Shouldn't I be able to copy a picture off the internet (say, Cheops), place it in the top left hand corner of a document (yes, I can do this part!), and *then* be able to put a title (say, Cheops - perhaps with his dates underneath) in the space to the right of the picture? Then, I'll look like such the cool teacher when I hand this sheet to my 6th grader for a report on Cheops, no? I just can't figure out how to get text to the right of the picture!!!! (Nor can I figure out why this new-fangled history notebook idea is so fascinating to me when I need to be reading my 9th graders' literature.....) Any ideas? (Those not involving using a spreadsheet are most preferred - LOL!) Thanks bunches!

check this out: Charlotte Yonge CD at Amazon - cheap! Haven't read any myself, but thought this might interest you! ***** Hey, cool, my link worked! =) It's the little things....

After finishing Ch. 15, I noticed in my Teacher's Guide (the small blue book with the Set 1 & 3 answers in the back), that there are three "tracks" given at the beginning of the book. In the second track, Chapters 14, 16 and 17 are skipped. I sure wish we had skipped 14 and used the time on Chapter 15instead :tongue_smilie:. HTH!

No learning challenges. (And, actually, I still haven't decided what to use. Yes, I know it's getting close!!!!) But, I did just watch IEW's "Competent Communicators" DVD, and Mr. Pudewa was extolling the virtues of reading out loud as much as possible, even in high school. I *do* plan to continue Read Alouds, but then I thought if I could buy CD's of ds's history and science texts (and maybe borrow some lit from the library), that would force my ds to read more slowly and be building up what Mr. Pudewa referred to as a "database" of literary patterns. (As well as addressing the problem of knowing a word when reading, but not *really* knowing how to pronounce it - or does that only happen to us? LOL) I did find the Apologia CD for science. I suppose I can fill in history with some videos. Anyway...back to planning! Thanks!!

Thanks!

My younger ds finished R&S-5 this year after R&S 3 and 4, and I felt like it was almost completely verbatim everything that was in R&S-4. Basically, a year-long holding pattern before hitting R&S-6. (Maybe the outlining was new? Don't remember.) (I've completed R&S 6th-8th with my older ds, and IMNSHO 5th is to be sure kids know their parts of speech and the very basic parts of a sentence before they move into the 6th grade book. 6th lays the foundation for 7th, which is the really hard book. 8th was almost completely review of 7th, just adding in essays.)

We use the literature lists in WTM. My ds's were in 5th and 8th this past year, doing the Year 4 list. We didn't quite finish the whole list - LOL! And, sometimes I let my younger ds read an abridged version - or a book off the list entirely. We worked in some of the 4th grade books as read alouds (Heidi and Pinocchio come to mind). We read some of the 8th grade books together out loud together. We read most of the supplemental books as read-alouds. To prepare, I read the books during the summer, then I answered the questions in Well Educated Mind for myself. That way, when we are discussing, I can throw in little sneak previews of lit analysis. (The big question *I* think for logic stage is - what is the most important event in the book, and how do the characters change because of it.) We don't necessarily "discuss" every day. Some days I'll just ask over dinner where they are in the book. (Edited to say: I don't have to ask my 5th grader - he gets so emotionally tied in to the book, he can't help interrupting whatever I'm doing to tell me what *should* be happening! Either that, or he must report how boringly "girlish" the book is, and how he "doesn't get" romance - LOL!) One problem I ran into this year was not being able to judge how long it would take them to read each book!!!! Thankfully, my boys are honest, and if I require them to read for an hour, they do. We usually saved our "discussion" for the end of the book. I use the grammar-stage and a few selected logic-stage questions from WEM to guide those discussions. For most books (but not all), the 5th grader would then write a page-long (or shorter) narration, with a statement at the end of why he did or didn't like the book - just as described in WTM (or at least the 2nd edition - I haven't checked the new one, yet - LOL!) My 8th grader would sometimes answer one of the evaluation questions, but his favorite writing assignment was basically a 5-paragraph essay supporting what he thought was the theme of the book. (That probably sounds more impressive than it is - he pretty much stuck to describing 3 episodes from the plot for his supporting paragraphs.) HTH!

That sounds like a fascinating study! Would you study Greece and Rome after Daniel?

Too funny! I'll remember that. My DH has to remind me that our younger ds is going through what our older ds went through at 11yo - "girls on the brain", basically. I'm sure that's not what us mommas want to believe. I shudder to know there are little girls out there who actually want to KISS my dear baby!!! If they only knew the real boy....

(not really sure if it's called "Teacher's Guide", but it has the Set I and Set III answers....) Anyway, there are three "tracks" outlined in the beginning of that book. Chapter 14, 16, and 17 are not listed in the second track. I'm wishing we had skipped Ch. 14 - lots of stuff I remember learning, and never doing anything with - LOL! But, ds was/is having a little trouble with Fractional Equations in Ch. 15. So, I am going to have him stay there, and we will work on those a little each day this summer. (There are extra problems to pull from in the Test Masters book.) I figure it would be better to get those down solid, than finish the book. Best wishes! ETA: this really should have been under OP - sorry!

Kate, I have the same reservations about using HOAW (the length, and that it is only one source). But, I have never done a Great Books study before, so it's hard to decide. Do you think you will get more literature in if you use the earlier WTM method? Do you assign the various history sources, or do you have your students research to find them? (My "ideal", admittedly one that hasn't been successful so far, is to have ds do the searching in our library's online search for a book or video that interests him for the context reading. I don't see that being necessary if we use HOAW, which could be a good thing, given our track record.) Thanks!

That is one thing I *definitely* wish I could re-do with the boys. My dd learns *so* *much* from listening to us all day. And, we do read-alouds that are obviously geared for them! I know she's a girl, and girls are "more verbal", but ...well, it's just something you have to experience, I guess. ****** ETA: Yes, she has her own "Story Time" with picture books, too. But, I never would have thought when my ds's were 3yo that they *would* or even *could* be interested in listening to me read out loud from a book without pictures. You know, sometimes she listens, sometimes she doesn't. And, if I didn't have the boys, I doubt I would do it with her. But, I think it's a good thing. ****** I was telling my younger ds the other day that if I had known how much a very young child can learn - basically by osmosis - I would have rented some older children to come over to my house to do homeschool when the boys were still in preschool. Then I could have made all my egregious errors on *other* people's kids!!!! (Bwa-ha-ha-ha-ha. - yeah, I know. They call that "public school" - LOL!)

I think I finally figured it out this morning: compartmentalization! My life has always been very compartmentalized. That's why it took me so long to see that the re-writes of history & science outlines weren't supposed to be done during history or science time. Well, that and the fact that in school, if a history teacher assigns you a history essay, it's "history" not "writing". Make sense? I think one reason I've been able to do WTM history and literature to the extent I have is because I use them as if they were a curriculum. Again, very compartmentalized. My kids are probably that way as well, which is why they always would just rather go on to the next thing rather than "dig in" and discover as much as possible about any *one* thing. Now that I'm beginning to understand the writing and rhetoric better, I think I'll be fine *if* I schedule it and use it as I would a curriculum. So, anyway, I remain intrigued by SWB's lifestyle. It seems very relaxed, very Moore-foundation, life is learning all the time, so go with the flow of things. BUT, very disciplined at the same time. I don't think I'll ever understand it, and I'm beginning to think it would just never "fit". But, I do admire it, and am glad I can still use her ideas and suggestions, even if I'm not using them as efficiently as she is. =)

Yeah - I was a little intrigued at doing school year-round, too. Then I realized that my oldest is going to be a camp counselor for 5 weeks, and will be in camp himself for almost a week and a half. I think he might be ready to get back to school after all that - LOL!

I'm *so* out of it! I know who Brad, Jen, and Angelina are. But just who *are* Kate and John? I have never seen or heard of them (but I've been without TV for awhile!).

Thanks! I'll take it. ;)

Oh, wow! Too funny - don't know how to "type" the Twilight Zone music...but it would fit - LOL! Thanks for posting! Your days sound similar to ours. The only heavy sleeper I have is my older ds - and he can sleep through 5 minutes of his alarm going off with the alarm clock right beside his head! I try to see this as a good thing. It usually means he was up late, late, late reading - and just two years ago he *hated* reading.

Thanks - LOL - actually, I was coming on to take out my facetious comment. I am *not* a bad homeschooling mother - I do let the caustic comments of some posters get me in a tizzy - LOL! And, after some lunch, I realized that I have to live with *my* husband, *my* kids, *my* neighbors and church friends (in the redneck haven of Acworth, Ga. no less - LOL!) and still have time for me for work on me. It *is* good to compare notes - to hear how other people do things, especially creative things that I would never think of. But sometimes it is best to let things lie. (For example, I *never* *ever* *ever* discuss homeschooling AT ALL with my dear church friend who uses Abeka, and who is done with school every day before 10:30am. That could never lead to a positive experience for either one of us - LOL!) So, *thank you* for hearing me, and understanding. I know my DH doesn't need anything else on his plate right now - least of all me nagging about something that isn't broken - it's just not *my* ideal. It would be like him telling me I had to have the house sparkling clean every day by 5 - :lol: - like that'll ever happen - :lol::lol:! Blessings~

I am thinking about this one.... Do I *have* to be...no. Sometimes I make the decision to stop school for the day, and tell the kids we'll have to go over (whatever) that night. Or, the next day. But, I do *prefer* for the portion of school that involves me to be finished by 3pm. That gives me an hour to unwind before getting dinner, etc. And, I dislike doing school while DH is not working (That's just not fair!). And, for my kids, it is not so bad anymore, but they are very aware of "when their friends are home" in the afternoon. It's hard to get 2 boys schooled while taking care of a 3yo by 2:30pm unless you start fairly early. (Actually, we try to have a read-aloud from 8-8:30 to 8:40, then start math at 8:45.) And, their eyes start to glaze as they start thinking of all the fun they *could* be having if only school were done. I know I shouldn't care what public school does. But, I *do* care that my kids continue their friendships with their neighborhood friends. Nor does it help that our Abeka-friends are done my 10:30am or so. (That is a whole 'nuther load of guilt!) I think if I could paint a picture of a different paradigm - a lifestyle. IDK - maybe it's not really a "homeschooling" paradigm. There are plenty of people who choose public school who continue that process of learning into their entire day. I feel like we aren't really making that choice (and, I think much of that decision has been my dh's). I would like to *try* to make that choice, I just don't know how to change from what we've always known. I can't make everyone in my family change - I've tried and failed too many times to naively believe that *I* can do that. I have to motivate them to change for themselves, you know? sorry!- much of this wasn't really directed at you or your post. Just me thinking out loud.

Secretly I wonder if it works in the Bauer household because there is more than one adult making it work. If DH and I split the homeschool duties, and had a grandparent who could teach reading to my 3yo (4 next month - sniff! sniff!), then I could see how it could be done. Realistically, DH has neither the inclination nor the time to help.

I can't imagine! My kids don't even wake up early on Saturday mornings...

Yeah. What you said....

Yes, I understand!!!

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Thanks!