Hello! My son completed Star Spangled States for US Geography and enjoyed it quite a bit and learned a lot. I am looking for a similar program for World Geography. We need something secular and that can be used independently by the student. He will be in 6th grade next year but he could handle an intro. high-school level course if it is engaging. Any suggestions? Thanks! Heather

Thanks. I looked through both books today and they really don't seem to match up well. So, I'm going to just let him read both and if they match up, great. If not, that's great too!

Before I try to do this, I want to make sure I'm not re-creating the wheel. My son will be reading K12 Human Odyssey along with The Story of Science:Aristotle Leads the Way. He will also be listening along as his younger sister starts the SOTW. Has anyone used these together? If so, did you match up the chapters and topics? I have HO matched with SOTW but I can't find anything that incorporates The Story of Science. Thanks!

I don't do handwriting on it's own once the basics are learned. We use WWE and The Arrrow for copywork and I just make sure that they are writing their letters correctly. And then I introduce cursive in grade 3. I think doing a separate handwriting program when they are writing in other aspects of their lives is boring busy-work.

Thanks so much for all of the suggestions! I have some researching to do. Can anyone tell me if the homeschool in the woods timeline is secular? I'm not planning on doing a pre-history timeline but I would like a timeline that is secular in focus. Thanks!

My youngest will be a 2nd grader next year and here are our plans: Math: Singapore 2A and 2B, with Intensive Practice Science: AHA Science with supporting library books History: SOTW1 with Classical House of Learning Literature Spelling: Spelling Workout B Writing: WWE 1 and 2, a bit of The Arrow (Brave Writer) with her brother Grammar: KISS Grade 2, Level 1 Phonics: MCP Plaid B, Explode the Code Online Logic: MindBenders Typing: Mavis Beacon Typing Extras: Piano lessons, swim team, art classes

I am starting the Logic Stage of History with my rising 5th grader. We'll be using SOTW along with his younger sister, and K12 Human Odyssey and Classical House of Learning. I also want to incorporate a timeline but we don't have the wall space, so I am looking for a Timeline Book. I really like the look of the one from History Odyssey but I can't figure out how it would go into a notebook without cutting off valuable space from the timeline? Has anyone used the HO one in a notebook instead of wall-mounted? What other Timeline Books would you recommend? I don't think my son will write very much and he definitely won't draw pictures. It would be good if it had some basic facts in it and then he fills in the details. Any suggestions? Thanks!

I bought the DE Streaming last year for the purpose of using the spanish program for my two kids. It did not work and I consider our purchase to be our biggest waste of homeschool funds! There are some great videos on DE streaming but I found it to be difficult to navigate and not very user friendly. It was hard to just watch the videos in order and it was difficult to create a list of the videos. I'm sure if I had put more time into it, that I could have found a way to make it work.

Thanks!! I keep looking at the one that TexasRachel posted but I think I would really like one more feature - like color or making copies. I think making copies would probably be a more practical feature. It would be awesome to just get rid of the inkjet but my dd really likes printing in color. But I really hate replacing those expensive cartridges!! I'll keep looking...

I am still tweaking it but this is what I have so far: Math: AoPS Pre-Algebra ThinkWell Pre-Algebra Math Team or Math Club, not sure which yet Science: Exploration Education Science Explorer: Physical Science Latin: Visual Latin History: SOTW 1 along with his younger sister K12 Human Odyssey Classical House of Learning Logical Stage Ancients Writing: Brave Writer Lifestyle The Arrow Killgallons Sentence Spelling: Soaring With Spelling 4 Grammar: KISS Level 1 Grade 6 Geography: Star-Spangled State Book Logic: Mind Benders Balance Benders Critical Thinking 3 Handwriting: Zaner Bloser Cursive 4 Outside Activities: Piano Swim Team

I need to buy a laser printer to print all of these PDFs! We currently have a color ink jet that is also a copier. I would really like to find a way to have only one printer. I can probably afford one extra feature on the laser printer, in addition to it being wireless (that's a necessary). Should it be a color laser printer, which means more expensive refills? But, if it was color, than my daughter could print on it all of the stuff she prints from PBS and American Girls that is in color. Or, should it be able to print double-sided to save paper? Or, should it have a copier feature? If it printed in color AND had a copier feature, that would eliminate the need for our current inkjet. But that combo seems hard to find and expensive. Thoughts? Favorite brands? Things you wish you had? Things you had that you don't use?

I think that in order to cut down screen time, you need to keep the kids busy! Take them to the pool as often as you can. Have some sort of outing to do every day. Involve them in what you are doing - have them help make dinner, make cookies together, make ice cream together, paint with them, etc. I think it is hard for a kid to be told "go play" but they will happily answer "yes" to "Do you want to play with me?" Once they get used to not having screen time, I think they will transition into finding ways to keep themselves occupied.

I just told my 9 year old that he no longer had to do any work in Winning With Writing. He can read through it if he wants, but he doesn't have to do any of the writing assignments. Instead, he listened in to the story I read to my 6 year old from WWE1. Before I asked her the questions, I asked him to give me a brief summary of what we read. He did it orally and then wrote it down. And it was good. I am not very creative at coming up with copywork and dictation passages so I think using a resource like WWE or the Arrow will be helpful for us. But when I looked at WWE4 for him, it was much more focused on narration and dictation.

Thank you!! I am still reading The Writer's Jungle and I just went ahead and bought 10 back issues of The Arrow. I think for my soon-to-be 10 year-old, I am not going to use another writing program but have him do the copywork and dictation from The Arrow along with writing summaries and narrations for history. And then picking one writing project to work on per month, either inspired from his history reading or idea from The Arrow. I'm weary of this, though, because I really like to have the "open and go" kind of work. But I think if I put the work in this summer of making a schedule for us to follow, I can do it. As for my almost 7 year-old, I am debating between sticking with WWE2, because we have it and it's easy to implement and she enjoys it, or bring her along for the ride with The Arrow's copywork and dictation and have her work on narrations and summaries through her history program. I am thinking of using Classical House of Learning Literature for both Logic and Grammar Ancients and I think that will bring in plenty of writing narrations and summaries.

I am really struggling with finding the right path for my son with his writing. He is currently 9 (almost 10) and technically in 4th (almost 5th). Winning With Writing is not working with us and I need to find another way. I am very drawn to the Brave Writer Lifestyle and have been reading a lot on the website and previous threads on this board. When I'm reading threads, I notice in signatures that people use Brave Writer / Writer's Jungle AND another program such as WWE or WWS. I can't really wrap my head around how this works. Well, I can with WWE since that it mostly dictation and copywork, but I can't understand WWS or Winning with Writing or the other programs. If you follow the Brave Writer Lifestyle, do you also use a formal writing program? Why? How does this look?

I'm looking into buying some back issues of The Arrow. How can I find out if the books I want are "older selections" and might not contain as much material?

My son will be in 5th and my daughter in 2nd. I held off on history for a year with my daughter so that she and her brother could both start with SOTW Ancients next year. My son is completing the first 4-year cycle this year. We listen to SOTW in the car and I just couldn't handle having one in year 1 and one in year 4.

I am going to be doing SOTW with a 2nd grader and 5th grader. My 5th grader has already been through one cycle of SOTW. For him, I'll be adding in the Classical House of Learning and also readings from K12 Human Odyssey. I really need them to both be on the same cycle for history.

Just giving myself a bump!! I've been thinking more on this and I think I should wait until he is 11/6th for WWS. So what do I do next year? Another year of WWW with Killgallon? WWW with WWE4? IEW?? I really have NO idea what to do for next year. I do not want writing to be such a struggle. He is a very bright boy who is a voracious reader. He understands the semantics very well.

My son completed WWE1 and WWE2 with ease! :tongue_smilie: He went half-way through WWE3 but was bored with it. So, this year, we stopped WWE and switched him over to Winning With Writing Level 4. He has done fine with this program, but just fine. He is great at the grammar, punctuation, and sentence structure. He understands the basic format of a paragraph as well as a 3-paragraph writing. But the sentences just do not flow well together, even though they follow the correct order of things. He is very much a "where's the right answer" kind of kid and it is a real struggle for him to work on something that has no "right" answer and is more open-ended. So, I'm thinking of getting him back into WWE or maybe WWS? But I'm not sure where to start with him. He'll be in 5th grade and 10 years old. Should I spend next year on WWE4 or move him to WWS? I was also going to supplement with the Killgallon books for elementary. Or, I could do the sample exercises in The Complete Writer for WWE4 over the summer and then move him into WWS in the fall. I don't want him to be behind with WWS by waiting until the 6th grade to start that. Thoughts? Advice? BTDT?

I think we've decided on using Visual Latin for my rising 5th grader, and this will be his first experience with Latin. But, I also like the looks of Latin Prep (by the So You Want to Learn Latin folks). Would these too match up well together? Do I need to supplement Visual Latin? Or will I just be adding in busy-work? My goal for him is to have a general understanding of Latin and Latin-based words so that he has a foundation for Latin-based science terminology as well as learning Spanish. It is not our goal for him to be able to read texts in their original Latin. Thoughts?

I slice off the bindings of almost everything. I really like spiral binding because it lays flat. Sometimes we bind on the top to make handwriting easier. I even slice off the bindings of little books like Handwriting Without Tears so the pages can lay flat. For WWE, I have a spiral bound copy of the instructor guide and a separate one for the student. I do the same with SOTW Activity Guide. For both, I made a copy of the student pages and tucked them away for the younger. Now that I have an ipad, I will buy a laser printer and buy PDFs instead, keeping the instructor manuals on my ipad and spiral binding the student pages. It's all quite a bother and I wish they would just sell them like that.

Thank you so much. I am going to go over it with him today. Writing is so hard for him, which I find so interesting since he is an avid reader. He does great with copy work and summaries but can't write original thoughts.

My son has used EPGY Open Enrollment for the past couple of years. He is finishing up Grade 6 in LA and Grade 5 in math. He'll be moving on to AoPS. He started at Grade 3 in both. You set the grade level and can easily bump them up or down by .5 grade level at a time. You can also work with your Open Enrollment Group Administrator to tweak the program even more - extend the session time, reduce the number of review questions per session, etc. I have never felt any need to have a tutor available at the other end. The times where he has had questions, it had more to do with understanding their wording, rather than needing help with the math or the grammar. I honestly cannot imagine why anyone would spend 5x as much money just to have a tutor available at the other end. Now, there have been times I've wanted some outside help with the Singapore Intensive Practice :tongue_smilie: Also, it provides you with very detailed reports and there is an end of grade exam that you will have for your records.

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