings a couple of times daily and then repeated the declension of servus (the example noun the text gives) It doesn't take long and it is incredibly necessary for the whole thing to become automatic. Repeat, repeat, repeat :-) I wish that LC had more written work in it. I went so far as to write out my own translation worksheets but that was before I started First Form and was able to see the bigger picture. First Form is what I had wished LC had been. Now I understand LC as being a gentle introduction. I don't think I will give my extra worksheets to my 3rd and 5th graders because I know they will get plenty of practice in First Form, which reviews everything in LC at a little bit deeper level. As far as knowing when to use which case...you don't! Page 37 of my LCI teacher's guide gives a quick breakdown for the teacher's benefit. It's very quick and assumes a decent knowledge of grammar (which mine was shaky til I started Analytical Grammar with my older boys) It makes sense to me now looking at it, but was kind of sketchy I think, the first time around. I took comfort when the book said all we needed to know was the right column is sing. and left is pl. As far as the difference between 1st and 2nd declension...some nouns are 1st declension nouns and some are 2nd. When you memorize vocabulary you must memorize not only the word but the genitive ending that is given along with in the vocab lists. It's the gentive ending that let's you know the declension. I would encourage you to hang in there. Memorize what the book says to memorize with quick daily repetitions. It will make so much more sense as you progress. I have supplemented the program with Ecce Romani (because it was handy to me.) It has simple reading passages that we would read together orally and translate orally and ask/answer questions in Latin. The philosophy of LC is BIG into memorizing the grammar before too much application is introduced. I'm fine with that philosophy but it's FUN to do a bit of reading...just to see how much you know or can figure out. It's quite motivating. We've also played around with Lingua Angelica from Memoria Press (their song/prayer memory/translation supplement) The songs are beautiful but we've had mixed success in translating them. Ecce Romani is much more fun as a reading supplement. I borrowed mine from the library and when I returned them I bought some very cheap, very used copies at half.com.

I am currently using IEW and Analytical Grammar for my 6th and 7th grade sons. I like IEW but I am looking for a different grammar program. I'm afraid Analytical Grammar is not comprehensive enough. I like the looks of Hake Grammar & Writing. We use Saxon math and I am very happy with the spiral approach as are my boys. However, I enjoy using IEW and I'm not sure how the writing component of Hake will fit. I don't want to scrap the IEW in order to use Hake as it was intended. But I don't want to confuse my boys or create loads of extra work for myself if Hake is not really conducive to tweaking. Has anyone used both Hake and IEW successfully? Any tips for me? Thank you so much!!