I have been working on revising our schedule for the upcoming school year, and have been following the guidelines in TWTM regarding how much time to spend on each subject. I thought I was done, and then I realized literature wasn't on the list. I'm wondering how long some of you allot for literature? To clarify why I'm asking, my daughter tends to go through everything quickly. If we actually spent 40 minutes per day on grammar, for example, she would probably do 4 lessons or more! However, I feel like 5-10 minutes is too little, so I have blocked 30 minutes on the schedule for grammar. I will have her do two lessons per day, and if there is a lot of time left, we can add another one.

I haven't been great at keeping it updated, and I gave up on weekly updates long ago, but I did just make a new post about our history decisions the other day. :D http://allthatschool.blogspot.com/

:lurk5:

Thanks! I'll look into it!

This will be the first year that my girls (going into 3rd and 5th) won't be doing science together. My 5th grader is going to be doing logic stage biology from Elemental Science. However, I'm not sure which way I want to go with my 3rd grader. I'm leaning toward either Elemental Science Chemistry or RSO Chemistry. Any pros/cons/likes/dislikes for either of those programs? Is there something else out there that might be worth looking into that you like better? Thanks for any feedback!

This will be the first year that my girls will be doing separate science at home. My 3rd grader will be doing Apologia Zoo III at co-op, but I'm also looking into something for her at home as well. I think I'm torn between RSO chemistry and Elemental Science chemistry. Any likes and dislikes for either of those choices? Do you have something that you like better that I should look into instead? ***I'm not picky regarding viewpoint. When I teach science, I am teaching my children science, not religion. I want them exposed to all beliefs regarding science.

Thanks for sharing!

For the record, I'm a creationist, but I plan on teaching my children all of the different viewpoints of science. I don't see anything wrong with providing them with all of the data regarding different theories and letting them figure out for themselves which one makes the most sense to them. I know I, certainly, cannot fit into any scientific box. I believe that God put us here as we are, not that all life started as a single-celled nothing. But I also believe that the theory of the big bang could be possible. It doesn't give explicit details in the Bible about how God made the earth. We don't know whether there was a big bang or not. He certainly could have made it that way. I also don't know how old the earth is. Humans lived to be 900 years old in the Old Testament. But what does that mean? Probably not 900 years as we calculate them today. So, I will present my children with all of the material and let them sort it out. As long as they're learning the basic building blocks, I'm happy. :D Just the mention of frog dissection has the smell of formaldehyde in my head. :lol: Wouldn't it be relatively simple to put together your own evolution unit to go along with whatever you're using? Especially if you do it toward the end of the year once your child sort of knows the process. Gather some books, do some reading and experiments, and have them write a short report or outline about it. I'm leaning toward Elemental Science myself, and thinking that I would like to add some extra experiments to it just for fun.

Seekers and Warriors. Before that it was all nonfiction, especially field guides. :D

We just recently started using Charlotte Mason's Book of Centuries. Wall space is at a premium since I purchased my Billy bookcases from Ikea to line a wall and a half, and the binder fits nicely on the new bookshelves! You should check it out, it's free! Eventually, maybe once we get used to the idea, I'll have each child keep their own Book of Centuries, but right now, we just have the one and I'm showing them how to enter the dates they run across in their studies.

I just looked through the sample pages for Elemental Science. I really, really like the look of that. I'm curious about something, though. Does it really take an hour and a half to put some water on a piece of bread, define a couple words, and fill out the experiment sheet? That seems light to me. It seems like you should be able to start a second experiment with the left over time. If you use Elemental Science, do you find yourself supplementing?

What about this as an option? Use a combination of SOTW and UILEWH as the spine, following the schedule set up on CHOLL. Also assign some of the literature options from CHOLL. However, instead of following the entire CHOLL program as it's laid out, write down facts from UILEWH and outline from SOTW. Then the student can still chose a topic of interest to do extra research on, i.e. silkworms or the Trojan Horse. And you can still have them outline from the extra source instead of SOTW if desired. Is there a flaw in that plan that I'm not seeing? Am I missing something?

I like the look of those slides. I had a super old microscope when I was a kid. (I think it belonged to my grandpa.) It used a mirror underneath instead of a light, and it was all metal and really heavy. I loved that thing. I used to like to kill mosquitos and then examine them under the microscope. The picture of the insect mandible on that link reminded me of that. :lol:

I agree! I was thinking I was all set for History Odyssey and RS4K, and then I just HAD to get TWTM from the library to "double check" some things. :D I was looking for that Note Taking & Outlining book earlier, thinking we could go through it over the summer, since we school year round. It looks to be out of print on Amazon! At least the 3-5 level. I think I may have found a replacement for it, though.

After looking through some of the science kits, I realize that I can probably do some of that for cheaper, too, especially on the botany front. My girls usually help me plant seeds each spring, and we can certainly apply the scientific method to that instead of purchasing a $30 kit to put plants in. Also, it looks like if you follow the suggested time frames, there are way more kits than you would actually need for 36 weeks, right?

I hope you replied in the science thread, too! I totally was going to go a different way for history AND science, but you all make it seem like I can do it TWTM way! :D

Same here... We have to have a plumber snake our basement drain about every 8 months or so. If we don't, the washing machine makes the drain start to back up. I don't have any funds that's aren't listed, except for car license renewal. It's almost $100/car for us and our birthdays are a month apart, so it's nice to be prepared for that.

Since everyone has been so helpful with history, now I'm looking at WTM science! I thought I was all set to use the RS4K middle school program, but now I'm not sure. If you follow TWTM, do you use the sequence suggested? And what about the experiment kits? Do you use them all? Or just some of them, based on interest? I think I added them up for biology to total over $400, so I'm guessing they aren't all used. Any ways you tweak the program? Thanks in advance!

I think with the new format, there's an emoticon above the text box. (I'm on my phone right now.)

I think the one I have collecting dust is the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History. I got it when I purchased SOTW 1, but have never really used it. We've been working off and on at SOTW 1 for about 3 or 4 years now! We keep taking breaks and then returning to it. Now that both of my girls are a little older, they can actually do the summarizations orally to me, and it's much less frustrating! In the past it was like pulling teeth! Of course, now we're taking a break to do a US History unit study. :p I definitely have my homework cut out for me trying to make a decision!

I have the UIHW, but not the KHE. I guess I'll either use the UIHW and do it the way it's recommended in the 3rd edition, or purchase the KHE at some point. I also really, really like the look of the CHOLL! So many options!

Wow! That's impressive! Thanks for sharing.

Thanks for the info! I like the idea of doing the outlining directly from the spine text. We will be using the Usborne one, though, so I'll have to take a look and see if it lends itself to that. What is CHOLL? (I can't find the abbreviation list on the new forum.) I'll research that. Thanks!

I'm torn for 5th grade for next year. I think I am trying to decide between History Odyssey and following exactly what the WTM books says. I think my daughter would benefit from having the checklist that History Odyssey provides, and I know I would benefit from having the resource at my fingertips, but at the same time, I wonder if we should just bite the bullet and try the WTM way. (I know I can make my own checklist for my daughter, so that she knows the routine of reading, writing down facts, finding the location on the map/globe/atlas, etc.) So, if you have done the WTM way, how did it work for you? Did you miss having a curriculum? In what ways did you tweak it, if any? Any tips would be extremely helpful!

Were you using the middle school one? I have been looking into this for next year, but my daughter hasn't had any chemistry yet.