My wife and I purchased the TWSS DVD's and SWI-B DVD/workbook packets from home school used curriculum forum. We just watched the first DVD of TWSS and they're working out of a book that we don't have. The seller sent me the "Student Resource Workbook" which I thought was the courseware. However, while watching the video they're working through some book that we do not have. Does anyone know what this is and where I could get a copy (hopefully a PDF as we're currently living in our RV). Thanks!

My 8th grade son is going into his 3rd year of home schooling. WE went through 3 Spelling Workout books and has reached the end of that series. He spells well and I think at this point we can assume he should be done with a spelling book. At this point do people move on to vocabulary lists or some kind of SAT prep lists? Should I start a latin program and have him learn latin root words? Do I just load him up on classics and assume he'll absorb what he needs while reading for the time being (until real SAT prep starts in a couple years). Any suggestions? We haven't really used a formal writing curriculum and we're trying to decide what to use. We use Winter's Promise history and growing with grammar but we want to take writing more seriously this year, more structured. Thanks.

Thank you angela, just the kind of information I'm looking for. So the TWSS is basically a course for you to learn, a teacher's course, and then you can pass the teaching down to the kids?

My family and I are entering into our 3rd year of homeschooling. The first year we started so we could spend a year travelling the U.S. in our RV (I work from home and the family motto has been "Home is where you park it"). My boys were going into 4th and 6th grades and my daughter was entering kindergarten. I was hoping I could type our experience so far, what we liked and didn't, and maybe we can get a few suggestions? Basically the boys are entering their 3rd year of homeschooling, my daughter homeschooled for K and a couple months of 1st, went to public school for most of 1st, and now is homeschooling for 2nd. During that middle year we went back home from Nov until the end of the school year (last week). My daughter was struggling with learning reading and we decided to try school for a year. It was good and bad. She caught up in reading and is now either right where she should be or slightly ahead, it was VERY helpful for her and I think it made the year of school worth it. However, the math book they used was a waste of a year for her. What they were learning at the end of the year she had already learned in K, very sad. So good and bad. Our first year we read the Well Trained MInd and because we liked the philosophy of the book so much we went with many suggestions. Math Saxon Math - this went fantastic, all my kids excel at math. We like it and we're sticking with it. 8th grader is doing Alg1 this year, 6th grader is doing 8/7 this year, my daughter we're going to re-test because she did great with her 1st grade math in K but re-learned most of it last year, not sure where she is. We're testing this week but will stick to Saxon. History First year we started Story of the world and ended up swithing over to Mystery of History. We muddled through but I think we didn't do well with just a spine, we needed a more robust history curriculum that gave us more resources and a more detailed schedule/reading list/activities, etc.. So in year two we tried Winter's Promise American Crossing and loved it! So this year I was able to get American Culture on Ebay, actually it's the expanded version (American Story? Can't remember) that includes material for younger kids also. So as we spend next spring in the South we'll be coming off of our Civil War history, should be fun. Spelling We have used Spelling Workout both years and it went really well. My 6th grader is going to continue, he is on book F. My daughter is going to start (not sure which book she will use, A or B). However, my 8th grader finished book H. There isn't a book I. Q1: By 8th grade do we stop spelling now? What about preparation for SAT's in a few years? I guess vocabulary is more of a concern than spelling, he is a very good speller. Any suggestions? Grammer We have been using Growing with Grammar and we like that also. My daughter will probably start with GWG 1 this year. Boys are finishing up 5 and 7, we'll move them on to 6 and 8. Although I'm not sure if Grammer at my 8th graders level is really teaching him much. I think he is ready to move on to something more advanced but I'm not sure where you go next? Q2: How long do we continue grammar. We need to supplement writing (see below) and I'm wondering if we just stop grammar at this point or continue. Handwriting We did Zane Bloser to teach teh kids cursive, my 6th grader will do one more year, my 8th grader stopped this year, my daughter will beging cursive this upcoming 2nd grade year. Logic The boys started with the Critical Thinking companies Building Skills book in 4th and 6tha nd this last year they went through their first Critical Thinking Book 1 and loved it. We'll be doing Book 2 next year. Q3: I like these books but would like to go a little deeper, any suggestions? Writing/Reading I think where we've dropped the ball some is in a structured language arts program. The kids were doing handwriting, spelling, and grammer. The first year we had them doing some journaling, they did some writing with their history, and we gave them a few reports and debates to do throughout the year. Last year we had a few reports and writing assignments. However without a structured writing system I think we're missing something. We did do some Writing with Ease assignments as well but I don't know if it's what we're looking for. My oldest is an excellent writing, extremely creative, writes on his own for fun. I want to find something to challenge him and help him to begin to think of writing as a craft that he can improve and hone and also to prepare him for High School/College writing. My younger son doesn't enjoy it as much, considers it busy work, and while he is extremely creative when telling stories and playing he has a hard time translating his remarkable wit and humor to a page of paper so I really want to find something that will make writing fun for him and get him to enjoy it more. We're going to do some journaling this year as well but we want something more structured. Also, my kids enjoy reading and read a lot for fun, they also read for history. I'm assuming this should be enough but any suggestions would be appreciated. I would like to give them a summer reading list (we leave for our trip this weekend). My daughter I just want to continue the progress she made this year learning to read and continue with the building blocks. Q4: So we have 3 kids with 3 very different writing/reading needs and skills. We feel a bit out of our depth in this one subject, can anyone lend some advice on programs or curriculum? What should I be looking for in a good writing/reading plan for an 8th grader who needs to be stretched and challenged, a 6th grader who can write but doesn't really enjoy it but we want to encourage him to enjoy it, and a 2nd grader who just caught up to where she should be and we don't want to lose any ground? Also, any suggestions on summer reading lists? Science We did basic scientific method stuff the first year, experiments, explaining the scientific method. This last year we did a science history course with lots of experiments walking the kids through the history of scientific discoveries. It was really fun but I don't think it was enough actual knowledge, but it did foster a desire for more science. We're going to do Biology this year. They get so much earth science on the road and at National Parks that I don't think we're going to formally cover that this year. Last trip they went to 22 national parks, got junior ranger badges at almost all of them, and sat through probably 50 ranger talks/presentations/hikes. So that's pretty cool as far as earth science goes (Utah was amazing!). So this year we want to learn Biology. Any suggestions? Q5: Need some suggestion for Biology curriculum Anything I'm missing We're going to start Spanish this year. I have an old Rosetta Stone Latin America or we may use something like MemRise with the kids. Start building a basic vocabulary. Other than that I'm not sure what else we may be missing. Any other suggestions for us? Q6: Any other suggestions? I know this is a long post, I really appreciate anyone who made it to the end and has some advice for me. This forums has been a God-send for us in our homeschooling journey. And if anyone has any questions about living on the road please feel free to ask! Thank you so much.

What is AO?

Would GWG be what I used for both boys? Or just my oldest? What is the difference between GWG and Winning with Writing?

I posted in the thread below and got some awesome advice and insight. We are starting our first year of homeschool with our 3 children who are coming out of public school. We'll be travelling around in our RV and visiting different libraries weekly. I would like to post what I've purchased and what we're starting with and see if I can get a little help to make that last push and make the big final decisions. The advice in this thread has been invaluable to my wife and I so far, please keep it coming. First Post K - Daughter OPGTTR MCP Plaid Phonics K (she loves to "do school") Zane Bloser Handwriting K Saxon Math 1 (we used the placement test and she got all but 1 in K, so we moved to 1) 4GR - Son Zane Bloser Handwriting 4 Saxon Math 6/5 (from placement test) Rosetta Stone Spanish 6GR - Son Building Thinking Skills Zane Bloser Handwriting 6 Saxon Math 7/6 (from placement test) Creepy Crawlies and the Scientific Method Rosetta Stone Spanish Here is what is left, if anyone could lend a hand I would be grateful. I think part of my problem, even though I read the entire WTM, is that I'm not grasping the entire language arts section. Basically it's reading, writing, spelling, and grammar. I think i'm fine with my daughter, but i'm slightly confused about the boys (4GR & 6GR). So they'll have a spelling workbook, a grammar book, and handwriting book (probalby last year for 6GR). So then for reading and writing it will be merged with the history spine or enclyopedia work. So my 4GR will read a section, then narrate it (summarize what he just read) and then read additional sources for reading and for some of those items write a small essay. He'll also do dictation where we ready to him and he writes what we read. Correct? This in addition to map locating and coloring. My 6GR will also read a section then narrate it, but a little longer. Then when he reads his more extensive additional sources he will outline them and well continue to dictate to him. Is this correct? This in addition to mapping and time-lining. Then they'll both read an additional hour a day trying to incorporate books that go along with where we're at? Historical fiction, biographies, literature form the time period, etc..? So i'm not sure what copywork is. I'm also not sure where the "reading lists" that other people I know who home school have are coming from. Is this independent of their history? Some of the curriculm seems to be like scripted story books, others seem to be very detailed lists of other things to read, some seem to also cover grammar and writing in with the history (in a very detailed, scheduled way). I'm just a little lost. Maybe if someone can read and clarify a little bit for me I could understand better. Vocab/Grammar I think we're going to go with Spelling Power or Spelling Workout with both boys. I just can't figure out where they should start. Wouldn't the beginning books be too easy? (Someone also suggest Phonetic Zoo). For grammar we were going to go with Rod and Staff for my 6th Grader, starting with teh 5GR book. Then I was reading about Growing w/ grammer and I'm a little torn. We're Christian so scripture is a benefit to us and my son is very analytical and would enjoy sentence diagramming I think. I'm not sure. But what books is my 4GR supposed to be starting his grammer with? Is that what First Language Lessons or Writing with East would be for? Science We were considering mudpies to magnets but read some poor reviews and some bad board posts. We're going to put science off with our younger two for a month until we get rolling, then decide and introduce Science. My oldest will start learning the scientific method with Creepy Crawlies. Some suggestions we're going to look into are The Story of Science, some experiment kits/books, bite sized science. We're also going to look into the Apologia stuff and Elemental Science. But we're putting this off until we settle in for a couple weeks, get used to home school, and get a little experience with what we like and don't like about different curriculumns. Art/Music When I can afford it or find it used, I would like to use Artistic Pursuits. We'll introduce this in a month or two. History/Geography This is the big one. We NEED to made a decision but it is so difficult. We did decide to definitely stick with 1 time period for all the kids. We're just going to start at the beginning with everyone, the Ancients. That seems to be a real consensus rec. from the replies and it makes logical sense to me. There are so many choices and I'm not sure I even understand how some work. Some seem to be a story you read with a work book and a script. Others seem to be reading lists or point you towards encyclopedias. I know this is also integrated with our language arts so it's really important for me to make the right choice. All of the other subjects I am fine with, even if we make a small mistake, we can course correct. But this one is tough. We have looked at... MOH - We are Christians, we want to incorporate biblical history into our history program, however, I don't want to limit history to biblical history and I'm afraid some of these curriculum are completely Bible centered. I love the Word of God and we teach it to our children daily, but I would like my kids to have a well rounded, complete view of history... regardless of how it reflects on the Christians of their time. I want the good and the bad, we'll teach them about God's love and grace. I think maybe this MOH would be a good supplement but I don't know if it looks comprehensive enough to be our main "spine" (if I'm even understanding what that term really means). SOTW - This seems to be what is strongly recommended. I am just afraid it isn't rigorous enough. My eldest is a voracious reader and I really want to challenge him. I don't know if SOTW will be enough. I think it would be great for my little one and probalby enough for my 4GR. TOG - This is almost the other extreme. I was really leaning this way but I had a home school friend and someone else warning me that it is VERY rigorous and to be careful taking on something so big as a first time homeschooler. Normally I would dive in but I really value this person's opinion. So i'm not sure. I really love how it looks but I'm wondering if it's too much for my wife just starting out and me supporting during non-work hours. My Father's Way - We considered this as well. I like the look of it. One of the issues we have is that we're travelling in a small space. We can't have TOO many books and will be relying on library time, used book stores, and our kindles for much of our reading. Sonlight - I can't seem to figure out how this works, although it came highly recommended to us. Is it mostly just a book reading list and you work through that? Is there a "spine" to follow? Ambleside - This looks cool but we can't rely daily on an internet connection. Veritas Press - I don't see this talked about as much but someone suggested it and it was intriguing. Then in addition to the "spine" or curriculum base there are all these encyclopedias. Usbourne has about a thousand different ones, Kingfisher, National Geographic histories and atlases. We have room for their school books but we cant' go crazy (and our remaining budget is shrinking with every purchase). Conclusion As you can see, so close to the finish but so far away. Please straighten me out a little on the structure and help with my history choices. If you made it to the end of this manifesto, I'm sure you must have some opinions :). Thanks again for everyone's help.

reading through all of this now, thanks everyone. Great stuff so far.

Also, i was ordering some of the basic stuff tonight. I need to pick a spelling course. I was looking at Spelling Workout but saw a thread on Spelling Power, looking at both. Does my 6th grader still need spelling and handwriting or do they just move to all the writing/outlining/narrating assignments? I already bought a 6th Grade Zaner Bloser book but don't know if I need it. I was looking at Spelling Workout for my 4th and 6th graders but didn't know if you start at A no matter what, or pick up at a later level? I just can't seem to figure that out. Will be doing a lot of reading on the history spines. Someone else said Mudpies was not their favorite and suggested I look elsewhere, i will check out your suggestion.

Wow, I was away a short while and I already got so much awesome advice. Going to do a lot of reading tonight. I'll post back in morning with any questions after some research on these responses... keep it coming. Also, i mentioned traveling. We're actually going to be in our RV. So internet is not always reliable and we need to conserve space somewhat. We do plan on weekly library stops but will probably have trouble checking out books and will need to rely on some used books stores, downloading classic (public domain) into our kindle, and studying AT the library. I am going to check out everything that is suggested, thank you.

My wife and I are a little late and we're starting home school with our 3 kids, coming out of the public school system. We have a K, 4th, and 6th grader. I read the entire WTM book and took a ton of notes. Honestly i'm a bit overwhelmed by all the curriculum. I am hoping to get some help with this thread. I am going to tell a little about us and then some of the things we're thinking we're going to start with an why. I'm hoping some kind souls who have some experience to share can read through and correct some misconceptions I may have and suggest some other courses of action. I already have a few obvious things ordered and hope to order all my curriculum by tomorrow night. We need to get going. Up until this point we've just filling some time with math worksheets, some basic reporting, and whatever else we come up with until we decide on curriculum. I read the WTM and am totally sold on the classical education system. We'll probably ease into it because our children are transition from a progressive public school system, but the goal is to classically educate our children. We are a Christian family. If a curriculum teaches using scripture or has some foundational Christian principles, that is a plus. However, I wouldn't choose an inferior curriculum to a more superior one just because it's Christian. I would prefer a history "spine" (I believe that is the right term) that includes biblical history intertwined throughout it but I would like my it to be well rounded and not JUST teach everything through a Christian lens. As far as language arts and math go, I want tools to help them learn to read, write, and learn math most effectively whether it has scriptures in the stories or world problems or not. Also, I see there are several curriculum in a box type sets that include everything. The WTM certainly seems to bit and piece everything together. Is there an advantage to the school in a box system? Some of them are VERY expensive and I don't know if we could afford it, however if it's a good system perhaps I should go that away instead of the plan below. If anyone could give some advice on this that would be great. We have 3 kids. Daughter going into K, two sons going into 4th and 6th. I think we're going to start both boys off with the Ancients and just start from there. I think it would be too difficult to teach two different time periods. For science we're deciding between Biology and Earth Science/Astrology. We're going to be travelling all year and we'll have a lot of outdoors time. I was thinking we would have more opportunity for practical experience with the 2nd year science. But I'm not sure if I should veer from the course. DAUGHTER K: (She LOVES doing school, knows all her letters, can count to 20 something, has a very good vocabulary for her age. I think she is going to be a good student) OPGTTR - ordered, this seems like a no brainer. Plaid Phonics K - ordered. The above seems like a great systematic reading program, but my daughter loves worksheets and "doing school" and this looked like the ticket for that. Zane & Bloser Level K - At this point I am just going with the book recommendations because I don't know any better. We liked the look of this better than handwriting without tears. It looked more "fun" for my young daughter. Saxon Math K. We have many homeschool friends and almost all of them use Saxon math. I'm DIZZY from reading about math. Math U See, Singapore, Calvert, Right Start... somebody stop me i want to get off. Saxon seems well proven so for our first year we're all doing Saxon. I know at this age I don't NEED a math curriculum so we wont push with this, we'll just use it sparingly. We'll probably ease her in with this and then in a month or two start looking at.... Mudpies to Magnets Everybody has a Body Artistic Pursuits (this looks AWESOME, but so expensive) SON 4TH GRADE: (He is a very bright boy. He enjoys reading but reads stuff beneath his grade level, lots of junk like Cpt. Underpants and Wimpy Kid stuff. He can probably read better than that but likes graphical stuff. He is a very good math student. He struggle with writing early on but really caught up last school year. A very literal, thinking child. Probably an earlier jumper into LOGIC). Modern Curriculum Press Workout - I don't know where to start, do I start w/ the first level? Regardless of age? Zane & Bloser Writing - again, not sure what level to start at. Saxon Math - we're going to test both boys tomorrow and see where they end up. We'll probably order tomorrow. Life of Fred looks fun, we'll probably get this as well. History: This is our big unkown. I'm just not sure what to get. I was looking at the resources in the books and was going to get one of the Encyclopedias. However, from reading these forums I started seeing things like Sonlight and Tapestry of Grace. I'm a bit lost now. I really don't know what to go with. I was looking at KingFisher and it looked possible too rigorous, i'm not sure. Please help. Science: depending on what we go with, Bio or Earth/Astronomy. We'll get something like More Mudpies, Night Sky Spotter, or Green thumbs. We'll probalby start science a month in after getting into a schedule. Great Science Adventures looked neat. Same with art, we'll hold off, but if I can find some used resources I like Artistic Pursuits. SON 6TH GRADE: Critical Thinking: I actually can't wait to go through this with him. I'm excited. Saxon Math: We'll test tomorrow Life of Fred Spelling Workout: Again i'm not sure where to start here Rod & Staff: I'm thinking of going with Rod and Staff. I was looking at the 6th GR book and I don't think he learned any of this, I may go back to the 5th GR book. Does anyone have another suggestion for a kid who has been learning public school grammar moving into a more classical, language art based education? Again, i'm not sure where to go with the history text. This seems like it's almost the most important resource. I was looking at Usborne, Kindersley, Nat Geo... then I started reading about A Beka, Sonlight, Tapestry of Grace. I just don't know. I think being beginners, something that guides us along a little will be great. Science: We're deciding on Bio or Earth/Astronomy. I think we're going to start either way with Creepy Crawlies & Scientific Method. Then buy some experiment packs. Again, Artistic Pursuits if I can find a deal. Two more items.... I don't know if we're going to start Latin. We're already a little overwhelmed and behind. If we get rolling and really enjoy it and feel like we have extra time at the end of the day I may start them on Prima Latina and Latina Christiana. However, we're considering skipping it this year and just doing Rosetta Stone Spanish with them. I already have it and I think Spanish is going to be invaluable to them in their every day life. I think we're all going to do it as a family. Ok, so any advice, comments, or help I can get would be greatly appreciated. I'm looking for a few people to help me along these first couple of weeks. We have some home schooling friends that would be happy to mentor us through this but we're going to be travelling. I think my biggest problem is the history spines. I just don't know what to do. Also, the big choices of just putting a lot of this other stuff aside and picking a big multi-subject school in a box from one of the A Beka, Calvert, Sonlight type companies. Thanks for any advice you can give us.

(I posted this in the general forum but perhaps this is where I should have started...) My wife and I are starting to Home School this year. We have a 3 kids, K/4th/6th grades. I loved the book and completely agree with the philosophy of education. The issue is that we're coming from a public school into a classical education late in the game. My K level is easy we just start from the beginning, however, with 4th and 6th, I'm not sure where to start. They have never been taught a systematic grammer course or phonics. They both read of course and were doing very well in school, but after reading I feel like we have catch up to do in order to get them on a classical trac. First, I'm not sure what to do with language arts. We're mostly going with the books main suggestions for curriculum but if my child is in 4th or 6th grade, I can't very well start them on the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. They read well and write at their grade level in school but they're unfamiliar with phonics rules and grammar terminology. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed? Math seems easy enough, we're going with Saxon math and we're giving them the Saxon tests to kind their level. History is a bit tricky. My 6th grader is out of the Grammar stage, but he is unfamiliar with the stories and a systematic history course. Most of his history to this point has been "diversity" driven and certainly hasn't been comprehensive. I don't know if he would be ready to start on original sources. My other son is in 4th grade so I would be starting him in year 1 when he would normally start year 1 over again next year. Obviously it would be easier to start them both with the Ancients and teach them together, with different level reading assignments, but I'm just not sure how to proceed here either. We're trying to nail down language, math, and history to get started. After a week or two we'll incorporate Science and we're probably going to start them on Rosetta Stone Spanish (we already own this). We're also going to continue their guitar and drums lessons. Does anyone have any suggestions for me, especially regarding the language arts and history? Thanks.

Thanks for the great suggestions so far, reading about all the resources everyone listed. As for budget I didn't really set one. Just starting out I guess I'm more concerned with getting the kids on track than saving money, but money is ALWAYS a consideration :) If I liked 2 resources and one was much less I would decide based on money, but if something seemed perfect and was a bit more I would buy it. Is there a glossary around? Not sure what some of the anacronymns are. I figured out WTM, but what is SOTW? TOG? AWANA? I figure there has to an FAQ with these but I haven't found it yet. Yes, we are a Christian family. I suppose when it comes to history and science I would like a curriculum that aligns with our faith but I wouldn't want a curriculum whose sole purpose is to teach my kids about the Lord at the expense of a well rounded or comprehensive covering of the subject matter. They'll receive plenty of Biblical instruction in addition to their other subjects. Basically if a curriculum is Christian it's great, but if it's secular, as long as it isn't anti-Christian, that's fine with me as well. I'm going to cross post over at the curriculum form as well. that's where I've been doing a lot of reading today.

My wife and I are starting to Home School this year. We have a 3 kids, K/4th/6th grades. I loved the book and completely agree with the philosophy of education. The issue is that we're coming from a public school into a classical education late in the game. My K level is easy we just start from the beginning, however, with 4th and 6th, I'm not sure where to start. They have never been taught a systematic grammer course or phonics. They both read of course and were doing very well in school, but after reading I feel like we have catch up to do in order to get them on a classical trac. First, I'm not sure what to do with language arts. We're mostly going with the books main suggestions for curriculum but if my child is in 4th or 6th grade, I can't very well start them on the Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading. They read well and write at their grade level in school but they're unfamiliar with phonics rules and grammar terminology. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to proceed? Math seems easy enough, we're going with Saxon math and we're giving them the Saxon tests to kind their level. History is a bit tricky. My 6th grader is out of the Grammar stage, but he is unfamiliar with the stories and a systematic history course. Most of his history to this point has been "diversity" driven and certainly hasn't been comprehensive. I don't know if he would be ready to start on original sources. My other son is in 4th grade so I would be starting him in year 1 when he would normally start year 1 over again next year. Obviously it would be easier to start them both with the Ancients and teach them together, with different level reading assignments, but I'm just not sure how to proceed here either. We're trying to nail down language, math, and history to get started. After a week or two we'll incorporate Science and we're probably going to start them on Rosetta Stone Spanish (we already own this). We're also going to continue their guitar and drums lessons. Does anyone have any suggestions for me, especially regarding the language arts and history? Thanks.