Our language arts consists of: Grammar: R&S English Writing: Classical Writing Spelling/Vocabulary: finishing SWO, then MCT vocabulary Literature: lots of library books with narration or discussion

I have always tried to get the 3Rs done first when they are fresh and have a better attention span. Then we move on to content subjects like history and science (some years combined and others not). HTH

We ended up doing everything separately this past year. I created a MOTH schedule and rotated between the kids every half hour or so. When they were not working with me, they were either working independently or playing with the youngest. HTH

We use R&S with Classical Writing.

The recommendation is to schedule the primary readings for 5 days a week and the secondary readings for 3 days a week. We did both on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Thursdays and just the primary readings on Tuesdays and Fridays this past year. HTH

Our week is up!

Our week 36 is up!

I have some shelves in a cabinet down in the basement to store items. All the curriculum is down there as well as history related books. I keep the history books and now the Omnibus books on the lower shelves. The girls know that they are free to borrow any of these to read as long as they return them to the basement when they finish. HTH

We save and reuse all of our curriculum here with younger students. I would rather store it than rebuy it.

It's been several weeks since I had time to write about the books I've been reading. Here are the last 5 books I've finished and finally reviewed this week: 17. Inkheart by Funke 16. Henry V by Shakespeare 15. Sir Gawain and the Green Knight by Tolkien 14. Drumbeats in Williamsburg by Lawrence 13. A Spy in Williamsburg by Lawrence Up next is Dante's The Divine Comedy: The Inferno, Shakespeare's Richard III, Inkspell by Funke, and another book by Aiken in the Wolves of Willoughby Chase series. Books for 2012: 12. The Boggart and the Monster by Cooper 11. Macbeth by Shakespeare 10. The Boggart by Cooper 9. The History of the Kings of Britain by Monmouth 8. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Aiken 7. Winning His Spurs by Henty 6. The Song of Roland by Sayers 5. Sink Reflections by Cilley 4. A Midsummer's Night Dream by Shakespeare 3. Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Verne 2. Beowulf by Heaney 1. Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half by Economides

Pros Flexibility in scheduling Not dependent on specific books making it easier to use with whatever you're library has available Grade recommendations in the list make it easy to choose age appropriate books Thoughtful commentary that provides worldview for major topics and general overviews of others Easy to keep a wide range of ages on the same topic Great variety of books with choices for spines, topic specific books, and historical fiction Most comprehensive chronological list of topics for the history of Western civilization that I have seen Includes some art and music history related topics as well Cons Not scheduled out day by day Some people get bogged down by the number of book choices The spine books are listed first under each topic with their corresponding chapter number(s) for that topic. HTH

Our week 35 is up!

Something else. I group the lessons into mostly 30 minutes blocks of one on one with the kids. My day has generally gone something like this for the current school year. 8:00 w/ 7th grader - math, grammar, and writing lessons 8:30 w/ 2nd grader for math, then w/ 5th grader for math (15 minutes per lesson) 9:00 w/ 3yo for reading and preschool activities 9:30 w/ 5th grader for memory work, grammar lesson, literature narration, and Latin memory work (and check her math & science) 10:00 w/ 2nd grader for memory work, copywork, dictation, geography or grammar, and history (also check independent work) 11:00 w/ 7th grader - Logic, Greek, and Latin lessons (check math, grammar, and writing) 11:30 w/ 5th grader - dictation and writing lessons (check corrected work, grammar, and spelling) 12:00 Lunch and check corrected work 12:30 w/ 2nd grader - Bible, listen to his reading, read-aloud 1:00 Break / computer time 1:30 Check work 2:00 w/ 7th for science & Omnibus discussions Whenever that is done, I go through the corrected work and call each one over one at a time to go over problems that are still incorrect. HTH

Our week 34 is up!!

Ours is up!

Last year I combined our 4th and 1st using God's Design Heaven and Earth series. I read the beginner sections with the 1st grader and then read the regular section with the 4th grader. Most days we then did an activity together. This year for 2nd and 5th, I split them and had the 5th grader working independently on her own topic. Next year they both want to do chemistry, so I'll combine them again. For us combining usually means adapting a curriculum to fit the needs of each. Some years that has meant assigning extra library books for the older student. Some years that has meant paraphrasing or providing additional examples or explanations to the text in the curriculum to make it understandable to the younger student. HTH

Our week 32 is up!

Items in red, I would not purchase. WRTR should cover spelling and phonics. For handwriting, I just buy paper and write out their copywork. It really doesn't take that much time. For math, stick with what you already have. I wouldn't worry about reading the SOTW twice. Skip the audio and just read once from the book. The student pages are already included in the AG. For Bible, I would just read daily from either the Bible or a children's version of the Bible depending on your preference. I would get the SOTW activity guide. Searching for projects on the internet can suck up a lot of time and then you still have to get together the supplies. The Logic Safari book would be optional. Personally I would probably get that one. HTH

I posted some pics from my oldest son's birthday!

Our week is up!

Our week 30 is up!

We have one this week. My youngest caught a nice catfish over the weekend.

I finished and reviewed two more books. #12 - The Boggart and the Monster by Cooper and #11 Macbeth by Shakespeare. Not sure what I'll be reading next. Books 2012 10. The Boggart by Cooper 9. The History of the Kings of Britain by Monmouth 8. The Wolves of Willoughby Chase by Aiken 7. Winning His Spurs by Henty 6. The Song of Roland by Sayers 5. Sink Reflections by Cilley 4. A Midsummer's Night Dream by Shakespeare 3. Journey to the Centre of the Earth by Verne 2. Beowulf by Heaney 1. Cut Your Grocery Bill in Half by Economides

I think maybe the workbook is making the lesson seem harder than it needs to be. We use just the core so I can't really comment on what the workbook assigns. Using the core that lesson would have look something like this for us. 1. Dictation - DD writes 1 sentence from the model on a dry erase board. 2. Vocabulary - I ask if there are any words she doesn't know. If so, she tries to figure out the meaning based on the context. When that's not possible, we look it up in the dictionary. Then I pick 3-5 words depending on the sentence (and the amount of time we have). She underlines the words and writes the part of speech over them. 3. Copia - For each underlined word we try to come up with at least 3 synonyms using a thesaurus only if needed. She writes the choices on the board below the model. Using the list we create, she reads the sentence back to me twice substituting the words from the list into the original model as she goes. Then she's done. That would probably have taken us 20 minutes at the most. We were doing one lesson a week, so my DD would have then spent another 20 minutes or so working on her rough draft. 1. I would certainly feel free to substitute for any models that you dislike. 2. Don't feel like you have to fill in every blank in the workbook. If she's mastered that part of the skill, then mark it out and move on. 3. Do some of it orally instead. 4. Rather than let the workbook steer the lesson, my suggestion would be to look at the example in the core guide for the lesson and use that as a guide. Also assign one of the boys to entertain DD while you're working and have a consequence for unnecessary interruptions.:D That's the only way we get teacher intensive subjects done here. ;)HTH

We used the text, teacher's manual, tests, and answer key here. I would consider the student text and teacher's manual essential and the tests and answer key optional. I had DD use the student activity pages in the back of the text and write the answers on notebook paper. HTH