I don't know if this would be new curric or not, but Lively Latin incorporates Latin Grammer, Roman history, derivative study, just everything that I would think a classical latin program would cover without taking time away from other subjects. Also, for highschool history, I'd say my new find has been Trisms.

I tried using it with my ds for medieval grammer, but he liked doing SOTW better.

Can't say true or false as I haven't used the other programs, but here's my experience on MUS: My kids liked doing it, but ended up having zero retention. As an adult, I liked watching the videos and seeing math which added a different depth to my own mathematical knowledge, but my kids...not so much. We ended up switching to Singapore. :seeya:

I haven't read any of the replies, but here's what I'd do differently: (I'm not going to list math or English because I'd keep those the same.) 1st and 2nd grade, I'd use Galloping the Globe and FIAR. These programs are so much FUN and it's just too hard trying to do them while also doing SOTW, at least for me anyway. NO SCIENCE OR HISTORY!!! I'd also focus on basics: math, english, reading, and spelling in an age approprate way. (okay, maybe nature studies for science.) 3rd through 6th, SOTW volumes 1-4, also I'd pick out some fun science experiement books. I'd probably stick to doing Biology in one year, chemistry in one year, etc, per WTM, but I wouldn't let myself stress out over it. I think concrete, hands on experiments at this age help solidify ideas rather than reading and doing worksheets about abtract ideas. I would also work on narrations, which I didn't do when they were younger and now I wish I had. Latin in 4th with Lively Latin. Can't say for 7th and 8th because this is where my oldest is, but we're using TRISMS now, and this is a good time to start. You could do one year of solid US history and start TRISMS in 8th.

Wow, that looks great! :cheers2:

I've read a lot of the replies but not all. Just an FYI- I do have a different opinion than most of the replies I've read, so please don't be offended by what I'm about to post...it's meant to be in the spirit of discussion. :grouphug: I am Christian, but I don't believe women are "supposed" to stay home. I believe in the value of a stay at home parent, and that was always my desire growing up, but I do so because A) I want to, B) It's my choice, C) My husband makes enough for us to afford to, and D) I do believe it's better for kids to have a full time parent at home. I'd like both of my children (a son and daughter) to go to college so they have more options as adults, and also so they will be a more "complete" person. Especially if they choose to be a stay at home parent, I think it's even more important then. On a personal note, I don't have a college degree. I wasted the years I should have been going to college, and it scares me that I've put myself in such a precarious siuation. If anything should happen to my dh, I have a good size inheritance coming from my grandfather that I could live on, plus we have a good insurance policy, but still! I don't want my dd learning from my example. I was in the process of going back to school when we decided to homeschool, and quit because it going to school and homeschooling was too much. Now that my kids are older, in about a year or so I plan on going back to school, mainly online and night classes. Even if I never have a career, I still want that college degree. It would have been nice if I went to college when I was young though.

Wow...I think I have your dd's twin. She stresses out about EVERYTHING, and is a touch lazy, so it adds to her stress because she makes things harder than they are and then has to do them over again. I don't know if I have any pearls of wisdom here, but I sympathize with what your going through. I think sometimes she worries that she can't do things right, so she'd rather not try than fail.

I'm planning on doing everything that we're doing now, but we're only going to do 3 hours a day. I'm planning on doing a "loop" schedule that was discussed a few threads back. I don't want to burn the kids out, but I'd like to keep everything fresh in their heads.

I like a lot of the responses so far. I agree with the tomato staking. Older kids really want their independence and taking it away can give them the proper motivation to improve. I have an 7th-8th dd, and in her point of view, one of the worst things I can do to her is tell her I can't depend her to do it alone and so I have to help her. Our biggest issue was her cleaning her room and making her bed. If I had the problem getting my dd out of bed I'd stand by her side until she got up, period. I agree that she should accompany you in the car in the mornings, pjs or no pjs. I got tired of my kids losing things, so now they have to pay for the missing item out of their allowance. (even school books) It's worked wonders. I'd recommend having a set schedule. Have assignments, due dates, tests, etc. She'll know in advance when her tests are, and if she's not ready too bad. Ugh....all of a sudden I feel like I'm about to fall asleep so I'm hoping this post is coherent! If it's coming across wrong I don't mean it too, but I think it's about time for my nap! (I wish! :001_huh:) Anyway, good luck!

I started my 12 dd in the first book as well. There are assessment booklets for each level if you wanted to test your child first.

As far as writing goes, we do many of the lessons out loud, unless it's capitalization or puctuation practice, and we also use the worksheets. I would be tempted to checkout GWG, but my oldest is in 7th grade and GWG isnt there yet, and it's just nice not having to purchase something else for my 4th grader.

I would recommend just doing SOTW slowly and deeply. I started homeschooling my dd in the middle of 3rd grade as well, and while I did use some volumes of SOTW, we rushed it to make sure we got on an appropriate rotation schedule, and in hindsight I wished I would have just used SOTW for four years, and then used a year for just US history and literature before starting the highschool rotation.

After spending way to much money on Latin programs (I knew I wanted my kids to learn latin but wasn't sure how best to teach them) I'm really liking LL1 so far. We're only in lesson 2, but it seems much more gentle than other programs I've tried. I like the method that derivatives are included, my son loves drawing the pictures for the history books, and he's actually understanding everything so far. I'd recommend it.

I ditched it. I really like learning some of the rules, and so did my kids, but in the end we prefer the ol' get the workbook out and do your page method. I think I got to bogged down thinking that if I didn't teach them spelling a certain way that their whole life would be ruined. Thankfully I've moved beyond that! :banghead:

I used it for k-4, and really liked it. I jumped ship for MUS, which for my kids was a big mistake. They have a separate test book that you're supposed to use weekly, but instead we did math 4 days a week and had Fridays off. There's plenty of review built in, and I almost always crossed out a lot of review problems.

I used SOTW with my kindergartener, and he loved it!

I used LFC with my dd, and what I liked about it was the chanting cds...it really helped my dd learn her vocab. I also liked the dvds, and so did my dd. The workbook tends to be very technical and doing the workbook just seemed to be like pulling teeth. After a while it seemed she was learning SO much vocab but not applying it in a fun way, but she didn't seem to "own" the words and after a while would forget a lot of them. (We've recently switched her to Cambridge, which she loves.) My ds10 just started to learn Latin, and I chose Lively Latin. We're still in the first lesson so this may be very premature, but so far I'm very impressed and like what I see. We're moving slow, but I feel the exercises are simple, to the point, and rather fun. I guess what I like is that the exercises seem more age appropriate...one exercise has pictures and he has to write appropriate Latins word underneath to review vocab...fill in the blank type sentences where he has to use his Latin vocab to determine the meaning of some English words, and he gets to make a Roman history book. Each lesson so far has lasted maybe 15-20 minutes. Both programs are good and I'd recommend both, but right now I'd have to recommend Lively Latin. I'm trying to be fair and diplomatic, but right now I'm LOVING Lively Latin!!!

I feel better knowing that IEW helps with grammer that much. I feel like my kids have been learning grammer but not applying it. Thanks for the info! Katrina

I'm planning on starting HM Trisms next year, and I'm curious what to supplement with it. I'm not talking about about math, science, or foreign lang., but supplementing subjects Trisms already covers, primarily in the English department. My dd is finishing R&S 6 this year. We've been using R&S since 4th grade and she's getting slightly tired of it, so using the English lessons in Trisms might give a nice fresh approach, but I don't think they diagramm. I was thinking about getting R&S 7 and just pull out diagramming exercises that corespond to the Trisms English lesson that day or week. Then I was thinking about adding Lightning Lit to the mix. I've been intrigued by this program and think it would be nice to use. I know Trisms has reading assignments. Is there enough literary analysis in Trisms to make Lightning Lit redundant, or would Lightning Lit really compliment Trisms? Then I have to wonder if I'm making everything WAY to hard on myself (not to mention my kids) and if I should just trust that Trisms covers everything. Thanks for any input! Katrina

I just copy the words on a seperate sheet of paper before I give the pretest. Works here! :)

then these can work great. My oldest dd wasn't much into a lot of cutting and pasting, so I ended up doing most of the work which defeated the point. (And also took out other great supplements like History Pockets.) The info in them however is great. With the right kids I could see it being very much enjoyed!

:iagree: with Barb F. PA in AZ about possibly holding off on high school one year. That's actually what I'm going to do with my dd. She's in 7th right now, but she's a young 7th. We've discussed it and we both feel more comfortable doing highschool for grades 10th-13th. (On her transcripts it'll say 9th-12th, but this way she wont have the stigmatism of telling people she was held back a grade. Instead, we're just extending middle school.) I hope this helps some! :grouphug:

I don't know if these are new or not, but you can now purchase an audio cd to help with the workbook exercises. Mines just arrived in the mail yesterday and I'm excited to start using it with my kids.

My ds is 10 and still has speech issues. If you're son needs to be in a more language rich enviroment, then the vpk might be a nice place for him. If his problem is more physical, (he just can't physically make the correct sounds) then I don't think being around other kids will help much. My son attended PS for two years, (Kindergarten and Kindergarten, he was held back), participates in cub scouts, and for the last year has been participating in a local homeschool class (it's a program where homeschoolers can take a couple of classes with about 5-10 other homeschoolers in various subject matters) so he interacts with PLENTLY of people outside the home. I've found that the ones who have probems understanding him are adults, kids are able to understand him pretty well, so being around other kids hasn't helped his speech at all. I was in speech theraphy till the end of 5th grade and was publicly schooled, so being in a classroom setting did nothing to encourage my speech along. Good luck deciding!

I use the tests, and my kids like doing them, but we don't use them as tests. My kids are a littel older, so they read the chapter and fill out the test. If you want, you could call it an open book test. They're allowed to look back through the reading. I think it help my kids pay a little more attention to detail. I don't know if it's necessary, but it works for us.:tongue_smilie: