If you wanted to use it for science only, it would be really easy to leave out the read-aloud stories, art and some of the crafts. I'd hate to leave all of them out though as they're a lot of fun. We loved the program and I plan to use it again when my younger is old enough.

I wish you the best of success in your "dictating" (seriously, I'm not being sarcastic here). The 19 to 24 year old people of my acquaintance don't take kindly to this kind of dictation. It can be the cause of elopements, college drop-outs and family estrangements. Hopefully it won't in your case.

In case anyone else is considering a vacation in this region, here are a couple of other attractions: Louisville Slugger Museum- http://www.sluggermuseum.org/ Frazier International History Museum- http://www.fraziermuseum.org/

I'm also a 4th generation college educated woman, WITH a master's degree. However, getting that was my own choice. The part that didn't seem realistic to me was the not "ALLOWING" an adult person to choose a route other than college. IMNSHO anybody who believes they can control a 19-23 year old adult is unrealistic. I also believe it's an unhealthy attitude. I have two brothers who are very prosperous construction interior contractors. Expecting them to go to college would have been counterproductive.

Rose, that sickens me. How anyone can use the Bible to authorize themselves to do *anything* of that nature mystifies me. My point was that I appreciated my parents' encouraging me to keep my options open and not plan on a marriage that might or might not happen.

I can't contrast it with TWTM because I've never done strictly TWTM. The grammar worksheets made by WP are similarly gentle to FLL's grammar. WP LA is pretty traditional, workbook based, it includes phonics, reading comprehension, spelling lists and so forth. We love the readers. The traditional workbook style appeals to me and feels "solid". I did miss out on the poetry memorization, picture study, and narration of FLL. (WP has narration, but it's style is different from FLL. I think I prefer FLL's style of reading the child a fable and then having the child narrate it back). In some ways I wish I had continued FLL in place of the WP grammar. At the time we switched over from FLL I was feeling like we weren't doing "enough" with just that, but once I added Pathway readers/workbooks and a writing program it seemed like "too much." One great aspect of WP LA is that it's all scheduled and I don't need to worry about "missing something."

We recently "tried on" a different church for about 6 months. Our reason for considering (actually following through for a short while) a switch was that our church has grown to the point there was no Sunday School for several weeks because the SS rooms were full of adult congregation. A side benefit of the switch was a more progressive style of sermon and more modern worship service. However! We were not able to agree with the doctrine of the new church in the long haul. The "straw that broke the camel's back" was a sermon encouraging us to "shun" those who did not follow the church doctrine. Ick.

That quote makes me wonder about his definition of "well-educated." Many people believe homeschoolers can't possibly be well-educated because they haven't been subjected to 13 or more years of public school propaganda and "socialization."

I just had a thought. I would imagine high school teachers are most likely to get homeschool transfers who weren't doing well in a homeschool setting either. It is equivalent to judging high school students by the qualities of dropouts.

I did HOH K (5yo) level a couple of years ago and we really enjoyed it. You're right, it includes everything you listed except literature. We didn't do the whole year, because my ds learned to read in January and at that point the HOH began to seem babyish.

Oddly enough, my good friend who started off with Abeka DVD all the way is switching to a more interactive eclectic program this year so they can be more "laid back." IMHO school is going to take a lot longer if the kiddos have to watch a video before beginning the active portion of their lesson. Most parts of our lessons are "the active portion".

I did have experience in a classroom before college (elem school was Amish), so maybe I don't count... but as a homeschooled through high school graduate, my biggest problem fitting in with my classmates was knowing enough to keep my hand out of the air and my mouth shut occasionally so that I didn't make the rest of the class look bad.

I also sing the praises of a commuter campus whenever it is logical, for both genders. That is the way I earned my degree.

This doesn't sound healthy or realistic, no matter what you believe about women's roles. Smart lady! I like that she's encouraging her to keep her options open. ITA with you. At age 14, I was positive I would meet someone at age 15, begin "going steady" at 16, get engaged at 17 and marry at 18. Then I could have my first baby when I was 19! ROFL. That seems so naive when I put it in print. The Lord had other plans, and I did pursue a career in education, first through teaching a small Amish school, then by attending college... I met my dh when I was almost 25 and a sophomore. I'm glad my parents encouraged me to keep my options open by pursuing an "academic" college prep diploma, but also encouraging my Home Ec elective.

What about an enrichment program? Like a co-op or a one day program at a Classical school? You could continue to homeschool her *and* she could reap the benefits of outside interaction.

IMO, your daughters have a point. I believe CLE Language Arts *is* indeed very boring for the most part. (speaking as a successful graduate of CLE Language Arts and other subjects) If you are interested in a full LA program which pulls together a variety of resources and schedules them for you, WinterPromise has a nice solid one. I think it's quite sad that we would take a subject which should be full of joyful reading of appealing literature and rewarding expression of one's own ideas through writing and reduce it to a workbook study that takes an hour and makes our children dread it.

You won't find a Bible argument one way or another. However, common sense would tell you that in those days one's childhood was over by age 13 or so. ETA: My respect for these individuals would be seriously diminished by this because they have proved that their method of child-rearing did not produce mature healthy God-fearing adults by age 18. I personally was a mature healthy God-fearing adult by age 15.

Do a search here for the curric and see what it has been selling for. Then mark it down wildly if pages are used or missing.

To make it even more confusing, both words *can* also be used as the other part of speech. I didn't even know until college that the word affect is sometimes pronounced "aff' ect", meaning one's facial expression. Sometimes people also try to ee fect' a change, meaning "bring about" a change. The pronunciation changes slightly for these uses. The usual spellings and meanings were correctly given by the previous posters.

Lovedtodeath, there is also a yahoo group for Winterpromise. Here's a link to sign up for that. It stays just as active as the forum. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/WinterPromiseFamilies/join

It is loose leaf, and the first five or so questions are identical for each animal. Then the creative sentence starter at the bottom is different for every animal. HTH!

Bob Jones Math. WinterPromise is already a winner at our house and there is very little doubt our American Story 1 will hold the title.:D

(((hugs))) Rose! We all do this kind of thing and kick ourselves afterwards. My dh was thinking, Oh, yeah, Joshua could love this movie, but I said he has to wait till he's a bit older because of the ants eating people and the people burning alive. I just don't like that kind of thing. I *am* however going to get the Young Indiana Jones shows if I can. I'm sure dh will have the DVD in the house when it's released and then I'll have to fast forward the objectionable scenes. Luckily, my hero lover is my more cautious child. The child-with-no-fear is the animal lover. It works better that way.

I'm using WinterPromise and plan to combine my boys who are 3.5 years apart in age. They offer Older Learner Guides for some of their programs, or have two versions of some programs, so it makes it a no-brainer to combine big gaps. It's what I love most about the company.

Correct, one animal notebook page per week is scheduled. I have heard of many families using the Draw Write Now program to add more animals to their notebooks (and we did, too).