We love SOTW and all the good literature provided by Sonlight, I also have a 5 year age span that I like to keep together for history (I accomplish this with read-alouds, lucky for me my 8 yo can sit for longer books). Here's some resources I have found useful: Paula's Archive Lots of great information, including historical fiction/non-fiction booklists, and a good article about how to merge SOTW and Sonlight. I use the Sonlight catalog to pick books, of course, but I also like this annotated bibliography of chronological historical fiction titles. The only downside is that they aren't reviewed for age appropriateness, so I have to do a bit of back and forth with Amazon. This year I have no firm plan. I am using the SOTW Activity guide, mainly for the maps. My older is doing K12's The Human Odyssey, outlining, doing some additional writing and creating a timeline. My younger is doing SOTW, skipping around somewhat to keep pace with K12. She also is doing map work, and narrations. Both are reading historical fiction roughly in keeping with the topics we are covering, and I read to them both from yet another historical fiction title. I also want to include more biographies and primary sources, but I'm not there yet. I don't worry about matching things up completely, both between the curricula and historical topics. For ex: I am reading "The Hawk that Dare Not Hunt by Day," 8yo is reading "Mary, Bloody Mary," and 14yo is reading "Redemption," by Julie Chibbaro. This worked perfectly about a week ago when we were all on The Counter Reformation, but now we have moved on to Feudal Japan (and I have some excellent titles planned, but we won't start on them for a few more days). You probably didn't need that level of detail - sometimes I share too much! But I hope that some of it helps.

We really enjoy TOPS, and have used at least 5 of their guides. They are engaging and really excel at leading kids to observe and draw conclusions. My son loves to go back through his lab notebooks. The guides have a list at the beginning that lays out everything you need for the entire book. I purchase all the bits and bobs that are necessary and store them in a special science box (this box has a good number of things that are "off limits for anything but science" by now, that duplicate things that are normal household items - tape, string, tinfoil, clay, straws, food coloring...) This definitely makes them more difficult to implement than the Nutshell kits, but also more cost effective. My ds is currently using the "Motion 21" guide. There is a long list of materials, but the only things I needed to buy were a spring loaded scale (had to order this), ping pong balls, and 3 jars of baby food (I wanted identical jars, and I made dog biscuits with the meat baby food). For this, he can perform 36 different experiments. My total cost (including the book) was under $30.00, and he's definitely understanding what he's doing and learning. My only gripe about TOPS (and I think this is the same for the Nutshell books), is that there's not a huge amount of detailed explanation. You need to supplement with library books and a science encyclopedia. Still, this works for us. It's definitely a good choice for a hands on student.

I second the suggestion for a raw beef marrow bone. We recently fostered a puppy that was hurt in a fall. She needed to be crated for about four weeks (it was going to be 6, but she healed more quickly than anticipated. Hope that happens for you too). Anyhow, good big beef bones and peanut butter kongs, were the only way to prevent her from being Utterly Bored. Good luck!

This is about 15 minutes away from us. Nice rural school... Many of the members of our local co-op are Chardon residents. Just heard at the noon press conference that one of the victims has died. Speechless.

About a year ago we moved from a tiny city lot onto a small farm right outside the city. The move has been an improvement in so many ways, but not for my 14 yo ds. He is rather introverted and friends have been hard to find. We will continue to work to find friends, but in the meantime, I'm hoping to find some fun stuff that will get him off the computer. He loves to be outdoors and will be getting a bow for target shooting this spring, but in the meantime I'd love some ideas for indoor amusement. He is very "sciency," and I'm looking at some Thames and Kosmos kits, but he really hasn't played with toys for a while. He does his school, does a lot of chores, and rarely complains (although he does pester his sisters a lot!). I'd like to find something to engage him - any ideas? Thanks!

I'm so sad for you, I know how it can be to anticipate that wonderful new puppy and raising her as part of your pack. My family fosters dogs, and we did have a similar experience with a 16 week old lab/pit mix. She seemed fine most of the time, but would rage with no discernable provocation. First we thought it was men, then small children (we were trying to evaluate her for her future home). Finally she lunged, snapping at our vet as the vet offered a treat. It was heart wrenching, but we couldn't recommend her to anyone and she was euthanized. Know that will find the right dog for your family.

My 5 yo is doing OK with it, but she can't be totally independent (lots of calls for help). We have it set up so that she's not doing any of the writing. She speaks very well for her age,but she has much more difficulty with the pronunciation than anyone else in the family. Those things said, she's obviously learning. There's just more effort involved for me.

Try hand washing the whole shoe with the liners in (I'd use vinegar in the wash water). Rinse, rinse, rinse under running water, and then blot the liner with a hand towel or a cloth diaper. After you have gotten most of the water out, put them over the register, or stuff them with a new dry towel to absorb the rest of the moisture.

Maybe 5 years ago, my then 3 yo daughter had a wart epidemic - 36 warts in all! We took her to a dermatologist after trying duct tape and some OTC stuff. He froze them and blistered them, but nothing worked at all. Finally he gave us a prescription for some weird cream that has some role in skin cancer treatment. My scientist husband read up on this stuff and declared that there was no way we should use it. Finally we heard about apple cider vinegar. The procedure that we followed was as follows: Cut a small piece of cotton makeup removal pad to fit the wart - you don't want any overhang, especially where your son's wart is. Saturate the piece in ACV and tape to the wart (or use a bandaid). Do this every evening for 3 days, and then take a 2 week break. Repeat after 2 weeks if the warts haven't turned black and fallen off. With my dd, one wart turned black and fell off, and then all the rest just died - after only 3 days! My son currently has some huge warts right along his fingernails. We have treated them once and they don't look good, but they will need another treatment. I so hope it works - warts are super tricky to kill sometimes. Good luck to you!

I climbed a tree to help a feral kitten about a year ago, and ended up with a bite clean thru my thumb (right thru the nail:sad:). I steer clear of helping feral animals now. I'm thinking that if the cat managed to live to 6 months, it can manage to get down the tree itself. If you choose to go after it, protect your hands, face, arms and chest. A cat like that will be Terrified, and it will attack.

We love it. My son read through the whole thing in a week, and now my husband is using it as conversation starters once a week at dinner to explore the topics in more depth. I get the feeling that we could easily go over these many, many times.

Thanks for the suggestions! I just spent the whole of the Superbowl reading about KISS (thanks so much for the link - What a thorough discussion!). I must admit that I'm frightened, never having learned grammar. My son would not complain about the quality of the writing, however, and I love that it's free but for the printing. I'll have to look into Winston Grammar next - I'm glad they have a pretest (I wonder how much of his previous grammar my son retained?) I like the sound of Stewart English, but I can find very few reviews (and those seem mixed). Abbeyej, have you used the program? What was your experience? Thanks again, the Hive always comes through in a pinch!

I am looking for a product that will help me bring my son up to a high school level with grammar (although my primary goal is to improve his writing). He is 14, dyslexic, and struggles with spelling and writing. He loves literature and has a good vocabulary. We worked through FLL when he was little. In the past 3 years we have tried Easy Grammar, Keys to Good Language and AG but stopped after a half year for all of these. He despised the writing in EG and KGL. AG was just too much of a time commitment (about an hour daily). I don't know that this particular child needs to be able to diagram a sentence, but he does need to know when to use a comma. I am hoping to find a program that: Teaches punctuation and mechanics Teaches basic grammar Takes 20 - 30 minutes per lesson Doesn't sound like it was written with the sole purpose of teaching grammar (I know this sounds silly, but when he ends up making fun of the writing, he doesn't take it seriously, and he doesn't even attempt to learn. We tried the samples of ALL, and he loved the quality of the writing, but...) Any suggestions? Thanks,

Has anyone done these together? I am teaching an 8 year old with ample SOTW experience (she has been listening to the books on CD since she was 4), and a 14 yo who isn't totally thrilled with history (he did his best to block out those books on CD!). The 14 year old is working through the second K12 Human Odyssey book (the one that starts in 1400). I am doing read alouds based on the K12 timeline, and all the kids listen in. I would love to work the SOTW lessons in for my 8 yo, but I haven't made it a high priority, as she has already heard it all before (and these 2 texts don't match up easily from what I can tell). Has anyone out there BTDT? Thanks!

Thanks to All! It's been a while since I've visited (been through a big move in the last year). It's always so refreshing to find so much help. I'm making a library visit today and checking out quite a few books: The Second Mrs Giaconda and Daughter of Venice for the young man in question. He can choose. The Apprentice for my dd (advanced reader for her age) The Agony and Ecstasy for Me I had also forgotten about Diane Stanley's Michelangelo. Wanted to share this site too: Chronological Hist Fict. It is all Juvenile Historical Fiction with brief explanations.

Thanks, you always have good advise for me! This looks like a great site.

We are just starting in with K12's "The Human Odyssey 1400-1914." My son enjoys having a good historical fiction novel to read to go along with history (we've done Sonlight in the past, just not this year). Anyhow, the first few chapters of "The Human Odyssey" deal with the Renaissance in Italy. They cover a range of topics and people: the struggles of the papacy, the political machinations of the noble families, De Vinci, Machiavelli, Raphael... Good Stuff! Usually I can find a Sonlight book to supplement what we are studying, but I'm having no luck this time. He loved "Leonardo's Shadow," but doesn't want to read it again. I've read reviews of "Duchessina: a Novel of Catherine de Medici," and it sounds interesting, but would it appeal to a 13 yo boy? Any suggestion would be most welcome. Thanks,

I work from home and we participate in 2 co-ops and ski club. There is no finishing anything early in this household! :D

Last year we used Volume 1: Prehistory through the Middle Ages. I thought it was a great choice for a middle school spine, but I went crazy creating questions and maps to coincide with the readings. This year I am willing to splurge a bit and purchase the teacher and student pages to save myself the craziness, and of course I am being lured by the online component. Those of you who have used it, how much would I be missing if I skipped this extra $30/month? I have looked at a sample provided, and was a little underwhelmed by the online component. I saw "Building the Suez Canal" - great pictures etc, but not enough for 30/month IMO. It seemed as though the main draw was the assessment. Am I correct in this assumption, or is there more that I am missing?

Would anyone be willing to share the order in which the first 7 readers in Core H are assigned? I am late getting our stuff together this year (we moved into an old fixer upper, and school got de-prioritized). I know we will be using core H, but I haven't bought the IG yet. DS is also going be a part of a HS book co-op, and the teacher is willing to assign some of the books from core H (otherwise he might just have way too much reading on his hands). Many thanks to anyone who can help!

I've been thinking about your post since last night Aunt Pol... :grouphug: I don't have that much to add, however here are a few idea: Something I do with my dyslexic, writing phobic ds is to sit with him every morning and journal/diary write for 10-15 minutes. I use the time to plan my day. I never ask to see what he wrote. He could spend the entire time writing "Mom Sucks!" but I doubt it. Where's the fun in that if you can't even annoy your mom with it... Allowance. My kids get one weekly, and I buy nothing for them beyond their absolute needs (they do get b-day and Christmas gifts). I started this 4 years ago after fleeing from Target with my then 4 yo dd under one arm (football style - she was throwing a tantrum and wouldn't allow me to pick her up normally). She wanted a toy, and I didn't have the money. It clicked at that point that I couldn't allow my kids to be that materialistic. They have to budget - it has worked for us. Outside adults in a field that she loves - Mentors. You take yourself out of the picture so that she can't rebel against you. She sounds like a natural learner, if she could get past her contrary nature. Good Luck!

Haven't read all the replies, but with 14 trees on 1/3 an acre, you may have significant drought problems even if you have eliminated the shade. Of course you can water, but it requires a surprising amount of water to satisfy plants that are having a portion of their moisture sapped by tree roots. Also, you would need to have the stump ground. When a healthy tree is cut, the root system continues to live on, and will often re-sprout from the stump. Is there a community garden nearby? I LOVE to garden, and I've been able to satisfy that itch with my community garden plot. I've met some great people too. One gardener is a college prof of medieval literature, and he's done some fun programs with our HS group. Our HS group also grew transplants and sold them to the garden. All in all it's been a fantastic experience.

Music - impromptu lessons on the organ, bass, guitar or drums - mostly a bit of theory and then a bunch of improv. He does this of his own accord Current Events - He finds a great article for DS13 to read each week and then they discuss it at dinner. I've requested this, as he spends time reading the news everyday, whereas I'm more of an NPR radio type person. All the machine maintenance, wood cutting, electronic and computer stuff that I'm not great at. He also has the patience to watch kids movies and Just Play (something it's hard for me to do!)

With my eldest, we went through B, C, D, and E, without any supplements. It was (is) a constant struggle to play the games as often as is necessary, and my ds 12's multiplication speed slips if I don't play multiplication war (or do timed drill sheets) periodically. We are currently doing Geometry, but I'm not sure my son was ready for it after E. When I do it over again (with my girls), I won't proceed directly to Geometry after finishing level E. I found that my son was wildly unprepared to handle "real" long division, fractions and percentages. These subjects were touched on with RS, but my ds really needs to thoroughly understand how something works before it sinks in (and then only with much practice). RS guides learners to discover how math works, but with fractions and percents, my ds really needed to have cold hard explanations. We just started with Life of Fred Fractions - We'll likely work through this and the Decimal and Percents books double time (ds feels he's been demoted, and wants to get back to were he should be). Thus far, we both like them. Ds pauses during his reading several times per chapter to comment on something interesting, and he seems to understand much better.

I do notice a weird taste to things; mainly anything with bleached white flour or white sugar. I've tried to pin it down - there is a hint of chlorine, but mainly just Yucky ;). My dear mom still uses processed stuff, and the holidays are the main time we run into troubles (her home made cookies just taste odd and too sweet, and she loves to put out a huge beautiful spread). I have lots of talks with the kids before we arrive (nothing worse than the 4 yo with the loudest voice in the universe exclaiming about the bad cookies :glare:). OTOH my dad & BIL won't even try my healthy cookies - my sis loves them but knows that her dh would rebel if she ever made that sort of change. I try not to think of our tastes as snobby - we just have a heightened sensitivity - we're tasting what's really there.