We're using Pianimals with my 7 yo son, and he loves it! He gets up each morning and gets all set up for his lesson. It's his favorite part of school. My daughter's piano teacher took a look at the program and thinks it looks really good. Give it a try! I'm really excited that we did!

Do you have a source for the information on Memoria Press releasing guides for Dorothy Mills books? I have all but the Ancient World and would love to see a guide for there. Thanks!

How about John Buchan's The Thirty-nine Steps for at least the older two? I listened to a librivox.org recording of it, and it was excellent. Takes place following WWI. Murder mystery with lots of disguises and ramblings around the British countryside. Masterpiece Classic just did a remake of the book, and I was sorely disappointed in it. Check out librivox in general as a great resource for free audiobooks read by volunteers. But realize that some of the readers are just not up to par, imo. I have found some excellent readers, though, and I'd listen to them read an encyclopedia. Just listen to a sample before downloading a whole book.

I agree that these appear to be the Step-Up books also originally printed by Random House in the 60s, and according to the copyright page of Meet Abraham Lincoln, reprinted in the late 80s. Great for 2nd-3rd grade.

I love those durable post-its that look like the tab on a folder--stand up to many changes of page in our various books. Thanks for the reminder. After flipping through a bunch of pages today to find my place, I realize I need to get some more of those wonderful little gems.

:iagree:

I would have to agree. I used TOG for 5 years starting with year 2 and ending after our 2nd pass through year 2 when my eldest graduated, and when I started I had one UG and one dialectic child. For us TOG is at its finest with older kids for lots of juicy discussion. If my oldest were only 7, I'd go with HOD, which I have used with my youngest, and only home school student now :sad: But ymmv.

I found the supply set for Artistic Pursuits Bk1 on Miller Pads and Paper site for $42--this is less than Blick and Mister Art, however, it doesn't look like they state the shipping price up front, which bothers me a bit. I wonder how much it would be to get the supplies at Michael's or the like--have to drive to get there, but it may be cheaper in the long run. Anyone gone this route?

Never mind! Found the link to the supplies at Blick on the AP site.

Ohhhhh, I think you may be right! :001_wub:

I have the Egypt series on hold as well--we just started our 1st pass through the Ancients, but only got one day in as my dad was admitted to the hospital, and that threw a wrench into all my plans for the past week. But he's coming home today, so we're back on track for Monday, I hope. Interesting bio. She's a knitter, too, which makes her okay in my book:thumbup:;)

My library only has 28 of her titles. So far I see Egypt, Renaissance, Colonial (American) Life, Elizabethan England, Rome, Goths, Incas, Middle Ages, Vikings, but missing the Muslim ones as well. She's also got books out about cats and gerbils. I'm with you in your concern as she is not only covering a broad range of history, but also covering entirely different subjects.

:iagree: I have all the books except for the Ancient World in old editions from alibris or addall click on the link for out of print books. Very cheap, esp if you can find a seller who has more than one volume. Sorry about the bad link. Trying again! Ok--that one works and takes you directly to the used/oop book page.

We will be incorporating Biblical history into SOTW 1 by using Biblioplan ancients. The authors go into a bit more detail for some of the sticky points in SOTW (Terah, Abram, and idol worship, for example) through their Parent Companion notes. I'm looking forward to our study with great anticipation!

Thanks Charmaine for including this little tidbit about Biblioplan, as I want that emphasis on US history when we get to years 3 and 4 of SOTW. You just made my day! We're using Biblioplan 1 this year along with SOTW 1, and I am very excited to start. I'm adding some of the activities and coloring pages from the SOTW AG. I have my year planned out already down to the activities we want to do and the books the library carries.

:iagree: I'm in this category!

Just about everything is planned and purchased--the lion's share of the planning was SOTW/Biblioplan 1, which I did last week while our youngest was away. The rest is pretty much open and go. I still need to get: Pianimals Supplies for Artistis Pursuits Bk 1 Story of the Orchestra (Music Master cds from the library) The above 3 we likely won't be starting for a while, so I can put them off until July. Everything else I'll be adding in over the next couple of weeks. Swimming lessons start today--4 days a week for 45 min a day. After that we'll start with reading, math, spelling today, and work the rest in over the next few weeks. Oh, and I need to get MM 2 printed off (priced it already at local print shop), but we're finishing up SM 1B first--almost there--maybe two weeks worth of lessons. (Still need to pay summer/fall college tuition for the oldest, and fall college tuition for the middle :001_huh: :blink::eek::scared::ohmy::crying: )

We're using Elemental Science Biology and enjoying it very much. We're covering plants this summer, and will do animals in the fall, and birds in the spring. Ds looks forward to reading about plants, dictating his narration, and then adding pictures to it. We're doing the plant growth project, and that is the highlight of the week for him. He's keeping track of the number of tomatoes on my plant too :o)

Are you talking about end-of-year assessments as in testing, or evaluation of a portfolio, or writing a report based on an interview with parent/child and evaluation of progress based on interview, etc.? I have had no problem testing my own children, both with and without non-family members. I'd get in contact with other hsers from your county to see about doing other sorts of assessment for your own children. Some counties are more heavy handed than others (and than they should be according to the Va code, imo), so you want to be prepared for the specific situation in your county, as it can vary so widely. I know my county is pretty ticklish about the certified tutor option available to parents hsing their children. For instance, when I started hsing, I was a certified secondary ed teacher with a Va state teacher's license. I approached the county about going certified tutor route, but was told that I couldn't because I would be teaching early elementary, and I obviously wasn't certified in that area. I didn't pursue it. I hadn't given my name when I inquired about the tutor route, and I really didn't want to raise any red flags for our home school in the future, so I let it drop. I'm not sure I would do that today, but since I let my certification lapse, it's no longer an issue. I have heard that the county has not changed it's stance much, if at all, for this option.

I'm pretty sure this set is out of print. Looks like Amazon still has copies of some of the volumes listed as new--but they are running upwards of $25 a piece. You can do a search on used books sites, ebay, amazon, etc., but I don't know that you'll be able to get a full set at one time that way. I think there are over 20 volumes in the set. Best way is likely to do periodic searches and pick them up when you can get them individually cheaply.

I'll be doing SOTW 1 with my 2nd grade ds this fall, too! I can't wait to get started. I've been halfway through the AG checking on books that the library has, tentatively deciding which activities to do, etc. At our state convention last weekend I found a very cool pyramid activity set, which seems like it would be a great alternative to mummifying a chicken. Ds has been spending the last 10 days with his grandparents, and it's going to be really hard to not start school with him as soon as he gets back. I'm so excited to start our 1st pass through the history cycle with all the cool books and activities I've gotten. We didn't have all this stuff available (SOTW, AG, etc) back when I first started back in '93.

I checked out one from our library as well, even though I won't need the series for the coming year. Just wanted to see what they are like. I'm fortunate, in that it appears as though my library has most, if not all, of the Drama titles. I'm pretty sure I used some of Collier's books in the past with my older two kids and always have come back to them. I made a pass through all 4 years of TOG using the classic version with my older two--seems to me we used Hakim, Spielvogel with the eldest, as our spines then. I'd never heard of the Marshall book until reading about it here. Prior to that I was piecing together my own history curriculum. I am a TOG burnout/dropout and don't see myself returning to it with my youngest. At our state convention I saw a bunch of vendors carrying All American History--any opinions on that?

I'm using Elemental Science Biology with my 2nd grade son right now. We LOVE it! We're doing plants this summer and will do the rest of the Biology in the fall (animals) and spring (birds). I like the set up--planned 5 days a week, but easily done in longer patches/fewer days a week if you want. That's what we'll be doing. I'm planning on two days a week of science plus a day of nature study on Friday using Handbook of Nature Study (for me--electronic version) and a wonderful website I found through this board. With Elemental Science there is daily narration--she includes pictures for the child to color to add to the narration, but we've been cutting up old encyclopedias I picked up free to add to our narration pages. There are experiments and activities, such as seed/plant growth that we are following for 6 weeks. I haven't regretted purchasing Elemental Science in the least. Science has always been a difficult subject for me in all my 16+ years of hsing, and now I actually look forward to it!

:iagree: I used R&S exclusively with my older two from grades 2-8 (and will with my youngest, as well). When we ran out of R&S grammar in 9th grade, I switched to Abeka (and eventually BJUP) and both were like taking 5 steps backward. Thick workbook format with pages and pages of busy work, that was not up to par with R&S, imo. I like the daily oral review and oral quizzes in R&S, and the fact that we can do as much or as little of the exercises orally as we please. Cost, while not a factor for us sticking with R&S, is much more reasonable with R&S. You can almost get a hardcover student text and teacher's manual in the R&S grammar for what you pay for just the consumable student text in ABeka. The texts hold up incredibly well, so can be reused for future students or resold. For my youngest I will be extending R&S through high school by taking 1.5-2 years to do grade 4 and possibly 6, so that he will finish grade 6 of R&S grammar as he finishes grade 8. We'll then use grade 7 and 8 grammar texts during his high school years, taking two years for each. Both are extremely meaty and have more than enough in them to make a 2 year course when supplemented with literature and writing.

In this house, I'm the one who's excited! Well, so are my 21 yo and 18 yo, and the 7 yo goes without saying! We can't wait!