This is a self-education board too. So, I hope it is OK I asked this question. It has been fun for me this year because even though I have been on my journey to the well-educated mind since August of 2003, my kids are now old enough to join me on a part of the journey since they are in high school now. My oldest and I read many classics last year together, and my youngest just joined us this year in reading through classics of American Literature. It is so FUN to see them get turned on to literature instead of it being a chore for them! Anyone reading the TWEM classics too?

I'm always up for a challenge! This is on my blog, but here is the list: AD 100 Greek Lives/Roman Lives by Plutarch 426 City of God by Augustine 731 Ecclesiastical History of the English People by Bede H 1580 Selected Essays by Montaigne I also want to finish up some American Literature that I didn't read with my kids this year: Whitman Poetry 1835 Democracy in America by Tocqueville (not Am Lit but related) 1872 Dunbar Poetry 1878 Sandburg Poetry 1883 Williams Poetry 1902 Hughes Poetry 1903 Souls of Black Folk by DuBois 1907 Auden Poetry 1913 Frost Poetry My contemporary book club is reading: June 20 The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho July 18 The Last Lecture by Randy Pausch Aug 15 Selkirk’s Island by Diana Souhami My classics book club is reading: Jane Eyre - but I have read this three times. So, I am passing and just discussing it. LOVE IT THOUGH! That is it! My Amazon Kindle 2 makes this so FUN too!!!! I can read with large print while I am working out! I can switch it to text-to-speech when I need to run an errand too. Here is the blog link: http://carolhomeschool2.blogspot.com/

One of my dearest homeschool buddies did TOG this year and LOVED it! I will have to take a closer look. :) I think I looked on the website once, and it really confused me!

Thanks so much! I always forget to come here during the school year because I am busy homeschooling! It is great to glean from all of you!

This is my evaluation of our year using what we used written from a blog post. The kids learned much of their history through their American Literature class. So, I am including that curriculum as well: HISTORY - Big score with a combination of Biography of America from Annenburg Media, the CLEP US History I book, The History of US by Joy Hakim (we listened to it on tape) , and the history component of the American Literature class. My kids are studying for the CLEP now. We only got through Reconstruction, but we are good with that. We tried to follow along with the American Literature timeline, and she really spent a very short amount of time after Reconstruction. Here is what we covered in American Literature through http://www.thelmaslibrary.com: AMERICAN LITERATURE - Big score here too. Thelma English is the bomb. I was able to edit out her tangents on the lectures, have the kids take the quizzes in the quiet of their own homes, and leave enough time for a little more freedom for the two hour class time as a result. We all learned so much about the different eras of literature. My kids really loved it. They especially liked reading Uncle Tom's Cabin and Huckleberry Finn. Two thumbs up. They read author biographies and syllabus (300+ pages), and books. Here is a list of the "works" they read: "Mayflower Compact" "Arabella Covenant" "How to Spend a Day with God" "Narrative of the Captivity and Restoration of Mary Rowlandson" "Narrative of Jonathan Edwards" Declaration of Independence Constitution of the United States Anna Bradstreet - To My Husband and Other Poems Thomas Paine- Common Sense Benjamin Franklin – Autobiography of Benjamin Franklin Ralph Waldo Emerson- "Self Reliance" and "Nature Henry David Thoreau – "Civil Disobedience" Henry David Thoreau – Walden; or, Life in the Woods (Just 25-35 pages) Frederick Douglas – Narrative of the Life of Frederick Douglas Louisa May Alcot- "My Contraband" and "A Night" (they thought they were boring) Mark Twain- Adventures of Huckleberry Finn (loved) Mark Twain- Humorous Stories and Sketches (loved) Great American Short Stories (including Poe's "Tell-Tale Heart, Melville's "Bartleby", Harte's "Luck of Roaring", London's "To Build a Fire", Hemingway's "The Killers", Fitzgerald's "Bernice Bobs Her Hair", Hawthorne's "Young Goodman Brown", Crane's "Open Boat" and "Bride Comes to Yellow Sky", Steinbeck's "The Red Pony".) 101 Great American Poems (Just Poe's "The Raven", Whitman's "O Captain! My Captain!", Crane's "War is Kind", Dickinson's "Stop for Death".) O’Henry- (W.S.Porter) The Gift of the Magi Harriet Beecher Stowe - Uncle Tom's Cabin (their favorite) This class included 18 quizes, 3 quarterly exams, 1 final, and 32 lectures that included history and literature interwoven. I highly recommend this class for understanding American History and Literature! ENGLISH/WRITING - The kids had fifteen writing assignments for the American Literature class.

Our co-oop used Friendly Chemistry; and as you describe, it is not for sciency people. My girlfriend had to supplement. She supplemented with The Teaching Company chemistry.

Thanks for this tip Blue Hen! I have heard from science people that Apologia is not the best for college prep. He recommended BJU. My oldest loved BJU Biology, but I have no personal experience with the BJU Chemistry. My youngest found the BJU Biology very dry for him. So, I am still trying to decide what to do. I live in a university town, and there is a chem professor on campus that wants to do labs with the high school homeschoolers for FREE, but my youngest hasn't had Algebra I yet. I might have my oldest participate though OR hope he delays chem for one year!

True confessions: I don't do these. I keep things very simple!

I have heard that schools rarely finish the textbooks, but that seem like REALLY not finishing! I always get through every lesson of every book! I am a "closure" type. :)

WOW! That is a great find. My library has sales, and I never seem to be able to go to them! I am on the downside of buying books now since I have an 11th grader, and he is passing his books down to the 9th grader. I am in the selling mode now! I have gotten rid of most of them in our Used Curriculum Sale her in my town. I am thinking of donating the stuff I don't sell to our library! If I can't sell them, I might as well get the tax deduction!

I really like http://www.bravewriter.com (I don't work for them. So, I am not advertising). The "bravewriter philosophy" has helped my kids to soar in writing. It is a very long process. My 10th grader is doing great, and my 8th grader is coming into his own. I also hear IEW is great too!

I saw literary lessons for Narnia in a book form once, but I have never seen it on a web site. Could you give the website again since I am just getting back here after a very long absence. :)

We do pass/fail. I agree about swimming. My son graduated from the Swim America program, and he loved it. Alas, he doesn't love to compete though. His instructors tried mightily to get him to compete, but he just doesn't have a competitive bone in his body (weird considering my husband and me were both college athletes. LOL!)

I searched that site and didn't get to this list! I even bought the prep book thinking it would give me a list, and it wasn't in it! Thanks!

I will check out the group!

Most of the colleges and university in our state accept them. I have done extensive research. I wouldn't have them take them if they weren't going to do that. The CLEP exam site has a "warning" too. They have a data base with the colleges and universities that accept them. I get such mixed responses about Hakim. I really want something more concise and to the point for US History, and I have not found it. What did you use for high school?

Thank you. I have made a thorough decision to NOT do this now! You put it well. Why would I home educated if I am handing over my education to them?

They have been recruiting heavily to get me to join the Salem group, but I am not going to drive an hour one day a week when I can gather a group of kids here and do it for free! LOL! Doesn't sound like my cup of tea from what you describe. THANK YOU! I have never really understood what they are all about until you explained it.

I haven't used the DVD's. I have a science background and used the biology last year and was VERY impressed with it. It is very thorough. I talked with someone who is very knowledgeable about science. He homeschooled his kids and has reviewed all the science curriculums available for homeschoolers. He was most impressed with BJU.

This is one of my all-time favorite books, but it is a LONG one. My classics book club is reading it over the summer, and I am a little concerned they will crash and burn on it! When they start complaining, I can always plead that I was not the one who recommended it even though I am leading the discussion, and they will probably forget that fact when they come whining. :) :) (I would choose TBK over The Aeneid too. While my son didn't "mind" it, it was not one of his favorites in the classics that he read this year. :)

I LOVE Sister Wendy. I own her books (for me) and I bought the Annotated Mona Lisa last year, but I just didn't know HOW to do it for their studies. Can you give me an idea of what you did? (and how you made it fun?) We also have watched the first two videos of her Story of Painting. They liked it!

This is good to hear. I am thinking about switching to this for Algebra II. I have BJU Geometry ready and waiting, but I don't know about it.

That is good to know. I am thinking of switching to Teaching Textbooks for Algebra II for next year. I am an "ok math mom" and have a Ph.D. in statistics in our home (dh), but I still want something more user friendly too for the higher stuff.

Hi there, I am an infrequent poster, but I posted something a while back about US History, but I didn't get too many responses. Since then, I have discovered the CLEP exams, and I wanted find a US History that complemented this exam. I won't "teach to the test," but I wanted to find a thorough and concise US History book. We have been through World History three times, and we incorportated US History in the context of that as we did our cycles, but I am feeling a need to do a straight US History course this next year for my two high schoolers. I am looking at: Joy Hakim's Story of Us and incorporating Sonlight Instructors Manual notes to go along with it. Anybody us BJU US History? A Patriot's History of the US? I am still trying to narrow this down. I am going to a Used Curriculum sale in two weeks, and I wanted to find out what would be a good "find." Thanks, Carol

I had one go through it already and one doing it next year. BJU math is great. It is very thorough, easy to teach and understand, good review, good balance of story problems and drill. My kids have scored 99th percentile on tests every year. It is always right in line with the scope and sequence of things.