This is our first year homeschooling, our 4th grader is not returning to school. We would like to study Latin roots/stems. Not a formal Latin language course, but something which would teach him common Latin roots--would also help with English vocabulary. I've heard of one I think, English from the Roots Up. Can anyone give us thoughts about the most effective/fun? We are going to use Calvert overall curriculum and supplement with some unit studies and have two mornings each week for HS coops. Amy

Thank you for the very helpful thoughts. This is the one acronym I couldn't sort out...what is MCT? If you can give me the general title or link that would be great. Not sure what this is at all--just saw it mentioned on another post. Amy

...what do you supplement with? We are HSing our 9 yo son for the first time and are planning to use Calvert 4. But we'd also like to supplement and personalize the curriculum. I've seen a couple of posts where people have mentioned using Calvert but also using (if I'm sorting out the acronyms right): --Writing with Ease --First Language Lessons --SWB MCT materials for poetry Does that mean you are using these in addition to the regular curriculum? Also, what do you feel these give you that is not in the Calvert? I want to add that I read SWB's Well Trained Mind and love the ideas, and want to incorporate these into our son's curriculum. I just think that the Calvert provides a great structured curriculum this year rather than trying to pick and choose. Thank you all so, so much for all of the wonderful suggestions and thoughts so far. It has been so helpful. Amy

And yes we did find the Calvert Yahoo group. They've been great over there too as we try to figure everything about 4th and placement. Amy

Calming tea, Here's the link on Amazon to the book our son is using for Scratch: http://www.amazon.com/Scratch-Programming-Teens-Jerry-Ford/dp/1598635360/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1314485878&sr=8-1 There don't seem to be many books on Scratch out there, but I found several reviews from others who had younger children working through it--most seemed to agree that it's good for 8 and above. Our son likes it too. It comes with a disk and he has been working through each chapter reading and doing the exercises. We saw the book and asked our library to order it (they had a couple of Scratch programs for kids last year). Thank you so much for your thoughts on the math. Our son is great with memorizing facts (he memorized the name of every street in our town!). He sometimes needs prompting with multi-step things though like 3 digit multiplication and long division. He does have an attention issue so that could be what is making it harder. Do you think the Calvert math will work ok? Also I like the idea of doing more practice and starting the workbook later--are there also practice problems as he works through the text itself? Amy

Calming Tea, Thank you...do you use Calvert Math and Saxon? We were planning on the whole Calvert package but I've heard some people supplement one math program with another. I also saw your signature had programming for your 9 year old--our son would also love something like this. He is now working through the scratch for teens book (with a brief break as it had to be returned to the library!). Any recommendations for this? Amy

Hi, We are planning to start homeschooling our son this fall. We plan to use the 4th grade Calvert curriculum as a "spine" but also work off reading lists on Well Trained Mind and add a couple of unit studies. We like the ability to cover set material but adapt to areas where he is above grade level or has specific interests. He really likes math (although long division, not so much so yet). I was wondering if anyone had thoughts about Calvert math (4th ) vs. Singapore math? I've heard some prefer one over the other, but not sure why. Any other thoughts on math for 4th that would fit for us? Amy