How is the class going? Since several of you are enrolled, I thought I would post a reply rather than sending each of you a message. Thank you.

"Walk" is the main verb, and "did" is the helping verb. For support, here's good ol' Warriner: "A verb phrase is a verb of more than one word. It is made up of a main verb and one or more helping verbs." Here is one example he gives: "has spoken" (where the helping verb is in bold). First Language Lessons and Shurley have kids learn a list of the helping (aka auxiliary) verbs. That might be helpful to you.

To crazy4latin: Yes. Before answering, I meant to ask you what you've used from RFP. Unfortunately, I lost the thought. I answered assuming you had no experience with the program. To Capt_Uhura: I don't understand why there are two packages available. One is labeled for homeschoolers. If they both have the same four books, why are they coded differently? To Elizabeth B: Thanks for the other MCT book recommendation.

I really like the poetry series. I'm impressed that he (a) teaches poetry analysis to young kids and (b) makes it full of delight. (I was an English lit major, and I really enjoyed poetry analysis.) I have Classics in the Classroom. I'm one of those who didn't think it was that great, but that was probably because I expected/hoped to get more practical information. However, I'm very excited by the sample of the literature teacher's manual. This is exactly the kind of inspiration I'd like to own. You can apply the technique to other literature. I just need to figure out the difference between the teacher manual and the homeschool package. That's not making sense to me.

Does anyone know what the regular price of the material is? What's the difference between the homeschool package and the teacher manual? I'm confused. Finally, I'm assuming the only problem with using our own versions of the texts is that the page numbering won't match the manual (assuming there are page numbers referenced). Anyone know more about this?? Saw the email notice past office hours today. No surprise that no one answered at 5:30pm. (Side note: someone DID answer at Classical Academic Press. Wow!)

O'Keefe wasn't a very wholesome character. (Of course, van Gogh wasn't living a saintly life either, but I think his work is amazing.) I think it's a good idea to start with the well-known Impressionists (Monet, Cassatt, Degas, Renoir) and Post-Impressionists (van Gogh, Seurat, Cezanne). I like Berthe Morisot, but she's not as well known. I'd cover some of Manet's work too (excluding the nudes). A study of Matisse is fun, because you can do cutouts and discuss negative space. Or you can go chronologically (spirally), starting with Giotto and hitting da Vinci, Michelangelo, Bruegel, Rembrandt, Vermeer, etc. If you're looking for biographies, you can check out Mike Venezia's Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artists series. Discovering Great Artists is a book that studies artists chronologically, with a suggested student project for each artist studies. It's not a favorite of mine, but many seem to like it. Ambleside Online has a suggested rotation of artists (and their work) to study. You might like that. It is not chronological. I also have the Dover cards. They're handy to have around to test the kids on famous paintings and artists. Unfortunately, they don't have a huge selection.

I have friends who have used the Abeka grammar books with great success. Their kids are now in college. One is still using it with her high schooler, who will be taking the ACT. What I've heard is that Abeka has lots of exercises to provide plenty of practice. It sounds similar to Saxon math. You can feel free to skip exercises if you're confident that your child knows that material. There are TONS of wonderful book lists. I've looked at the Sonlight catalog, Veritas Press, Tapestry of Grace, Greenleaf Press (all free) and Biblioplan. You can also check out http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/history.htm for a chronological book list.

You could try visualizing the factors. Use Math U See or other math rods to show the factors in each numerator and denominator. For example: 27/5 x 25/9 Make sure that you have three equal rods to show 3, 3, 3 for 27. Those same length/color rods will be in the 3, 3 for 9. Use a different length rod to show 5. Help the child see that 3/3 = 1. (Same for 5/5 in this problem.) They can go ahead and try "multiplying" without canceling first. Then, you should help them see that they will have to reduce. To reduce, they're just taking out the factors that they could have taken out faster in canceling first.

Have you read "The Mathematician's Lament"? You can find the article online. I read that for inspiration. I also really liked some entries from a blog by Type H Personalities. Check out the Living Math website and join the Yahoo group. There are suggestions for computer games, "living math" books, and manipulatives. Specifically, we have enjoyed the books from the list (Penrose series, Cat in Numberland, I Hate Mathematics by Marilyn Burns, other Marilyn Burns books). I bought Clue Finders but could not get it to work with XP (although it says it should). We also like going through Hands on Equations. I know I could have made it myself, but at the time of purchase, time was more valuable to me. If money is tight, that's something you might consider doing. We also really like Calculus by and for Young People. We use just the worksheets. Check out the author's website, where you'll get more inspiration and materials. You might like the LOF pre-algebra books better. I liked that my kid got to do stoichiometry and cover some biology. Also, you might try some Zaccaro books. Enjoy!

I guess I come close. I don't use a spelling or handwriting program. However, I do have the kids evaluate sentences using the MCT method on a regular basis. (This doesn't take long, except that I come up with or find sentences for my younger one.) I was holding off on proceeding with MCT because I was hoping to combine my two, but I think I'll move ahead with the older. This is really a simple (and wonderful) program to implement. Doesn't sound like you need it, though. It just drives me mad when the subject pronoun is used instead of the object pronoun, and I wanted fun big-picture grammar. I didn't think I'd need a writing program, but I noticed that my older (3rd grade) had trouble summarizing. He wanted to recount everything. I wanted to get on that STAT. So I started this year with WWE, which showed me how to get the result I wanted. I would not turn to WWE expecting to cover grammar. Because of my background, I was able to discuss certain things (grammar, syntax) with him in response to the sentences he wrote. That was fun. For example, I noticed he has a good feel for the use of commas and semi-colons. You would definitely be able to do the same. Now, I use the technique to have kiddo summarize history or science reading so we can combine subjects. He tells me his sentences and then he writes them. I'm supposed to watch. If I notice that he misspells a word or asks me how to spell it, I add that to his spelling list. Every once in a while, I ask him words from his list. The younger one has his own list. During writing, I also check handwriting. This has been a great way to deal with the two kids at the same time instead of having separate writing times. (Since I was using two levels of WWE, I had to be available to read each child their selection. If I had to do it again, I would just get one to get the gist.) This works the best when I have them summarize a chapter or a part of a history read-aloud.

Hello, Tina! Tina was one of the wonderful TOG users I mentioned. She helped me so much to get started. The problem with execution was all my own. I was just wondering recently what I would do if I had a TOG co-op in town. I referred to my TOG binders to work out what I wanted to cover this year. Very inspirational. Some reasons TOG would work well for you: You could give your school-age children their weekly assignments. They are split up by level. That's something that is harder with VP because the recommended reading is not divided up into levels, which is why you see several books on John Calvin (for example). VP has reading for various age levels, but you have to figure out the levels yourself. However, I think you can buy lesson plans to learn how to execute VP. TOG also has nice weekly checklists of things the kids should learn that week per level. These included vocabulary and geography terms. There are also POP quizzes, lapbooks, and other supplemental material. Plus, there are so many TOG users who provide you with free helps! I would suggest getting the digital. The printed version is more of a pain to copy, more expensive, and more unwieldy. I think that's what did me in. What I like about VP is that I can just pull out the cards quickly and get a big-picture overview of what we're doing in one year. Then, I have the freedom to build off of those cards. At first, I wrestled with the focus on Western civilization, but I found that I preferred that to the spattering of other cultures thrown in at apparently random times (primarily thinking of SOTW here). I would instead treat the other cultures as separate units to mesh in. Part depends on how much you want/need as a teacher. You don't get much from VP (as a teacher), but that is reflected in the lower price.

I'm not exactly sure what you're asking. I've looked at all those programs as well as some others. I own material from SOTW, VP, and TOG. My kids are not much older than yours, so it's not like I'm far ahead to give you good perspective. I would guess SOTW is the easiest to use. However, I never cared for this as a spine. Friends who have used SOTW for 1st-4th have moved into MOH for later elementary. I guess they don't complete another four-year cycle, because MOH is on a five-year rotation. A few years ago, we got the SOTW CDs because my oldest tried them out from the library and liked them. So the kids have listened to all four cycles of these a few times (like lunchtime). I don't bother to have them correlate with what we're doing. As you said, there are many wonderful things about TOG. --I love the author's commentary in TOG. She does a great job pointing to Christ and looking for God in the workings of man. --There are great exercises for the dialectic/rhetoric level. --The books recommended are generally great. Plus, there are so many recommendations. I always want more good books! --The community is fantastic. What a wonderful, supportive bunch of people. No nastiness. I can't say enough good things about them. --Nice assignment charts. --Geography that's included. The TOG maps were better than Knowledge Quest's old maps available to non-TOG users. KQ has redone their maps. However, I've ended up using the VP cards and CDs (crammed into a four-year cycle) as my spine. VP is just a lot easier for me to use, and it provides my 1st grader with great visuals to recall events. (The artwork in SOTW was honestly unattractive.) Plus, they love those songs. It's affordable enough for me to purchase and tweak as desired. I pretty much ignore the reading assignments at the bottom of each card. Instead, I assign them some reading related to that unit (chosen from within VP and from elsewhere). I think that's where an acquaintance had her downfall. She used it with a large family of mostly younger kids. She wanted to switch to TOG. I think she said VP was too time-consuming for her. I think she was trying to read through everything listed on the card. Some of that stuff is pretty dry. I've come around to getting the Teacher Guide on CD. Most of it is a waste for me because there are a whole lot of worksheets. I just use those as oral quizzes occasionally. However, there are a few games you can play. The kids also like the medallions you put on a large map to mark the cards you've covered. Enough rambling. Let me know if you have specific questions.

Do you mean is every figure or event mentioned in SOTW 1 included in that HTTA set? I own the complete HTTA CD set and SOTW on CD. I'm not 100% sure, but I really think it will work. HTTA has A LOT of figures/events. That was the big draw for me. In contrast, I have never used SOTW as a spine partly because certain figures/events, which I thought were important enough to cover, were missing.

Do you mean curriculum or books? You might want to try out some Teaching Company CD or DVD sets. My 3rd and 1st grader are listening to the Ancient Egypt one with me. We question some of the things he says, but he is a good storyteller. I'm very excited about trying out some others with the kids. (They just ended up listening while I was trying a set out and got hooked.) My oldest has listened to Jim Weiss read SOTW 1-4 many times by now. We use this as a supplement. It's not my personal favorite but he's learning while he's sitting there. The younger just listens along. I like Guerber's Story of the Greeks and Story of the Romans better than the Famous Men series. I've just found that there is a lot more information in Guerber's texts. (There's a little bit of editorial but you can ignore that.) You can listen to the Famous Men series for free through Librivox. (Some heavily accented readers, though.) We also like CHOW, as another poster suggested. I love the Genevieve Foster books. The Landmark series and the Sterling Point series are good. There are so many good series and good books out there!

I'm always open to new material. However, the sample online for Exploring Poetry wasn't too enticing. Which books did you find amazing? What did you particularly enjoy? I did notice that the program looks at poets like Shel Silverstein. I have my kids memorize some children's poems because they are fun. However, I don't see a lot of meat in them. I suppose this is a nice place to start for children. Is this because the program is geared more toward writing poetry? Or is it a pretty balanced treatment: analysis and writing? MCT jumps straight into the greats.