Hi everyone, I'm looking for a spelling curriculum for my 8 and 11 year old boys (secular). I need something they can do independently as much as possible. Not looking for something like AAS, I need something I can help them with, but let them run with it. Is there anything like this out there? Thanks!

bump? :D

I want to build my own music history curriculum for my boys (8 and 11). I want to cover world music from the 18th century to present and hit the major milestones and when I enter the 1920's I want to focus a little more on western music. My question is, what online resources do you guys use for teaching music history? Anyone build their own curriculum? How did you do it? If I decided to go with a more pre-made packaged curriculum, what would you suggest? Thanks guys!

I have two DS, 8 and 11. We started with LFC for Latin. About 4 chapters in we realized how bored to death we were despite learning some basic Latin. So we picked up Rosetta Stone Spanish and haven't looked back. We're having a lot of fun with it and it's so much more practical for us. We happen to live in Los Angeles, so there's a rich Latino community here we're surrounded by, giving my kids a lot more tangible reasons to study Spanish. As much as I hear all the rhetoric about learning Latin first, I've yet to truly validate those reasons. Different strokes I suppose. We've found Spanish far more fulfilling and useful. I've also heard it's much easier learning Spanish after learning Latin, but I gotta say, we're having no problem learning Spanish after very little Latin exposure. Oh and let's face it, this country is going to be saturated with Spanish (not Latin) by the time our kids are adults (pretty much is now). Might as well get them prepped as early as possible. Again, no offense to those who go the Latin route first, God knows we tried our hardest to do the same thing.

Have you looked into Growing With Grammar? I have an 8 and 11 year old who love it, and so do I so far.

You guys are awesome! Thanks so much. :)

My 8 year old just can't seem to get through his times tables. No matter how many tricks, games, cards, focused walk throughs we do. We will recite 8x8=64 10 times and then I'll ask him what 8x8 is and he has a blank stare on his face. Oh, and no, he has no learning disabilities whatsoever, he's just not retaining his times tables. And yes, it's been verified that he has no learning disabilities. Any advice welcome. Sorry if I sound short here, I'm just frustrated with this one. We need to move on, but I fear moving on without mastering the times tables will hurt him later on. Thoughts?

My boys (8 and 11) are doing WWW, GWG and WWE. It works well for us. WWE gives me an opportunity to engage more in their writing and I like the variety in stories to review. WWW is proving to be solid too. It allows you to expand on what they offer. I've found they ask for a paragraph or two but if your kid is into writing, he can simply write more and do so in depth if you want. GWG is great for obvious reasons and is our core grammar. I like the combination of all three. FLL has taken a back seat, but we do visit it for the poetry and as an alternative periodically.

On the website you can view sample pages, so just go over those with your kid and take it from there. GWG is also very intuitive and easy to follow, so just plop him into whatever grade level he's currently in and then move at your own pace depending on the difficulty. Good luck!

Some excellent thoughts all around everyone, thanks so much! I have a lot to think about.

Yes, we use the DVD's, a lot. I think what might be happening for us is we're trying to master every chapter before we move on? Do you guys try to memorize all the vocabulary and conjugations before moving on? We do and it takes about 2 weeks per chapter to do so. Hmm, thanks for your thoughts, we are doing what you guys are doing, but maybe we're pushing it a little too hard.

I never said I was using it to teach the concepts of multiplication. My problem is, it gives the answers during the snail parts of the game, which is 75% of the game. Is there a way to turn this off or another way for my kids to solve the problem instead of having the answer laid out for them to simply copy?

Hi everyone, This was fun for the first three chapters, but it's become a little difficult to teach There's no real guide how to teach this to kids. It simply has all the information and they apparently hope you can then give the lesson? I'm learning right along with them, so it's become too hard to teach and strenuous on all of us (two boys, 8, 10). Let me know if there's another choice out there with more detailed instruction, or at least something a new parent can help teach, or even something they can do more independently? Thanks!

For those that use this game for times tables, I noticed the main sequence is when you collect snails, throw them at the wall, which apparently gives you the answer! Then, you simply input the answer. Is there anyway of turning the answer part off so my kids have to actually challenge themselves by solving the problem? Just spent a week using this game and finally realized why they were moving through it so fast. The darn thing is giving them the answer!

This is excellent, thanks so much you guys!