When my boys were around 6-8ish years old, we did the first 3 levels of Latin's not so tough. They liked it and learned and did well. My younger boy, now 14, is on Level 4 of the "Andrew" Greek. He should be farther, but we got side-tracked and didn't do it for awhile. But this year he picked it up again and is going well. Both of these can be done at younger ages and they can be done simultaneously. The author of the books, Karen Mohs, is very approachable if you have any questions!

That's a toughy! That freezing is why I said to record her telling it. Maybe then she can do dictation---writing down what she herself, said? :) I wonder if having others read what she writes, and praising her writing abilities (word usage, etc.) would help encourage her? Sometimes hearing it from someone else besides a parent makes it more palatable! :D

Another GREAT and cheap tool are the plastic placemats you can get for around $1.00 at Wlamart or somewhere like that. I got those for my boys, and they went over and over those, learned the order of the presidents and background info., who was assassinated, how many terms each served---all because they quizzed each other during lunch and sometimes they'd grab them other times. My youngest ds was about 6 when they were learning them. He know quite a few of them in order. When he got to Rutherford B. Hayes, he'd say Ruth of food behave! :D Really, they're a great and fun learning tool!

My boys did a few books in the SGW series and really liked them!

I think if she writes about things that interest HER it helps as well! What does she have a passion for? Ask her to tell you about something she's excited about. Maybe you can record it and show her how well she told the story, and that's what she could do with writing as well! My dd wasn't particularly interested in writing, until one of her older friends and her decided to write a book together, illustrations and all! Maybe she can do that---write a book and illustrate it. It could be about anything--have her use her imagination. Sometimes formal writing has a bad taste to kids who do not really enjoy writing. But imaginative writing, or something they have a passion about, and something where they can see the end product (making a book--writing illustrating and making the cover) and be proud of it, can sometimes spark their interest to work at it a little more. My dd just turned 11 and is writing the way your dd is.

My oldest needs schedules. So we devised piano practice times between all three of my kids so they wouldn't clash, and went from there. He does GREAT with schedules, and I mean schedules down to the minute! That worked well for him, and the other two fell into step with it. He is at school this year, so for the other two (age just turned 11 and age 14), I've lightened up. I make a weekly schedule list of what curriculum they need to get done: Monday this, Tuseday that, etc., and they just find what they want to do and cross it off AFTER I have checked it. This has worked great for them, and it's sooo much easier on me (and them) not to have to try to stick with a minute by minute schedule! Once I got the template made up with which classes they were doing and saved on Word, it was easy to go in and plug in each weeks lessons! If they have any questions, they just come ask and I spend time with them.

I went to look this up and it seems there are all sorts of things they have that have the name Conceptual Physics on it. What exactly are you using for your ds's? Thanks for sharing!

I'd have to agree with SOTW and AG--We LOVE those! Also, I'm so thankful for TWTM book itself, with so many ideas and resources! We also use our Kingfisher History Encyclopedia a lot for all sorts of things!

WooHoo! That's so exciting! I hope it continues to go well and your children find success in the program! That happened to us with English/Grammar. We couldn't seem to find anything that worked. My younger two HATED English/Grammar. I then tried R&S last year, and it just clicked for both of them. after a few months with R&S my middle child said, "Mom, English/Grammar is my favorite subject now!" :D

I went back a level in the R&S English when my dd felt overwhelmed. She did sooo much better! I don't know Singapore books very well (I JUST got my dd level 5B for work on areas she's not strong in yet--haven't gotten around to it yet), but maybe there is one at a lower level that would be clearer for her? Then she can jump back up when she gets it!

I got mine from www.amazon.com for a good price, I thought.

:hurray: How exciting! Congratulations!

My oldest ds started piano at 11, my middle ds at 9 and dd at 6. She wanted to play piano so much! She also begged to start violin lessons. So while oldest ds concentrated on piano, the younger 2 took violin and piano for a year. The next year oldest ds decided to try violin for a year, and middle ds switched to cello. So for that year they all did strings and piano. Then oldest ds went back to just piano. The other two stayed with cello and violin. Once middle ds finished 8th grade he didn't want to take any instrument. oldest ds and dd still take piano. Well, there is no piano teacher right now at oldest ds's school so he's actually NOT taking right now, but he IS in the choir. DD is 11 and is LOVING her teacher and playing piano. She just had a Level 4 adjudication and did very well. BTW, We were only able to do the strings because 2 homeschool moms started "Homeschool Stings Orchestra". They gave lessons, had beginner to advanced orchestras, meeting once a week for orchestra and once for lesson---all for only the cost of renting the building used! So they divided that cost up among how many homeschoolers were in the orchestra! One year we paid $6/month per child for all that! I thought it was wonderful that they volunteered their time like that, and what a great experience it was! Anyway, dd still picks up her violin now and then, but her first love is piano now. It's all been worth it for us! BTW, Sheri, I love your avatar bird--so pretty!

We us this book with our ancient studies with SOTW. We had a lot of fun using these!

This is what we did too! For SOTW Vol. 1 we wanted to compare the Bible happening with the rest of the ancient world history, so we used timeline figures and stories for timelinesetc.com (their Old Testament set), and had a GREAT 2 year study where we really delved into stuff! We loved it!

SInce my dd, age 11, hasn't had any logic yet (actually she did have a very small amount with Mind Benders A), I'm just starting her at the beginning. I just ordered all of the Dandy Lion series for her to go through. I WANTED it to be easy at first, so it doesn't turn her off. I want to get her 'hooked" on it with fun stuff! :)

You can do both the Latin AND the Greek from the Hey Andrew website at the same time! My boys did the first 3 levels of the Latin, and I asked Karen Mohs (the author, who homeschooled her children) questions over time, and she's always very polite and quick to answer any questions. She's the one who told me that since they are different enough, the Latin and Greek can be studied together without confusion. My boys were 6 & 8 when they were doing the Latin. But if doing one, people usually start with Latin for a couple of years before starting Greek, at least that's what I've observed. If you have any questions, they have a place on their website to write them. Karen will answer them shortly! www.greeknstuff.com

My ds14 is doing Greek. He started a couple of years ago, but got a little side-tracked, so he just finished Level 3 of Hey Andrew! We already have Level 4, so he's doing that now. (I don't have him do all the copy and practice work at his age, he writes it to get the idea, but just not as much as is in the workbooks.) I may look for something else after that, depending on how Level 4 goes. I'm starting some research to see what else is available for his age level that's not too advanced. He has enjoyed the Hey Andrew Series so far though, and is learning well! He has had the alphabet down pat for awhile now, and is translating some sentences.

My kids and I LOVE R&S Grammar. I haven't seen GWG or WT, so I can't comment on those. So, I guess I'd say, if it aint broke, don't fix it! If your dd is doing well, and someone else (Tina) says they're using it and it's enough, I'd just stick with what you have!

Howdy, I'm fairly new here too, and sooo appreciate what I've already learned and gleaned from this site! Glad you're here to join in now! WELCOME BACK! :)

We had been studying about theCivil War. My boys had made up a war game, using the name of real people and places, so they were so excited to see the REAL places, like Devil's Den. We did our own tour also. It was interesting. I don't know what the boys thought would be there, but somehow it wasn't what they expected at first. After awhile they warmed back up to it, and had fun....especiallly being able to climb the rocks and things where the actual battles took place! Glad we went! It MAY have been more interesting with a guide, but it was nice with just our family too!

I lived in CA most of my life, and felt many small tremors. We came up to WA the day before the big San Francisco earthquake (I forget the names of earthquakes!) in October of 1989. We had traveled on the Bay Bridge the day before as well! One day later the earthquake hit about the time we had gone over it the day before! When we got home, our only damage was that a picture had fallen off our wall in the kitchen and landed on and broke the spoon holder near the stove! Just 3 miles from us huge water towers had fallen, and not too much farther than that, the land lquified and many homes burned....We felt blessed that nothing worse happened! Up here in WA, in the late 90's or early 2000, there was an earthquake--6.4 I think. I was at the library with my children. My boys were on a couch near a big picture window. I was about 20 feet away helping my little dd pick out a book. Suddenly the floor started rolling! I couldn't believe it---I looked and it just rolled--like a flag waving in the breeze! My dd was only a couple of feet from me, but it was moving so much I couldn't quite reach her right at first. I heard her yell, "Mommy!" I looked over where the boys were and yelled for them to get away from the window. Amazingly no books fell off the shelves that were about 8 feet high or so. And earthquakes always come with a rumble or roar. My boys said they couldn't hear me cuz it was too noisy, that they saw the building across the street moving back and forth, and that they wondered if we could do it again since it was kind of fun! :eek: The CA earthquakes I felt were shakers. I was used to that. Seeing the rolling of the floor was strange! Anyway, I just told the stories, since everybody else said the thing I would've said. Oh, except that we also had a whistle, so we could blow a pre-known rhythm and the kids would know it was us.

Life of Fred can keep the interest up, and it's a thorough program from what I've heard---and it doesn't cost much! You can e-mail Stan, the author, and tell him your dh's situation and see what he suggests you do. http://www.stanleyschmidt.com/FredGauss/index2.html

Yeah, I've been thinking about this. My dd is currently in "6th grade" though she does things at different levels. Both she and our middle son (ds14) rushed through their K and 1st stuff so fast that they were done before the one year was up. So we just kept them going...the next year they were considered 2nd grade instead of 1st, etc. DD's Bday is in March, so when she is a senior, she would turn 17 in March, and graduate in May or June. I'm wondering if we should just keep her in 6th grade next year instead of moving her to 7th? It's just a number right now, so I'm not sure that she'd care particularly. Most of her friends are in 5th this year.... My son....his B-day is in September, just past the cut-off dates. So he's either a year older or a year younger. He's in 9th grade this year, and will start 10th grade then turn 15. He could use some maturing, so I'm wondering this same thing for him! Any thoughts on this, or should I start a new thread? I don't want to take away from the OP's original post!

I tried to use Saxon , but we couldn't get it to work here, as much as I wanted to. My kids got behind and were hating math. We went to Teaching Textbooks and they've done great this year! Maybe the Saxon method isn't working? There could be a lot of reasons, but I would NOT go on to Saxon Algebra 1 if he's struggled with Algebra 1/2! That seems like it would be hard on him. I agree with Chris as well. Once you know that, you know better which direction to go.