We never did because I just couldn't seem to justify it- I just didn't care about the Egyption pharaohs enough to get my kids to memorise them. We just memorise poetry.

Hi Dorothy, Dont feel bad. Latin Prep moves very fast. We have been doing Latin a few years with another program before we started with Latin Prep and we have learned things in the first few chapters we hadnt learned in 3 years of another program. And we move very slowly through LP because it is so intense. So realise that Latin Prep is intense and it doesnt mean you cant learn Latin- you just need a gentler pace. Once you "click" how Latin works, which is quite logical, Latin prep wont seem such a mystery, but I can understand it seeming difficult.

At those ages, I would just enjoy reading and do some oral narrations for the younger and written ones for the older. The WTM has some good info on this. Literature programs can turn reading into such a chore and I feel are better suited for older children if at all! I would just be fostering a love of reading, reading aloud a good book, chatting about what they are reading and how they like it and why or why not, and looking for books to keep them inspired. JMO.

What popped into my mind was the Nourishing Traditions approach- maybe your library has that book. (Sally Fallon). Meaty bone broths, raw milk, butter etc. Also, try zinc if his appetite isn't so good.

Yes, if they are just learning sentence diagramming for the first time. I guess it depends on how "hard core" you are about sentence diagramming, too. It definitely lays a good foundation, and I like the way it does it. But it doesnt take you "all the way" to the more complex stuff.

I would have the older watch the rest of them while you go for a walk. Put them all to bed by 8pm- the older ones can read longer. then get up before everyone- that's what I do and it really helps me. If for some reason I am not up first, it puts me on the wrong foot for the day. But also, my husband was very good at training the kids to give us some space when we wanted it- even if it meant putting on a movie for them. Whatever it took- I am an introvert and need my space, and he needs a sane wife! He also trained them to give us some space when he and I were just sitting around chatting- adults need adult time. I did the whole attachment parenting, family bed, long term breastfeeding thing, but I did simply take space when I needed it- even if it just meant going to my room and shutting the door.

Ummm, I havent started yet. Not sure how I am going to do it. I am still in denial.

Its hasn't happened here.....crossing fingers, touching wood.....but until recently i was still reading a fair amount aloud. Often when I start a book aloud, ds will be willing to continue on his own, once his interest is piqued. This happeed with Pyle's Robin Hood recently- the language is heavy going to read aloud, but after he heard me read it aloud a few times he gave it a go and was fine. Maybe your son needs to prodding, some tempting, some tantalising with some juicy read alouds during school time. I also don't insist on completely books they despise, usually. Like Melissa, they have to read for a certain amount of time each day- about an hour usually- for school.

Raw food. Raw meaty bones plus some scraps from the table- a bit of yoghurt, fish, vegetables, not pasta! A bit of cheese is ok but not much. Our medium sized dog gets a chicken carcass a day plus some scraps, or some other type of bone plus scraps. The small dog is getting a ball of mince- lamb, beef, kangaroo or turkey- each day. Then she goes and tries to steal the bigger dog's bones for a chew. Its good to fast dogs. They don't need feeding every day- 1 or 2 fasting days a week is actually healthy for their digestive tract, to let it completely empty out. Its how it works in the wild. Over feeding them is a big cause of problems. Of course, you have to overcome those big sad eyes, but we do it and it's kept our dog who has a tendency to overweight, to a good size. Also, you should never leave food out for a dog or cat, all the time. If they didnt eat it, take it out of their sight and smell and try again later. For a dog, I would leave it quite a while before trying again. Here is a website with some basics. http://www.rawmeatybones.com/petowners/whatisrmb.php Other benefits apart from health, is that you dont have to open any more stinking cans, the pets don't smell or get bad breath- and the doggy doo in the backyard turns to white, and fairly oderless, within a day or two.

The others have put out plenty of points of difference- but I think its important to remember CM was a person of her times, a person with a vision, responding to the fact that there was a "classical" education that was given to the upper classes, boys mainly, with an emphasis on Latin and Greek,and these were teh future leaders- politicians etc- but the rest of the population was given a "vocational" education. I have read some of CM's original works and never did I see anywhere that she put down that classical type of education for those upper class people- in fact, she seemed to feel it was important that some people in society received that type of educaiton However, she felt that all of society- all children, no matter the background- were capable of having an excellent liberal, literary education- of being well educated, and that all children deserved no less than that. In her times, poor children were often considered "beyond hope" and even mentally deficient, and she proved beyond doubt that all children, given a chance, can excel and become well educated. She felt that training children only for a vocation was a terrible thing- that everyone needed to be educated in order to have a better quality of life, and to be able to raise their station in life, too. Latin was taught- along with up to 3 modern languages, to various degrees, but Latin and Greek werent the centre, as they had been traditionally for a long time. She intruduced some pretty unique concepts, and her ideas changed over the years, too. It is really worth reading her origirnal works to get a feel for her- it is quite different from reading interpretations, although they have their value, too. The original works are online at Ambleside, in origirnal or modernised text.

We treat editing as completely separate. Using the computer helps. He usually edits on another day to his writing. Its hard for many kids to think of everything- getting their thoughts down AND spelling and grammar and punctuation. I would rather he get his thoughts down first, and we work on the rest separately. Bravewriter has a lot of good advice aroudn this. They encourage freewriting- just letting the thoughts flow and getting them on paper. THEN go back and work on it, at another time.

Ds13 does R&S partly orally, plus he does the separate worksheets. He does separate copywork/dictation (yes, he still needs it!). I use Spelling Wisdom, Queen's LL, or either he or I choose a passage.

We used the First Whole Book of Diagrams and it is a beautiful book, actually, I really like it. However it is more of a beginners book to diagramming- doesnt go into the more complex structures. However for those first few years, it's wonderful and much more aesthetic in terms of the sentences than other programs I have seen. It almost shows sentence diagrams as an art, really- it definitely shows the beauty in them.

Poodles. Maltese. We have a Jack Russel cross Maltese that doesnt smell or shed hair. Poodles dont shed hair either. Both poodles and maltese have hair that is similar ot human hair- it keeps growing, which is why they need trimming regularly. We really notice the difference because we have two dogs. The "normal" dog- a heinz variety- smells, particularly if she gets wet. But the JR/Maltese doesn't smell. Dh is sensitive to such things.

Yes, I have learned too that even just having to photocopy something each week is enough to sometimes let it slip form the schedule. I use holidays or time while my kids are working to plan ahead and do as much preparation as possible, so I have no excuse to let things slide. I nearly always plan too much though and something gets dropped.

I put CM only because at the moment I am using Ambleside/HEO as a general structure off which to hang everything, and I only jumped to AO because it fitted where we were in our WTM based 4 year cycle, which I intend to continue right through. I had always wanted to try AO and now we are, and we are enjoying it- but being secular, we tweak it considerably. My kids do science in a class, so basically our homeschooling revolves around history, literature and latin- and maths just because we have to :)

My dh keeps his distance, doesn't drive them anywhere, doesm't really want to be involved, but sometimes helps me with discipline and does support us financially. Its not my ideal. He doesn't even come to concerts or plays they are in if he can help it. I wish it were different, but it is the way it is and its not acutally worth pushing him to do more because we then prefer he weren't there anyway. I asked dd if she minded that he didnt even come to her piano recital last weekend- she said she preferred he didnt. So thats how it works around here. However he works from home so we see plenty of him, he makes us eggs for breakfast and buys the kids anything they need, or basically, want.

No, it isnt. And that's why I ended up with the wrong book- I thought i was getting the Spielvogel book. But I was happy with what I got.

My son is 13 and we only had him tested in January and he is dyslexic. I cant tell you the relief it was for both of us to know it wasn't me, or him, but a brain wiring difference! But we still struggle day to day. I have had melt downs recently. I do have another child who excels academically, and she does that without trying too hard, so I am heartened by that. If I was only homeschooling my son, I would really doubt myself and probably despair more than I do. One thing that jumped out at me was your spending time making very detailed weekly plans that you then don't complete. I think you might be better off enjoying your time off- having a bath, reading a book for yourself, taking a walk alone or with the kids, whatever- instead of planning in such great detail. My kids have specific plans but I always set it up so that my weekly planning is very minimal, because I value my weekends and spare time. I also trust that seasons come and go and we seem to have a pattern that 4th term (we have 4 school terms) is rather more relaxed than the other 3. Perhaps you need to adapt your planning more to the boys' temperaments and less to an ideal classical education. I always liked the Moore's stuff for boys. The book An Angel in the Marble was also inspiring to me for balancing schoolwork and following the kids' interests. I think the author of that had his 3 boys do academics only 3 days a week. Sometimes for history, we just read. But reading is good. I couldnt manage science, so they go to a class. It gets done then. Its ok. You dont know that your boys would be better at school- my son would not do well at school but that doesnt mean he does brilliantly at home, either. It's just overal psychologically and spiritually and emotionally better for him to be at home. That doesnt mean I am a failure, or he is a failure.

I haven't read all the other posts, so this may be redundant, but I found when my kids were little, I went through a stage of grieving as "the world" impinged on my little universe with them where they didn't eat sugar, watched only what I wanted on TV, and I was basically the centre of their universe. It changes. The world's influence gets stronger- gosh, I remember how depressed I was over the first b'day parties they attended with all that junk food! and mum is no longer the fount of all knowledge- tv and computers are too, and advertising, and what that other kid said. But it is just the way it is, and trying to control it tooooo much, keeping them in a bubble, is as unhealthy as not limiting and setting healthy boundaries to protect them. There is a balance. Yes, in an ideal world it would be different...but we can still live OUR truth, our reality, and share that with our kids, but we have to let them go to make their own interface with the world they are growing up in. We can't control it all, can't make the world different. And probably you are better off looking for the beauty, the love and the wonderfulness that IS out there, every day, than focusing on the negative.

I don't read many novels but I read both of these this year and they made a powerful impact on me. Highly recommended.

We have Corelle and our ktichen is tile, our dining room is marble floor- so far so good, one break in the last year or two i think, but usually they don't break. Of course we dont have little kids any more, just clutsy teenagers doign dishes when they woudl rather be doign something else :)

Yeah...sorry about that :) but I can say there are lots and lots of pictures in the books- very visual. I think they would be good for many people- they cover world history well, I love the covering of the religions- however I just doubt they are very accessible for most people, so wouldn't be suitable for TWTM. I think unless you can find one 2nd hand like I did, you would have to go through K12 and I am not sure how easy that is, just to buy a book. But hopefully it helps someone.

I started homeschooling my younger because he was struggling in school. He is dyslexic and years of homeschooling have helped him not to completely get lost in the system and fall through the cracks, have helped him to feel better about himself and not have to develop a personality dependent on just surviving a hostile school environment, helped him learn the basics when he may not have. But he is by no means an Einstein and if thrust back into the school system would most likely still struggle because of his learning differences. He might be ahead in some areas, like grammar, but it wouldn't take long before it all evened out. One of the benefits of homeschooling I notice for my highly strung child is that it is simply more relaxed here, and less distracting. And he is not getting emotionally hurt all the time,(by other kids or a teacher who isn't hyper sensitive to his particular sensitivities!) since it is a safer environment. So it is a better learning environment for this child, so he can learn more optimally- but it's still a challenge. He can also express his frustrations and intense emotions more freely- he used to get in the car after school and explode. For my other one who is academically bright, she would probably thrive in school and in a healthy school environment- but too much the other way- woudl get distracted by all the socialising.

Great for a season. I have the Medieval Legends one and it is great to to go along with logic stage medieval history. It teaches basic skills- outlining, imitative writing. The language is rich. (The Aesop samples though were too archaic for my kids, but the Medieval one is good for the age). I wouldn't use it forever. I used it with my dd when she was about 11 I think, and I am about to pull it out and use it with my reluctant writer ds13 as a part of his writing program.