:bigear::bigear::bigear:

Are the writing assignments separate? I have bought some of the components of the literature course, but cannot find the writing assignments. I have the Guide to Writing, and two of the individual studies, but can't find any writing assignments embedded and I don't see where you can order those separately. I was also wondering if the Guide to Writing was used over and over with every course? I don't find but one of those. Thanks

Here's a good one: http://www.classicalastronomy.com/ I haven't actually used this, but I've gotten his newsletters for years and love his perspective. It is a Christian curriculum if that matters to you. Julie

I hope others chime in, but I do think MOH would be okay for an 8th grader. I would not do more than one book though. I feel like if you added a writing component to it, it would be worthy of 8th grade. What did you study last in K12? That would be a clue as to where to go next. If I'm not mistaken they do chronological history, right?? I would pick up where they left off. If you finished modern history, you could either start back with ancients, that way you'd have room for government and economics one year in h.s. Have you read TWTM??? Don't try to read the whole thing, just read the part where your kids are. The further I get into this thing, the more I realize that SWB is spot on with her suggestions. Now, I don't like some of the particular curricula that she recommends, but the overall system is fantastic. I don't know anything about CLE. You can do this!!! Just relax and take one subject at a time. That makes it much easier to ask specific questions. Think about your goals for your kiddos and then you can research to see if there's something to meet those goals. Then you can ask questions here to confirm your research. I felt the same way last year with my dd going into 9th, but she's doing fine. You are a year ahead of that. Another idea is to plan backwards. Think about what skills your dc lack in order to be ready for high school level work, then you can find resources to help fill those gaps. That's something I didn't have the luxury to do because my dd went to public school in 8th. I feel like I lost a year with her and am now trying to remediate. Some of the things I wish I'd had time to do is to make sure her grammar skills were strong, make sure she knew literary terms, make sure she had a basic idea how to outline and organize an essay, make sure her basic arithmetic was strong and she had memorized math vocabulary from pre-algebra. Anyway, just some ideas to try to help you focus. I know you'll figure it out. Julie

Thanks all! Very helpful.

My ds, who will be 5th grade next year, is a natural musician. He has been taking guitar this year and doing fairly well, although he doesn't really like to practice. He just needs a basic grounding in music concepts like notes and rhythm, scales and chords, etc. I know how to read music and sing. I can play the piano a little, and played the clarinet in high school. So, I don't need a lot of hand holding, just a basic sequence from easy to harder concepts, so that I don't have to reinvent the wheel. I like Alfred's piano, but it just seemed a little dry and there were so many different books to integrate. Is there something a little more fun that you've used? Thanks for any help! Julie

Yeah, the Foster book covers the time period, but it doesn't have the info I'm looking for. I want to know what precipitated it. Thanks for the other suggestions.

I'm looking for a good overview of the Renaissance. Something along the lines of Daughtery's Magna Charta. So, basically a middle school level book that will put all the pieces together for me. I just can't seem to wrap my mind around it.

You should listen to SWB's writing MP3's. They are available from Peacehill Press for a small amount. She explains how to teach writing without a curriculum based on your current lit, science, and history studies.

Here are my suggestions FWIW: The first thing I would suggest is not to be overly concerned with grade levels. Decide what your goals for education are and think of the child as being on a continuum between where they are and where you want them to be. Teach them where they are and just keep progressing until they end up where they should be. By breaking the learning into stages ala WTM you could have goals for the end of each stage and try to hit those. However, if the child isn't ready for the next stage, just keep plugging along until they get there. Let this and not a curriculum be your guiding light. The second thing I would suggest is to keep the dc in the same history and science cycles. You can teach the subject matter at different levels and require different things from each. My biggest suggestion is to self-educate. Get as far ahead of the dc as possible in all subject areas. I find immersing myself in one subject at a time is best for me, but do whatever works for you. If you could stay a couple of years ahead in math, grammar, etc. it would make things so much easier. I know some of these suggestions are in TWTM, but for some reason they did not sink in for me until recently. Julie

Thanks for the info -- I almost forgot I posted this. I'll give this a shot.

How do I do a narrow search for a particular thing? For instance, if I put Excellence in Literature into the search engine, I get every post with the word literature in it. I don't want every post, just those about Excellence in Literature. Is there a way to be more specific?

Oh, wow! Thanks! I've been anxious to see this.

Well, my dd is using this this year and has enjoyed it overall. She apparently gets the author's way of thinking. It seems he tries to teach the student to think for themselves and the way the material is presented they somewhat have to figure out how things work before they are told formulas. This is a pro to some and a con to others. The commentary is light, as in there are comics included throughout the text. Not light in content though. There are 3 sets of problems to do each day and you can pick and choose from them. They are grouped as review, average difficulty problems from today's lesson, and then more challenging problems. There are also 4 tests for each chapter. I like this because I am going for a certain proficiency and my dd must make 90% on a test to move on to the next chapter. The set II answers are in the back of the book, but the other answers are in a separate answer key. I think I heard someone say they are coming out with a solution manual, but I haven't seen it. We have not needed it yet and I'm no math whiz. HTH

Definitely a genius and don't let anyone tell you otherwise!!!!

I would also recommend that when you move to Saxon 3, you have her test out of the first few chapters. In other words, have her take each weekly test until she drops below a set percentage (85% or 90%). This is because much of the beginning of each book is largely review. Usually the end of the book is where new concepts are introduced, so I would not skip the end of Saxon 2.

You might do better with getting a reply on the high school board. I just received this from an Amazon seller by mistake. I ordered Renaissance, Reformation and Exploration and received AofRI. That said, I can't really answer your question directly, but I will say that I love the Guerber books that Christine Miller has redone. I would definitely add those to my list.

Well, I'll chime in. I used this with my dd at the end of 5th grade. I think she would have benefitted from it more at just a little later age, so yeah I think 7th grade is great. You can definitely stretch it a little and make it a semester course. In fact, I don't think you'd need to add much to it if you split the lessons up a little and do the reading one day, the lesson one day, and the timeline work on another. Some of the lessons seem to split quite easily into 2 parts. We really enjoyed doing this. I would say that as it is intended to be a broad overview, I wouldn't modify it too much. If you added a lot to it, it'd just be like any other history program. I think its best use is between history cycles as a review of one and a preview of the next.

AAS is actually based on Orton Gillingham methods.

:iagree:

Thanks for answering. I do mine in the Works database, maybe that's the problem. I'm not sure how to transition over. I do appreciate your help though!

Well, I would definitely get the workbooks if I were going to do HTTS. They will guide you in what part of the manual to be working in, etc. The red book is for 1st or 2nd grade and the blue book is for 3-6. There is another book, but I haven't seen it. We have used both programs and I really love them both. AAS is all planned out and HTTS must be planned. They are really the same method and take the same amount of teacher involvement. What I've done is just let the workbook be my guide. It has notes at the bottom to tell you which dictation to do from the manual. So, after the dc finish a section, I'll give them the dictation that covers that portion. I would also write the rules on note cards and file and review them ala AAS. We are doing AAS 3 right now, but I plan to go back to HTTS next year. My dd only did HTTS, as AAS wasn't out yet when she was going through. I do love the extra tricks that AAS adds, it has helped my ds. He has struggled to learn to read and spell, but is doing really quite well now.

Could you tell me how you did that?? This looks almost exactly like the planner I do from my Works database, except I can't write more than 1 line in a box, and sometimes I need further instructions. I'm hoping it's something I can utilize for next year.

This is why I wouldn't touch A Beka with a ten foot pool. Everyone used it when we started homeschooling and everyone who didn't homeschool automatically assumed that we used it. I have no idea if it's good or bad, but I won't be finding out.