I was thinking of getting the Mind Benders too.... :lurk5:

(I've posted this on the K-12 board but am repeating just in case you seasoned homeschoolers don't often go there!) 1) Grammar/vocab intensive 2) Classical pronounciation 3) suitable for Latin study right the way through Grade 12 4) non-teacher intensive 5) course CD preferred in the early stages ??? I know I've asked this kind of question before, and I've received the following recommendations: Latin for Children, Lively Latin and Galore Park Latin, but I'm not sure that any of those go through to Grade 12. My oldest dd loves languages, learns quickly with no difficulty and I can see her wanting to continue with Latin and French and maybe do other languages right through her schooling. I don't mind switching from one program to another provided they follow on reasonably well. I don't have any Latin knowledge myself and not a lot of English Grammar although that's coming along as I teach the dc! Thanks for helping - I think I am getting to grips with this slowly!

1) Grammar/vocab intensive 2) Classical pronounciation 3) suitable for Latin study right the way through Grade 12 4) non-teacher intensive 5) course CD preferred in the early stages ??? I know I've asked this kind of question before, and I've received the following recommendations: Latin for Children, Lively Latin and Galore Park Latin, but I'm not sure that any of those go through to Grade 12. My oldest dd loves languages, learns quickly with no difficulty and I can see her wanting to continue with Latin and French and maybe do other languages right through her schooling. I don't mind switching from one program to another provided they follow on reasonably well. I don't have any Latin knowledge myself and not a lot of English Grammar although that's coming along as I teach the dc! Thanks for helping - I think I am getting to grips with this slowly!

Some great ideas here. I'm off to ponder them/google them/see if they're available on amazon! :lurk5:

In addition to all that great advice.. I'll add.. when you choose a program, it needs to be easy to facilitate/logical to you as the teacher. For example, I love the fact that the WTM's way of teaching history is chronological, it makes perfect sense to me to teach history that way. All the best! It is an exciting journey!

That's great! :001_smile:

If the bigger number is 3 times the smaller number and the difference is 2184, then 2184 is 2/3 of the bigger number: 2184 divided by 2 = 1092 is the smaller number 2184 +1092 = 3276 is the bigger number the sum of the two numbers is 1092 + 3276 = 4368 Sound right?

Thanks so much for all the ideas - greatly appreciated. Keep them coming! :bigear:

See that's (one of!) my conflict(s) - swapping from one subject to another depending on what they're doing is hard for me, and yet I also find it difficult to focus on the individual child's needs if I teach more than one at a time. (Think, think.. said Pooh!) Anyway.. thank you all so much for your thoughts and the time you've spent helping me out.. but I'm afraid it is late here in the UK and I'm off to bed! But will be checking back in tomorrow to see if there are any other suggestions. Thanks again x

Wow.. Mallory.. thank you for the time you spent on that post! I would prefer to stick with the books/curricula that we already have (what's in my signature, basically) as dh is not going to be happy about spending yet more money unless there's a very good reason for it! So we'll be continuing with R&S Grammar for the duration and I'm quite happy with that anyway as I think it's a good program. My 8yo - who is half way through the Grade 2 book - already knows more Grammar than I do. I am of the generation here in the UK who were taught no English Grammar, no Math facts, no spellings, only printing for handwriting etc. etc. It can be frustrating at times. :glare: How would you deal with the fact that my 10yo, despite finding L/A easy enough, is very reluctant to do this? I know she can do it, but she does make a meal of it. Maybe it's just a matter of practice. Do you have the workbox and your younger ones with you as you're teaching the older ones? If I let my 2yo loose with a box of exciting things, she'd have them out and all over the house in no time. I've always felt a bit guilty if I ask the older kids to watch the younger ones, no matter what I'm doing. But recently I learned about the Duggar family (18 kids? 19?) and how they operate what they call a buddy system where an older child is assigned to help a younger child with daily activities, so maybe this is the way to go. I like this idea...

Trust me I would LOVE to be able to do this! It is a great idea! The problem we'd have is that any DVD produced in the US isn't compatible with our DVD players in the UK - it's a different Region. (I have no idea what that means technically, I just know I can't use them here.) I haven't yet found a UK published/produced Latin program that has a DVD, but if anyone knows of one please shout...

Only one ds here.. a 5yo monkey.. so I'm :bigear: as well :001_smile:

Our girls wear skirts or dresses and tights - not the woolly tights though, but opaque ones (15 or 40 denier). 10yo dd's comment on this last winter.. "I like these tights Mummy, because all the grown-up ladies wear them." :D Nothing like solidarity!

Do you do this with your dc?

We've been a bit erratic with a daily Bible Time over the summer, and I'd really like to get back to it. But I didn't have much in the way of ideas anyway, so I'd love to hear what you do. I feel we should have some kind of Bible focussed activity/reading or something first thing in the morning (before or after breakfast, I'm not too fussed) that the children and I can do together. It doesn't have to take a long time. Bring on the ideas! :lurk5:

I used to be VERY strict about food and my dc always had to eat what I put in front of them. I am a little more relaxed nowadays! :chillpill: but I'm not sure about only eating oatmeal!! However it could be a lot worse.. and besides.. I would think he will get pretty fed up of it after a while!! :D

Would you have your dc do the same subject side by side (or together if they were at the same level) or separate it - maybe according to what they find most difficult or time-consuming?

Thank you :001_smile: I actually don't mind moving and being in a new place.. I like change.. it's all the donkey work before hand that is very tiring! I wasn't sure how many people were Christian, and I don't want to offend anyone, but yes some kind of Bible time every day is really important to us. (I think I might start a new thread because I have a few questions to ask about that.)

I think that children get to their developmental stages at different times, and maybe your son hasn't got to the phonic blend stage just yet. He will, when he's ready :001_smile: I think that it's a question of keeping the resources/opportunities available so that when he does become ready for the next stage, he can move into it straight away.

This is the one and only area in which my MIL and I don't agree re HS. I really want to do Latin with the kids, and also French, she actually doesn't really see the point of any of it. We agree to disagree. I suppose the question is, can it be left for 3mos, or even a year, without that being a major disadvantage? I've been presented with the idea that the earlier languages are learned, the better. So I am little concerned that I am only going to make it harder for my dc if we wait. Having said that, I didn't start French until I was 12, and then did very well at it. But I'm more a L/A person than a Math person, for sure. This whole thing I really struggle with. When I read about it in the WTM, it was a new concept to me entirely. I'd never had anything like that myself in school, or seen it done since. I know the theory but the practice has been long winded and tiresome at best. I've been trying to find and then read any posts on here that have made mention of it.

So to use History and Science as part of English.. I know this really but am still getting to grips with the practicalities of it.. This dd is reading abridged versions of Pride and Prejudice and Little Women - does that sound about right for her age? My 8yo dd is a math/science lover and I'm on the verge of having her do the same in those areas as her older sister. She just doesn't have any trouble with it. But English.. well.. no. She does struggle there. We surely do need some basic practice. This is the one I might have put into a Steiner Kindergarten, but now we are moving (for the umpteenth time!) I don't feel it's worth having him go there for 3 months only to take him away from it - it really doesn't seem fair. ds enjoys the little books and worksheets we've done in the past and he is finally getting a little easier.. although he definitely needs his outdoors time!! :willy_nilly: PLEASE could someone give me the secret of how to at least reduce the mischief making of my delightful but frustrating 2yo! She is such a princess when she's happy and good but when she's bad everyone in the house just wants to scream!

Ah yes.. two more things.. well two more sections really! What about memorization, and narrations/dictation/copywork??? How important are they?

Thanks for your thoughts. When you say Language Arts, do you just mean English (Spelling, Grammar, Handwriting, Reading) or would you include Latin/French in that as well? My MIL just suggested that too - I have a great, positive, encouraging MIL who homeschooled dh! - so I am thinking that we could stick with SOTW - we have the Audio CDs as well for if we have a long-ish car journey, and Apologia Science. They could always do some activities by themselves if I'm not available to help out for the time being. Absolutely. And being relatively new to all this Classical stuff (!) I think we could really use concentrating on that.

We struggled with daily exercise, until we got a dog. :001_smile: Now dh takes her out for a short walk and ball-chase before he goes to work; I and the dc take her out for a lope and a sniff in the woods after lunch; and usually I then take her for a 1hr walk in the evening. I see you have 2 puppies.. would you be able to do something similar?

:bigear: