You can watch them on Amazon instant video. They cost $1.99 an episode with no advertisements. (Or less if you subsribe to the whole season.) For free, you can watch them on Hulu. If you have not watched since the "war clan" broke into Aaron's house, then you have missed a lot. At least for me, the show is going in an unexpected direction. The episode from Wed, Oct 30th, "Dead Man Walking" is available at both websites. Happy watching!

WWS3 builds on the skills learned in WWS2 (and also WWS1). I do not think that skipping a level completely would be a good idea. For a strong writer, you should be able to condense the material. There are new topoi introduced in level two that are assumed - for instance, various types of introductions and conclusions.

I do not think that one chapter a week would work at all! For instance, we are working through Space & Earth Science (grade 8). It has twenty-one chapters. So, that would be about seven to ten days per chapter for a normal school year. I would recommend about a day for each section. (I would define a section as a portion of the text with the section review questions.) My son takes notes and answers the review questions. I add in any of the "application" pages from the workbook that apply to the section. Honestly, we are not doing all of the labs - just too much work for me.... Then, I would schedule two days to do the chapter review. I want my son to spend a lot of time on the "What Do You Think?" questions, and write them up as a paragraph (or more). WE edit those, and he tried to bring in information from other sources. And then a day for the test. Also, I try (and sometimes succeed) in finding videos that relate to the chapter. In my mind, maybe that makes up for our lack of labs. Anyway, I have not used the History books. But, the BJUP textbooks are very classroom-like, so I imagine that the format is the same. If you find the teacher books - it tells you (in the wraparound part) what applications and investigations (labs) to do with each section. Or, if you do the online lessons - the book is scheduled for 180 days, or 36 weeks. Good luck - and if you ask more specifically with the grade level, you might get some better answers for the exact books that you are doing.

I want to know too! Was it even more crowded than usual with the Duggars? What did we miss?

http://www.milestonebooks.com (one of the few places online to get Rod & Staff books new) answers the question "Do you have placement tests?" with this... One exception is the English curriculum, which covers grammar and composition. If your child has basic knowledge in these areas, they will probably do fine in grades 2 through 5. From the feedback we've received, grades 6 and above don't provide as much review of the basics, and are more advanced than average. (While Rod and Staff only publishes the English series through 10th grade, it is equivalent to completing a high school grammar course.) For students switching in the upper grades, especially those weak in grammar, we usually recommend that they drop back a grade or two, sometimes back to the 5th grade text, which is a good foundation for the rest of the series. If you feel confident they are up to grade level then start there and see if they can manage it. If you find it too advanced, you can always save it for later while you drop back to an earlier grade. I started with Rod & Staff English - grade 4. It was SO easy! I really think it just contains all the basics of elementary school grammar. I believed that Rod & Staff was "advanced" and was convinced that since it ended at grade 10, it was two years ahead. So, when we did the grade 4 book in 6th grade it was much too simple. I was not impressed..... and took a break and reconsidered the options. Before I knew it, we just did not consistently get around to grammar for quite awhile (well, more or less a full year), so I decided to move ahead to grade 6. We skipped all of the writing sections and all of the sections that were totally review from the grade 4 book - a total of 63 sections out of 132. The grade 6 book introduces clauses (adjective and adverb). So, another new topic would be complex sentences as well as coordinating and subordination conjunctions. That about does it for new material in the grade 6 book. Looking at the grade 7 book, I would be surprised to find even 30 sections of new material. By my quick glance at the table of contents, it seems that verbals and noun clauses are the only totally new ideas in there. In any case, the point is this: Rod and Staff English is painfully repetitive. If you are doing the textbooks at home, instead of in a classroom, you do not need all the "class practice" and the excessive "review exercises". If I was going to start with a middle school student, who has had at least some grammar in school, I would begin with grade 6. As far as I can tell, grade 6 is the first level to introduce clauses, which I think is the first difficult concept in grammar. Good luck - and please excuse my poor grammar in this post. It is very late here. But, I am awake and trying to get some planning done so that I can enjoy the summer too!

What if you let him "audit", and set a pace that works better? That way you can continue with the same book and assignments. It seems that at the least, you would have a full year to complete Latin 200. I am sure that Karen would explain to you how it works. And, he could jump back in at 300 or 400, if that would work in the future? Anyway, good luck with the last few weeks!

You would not want to skip WWS1 - the second level assumes all the skills of the first level. You can, however, move quickly or even skip some sections with an accomplished writer.

Please check their website...... http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/ They offer a large amount of pages to view. That will give you a good idea of exactly how religious the Notgrass texts are. Personally, it fits our needs wonderfully. I cannot imagine how to even begin to use Notgrass in a secular way.

SWB is planning a high school level called "Writing with Style". If I remember correctly, she has now decided that the material in Writing with Skill could be taught in three years (with an optional year of review/practice). She suggests that completing WWS would prepare most students to be successful in a freshman writing class. Then, "Writing with Style" will include more advance techniques, such as persuasive essays. There was some discussion of this in the sticky - it might be worth your time to read through it. SWB makes many appearances in that thread to answer specific questions.

I use, and love, WWS! Other than the difficulty level, are you interested in Writing with Skill? I think that it can be done slowly, or otherwise adapted to the student, if you like SWB's method of teaching writing.

I would not say that I am new to the boards - only new to posting. So, thanks so much for your kind words!

I was a middle school math teacher (before children) and I see nothing wrong with adding left to right, as long as he is getting the answer correct. In fact, in a real-life application, it would be more important to have the leading digits correct and be close to the correct answer, than to have the ones digits correct and be off by factors of ten. But, how does he account for it when a the addends of a certain place exceed ten? Does he easily go back (or maybe I mean forward!?!) and adjust his sum? In general, with a "mathy" kid, as long as he can explain what he is doing, I would not force with the "right" (ie - the way the book teaches) way as long as the answers are correct and he can justify his method to you.

So, here is my background. My son (who is currently 13) started WWS1 at the end of last year and is just about ready for the final paper. He is not a reluctant writer (he finished a full NANIWROMO novel with a few friends). However, he would rather write fiction. His sentence styling is acceptable for a middle school boy. His paragraphs are full bodied and on topic. However, we had never done anything more than paragraphs. This is what I would suggest, if you think that you son can write good sentences, paragraphs that flow and outline an essay before he starts writing it. Part One - Basic Skills / SKIP this whole section Part Two - Building Blocks for Compositions / SKIP all narration and outlining exercises. The exercises called “Analyzing the Topos†are really important. And, in my opinion, what makes the curriculum so effective. SWB breaks down the topoi into the components so a student can write a good paragraph. Later, she breaks down essays into their parts so that a student can see how the different topoi fit together. If you skip the narration and outlining, that is about half of this section. So, you could do weeks 4 to 15 in about 24 days. Part Three – Sentence Skills / SKIP all narration and outlining exercises. This is the section where SWB starts the copia exercises – basically sentence editing. I think that this is a topic that could be done much better. Perhaps there is just too much other content in WWS. You could easily skip it, if your son writes complex sentences. This cuts out about half the days, so you could do this part in about 15 days. Part Four / Beginning Literary Criticism – Prose / Actually, I quite enjoyed doing this section, and so did my son. However, he enjoys reading, writing and talking about fiction. He is doing has done Omnibus II and III class at coop – and it is his favorite (academic) course. So, I would not skip any of these days, unless you are getting literary analysis through another curriculum. However, day 4 of each week are literary terms, and could probably be combined with the reading on day 1 of the next week. So, this could be completed in less than 16 days. Part Five / Research – I would also do all of this, and do it carefully. The citations are picky and difficult, but to do this from the beginning would be an advantage for any teenager. However, the first week is all outlines, so you might skip this. However, this would be the section where it really gets hard. (I taught my son to make notes and physically cut them apart in order to make an outline just like my mom taught me when I was in junior high school! It made me appreciate even more how she taught me to write after school without a college degree herself.) Students need to write a longer essay in this part, fitting together a variety of topoi. Still, this could be done in about 16 days. Part Six / Beginning Literary Criticism – Poetry – I did not like this section, but my son did. I think that you could easily skip it. I personally do not remember having to do any writing about poetry in college. Anyway….. my son liked this too! I would not skip the literary analysis in WWS1 if you intend to do the sections in WWS2. The sections in year two assume that you have done year one. Part Seven / Final Project – And this is the end ….a paper combining a few topoi, on a topic that the student has chosen! If you wanted, I think that you could pick out only the scientific topoi, to work on that sort of writing. Or, you could pick out only the historic topoi, to work on that type. I do think that WWS is really easy to adapt, and I am looking forward to teaching to again in a few more years to my younger children. I would not skip analyzing and writing any of the topoi in WWS1, as all those skills are assumed in WWS2. You could easily go through all the topoi and finish before the second book is ready in August. The most difficult part of writing was having enough input. So, after a few weeks of struggle at the beginning, I found that I needed to have more resources available than just what was in the student book. So, before we started an essay, I would gather some easy library books (for the pictures) and find a video on Netflix. In that way, I tried to set up a bit more background knowledge and motivation. Once I started doing that, it was a lot easier for him to write, and it was a lot easier for me to help him edit because we had a bit more knowledge than just what was in the WWS student text. Also, if you have a strong writer, perhaps the word counts are sometimes a bit on the short side. You might consider increasing the number of resources and the length of the finished product. At any point, if he needs a bigger challenge, he could write something from his history or science classes that incorporates two or more of the topoi that he already has learned. I am sure that this is way too long! But, I love WWS and I hope that more people will use it! Please ask me questions if it helps you think this through.

Our coop offered a class using this curriculum. My friend talked me into IEW, even though I am not convinced about the method in general. I spent a few days reading all the material that I could borrow from her. I was one click away from prchasing the books - and then I looked at samples of the Narnia manuals. My plan was to combine the coop writing class with some more advanced literary analysis. However, I did not like that it doesn't cover all seven of the books. That is more or less the reason that I did not choose to use Following Narnia. Hope that helps you with your decision!

Is this for your 16 yo or your 13 yo? (But I will still think about an answer while I work on dinner.)

MommaDuck, I looked (in vain) for a slip for my daughter for the dress that I made for for Easter. The only thing that I could figure out (since I realized on Saturday that it needed a slip) was a pretty t-shirt that was way too big. I was planning to alter it, but she liked it the way it was. Anyway, this is my question - are cotton slips slippery enough? Can you explain in more detail what kind of cotton you use and what kind of pattern you use so that I can make one that actually fits!?! Thanks!

I started with Zoology 3 - simply because that is what my (then) 5th grader was interested in. Only after I ordered the book and started planning did I realize that there was any kind of order. I do believe that she recommends Zoology 1 before the others. However, I printed out the first chapter of Book 1, which covered some basic ideas (for instance, taxonomy). We had no problems at all. Well, at least until the end until it got a bit boring. If I had to do it again, I would have skipped (or at least zoomed through) at least the last chapter(s). The book just fizzled out and I would have preferred a more exciting way to end a great study.

My 13-year old son participates in Lone Pine Latin. It is a very demanding and time consuming course taught at a high school level. However, a good number (perhaps even most) of the students are middle-school (or even younger). http://www.lonepineclassical.com/ I would be happy to answer additional questions if you are interested. But, you can also search the boards, there have been a few posts regarding her classes. I learned about them here. The course is, without a doubt, worthy of a high school credit. I am amazed at how much Latin they have learned in a few short months.

Try this article from HEAV, about a homeschool mom of both biological and adopted kids. It is more about their adoption, but also about how homeschooling was the right choice for their family. If the link does not work, search heav.org for "Eight is Great" by Joy Hayden. http://go.epublish4me.com/ebook/ebook?id=10021105#/16

I just spent the weekend struggling with a facing on Simplicity 1926. It is a really cute girls dress with an inset neck band. I am sure that it will not fit - I finally redrafted the piece - and it looks great now! I did check Pattern Review, and read more or less the same comment about the difficulty of the inset. If only it will be warm enough to wear next weekend.... even the short sleeve jacket might not be warm enough.

Jean, I will take a crack at this, only because it is so hard to critique your son's writing (or your husband's, for that matter). First of all, everything he says is too tentative. Instead of ... appears to have Death as its primary theme AND The primary theme must be about life because it is designed to show a viewer or reader how to live their life AND Life and Death must be the two main focuses So, my first suggestion would be to just state clearly the point that is being made. However, perhaps he is not clear on what he thinks. Do you think that he understands the play? Is his writing normally better than this? Unless the instructions asked for two themes, he should pick one. Is the play about DEATH or LIFE? Once he decides, there are several good statements about how the theme is life - a kind of Carpe Diem attitude. I would suggest that he proceed with that and rework it so that all his evidence supports that idea. Well, it was harder than I thought to make comments. Perhaps you can reply with the assignment, and I can give it some more thought later tonight.

Bethany, I was reading some of your old post, to gather more info on your stepson. You mentioned in one about "picking your battles". Please believe me, laundry is not a battle to pick with your stepson. If you have a bit of his heart when he is an adult, then you have won the "war", no matter how many of the "battles" you might have lost.

Bethany, First, let me commiserate with you. I have a 22 year old step son, and the trauma of his teen years is finally over and (somewhat) forgotten. In any case, I too, struggled with his laundry. And, I tried everything that I could think of to get my stepson to pick up his own clothing and put it in a laundry basket. That is all I wanted him to do. He never (as a teenager) managed to do that. It turned into such a fight that it became a huge deal when he was in high school - much bigger than it should have been. And, truthfully, looking back, I probably over-reacted. I agree that it would be more trouble than it is worth to train him to use your laundry room without disrupting your system. It is hard enough to train teenagers who live with you every day. What if you get him some large laundry baskets and stack his clean laundry inside? And leave it in the laundry room for him to get, or not get. He will probably be happy to dig through and get what he wants. I do that with my son, who lives here all the time! Sometimes a "clean" basket gets dirty stuff on top. I wash what seems dirty and ignore what seems clean. Honestly, teenage boys do not care what they look like (or smell like). And, when they do, they learn to use the washing machine pretty quickly! I hope that helps!

My son is in Lone Pine Latin 100. He started as hybrid, and has recently been "promoted" into the live class. If you PM me (and I can figure out how to read the message) I will send you my email and we can get the kids connected. They have been working on travel commercials to ancient Rome, and are watching them in class this week. If you search on Youtube various combinations of "Lone Pine Latin ancient Rome commercial" your child will be able to see some of the kids that are in the class. Check the upload dates - they do this assignment every year. The variety of downloads and accounts to various resources is daunting at first. Please ask and I will help you figure it out! Because of the message boards (just like this one) and the environment that she creates in class, the kids build friendships and are able to help each other. It has been a wonderful experience for us! Not to mention, LOTS of work....

We really have enjoyed "Mapping the World with Art"! I have learned things that I never knew (considering that I never took World Geography in high school). So, to answer Glory's question - it does NOT cover the whole world equally well. There is one map for the Greater Antilles, and one map for all of Africa. There is one map just for the island of Great Britain, and one map for the island of Australia. Just in the first section, you draw four maps of different parts of Europe (and more later), while just one map for all of India. However, when you do the curriculum, it makes so much more sense. The flow of the lessons and readings are also a history of map making and the knowledge of geography. So, everything starts around the Mediterranean Sea and extends out from there. So, the last maps taught are the tiny little islands in the Pacific Ocean, and then Antarctica. In addition, I think that the more historically important areas (at least from a Western Civilization point of view) are emphasized. So, there is much more detail about the interior of North America than the interior of Asia. The maps do focus on the outlines of the continents and the MAJOR geographical features. You will not learn every capital city, every river, or even every country. You do not even draw states on the USA. However, I think that working through this curriculum has significantly increased our understanding of how the world fits together. And, to top things off - it is not really expensive! Hope this helps you!