Thank you so much. I'll check into those two. I had found a PBS documentary on Winston Churchill in the library, which mentioned that the British empire was in decline, there was rationing and showed the destruction in south eastern England.

I'm looking for a DVD or book that covers the impact of WWII on post-war Britain. I was hoping that Ken Burns covered the impact on Britain as he did with America in The War. Any suggestions? It's for a 10th grade girl. Thanks to Lizzie in MA, Sebastian, flyingiguana, Lynn G in Hawaii and others who drew up lists of books/movies, and thanks to the great search engine on the Hive. Note: I did ask this question on the General Board a couple of days ago and got no answer.

I'm looking for a DVD or book that covers the impact of WWII on post-war Britain. I was hoping that Ken Burns covered the impact on Britain as he did with America in The War. Any suggestions? It's for a 10th grade girl. Thanks to Lizzie in MA, Sebastian, flyingiguana, Lynn G in Hawaii and others who drew up lists of books/movies, and thanks to the great search engine on the Hive.

ISBN 0132013517 Dragonfly cover edition 2008 of Prentice Hall Biology Teacher's Edition is what I used.

We used the McGee version too, and we thought it worthwhile. Dd still needs to work on time management skills though so we're going to watch it again in August. I'd be interested too in knowing if the new version has a different focus. From the catalog it seems that it does (more of a global approach?), but it is hard to tell for sure. I'm sure those folks at TTC write these course descriptions to entice one to "gotta have it." I've already bought three sets in the last two weeks! At least they were topics I've been waiting for more than a year to get at a better price.

We’re “approaching†Lesson 21 of Henle First Year after having done one round of Henle in 8th grade, stopping at Lesson 12 because of the third conjugation (verbs) and the pronoun declension. We started again in 9th grade and finished Lesson 21, but still need to review. One really needs to memorize the declensions and conjugations, and to repeat the stuff out loud to succeed in Latin. I also bought my own set of Henle books (text and grammar) to study along with dd because it was just too difficult trying to follow the exercises/answer key for me without having the actual exercises in front of me. Plus it was just better to have my own copy to try to understand this a little bit better even though dd and I learn it together. I even started doing some of the exercises. I think that helped dd become more motivated to study too. Sometimes the Henle book just didn’t make sense so I had dd take a group class with a tutor who teaches homeschoolers and is a private school teacher of Latin. Turns out that Henle does have some mistakes in the exercises (it’s not major). The tutor grouped a concept from the text and explained it more clearly that the text of even the Teacher’s Manual did. Looking at the books I’ve gathered, I notice that I tend to overdo. These are the helps I use: English Grammar for Students of Latin: the Study Guide for those Learning Latin. 3rd ed. Norma W. Goldman. Olivia and Hill Press. ISBN 0934034346. Offers concise explanations. There are samples online at http://www.olviahill.com Teacher’s Manual for Henle Latin Series First and Second Years. Sister Mary Jeanne, S.N.D. Loyola University Press. 1955. No ISBN. Follows Henle lesson per lesson, and explains what some exercises are trying to accomplish. Gives some other helps when trying to explain concepts. Found it at http://www.olvs.org/ShopCart/InvList.aspx?a=54 Answer Key to First Year Latin (Revised 1945). Robert J. Henle, S.J. Loyola University Press. 1953. This is an expanded version of the original old answer key that is generally available. I tore out a lot of hair during 8th grade because I didn’t have this help. It saved me a lot of time for those exercises wherein the old AK just says “See Introduction,†or “See Grammar #.†Found it at http://www.olvs.org/ShopCart/InvList.aspx?a=54 Barron’s 501 Latin Verbs. 2nd edition. Pryor and Wohlberg. 2008. ISBN 9780764137426. Helped us see the big picture of the verb paradigms, and I so liked having the whole verb conjugation on one page per verb, since I have trouble myself keeping the tenses/moods straight. The Bantam New College Latin and English Dictionary by John C. Traupman. ISBN 0553573012. Although Henle has a good dictionary at the back of the book, we get curious about other words. The Complete Idiot’s Guide to Learning Latin. 2nd ed. 2003. Natalie Harwood. ISBN 0028644506. Picked this up second-hand by chance. So far it has helped us see the big picture for the pronoun declension. Websites that have helped us: http://www.rci.rutgers.edu/~wcd/Latin.htm The Dowling Method. I started using this for basic understanding http://www.slu.edu/colleges/AS/languages/classical/latin/tchmat/tchmat.html Saint Louis University. Looks different since the last time I used it. It helped us see how to do translations in stages. It seems there is a lot more information there now. http://www.wheelockslatin.com/chapters/introduction/introduction.html Wheelocks’ Latin. Although it doesn’t match up with Henle, it is useful for pronunciation. I tell dd that pronunciation is not such a big deal anyway because we don’t really know how (roman) Latin sounded. http://www.nle.org/exams.html#previousexam Official website of the National Latin Exam. Dd did take the Introduction to Latin 1 exam and did well even though she didn’t know most of the words. It’s helpful to look at past exams. I’m sure that if you do a search on the Hive here, you’ll get other helps.

Thank you sooooo much for all your replies. I'm definitely going to include my telephone number in the thank you note. And for Christmas, since it's traditional giftgiving season in the United States, I'll give them asian pears. The post from sgo95 really resonated with me; it has helped me better understand the "why" of dynamics in oriental culture. My brother-in-law worked in South Korea some time ago and was exasperated with them. I knew I did NOT want to ask his opinion or for his suggestions. You people are the greatest!

Many, many thanks all! Your answers have helped me a lot. I'll keep the gift, write a thank you note and take it over with some fancy chocolates. Or is there a Korean goody that they would like better than chocolates? I've wondered about interactions in the past. He'll wave and say hello, but his wife NEVER looks our way nor says anything. She'll be standing 5 feet from me in the front yard watering her patch of lawn by the mailbox and never acknowledge my hello. Maybe she doesn't speak English or I don't talk loud enough. I thought she was deaf but I see and hear them converse together. Their college aged son speaks English very well, but he's not home that often.

Last night my Korean neighbor gave me a gift for getting his water turned off. Both of our families were out of town for a day one month ago except we returned home hours earlier than they did. The hose of their washing machine burst and their house was flooded to the point that water was gushing out of the stucco. We live on a fairly busy street, but it was Sunday, and no other neighbors in front or on the other side noticed the gazillion gallons of water flooding my lawn and flowing into the street like a waterfall so I called the fire department because I could not find their shutoff. Damage was bad and they are staying in a hotel. Anyway, I've been given gifts of cookies before for doing something simple so I though the wrapped box had chocolates in it. It was a very expensive digital photo frame. I have to confess that it was something I have wanted for some time but would never be in our budget. I am going to write them a thank you note. But, for those who know Korean culture, would it be an insult to return this gift and tell them just to do something nice to another person who needs it?

Your question made me think. It was a legitimate question. No need to apologize.

I took the survey too. I didn't mark any bubble on the question about how many years I studied Latin, because I have never studied it before. I hope that doesn't mess up the survey.

Thanks everyone for the quick replies! This helps me go for the wireless.

I'm going to buy a new mouse for the (Toshiba) laptop and just wanted to get your opinion. For those of you who have a wireless mouse for your laptop . . . do you love it or hate it, and why?

Hi jadedone80, We did Kolbe Hisitory and Literature (well, the whole 9th grade program) and we didn't use the CD's and did fine. I found that the CD's probably addressed one question in all of the tests. You could probably get the same information from a good library book. We used Edith Hamilton's The Greek Way to Western Civilization to understand the Greek outlook on life.

Kfamily wrote: Could anyone tell me more about this book and its study guide from Kolbe Academy for 9th grade literature? Has anyone used or seen these books? Used in 9th English http://books.kolbe.org/store/p/103-A...-RHETORIC.html Used in 10th English http://books.kolbe.org/store/p/104-I...FOOTSTEPS.html Used in 11th English http://books.kolbe.org/store/p/105-E...S-JOURNEY.html Hi Kfamily, The last three “books” you list are actually 5 ½ by 8 ½ inch booklets published by Kolbe. They come in sets of 2: one for the student and one for the teacher. They are identical except that the Teacher one has the answers to a brief “proofread and write” page and the grading sheets in grid form (pretty much half of the teacher booklet) for the oral presentations done by the student. I have “An Odyssey in Rhetoric” and “In Cicero’s Footsteps”. They are geared to the English syllabus/lesson plan, but there is no real instruction in the booklets. The content: definition of rubric terms; very brief academic paper standards; a list of phonograms to refer to for oral presentations; about 10 selections of poetry/prose that the student rehearses before doing an oral presentation for weekly or quarterly grades. It won’t help you teach your student rhetoric if you are looking for a text. On the other hand, the English syllabus gives very brief instruction which the parent can discuss with their student these short pieces to understand what the author expresses, and having the student interpret that expression in oral presentation. It really has to be used with another text to understand rhetoric – for us that meant the Plato and Aristotle readings, especially the Socratic readings (in the Kolbe Literature and History). My experience with “An Odyssey” is that dd simple learned how to speak in front of an audience. She became aware of being clear and logical; enunciation, pronounciation, volume, speed, eye contact, appearance, doing research, developing her own style, etc.. It's like the recitations/declamations I remember in school a long, long time ago. The Poetics booklet set: The student's has questions geared to Aristotle's Poetics. You could probably use any translation because the questions reference the sections (not the page numbers) that seem to be universally accepted in different translations (we had two translations when dd read Poetics); it also includes a Poetics Project at the end . The teacher's booklet has the answers to the student booklet.

Hey Shelly in Il! Dd's name is Josie. She says she thinks there was a Mike in her class. She is so bad about remembering names!

We’re registered with Kolbe and are currently using the PR Miller/Levine book. We chose to go with Kolbe for high school because they offer the Prentice Hall books for Physical Science, Biology, and Chemistry which (used in the public school system as well) are accepted by our state university system. What I really appreciate about the Kolbe Biology exams is that the exam answer keys reference the sections and/or page numbers in the text in addition to the answers that the advisors have written. That saves me lots of time. Other assigned readings are a number of papal encyclicals, selections from Thomas Aquinas’ Summa Theologica, and the Catholic Catechism, but you can definitely skip all that. The Kolbe Biology lesson plan has sections titled “Biological Issues and Church Teaching,” where that stuff is listed, which you can skip too. On the topic of evolution it says, “The authors explain that evolution is a theory, ‘a well-supported testable explanation of phenomena that have occurred in the natural world.’ Given that it is a theory blindly accepted as fact by many, it is important to explore, question, and understand the science underpinning it and to grasp the Church’s stance on evolution as outlined below, regardless of whether you accept or reject evolutionary theory.” Catholic Church teaching materials were referenced once in the first quarter, six times in the second quarter, eight times in the third quarter, and four times in the fourth quarter regarding issues such as nature’s complexity, stem cell research, evolution, genetic engineering, human cloning, human population growth, and development of the human body. I agree with NJKelli, who wrote “my understanding is that Kolbe takes the Catholic view that you must believe that God created the universe out of nothing and He breathed an immortal soul into Adam and Eve.” I like that the Kolbe lesson plan invites the student to explore and question what is put before her. One of the PH Biology authors (Kenneth R. Miller) wrote two books regarding the issue of evolution: Only a Theory: Evolution and the Battle for America’s Soul, and Finding Darwin’s God: A Scientist’s Search For Common Ground Between God and Evolution, but you wouldn’t know it from the PH Biology text. We read these and a short book by Pope Benedict XVI titled ‘In The Beginning . . .’ A Catholic Understanding of the Story of Creation and the Fall, in addition to the Kolbe recommended Change of Purpose?: Creation, Evolution, and Rational Faith. I don’t remember the Kolbe lesson plans getting into the issues of young earth or origins of the universe. Kolbe would agree to the saying: science tells us how the heavens go, not how to go to heaven. Dd is currently in the last two weeks of the course. She was concurrently in a Biology hands-on lab which used the BJU text, which does take a specific stance to the point of hitting the student over the head on almost every page, even with the quizzes. I’m glad she’s finished with the BJU text. Kolbe has a forum and tremendous support (I think) from the advisors on the forum and by phone. They don’t offer on-line classes. The closest they have to something online is a student interaction forum for registered students where a moderator discusses readings from Theology, Literature, and History; the classes are segregated by high school grade. It meets at a specific time/day, but it’s not audio. They type their responses. Dd didn’t use it at all because they had technical difficulties for that specific forum section most of the time this year. I think that happened because they were revamping their bookstore, computer system, and move to another building. The Kolbe forum does have a separate parent section in addition to the separate subjects, and separate elementary and high school sections. If you do enroll, you or your student can ask the advisors any questions re Biology. The science advisor (or any advisor for that matter) answers within 24 hours or less, especially during the week. Kolbe redid a part of their Biology lesson plan last year when they replaced Chance or Purpose for another book. You can probably access a sample of the lesson plan at http://www.kolbe.org/documents/science/Biology9thGradeMillerandLevine09Sample.pdf If that doesn’t work, go to the Kolbe website, move your cursor over “Academics” and click on Sample Lesson Plans, then click on Biology. The required text is Prentice Hall Biology by Miller and Levine (2006) The Church Teaching Materials would be required if you are doing the Summa diploma with them. My understanding is that if the student is doing the Magna diploma, Standard diploma, or single enrollment, you can alter the lesson plan as you see fit. Contact the Kolbe advisor either on the forum or by phone, and tell them your requirements. Optional materials: Prentice Hall Biology Virtual Labs CD-ROM (we didn’t buy it) because dd was doing the hands-on lab. Kolbe Academy Biology Answer Key and Online Student Access, which we bought because dd can access the PH website to do online chapter assessments, active art which is like a mini-quiz of concepts, and access to lab outlines, and sometimes just to review concepts without lugging the textbook. Also, if you have this, and don’t mind teaching without the hard copy of the teacher’s manual, you can access the answers through the parent access. I only used that for the active art, since I already had the TM. Kolbe Academy Lab Report Writing Guide which we bought. It has a rubric and samples of informal and formal lab reports done by students and graded. Mchel210, I believe you may buy any book Kolbe sells without being enrolled. Wait. I take that back. I remember seeing a note about needing to be enrolled to buy the Sadlier Oxford teacher manual. It is probably best to contact the bookstore directly by phone for any TM without enrollment. When dd was in 8th grade she did the single enrollment for Physical Science. We already had the text and TM, so I only bought the Syllabus (has the lesson plans, quizzes, quarter exams). It was a total of $90: $45 for the syllabus and $45 for single enrollment in 2009, which gave us access to the whole forum, and keeping her grades. We were trying Kolbe out back then before enrolling for the whole 9th grade program in 2010.

Thank you sooooo much for sharing your find, cathmom! Dd plans to do Spanish next year. We can do this over the summer for fun.

Hi Bloggerman, DD did Great Books Discussions (Ancient Greek) with Mr. Bertucci and Dr. James Taylor this year. She loved it, and benefitted from it greatly both in her thinking and writing. This is the site http://www.greatbooksdiscussions.org/ I second everything Shelley in Il said. Your can also reach Mr. Bertucci using the telephone number listed at the Great Books Discussions site. He has usually answered my calls on the second ring. Hey, Shelley, my dd was in the Wednesday morning class. She'll be starting the Roman Year this fall too. This resource is neither secular nor religious; there is a basic goodness, beauty, and truth that is shared by all whether you are secular or religious. Human being innately know this, but oftentimes don't practice it.

We just bought it last week but haven't viewed any of the DVDs yet. I think TTC is continuing their "all DVD" sales until June 9. We plan to do it bit by bit over the next three summers. Since dd is doing the Great Books Discussions and Kolbe high school program, her history and literature is heavy on the western civilization side. We also wanted to round out her world history. Glad to know, Plaid Dad, that you enjoyed the first two lectures!

PM got through!

Hey CleoQc, I've been away from these message boards for a month. I just wanted to tell you that we started the full Kolbe summa program for 9th grade in September of 2010 and it has been a challenge, mainly because of the writing, but dd15 is pulling through. She loves to read and discuss, and she is being challenged by the material. Part of the problem is that dd wants to also do a hands-on lab, which she loves. She did it for Physical Science, and is doing it for Biology this year, but it is working out. As for the others - As to the expense of signing up for one course and being "nickeled and dimed" - that wasn't my experience with Kolbe. I did pay $90 for the single enrollment. For me that included registration (access to their forum); the PH Physical Science syllabus/lesson plan/quarter exams/answer key to the exams and quizzes; answer key to assigned text assessments and online access to the PH site for the text. It helped that I bought both the hardbound copy of the student text and teacher's edition for $10 at a used curriculum sale. It was worth it to me to be able to ask questions of the Science advisor on the forum, and the turn-around time on giving me answers was fast. She also suggested how I could grade my dd answers to some things on the exam that I was at a loss on how to grade: how I could break down the answer and what number of points I could give. I was able to also access the other part of the forum/message boards which was very helpful to me. It is true that you have to pay separate for that Enhanced Evaluation Service. I haven't needed it. I think you just go for what works for your family and your situation.

We used the Kolbe PH Physical Science syllabus/lesson plans/quarter exams/answer key last year, and it was very helpful like CleoQc described. We HAD to use it because dd is enrolled in the Kolbe summa program. I remember the quizzes covered chemical abbreviations and some other physics concepts too. I did experience a learning curve just trying to read the lesson plan though (I can be so dense sometimes!) but it was just a matter of getting used to their format. I just need the organization of the lesson plans with high school subjects. I did like that the plan focuses on some of the section and chapter assessment questions, and emphasizes key concepts that your student should take from each section assigned. The answers to the quizzes and quarter exams are included with the lesson plan, but not the answers to the text section and chapter assessment questions. Kolbe sells a separate answer key/online text access for that, but if you have the teacher's edition you don't need the separate Kolbe answer key. I believe Kolbe offers the separate answer key/online text access so that you don't have to purchase a separate teacher's edition of the text. I still used the TE because I was able to find it cheap second hand, and because dd wanted to cover other things that the lesson plan didn't include. Hurrah for curiosity! The Kolbe materials simplified our lives because the material is parcelled out over a four-to-five day week.

This may not help you a lot. Dd and I read portions of How to Speak, How to Listen last summer before dd joined an online Great Books Discussion class. We read Parts 2 and 3: the former, from what I remember, focused on persuasive speech in front of a group and how to gear your speech toward a particular audience; the latter was about annotating while listening to a speaker. We didn't get any further than that. We'll probably look at the book again this summer, especially Chapter 13 of Part 4 since dd will continue with socratic discussion. Here's the Table of Contents Part 1 - Prologue Chapter 1 - The Untaught Skills Chapter 2 - The Solitary and the Social Part 2 - Uninterrupted Speech Chapter 3 - "That's Just Rhetoric!" Chapter 4 - The "Sales Talk" and Other Forms of Persuasive Speech Chapter 5 - Lectures and Other Forms of Instructive Speech Chapter 6 - Preparing and Delivering a Speech Part 3 - Silent Listening Chapter 7 - With the Mind's Ear Chapter 8 - Writing While and After Listening Part 4 - Two-Way Talk Chapter 9 - Question and Answer Sessions: Forums Chapter 10 - The Variety of Conversations Chapter 11 - How to Make Conversation Profitable and Pleasurable Chapter 12 - The Meeting of Minds Chapter 13 - Seminars: Teaching and Learning by Discussion Part 5 - Epilogue Chapter 14 - Conversation in Human Life Appendices 1 - The Harvey Cushing Memorial Oration 2 - The Twelve Days of the Aspen Executive Seminar 3 - Seminars for Young People

My dd15 will be wrapping up Biology this June. We used Biology:The Science of Life DVDs by TTC, and we all found Professor Stephen Nowicki to be boring because 99% of the time he read from his notes. We could have probably gotten the audio CDs, but then we wouldn't have been able to look at the images. And we (hubby, myself, and dd) all thought there could have been more images. Don't get me wrong though. DD found the DVDs very useful for understanding the concepts of replicating DNA, the process of DNA to RNA and RNA to Protein, Glycolisis, Cellular Respiration, Chemiosmotic Theory, Photosynthesis, and the rest. She's taking an hands-on lab Biology course, and did very well in class when they dealt with those concepts. We only used those sections of the set. She's doing dissections now so she doesn't use the DVDs anymore. I think it's something she could use again in college given all that microbiology stuff.