Mine started high school this year. We don't do any expensive outsourcing really, but I do take advantage of things as they come up when I can. Mine has taken two high school sciences with labs at co-op, because we belong to a small co-op, and we had a science teacher with two kids slightly older than she that teaches science. She has done science with them since she was in 3rd grade, so she just continued on. Those two kids will be moving on to college and to a votech next year, so she won't have that class anymore. I have already planned her high school science at home using WTM materials, and I can't wait honestly. She is going to take a 2 day government class soon because we have the opportunity. They will draft a bill, enact the process of debate and passing it through Congress and such. Things like this I do ongoing when the opportunity comes up, towards her essential American Government credit. She also did some projects on the election this year with me. And we will do more when we get there in our 4 yr. WTM cycle while still taking advantage of things like this when they come up. It is the same for state history for us. She does camps and sports and we pay for the occasional art class or music classes and her sport is ongoing that she has chosen to focus on. Everything else besides science that she takes at our co-op is supplementary to our at home curriculum or used as an extra curricular. We don't belong to high school focused one. We are more of a support group that does some classes each year of whatever anybody wants to do. She does the monthly newletter class. They write articles about things going on in our homeschool group and print instead of doing a yearbook this year. That will be an extra curricular for her. They did a semester of health. I will list that as her health class because the classes and research and writing she did at home coupled with topics she does with girl scouts projects is more than enough for a one semester health credit. She has done art projects there, not enough for a credit, but we have art going on at home too, so I just count all of that towards our art credit. Things like that. I am not too worried that I can't teach things at home either. I am going to do a video program for math next year to see if that works better for us than the textbook she hates this year. But it's not an expensive live class. I will try a dual enrollment at some point, but right now our state only pays for seniors to do that, so it will have to wait. WTM has given me all that I need to teach her, and I just keep following it because it works for us. She has been very successful with school so far.

We loved the Complete Book of Maps and Geography from about 2nd through 5th grades.

Lol, I am 42 and still nursing my last here! :) I am old though. I know that!

I swear I remember in the early versions of WTM I read that you should R&S and if you did another writing program then you didn't have to do the writing in R&S. I did read in the current version, checking the rhetoric portion for dd's 10th grade year next year, that it does specifically say do NOT do the R&S writing in grades 9/10. So that is why I am stopping next year. I haven't checked the younger grades to see if my memory is wrong about it being ok to use R&S in the grammar stage (to which I just carried into the logic.) or if it did and has changed in the current version, because it works for us. We just always did the writing across the curriculum as well- pen pal letters, copywork, dictation, narration, summaries, outlining, etc. No reason for me to stop it with my current middle child.

I consider the library visit, reading, and walking as school. Elementary kids have library visits, reading, and PE. I would have informed MIL of that. She likely never thought of that. Homeschool doesn't always take place in the home nor at the same times as school. So if you took off to shop, then did the library and PE time after 3:00 it still counts as school. :) I have to explain this to some. But I like your dh's remark too. Dh has an aunt that never says anything bad. But she asks questions. I remember explaining to her back when the olders were preschool aged, that they DID have preschool. I took them to library storytimes religiously. They also had music teachers and yoga teachers that rotated through those library times at ours back then. We read books and learned our letters and did art at home. I took them to the craft day at the local craft store weekly on the way to their weekly dance class. They went to Sunday school. We went to the park at least once a week with our playgroup friends. They did preschool. I just did it with them. She was satisfied with that, and hadn't thought of that. People only know their own experience. In her experience, her kids went to preschool to do arts and crafts and play with friends and go to the park and to do music and songs. She only knew that in her world, home wasn't the place for that stuff. Once I explained it to her that they weren't missing anything she got it. She still asks dh interested questions about what we are doing.

I've always used it. Even now in high school, my 9th grader is finishing up the 8th grade book with the writing lessons, plus adding WWS I lessons too. I did go ahead and purchase the writing/rhetoric books listed in WTM for 10th grade for next year (the ones she had listed under 9th grade.) and she will just do the R&S grammar lessons, not the writing for the first time. But even then, I think I will still have her read the writing lessons in R&S, because it does cover a lot too. It won't hurt her to just continue reading a lesson a day. My current 7th grader is in R&S 5 right now. She does the writing lessons from it. I don't have any plans to change her until around 10th grade either. We add in writing assignments in other places. We do the outlining from history ala WTM, etc. That has always worked here with R&S. ETA: FLL was new then, and WWE didn't even exist, so I just used the R&S and writing across the curric. I did pick up WWS for middle school, but we never had time to work it entirely until this year.

school- extremely frustrating right now. DD12 is at that age, and Latin is hard, so the looks on her face and the attitude I am getting make me consider running away right now. clean up as much as possible as I go, laundry ongoing. Folding now. (well now right now) next to dds doing their schoolwork. drive kids to dance. get registered for consignment sale and pull out the first box to start ironing. Maybe get started?? work on budget and bills when dh comes home for late lunch break with him. take everyone to church. Drop them off for dinner. Go grocery shopping, pick them up on way home. I'm tired already. It's not even lunch. :)

With my third, she nursed til right before she turned three, so 35 months. I had been actively cutting down and talking her through the fact that she was getting big and we were going to stop when she was three. I got it down to once a day at nap time. In the mornings, I just had to be up before her or she would climb in bed with me and want to nurse. At night, I had dh put her down with her big sis, and she joined their storytime routine that didn't include me during weaning, so that she got used to going down without nursing. So that left naptime which I talked about stopping as she got closer to three. And around a month before three, I left her with a babysitter for a dr. appt. during naptime. And she never asked again after that day. I didn't plan for that to be the last day, but she just never asked again. I was done though. I had had two babies back to back with pregnancies and nursing and then toddlers and preschoolers and diapers and potty training and nursings, etc. I was worn out and done. Now my current preschooler is going on 38 months and still going strong. She may be the one that goes until high school... j/k, lol. But I am in a different place. She is my last and my olders aren't even close to her age, so I am not actively stopping it. It is once or twice a day, and I don't currently mind. I do talk to her about her growing bigger like her sisters, and they don't nurse. To which she says she is small or she is a baby. :) So we are working on it. ETA. my first died under a year, so my current "teen" is actually my 2nd. My 3rd is my tween, and my current is my 4th. I only have my living three kids listed in my sig and my then only 2 living girls as my login name. I never changed it when this baby was born since I have had it so long. I know that can be confusing.

What are you doing in class for the youngers? Assigning the reading at home then doing projects in class? I will be doing a history class at co-op next year. I am leaning towards introducing the topic in class, doing memory work, adding to a timeline, having them take notes in class and creating a notebook. I will assign research and writing at home. And we will do some projects, as most co-op kids come to co-op to do the hands on that they don't get to at home in my experience. And middle schoolers love doing art and creating things as much as younger kids. So I will definitely have some projects. I am not going to assign a specific text. I will send home my schedule of topics at the beginning of the year. I will give different text ideas. I am thinking of sending middle schoolers to the Classical House of Learning Lit logic stage blog for SOTW chp. links, history encyclopedia page links, and literature readings. I won't assign what they read each week. But I will assign writing projects that they go home and research and present aloud occasionally. But mostly they will just add to their notebook. We will do a couple of presentation nights where they will be assigned something bigger at home. This is yet to be determined. But we do this every year. So I will think of something in the same variety as in the past. 4 years ago for middle ages, they created costumes and display boards about their topics. Some children were actual historical people. Some were just random jobs like a jester or a herald. And they told about themselves. But this is very open ended. They could create projects instead. I am still thinking about this. For any high schoolers that join us (we are small. We cater the class to whomever wants it,) I will suggest the SWB History of the Medieval World book in my schedule.

We get 3 level outlines, but not always. She does suggest combining paragraphs into one in WTM for this reason. Outlining the KHE is tough anyway, as the paragraphs are fairly straightforward this happened, then this, then this types with little supporting detail. And the main point of each paragraph is rarely a topic sentence near the top of the paragraph where kids want it to be. Instead it is more often towards the end after the details lead up to it. My kids find finding the topic and creating a sentence that includes the details they want to use challenging enough. If they can't get to a 3 level I don't worry, or I walk them through. With my 7th grader, she isn't ready to outline from it on her own without me. Maybe by the end of 8th grade. My odd did eventually get the hang of it.

I've kept them in the same cycles. Mine ended up separating for science early as there were separate co-op classes available. One could handle the higher level classes and work required early. They have generally most years been in the same topic, but not always. At home projects, unit studies etc for science, I have kept them together. For history/lit they have been on same cycle all the way. I do read alouds. They have their own separate reading and projects and writing. But we watch the same documentaries, hear the same read alouds, go on the same field trips, etc. Our projects are generally very open ended and they each take them to different places, but they stem from the same starting point. Each reads very different books, one from the logic stage lists one from the rhetoric, but on the same topics.

Target clearance racks. We check there before we buy anything. Best for dresses, sweaters, sweatshirts. Occasionally skirts and sweat pants or yoga style athletic pants and shorts. Charlotte Russe sales and clearance racks. Not super great quality, but very inexpensive for my tween and teen that want to buy new things with every penny that get their hands on. Maxi skirts are sometimes $10. Even I got one. Jeans I do Penneys. Our problem is that my kids need longs. Penney's will have good back to school sales on jeans and we can occasionally find a size long in store without having to order. Old Navy, always has sales. Good for lots of stuff.

7ish is about what my 7th/9th graders do. So it seems right to me. My current 7th grader has math at 8:00, 9:00 spanish, 9:30 journal, 10:00 latin, 11:00 spelling/English 12;00 lunch, 1:00-reading/history depending on day. 2:00 afternoon dance classes, sometime in the evening, science homework from co-op and reading to self.

I buy almost year round. In some things I know exactly that I will just order the next grade level up, so I just buy when those are on sale. Rod and Staff has their seconds sale every October. School has pretty much started each year, but I scan it every Oct. to see if they have any of the next level up of our English or math or whatever, even though I have just barely started the current levels. I won't see a cheaper price. Since I pretty much know what my next year is like since I have followed WTM forever, I place things in my Amazon cart constantly and watch the prices go up and down and buy a few each month. I buy literature once a year at our library's annual Friends of the Library sale. I can buy paperback novels for 50 cents apiece (and teaching books for me and somtimes curriculum manuals I use and homeschool self education titles or education titles in general, just never know.) So I load up a backpack full of novels and classics for the next time period, even if I know there is no way we can read them all. New things that I am trying I try to watch for sales, but I definitely want it a month or so ahead of time to have time to scan it as well. So my answer is pretty much year round.

There is a thread saying what people are using for 7th grade next year somewhere if you look for it. But here is what my current 7th grader is using: We mostly follow WTM as our main guideline, but she has been in her sister's history rotation from the beginning and we do whatever co-op is doing for her science textbook and take advantage of other opportunities when we have them. So this is how her year has turned out: math: Rod and Staff 6 English and writing: Rod and Staff 5 spelling: we tried phonics based for years, but it didn't work for her. We finally sought help this year for some testing and help designed just for her. We ended up doing word loading methods and using a couple different Dyslexia Games workbooks. We also use the Dyslexia Games logic puzzles for right and left brain integration games. Literature: Classical House of Learning Literature logic stage ancients (free blog) Latin: Third Form plus additional materials and studying for National Latin exam of materials not covered. History: WTM style logic stage ancients with the KHE, outlining, Geography Coloring book, studying for National Latin Exams, Drive Through History videos, library books, ongoing adding to her state history notebook from field trips and museum exhibits as opportunities come up. Science: Science in the Age of Reason with co-op class. She does all of the reading, notebook pages, and experiments for that over the week plus a once a week class with a teacher and more hands on and teaching plus, At home: she is using a Thinking Tree Journal which is set up for a kind of unschooling. She has chosen an animal encyclopedia and Ocean Mysteries videos and has been studying and writing about ocean life all year, and doing nature study as a family, things like learning the parts of a flower, hikes, exploring state parks and learning the animals there, and documenting the trips. Art: art composition from library books, art history from Usborne Introduction to Art, a class at co-op that explores different artists and does projects around them, plus paid classes from an artist occasionally, lots of drawing on her own using library books and practicing a lot. Music: learning different composers and styles of music Thinking Tree Journal: uses it as a guide through Nature Study, Bible study, Science, Poetry, copywork/handwriting, creative writing, math games. Love this. She works in it about an hour a day. extras: scouts, dance classes, volunteering at church and at dance with preschool kids, field trips with homeschool group, youth group at church

My guess would be under 30 for sure. Probably closer to 20 tops. In the past year off of the top of my head I can think of: a couple pairs of shorts on clearance at Walmart and one from Charlotte Russe shopping with my teens. 2 new purses and a wallet and a couple of tote bags and two cooler bags. (I had a 31 party. It was a big splurge and wardrobe update for me. I don't know if you are counting accessories. But I skipped buying new athletic shoes in the fall like I usually do to do this party and buy the bags.) A sweater combo set. Target clearance Walmart undershirt 1 pair of summer slacks and an undershirt at thrift store. Still haven't found a blouse I love for the pants, but adore them. A long sweater. Target clearance black friday at Walmart: pack of undies, 2 pair leggings, sweatshirt, like 10 pairs of socks 1 pair of yoga pants special at the grocery store no less. 1 pair of (new) boots at a thrift shop. Lucky find. We draw names in my extended family for Christmas and I got a new cooking pot I needed. Sometimes I get new pajamas or something. But not this year. That is all I can think of from about June 2016 through current March 2017. I am sure I have picked up an item here or there that I am not remembering. But that is the most of it. I wear the same bathing suit for a couple of years. Don't need a new one yet. Some of my summer tshirts that I wear often are a bit stretched out. I wouldn't mind picking up some new ones, just plain ones at Walmart for summer this year. I hang onto stuff way too long though. I plan on really sorting and throwing out a lot this summer. I like to do a few big decluttering projects over our summer break from homeschooling.

OK= changes: I am going to leave off Spanish for next year and focus on Latin, picking up Spanish again in high school. I am enrolling our family in School House Teachers dot com and have been looking over classes on there for her. I am going to have her do the Keyboarding and Logic from it and one of the Art classes- her choice on the art. ' They have Truthquest Middle Ages History on there. I am not really too sure what Truthquest is, but since I will have access to it, I may incorporate some of that. Plus at co-op we are going to use KONOS middle ages unit study. I haven't gotten my hands on that book yet either, but we will incorporate that into a class there which may carry over into home too. I will just pull from all of these resources since I will have them. I am going to have my dd14 do the geometry on SHT next year. If we like it, then the 8th grader will use it for preAlgebra her 9th grade year after completing R&S 7 next year.

I knew they had redone LCI. I didn't know they had taken out the FMOR on the tests. I still use an older edition. :) I would still read it alongside. It's a good book for any age group.

Swim lessons, and one summer of swim team dance classes- because that is what my kids have chosen to stick with Girl Scouts- the trainings and learning and doing and friendships my kids have gained from this is amazing all art classes here and there over the years as we have come across them. We have done other things like soccer and gymnastics. Kids enjoyed them, but these are what we have stuck with.

Lingua Angelica (which I have but have never used,) seems like it could have been made to give more translation work to LCII before the Form Series. It has a lot more songs than are on LCI. I have never actually ended up needing it.

I've never had any teacher or student book for FMOR. I just read the stories from the book and write notes on the board for them to copy into their history sections. I have latin students keep a binder. One section is for vocabulary or notes on grammar. One section is for history notes. I also have them make their own vocabulary flashcards in our "class time." Since I teach it at co-op, it is generally about an hour a week. We do the recitations, vocab, and grammar straight from the MP TM. Then I read as much history as possible. I write lists and notes and a timeline on the board as I go which they copy into their books. That is sufficient for the history portion of the latin class. But it isn't our whole history in my family. We continue on with whatever history cycle we are on. Latin studies are in addition to it. If you wanted to expand FMOR into your whole history, you might want the TM and guides for that. For LCI, I think a one hour class once a week to go over all new material would be good which could include the history reading. Then 30 minutes a day the other days should be more than enough. I believe there are two workbook sheets per lesson. I would have my kids listen to the CD the first day and repeat the vocabulary with it and review their flashcards. Then the next day do a worksheet. Then the next day another worksheet. (reviewing flashcards for 5 min. each day is a good idea.) Then the last day you can copy the blank grammar sheets that are in the TM and have them fill one out for the week. 4 days of work, plus one hour class once a week. Because we study for the national exams each year I found it necessary to add more time to history studies and additional vocabulary, mythology and other topics. Each year in the ELEs the 5th and 6th graders test on the same materials as the 3rd and ups, but they have an additional 20 questions. The 1st 10 are in latin and the 2nd 10 are on a special subject each year. I found taking that special subject syllabus from the website and dedicating an extra hour each week to study it, plus to review the vocab and sayings and such that are covered on the exams that aren't in the MP materials was a bonus. My kids do 1-2 extra study sessions a week on specifically those materials before the exams each year, again, extra from whatever history cycle we are on.

I teach with MP at co-op, and have for 7 years now. 1. I don't know those programs to tell you where to start for sure. But a LC would be good level for both. First Form would probably be ok, but not as fun and a lot of work for a 4th grader. I have had a 4th grader do First Form with our class. But now in Second Form for 5th grade with us, it is tougher for her. Both LCI and First Form are beginning levels. Neither needs any previous exposure to jump in. It is just that FF is a bit more boring, more studious. LC is lighter and younger. Both are at an age for either. 2. MP order is now PL, LCI, FF, SF, TF, FF, Henle II (Fourth Form incorporates Henle I) LCII was replaced by the Form Series. I have taught LCII for one of my classes before moving into the Form series, but just because I had a boy who was going to be a senior, and LCII would quickly take him through more of the grammar in one year than First Form. It isn't as deep as going through the Form Series, but at least he was exposed. So then the rest of the class went on to FF the next year. My current 9th grader is taking two years on Fourth Form/Henle I. She took and aced the NLEs level one last year, only half way through Fourth Form/Henle I. She took NLE level II this year, and will use Henle II as her Latin III next year. FourthF is probably meant to be done in one year, but there was plenty there to make it a full year using only half of the book. 2. Yes, LCI incorporates readings from FMOR into the study. The tests include history questions from it. It will only take you halfway through, because the 2nd half of the book was covered in LCII. But you should just continue reading it into the next year with First Form. My students LOVE these stories. I usually read in advance and retell. I have them keep a timeline book, memorize the 7 kings and the 7 hills and what happened on each hill. We recite those at the beginning of each new story. Stuff like that as we come across it. There are maps in LCI for them to fill out as you are going and learning. 3. The songs and prayers are on the pronunciation CDs. The lyrics and prayers are in the student books and teacher books. They are scheduled into the daily lessons. The TMs are so easy to follow. They start with greetings, then prayer and song, then a list of recitation practice before you even get into going over the lesson with them. After we have done all of that and worked some grammar examples on the board in class, we end with 10-15 min. of history. NB, if you are wanting to get into taking the Exploratory Latin Exams and later the National Latin Exams, you have to do a lot more studying of different vocabulary and history. There is a lot of history in FMOR for a good start. But you will need to know lists of colors and nature words, geography in detail in the ancient names, etc. I usually just print the syllabus from the website and we form another hour a week just for learning the materials on those for a few months before the exams. I have also formed a Latin Club many years where kids interested in the exams have gotten together to study for them. We have had a lot of fun playing memory games, writing and acting out our own play, and going to plays and making films on mythology to learn them. I don't think my kids would have lasted as long as they have through the grammar if they didn't have the fun of learning the culture too.

There isn't anything you could make that would be inappropriate. Sometimes I bake things and try new recipes. Sometimes I just ice a plain sheet cake made from a boxed mix and frosted from a can and cut into squares. I have to take meals to church dinners and to people's houses often. I used to worry about the fact that my food was plain. I don't make recipes passed down from my heritage or anything, lol. My brownie recipe comes from my Betty Crocker cookbook. But it is more important to do my part and bring something I have learned than to worry about what I bring. I cook simply at home. And I bring simply to events.

That is an amazing adventure! With documentation of it in the form of the webpage, participation in the citizen projects and with a camera and a journal and writing of some sort, that is the kind of thing I would definitely use as a class. We do all of the nature centers and reserves as forms of family vacation too. I have never desired to go to Disneyworld. I would much rather camp and drive to National Parks or historical sites. My kids would probably like to have that option once in awhile, lol. But that's just not what we do.

I have learned to really think hard before shelling out big bucks. I often have when not necessary. I have paid for more than one expensive Apologia text because co-op is using it, and my dds like to do science with co-op. It is ok for that reason for me because I have decided them doing it at co-op is best for our family for now. But it annoys me so much that we have often done the same activities using very inexpensive WTM suggestions and blank composition notebooks. I have paid big money for a Spanish curriculum after researching and researching for which would be right for us. And it was a major flop. I tried it for multiple years. It didn't work for us. What did? free online resources and a .50 textbook from a used book sale, library picture books, dollar tree CDs of songs, etc. I bought all new books to move up into the WTM rhetoric stage history this past summer. When my books arrived, all the WTM recs, I realized that the suggested encyclopedia wasn't a higher level encyclopedia than the red Kingfisher we have been using for years. I think it was just a newer suggestion. I could have just kept using what we had been along with the high school books and saved a few. Things like this are going to happen, but I am learning that I can get by with what I have in a lot of cases or to wait and see if I really need something before buying everything suggested sometimes. I also really try to look at the WTM suggestions as they really do keep price in mind. I got dd's rhetoric/writing books used on Amazon for next year based on WTM's recommendations. I spent less than $20 on them for a full credit. They are easy to follow, and will work fine for us. WTM usually does for me. They are actually quite simple to use. But then I start reading the posts and looking at MPs catalog and feel that maybe there is something wrong with teaching high school writing for $20 when everyone is buying expensive curriculum or paying for online courses. But there isn't. I can teach this using these materials. So I have learned to save some money over the years. Some. I still have the new encyclopedia, lol. But it will last us for years. Our old red KHEs (yes multiple copies) are getting pretty worn.