The top ones that come to mind - Streams to the River, River to the Seas Amos Fortune Free Man Johnny Tremain My Name Is Not Angelica [this is technically not American, but Carribean islands, but it deals with slavery in a similar enough society, imo] The Witch of Blackbird Pond Tom Sawyer Huck Finn Carry On, Mr. Bowditch Justin Morgan Had a Horse; Ben & Me; Mr. Revere & I [all are a bit lighter, but fun, IMO] The Sign of the Beaver The Last of the Mohicans Calico Bush Blood on the River More 'history' than straight lit - The World of Captain John Smith Native America on the Eve of Discovery George Washingtons' World The Constitution Translated for Kids Landmark Books - The Landing of the Pilgrims, The Witchcraft of Salem Village, The American Revolution. Patriots in Petticoats Sterling Point Books - Daniel Boone The Opening of the Wilderness; George Washington Frontier Colonel; Ben Franklin Inventing America; Path to the Pacific The Story of Sacagawea; Jamestwon the Perilous Adventure

We used Daily Paragraph Editing this year, and I'm glad we did for several reasons. The two big ones are that it really helped her to apply the grammar she was learning, and when it came time for ITBS prep & testing, several of the sections were "just like my Daily Paragraph Editing!" in her words.

I did most of it for the entire year. I've started working on next year and there are some I'm not doing the entire year - math, because I'm just not sure where we'll be, and spelling, because I don't know if we're going to outpace the publication rate, for instance. I did have to re-do a couple when we got 'behind' but I don't re-do if we get 'ahead.' When we finished the assigned lit for the year, for example, dd still had to read, but it was just a "mom-approved" book (as opposed to re-reading American Girl books for the nth time ;) ).

Okay, I hope this works: Four Samples from This Year (3rd Grade)

I don't know if that's me, but I do make a 180 day Excel schedule for each subject. Then I just keep track of which days we're doing each week, and copy it into dd's assignment book for the week. It's worked out really well, and dd has done beautifully with the added responsibility. I would say it's actually improved her attitude towards schoolwork. :) The 180 day Excel schedules have improved my attitude towards each week's prep. ;)

I love, love, love my Hotslings. I have four or five. It's an addiction. ;) After a point, though, I generally switch to a mei tai or the Beco. Both of which are also fabulous!

Hits Life of Fred Math The Elements most of the books I selected for lit and supplementing SOTW Writing Tales All About Spelling Editor in Chief Master's Academy of Fine Arts for art/music/drama Swimming @ the Y - huge improvements this year! Misses Developmental Math Growing with Grammar 4 (we loved 3, but retention seemed to go out the window) Latin for Children A (this was our second attempt at it. I have three years of HS Latin under my belt and I remember a reasonable amount, yet between me & the DVDs, it just wasn't happening for dd)

This year we had M: Master's Academy (12:15 - 4:30) T: Swimming, plus LLL meetings once a month, plus park day the other weeks W: Ds's 45 minute tumbling class (in the mornings), plus planning meeting for GS (me, evenings, but it still interrupted things) R: Swimming, Girl Scouts For a lot of reasons, things are switched around. GS is once a month on a Sunday afternoon and once a month planning on Monday afternoons. However, we're probably going to do a little more in the early afternoons in exchange for less "afterschool"-time things. Is there any way to do two things in one day and have one day "off"? Personally I find that easier.

I decided not to spend the $$ on the DVDs and we've had no issue with understanding and executing the program. I would say I'm comfortable with math (at least up through trig/pre-calc - I don't remember much about calc. :) ).

Dd is having a lot of fun with this, too! We've finished Level 1 and are working through the Verbal Problems for it this summer. She calls it the "fun math." :)

Given your dc's ages, yes, absolutely I would get the new edition. The most substantial changes are in the logic stage section (as well as some important ones in rhetoric stage), and you are approaching that quickly. :)

One year my grandmother gave dh & I a joint gift - of a large Rubbermaid container. It was so large it didn't fit in any of our storage spaces, so we gave it to my mom & dad eventually. MIL gives me really bad cookbooks. I love to cook, but they tend to be bargain-table specials that use a lot of processed food - even though she knows we try to avoid processed food and eat organic & local as much as possible.

My 8 yo still has trouble with the difference. Despite that, she can read and comprehend above grade-level... it's just the reading aloud that can get tricky. :) TBH, I can't hear a difference between them in several words - pen vs. pin, for example. I think it's a pretty common thing, but I wouldn't necessarily stop just because of it.

Under "Share," choose "Publish as a web page." That should do it. :)

For the next week, we're going to finish up GWG and WT1, and do one more step in AAS. It'll take us another week or two to finish up The Elements. Dd has four books she's required to read over the summer, as well as finishing her current Key to Fractions workbook. I'm also handing her Mind Benders and seeing how far she goes with it. We're going to get a few experiment kits and have some science fun. She's also doing three day camps, a half-day tennis camp, one VBS, and a half-day musical theatre camp, so she'll be plenty busy! :D I'm just excited that she's progressed enough that we don't have to do spelling!

Thank you!!

There are laws on the books regarding teenagers and truancy and their driver's license. I don't know the ins and outs, as my oldest is still a bit away from that, but essentially, you have to have "proof of attendance" or something from your school to get a license if you're under 18 (I think 18), or you have to get a notice from your school system's home study office, so if you haven't submitted your forms, then they aren't going to issue it for your child. I believe the law was formulated in an effort to reduce the drop out rate. Someone else in GA with more knowledge of the law may be able to clarify!

In addition to legal ramifications for the parents, your children would have a difficult time getting a driver's license when the time came, at least in my state. I suspect it's similar in other states.

What most stood out to me were the changes in logic stage science. I had previously thought the logic stage science recommendations were weak, but I was very impressed by the suggestions in the third edition! Big changes, and definitely for the better. I also noticed changes in the rhetoric stage great books chapter, though I couldn't put a finger on what they were exactly (and my 2nd edition is currently on loan!). I felt like there was a more substantial change from the 2nd edition to the 3rd than from the 1st to the 2nd.

We finish. Our 180th day is today :party: but dd will have three days of grammar to complete next week, so that we finish the book. OTOH, she finished LoF Fractions on Monday, and could've finished as early as last Wednesday, and I wouldn't have had her do anything to 'replace' it. Similarly, she finished the year's required reading early, so she's been allowed to read her choice of books as long as I approve it - i.e., no Far Side. :)

I have the rest of our booklist set for next year's history. I have the Civil Rights Movement covered, plus we live in Atlanta and will be able to go to the MLK,Jr historical site and so forth. What I'd really, like, though, is something to cover the rest of the sixties - the anti-war protests, the women's rights movement, the assassination of RFK, Stonewall & the gay rights movement, etc. This is for a fourth grader, though she reads on an advanced level (many of the other books she'll be reading are from the list for 8th graders in WTM, for instance). We come from a liberal perspective, politically, so I'm not looking for condemnation of any of these. Is there anything like this out there?

I found WTM in a bookstore just before I got pregnant with my oldest. I read it, and my first response was, "That's great, so we'll have to find a school that incorporates all of this!" :lol: I read more about homeschooling and different reasons and approaches, but I kept coming back to WTM and its methods, even if we don't necessarily use every single exact curriculum recommendation. Ultimately, to borrow from Sonlight, this is the way I wish had been taught. If I'm going to homeschool, then we're going to homeschool for academic excellence, and I see WTM as the best route there, at least for us.

We're going to do RS level A for preK. Ds will be 4.5 in September. I don't know how long it will end up taking :) but I already have it in hand and there seems to be very little writing, which was my main concern about using it for preK.

Well, I looked on amazon, because I think I'd like a book like that for *me* :) and I did find A People's History of the World that looks intriguing. And it does have a quote from Zinn on the cover! But I haven't looked at it myself.

Dd just finished LoF Fractions (today!). I'm having her work through the Key to Fractions series. It introduces things in a slightly different order, but by doing one chapter of Fred a day and a few pages in Key to Fractions, she's still kept ahead of the KtF work. So she's gone through books 1 & 2 and is about halfway through book 3. I'll have her finish them over the summer, probably. Then I'll run Key to Decimals & Key to Percents with LoF Decimals & PErcents