I'm trying to kick DD4 off the computer so I can upload the photo. :lol:

thanks everyone....I didn't really realize I was typing that....just a brain dump I suppose. Sometimes you sit and think about the path you're on. If we hadn't bought THIS house, and DH hadn't been moving all the heavy rocks at this house, he wouldn't have hurt his back, which forced him to go to the dr who forced him to sit for a physical which allowed her to detect a very tiny mass on his thyroid that most drs would never detect.....which forced him to get the u/s on his thyroid. Most tumors his size aren't even worried about but the dr is a friend and very conservative (or does she just want our money :lol:) and the u/s showed calcification. The endo said, "Well we normally don't biopsy tumors this tiny but we should take a look now that we know it's there. The chances of it being malignant are very small." When the receptionist called saying the dr wanted to see Dh that day, I knew it was bad. But it's the LEAST aggressive thyroid cancer so w/ surgery and radiation, and medication for life, he should be just fine. I have two different MD friends calling and checking on and personally talking to the surgeon, endo, pathologist who did the assessment so I think we have all the bases covered. It's going to take some time for Dh's psyche to heal from this however. He just went through his "I'm getting old.... I need back surgery crisis" and now this.

WEll, don't get too excited lol. It's a counter with cabinets above and below and a sink. I have a sliding glass door to the right of it in which I'll put a large fan to evacuate any fumes. A science-friend of mine mailed me a magnetic/heat plate so that reduces our need for open flames but I did just receive a bunsen burner (aka camping stove) from Home Science Tools. I do have a fire extinguisher and eye wash station. Next on the list is to figure out how to lock the cabinets. Friends of DC will be over and in the basement un-supervised and I don't want Johnny getting into the HCl, H2SO4 etc. Photo is forthcoming.

What a wonderful link! thank you! Yes, I've read about Bloom's Taxonomy and Socratic Dialogue. I think I do a fair job of incorporating it but I'm just wondering if I should be doing more. I know it's hard to quantify. I keep thinking I need to write my own lesson plans but this summer isn't shaping up to my hopes. Last summer I was selling a house, having a new one built, moving into temp storage, living in a hotel, moving into new house and then 2 weeks later school started. I treated water the entire year. I had hoped to spend the summer planning but I feel like the summer is getting away. THe contractor got 2 MONTHS behind on finishing the basement. I finally emptied our offsite storage into our garage and I'm slowly sorted through it - throw out, donate, keep, store. I've gotten our science lab bench almost set up so we can start ACS Middle School chem. And all of my HS stuff is all over the place. The dining room is full of all the stuff that was in the basement and needs to be sorted. Can you tell I'm feeling a bit overwhelmed? And DH was just diagnosed w/ malignant thyroid cancer on Monday. To say I'm a bit distracted is an understatement. And the kids elected to do several Summer Enrichment activities through the school district which are really cheap (well, we pay for it in our taxes:glare:) so I spend every day driving back and forth, back and forth, back and forth. So, to make this long story short, pre-written curricula is starting to look very good. Capt Uhura (6th grader, 3rd grader, 4yr old)

KarenAnne - I have just acquired all the items needed for ACS Middle School chemistry. I was waiting for my basement lab to be finished. WE got the cert. of occupancy from the Town Inspector just 4 days ago! Now I have to read through and start printing the pages but I think it will work well. CPO Life Science is supposed to be inquiry based but last year, I found it too disjointed or perhaps too broad and not enough depth for us.

Have you seen this blog for using Exploring the Way Life Works? http://quarksandquirks.wordpress.com/biology-hs-level/

I don't watch/read the news for the same reason. It ruins my day, nothing I can do about it anyhow. If it's significant, DH will tell me about it.

8FilltheHeart - Could I trouble you to ask for a sample of what you'd expect from your "typical" 3rd and 4th grader? How about 6th grader? :D Capt Uhura

KarenAnne - thanks for the recs! I'll definitely look into the Marilyn Burns book. I already own HOE but need to remember to get it out.

When we do math, for word problems in SM CWP and in MM, I work the problems as well. Many times, for the more thorny problems, DS and I get the same answer by two different methods. We always go over each one and explain it to the other why we chose that way and which one was more efficient and why.

Hello HIve, There is a thread started by Karen Anne at the highschool forum discussing direct instruction and creativity/problem solving. She linked to the following article in her initial post: http://www.scientificamerican.com/blog/post.cfm?id=the-educational-value-of-creative-d-2011-07-07 I'd like to discuss this for logic stage students. I'm always one for finding a middle ground. There is a place for direct instruction and a place for creativity/problem solving. And as someone pointed out, it gets more difficult to achieve our lofty goals w/ toddlers under foot and everything else life throws at us. I tend to be drawn more to "creative/problem solving" curricula. I think b/c I was the student portrayed in the article. I was a great test taker, teacher pleaser. I could binge and purge like no other....very little retention except for science which I loved. I do not want the same education for my children. How do we achieve a balance of getting "it" done, fulfilling state obligations (standardized testing) and foster creativity/problem solving? We do LEGO NXT at home for fun which certainly covers creativity/problem solving (C/PS). I also like Rightstart Math. I think it borders on that problem solving realm. A student works on finding the area of rectangles, then cuts them apart, seeing that you know have triangles.... HOw to find the area of the triangle? HHm make it into a rectangle, find the area, then take half! As opposed to telling the student "If you need to find the area of a triangle, use this formula. It works b/c a triangle is half a rectangle." I think that discovery aspect helps the information to stick, at least for some kids. I'm also drawn to AoPS for the same reason. I think MCT works well for my kids for the same reason. You're reading about descriptive paragraphs, then flowing w/in the text, there is a descriptive paragraph! My boys love discovering that - they are engaged w/ the material and interacting with it. We try to take advantage of problem solving opportunities when they naturally arise.....hhm can't reach that? Don't have a ladder? What can you do? Or when we're doing an experiment, "What if the results turned out to be XYZ. How would that change your conclusion or would it? If that were your results, what experiments would you do next? What controls do you need and why do you need them?" My son once said the hard part about HSing was that there was no one else to answer the questions! :lol: Now his younger brother is able to answer questions so some pressure is off. But is that enough? I always have big plans to all the creative things but last year it just didn't get done w/ trying to teach writing, cover history in depth, cover science, do PE, discuss grammar, read aloud for an hour a day, move to a new house, deal w/ a pre-Ker, exercise 1-1.5hrs/day, cook dinner, clean the house, sleep, ..... you get the picture. What do you do to foster creativity/problem solving in your homeschool? My teacher-friend's chief complaint about our district is that there is little to no creativity, problem solving, critical thinking....it's open your mouth and be spoon fed....move to the next grade. Capt Uhura

I don't think anyone can answer that question as we don't know the Scope and Sequence of all 4 levels of WWS.

Yes I do but I didn't make it and I won't distribute it w/out asking the person who sent it to me first. I think she may be on vacation or otherwise not online b/c she hasn't answered my pm.

No I don't think pdfs are resellable. THere was a discussion about this on the General board awhile back. It was one of the negatives along w/ printing costs for folks buying pdfs. But we won't have much of a choice w/ WWS/ALL as I'll want to get started w/ them as soon as they come out in pdf....unless we're talking weeks and not months.

I've never used IEW so I can't comment on that. I use Sentence Composing to help my son add variety to his sentences.

I'm going to start on the MIddle Ages schedule this week. I believe Luckymama is also working on it. Someone did email me a spreadsheet which had HO, KFE, TSoM, DK Visual Guide on it. I'm going to add the OUP Middle Ages book to that as well as K12 Human Odyssey which I sub for TSoM.

WHich one are you talking about? Ancients level 2? Middle Ages? Early Modern? Yes I would still use KFE for a list of facts, timeline info, etc.

Well WWS doesn't get to two levels until the nearer the end. Taking notes is also near the end. You could always have him do 2-3 levels though. I guess the question is does he need more work on writing compositions. WWS will have him writing chronological history narratives, chronological science narratives, practice w/ incorporating quotes from the person being written about to liven up the narrative, it also covers beginning literary analysis. If you have a younger child, then I'd say go for it and use what you need to for the older. But it's less than $60 so it's not like your'e investing $150 like some writing programs.

can you give examples of Style? WWS has copia exercises. You manipulate sentences, words for better or worse effect. "The copia exercises in Writing With Skill ask students to rephrase, recast, and reword assigned sentences. The practice of copia forces students to use variety and encourages them to be alert to the patterns of sentences. Copia exercises were a staple of grammar-school education in Erasmus’s day; they trained students to be “resourceful in language†and served as a basis for all future literary education.â€2"

It's too late for East coast folks. 8-(

No, it's the text pricing, from the Fall Peacehill Press catalogue which we got at the RFWP Valley FOrge conference. PDF will likely be a bit cheaper if it's similar to pricing w/ FLL.

textbooks WWS teacher text $32.95 WWS student text $28.95 ALL $36.95

It's on the WTM blog. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/blog/

My library offers some kind of service like that but for some reason it only works w/ PCs and not Macs.:glare:

We don't have a kindle or iPad. 8-(