I have 2 questions about this course: 1. What view does the class take on creationism/evolution? I know MP is a "classical Christian" resource, but the textbook indicated for class use is a standard Holt textbook, which most likely teaches only macro evolution. 2. Any details you can provide on the course itself? Rigorous or not? Dry or interesting? Our situation: my daughter is NOT a math/science lover and the only reason I plan to enroll her in this very expensive class is that she is not good in being accountable to me in rigorous subjects. She will flake out on a lot of the homework, particularly memorization, if I don't closely monitor her. However, I have discovered that if another teacher and students are involved in some capacity, she will work quite diligently. Is this class worth the $$$?? :-)

I want to maintain control over what she takes in the other courses - we're not thrilled with all the other classes offered. Also, my daughter's goal upon graduation is to join the Marines....and we would like to gear some of her coursework toward that (like helping her tailor a PE curriculum that would help her train for boot camp). Your suggestion that the district and the specific program are the ones to ask are probably right on.

Hello. My high school student has been under the legal status of "home-based instruction" from 1st through 9th grade. This coming year will be 10th grade and we want to retain the same legal status, but she may participate in some classes through a local ALE/PPP. There are 3 classes she is interested in taking, which is 3 credits. I have read the "Pink Book" several times and cannot find a legal definition of when "part time" enrollment crosses over to "full time" enrollment in an ALE. :confused1: Is it left up to the district to decide where that line is? I don't want my student to accidentally step into being legally a full time public schooled student. If you have personal experience with my question in WA state, your input is very much appreciated! I've contacted WHO as well, but my experience in the past has been spotty on getting a response. They are probably extremely busy! Thanks in advance, Sara C.

My goodness, things get bumped down fast! I am hoping more people will see this.

"I want to download that onto all of our ipods." Great idea! How about as a workout song? ;-)

Hello all, We are blessed to have a high school Latin teacher leading our children in a Latin/Greek/Hebrew class. He has condensed all the major points and people of Roman history in chronological order into one song and made it free to listen to/sing along with on the internet. His children are singing the chorus. ;-) The site is: www.nerostartedthefire.com The "History" button will also give you a brief description of all the people/events in the song. The song may be downloaded for educational purposes, as long as you give credit to J. Klomparens. He has clearly spent much personal time and effort into producing it! Please direct anyone you pass it on to, to the site.

I don't. I use Teaching the Trivium as the backbone of our curriculum and keep WTM for a reference. With a larger family (five kids age 8 and under), it gives us more breathing room.

We get a huge crop of blackberries near our house too. Unfortunately, our weather has been a bit strange, so we might not get any for a couple more weeks. My family's absolute favorite way to use blackberries is in pancakes. There's something about the tart-sweet taste of the berries in pancakes with sweet maple syrup poured over....I always make huge batch and then freeze alot of them for future breakfasts, just thaw and heat 'em in the microwave. We had some in mid-November last year and they were just as good as in summer|!

Darn! I have already ordered the copybook for my oldest and I have four young'uns coming up behind her. Oh well, I'll keep it in mind for next time. Thanks for posting your find!:001_smile:

I'll have to disagree with some folks here in regards to the article from MP. Having read it, I don't think they are saying "Let the child decide what he wants to learn about" (child-centered). I think they are suggesting YOU as the parent take into account the way that children tend to learn (remember, they run a VERY successful, very rigorously academic school) and use that to your advantage. Understanding and using knowledge about a child's learning stages is not being wimpy, it can be very wise.:001_smile: Personally, I had recently come to the very same conclusions with my oldest (a soon-to-be-eight-year-old) and when I read that article, it was an "a-ha!" moment for me. Between all of our American holidays and all the talk of elections and such this year, my kids have shown a natural interest in America and American history becomes very natural to teach, both through books and conversation. My daughter also loves the Little House books and another poster pointed out earlier, it would certainly be a shame to not get around to reading those now because I was too busy trying to fill her head with stories of the ancients. We have been "studying" (to us at this stage that simply means reading about) the ancient Egyptians as we just recently went through Exodus. My children were in interested in Egypt because of the fact that they had something to relate it to that they are familiar with (the exodus) and a real person's story to relate it too (Moses). All this to say, like other posters said, the early elementary years are not that crucial in regards to history. For example, if you read Dorothy Sayers, she talks about going through all of western history 2 times (TWTM says 3 times). For some of us the 3x may be overkill (Dorothy Sayers also lays out the grammar stage as grades 1-6, not 1-4 as in TWTM). Dorothy Sayers is not the be-all, end-all resource for classical education, but then again neither is TWTM. Since we know our children better than anyone, we should feel free to consider how they learn and adapt our methods.

I would suggest anyone interested in finding out about the Bluedorns' educational philosophy regarding classical education and their practical suggestions on how to implement curriculum should go to their website and listen and the free audio seminars and free downloadable materials and hear it for themselves. This will give you a pretty good understanding of their perspectives and suggestions without having to purchase the book. I believe the website is www.triviumpursuit.com