Our oldest is in R&S English 6, and he is far beyond anything I ever remember learning in school. Since we are planning to study Latin through 12th grade, I am wondering when to stop studying formal English grammar. How far did you go?

We do all of the core and the in-depth. It is not too heavy a yoke if time is managed properly.

We have a 7th grader in our first outsourced (online) class. Our involvement up front was pretty heavy until we knew he could do A-level work and get it turned in on time. Now, we have very little involvement outside proofreading his papers. We chose to do online classes this early after hearing a talk from SWB...let them learn the hard way now before the grade counts in 9th grade. If you step back and he fails a few times, now is the time to let that happen. For us this is a necessity; we can't be uber-involved with our whole gaggle.

I have been accused of being a Luddite, so take that into account with what our 8 yo does (and our past 8 yo's did)... computer time is limited to Saturday only, and is only Angry Birds on dad's iPhone after chores are done. They will start typing later and we have none of our school on the computer. We have really taken SWB's coaching to heart about active vs. passive learning, so tend to stick with paper when possible. Comics (reading, looking at, drawings, copying) Audio books (Audible is the best!) Legos Skateboarding is a new independent adventure None of the school work is independent at this point

For documentaries, I have pretty good luck just searching on YouTube. A surprising number of people take the time to upload all kinds of movies. We have used The History Guy's YouTube channel for documentaries, but I can't remember if he had anything for the Middle Ages. Perhaps Monty Python and the Holy Grail is a bit...advanced...for that age! Here is a good example of what YT has to offer with a bit of searching:

http://www.ebay.com/bhp/ancient-roman-coins Will require some searches, but it's a gold mine. Pun intended.

Our middle-school level boys enjoy them on the Kindle at bedtime. They only listen to what mom and dad purchase, so it's generally history or literature-based.

Johnny Tremain (middle school) Forge Chains The Sign of the Beaver (middle school) The Last of the Mohicans

Posting here just to follow the other threads...didn't visit the sub board. We have eleven children, twelve and under. Seven are school age. I could type for hours, but here are a couple of the highlights: 1. Pray daily for direction and blessing on your school. You will not be able to do this alone. 2. Speaking of alone, you need time with your husband. It may be hard to fit this into the budget, but whether it's friends, family, or a sitter, you need to get away and spend time on the most important earthly relationship you have. As Heidi St. John says, don't sacrifice your marriage on the altar of homeschool. 3. This may sound counter-intuitive, but to keep going strong, schedule some time in the day where no school gets done. The children either rest or play quietly (no electronics). The intent is for you to have some book, laptop, or nap time. 4 4. Can your husband help with some administrative duties? Or teach some subjects? Or be the primary paper-grader? We tag team this whole endeavor and couldn't make it without this partnership. 5. Find some curricula that allow you to combine multiple ages on one subject. Plenty of options are out there. 6. Focus on the true core subjects and cut out the extras. If you are able to find any of Christopher Perrin's teaching on "Multum non Multa," you would benefit from this. There is a good YouTube video if I remember correctly. In essence, littles only REALLY need reading, penmanship, mathematics, and a form of grammar (either Latin or English). Everything else can wait. Best of luck!

For personal curiosity...what grade level and curriculum is that? Curious how it compares to ours (Rod & Staff).

I would love to see an episode along the lines of..."How for Thousands of Years, Children Learned Just Fine....How We are Going to Recover Something Old Instead of Making up Something New." The introduction to the "School of the Future" makes me nervous when I keep hearing about "the science of learning." This really isn't very new stuff.

Yes, at 11, generally, you should expect her to be able to work independently. We practice this with our 10, 11 and 12 yo's, and they regularly flub the answers due to not following directions. We just use this as a chance to teach them about reading directions along with the content. I suppose you could say we are going on faith at this point that this is the right way. We have 11 kids, so it's a matter of survival to make this happen.

Ditto.

We used to do IEW but had to drop it as we added for kids to our homeschool. We are now using Writing and Rhetoric from CAP - not perfect by any means, but it has promise and certainly isn't as complicated as IEW. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We really enjoy Exploring Creation with Zoology by Apologia. It won't get vet specific, but at this age all you really want to do it keep your kids interested. Science at this stage needs to be encouraging wonder. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

With older kids already in the home, I wouldn't stretch yourself and add a lot of structured activity. This is a good time to teach your four year old to play independently. The only structured teaching I would do is phonics/reading, and continue reading aloud daily.

We have 11 children, oldest is 12, so maybe we have some nuggets of sage advice. 1. Make sure mom and dad spend time together. Keeping this relationship strong is crucial. Date nights out of the house are recommended. 2. Mom needs alone time to recharge during the day. For us it is 2-4 pm. This will require you to train the younger kids to nap or have alone time in their rooms. The school age kids should be able to work or play quietly. 3. Combine subjects where you can. For us this is history, science and Bible. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Sorry, just now getting back to the forums. The kids four and under all nap. We train them in these hours from a young age and it seems to work. The older kids must stay inside, cannot use any electronics, and may not speak. Sounds draconian, but any leeway gets abused. Usually this means reading and coloring, but board games, Legos, and napping are also utilized. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We are doing Latin with our oldest five and couldn't be happier with our decision to start. We use the Memoria Press programs. It can get a bad rap for being boring and dry, but honestly, kids needs to learn to work through boring material. We decided on Latin to 1. improve reading comprehension in English 2. develop our children's minds before formal logic instruction begins in 7th grade 3. cultivate our children's connection to Ancient Roman culture 4. (eventually) read the giants in Western literature (Vergil, Augustine, etc.) in the original language. Lexi's points about practicing Latin daily and making it a core priority are right on.

Susan Wise Bauer gave an amazing talk about burnout at the 2015 homeschool convention in Cincinnati. We were blessed enough to attend and immediately ordered the CD copy of the talk so we could keep it in front of us. If you can get your hands on this somehow, it may be worth your while.

Two best Civil War living books I have read: Killer Angels (may be high school level, but is widely considered one of the best) Co. Aytch Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Spelling is important and teaching kids otherwise is a problem. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We love Tapestry but this was only after building our confidence by using SL and K12. Based on your situation I would recommend staying away from TOG and coming back later. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

4th grade is very early to start anything formal for logic. I would just stick with grammar at this point. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Susan Weiss Bauer has some great talks about Science in the Classical Curriculum and what a middle school curriculum should look like to prepare your child for high school. Both of these are invaluable audio resources if you can find them. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk