Nature Detective: How to Solve Outdoor Mysteries by Eileen M. Docekal http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Detective-Solve-Outdoor-Mysteries/dp/0806968443/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361549127&sr=1-1&keywords=nature+detective+by+Eileen+M.+Docekal Watching Nature by Monica Russo http://www.amazon.com/Watching-Nature-Beginners-Field-Guide/dp/0806995157/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361549198&sr=1-1&keywords=Watching+Nature+by+Monica+Russo Night Science for Kids by Terry Krautwurst http://www.amazon.com/Night-Science-Kids-Exploring-World/dp/1579906702/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361549249&sr=1-1&keywords=Night+Science+for+kids Nature for the Very Young by Marca Bowden http://www.amazon.com/Nature-Very-Young-Handbook-Activities/dp/047162084X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361549308&sr=1-1&keywords=Nature+for+the+Very+young Hands On Nature by Jenepher Lingelbach http://www.amazon.com/Hands--Nature-Information-Activities-Environment/dp/1584650788/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361549378&sr=1-1&keywords=Hands+on+nature Small Wonders: Nature Education for Young Children by Linda Garrett http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/handle-buy-box/ref=dp_start-bbf_1_glance

For the young student. Art History order of how we used them: The Art Book for Children by Phaidon: http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/the-art-book-for-children-phaidon-press-editors/1103913484?ean=9780714845302 The Art Book for Children 2 by Phaidon: http://www.amazon.com/The-Art-Book-Children-Two/dp/0714847062/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361498734&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Art+Book+for+CHildren Usborne Children's Book of Art http://www.amazon.com/Usborne-Childrens-Book-Art-Internet/dp/0794512232/ref=pd_sim_b_2 The Usborne Book of Famous Paintings: http://www.amazon.com/The-Usborne-Book-Famous-Paintings/dp/0794525423/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1361498859&sr=8-1&keywords=The+Usborne+Book+of+Famous+painting Cave Paintings to Picasso by Henry Sayre http://www.amazon.com/Cave-Paintings-Picasso-Inside-Masterpieces/dp/B000IJ7Q5K/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361498950&sr=1-1&keywords=Cave+Paintings+to+picasso For older students: Masterpiece Cards: http://www.themasterpiececards.com Sister Wendy's 1000 Masterpieces http://www.amazon.com/Sister-Wendys-Masterpieces-Wendy-Beckett/dp/0751307173/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361499043&sr=1-1&keywords=Sister+Wendy%27s+1000+masterpieces The Art Book by Phaidon: http://www.amazon.com/Art-Book-New-Editors-Phaidon/dp/0714864676/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361499117&sr=1-1&keywords=THe+art+book The Story of Art by E.H. Gombrich http://www.amazon.com/Story-Art-E-H-Gombrich/dp/0714832472/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361499169&sr=1-1&keywords=the+story+of+art+gombrich American Painting by Donald Goddard http://www.amazon.com/American-Painting-Donald-Goddard/dp/0883639971/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1361499335&sr=1-1&keywords=American+Painting+Donald+Goddard The Great Courses: How to Look at and Understand Great Art http://www.thegreatcourses.com/tgc/courses/course_detail.aspx?cid=7640

We have been completely satisfied with the original edition. I think the classical edition has wonderful "extras" but is not necessary IMO if money (or time) is a concern.

I have done a lot of reading about the childhoods of naturalists and a common theme was that they just mucked around in nature, usually alone. Nowadays, the alone part isn't always wise, so you and the kids can muck about in nature together. Nature study is an observation and discovery style "science" and lends itself to using reference books (field guides, natural history guides) rather than curricula. You can't really fit nature study into the box. Declare that today that you will observe squirrels, and guess what, you probably won't see any squirrels, but you might see an orb weaver and a trout lily. So let what's out there guide your learning. Following the seasonal round of a local natural area over a period of years will give your children a good grounding in adaptations, food webs, life cycles, reproduction, seasonality, morphology, population, competition, and ecology without every cracking open a curriculum. Often people tell me that the nature journaling part of nature study doesn't work with their young children or small-motor challenged students, replace the journal with photography. Keep a physical album for them to leaf through and recall their adventures in nature. Oh, and young children love collecting things. Make sure you know what is legal to collect and not (wild birds' nests, eggs, and feathers are not legal to keep). They can make leaf collections, insect collections, seed collections. Most of all have fun. Read the archives of my blog for some ideas if you'd like: http://naturestrollers.blogspot.com

I would borrow from the library: Several books written by scientists that retain the enthusiasm and curiosity that is lost in a textbook. (ex. Summer World by Bernd Heinrich, anything by Neil deGrasse Tyson...) Several "coffee table" books on specific fields of science with lots of gorgeous photos (ex. The Elements by Theodore Gray...) Several up-to-date documentaries on science topics (Nova, History Channel, Discovery Channel, Nature) I would take a field trip to a science museum and note what your child is most attracted to amongst the exhibits. I would encourage a lot of nature study/amateur astronomy/amateur geology where the student can make discoveries on his or her own. Once the child has an interest in one or more of the sciences, you might look for organizations like Rock & Gem Clubs, Nature Centers, Astronomy Clubs (Star Party!), etc. that will have enthusiastic members ready to share their curiosity. You are right to want to light the spark. Without the spark there seems no point in wading through the dry textbook material or curriculum. With the spark, even a dry text becomes a means to an end--a tool to help them on their journey of discovery.

Boycott of the Horrible Histories at Kalmia's house starting today! No need to line the greedy pockets of someone who would like to snatch books out of the hands of children.

The K-12 Human Odyssey series are not just textbooks, they are outstanding textbooks. I believe K-12 had them written for them when they couldn't find a middle-grades world history that was good enough for them. These volumes read like the factual sections in STOW and there are narratives at the end of most of the chapters. Art history is integrated into the text. There are a lot of socratic questions directed at the student within the text. Here is a random sample from vol. 1 of the text: "As every Spartan knew, it was the duty of warriors to battle the state's enemies. But they also had to protect Sparta from its large population of slaves, known as helots. Spartans had conquered the land they lived on and enslaved its inhabitants. These slaves tilled the land and did most of the hard work. They made up a majority of the population, but had no political rights..." The Human Odyssey vol. 1 p. 288-289. At the end of this chapter is a narrative entitled Athena's City. My son reads the Human Odyssey volumes for fun. They are not dry, dull textbooks at all. Instructor's Guides are available for each volume. I have seen them. They are really good, but we don't use them (use WTM style: biography sheets, outline, etc. instead) but my friend does and she thinks they add an additional level of logic stage analysis. Just like STOW, the reading level increases as you move through the volumes.

Rex Barks and Warriner's English Composition and Grammar have the modifiers in right to left order. So for "the disgusting green kale" you would see under "kale": "the" on the right slanted line, then "disgusting" on the middle slanted line, then "green" on the leftmost slanted line. Online diagrammers are not always reliable.

Pen, Whether it is useful depends on what you already have. I am amassing a collection of spelling/reading resources (now a foot high on my desk) and in each one I find the information presented in a slightly different way which I find helpful (and that probably drives other people crazy). How to Teach Spelling seems more condensed (less incremental) than other programs. The lessons in the teacher's guide are rules-focused and the rules are pretty detailed. There are many examples for each, exceptions are included. There is also dictation. One thing I noticed in How to Teach Spelling is that there are some lessons that address different spelling by part of speech. Ex: /ul/ spelled al and el: -al is usually an adjective ending. -al can also be a noun ending when it is added to a verb to form a noun. (brutal, normal, approval) And -el is usually an ending for words that act as nouns or as both nouns and verbs. (Some can also act as adjectives) (chapel, crewel). There are How to Spell workbooks. They are probably more incremental than the teacher's manual. Anyway, it (How to Teach Spelling) seems to contain more advanced hints and rules than some of the others in my pile.

I don't know your daughter's particular educational needs, but my friend and I have used LTOW with reluctant 6th grade boys. It only teaches the persuasive essay. It is very incremental. To fully implement it you must have the DVDs or CDs. I was totally lost before I carefully studied the material presented in the CD. I think there is some "unusual" Christian content (something about grammar and God) in the first introductory CD of the series (in my old edition anyway), but the rest of the CDs are totally focused on writing. My friend and I looked at The Power in Your Hands: Writing Nonfiction in High School by Sharon Watson. It is excellent for teaching many forms of writing but several of the examples include what I consider "questionable" content like prostitution as "a profession," etc. The author is a Christian and uses a young earth/anti-evolution approach in the science writing section. So we can't use all of that one, just selected excerpts, however actual writing instruction is really strong and written directly to the student. (Why oh why can't writers just choose less controversial topics for teaching the structure of persuasive essays...why?) So... next on our list to look at is Write Shop 1 & 2. Rainbow Resources says there are a few Bible verses in the Teacher's Edition. That doesn't bother me. But I haven't received it yet, so I can't give more info. Maybe SWB will hurry up and get WWS II out early and save us all from this search!

Pulling me out of public high school at the end of 9th grade and putting me into a private school with gifted teachers and curious students! Changed my life.

FYI: If you are trying to be economical, you don't have to have the cards or games at all. The teacher's manual and workbook contain all the information you need. You can make your own cards from the charts in the teacher's manual.

I love LOE. Love it. Love it. Worth the money. We have the teacher's manual, student workbook, basic and advanced phonogram cards and spelling rules cards. My kids already have a grammar program so we didn't get the grammar cards, and they are a bit old for the games. Watch this YouTube video for a quick overview. Then watch her four "crazy words" videos on her website. This is a link to the first one. It really shows how to teach each word. http://www.logicofenglish.com/resources/videos/crazy-words-videos/item/350-crazy-words-explained-1 Then watch her teacher training course:

Plants and Their Children by Mrs. William Starr Dana (Theodora Parsons) (botany) Dame Bug and Her Babies by Edith Marion Patch (entomology) Little Nature Studies for Little People: A Primary Reader by John Burroughs Little Nature Studies for Little People: A Second and Third Reader by John Burroughs Wheeler's Graded Studies in Great Authors William Henry Wheeler Elementary Speller: William Henry Wheeler Stories of Rocks and Minerals for the Grammar Grades by Harold W. Fairbanks First Book in English by William Henry Maxwell

It is a common theme amongst the posters here that the TWTM science recommendations are weak. But please do not throw out the baby with the bathwater! The history and language arts in the TWTM are superb, so most of us just substitute science from another source. There are many threads on where to look for good science resources. For your young ones, a few suggestions to look at might include: Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding by Nebel (teacher intensive); Supercharged Science (expensive but is experiment and demonstration based, includes ALL the materials, and is written for the child to complete on their own); and Exploration Education physical science kits (kid led, all the materials, less expensive); or trade science (rather than curricula) books like the Discover Nature series by Elizabeth P. Lawlor; or the "for all ages" series by Globe Pequot press: Botany for All Ages, Astronomy for all Ages, etc. Hands-On Nature by Jenepher Lingelbach is also good. The Happy Scientist has short videos on many science topics on his website. Science documentaries have always been popular with my children. Also take advantage of programs at local zoos, museums, nature centers, and Audubon societies. http://www.amazon.com/Building-Foundations-Scientific-Understanding-Curriculum/dp/1432706101/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1360766625&sr=8-1&keywords=building+foundations+of+scientific+understanding http://www.superchargedscience.com http://www.thehappyscientist.com The Discover Nature series is extensive I include a link to only one book, you can find the rest from there. I highly recommend them) http://www.amazon.com/Discover-Nature-Sundown/dp/0811725278/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360766717&sr=1-1&keywords=discover+nature+at+sundown http://www.amazon.com/Botany-All-Ages-Discovering-Activities/dp/1564402819/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360766788&sr=1-1&keywords=botany+for+all+ages http://www.amazon.com/Hands--Nature-Information-Activities-Environment/dp/1584650788/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360766811&sr=1-1&keywords=hands+on+nature http://www.explorationeducation.com

www.rfwp.com We just bought the teacher's edition as we sit on the couch and do it together. No need for two books.

ElizabethB, Thinking of doing the teacher training for the ProLiteracy group near me. Is it likely they won't LET me use an intensive phonics method? It won't be worth the 18 hours training time if I am to be constrained by using a method I don't believe in. How flexible were the literacy organizations you worked with? Do they let the tutors make these choices or are the tutors given a curriculum to follow? Thanks!

We love Caesar's English (we have the first, slimmer, editions) and have had 100% retention. We supplement this with the English from the Roots Up flashcard sets because the Greek roots are very helpful in the sciences. (CE is focused on Latin roots).

I expect the higher level of LOE to include morphograms when she writes it, as in her videos she mentions that she has been studying them. IMO most of them are covered in a good Greek and Latin roots, suffixes, and prefixes program. English from the roots up has flashcards with Latin and Greek roots: http://www.amazon.co...ots up volume 1 http://www.amazon.co...ots up volume 2 Michael Clay Thompson's Caesar's English I & II are vocabulary programs based on Latin roots. www.rfwp.com Vocabulary from Classical Roots as well. This is just a link to one of the books. There are many many of them. http://www.amazon.co...classical roots

LOE has advanced phonogram cards that include the additional sound of x and other uncommon sounds. How to Teach Spelling by Laura Toby Rudginsky has a two page reference list (p. 11-12 in the edition I have) that gives the sound and then lists various spellings of the sound (and examples in which each is used). It is a useful list. http://www.amazon.co... Teach Spelling I have realized to my shame that my regional pronunciation has somewhat handicapped my spelling and probably that of my son! Must keep watch to speak properly from now on... And if you want to know absolutely everything about phonograms there is to know... The ABCs and All Their Tricks http://www.amazon.com/ABCs-All-Their-Tricks-Reference/dp/0880621400/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1360621486&sr=1-1&keywords=The+ABCS+and+all+their+tricks

Oh why oh why did you have to post something as dangerous as Geoed.com? Now that I know this website exists, I am going to go there and my pocketbook is going to get mugged! Drooling over the twinned, brown, orthorhombic staurolite right now...

Denise Eide of Logic of English has free teacher training videos on YouTube if you want to get started right away. She does not offer certification like Barton or Wilson, but her videos are free, and Barton, while excellent, is thousands of dollars for all the levels and $800 for the minimum three levels.

Now you know why the skeletons are so expensive!

Skulls Unlimited. But be aware there may be state laws restricting the ownership of certain species. It is up to you to know them not the store. Just looked at the prices. This is expensive too. At $199 for a chicken skeleton, You may be better off getting one with a head from the farm and boiling it yourself. http://www.skullsunlimited.com These are their articulated "economy" skeletons: http://www.skullsunlimited.com/record_collection.php?id=19 Carolina Biological Supply has extremely expensive whole skeletons encased in acrylic.