Hmmm, maybe that is what I need to tell my husband who says we are done having children! But, honey, think of all that curriculum going to waste :) Anne Marie who is content with four but would have more :)

I would not consider it a unit study. We do not do a formal grammar program outside of Lively Latin - but I do not feel we need to be studying ancient history as we do this. In fact, I think it would be better to approach this program after you have studied the ancients (since you really don't want to start Latin until there is a good foundation in phonics) It does indeed offer a lot of "extras", but it it not overwhelming at all. You can take it at whatever pace works, and really, the history and art elements just add a nice break every now and then to the more difficult Latin grammar exercises. We are currently studying the middle ages in history, and I still do picture study with the artist we are currently working on, so I do not eliminate those elements from our curriculum. In the spirit of the LCC approach, every year we should be studying some element of the ancient Roman or Greek period, so this can serve as fulfilling a Classical Studies element to a curriculum. The exercises involving history are mostly readings, with the assignment to create a drawing every so often of a particular event. The art is given to illustrate the historical events you are reading, so we study them, but do not spend a lot of time worrying about who the artist is etc. They merely add to the beauty of the historical study. Hope this makes sense, mostly I would just say, it is the easiest (to implement) Latin program I have looked at, and we are enjoying it very much! Anne Marie

fwiw - I would not start latin with the Ker until reading fluently. And I would get 2 years of Latin under my belt before starting Greek. As for the Spanish - that would actually be the one to start sooner (you could do Spanish orally with both now - Latin with the older one, and begin Latin with the younger one once a good foundation in reading is established). They will have a better fluency in Spanish the earlier it is started (and will have more fun too!). Spanish should be taught in the same way we learn our native tongue (oral, lots of vocabulary, minimal translation), while Latin is approached from the grammatical standpoint, since typically one of the main goals of Latin is precise and logical thinking. Anne Marie

our favorites - Egermeiers is good if you want a "story Bible" and then we moved on to the Golden Children's Bible - which has beautiful language (more like King James) and is a great training for reading more difficult literature later.

I use it with 2 kids right now - grades 1st and 3rd - I have gone through the Primary with the 3rd, and we are working on Intellectual. I have liked it, especially for the beginning work with numbers (the first lessons from Primary are wonderful for a real grasp of numbers I think) and the problems as you progress are quite challenging. Some consider the language a bit archaic, but rarely has that been a problem. It is systematic and simple to use, though I do like having the Beechick teachers guide for ideas and a basic schedule. Things I don't like about it - the main problem I have is that we have currently stopped it to go back to Singapore 2 level to work extra problems in multiplication. My son does not have his times tables down yet, and I am not ready to move on (though we could continue into fractions just fine, I just want to give him a little more time). Also, there are no exercises/lessons for measuring, time or money in the first years, which is not really a big deal, but might bother some. We covered money through our chore system and daily life, and just occasionally do some practice on time and measuring. Anne Marie

I have slowly become more organized and more scheduled. In the first few years I think you can get away with being less scheduled, but I found that as mine get older, I get more nervous if I do not have some established routines. This year my son actually told my husband that he was enjoying school more because "mom seems a lot more organized this year" - this coming from an 8 yo! I have used MOTH to help me create a plan, but we are far from sticking to a strict time schedule, especially with a nursing newborn in the house, but we do follow a certain order for subjects, and I plan out our assignments about 4 weeks at a time, then weekly plan out a daily schedule for the upcoming week. We never accomplish it all, which is why I never plan details more than a few weeks ahead - it just makes me feel like a failure! If I knew how to attach a file I would attach my schedule, but it says my doc is too large, and I do not know how to compress a file!

check out trivium academy blog - she has lots of her favorites linked for preschool printables -

I have spent about $1000 per year in the past few years - with 2 kids - but I expect that to slowly drop (don't need new math, LA, Latin programs for future)

reading Swiss Family Robinson for 8 and 6yo

I think it looks good - it always seems like more when you type it out, but things at that level never take as long as I think (thank goodness!) I would consider the Parables as English Studies if you really have to classify it - but if you needed to call it science (if you are needing to report some science for records purposes) I think that is fine too.

I think that yes it depends on your worldview - but also, really to me if you are going to study prehistory it would mostly be evolutionary studies, which I would group under science. I think you would cover it in science instead of as history.

Personally , they bug me b/c they are just so cheesy sounding - very "Sunday school songish" - even the history ones. That said, lots of people love them, and when I play them for my kids, they enjoy them, but they grate on my nerves to no end!

We follow LCC mostly, but I love Ambleside as a great resource for independent reading, scheduling some of my books, and I use their plans for composer. poet, and artist studies. We are also using Discovery of New Worlds this year as our history read aloud, which I discovered from Ambleside.

okay, really, pancakes every morning ? WOW, please don't tell my kids - they might try to move to your house, pancakes around here are reserved for only days when daddy is off :)

We are also using a MOTH schedule, and rotate subjects and kids through the morning (I have 3rd, 1st, 3yo and 3month old). We do prayers, Bible, recitation together, then I give 1st her ETC to work on, and show 3rd his Latin lesson. Then 1st is ready to read aloud to me - then 3rd does math with me (usually only needs me for w few minutes, then does lesson on his own). Once Latin and Math are done, we gather together again and I read to all - myths, fables, history whatever is on the schedule - then we move on to Language Arts - usually I send one to practice piano and work on LA with other, the switch. So we alternate, and of course, 1st grader does not have as much to get through, so much of her day is spent playing with 3yo.

We are using Wonderbook this year as part of our literature/English Studies, it has been a great complement to the Child's Book of Myths - Anne Marie

Well, we are only half way through our myths book - we only read one myth per week (and occasionally miss a week b/c of extra curric). It is not hard to do this slowly, D'Aulaires actually requires reading several per week to finish in a year. We are using Child's Book of Myths, so I read one per week, we talk about it some, but it is not somthing we spend lots of time on. The point is, every year you spend a little time each week on Greece and Rome, instead of relegating it to a once every four years study.

Classical Studies This year we are doing Greek Myths for classical studies - we mostly just read the myths aloud, and sometimes we do an Evan Moor Literature Pocket to go with it. LCC has a plan for classical studies, which suggests the Memoria Press workbooks for FMOG and FMR , and then in the older grades goes into meatier readings from Ancient Greece and Rome.

Have you looked at the Time Travelers by Homeschool in the Woods? These are really neat, with lots of fun things that boys will get excited about.

We use Ray's Arithmetic as our primary, with Singapore for extra practice/variety.

I love the look of Lively Latin, and the variety of exercises - I am printing it out one lesson at a time, (a lesson is 20 plus pages). So I print out the lesson, put it in my binder, then give him the pages to work on each day. It takes us about 2 weeks to get through a lesson. When he is finished with the work, he files it in his own binder. I prefer books myself, but this has not bothered me at all. I do not print out any of the teacher notes/ info, just look at it online to see if there is anything I need, but most of it is self explanatory. Anne Marie

Did not like Prima Latina myself, we used Latin Primer for a while, but it was very teacher driven, requiring more motivation and creativity on my part. We started Lively Latin 3 weeks ago, and it has been such a great change. It teaches effeciently, grammatically and creatively, includes history, art study and derivative studies that have been great, and very low key for me - we are loving it! Anne Marie

We are also using Lively Latin - and there is more than enough grammar in it to not do a separate program - and I really don't see the point until they are in 4th grade anyway. We are doing some fun stuff a la Serendipity and the Ruth Heller Lively Language books, but most grammar instruction is coming through the Latin, and I really don't see any reason to do more right now.

Here is the table of contents for my notebook - this is the first year I did anything this elaborate, and I must say that it has been such a grounding and organizing focal point for me. Some might consider it unneccessary, but for those of us who really like the structure, it can be a very helpful tool, and saves me lots of time through the year. Table of Contents Prayers & Inspiration Morning & Midday Prayers Daily Schedule & Calendar Weekly Lesson Plans (these are mostly a schedule of assignments I do no more than 2-4 weeks in advance) Attendance & Assignments Record (this is where I track what we actually do - not the dream :) Overview for Year - all subjects and books used for each subject The following it is a page for each subject - usually a list of chapters, topics to cover etc - except the MA plan, which is a table with the topics we will cover for history, with books, art projects and other items that correlate Christian Studies Icon Study plan Grandma’s Stories (a lives of Saints book we read) Greek Myths Mathematics World and Modern Studies Middle Ages plan Middle Ages Art plan Explorers Unit Study - lesson plan page for Time Travelers unit study Explorers Readings Colonization Unit Study - lesson plan page from Time Travelers unit study Paddle to the Sea & Seabird CM Geography plan - from Tanglewood Curriculum core book English Studies Fifty Famous Stories Wonderbook & Tanglewood Tales Classical Writing: Aesop Winston Grammar Science Poet Study - list of poems Art Study - list of artists (3) and pieces to study a la CM Composer Study - list of composers (3) and pieces a la CM Spanish - check list of phrases/vocab to teach Field Trip Information - all the flyers I get for places I want to go Homeschool Information Tennessee Laws Socialization Articles - to give to those obnoxious people who ask if my kids are getting socialized :) Recitation/Memory Work - list of all memory work for the year - I used Hannah's grammar guide a lot for this It took me a while to pull it together, but now that I have a format I am happy with, next year I know it will come together much easier - and I really rely on it on a daily basis to keep on track - Hope this helps - Anne Marie

I have used ETC to get them reading, then use SWR - because I mine have struggled with trying to read with SWR, but ETC seems to take them through the steps painlessly (and they don't have to write if they struggle with that). The way we did it was I taught the phonogram sounds as we did the primer level ETC, then worked through books 1 & 2, then we begin the SWR spelling lists. If your child is reading then it would not be needed, unless you just wanted some practice on decoding, and variety :)