He had learned cursive using HWT, too. But in 4th grade, he still preferred printing and was not interested at all in shifting to doing more of his writing in cursive. (He was okay with doing the daily cursive in HWT, though.) In a blank, wide-ruled spiral notebook, I copied passages from some of his favorite literature books (like Narnia or LOTR) in blue pencil and in cursive, 2 lines per capital letter. Each day, he was to trace one sentence. This makes it so he doesn't have to think so much about how to make the connectors between the letters, etc. It's a bit more mindless, I guess. We did this kind of tracing thing for several months. And after awhile, he didn't need to do it everyday; we probably increased the amount of tracing per day, over time. (And it was in addition to his daily handwriting assignment, which took only ~10 min./day.) The main thing was that he was able to transition to cursive with very little frustration on his part. But just today, he wrote a page and a half for his nature journal in cursive...his choice (5th grade), as dc get to write however they like in their journals. I plan to do the same type of thing with dd8. But I think instead of wide-ruled I'll use narrow-ruled paper; then the capital letters won't be so tall. HTH!

Some of ds10's "school" reading -- D'Aulaires' Greek Myths The Golden Fleece by Padraic Colum Famous Men of Greece He's loving the mythology & ancient Greek history. (I'm struggling to keep up with the readings; ds is a very fast reader, like his dad.) For his free reading, he's doing the color Fairy Book series by Andrew Lang and the Hank the Cowdog series. Dd8 just finished the Grandma's Attic series, which she loved. A couple days ago, she started All-of-a-Kind Family series. She's more of a slower reader, like me.

8th: Algebra I 9th: Geometry 10th: Algebra II 11th: Trig/Pre-calculus (1 semester ea.) 12th: AP Calculus-AB (1 semester of college calculus; they also offered AP Calculus-BC for 2 semesters of college calculus) My plan, for now, for ds10 is: 7th: Chalkdust Pre-algebra; supplemental problems from NEM-1 8th: Chalkdust Algebra I And for 9th-12th, we'll probably do one of the following: (1) If we're still homeschooling -- 9th: Chalkdust Geometry 10th: Chalkdust Algebra II (or community college class) 11th: Chalkdust Pre-calculus (or community college class) 12th: Chalkdust Calculus (or community college class) (2) If he's attending private school -- 9th: Geometry 10th: Algebra II 11th: Trig/Pre-calc 12th: AP Calculus, either AB or BC My plan for dd8 is the same sequence but at a possibly slower pace. She may start pre-algebra in 8th grade instead of 7th grade, pushing everything back a year. Then, the highest level of math she'd take would be trig/pre-calculus. But everything else would probably be the same re. curriculum.

We invited our neighbor & her daughter to join us, too. It worked out great. The kids kept a butterfly notebook to record their observations (drawings, some notes). We memorized some butterfly poems and read a bunch of caterpiller/butterfly books, too. My favorite part was watching the caterpillers (who were already hanging upside-down) wriggle out of their black, prickly skins -- it looked like they were scrunching down a sock, except that they were scrunching it up towards the ceiling of the container. Unfortunately, it all happened around 1am when the kids were fast asleep!

...but with no time allotments. I used "Table" and made a weekly chart based on the kids' assignment charts, with some blanks to fill in and boxes to check off. I can list things like read-aloud times, one-on-one lessons for specific subjects (math, grammar, et al) with each child. But I only have 2 kids, so it's not too hard for me to fit a week's worth onto one page. (And actually, I end up mostly using my kids' weekly charts instead!) I wasn't able to upload the chart; just let me know if you'd like me to email it to you!

I recently placed an order w/Half Moon Books for some of the Singapore math books that are no longer available in the U.S. We've been using SM for over 5 years and have really enjoyed it. Singapore is more of the mastery approach. You might spend 2 weeks on one topic (e.g., multiplication), then move on to the next topic. Some topics take a few days, others take 2 to 3 weeks. It seems that the number of class days per topic increases as you go higher in grade level. I incorporate review of previous topics by the way I assign homework problems to my kids. The Singapore supplements are helpful for this. I just pull out problems in the areas that they need to review. But I think Horizons probably has its review of previous topics more methodically built-in. HTH!

...when my kids were 3 & 6 y/o, about 6 to 8 weeks long with experiments, homemade weather instruments, & hands-on activities. Each child made a weather notebook using a white blank binder and dividers for each of the 6 units, plus a section for the weather chart (to record daily weather data). One of the experiments/demonstrations we did was with the tornado bottle made w/2 soda bottles & blue-colored water. We talked about how cold air is heavier than hot air, so generally, cold air sinks to the bottom and hot air rises to the top. But sometimes, you have a situation where there's a mass of cold air sitting on top of a mass of hot air. This is comparable to the tornado bottle flipped quickly upside-down, with the water on top; the water stays in the upper bottle (except for a few drips) and the air stays in the lower bottle. So, that air in the lower bottle (which represents the hot air mass) is kind of trapped beneath the water in the upper bottle (which represents cold air mass) -- this is an unstable condition. If you create a path for the air in the lower bottle to move up into the upper bottle (by giving the bottle a little swirl), then the two elements are able to switch places. Their switching places is the tornado (hot air mass moving up, and cold air mass moving down). Other things we did: Use a prism to make a rainbow Learn about evaporation using food-colored-ice cubes on a hot, sunny day Make a paper propeller that you balance on a pencil point to demonstrate convection (hot air rising -- from your hand that's holding the pencil) Make a "cloud" in a large glass jar using ice & hot water Make a rain gauge Make a very simple anemometer & weather vane Tried to make a barometer (but didn't seem to work) Record weather conditions on a chart I made in Word -- 3x/day (7am,2pm,7pm) I used the Wild Goose weather experiment kit plus a few other resources. HTH!

Thanks! I'll take a look at their kit (and your pic, too).

Great ideas here! Chris, I was wondering....what kind of Tasco microscope did you get and where did you buy it? Something like that would be a nice addition to our nature studies. I'd been considering getting the Brock Magiscope, but if the microscope works, then maybe I'll get that instead. Thanks!

FLL 3rd gr: LLATL-Orange Bk (contains some grammar integrated with other language arts, but no diagramming at this point); we also reviewed some grammar lists from FLL from time to time; we didn't do R&S 3 because it didn't really match ds's learning style at the time. 4th gr: Winston Grammar-Basic (more of parsing style, I think; still no diagramming) 5th gr (this yr): R&S 5 -- we're back to the WTM recommendation; it's very easy to use and ds does fine with it. FLL-3 has more grammar than what we did in LLATL-Orange, plus it introduces diagraming. Not everyone wants to teach diagraming this early, but it's a good fit for us right now. I like how diagraming is introduced in very bite-sized, easily-digestible steps. FLL-3 has some other stuff in addition to grammar (like FLL)...copywork, dictation, some spelling rules (e.g., forming plurals), memory work w/poetry & grammar rules, and more. HTH!

Dd8 went from FLL to FLL3. The transition has been easy so far! We didn't do it that way for ds10, though, since FLL3 wasn't available at the time.

We have (or have had) all of these. Multi-link cubes: We've the same ones for about 4 or 5 years, and we still use them -- mostly for math nowadays, though I initially bought them to go with the Building Thinking Skills books. Attribute blocks: I think we have this exact set, too. Though it's not used as frequently, I still really like it. It's a set with more than 2 kinds of attributes (size, color, and thickness). Bucket scale: We had that very scale, but the sliding compensator broke after a few years of use. We had an active toddler in the house at the time, so that most likely shortened its life! Anyway, we used it a lot with the bears and with other weighing activities; I eventually replaced it with a similar model from a local store. But if you're going to get a scale, I definitely recommend the bucket style (w/sliding compensator) over the pan balance. HTH!

I have the same problem! I end up changing things so much that it's not worth paying for something that's already scheduled out for me (w/weekly schedules, etc.). So I have to schedule it out myself. Still, I love being able to customize things for the kids.

...Early American history in the grammar stage for both kids. I'm really enjoying the great variety of books available, many for younger readers, too. For American history, we do a lot of read-alouds and independent reading, kind of Sonlight-style, but using the Beautiful Feet curriculum as our spine (w/a bunch of extra books...from Sonlight, Veritas, & other booklists). We're also doing world history as a separate course (not correlated at all w/American history) -- SOTW-1 w/AG. All we do for this is read the passage in SOTW-1, do the discussion questions and narration activity, do the timeline cards, and do some of the activity worksheets. We rarely do the supplemental reading, and I have no plans to do any hands-on activities. Next year we will most likely do Medieval times/Middle ages, continuing SOTW-2 as our world history, but with supplemental readings, too. I like how SOTW is flexible like this. So, yes, I really like doing American history, esp. early American history, in the younger years, when so many great books for that age group are available. We'll hit the more modern American history later on. HTH!

Planning, shopping and reading curriculum are my favorite parts of homeschooling. I'd love for someone to grade papers & check their work for me!

...of memorizing a list of names and lists in general. Here's some of what we memorized when dd was 4 and ds was 7: geneaology from Adam to Noah 12 sons of Jacob 12 tribes of Israel 7 days of creation 10 plagues in Egypt types of ministry Jesus did (teaching, healing, feeding, et al) This was in addition to poetry and Bible verses/passages. The geneaology and tribes lists as well as the longer Scripture passages were put to rhythm. Though they have forgotten the Adam to Noah list, they still remember the 12 sons of Jacob (& tribes of Israel, I think). But we're not as good at reviewing old memory work as we ought to be.... HTH!

You're welcome! (nt)

-- the book, the Greenleaf Guide, and the timeline. Last summer, when I saw Memoria Press's FMoG at a h/s conference with it's rich, color illustrations and heavy-stock paper, I bought theirs and sold the Greenleaf one (book only). I don't have the MP teacher/student books, but my guess is that the format is similar to the MP D'Aulaires teacher/student books, which ds10 is using this year. In the D'Aulaires student workbook, each lesson has a set of vocabulary words, comprehension questions, and a bit of mapwork. There are a few more discussion questions at the end, too. The teacher's guide is mostly a copy of the student book with the answers filled in. It also has tests and pronunciation guide. From what I've read on MP's website and from using their D'Aulaires, I think the comprehension questions would mostly be recalling events from the stories. The Greenleaf FMoG Guide was designed, I think, with different goals in mind. What it says at the beginning of their guide: "Our goals for the study of history are these: 1. That our students will see that God is involved in all history.... 2. That when our students begin to study history in advanced courses they will not be starting from scratch, but will be building on a well-laid foundation...." The Greenleaf Guide has a section on the geography of Greece, but no maps...you'd have to get your own. Most chapters have: a bank of vocabulary words (but no definitions) list of people and places, w/pronunciation brief background information 3 to 5 discussion questions (no answers, though) And some chapters have suggestions for further reading, e.g., the Landmark book Alexander the Great. Your goals will determine which teacher's guide is better for you. The MP one will provide all the answers and maps, making it extremely convenient. But I believe the Greenleaf guide has more thought-provoking questions from a Christian worldview, compared to the mostly recall-type questions that I think would be in MP's. For our situation, since ds10 is already doing MP's D'Aulaires, I thought the MP FMoG added on to that would make too much busywork. We just use the MP FMog with the Greenleaf guide to read & discuss only. HTH!

Mostly school books here, too.... Famous Men of Greece, Greek myths I've been trying to start Andrew Lang's color fairy books. But ds10 is already way ahead of me (I'm a slow reader)....

Science: WTM method (e.g., How Things Work series for grammar years) Nature studies (CM) Writing: Copywork/dication/narration (either customized or using a program) Write Source series Lost Tools of Writing :)

7th year, including the pre-k year

I checked, and you click "User CP" (next to "FAQ"), then "Edit Options" on the left sidebar. Then scroll down to the box about Thread options.

And if you want it "threaded" all the time, you can select it in your options area ("User CP"), where you can select your settings, etc. I forget which section, though.

2 here, too...5th & 3rd graders.

Yes, it shows up!