I hope you like it. Good thing you like quirky...cuz it is. :001_smile: And I wanted to clarify, in case anyone thinks otherwise...that blog post is not mine. I'll edit my post to reflect that.

I'm not sure how I feel about it. I'd like to use it as a stand alone. I *might* give it a try, since I think I need to do something different. Here's a blog post about it. ETA: this blog post is not written by me.

Lady Treble & the Seven Notes.

Well, we do have it...but haven't really used it much yet. I got it for my son several years ago. But, he's pretty much a self learner and plays wonderfully (he's 20 btw). I swear, I don't know how he does it. He can listen to pretty much any song...and style of music...and just plays it. I think he's a guitar genius and I don't know where he got that from. I wish I could give a review of it. I'm hoping my daughter will have an interest in it and we can begin to use it with her. But right now she is wanting to learn piano over guitar. I would e-mail Steve Krenz and ask his advice about the age. He's very helpful. Sorry I couldn't be more helpful.

Learn and Master Guitar Homeschool Edition by Steve Krenz. It's a bit pricey....so I don't know that I'd recommend it since you are already paying for lessons. But, I thought I'd mention it in case anyone else is interested too.

Thank you. I ordered a couple of levels. I hope we like it and can teach ourselves well enough on our own. Thanks again for your recommendation.

Even though it's a bit pricey, I would recommend Steve Krenz Learn and Master Guitar Homeschool Edition. It on sale until tomorrow! You can also sign up for free weekly Live Lessons with Steve and a guest. It's pretty neat, and they always have giveaways. One Live Lesson we sat in on had the guest Rory Hoffman, who is a blind guitar player. It was really good.

Thanks. I would have done 1A, 1B, and then 1. :lol:

I saw that chart and that's what confused me. :lol: Looks like arrows are going back to previous levels. I don't know...can't make heads or tails of that chart for some reason. Thank you for telling me about Piano Pronto. I think I'd like to get this instead of Alfred. I'm thinking of the Keyboard Kickoff, Prelude, and maybe even Movement 1. What else do I need? Should I get the Teacher Duets for each? Or, do just the main books have everything that I need. Thank you so much! I'm hoping our school can place an order tomorrow, so I hope to hear back from you soon.

I know this shouldn't be rocket science...but I am getting confused. Do you start with Basic Course Level 1A (orange), then Basic Course Level 2A (green), then go on to Level 1 (silver), and then on up?? I know there are even earlier levels, but I'm looking for a new piano player who is 12. She's convinced she just will never be able to learn it. Maybe we should start with the Prep Courses? I'm quite certain I have the Prep books from when my older kids were little. In looking at the pictures, I'm pretty sure the books I have are Prep A...and, oh my goodness, there are a lot of Prep levels. So now I'm thinking that's probably not a good idea. There's just too many books and it's completely confusing me. I could use some help to figure this out. And is Alfred easy enough to learn/teach if I don't know how to play piano either??

Thank you for mentioning this book. I hadn't even heard of it before (in homeschooling I'm finding a lot of books I've never heard of before). It looks lovely. Can anyone tell me if there is a difference in the two books offered at Rainbow Resource? You'll need to put in the search "James Herriot" in order to see them both. One is called Treasury for Children with a grade range of preK - 3rd for $16.95. The other is called Treasury of Inspirational Stories for Children listed as grade 2 - 6 with a $13.95 price. I think they are both hard cover. They seem the same inside. I want to get one and also the audio. There is a sample of the audio on youtube...the author has a very nice voice.

The same passage is repeated daily for the week for highlighting only. The copywork will use different sentences from that passage/lesson each day. When I first saw SYS I thought my daughter would hate working on the same thing every day for the entire week. But, it's really not like that, at least in the levels we have. ETA: When I say "highlighting" I mean marking the chunks in different colors. A pack of colored highlighters are the exact same colors used in the program, so we use highlighters instead of the colored pencils it comes with (because my daughter loves using the highlighters). I supposed instead of me saying "for highlighting only" I should have said "for marking the chunks". Keep in mind that SYS is for spelling, not for learning to read. Encoding (spelling) is completely different than reading (decoding). I wouldn't say that SYS uses annoying or weird chunk combinations, because it's to help the student see the different combinations of spelling, not reading. We just started SYS recently and it's one of our favorite things for this year. We plan on sticking with it through the end. Personally I would not reinvent the wheel when it's already done for you with SYS...but that's just me (no time and no energy). You could get away without the teacher's manual, but it has all the color coded chunks marked for quickly checking your student's work. Without it, it would take more time and you might miss something yourself.

Thank you for sharing! :thumbup: I entered...it would be so cool to win. It is a great giveaway...especially including the art supplies!

Teaching Textbooks to MUS. I just got it. I'm hoping we'll be happy with the change!

I never liked the 2 for a Q. Makes no sense. I have my own style of cursive, which is kind of a combination of printing and cursive. Hey, I should write my own cursive book and call it Printsive (I wouldn't want to call it Cursing :lol:). Here would be my instructions, in my Printsive book, on how to make the upper case Q: "In one fluid motion, start at 11:00 and circle counterclockwise until you come to the 11 again and immediately, without lifting your pencil, shoot diagonally landing at 5:00. Voilà ...a capital Q."

November 27th will be 8 years since a friend of mine passed away from breast cancer. She was only 37. She had two young girls at the time. I'm so glad you are doing well Summer!

Why does spelling have to be so hard? I've tried so many programs. So far this year our spelling choice is really going well, and I think I've finally found a keeper. A little early to tell how effective it will be, but so far we both are enjoying it. We got Spelling You See. I've considered it before, in fact I was anxiously awaiting for it to first come out and then when the samples were available, I was disappointed and dismissed the idea. I thought for sure my daughter wouldn't like it...the repeating of the same page over and over the entire week. But, really the pages are all a little different. Maybe the same paragraph, but different parts of that paragraph are worked on each day. She absolutely LOVES using colored highlighters to mark the chunks. Colored pencils come with it, but I realized that a pack of colored highlighters are the same colors the program uses...and she just loves that. I'd have to say this is the first time we are both happy with our spelling choice. This is definitely my favorite spelling I've ever tried...and I've tried a LOT over the years. Look here for samples.

I would also recommend I Love Math, they are by Time Life. You can probably find a set on ebay. There are a set of books by Greg Tang that are good...look here. I'm sure you can find these used also, or maybe your library will be able to get them. Not necessarily living math books, but HSBC has a sale on Mathmania, which are fun workbooks. I got the entire 40 book set. Kinda pricey, If I could have afforded it, I would have loved to have gotten King Joe when my daughter was younger...I think she would have loved that. But unfortunately the price is crazy. And, then of course there are always Life of Fred elementary books.

Ooohhh...I see. I haven't even unwrapped the IG yet. Good to know...thanks!

We recently got BkSk 5, but haven't started (we are finishing up 4 still). I briefly looked at all the books before setting them aside. But, for the life of me, I can not remember what Eastern Hemisphere Explorer is. I really don't think we even got that. What is it?? Recently I was reading on the BkSk facebook group that there is a dislike for the World Book CD Rom. There were some suggestions for substitutions, so I ended up making a list and over the next several days found these books online (mostly eBay) for a reasonable price. I found other books myself (finding them while searching for the ones on my list). I had never planned on using the WB CD Rom in the first place, since I wasn't thrilled with the idea of reading off of the computer. So that FB discussion was just what I needed to hear. I probably ended up getting too many books to replace it with....but, I think it will be fine since we won't be reading most of these from cover to cover anyway, probably. But, I think these books are great and will make this year so much more enjoyable. Anyway, here's what I got: How People Live ~ this is a DK book with a red cover. Beautiful book! A Life Like Mine - How Children Live Around the World ~ also a DK book. Just like the previous book; great photos and information Circling the Globe ~ a little bit older book...but it's nice Material World What the World Eats ~ this is the kids version of Hungry Planet What the World Eats. This one is red. Let's Eat - What Children Eat Around the World Where on Earth? ~ Another DK book Time for Kids World Atlas Hope these give you some ideas. ETA: I forgot another good one: Children Just Like Me. It's another DK book.

We write in the workbook. I think there would be a mini war here if I told my kid to write out every math problem in a notebook. But, she's my youngest too....maybe it would be different if I needed the workbook for younger kids coming up. It is unfortunate, though, that the problems are so small. Sometimes she will rewrite larger in the space next to a problem. Whatever you decide to do, use the workbook or notebook though. I know some people just use the computer part and completely skip the workbook. I really think both are necessary. JMHO

I'm not sure when this deal ends today (my email from yesterday says "through the end of tomorrow"....which, of course is today). HSBC also has these kits on sale, but today only you can get an additional 10% off if you order through Educents. It comes to $9.00 per kit. When you click the link, it will say 4 days left....but the extra 10% is just for today. You need to use the code: MSB10 at the checkout.

Thank you so much!! By the way, I have sister named Erika....with a k too (which doesn't seem as popular as the c...but to me, the k is how it should be :001_smile: ). She was named after the peom by Mary Travers (from Peter, Paul, and Mary) Erika with the Windy Yellow Hair. Anyway...just thought you'd want to know. :lol:

Another vote for Fix it. But I can't really compare because I haven't used the other two. My daughter loves Fix It though.

Great to hear! We just got South and East last week. They look great! I'm planning on doing both this year and the other two next year. Our school bought these for us, and they only buy secular (although, sometimes I think they just don't know). I flipped through the two we have and noticed a little bit of religion mentioned. It doesn't appear to be saturated with it...and what is there looks like it could easily be skipped if need be. Hopefully the OP can confirm or deny this, since she actually went through a level.