Thanks for the great review. I ordered LL7 the other day. Did your dc complete the mini-writing lessons and writing assignments in addition to their separate writing program?

For 4th grade, my ds was writing a summary paragraph (approx 5 sentences) of our history section 2x per week.

I'll second Cathy Duffy's curriculum manuals.

I don't intentionally work on my child's vocabulary, but here are some things that happen at our house: reading Megawords has vocabulary in it Latin - particularly, our Latin tutor has the kids look up words every week. I think that they are English derivatives of Latin words in the chapter they are working on. I think this is helpful because at least they can see which English words are coming from Latin words they are learning. I find the latter fascinating. Things like obsess comes from ob-in front of and sedere - to sit.

I have been investigating Art of Argument for 7th grade. From what I have been able to gather, it is for 7th grade and up. It can be done in a semester working 4-5 days per week (20-30min/day) or over a year 2-3 days per week. I believe it is mainly secular. I have also been investigating Thinking Toolbox and Fallacy Detective. These seem to have more religious content. Some secular hs'ers seem to be able to use them and some can't. I have heard that Art of Argument is drier than TT/FD. TT/FD seem to get good reviews for the authors good sense of humor.

I used Matin Latin 1 & 2 starting in 5th grade. We worked 2 days/wk, but the last few months of ML2, we worked 3 days/wk. It is marketed for homeschool teachers who have no Latin education. You can see my review in this thread: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=7599&highlight=matin+latin Latin Prep from Galore Park is a newer, popular program. I think it is suitable for 6th grade and up. Search the forums for lots of information.

For what age/grade?

I met a librarian who taught Latin in school for many years. She told me that I would do fine because so many English words were derived from Latin. And, she was right...I actually found it easier than my son because I could remember so much of the vocabulary by the English words that were derived from the Latin words. I took my son through Minimus, and Matin Latin 1 & 2. He's now doing Oxford Latin with a tutor. Jump in. The water's fine :D

We chose SE Astronomy and TOPS Rocks & Minerals not to align but to complement each other in the Earth Science field. We chose Rocks & Minerals because it has a kit with most of the needed materials. We had used Noeo Biology 2 for 5th grade. It was sadly lacking in hands-on activities. Seemed like TOPS would be good for hands-on and SE was good for reading material. It's a nice combination. Also, they both have plenty of material for junior high grades. If we found that we liked one and disliked the other, we could use the other one solely instead. Dh does TOPS with ds 1x per week. They generally cover 2 activities. I do SE with ds 1x per week. He generally reads a section, fills out the workbook for that section, and answers the questions from the student book's section assessment for the previous section (intended for a bit of review). After ds & I finished with Astronomy, we moved on to SE Weather & Climate. When dh & ds finished with Rocks & Minerals, they moved on to Exploration Education. I had heard glowing reviews about this and since it covers chemistry and physics and all materials are included (important for dh), they decided to use that. They may return to TOPS when they are finished. If we hadn't done EE, they would have chosen some of the Chemistry TOPS next. When ds & I finish Weather & Climate, we'll choose an SE Chemistry book. My goal is to expose ds to both reading and experimenting in the various science disciplines, roughly following the areas of biology, earth/sky, chemistry, physics. HTH! :)

Well, I will probably be no help, but I will tell you what we did back then. In 4th grade, we were doing SOTW 3. The only writing ds did was the summary for SOTW. That was enough. In 5th grade, we did SOTW 4. There is no writing that year, just outlining. We used Shurley 5 and started using their writing assignments. Did you know that many people drop the writing in Shurley? Because it's a waste. We dropped it 1/2 way through. My son's writing assignments were horrible, and Shurley did not help at all in giving direction to improve it. We used Writing Strands 3 instead, but that was a waste as well. In 6th grade, we started Write Shop, which is geared for 6th-8th grade. It is going well. I have heard good things about IEW, but could never get myself to buy into a video course. I have heard good things about CW, and very seriously considered it, but the teacher-intensive aspect of it, along with a non-cooperative ds, made it impossible for this mom. If IEW or CW wouldn't work for you, I would suggest just having your son write a summary paragraph 1-2x per week based on your SOTW reading. Correct spelling, grammar, punctuation, capitalization and have him re-copy. My 2c.

Each of the 4 years we did SOTW, we had a group that we got together with 2x a month and did projects together. It varied by year from 2-4 families. The last year, we also had the kids give an oral presentation on one of the sections we had studied. We did all the rest of the work at home. Just did projects together.

I have a friend who uses Connections in FL full-time for her 6th, 4th, and 1st grader. My observations are similar to Christy's. She is definitely on the ps schedule (everything will be done by May 23rd). If they want to take time off, they have to make it up. Weekly or bi-monthly teacher meetings set at times convenient for the teacher. Portfolios. State testing. I think it works for her because it helps to keep her on track and keep her accountable. She feels she needs it. But, I see it cause a lot of stress in her that can't help but be passed on to the children.

I have a degree in math and ds picks up math quickly. We've used MUS from K through Pre-Algebra. I plan to use MUS Algebra in 7th, then leave MUS for good. We'll follow up with Foerster's Algebra I in 8th grade. By lurking on the high school boards, and requesting Algebra books through ILL, I have to agree that MUS is not rigorous enough for students who want to continue in the math/science/engineering field in college. I love MUS. It is weak in word problems. We have supplemented the last few years with Singapore's Challenging Word Problems. We started after Epsilon, and I wish I had started earlier. You can see my review in this thread, along with testing information: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=939&highlight=sue+st+pete My 2c.

My ds is in 6th grade and has used MUS from K through Pre-Algebra. I plan to use MUS Algebra next year followed by Foerster's Algebra. I have a degree in math and don't feel that MUS is rigorous enough in the high school years for math/science/engineering students. You may want to search or ask on the high school boards. Good luck!

They have a variety of books for a variety of ages. Choose appropriately, and you will be fine.

Yes, I would say that is correct, but I wouldn't really say that MUS emphasizes it though. The only time they really emphasize making 10 is when they have the kids adding up several numbers. Then, they point out that you want to look for groups of 10 so that it makes it easier to figure out how much to carry. I think you can do mental math quicker and easier when thinking of groups of 5s and 10s.

Dh and ds12 just finished Rocks & Minerals. They enjoyed it, but unfortunately are not very specific or talkative. I think it was great for hands-on learning. I gather that dh thought it lacked what you would get from adding living books. I am using Science Explorer with ds and the combination works well. I have heard good things about Electricity and Magnetism. It's also inexpensive, so it's definitely worth a try. Here's a link to an old thread: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=9523&highlight=tops+science FWIW, we used Noeo Biology 2 for 5th grade. We didn't continue with it either. It lacked hands-on and the reading was dull. Good luck!

Hi Nina, I am a big fan of MUS. We've used it from K through Pre-Algebra so far. Right Start was not available when we started, but if I had to do it all over again, I would definitely investigate RS based on the reviews it gets. I suspect that I would not use it, however, because I hear that it is teacher-intensive and that it involves playing lots of games. While I like that theory, I would probably not put it into practice myself. I do think that RS is more "exciting" than MUS. When I was deciding on K math, I investigated MUS and 2 others (Math Made Meaningful and Moving with Math). Years later, I realize that we would have been fine with any of them. If I was starting over now, I would investigate MUS, Singapore, and Right Start. MUS does not teach mental math. I think that is where the abacus comes in handy in RS. I think it helps children to see numbers broken down. I have a degree in math, but always had trouble remembering 5+7=12. When I grew up, the schools were big on memorization period. We supplemented for a bit with Singapore and I learned to look at it as 5+5+2=12. The abacus helps the kids break down numbers into smaller pieces for regrouping. Good luck!

My biggest complaint about HO Ancients 2 is the use of the Kingfisher History Encyclopedia. It really turns me off. It has little bits of information, then you have to look at all the pictures and read the captions to glean more information. I don't retain much from reading it. It may be a learning style issue, because I don't enjoy reading magazines for the same reason. Here is my review. It may explain more. I chose HO because it's the only secular history program I know of for logic age. Ds would be in 6th grade this year. We have completed 64/66 lessons. I have mixed feelings about it. Pros: • History is all planned out • A large amount of history is presented • Outlining is learned and practiced • Map work and timeline work is helpful • Can be done independently • HO is secular Cons: • KHE is DULL (reading snippets of information and picture captions) • No review/discussion questions to assess comprehension and/or retention • Little supplemental reading • Required literature is rarely discussed, only read • History Pockets involve too much time for knowledge gained • Expensive if you buy package • Too much freedom for an unmotivated student to do a mediocre job • This is picky, but the study guide in the 3 ring binder format is completely falling apart because of all the flipping back and forth that has to be done. We have to keep those little, sticky o-reinforcements right in the binder because the pages are constantly being ripped out. 20/20 Hindsight: • Buy only the study guide (maps included) and timeline • Do not buy the supplemental books – get them from the library, substitute from the library, or buy used • Do not buy the History Pockets unless the child likes cut & paste & color • Add Life in the Ancient World by Bart Winer To be completely honest, I am not sure if part of my disappointment has to do with the fact that we used SOTW for 4 years and loved it. It's a hard act to follow, imo.

I discovered TWTM sometime in my ds's 1st grade year. We started SOTW in 2nd grade. Since I am anal-retentive, I wanted to begin 5th grade (or January at the latest) with the Ancients, so that we would be "on schedule". I debated many ways to get there. I finally decided to just remain a year "behind" until further notice. This is why: We loved SOTW. I can't say enough good things about it. I can't even find one thing I dislike about SOTW, which is unusual for me. I knew that we would probably use History Odyssey for logic age, but there was no guarantee that HO would be finished by the time I needed it (not as much of an issue for you) and there was no guarantee that we would like it as much as SOTW. I made that decision probably 2 years ago, and I am so glad I did. We will be finishing HO Ancients 2 next week. It has been a disappointing follow-up to SOTW. I am unsure whether or not we will continue with it. As far as I can tell, my only alternative is outsourcing to History At Our House, which involves $$$. So, I vote to just remain behind. SOTW 4 is not as entertaining as 1-3, but *I* loved learning so much about modern history. It did no disservice to ds to remain behind either.

What age/grade?

Cathy Duffy has several curriculum manuals that help you determine what your child's learning style is and then tells you which programs are better/worse for that learning style. I love MUS. You can order a free demo DVD at their website. My review is in this thread: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=939&highlight=sue+st+pete

There is no level 2 for physics yet.

We used RS4K for 4th grade physics. First, do you realize that it's only a 10 week long program? It doesn't really explore electronics/machines/robotics. It seems to me that I have heard very good things about Conceptual Physics by Hewitt. I think it's geared towards high school. You may want to inquire on the high school board. Good luck!

Now you get to find the holes and plug them up. The wonderful thing about solving for the unknown with addition problems is that it makes subtraction easy, because that's what they are doing without calling it subtraction. Same thing for solving for the unknown in multiplication problems. It makes learning division easy.