Yes, it can be done alone.

Couldn't have said it better than this.

We are using it next year. I briefly read through those worksheets/graphic organizers and decided I would not use them all. It will make science dreadful if I use all of them. Pick and choose what interests you and your student. As for setting up Lab notebook or answers to worksheets, I have no idea yet. Hope someone will chime in. :bigear:

We did MotH last year and neither of us got it. I wasn't going to do Building Poem this year, but we've done everything else for the year so I thought poetry might worth another try. We started a couple of weeks ago, and I feel that ds got it much better this time. He likes it a lot, actually. Don't worry about them not being able to analyse a poem perfectly, or not able to come up with a poem according to the recipe. It is good enough as long as they can identify some elements in a poem, or utilize some in their own poem writing process. In addition, almost all the things covered in MotH are covered again in Building poem, just in a deeper way. I don't tweak MCT poetry. Actually, MCT is the ONLY curriculum that I don't tweak. I've used his program for two years that I trust him enough to use it as-is. As for poetry, I really don't know enough to tweak:tongue_smilie:. I am learning it along with ds, and I think he is doing better than me.

MCT does take some getting used to if you have used a more traditional curriculum before. While MCT clicked with us right away, I have found that spending some time to go over the teacher's sections before you plunge into those four books helps tremendously. Since you won't start until this fall, you may want to spend a couple of days in the summer to read over those teacher's sections in the back of the books, then you want to read a couple of chapters from each book and see how you wan to structure your teaching. MCT is very EASY to implement, once you spend a couple of days doing your "homework", it's pretty much open and go. I wrote in another thread that we did not enjoy the poetry component last year so I didn't plan to use Building Poem this year. Well, I had a change of heart a couple of weeks ago and decided to trust MCT. Guess what? Ds is loving it! While I still don't get some parts of meters, ds is thriving in this book and asks to do it everyday. Today, he composed his very first limerick and announced that he is going to start writing lots of them and put them in a book. How's that? Does that convince you now?:D

Ds is both visual and auditory when it comes to learning, and I am not sure if it's the "learning style" that makes this curriculum clicks with someone. We've tried different language arts programs before, none of them made sense to ds. With MCT, it just makes so much sense to him. The author uses words and phrases kids can relate to to speak to them, he does not talk down to them. Ds feel that Mr. Thompson writes as if he has such high expectation of him because he believes he can handle the material. He (Mr. Thompson) asks intelligent questions in a very non-threatening way. Plus, he has a great sense of humor. I don't know how many times we burst out laughing during lessons. It's really hard to put a finger to it. I still don't know why ds respects MCT and his authority so much. He has never done that with any curriculum writers.

We have used Christian Heroes Then and Now in the past two years and have enjoyed many of them. Some of them are better written than others, but they are all good in general. We especially like: Hudson Taylor Eric Liddell George Mueller Did not like as much: David Livingston Gladys Aylward When I was in junior high/high school, I adored Isobel Kuhn's books. I've read every single one of them. Here is her first book, and one of my favorite: http://www.amazon.com/searching-Isabel-Kuhn/dp/B0007EJZ5A

Thank you ladies for the feedback. I do plan to take my time with it because I have heard many times on this board how hard the book is. But it's still nice to know how other people do it and the reasons why they schedule it that way.:)

:bigear: We are using this next year. I just counted up all the sections in 2nd ed., there are 121, and only 180 days of school! Granted that the first 4 chapters are going to be reviews, I envision that we'll have to slow down quite a bit midway through. It'll be nice to know what to expect from other users.

We used the Island level last year, Town this year, and will continue with Voyage next year. We are liking this LA program very much. Of all our homeschool books and programs that we've used, this is the only thing that excite both ds and me. I think I can summarize why we like it here: 1. It is fun and effective. Ds seems to learn grammar so effortlessly with this program. 2. It is written in a logical way that even I, who hated English grammar as a student because I could never understand it, get how it works now. 3. It has invisible built-in reviews. I said invisible because it does not overly repeat things, yet the important concepts keep popping up throughout the books that ds is sure to learn them in the end. 4. MCT's enthusiasm about language clearly shows through the material. It's contagious. 5. It's challenging. It makes ds think. 6. It encourages Socratic discussion. The only thing that I am unsure of is the poetry component. I know a lot of people on this board like it, but we didn't quite get it last year so I did not order Town level poetry for this year. That said, I changed my mind recently, ordered it last week, and wanted to give it another try. MCT is so adamant about the study of poetry that I feel I should trust him and try to work it out. We shall see what happens.

Yes, Becoming a Problem Solving Genius is a lot like Challenge Math. The format is exactly the same, only the content is harder. Somehow I was under the impression that of all the AoPS books, you do Intro to Algebra first? But looking at the pre-test, I do think it's OK to do if you give her a lesson on negative exponents and multiplying polynomials. I have not used the book, but those sample pages do look very good. Judging from its Table of Content, the content of chapters 1-4 is covered in almost every pre-algebra book that I've seen, there are some other pre-algebra topics throughout the whole book. I don't think you'll be too far off.

How about this? http://www.amazon.com/Becoming-Problem-Solving-Genius-Zaccaro/dp/0967991595/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid We started this book after ds finished ChalkDust pre-algebra. He is now half way through and enjoying it so far. There are 17 chapters, and each chapter is broken into 5 different levels ranging from easy to super difficult. There are some "Singapore-like" problems in there that your child is going to say, "Ah-ha, I know how to solve this!", but the book is teaching the child to use basic algebra to solve those problems. The book is written directly to the kids, so it's good for self-study. However, there will be problems in those harder sections that she will need your help (or you can save those harder sections for later). It's fun and a nice bridge between school years. It gently introduces basic algebraic concepts (there are 3 chapters devoted to that) that your child will encounter in pre-algebra, plus many other fun problem solving tools. HTH.

We used it last year in 4th grade. It's not going to be too light for your 5th grader, but it might for your 7th grader if he is a science kind of guy. We enjoyed doing the experiments, but the reading material in the disc is not as interesting. We ended up checking out lots of science books from the library to supplement our study. I think this program is fun and has built-in experiments, but I wouldn't necessarily call it "challenging". We did not add any other components to it because I didn't feel the need to do so for a 4th grader, so I can't give you suggestions to make it more challenging. Sorry that I can't be of more help.

We did CE1 about 2 lessons every week, that'll also get you through at the end of June. I remember the first couple of lessons being easy and not as interesting. But I think it's a great time to get used to the format of CE. Every lesson after that follows the same format which makes it predictable for kids, and they know what is coming. When we first started CE, I thought it was dry and worried that it would not keep ds's interest. But I was pleasantly surprised. He has asked twice when we are going to start CE2. Reading it together is fine, but I think the most important part of CE is discussion. Be sure to discuss Caesar's rewrite, it will make your child think and retain what he learns. Don't forget to encourage your child to look for CE words in his regular reading too. It's true that it's best if you finish GT first before you dive into PT, but if you are running out of time, you can overlap them a little. Maybe wait until you are almost done with phrases in GT book to start PT. HTH.

The word "love" is a little strong to use, but here is what works(ed) for us: Singapore Math primary levels IEW SWI and history-based writing program MCT--this is the only thing both ds and I get excited about in 5 years of homeschooling Sonlight books--history, readers, and read-alouds

MCT is the favorite here. I am so thankful that I found a curriculum that works so well for us. These are the only school related books ds actively asks to do. IEW has helped ds improve his writing greatly. Our science textbook from Harcourt is, shall I say, "uninspiring"? We've tried many different science programs from online video labs to textbook to books geared toward homeschoolers in the past 5 years. None of them worked well. But we are going to do CPO next year which looks very interesting. We shall see what happens.

You have said out loud what I couldn't express with words. This is exactly how I feel about those two very different programs. We've used IEW for 3 years, MCT for 2 years. We are finishing up American History Based Writing Program Vol. I and Paragraph Town this year. At this point, I am going to use Essay Voyage for our sole writing curriculum next year and re-evaluate after that. By the way Mariann, if you already own Paragraph Town, don't miss the last 10 lessons of that book. They are like a bridge to Essay Voyage, totally worth doing if you can fit them in your school day.

We use Better Chinese as well.

It does not sound like arthritis to me, it's probably "overuse syndrome". I am a former PT and a crocheter, I know how it feels to crochet for a long stretch of time. My advice to you is to rest until your symptoms go away before you start your next project. Meanwhile, you can do contrast bath described here: http://www.ithaca.edu/faculty/nquarrie/contrast.html I know it's hard to do, but next time you pick up your crocheting needles again, try to relax your fingers a bit and pace your work (no more than 45 min at a time), it will help to prevent future injuries. HTH.

Ours were fine but we did not go beyond disc 3. Did yours come in a blue cardboard case?

It does seem long, but I wouldn't worry too much about it. She is probably taking her time thinking about every little detail. If she does not write from outlines, you might want to start from there. Putting ideas down on the paper first will free her working memory to tend to grammar, spelling, and punctuation later when she does the actual writing. I think it's kind of like solving algebra problems in one's head vs on paper. It takes much less time to solve them on paper. Best wishes!

Way to go! Fantastic poem and art!

We used ChalkDust this year (finished it), and I have mixed feelings about it. While ds did fine with it, I decided not to continue with ChalkDust Algebra even though I already purchased their DVDs through the publisher. We did not care for this particular DVD instruction. Many lessons, especially in the beginning, are very long and the teacher goes on and on about the subject at hand. We tried it until disc 3 and then totally abandoned it. The textbook is set up in a very organized way, and it covers pre-algebra topics thoroughly. The only complaint I have is their word problems. They lack depth except the small section at the end of each section called "critical thinking". I think whether ChalkDust fits a certain family has a lot to do with whether they like the DVD instruction. Go to ChalkDust website and watch as many samples as possible to see if you or your child like them. Our mistake is that we only watched the pre-algebra sample and thought it was fine until we had to watch it everyday. Best wishes to you.

Is there something in particular she likes? Like cute stationary, a book series, or to redecorate her room? Or maybe just saying it to her is enough? Because it looks like you already have some good stuff planned for her, and her actions seem to reflect her appreciation towards the love and care you have given her in the past. Either way, she is sure a sweet and unselfish girl! You are so blessed!

Thank you, it's very helpful.