I posted twice, but had typos in the original thread, so I deleted my post (before anyone had replied... but I think it still showed up if someone already had it pulled up on their computer). :)

Rod & Staff does cover writing... essays, outlining, all of it. Our issue is that often the writing assignments fall on a day we.do.not.have.time.for.it. So, we used to skip them, and come back to them later... but that wasn't always easy to keep track of as we moved through the grammar sections of the book quickly. So, I prefer using something else for the writing assignments so we can move through the grammar portions of R&S... then move, in order, through the writing assignments with the writing curriculum. Although, as much as possible, we'll adjust the topics of the writing assignments to correlate with something she's reading in science, literature, or history. at least, that's how it plays out in my head.... :lol: :)

My dd and I have sketched out the plans for her 9th grade year, but I keep second-guessing myself. I waffle between "this is too light" and "this is too much." :willy_nilly: It's the strain of the oldest child reaching high school years, I think! I've been really confident all the way to this point, but now that we've reached those "final years," I am having to fight the urge to re-plan her next 4 years every other day. :001_unsure: So, for the sake of our sanity, I'm hoping for some input on our current plans for 9th grade. Hoping to see it through someone else's eyes & make a peace with final decisions. :) She's also active in Girl Scouts. Through our book club, she'll be reading Shakespeare, Malory, and other Medieval-themed books in addition to her regular assignments. She is going to spend time this year researching a business idea she has and would like to get started with, so we have to leave enough time for that. In addition to having what she calls, "a life." :001_huh: Sheesh. Imagine that. :D English 9 - 1 Rod & Staff English 9 Literary Lessons from Lord of the Rings (lit) 1 semester Lightning Literature British Literature (lit) 1 semester Institute for Excellence in Writing – Windows to the World 1 semester Institute for Excellence in Writing – Elegant Essay (or SICC-C) 1 semester I am still wishy-washy on the IEW selections. We'll have finished up SWI-B by fall, which is our first IEW program. So, will decide that for sure closer to fall. Caesar’s English I & II (I just ordered these, so I am hoping it will be something I can use with all of my kids this year) Algebra 2 - 1 Saxon Algebra 2 with Art Reed DVD Biology I + Lab - 1 Prentice-Hall Biology by Miller-Levine Kolbe syllabus, following the honors track French 2 - 1 online 2-semester course World Geography, Cultural and Physical - .5 Using Harmony Art Mom's plans as a springboard to putting together our own course. If I flat run out of steam before fall, we'll use BJU Cultural Geography as a last-minute decision. Trail Guide to World Geography by Cindy Wiggers World Geography semester project World History I - 1 History of the Ancient World by Susan Wise Bauer (from April '12-August '12) History of the Medieval World by Susan Wise Bauer (August '12-June '13) The Great Courses: The Iliad of Homer (Vandiver) The Great Courses: The Odyssey of Homer (Vandiver) Art History - .5 Meet the Masters (with a co-op) Art History, Revised Second Edition: Volume 1 by Marilyn Stokstad Art History semester-long Project: Art History notebook Band - 1 is 1 credit what's usually given for band? She'll be in possibly 2 classes for band, with 1½ hour practices per week for each class - plus practice at home for 1-1½ hours per day? We'll be doing a 1-semester music theory course at home this year also, as she's brand-new to reading music, but moving along to advanced music pretty quickly. I'm including that with the band credit.

nm :D

My 14yo dd is using this right now. She's covering the Ancients from April through August, and will move to the Medieval book for the whole of next year. She is *loving* it. She's retaining what she's reading. We bought both the hardback version and the Kindle version, she loves the Kindle because it's lightweight, but will pull out the hardback whenever she needs to find something quickly, or wants to look at a map close-up. She's reading 4 chapters per week.

Choosing for our book club for next year and having a hard time deciding! The kids are between ages of 9-14. They have, together, through past years, read: Macbeth The Merchant of Venice A Midsummer Night's Dream My kids have read The Twelfth Night multiple times, so while we love this one, we'd probably rather read something else, lol. So... trying to narrow it down. :) Many of these kids will be covering Medieval/Renaissance history next year. Current possibilities are: Much Ado About Nothing Henry IV Romeo and Juliet (most of the kids have seen/read some version of R&J before, but not recently, and not discussed it in depth) Open to any suggestions, though, because I'm drawing a blank. They're all sounding like equally wonderful and equally poor choices. :gnorsi: edited to add for context: My kids (and many of the kids in the group) will wind up reading much (most?) of Shakespeare before they've finished high school, so not reading it this year will just mean we'll get to it in a future year. Also, the group will be reading books like King Arthur, Beowulf, Arabian Nights, Robin Hood, Canterbury Tales, and others along those lines this year. It's also possible that they'll cover two Shakespeare plays (one at the tail end of the year).

Why isn't this done more often? Is it because of the possible loss of scholarship opportunities? But, if scholarships are this hard to come by, student loans are minimal, the parent is left carrying all of the student loan debt, and the student isn't in a mad rush to finish their degree... this seems incredibly logical and something to plan toward. If the student applies (as a high schooler) to 4-year colleges, they find out what kind of scholarships/grants/loans they qualify for. I'm thinking if we are going to have to magically come up with $10-$20/yr... per college student... this option would have to be the logical solution. That other thread has me feeling ill. :ack2:

me too. :001_huh: :ack2: :bored:

I have a just-turned 9 year old playing the cornet! The trumpet was a bit front-heavy (because it's longer) still for him to hold comfortably for very long.

Google something like "hobbit book club ideas." I just checked and dozens of blogs and websites with pictures, crafts, book club information popped up! :)

Anyone used this for 4th grade? He would be using MOH2 along with the SOTW reading (with one of my other kids). And he wouldn't use the Apologia book (he's doing that this year), so I'd have to write in what we're using instead. I usually plan out the year about now and have a year-long schedule mapped out, but this coming year I have one entering high school and would love something with a schedule already made up for ds so I am sure to not leave him behind while I fret over our first homeschooling high school year, lol. :mellow: I'd love to save money by borrowing some of the core books from the library. Ours carries several copies of many of those books. But, I can't tell (without having the lesson plans in-hand) how long you need some of those books. Has anyone tried utilizing the library for some of the "required" materials with this particular year of MFW? (things like Augustus Caesar's World, The Roman Empire, How the Bible Came to Us, Trial and Triumph, etc)

Definitely go for it! There are TONS of resources online and in books to prepare for such a book club. I've led book clubs for... hmmm.... 3 years now, I think? It is THE BEST thing to let kids view reading as a *social* activity!!! Our kids discuss each book whenever they see each other, even if it's between book club meetings. And as our book club has grown, I would say that they discuss books more frequently than movies/tv shows hands-down. they talk about the books as if they are part of their day-to-day lives, and it's awesome. 5th grade is a great time to get started. A couple of books I highly recommend for inspiration purposes (I also like the Deconstructing Penguins book recommended above): http://www.amazon.com/Book-Complete-Guide-Creating-Mother-Daughter/dp/B00381B7WI/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1334551268&sr=8-3 This is an American girl kit for a book club. Some cute ideas within: http://www.amazon.com/Book-American-Girls-Collection-Sidelines/dp/1593692765/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334551296&sr=1-1 http://www.amazon.com/The-Mother-Daughter-Book-Club-Rev/dp/B001PO64IC/ref=sr_1_8?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1334551573&sr=1-8 I would suggest making it "official" - whether that means naming the book club and printing special made bookmarks for each member, or printing membership cards for each girl with her name on it, or giving each girl a friendship bracelet (all the same design/colors) designating her as a member of the "club." This gives them some "ownership" and that ownership tends to increase enthusiasm & follow-through dramatically. Good luck and happy reading! :D

oooh, fun question!! For my K-8 kids, we've finished: 8th grader: Apologia Physical Science & Prentice-Hall Physical Science Concepts in Action (by the end of June) finishing Saxon Algebra I (began the year with Lial's) a full year of foreign language will finish R&S English8 by the end of our school year Trail Guide to U.S. Geography All-American History and much of Hakim's Story of US series Wordly Wise 6th grader: BJU6 Science Apologia Astronomy TT7 the Spelling workbook (I actually cannot remember the name of it atm! :tongue_smilie:) a full year of foreign language will finish R&S English 6 by the end of our school year (June) Trail Guide to U.S. Geography All-American History and SOTW4 and some of Hakim's Story of US series Wordly Wise 3rd grader: BJU6 Apologia Astronomy BJU3 Math BJU3 Language (he's partway through R&S4 right now) Trail Guide to U.S. Geography This has been our most successful year as far as not changing curriculum mid-year (well, the older and younger had a math switch partway through the year...). Getting next year mapped out... :)

:hat:

Anyone from Houston, or visited recently? We are considering going this spring. Love to hear if there are any areas to avoid (for a hotel) staying. :) What is to not be missed? I'm looking at the CityPASS option. We'll be there a couple of days. Asking this here last year (for Little Rock that time) worked out beautifully - we found a fantastic hotel in a great area. no worries. :D

Oldest dd is entering 9th grade this coming year. She *loves* science. For 7th grade, she did Apologia General Science along with a couple of the Apologia elementary books with her younger siblings. For 8th grade, she's done Apologia Physical Science alongside a Prentice-Hall Physical Science book. She will cover the chemistry portion of the Prentice-Hall Physical Science book this summer. She's finishing up Algebra I (Saxon) and will be in Algebra II (Saxon) for 9th grade. I bought the miller-levine biology set to use with the Kolbe syllabus (using the "honors" track). My plan was that she use Miller-Levine for 9th grade, Chemistry for 10th grade, and an AP Biology for 11th grade..... (and Physics or something for 12th) But, I keep coming across recommendations for the BJU Biology and am told that a student can successfully take the AP test after completing the BJU Biology... Should we switch? We wanted to get away from a YE text for biology... but if BJU is as good as what I keep reading, we can work around that issue easily enough. It would free up a science year where she could specialize moreso than taking a Biology II. And both of us like the way BJUs texts are structured. It's listed as a 10th grade text, but I think she'll have enough Math/Chemistry to cover it? Any thoughts? We'd probably opt for the newer 4th edition of the Biology set. (She doesn't want to continue with Apologia for biology. The wordiness of the text and the way the text is structured has driven her crazy for 2 years...) Younger dc has taken BJU6, and will do BJU Life Science for 7th and BJU Earth Science for 8th grade, so we could just go right into BJU biology when the time comes for her, I suppose (whereas the Miller-Levine text I've bought will be pretty outdated by that time since I bought the Dragonfly edition because there are so many online resources for it).

My oldest is finishing up 8th grade. She's doing Ancient History from now through August and is using SWB's Ancient History book as a spine. She loves it! She's reading Gilgamesh, Odyssey, Iliad, etc alongside the Ancient History book, watching the Odyssey/Iliad videos by Great Courses, and doing writing assignments based on those readings... Next year, she's using SWBs Medieval History book.

The 3-book-set illustrated by Alan Lee is gorgeous. http://www.amazon.com/The-Lord-Of-Rings-Fellowship/dp/0261103385/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1333255303&sr=8-1 (link is to the first book in the series) If this link doesn't work correctly, just type in illustrated fellowship of the ring alan lee, or illustrated lord of the rings alan lee. There is a hardback boxed set or paperbacks (which is what we own). These are large-sized paperbacks, not bitty things.

ok, I have both, but haven't looked really in depth at them. I bought the revised versions for the better maps (imo), and just never studied them side-by-side closely. The fonts are different, I think. Some of the sentences are structured differently, but most of the content seems to be the same as what I remember the first time we went through these. The illustrations are better in the newer editions. Not sure if that helps all that much. Maybe there is a TOC online for the first edition vs the second and see if there is a difference in chapter titles? Sorry I am not of more help! :)

Mr. G on Currclick.com is offering an Introduction to Russian course this summer. He's gauging interest with this class. If there are enough students interested, he will offer Russian I in the fall semester: http://www.currclick.com/product/70599/Introduction-to-Russian We love his French class- he is a wonderful teacher!

I have/will buy the Iliad, the Odyssey, and Classical Mythology lectures by Vandiver for my dd to watch as she goes through the books. How do you USE the lectures? Does your child read the entire book beforehand, read and watch at the same time, or.... ? Do you use the ideas in the booklet for ideas, or just use the lectures for notetaking purposes, or just watch-and-learn? My dd is only a couple weeks away from getting started, but I haven't settled on how to incorporate the lectures with the reading... suggestions or ideas? :confused: :D

ha! - I had to write down a few words to see. :D I've never even thought about it before. I cross them from right-to-left IF I write the word completely (in cursive) and come back to cross the t (I start with the last letters first, so I guess my brain is operating "in reverse" when I do this). I cross from left-to-right if I cross the t as I write the word (my handwriting is a print/cursive hybrid... and will often begin the next lower-case letter off the cross of the t). IF I try to cross the t from right-to-left in this situation, it feels very wrong. (and NO to the hook-hand! :p My one and only lefty child seems to have a natural predisposition to hook hand and I am fighting it tooth and nail!)

Grimm - love that show, but not with the kiddies. We used to watch OUAT as a family, but after a while the married man and the "He's my child," and "Well, he's MY son, too!" got on our last nerve. :mellow: We really wanted to like that show, too. :closedeyes:

:bigear:

I haven't paid attention to recent politics and had no real idea who this guy even was. So, I googled. Now I want to wash my eyes out with bleach. Thank god I didn't click on anything, but the little "teaser" sentence with each link was aplenty. :bored: :ack2: Resuming my stance of ignoring current politics.