I don't have an answer for you but do you prefer secular or religious based?

I think it is also important to go write to the store and tell them your concerns. I don't have trader Joe's or Costco but we do have Wegmans. They also sell salmon from china. The tilapia is from Argentina. I don't understand how fish can be raised, slaughtered, processed into individula fillets and shipped frozen in big refridgerated airplanes and driven across the country in freezer trucks and STILL be cheaper than fish from this country. That scares me a little. When the Olympics took place in Bejing there was a very interesting story in the NYT about the person in charge of food for the US olympians. She ended up bringing all most ALL the food needed by the US athletes because of her worries about chineese food. The meat was so full of hormones it would have triggered a positive steriod test for a US athlete. This was food from the markets that is sold to the citizens. That made me sad.

We take about three days for the end of book reviews. If I don't chop it up we would be spending hours on math and we just don't have that kind of time in our day. Now, if I had no where else to be then it would be two days with snacks etc as desired. I certainly don't consider my son 'lazy' by any means. He is good natured and a hard worker. He just isn't fast when it comes to math. He is getting better though. I have hope!

We started LoF this year, 5th grade. FWIW, we use Singapore (finished 5A today) and the timing was good. I think..I think... the author suggests using it when multiplication tables are fluent? Does this ring a bell for anyone? Anyway, DS1 took his time getting to that automatic stage with multiplication (thank you Timez Attack!) so I waited until then. Now, we are going slowly. It got forgotten on a shelf for a month or so. DS1 isn't entranced by LoF like some kids are. He enjoys it, he laughs...but it is more math. He does very well with Singapore but he is glad to close the book. He isn't fooled that Fred is anything but more math. But, I am making time this semester. We WILL finish this book and move onto the second by the end of June!

I thought EI was available until the August after the child turns three. My son's birthday is also in January and we just stayed with EI until the august after his birthday. We also got services though CPSE and they were at home. It was the same thing as EI, with the same therapists, only the school district was providing. Is there anyway you can ask for services to be at your home instead of at the pre-K? Or, if you have heard good things about the teacher, maybe you can keep that possibility open if things don't work out.

For me, it's a space issue. I keep lots of material on hand and it is MUCH easier to get out the 'year 1' bin and put 'year 4' away. I wouldn't have enough shelf space if I had year two and year 4 stuff about. My two boys are about 5 years apart but are great friends. They really enjoy doing things together. They like that they are reading about ancient history at the same time, it gives them lots of ideas for games and imagitive play. It is much easier to play "trojan horse" if you are both reading it. My good friend and my homeschool 'mentor' has taught four kids, three now gone on to college. When I asked her she said "do anything, by hook or by crook, to get them on the same cycle. Your life will be so much easier." That is my real reason, lol. I have found that I should just do whatever she tells me because she is always right. :tongue_smilie:

I only do a project every couple weeks or so. I use the SOTW activity guide and just do stuff from that. Either I pick something I skipped last time around or I do something we did and he loved. Either way, there have been no complaints.

No, you are just working too hard, lol. I am stone LAZY and will always find the easy way to do anything. DH tells me I should have been one of those efficiency experts or something. I am always telling people, 'wouldn't it make more sense if you just...." Yeah, I am a big hit at parties :lol:

You say you are using WWE. Do you own the hardcover book that covers the whole program? SWB addresses that exact thing in the first part of that book. She reminds the reader that 'volume' produced by ps kids doesn't translate into quality writing. My son has many friends in ps. They are all writing journals and 'research' papers. I have seen them and they are crap. The kids can't write a clear sentence, they can't orgainze their thoughts and they have no..no..voice. That is NORMAL for kids this age. To make them write these long papers is just painful. It makes them hate writing. My 5th grade son may never have written a 5 page paper but he knows a run on sentence when he sees one. He can pick out the main idea of a paragraph. He narrates beautifully. In a few years, when he is 14 or so, I am sure he can write a paper that will run laps around anything his peer write. Don't make it harder for yourself than it has to be. I am sure your kids are doing just fine.

Have you listened to the SWB audio lectures on how to teach writing?

It is not difficult for me BUT I have a younger child using SOTW1 and I try as much as possible to have my logic stage child on the same schedule. IOW, they both did Nebuchadnezzar and the Hanging Gardens of Babylon this week. Only, the younger did it with SOTW and the elder used our logic stage resources. I find that there are lots of resources in my activity book that still work for my logic stage child. Mostly because they have changed from read aloud to read alone and write a narration. Some are specifically mentioned as being useful for older children. I am enjoying following the SOTW schedule so much with my logic stage child, I am going to try to keep it up for this whole stage.

I would keep reading. But, I would allow her to read the Junie B jones to herself because she wants to. Or, take turns, she reads one sentence or paragraph or page outloud and you read the other. If she only likes 'funny' books then I would find some and read those outloud to her. Ask for her help. Once she trusts you to pick things she likes, you can pick one you would like to read. Remember, her idea of 'funny' will change as she gets older. I always allow my kids to play with legos etc if they want. Even though they argue about bits, lol. I stop reading and glare until they stop. I was convinced they weren't listening, but after years of this, I know they are. Heck, sometimes my almost 11 year old will page through another book while I read, but he seems to be able to follow the narrative.

I don't think there is any need to buy all of the oxford books. First of all, you couldn't get through them all in a year. Each book has about 25 chapters. I am doing history a la WTM logic stage. I am also doing a parallel 'mythology' unit that runs roughly parallel to history. That allows my son do do all the 'fun' stuff he likes. Day 1: We use Kingfisher Book of the Ancient World for the list of 6 (or so) facts. These are written in sentence form. That is also when we find the place on the map and (if I get timeline together) when timeline happens Day 2: He reads corresponding chapter from "Human Odyssey" and writes a narration on a part he finds interesting. He usually rereads his list of facts from day 1 and finds something that corresponds. That allows him to write about somthing he finds interesting. Sometimes we go to the library and are able to find a single topic book and use that instead. Day 3: He picks another section of Human Odyssey from the same chapter and he writes a one point outline. It needs to be about 6 paragraphs long. I sit with him while we do that. Along with that: his brother is in year 1 of SOTW. I try very hard to have them reading about the same thing in different books. It has been very easy, so far, with the Kingfisher book and Human Odyssey. That allows me to continue using the SOTW Activity Book. We do things I didn't do last time around and sometimes repete things that were a lot of fun. DS1 is very happy to do it with his little brother. Now, the Oxford books come in with our 'mythology' unit. We are doing deeper reading on Egypt, Old Testement, Greece and Rome. We spend 8-10 weeks on each. For that, we read the Oxford history books, as well as lots of other reading. He does more narration and outlining from these. It has it's own section in our history notebook. I only got the Oxford books on Egypt, Greece and Rome. It was much cheaper, lol. I decided it made more sense to get the books we really wanted and would really use.

Well, in the writing lectures, SWB says specifically that SOTW1 and 2 are not appropriate for outlining because they are written in a narrative fashion. She also says to never have them outline fiction for the same reason. SOTW year 3 & 4 should be ok for outlining. I am looking through my book Writing With Ease for a friend and it says in the section entitled "writing with skill" that writing from the outline is a middle grade skill. She suggests introducing it in 6th and 7th grade gradually as a replacement for the narration. It is discussed on page 14 of the book "The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease."

It is meant to be sufficient for one school year. With my current first grader, I count the number of weeks I plan to do school, count the chapters in SOTW 1 and then figure out how to make them fit. Some weeks have what I call 'short' chapters and then we double up. I have done the whole cycle once already and we have always managed to fit one book into one school year. With the fourth book I really had to stay on top of it, but we managed. But, I know plenty of homeschoolers who perfer to take more than a school year for each book.

Thank you! I can't believe I never thought of klutz. We love klutz books but I have never seen these. This is perfect!

My friend has a moodier than your average bear teenager. She didn't change method but she did give him much more say about his content. Oh, and I think she added in some unit studies for interest. History: he wanted to study ancient japanese history. Fine. Done. Same method just content he wanted. Math: he had to continue with his math program but she added in much, much more 'real life' math. He helped with the family budget, sat down with his dad and helped pay bills. I seem to remember she found some math stuff that was about running a business? Science: he picked his subject. I am thinking it was physical science and maybe some lego stuff?

In the writing from the outline exercise in the year 4 activities guide I have a vague memory that it instructs the student to only look in the book if necessary. Writing from the outline is not the same as outlining. In the activity book the author gives a finished outline of the chapter and the student writes a narration of the chapter from reading the given outline. For making one's own outline, it is necessary to look at the book.

there are no worksheets in the back of the book. THey are in a seperate workbook. Yes, you could make your own by looking at the lessons every day and just writing it out. Every year I told myself I could do that..but honestly, I just wouldn't.

Bumping this! I just know someone here can direct me to something so we can do stop motion and/or claymation or even animation. Don't make me write to David Pogue.

I did it with my (then) fourth grader last year. it was hard. Then, I was listening to a SWB audio lecture and she mentioned that they meant for it to be done by older kids..like an 8th grader. Well. That explained why it was so hard! She says that the book specifically says it is for older kids but I never saw it. It was part of making SOTW work for more than one level. When I did it I just told him to do his best. I told him to not look in the book unless he had to. I know he found it stressful. Now, that he is a 5th grader and doing outlines on his own, I don't really see the point for having a 4th grader write from the outline. I don't think this was very helpful. I am sorry. Maybe someone else can be more useful.

:iagree:

My kids are sort of weird luddites. They have very little media in their lives (I don't even have a cell phone) but they like the idea of creating with it. They want to make movies, claymation, lego movies etc. I mean they WANT to. They talk about it all the time. They are 10 and about to be 6 BTW. There is a place in town called 'media camp' where they teach claymation and all that stuff but it is VERY expensive. I don't begrudge them the $$ but I don't have that much for two kids. I could spend 100$ for software that would get used again and again or some $$ for a camera etc. That is possible. I just don't want to spend 250$ for a 6 week class and THEN have to spend money on software and a camera so we can do it at home, kwim? I just know that there are people here with movie making kids who can give me some guidance. We own a digital camara and we got the older boy a flip camera. I know it can do more than what they have it do but I am not sure how to learn about it. We've never even posted a video to youtube or anthing like that. I know some kids make movies right on the computer, not claymation, but digital or something. How do they do that? My husband is comfortable with technology, I can figure stuff out. We've just never said "hey, let's make a movie" so we don't know where to begin.

Sorry bout that. I am sure that was meant for me. Stuff like that happens to me all. the. time. so I figure you got mine, somehow. Magic eraser will get almost all stains off anything. I have a huge stockpile. Honestly, my husband wouldn't even blink at a scene like that. He would call in late and help clean it up but he wouldn't be surprised. I drink lots of coffee... I wonder what I can blame? I hope your day got a lot of better and less pomegranate-y

I only use a few. We read the one on prehistory and early man in august, then we read Egypt. I am now moving to Greece and we will finish the year with Rome. I do not use them as our spine, but as additional reading. That way, my son can spend more time on the cultures he loves. We spend about 10 weeks with each one. I have him do narration and outlining as needed for the week.