None. :)

I had my 3rd grader try the Alice in Wonderland selection. He's a strong reader and he scored 426 WPM! It said he could read the book in an hour and 2 minutes. :)

Oh. My. Word. I read the War and Peace selection (was that even the correct book, LOL!!) and was a little faster than average (partly because I can't just get right into a book...). I had my 10 ds read the Alice in Wonderland selection. He scored 693 words per minute with all 3 questions correct!!! I knew he was a fast reader, but golly!!

My 10 yo ds has enjoyed all of the Riordan books (he thinks everyone should start with Percy Jackson, though), The Ranger's Apprentice series, Gregor the Overlander, Peter and the Starcatchers, and The Mysterious Benedict Society series. He enjoyed the 39 Clues series, but it is considerably easier than the others. My son wanted me to suggest My Side of the Mountain (series).

That's the one I missed, and I guessed Buddhist, as well.

I'm a Christian and I had 1 incorrect (though I did guess on a few of the answers).

We are using the ancient history-themed IEW book this year and we've done the first two levels of MCT. I think I'd try to watch the TWSS DVDs if you could borrow them before teaching the theme-based writing, but kids wouldn't need prior experience, if that makes sense. The Fables and Myths is a great one to start with. We did no writing with MCT. I loved *reading* the writing book, but we didn't do the exercises. I much prefer a combination of Writing With Ease and IEW.

I was going to mention this, too. I enjoyed it so much. THAT is the way to study the Gettysburg Address.

Leftover baked chicken fajitas. I'm on day 5 of Whole30 (Primal/Paleo). The fajitas have chicken, onions, peppers, diced tomatoes, and seasoning. I'm topping them with avocado and fresh chopped tomatoes (and a little cheese and sour cream because I'm still doing a little dairy).

I don't think you are obligated to even glance at the ads. I just think it is unfair to *complain* about them when one is getting a free product or service. :001_smile:

I don't hate the ads (I understand that I am using a free product and I am thankful), but I mostly don't notice them at all. I think I've clicked on one ad the years I've been on facebook (and it wasn't a homeschooling product). I do love the facebook updates from PHP.

That's what we did this past year. No big deal. I taught myself diagramming as we went along, and just showed the boys what the diagram looked like after we analyzed each sentence in MCT. I think diagramming is a blast. The boys enjoyed it. Really. No big deal. Diagramming is easy. Adding diagramming to MCT is easy. :D

The movie is one of my all-time favorites--on par with the BBC Pride & Prejudice. It is a little darker and there are a few deaths, but it is an excellent movie and should be just fine for a 13 yo.

North and South by Elizabeth Gaskell. The author was a contemporary of Dickens and North and South deals with boths sides of the industrial world and the difference between the North and South of England, with a love story similar to Pride and Prejudice.

SOTW doesn't teach outlining. I purchased an outlining workbook to help me teach my boys (there is a Beginning Outlining for younger students, as well).

I decided to do MCT grammar for two years before starting Essentials with my oldest. I think I'll be glad I did. He will be in 5th grade this next year, and I think Essentials will be a great fit.

I think they are great for around 5th grade and up, especially for kids who have gone through MCT's Town level. My 10 yo read Lincoln's Ten Sentences when we were at that time in history. I don't think he would have been ready for Jefferson's when we covered the Revolutionary War period.

I have both Jefferson's Truths and Lincoln's Ten Sentences and I LOVE them. You could easily just read them--together or independently. MCT gives historical background (events, people, ideas), grammar analysis, and vocabulary. At the end of each book there is a list of things students can do (memorization, research, discussion, etc.) as well as study/discussion questions. ETA: The Jefferson book is a little more difficult than the Lincoln one, but I don't know that it would matter what order you read them in. MCT weaves history, literature, writing, grammar, and vocabulary together--which is what he does best. :)

We are going to be doing a little WWE/WWS when Essentials is not in session. We are also going to be doing outlining during history. I love the MCT poetry books, so we'll review the Town level book at some point this year. (Just learning about poetry, not writing it.) I don't think the grammar portion needs to be supplemented. We love MCT grammar, though, so we might review with that when Essentials finishes up. I know that we could do spelling through Essentials, but we are started with All About Spelling and I really like it so we'll continue with that instead.

There is also an interesting drug-induced halucination that is somewhat explicit...

My boys don't seem to mind. I agree that he could have a pair of regular swim trunks to pull over them when he is out of the water before and after practice or races. He may decide it just isn't that big of a deal after a while.

I loved Eight Cousins by Alcott and Understood Betsy by Dorothy Canfield Fisher. They are great children's fiction that inspired me as a teacher when I read them. I have Carry On, Mr. Bowditch on my inspiration list, too. :) (I need to re-read Little Men!) I'll second Hold On to Your Kids and add Cultural Literacy by Hirsch.

I LOVE the new CC timeline (and I usually don't like change of any sort :) ) and the song makes it far superior to the Veritas timeline. I consider the audio CDs to be necessary. Again, the songs are invaluable. The timeline cards are wonderful, but not absolutely necessary. We have the science cards, but haven't used them much. I'm hoping to incorporate them more this year. I purchased the flashcards for the first time this year, only because I think two of my boys are going to try to do Memory Masters (mastering and testing on every piece of memory work), and I thought they would be handy. You could certainly make your own if they don't fit in the budget. I would probably pick the Cycle that was most closely related to the info we were already studying during the year, but I wouldn't try to coordinate the memory work perfectly. (Unless I were willing to put in a huge amount of time piecemealing the memory work to fit in exactly with our studies.)

Sylvie is one of my favorites. I couldn't use it because our last name starts with an S.

My personal favorite is Dragonbox. My boys love to play Presidents vs. Aliens, Rocket Math, and Stack the States.