Homeschool in the Woods is also my first choice for the second time around. I'm planning to get the CD and probably print the images with descriptions on sticker paper, and get each girl a book. We're doing a home made timeline this time around, so they are learning the concept and I think they will be more than ready to do a nice job on their books.

I find myself wanting to do this for writing for next year. I want to really examine WT, CW, SWB's new book, and IEW! I know I won't buy all 4, but I'm guessing I will probably buy more than one. It's so hard to know what will really fit you. And if I am making a trade off, I like to know what my chosen curriculum emphasizes and what it treats lightly or skips all together. Then I can either agree with that approach or do a little supplementing with something else. I am lucky enough that my hs budget allows for my own education and at least a little experimentation.

Probably not the cheapest source, but the Sonlight catalog has them too, and if you were going to place an order anyway, it may be convenient. Looks like Rainbow Resource has them too and they are often the cheapest source for other items, so that's worth checking out.

We are using Biblioplan too. I think if we were way behind, I would pare down how many books we use. I would use SOTW for sure, and pick *some* of the readers/read alouds to do. I would probably look at whether some weeks could be skimmed--for my second grader, I know that the reformation unit doesn't have much for younger kids, for instance, so I would probably look to shorten that. We are in the renaissance unit now, and there are several weeks that focus on artists, no SOTW reading at all. It's very light compared to earlier weeks and they could probably be combined a bit. Then I would just do it--make sure a week's worth of material (or more) gets covered each week. Do you both enjoy history? Are you behind because it just takes a lot of time to get everything done, or is history a lower priority? I love Biblioplan and think it's fantastic for history buffs who like reading, but it is a lot of material and if it's drudgery, there are other programs that might fit better.

I'm for waiting on cursive copywork. My dd is also second grade and we really just started cursive over the last couple of months. Fine motor skills aren't her strength, so it's pretty clear that for us she should just concentrate on learning the mechanics of cursive. For copywork, I want her to focus on how sentences are constructed and appreciate the beauty of excellent phrasing. I think that is better accomplished if she doesn't have to focus quite so much on the physical task of writing, so she prints. And truth be told, practicing printing and getting used to a gently ramping writing load is also a need here. We will focus on learning cursive this year and using it more next year.

The Singapore Intensive Practice books would provide a good review if you haven't already done them. Maybe the 5A and 5B books. There will be practice with everything he did this year, but also problems to extend his thinking and problem solving skills.

I'm planning to using Biblioplan year 3 with SOTW 3 next year and I know it schedules History of Us (I want to say volumes 2-5 for year 3 and later volumes for year 4). So that's another option for a schedule, and another example of other people who also thought it a good idea to combine the two.

The experiment kits that come with Noeo have always been easy to implement. Just about everything comes with a kit--even string and paper clips. If anything else is needed, we have always had it on hand (baking soda is the only thing that comes to mind). If you choose to keep doing things out of Super Science Concoctions, you may need to track down some supplies, as they do not come with the Noeo box. FWIW, I think I like Chem I better than Bio I.

I have a feeling this formal logic course you mention goes way beyond my experience, but thought I would share a little about symbolic logic. When I was teaching high school math at an excellent ps, we started the honors geometry course for 9th graders with a month of symbolic logic. We used Patrick Suppes book. Kids learned how to symbolize arguments like: If it is raining, Mom will drive me to school. It is raining. Therefore Mom will drive me to school. or A-->B A therefore B And you learn some nice Latin (I think!) names for logical rules--this is ponendo ponens. It's a way of learning logical reasoning. You can talk about how if you know A is true, B will always be true, but just because B is true doesn't mean A will be. Your mom might drive you to school because you slept late--it's not necessarily raining just because your mom drives you to school. There are of course a bunch of these logic rules and you get to the point where you can prove much more complicated statements. A month of this before geometry also introduced the kids to the idea of how to prove something before we started Euclidean geometry proofs. I think it is a great topic of study to include in a classical education. But as I said, I don't have any experience with the Traditional Logic book.

I have no plans to assign grades in elementary and I definitely would give grades in high school. You're in that in-between stage that I haven't figured out yet! I could see moving to assigning grades in middle school as preparation for what's to come in high school. Especially if dd is asking for it. I taught high school math, and in some ways it's a lot easier to think about grading a class of 30 than a class of 1. Most math teachers would grade on a curve, usually combining a couple of classes (60 kids). That way you can write tests that challenge kids and make them think and they don't have to get it all right to get an A. How do you establish a curve with 1 kid? I guess you can just test basic mastery of concepts, but that's not as interesting! I feel like I know what is A work from having taught math classes, but that would be a lot harder if I hadn't done it before. Or harder for me to grade science or English papers. It wouldn't be too difficult to just test facts and use straight percentages (90-100% some type of A, 80-89% some type of B, etc.), but it seems like a classical education would incorporate student evaluation that goes well beyond regurgitation of facts. I'll be interested to read how others are going about it.

We used Bio I last year with a 6 yo first grader and a 3-4 yo tag along. We are using Chem I now and will probably use Physics I next year. I like Noeo a lot, but it won't fit everyone. A few details: -If you want to build your home library with wonderful books that your kids will continue to pick up and read after you finish them, Noeo will fit you. You could do it with just buying the teacher's guide and using the library, but I think one of the big benefits of choosing Noeo is ordering the whole kit and having it ready to go with litttle effort on your part. I also like that if you own the books, the learning continues every time your kids pick them up to read on their own. -As I mentioned, Noeo fits well if you are looking for someone else to do the planning--little effort on your part. For folks who like to select books and plan it themselves, Noeo is not really adding anything they don't already do. -Noeo fits families whose primary learning method is reading. Great choice if you love curling up on the sofa with dc and reading great books. There is just enough hands-on to relieve guilt that you should be DOING science, but I don't think it's enough for folks with hands-on kids who want to be doing experiments every week. I think this is more true with Bio I than Chem I by the way. In Chem they encourage you to keep doing experiments from the Super Science Concoctions book weekly. -Noeo is described as CM/classical in style. Think living books and notebooking. If you are wanting worksheets and tests, this isn't your program. I think this is particularly well-suited to young elementary. Bio I was great for first grade. Not sure it's as good a fit for 3rd grade. HTH!

With my older daughter, we did PP over a year and a half, roughly from the start of K to Christmas break in first grade. We started spelling and FLL in first grade, so she was maybe 2/3 to 3/4 of the way done with PP and reading fairly well. I don't think you necessarily need to be that far along in PP--that's just where we were at the beginning of first.

We did Noeo Bio I for first, snuck in Apologia Astronomy between first and second, and are now doing Noeo Chem I, so next year it will be on to Noeo physics I. After that I'm not sure where we'll go next.

We bought a kit at Target a few years back. Has to be in spring or summer here--no flowers for your hatched butterflies yet! I bought what's called the Butterfly Garden on the website, only when you get it at Target it comes with a certificate to mail in to get your caterpillars sent to you. Looks like if you buy online it just comes with the caterpillars. Definitely use their food. I had a neighbor breed her butterflies and gave me caterpillars and told me to just give them thistles. They did eat the thistles, but all but one died before hitting the pupae stage. When I got the caterpillars from the company, they came in a container with all the food they need and all of them became butterflies. http://insectlore.stores.yahoo.net/

Horizons is spiral and Singapore is not. A not as quick answer...When I was deciding which math program to use, I found the descriptions in the Sonlight catalog really helped me understand the different programs and determine which would fit me. If you don't have their catalog, it looks like they have this information on their website--www.sonlight.com. Try going to the products section, then choose by subject, math, and on the right you will see the different programs. They sell both Horizons and Singapore and you should be able to find the descriptions at the bottom of the pages. They tell you the strengths and weaknesses of each program and you can decide if they fit you. It helped me figure out that spiral would drive me nuts. I ended up with Singapore. This year I have been supplementing with the Horizons workbook too. (There's another option...buy both!) I guess an advantage to Sonlight is you could easily get both workbooks and just have one package to ship. The books for both programs are fairly inexpensive. And isn't the exchange rate greatly in your favor?:) Here's the page I was on for Horizon...let's see if this turns into a link: http://www.sonlight.com/horizons-math.html Go to the bottom of the page for the description of Horizons. Hey the link worked! Editing to add the Singapore page too: http://www.sonlight.com/singapore.html

In the spring of both K and first grade, I checked them out for a 4 week period and we went through the American history (since we did none for our regular schooling) and then read the literature stuff for fun. I peeked at the math and science but felt no need to go through it with dd. This year as we finish Medieval, Renaissance, and Reformation we will be getting ready to start in on American history, so I don't feel as strong a need to get the next book. I'll probably check it out for fun.

I use the textbook and workbook. The textbook teaches the material. I actually bought the home instructor's guide and it has ideas for other activities to teach the material, but I've come to realize we don't need other activities. It works fine to go through the textbook and then do the workbook exercises. We are in 2B now.

We were using Noeo Bio I last year when we studied the human body. Their book was the Usborne First Encyclopedia of the Human Body, which dd loved to read on her own after we read it together. We also used the My Body book by Teacher Created Resources which has small kid-sized organs for kids to color and cut out while you read about what the organ does. Then we taped the organs to our butcher paper body outlines hanging on the wall. My kids loved it. They also learned a lot from the Magic School Bus Human Body dvd.

I came to hsing passionate about teaching and learning. I love all of the subjects. Really! Did anyone else here have trouble deciding what to major in in college? Whether to go the techie side (where the jobs used to be) or the fuzzy side? Well I did. I was equally strong in math and English. I ended up with an engineering degree, then got a teaching credential in math with authorization to teach English too. But what really drew me to WTM was the chronological history. I remember taking Western Civ. as a freshman in college and wondered "why was I never taught this???" Why wait until college to learn the fascinating story of the world? In our home school, we all enjoy learning about history most. We enjoy literature and science too. We do the nuts and bolts of math, grammar, spelling, learning to read, etc., but kind of hard to be passionate about learning times tables and spelling rules. Some stuff you just gotta work through.

I just finished Deconstructing Penguins and I have 2 more sessions to watch of Teaching the Classics. Both of these are excellent resources and I highly recommend them. I particularly like the structure of Teaching the Classics (fits my math brain). He uses a chart that provides a systematic way to talk about setting, plot, conflict, etc. I liked Deconstructing Penguins' method of analyzing who is the protagonist and who is the antagonist. I've learned a lot from both programs and I would like to use these techniques with my dd soon--if not this spring than certainly next year in 3rd grade. I can see just doing maybe 3 books per semester that we would analyze and talk about together. Nothing written at this point. I think she would like it a lot.

As far as middle school and high school goes, we'll make detailed decisions later. I will certainly look at NEM, whatever Myrtle uses:) (and I still have a Moise Downs geometry text from teaching it 15 years ago), other texts I used to teach from, Foerster, and whatever else seems to provide a strong background in mathematical thinking. I know there seems to be pressure to push algebra to ever younger ages, but I'm not sure that's necessary. I would like dds to be able to take BC calc AP test their senior year, and when I was teaching the program to do that started with algebra (a good strong algebra) in 8th grade.

Endangered Minds by Jane Healy is an interesting book that talks about how children's television shows (Sesame Street in particular) actually train kids brains to expect diversion and scene changes frequently. So don't watch television--and it is easiest imho to just never watch it at all so they don't even think to want it or ask for it. And then if you read to them a lot, I think the attention span just develops naturally as they get involved in the story. As they get older the books get longer. If they aren't used to t.v., this will be their entertainment and it all works pretty painlessly.

I usually get it as part of a large order ($150) to get free shipping.

Try pressing on the LEFT side of the abdomen. If that hurts where the appendix is located, it is a good sign of appendicitis. She called it "referred pain" and explained that the pressure on the peritoneal lining (I think) pulls on the appendicitis. Something like that. That was her number one way of checking for appendicitis.

Or do you keep up with 2 workbooks a year until you're done? Just wondering as we add writing next year if it would make sense to slow down on the workbooks to have more time in the day for other LA activities. Thanks.