I'll buy Norms and nobility from you! (Although we have a serious problem with too many books here as well...)

Thanks, Tibbie, for your thoughtful encouragement. I don't want to sound whiny (too late, ha!), but I really don't have support--outside of FB and TWTM forums. :/ My husband is here to help; but we live overseas as missionaries, had been in the States for 8 weeks over Christmas to rest and discuss possible major changes in our future because of this event, just arrived back in the country less than three weeks ago, went through a move to a smaller house with no preparation in packing whatsoever, and...the list really does go on. To be open, I wasn't even sure we were ready to start our school year yet, but I hoped it would help give us stability to get into a routine and do something familiar; and I knew we needed to get going or we would get no breaks the rest of the year. Oh, I'm pregnant too--due in August. :) So anyway, my support has come from encouraging friends, the prayers of friends, and certain Scripture the Lord has brought to my attention during these trials. Thanks again for your words of encouragement; it really does help to have virtual friends. :)

Actually, he's 8 (3rd gradish). Updating my siggy is one of those things I haven't had time for. :ohmy: But I don't think that will change the point you're making which is what I need to hear: don't sweat the small stuff! Sigh. Keep it coming, ladies. Thanks.

My will to homeschool is there, but we have had some really hard times lately that have absolutely prevented it. I just posted about that in another thread and then read this thread. :grouphug:

I'm not sure whether I need encouragement right now or just to vent. Our lives have been in upheaval since December 2nd. I usually start our school year in mid-January. Just when I thought we were getting settled enough to begin our year (we just started yesterday), my firstborn son broke his lower left arm bones extremely badly, needing surgery today, and more surgery in the future. I'm not sure what I'll do about homeschooling him at this point. I don't want to teach him when he's in pain; but at the same time, I could see that doing some studies with him in the upcoming weeks would help to pass the time and he wouldn't be so bored. I am quite unprepared for the year in general. We were just going to do the three Rs this week (which I am prepared for), and then add in the content subjects next week so I could have one more week to organize the content subjects. I am so tired of not knowing what I'm doing or what the next week will hold. Not sure what I'm asking for, maybe just a virtual shoulder to cry on. Thanks.

Bump :)

You've already gotten good answers, which I in general, a very conservative Christian, repeat. I took "beast" here to mean "creature," not anything related to end-times antagonists. Remember the Biblical principle not to answer a matter before you've heard it: write BA and ask them what their position is, why they chose the term "beast," if they are promoting satanism in the Wiki article or their curriculum, etc. I think you're really seeing things where they aren't, especially since they didn't put that specific post on Wiki, and it's not even clear whether it's giving support for that view or just stating factual-ish info. I can't help but think that BA would be crazy to teach anything touching on satanism in their math curriculum, especially since so many of their homeschooling market are Christian. I would be more concerned if they included anything like that in their actual curriculum. I think we would have heard about it by now if they did. Their samples were very alluring to me, and I have almost clicked purchase several times, if it weren't for the beastly prices... :) In summary, be careful not to censor something as wrong before you've carefully researched for yourself. If you do the research and still feel uncomfortable, then obey your conscience. (I decided to read Harry Potter over Christmas myself so I'd know what it was about and be able to make an informed decision. I liked them, but also have enough concerns that I think I will not have my children read them. And we do read Narnia and other such-like fantasy, so I'm not against all fantasy.)

I'm moving into 3rd grade with my firstborn (were supposed to start in January but had upheaval in our lives and are starting late this year), and am trying to wrap my head around appropriate expectations for reading and writing the WTM way. I have read TWTM, but I want to hear from some of you. So here are some of my questions, and I'd really appreciate feedback from those of you who have BDTD: Reading: How often should he read aloud to me? How much reading (total, alone and with me) per day? 30 minutes? Should we keep a reading journal as described in TWTM? Should we be done with phonics? How long do we do phonics? Should I just review for 6 weeks, then be done? Writing: Handwriting and copywork: Do we do "handwriting" every day? (We already learned cursive in 1st grade.) Or 3 days a week? Or just when we do "copywork"? Is copywork daily? Narration: Do we narrate daily on something (history, reading, science)? How many times written narration--twice per week? Dictation: Just twice per week? How hard? (I find WWE a bit too difficult for my son at this point in dictation. We were on WWE2, and he would probably need more work at that level. I'm thinking of trying something else.) Thanks so much for your advice!

How Great Thou ART is another option that has real art instruction for different age levels with optional video instruction. Some of the options have art history included.

Have you looked at Reading Roadmaps? That might be more of just the basics in literature study. I think it's by the same company that does Teaching the Classics.

Oh, okay, so in order to get the free polliwogs game, you need to make a $30 purchase? Thanks for the clarification.

I'm interested in the Polygons to Polliwogs game--thanks for the tip! I'm trying to get it now, but all I see is the CD version that requires shipping, and I can't tell if the promo code works or not; so I don't want to give them my credit card number until I know I'm "buying" the right thing. Otherwise it's a $20 accident. Would love to get the download version for free though if you could give a tip on where to look to find it? Thanks!

2nd grade took about 3.5-4 hours, and K took 1-1.5 hours.

I just want to doublecheck--are there none in September? Unlikely, huh?

I miss them, too! I don't know where they went or if I missed a memo somewhere. Anyway, I won't be posting for a while after this, because we just finished our last week of school for our school year! I'm so ready for a break! We'll be starting up again mid-January. I'll still check in on these threads to see how the rest of you are doing, though. Happy Thanksgiving and Merry Christmas! Officially Not a Newbie Anymore

Tiramisu, would you mind explaining for me a bit how visual problems cause difficulties in writing? I never thought about the two being connected. I only thought about visual development issues affecting reading. I just had my son evaluated by a children's optometrist to see if he needed vision therapy. They recommend glasses, possibly just reading glasses are needed, but also mentioned that he may need some therapy for eye teeming and also some skipping he does when reading. I don't know what convergence insufficiency is. How do you know when vision is affecting writing? I don't want to be quick to throw labels on my son if that's not the issue, you know? nor pay for therapy he doesn't need and that's hard to get. But I never thought about it affecting writing as well as reading.

Thanks for showing how you use WFH. So you aren't dictating any of her oral narration back to her yet for her to write? It's all oral right now?

Thanks for being tireless in sharing your advice! I know, I don't usually like to triple topics if someone else already wrote on it, but I started this one first. :laugh: I am interested in TC, but I had the impression that people overseas can't buy it. :confused1: Anyway, I have all this other stuff to try. I also have Write from History Early Modern! I was already trying to use WWE2 with history, so I thought it might be easier just to get WFH. So I was thinking to use that in a WWE way maybe, but I still need to read and understand it more first. I'm glad you mentioned that we could use CAP now; I had the impression I needed to get through WWE3 first, so that's good to know!

I did WWE2's evaluation week with ds today (some of it). He listened well, answered almost every comprehension question well, in complete sentences (sometimes had to remind him), and narrated decently a three-sentence narration. I had to help him with each sentence in the narration. On two occasions, helped him to see that a sentence he was adding wasn't important, and on the other sentences helped him make the sentences flow better. So I guess he didn't do the narration completely on his own. I had to help. I dictated one sentence from his narration about 15 words long to him, and he needed several repeats for that as well with some spelling helps. Then for the dictation sentence, I had to repeat more than two times. After repeating twice initially, I had him repeat the sentences to me. He almost got it, but changed one word for a synonym, and rephrased another little part. So I repeated it again and had him begin to write. Then I had to repeat two more times. I had to help him spell "lagoon, floated, and beautifully." For the first sentence, I had to remind him to "show that he's done." (He often forgets the ending period until I "subtly" remind him.) So maybe this should be obvious, but it isn't to me. It sounds like he needs more work on this level right, since he needs help? Or should I expect to be helping him in any level? I'm not sure how much help is allowed on the narrations, although I'm beginning to see that the dictations can be helped along more than the workbook states. I'm also wondering what to do for writing next year in third grade (in Jan.). I could go on to WWE3 (maybe make the dictations shorter?) I could use WWE3's workbook, or just do my own thing following the guide. I could work more on WWE2 (my least favorite option!) I could use CAP's Fable, since I own it. I've heard it helps to teach narration more explicitly than WWE, and that it's dictations are easier. But perhaps it would be too hard in other areas. I'll have to peruse it more thoroughly. I could also do CW's Aesop. I have the guide, but not the student workbooks with their TMs. I've thought about purchasing CW Aesop A for first semester (maybe while continuing to work on WWE2's skills with history, if that's not too much writing--overkill), and then using WWE3's workbook for 2nd semester. Then do CAP Fable in 4th grade while finishing WWE3. Maybe CW Aesop B, but I think that would be overkill to do Aesop A and B and CAP Fable. I've heard some say that CAP Fable isn't quite enough maybe for that topic and needs more review/ drill/ whatever, so I thought half of CW Aesop might be helpful. Plus CW seems impressive in their scope and sequence! I also have R&S for grammar, so I guess I could see what they have for teaching writing. Just not sure what route to take for now.

I noticed CAP W&R in your sig. Have you tried that as well? Just wondering, since I have it on my shelf for third or fourth grade, but others were saying to try to get through parts or all of WWE3 first. But some said it helped to teach narration summaries better than WWE does, so I'm not sure what to do, whether to try something else for a time. I also have CW's basic Aesop book, not the student texts.

We have a scheduled time of 15 minutes per day for memory work from all different subjects. But I feel like WWE is different. It's asking for short term recall of large section of words (some unfamiliar, like "lagoon" today), only heard, not read. I know for me, I memorize much better when I can see something, having almost photographic memory. We also had ds recently evaluated for vision problems.

Thanks for the comments. It sounds like most of you are suggesting that more time for him to developmentally mature and keep working on this level will fix the problem, as well as my relaxing my expectations a little more. I'll do the evaluation next week (our last week for this school year) and see how he does. One thing I was noticing today while struggling through The Hobbit week's second dictation sentence (it is long!, and even though she suggests the child look at it first and give different helps, it was too hard), is that the TM suggests to choose dictation sentences of 12-15 words in length, but many of the workbook sentences are longer. So maybe when I did my own thing following the TM I was actually making it easier for him. I also didn't worry too much about detail vs. plot summaries when I used WWE with history. We just listened to SOTW2, asked the comprehension questions, and helped him to try to summarize it. The SOTW stories are way longer than the WWE2 workbook selections, and some had detail, and some were more story-like. So I figured we were getting the basic idea, actually harder, since the selections were longer. But now that we're hitting the dictation section and I'm hopping back to the workbook, I wonder if I haven't been doing it "right."

I would love religious ones; the one in my state was, but I found that I didn't learn a whole lot from the sessions. They were true, some were interesting, and nice reminders, but nothing I didn't already know or very inspiring. I'd really love to hear some classical ed speakers, if possible. Basically anything from May through August won't work for me this time around, though CHAP sounds nice if there are classical speakers there! Are there any in September or October? (I know that would be weird for most homeschoolers, just wondering!)

I live overseas and only come back to the USA for a visit every 3-4 years. We came back in the summer 2013, and I got to attend my state's homeschooling convention. I really enjoyed going to some sessions and especially getting most of my curriculum in one spot with free shipping since most of my suppliers were there. But my state (IL) was pretty small I guess, compared with some of the other conventions I've heard about. Next time we come back we can schedule it for about 3-4 months anywhere around Christmas, so Sept-Dec or Dec-beginning of April, or any other combination around the holidays. I was thinking that I'd love to go to a homeschooling convention while home, and I wouldn't mind traveling anywhere in the midwest or even a bit farther. Just can't go west really. So my ideal convention would be one with several classical ed speakers like SWB, Kern, the VP guys, etc. (I'll need help and inspiration for the logic stage), and it would include an exhibit hall with enough displayers to draw my main suppliers that I order from. (For example, one of them--MFW-- isn't going to IL anymore.) Does a convention like this exist, and if so, where and when (generally)? Thanks for your help!

My ds7 is struggling with the dictation sentences at the end of WWE2. For most of the year I tried just doing our own copywork and dictation from history and lit connected to history, using the WWE text for guidance. Now towards the end of our year (we school according to the calendar year), I hopped back to the workbook to see how he did with the "real" thing. He really struggles to remember the sentences after the suggested 3 repeats. Combine that with stopping for spelling difficulties, and by the time he's reached the end of the sentence(s), he's forgotten it, and I have to repeat it more times. He can remember the general gist, but not the exact wording. Then I thought that though I might not struggle with three repeats, it wouldn't exactly be easy even for me; so then I wondered if this is too hard for a 7yo? I understand wanting the child to hold a thought in their heads, but it's not his original thought, so I basically feel like I'm asking him to memorize something short term that is kinda long to memorize for a 7yo. In every other subject, my son is ahead or average. Only in WWE does he seem "behind" for his age or struggling to keep up with the requirements. So is the problem the requirements, or just that he needs more work on this? So I'm not sure whether this is normal and I can move on to WWE3 in third grade (in Jan.) or if I just need to keep plugging away at this level for a while and keep working at it? Or if I am doing something wrong and should be helping him more or allowing some studied dictation? Or if I should ditch WWE cuz it's not working so great and try out some of the other programs I have on my shelf? For those of you who have BTDT in WWE, can you advise me?