No, there are not a lot of picture studies in the older books i have- Secondary and Highschool. Both have 6 picture studies. Both of which cover two days of work, I think. One day of answering questions about the picture. One day of creative writing related to the picture. the pictures are beautiful, and the kids have enjoyed them. Yes, I think the books might be good accelerated....my ds12 is using the age appropriate one, but my dd13 is using the highschool one, and probably could have a year or two ago.

oh yeah, I know all about that one. Also, don't do it as a break while housecleaning, before cooking dinner, or before reading to the kids at night time.

Oh gosh, thankyou Eliana! Now I am quite overwhelmed but I have written it all down. I have decided on Plutarch (just a few), one of Sophocles (might depend on what i find at the 2nd hand bookshop, but your comments are noted!), Plato's Republic...and that may be all I can realistically fit in. The Aeniad.....we have read childrens' versions of this....I am just not sure if i will get to fit it in this time. I have a feeling though that our Latin program (Cambridge) covers it, I will check that. I am taking note of the poetry...I will have a look at it and see if it resonates. Thanks for suggesting it, I hadnt thought of that and wouldnt have known where to start. Thanks everyone else too...glad there was SOME consensus....makes it easier to choose.

Sorry, that probably wasn't very clear. In her Science text book, there are headings and subheadings, and lots of visual information..different coloured and sized fonts. Things are broken up nicely, making it easier to outline, because in a way, some of the work has been done for you already. When you read a book like SOTW, you have to create those headings and subheadings- the different layers of the outline- for yourself. The text does not discriminate visually...it's all plain text. Does that make it clearer?

That they feel free to follow their inner calling, inner sense of direction, rather than any outer trappings of what society calls success. My hope is to give them a good enough education that they feel they can do anything they choose, and a good enough education that they have a broad vision of what is possible in their lives, even if they choose to live simple ones.

Low carb is just the fad of the decade. It will pass. There are many ways to eat healthily. just look at traditional cultures...they all have a balanced diet, in their natural state, and none of those diets are the same. Some are vegetarian, some are virtually exclusively meat. Some are high fat, some are high carb. It is the diet and book industries, and weight loss industries, that get on a certain bandwagon. Its not true. None of it is true. Its all subjective. Many things work. Many things don't work. A diet that is a radical deviance from your normal diet, is bound to fail, because it is impossible to maintain. For Japanese people, their diet is part of their culture, its not something they try to maintain. If you were to suddenly start eating like the Japanese, it would probably fail because you wouldn't be able to maintain it in a western culture. just my thoughts.

I have a pin board on the wall in front of my desk, where I pin the paper bills. I pay all bills online. I keep track of our finances online. When a bill is paid, I write paid across it and the date, and put it in a file. Every now and then, I go through and work out all the outgoings and in comings and see if the incomings are a bit more than the outgoings (like last night. Barely, but yes). It's pretty loose, but it works. Dh and I have regular discussions keeping each other up to date on all things financial (investment properties, talks with real estate agents, upcoming expenses etc) when we have spas in the morning and evening :001_smile: He makes the money, I pay the bills....we need to stay in touch, and we do, even though we have our own spending money.

I am all for what keeps morale and engagement high. And also, easier books can make a good break from harder books. What part of the history cycle are you in? My dd is year 9 (but would be year 8 in the U.S.) and we happen to also be in Ancients. So I am adding some of the WTM suggestions....some Classics...the Odyssey, some Plato, some Asian classics....to push her a bit, as well as some of the fun historical literature. Your books seems a mixture of different history eras...maybe that suits you, but I tend to revolve our literature around our history period and it gives some coherency to the whole year, as different books and history all feed into each other. I also prefer to focus strongly on only one or two books at a time, and just leave the rest for free reading. Being able to tick off a list of books doesn't make an English program. Engaging and interacting with the books is more important, and sometimes less is more in that respect. Last year we did Lord of the Rings for the whole year, with a literature program...and "just read" everything else. Have you got the WTM? It has many good ideas in it for grade 9.

:iagree:

Sleep around 10, up between 5 and 6am. Nap in the afternoon. Love my sleep. Love getting up early.

Hi Colleen, I know you have received a reply from Susan, but I just thought iI would respond anyway..I agree with what you have seen here. I started with something easy. Now my daughter outlines her Science text book, and she can outline long passages of non fiction of narrative- not that she likes that much. Text books are easier. But I think you do have to start at the beginning, and progress forward from there. You wouldnt start a kid with a complex essay and ask them to organise the author's ideas in a more coherent fashion. That would come later. Well, i would think so, anyway.

I have just received two of these: Secondary 1, and Highschool. Yes, they are light, and yes they are gentle, but I am very happy with them for what I want. Dd13/14 will use hers for a creative writing course for the year. The highschool book has no grammar, it is basically a creative writing course, along with some copywork and dictations,art appreciations, and editing practice. Perfect, apparently, she is happy with the type of writing instruction in it. I will add in Analytical Grammar P2 for her,for 8weeks, as well as have her write for history, literature and science. She is an excellent writer. Most writing programs leave her cold. For ds12, a reluctant writer, it is a gentle complete LA program. He still needs copywork, dictation,and regular grammar instruction, and this gives him all of this, plus art appreciation and creative writing,and poetry. Each lesson will take him about 15 minutes I think, I am not sure yet. Writing exercises can take him longer than it might take another child. He won't resist it because he can see it is a very reasonable amount of work. Next year (2009) he will continue with Analytical Grammar. I am waiting for some maturity, but he has done part one of AG. This year (08)he will also write for history and literature, and do freewrites, and we will work on editing. We also cover grammar in Latin and French. I wouldn't use these as complete LA programs all the way through, but because they are gentle they are easy to add to, while covering things like copywork and dictation and art appreciation and editing in a regular way. If doing a light and gentle LA program means we have time to get to Shakespeare, poetry, art, more reading, and lots of passionate play and free time, then it's a good trade for us, for this particular time. We have done heavy LA other years,(R&S, CW) and this year is a different season, and a happier one.

I first came here when Colleen was pregnant with her youngest. Whenever that was. 4 years ago?

When I get a nap in the afternoon, and when I have a walk along the river with just the dog. These things allow me to cope with all sorts of life's day to day disturbances. Sometimes productivity feels good, but just as often, a lazy day is good, too.

Not sure what my mum expected, but I am sure I disappointed her for a while there...I left home at 16 (she kind of kicked me out actually, but I finished school anyway)....didn't see much of her for years....eventually in my 20s we reconnected and have had a good relationship since then....on opposite sides of the country. Actually, I respect her and love her a lot, and I am sure she feels the same toward me. We are different, but she herself is not "normal" so "different" is just fine, lots of tolerance there- she is fairly what you Americans call 'crunchy', I just happen to be much more so.

Like some others I am heading more toward CM. Having just looked at HEO again, I am thinking of doing year 7 next year, because it would match our medievel year. I personally like the 4 year history cycle, and many of the books we are doing for this year's ancients are from the Ambleside year 6 list (as well as Sonlight). Maths is the only long lesson we do, and we just take however long a lesson takes. This morning that was just a few minutes for my son, but its normally around 45 minutes for both kids, and has been known to take 2 hours occasionally. Latin takes 10 minutes most days, French similar, Spelling's with an online program- 10 minutes. I just bought Language Lessons for the Secondary/Highschool child for my two kids, and while the older will continue with Analytical Grammar for a part of the year, the younger will probably just do this program. This will cover copywork, dictation, creative writing, some art narrations, some grammar. Both do a Science class, and only the older does Science at home as well...about 15 minutes a day. Nature Study is intermittant. We do history reading together, and we are covering a Shakespeare play, poetry and memorisation, economics, spirituality, and anything else I feel like reading to them, together. They do writing assignments. One of the reasons I am moving toward CM is because I have tried several writing programs, and my kids just cannot stand being told to write in that canned way....I was really hopeful for Wordsmith for them both this year and it was such a flunk...so I am going back to plain old narrations and then expanding on that. It just works. I will have my older write some essays, but she writes easily and well so if I left that for another year it wouldn't be a problem. I think this year is gong to be a year of nourishing her creative writing. They do music lessons, gym, drama. I am considering what we do more and more CM because I am covering many subjects and using mainly living books, they are getting a really broad education, we are finishing around 1pm, they get lots of leisure time, they have plenty of time to follow their passions (Scouts and art for dd, skateboarding at present for ds, gym for both). I wrote a term report for both a few days ago, and even though we took a week off to go to Bali, and have had Easter and two other long weekends, we have covered a lot in this 10 week term. Yet, it hasn't felt stressed or pushed. The character building side of CM is ongoing and I guess I just consider that part of being a parent. There are probably other essential parts of CM I haven't touched on....I dont consider myself completely CM at this stage but I seem to be heading in that direction.

I gather books from various lists, including Sonlight in particular. I work out what I want to cover. We read our spine, they read other books related. I then literally think up something for them to outline, either KHE, or another book, or sometimes I will even print off a page or two from the internet on a related topic, or that is another source of the same topic. And then the next day, I give them a choice of one of a couple of topics to do a research report on. So Tuesdays, we read history together. Wednesdays, they outline something- not necessarily what we read the day before. Thursdays they do some sort of report. And there are ongoing read alouds and independently read books following the year's theme, being read all the time. I do vary it...a week ago I skipped the report and they did an art project instead. I might decide to skip the outlining and have them outline for literature or Science instead one week, or not at all, and have them do two reports, or a piece of significant copywork, or just skip it because it feels like time to focus on something else. I get bored easily. I try to be basically consistent, and have them learn the skills, but I also like to vary things, to keep them interesting.

I think you may be over thinking the whole thing. To me, outlining is a way of organising notes. Notes are a way of distilling the essential information. Outlining can be done directly, or as a way of organising notes as a step before writing an essay. (It is also a good way to study for an exam, but I haven't used it for that yet with them. ) Outlining has more context and makes more sense when you use it to write an essay. Once you have an outline, an essay is a synch. That's the next step. So I took to teaching the skill of outlining with that bigger picture in mind. I also teach plain notetaking as a related skill. I have found the newer KHE ok at times..my kids are logic stage and sometimes they will use it, particularly my older. My younger uses the Usborne book more frequently. However, I also find them both a terribly boring way to learn history, so we don't use them every week. I taught them both outlining using books that were easier....books with clear paragraphs, with a single topic per paragraph. Now they have the hang of it, they do it here and there using various things, in various contexts. Sometimes they note take, sometimes they outline, and sometimes they outline in order to then write a report/ essay. For example today I asked ds12 to write a narration for me of a Greek myth- the Gorgon's head, which he had just read in Hawthorne's book. It was a long story and he freaked at all the details he remembered- he likes to keep things short! So we sat down together and as he gave me an oral narration, we worked out a basic chronological outline of events and in this case I wrote it down for him (he was quite upset over the whole thing). Tomorrow, he will write his narration using the outline. I must admit both kids have found outlining fairly easy to learn....even my reluctant writer is fine with it, probably because it involves distilling, rather than expanding. I am not sure if that helps at all..it just seemed to me you were complicating it unecessarily, and maybe weren't seeing the bigger picture.

My dd13/almost 4 is using Singapore's Biology Matters and doing really well with it. She is also attending a Science class, not related to the book, so it is not her only Science, but the class has no homework so I use the Singapore book. It is a little above her level but she is coping. She takes notes for one week, then the next week she does the workbook. We dont do any practical work with it.

Awesome, thankyou, I appreciate all of your suggestions a lot. Peela

I don't actually think it is an actual thing...its a bunch of symptoms that have been given a label, ADHD. Like many psychiatric conditions, its not an actual disease, there is no blood test for it. It's a bunch of symptoms we give a name. Or, people with university degrees have given a name. And yes, the bunch of symptoms called ADHD appears to be increasing, but our society has really deteriorated on so many levels.....diet, nutrition, environmental toxins, vaccinations, the way parents parent, the state of discipline in schools, expectations on teachers....I don't think there is any pat answer at all. The city I live in in Australia has the highest diagnosis rate of ADHD in the whole world. I am a bit cynical about it I must admit. I have a step dd, now 19, whose mother drugged her against her fathers wishes, all through her teens, and it didnt help at all, she completely flunked highschool...it just made the mother feel like she was doing something. OK, disclaimer, there are many people who feel the drugs help their kids...I am dubious about 90% of them. I have been told by several learning difficulty specialists in the last few months that the number of true ADHD kids they see is very small- although real- most are kids who have learning difficulties and simply don't get the attention they need. Anyway, I am not expert, thankk goodness (they've dont enough damage already), just an observer, although I have had several many ADHD kid clients as a naturopath, and I always felt the issue needed to be dealt with on so many different levels...and many parents don't have time. Which could be part of the issue in the first place. Plus the fact that many adults try to talk to their small children instead of using clear action to deal with discipline issues. I don't mean to upset anybody, I am sure there are parents of kids diagnosed with ADHD on these boards....and most of them will be educating themselves, homeschooling, and doing everything they darn well can to deal with the issues. The other aspect of it is, my dh would have been diagnosed ADHD if it has been around in his day.....and he is quite brilliant in many ways. Thats why he didnt want his daughter drugged....too many kids who are unique and think outside the box, and are bored by school, get the diagnosis, take the drugs. I am sure I am mostly preaching to the converted, but its an awful issue. I believe we will look back on these decades of drugging our children with horror.

I borrowed a cdrom called Asterix, Learn French, from the library the other day. Not sure if we will get around to looking at it, but could be a good supplement for someone.

We are doing Ancients this year (only 1/4 through our year) and while I have a lovely variety of books, including Eastern literature, I realise I would like my dd13, who is probably only Logic stage in maturity but still but a good reader, to have a go at at least one or two of the books in the WTM literature list for grade 9, since we may not get to Ancients again. Here in Australia, she would be grade 9. So, apart from the Bible and Homer, which ones do you think are accessible for a 13yo? Without totally killing her love of literature? (We have done the Iliad together, and will do the Odyssey together later in the year). I am thinking Plutarch, but every time I look at it, I kind of dry up. But I kind of feel like that about most of the books on the list, because I am ignorant.

But be aware...art programs don't always "click" with all students...I have bought and sold 3 different Artistic Pursuits in the last 5 years....I have a very creative dd....and she simply strongly disliked AP. We do art appreciation through Ambleside, or similar to Ambleside...sometimes finding a good book like Juan de Pareja....usually just spending 5 minutes a week looking at a picture, one artist a term..it all adds up. For art, my dd does watercolour classes and draws in her spare time. She is self taught with drawing but is very good. I have found formal programs have stifled her. But she is strongly self directed. Ds has no interest in art and is extremely self critical, so formal lessons turn him into a monster of self loathing- however, I have had some luck with those guided drawing books with him- the ones that teach you how to draw a monster, a dinosaur, a house etc, step by step. Anyway, after spending all that money on AP, I was disappointed each time- not with the program, but with my kids' responses...but they do have good resale value.

I don't think I would touch them in case he started seeing them as "work" instead of pure expression.....I guess, if I couldn't help myself, I would perhaps show him a couple of mistakes, but I wouldn't make him rewrite it or anything.