Yes, I think TOG is more history oriented than Omnibus.

All American History has the fill in the blank kind of questions - no crosswords that I remember. I have it and can look at it you'd like. They do fill out president cards and I think state cards, but not sure on that one. I remember seeing some type of workbook or questions for History of US on Amazon. I have Biblioplan 3 but have never used it. I have all the extras and can look up information for you if you'd like, just let me know. It does look well put together and I may consider it later.

Hake for us.

I'm not sure of the grade, but on Amazon you can look inside. I've heard good comments about it. There is also The Patriot's History Reader: Essential Documents for Every American that goes along with it and you can look in it also. It has primary source documents. Here is the link to the book's website: http://www.patriotshistoryusa.com/. If you click on Teaching Materials, it has links for elementary and secondary/homeschool with ages of 10-18. I personally always wanted to have my son read this book and Howard Zinn's book and then compare/contrast the two views. Here is the link for MapTrek: http://knowledgequestmaps.com/HistoryofUS.pdf

What about reading A Patriot's History of the United States to balance it out? They have a website also to add things to it. MapTrek has an integration guide for History of Us that you could use for maps.

Thank you, that's exactly what I needed to know.

Anyone???

I'm looking ahead a bit in the science dept. We are currently working on Level 1 of RealScience4Kids (biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy and, soon, geology). I'm interested in using Rainbow Science for 7th and 8th grade. Would this be too much overlap at all? Are they on the same level? My thought was that Rainbow was at a higher level than Level 1 RS4K. Has anyone used both or even compared both and could comment? Thanks,

I'm looking ahead a bit in the science dept. We are currently working on Level 1 of RealScience4Kids (biology, chemistry, physics, astronomy and, soon, geology). I'm interested in using Rainbow Science for 7th and 8th grade. Would this be too much overlap at all? Are they on the same level? My thought was that Rainbow was at a higher level than Level 1 RS4K. Has anyone used both or even compared both and could comment? Thanks,

I'm sorry, I don't have any advice but :grouphug:. I get this from my daughter too but not quite as extreme. Actually I get this more from my son - it's exhausting.

:bigear:

I don't think its a problem to continue with SOTW. Sonlight uses it for 6th and 7th. I find I learn something new from it all the time. I think the way to beef it up for the older one is to add in higher level historical reading books. Perhaps even do some one-level outlines of it. Expect more writing. Your older dd may not even be quite ready for Logic level right when she's 10 either. Good luck,

That helps alot. I was worried because I did hear how some of it seemed advanced and I didn't want her to feel lost. It sounds like it might work perfectly. We already do Writing with Ease and Classical Writing - so no problem there. Thanks again,

Thank you. Does anyone else have some thoughts for me? Thanks,

I've got both FLL 4 and Hake Grammar 5. My daughter has very little grammar under her belt - FLL 1 years and years ago (she remembers a noun), some of PLL and she knows, vaguely, all the parts of speech. CLE and R&S were a bust here. I'm just not quite sure which to use for her. Could she jump into Hake without any previous knowledge? Or should I do FLL 4 and then Hake 5? Thanks,

There are several here who do that, or similar. It's recommended in The Latin Centered curriculum (LCC). It's never worked well for our family just because we couldn't spend that much time on a subject all at once. My children do better with small bits of info throughout the week, though they are getting better as they get older. Good luck,

I'm using it (the workbooks - though I do have the hard back book too) with my 14 and 11 year olds. We started at the beginning and we do two days worth in one day (still only about 15-20 mins time) and we also skip every other week in order to move along a little faster. It's been working quite well and I'm happy to see it carrying over into their other writing. Even my daughter, who doesn't really care too much for it, told me that she feels its helped her with other assignments she's been doing lately. That's the best. :) Good luck,

I was going to say Rod & Staff also. Saxon also seems to me similar to how I was taught in school.

I've been wondering myself how to fit in Core 5. I had two ideas. The first idea is to take 2-3 weeks off whatever "main" program we are doing and do one country of Core 5 and do this however often we need a break from our "main" program (it might take 2 years or more to finish). The second idea is to just do Core 5 (light) once or twice a week in the afternoon. Maybe one of those would work for you? Good luck,

I agree with the PP - if the older ones can, let them do history more independently - if they aren't ready yet, just do SOTW with everyone. Ancients might be a little young for the older ones, but it's still wonderful and they'll learn alot. Just throw in books for all at their reading levels. You could go with a curriculum like Tapestry (expensive) or Biblioplan (less expensive) but I'm not sure you'd need it unless you just really need that schedule and structure (which some of us definitely need ;) ). Keep it simple and remember the three R's are the most important (although not as "fun"). Good luck,

Growing with Grammar isn't one of the ones recommended by SWB but I don't think its a bad choice. Some may not feel its as rigorous as other options but if its working for you, I'd stick with it. We are using WWE right now and CW Aesop, but I can't wait to use WWS. I really don't see that you are that far off in what you are using. Everyone tweaks so that it works for them. I'd take a look at TWTM recommendations for history though if you're wanting more. Or perhaps look at History Odyssey by Pandia Press. And possibly look into Latin and Logic. Someone here on the forums has a great quote in their siggy (and I don't remember it word for word) that says the best curriculum is the one that gets done. Good luck,

I personally like the latest edition of WTM but I like to keep everything fresh and up-to-date. Can you tell us what your dc has/have been working on up to this point? What type of grammar has been used? Any writing program? One thing to get started might be to listen, if you can grab a little time (easier said than done, I know), to SWB's writing lectures. You can get them very inexpensively on the Peacehill Press website and download them as MP3s. Another idea is to look at samples of First Language Lessons 4 and see if that looks like it would be too easy or just right. Same with Writing with Ease and Writing with Style (her new program).

What she said. :) You can find it used alot though. The tiles I've just decided to make my own. I use the 4 colored plastic math tiles you can buy and I bought 200 one inch wood tiles that I can paint the right colors and add the letters on them. It solves the issue with tiles for me. Alot of people sell them with the tiles though. I've found all my levels on the yahoo group heart of reading. I've purchased level 1-4 so far. The first two levels were $200ppd and the third and fourth levels were $250ppd. I'm really glad that we finally decided to use Barton. It's definitely been a plus here.

Have you taken the placement test at the Barton site? It's important to know which areas he might be weak on. Barton suggests using LIPS if you fail the third part of the test, though LIPS didn't help us but phonemic awareness exercises did. In our experience, Level 1 was super helpful for my son, who is 14 btw. His reading actually started taking off after completing Level 1 and we sped through Level 2. It sounds like a waste of time and I didn't want to do it either, but now, looking back, I'm quite glad we took the time. Besides the time factor, money was an issue as well, but I bought used and sold after finishing and I was only out the money for shipping - which seemed quite worth it for us. Good luck finding what works best for your family,

Well, I think if you follow the 4 year history cycle all the way through (1st-12th grades), you'll get both. The first cycle is exposure, the second digs deeper and the third goes even further or involves study of the great books of history. If you've already exposed them to the major events early on, then you can spend more time reading between the lines, so to speak. Now if you are just starting out in the logic stage and they haven't gotten that major event exposure beforehand, I think you have to compromise a bit and settle for what works to get the most in without overload.