HO Modern???????

I have used Sonlight science K with a 1st and 2nd grader. We loved the internet links and did the workbook orally, as a review. It was a nice overview of science and we are now ready to bite a chunkier piece of science. We are doing Apologia Elementary Swimming Creatures and once that is done, we will do Elemental science, Chemistry, in accordance to the WTM.

I will be using the following with a 8 yo boy and a 9 yo girl.

Me too! When are you planning to start? We still in the beginning (3rd chapter) of the Swimming creatures science and we will start as soon as we finish that.

Fancy that! I was thinking about starting latin with my 7 and 8 yo, but I didn't want a rigorous program. I was leaning towards Song school latin. Today, actually, dh was asking me if there is a latin curriuculum for children. Well, I just bought it! I used the discount code: SPLISH and got 20% off too. I will print it tomorrow and report back.

I looked at the preview and it looks fun! I am getting excited! I don't want to start with a strict program. This fits the bill as far as price and time committment goes. I think I will try it. I find the phonetics a bit americanized- he actually says "Speak like a barbarian and be proud of it". I took latin in high school and the pronunciation was not the same. Anyway, we are all barbarians!

:bigear:

We love DITHOR here! Even my reluctant 7 yo writer can't wait to do DITHOR! We love it because: *DITHOR really helps to dig deeper into the book they are reading. They don't just read, the think about what they are reading. Frequently, strong readers just gobble books up and read just for the story. DITHOR slows them down and teaches them to really savour the book and look beyond the plot. *The questions are open ended and you can use any book. *The workbook has space for drawings and the children love to draw there. *Somehow, the children make personal connections with the book. For example, when we were reading a book from the Adventure genre, one question called of what the child would do if s/he would be in the hero's shoes. *Oh, yes, they read books drawn from different genres and they actually know what the word 'genre' means. *We love the biblical focus and the Godly traits that DITHOR includes. I can't tell you how many times I used the examples in our reading to remind my children to behave as they should be. *I find that their ability to think critical has increased. *It is flexible. We don't have to do all the books. *Every level is good for two years; for example the level 2/3 is good for grade 2 and grade 3. *It is not that expensive and in my opinion, very good value for money. As you can see, DITHOR is a hit around here. Best wishes!

Sonlight was the first program I have used with my 3-4 year old daughter and many of the books were over her head. I kept drooling over the catalogue for several years and then we went back and used the K core for 1st grade. We had a good year. However, I ended up ditching their LA and felt that what I had bought was really just a stack of books I could have bought from Amazon or elsewhere and a schedule of what to read when. Nothing more. Oh, perhaps a few comprehension questions. I switched to HOD Beyond for my 7 yo son and 8 yo daughter and I am very pleased with it. I feel there is a continuity and flow in the program. I feel we are doing something more than just reading books one after the other. I love the Bible component. Honestly, I find I can keep talking about what we have done in "school" even at the weekends, and their Bible selections are great for character formation. Their Bible permeates the whole curriculum and in extent, our whole lives. As a Christian, I think this is a great objective to meet. As for literature analysis, you can't beat DITHOR. Even my 7 yo very reluctant writer can't wait to use his DITHOR workbook. Even if you don't go down the DITHOR route, you can still find a "mini-DITHOR" option in storytime. Their LA and math are optional which gives you flexibility to use another program. You might find science a bit light. We supplement science and this is easy to do. The bottom line is that HOD is a very open and go, doable curriculum that has long term benefits - it might feel slow, but it is steady and because it is doable, it gets done consistently. The other benefit is that art and poetry is scheduled and therefore done. I am very happy to have HOD as the base of our curriculum and I plan to continue using it. I already have Bigger on my shelf! Best wishes!

My second grader, reluctant writer, loved, loved it!! It was the only subject he was looking forward to, which was a bit surpising! Mind you, we were working together on the workbook; he would tell me the answers, I would write them down in a scrap paper and he would copy. He loved the drawings and everything!! I think the book choices are nice and you could get your student to read those, even without the workbook.

We are doing our first, Zoology 2 (Swimming creatures) with a 7 yo and an 8 yo. I like them because they are so thorough! No fluff here! I love the narrative style, the Christian approach, and the immense Greek and Latin scientific vocabulary. By the end of the book I expect my kiddos to be able to hold a conversation with a proper scientist... By the way, did you know that the light some creatures produce (eg. fireflies) is called bioluminescence? Just one of the many things I learned in the past few weeks!! We go through the book very slowly and search the internet for extra stuff like videos or photos. So far, so good. My science-inclined son eats it up. My non-science-inclined dd is understanding and retaining too.

If your child can take it, why not? It is extra practice. My daughter can do it; my son, cannot. He can tolerate minimal writing, and all the school battles we have are about writing. I do WW2, Beyond and RS 1 with my 7 year old allergic-to-writing son. We do RS1 orally, we skip the poem copywork when he does the WW2 copywork. We do the Beyond grammar. It is usually very brief and I find that every little reinforcement of the concepts, helps.

Yes, we are very happy with the workbook. I have a 7 and 8 year old doing Workbook 2. I just kept the original and copied it twice for their use. I have two more children coming up, so we can copy it twice more. It is so nice to be able to photocopy for the use of the family!

Thank you very much for your ideas! I was aware of weight watchers online, but I am very happy to explore the free websites you have mentioned. Off to do some more housekeeping and then I can reward myself with some www research!! Please keep your suggestions coming!

Please help me loose some weight! I know, I know, I need to do it for myself, but I could use something really inspirational. I have used rawfood diet in the past with success, but right now we are living in a country where shopping is complicated/not very varied. So we only go shopping once a month and stock up on pasta that keeps well so you can imagine! Any brilliant ideas out there?

Perhaps the poll should have an option for "All of the above and more!" Mind you, I am aware of many areas in my life that need improving. Taking steps towards implementing that said improvement, is another story!

doh! I forgot about those. Let me see... I don't have to think too hard... Same like last year's I suppose. Lose weight, drink more water, exercise more, blah blah blah... Can you tell I don't believed in those anymore?? (for me, anyway). All thee best with yours!

Re Sonlight Science K: It was a great program. Mind you, we used it with a first and 2nd grader, so they got a lot out of it. If you use it with younger students, be prepared some of it to go over their head. We did all the internet links. I think this is what made it special. We did the experiments too. Good stuff. Re: Sonlight LA: a big flop. We stopped doing it after a while. It didn't work at all...

We have used Sonlight K. It is just a list of books. That's what the big difference is: nothing more than a list of books. I was really dissapointed with Sonlight K (and yes, we switched to HOD :)). Nobody stops you from getting the books (from the library or Sonlight) and read them aloud whenever you can. But in my opinion, HOD offers so much more than just a list of books....

[i really WANTED HOD to work and it might still, I just felt sort of well...having LA, Math and everything scheduled was just too much because my kids are at different "levels" in different subjects. I really would love everything "scheduled" as far as History, Science, read a louds, art, picture study, but not math and LA as we seem to be all over the place and I don't think I would do well doing several different levels of any of the curriculum. We are doing Beyond right now and we follow the schedule for the "Learning through History" and Storytime, but we absolutely not! follow the left hand. We forge ahead or mule to the same lesson a little longer, according to the needs of the children. Yes, it is scheduled, but that doesn't mean I am bound to follow everything as scheduled. It is not set on stone. Math, LA, etc progression is sooo personal, nobody can schedule it, not even you for your own children. You might make a tentative plan, but it is them, the children that dictate the pace. And that's why we homeschool - so we can set the page. I wouldn't let this minor part influence your decision. HOD is a wonderful program... at least for our family

I am teaching mine modern Greek and yes, I waited a little until the English were down pat. The reason? The Greek alphabet has some letters that look the same with the English ones, but the sound is different. For example, in Greek, the "P" letter has an "r" sound instead of a "p" sound.

For dd 8 yo, 3rd grade: HOD Bigger for history, etc Spelling: Sequential Spelling English: R&S 3 Math: Continue Singapore 2A/B and then move on to Singapore 3A/B Science: Apologia Elementary - probably Swimming creatures. Reading: DITHOR 2/3 Music: Violin Sport: Swimming Adventurers Club Languages: Modern Greek and perhaps have a start in Spanish?

Say $1,000 for all three: 4 yo, 7yo and 8 yo. That includes curriculum, art and craft supplies. We live abroad so I buy a lot of books once a year, send them to my SIL who then ships them over by boat. We don't have co-ops or anything else for that matter here, so once I shop, I shop!

I have used SL K this past year with a 6 yo and a 7 yo. I did not like the LA. We stopped after a while. It was very jumpy and all over the place. I didn't know about SWB back then and I started dd 7 on R &S 2, which was great! The books were Ok... I am not sure they got all they could from some of them though. Some books ended up on the self for later. I was all excited about Sonlight and I was very pleased of being able to do a whole core! At the end of the year though, I looked back and asked myself what was the point? It seemed that we read one book after another (ditching the IG). I don't know if we had a goal to look forward to, something to achieve. Our year seemed a bit haphazard and out of sync, you know what I mean?? I must say we enjoyed SL K science. :thumbup: I found out about HOD recently and we are going to do Bigger in September. I hope our year to be more productive in terms of building a christian character. As for SL, now that I tried it, I won't go there again, apart from Core 5 perhaps since it is such a unique core. Can you tell I am a little bit disappointing with SL ? :001_unsure:

Lovely way of describing it. I must remember that. Thanks!