Hi all! I need some book recommendations, please. My son is asking for some reading material for history covering the time period from about 1812 - 1914 but not solely focusing on US History. We have plenty of US resources, but he wants to know more about what was going on in Europe and the rest of the world. In my perfect world, SWB would have her books out through that time period because he LOVED the Ancient and Medieval volumes. But absent that, what else do you recommend? He is a sophomore with a great appetite for history books and a preference for non-fiction. Thanks for your help! Samantha

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I've been looking at samples of Excellence in Literature today too. I didn't think it looked like too much research required. Yes, there was background reading to go along with the novel being studied and essays to write, but you have four weeks to read each novel and do the research and write the essay. It looked very reasonable to me. Before beginning, I was planning to cover The Elegant Essay to learn essay writing and all or part of Windows to the World to learn more about how to write a literary essay. So when we begin, he should be ready to write this sort of essay. It looks like great prep for college coursework and supposedly helps prepare them for the AP/CLEP exams. I think we're going to give it a try. We got into this about a year later than I would prefer, so he'll be doing EE and WTW for 10th and then begin EiL as soon as he's done with those. I'm probably going to get the big binder that has all of the units in it because there may be a few books in Amer. Lit. and Brit. Lit. that we will skip in favor of getting to a few of the books in Euro. Lit.

Does anyone do Classical Conversations at home? I love the idea of doing it in a community, but there does not seem to be enough interest here to form a group. So I was thinking about getting the materials and just using it at home. If you do this, I'd love to hear about how/what it looks like in your home.

We used graph paper to solve the problem of not aligning the numbers and getting wrong answers. But this didn't bring the neatness that I thought was needed for our future in Algebra. I came to the conclusion that they needed to see what I was talking about. So, once or twice a year, I will work a page of problems so they can see what I mean about making it neat and easy to read/grade. I think if they can see what it should look like, then they have something to work toward. I will also count something wrong if I can't read it without guessing. So if their 4 looks like a 9, then I will mark it. They can always come back to me and make the case that it is really a 4, but I make them work for it. And if their numbers/work get really sloppy, then we will have a little math "handwriting" practice. When they are 12 years old, they really hate this! :D But it gets my point across. I remind them that they need to write clearly so I can read it, but also so they can read it themselves. Sometimes they make an error because they can't read their numbers either. And I remind them that I won't always be the one grading their papers and a college grader will not have any patience for sloppy work. You want the person grading your paper to be calm and in a good mood--more partial credit! And a neat and tidy paper brings on the calm/good mood. Extreme? Maybe, but their papers are looking better and they are making fewer mistakes.

It isn't a compound sentence. A compound sentence would have two independent clauses in it with a conjunction. This sentence has a dependent clause and an independent clause. I would agree with the OP's assessment. The subject and verb in an adverbial clause aren't the subject and verb of the sentence. They're just the subject and verb of that dependent clause. If you were to diagram this sentence, all would be made clear. :D

You need bean dip and lots of it!

I'm doing it with my 6th grader. I'm waiting to do the upper level guide with my 10th grader next year. I would say it is definitely meaty enough for your 8th grader. For your 9th grader--maybe--I don't know what your expectations are for 9th grade. I think it would be easy to beef it up a bit if you wanted. When you do the Beowulf book they recommend, also pull out Beowulf in the original language and try to work through that some. When they give writing assignments, you can up the complexity or expectation there. You could throw in some additional research, if you like. Actually, if I were going to add my 9th grader into our study this year, I would probably just assign him SWB's upper level Medieval book on the side and then have him enjoy the Medieval intermediate with his sister.

We did Ancients last year too. This new format is a lot different. The old format had "lessons" which were a bundle of reading assignments, vocab, questions, etc. Sometimes one of those lessons would take an hour and sometimes it seemed like it would take a week. It was hard to plan ahead, so I decided to just go with the flow and work through it giving it what time we could. Since it was counting for literature and history for us, we did it every day and spent about an hour. Sometimes they would work a little longer on it--usually if they had a writing assignment. The new format of the Medieval Intermediate guide is different. It is set up by the week. She gives a reading assignment for the week and then a list of things to do. There is usually vocabulary to look up in preparation for the reading. When appropriate, there is mapwork. Sometimes there will be an assignment like research Charlemagne and write a short bio. There may be some background information given or websites to visit. There may be optional books or videos to further enhance the topic. The big thing is that you are strongly encouraged to pick and choose among the assignments to do what fits your student and the time you have and your goals for the study. So it is extremely flexible. You would also have the option to just skip a book if it gets to be too much reading. I felt like the Ancients study was a LOT of reading. I have strong, fast readers, so it wasn't too bad. But this new format feels like a lot less (can't say for certain until we actually do it all) and I really appreciate having it broken down by the week. Would I combine it with LOTR? I don't know. I will definitely go look at that study, though, because it sounds like something my oldest might enjoy.

I like buying books too, but can't afford to buy all of the ones we want any more and to buy the new shelves to hold them. Our house is full of bookshelves! :001_smile: But really, the most difficult thing is that there are a lot of books we would like to use that are not easy to find to buy, but are supposedly sitting on library shelves, according to the writers of the curricula. Just not the shelves where I live... I love holding real books in my hand, but all of this headache really makes me long for a day when the library books are all electronic and I can just access them with my computer. Think we could get the Library of Congress to do that for us??? We could call it a book preservation project to make a record of all of the old books before they disappear.

Depending on what you did the previous year or have planned for the following year, it is possible to leave off something. For example, I am doing Medieval with my 6th grader this year. I noticed that the Columbus book overlaps with Early US and World Intermediate. So we have the option of doing Columbus in either year. Also, if you look at the high school level Modern US and World courses, they overlap some with the Abraham Lincoln book. So you could omit from that end. Or if you are planning to do Westward Expansion next, that is only a semester course, so you could just work as far as you can this year and then pick up the next year and then move on with Westward expansion. There are lots of options. When my ds did this study, he did all of the guide questions and writing assignments and we even added in the book on William Penn that was new at the time and wasn't included in the study and he finished in plenty of time, but he is one who loves to read.

There might be something here: http://www.bfbooks.com/Info-FAQ/FAQ What about Ruth Beechick's books? Charlotte Mason or the people who write about CM methods?

I don't have experience with LLFLOTR, but FYI: BF is in the process of revising Medieval History high school level. Middle school level is already revised and we're using it. I really like the changes they made. My high schooler will be doing Medieval next year and we will probably be using the new one.

I think by "drop-in" you are striving for flexibility, right? I think that is a great idea. I have had times when I really wished for someplace I could take my kids for the morning so I could go to an appointment without them. I wouldn't do it often, but it would be nice to have. I'm also thinking of times when I might need to do a field trip with my older one and need a place for the youngers or something like that. What if you figured out how many kids you could handle (legally and logistically) at a time and set up a reservations book. When you advertise, you can say that there are a limited number of slots available and they should call in advance for a reservation. Then you could take last minute reservations if you have space available. That implies that there is a demand for time slots and that they should plan ahead if possible. That would prevent someone from depending on your services only to arrive and find out that you are already full. The state will have some sort of limit for your capacity. There used to be a little place where we lived before that was sort of like this, only not designed with homeschoolers in mind. They were a duel-purpose place. They had certain hours that they were open for drop-in childcare. Then they had designated days/slots where they would do birthday parties. They had a lot of dress up clothes and activities for the kids. One of the birthday parties they offered was a dress-up tea party, so picture lots of dresses, hats, etc. Fun! They were in a store-front rather than a home, but it was a similar idea. It was nice to have because I was pregnant and needed a place for my ds to go when I had pre-natal appointments. Good luck with developing your business! I think it's a good idea.

I would think that someone with asthma would be a poor candidate to do physical labor in a hot, dusty warehouse. And I think the point they were trying to make about Amazon using a point system to rate productivity and using that information to decide on whether someone is hired to be a permanent employee is a good system. There is a difference between having the mindset of "I deserve these points and they are being taken away from me" vs. "I earned this many points for the amount of work I completed." Amazon does a high volume business and they need to keep employees who can accomplish a high volume of work. If you can't do things that quickly or consistently, then you aren't the right candidate for this job. As for the heat, maybe it is a different perspective because I live in the south where triple digit temperatures and high heat indices are a fact of life, especially this year, but if I applied for a job in a warehouse, I would fully expect to be working in high heat conditions during the summer. They have cooling bandanas and vests, fans, ventilation, water, snacks, medical assistance, temperature gauges. That's more than I can say for the un-air-conditioned schools I attended as a kid. Some jobs are hot and physically demanding and require workers who can handle that. If we did away with every job that fit this criteria, we wouldn't have food on our tables or gas for our cars or cotton for our clothing or a lot of things we rely on.

I have to take exception to the argument that libraries are limited and can't have everything. I think the point of a library is to have everything! They should have much more than we are able to have on our shelves at home. They have been collecting books for decades (centuries?) and have all of those lovely shelves on which to organize them. When a library (my local system, for example) has the resources to have more than a hundred Sponge Bob books, but can't find the shelf space for a copy of the Iliad, they aren't fulfilling their mission. Of course, if you really want to get the full picture of our library, you could proof-read their latest newsletter... :tongue_smilie:

Sorry--I haven't read all of the replies, but I have a few suggestions. I've gotten two kids through Gamma and this is definitely a common place to get stuck. With both of my kids, one of the things holding them back was not having those multiplication facts down solidly enough. And the other main issue was organizing their work so they could keep up with all of the numbers. For the math facts, we just looked for ways to drill them over and over until they KNEW them. When they don't have to slow down to remember that 7 x 9 is 63, they can focus more on keeping up with where all of those numbers go. We also started using graph paper to work the problems. I had them skip rows of squares so they would have somewhere to put the numbers from regrouping. So often, they missed problems either from a simple multiplication mistake or from not having all of the numbers in the right column to add up at the end of the problem. I also made myself sit there with them watching them work problems, asking them to talk through the problem as they worked it, making sure they could go through the necessary steps. I will admit that I HATE teaching multiple digit multiplication with regrouping because it is such a hurdle for kids, but when I stop and invest the time in helping them get over the hurdle, life is good. They can finally do it and we can move on with our lives. Progressing past it without gaining mastery is just asking for trouble, though, because it is just going to blow up again when you get to long division and again when you get to Zeta and start doing it with decimals.

My kids are very rarely sick. For that I am grateful. I am not grateful, however, when people bring their sick children out unnecessarily. I think it is doing a disservice to their child who would benefit from some additional rest and fluids so their body can recover and it is doing a disservice to my child who was completely fine until your sick kid coughed all over him. We went on a church outing last year in December and there was a rosy-cheeked 7 year old boy who just insisted on sitting next to my son and coughed on him all evening long. Consequently, my son then came down with a fever and awful cough that caused him to miss our Christmas program and big party at church. His sisters also caught it and all three of them were varying degrees of sick through our entire Christmas break. We couldn't go see grandparents. We couldn't go out and do some of the other fun things we had planned to do. Well, we could have, I guess, but I certainly wasn't going to expose anyone else to this. They were miserable! And I was very disappointed. I think people have just decided that they are going to go on full-force with this busy life they've adopted regardless of the consequences, and I don't think it's a good thing. We shouldn't be too busy to let a sick kid lay around and recuperate when they are sick. Even for a "common cold." Ugh...colds make you feel lousy and getting some more rest is a good thing. Let your world stop spinning for a little while and teach your children some healthy habits--one of which is recognizing when they are sick and getting proper rest. I don't think it toughens you up to keep running at full speed when your body is working over-time to fight an illness. And I don't think it toughens you up to be exposed to a bunch of things and to be constantly sick. Our society's tendency these days is to just go go go go go and more is more. I'm voting for chicken soup and a lazy day in bed. Lots of water. Some extra vitamins. And keeping your germs and goo at home! Adding: I also go to any length possible NOT to take my kids grocery shopping with me during flu season. I get in there and out of there as quickly as possible and hand sanitize and all that. Grocery stores/ Target/ Walmart/ etc. seem to be full of sick people--and I understand--they've got to eat and get their meds. So we just avoid it if at all possible. That really helps too!

Yes! If they are getting the concept--understanding and accuracy--then move on to something else. Math taxes the brain enough. It doesn't have to go on for an hour to be effective. I would rather have 20 minutes of good focus than an hour of distractedness or drudgery.

We've used Math U See from the beginning and, as a trained math teacher, I really appreciated the mastery approach while still having review of concepts already covered (mastered), mental math, and mathematical thinking in word problems. I also appreciated the use of manipulatives when introducing new concepts before going to the more abstract written methods. A few years ago, my oldest went to a private school for a year and my other two went to the school for two years. We noticed several things. My 3rd grader and 6th grader were studying the same topics in their math classes many times during the year they were both there. This was really disturbing to their little homeschooled minds. :D They both did their homework, studied for tests, made As on their report cards. Success, right? Since they've been back home and have resumed MUS, we've had to go back to the books they would have done during those years they were in school and have had to master those concepts. Some things they remembered from their time in school, but many things they just learned for the test, but didn't have the opportunity to master. We worked very hard and went through the books as fast as we dared to get them back to the level where they would have been had we not had our little "school" adventure. What I got from the experience: I feel more comfortable than ever with the mastery approach that we have through MUS. I appreciate the concrete understanding they get through the manipulatives. I make sure they take the review problems seriously and really learn to think through the word problems. Now that my son is in upper level math, we spend time on the honors problems--great critical thinking opportunities there! I'm not comfortable with a spiral approach for my kids because I think it encouraged them to learn things on a shallow level in order to pass the test, but they weren't forced to master it before moving on. Instead, the curriculum was designed to touch on a topic and move on. Touch on a topic and move on. again and again. I don't think there is as much boredom as one would expect from spending a whole year on an area of math. It isn't like you work the same kind of problem for 180 days. Each lesson is a new aspect of that area or operation. There are little lessons on things like measurement or geometry sprinkled in for variety. He keeps things moving. And I find that this sort of learning finds its way into many of our other subjects too. We spend an entire year on a period of history. It is reviewed when we encounter the time period in other books we read or movies we watch or discussions we have. They are constantly seeing connections. In Latin, we master one verb tense or noun declension at a time before we move on. In spelling we master a spelling rule before moving on. It seems to be working for us.

If it is during a time when they are supposed to be listening to you talk, I think it is completely acceptable to get their attention and tell them that it is very rude to talk when someone else is talking. "If we're going to work together in a co-op, we need to be respectful of each other." It is always good to learn to respect those around us! I know when I'm doing Latin with my kids, I want everyone to have the chance to formulate an answer to my questions before someone blurts out an answer, so I ask them to think about their answer and then I call on someone to answer. If you don't want to put them on the spot, you could always ask who would like to answer the question and then choose someone who indicates (by raising a hand, probably). :D

I was treated for acne in college. It was on my face, back and chest--cystic acne. I had a little in high school, but it got so much worse when I was about 20. We tried various prescription creams. Then I took oral antibiotics until I developed an allergy. (Coupled with my penicillin allergy, this now creates a big problem for me when I need antibiotics. Thankfully that is rare.) Finally we tried acutane. It was rough when I was on it, but it didn't just stop the acne. It was like I got new beautiful skin. So I would say I'm really pleased with the outcome, although looking at the dangers and warnings now, it's a little scary thinking about what could have happened. I always wonder if there are long term effects that I don't realize... My own kids are starting to see some breakouts and I'm looking at natural treatment options for them. Acutane and oral antibiotics are off the table for us.

In my experience with my rabid little readers :D they all have had a period when they knew how to decode words, but if anyone asked them if they could read, they would insist that no, they didn't know how to read. I would just smile or roll my eyes, depending on the day, when I heard them say this because I knew that they knew how to read. They just didn't know they knew how to read. Then, with each child, it was as if a switch were flipped on day and they exclaimed to me that they knew how to read and suddenly they had the courage to pick up a book and do it. Such a strange phenomenon, but it has happened three times now. So sometimes patience is all that is needed if you know that the instruction has been done and the skills are in place. Keep practicing and encouraging and it will happen. Now, if he has been through R&S and really doesn't have the skills needed, perhaps a new program is needed. But if it just needs some time to take root and bloom...

Oh congratulations! I know you're glad to see the rain. Our temps dropped out of the triple digits again, so I hope we're going to get some too. Ds is supposed to go collect some pond water for science in a week or two and I'm worried there won't be a pond anywhere from which to collect! So y'all enjoy that rain, but then blow it over here for a bit. :001_smile:

I have had good luck calling Dell and working with the rep to get exactly what I need. I feel like we've gotten a good deal and a quality product from them. The price has always worked out to be cheaper than what I tried to put together on their website.