One of the groups I participate in went through The Core by Leigh Bortins (the founder of Classical Conversations) chapter by chapter. We read the chapter at home and then met at a coffee shop one day a month to discuss. The Core was a great book to do this with because it covers classical education in general, but then it covers subjects individually one chapter at a time with ideas for practical implementation (for the grammar stage). So we'd talk about math one month, science the next, and so on, sharing what that subject looks like in our own homes, what resources we've used, what we think of how it is covered in the book, etc. We've now started on The Question, which covers Socratic dialogue and the topics of invention for the dialectic/logic stage (again with an overview and then subjects individually). Obviously you could go through any book on education this way, but it helps if everyone in the homeschool group has a general leaning toward the same educational philosophy. :) Another group gets together and discusses literature. We used to go through a book a month on a chronological literature list (ancients-modern), but now we're spending a year on Hamlet.

Thank you ever so much for the kind words. They made my day! I cannot believe I've been blogging for almost 8 years and homeschooling for 9. And now I have a 7th grade son who is just weeks away from his teen years. Gulp. Homeschooling adolescents is a complete different ball game, and some days I feel as if I've lost an inning... Ha!

Thank you! :) I can't believe that I've been blogging for six and a half years. My oldest is now a 6th grader. Time flies. I, too, find that Half-a-Hundred Acre Wood is a fantastic resource. I don't know of another blog that is as helpful. It is coordinated with CC material, but goes well with general Classical content, as well.

I haven't been on the boards for a while (but I'm an oldie--been around 10 years, or so), and I'm late to the conversation. :) My blog is Mt. Hope Chronicles. I enjoy photography and books lists, so that is the bulk of my posts. I post about general life with three boys and a little girl. I post about Classical Conversations. We started three years ago (this is my most recent post about our experience and details about the program), and I was a practicum speaker this year so I am currently posting notes from that. We also have a fun school room (the "Live and Learn Studio"), and those picture tend to make the rounds. :) I post monthly reports with links and quotes from interesting articles as well as our book lists, etc., from the month. I wrote a lengthy series about the curricula and resources we use.

At this point (2nd-6th grades) my boys are simply reading the books. There is no way I can keep up with their reading. We read The Story of the World aloud and talk about it, but the rest of their reading is independent. The boys participate in a literary analysis book club. We read and discuss mostly picture books in a fun setting with friends (a la Deconstructing Penguins and Teaching the Classics) so that they gain familiarity with the structure of story.

I have an extensive reading list for Medieval/Early Renaissance for this coming year posted on my blog. My boys are 9 and 11. (The 11 year old in particular is a very strong reader.) I wouldn't require all of the books on that list, but I have the hardest time keeping my boys in books! My sister and I have been collecting books for years and years (we offset our history studies so that we can share collections), so most of those are from our personal library. But I also do use our public library a great deal. I have no idea what books to put on their lists for general reading, because my oldest son has exhausted our personal collection and all my ideas! I think I'll pick up a few books they haven't read from these reading lists.

My boys also use TT and Life of Fred. We don't use LoF formally, though. They just enjoy reading (and re-reading). I would have no problems pausing TT to work on LoF more formally for a little while. I'm thinking the LoF books would fit well between TT 5 and 6, but I couldn't say for sure.

This is our third year in CC and I completely agree. The CC cycles are one reason I almost didn't participate in the beginning, and I'm so glad I didn't let that hold us back. Our own history studies didn't go quite as planned for the same reasons--an unexpected pregnancy and a demanding toddler. :) Now that I've had some experience, I wouldn't try to line up our history studies anyway. You could either start with the second volume (I like the idea of just listening to vol. 1 over the summer), or start at the beginning and don't sweat it. They WILL remember the history sentences when you hit the topics later (even much later), and they will be excited because they already KNOW something about it!! My boys are much more interested in a SOTW chapter if it corresponds to a history sentence they have already memorized.

Do you have an ipad or iphone? How about free apps like Sushi Monster Math? Or fun math related books such as Why Pi?, Go Figure, or The Number Devil? Check your library to see what they have!

Eight Cousins is a great suggestion!

I was going to suggest Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm. :) How about Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher? All of a Kind Family (series) by Sydney Taylor, Ballet Shoes (and others) by Noel Streatfeild? Others that aren't quite as girly: The Saturdays (series) by Enright, Moffats and others by Estes, Swallows and Amazons by Arthur Ransome, The Railway Children by Nesbit (one of my favorites), The Princess and the Goblin by George Macdonald.

We absolutely have days and some seasons like this. My boys read a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction. I put considerable effort into choosing books to have available for them across a range of subjects, though. They read Life of Fred often. Or other math/science related books such as Why Pi? or Mathematicians Are People, Too. We have lots of fine arts and geography/culture books. If I were trying to come up with a workable longer-term solution, I might organize the books so that the kids read several related books on one subject (a specific time in history or a science topic). I also might go every other day with some structured language arts lessons at the very least (spelling, grammar, and writing). We could even use their favorite books from the week to find writing topics, vocab words, or copywork. It would be great to have them involved in that process. So we could spend one extra hour on M, W, and F to do language arts in addition to daily math lessons and extensive reading time.

I voted for Charlotte Jillian, but Charlotte Jane was my second choice.

We have a few ipads and they are a favorite with the kids. Some of the apps we like are: Dragon Box Shuttle Mission Math Presidents vs Aliens Stack the States Stack the Countries Glow Fizz Physics HD Khan Academy Temple Run Garage Band

My boys didn't go for Legos for some reason, but our wooden train collection and Playmobil are our best investments. I'd add in a costume bin to our top 3. :) We don't sort our Playmobil, either. It is all in one huge bin.

It is by far the most played with toy in our home. My boys don't care for Lego, but they love Playmobil. When we put all other toys away, we keep out the Playmobil. It also holds up well (and that is saying something with my three boys!). I'll be saving our collection for the grandkids. :)

I love this one. Maggie Rose: Her Birthday Christmas by Ruth Sawyer is my all-time favorite.

Yes, every year. But I am very attached to my family and I could not imagine Christmas without them. My parents live just down the road (out in the country). Both of my sisters live close by. We have *lovely* Christmas celebrations all together.

Yes, this! His name totally throws me off.

:iagree: DragonBox is the one app I recommend most. I agree with a pp that even though my boys went through the levels fairly quickly, $6 wasn't a lot for me to spend for them to learn so much--painlessly (considering the expense and time spent with a curriculum to learn those math skills).

Thank you! I'm downloading this now.

Sometimes you don't know exactly which pegs will 'stick.' In general, my boys are *way* more interested in stories, ideas, or lessons when they recognize some basic vocabulary from their memory work. Yes, some of the memory work is going to slip through into obscurity or pointlessness, but it is worth the effort for the things that do stick. For instance, my boys enjoyed SOTW when we'd read the chapters aloud, but none of us was great at remembering details. BUT recently, when we have a related history sentence memorized (with names and dates) or even just an event or name from the timeline, all of us have a much higher interest and retention when we read the story. We don't find memory work tedious. At the very least, my boys are learning how to train their brains to retain facts, which will be very helpful in later years. Each of us has discovered what helps us remember things (songs, hand motions, visual pictures, stories, chants, associations) and we know, from practice, how to transfer that to new ideas and facts. It isn't like we are slogging our way through torturous hours of repeating words to ourselves until we have it memorized. My boys would say that the CC memory work is among their favorite aspects of school.

I had two of my boys learn to read before the age of 4 using only the LeapFrog Letter and Word Factory DVDs and the incremental phonics readers written by Nora Gaydos. For both of the boys, it was completely their idea (and they are strong readers now).

My 5th grade son is working through TT5 (though slightly 'ahead' in the year). My 3rd grade son is working through the quizzes on TT4 and then will go on to TT5. My 1st grade son has been working through TT3 for the past year at a slower pace. They are all right where they need to be according to their individual needs. If my boys only take a short amount of time to complete a lesson and consistently get high scores, I would want them to be more challenged in math. I think having kids do two lesons daily or having them just complete quizzes until they start missing problems and then have them start there with instruction are both great approaches. We also supplement math simply because I want them to be able to think about math in different ways, fill in gaps, and spend more time on math instruction and application without getting bored. My boys LOVE Life of Fred. Dragon Box is a *fabulous* ipad app for learning how to solve algebraic equations without even realizing one is doing math! I really like The Critical Thinking Co.'s math workbooks such as Balance Math. My middle son is working on Beast Academy since TT doesn't take a full year and I don't want long gaps of time without math instruction (such as months over the summer). I also try to find various 'living' books that involve math such as Why Pi?, Mathematicians Are People, Too, and Exploring the World of Mathematics by Tiner.

We do both CC and SOTW. I don't try to schedule our history topics to correspond week by week. My boys LOVE the history songs and also the timeline song. They have no problem memorizing the CC information without studying the topic in depth that very week. I schedule SOTW at our own pace, and we plug in the CC memory (review and discuss) when it comes up in our SOTW schedule. My suggestion: schedule SOTW independently and make it your main history study. Review the CC history during a separate memory work time. If you want, you can use the timeline cards (the supplemental information on the back) that correspond with the person or event for a little bit of context. It only takes a couple minutes to read it during memory review time. When you come to a topic in SOTW that you've already memorized a song for, your kids will connect the two. Mine *always* break into song. :) I really haven't had any negative experience doing it this way. In fact, I've been thrilled to notice an increased interest and retention when we read more about those topics at a later time. I don't have any experience with MFW, but I did write a lengthy post on my blog about CC and how it works for us if it might be helpful.