My dd is in Fourth Form. It uses Henle I as part of the program. So after she is done with it, she will go directly into Henle II. BTW, I had planned on her doing Fourth Form in 1 year, but we ended up doing it over 2 (one and a half so far.) She got a perfect score on the Latin I NLE exam last year, so I gave her a full credit for the year. I will give her a Latin II this year for finishing Fourth Form and taking the Latin II NLE this year. I will end up giving her Latin III for Henle II. That wasn't the original plan, but the more we got into it and I looked around, that seems to be common.

Those are reasons why I keep the 2nd too. It is the first I bought, so I bought a lot of those resources. So when my next one comes up through school, I can use what I have and am familiar with. But the new ones are nice for my high schooler when I am buying new stuff or looking at Latin or something now that has so much more available than it did back then. I can't wait to read the fourth to see how it is differently organized.

I only have the 2nd and 3rd editions. I wouldn't get rid of either. I use the 3rd for most things, but I preferred the step by step exact instructions for logic stage history in the 2nd edition. So I keep both around. I can compare things to get a bigger picture or other ideas. I am sure I will keep them both when I buy the 4th. (why do I need the 4th? when I have made do with these all of this time? Because I do! )

My 10th grader next year will do: Geometry Advanced Biology which I think is Anatomy in the Apologia series or Marine Biology Latin III or switch to another language. I'd like to get more Latin in. She may be done. I am leaving this up to her. But it will be a foreign language credit. World History- middle ages, great book study and WTM methods English II- either WTM rhetoric materials for writing or R&S 9/10 and lit studies electives up in air. She's talking about music lessons. So we would do a full music appreciation on top of music practice for a credit. If not, continue the amount of hours she is putting in for dance for a PE credit. (she will cut down and just have it as an elective or just accumulate hours towards one more credit over the next 3 yrs if we cut back.) And I always like to get art and art history in. We will keep it up and see if we get enough in for a half credit.

My 9th grader is doing: Math: Algebra Science: Chemistry. She did the physical science and biology with lab already. Won't get credit for the physical because it was 7th grade. This is just how it worked for us. Latin II History: great books study and WTM style work English PE: she has enough hours a week for a full credit of PE since it will continue through both semesters. Plus she is writing a paper on her sport of choice. First semester electives: Traditional Logic I at home She did a Health class at co-op with work required at home plus a girl scout badge with enough extra work on the topic that she has earned a half credit. Journalism. She did a class at co-op once a week. I don't feel there was enough work yet for a half credit even though the course is finished. This might just be an extra curricular. She did contribute writing to a newsletter that was published. Art/Music: we did projects and reading at home in both art and music history along with our read alouds. Not enough for a half credit yet. But the other electives are finished. So we will add more in 2nd semester. Girl Scouts as extra curricular (badgework, teaching youngers, camping, etc.) so Second semester she will have Art as an elective. and Latin club (studying with a group for national exams) for an extra curricular. Girl scouts as extra curricular We actually really pushed it with 8 credits for the first semester. I think Latin suffered the most for it. It was our first semester of high school besides the two high school classes she did for credit in 8th grade (biology and latin I.) We are cutting some of the electives this semester so her credits will be only 7 hrs this semester. And that's still plenty. Typing is just practice in her other subjects, typing papers and such. She is pretty good on her own, but I do think my next one coming up will need a program in 8th grade to get ready for high school.

Yep, R&S is as good as it gets for English and Writing. You could start the 6th grader in the WWS since you already have it too. Take it slowly, over a year or two if it progresses too quickly. I will second the new Wile Science text. My 7th grader is using the elementary one for K-6. She is using the last one, the modern history/science one just because that is what co-op is using this year. But it is nice for some interesting science in all fields, not limited to one branch like WTM, but taught in a classical way. You learn the history, the scientist, and do some experiments and its all around the four year cycle. Just choose the one that goes with your history (or not as in our case. We are in an ancient year.) We aren't doing a heavy science year this year. We are focusing on her language arts, so this is perfect for her to read and notebook on by herself. Most of the experiments she does and writes up herself too. The questions are minimal as opposed to the elementary Apologia series we've done in the past that are very writing heavy. Another option with no experiments are the Tiner books. They are the Exploring the history of (biology or chemistry...) books. Memoria Press has them. Those could just be read and notebooked about. Good books for before the high school science and labs begin.

Rod and Staff is a complete writing program too. So you don't have to do WWS if you are doing all of their exercises. Granted, I don't think they cover the copia exercises nor does it cover writing as thoroughly, and they definitely don't use classic materials like WWS, but it will be enough.

Formal vocab study came with studying Latin which we started in 3rd grade and later in their spelling books as they progressed from phonics based spelling to more vocab work (middle school.) Any of the WTM suggested spelling books are going to progress into this. We used Rod and Staff. Before that, we did do definitions in science and sometimes from SOTW. And we looked up words in the dictionary as we read. And our English book had us look up definitions in it, etc. That plus just a lot of good reading is all that was needed. Nothing special. WTM walks you through how to study each subject. And they don't use lit guides or vocab books in the early grades.

I voted for the coffee mug and back pack. I can't live without coffee and I always have a bag on hand for library books or kids' stuff, so both would be loved!

I would just put myself too, as the homeschool teacher in charge of child in general. And then put dh as the administrator of exam. They allow the homeschool teacher's spouse to give the exam if he/she isn't the chief teacher. Last year I had a former student of mine's mom be the proctor. Her kids weren't taking it.

I know. It's on my to do list to start getting organized for this. I've got to see how many of my dd's co-op class want to take it and how many want to form a study group and get us all registered. Thanks for reminder! I am doing planning stuff tomorrow!

Haven't read the others, but a few things: I like Memoria Press for starting Latin. I would start with Latina Christiana I for a 5th grader then move onto First Form the following year. For history, you don't have to read SOTW again, but you can. The main reading and outlining will come from the encyclopedia. And then a lot of extra reading from library books and occasionally some original sources work. Do timelines, mapwork, and summary writing as well. For science, Memoria Press has some good stuff I like. Their one series is not secular, the Exploring the HIstory of (biology, chemistry, etc.) are not completely secular. They discuss the beliefs of scientists in a higher power whenever they can. But they aren't in your face IMO. But their own materials like the Astronomy and The Bird unit are really good. We really got a lot from their bird unit our 5th grade Biology year. On top of the bird unit my dd used a regular public school text book for biology. We got it online for like ten dollars and it was very in depth. She did experiments with her co-op class from it and we did the bird activities at home.

I keep a daily lesson planner. I fill it in for the most part once a week, filling in the lesson # of math or any other curric that is just do the next lesson. PE is dance classes that occur weekly plus co-op class. Easy enough to fill in. I log all field trips and such in the closest subject they fit into. (Science museum goes under science. If we spent particular attention on any one exhibit or had a focus for the day then I jot that too. Otherwise I just note that we spent a couple of hours there.) I do not log everything we do with friends, but if we do a project with our homeschool group I will log that. Social Studies once a month is a lesson there around our topic of the year. I will note the topics of the day and that it was with our group. Dance classes are noted in PE. Scouts activities, even weekend ones, are noted. So those are all things that occur with groups i.e. socialization, so it is there as evidence if needed. I keep a separate folder for each child each year. In it I put brochures from field trips, national parks, museums, play brochures they were in at church or homeschool group, any awards or certificates earned at outside activities like from swim lessons saying they passed to the next level, scout certificates, awards from educational contests we enter, etc. I sometimes put a few examples of favorite art or a snapshot or two of the child in here. I put ribbons from the state fair and from the field day they compete in once a year and from swim meets in the summer, stuff like that. That folder shows a lot of outside activities, and I don't do anything special. It is just a place to keep things in one place that I could scrapbook if I wanted to, but most likely is just a momento folder for each child each year. And I keep work separated into folders or binders by subject, so I can easily pull samples from each subject if I needed to, but I don't have to show a portfolio. But if for some reason I ever did, I have the daily journal (planner,) the special folder for each child, and plenty of work samples. I also keep a flat storage box of good art that they do in art class or at home, so I have that. I keep lists of books read in the daily journal. I don't worry about pictures. I do take some with my phone. If I needed to print some I could, but I don't very often. I used to at the end of every school year go and print some that showed the highlights of the year, but that gets pretty expensive. The things I do are just habits that don't really require too much extra time. Filling in the journal daily as we go is just something I do during school time. Filing things in the proper place takes some time each summer to prepare binders and folders and to pull and file the previous year's. But once that is done it is just a matter of putting papers in the right place during the school year.

One of mine has read 1 of the 3 that I know of, possibly 2. The other has reading issues and I read most classics aloud to her, as she is still working on endurance for full novels. And I let her pick the ones she does on her own for extra motivation, which usually ends up being things like Divergent. So she is 12 and hasn't read any of the three, and likely they won't make the final cut lists.

The Complete Book of Maps and Geography Workbooks are good to just work through at your own pace. They have map skills, plus sections on US, etc. My kids used them over the course of several years in elem-middle school.

I don't know why there would be when you can customize where your child is in each subject. I have two that are two years apart, and I reuse almost everything. And yet, each of their grades (7th for one vs. 7th for the next student two years later) looks very different using the same materials if that makes sense. One was a grade ahead in some subjects. The other may be slower in that subject and works a grade level behind in the same series. So for 7th grade one was in the 8th grade math, one is in the 6th. Different things are available in the community each year. So one might do piano one year, meaning something at home gets done less, but the other might be into photography and spend a lot of the year reading on that and doing projects for contests in 7th grade vs the piano or art that the other was into at that age. Also, since I keep them together for history cycles- we rotate every four years through the WTM cycles- each is in a different time period. One was in ancients in 5th grade (and the 3rd grader was in Ancients too, using grammar materials.) Two years later the next 5th grader was doing logic stage work with the 7th grader, both in early modern period. Now that my younger is in 7th grade she is back in ancients, using the materials the first used in 5th grade, while the 9th grader is doing Ancients using high school materials. So they use the same materials, but in a rotation at different grades than the other. One thing I have always done though is to look at the boxed curricula that I like for an idea of what they use and cover each year. I like Memoria Press. I look at their curriculum packs and see that they do say 4 literature books in depth a year vs. the WTM suggestion of 8 to 12 literature books a year. I can compare which my kids have covered, see which they think are most important and not sweat it if we can't keep up with WTM's ideal list. :)

Normal semester changes here. My high schooler did a semester of Logic. I had considered doing the next level for this semester and giving a full credit. Instead I think I will leave it at a half credit and use that time for her to expand on some other things to create another half credit (art or music or PE, things she does anyway, but will have more time for. We will see what pans out of that time for another credit.) Also, our co-op is going through a tough time. We are halfway through the year and no longer have a place to meet. Long story. So we are in transition, but also halfway through a couple of for credit classes for the high schoolers. So as we look for a more permanent place, we will need to meet in the transition period for shorter times just to get through the have to have classes (latin and science,) but do our art and music that they were doing there, here. Which could leave us more time at home on Fridays since we won't have a full day out. So... I am waiting to see how that goes. We may be able to institute some things I was planning for next fall as far as a "morning basket" kind of thing as a fun Friday to cover some of that. Still up in the air, as we are looking into some churches to meet at.

Agree with this sentiment as well though!

I don't see any issues. It gives you leeway for moving slowly through it. I started one of mine in R&S 1st grade math in K. She still finished the 8th grade at the end of 8th grade. The same with the spelling. I think I started her in the 4th grade R&S spelling in 3rd grade. Now, in 9th grade, she just finished the end of the 8th grade spelling. In English, both of mine started 2nd grade in the 2nd grade R&S English book, and both are about a half year behind to a full year behind "grade level" in the R&S English books. It's not that the work is too hard or that we don't do school every day, it is just that our school takes many forms. Our writing may be a speech class for a co-op class for the year, meaning, we spend less time on R&S that semester. It may be that we did a few weeks of Kahn Academy or math review games at some point instead of going straight through R&S every day. Over the years, with other classes, ongoing projects, Latin study, etc we actually only do a few English lessons a week in R&S. So we move slowly through the books. But they (all of our R&S subjects actually) are worth completing, so we just keep moving through them not caring about what the grade level says. Starting early can give you some leeway and freedom for taking time off for unit studies or co-op classes or what have you through the years.

workbooks are a lot of workbooks I mean, not a lot of $.

It starts separating in 2nd grade The spelling, phonics, English, and reading are all separated with separate workbooks and manuals. But in 1st, if you use the whole 1st grade the phonics and reading programs are in one teacher's manual, and the set of workbooks plus the lesson plans from the TM and readers all tie together. I dropped the readers after 1st to do WTM style, so I honestly don't know if the spelling words in the 2nd grade spelling come from the reading, but my guess is not. Can't say for sure. but I kept the spelling, phonics, and English (and math actually!) all the way to the ends of the programs. Either way the phonics and spelling and English are fantastic from 2nd up, and the Bible readers in 1st are good. I also liked the 1st grade workbooks, but they are a lot. So I just think it's a good solid program. Can't compare it to the MP stuff though. I also like all MP stuff I have used. I just haven't tried the early elem LA from them. :)

It is so hard to find fellow WTM groupies in real life, lol. So glad for these boards!

I have the 3rd edition, but its been so long since I read it, I am not sure if it changed there or not. Since I am stuck in the thought process of needing a full year of I and II in 8th grade, I think that is still the rec there. But now I am off to check! Now I want edition 4 to see what it says. :) Our library hasn't purchased the new one, and I forgot to ask for it for Christmas, darn it. Well, thank you for sharing your experience. We had planned on a debate club this year, and I thought the Logic for the full year would make a great addition to that. But the club fell through, and now I am thinking the one semester is enough with all of the things we have done in the place of logic/debate club. I wanted to hear if others had good reasons for every child doing the full course. Sounds like others have gotten by with just I. I don't know anybody in real life who has done II. Most do just I that I know. (if they have even heard of it.) I had always planned on the full WTM schedule. But real life and kids with different abilities/strengths/interests/and opportunities have changed our course along the way, as they should!

No thoughts on the benefits vs pitfalls of only one semester of Logic vs. a whole year in a Classical education? :) Anyone?

Reading, phonics, and spelling are completely tied together in R&S 1st grade too.