I drop a lot of the outlining, because we find it boring to do too much. Part of my revising is replacing Kingfisher with other sources when I can find them easily.

Level 2 Ancients is written for fifth grade. It teaches how to outline. It doesn't ask for much analysis, more still fact recording. Level 2 Middle Ages requires more writing, longer outlines, more thought. By Level 2 Early Modern the expectations are quite high for all of those. I'm not saying there isn't a fifth grader in the world who could do it, or that you couldn't modify it, but since HO level 2 builds incrementally through the history cycle popping a kid directly into the third book in the series would be difficult without a lot of preparation. The literature books for Level 2 Early Modern are not too hard for a fifth grader, imo, though, so you could add those to the Level 1 course to beef it up. Now, perhaps I've given the wrong impression. I never have used HO level 1. My understanding from reading about it is that the encyclopedia is the spine and you choose readings from the other two books, SotW and/or CHOW. As for using Kingfisher instead, I don't see any reason you couldn't. You'd just have to look up the correct pages and make necessary changes.

I like CHOW a lot. I love the writing style. However, with HO level 1 you don't need SotW and CHOW, you pick one or the other.

I would not put a fifth grader straight into Early Modern level 2. Level 2 HO builds incrementally from Ancients up. I have Early Modern for my rising 7th grader. The amount of reading, writing and analysis is fairly advanced. I'd do level 1 and drop things like coloring pages, which are too easy.

Interesting. This would be for my rising fifth grader, so she would be the right age for CC Fable.

Good to hear! I've been very happy with WWE and WWS, but I think CC sounds like a good middle step for a kid who needs more help and work.

:D Well, that is always the danger.

When I finish my version, I can send it to you, although it will, of course, be Catholicized instead of Orthodoxed. :lol: You would definitely need to own History Odyssey for it to be useful/make sense, but I'm certainly willing to share to give you an idea of what I've done -- and what one can do with History Odyssey. Send me a pm if you want it. Although I'm not finished yet, since I am currently in crazy, must finish before Monday, fourth quarter lesson plan writing mode. After that is done, I'll get back to next year's history plans.

I'm pretty sure there is one for Ancients out there, but I'm not sure if anyone has put one together for other volumes. It isn't all that hard to manipulate History Odyssey to suit. I'm working on HO Early Modern at the moment. I may use parts of Human Odyssey 2, but my main spine is a Catholic history textbook, Light to the Nations. I like the writing assignments and the flow of History Odyssey, and though I don't want to do it exactly as written it has really helped me to use it as a spine to pull from for maps, writing, etc.

Out of curiosity, would it be crazy to go from WWE3 to CC-Fable to WWS? My son is doing well with WWS having done no WWE, but he has always been a decent writer. My daughter does okay with WWE, but I see some things in CC-Fable I would like her to have before WWS, I think, that I don't think she will get from another year of WWE.

I guess I qualify, though I'm not a WTM purist, it is definitely my main inspiration. I try to use a mix of teacher intensive and independent stuff, though I find I keep up better with kiddos and grading when I'm more hands on. We're expecting number 7 this summer and my five year old will move from reading lessons and a little math to actual school lessons, all of which makes me feel a little crazy to imagine. Making detailed daily plans, but no time schedule is how we best make through our days.

Since the Critical Thinking Co. is offering free shipping I've been thinking about making an order, I know a few things I intend to buy, but I'm also interested in their computer programs. I've heard some are good and some aren't. Which are worth it?

It would be useful to talk to some actual users. I only know one person who uses it here. She uses it pretty faithfully for her younger kids, but then around middle school has sent all her kids (that are that old yet) off to private school. So she can't answer my middle school/high school questions. I have one other friend who tried to use them for a year of high school, but she's a very casual/trending towards unschooler type, it just about killed her daughter, but since that's not how we school I can't compare how it would work for us to that either. But I do like what I see for high school. I don't know whether I would want to have my son do the Summa or Magna diploma yet though.

:bigear: Not using Kolbe yet, but definitely considering it for the future.

http://homeschoolconnectionsonline.com/

That's why my mom is not invited when I have a new baby. She wants to sit and hold the baby, while I cook, clean and do laundry. Then she makes comments about how well I'm doing and how great it is that I can manage to keep up with so much stuff, all why creating more laundry, more food to cook, etc. as she sits around and waits to be served. Hmph. I always envy those women with helpful mothers and hope I can do better for my kids some day.

We're slowly doing AoA now and will follow up with DoD. My plan, at present, is to move on to MP's Traditional Logic in high school, if we decide to follow up with more logic. I'm not really sure whether we will or not though.

This website has all sorts of suggestions for different subjects and how to do them on a small budget. http://hcusa.weebly.com/high-school-studies.html

I don't think using both FD and AoA is necessary. They cover the same stuff. I think AoA covers it better, but they are similar in nature. I suspect DoD would be appropriate as a 1 semester high school class. Traditional, formal logic is usually not taught, in my experience, when it is taught at all, until high school. We got about 2 weeks in the middle of Algebra 2, as I recall. DoD is comparable, at least in subject matter (I haven't compared closely though) to MP's Traditional Logic and that is often used as a high school course.

Art of Argument is supposed to come before Discovery of Deduction. Fallacy Detective and AoA are both studies of informal logic.

Maybe you could get a tub of plain yogurt and a bunch of small canning jars and put several plain fruit and yogurts together at the same time. Then when you are ready to eat, they would be pretty grab-and-go.

Three of my children had pnuemonia last summer. I go to the same wonderful practice and see the same ped that we started with when my oldest was born. They did a chest X-ray only after a long period where pnuemonia was suspected in one kid, but no crackles were heard. Nothing showed on the X-ray, but the crackles showed up a few days later. According to the pediatrician, the crackles are more definitive. No kid ever gave a sputum sample. Usually, different types of pnuemonia present in different ways -- one lung or both? Sudden onset or slow? Etc. Those things tell a lot about whether it is probably bacterial or viral, although they do almost always treat with antibiotics just in case. I hope your little one recovers quickly.

I have both. I think FD is definitely lighter, but AoA is the book with the fake ads. FD uses comic strips mostly.

I bought mine last fall from CAP. I haven't heard whether it was revised after that or not. The reference to prostitution was in the section on arguments of age, pointing out that "just because prostitution is called the world's oldest profession, doesn't make it a good one." Or something like that.

Sonya, who writes RC History, just started a new web forum, so maybe you'd get more help there. I own both the second and third volumes, but have never really used it. I don't mind planning, but never could really figure out how to plan it or how to pick and choose from the options available. I've gone with History Odyssey and switched out the recommended books for CSTP books and added in stories of saints of the period. That took a lot of planning too, but I could figure out how to do it. I want to love RC History, but can't. Not yet anyway, and the author really guards her stuff zealously, so no one is allowed to really share detailed lesson plans of how they do things. Though I think she may be adding a paid section to her new forum where people will be able to do that.