Not what, but who--my husband inspires me. He has great confidence in my ability to homeschool our boys through high school, and he's always ready to help when I'm tired or overwhelmed. Even though we are both college graduates, we work on our self-education together knowing that we missed the opportunity to really learn while we were rushing through our vocational training. Most nights we sit in the living room with a hot drink (tea or coffee) and read and study together from 9:00 to 10:00 P.M. My husband's support means a lot to me, and his faith in my ability motivates me when I lack self-confidence.

I found this supplement for my Wheelock's study very helpful: http://www.bolchazy.com/prod.php?cat=latin&id=6668 In addition, they are extremely easy to reference since I can put them in my Latin binder (and not carry around an extra book). The pages are thick and sturdy, but I might still put them in page protectors to prolong their life. HTH!

This series was introduced in the 2009-10 Logos Press Catalog, but I haven't seen or used it. The write-up says that Logos Latin 1 is for 3rd grade. They will introduce one book per year for the next 3 years. Therefore, it will be a 4-year series to cover grades 3rd-6th. There's a Logos Latin 1 Complete Package that includes a student workbook, teacher manual, eFlashcards, and DVD for $95.

I was looking at the high school reading list on Ambleside on-line, and they have Uncle Tom's Cabin scheduled on their Year 10 Booklist. It is also included in Omnibus III by Veritas Press which corresponds to their 9th grade literature/history/theology program. My oldest son might tackle it with Omnibus III next year, but if not, I'll at least have him read it before he graduates, but not before 9th grade. HTH!

I know I'm in the minority, but I assign all problems for every lesson from R&S Math 1 to R&S Math 8. In the higher grades (7th & 8th), I don't require all of the checking for review problems once they shown mastery (casting out 9's, etc.).

What are your long-term goals? Which foreign language(s) do you plan to continue? Personally, I would not do Spanish for just one year. I would determine which languages are important for my homeschool and focus on those as I prioritize our school schedule. For me, one year of foreign language would not produce the benefits I would like to see in my child, and therefore, the time would be better spent elsewhere. HTH!

I started Latin & Greek with my oldest son when he was in 3rd grade. Here's the progression I used: 3rd: Greek Alphabetarion & Prima Latina 4th: Elementary Greek 1 & Latina Christiana I 5th: EG 2 & Basic Language Principles with Latin Background 6th: EG 3 & LCII 7th: New Testament Greek for Beginners (1/3 of the book) by Machen & Lingua Latina/Latin Alive 8th: New Testament Greek for Beginners (1/3 of the book) by Machen & Wheelock's Latin (1/2 of the book) Greek has been the most successful of our foreign language studies. I haven't been as pleased with our Latin studies, but I think that's because there are too many programs available, and I hestitated to use the Wheelock's program earlier on. In hindsight, I should have started using Wheelock's right after LCII, and I should have skipped Basic Language Principles with Latin Background. In 9th grade my oldest son will complete both NT Greek for Beginners and Wheelock's Latin. At that point, he will continue both languages in high school by reading original works. HTH!

No, I'm not looking through a narrow lens. I'm staying well informed of what's going on and the numbers that are being crunched. However, I truly don't trust the U.S. government to be completely honest about this; they've taken advantage of too many other issues to push their own agenda. I really don't see a difference in this one, and the media will follow right along. I'll take whatever the "White House" says with a grain of salt, and then see what the global experience and response are as well before I make decision regarding our family. I'm also following the response and action of our state health department.

Actually, I'm skeptical of this White House prediction in light of the fact that they are trying to pass their health care reform bill. The high prediction may just be part of a scare tactic to "take advantage of the crisis". Of course, we'll take precautions at home to not get the swine flu (or any other flu for that matter), but I think the swine flu will play out in the U.S. like it has in Australia; unless we get a lot of media hype again and needless panic sets in. They've linked the new swine flu vaccine to Guillian-Barre syndrome, so our family will not be getting that vaccine anytime soon. (http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=107064); our family has never opted for the flu vaccine anyway, so I don't see why we would start now.

The UNCRC is seen as an attack on all parental rights including homeschooling. Barbara Boxer does support the UNCRC. Here's a recent article: http://catholicexchange.com/2009/06/30/119964/

I've used R&S English from grade 3 to grade 7. This year my youngest son is doing R&S English 2 and my oldest is doing R&S English 8, so by the end of this school year, I'll have gone through the whole series. Here is my comparison of R&S English 5 & 6: -the lessons are longer in 6, and a smaller typeset is used -there are more oral drill exercises, written exercises, and review exercises for each lesson in 6 -there are 139 lessons in 6, but only 119 in 5 -there are 82 worksheets for 6, but only 68 worksheets for 5 -there are 11 chapter tests & a final for 6, but only 10 chapter tests in 5 -5 talks about verb tenses & principal parts; 6 talks about transitive verbs & action verbs that aren't transitive -5 talks about linking verbs with predicate nouns & adj; 6 talks about passive and active voice -5 talks about nom, obj, & poss pronouns; 6 expands on this and talks about relative pronouns & relative clauses -there's more diagramming in 6 including adjective clauses, adverbs of degree, and adverb clauses -more advanced concepts in 6 include prepositional phrases as adjectives and adverbs, subordinating conjunctions, and avoiding misplaced phrases and clauses Out of the 119 assignments in the 5th grade book, only 28 of them are on writing. That is less than one writing lesson a week in a normal school year and only represents 24% of the total lessons. Some of the lessons are about giving directions orally, using the telephone, addressing an envelope, making introductions (when you meet new people), etc. Out of the 132 assignments in the 6th grade book, only 32 of them are on writing. Again that is less than one writing assignment a week and represents 24% of the total lessons. It appears that there is more writing in the writing assignments for R&S English 6. Personally, I would not skip a level of R&S English. The program is designed to gradual build on the concepts presented and reinforce those concepts through repetition. I think it's an excellent program. My older boys have a strong foundation in English grammar because of the continued work they do each year in the R&S program. HTH!

Here's the NLE syllabus for the Latin I exam: http://www.nle.org/2006syll_i.pdf I plan to have my oldest son work through chapter 15 of Wheelock's in preparation for the NLE Latin I exam next year. I'm giving credit for Latin I (Wheelock's Chap 1-20) and Latin II (Wheelock's Chap 21-40). Based on the response here, that might change... HTH!

I recently purchased The America's Test Kitchen Family Cookbook, and I absolutely love it! The fresh vegetable recipes are great, and every new recipe I've tried has worked. There are great tips throughout the cookbook too. I would highly recommend this cookbook to anyone: http://www.amazon.com/Americas-Kitchen-Cookbook-Heavy-Duty-Revised/dp/193361501X/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1250087365&sr=8-1 HTH!

The only thing that I use the MODG syllabus for is the quizzes because I set up my own schedule to work through the text book, workbook, and 38 Latin stories. Having the quizzes and answers was worth the $26.25 amount, but ymmv. Here's the syllabus: http://www.acbooks.net/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=ACB&Product_Code=MG25x6p I have found 38 Latin Stories to be a great reading supplement to Wheelock's. The selections are short enough that it's not overwhelming and there's a teacher's guide that has complete translations: Book: http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Designed-Accompany-Frederic-Wheelocks/dp/0865162891/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249915565&sr=8-1 TM: http://www.amazon.com/38-Latin-Stories-Teachers-Guide/dp/0865165912/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249915565&sr=8-2 My intention was not to push you away from LL, but I wish I had known about the complete Latin immersion before I bought the whole program... I hope Wheelock's works out well for your homeschool. It's been a great change for us. I have found all of the supplements to be extremely helpful with my limited Latin background. HTH!

I wrestled with this same question this summer and decided to purchase only the flashcards. I didn't see the benefit of having cummulative chapter lists. I use the quizzes from the MODG syllabus, and I agree with Tammy's recommendation of the Comp Guide and audio CDs. I was concerned about the quality of the flashcards (but I knew I didn't want to create them by hand), so I purchased the 2005 revised edition from Bolchazy.com: http://www.bolchazy.com/prod.php?cat=latin&id=5572 rather than the 2003 edition from Amazon.com: http://www.amazon.com/Vocabulary-Cards-Grammatical-Summary-Wheelocks/dp/0865165572/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1249909064&sr=8-1 The ones from Bolchazy were more expensive, and I really don't know if the quality is better since I couldn't compare the two editions, but I've been happy with the flashcards. They are small in size 3.5" X 2"; however, they are numbered consecutively, and they include the chapter number. This helps us keep them in order and find words from previous chapters. Since I was making a purchase from Bolchazy.com, I went ahead and purchased the Wheelock's Latin GrammarQuick! (http://www.bolchazy.com/prod.php?cat=latin&id=6668). I haven't used cards yet since the beginning of Wheelock's has been a review for us, but I think it will be a handy reference tool for me as we move into the more difficult Latin concepts. HTH!

I just finished reading aloud Peril and Peace by Withrow, and my next read aloud selection is The Aeneid for Boys and Girls by Church.

I have not found the bolded point above to be true at all. Ebay did not help me when I purchased a book that was not what it was described to be. I finally had to dispute the claim through Paypal, and eventually received my refund once the book was scanned as delivered using USPS delivery confirmation. In order to get back my shipping charges to return the item, I had to file a complaint with the BBB (luckily it was a large seller who had an established business). The seller finally reimbursed my shipping charges, and I dropped the complaint. It was a nightmare and took up way too much of my time. I'll never use Ebay again because of their lack of customer service. I hope you have a much better experience, but save all of your e-mail correspondence with the seller. This helped me in my BBB claim because the seller agreed to pay for the return shipping, but he never followed through. When I forwarded the e-mail to BBB, he finally paid (I had included a copy of my USPS receipt in the return package). Once I received the money, I dropped the complaint. I kept Ebay up-to-date on all of the problems I was having with the seller including the BBB complaint. They did nothing to help.

Thanks, Paula. I did look before I posted, but it never would have occurred to me to look on the free resources page... jeh--We've had a wonderful start to our new year with Latin. I'm very glad I switched to Wheelock's. My oldest son in 8th grade is going through the text slowly (1 chapter every two weeks), while I'm going through the book at a much faster pace of 1 chapter per week with an on-line study group. I'm not sure what ages you are teaching, but here are some Wheelock's websites if you are interested: http://www.wheelockslatin.com/chapters/introduction/introduction.html http://www.quasillum.com/study/index.php http://people.hofstra.edu/Ilaria_Marchesi/text/list_exercises_101.htm http://www.classicsprofessor.com/Wheelock_Files.html http://sites.google.com/site/spezadams/wheelocks

Beta means that it's still in the testing phase. However, Latin Alive came out in the fall of 2008, and I purchased it in December. The DVDs for the program were just released, and I think Latin Alive Book 2 is close to release as well. I posted a link on the high school board for you to read.

Here's a thread about Latin Alive from June: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=106226&highlight=latin+alive I still have not seen an errata sheet for the TM posted on the author's blog.

Rod & Staff is my favorite English grammar program hands down; nothing else comes close.

My oldest son began with R&S English 3, and he just started R&S English 8 this school year. This program is excellent! It builds a very strong foundation in English grammar. I use it for all 3 of my boys, and I even started my youngest son with R&S English 2 rather than FLL in 2nd grade this year. I would definitely use it again. Not only have my boys learned grammar using this program, but I have learned it as well. It is teacher intensive for us because we do most of the work orally. HTH!

I have all of the components you listed plus the CD plus the College Companion. I did well with the program up to Capitulum 6. At that point the grammar took a big jump, and I felt lost from that point forward. Also, none of the teacher helps translate the passages in the book. This is what did me in. I don't have the Latin background to translate the book on my own, so I couldn't guide my boys when they had questions with the exercises. Of course, this was just my experience, but I wanted to let you know. I'm using Cambridge as our Latin reading series this year. I liked the setup of Lingua Latina better, but Cambridge has the passages translated in the teacher book, so I'm going with what works for me and what gets done in our homeschool. If I had known that LL was completely in Latin (including the TM), I'm not sure that I would have gone with this program last year. The College Companion and the Latine Disco are the only supplements that have grammar explanations in English. The passages, exercises, and answers are all in Latin which was too overwhelming for my boys and me. I'm going through Wheelock's now, so maybe we'll be able to pick this program up again and use it in high school. HTH!

Hi Cynthia, My oldest son could have taken the ACT at any site listed on the Duke TIP application. We chose a local university rather than a nearby high school. He took the test on Feb. 7th, and we received his results on Feb. 20th. I was amazed! He did well and was recognized by Duke TIP for his score. The only test prep he did was to work through (1) the sample test that came from the College Board and (2) Dr. Gary Gruber's Essential Guide to Test Taking for Kids (grades 7-9). My husband also went over some basic algebra concepts because my son only had pre-algebra at that point. With the math your son has had, he will do fine. Let me know if you have any more specific questions. I'm happy to help! Take care, Beth

Hi Shelly, None of my 1960's Dolciani texts have an ISBN. The Solution Key for Modern Algebra Structure and Method Book One does have a number on the back cover: 2-14028. The Solution Key for Modern Algebra and Trigonometry Stucture and Method Book Two also has a number on the back cover: 2-14045. The other 2 Solution Keys do not have any numbers on the back cover. I've looked through the books with copyright dates from 1962 to 1965 and the distinguishing numbers above are the only ones I found. I know it's not much help, but if you find a book and have a question about it, please feel free to pm or e-mail me. ETA: Since I made my original post, I was able to find the 1965 edition of Modern Algebra & Trig Book 2 student text, teacher edition, and solution key. Take care, ~Beth