I forgot (it's been a while since I've been on these forums) how much I love these forums for the helpful and supportive advice! I've talked to homeschooling moms I know who are classical and all of them either use VP self-paced or hire a co-op teacher for the discussions. Maybe that's because they have several children, I thought, but then I see you have six. 🙂 Your response was both enlightening and freeing not to worry about matching up the lit so carefully or overbooking their schedules with every great curriculum out there. So did you as a mom plan a time for these discussions or did you just let them happen free-form at some point when you were checking their work? Sigh. I really want to do a great job at this! I know my husband will be great at discussions. I would like to be great myself at them, but I also know I have 5 kids to teach, the oldest needs vital discussions, while the youngest needs phonics... I'm trying to picture how I will do this practically speaking from day to day, hour by hour...😅

Thank you so much for your input! That will help me be a little more realistic, hopefully! About HOTAW, did you use the maps? And did you discuss every day that they read, or just once a week for a history check-up and discussion? I'm wondering how much independence to expect of my 9th grader as well, such as grading his own history answers, or how much I should be checking up with him and talking about what he's reading (especially if I'm not reading it myself...)

Has anyone had their high schooler read this? I'm thinking of assigning it over the course of several weeks in the beginning of our 9th grade year for literature before we embark on a Great Books course. How do you use it in your home school?

I need some help planning history/lit for next year with my first high schooler! (Yes, I'm a little terrified about navigating high school. 🙈) I own too many products to choose from. (*See below for a list of what I have to wade through, weed out, and work into a schedule.) One question: How important are Socratic discussions in history and/or lit? Like, how much time do you spend working with your high schooler on history/lit or discussing with them? OR Do you find it worth it to pay for online programs that do this (like for Veritas)? Two: I think I'm leaning towards using Romans Roads Old Western Culture with SWB's HOTAW. How much is too much? Should I not use all of Bauer's book? And finally, has anyone made a schedule for where to begin and how to align RR OWC Greeks with HOTAW? Thank you for ANY advice you can offer! * What I have: History: Old Western Culture Greeks, Romans, Christendom, Early Moderns Tapestry of Grace years 1-2 Picturesque Tale of Progress (goes through Explorers) Mystery of History vol. 1-2 History of the Ancient World by Bauer (vol. 1) + study guide Generations History of the World workbook + Preparing the World for Jesus (only part 1) world history TimeLife set: Cradle of Civilization, Ancient Egypt, Historic India, Ancient China, Classical Greece, Imperial Rome, Ancient America, Age of Faith, Early Islam, Age of Kings, Renaissance, Age of Exploration, Age of Enlightenment, African Kingdoms, Rise of Russia PIG Guide to Western Civilization Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World Genevieve Foster: World of Augustus Caesar, Columbus and Sons, Capt. John Smith, George Washington Landmarks Literature: TOG yrs 1-2 Resources: · Center for Lit’s stuff—Teaching the Classics · Well-Educated Mind · How to Read a Book · Invitation to the Classics · Understanding Fiction · PIG guide to English & American Literature · Progeny Press Guides Hiding Place and PDF Scarlet Letter Stobaugh World Literature and Skills for Rhetoric Old Western Culture Generations Great Christian Classics Vol. 1

Has anyone tried these for your high school student (or just for yourself)? Looking for reviews of them.

Ah, yes, sorry, I knew about that. I thought you had a curriculum for it. 🙂

What's this? Would it be a problem to share a link...?

Did you make your own notebook? I didn't know there was a notebook! What's it like?

Am I supposed to teach the words first? I thought I was just supposed to test, writing down the words in different colors to show the patterns, and the important technique was that they catch their mistakes.

Yup, we're also using R&S. We usually just read the writing lessons in it or skip them. I've found the grammar in CW to be more challenging than what we're doing in R&S (which, if you know R&S, makes CW seem really over the top). So, we cut, skip, or do together the parsing parts. It is helpful to do some of the parsing in CW, however, for help with the sentence shuffling work.

I'm so happy we purchased and used Story of the World (with activity book) apologia or Berean Builders science books AAS lots of beautiful literature The Well-Trained Mind MUS

We are 2/3 through our 6th grade year, and he's using: MFW Exploration to 1850 R&S 6 grammar, Classical Writing Homer B, Megawords, literature that goes with history MUS Pre-algebra, and I expect he'll be starting Algebra 1 before the end of the year plus piano and trumpet lessons

Trivium Christian Academy?

Ah. Thank you. In my defense, I didn't know it was the top of the page. Or does that make me even more stupid? :leaving:

ETA: I am told it is my honor to say BOOYA now. I truly feel honored. Wow! This thread is a commitment! I posted only 7 hours ago, and already it's onto the next page with comments. Hope you're not annoyed if I say I have not idea what that is. :laugh: However, I live in South Africa, and over here the most common variety of tomato is called a "jam" tomato, and some people actually do make jam with it. Someone gave me a jar once. Do you have jam tomatoes in America? I am American, and my mom does grow tomatoes every year in her garden, but I don't remember ever hearing of these. They are not round, more oblong and oval. "A. Meyer" Lemon tree. I didn't know there was a lemon tree named after me. :) When life gives you lemons... You get 50,000 points for making me laugh. Thanks!

This. I also think of it like phonics. The classical method for reading would also be the traditional--learn phonics. Classical learning to read would shy away from the sight method. Similarly, I think Suzuki couldn't qualify as "classical," because as sight-method is to reading, so I feel Suzuki is to piano. My sons did take Suzuki violin, but I was teaching them piano with Alfred, which I feel emphasizes the chords well, so they were learning to read the music well. I don't have any Thompson books with me. I really don't like Suzuki for the piano. I know this is a caricature of their program, but it kind of seems like trained monkeys to me. They can play a limited repertoire very well, and that's it. I have taught with Faber, and I like it, but it seems a little more like creative writing to me, rather than simple copywork and dictation, if you understand my meaning. Faber will take that 5-finger pattern and put it all over the piano. It's interesting, but I agree, there is a more "free" or modern taste to it than some of the others, although it's still pretty traditional. My impression of classical instruction (which, none of our music would be truly classical, as even the scales we use are only from the last 500 years) is that it would be taught with a lot of technique practice. A lot of the classical composers wrote etudes and such for youngsters (usually girls) to practice with. Lots of scales, Beringer daily exercises, that kind of thing for the grammar stage. Perhaps the "logic" stage would continue with technique and sight reading skills, and add in more theory. Then the rhetoric stage may be using all of that to begin composing, arranging, or improvisation skills? Just a thought. But that's if you view classical education as "stages" of learning per Dorothy Sayers Lost Tools of Learning. If you consider the ancient views on education, you might be thinking about how to use music to instill the "good, true, and beautiful" into your children. So then the good might refer to playing well, working hard, having consistent character to practice; the true could perhaps refer to theory and sight reading and learning the "truth" of music (like 2+2 in math, learning the notes and staff and theory); the beautiful could refer to proper taste and judgment in playing with expression, beauty, and playing things that are aesthetically pleasing and uplifting, not simply appealing to the "belly," or the baser desires. What do you think?

Just thought I'd put my stamp on this thread. Hope that's not annoying.

I have purchased only individual items that I needed to complete a package from them. Each individual item is listed with pricing and info underneath the package on the website, so you can pick what you need, but you'd need the TM. I wouldn't do 1st with MFW if you already have phonics, language arts, math, WWE planned. 1st grade covers mainly those things. In fact, I didn't do 1st with MFW for that reason, but am almost done with my third year using MFW for the "family cycle." (on week 33 of RTR) It would be easier to switch things out for the family cycle, depending on what you wanted to switch out. I did SCM's 106 Days of Creation for science in 1st grade, and I really liked that. It was very gentle. We read through a Bible, memorized some things, and did SOTW1 for history. Doing Adventures is also an interesting idea, so long as he doesn't mind writing.

This. I tried all sorts of methods. Someone here linked this site for me and I found this article on telling b from d. It is so absolutely wonderfully magically helpful that I printed it out and kept it with me to remind myself of how to do the lesson. I didn't actually need the reminder. Now I taught my younger two kids the last few years of preschool and kindergarten, right from the start, with this method. No looking at hands or beds or derrieres, or anything else. Just say the sound and notice what your lips are doing. Or vice-versa, when reading, if you run into a line, make your lips into a line; if you run into the ball first, make your lips rounded. Works for p and q as well, which my kids also struggled with!

We tried Rod and Staff after AAS. It does the job, but I'm hoping MegaWords does even better. That's what we're trying next year. (starting in January)

I agree with the others. I think supplementation is a good idea to challenge him, but please don't leave MUS! Demme presents the lessons in a clear way, and the ideas progress logically, and I think it lays a great conceptual foundation. I tried supplementing with the following: BA, but it wasn't my favorite for my kid--might be perfect for yours, though. MEP--I've looked at it, but couldn't figure out how to wade my way through all the material and didn't want to go through the learning curve to figure out what to use and what to cut and what to print, etc. Free is very good though. :) MM--I only have the Blue series on .pdf, but honestly I don't think I do well with stuff I have to wade through, pick and choose, and print out. For some reason I don't get around to it. But I did take the time once for clocks, which a child was struggling with from MUS. SM--I go through the books after an MUS level as a review. My kids have flown through it. It's nice to present another way of looking at things, but usually, I feel that MUS's instruction was more thorough, and liked their set-up better. The only things my kids struggled with so far in SM (after going through MUS) was division, so we often skipped that and wait for MUS. I will use the Challenging Word Problems as a supplement, but probably ignore going through the whole level as a supplement now. It's overkill. Even the mental math isn't needed that much, since MUS does such a good job with the blocks and teaching the concepts. LOF--This is what I'm liking now as a supplement. After Epsilon, my son read fractions on his own, and after Zeta, Decimals/Percents. I think we'll keep going with that plan. For my more mathy kids, I plan to use MUS in the high school years as an intro to the topic, and then go through Foerster's or Jacob's Geometry. I really love MUS as a spine though, obviously! lol.

We use LOF as a supplemental, fun review after Math-U-See. The K, L, M books are considered "intermediate." I believe the A-J books are grades 1-4 type arithmetic? Then middle school is Fractions, Decimals/Percents, and Pre-Algebra 0-2. I have Fractions and Decimals/Percents. We used these, respectively, after MUS Epsilon and Zeta. My son read them on his own and did the work. I only checked his work when he got to the "bridge." LOF helped him to think in different, more challenging ways about math, especially to read carefully on word problems. I would not use it in your situation except as a supplement, and even then I'd probably help her read it and figure out what they want. I think LOF would be hard for the teacher to use. I couldn't use it alone myself. It's not nearly "enough" for me--enough instruction or practice. I think MUS sounds wonderful for your daughter and would recommend that for her.

One more thought, now that we've started poetry. I felt the material in Homer was way more important than covering the poetry. Plus sometimes, I wanted him to write a paper for history, so I wouldn't make him work on Homer that day. Homer took longer than 4 days per week for us. It usually took my son more like 6 days to finish the lesson in Homer. So I don't think we'll have time to finish all of the Homer and Poetry in 5th-6th grades. If you are similar, you may want to keep chugging on Homer to make sure you get that done, and then just do whatever of the poetry you have time for. I am not going to buy Poetry B. I just purchased Poetry for older beginners, as it's a more condensed version, and that allows me to still cover the poetry, but also fit in the writing instruction I want to have time for that's more important.

Yes, I think SOTW and your encyclopedia will be enough supplementary reading. Any other suggestions I would make would fall into one of two categories: 1- other encyclopedic resources that cover a broad spectrum of topics, but would probably repeat a lot of what is already in your other planned resources. 2- more specific resources of the type that are on lots of book lists for certain topics, which you are already going to try to get at the library. So I think you've got it covered well. If you want ideas for older series of books that cover history well, take a look at Valerie's Living Library, I think it's called, which reviews lots of series that are nice for either a spine or supplemental resources.

This is what I was going to say. My son is going through LOF Decimals right now as a review, in-between breather before he moves on to pre-algebra. He's really enjoying it, and some of the questions make him think.