For Invertebrate/Protist classification: Pond Water Zoo: An Introduction to Microscopic Life by Peter Loewer The Inside Out Stomach: An Introduction to Animals without Backbones by Peter Loewer

There is a thread on the Accelerated Board with more suggestions for science/nature living books. The Living Year by Richard Headstrom (changes through the seasons) The Year of the Turtle by David M. Carroll Wild Season by Allan W. Eckert (narrative food chain--highly recommended but warning, bunnies get eaten!) The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson (marine ecology--rocky shore) Discovering Amphibians by John Himmelman Discovering Moths by John Himmelman The Our Living World of Nature series by McGraw-Hill: e.g. The Life of the Forest (Jack McCormick); The Life of the Pond; The Life of the Desert etc. (Good for in-depth biome/habitat study)

The Living Year by Richard Headstrom (changes through the seasons) The Year of the Turtle by David M. Carroll Wild Season by Allan W. Eckert (narrative food chain--highly recommended but warning, bunnies get eaten!) The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson Discovering Amphibians by John Himmelman Discovering Moths by John Himmelman The Our Living World of Nature series by McGraw-Hill: e.g. The Life of the Forest (Jack McCormick); The Life of the Pond; The Life of the Desert etc. (Good for in-depth biome/habitat study) ALSO look on the Accelerated Board, someone has a similar post looking for science/nature books and has received many responses.

Thank you, 1Togo.

I take a full week with each lesson. It is easier to absorb over time, so don't try to do it all in one day. The cumulative review has made this program work SOOOO much better than Wordly Wise. Since the words are drawn from classic literature we find them all the time in our literature studies and that is great reinforcement. For a fun activity I copy the Wordy Story page. Lightly cross out the vocab words and ask ds to insert the meanings. Then we read the story both ways, once with the complex vocab words and then with the simpler definitions he inserted. We find it fun, but then again our definition of fun might not be normal.

The Living Year by Richard Headstrom (changes through the seasons) The Year of the Turtle by David M. Carroll Wild Season by Allan W. Eckert (narrative food chain--highly recommended but warning, bunnies get eaten!) The Edge of the Sea by Rachel Carson Discovering Amphibians by John Himmelman Discovering Moths by John Himmelman The Our Living World of Nature series by McGraw-Hill: e.g. The Life of the Forest (Jack McCormick); The Life of the Pond; The Life of the Desert etc. (Good for in-depth biome/habitat study)

We've enjoyed cd/book combo, The Calls of Frogs and Toads by Lang Elliot. I don't know where you live, but in the northeast the annual chorusing of frogs has begun. We've heard spring peepers and wood frogs so far. Waiting for pickerel frogs, American toads, green frogs, bullfrogs, and gray tree frogs to begin to sing.

Read aloud parts of The Frog Book by Mary C. Dickerson. It is available on Google books so you can look at it in its entirety. It is available as a used book quite cheaply. A few of the scientific names are outdated, but that is easily checked with a modern field guide.

ITogo, If it is not too much trouble, would you give me an example (with model sentence and imitation) of how to do the exercise I quoted above. The other recommendations I've seen/used, but I am not familiar with IEW's ways. Thanks

Call Pearson Customer Support. There should be a number somewhere on their website.

Teaching the Classics by Adam and Missy Andrews includes excellent videos and written materials for beginning lit analysis. He explains character, setting, conflict, theme, exposition, rising action, climax, denouement, and conclusion. There is a handy story chart for all these elements, that you can use for any book you choose to analyze. We have really enjoyed it. Ask Capt. Uhura how Lightning Lit 7 is working for her 5th and 2nd graders. I think she did most of Teaching the Classics first and then moved right into Lightning Lit. Also you might like to read Deconstructing Penguins yourself. It has an excellent explanation of protagonist/antagonist that supplements Teaching the Classics.

The Reluctant Dragon by Kenneth Grahame

I worked for a curriculum development company, a major publisher, and am a writer myself. I have seen plenty of typos and errors in mass-market books--upside down photos, dropped letters, etc., etc. etc. I think it happens for two reasons: either too many people have their hands on the documents increasing the potential for the introduction of error (especially when cutting and pasting) or too few people look at it (especially if it is just the author) resulting in missed errors. The author almost automatically sees "correct" word, the one they meant to write, in their mind's eye when they try and proofread--so they miss what is actually on the page. This is why proofreading books have suggestions like proofreading documents backwards, setting them aside for weeks or reading them aloud. But major publishers do have access to some of the best professional proofreaders in the country. A small press may have a smaller pool of proofreaders to draw upon. My husband works for a major textbook publisher. Here is his answer to the typo question: 1. The sheer volume of content that is produced is staggering. A few errors are bound to get through. 2. It is much harder to make the content clean than people think. 3. Because of the Internet, there is a constant demand for new material so the shelf life of good content is surprisingly short. Every time you change content there is the potential to introduce errors. 4. All those errors seem dumb but when you try to create content yourself you become much more understanding. My husband said that he laughed much harder at these things before he tried to do it himself. P.S. I must have made 20 typos just trying writing this post quickly. I wonder how many of them are still there...

I'm safe from the siren call of new curriculum. I receive it, look at it for an afternoon, and then excitedly share it with my friend. She holds on to it, studying it carefully, deciding whether to buy or not. So there it stays, out of sight, out of mind... Hmmm, better give her a call...

I wholeheartedly agree with Kalanmak. Having been brought up in a family that valued learning and who sent me to a classical high school, I feel like I could never be bored. There is just so much to learn! As my husband said the other day, "You are one of the happiest people I know. It's probably because you are so curious, you could be happy just studying grass!" So many other people in my acquaintance seem to gravitate to trivial or destructive activities, seemingly because they have no curiosity, no life of the mind, that would enable them to find richness in learning about the wonders of history, science, literature, nature, art or culture. A classical education is a wonderful vaccine against banality.

My son (11 years) liked the book though it certainly wasn't a favorite. The writing is dense. Here is a random quote: "Next day the British sent envoys and submitted. It seems the local chiefs had formed no combination, while the more powerful of the British kings inland were not yet frightened that Caesar would penetrate to their dominions. At all events, the local chiefs submitted and sent back Commius and his thirty men, somewhat manhandled, very dirty, and with parts of their equipment missing." Olivia Coolidge I do think it is a very useful book for history study.

We just received our Exploration Education kit and will begin next week. I'll be using it in conjunction with Prentice Hall's older versions of their middle school physical science book: Prentice Hall Science Sound and Light; Prentice Hall Science Electricity and Magnetism; and Prentice Hall Science Motion, Forces, and Energy. I have been thrilled with the free physics lectures on www.brightstorm.com. We especially love the crazy instructor who lectures on waves. These three sources combined may make for our most comprehensive science year yet!

We are just starting The Canturbury Tales as well. I am having my son read Geraldine McCaughrean's retelling on his own. Then we will read selections from Oxford World's Classics printing aloud. My English Professor friend warned me that there are several Tales that include material that would not be appropriate for my for 5th grader, so I will pre-read and choose the selections myself. I am eagerly listening to hear if anyone has specific advice as what to include/leave out from the "original."

Dear Susan, I read the Well Trained Mind along with loads of other homeschooling books to help out a friend who was interested in homeschooling her children; my son was three at the time. The quality of your book stood out from all the others. So when I pulled my son out of school after three unsuccessful years, where did I turn, but back to the book I'd read five years prior. Following your advice made the homeschooling experience incredibly rewarding for my son, for myself, and now for my Kindergarten age daughter. It is no small thing to inspire others. You have inspired thousands. Reading TWTM also led me (in retrospect, I was clueless at the time) to realize I WENT to a classical high school. Though it was called Oak Grove Coburn School when I went there; it was founded when Oak Grove Seminary and Coburn Classical Institute combined! The curriculum retained its classical flavor and methods. Sadly, the school is closed, but now I know why TWTM seemed so familiar and cozy!! We also love SOTW!!!! History is alive in our house thanks to you. THANK YOU!!!! Kalmia

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Sounds like they might not have a firm grasp of phonics. 13-year-olds may be embarrassed to admit this. I would devise a challenging word list of unfamiliar words and sit with each one as they read the words to you. Listen to the sounds they make, do they match up with the letters. Are they guessing? Are they skipping over parts of the word? Are they mixing up the order of the sounds? If so, rewind! If not, keep looking for the answer. Find a phonics program that doesn't look "babyish" and drill. I think Spell to Write and Read sells its phonogram cards separately. They are quite plain and won't seem babyish. Once they become familiar with the phonograms have them underline all the phonograms in their spelling words. Keep reading aloud to them, but have them read aloud to you (then they can make the "funny voices"). When they get stuck, have them use their knowledge of phonograms to sound out the words. Give them free reading that is below their level to work on speed, but keep the read alouds above or at their level. Hope this helps. As Nan in Mass says in her brilliant recent threads, you cannot go on without a firm grasp of the fundamental skills.

Try baby food (the meats, of course).

The MCT poetry program stands alone. It is not at all workbook-y. Music of the Hemispheres, level 1, covers the hard and soft sounds, rhyme (end rhyme, internal rhyme, eye-rhyme, rhyme scheme) onomatopoeia, alliteration, meter (stress, foot, iamb, trochee, anapest, dactyl, iambic pentameter), stanza (quatrain, ballad, English sonnet), similes, metaphors and personificationwith illustrative examples from famous poets. We haven't used his other books A World of Poetry or Building Poems yet. They review the above material in more depth and add more content. I have not seen the other program you mentioned, so I cannot compare the two.

We're really happy with Caesar's English and English from the Roots Up (you really only need the flash cards). We have close to 100% retention. We were using Wordly Wise, and while it was good to see all the definitions for a word, the lists seemed too long and random to me. The words in Caesar's English are based on frequency in classic literature. Also, my son breezed through the activities in Wordly Wise but retention over time was low. The built in cumulative review in Caesar's English and the natural review of using flash cards in English from the Roots Up has worked to cement the words. There is some overlap between Caesar's English roots words and English from the Roots Up, but it hasn't bothered us. Otherwise, we have vocabulary lists for science and discuss unfamiliar words in literature and history.