6th grade language arts: Spelling/word study: 2nd half of Spelling Workout G, Spelling Workout H (~15 min./day, 5 days/wk.) Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3 (~15 min./day, 5 days/wk.) Grammar: remainder of R&S 5, first half of R&S 6 (~30 min./day, 4 days/wk.) Composition: undecided, but perhaps a mix of TOG assignments, writing across the curriculum via outlining, Writing Strands (~30 min./day, 3-4x/wk.) Literature/Reading: Tapestries of Grace (~30 min./day independent work) plus read-alouds Penmanship: undecided Poetry: Harp & Laurel Wreath et al I was just working on the time estimates today. And for 7th grade language arts (tentative): Word study: Vocabulary from Classical Roots Bk. A & B Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 4 Grammar: remainder of R&S 6, then perhaps A Beka Grammar & Comp 1, Jr. Analytical Grammar, or Warriner's Composition: preferably an outside class Literature/Reading: undecided; probably TOG or do-my-own-thing Poetry: Harp & Laurel Wreath et al I also have on my shopping list Teaching the Classics by Adam Andrews so I can learn more about literature. I expect to rely pretty heavily on this product plus the TOG notes as we get into the more difficult (for me anyway) books.

When we did it, LOTR was our primary text and the Norse myths were secondary. We first read LOTR. Shortly after we finished LOTR, I learned that Tolkien's writings were heavily influenced by Norse myths. So that's when I decided to do the additional reading. It ended up working really well for us. But if you wanted the main text to be Norse myths, then it might be better to read that first. I think when you preread the books, you'll figure out your preference. The myths have a lot of characters that were sometimes hard for me to remember & keep up with the first time through (but I'm not a strong reader at all). It's been years--decades--since I've read The Hobbit, but I think it'd be easier to follow the main character there.

Then, if funds are available, get the travel agent software. You can use free online programs like the Google spreadsheets, etc. if you're unable to buy Microsoft Office products (Word, Excel, et al, which are pretty pricey, the bundle is nearly as much as a new computer). The nice thing about using the free ones is that it doesn't take up space on your hard drive.

IMO, the nature theme is more of a marketing thing. Burt's Bees products are pretty natural. Most or all of their products do not contain preservatives & stabilizers as do all the department store brands. Philosophy's mineral makeup The Supernatural rated well in terms of safe ingredients, though it's not necessarily "all-natural." I checked each ingredient on my package of Supernatural on EWG's SkinDeep site. But the price isn't that great.

After ds read the LOTR trilogy last year, we both read The Children of Odin by Padraic Colum. I think it's the same text with a different title by a different publisher. Okay, I just compared the Table of Contents in both books and they're exactly the same. We both loved the Norse myths. And Colum's retellings for children (like The Children's Homer and The Golden Fleece) seem appropriate for my ds (5th grade). I don't know which details were left out of The Children of Odin, as this was my introduction to Norse mythology. But I've recently been able to compare Rosemary Sutcliff's Black Ships Before Troy with Colum's The Children's Homer: Colum's retelling is more old-fashioned (in terms of his sentence structure), and Sutcliff's seems to have a few more graphic details (from what I remember, mostly gory battle details that boys like but I don't). I love the language in Colum's retellings...great copywork material. E.g., "All in Asgard knew of the Dwarf and of the hoard he guarded. And there was thought amongst all that this hoard was not to be meddled with and that some evil was joined to it." Ds11 has enjoyed rereading The Children of Odin a few times, too. You can see where Tolkien got some ideas/characters for LOTR. One thing: There was one illustration I remember of a goddess; she's basically not wearing anything on top. These are line drawings and were done in an artistic way, so it'd probably remind you of those ancient Greek sculptures & other works of art with a lot of unclothed people. If kids have already seen artwork like that at museums or in books, then they probably won't think anything of it (mine didn't). I can't remember anything more revealing than that. BTW, the back cover of my copy says, "Ages 10 up." HTH!

...no literary background, that is (my degree was in accounting, too). I'm going to fit it into the budget now!

I am very interested in learning more about the various literary terms, but I'm also limited in the time I can spend doing it. I'll have to keep it simple, so it's good to know what level those things are generally considered. But that stuff, when explained to me, is really so fun! Thanks for sharing your perspective, JuJuBee!

I'm hoping there'll be a Teaching the Classics booth at one of the homeschool conferences this summer. It really does look like something that would help get me to the next level in my literature skills, esp. since it's good enough for you to go through a second time. Thanks, Lisa!

I compared the Standards edition to the U.S. edition of the PM Textbook-2B; the Standards edition has ~29% more pages and its price is ~29% higher than that of the U.S. edition. Some extras that were put into the Standards edition: - a few additional topics, depending on the level; things like probability/statistics in order to align w/California standards - extra review problems/exercises - glossary - index I already have PM-1 thru 5 plus parts of PM-6, so I most likely will stick with the U.S. edition all the way through.

Painless Poetry I'll have to check it out!

The funny thing was that dd8 attended some of Bible study classes with me and afterwards talked about chiastic structure several times. I guess she thought it was pretty neat stuff, though I doubt she completely understands it. Anyway, it made me laugh!

Re. The Handbook to Literature: I'll have to see if I can find it in our library. It definitely looks thorough, but I wonder if it'll be over my head? Would I need someone else to guide me through the book or could I use it to self-teach? One of the problems I'm having is that I'm so unfamiliar with many literary terms that I'm unable to recognize when those things occur in a book we're reading. I guess I need more than just a couple of examples to really understand a particular term and to really get it into my brain. I like that it provides historical background to the terms, too. That looks really interesting. Thanks for the recommendation, Angelina!

I saved the Glossary of Terms. The Teaching the Classics set looks like something that would help me learn a lot more about literature (since I have so far to go!). Do you use it for yourself as teacher training or do you have your dc watch it, too? I'm tentatively planning to try TOG-2 next year, so I'm not sure there'll be enough spare time for me to watch a set of DVDs just yet. Do you watch it in small chunks every once in awhile or more frequently/regularly?

We did something like the following for 1st grade: Skill subjects: Most of the time, we could finish the 3 R's (excluding literature) in about an hour or so. Math • SM's Primary Math 1A & 1B: Including hands-on activities, about 20-30 min./day; workbook time consisted of only ~5-10 min. of the entire amount • Miquon Math (as a supplement) Phonics • Phonics Pathways: This was done orally and took ~5 min./day • phonogram flashcards: A few minutes per day Spelling • MCP's Spelling Workout A: 1 page per day, which took ~5-10 min./day Handwriting • Handwriting Without Tears My Printing Book: ~5-10 min./day Reading • Pathway Readers: First Steps, Days Go By, More Days Go By • various early readers Other language arts • First Language Lessons: 2 or 3 days per week; lesson vary from ~5-20 min., but most were ~10 min.; subject areas covered... -----Copy work -----Narration -----Poetry -----Memory work -----Grammar Oral Reading • A Beka Science 1: Once dc learned to decode, they'd read aloud short passages to me; this took just a few minutes and we may have done it 3-5x/wk. Thinking Skills • Beginning Building Thinking Skills: I think we did this 1x/wk., several activities in a day Content subjects: These subjects were mostly taught by reading aloud good books. I tried to spend ~1 hr/day or more with any combination of read-alouds. Literature Units (read-alouds) • Five in a Row • The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (with study guide for discussion q's) • other books from various literature lists Bible History (read-aloud time) • Bible • Greenleaf Guide to Old Testament History History (read-aloud time) • various history books, including biographies Science: This was fairly unstructured most of the time. Much of it consisted of reading aloud science/nature books from the library. • books regarding dc's topic of interest (e.g., birds, dinosaurs, trains, weather) • nature studies • Developing Critical Thinking Through Science – 1: for some physical science experiments Other things we did that were fun: We'd spend about 1 to 1-1/2 hrs per day doing any combination of these hand-on learning activities; we did it just before or just after lunch. • Nature journal: Draw a picture of a nature event or object and make a title for it (if necessary, I'd write their title for them). • Crafts & art projects: Some were just random, others were tied in with what we were learning in literature, history or science. I'm glad we did a bunch of this stuff when they were younger, because it's harder for me to squeeze it in now. • Field trips & other short outings, incl. regular library trips

My literature background is pretty weak. I'm familiar with a few terms like simile and metaphor, but I recently became aware of other terms that are completely unfamiliar to me. In my women's Bible study class last fall, our teacher taught us a couple of literary terms as we were studying the book of Esther: peripity (peripeteia) and chiastic structure. I had never heard of these words before this class (I'd also never heard of the word "progymnasmata" before last year, to give you an idea of how non-literary I am). I guess these two things are often found in ancient literature, including the book of Esther. Anyway, it was really neat how our teacher explained it all to us and helped us identify them in the story of Esther. But afterwards, I started wondering....Are these things that should be taught in upper-level/high school literature courses via the classical method, or are they considered to be college-level material (which would make it okay for me to not learn them:tongue_smilie:)? How many more terms are out there that I'm unaware of? Are there any resources that teach these things? Thanks!

...Math to Know (3rd-4th gr.) and Math at Hand (5th-6th gr.). Math on Call is for middle school grades, according to the GreatSource website: http://www.greatsource.com/store/ProductCatalogController?cmd=Browse&subcmd=LoadDetail&ID=1003600000006166&division=G01&frontOrBack=F&sortEntriesBy=SEQ_NAME&sortProductsBy=SEQ_TITLE We use Math to Know and Math at Hand as handbooks; when I feel that my child needs another perspective or explanation of a specific topic, I'll have him read about it in the handbook. We also use them to get familiar with any American math terminology that isn't in the Singapore math program. We actually end up using only about 20-25% of the books. Still, it's worth it for us. It's written to the student, it often shows more than one way of doing things, it implements visuals & color diagrams in a clear and appealing way. I plan on getting more of these! HTH!

[Here's part two of Momof7's Incremental Writing Guide....] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Independent writing from research: (usually around 5th-6th grades progressing to research papers in high school) This stage begins when re-tells and parallel writing has been mastered and the child is ready to start synthesizing greater amounts of information. Because of their ages (meaning concrete vs. abstract thinkers) and the need of the child to still concentrate on the writing process itself, etc., I try to keep these assignments purely factual in nature. This is a great time to start writing research books or reports. I usually start out with research books because there is no need for a formal introductory paragraph, body, conclusion, and all the transitions that go along with them. I let my children choose a broad topic of interest and we make a trip to the library. I look through the books before they start reading them and then I point out different topics that they might encounter in their reading. We discuss how to take notes on note cards by giving the cards a common heading for common topics, etc. We discuss which subtopics within the topic they might want to write about. I let them spend about a week reading information and making note cards. After they have collected their note cards, we sit together and organize all their information. Some topics they may have to eliminate because there simply isn’t enough info. Others may need to be broken into further sub-categories because they have too much info. I do not expect them to be able to do this by themselves when they first start. Just like all the other writing skills….they need guidance in the beginning. This is a skill that they need to learn with your help. After the note cards are organized, I have them write a paragraph on each sub-topic and compile them altogether in a chapter book complete with title page and table of contents. Some of my kids like art and I let them illustrate them. I don’t make them do this if they don’t want to. :) This project may take a few weeks. We review each paragraph together just like we have been all along. Over the course of this year (or two years….depends on how the child’s skills progress), I do expect them to start doing an initial edit/revision on their own. After a few chapter books, most kids are able to start writing reports quite painlessly. Creating a topic paragraph really isn’t a big deal when you know how to write the body…..isn’t that all the “chapters†in their books are?? Transitions are easily taught because the foundation is there and all they need to do is incorporate them. The same goes for a concluding paragraph. Analysis: (I am not going to suggest a grade level. This is totally dependent on the development of a child’s brain and the ability to see beyond the literal.) Once children have mastered basic report writing, essays analyzing literature, scientific processes, etc. are a logical progression. I like to start my kids on analytical essays where the analysis is easy. Writing about allegories like The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe are easy analytical papers for beginners. Finding supporting ideas for Aslan representing Christ, etc. is simple. From about mid-6th grade up, I start asking them to incorporate supporting quotes and I start teaching MLS documentation. I assign progressively more difficult types of analysis. A simple essay on an allegory is much easier for the child to develop than a comparison/contrast paper on the lives of two different political leaders. Cause and effect papers are more concrete, so for a child teetering on the edge of concrete vs. abstract thought….a cause/effect paper might be a good compromise for an assignment. (For example….how did the crash of the stock market impact world economies….this is more factual than having to form their own view on 2 different world leaders and then taking those opinions and comparing them to each other.) These are ideas for the advanced late middle school student and for typical high school students. As they move toward senior status, the child should be encouraged to write papers that require multi-stages of development. Back to the examples that I have used….the comparison paper is a multi-stage paper. I would not ask my 6th grader to write a paper comparing democracy to communism. It requires too much analysis for them and then you must factor in the difficulty of incorporating those ideas into a paper. I hope you find this information helpful. I learned from my children that writing is not really that difficult to teach. The difficulty comes from expecting too much without the proper foundational instruction. Teaching writing incrementally allows children to shrug “ok, no big deal†when asked to complete an assignment. Just expect to actually be there as teacher. Blessings to your endeavors, Karen (momof7) - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - Well, I hope this was the one you were referring to!

Momof7's post on writing (from old WTM boards), aka Momof7's Incremental Writing Guide: [i had to separate it into two posts. Here's [b]part one[/b]....] - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - This is my approach to teaching writing after using my older children as guinea pigs.:) Before I begin, I want to clarify that I deliberated about using grade levels b/c they are so arbitrary. Some kids might not be able to do certain skills until the end of 3rd; some might be ready by the end of 1st. Base your decisions on your child’s abilities, not a number. Pre-independent writing skills: (usually 2nd grade) At some point after my kids are reading confidently and are ready to move beyond copying simple sentences for letter practice, I start using their copywork as a teaching tool. The key here is that the children don’t have to focus on sounding out words or on letter formation. If they have not mastered those 2 skills, they need to work on those before you progress. My approach is that it is expecting too much for children to learn anything from reading/writing until they no longer have to focus on the reading itself. I begin by selecting copywork that is very basic and we focus on mechanics (capitalization, punctuation) and grammar. Then we play with the structure of the copywork. For example, The dog ran. I teach subject, verb, as well as capitalization and punctuation. Then we spend time coming up with parallel sentence structures and identify the parts of speech. The baby crawled. The cat climbed. The pig snorted. Once that concept is mastered, I add in another part of speech for focus….adjectives or adverbs, for example. (I don’t have any set pattern….basically, it is whatever I am in the mood for. :)) The baby crawled quickly. The cat climbed high. The pig snorted loudly. After mastery, I add other parts of speech. (I do not use the same base sentences with my kids. I am only doing that for the sake of illustrating my point. I don’t want them to learn the parts of speech from memorization, but from context.) The chunky baby crawled quickly. (I would not use that as an example unless they were struggling and we needed to go back for a refresher. I would actually use a unique sentence…..The rambunctious child twirled rapidly.) I continue this process adding more and more parts of speech: possessives, direct objects, indirect objects, and pronouns. Julie’s baby wanted more food. Henry threw the Frisbee. Henry threw Jack the Frisbee. He threw him the Frisbee. I work with them to come up with about 10-15 similarly structured sentences. We work on this for about 10-15 minutes a day until they master the concept. Some concepts they master quickly (subject + action verb). They may do it in a day or a week. Some may take longer. Just work where they are. After they have conquered the basic parts of speech, I assign copywork from their reading, our read alouds, or some other source. We take these sentences (eventually progressing to paragraphs) and study them. I ask them to identify all the nouns, verbs, etc. Can they identify the function of the nouns? Some they will already know (subject, DO, etc….some they won’t: appositives, complements, obj. of prep. etc). We don’t worry about the words they haven’t studied yet. We just focus on the ones they do. Gradually we start incorporating more and more complex grammar. For example, this was my 2nd graders copywork today (from The Family Under the Bridge): Nikki raced down the narrow streets and shouted insults at pedestrians and cars that got in his way. His own car sputtered and rattled and clanked as if it would fall apart any moment. But it didn’t. My daughter had no trouble identifying any of the parts of speech except for that and as if. Learning them in the context of their work makes grammar, mechanics, and writing all connected and not isolated concepts that don’t have intertwined applications. Paragraphs for copywork: (usually mid 2nd grade or 3rd grade) We start analyzing paragraph structure from copywork in the same way we began our study of grammar. We discuss what the paragraph is describing. What is the main idea? What do we learn about the main idea? From that, they learn about topic sentences and supporting details. We do this for weeks! We play games with paragraphs. I print up logically ordered paragraphs that I have typed into individual lines and cut them apart. I mix them up and they have to unscramble the sentences and put the paragraph back together correctly. This is an enormous skill to master. It means they understand topic sentence and logical sequencing. We continue working on this until they are able to do it fairly easily. (Some paragraphs are easier than others….how-tos are the easiest, descriptives are harder, etc. Gradually increase the difficulty level. The key is to let them experience success while still learning.) After basic paragraph reconstruction is mastered, I start to add a twist….I will add “misfit†sentences into the mix. For example, if the paragraph is about a bear stealing a cake from a camper’s picnic table, I might add a sentence like, “I love to eat cake.†This skill helps them learn to focus on the topic sentence and make sure the information belongs. This is an essential writing skill that is really better developed in the pre-writing skill phase. If they can identify misfit sentences in other people’s paragraphs, it makes it easier to help them find them in their own. Using 2nd, 3rd, and sometimes 4th grade to focus on developing pre-writing skills enables children to move into the writing stage with the tools they need in order to progress with confidence. You wouldn’t give a child a bunch of word problems in math to complete without giving them a foundation in basic arithmetic. Writing is similar. You shouldn’t expect them to start writing independently without understanding the fundamentals of how writing is structured. Independent how-tos, re-tells, or parallel writing: (usually around 4th grade) What type of paragraphs I start my children on is really child dependent. I have had at least one child that could not write any “re-tells†in logical order. This child and I spent a considerable amount of time on how-to paragraphs. Most of my kids have been able to start with “re-telling.†Do whatever works. How-to paragraphs are wonderfully non-threatening paragraphs. Every child knows how to give directions on some task, whether it is baking a cake or making their bed. Creating a list of logically ordered steps, developing a topic sentence, and using transition words are very “visual†or “concrete†in how-to paragraphs. Write a couple together. Take them apart. Study how they work. Then help them write their own. The child I described above wrote NUMEROUS how-tos. But they worked. The idea of logical sequencing started to flow into her writing. Re-tells are another way to learn to write in a non-threatening way. Give your child a short example….a fable, a definition paragraph (like a very brief encyclopedia article), etc. Have them make a key word outline. Help them organize their ideas and create a topic sentence. Then have them re-tell the information in their own words in a paragraph. Then, using all the skills that you have learned together from pre-writing, edit/revise the paragraph…..is there a topic sentence? Does all the information belong? Are your sentences complete thoughts? Do all your verbs stay in the same tense? Etc. We spend months on re-tells or in parallel writing. (Parallel writing is taking a story and re-telling it in similar story line…..the boy who cried wolf becomes the mouse who cried cat, etc.) We also begin studying grammar independently. Yet, we continue to study grammar in the context of their writing. We spend as much time on our revisions/edits as we did on our pre-writing skills and as on the initial writing itself. Our editing time becomes a time for studying grammar, mechanics, as well as content. From editing their own work, grammar/mechanics show their inherent value because the children see them in context. - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - [to be continued in next post]

...I posted a fairly detailed description of the TM's here : http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=72340#poststop Since the TM's and HIG's were written by the same author (except the Rosenbaum Foundation ones - 1A & 1B), I believe the content is mostly the same. The main difference is the arrangement/layout. The TM's are organized in a way that's more useful to me, since I like to be able to look at a topic and it's objectives all together, not just the little parts. HTH!

We're using Famous Men of Greece (FMoG) along with the Greenleaf Guide to Famous Men of Greece (http://www.greenleafpress.com/catalog/index.php?main_page=product_info&cPath=24&products_id=755 ) for discussion. Ds11 is also reading D'Aulaire's Greek Myths and doing Memoria Press's D'Aulaires Greek Myths study guide. I didn't get Memoria Press's study guide for the FMoG because it was too similar to the D'Aulaires (vocabulary words, comprehension/recall questions, a little mapwork). Chronologically, I believe the order is something like: -Ancient Greece -Ancient Rome -Middle Ages -Renaissance HTH!

To download forms: http://www.irs.gov/formspubs/index.html These are pdf files. You can either (1) print them out and fill in the forms by hand, or (2) fill in the forms online, numbers as well as text, and then print them out and sign them; mail them in. We did the latter last year. The IRS offers free online filing, too, up to a certain income limit.... http://www.irs.gov/efile/article/0,,id=118986,00.html HTH!

...then you may like The Children of Odin, also by Colum; these are Norse myths. Ds11 and I enjoy the Norse myths even more than the Greek ones. Other books ds has enjoyed this year, most of which have already been mentioned: Books by Rosemary Sutcliff (Black Ships Before Troy, Wanderings of Odysseus, The Silver Branch) The Golden Fleece by Padraic Colum Children's Homer by Padraic Colum Victory on the Walls: A Story of Nehemiah (Bethlehem Books) Famous Men of Greece If you liked Tales of Ancient Egypt by Roger Lancelyn Green, you might want to look into his other books, like The Tale of Troy, Tales of the Greek Heroes, The Luck of Troy, Myths of the Norsemen. Another ancient Greece book is Archimedes and the Door of Science (Bethlehem Books). All of the Bethlehem Books I've seen have larger font. Ds11 has also enjoyed reading the color Fairy Books by Andrew Lang (we have Blue, Orange, Red and Violet). Though they're not in the "ancients," they go well with our ancient Greek studies because the fairy tales have some elements similar to myths. The only thing about the books we have is that the font is on the small side. HTH!

I have both versions and described them in here a bit: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175 HTH!

I owned FMoG for a couple of years before reading or using it; I just had a hard time getting into it (I'm personally not extremely interested in the ancient Greeks). I finally just gave it ds11 to start reading a few months ago, and he's really enjoying the stories! He definitely enjoys them more than me!

We served matzah bread and purple grape juice and ate it with our shoes on standing next to the dining/snack table (the standing up part was one of the instructions given in OT re. how to celebrate passover, but I forget where). Another thing you could do is put all the matzah in a basket, and then pass it around, letting each child take or break off a piece of cracker. We also retold the passover story. HTH!