But how do we know it isn't genitive? The daughters of the poet?

Thucydides is readable, and parts are fascinating. I used the Landmark Thucydides, which is awesome because it helps you keep track of where and when you are. All ancient books need this treatment :) (There's a Landmark Herodotus, too.) However, I also recommend The Portable Greek Historians: The Essence of Herodotus, Thucydides, Xenophon, Polybius. It has the essential parts of Thucydides and Herodotus, and it has a nice introduction.

Newer copies change up the language a little, so Dolce Donum becomes Home Sweet Home, for example. This is a chapter title, so you should be able to check the table of contents on Amazon do see if they've changed it. My favorite is bizarrely illustrated by Arthur Rackham, but Shephard is iconic and Graham is amazing.

In fifth and sixth grade we will finish Singapore through 6B and supplement with Dolciani Modern School Mathematics, Structure and Method (kind of a pre-algebra program.) (I was also tempted by Russian Math 6 to supplement Singapore.) If we're far enough along and I feel the maturity is there, we'll start algebra in seventh. But eighth would be fine, too. And finishing Algebra I in ninth grade would be acceptable. I think my son is fairly strong in math, and I'd like to keep him on track for starting Calculus in high school. But If he just finishes pre-calc with a good foundation, I'll be happy. I've been researching what professors have to say about their entering college students. I'm reading that they're disappointed with their facility with fractions and decimals. I've come to believe that it is best to make sure that the pre-algebra stuff is solid before moving on.

The line is down the middle, vertically. Below the line we put address label stickers with dates and relevant info on it. Mostly I write, but sometimes my son writes. Above we do pictures. My son draws well, and has done several drawings. And we've printed some off of the internet.

At the risk of repeating what I wrote in that thread, take a look at flashcard programs that do the repetitions for you. I use Mnemosyne. Basically, when I want to memorize something, I make a flashcard in my flashcard program. Each day, the program presents some cards for me to grade on how well I know them. I grade from one to five, based on how well I know the information. If I give a high score, then it will show me the card less often in the future. If I give a low score, I get the card more often in the future. This program has been so helpful to my son and me. We use it for both Spanish and Latin. Neither of us memorize easily, and I need something like this. As I said, I use Mnemosyne, but if I were starting from scratch I would consider Anki, which seems more popular and might have better support on different platforms, like the IPhone, or IPod Touch.

I am using Using Latin, a later version of the same book, as a supplement to Henle for myself. There are 95 lessons in the book, and each lesson starts with a short story, introducing five to ten vocabulary words. There is a fairly terse grammar explanation, and about twenty exercises each lesson. I have been through more than half of Henle I, and at this point I feel that I could teach from this book. I'm not sure I could have learned from scratch using this book, and I really don't think my son could. The copy I have was used by my husband's great uncle in the ninth grade. I have books one and two. My copies are very cute, as they have his little doodles and scratches in the margins :) I know, that doesn't help you at all. Pros: I that there are so many fairly interesting stories with vocabulary that builds. Cons: I don't think the grammar lesson itself is enough. I think it's an excellent supplement.

GWG is solid. We started with 3, and are using book 5 now. Each year repeats important concepts and builds a little. I plan to stay with it until the series runs out. My son does GWG lightly, doing only three to five problems in each section of the lesson. If he gets those wrong, we review the lesson and I assign more. We do all diagramming together on the white board. We are also doing Latin and Spanish. Grammar helps the languages, and the languages help the grammar.

I used the Lattimore translations for all of the plays, but I liked the Oresteia, and hope to read the Fagles someday. I enjoyed Fagles Odyssey.

Guys, have you looked at the flashcard programs recently mentioned on the main board? I use Mnemosyne, but another poster used Anki. I use them for Spanish and Latin, for both my son and me. They both used "Spaced Repetition", which sounds a lot like Laura's system. When you're first learning a card, you're asked daily. You grade how well you recall it. As you give it higher scores (five, I know it cold, one, I don't know it at all), it will, from then on, ask you less and less often. Here is the program that I use: Mnemosyne

I use something similar called Mnemosyne. My son and I both have decks for Latin and Spanish. I'm working toward sharing my decks for Latin for Children, Spanish for Children, Henle, and Madrigal Spanish. Each morning I fire up Mnemosyne and load a deck. It shows me a card and I translate it. I give a grade of one through five based on how easy it was for me. Then it shows the next card. If I give the card a low score, it will show the card more frequently in the future. If I give the card a high score, it will show it less and less frequently.

We went through the handbook together, then my son did the worksheets indepently through fourth grade. (However, we've always done all diagramming together on the white board.) This year, in fifth grade, my son reads the handbook independently. But he was a late reader, and only began reading on grade level this year. I don't assign every problem. I do three to five problems of each section, and if they're done correctly and without fuss, he's done. If he asks questions, I answer, then add more problems if needed to be sure he understands.

Classical Writing Beginning Poetry and Homer A Spelling only from Writing Road to Reading, and Spelling City for independent study Growing with Grammar 5 Latin for Children B Spanish for Children A Independent reading for History, Science, and Fiction Read-alouds in the same categories

Here are two possibilities: First, run through one of Zaner Bloser's "Self Instruction in Handwriting Books". I had terrible handwriting when I began teaching, so I did the adult book. I did it daily through the summer, and did a great deal of good. Here is a link for middle school students: Self Instruction in Handwriting for Middle School The second possibility, if you goal is just legibility, is to get the Fly Fusion Pentop Computer Fly Fusion Website Fly Fusion on Amazon I haven't tried this, but the professional reviews are good. You have to write clearly to get the pen to understand what you're writing. It is marketed to middle school. If anyone has tried this, let us know! Dee

We're starting these books as well. We're going to be doing Course 1 (grade 7) concurrently with Singapore 5B, 6A, and 6B, then Course 2 (grade 8). My observations so far is the the language and vocabulary are rather rich for my just-turned-eleven year old. So we will be doing part of the problems together on the white board.

On the other hand... My son didn't really, solidly, memorize those facts except through using them. Could you add a few minutes of math fact review at a different part of the day, but keep going through your main curriculum, more slowly if needed? As I said in a different thread, I had my son make up a times table every day that he could use that day if he needed it. That isn't all we did to learn math facts, but it helped, and it kept us going until he didn't need the table any more.

My husband has a masters in Computer Science, which is an engineering degree at Michigan State. (Or at least was, all those years ago.) As with all engineering degrees, many students wash out the second year during Diff Eq/Calculus Physics/Dynamics, etc. Be sure that he really has his math down. And he should expect to work very hard. My husband had semesters that he lived on Coke and Snickers and hardly ever saw the outside of the computer lab. There were many, many all-nighters. There were nights his entire class was on-line at 3 AM. In other words, brains and perserverence. Once he graduates, being able to write well and clearly is a real advantage. Many computer science majors don't write English particularly well. My husband's working conditions are ideal (he works at home :) ), he loves the work, and he's paid pretty well.

The Way WE Work by David Macauley. This is the author of The Way Things Work. My son, who is a little squeamish, liked this one. Note well, however, that some of the images in the last chapter are a bit, well, um, they're pretty clear.

Basically, yes. The series was called "Course Name": Structure and Method, in the early sixties. Then the whole series was renamed to Modern School Mathematics: "Course Name", in the late sixties. Then it was changed back to "Course Name": Structure and Method, Revised Edition, in the early seventies. During the Modern School Mathematics era, there were the two pre-algebra books, called Modern School Mathematics: Structure and Method 7 and 8. I have these, like them, and plan to use them. The names were later changed to Mathematics: Structure and Method Course 1 and 2. Then, later, came Pre-algebra, an Accelerated Course. I think that Modern Introductory Analysis never changed names. Whether it has changed content, I don't know. The books from the different eras are similar. The order is different. Sometimes chapters have been added, condensed, or split. I haven't analyzed the differences in depth. There was an elementary school series called Modern School Mathematics, Structure and Use. I got the sixth grade book, and it is terrible. Don't bother with these. They are probably what eventually killed "new math".

What we did: Through third grade: Calculadders. Fourth grade: Times Tables the Fun Way, then Math War. (Each put out a number card. If he could quickly call out the product, he got the cards. If not, I did.) Fifth grade: Every morning, first thing, he filled out a times table, then he could use it for math later in the day. When he didn't need a times table for math, he could stop filling them out in the morning.

I agree with Treehouse. The point of knowing math facts is to do the later operations without being slowed down by fact recall. Once my son was able to do long division comfortably, we stopped drill.

If you're buying now, my advice is to start with the student editions, and buy the ones in good shape. They're most likely to be teacher's editions, but the seller doesn't realize it. The marking for teacher's editions is subtle. I figure that if the book is in good shape, it is more likely to have lived it's life in a teacher's desk than in a series of studen lockers! :)

My son talked late, potty trained late, does not memorize easily, took forever on math facts, and, yes, did not read fluently until he was nine. Now he is nearly eleven and is reading at least on grade level. We used just about everything you mentioned, and nothing really worked. In third grade, we dropped much of our content subjects and concentrated hard on reading, using The Writing Road to Reading. It worked. I'm not sure it was the program - it may have just been the timing. But I know it is a good program. When he was reading little, we did almost all subjects orally, but he was required to do handwriting and copywork each day.

I have a 1962 edition/1965 impression called Modern Algebra: Structure and Method, Book 1. Then came Modern School Mathematics Algebra I. Then they changed back to Modern Algebra: Structure and Method. I have a 1970 Algebra I: Structure and Method, Revised Edition. Just to confuse things further, I also have Modern Algebra and Trigonometry: Structure and Method, Book 2 from 1963/1965, Modern School Mathematics: Algebra 2 and Trigonometry (1968/1971) and Modern School Mathematics: Geometry (1969). And, to confuse things further yet, I have books called Modern School Mathematics: Structure and Method 7 and Modern School Mathematics: Structure and Method 8, both from 1967, that are for seventh and eighth grades, basically pre-algebra. It's been tricky to get stuff to match up :) Fortunately, most of them were cheap. And the first three I ordered were teacher's editions, though I only ordered Student Editions. I hope this makes some sense :)

If it's the easiest problem on the page, it may just be a brain bubble. The cure for a brain bubble is to walk away from math for a little while. The next day it may make complete sense to him :) If that doesn't work, you may also want to keep a second algebra book to pull off of the shelf for a different explanation. And, actually, wikipedia has some pretty good math explanations. Dee p. s. Now that I've seen the problem, I'd also add that he should draw a picture whenever possible, especially on story problems.