I came home from work this evening to find my dd making Greek alphabet worksheets for herself cutting and pasting from things she found on Google images. She started asking me questions, and to me, well, it's Greek :o) Since she seem interested, are there any online resources I can direct her to? She's already doing Latin and some self-study French, so I don't see us picking anything up beyond the alphabet anytime soon. I also don't plan on ordering next year's school books before June, so I'd rather not pay shipping on a single workbook before then. If her interest holds (and it may), I'll throw something in the cart this summer. Thanks for your thoughts!

What grade would you recommend doing this?

We've tested out of level for Standford, and will this year again. It's helpful for, "Gee we need to brush up on capitalization, eh?" type of info, and for just for getting into the swing of test taking. Dd had some odd ideas about how to take a test, to say the least, so I'm glad we've done it. We also never really knew for sure if we'd home school all the way through, and the private schools around here use the Stanford. It would be a lot easier to advocate for higher grade placement if we had the test they use showing ability at the higher grade level. I think will switch to a talent search test next year, though.

That would work great for us. TE on the iPad. We cut the binding off and 3 hole punch the student books, anyhow. I hope they consider selling them loose leaf. I'm sure as the series gets more advanced, the books will be thicker. I'm considering Hake + CAP. We're doing LoE this year, and really love having things integrated.

It reviews very well. I'm have a hard time visualizing it. Pros? Cons? Does it really say "Photocopying this product strictly prohibited under copyright law" on the bottom of every. single. page? I know this sounds whiny, but I can never get past that in set of books that costs $100 and looks like they came from Kinkos. I exit out of the sample and go look for something else every time. Is there something else out there for logic stage grammar I'm missing? Thanks!

I think it's a classical school, so they may be covering it with their Latin program plus a light grammar program (like Memoria Press does). I've ordered a few levels of older Holt/ Warriner's English textbooks. I think we'll use pieces and parts of those b/c they teach sentence diagramming in addition to having nice extras to supplement CAP.

Did someone say Grade 7 would be out in August? What about 6? I can't find it on the site. I'd be interested in release dates for grades 6 and 7. Dd's read many of the readers/ read alouds in 5 (F) already (and D and E, unfortunately before the school year began last year- glad I bought everything used). The grade 6 LA and science might work out if they iron out a few of the my dislikes from SL G. I'll be curious what they (BSh?) replaces science with for 7 and up. ETA: LOL BSh is even worse... giggling. Maybe BkSh?

Wheat free but not gluten free would make a Celiac very sick. BTDT

Maybe just one read aloud schedule/ set of books?

Look at the Number Theory book. Some choose it instead of the the PreA book. ETA; Patty Paper Geometry is another to look at.

Catherine Down has suggestions for what to do after Lively Latin 2 on her site. Henle is one of the suggestions, as I recall. If you are just starting out, there is a chance she might have LL3 available in 3 years when you need it. LL2 is a 2 year program. LL seems to grammar based with smattering of translation and a good amount of English vocabulary (I opted not to use Vocab from Classical Roots for fourth grade b/c LL covered the same material so well.) We like it, it gets done. ETA- #22 on this page talks about what to do afterwards: http://livelylatin.com/faqs/#faq_6 HTH

I'm not sure Sonlight would schedule what you want scheduled. A used core might be a starting place, if you can get a good price. It would be worth looking at though. Memoria Press might work if you looked at some of their individual lesson plans. Oak Meadow might be worth looking at too.

What are your grade levels? I was really struggling with this, so I looked at a couple of complete programs (in our case, mostly Kolbe and some Memoria Press). Even though we didn't go with either one, I used what they teach at a level as a guide and swapped in the materials I wanted. So, for 4th grade, I looked at this: http://kolbe.org/academics/curriculum-grade-level/elementary/fourth-grade-curriculum/ and this: http://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/fourth-grade-curriculum Then as you can see by my signature, I'm using a lot of equivalent materials, but not the exact ones. Once you have that, you just divide by the number of weeks in your school year, plop each subject into a spreadsheet and check off as you go. I like my weeks down the side and books at the top, that way when I get behind or ahead, it still functions as a check list. Nothing gets lost when I turn a page, and there's no panic when I'm out of sync, because I can see the big picture. I don't put a lot of info on the spread sheets, but I do have a weekly checklist for each kid I pull from it. It takes me less than hour on Friday afternoon to pull my checklists together for my dd and tutoring students. HTH

What materials have you used with her successfully? I doubt you'd be able to just pick-a-box, unless it was a box of stuff that is already working for you. For us, it works much better to have a spreadsheet and a couple of key forms I made. I have a serious box-checker kiddo, and there is really not a all-in-one that would even work for her.

Has anyone used Wolfram Alpha for solutions? I've never played with it, but when solutions guides for popular math textbooks run $40-$99, the annual $50 (I think) to Wolfram's paid side seems reasonable. Thoughts? Am I completely misunderstanding the site? Thanks!

For writing, my dd really likes CAP's Writing and Rhetoric. I would also recommend a subscription to Stone Soup magazine. She regularly writes stories without being asked. I see many high school level writing concepts covered in CAP, but in a kid-friendly format. We owned MCT Island level, and while we liked it, it just didn't click for us like it does some families. I really like his 100 words list, though. For literature, I created a discussion and writing assignment sheet based on SWB's lectures (read, talk, write) and use the book list in my signature. Good Luck!

Sold! Sign us up...

Link, please?

Can you expand on this? Which version did you use? This DM 7 is on my short list for next year. Thanks!

That does help. We really just need the writing part, oddly. Everything else seems to happen on it's own. It's kind've scary how much stuff we've already done from the Home Science Tools catalog. We're to the point where we are waiting for math to catch up with science. What level did you use? Are the teacher guides helpful/ useful? Thanks!

Well, arg. Back to plan A... I know the "open a vein feeling". Don't want to go there.

Has anyone tried these? Are they a core curriculum or more of a supplement? Is the ScienceSaurus part necessary, or could we just look information up in Kingfisher? I think my dd would love them: http://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=11&category=2828 Thanks!

To be honest, I haven't looked at the others very closely. I understand there isn't a solutions manual for the chemistry, and I think we'll go a different direction for biology and physics. For us, I think the OM course will be a good one-off for a specific need. I think the samples are representative of the materials. I bought the syllabus on sale in February and with a used text book, I've got less that $40 with shipping in all of it.

Small hijack- This is the sequence I have in the back of my mind for dd. She's doing Oak Meadow high school Environmental Science for 5th (her pick) next year. We've struggled to find appealing middle school science that isn't either full of busy work or she hasn't already done most of the hands-on for. Can you (or anyone else) comment if it would it make sense to spread DO's physical science over 6th and 7th and pair it with substantial science fair projects, or should we do DO in one year in 7th and find something else for 6th? She's very strong in math. Also, what math did your DC do those years (if it's okay to ask)? Thanks!