That's one of the ones I was looking at. Also McDougal's Language of Literature, or the Longman Anthology from Pearson. Or using Humanistic Traditions for part of history reading.

Thank you! Part of my frustration is that I can't actually SEE the textbooks I'm considering as the publishers don't put samples on the web/they're no longer published. My original plan was actually to use Figuratively Speaking, and maybe How to Read Literature Like a Professor, and try to pair ancient lit with modern lit inspired by it. Or I could incorporate ancient lit into history readings, and do a standard literature textbook for literature.

This will be my daughter's first year in high school, and she hasn't done any real literary analysis yet. Writing is also a bit of a weakness, so I want to put extra attention on that. She wants to do literature that is related to our Ancient History studies, so I was planning on using a world literature anthology or textbook. But will that be too hard as an introduction to studying literature?

This has been an ongoing problem, that if I ask her to do more than 3 sentences of dictation, she whines that it's too hard, she can't write that much. I often scribe for her doing math as well, and her SOTW outlines. This year we've started Writing and Rhetoric Narrative 1, and she goes on and on about how I'm making her hate writing, she only wants to write if there's a good reason, not just practicing. Is this in the realm of normal, ie not requring occupational therapy or something? Any tips? I'm reluctant to push her to write more because I'm more interested in her completing the content than fighting about who's holding the pencil.

I was planning on getting the HOTS. Maybe I'll just ease her into that part.

Dd will be 8 in Sept. We are a little more than halfway through second grade work (SOTW 2, MEP yr 2, AO yr 2). Should we jump into MPH 3/4 or is that likely to get too hard too fast? The Startup Science just seems a tad too simplistic.

This would be for my 6.25, fairly advanced dd. She did a lot of Starfall as a 3 and 4 yo, and I tried to fill in with OPG and some free stuff from Don Potter's page, but she was kind of past it. The girl can read the KJV bible fairly fluently. Is it worthwhile to go through the 2nd grade phonics, or should we skip into the spelling?

The Language of Bees and God of the Hive by Laurie R. King I took a trip into YA fiction and enjoyed: Ice by Sarah Beth Durst Keturah and Lord Death by Martine Leavitt

I forgot how much I hate The Rainbow Fish! It's lousy writing. One of Leo Leonnis' Frederick's Fables is about a bird that wishes for golden wings, then his friends think he wanted to be special, so he starts giving away his golden feathers. MUCH better writing. And not so. . . contrived.

The Red tent Wicked--I kept hoping it would get better but gave up in the middle. The Giving Tree Girl with a Pearl Earring As for Jane Austen, love the movies, but the books are too long/descriptive.

Thanks, ladies! How important is the grey block paper? I'm doing K level with my nearly 6 yo dd. She sort of knows how to do letters, but has some persistent reversals and forgets where to start.

I see a lot of posts about HWT asking if you need the teacher's guide. But since I'm not really wanting workbooks, just the method, it seems like we could work out of the teacher's guide and write on paper. Would this work?

Would you get the abacus and activity book, or the games kit? Or the abacus stuff and some of the card decks? We're doing the old MUS Foundations, and I'm just finding that we need a little more variety. This is for my nearly 6 yog. Or I could just switch to MEP, but it seems to take so long!

Ok, another question. Are some of the decks/games more useful than others?

Could I get by without the book/DVD? The individual decks of cards come with instructions. I want to use this to supplement MUS, if it matters. If I could manage it, I'd rather spend my money on a full size abacus and activity book than on the full games kit.

Thanks, ladies. It really helps to remember that we're just starting out, and it will take some trying to figure out what really works for us. Dd picked MUS after watching the demo. We're stalled at skip counting atm, b/c she can fill out the charts in the worksheets just fine, but I don't think she really has it mastered/internalized.

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I'm using an old Foundations MUS with my 5.75 yo dd, but I don't have the actual student book, just the TM and extra practice book and VHS. We get sort of bored doing the same type of sheets over and over until she gets it. I had considered MEP as a core program, but found the lesson plans frustrating because I don't like fully scripted programs. I've been looking at it again, and now I'm thinking it might be fun to pull in too. How would it work to do these together? I see that MUS doesn't get to multiplication until about 3rd level, and MEP starts middle of Y2. Will that seriously confuse my dd?

I'm confused about where to start. I'm considering cursive first, and they have an e-workbook for starting cursive, but not a TM or student text. Would I just get the 2nd grade stuff then?

This is my first post, but I've been lurking/searching for a while. I'm interested in a handwriting program that emphasizes rhythm and movement. My dd (5.5yo) can do uppercase manuscript, but tends to reverse her N, and sometimes other letters. I like the idea of only teaching once with Barchowsky, but like the named strokes in Peterson. Also, anyone who has used these, how much do you really need to buy? Could I get away with just the beginners' book for Barchowsky? Or just the workbook from Peterson?