Angelicum Academy sends it out to new families in the great books online program , i think. I have gotten to page 80 at least twice1 I looked at the two copies, one old and one new and thought that if I read them both, I would be following Adlers advice to always read a book twice. I would love to discuss it as I could make it to the end of the book!!:lurk5:

The online discussion classes for the Great Books of the Western World are great motivators and Socratic. They are optionally college level with credits, which is slightly more intense. The Latin course is also recommended and linked to the National Latin Exam http://angelicum.net/great-books-program/great-books-college-credits/ http://angelicum.net/curriculum/online-latin-courses/

I have both Saxon and TT. My elder children liked Saxon but the next three hated it. Math is not a fearsome subject anymore. Some folks think it isn't hard enough but we want it to be fun. The new versions are tempting. We did TT 7 and my 12 yr old loved it. She said that the difference is that Saxon hates kids and wants them to get things wrong and spend time in Math. Teaching Textbooks likes you and tries to explain how to do problems. ;)

I remember someone on one of the homeschooling boards posting that she had home recording studio. was it here?

I ve been brainstorming stay at home business ideas. Anybody got some experience with these/ Recording books on tape in my own home. I do read at least as well as most of the audiobooks we buy and have a bit of money to set up the studio Selling books on line I had a baby product business online and liked it. I love books. Crafts/or Craft supplies online This is because I often get compliments on the earrings I make. Also we make pysanki eggs and you can't get the supplies or the eggs over here. Any other great ideas?

My first dc absorbed books and I didn't have much else to do but try to stay with them. I agree that I wish I had gone to the IEW course when my friends did. I would have had that head start I needed when we just folded over writing difficulties. But I didn't have the money then! I trust that God gave me the money when I needed to find IEW. I have to say that audible.com saved us again when reading became a problem. The money spent there has returned again and again. iPods are part of our lives. The refurbished shuffles have many cousins. I think this board and Ora et Laboro have kept me sane and searching for answers for problems instead of giving up. :grouphug:

Sonitus Sanctus: Free Catholic MP3 Links I love free mp3. Great lectures all free! Catholic Culture : Home News and lots of stuff for liturgical year http://catholicexchange.com/ Great with the morning cup of coffee http://www.insidecatholic.com/ Vivificat!: Plenty of Good Reading for Lent at Your Fingertips just what it says in the title! Divine Office - Liturgy of the Hours - Breviary - Free Audio - Bible - Prayer Great way to pray. http://www.materamabilis.org more home educationish

Dear Susan, I want to thank you for generosity in writing WTM and WEM. They have given me the words to express what my dh and I wanted for our children. Thank you for the generosity and vision in creating and keeping this site. There are so many ways of living the same dream. :cheers2::cheers2:

If we figured out how little we could spend. My dh and i lived for a month on black beans, and rice but it wasn't what we wanted to do again. I know that many of the families in the world have little choice and my heart goes out to them. If you look at ambleside online http://www.amblesideonline.org/ you can see what you need to purchase. I think that math worksheets can be found online as well. But then again, you need internet, computer and ink! hth

Mapping the World with Art http://www.ellenjmchenry.com/id151.html It teaches drawing from memory quickly. I use National Geographic on cd as well. http://www.nationalgeographic.com/complete-national-geographic/

All I can say that real books have shelf value beyond the home schooling years. I eye any textbook with a sick look as I know it will have to be recycled and by the time I finish with it edition #next will be out and no one will even want my second hand copy. And then there is the iPad!

http://www.mymusictheory.com/home.html http://www.classicsforkids.com/

We used Mavis Beacon teaches typing, which we got at Staples for under ten dollars. When that was worn out we got another, I figured it was worth it and we found it at discount My sister gave Timon and Pumba typing program to the kids one year and they really went for it. Something new. It is very gamey and although i am NOT a Lion King fan, we probably use it more than old fashioned Mavis

"I'm happy for them to do chores around the house at weekends so that they become familiar with how the house works, plus do a little on week days (packing the dishwasher and tidying the kitchen) but I want them to have just a little time to themselves in the evenings" At the moment, I don't have an outside job and all the kids are hs. I have had more kids at home and most of the elder ones in private school where they had lots of home work. I wanted everyone to feel part of the household, there were 2-3 boarders living with us so I gave everyone " a responsibility". I gave one the task of keeping the stairways swept, pointing out that with three floors we needed to keep the dirt from traveling up. i remember giving one of the boarders the task of folding clothes and then wishing I hadn't as she folded our undewear. I never did anything more than throw it on top of the rest. I ended up having them all just clean up after dinner as they would have some company and it was the chore I really hated as I juggled getting the little ones into bed. I think that my kids have always surprised me when i asked them what they wanted to do. They usually wanted something I had never let them do. I usually hog the cooking as it makes me feel nuturing and the shopping as my lists are often sketchy. I think you might explain that you want to keep them feeling connected with the house and learn important skills. You don't expect them to have too much time during the week so they need to pick something they can do weekends. You might make up a list of things but don't be too surprised if they come up with something new. Be honest and don't let them dump all the drudgery on you. Life's boring bits belong to us all!:)

I just wanted to say that after I decided I wanted to be reading to start the Great Books program in ninth grade from Angelicum, I started making a few curriculum changes. I tried harder to read aloud the fiction selections, and we switched to Shurley English. I did change some of the topics for esssays but that is pretty much the way other programs like Veritas manage. I bought their geography lesson plans to go with the National Geographic as that seemed a job I would rather pay for. I found, however that the CDs are pretty easy to search and I did do my own selection for some years. I was already doing a similar history program, I just added some historical fiction selections in place of the Henty books. By the time we got to sixth grade, we were ready for their Art and Music. To be honest, I started with sixth and eight grade and we made it through half of the Shurley Grammar and other books. The next grade was easier but I didnt renroll as I wasn't sure we could finish and our circumstances had changed. We still don't enroll until ninth grade. I make my few changes but basically I am heading to the goal of starting the ninth grade with most of the prerequesites done. I also have three children with dyslexia, so we are used to finding our own path.

My ds#1 is and was a history buff. He read everything I bought usually during the summer before we started. My ds#2 isn't built that way but was great a answering questions and building timelines. We worked our way through history that way. I guess after doing history from 3rd- 8th grade with AA, we had done a lot of the timeline, famous people, events stuff and were ready to go deeper. I know that we used other books than the ones AA suggested, the Anne Carroll books because I am not a history person and needed to read more to know enough to keep track of where we were. I have been interested enough in finding a nice spine but since most of them just don't understand or include Catholic History, we just dipped into them. I have a few Teaching company tapes, which are great. I guess I would refer someone to WTM ! The house is also full of reference books and historical fiction. My dh usually fields the history questions. sorry i am not much help

Hope this one flies!

My two eldest sons did Great Books with Angelicum although the eldest only did three years as he started in tenth grade with the first year. As a matter of fact my ds went on a trip organized by one of the families of his online classmates right now ! There study guides are really great, full of thought provoking questions and synopsis that help guide you in what you will be reading. I guess since they get college credit for their course, if you opt for it, they are real history. The college track has more written work but the discussions, the readings and the study guides are the same. We just didn't think they boys would use the credits. We might change our mind for the next three.:)

I am doing this to fill in geography for 4,6,and 9th grade. I have tried a few things but there were more holes than knowledge. It looks like an art course which is fun and keeps everybody's spirit high. I add things appropriate to each level. I guess it is my "spine" http://www.ellenjmchenry.com/

Wow!

The rest of the fam have turned Apple on my only because they can still run some program. For my dh it is ReVit and AudoCad, for my ds it is something else but for me, I need HST+. I guess I mean to say that parallels just might be in your future.

That was just too tempting! :D I have used the program with high schoolers for at least six years. I chose the program because I wanted to give my home educated children the chance to experience a Socratic style education. I have found that the online classes really have stimulated my sons ( not something really expected) to study the Great Books. They not only study before classes but often continue discussing the readings after the classes. I love their study guides as they are synopsis and lots of great questions. There are at least two papers each semester and an one on one oral exam. We did the college credit during one rich year;) and have often wished we could do it again. The answers to the 10-20 essay questions were all returned promptly with lots of notations and comments. I was speaking with someone today who noticed that my boys really do have a love for this that seems out of harmony with their general get out of writing mentality. In fact they really started to agonize over not being able to write or use rhetoric in the online great books discussion forum. It isn't about writing a paper to get a grade it is trying to express their opinion in a logical and persuasive way. I like the music and art books that they throw at them at seventh and eighth grade. We amble through them for two years and maybe beyond. They are well written and we probably havent checked the lesson plans. I like the heavy literature in the elementary grades and the use of the National Geographic with the history books. We kind of spread out here too by using any book on the topic in the lesson plans. For instance if it is Greek History we might not just stick to the books recommended but head over to the Kingfisher Encylopedia. I think they do a good job with having classes with the younger grades to discuss short readings as it helps to instill the idea that your brain is there to use while you study. The price was more than we could afford especially after we raised up enough teenagers willing to discuss the same readings with their younger siblings for free. I like the philosophy and logic books even though, again we never seem to check the lesson plan. We got papers back full of comments and no grades. I usually get results in a few days. i admit that isn't enough for most people. I have had no troubles with the book store. PM me if you can stand any more of my ramblings.

It is so humbling to be the one who whines, but I really appreciate empathizing and getting the weight off my heart as well. I think that it just evaluating our lives we should avoid. :lol: Seriously, we arent at the end of the race, just at the bottom of a hill. I have many many wishes that our home schooling coulda been. I see books, books and more books and the ones I was sure we would get to might all be avoided by our youngest free spirit. What will it mean then? It is just too easy to see what we havent done, havent gone. We live on the edge of Europe where we were going to plan trips to all the great cities. hah We save up money to go home and see family! I keep doing what I am doing because it is the best I know how. Whether it will be enough is every mother's prayer.

I have lived here in Ireland for eleven years of the last twenty. There are lots of good reasons I chose this country and one of them was they have a great constitution. It is well written and include things I beleive in like the right to live, and the right of parents to raise their own children. After we were coerced, millions of tax dollars were spent on the yes vote campagin and most people eventually voted yes because of fear tactics including the one where they only count your vote if it is in their favor, that constitution is compromised. The situatiion in Germany is a clear example of the conflict between the state control of education and the Classical model of education to give people the tools to reason and make informed decisions. I truly believe that public education has moved away from the task of passing on the important tools of learning such as grammar, logic and rhetoric to educating public school children to accept information that the government/society wants them to have. The German government states this openly that they the state should be the primary decision makers of what the schools should teach which is why they regulate private as welll as public school education. I guess I just don't agree with textbooks that can be so easily changed when we want to rewrite history or science. I don't agree that the state has a greater interest in the child than the parents do. I am upset that Europe never became the monetary union that the people of Europe wanted but has used its mandate to make indoctrinate those same people to accept a more socialist system. I agree with that old quote that Socialism only works in two places, Heaven where they dont need it and Hell where they already have it. I guess I was angry . I have progressed to depression. Yipee

My first year with a Classical program took two years. I felt like a failure but i was either too frazzled or embarrased to change course when we got to the end. Boy was i surprised when the kids flew through the next year. We had actually gained a lot but I was counting the wrong data. I still prefer worksheets to an hour of reading. I have to stop myself and think, what are they getting not what am I able to record.