Lively Latin seems very expensive! :( is there anywhere we can get it cheaper?

Is it produced in the US? If so I don't think I can use it here in UK :( as it's a different region for DVDs, although, I think we could use them once we're in Canada (~18mos time).

I've had a look at the Galore Park Latin and it looks good, but there doesn't seem to be any thing after GCSE. If you want to continue Latin after that, what would you choose? If you start with Lively Latin, how would you sync that with Galore Park? Is there an Audio CD that goes with LfC, not just the chants, but the words in the lessons as well? The one thing we liked about Prima Latina was that it had an Audio CD with almost all the words on. Unfortunately, otherwise it doesn't work for us. Thanks!

Ok.. you guys have great advice! :thumbup1: Now I am asking for some more!! We've been homeschooling from the beginning, but only recently started following a classical style curriculum. My older two are in 6th grade and 4th grade, and would like to start Latin with them. We would like to use a course with plenty of grammar and Classical pronounciation (not Ecclesiastical) and preferably an Audio CD, BUT, I don't know any grammar myself and am intending to learn along with the kids. Ordering curricula from the US is not a problem as most will deliver to the UK and if they don't, I have some friends in the US who can order it for me. Any ideas?!

I'm very interested to hear what people suggest.. I also have a 6th grader who needs to start history, but we haven't been using the classical curriculum for long.

I have a friend who uses Math-U-See, which she says works well for her dc. I believe it's very visual.. not sure though.. but it seems that her kids can do most of it by themselves. Math-U-See has it's own website.

Thanks all for your contributions. I think we're saying the same thing.. :confused: for me, "starting school" = "going into Reception" as that's the first year in a school.. depends whether you define Reception as school or not! And yes, it's not compulsory; I didn't mean to imply that going to school in itself was compulsory, because obviously we are permitted by law to homeschool. Neither is it compulsory for a child to start in September, although many schools seem to prefer it according to their websites, and according to the schools that I have personal experience of. If the intake dates vary from country to country, (Sept-Aug, March-Feb, or Jan-Dec) then I would suggest that it's not quite accurate to say that this grade equals that year. However, this wasn't really the point of my original post. I have been trying to ascertain what grade to place my children in, on the basis that we are planning to move to Canada next fall, and I would prefer to at least know where my children would be placed, if they went to school. I do plan to homeschool right the way through, but I'm aware that life doesn't always go the way you want, so I was wanting to make sure that should the children ever need to go to school, they wouldn't be behind. I guess I just needed to vent a little, but if anyone is from Canada I would be glad to hear exactly how it works for you in your province. Thanks again.

Here in England, you go to school in the September of the academic year you turn 5 - ie, anyone who is 5yo between Sept. 2010 and Aug. 2011 starts school next month. But I have just realised that in Canada, where we are headed Lord willing in a year or so, children will start school next month if they turn 5 from Jan. 2010 to Dec. 2010. This makes a difference because? Three of my children, two of which are well into their HS journey, have birthdays between September and December. So rather than being the oldest in the year, they have suddenly become some of the youngest. I had been placing my 10yo in G5 and my 8yo in G3 in my plans for this coming year, only to realise (much belatedly) that they should actually be in G6 and G4 :001_huh: So now I am having to figure out to how to catch up, since we are a whole grade behind - and more in a few things where they've struggled. Eugh.

Thanks so much for your input. It sounds like if I was able to get the older edition books, I wouldn't have to bother with buying Geometry - but I guess it depends what's available when I get to that stage. Perhaps, given the frequency with which Saxon changes their curriculum, it might all be different anyway!!

We've been using Saxon from the beginning and have been happy with it.. it's a good fit for us. But.. I am just mulling over what happens when my kids get to the stage, in a few years time, when they come to do high school math and there's effectively an extra year to be completed, now that Saxon have separated Geometry into an individual course. How do you fit this in? Is it supposed to be done after Algebra 1, or 2? If Saxon have simply taken the Geometry work out of Algebra 1, 2, and Advanced Math, is it possible to do all four courses over three grades? Thanks in advance for your thoughts.

I'm not sure whether Abeka includes this, but Explode the Code has some teaching about sounding words out as if you were looking at the symbols used in a dictionary (kwim?), which I thought might be handy to know.

We use Explode the Code but not as a supplement to Abeka, so I'm not sure how it would fit in with that. My 10yo and 8yo really enjoy doing it, they think the little pictures are quite funny! They do their books once a week, and we've only used the whole number books. I believe the half numbers are for extra practice if you think your child would benefit from doing more.

You sound like you have a real busy household! I have four children (haven't managed to figure out how to put some info at the bottom of my posts yet, but I'll get there!) and I'm struggling to figure out how we get everything done this year too. I was wondering if there was any mileage in having a sort of change about schedule, where I did the essentials (for me that's english and math) every day, and then sometimes doing some subjects and sometimes doing others. In the past I've planned my schedule only to find that I never get through everything and I get so disheartened. The kids likewise get a knock on their motivation. I've also thought about maybe scheduling regular little holidays, but am reluctant to do that as I know that we do take time off for unplannable (sp?) things like doctor appointments, car repairs etc. more often than I would like. I wish you the best of luck figuring it out! Probably lots of people run up against this sooner or later!