Hi. Have any of you used Chester Comix? Can I use these comics all by themselves for American History? Or is it meant to be a supplemental curriculum?

I need help deciding what to do about writing. My 11yo dd is currently doing the IEW SWI. It's going great. I just don't think I can afford the next level (the student continuation course - I forgot it's name but it's $240). I want to find a writing program that will teach the mechanics of writing. My dd enjoys writing but I think it's important that she know how to put her thoughts into an essay, how to organize things, how to do a research paper etc. (All the things I was hoping that IEW would continue to teach.) I have narrowed my search down to a few ideas. Any input (pros/cons) you have is greatly appreciated. What did you like about the curriculum, etc? Thank you in advance. Here is my list: Meaningful compositions (we would start with 4II) Essay Voyage Writing strands (we would start with 3, I think) Learning Language Arts through Literature (starting with the tan book) Imitation in Writing Series (I think we'd start with the Aesop book and possibly get the Poetry book as well)

Just adding my 2 bits. We used K12 for Kindergarten - 3rd grade. This was over 3 years ago so I'll try to remember pros & cons. Math: I had to suppliment because I liked the way RightStart explained things better. K12 had a lot of repetition and moved very slowly. We skipped a lot of lessons. And actually started using Saxon math for 2nd grade (I think that's when we started it) K12 math just didn't move fast enough. My kids would just test out of a K12 chapter and then we'd spend the time doing Saxon & RightStart. LA: I HATE K12 language arts. (Was that too strong of a feeling?) The Kindergarten LA took 1 hour a day and it was sooooo slow. It drove my daughter and myself up the wall! We opted out of the K12 LA after that. So maybe they get better - But I'm not sure about that. I had two friends doing K12 that stayed with the LA and they said they could never get done with all the worksheets and writing assignments and grammar and vocabulary etc. It was WAY too much busy work. Science: I really liked their interactive science. You learn the lesson and then you can "see" what they are teaching - for example, when we were talking about solid, liquids, and gases you could see how quickly molecules move around in a gas versus a liquid and solid. It's nice to have this for all the science subjects all in one place. I didn't have to search the internet for videos about the human body or go to the library for videos about cell division etc. It was all imbedded in their online curriculum. So that was good. History: I also liked their history because of the same reason. They had fun little stories to go along with history and some animated things along the way. I had found Story of the World by this time and kind of did both at the same time. Sometimes reading from SoW to fill in gaps that K12 history left out. K12 moved faster in history than SoW does. Music: I also very much disliked this program. Of course, I only tried the Kindergarten curriculum. It was a VHS tape of a very corny lady doing silly dances and rhythms. I couldn't take it. So we opted out of music and the kids do piano lessons. Art: The art is pretty good. No complaints either way. We did K12 through two different schools distrists during the time we used it. Both times we got free paint and paint brushes which is always nice. I don't know what is included when you pay for K12 yourself. Overall it isn't a bad program. We stopped using it because I don't like being tied to the internet. Our internet kept going down and then we were stuck and couldn't get all of our school work done. I also found curriculum that I liked better and even when we solved our internet woes I preferred not to go back. Some curriculum that has worked very well for us: IEW Spelling Phonetic Zoo - my 11yo dd struggles with spelling and she could sense my growing frustration with her mistakes. This program is on cd and she takes the tests without me even in the same room. Her spelling has improved as well as her confidence. IEW SWI - has been good for writing. She watches the dvd's and I come in to check on her work. IEW is a bit expensive though so I'm not sure that we can continue with the next session. I'm sorry that I'm not much help. I just really didn't like K12 LA. Maybe for the 3rd+ grades it gets better. I would just hate to have you invest the money and receive more headaches. . . Good luck. I hope you find what you are looking for

I'm getting close to buying it new as well. The SWI has been so good for my daughter - she loves the corny jokes etc. So I would like to continue using it. . .. just trying to find the cheapest way to do so. : ) Thanks for letting me know that you've been hunting as well and haven't seen it used. I don't want to spend too much time looking so it's good to know that it's rare to find this used. Thanks again.

Thank you for taking time to clarify. Now I won't make the mistake of buying what I don't want to buy. : )

I was hoping someone could clarify the difference between IEW SICC & IEW TWSS. My daughter has just finished the Student Writing Intensive course and we were planning on going to the Student Writing Continuation Course. But I can't find it for sale (I'm looking for a used one here). However, I keep finding Teaching Writing: Structure and Style. Does anyone know the difference? Thanks.

I would go with speaking with the group organizer and bowing out. If someone steps up to be the field trip organizer, let her set up the appointments through her own name. Then see if any of your original field trip appointments can be attended by just a few kids. And you guys go as a family.

My mom used to cover the area with oil. Does anyone know if that really works? It was meant to suffocate the tick and make it want to come out by itself. Also, my mom would put the tick in a jar lid and burn it. Yuck.

We remodeled our dining room, living room & kitchen. The living room shares a wall with the dining room and a different wall with the kitchen. We tore out the wall between dining room & living room and put in an arch way. We put a matching archway between the livingroom & kitchen. I really like it. I vote arches.

My 2nd son learned quickly too. But he always had an older sister doing homeschool, so he's been involved with homeschool since he was very little. We started phonics with "The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" The RightStart manipulatives (especially the abacus) were fun to play with. He practiced making tally marks, using Popsicle sticks while dd was doing her work. One of his favorite things to do was to fill a whole page with "0's" He would use a college lined or wide width lined notebook page and completely fill the page. He'd sit there for at least an hour. I mainly let him choose what he wanted to do but I tried to do something math related and something reading related. And, of course, I read to him too. This is a super fun age. It's so exciting to see them learn!

I've always blanched corn before hand as well.

We just started MM. I had to ask my dd to put away the calculator. : ) Yes, both of my kids have struggled a little with the problems.

The kids have to have their rooms and their assigned zones cleaned before they are "done" with school. As far as dishes (that's my zone during the day). They happily wait until I'm good and ready to wash them. : )

My 11 yr old dd loves Midsummer Nights Dream. (She's always loved fairies). She also enjoyed The Tempest. We listened to Midsummer Nights' Dream and we went to our highschool's production of The Tempest.