We are in Latin 1 as well this year, but I am also a BTDT. My recommendation is use quizlet, use quizlet, use quizlet.. to study the definitions and/or make flash cards. Have her study them every day! Make sure she knows the 1st and 2nd declensions endings, present tense conjugation endings, and be able to conjugate sum, esse, fui, futurum (pg 34). Make sure she knows those cold for this first test. When she gets ready to take the test, but before you give her the test, give her a blank sheet of paper and have her make a "cheat sheet". Have her write her conjugations, declensions and her conjugation of sum, esse,... from memory. Then she can use this piece of paper during the test and it will help her not to get so confused when she is trying to translate a word and trying to remember whether the word is 1st or 2nd declension, what the ending means, and same with the verb conjugations. Doing it this ways helped my kids greatly and by the end of the school year they knew all of their declension and conjugation endings. Have her do this before every test. Also, on the vocabulary section make sure she knows both sing/plural for her words. For example, if she has to translate the word girl and she writes just puella instead of puella, -ae (or puellae) on the test, it will be a 1/2 point dock and that will add up if there are 30 vocab words. I can't stress making a "cheat sheet" enough. It will definitely help, especially as she moves up in Latin and she is having to remember 5 different declension endings (M, F, & N) and well as all the different conjugations. HTH

Posting so I can find later

Just posting so I can find later

I second Spelling Workout or Building Spelling Skills. My daughter is also finishing 1st grade in PS and will be coming home next year. She too has also done very well on the spelling test that she has been given. I don't know if your daughter's school is the same, but Nina was given a list of words to learn for the week and they worked on that list in school. Come test day she knew the words and passed the test easily. One thing I noticed though is that she doesn't know the rules for spelling what she is spelling. For example, she knows coin and boil because she was taught those words, but she was not taught the "oi" vs. "oy" rule, so therefore can't spell spoil. For this reason I am starting her at the beginning of a spelling program (using Building Spelling Skills) and I figured that she would move quickly through the areas that she knew and slow down at the parts that she didn't.

I have not used Write @ Home so I can't give any advice on them, but my kids have taken several classes with Rebekah including the High School Comp Class. I was very impressed with all of the classes that my boys took through Laurel Tree. She was very prompt and thorough with her feedback and she helped both of my boys greatly improve in their writing skills. You will not go wrong in choosing Laurel Tree.

.

Thank you for the suggestions and the ideas for papers. Also, the books that I am considering for their reading list next year are: The Scarlet Letter Last of the Mohicans Johnny Tremain ? Rabble in Arms ? Oliver Wiswell ? Federalist Papers Antifederalist Papers and biography of their choice (has to be a signer of the Declaration of Independence) Are their any other must reads for this time period, or other books that I should consider

That is a good idea. I had not even thought about that. My oldest would probably enjoy that more than a written term paper. Thanks for the suggestion. Anyone else with ideas

I am putting together a history course for my boys (rising 11th and 9th grader) for this coming school year. We are going to be covering Early American- American Revolution. I have got my text, Great Course lectures, documentaries, and everything that I want to use fairly well lined up. Where I my having difficulty is the writing assignments. How many writing assignments should I require and what length? Is 4 sufficient, with maybe 1 or 2 of them being term papers? Any help or suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you all for the suggestions. I have some research to do. I have used Sonlight in the past, just not with this particular child. I had completely forgot about that. I may have to go back and look at that again. I will also be checking out the other curriculum suggested. Thank you all who replied. Any more suggestions will also be appreciated.

I am looking for a science curriculum for my youngest son. He is a late reader and still struggles a little with reading, but he is going to be 5th grade next year. He likes workbooks, so this year we tried CLE Science. He has enjoyed the fact that it is fairly independent, but he is not remembering what he is reading. It is just not visual enough nor hands on enough for him. We have also tried Apologia in the past, which was a complete bust for this particular kid. So, what I am looking for a a science curr. that is visual, hand on, fairly independent, with maybe some type of workbook (not notebooking) component thrown in. Is there anything out there like this? I appreciate any and all suggestions.

I actually use both. I used SM all the way through 6B with my two oldest boys. I love singapore, but it just wasn't working with my youngest son. He, like your DD, could find the answers with help from me, but just couldn't seem to do it on his own. I looked at CLE, liked what I saw, and decided that I would give it a try. Since it is a cheap as it is, I figured that I didn't have much to loose. Like you, there were things that we had not covered, so we started at the beginning with 101 and he moved fairly quickly through those early booklets. So here we are a 1 1/2 years later still using CLE. He balked at the beginning when we first started. (Didn't want to be using a 1st grade curriculum when he wasn't in 1st grade.) I can definitely see the difference in his understanding of math as opposed to when we used SM alone. His confidence has increased, he can work on his own using the CLE with relatively little input from me ( which is a big plus for him). So what we do now is, he does a lesson in CLE on his own, we check it, discuss and correct any issues, and then do approx. 3-4 pages in our SM. ( We use the text, WB, CWP, and IP). This works for us because I now don't have to worry about anything he is missing in SM because the CLE is filling in the gaps. Also the CLE has seemed to allow him to move through SM with greater understanding. Hope this helps.

You did not offend me at all. I'm sorry if I gave you the impression that you did. (That is part of the reason that I dislike emails and such. It is very difficult to interpret people's tones and inflections.) I am glad you expanded more on the text and what it is like. I am familiar with BJU's spanish, but didn't know if their French books were set up the same way. From what you have said, it seems like they are. This sounds like it will work for my purposes, because that is exactly what I wanted. Something that teaches the grammar, etc. I really appreciate your and everyone elses input. As far as my son goes, he says he wants to try for the honors track, so that is what we are pushing for. I just hope we both survive. Thanks again for you input.

I am very familiar with VPSA as my two oldest are taking online calsses with them. The reason that I am wanting to stretch French out over 2 years is that the son that will be taking French next year already has a full load next year with several online classes. Plus he will be taking latin 1 concurently (VPSA online class). His goal, at this point in time, is med school and potentially a service academy. His foreign language goals are 2 years of latin and 2 years of ancient greek. Since all of the service academies require a modern foreign language, he settled on French since his dad is fluent. So his goal is to complete French 1 and 2 over the four years of high school as well. (We will see how this actually plays out over time, but I am willing to try this, if he is willing to work.) Thans for all of the information this is really helping.

Has anyone used BJU's Frecnch 1 curriculum? If so what did you think of it? I am looking for a French 1 curriculum for my son to work through over two years. His dad is fluent in french so at least I don't have to worry about the converasation aspect of the curriculum. If anyone has any other suggestions on a French 1 curriculum I am all ears. I am looking for something that will teach more than just conversation French. Thanks