Thanks all....we're only 4 poems into LDTPM, but my son loves to listen to the whole CD in the car......even the poems he hasn't memorized yet.

:lurk5: I'm interested too!

I'm on board with poetry memorization, but what curious from those that use this program or their own, what benefits are you seeing? How is it helping your child(ren)? When did you start seeing benefits/reaping the rewards?

I know there are some great homeschooling conferences out there. Currently I live in IA but am very comfortable traveling to MN, IL, WI....other states if there is an amazing conference out there to attend. Where/when is the best/biggest one? Thoughts? Or does anyone have an experience with any in the midwest that they can share so I can see how they match up to the NICHE conference? Thanks!

Does anyone want to share their Holiday Traditions (Winter Solstice, Christmas...Hanukkah, anything goes)? Any specific activities.... go serve at a local soup kitchen... "The $100 Holiday", only handmade gifts? I'd love to hear it all! Thanks.

Wow, such great responses. I've never actually thought about making math more "well rounded" like I do with other subjects. I think I'm on the search for a supplementary math program.....

When does a child move from reading cat as /c/ /a/ /t/ to c-a-t (continuously)...does that make sense? When do they learn to blend the sounds better. Right now my kinder still breaks the sounds up. He usually goes through the word once with each sound and then knows what the whole word together is. He does know "the", "in" , "on" and some other words without sounding them. FYI we are in book 2 of ETC. Thoughts?

What's a more rigorous math curric. than Singapore, and what comes after Singapore? I want to "hear" all sequences up through high school if you have them!

Thanks for the responses, for some reason I got it stuck in my head that we had to go all the way through the 7 books THIS year! I started to panic as we are only in number 2 and wasn't sure if ds's speed would keep up! Next question.... if a child finishes a book (for example book 3) but isn't ready to move on, do you just do a ton of library books? Or read alouds? Or what fills the gap until s/he's ready to move to the next concept?

I know this might be a dumb question.... :confused: but..... when doing ETC in Kinder do you go through all 7 books (or 8?, can't remember how many there are)? Or do you just go through as a reasonable pace and break at the end of the year and pick up where you left off for the next year? I guess specifically...what is the "normal" or "expected" book that a Kinder should end with? A first grader?

Is there a way to test formally/informally for a child's reading level? I think a few years back someone was telling me about a word list that a child would read and then when they missed 3 (or so) in a row you would add up the words and do some math computation and it would give you a number like 1.4 (first grade, 4th month) reading level. Or any other tests? I know you can look on the back of most "readers" and get a level that they are reading, but I'd rather see how far up he can test, no just look at the level of books that he (or I) am choosing.

I'm trying to switch a few (more) of our dinner meals to a more vegetarian flair. Most of the family is sick of spaghetti one night a week as it is and packing in more pasta dishes just doesn't see right. Can anyone help me with some vegetarian "main" dish ideas? I love to cook and am pretty good at it so whatever you throw my way I should be able to figure out. PS- There's kids involved, a few of them young, under 6. Also, the fam is NOT stoked about tofu, seitan or any other "fake meat" though I do use soy crumbles in soups and they don't know yet....hehehe

What does everyone do for K/1st/2nd Language Arts? IEW? It sounds like WT is for older as it Aesop/Homer.... all that starts about 3rd grade or so?

When I was little we used to listen to "Adventures in Odyssey" by focus on the family (Christian obviously). They are about 20-30 min episodes each. We loved them! They are a short story/show that generally ties into a Bible story or verse or principal. I don't know if they still have them, but if they do, it might be worth looking in to.

:lurk5:

Thanks all....we're headed to the library tomorrow or Friday...now I have some great titles to search for! I love hearing the ideas, so if anyone has more to add, please do :)

Could anyone give me their favorite titles of the retold stories pertaining to: The Iliad The Odyssey Trojan War Hummarabi's Code/Mesopotamia..... This is for a 1st grader. Thanks.

Can someone kindly explain or compare and contrast the following? WWE and FLL (used together as a LA program) CW Primer (to lead to Aesop) English for the Thoughtful Child (Greenleaf Press) What is "better" or more rigorous? What are the main differences between these?

not to hijack this post, but at what age can Aesop be started?

Thanks all....I just worry (I don't know why?!) that there wouldn't be enough science? Or is science all absorbed through reading? How does that work out....?

I'm SURE this has been asked before but I searched for it and couldn't quite find what I was looking for. What are the key differences between a: Latin Centered Curriculum and the Well Trained Mind thought/curriculum Other than Latin being emphasized much more in LCC (at least that's what I took away from the book)

Helping verbs, being verbs, a list of the most common prepositions, state capitols, international capitols, the seven continents, the oceans of the world, list of presidents (in order), anything on the periodic table really..... Any of the "laws" in science...an object in motion stays in motion.... gravity.... A list of the flights taken to outer space, the dates to match and which country they were from, Those are just a few to get you thinking. I don't know what ages, but can adapt anything to make it easier/harder for your target.

Ok, needing some more input on classical languages. For little ones in terms of Greek there's: Song School Greek (Koine? K-2ish) Hey Andrew...(Koine? 2nd/3rd grade?) The Greek Alphabet Code Breaker (Koine? 2nd) Elementary Greek (Koine? any ideas on ages?) What else might I be missing? This would be for 3rd grade and under.:001_smile: Anybody know anything about Galore Park's Greek book that isn't published yet?

I'd be interested....do they have a yahoo group? On a side note, for anyone using the pre-level RS4K, check out from the library or buy "What's smaller than a Pygmy Shrew". It's recommended in the Noeo book list (I actually use a lot of the books from their list for RS4K) and fits well with the first few chapters of RS4K. Also the experiments in Adventures with Atoms (book 1) match up nicely as well.

My son just turned 6 and we're doing the pre-level Chem. He's cruising through it which is why I'm supplementing. I also have Chem 1 but think that right now it might be too much or him. We go a little bit more in depth than the book but not too much.