Rod and Staff grammar

A friend of mine will be homeschooling her dc next year--pulling them out of PS. She was asking me about book clubs. She said that her ds participates in several affiliated with his school and just loves doing it. He basically just reads a book and then takes a quiz on it. She was wondering if there was anything similar to this for homeschoolers. The only thing that I know about is the Pizza Hut book it program. Does anyone know of such a book club for homeschoolers?

nt

We love the If you lived... series. They present historical facts in an interesting way.

Where is this? I keep seeing references to this, but I somehow missed it and now can't find it. Is it on her blog maybe? Anyone have a link?

Well, I haven't looked into the DVD option with BJU, so I suppose cost might just be a factor. I do definitely need something dd can do on her own next year. Decisions, decisions! Thanks for the input.

Mmm... Okay, thanks. You've given me some things to think about.

Deo Gloria

I'm glad that I'm on the right track, but I've got to decide! ;) Thanks for the input.

When we studied that year the first time around, we used the readers and read alouds from Sonlight's catalog. We LOVED it. I didn't use anything to tie it all together. We just read those books, learned a ton, and loved every minute of it. http://www.abookintime.com lists books in order of the time period you are trying to cover, so I put together a book list in chronological order picking much from Sonlight, and adding in books from a book in time. We had so much to read that year, that we went through the summer trying to finish up all the wonderful books on that time period. My dc were 4th, 2nd, and K that year, and they still talk about all the great books we read.

What turns my kids on about history is reading lots of good books about the people who lived the times. I've used Beautiful Feet, Truthquest, Biblioplan, and have even written my own curriculum from http://www.abookintime.com We like SOTW in small doses--by that I mean that we don't read the entire book, but pick and choose chapters that interest us. We don't like CHOW so much.

My daughter will be in 7th grade this fall. I'm stuck in deciding between Bob Jones or Apologia General. She doesn't like science, and I don't enjoy teaching it. Maybe that's why she doesn't like it? Anyway, I know I want something she will like, and something she can do on her own. Would either one of these be a better fit than the other? Which would you choose in our situation?

I took 7 years of piano as a child. I'm not very good, but I can read music and the Bastien series has been easy enough to teach. I'm using it with my dd's aged 11 and 9, and have been using it for about 2 years. We like it.

That's hilarious. And, since I'm almost finished reading Tom Sawyer, a very timely laugh. :)

I used to be a public school teacher in the elementary grades. Believe me, you can do it!! And, you have the hive mind to help you out when you get stuck or need encouragement.

Yes, this is the way I understand it as well. And, thanks for the clarification.

Rod and Staff 4 SWR for spelling copywork from lit. for handwriting read alouds daily silent reading daily (I choose the books most of the time)

Not trying to be argumentative, but I believe Colleen in NS is right about the revised WTM suggesting that R & S is all you need for grammar and writing. That's all I've been using from 3rd to 6th grade so far because of the recommendation. That being said, I am looking into a separate writing program for my dd for grade 7, but only because I think she needs some different instruction in writing--different from what we've been getting in R & S. She writes really well already, but is struggling some with the writing assignments in Rod and Staff, so I thought we'd do something different to see if it helped her.

Thanks everyone. Any more opinions?

This is what I'm looking for in a program, so maybe that's why I'm attracted to it. Thanks.

I know many on these boards despise this program. However, what I've researched about it makes me think that I will like it. Does anyone LIKE this program? What do you like about it? If you don't like it, what is the thing that really turns you off specifically?

Hits: Sonlight readers and read alouds What works great: MUS--the kids don't LIKE it, but they get it and do well with it. Miss: Drawing lessons with Thomas Kincaid

I started out Charlotte Mason and that was very good for my dc when they were young. When my oldest was in first grade, I read the WTM, and felt it gave me the structure and how to that I was looking for. I have slowly incorporated WTM in our schooling as the children have grown. We are probably a mix of the 2 methods now. I also discovered how much we love to read together, so I like curriculum that is literature based. It's a journey!

I also recall reading something where SWB said that she only put those schedules in there because the publisher wanted them. We keep our lessons short and sweet as well. A little bit every day has served us well for the last 7 years of homeschooling.

Adam of the Road--we all LOVED this one Favorite Medieval Tales D'Aulaires Greek Myths Jim Weiss's CD about the Renaissance--very well done and the whole family loves it again and again.