Thanks Heather! Is it suitable for your older, your middle, or both? I am going to check this out more, and then I am sure I will have more questions. I really don't want to add any more *writing* than we are doing; I was looking more towards memorization, so this might suit better.

Brilliant, you two!

We just had a surprise visitor, a friend, who brought a (26 yr. old and really pretty cute but that is beside the point) friend from Italy with her. While the lady and I were catching up, my husband was talking to the Italian. In the course of their conversation, the guy (who knew several languages) kept getting stuck with English words, and would look at my husband hopefully and say "you know, the Latin root is....". My husband did his best to figure it out. After he left, Dh just turned to me and said "I am SO glad you are teaching the kids Latin." We agreed the new generation is so much more global than we even thought about being, and likely our kids would travel and also know more people from foreign lands than we do. All the sudden I see why Latin will be a handy tool for *life*, not just for school. (And did I say that guy was pretty cute? I did? Oh, OK then. :lol:)

I am curious about IEW Poetry. What is the difference between it and the CW poetry? And also, thanks for your posts. You, among others, have really inspired me on the LCC path.

I love processing this through the forum- there are so many wise LCC'ers here and I learn so much from them here. I guess I just wanted to add that if you are going to do *less*, that less must be *better*. Does that make sense? OK, that is probably all my wisdom for the night :). You will do great... it is always a bit of a stress when you see things in your dc that you are not sure how to handle. The very fact that one is working towards a solution is progress, or so I keep telling myself!

I agree- my brain is so much *slower* than it used to be, that the kids can out-learn me pretty fast. But as a friend said, you only have to be a week ahead of them;). I do think that in areas where i am not naturally inclined (i.e. MATH) it is good to work ahead and get a tutor or DVD or something. I swear I have learned things from Mr. Steve on the MUS dvd's that have left my mouth hanging open. Thankfully I am not trying to teach my kids fractions all alone... I did not even know about them myself! I am sure this will become even more essential in older grades, but I do worry about laying an improper foundation. I guess that is why I still tend to gravitate to curric. where it is all spelled out for me, like CW. I *do* intend to figure out the progym myslf (incase you are reading, Mama Lynx ha ha) but for now it helps to have the help! OK this was all jumbled.... my dough is ready to move on to the next phase and I am typing while watching it.... gotta go!!

OK- I finally have a few minutes before starting dinner! What I mean about LCC being a good fit regardless of the *reason* for your issue, is that because of the "less quantity more quality" approach you will have more time to dial in the perfect solutions for base problems. (At least that is how it is working for me). My daughter is very quick-minded, likely gifted. She is also a perfectionist. My previous approach to schooling (more and more material) actually fed her perfectionism. By taking more time to go in depth with fewer subjects I can create an environment where I have the time to work with her on character issues. My son has asperger's syndrome, and though also very intelligent he has certain difficulties with traditional methods of learning. The sheer quantity and speed of material we were using was overwhelming. Our new schedule allows me to read and discuss material with him at a pace that allows true learning (rather than just memorizing the method or he fact). I am still reading out loud to him; I amnot worried about that at all as we are working on reading comprehension in Latin and Classical Writing. So- he still gets the literature in a fun way, and the problems are resolving themselves (sort of back door) in other subjects. I hope that helps- the other posters gave good advice too- off I go o make dinner and think about it more. maybe other LCC'rs will chime in, as i am pretty new at all this:).

Dead or Alive. Yes, I have their greatest hits album. And yes, I still listen to it, along with all my other 'new wave' favorites. Depeche Mode, the Cure, the Cult, the Clash, Siouxie and the Banshees, Men without Hats, Thompson Twins, New Order, Yaz, Ministry (their first single, Everyday is Halloween, is quite New Wave rather than industrial).. oh, now I have to go get out some CD's!

I think the 'pearls before swine' rule comes into place here. There are many neighbors that I could talk to because they are adult, intelligent, and open to hearing other points of view (and telling me theirs) without getting personally attached to my response. Then there are those neighbors... what can I say.... that I can't even ask the time as they will want to be rude about it. So- maybe start by practicing discussions with the first sort of neighbor. :)

You know, maybe this is about definitions. I use these terms all the time when I mean discuss (as in I 'argue' points with my husband but I am not combative or angry) and talk face to face (instead of e-mails and the phone). See, I read that quote and honestly wondered why you all thought it was combative and would call the cops! It actually took me a minute to re-define those words so that your responses made sense. Just sayin'.

So I am *not* a bad mom! :lol:

I might be totally off base, but it seems to me that LCC advocates a *way* of things instead of particular curriculum. I think that you could have a Language Arts block on the schedule, and fill that block with the grammar and writing programs that work best for you (while knowing that grammar and writing are also covered in other areas, like Latin and even your "extra" subjects). Maybe Drew will chime in here....

I forgot about the mashed potatoes line! We quote many movies constantly, but mostly we use: - any line from Napoleon Dynamite (especially "I didn't understand a word you just said) - any line from Nacho Libre (especially "ees for fun") - " keep it secret keep it safe" from LOTR. I hve no idea why we use this one, but we do. Alot.

Earth Balance. At our store the sticks are cheaper than a pound of butter! Bakes fine, even for biscuits and pie crust. Even works well melted for popcorn.

I'll get back to this (kids are taking a bathroom/snack break) but I thought I'd throw out a good selfish reaosn for learning latin: We spend 50 minute a day with *one* book (Lively Latin). We were previously spending more than 50 minutes with: vocab. from calssical roots, mind benders, wordly wise, roots games, readers and their workbooks (pathways) and more logic/vocab games and so on. It is worth it to me to not have all that *shuffling* around. The kids have a huge burst of confidence, not to mention a leg up for further language studies. One book, one subject = relaxed kids and relaxed mom. Also the kids are actively retaining the info, instead of perfecting their groans :).

LCC- Latin Centered Curriculum (and the book by the same title here). I certainly do think LCC would be a good choice. I am about to start school now (west coast time) and will write more to you later. I wrote my schedule and some of my thoughts as a post yesterday (search LCC). More Later!!!

I am also a fan of Thom Yorke's solo album that came out a few years ago (The Eraser).

Thanks!!! I will go check this out!

Thanks, Ladies! It's fun to have folks to share my excitement with!!:thumbup:

Get your beverage of choice- this is a long post :) I have totally re-vamped our schedule this year, and it is working so well that I thought I would share it. I'll give the schedule first, and then add a few thoughts and explanatory notes. 9:00 Latin (Lively Latin) 10:00 Math (MUS) 11:00 Language Arts (olders do copywork and handwriting while I do phonics with younger. Then we do a 15 minute R&S lesson, then CW Aesop for 40 min. 12:00 Lunch, followed by quiet reading 1:00 However long we like of the following subjects: Mon: History (using reduced TOG) Tues: Science (using a mega-edited BJU) Thurs: Religion and/ or Music (per LCC- love it!) Fri: Geography and/ or Art (per LCC- love it!) Thanks so much to A. Campbell for writing LCC!! I am following the guidelines fairly closely, and am so impressed with the result. I was previously trying to do too much; my aspie was completely lost and angry, the others were confused, and I was worried and exhausted. We love this LCC-based schedule! First, we feel so at ease by only doing 4 subjects a day. I have let go of "finishing the lesson" and instead we work until time to change subjects. This takes so much pressure off of my aspie (and therefore everybody else). I just cannot believe how much better he is doing! It allows me to focus on mastery. It gives us freedom to play around too; some days we read math stories or do drills instead of the textbook. I am surprised to see that we are actually going *faster* through our lessons then when I was being a drill sergeant about it. It also increases their ability to digest what we are doing- new info is not so readily pushed out by more new info 15 minutes later, KWIM? Now history... well, I had already purchased TOG and the books when I read LCC. Since my kids liked TOG, I decided to make workbooks ahead of time (thanks, karen!). This means when it is history hour we just open our books, and they color pages or take notes while I read the week's readings. I has become so cool... I don't lecture the teacher's notes like I used to, and the kids just start asking questions and piecing it together. I do feel a tiny bit guilty for not utilizing TOG to the max, but the kids are retaining the info, so that's that for now. I am stretching Yr. 2 into 2 years to match with the LCC lit. readings. Since LCC matches my sequence in TOG, I can add the literature readings (per LCC) in the evening or during the History hour. The kids love science, so we are picking and choosing lessons from BJU. We have done most of the other science options for their age, and I don;t have the time to put together my own thing. I do not agree with some of their religious viewpoints, so we just leave those out or discuss them. The TM comes with a schedule to do the course in 1/2 year, so by following that we'll should be able to complete it. On Wednesdays we go to town for piano- this means at *least* 3 hours in the car. Thanks to you who have talked about carschooling! We do our TOG, listen to books on CD, Geography Songs, Lyrical Science, etc. The kids actually look forward to the trip. What has also really helped has been the fact that I took a summer week to do all my copies, make reading schedules, gather materials, etc. so that now I can "open and go". All in all, I am so humbled and grateful to see this change in my school. We are all working together and learning more, without me feeling like i am constantly pushing. Thanks for listening, ya'll !! You have inspired me!!

Hey, I am bumping this in case any of you afternoon folks are healthy (hee hee).

Hmmm. I have been gearing up for a "health month" (I tend to think about this every September!). I just finished a crazy book about wheatgrass, and since I am one of those people who actually *like* the taste of wheatgrass I have decided I need to grow my own. I want a hand-crank juicer (I think this might be more about shopping than health, but hey, whatever it takes.) I am trying to decide between the Hurricane and the Z-Star. Which would you buy??

I am curious about Xylitol. I use a Xylitol mouth rinse as it was the only one I could find without food coloring (!!!). OK, another thing to research!

This book claims to be based upon Price's work. I have never looked into the availability of raw milks here... though I could probably could have purchased a cow with the $$ I gave the dentist last year!

This made me chuckle!! I sooooo know what you mean!!