It's a great program for a number of reasons, and I have multiple friends who have used it long term with no plans to stop. We used it for 3 years and ended up switching because we wanted to combine for history and science, and also branch out and try some new resources. We may use HOD the year after next for medieval, and will definitely draw from their booklists.

This is so new to me. I hate to admit it, but I am a 100% type of mom, which probably makes it that much worse. I don't discourage him but I do require going back over missed problems to get them correct. Wow, this is definitely enlightening and I'm so glad you gave specifics here. I'm going to change things up... perhaps my expectations are holding him back more than anything.

This is a great reminder. Maybe I could present some topics out of traditional order for him, to make things more interesting? I do have MM blue series downloaded and LOF Fractions? I'm also willing to invest in other books if it'll curb his math hatred.

What do you recommend for a child who is a natural (and parent who is artistically challenged)?

For those of you planning on a world geography/cultures focus, I found this great online game about missions and serving the world's poor: Quest for Compassion. I'm excited to include this in our studies next year!

So many good thoughts and ideas- thank you all. I think I'm going to scribe most of the writing as long as he is doing the *work* independently. If anything, I'll have him work through a few of the more difficult problems on the whiteboard. He doesn't respond to "as soon as you finish you get to..." at all, however he might like the idea of a quick break after every few problems. And I think limiting math to 15-20 minutes a day will help, as will including some fun resources like Beast, Murderous Maths, or livingmath. I'm still not sure about pacing/placement/acceleration though. I just feel so strange about skipping practice problems, even if he can figure them out, because doesn't practice increase speed and cement the concept in long term memory? I don't want him to "get it" and then forget it next week. The comments about "the right difficulty" are literally beyond me... I have no idea if he's working at his potential.

DD (third grade) read it this year, and DS (first) listened to some of it aloud and skimmed the book on his own. We didn't formally "study" it, but did discuss/narrate/dictate.

How much math does he/she do every day? My son just turned 7 (first grade) and absolutely loathes math, though he is really good at it. I think this math hatred began because I am making him do too much everyday. If you have/had a child who is extremely smart but has a very short attention span (and also hates to physically write down math problems) how long is your daily math lesson? I cannot seem to find a happy medium. Also, is it really okay to scribe everything for him? I feel like it's not so I've been making him write some, but honestly even one page in the workbook takes him FOREVER to complete if he is doing it independently. It's not his processing speed- he can mentally do the problems and tell me the answers fairly quickly. But his mind is just elsewhere all the time and he cannot be self-motivated at this point unless it's something he's really interested in (science or history). Anyone relate? I feel like we are moving forward at a snails pace right now. Where do we go from here?

Keep in mind that HOD uses Rod and Staff on grade level starting in Bigger (which we used for second grade). So if you are planning on continuing with HOD, you may want to use it so you can use Carrie's scheduling.

Oh, and the Viking Quest series

Canterbury Tales, Shakespeare, St. George and the Dragon, The Door in the Wall, Otto of the Silver Hand, everything on this list: http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/curriculum/history-3.html

I show the DVD on Monday, go over the vocab/pronunciation/prayers with flashcards the next and do 1 page of the workbook, same the next day, and then use Thursday to review with the text and audio CD. With the review built into the program, retention has been very good.

Just wanted to add that if you are worried about content, check out the ambleside online booklists. Even in the youngest levels, there are many books that are middle/high school reading level but still appropriate. My oldest was the same way and I didn't want her just reading everything she was capable of.

http://www.kobobooks.com/ebook/Tales-from-Shakespeare-Volume-2/book-HFLfge18EUmZEcInuQkdnw/page1.html Here is a free ebook. You could download it this way and read through it, and then decide whether or not it's what you want for your child.

Hmmm, I thought is was in volume 2. I'll see if I can find a link.

Sorry to hijack, but what level of reading is a child at who completes AAR 1? We are currently using The Reading Lesson which ends at about a second grade level.

We also LOVE AAS for my gifted readers/average spellers. And even I learned things in level 1 (I was a self-taught sight reader) so I would definitely start there.

Lamb's Tales From Shakespeare

These are gorgeous! Just what I was hoping for :-). Wish there was a "Love" button!

We used the OTAE Enhanced CD and the NTG&R Enhanced CD this year to go along with the cards and SOTW1. The Enhanced CD is everything that is in the teacher's manual, just in PDF form. I wanted the download b/c I have more than one student so I could easily print as many copies of the pages I needed from my b&w laserjet printer (which doesn't have a copier). Now, I'm not the biggest fan of VP history, and I'm sure you'll get some other posts which are more positive. But honestly the student pages are primarily worksheets with short answer questions and tests with short answer questions. There are some projects we did (Model of Noah's Arc, Mask of King Tut, etc.- at least one per card) but usually these didn't work out very well. For example, the Noah's Ark model did not work at all. The Mask looked nice, but it was far too small for the kids to actually wear, which was weird because you were supposed to cut out the eyes. Maybe my kids just have big heads. There are also lit questions for books like Tirzah, Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt, etc. The CD also has the timeline songs, one with lyrics and one without so kids can sing it on their own. Again, I got the Enhanced CDs used (about $12 each) and I think I used them to make it worth that. Especially if you are only doing VP cards, it would be helpful. But I would consider supplementing with some other fun resources (look for threads on Ancient Egypt and you'll find a ton).

If you have photos with lines, we'd love to see those too :001_smile:. DD does well with blank pages, but DS I'm not sure. I think his pages will be primarily just drawing , cutting and pasting photos (and possibly text), and titling the page.

Have you looked at Ambleside Online? It sounds like it would be really helpful in your planning... so many free resources and education through accelerated, classic literature. Also, Librivox has free audio recordings of a ton of great lit. Perhaps if you can't find a print download, your daughter could listen to the stories and narrate them back to you.

We are switching over to blank page sketch paper for all of our notebooking and I want to give kiddos some inspiration.

Although it is recommended on every Egypt booklist, Pharaohs of Ancient Egypt was a total bust for us. You might want to also consider: Science in Ancient Egypt, Cleopatra, & Lift the Lid on Mummies. Not sure if they would work for you but my kids also really enjoyed God King, Joseph, and Exodus.

:lurk5: Wondering the same. I don't think I've ever read a "bad" review of AAR, but I have heard parents who felt it was great but not necessary. This is why I've been hesitant to purchase it. We have The Reading Lesson, which worked well for my son, and also have McGuffey's Primer & all of the Bob Books. I've also read some posts on using AAS as a reading program, and since we already have AAS I was thinking of trying that as well. DD will be 5 in May and she is plugging along just fine with The Reading Lesson... but AAR looks so fun! The $100 is worth it to me if it helps her become a better reader. But perhaps she'll be a great reader using the programs we already have? UGH... it's a hard call.