Janice, I will PM you later today or tomorrow. We are off to pick up a new puppy this afternoon. You are like my fairy godmother. Thank you for taking so much of your time for me. :001_smile: Wendy

I forgot to talk about my transcript plans. Of course I have no idea what I'm doing, so please chime in. Ancient Hitory - 1 credit Geography - 1 credit Traditional Logic I and II - 1 credit Latin - 1 credit Violin - 1/2 credit PE - 1/2 credit Math (I don't know what to call it yet because DM is so integrated - 1 credit Honors Earth Science - 1 credit Intro. to Technology - 1 credit (both sciences with be at the school) English (I'm lost here. Please advise me.) I'm thinking 1 1/2 credits for IEW, Smarr, and maybe 1/2 R&S 8 as grammar review. He will do History, geography, logic, Latin, math, earth science every other day for 90 minutes x 36 weeks, intro to tech. everyday for one semester 90 minutes, English (lit, writing, grammar) every day for 90 min. x 36 weeks, violin will be 1 lesson per week with 45 minutes of practice 5x wk, and PE is sort of unscheduled. Does this all make sense.

I came here asking for advice, and I have always loved your posts. Please tell me why you want to talk me out of IEW ancients. I am struggling with this child. Thank you so much for taking the time to try to help. As far as IEW in the past, it was more of a planned to do with the student directed videos. With the 4 boys I struggle to find the right balance between what I can teach to each child and what they will have to do on their own. Obviously the littles take more mom time than the older ones, but I don't want to neglect the olders either. I thought maybe the student IEW would be a good compromise but it seems like we weren't productive with it. This year was a struggle for us for non-school related issues anyway. I have such high hopes for next year that both my 14yo (15 in Dec.) will not be so easily distracted and I will also be more focused. I feel like we really have to get serious now about some things while at the same time keep some fun and interests. Anyway, I'm rambling now. I am open to any and all advice from btdt moms. Thank you! Wendy

Yes, we have the DVDs, but I am not gifted at coming up with topics. Drew actually liked the method and the bite-sized pieces. He is very intimidated by writing and especially coming up with his own ideas. Thanks, Wendy

Thank you. That is great to know. I am really looking forward to next year now that I have it all planned out. I have everything on hand except for Smarr and IEW, so I just keep wondering about them. I can't even believe that I am planning a high school curriculum. He has been home since third grade. It is exciting.

Thanks for the input. I know that the ancient history IEW is a bit young for him, but he is pretty weak in writing. I thought it would go well with our history and not overwhelm him. My hope is that the Smarr will provide the high school level of lit analysis and writing that he needs. I think the Smarr writing lessons are scheduled only after reading the books, so I can probably work it out so that he is only working on one assignment at a time.

I am thinking that I will not give him a Bible credit because his schedule is pretty full. He will do all of the Bible assignments as scheduled but I don't think that alone constitutes a credit. I had thought about adding one of Carrie's suggestions but I just don't want to overwhelm him for his first year of high school. He is already going to earn 9 credits next year. I really think you should go with your gut on this one. We will have to keep in touch during the year if you do end up doing CTC with your 9th grader.

Janet, here is what I am planning. He will do all of the CTC scheduled notebook pages with narrations for the extension books daily. Carrie suggests 2 oral, 2 written, and 1 notebook page with illustration per week for the extension books in addition to the other notebooking. The added reading that I listed will be just read and discuss. I am planning to have him complete all of the Mapping the World with Art with the additional reading for 1 credit in geography. He will be working on it for about 90 minutes every other day for a total of 130 hours. I will also give him 1 credit for ancient history done on the opposite schedule. Basically I just divided up all of the additional reading into 36 weeks so we know how much additional reading to do each week. The geography program is already divided into 30 lessons with three parts: reading, map drawing, and an activity, so it is pretty easy to schedule. Everything else we are using for the year is also separated into lessons. I have all of the resources on my shelves now, and it all looks great!

Math: Discovering Mathematics 3 Latin: Third Form or Henle Logic: MP Traditional Logic II Literature: Smarr's Intro to Lit. Writing: IEW Ancient History-based Writing Lessons Geography: Mapping the World With Art along with The Book of Discovery and The Great Explorers of the 20th Century History/Bible: HOD CTC along with The Archaeology Book, Unwrapping the Pharaohs, Josephus, and Plutarch Science: public high school honors Earth Science Fine Arts: violin PE: Cross Country, Track, and something at the YMCA for the winter Aside from PE and violin, he will do 4 subjects a day for 90 minutes alternating days. This will actually give him about 130 hrs per class but not overwhelm him with lots of things to cover each day.

Writing is my son's weakest subject. He is very mathy and very black and white. He loves to read but not to discuss or write about literature. We will be doing a bit lighter ancient history and geography in order to focus on some writing skill. He does not need separate grammar because he excels in Language on all of his testing. He is also continuing on to his 5th year of Latin. My question is this: will these two programs be too much writing? Our plan is to alternate days with 90 minute sessions. He does better with fewer subjects per day for longer periods. Thanks.

I also check the WTB board first. I have made a few sales there. I'm sorry that you missed out on a sale.

Singapore Math for 3 out of 4 boys Memoria Press Latin and Logic Rod and Staff English I am happy with our 3 Rs; it's the other stuff that I bounce around with. I need variety.

Here is our first ever high school plan: Math - Discovering Mathematics 3 Latin - finish Second Form and Third Form if it is out, Henle if it isn't Logic - Traditional Logic 2 English - IEW Ancient History Based Writing, Rod and Staff 7, DITHOR w/ high school level books History - HOD Creation to Christ w/ addition of Unwrapping the Pharaohs, The Archaeology Book, Josephus, and Plutarch Geography - Mapping the World With Art w/ addition of The Book of Discovery and Great Explorers of the 20th Century Science - public school earth science and intro to technology (our schools do not do biology until 10th) Fine Arts - violin PE - cross country and track

We will have our first 9th grader next year, and I am pretty nervous about it. He is "almost" on the aspie side and a very black and white child who is very easily distracted. He is a math and science whiz, but he struggles with any gray areas such as literature. He loves to read but not to discuss or write anything even remotely resembling an opinion. We will be continuing with some things that he is very familiar with such as Discovering Mathematics 3, MP Traditional Logic II, finishing Second Form Latin and moving on to Third Form if it is ready or Henle if it is not. He will go to the high school for science and to run cross country and track. He started playing the violin this year, and he loves it. He will continue with his lessons next year. He is a perfectionist and tends to get very stressed out when he gets behind. Our history, Bible, and literature will be a bit unconventional for this board. He will be working through HOD's Creation to Christ program along with Mapping the World With Art. I have added some HS level reading per Carrie's suggestions. He will read The Book of Discovery and Great Explorers of the 20th Century along with his geography and Unwrapping the Pharaohs, The Archaeology Book, Our Young Folks' Josephus, and Our Young Folks' Plutarch along with history. He will work through Rod and Staff English 7, IEW Ancient History writing lessons, and DITHOR with HS level books for language arts. We are trying to play to his strengths and not stress him with his weaknesses.

HOD Preparing w/ DITHR and R&S 3

Singapore Math 1A + B CLE Language, Reading, Bible Tag-a-long Piano That's all. I know it doesn't look like much, but it covers the basics. He is a naturally very curious little guy. He spends his day with art supplies, books, puzzles, music, etc, and asking lots of questions.

TOG 4 CLE math and English First Start French Fallacy Detective Apologia General Science

TOG 4 Discovering Mathematics 3 Third Form Latin Traditional Logic 2 Violin Public School: Earth Science and Intro to Technology (our school system does biology in 10th) Our plan is to have him spend 2hrs/ day on TOG, 1hr/ day on math and violin, and do Latin M,W,F and Logic T,TH for one hour with the weekends set aside to get a jump on the coming week's reading. This is essentially what we are doing this year for 8th. We are simply continuing on in all the same curriculum.

Math: CLE Language Arts: CLE Bible: CLE (3 x wk) Latin: First Form (4 x wk) Logic: Fallacy Detective (1 x wk orally) History, Literature, and Writing: TOG 4 with Writing Aids Music: Guitar Science and Gym: PS

We will be using Memoria Press 3rd grade with the subsitution of Singapore math.

8th: grader reads, goes to ps for science, chess club, mechanical advantage club, cross country or track, and electives (art, music, gym) He also chips away at some of his loose ends as well as his daily chore. 6th grader: He sleeps in, likes to cook a large, hot breakfast for himself and his younger brothers, cleans his mess in the kitchen, completes his daily chore, independent reading for an hour as well as any other required reading for the day, destroys the kitchen again with whatever he decides to try to cook for lunch, cleans that mess, then he gets started on his school work around 1pm. He does the things he can do on his own at this time because this is when I work with the younger boys until about 3pm. At 3pm, I take break for myself. (I spend my morning doing whatever chores need to done) Oldest ds gets picked up from extracurricular activity at 3:30 and then I start dinner prep so we can eat early. After the dinner mess is cleaned, I make coffee and hang out in the school room with the older boys for their instructional time with me. I work 12 hr shifts, and I don't get home until 9pm on work nights. I am very slow to get moving in the morning. (Ignore the early time of this post. I had trouble sleeping last night.) I forgot to add that the little boys spend their morning doing creative things. We have a no screen time rule during the week, so the occupy themselves with playdough, water paint, drawing, puzzles, math manipulatives, and browsing through books. I consider this time to take care of all the extras that they would be doing at a "real" school. Their academic time is streamlined into 2hrs in the afternoon.

I often spend the time from 7-9 with my older boys working on school things. DH is home at the time, dinner is done, and the mess is cleaned. DH reads and bathes the younger boys and keeps them occupied, so this time is very productive and quiet in the school room. We get a lot done. We have to approach things a bit unconventionally because I work 3 12 hr shifts each week. I am actually only home 3 week nights, so we also work a bit on Saturday morning and sometimes on Sunday afternoon after church to get a jump on the week. I love our quiet evenings in the school room. We have great discussions. I also just wanted to add that as much as I have tried, we are NOT a morning family. It is pointless to even try to get anything done before 11. They all read from 10-11 quietly, and then I get started with the little ones. Go with what works. Isn't that one of many reasons we homeschool?

Here is what we have done or are doing so far: 7th: The Fallacy Detective 8th: Traditional Logic I 9th: Traditional Logic II and Material Logic (These are considered semester courses for high school.) 10th: Rhetoric With Aristotle

Thanks, Heather. Maybe you could help me with this question too since it looks like you might have a similar situation next year. Would it be possible to do I and III next year with a 7th and 9th grader? Combining for anything has never worked well around here, so they are on different topics this year anyway.

This course in on our short list for 9th grade next year. I'm not sure that we can afford the online classes, but they do look good. Assuming that I cannot afford the class, what will it like to do this at home on our own? If we can afford one of the classes, primary or secondary, which one would be better to have the help with?