At those ages, I wouldn't do anything besides discuss as you go and some narration. One other thing we've done for years and years, for all books, I make a copy of the cover on my printer, date them and keep them in a binder. We love looking back on the books we've read and we remember (narrate) back what the book was about. It's a great review and fun.

You won't be lost. :) The only thing you may need and I don't even think we did, is knowing the classification system (kingdom, phyla, order, etc.). Other than that, you're good to go. Have fun!!

Yes, I do have the practice book too but haven't started it yet. We are early in MCT. Have you taken a look at Queen's Language Lessons? I plan on moving to those after finishing ILL. They aren't quite as good IMO but they look like they'll work.

I'd choose 100 and then do Core 5 together later. You can easily beef up Core 5 if you need to. Anytime you can keep them together, for your own sanity, is the right path IMO. :)

Well.... I'm not a great scheduler so I've just been winging it. We started with PLL and then I broke down and bought MCT. So we just keep plugging away a lesson a day of PLL and will move into ILL and several days a week we read Grammar Island. I bought the entire package and will just move from book to book as we want to or maybe do several of books once a week after we finish Grammar.

I think for a 7th grader, MapTrek would be better.

I second MapTrek. Wonderful maps and fits in with many different history programs. Geared for all levels also. Good luck,

I'm using MCT along with PLL/ILL and its perfect for us. Good luck,

We adore AI around here too - we tape it on the DVR and then watch the next day. Crystal is our favorite too. I like Casey but I was hoping Big Mike would stay. From the very beginning our tops were Crystal and Lee. :)

:bigear:

Thanks for your suggestions everyone. :) I'm off to research.

My daughter is into everything french at the moment. I'd like to take advantage of this and introduce french. She loves Minimus. Is there anything like it for french? Would PowerSpeak be similar? Thanks,

http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/history.htm http://www.redshift.com/~bonajo/movies.htm http://www.readingyourwaythroughhistory.com/ http://www.abookintime.com/ :) Enjoy!!

I'd suggest doing Core 2 and pulling extra readers for the 10 year old from the book All Through the Ages by Christine Miller. It has books listed by age range in chronological order: http://www.nothingnewpress.com/atta.shtml Good luck,

I'll try to answer for you. I've used/use Atelier and I have Time Travelers but haven't used it yet. Atelier is just art instruction. No history, just different art techniques and mediums. Time Travelers goes along with history and includes art, drama, music, architecture. Both are great, but for ease of use, Atelier wins, IMO. We watch the video - pull together the supplies - and do the projects. My school room walls are covered in various projects and we've had fun for the most part with all of them. For some reason, I can't get excited about using Time Travelers or maybe can't get motivated. Maybe I just need a kick.... :) If I can answer any other questions, just let me know.

As I stated above, I haven't done Core 5 yet, but I do have everything here for when we are ready. I'm a little confused now though. :confused: How can EHE "be" a spine? The way I'm looking at it, its just a bunch of geography sheets/culture notebooking pages to fill out, except they don't tell you where the answers are and the kids need to research to find the answers thus learning in the process. Am I wrong on this? Also, would SwimmerMom's suggestion of the McDougall Littell textbook be a good spine?

My son just turned 13 is almost exactly like your son. He's getting better though. We've tried so many different things over the years. I'd highly suggest either Barton (very expensive though good resell value) or Saxon Phonics Intervention. We didn't do Barton, but we did do Saxon. It wasn't great; it didn't cure, but it did help. If he doesn't have his phonics down, then I wouldn't start Rewards yet. We are currently using ABCeDarian and I actually think its helping (more than I expected anyway). The more he works and the more he reads, the better he is getting at both reading and spelling. I really hope you find what works for you. I'm sure some other of the great ladies here will have some ideas too.

We'll be doing Core 5 this fall or perhaps starting Jan. if we don't speed up a bit. ;) I'm not sure yet if we'll use EHE. I don't think it will ruin the program to not use it. Someone mentioned that they used GeoScribe instead of the EHE sheets when they didn't work for her children. I'll be looking for other replies to this thread too. Good luck,

I don't know if he's right or not, but I love it. :D

We did this when we first started, however, within about 2 months, I had ditched everything and almost considered quitting homeschooling. It was just not what I had in mind as to what "homeschooling" would be like. It is very much, imo, "school at home". I completely understand be overwhelmed when you first start; I know I was, too. I just can't recommend this though. One of the books that helped me most was Cathy Duffy's and I used it to figure out what type of learners my kids were or might be. I think just starting out, expect to go through several curriculums before you settle in on one that works well for you. I'd also just go simple and choose your 3 R's and maybe a science and history. Do those for a while and get the hang of it. You can add on as you feel comfortable and won't feel overwhelmed that way. I really wish I had done that. Good luck and ask away here :)

You're right, I just checked and Landmark starts in Week 4.

Core 3+4 uses Landmark History of the American People as the main spine along with the books SwimmerMom mentioned, Story of the USA. It's not Christian, but I wouldn't call it non-Christian. They used to use a providential history book but changed to this quite a while ago. The notes and editing of the text is to make it easier for a child to understand and make it easier to fit it all in during the whole year. It does have other notes to give other points of view but I wouldn't be worried about it at all. We've loved Landmark and we read all the chapters, even the ones not scheduled. I, too, think Core 5 is best done on the upper range of age levels. However, you can always modify it to fit your child's level. That's the best thing about Sonlight (really homeschool in general) - you can adjust where needed. :) Good luck,

I was avoiding answering this question but since no one else has... :) I guess I'll try. I'm one who has actually gone from Sonlight to TOG and back to Sonlight. Let me start by saying this is my opinion only and what works for the goals for my family. TOG is a great curriculum; Sonlight is a great curriculum. Both are going to teach your children WAY more than you probably learned in high school and probably even college. I try to keep that in mind when I'm worried about our direction or if I'm behind or when I feel we aren't rigorous enough. TOG, however, was just more than we needed. My top priorities are reading, writing and math. Probably science should come next, but my love is history. It's easy with both of the curriculums to get lost in history, but for us, the whole day could easily be consumed with history when using TOG. I'm sorry but its just not that important to me if my kids remember all the details and be able to answer all the questions that Rhetoric and Dialectic students are asked. That's not to say its bad, but I felt the Rhetoric level was more like a college class. I hear others say that Sonlight is too light in high school and for them, it may be. But for us, its going to be perfect because it allows me to spend more time/depth on our top priorities and even add others (like foreign language, outside classes, etc. and not "do school" ALL day long). Now, I only have two children and they do the same core (I may break them up in high school). IF I had more though, I would still do Sonlight and keep them on the same cores (or two that are similar) and just add lower level readers for the youngers. I'd never try to do more than 1-2 cores; I'd just adjust my expectations. Not sure if any of that helps or if its what you were even asking; I think I'm just rambling. ;) If you have any other specific questions, just let me know.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1776_(musical) Scroll down the page a bit till you get to the historical accuracy section. HTH,

Their history isn't tied to their LA until Core 7. That's when LA is actually in the Core guide. Even then, I don't think its a problem to use other LA materials and skip theirs. And yes, you'd use the Sonlight Readers for practice. Readers up to Core 3 aren't always tied to their history; however, from Core 3 up, the Readers are all tied to the history. If you like/want to read alot with your children and don't mind that, then Sonlight is great. It has fantastic books, timeline work and map work (though it takes finding your groove with the maps) and schedules it all for you. Just remember you don't have to do it all and you can do it at your own pace. :) Hope that helps,