The Wind in the Willows- I can't believe I never read this book during my childhood- it was fabulous! All of my kids loved it. The Jungle Book- another one I never read & we all loved. Last year we read My Indian Boyhood by Ohiyesa. Awesome book about a boy Sioux boy who grew up with his tribe & then was sent to the the white schools as a teenager. As an adult he wrote about what it was like to grow up with the Sioux- family life, games, tribal customs, hunting, etc.

Many thanks to the board members who recommended The Secret Garden illustrated by Inga Moore and Robert Ingpen's illustrated The Wind in the Willows & The Jungle Book. They are just gorgeous! My kids adored The Wind in the Willows and we are almost done with The Jungle Book. I'd like some recommendations for beautifully illustrated read alouds- chapter books like those listed above, not picture books. Thanks so much!

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Yes, I don't see us changing unless life threw us a real curve ball (and it sometimes does!). Even if we did, I would consider these years with Tapestry well-spend & would have no regrets.

As I stated in my post above, I started Tapestry when my kids were 5yo, 4yo, 2yo and I was pregnant with our 4th. We have finished our first four year cycle & are starting the cycle over next week. This will be our 5th year with Tapestry. #1: Are you at all familiar with Charlotte Mason? There is a quote of hers that says (I am paraphrasing here): "Children need something to love, something to do and something to think about." Tapestry has provided the "something to think about" and often the "something to do". My kids spend many, many days acting out what we've been reading about in Tapestry. They've reenacted Civil War battles in the woods behind our house, spent months digging out a WWI era trench & building parapets & persiscopes. They've spent 2 days recreating the battle of D-Day on Omaha Beach at our dining room table. After we finish our morning school work and they are released for free play time, THIS is what they do- it shows me that they are *thinking* about what we are learning about. I love the sense of ownership it creates in them when they incorporate those ideas into their play. #2: For one brief, misguided semester we participated in a popular classical co-op that involves lots of memorization. One day they were playing games with the memory work and the question was "tell me what you know about George Washington" and one of my kids was called on. My child did not understand that the correct answer was the canned memory sentence about Geo. Washington. Instead, that child went on to tell all they knew about Geo. Washington & how great he was- the crossing of the Delaware River, how he turned down the offer to be King, etc. To my child, Geo. Washington was the great, living hero and THAT is what I wanted- not the memorization of some canned sentence. I want History to be like this for my kids- a living story filled with fascinating people and ideas. #3: With any program, but especially with one that offers as much as Tapestry, there is going to be a learning curve. I have really appreciated the ability to learn how to use Tapestry, how to plan with it, etc. at a slow pace. I despise being rushed and I didn't want to wait until it was important (middle school, imo) to start figuring out how to use Tapestry. I have enjoyed being able to slow walk myself through it with no pressure.

This was me when we started TOG- I had a 5yo, 4yo, 2yo and was pregnant w/ our 4th at the time. I used those early years to learn how to use TOG and become comfortable with it. Our second was only 4yo when we started. After two years, (at the end of Year 2) we went to Colonial Williamsburg/Yorktown/Jamestown for homeschool week to wrap up our study of the Revolutionary War. Now, I would have assumed our second hadn't really picked up on a lot, especially our first year as he was only 4yo when we started. Here's what he said on the way home, to his sister: "You know, Mary, first God created the world. Then there was Noah. Then Abraham and Sarah. Then it was Moses and the Egyptians. After that it was Rome. Then it was Kings and castles (his term for medieval times) and then the explorers. Then the Pilgrims came to America. After that was the French and Indian War and now we're at the Revolutionary War!" I think that is a pretty good understanding of the basic flow of History for a 6yo! Just a few months ago we went to Disney World and as we were walking through Cinderella's castle that same child immediately identified the (gorgeous) mosaics & remembered studying them that first year when he was only 4yo. (He's 8yo now) So, all that to say, even for those who are "just" using it as a book list in the early- the kids can learn a LOT simply from the readings and a few hands on activities.

That was an awesome tutorial! By the way, my three year old's name is Lyra too. I've only ever seen it one other time. We pronounce it "Lyr" (as in the beginning of the word "lyrical)- Lyr-Ah. People commonly mispronounce it & call her Lie-Ruh which drives me nuts. :D

Thanks so much for all the replies- I couldn't figure out if I had missed something or if it really was difficult to schedule. I'll take your advice to shoot for one level per quarter without worrying to much about # of pages per week.

I've purchased 3A for my rising 3rd grader and I'm trying to work out the scheduling for our year. I cannot find anywhere on the website a list of how many total lessons there are for the entire year (3A, 3B, 3C, 3D). I also can't seem to figure out if each lesson is supposed to be for one day or one week. Can someone help me out here? Thanks!

My 9yo dd's dyslexia tutor recommends this book highly: Overcoming Dyslexia by Sally Shaywitz. Getting a really GOOD dyslexia tutor has been the single best thing we've done. If we were not able to do that, I'd look into buying some Barton materials or other Orton-Gillingham based materials. Also, I think Logic of English looks really good- I talked to them quite a bit at conference and if I had not already purchased something else for my 5yo, I would have bought that program. It is written with dyslexics in mind.

I just ordered it, thanks!!

I am so glad to see this! I bought The Nature Connection to use for the upcoming school year. I've got it all divided out into what pages we'll do each week, etc. I'm really excited about it- it looks like do-able Nature Study for those who need more guidance (me!).

HITS: Tapestry of Grace- love it & we are about to start our 5th year w/it this July. The kids loved the books. They spent a solid month digging out a WWI trench, building parapets & periscopes & reenacting scenes from WWI. They spent several days using lincoln logs and army guys to recreate D-Day on Omaha Beach on our dining room table. The interviewed a local Civil Rights hero- the first black nurse ever hired at our hospital. And sometime in the next week they'll interview our former mailman, another real hero- he was in Vietnam with The Walking Dead- his unit had a 93% Killed in Action rate. It's amazing he made it out alive. He's going to talk to them about Vietnam (but keep it age appropriate). CLE Language Arts- even my grumpy kids loves their Language Arts! PenTime & Pictures in Cursive- My dd loves PenTime & my son, who found it just "tooo looong" is loving PIC because the lesson are shorter. He likes the pictures too. The Wind in the Willows- My kids loved, loved, loved this book. I consider it a tragedy that I missed out on it for so long- it was a great book! We got the Robert Ingpen illustrated edition that someone here mentioned- it was beautiful. Ds is begging for Ingpen's The Jungle Book next. MISSES: Science- I dropped the ball on Science....AGAIN. Next year will be better.... Math- Mary is so so far behind in Right Start Math. I switched Nathan to Math U See and while he doesn't hate it as much as he hated Horizons there is no love there either. I'm going to finish up RS C for Mary and also start her on CLE's Math- she's about 5 lessons into it & is doing well so far. I'm switching Nathan to Beast Academy.

Wishbone- the one I linked to above is an Amscope. If you're looking for a good deal, it's still on sale on Amazon. I thought the price was very reasonable for what we got, esp. when I compare it to the microscope we spend $90 on last year which was a piece of junk.

We bought this microscope a month or so ago- so far we are very pleased! http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B004UNFSYG/ref=oh_details_o00_s00_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1

I originally posted this on the general ed board but was advised to post it here: Child is in 2nd grade, strong reader, very very smart but under-performs and is often contrary. Very social. Says that he "hates math" but yet often plays math during the day. Started with Horizons in Kindergarten but switched to Horizons when older child did- lots & lots of tears over Horizon- it's "too long". Switched to Right Start when I made the change for older daughter. He hated, hated, hated it, lots more tears, stalling, etc. So this year we moved him to Math U See. Same story. Hates MUS. He'll often spend 60-90 minutes completing ONE page of Math U See Beta- about 12-15 problems. It is utterly ridiculous. This is the same kid who, at age 4 & with no formal math training, would say things like this "Mom, do you know that 3+2 equals 4+1 and that they both are 5?" He will make his own math books on occasion, will tell you he "hates science" but yet plays science- chemistry sets, snap circuits, etc. all day & tells me he loves chemistry & physics. Ability is not the issue yet he under-performs. Question: Essentially the same question as above- stick with Math U See? Every day is a math battle & it is awful for me. Am also considering switching him to CLE's math but am willing to consider anything else that is offered...

Thanks, I'll do that!

We have math issues at our house & I'm not sure what to do. #1: Oldest child is in 3rd grade, dyslexic, very social, loves math. She started with Math U See in Kindy but hated it- tears every day, so we quickly switched to Horizons & stayed there through the end of first grade. She was happy with Horizons but I felt that her conceptual knowledge was lacking. For second & third grade we have used Right Start B & C. She loves Right Start. I believe that this is a much better way to learn Math than the traditional workbook approach. The problem? There are several- -I don't intuitively understand the Right Start way/method. I don't understand what I am doing a lot of the time. I am often unsure of how to do something in the lesson or why we are doing something. I just don't get it. -I don't feel there is enough review. They introduce concepts but don't seem to revisit them often enough. -It is very teacher intensive and each lesson takes a looong time- we often end up skipping parts of the lesson because I simply do NOT have almost an hour to do one lesson of math. In addition to this child I also have a high maintenance 2nd grader, a kindergartener & a very busy 3yo. I can barely keep my head above water- I certainly cannot teach Right Start to the other kids- I am having a hard enough time getting through one lesson a day, much less 3. Question: Thoughts on what to do for next year? I do NOT want to keep skipping around. i haven't done that with any of our other curriculums as I believe it is unwise. However, I'm not sure it's wise to stick with something that doesn't seem to be working either. I don't know where to go from here or if I should even look somewhere else. I have strongly considered moving her to Christian Light's math but am willing to entertain other thoughts. #2: Second child is in 2nd grade, strong reader, very very smart but under-performs and is often contrary. Very social. Says that he "hates math" but yet often plays math during the day. Started with Horizons in Kindergarten but switched to Horizons when older child did- lots & lots of tears over Horizon- it's "too long". Switched to Right Start when I made the change for older daughter. He hated, hated, hated it, lots more tears, stalling, etc. So this year we moved him to Math U See. Same story. Hates MUS. He'll often spend 60-90 minutes completing ONE page of Math U See Beta- about 12-15 problems. It is utterly ridiculous. This is the same kid who, at age 4 & with no formal math training, would say things like this "Mom, do you know that 3+2 equals 4+1 and that they both are 5?" He will make his own math books on occasion, will tell you he "hates science" but yet plays science- chemistry sets, snap circuits, etc. all day & tells me he loves chemistry & physics. Ability is not the issue yet he under-performs. Question: Essentially the same question as above- stick with Math U See? Every day is a math battle & it is awful for me. Am also considering switching him to CLE's math but am willing to consider anything else that is offered...

Tapestry of Grace? :D

We follow the four year cycle so I have pinterest boards for each year- I pin anything & everything that I might use, would like to see or think about more, documentaries, books, activity ideas, etc. to one of those four years (and I also have boards for Language Arts, Math and different Science & Nature study topics). Then, when I sit down to plan my year, I used those boards. I have found it to be tremendously helpful.

Will this be your first time through Ancients with Tapestry? Ancients is not my area of interest and I was not looking forward to it when we did it the first time- so I was surprised at how much we really enjoyed it!!

I did this with my 8yo son- two pages a day through book 5 and he was beyond the books- he's a great reader! I also tried it with my dyslexic 9yo (who I did not know was dyslexic at the time, I just knew she wasn't catching on to reading very quickly)- didn't work well for her.

We tried to do this one year & found it to be impossible for our family. In something like three weeks, their History sentences covered Columbus-the Revolution. Tapestry spends an entire semester doing this. In order to match History study at home the the CC History sentences, you really can only touch on the subjects. It is difficult, imo, to cover History with any depth if your doing it at the CC pace.

I always go to the store's website, make a shopping list from their online ad & print it out. Then I have it with me in the store but I've only ever been asked for it one time. The rest of the time I say say- "oh, those are B2G3" and they do it. I've cut my grocery budget by $50/month and we have had a greater variety & amount of food in the house then we've had in a long time.

There is a lovely beach house in Emerald Isle, NC that is ocean front & fairly reasonable in price- Google "Give Me A Break Emerald Isle Realty" to see it. Emerald Isle is very laid back & yet there is plenty to do if you want to get out. Also, we've used vrbo.com with great success, numerous times. And I am always seeing good deals on groupon & living social- you might check those out for deals as well. I think this is a wonderful idea- I hope you have a great time!