We are using these this spring - the drawback I can see is - LOTS of paper prep work - there are tons of copies to make, on certain types of paper, and you have to print lesson by lesson. Of course, I think the copyright does not allow you to copy for a whole class, just within a family, so each family would have to purchase a CD, and then I guess you could make each family do its own copying. But I would be concerned with making sure that everyone had all the papers necessary, and all the little extras to make each part of the lapbook. It is a fun project, just a lot of work! Anne Marie

On the old board I posted as Anne Marie, I have used the new board as a chance to change over to our school name. I have been homeschooling 4 years now, and read WTM about a year before I started. I was homeschooled myself from 3rd grade - 12th, but was not really ready to commit to homeschooling when I first had kids. My husband was a public school graduate, and really had no issues with ps at the time - and said he would NEVER pay for private :) When my first was getting close to school age, I realized I was not ready to send him off to spend 7 hrs a day in a room, when all he wanted was to be outside! So we did K as a trial, and 4 years later still take it a year at a time . My husband is a great supporter, and I now have 4 kids, 2 school age. WTM was what gave me the confidence that yes, I could homeschool my kids thru highschool if I wanted to, though we follow a LCC approach more now. I have enjoyed this board for 4 years now, and appreciate all the wonderful ideas I get from here! Thanks to all of you who take the time to post your hard work, I love this board! Anne Marie

We use the CD's and listen to them in the car - this year we are listening to the Middle Ages. I also do what I call World and Modern History component instead of Modern Studies - meaning we are sort of staying on a 4 yr history rotation, but it is very laid back. This also includes our geography studies. As for science, we are reading the Apologia Astronomy course this year, but not doing much other than reading it and a few supplemental books about astronomy (and the occasional experiment if I really get motivated :) We also do nature studies informally, meaning whenever I feel like dragging the baby out we take a nature walk, but really I feel like this is well covered independently and with my husband's help. My kids spend a lot of time outside, and the 3rd grader has begun on his own to start a nature journal, drawing when he feels like it. Also, my husband is a big outdoorsman, so when he is off they are usually outside fishing, hunting, building something, or in the summer planting and caring for the garden. Oh, and of course in the spring I consider the many wonderful pets brought in from the creek and studied- snakes, snapping turtles, lizards, fish, frogs etc - to fulfill our animal studies :) Anne Marie

This last fall with number 4 I took off 2 weeks. Would have started back sooner b/c I had an easy time with this one, but I had already told the kids 2 weeks, and they made me stick to it! I agree it is easier to get back into things with a newborn than when they hit 6-8 months, she has really just fit right into our day with no major disruptions. Anne Marie

my first grader: very light! prayers, pledge, recitation - 10 minutes Bible - I read Golden Children's Bible and lives of saints aloud to both - 10 min Phonics - Review phonograms from SWR, then I show her 2-3 pages in ETC and in her copybook (memoria press) and she does these independently while I show 3rd grader his Latin and Math then she reads aloud to me from McGuffey reader, Bob book or other easy reading level book. We are beginning to add in some SWR dictation of spelling words very slowly. Math - We spend about 15 minutes on Math, right now we are going over adding and subtracting using Ray's arithmetic and some of the games from Serendipity's gnomes and gnumbers lesson plans Then she usually takes a break to play with 3yo while I work with 3rd grader she joins us to listen to me read from either Child's Book of Myths, Aesop's fables or 50 Famous Stories (5-10 min) We spend 15-20 minutes reading Apologia astronomy once or twice per week, the other days we read from The Discovery of New Worlds and a history read aloud (King Arthur right now) These are the 3rd graders "subjects" but she is listening in. Once a week we read from Paddle to the sea and do the map activities, and this week I have added in reading from Seven Little Sisters by Jane Andrews - we are going to spend one or two weeks per ch learning about the seven continents. This only takes about 15-20 minutes. Sometime during the week I read a Hans Christian Anderson Fairy tale to her, and we also read Just So Stories together (one every couple of weeks). We started reading the Burgess Animal book this year, but I slacked off on that wanting to create some activity to go with it, I need to just forget that and go back to just reading it for fun. Finally, once a week we spend 10 minutes on picture study, we listen to our composer during lunch preparation, and we read our poems in the afternoon during tea time. As for family readings, right now we are reading Swiss Family Robinson, and will start Robin Hood this week. I am also planning to do the Chronicles of Narnia again this year (I start reading the cycle each time a new child is 3-4 years old in our house) Last year we read the first 2 Little House on the Prairie books. All told, she only spends about an hour and a half in formal schooling each day, but we do read a lot, and they don't really consider that "school" :) Anne Marie

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not my area - should not be posting here, but here goes- first, I am assuming the first part of the problem actually said Sean has 1135 "US" stamps. He has 3 times as many foreign stamps as U.S. stamps. How many stamps does he have altogether. If you multiply by 3 you will get the number of foreign stamps, but that will not give you the number of TOTAL stamps, you would have to then add the number of US stamps - so 3 x 1135 = number of foreign stamps, then add the original US stamps (1135) to get a total. So they are just showing you that you can eliminate a step and multiply by 4 to get the total number of stamps. Does that make sense? Anne Marie

My plans (always subject to change of course :) Memoria Press Christian Studies I - Golden Children's Bible, Lives of the Saints Latin - Lively Latin 2 I hope ? or back to Latin Primer Math - Ray's Intellectual Arithmetic, maybe Singapore 3A, 3B also English - Classical Composition, Lamb's Tales of Shakespeare Geography - N & S American countries, rivers and mountains, Holling's Tree in the Trail and maybe Minn of the Mississippi History - American Revolutionary period, Western Expansion, American presidents Science - thinking about doing botany Waldorf style from Serendipity poets - Tennyson, Dickinson, Wordsworth Artists - Van Gogh, Monet, Degas Composer - Bach, Liszt, Tchiakovsky Now that I have posted this, do I have to stick to it ? :) Anne Marie

Currently this is what my 1st grader is doing - Golden Children's Bible, Let the Little Children Come to Me (Child Martyrs) Phonics - ETC and learning SWR phonograms - starting to do a few of the lists in SWR, but very slowly (she is having more difficulty learning to read than my 1st one) Math - Ray's Arithmetic Primary and Gnomes & Gnumbers from Serendipity Classical Studies - Child's Book of Greek Myths, Aesop's Fables, Geography -Seven Little Sisters and Holling's Paddle to Sea and Seabird 50 Famous Stories, D'Aulaire's Leif the Lucky, Columbus, Pocahontas Listens in and sometimes illustrates notebook pages for 3rd grader's read alouds - Apologia Astronomy and Discovery of New Worlds (middle ages period) gymnastics and piano lessons composer study - Wagner, Vivaldi, Handel art study - DaVinci, Michelangelo, Rembrandt poetry - Stevenson, Rossetti Anne Marie

CW with 3rd grader - but no grammar - we do grammar with Lively Latin SWR 1st grader uses ETC and McGuffey readers Anne Marie

Discovery of New Worlds, SOTW 2 CD's and Time Travelers Explorers and Colonization Anne Marie

Snapshot of our verson of LCC morning routine - I have a 1st and 3rd grader - this is the 3rd grader's schedule, my 1st grader concentrates on Ray's arithmetic, ETC for phonics, and joins in for recitation, Bible, and most readings prayers, readings from lives of the saints, golden Children's Bible readings recitation - includes Latin forms, poems, Bible verses, Spanish, usually a folk song, pledge of allegiance, science memory lists, history memory lists Latin - Lively Latin (just switched to this a few weeks ago and loving it!) only takes about 15-20 minutes unless he is illustrating a history story Math - Rays Arithmetic with occasional Singapore supplements - this takes about 30 minutes World Studies (this is my combination modern studies and geography) we are reading Discovery of New Worlds and focusing on Middle Ages, which will lead us into studying explorers and colonization this spring Also we are doing the Holling books - Paddle to the Sea and Seabird These are not done every day, maybe 2x per week for 30 min - 1hr if we are doing a project English studies - grammar is covered in latin, but we have been having fun using the Serendipity lesson plans and the Ruth Heller Lively Language Lessons books. We are trying to do CW Aesop, but I keep getting bogged down in it - my fault not his! And we do SWR spelling lists - daily 30 minutes Science - 2 times/wk - Apologia Astronomy - nature studies when ever we want Reading Alouds - a greek myth from Child's Book of Myths, an Aesop's Fable (Milo Winter version), 50 Famous Stories, Hans Christian Anderson fairy tales These are rotated through the week Silent Readings - Wonderbook, Tanglewood Tales, Farmer Boy, Wind in the Willows We also add in picture study CM style on Wednesdays, and composer study every day at lunch (listen to a certain piece every day for 1-2 weeks as we prepare for lunch) Poetry is done at tea time - afternoon break for snacks Both take piano lessons It has been a great year so far for us, and I am really enjoying a more streamlined approach with Latin as the non-negotiable subject. Anne Marie

A few years ago someone posted a wonderful step by step plan for scheduling and planning, and it has been very useful for me. Here are the steps I go through: Determine long term goals - why am I homeschooling, what do I want to accomplish with my kids? What topics to cover for the year - based on LCC, What your ... grader needs to know, Ambleside online and WTM Basic idea of start and finish date, vacations, time I know we will need off (ex: we started school early this year so I could take 3 weeks off in October when I had a baby) Begin looking for books/curriculum to cover the topics chosen, using the above mentioned books as my guides. Order major resources - look them over and make sure they will cover what I want. Then I plan my teacher book - which includes a one page overview of all subjects and the books to teach them - and then breaks each subject down with one page per subject. Example: for math, I just have a table with the math lessons listed, and topics the lessons cover - created basically from the table of contents. For our classical studies, I have the books we will read, with each chapter listed and a box next to it to check it off after it is completed. Then, I create a schedule 4 weeks at a time. I decide how much we need to accomplish in the four weeks, and fill in a weekly planning page for that. On sunday before each school week, I try to fill in roughly what we will do each day, just to make sure I don't forget things. We do not stick to this rigidly, and sometimes the whole plan goes out the window, but it gives me a starting point, and makes me feel confident that we are getting things done. My son is in 3rd grade this year and when my dh asked him how school was going (about 2 weeks into the year) he said, actually, pretty good, mom is a lot more organized this year :) That convinced me more than anything that my planning was worth it! I also have a master plan for our school day - which is a rough guide so that I know on Mondays we should read greek Myths, Tuesday we do Aesop's fables, Wednesday is picture study etc. That gives my kids the predictability they appreciate, and helps me to actually do some of the things that otherwise used to get skipped. This way, I don't plan out that we have to be at page X by Dec X, I move at their pace, but still can look at my teacher's book and see where and if I need to reevaluate. For 7th grade and up, I think a long term plan is important when it comes to subjects like math - since if they are going to college certain courses have to be accomplished, and in a certain order. I plan to use college admission requirements to help me in determining a lot of the upper level schooling, (if I am still homeschooling then :) along with LCC and WTM. Anyway, sorry this is so long, and much of it may not be what you were asking for - but I hope something helps ! Anne Marie

We follow much of LCC plan - but I still feel it is a do our own thing plan! What I love about homeschooling is the freedom to take the best from everything and put it all together to make the best fit for us! We have been using Apologia Astronomy this year, and enjoy it but still do nature study and other science related activities. We follow LCC for bible, latin and math, but for history I have created my own plan - based on some of the LCC suggestions, and other books I have found we like. I doubt there is a program out there that would ever make me completely happy (though I am often tempted by TOG :) Anne Marie

I would also say look at Lively Latin - we did Latin Primer for a while, which was fine, but required more work and motivation on my part. Lively Latin has been great - no work for me, and I love the amount of history, derivatives and art study that is included. Anne Marie