looks fine to me - it has lots of things along the side - all the grad info, curriculum books etc. Anne Marie

okay, for years I thought, who has the time for this? but I guess I am jealous of all the fun the rest of you are having, so I finally broke down and created my own blog - would love for you all to take a peek! http://sttheophanacademy.blogspot.com/

Well, I always seem to put these things off, and my son LOVES projects. I have spent the last few weeks in a planning mode after pulling my MOTH back out, and reading 3 other wonderful books on making life happen instead of letting it happen to you, so I was really motivated. Especially since I realize that I am not following through on my promises with my kids (a path my father walked, and which frustrated me to no end - I am still waiting for the train tracks to get set up for our model trains :) ) and I never wanted to be the mom who said yeah we'll do that later, then never did it. That is the beauty of homeschool, right? - I don't have to finish my school year at any particular time, so if this means a little extra school at the end, fine, I am okay with that. Anyway, we are having fun, we have accomplished a lot already! BTW - we are planning to be out at the Discovery Center next Wed March 6 (around 1pm), if you wanted to join us? My oldest would love to meet some homeschool boys his age! Anne Marie

Afraid not - a friend gave me some starter - I think the starter is a carefully guarded amish secret :) I don't know of anyone who actually knows it. Like I said, it has been years since I made bread - but WOW was it good - I did not realize this was such a sweet bread. The kids keep begging for more :) Anne Marie

WOW Thank you so much for this! I have been debating using the VP memory songs (which I hate) and this will give me a chance to avoid them! Anne Marie

Okay, mom needs a break, and a chance to plan, and clean house, and catch up on laundry, sewing, ironing, baking etc :) So this week we are doing all the fun history projects I never get around to. I promised them no math, no latin (I know, it's a sin, but I will ask for pardon later), nothing but history and geography! We are reviewing what we have learned (doing Middle Ages), and today we made salt dough Byzantine mosaics, filled in lots of our history portfolio, read lots of King Arthur, made a cardboard castle, and are now sitting down for teatime with Amish Friendship bread I made myself (first homemade bread I have made in 10 years!). Anyway, we are still doing Bible and recitation in the morning, and have piano and art lessons this week (and the dreaded soccer season has begun) but other than that, they are doing lots of coloring, the older one is doing some writing for the history portfolio, and we plan to finish our Viking boat, open our Knights chest, make a Viking Rune (that got started 5 weeks ago and never finished), and an illuminated gospel cover. I think that this is the only way I will ever make all those great projects actually happen. And then maybe they will be ready to dive back in next week, and hopefully so will I! Anne Marie

picture study, occasional art classes in our area, and I am planning on using The Phonics of Drawing from Masterpiece Art Instruction this spring as soon as his current art class ends. Anne Marie

I feel like I am always planning for the next year! :) I do love it, though I am trying to be better about waiting! As for when to buy - if you are able to plan ahead and have a list and buy used I think it is a great idea. I try not to have to place any important orders from April to July, since this is when most vendors are overwhelmed with orders and things take so much longer to ship. That said, this year I am waiting until later in the summer. I feel we need to finish the school year so I can really look at things for next year. And I am dreaming of that uninterrupted planning week that haunts my dreams. Also, I am hoping to check out the new suggestions in the revised LCC book. I am also hoping I won't have to buy too much, since much of what we will be doing I already have. Anne Marie

My son is 8 - has been reading them all year. If he is a good reader, I would say try them - maybe have him read a few paragraphs aloud every now and then to check if he is having trouble reading them? As for themes, I loved these as a child, have not read them in years, but I do not remember any older themes - usually they are all the same, the bully or cheat pulls one over on everyone except EB, who solves the case and stops the other kids. It is the one "twaddle" series that I have allowed him to read (well, that and boxcar children :)

Do you administer it yourself? And who do you go through for scoring? Anne Marie

We are getting ready to begin the explorers in a few weeks. I am really excited, I have been through it all, and printed everything, and I think it will be a lot of fun to do. I'll let you all know what we think when we finish! Anne Marie

we are reading them - they like most of them, but some of them are not as "exciting" so they tend to get a bit more bored with the story. Anne Marie

without looking, we are around week 23 - I know we hit the half point at Christmas, but have had a few weeks off at the start of the year. Why is Jan-Feb so hard to get back into the excitement and swing of things??? Anne Marie

We have done composer study a la CM - I select 3 composers for the year. I get a cd, a biography if I can etc. We read a little about the composer, then we listen to a particular piece. I play that piece every day as we prepare lunch. We don't spend a lot of time discussing, maybe I will mention a particularly dominant instrument or something about the theme. We will listen to the same piece for 1-2 weeks, then move on to another one. It is very simple, but they gain so much. We do 3-5 pieces per composer. My son (8) can identify a number of pieces when he hears them, and usually can tell me about the composer. The goal is enjoying the music, becoming familiar with it, and not making it an unpleasant chore, but a joy and a privilege to listen to such pieces. We also listen to the classical kids CD about that composer if there is one. It has worked wonderfully for us, and it requires little work from me, and the kids do not look at this as "school" but rather a part of our home life. Anne Marie

Welcome! Here is another site that might give you some ideas for how well the classical and CM philosophies meld. http://www.tanglewoodeducation.com/ We follow LCC but with a lot of the CM concepts such as nature studies, composer study, picture study, poet study etc. (and a little bit of Waldorf art thrown into the mix :) Anne Marie

Most companies will let you place your order anytime, but they will not ship them until the season is right for them. Anne Marie

we follow the basics of LCC - and it really relieved a lot of stress for me. I have not ditched chrono. history exactly, but it does not get the same emphasis as I felt I had to give it before I read LCC. I value WTM b/c it is what convinced me I could indeed homeschool my kids all the way if we decide to, but LCC helped me to realize it did not have to be as hard as I was making it :) Anne Marie

My 3yo loves this the most too!!! That, and a collection of measuring items and a stool to reach the sink - we have a kitchen adjoining the school room and she will play for 30 minutes with some water and toys. If this is not doable, you can fill a small baby tub (like from the hospital) with water and place it on a shower curtain liner in the room you are working in. Also , I have a few boxes of toys that only come down during school - like Mr. Potato head, a collection of kids meal toys, a set of magnetic wooden dolls with the clothes. These can only be played with one box at a time, and only on certain days and times, so she never gets bored with them! Anne Marie

k-2 - phonics, mathematics later - latin, mathematics, writing

This is one of our favorite "school times". My kids love being outside, so we try to take a nature walk as often as I can handle it (w a newborn :) We are in fact on our way out the door to our local wildlife preserve to walk around there this morning :) The Comstock book is great, we love it - along with a few good field guides. If you are loving this part of CM - you really should try doing a "tea time". This is our afternoon snack - with hot chocolate (or lemonade in the summer) served in china teacups (I have a collection of mismatched pieces, so even the 3 yo gets a fancy cup). This is when I read our poetry - we do poetry on the Ambleside schedule so I read from the poet for that term, and then take requests for poems from previous readings. I never thought my 9 yo boy would beg to hear poetry, but he loves tea time! Oh, and no discussion of the poems, we are just listening and enjoying (and they do not have to recite memorized poems at this time, that is done during recitation). I have found that CM methodology works well for the arts especially, so we follow her ideas for "studying" art, music, poetry and nature (and of course narration). Check out Tanglewood School curriculum for some good ideas on incorporating CM and classical homeschooling. Anne Marie http://www.tanglewoodeducation.com/

Mine are still young, and I don't have too many things I would change, but I like to keep this poem in mind each day, so the regrets and "I wish I would haves" will not be so many in the future: If I had my child to raise over again If I had my child to raise all over again, I'd finger-paint more and point the finger less. I'd do less correcting and more connecting. I'd take my eyes off my watch, and watch with my eyes. I would care to know less and know to care more. I'd take more hikes and fly more kites. I'd stop playing serious, and seriously play. I'd run through more fields and gaze at more stars. I'd do more hugging and less tugging. I would be firm less often, and affirm much more. I'd build self-esteem first, and the house later. I'd teach less about the love of power, And more about the power of love. Yes math and latin are important, yes I want my kids to go to college and be "successful" but this poem and a quote from St. John Chrysostom help me focus when I get too bogged down in what curriculum to choose etc. “The primary goal in the education of children is to teach, and to give example of, a virtuous life.†- St. John Chrysostom

We are loving it too!!! After trudging through the first 12 lessons of Latin Primer, LL has been such a fun change for us, far more engaging, and far less work for me! Anne Marie

Me too! That is where the internet is so dangerous. You see people talking about something, you click and suddenly there it is for you to buy :) I have really had to learn to restrain myself, as I already have at least 2 boxes per month from Amazon that arrive at my home :) I am a book junkie - Anne Marie

This is the key, settling on an approach. Once you really understand what you want to accomplish, and how, you are better able to make choices that fit, and less likely to be influenced by the latest thing. I am guilty of buying just to see something, and fortunate to have a husband who allows me to spend too much money on school, but as I begin to feel more confident in my direction, I find that I buy fewer things that I will not use, and spend more time researching what I will buy before I buy it. Anne Marie