Connect the Thoughts has a geology course. You could pair it up with a different text and still make good use of the course.

Ruth, Thanks for such a detailed and thoughtful post. While reading it, I was remembering my freshman year in college as an engineering major. By the end of that first year, I realized that I could teach myself most of what I needed to know for my exams from my textbooks. It was a matter of survival, really. I had audtorium-size classes and professors with very limited English abilities :) But it was such a valuable lesson to learn. You may have just saved me from a mistake, by the way. We are about to turn attention to physics for the remainder of the year and I was planning to pick-and-choose portions of The Way Things Work to line up with my other resources. But I like your idea of learning to go through such a book systematically. Hmm, I have some rethinking to do... We used the CPO Science chapters for the study of space. There are only three chapters - that would have been a good time to implement the idea of really internalizing the core material of something relatively short . Too bad I didn't think of it then :glare: . The thing with textbooks like CPO is that notetaking seems kind of redundant to me. Everything is already so clearly broken into subtopics with color and font. I actually had DS do some Cornell notetaking with Ellen McHenry's Elements and felt like that was a worthy endeavor. Don't get the wrong idea, we didn't do every chapter that way!!!! But with Ellen's text, you have to find the vocab words and the text is not so pre-outlined. We might have only done it for one chapter, IDK. We will use Cells in 7th grade - maybe I will try the 1/3 study skills, 2/3 science with that. ETA that I realize Ellen McHenry is not exactly a standard textbook - but I think it could still serve a purpose in the reading skills spectrum. I have to think of a way to make the notetaking a studying meaningful when there is no IGCSE-type exam coming. Any thoughts? We didn't really do anything with the notes that we took for Elements. And yes, WE took notes. I worked side-by-side with him, modeling Cornell notes. Actually, next year I am mulling the idea of CM-style term exams. Maybe I would let him use his notes only. I hope that others will chime in with some more ideas on teaching our students to read textbooks. I think it is a very important skill. Thanks for starting the discussion! P.S. I am going to send you a PM about IGCSE.

I am trying to find a biography of Pope John Paul II, and everything I see looks too young or too adult. DS just finished the DK biography of Mother Teresa, and that is about the level / length that I am looking for. As far as I can tell the series does not have JPII. Any suggestions?

That's funny. This is what we get: "Wow, you live in Denmark now! Have you learned Dutch?" DS likes geography, so I emphasize it. We are excited about our new find: flag quizzes.

If you like a lot of variety in your output, then I don't think that it is too much. I just got CTC WHD and I think it is going to be a great supplement, but I can't imagine doing it all the time. Maybe you could just sprinkle it in every now and then. The last part of WHD (Early American Civilizations) doesn't even show up until Volume 2 of K12, so you could really spread out its usage.

Angie W, Yes, that is the text that I have. I thought that I had put the link in the original post - thanks for taking the extra time to look and link for the book. I edited my original post. I didn't even know that there was a Teacher's Manual.

99 cents?!

Ok, thank you all so much for the feedback! I have ordered GSWL. It would be great if he could get through it in just a few months.

I happen to own the High School Book and the lab manual - I had bought it for a class that my older son never ended up taking...now I am trying to do some advance planning for the current 6th grader. I need something with answers. Solutions would be even better. Should I buy these? Problem Solving Exercises Concept-Develpment Practice Book ETA: Link to text

Hmm, Latin for the New Millenium is the text that one of my older boys used in high school. If that course could follow GSWL then then might make a sound plan. It is possible that this child will end up in that same high school. I guess I can no longer ignore all of the Latin threads, like I had been doing... :glare:

Mostly just giving you a bump, but these look like standard selections. We read through the best of The Annotated H.C. Anderson this year. Thanks for that Figuratively Speaking link. I have found it easy enough to tie our previous novels into discussion. "Remember when we read [fill in the blank] ? That was a good example of the author using personification." Hope someone will add to your list!

Ruth mentioned House of the Scorpian above. Middle Boy and I enjoyed that one when he was in middle school. I am pretty sure he was in 6th.

DS wants to begin studying Latin in 7th grade. Neither one of us has any background in Latin, and he is already studying two modern languages (Danish and Greek). We study Danish with the fervor that some of you apply to Latin, and this won't change. But DS does a stellar job with his foreign languagestudy. I think he could handle some Latin without dropping the Greek if we make a realistic attempt / schedule. Getting Started with Latin looks like a gentle introduction that isn't babyish. If I got it now, I could work ahead between now and next August. What do you think?

We had fun with the Games: Discover and Play 5 Famous Ancient Games this year. Look for it while you are in the British Museum! It was interesting to see how the games evolved into modern children's games.

I know this isn't my thread, but I wanted to say thanks for the ideas. I do think that it is very important to read contemporary writing if you want your student to model contemporary writing. Did you have your student watch Teaching the Classics? Does it seem like you are watching a Teacher Training Video or a Literary Analysis video? I see that some of the same stories also appear in WWS. Perhaps they would complement each other (?). One of my deficits is that I prefer having someone else create the actual assignments - that is one of the reasons I am sticking with WWS. Even if I have to change up the presentation.

I probably own at least a dozen Norton Crtitical Editions, and many other essay collections. Too bad they are in storage on another continent. :crying: I might have one or two here...off to look.

This is for 6th grade and we are first year-homeschoolers. CLEAR WINNERS: Rod and Staff Spelling 7. DS doesn't particularly ENJOY this, but I think that he appreciates it. I love the exercises - they remind me of word-gymnastics. And we both like the linguistics sections. Rod and Staff English. Grammar only. An all-around happy. Figuratively Speaking. We have only done a handful of the lessons, but I think this is a great workbook. Mapping the World with Art. My personal favorite:) Again, we have only done a few of the drawings so far but I can plan to use parts of this program over multiple years. Maps Charts and Graphs. Gets the job done. Math Mammoth. Another all-around happy...with the caveat that we are heavily supplementing so that MM6 will serve as prealgebra. Smart Art (Prufrock Press). After floundering around with art, we have finally found a clear winner for a spine. We have access to great art museums, and Smart Art really focuses on critiquing art. I am pulling in other resources for art instruction, and I am really happy with the result. Kid Coder. Fun for DS, and he does it completely on his own. MIXED REVIEWS WWS. I love the framework, but my vision was for DS to write across the curriculum. I have modified WWS to fit my vision, but this has caused us to move slowly through the book. And we like more variety, so we take breaks from WWS. Which makes me feel like the book is taking F-O-R-E-V-E-R, a feeling that I do not enjoy!! Caesar's English. DS really enjoys this, but we seem to have a hard time getting around to it. I wish that I would have bought the older, more concise version. We skip so much that I probably would have been happier that way. CE is a nice complement to R & S Spelling, but I find it difficult to make time for both. K12 Human Odyssey. We started out with the online class, but we ditched that. But the textbook is a keeper. From this point forward, I am planning to pair it up with writing assignments from CTT History. LOSERS Draw Squad IXL Math Trail Guides to Geography Checklists. :glare:

We are currently using Smart Art: Learning to Classify and Critique Art as our spine for art. Prufrock lists it for grades 2 through 10 - you can easily adapt it up or down. My only complaint is that the art is in black and white, but I have so far been able to find full-color versions of all of the paintings online.

Maybe Math Detective B1 from Critical Thinking Co. We have used Level A1 this year, and only the last handful of problems/stories in A1 are Pre-Algebra. So I would expect B1 to begin with Pre-Algebra. We will use B1 next year , our official Pre-Algebra year.

I might be the wrong person to ask, given that I make HUGE modifications to WWS. But I think that your instincts are spot on - maybe you are now in a position to teach the literary analysis with less step-by-step instruction. WWS can be a great framework for teaching writing on your own...at least that is what I keep telling myself :glare: We just did the first assignment this week (Rikki-tikki-tavi). I liked the discussion (Think) day that came after the reading day. We did that pretty much as scripted. But I thought that the writing instructions seemed convoluted. If I would have handed them to DS as-is, we would have had a hot mess on our hands! I told him to write a summary. His summaries are always richer and longer than what WWS asks for, but they are GOOD so I have left that alone. After he finished the summary, I guided him to places within the summary where he could insert some of the "why" that SWB was looking for. Done. This went reasonably well, and I avoided trying to get him to smash two pieces of writing together. But I wish that I had had some short, basic literary essays to show him as models. That would have been really helpful.

I would make sure that he knows enough grammar terminology to study foreign languages. My son likes learning grammar and he really enjoys learning foreign languages, so we will certainly continue through 8th. But I might feel differently if I had a kid with a good ear for usage who felt tortured by grammar instruction.

Not exactly Holocaust, but not off-topic, either: In the Garden of Beasts is an fascinating glimpse into Germany during Hitler's rise to power, told through the lens of the American ambassador and his family.

I am looking for recommendations for mind mapping software. It can be simplistic and free would be way-awesome. Thanks.

Rose, Can you elaborate more on the math and science activities in the Quest guides? Would I need both the Student and the Teacher guides? They cost more than the book :(

Ooh, I like the look of Write with The Best. Thanks for the link!