I am planning on using the Excellence in Literature books. I have heard great things and the lady who does my evals swears by them. I was just looking for lighter history options to round it out because I think it will be pretty intensive on the reading and just needs to be rounded to fit both history and lit nicely. I think I have decided to give a go to World History by James Stobaugh

If we are planning to do IEW World Literature does anyone have any suggestions on a history program that is light but would work well with it? It will be for a 10th grader. I was told the lit program is good and complete and will work for a history program but would like to supplement it if need be since I have not seen the program.

History kills me every year. This last year I gave Sonlight a try and was pretty disappointed, it had a ton of busy type work and I felt the books it used really left a lot of open areas and just fell short. We tried to fill in the blanks but it became rough trying to get enough books and dvds to show what was missed. What I need this year is a complete, including good lesson plans that are easy to deal with, book for history. We are going to do US History again, and hopefully make it through this time with a good understanding. When I ditched Sonlight I had them sit down and research specific years and make cards for use this next year and they picked up more from that than they did the Sonlight (which used Joy Hakim books). My oldest will be going into 10th grade and I hope to get him to the point he can CLEP for history. I was told Sonlight would do that, but I do not see how. Maybe it just did not fit our learning styles. Any and all suggestions are appreciated. I do not mind Christian viewpoints but if it overpowers the actual history it is not helpful to getting where we hope to be. Does anyone use a good history that they love? We looked at Tapestry of Grace, but I was told it is just like Sonlight and leaves just as much open and blank to be filled in. History is my homeschool nemesis.... LOL Thank you! Jenn

I have a high school student, very bright, picks things up fast and well on most occasions, moving into 10th grade and I need advice on writing/literature/language arts as well as history. I have math down pat, he has completed Algebra 1 with Saxon and will move onto Algebra 2. For science we have moved into a college text to help him switch from the more religious texts we did in the lower grades. But, writing/literature/language arts always stumps me and I feel like we never do enough. He can write, and write well, when asked to but I have never asked him for anything on a larger scale (bigger than a couple of paragraphs). I want him to perfect his language arts/grammar skills, as well as learn more literature, and get exposed to all the types of writing. I am not sure how much is enough, and how much is to much. I have had IEW Elegant Essay suggested but will be honest and say IEW stuff has never worked well for us, we tend to get 1/4 into it and just leave it. Even my youngest does not enjoy it at all. It is hard to ask them to be creative when they dread the subject. I am open to any and all ideas. This child is a "book" learner and does a lot better if I can leave him to his own devices than if it is something I have to constantly hover about. Now, for history, we are looking for a good and fairly complex American History. We used Sonlight this last year and while the extra reads add some and the Joy Hakim books are a good (yet very brief with big gaps) books, we want something different this year. Even if it is more of a college level that will be fine, he enjoys a good challenge. With math, writing/lit/LA, Science (chemistry), history, and keeping up on classic novels...what else am I missing for him? Thank you.

If you mean what edition it is the 16th according to the cover. It is the higher level American History for upper middle and high.

I am doing American History in Depth and we are on week 8...Day 1 and 2 are normal but Day 3 lists PP pages but no book or anything. The pages it lists are to high to be in the history book they are doing. How on earth do I find out what book this is talking about so I can finish up my plans? Can anyone help me?

Thank you I will look at it. I would still love to have something to put together on my own though. Something easy to modify, not follow the lines.

Ok, so we started our year out well. There is only one sticking point, and we have had the same one in the past. IEW... My kids hate it, I am not a fan, and I am not sure what to do. We are currently doing the US History one since that is what we are doing this year. My kids are in 6/7th and 9th grade. I want to ditch the IEW and was thinking instead of a book just replace it with having them do reports each week for me. We could mix it up and have them either pick a topic or a book to do a report on. I would like to work through all of the types of reports and give different options on how to outline and brainstorm reports. Can anyone offer me any suggests? Did you do this and what resources did you use?

Thanks! All great books. I will have to hunt around and post what I find to share also.

I have been looking and found a lot of great classic reading lists but I would love to add some more up to date books also and mix the two for the year. We do a lot of reading, and a lot of reading together, and sometimes the older stuff can get tedious. It would be great to mix it up with some do not miss more recent books. Anyone know where to find decent lists like this??

Thank you, I will look at those.

I have never heard of that, I will go look it up and maybe add it in.

How do you teach report writing, the different types of reports, and all things report related? Do you use a system to teach, or do you wing it?

The computer programming is a fantastic idea!

I just do mine myself. If you google for movies from books you can get a ton of lists, I even found a zombie book to movie list LOL. We all read the book, then we discuss it openly, then we watch the movie (with popcorn and laid back fun), then we talk about how the book and movie were different. I ask questions like "Did the characters in the movie look like what you imagined when you read the book? Why or why not?", and so on. It is a lot of fun and a great way to spend some time together having fun, and some good brain work too. If you wanted to go further you could add in doing a book report and a movie report too. It is fun to customize. I plan on going back and doing a progression of movies starting from silent film and moving up to the present. I am glad others think my plan is decent, I was worried. I always worry LOL. What are you using for Spanish Melissa B?