I finally bought TWTM yesterday too. I was at a book store and decided to look through their education section. There it was. One copy. I've been on these boards for over a year (this is my second year homeschooling), but hadn't bought TWTM yet. So I did and I cannot put it down! Although now I'm feeling guilty because I've been doing things wrong. My oldest won't have that perfect education I now know she could've had. I may be able to catch up my middle child. My youngest...well, I'm so glad that one of my kids will benefit from what I've already learned from TWTM, although I feel bad now for pushing workbook pages on him this year (he's in K).

We tried to use Singapore 1A with my oldest son, but he hated it, which I was okay with because I couldn't stand going back and forth between the teacher's guide, and his books. I kept getting confused on where I should be when. I was more than happy to put that aside! We now use Math Mammoth for all three of my kids (my K'er this year finished off Singapore's Earlybird books and then started MM1A) and all three love it. My older son, who hated SM with a passion does his work without any crying or fighting. He's actually very good at math and with MM, everything has clicked and he rocks through his work.

I bought the basic package and don't feel as if we missed out on anything. It comes with all the teacher manuals of the books and any student manuals that need to be used seperate from the teacher manuals.

I want to go to this. Even if the cost doubles, I should be able to go. How do I get an invite? ;)

I was actually thinking of this the other day. We're only in the second Zoology book by Apologia. When the penguins weren't in the first book, I figured it was because they weren't actual "flying" creatures. I've skimmed through the last few chapters that we have left of Zoology 2 and though penguins can swim, they aren't in the swimming creatures book either. I was wondering what they would be classified as and why they weren't covered. We love penguins in our house. So sad they aren't included, but it does make for a great research project for the kids.

Thanks for this! I want to do AoPS Pre-Algebra with my DD in place of MM6 and was trying to figure out if she'd miss anything or not. I appreciate this information!

I actually bought the whole kit, kaboodle, and kitchen sink. I've only used the light blue and wonder now why I felt that I needed it all. Maybe someday I'll use the other stuff. The real life books look interesting, I just don't want to overburden my kids with "more" math work. Ugh. They'd commit mutiny! I think the light blue would be fine enough.

Thank you, twinmami01 and boscopup. An amazing thing happened today. Well, after reading both of your replies, I decided to get TWSS and do the themed book, but then I was at swim class with my kids and talking to one of my friends. I asked her if she'd ever heard of IEW and it turns out that she has it all, but has never used it because she couldn't figure it out. Oh, she doesn't have the TWSS videos, but she'd gotten them from the library to watch them. What she does have is SWIA. Her daughter is going into 4th, and I'll have a 3rd and 5th grader, which SWIA is meant for, so we're talking about doing IEW together with our kids. With both of us helping out the kids, I won't have to do all the teacher stuff alone. I'm so thrilled right now. Thanks for the help! Angie

Hi, everyone. I've been researching what changes I want to make for next year and I'm confused on the entire IEW set up. What I do know is that I want to use it next year. What I can't figure out is how. A little history: I work from home full time with set hours, so I don't have much time for individual attention or for full-on teaching my older children. Sad thing is that I tend to lean more toward the teacher-intensive curricula. My 2nd and 4th grader both did MCT Island this year (4th grader has finished and 2nd grader will finish in May). They both also worked on WWE this year, but hated it, so we've put that aside. Ideally, what I'd like is to use IEW's themed book for Medieval history, but I like the idea of SWIA as the videos are for the kids to watch. That would be perfect for me. I've seen people post that about doing TWSS with a theme OR SW1A, but I was thinking of maybe doing SWIA, but having my kids do the writing from the Medieval themed book instead. Would this work? I'm okay with purchasing either TWSS or SWIA, but I can't afford both. Not now. I know that TWSS with the themed book would work, but would be more theacher intensive, which I need to get away from. Could SWIA work if I used the videos and applied them to the themed book instead of what comes with it? Keep in mind I will be in the same room as my kids, I just can't neglect work and devote my entire time to them. It's a hard game to play...I always feel someone gets neglected along the way... Oh, and I fully intend to start my eldest on WWS. She's an avid writer (been doing NaNoWriMo since she was six), so I think she'll do fine with it, so there's that too...Would it be too much? Would MCT Town, IEW, and WWS be too much work for a 5th grader? My son, who'll be in 3rd next year will do ViE, IEW, and may continue WWE (WWE may not happen. He absolutely hates it. Well, he hates the physical act of writing anyway. He does the narrations well). I appreciate any words of wisdom and/or direction. Thanks! Angie

We're finishing up MM2B right now with my DS8, and have already purchased BA3A. He loves to look through it, but we aren't doing it yet. I plan on starting BA3A this summer and then moving him right along, but he will still be doing MM for the 3rd grade math. I love MM, I just thought I'd try BA during the summer and maybe use it to supplement if he needs a little fun next year. If BA had all its grade levels ready for purchase, I would just switch him to BA and go from there and not do MM anymore, but since they don't, I'm not going to drop MM. I'm hoping that my DS6 will be able to do all the BA levels. Well, he won't be able to do BA2, as that will the be the last one published, but I think he'll be able to do BA3, 4, and 5. Is there going to be a BA6? I can't remember... Anyway, we're in the same boat. I actually showed our BA3A book to a friend of mine with a DC in 3rd grade and her daughter, who cries every day when she does math, picked it up and started reading. She wouldn't put it down! I felt bad for having to take it back, so instead let them keep it until the summer. Her daughter--who HATES math--was glued to BA3A.

Um, I purchased it last year. We're supposed to receive our last one in March. We haven't done a single one yet, but we are planning a summer science camp where we'll do one every other week. We aren't actually taking a break from learning in the summer, but I want to do fun things, like science camp. Give it a snazzy name, invite some PS friends over to participate and I'm sure my kids will find it more fun. Sorry I can't help, but I've looked through a couple and they look like fun. My kids are excited about them. We just don't have time to do them during the normal year. :(

My two oldest, 2nd and 4th grade, are both doing the Island level now. I originally didn't purchase MCT Island this year, but my daughter (4th grader) was bored with the normal LA (we used ViE--I love ViE). I could see that she did everything well, never got anything wrong, but it just wasn't clicking in her head. Something wasn't right. I decided to splurge and try MCT. I hemmed and hawwed at which level to start her on as she's in 4th grade, but ended up starting at the beginning (she'll be starting Town in a week or so). When MCT Island arrived, my eldest son (2nd grader) saw it and wanted to do it too. I told him that he could try but that if he didn't do well or struggled, he'd have to go back to his other LA program (LLATL, which he LOVED). My son has moved much slower through MCT Island than my daughter, but they're both learning so much and retaining it. My son will correct people on the use of the incorrect pronoun. It's quite funny. They both have picked up sentence structure so well, I'm floored. They understand sentences better than I ever did when I was in high school. I'm not sure what I'll do with my son next year as I'm not sure if he'll be ready for the Town level as he did Island a bit early. If he wants to try it, I'll let him, but I'm going to use ViE with him to start out as I do love that curriculum--MCT just resonates with my kids better. Angie

So glad to read this thread. I stopped using WWE for both my 2nd grader and my 4th grader because neither of them liked the dictation days. If I told my 2nd grader that it wasn't a dictation day, he loved it and did well, but when he had to write dictations, he would crumble. I'll have to pick it back up and only do narrations. He rocked at that, as does my 4th grader. Of course, my 4th grader has been creative writing since she was six years old, so she's never had a problem with getting thought to paper. We're finishing up MCT's Island level with both of them. DD (4th grader is already finished). I was going to wait until next year to start Town, but I guess I should start it now so that she can get some paragraphing under her belt... Thanks for this thread!

I just looked at these. I've been thinking of buying one. I need it for a lot of things, but mostly for MM. I have their work in three-ring binders, but it's awkward for them to work in them. I need this! What size does everyone have, or am I looking at things wrong? I see some with different sizes that hold up to different amounts of pages. Are those just the parts that you buy, but the machine works for all sizes? I'm really new to these and have no idea what I've been looking at.

My kids like Mystery of History much more than SOTW. We started with both but since they like MoH a lot better I've decided to only use that one in school and then I bought the audio book for SOTW and we listen to that in the car. It's working out perfectly. MoH is heavy with biblical history and we love that.

I don't exactly work outside the home, but I work a full-time job (usually around 50-60 hours a week) inside my home with set hours. I have to be available to my office between 3 am and 11 am. This includes many conference calls. I'm the only person in my office who works in my home, so I get called into the office a lot for meetings and trainings. I actually have to go into the office two days next month. I plan on bringing my kids. I'm supposed to have a "sitter" at home with me while I work, but I don't. I also don't think that upper management would like it if they knew that I homeschool. My manager does, as well as her manager, but other than that, I think it's hush-hush. On days when I have conference calls, the kids must fend for themselves. Anything that they need me for does not get done. We're behind in quite a few things, but we keep chugging along. We do plan to do school all year because of this. I think that math and language arts will be finished before summer, or at the latest a couple weeks into summer. It's history and science that we'll continue with over the summer. Those and handwriting. I'm determined to get my two younger ones caught up on handwriting! My house is a pig stye, though we did deep clean it this past weekend, so I guess it's not too bad, but it's not good. We work, school, and live in this house 24-7, so it's hard to keep clean. When I did work outside the home and the kids went to day care, my house was always clean because we spent so few hours in the house. When I look at my friends whose kids go to school all day and whose husbands work out of the home every day, I feel bad about my house because theirs are always clean. But they don't have anyone but themselves at home making a mess. And they have the time to clean the little messes that they do have, oh and the time to cook these amazing meals that make me drool. I don't have time to cook. Also, I'm tired all the time because I don't get much sleep with having to start work at 3 am. I'm lucky to get school done with the kids. On bad days, I don't. I know that my situation doesn't have me needing to deal with child care issues. If I had to work outside the home, I'd have to find a babysitter. When I do go into the office I normally have my in-laws watch them, but they will not do school with them. They say that they don't want our kids dreading going to their house, so they will not do school when they watch them during the day. ugh. So those are not productive days at all.

I don't use either right now, but I used WP last year. I liked it, but I didn't buy it again this year for the sole purpose that customer service was horrible. I still haven't received some of the books I was supposed to have received and I gave up calling as they just aren't helpful. That along with the fact that it took FOREVER to receive the books I did receive, I just gave up. I did look through the list of books they use with the current theme we're doing this year, and I've encorporated some of them into what we're doing now, but I didn't buy anything from them. I don't have time to be making calls all the time. Ugh. I do wish that I had used TOG last year. I had debated between the two as well and I went with WP. Wish I had gone with TOG, but then again, I'm happy with using Story of the World and Mystery of History together, so I obviously didn't go the TOG route this year again. If you do go with Winter Promise, I'd advise you to buy the stuff that you can only get through them from them personally, and then everything else get from the library or buy it yourself. The hassle of missing books was too much for me. Oh, missing and late. There were a couple of books that did finally arrive, but after we had already used them! Ugh!

Ditto. Thanks for posting.

I do think books should come with a rating. I'd never let my kids read 50 shades because to me it's porn and I wouldn't let them watch porn, so why should I let them read it. DD (10) wants to read Hunger Games. I'm going to let her, but I was worried about some of the scenes being too violent at first. I've decided to let her read it and if she gets scared, I know she'll tell me. She used to watch the show Grimm with me but it was scaring her, so she told me and we no longer watch it. I don't watch it either. I only watched it because she was interested in it. So I know that she'll let me know if something is too much for her. I don't believe in censorship in general as it pertains to society as a whole, but for my children, I'm their mother and it's my job to make sure they aren't reading books or watching shows, or playing video games that are inappropriate, and I will excersize my right to not allow them to watch, read, or play certain things. My kids have never been able to watch Sponge Bob. They don't care. They know. My youngest, who just turned six, lets everyone know that he isn't allowed. If someone has a party and it's a Sponge Bob theme, he'll go and not take any party favors with Sponge Bob on them because he knows I don't like that show and he's not allowed to watch it. There are shows that my kids watch that I'm sure many parents wouldn't allow their kids to watch. Everyone's standard is different. But this goes with books too. Just because something is a classic or good literature does not mean it's good for my kid to read. Of course my kids are still young. Once they're in High School there will be a lot more that I will allow them to read, watch, and play. No 50 shades though, as I do believe it's equivelent to porn, and I would never allow my kids, even when they're in High School, to read or watch porn.

I don't think this is a matter of order of operation but of understanding what -8 is. Either way would work as you can add or subract in any order and should come up with the same number. So when you have 7 + 15 - 8 + 15, it's really ALL adding. the -8 is really -1X8. That's how you should look at all negative numbers. So with the first method or doing additions before subtractions, if you want to break it up like you did, you'd get 7+15=22 for the first calculation and -8+15=7 for the second calculation. Add those together (remember, that "minus" sign is really a negative 1 multiplied by the 8, so it's all addition really), and you get 22+7=29. Now for the second way (Saxon), you would add 7+15=22, then subtract the 8 (this is really adding a negative 8), which gives you 22-8=14. Then you would add 14 to 15 to get 29. I don't think there's anything wrong with either order of operations, just that you need to look at a minus sign as a negative number, not as a cut and dry minus. Angie

All three of mine are like this. Every time I've tried to do something fun, I end up disappointed because of their lack of enthusiasm. No fun crafts or lapbooks here. They like to get down to business and get their work done.

Just my 2 cents... I have an ipad and love it, but my kids all have android tablets. I love android because you can use different app stores. My kids' tablets each have three different android markets on them. You can't put another app market on the ipad. Would love to be able to, but can't. Also, if you're going to go android, don't go with the Fire or a Nook. Those are e-readers first, then tablets, in my opinion. Get something that is made to be a tablet first, like the Samsung Galaxy Tab. That's the one my daughter has and I love it. I use hers all the time. Where's my ipad mostly? charging or sitting around. I do use it, but I'm not going to pay for games on my ipad that I can get for free from the 1Market app market (which I can't get on my ipad or on a Nook. I'm not sure about the fire, but if it's anything like the Nook, you won't be able to load other markets). The other android tablets we have are Nabis. Not for adults. Made for kids. But the Samsung Galaxy Tab 2, which is what my oldest has, is awesome. If I didn't already own an ipad, I'd get myself a Galaxy Tab. Love it.

Thanks for letting us know! I think I'll let the kids watch an episode tomorrow morning. I've been debating on buying the DVD. So glad to see it on Netflix Streaming now!

I started MCT Island with my 4th grader this year. I wasn't planning on using it with my DS, who's in 2nd grade, until next year, but he saw his sister doing it and wanted to try. So far, he likes it and is doing well. I go slower with him than with my DD (4th), so she's a bit ahead of him, but he's comprehending and understanding. I've heard that Town is a lot harder, so I don't plan on doing Town with him next year, but if he wants to try, I'll let him. We actually just started the Sentence Island book with my DS (his sister has been in it for a while and is almost finished), and he loves it. It's nice to find a curriculum that he enjoys doing and does well at it. I say give it a try if he's interested in starting in 2nd grade.

I voted loved it, but a more accurate vote would be, "love it". We do both MoH and SotW. I like MoH much better. On some of the topics it gives more information. I find SotW to be more generalized to some extent, but there are some things in SotW that aren't in MoH, and vice versa. Because of this, we do both. If you are young Earth, then I think you will like MoH. I loved the chapter on the Ice Age. I've learned a lot from reading MoH!