We do a 4 day week, well really it is something like 3 whole days and 2 half days, but I only plan 4 days (at the most) in any subject. So we do Math, Spelling, Grammar 4 times a week, but science and hist 2 or 3 days. We spend Tue/Thurs mornings volunteering at a food pantry :D

Well, I have the Science Explorer Earth Science for sale here (http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=289849). But I have decided to go with CPO Earth Science this year instead. There have been lots of threads about it if you want to know more- http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=281956&highlight=CPO+earth+science http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=278551&highlight=CPO+earth+science http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=253479&highlight=CPO+earth+science http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=224314&highlight=CPO+earth+science these two compare CPO and PHSE- http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=243323&highlight=CPO+earth+science http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=234134&highlight=CPO+earth+science

We also do a lot of the pages with page protectors and markers or make up simlar ones on our own, so that they can do the pages more then once if they want to. I would also just make a copy of the chart of pages from the Annontaions (it is in that book, right?) and just cross off what they completed each day so I could sort of keep track of things.

While I mostly just leave one book out, I don't care what page they do as long as they are going in order through each letter. So they could do pages from all over, just not B10 before they've done B9. Sometimes if they are really working hard in one letter, then we might get out the next book and keep going, but usually they choose to do several different letters.

First of all, she's 7, it really will be okay if she doesn't do history this year. In fact it will be okay if you do this first cycle with the older kid and don't require any history from the younger until you get back to ancients when she is 9 or 10. If she can't listen to SOTW 1 and 2, I doubt she will be okay with 3 and 4. But also when my kids were little, there were lots of weeks we didn't actually do the SOTW chapter. We just did the extra picture books and an activity, we didn't do the encyclopedias at that age either (well sometimes we would look at the pictures). Another choice might be to do something else for American history for the next two years with both girls. I know the first time we went through SOTW my boys enjoyed the first two years and we made it through 3, but 4 was not good for us at all (the chapters are longer and not as fun, there are outlines which my boys weren't ready for, not questions, it was over thier heads). We would have done much better with a more age appropriate American History. (Of course with the little two I have just decided not to do formal history with them until at least 3rd grade.)

Use the colors. You don't really want any number to be correlated with a particular number, at least not until they have played with them lots (like for years). Sometimes purple might be 1, then red would be 1/2, and brown would be 2. What if orange were 1? I know there are rods with squares (or is it cubes?) scored into them, but I think the open ended part of Cuisaire Rods is what makes them so helpful in really playing with number relationships.

I don't have the VP cards, but I remember when I realized I really don't have to do things as written ;) It was so freeing! My sis was doing SL Alt 7 (or whatever the one year world history is called) and WE COULD SKIP WHOLE BOOKS! If you think it will work better, go for it!

We only do video games on the weekends, well they can start Fri when ever they get done with school for the week. It just works so much better if they know they can't turn them on during breaks or free time all week. So far I haven't felt the need to set a specific time limit. We are often so busy during the weekends that they rarely play more then an hour or maybe two a day (I figure 2 hours would be about the time to watch a movie), though I don't have any problems turning off the games and sending them out side or to do chores or whatever. We don't get any tv channels (I live in a dead zone) and occasionally watch a family movie, but they don't get much other screen time. There have been years that they could play if they woke up before a certain time in the morning (say 7 or so). This worked really nice because my video game lover is terrible to wake up so he would be up and dressed and ready for the day when I needed him. But last year I discovered we had to start school that early to really get everything done before the little ones were up and messing ;)

Yes. No. I don't hold much stock in test scores. I've always been a 90%tile plus tester and so have my kids. We have to test through the state every year or I wouldn't even do it (and I probably wouldn't even register except for some worries with my ex). Tests are easy. Working everyday isn't. Completing assingments and planning time isn't. While my kids might be at the top of thier grade in math or grammar or whatever and pick it up easy, they still need to be shown many grade level things. I skip ahead or change curriculum based on our everyday lessons, not test scores.

We live near a small town (around 2,000) people, do most of activites in town, and still don't have much overlap between our activites. Tumbling kids are different from the Cub scout kids who are completly different from the baseball kids who are different still from the kids we see at the non profit skating rink/summer after school program/food pantry/pregnancy center (yes it is just one building, and if we did go to church we go there) we volunteer at. While our actual town is that small the whole rural area is quite a bit bigger so there are more kids then the pop. seems to have. We do actually drive quite some distance to Boy scouts (about 35 miles), and of course there is no overlap there, except for one boy we pick up and take with us.

:iagree:

Last year I had 10th grade (rhetoric, my sister), 5th (firmly in logic), 4th (firmly in grammar), 4yo, and 2yo. Pretty much every stage except newborn ;) I do a lot of schooling one or two while the other big kids play with (read- take outside) the little ones. Sis had plenty to do independantly or on days she stayed at Dad's (we kind of split custody). The boys do a lot of their school between 7 and 9 in the morning while the teen and the littles still sleep. Sis did a lot of school after lunch when the littles took naps or played with the older boys, and saturday mornings were reserved for her school too. The two little kids had a workbox kind of set of drawers. I would rotate quiet acitives and games in thier drawers every week or two (things I kept out of sight and reach the rest of the year). You'll work it out :D

I don't think you need the specific atlases mentioned. Especially not for the earlier levels. Any basic children's atlas would probably work just fine. Especially if you didn't mind helping them look up the occasional answer online or in a different atlas (and I really think this would be very rare). The middle level book would work fine for a younger kid, just the younger atlases have less info, so the maps are clearer and easier to read. The primary questions are very basic, map reading kind of questions, any atlas should have them. Capitals, mountain ranges, main bodies of water, and so on. The middle level questions can be similar but also include things like climate, smaller waterways, poplulation density, and highest/deepest/longest kind of questions. An atlas that has lists of things like that and several different maps of each continent/main countries would make it much easier (and most middle school atlases should). The high school level questions can be very hard and often even involve some kind of math or working with data in an atlas. For this reason I'd recommend the using the atlas TG recommends, because then you are at least looking for information with a very similar title to the chart or map in the atlas. I also think some of the questions wouldn't be addressed in every atlas, but I haven't tried it with a different high school level atlas, so I could be wrong.

I plan pretty much everything every day. Some things we only do 2 or 3 times a week, but mostly there are 4 boxes a week for every subject. BUT often we work across our schedule instead of up and down. So it is possible that they might spend extra time on one subject and we will mark off two "days" worth, and not get to everything to day as long as we completed enough boxes to count as a day.

ElizabethB has some on her phonics page (there is lots of other good stuff on there too) http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/languagelessons.html

I've got the From Bacteria to Plants (2002) listed on my PBS shelf http://www.paperbackswap.com/members/bookshelf.php That might be an easy way to try it out. And if that isn't the edition or title you want there are lots of others posted- http://www.paperbackswap.com/book/browser.php?s_type=a&k=Prentice+Hall+Science+Explorer&ti=&a=&g1=&g2=&g3=&g4=&g5=&b%5B%5D=Paperback&b%5B%5D=Hardcover&b%5B%5D=Audio+CD&b%5B%5D=Audio+Cassette&pd_type=e&pd=&r=n&sby=&oby=ASC&ts=&saved_name=

The Ride of Paul Revere- yes O Captain, My Captain Belloc and also Edward Lear, oh and Robert Lewis Stevenson I make them do A little Brother Follows Me ;) We've also enjoyed most of Linguistic Developement Mary Carolyn Davies- A fishing pole

If you are still working on OPGTR, you might just wait on spelling too. They really are two parts of the same subject, and the phonics end is more important at 5 or 6.

This is one of the big things that WWE works on. Taking a long passage and only writing down the 2-4 most important things to summarize that passage, not sentances and sentances of details. I think it is probably worth spending a few weeks on summarizing before moving on in WWS. Could you borrow the hardback The Complete Writer? Maybe your library has it? Then you could work on the narrations in there (there are 4-6 for each of the 4 levels) and probably be more then ready to move on to WWS.

:iagree:

Sounds to me like you've described history odyssey. There is a large try it before you buy it sample at Pandia Press.

If I remember correctly, there were only about 5 narrations in FLL 3. I think it needs to be worked on much more than that. But I also think it is easy to add to your history or science or literature, so you might not need WWE 2, but you should be working on simple copyworks and narrations several times a week, not several times a year.

I think most of the points made are good. If you decide to switch, I don't think it is really switching, if you decide to stay that is good too. But I don't agree with this- We started in 4th grade, with no formal math earlier then that (some Miquon and math lab), and it worked just fine. In fact I think it probably worked better then sitting down to math workbook for the 4 years before that.

They are very young still. You probably won't still have to file when they are 17 ;) It is hard to give up things that work, even if they make you crazy :lol:

How about just 5th- SOTW 1 6th- SOTW 2 (Maybe the first HoUS at the end of the year) 7th- History of U.S 8th- History of U.S. Yeah there might be a few things in SOTW 3 and 4 that you'll miss, but so many of the big events in world history after SOTW 2 involve the U.S. anyway. That will give you a chance to do what you do get done well, instead of hurring through things. And a chance to use history to really increase your kids writing, reading, and research skills during 5th and 6th using an easier level text and branching out.