Thank you for responding! I am surprised that there hasn't been more responses! What do you think about the writing instruction? I am wondering about the 700 level.

Anyone using CLE English? If so, what do you think of it? Is it a difficult program to "jump" into? Is there a lot of review? How independent is it at the 400 level and on up? Also, what do you think of the spelling? Do you supplement the spelling or is it "enough" on its own? Thanks for any info.!

Not excited. I was supposed to FlyLady the entire house, purge our books (as if), lose atleast 10 pounds, spends lots of time at the pool, and do a unit study on Lewis & Clark. Instead, I would just as soon move out, I have more books than we started with, I am as flabby as ever, and I relegated all learning to "delight-directed" which means one kiddo is obsessed with coins (actually getting quite a bit of history with that, so that's good) and the other is apparently working on his character development (considering how often I am blessed with the opportunity to give him correction). We've been to the pool twice because "it's too hot". I'll probably start getting excited in about... three weeks.

Paula's Archives has the chart that coordinates SOTW with CHOW.

We are going to try SS when we start back this fall. I used the sample lesson with my 9 yo and he loved it. He actually wanted to do more and more. Something about it really motivated him. I am going to teach some rules as they come up. As I was going through the sample lesson I found that it just felt natural to address things as I thought of them. (ex., why is the "n" doubled in begin/ning?) So, I'm going to teach the rules but within the context of the lessons in SS, not as a separate thing. Unless I hit the lotto and then I will purchase the Logic of English, but that probably won't happen... :).

This is great news! Thanks! :party:

We got it from the library. We loved it but I was content to use a borrowed copy.

No, I had not seen that! Thanks! I just downloaded the samples.

Here is one: http://www.history2u.com/index.htm There are sample clips. I don't know anything about the perspective/point of view but the clips I have seen look really good.

I love the KJV read by Andrew Scourby. http://www.christianbook.com/scourby-kjv-complete-bible-audio-mp3/9780899575957/pd/75957?event=AAI I have a resource called Shakespeare for the Ears that is great! It is the best resource I have for Shakespeare. My version was purchased as a CD and includes some of the full plays. I'm not sure what all the MP3 includes, but you can check it out here: http://www.homeschoolradioshows.com/Shakespeare/

Does History Odyssey include writing instruction in the guide? The description for the Modern Times Level 2 guide says: "Modern Times level two is a student guide that provides step by step lessons to learn world history from 1850 to the 21st Century. Students will also learn how to write an essay, how to write a research paper, literary analysis, critical thinking and analytical skills." So, it sounds like it does. If you have used this guide did you include other writing instruction?

Thank you! That's exactly what I thought about doing. I actually have the Norton Anthology, so maybe we'll just do that with Hakim.

We used Heart of Dakota this year and the author doesn't think a student should skip the 5th grade book, so we used it based on her suggestion. I thought the 5th grade book was considered a "foundational" text and have been told that the 5th and 6th grade books should both be taught even if you plan to go to another grammar curriculum. I have asked here on this board about skipping a book and I think every response I received was to not skip any book after book 5. I had wanted to go to 6 this year but didn't because I was afraid he would miss something important. He actually really likes the writing instruction in R&S and it's been good for him. We will be using WWS next year so we will probably skip the writing in R&S at that point. We do like the writing though.

Anyone know if Uncle Tom's Cabin is appropriate independent reading for an 8th grader? Or, as a read-aloud for a 5th and 8th grader? My teacher's manual lists it for 7+ but it seems I most often see it listed for 11th+. The TM says there is a "subtle portrayal of a slave owner's sexual advances to a slave" so I thought I'd ask the Hive. I started pre-reading it this summer but I haven't gotten very far and it's so long. I think this is one of those that we only got excerpts from when I was in school.

Hunter, what can you tell us about SOW in particular? I mean, I have looked at their site before but just can't get a feel for what it actually is. Is it kind of like Bedell Curriculum (are you familiar with that?) where they go through the Bible and then study topics (history, geography, science) as they come up in the Bible? I would really like to see it in person. EDIT: Nevermind. I don't want to hijack this thread. I will look for the yahoo group!!

Thanks! We'll be studying our state's history next year, so this is very timely. I purchased the lapbook and the journal.

I have it and plan to start it when we finish Getting Started With Latin. I'm guessing we'll start around January. I had a tough time finding reviews. I don't think I found anything here at TWTM... atleast not anything very favorable :001_huh:. Seems most think it's dry and tedious. I was nervous because I didn't really look for reviews here until I had already purchased it and it was in the mail and on the way here. But, after I got it, I went through everything (except the DVDs, haven't tackled that yet) and I like it. We happen to do well with dry and tedious here :D. It is well structured, very orderly and looks easy to use. I like the notebook approach. Let me know if you have any specific questions. I'll be glad to pull it all out and try to help. I had the sample before I purchased it but didn't really have a feel for it until I had it all in hand.

:)

I've often wondered about this. For those of you who are using R&S with WWS... do your students do both everyday or do you alternate days? We are "behind" with R&S. We just get so bogged down with it. My 8th grader will only be in R&S 6 next year. He's used R&S 3, 4 and 5 along with other things for writing. I have usually alternated days. That's one reason it's taken us forever. I want him to go through R&S 6 at a much quicker pace, so I guess he will be doing both R&S and WSS everyday. Just wondering what the rest of you are doing. I've considered changing his grammar to something that has more review in the beginning so he can go in at grade level. I've looked at BJU. I talked to one of their reps. and I think it would work well to do that with it. I am pretty sure he could go into BJU English 8 with no difficulty but he likes R&S and I already have it, so I'm just not sure if we should change or not.

One of my friends posted this as her Facebook status today: Today is the anniversary of D Day and my father God rest his soul was an army paratrooper and he was shot and hid from the Germans and a French family found him and hid him until the Americans came and took him he was awarded the Purple Heart as well as a honor certificate from President Charles DeGaull . I love and miss my Daddy and I am proud of him. :patriot:

I want one!! :bigear:

Poker... walk around... be warm... sounds like New Orleans. Except it would be really warm. We honeymooned in NO and have gone there for many anniversaries. We love NO.

Ummm... yes, I guess in comparison to HOD (because HOD is so very well put together, especially Preparing Hearts) but I didn't think it was a problem when we were using it. I've read and heard of that being a frequent complaint with SL but it wasn't an issue for me. You are covering alot of territory by doing the one year of history and by having a good bit of geography in there too, so I think it is to be expected that it would jump around some... the combined SL cores are juggling alot of info. Have you considered the separate cores rather than the combined? Yes, I do believe they were tied in... I can't remember how well but yes, they are tied into your history... not as much as with Preparing but they are. Some books don't tie into the history at all. I guess I should probably look at a new catalog because they may have improved that a bit with the new IGs. But they are all so good. I just don't think it matters all that much for that age. If you want your books to really flow together and for the read-alouds to correlate (dare I say "perfectly"?) you may be happier with Preparing Hearts.

My suggestions: 1) The Over the Shoulder Baby-holder (it's a sling type carrier) 2) Teaching Textbooks in that order :001_smile:.

Have you seen this sample? http://www.heartofdakota.com/pdf/PHFHG-sample-week.pdf There are pages in the back of the guide that include the spelling passages, the poetry, info. about using the guide for older children, a bibliography for each of the storytime titles (brief info. here, nothing like SL's book notes, just a couple of sentences to summarize the book plus the ISBNs), a bibliography for the extension package books, the schedule for the extension package books, science lab page, narration tips for the teacher, How to Narrate page for the student, a teacher's list to help with written narration skills, student list for written narration skills, and alternative schedules for Singapore Math. We used B+C for the last half of third grade and fourth grade. I supplemented it with Story of the World II and added in some literature (for example, we read a full unabridged Robin Hood instead of the Usborne Robin Hood that was scheduled). That's why it took a year and a half. It's FINE as written, my son just happened to get obsessed with the middle ages and wanted more info. And, because he was older I thought he needed the extra info. In retrospect, B+C alone would be plenty but we did enjoy it and he learned a ton. That is still his favorite time-period. Other than beefing up that portion of the history (middle ages) we mostly used it as is. I know it's hard to make a choice. I think the main advantage of Preparing for us was the Language Arts. If you are happy with what you have in place now for LA, you could just add parts of Preparing if you want to. The extension books are very good. You may want to add a couple of them. We really needed the LA instruction that year. My son was headed into 5th grade and could barely write a short narration but after Preparing he was writing long paragraphs and enjoying it.