My son has learned to type with it. We have never used a computer based typing program so I don’t know how it compares. He said he likes it. He is still slow, but speed comes with time I think. Kristen

I was looking at this and it seems very similar to MFW. Anyone else? Kristen

My kids and I actually really enjoy steams of civilization. My olders that were using it did not care much for the Student sheets. My youngers did like them. We really enjoyed the music CDs as part of the deluxe package. Kristen ETA correcting my autocorrect

MFW does not schedule LA (other than narrations and student sheets, but I feel that goes with our history/science part of the day) or math. So if you get the "box" 2nd and up it schedules and includes the books for history, bible, and science.

I have the TMs for sale. If your interested PM me. Kristen

I wanted to add that we use 1-4 lessons A day and it is working great. I feel like it's getting the job done nicely :)

Agree!!

I agree. I would move on to 5

Yes this is what I did. I'm so glad I put my 4th grader in level 3. The spelling rules review has been so worth it. My sixth grader is doing sometimes 2 lessons a day, but he is right where he needs to be (and really enjoying the water color lessons).

We are using levels K, 3, 5 and 7. We are on around lesson 40. I have tried lots of curriculum over the last 12 years. This is what I have been looking for. Wish I had used it with my olders. Love the writing instruction (this is the main reason I am using G&B). Grammar is good. Spelling and reading instruction is very good in lower levels. Really enjoy the art and geography. Kids are having fun with it. My kids really like the literature and I like the lit terms that are studied. Spreads the different LA subjects out throughout the lessons so it's enough change up to keep my kids excited to do more each day. But, what works for our homeschool may not work for yours. My advice is to download and study 30-50 lessons to get the flow. If you like it print out the first 4 weeks and give it a try. Lessons get more challenging and build throughout each level. Be careful to place your child correctly as the levels and grade don't always match up. If it's too challenging they won't enjoy it as much. 3 of mine are one level less than their grade. My daughter is on the level as her grade. If we had started from the beginning with all of my dc I think we would be on higher levels. But I don't mind as they are learning and enjoying. As some have stated it is all integrated, which I like, but may make it unusable for some. You will be able to tell by looking through the free downloads. I really like using it with multiple kids. Keeps me from having to keep up with so many subjects for LA. I wish I had been thought this way 😊 Kristen

The Good and the Beautiful is a free download. We have been using it and we love it. We were using writing strands. Kristen

I agree with Another Lynn. You may love it! You may want to do it with just the olders. It may just not work for you. So take a test drive. I personally ended up still spending the same amount of time planning. And I still ended up prereading many of the books. I will admit I did not know enough about literature analysis to be able to implement this without extra help. Kristen

Math Lessons for a Living Education from Master Books?

My father used to read Tom Sawyer out loud to me and my siblings around the dinner table 30 years ago. I have fond memories of him reading a section and then heehawing out loud at the funny parts. I'll never forget his facial expressions while reading. Good times!

This is great! Thanks

Where did you get your binding machine? Is it working like you expected? Never thought to look for one of these, but I think I would like one now 😊

It's taking about 60-90 min give or take depending on the lesson. That includes the dictation, course lesson, drawing, grammar/geo flash cards, and state ladders. I am also having him read the Yearling (his choice of lit book, Shane is his next choice). That is taking another 30 min. My ds is 13. This is actually taking him much less time than what I was piecing together. So he is happy. The drawing has been mostly line drawing so far and he is beyond this, so I just told him that it helps breaks up the work load and he can do the line drawings or something similar that he chooses. He has done one of each. Funny but he loves the grammar and geography cards. He says this is what he's been needing 😆 Eta: I'm a notoriously bad speller 🙄

Just finishing up our first week using levels 7, 4(5when it comes out), 3, and 1. I'm impressed so far. Level 3 started teaching essay writing in lesson 4. Level 7 is really good (been looking ahead too). Ds needs the grammar and writing. He is enjoying the geography integration, and honestly this non natural speller is benefiting from the dictation (making him follow exactly, including writing each missed word 5times each, very motivating). Level 1 is going faster for my upcoming 2nd grade dd. We are doing two lessons a day. She loves the mini books even though they are easy for her at this point. I'm glad I went with level 1 for her as its been a great phonics review, and I see the benefits already. Using the last 30 lessons from level 4 till level 5 is ready. I really like the writing lessons. The companion is beautiful. Ds really likes it. Overall my favorite thing is that there is variety in the lessons. I was piecing everything together myself, all those workbooks were taking forever, and we were doing them every day. Burn out! Dc have really enjoyed this week and we have more time for typing, music, math... 😀

I am giving it a go this summer. Level 7,5(out soon!),3, and 1. Today was our first day. I printed the first 50 pages of everything. It's only been a day but I'm liking it. I like that dc can do more that one lesson a day. They love the art scattered throughout. I think my level 1 dd and level 7 ds liked it the most. But they all seemed to enjoy it. I like that it's beefy yet in small chunks KWIM? Agree on the spelling. I am going to try it but keep my spelling power close. I have 2 natural spellers and 2 nots 😃 My dd loves the level 1 reader. The reading is easy for her but everything else fits. Actually all my kids read above their level, but I have them read good lit on top (which is suggested). Really like what I see as far as writing instruction and lit terms and analysis (which is why I decided to try TH&TB). These are my week points so take that for what it's worth. 😉 ETA: tried pulling up on my kindle but no luck. Anyone else? Kristen

I think WWE 3 has some fun stories not to be missed :) We spread WWE 2,3,4 out over 4 years. So WWE 4 is done mostly in 5th. I also throw in some writing strands. Works for us. Don't be afraid to spread WWE out and/or skip weeks if it becomes monotonous. Kristen

I am pretty sure we will have to pay proctor fees next year for this test. Anyone comfortable giving me a ballpark of what that might cost? Thanks! Kristen

I have done both. Tried R&S orally with no retention here. With FLL I know if they are retaining. It's actually more for me than dc. Forces me to keep my hand in it consistently. I know some dc can retain with oral R&S. Just didn't happen here. Kristen

This sums it up nicely for me! And everyone is different in what their goals are and what they can accomplish. Kristen

Yes I was using redesigned and just the left side, but some weeks (and this was mostly years 2,3,4) it was still too much reading especially the D and R levels. Plus I could rarely find the books in the library for the lg and ug levels. Thus picking and choosing. Buying all the books for all the levels is four times as expensive as MFW, again being cost prohibitive and back to choosing books. This is just my experience but I do have lots of kiddos so keeping them together as much as possible is much easier for me. So someone like yourself who only had two levels with one child in each would be much easier to manage. Sounds like you might really enjoy TOG :) I do use DITHOR but every other year. It gets old really fast. Sometimes I like them to just enjoy the literature! I do use MFW highschool, but AHL in 8th and WHL in 9th for the excellent bible schedule and history and literature. From 10th on we do our own thing. This is what works for us ;) Hope you have fun choosing :) Kristen

Hoping the quote thing works: 1. I was really excited about the discussion questions in TOG. And they were very good, but again just too much time to devote to history. I would have two in each level of TOG this year, and I honestly flat don't have the time. It would take 1-1 1/2 hour for each level (D and R) for questions once a week. Plus the littles have to have there books read to them. And then everyone has lit pages to do and it was actually hard to get a lit book that fit the reading levels of each specific child. I actually use HOD readers which we love. There is a level for each grade and this is much better. If one child excels at reading they can go faster than a slower reading child, and I always have the next lit book on hand when needed. They don't match up to the history, but I finally came to terms with the fact that the priority is for my kids to have quality lit on their level. I have been doing this for five years. By the time mine got to high school we realized they wanted AP classes in several subjects which they self study for. So that is really what dominates. I still fit in some great lit, but it's quality not quantity. A big focus is writing which I pick and choose for different subjects throughout the year. 2. I think TOG is an excellent education in English and History (and Bible year 1). But by the time high school hits that's what your focus is. For my dc the focus has been math and science. They do take one English AP course and one History AP. So we kind of taylor it to what they want to do in college. That said TOG is totally doable! Just remember to pick and choose. If you have a heavy lit book that takes time feel free to take a break and read something light for the next book or skip. Same holds true for history. Also skip the discussion questions if you've had a tough week. Don't feel like you have to do every.single.lit page. I just always felt I was wasting so much. I would buy or checkout all the books and then only use half because I didn't know which one I would choose from week to week. If you have the time to look ahead and plan that would be key. I do not have that kind of time. 3. As I mentioned earlier I use HOD lit books and some SL to keep kids on their level. Also we have enjoyed the pp lit studies. It has been good. I also add in figuratively speaking workbook before they hit high school. Then we do Windows to the world the year before AP English. 4. We enjoyed TOG ancients but I started with (I think week 4?) Genesis and then went back to Egypt. Just could not stand not starting from the beginning 😆. The Bible was the best in this year as the upper levels used a lot of the actual Bible for history. Lower levels use different children's bible (wasn't particularly thrilled with any of these.) MFW uses streams of civilization which is great for us. Gets to the point, we liked the pictures, and it makes everything easy. There is also a focus on the feasts (there is in TOG too). It's just so much simpler with MFW to get all the levels combined *for me. My kids love doing the history and science and music together. This has really been a bonus that I was not expecting. I couldn't go to anything else as I would loose this fellowship with siblings. I'm sure I didn't answer half your questions, but hope some of this helps. I'll read over it again later and see if I can add anything else. :) Blessings, Kristen