This semester we are about to start Beautiful Feet Geography that uses the Holling C. Holling books. It has a wide age range, being graded at 3rd - 7th...we are definitely on the upper range of that (grade 7), but I think we'll both enjoy it. My daughter is also using Which Way USA and is learning a lot about the US from that. Another idea is the Legends & Leagues N, S, E, W books.

My 13 yr old is using EG Plus with DG 7 this year. We are behind on it a bit, she just finished up the punctuation section at the back of EG so that she can use 1 pg of DG along with EG each day. Seems to be working fine. ETA: To clarify: we did the punctuation section first, since punctuation is included in DG. Now we are back to the beginning of the EG book (it's such a big book and feels like it's going to take us forever!). Ellie, I know you haven't used EG in awhile....I was wondering if you've heard about the new Ultimate series for grade 8 - 12? It seems to be set up similar to DG, but with more instruction than DG has.

I had forgotten that I said I'd do a quick update after we finished the book. Well...what can I say?? My daughter is definitely not putting the book in her keeper pile. Sorry. I stuck to it and didn't give up (not sure that was the best decision though)...it seemed to get a little better...then went downhill again. It was the hardest read-aloud I've read out loud so far...and it was the hardest book for my daughter to listen to. I'm sooo glad that's over. We are now reading A Single Shard and it's sooo good. We are both really enjoying this book.

My daughter does the same....she reads her reader much faster than what the schedule is. At first I started having her go on to the next reader on the list...but then I was juggling between two different schedules...the one I was on with the read-aloud, and then one a week or two ahead that she was on with the reader. I didn't like that. Now, I'm just having her start the new reader the day it starts on the schedule. In the meantime (after she's done with one and before it's time to start the next one) she does her own "fun" reading (not the the BkSk books aren't fun....well, some are and some aren't). Her fun books to read have nothing to even do with the history we are doing. But you could choose books at the library that tie in. BTW, this year I bought about 20 some "fun" books for her to read. She has no idea what the books I've chosen are. I wrapped them each up so it's a surprise. This is a HUGE incentive to read and she is LOVING it! My daughter reads her reader to herself; she doesn't like reading aloud to me. She really enjoys her independent reading time. She doesn't stick to the schedule though (she reads faster than the amount of pages that are scheduled)....so I don't ask the questions daily....I usually just ask her, every few days, to tell me what's going on in the book, or use some of the questions as a guide in knowing what to ask. I read aloud the read-alouds, of course...which she really enjoys.

Thanks for your post. I do agree, actually. While reading this book, I've often thought how this or that was an interesting way for her to word it....or how it really paints a picture. It does get difficult reading this out loud though. I'm still needing to explain nearly every page, or she would be lost.

Well, I decided not to give it up. We've read two more chapters. I can say at this point in the book....it's actually getting a little bit better. I feel that the first half of the book really dragged and seemed to go nowhere. The 2nd half has more to it, and I have high hopes that it will stay that way. We'll finish it and then I'll give an update.

Thanks everyone...I've gotten some very good suggestions! I like the idea of having an extra copy...at least of some of the more difficult books to read...so she can have a copy and follow along as I read. With this book, I think that would have really been a good thing to do. Audio's of books was another good idea. And I love the idea of not stopping the read-alouds, even if the program's read-alouds come to an end. We both really enjoy the read-alouds (for the most part ;) ).

Do you think 13 is too old to be read aloud to (just not sure what you were saying)? Next year is the last level for read-alouds. My daughter doesn't know that yet...she'll really miss that. A reason I am hesitating just shelving the book is because I don't want to give her the idea that if a book isn't very good, or boring, or hard to read that it's ok to just quit it. There have been a couple of read-alouds over the last few years that she strongly disliked but we kept going and she ended up just loving those books. This one...I don't know.

This level of BkSk is for ages 11 - 13. My daughter just turned 13. I was on the BkSk FB page and someone using this level is having her daughter read this book on her own; as a reader. I can't imagine. Wow...you read all three? :001_smile: Being the best of a trilogy when you really, really disliked the other two doesn't seem like it would be a very high rating after all. LOL!

We are doing BookShark level 6 (similar to Sonlight G) and right now the read aloud is The Silver Branch. Oh.my.goodness. I don't know how much longer I can take it We are half way through. I have 10 more chapters to go. I don't know that I can take 10 more nights of reading this book. It's not that I don't like the story...it's ok. There have even been a couple of times when we've laughed at funny comments Flavius makes. But this author has such a strange style of writing. It seems to take her so long to get to the point of what she's trying to say (which is starting to feel like this post of mine, LOL!), and she makes it so complicated to get there. We aren't used to this style at all. I consider myself a very good reader. But I often am tripping up on the sentences. They do not flow easy for me at all. The chapters are very long too...so when I finish reading I am exhausted. I have to stop a lot and reword what I just read so that my daughter can understand it. I'm just a bit mind boggled as to why this book is even included. It is sooo not an easy read...at least for me. Is this book going to be worth finishing?? Does it ever get good? And I know those questions are a matter of opinion. I'm considering reading the rest to myself (which is easier and faster for me than reading out loud) and seeing if it's worth finishing out loud. Like I said, we are half way through and my daughter really hasn't gotten much of anything out of it....other than that Justin and Flavius are cousins who tried to warn the emperor who wouldn't listen to them and now he's been killed and they are off to find Ceasar Constantius and I don't know why. LOL! If anyone wonders what the style of writing is like that I'm trying to explain, here's an example: "As the days went by, Justin got used to the great fortress that was the heart and headquarters of Carausius's defense against the Saxons. Under the tall grey pharos that had once been triumphant with bronze and gleaming marble, the galleys and the merchantmen came and went; and all day behind the noises of the fortress, behind the parade-ground voices and the trumpets of the tramp of marching feet sounded the ring and rasp of adze and hammer from the dockyard below he rampart walls. And behind the hum of the busy dockyard sounded always the sea." So I read that paragraph and immediately my daughter is like, "What??" So I have to try to paraphrase something like, "Justin is beginning to get used to the area where he was sent to work, even though it's very noisy with all the people and the sound of the sea". But when the entire book is written like this...it feels time consuming, difficult, and not at all very enjoyable. I'm wondering if anyone else has felt this way about this book. If I would do a poll, I'd ask: Did you stick it out and were glad you did? Did you stick it out and regretted it...thought it was a waste of time? Did you just quit reading it and moved on to the next book? Is this an awesome book and I'm just clueless?

The first chapter book I read aloud to my daughter was The Wolves of Willoughby Chase. She was sure she wasn't going to like it, because there weren't really any pictures...at least compared to the story books we had been reading. But...she loved it (it was a real favorite of mine when I was young). The next chapter books I read aloud to her were The Doll People series (The Doll People, The Meanest Doll in the World, The Runaway Dolls, and The Doll People Set Sail), . We both LOVED them. These first few chapter books, being read aloud by me, really sparked her to become a lover of chapter books on her own. Now she has so many favorites that she'll never part with. She just did a book review, on her blog, of one of her absolute favorites right now, The Green Ember.

Thanks for testing it Sommer. I didn't get it, so it just doesn't seem to work. I just took the gadget off. After we get our Etsy up and running we'll have to just put a link to that for people to contact me....if anyone ever will anyway. Thanks for your comment on the blog. She loves such nice comments as yours. Thank you so much for doing that Monica. She is really enjoying her blog. She loves looking at the stats and seeing viewers from, not only the US, but Australia, Brazil, New Zealand, Panama, Poland, Canada, and of course....Switzerland. Pretty cool.

Sorry everyone...I'm still trying to figure this thing out. Can someone please test the contact email gadget on the right side, under the archive?? I don't think it's working right. Thanks!

Well, we had a little drama last night. :lol: My daughter was on her blog dashboard and deleted a couple of unneeded drafts. She clicked one too many times and deleted her How I Learned to Knit blog post. :banghead: Oh my! She kept her cool pretty well though. Then I spent the next hour trying to find out how to recover it. No such luck. So she had to rewrite the whole thing (I actually think she did a better job this time). The thing that upset her the most was her one and only comment from Monica got deleted. Monica, can you repost your comment for her?? That would make her day. When she realized it was gone she said, "But it was such a great compliment!!!" You had said, "Your creations are beautiful! Congrats on starting your blog and good luck!" So lesson learned....be careful what you click on in the dashboard. LOL!

Thank you everyone for your nice comments. She's really happy with the nice things you've said. She has so many blog post ideas....just got another one posted today. Thank you for letting me know. I thought I would get an e-mail, but I didn't realize I had to set it that way. I set Comment Moderation to Always (I probably wouldn't have even known what that was or where it was if you hadn't told me :001_smile: And thank you for your comment....she was thrilled. Now if I could figure out a way to change the color of that comment...but I've googled and can't come up with a solution. At least it can be highlighted to see it better. Thanks again!

Thank you! Shawnee will be happy to hear this. She wanted this for a long time too. Finally I thought....well, why not? As an added bonus...it has really helped improve her writing. I do look it over and fix spelling and punctuation before it's posted (and I go over it/explain with her and she fixes the errors)...but I've been seeing big improvement already.

I don't know if this is the right board to post about this or not, but it's the only board I frequent here. My youngest daughter, who just turned 13 last month, finally has her blog up and running. She's pretty excited about it. There's not much there yet, but soon she will be adding book reviews and pictures of her art journal pages, and other things she makes. Mostly it's to advertise her doll hats, scarves, mittens, and ponchos that she knits and hopes to sell. If you have a few minutes, check it out. She would love it. Thanks! If any of you are experienced in how blogger is set up, I'd love to know how to make Tabs/Pages per topic. Like...one for art with her art journal posts in there....one to click on for all the book reviews she wants to write...one for her knitting, etc. It's total trial and error for us right now...not sure really how to set it up the way I want. Seems like how it is now...each post will just be one on top of the other...no organization. So if you want to read a book review (after those are on there) you'll have to scroll through everything just to find it. I know on the side there's the Blog Archive...but that looks like it will be posts per month. I'd like it to be posts per category/topic, if that makes sense. Also, other than eBay, any ideas on where I can post her doll knits? Someone told me Etsy, which I know next to nothing about.

Please tell me where I can get one of those!

I'm only familiar with RS4K and NOEO. With NOEO he'll have multiple books to read from...a little from this book, a little from that book, per lesson. I'm sure it's easy enough to skip the labs...but you'd have to buy all of the books and the manual to know what parts of the books to read for each lesson. Probably not the best choice. I think RS4K would be much more easier to just read from the book and skip any labs. But, it also won't last very long to go through. If you can find RS4K chem student books used and reasonably priced, you could actually have him read through elementary, middle, and high school...since he'd just be reading and not doing labs (although it's basically the same info in each book, but each one is more in depth). You can go to their website and see a lot of samples from each book. Don't discount the elementary book. It's wonderful. It really helps you understand the basics of chemistry.

Focus On (FO) "focuses on" one topic per book. So if you did two, you'd cover those two science topics. Building Blocks (BB) will touch on all 5 of the topics, but not as much of those topics per year. So, let's say you wanted to cover chemistry. You could do it all in one book (FO) or you could do a couple of those chapters in BB...but then you won't get back into the next couple of chem chapters until the next BB, and then the next. BB is a little more wordy. As for which is more in depth...that's hard to say. It reminds of math....do you want mastery or spiral? Mastery would be the FO...do it ALL in one shot. Spiral would be the BB....take a little, go on to the next thing, then the next year cycle back around a do a little more of each. If you strictly looked at the way it's written...then BB would be more in depth. Here is an old post of mine where I compared the two. I've quoted how they both take the same material but how they each word it differently...BB being more in depth. BTW...I changed my plan that I had in post number 4. I have all the Focus On books and I'm using them similar to the BB set up. Taking a few chapters at a time and then going on to the next topic...then back around again and again (if that makes sense). We really like the books....simple and to the point. They are not very rigorous, so that may be a good thing for you or not a good thing. It's perfect for us. I haven't seen Rainbow, but my guess would be that Rainbow would be more rigorous than RS4K.

Real Science 4 Kids is what we are using and like it a lot. They have a new Building Blocks series too. We are using the Focus On Middle School series and cycling through them all (which is basically using the Focus On like the Building Blocks ....so that we aren't covering one topic at a time, as each Focus On book is designed to do. Hope that makes sense. If not, ask and I'll explain). Another secular science is NOEO. If you weren't looking for just secular I'd suggest Science Excursion. ETA: It does seem difficult to truly find a secular science curriculum (as is the case with history). Some could (and have) argued that RS4K and NOEO are not truly secular, and they probably aren't. I'm suggesting them as secular choices only because the school program we are in through our school district only lets us choose secular curriculum, and they allow both RS4K and NOEO (probably what Christian parts, if any, are in them are not known by our school). They denied my request to get Science Excursion, which is really what I had wanted to use a few years ago.

I work an average of 25 hours a week. We don't school the WTM way at all. My daughter turned 13 last month, so thankfully she does certain things on her own when I'm at work. What probably is typically done by mom/child in the morning or early afternoon, 4 or 5 days a week, is done at our house at 9 pm and sometimes later, 6 - 7 nights a week (what's a weekend??). We tend to school in little bursts....as in, something before work, something she does while I'm at work, something when I come home, then our history reading at night before bed, etc. I would imagine it would be more challenging with the ages of your kids. But it can be done. Think outside the box...be flexible...be willing to school they way that works for you, not how it normally is done.

:iagree: I'd get one in a heartbeat.

I'm not sure if this was already posted...I saw it on FB and thought I'd share. The Periodic Table of Elements in Pictures and Words Here is a little more about it, and if you scroll down to the end there's a song too.

What a variety of answers. Interesting. We are using BookShark level 6 Reading with History this year, which is for ages 11 - 13. My daughter just turned 13. This level uses SotW Vol 1 Ancient Times and Vol 2 The Middle Ages as read-alouds. Years ago, I tried reading SotW 1 to her, it just didn't go over with her....or me. She had no interest. This year, she is really enjoying it, and so am I. Btw...the next level of BkSk, level 7 for for ages 12 - 14, uses Volumes 3 and 4.