Old Mother Westwind by Thornton Burgess is a very good one IMO. Rabittville series by Emma Serl. Fact and Story Readers published by American Book Company Up the Street and Down by Betts/Welch Easy Growth in Reading books titled 'Fun in Story'

:eek: to cutting apart books, makes me need a good stiff :cheers2: Seriously though, I am all for what works for each individual person and family. I personally can't cut my books apart because I, as someone else mentioned earlier, need to be able to resell them when done to help offset the cost of the new year's items. I find the cutting, filing, workboxing, etc...all interesting. I do none of it but am intrigued none the less. :crying: over all those poor bookless spines.

I am a first time Director this current school year with a very small Foundations group. My only issue really is that, for me personally, any Director needs to make sure she/he has plenty of seriously committed tutors. I am not only the Director but the ONLY tutor as well so what this means is that if/when I am ill or one of my kids is ill, I have to make phone calls the night before or morning of and cancel CC for the day. It would work much better if I had had at least one mom commit to being a sub-tutor at the minimum. I wish I could say more on the topic of your questions but simply can't yet. Let's touch on it again this time next year :tongue_smilie:

Thanks for the reply. I found a very cheap copy of Frode Jensen's Grammar Land and read through it and it reminds me of MCT items even though I believe Frode jensen was doing this style of grammar teaching before MCT was. I had MCT and didn't like it so go figure that I would show interest in Frode Jensen. :001_huh:

Right there with you girl!!!!!

1. a curriculum that mimics a failing public school curriculum. 2. curriculums that require you purchase a ton of additional material. 3. spend more time making THEIR homeschool truly THEIR own homeschool.

I know there aren't REAL pictures but have you looked into RSO Earth and Space by Pandia Press? We use it and love it. There is also the ability to include little sis without any trouble. OK, have to ask...why the AIG boycott?

Not sure if Geography Matters is secualr or Christian but worth a look http://www.geomatters.com/

She isn't a drawing fan but have you ever tried showing her anything from Mark Kistler? He is a drawer/cartoonist but makes it super fun and he is very animated. Just a thought.

Very helpful information and much appreciated. I was curious because I was going to use History Odyssey Level 2 Middle Ages for my 7th grader in the fall and that book is suggested as one of the main spines. Is the majority of his information historically accurate? Aside from the Jesus and Christian disrespect, are there other concerns you have with this book? We too are Christian but use many secular items for homeschooling.

Can I get a :thumbup: for RSO? We love it and I use it with our 3rd grader and 6th grader. It is very experiment heavy and they are fun and easy to do. We also have a great book called Totally Irresponsibe Science by Sean Connolly which is a fun experiment book. http://search.barnesandnoble.com/The-Book-of-Totally-Irresponsible-Science/Sean-Connolly/e/9780761150206 Some other fun add ins would be Potato Chip Science. http://potatochipscience.com/

Link please?????

This is the exact reason I budget a teensy bit more into books for school and home use. I hit used book sales and EBAY often in hopes of finding the originals. As homeschoolers, we have the flexibility to sit and explain some of the wording and usage if the kids don't get it and heck, if we don't get it we refer to the internet and dictionary. I simply don't prefer watered down edited kiddy versions of anything. JMO!

I am interested in The Story of Mankind by Hendrik Van Loon but after reading a couple pages on Amazon, it appears as if it is not a Christian Creationist view book. I saw something referring to a half ape/half monkey being our first ancestor. Any input please...

All very valid concerns and points to be made. I always appreciate an eye opening discussion.

I see and understand why those not agreeing with their SOF would feel excluded by the exclusion from tutoring or being a Director. Let me ask this though, does anyone know if this Catholic Tutorial has any sort of exclusion like the afore mentioned one with CC? Again though, as I mentioned back on page 1, I am all for these groups regardless of their religious or secular views. Groups getting together to home educate children and fellowship are a good thing. HAHA, remeinds me of old Hillary with, "It takes a village..." which is why I homeschool thing that I read somewhere once.

As a CC Director, this is just my understanding so keep that in mind when you read; CC doesn't exclude anyone, they have their SOF but won't deny anyone the opportunity to be involved in the group. There happens to be a CC Community here in MD that has a handful of Mormon families as part of it. The only rule I am aware of with CC is that if you are not a Christian that lives by their SOF than you can't be a Tutor or Director but can certainly be a member family. So Catholics can certainly be member families of any CC Community as far as I can tell. I have a Catholic family in my community and they love being part of the community.

Just curious...meaning????

History Odyssey is the BOMB. You should also look at TRISMS. The suggestion is to use their History Makers series and spread it out over 7th and 8th grade for two years of work. You can then move onto their other series for highschool. I am at this point, seriously trying to decide which one to use myself because they are both so good and I have them both. I got them both used and very reasonably priced on here actually. If you look into TRISMS however, make sure to look for the 2008 revised History Makers, not the 2001 version.

Life or Earth and Space would be fine for K. I use RSO E&S for 8 and 11 year old and they both enjoy it bunches.

Very good thread. Found out about some programs I hadn't even heard of. Look, there goes my well laid plans of mice and med...ugh...:001_huh:

Honestly, my budget is whatever I can sell no longer needed curriculum items for. We may add in a bit extra but for the most part, if I can make $300, $500, etc...on selling previous years items then that is what I try to stick with. I make it a point to look for items we need/want for school used also by looking here or on EBAY or other homeschool classifieds sites.

Some here I have never heard of which is why I asked. Thank you all for sharing and please keep the suggestions coming.

I am not opposed at all to Christian progrms, just checking them all out. Thank you so much Dulcimeramy for all those fabulous suggestions. I will be busy doing even more research now.

Anyone familiar with Jump In by Apologia?