Stephinsocal, What book/stage is your son at in Cambridge? I'm trying to figure out where one would have to be in Cambridge to take the Level 1 exam. My daughter loves the look and feel of Cambridge, but my boys have done Wheelock's and I'm not familiar with the content of Cambridge. Idnib, my boys did LfC A-C and then Wheelock's w/ VP online. Doing it over, my daughter is only doing LfC A-B & then, probably, Wheelock's next year. A friend's daughter earned a gold and only missed one question on the level 2 exam after completing the first half of Wheelock's. She used Kolbe's lesson plans, completely on her own. No class.

Great article about a college student who stumbles into a Classics class just to check a box and becomes enthralled with the whole field. Might be an interesting read for those of us with students studying Latin & Greek. ETA: It also made me think how fortunate this student was to stumble into a field that she loves. I wonder what path she'd be on if she hadn't? Some treadmill? And then I wonder... how do I maximize the chances of my own children finding/igniting their passion? I guess it's a matter of finding a broad range of experiences to which to expose them.

Congratulations to all the students with perfect papers (wow!), golds, and silvers! My two boys also got golds on Level 2! Anyone know when the National Greek Exam results come in? (What does PSQ stand for?)

I was in a similar spot 5 years ago... I had studied Latin in high school and wanted a refresher before starting it with my children. I thought I'd just go through Latin for Children the summer before my oldest started it, but, after looking at it, realized I would go bonkers with the slow pace and level of the subject matter/translations. So, I took a Latin-in-a-Week crash course using Wheelock's. It forced me to get focused and just do it. I started working through Wheelock's on my own a couple of months before the crash course, but you don't have to. I got through about 18 chapters, memorizing the paradigms and vocab., and then cranked through the crash course. Finished another 6 chapters after the course. My oldest are finishing up Wheelock's this year (online), but I've been able to help them with Latin for the past 5 years. So, the crash course was a good investment of time and money for us. (And I was happy to have the chance to re-study Latin!) I think one advantage of doing something like Wheelock's rather than using a beginner text to review or rather than re-learning along with the child is that you get a clearer, long term road map. When you know where you're going long term, you can teach ahead. Also, if you know where you're going, you know why they're learning what they're learning and why you shouldn't take shortcuts with some things. It's much easier to teach and to rally the troops behind you when you know why what you're doing (memorizing all those paradigms!) matters and you can explain that to the troops.

Yep, like I said in my original post, it is pricey for pre-algebra. I managed Dolciani Pre-Algebra for my boys just fine on my own. But it might meet some folks' needs. (ETA: Just added "online class" to the original post to try to make it clearer.)

Wilson Hill Academy The site is a little difficult to navigate. The easiest thing I've found is to click on "Register." From there you can see all the classes offered, the sections, the times, the teacher, and the text, if one has been selected.

If anyone else is looking for a Dolciani Pre-Algebra online class, Wilson Hill is offering one (along with the rest of the Dolciani sequence... Pre-Algebra, Alg. 1, Geometry, Alg. 2.) I used Dolciani Pre-Algebra with my boys last year and had absolutely no difficulties teaching it. It seemed pretty straightforward to me, but I like pre-alg/alg and feel pretty confident with it. The online class is a little pricey, but I'm thinking of using it for my daughter as she prefers to spend time arguing about everything under the sun rather than doing any actual work on the subject at hand. She's wearing me out, but that's another thread.... Anyhow, it might be a good option for others and I haven't seen it mentioned, so.... there it is!

Jill Pike created a syllabus/guide to accompany IEW's Windows to the World lit analysis text. My 8th graders used WttW as part of a small co-op this year and it went very well. I think Jill Pike's syllabus, with the additional short stories, book, and writing assignments would have made it a stronger program, if you have the time. LLLOTR is Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings.

Thank you so much, Amy. Did your daughter do life science fairly independently with the dvd's?

I hope this isn't too much of a tangent, but how exactly do the online BJU science courses work? I see "online" and "DVD" options. Is the content the same in each? Is the only difference that you log on to BJU for the first and you "lease" physical DVD's for the second? And then, you get the DVD's, if you do that option, and what sort of schedule does the student follow with them? Watch the chapter DVD, read a text(?), do some sort of written assignment (?), test? BJU science gets great reviews and the Bio text looks good, but I can't figure out how the DVD/online aspect comes into play. Thanks!

I liked this Bradbury one, Sound of Thunder. It's not as dark as The Veldt or There Will Come Soft Rains, but it might be make for interesting discussions with 8th/9th & up.

Thank you so much, everyone!

My boys and I have been reading this edition of Inferno for their Omni II class, and we've found it to be very accessible. Each canto has a short paragraph giving an introductory overview of that canto. After each canto, there are explanatory notes that have been very helpful. You can see how it's set up with the look inside feature. It's my first time reading Inferno, though, and I didn't do any comparison with other editions; we just used the edition required for the Omni class. So, I'm only speaking from a complete novice's perspective.

So would I!

Wow, Mandy! Thank you for posting your list! Have you read all of these already, or are you still in the listing phase? I haven't looked at the Implications of Literature text before. The preview looked good, but it's a little pricey to order just to look at. Are you planning to use it?

Does anyone have a list of good short stories for 8th/9th grade level? We're just finishing Windows to the World with a little group and we'd like to read some short stories for the rest of the year. I saw a list somewhere on the boards with a list of short stories by literary element... irony, symbolism, etc.... but I can't find it anywhere! I'd appreciate any suggestions! Thanks, yvonne ETA: Found the post! But if anyone has any other suggestions, I'd love to hear them!

The classes are live, an hour and a half, twice a week. It looks like Leslie Smith is teaching geometry. You can click on the "Teachers" tab at the top and scroll down. Or click on "Register" which will bring up the list of all courses, some teachers, sections and times, & cost. Click on the course you're interested in and you'll see a teacher bio. They've been responsive to emails. I would email them directly and ask about the level of Christian content, if any.

What does "JAWM" stand for? Thanks in advance.

It looks like Wilson Hill will be using the Jurgensen Brown Geometry text for their online course! I've been looking for a class using Jurgensen & Brown, mostly because, in looking at what the top private high schools in my area use as well as what some US prep schools use, the Jurgensen text seems to come up the most often. (I don't have the background to judge one geometry text over another, so I have to rely on looking at what top schools are using. I know there are other methods of finding a good text, but this works for me.) Also, we've done well with the Dolciani pre-algebra and algebra sequence, and Dolciani and Brown were listed as co-authors of the earlier, 1965 & 1972, editions of the Jurgensen Brown geometry text, so I'm thinking there's probably some level of continuity/similarity between the texts. The only online options I'd found until now were Stanford's Online High School and Duke's TIP, but Stanford's is beyond pricey, Duke's is self-paced, not live, and both require jumping a number of hoops first. (I am not affiliated with Wilson Hill; we've just had good experiences with many of the teachers there so I've been following their developments....)

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My boys used this one successfully, too, before moving to Dolciani Algebra. And we plan to use Jurgensen for Geometry! I liked the Dolciani "Accelerated Course" edition better than the regular Dolciani pre-algebra texts. because it seemed more weighted toward algebra than the review of basic math (fractions, decimals, etc.)

Thank you so much, littlemommy, for the feedback! I did have a couple email conversations with Mr. Crosby, and he was very helpful. I guess the World History classes are new. From what he was telling me they sound fantastic. There's a serious writing element to them which I really like.... one research paper each semester, using "proper historical research and writing method..." and four exams/year with an "emphasis on short answer/essay questions." They also have students read a variety of other secondary texts and primary sources, not just one textbook. I'm not sure my boys' writing is at the level needed for the course, so we'll probably wait a year.

Our experience is similar to Michelle's. A solid grounding in English grammar has been incredibly helpful for Latin study. I've been especially aware of how useful that English grammar foundation is this year, as one of my boys takes Greek 1 with Lukeion. Almost every single week, overhearing some of the Greek class, I can see the pay off. He has a high A in the class, and I'm sure that is largely because he went in with such a strong grammar foundation. (That and the fact that he's such a diligent worker.) My boys did R&S grammar 3-7, and my daughter will do the same. I'm hoping to get through R&S 8 with my daughter, depending on her course load in grade 8. We do almost everything orally, too, and it only takes 30 minutes max/day. My boys did a year of Essentials in 5th grade. I didn't like the grammar. It's similar to Shurley's approach, but it seemed too gimmicky to me. At the time, they had finished R&S 3 & 4 and were working in R&S 5. There was very, very little in Essentials that they hadn't already covered, and in a much more thorough way, in R&S or with me.They loved the IEW writing part of Essentials, so we went w/ the Essentials grammar flow, but didn't stop R&S and didn't worry about the Essentials-specific grammar memorization. I can see where Essentials grammar would be useful for students who didn't have much previous grammar instruction. Kind of a crash course in grammar.

LOL You btdt high school moms must see this flurry of activity about the same time every year as a new batch of us hit the end of 8th grade with our oldest children and, facing the prospect of home schooling high school for the first time, scramble to sort out the options in an attempt to build our courage for the task. I hope you see it and laugh softly to yourselves thinking, "I remember when I was afraid I might not be up to home schooling high school. How silly I was. It's a piece of cake!" At least I like to imagine that's how I'll be seeing it when/if I ever make it to the other end of the high school journey.

Does anyone have any experience with TPS's World History courses? I'd appreciate any feedback on either World History course... types of assignments, number/type/length/frequency of writing assignments, amount of reading per week, ... If your student has also taken a VP Omni course, how did it compare? I've heard that the writing level required for World History is fairly high. What writing experience did your student have prior to the class? Were you happy with the level of class discussions? Did your student enjoy the course? If your student took the SAT World History test after the course, was he happy with his score? Thanks for any thoughts or feedback! (Please PM if you prefer!) yvonne