I always get the 2 mixed up: do you mean RS4K or REAL Science? Your post has me curious though... I'm running to get my new WTM out of the van, lol. It's there for me to read during the kids' TaeKwonDo, when we're stuck in town w/o enough time to drive home between things, etc. :) I'm wondering if she adds anything to it - like books on historical scientists, or suggestions to 'flesh it out' with library books, etc., or just use it as is. Is this for Grammar or Logic stage?

I just want to interject a huge sigh of relief in knowing that I'm not the only one that "freaks out" over hsing - whether over a parenting issue or a school issue. Just reading this thread gives me a nice "Chin up! You can do this, keep going!". Thanks to all of you for sharing. :grouphug: P.S. I think Susan W. B. has her hsing direction down pat - so I doubt that's the thing she gets unnerved about. I think it's important to have 'real life' friends for support, but this forum is priceless. Thank you, Susan!

Well, his interest in American wars may be as you describe, or for all I know it may just be about cool planes and tanks in his mind. Germs are another can of worms though. He's read every book we have on them, he knows the shapes of different kinds of bacteria, viruses, etc., and likes to draw them. He wants to see them under a microscope and know how they grow. I still am not planning on spending 12 weeks on it though - maybe 2 or 3, and that should be plenty. I'm going to skip to germs in a week or 2 (we wouldn't otherwise cover them until Aug./Sept.), but then finish all the topics I'd planned. Maybe in a different order though, as germs might spark the study of medicine and human body. I suppose it won't kill us to do them in a different order. :D History is an entirely different bear to tackle. I've been wondering, on my own, whether to break from the chronological cycle to do US & state history sooner. We only just started our *first* history cycle this school-year, & oldest ds is already in 2nd grade. I'm tempted to just continue the rotation and slow down/go more in-depth into US hist. as it is covered chronologically within world history. Which puts him in 4th grade doing SOTW 3 and 5th grade doing SOTW 4 (or something that holds that content). If I take a break for state history, that pushes it even further down the line. I need to do what one of you suggested and research my state's tests more closely so I know which grade and how indepth the tests are. If testing weren't an issue, I might just do state history very slowly one session per week for however many years it takes, and have him keep a notebook for review. Thanks for "listening" to me talk it out, and for all the great ideas & advice.

My Father's World The Book Peddler Abeka Calvert Hearthsong (not curriculum, but they have some great educational stuff!) MindWare (again, not curric.) Young Explorers Montessori Services For Small Hands www dot Discover This dot com

Recently my ds8 has let me know that as soon as we're done with vertebrates in science he wants to study germs. Should I skip to this instead of moving into invertebrates? Or do you think I could make it part of invertebrates? I was going to do the WTM life sci.: animals, human body, plants, then add on germs and medicine after that. WWYD? What do you think about child-led school topics? Along the same lines, tonight in the van, I asked my boys what they want to study in school. Ds8 said "GERMS!!!", and I tried getting an answer out of my littlest one, who remained quiet as ds8 loudly whispered in his ear, "Say germs!". Then, ds8 declared that he wanted to learn about wars - WWI and WWII, whichever one Papa fought in. So he learned in the van that there were more than just those 2 big wars (Papa was in Vietnam). He wants to learn about them all. My state requires testing starting in 3rd grade (ds8 will be in 3rd this fall) and tests heavily on US and state history around 3rd/4th grades. I'm so torn between jumping ship from the 4-yr. history cycle for a number of reasons: to fulfill ds' interests, to get a better indepth study of US and local history, and to utilize all the great US history literature/living books geared for younger kids. I'm worried that if I break from the 4-yr. cycle (this was our 1st year) in history that my kids won't have those 'mental pegs' already in place to be able to hang more info on later. Have any of you done this? Done US and/or state history in the younger years, that is? I'd like to take only 1 or 2 years for it and get back to classical-style world history by 5th grade if I do. What have you used for state and US history? For those of you that tie geography in, what did you use for that? I like the looks of TruthQuest, but their US/American hist. takes 3 years (if you stay on track). What would you use for US/state history if you wanted to teach it in a more WTM/classical way? Something else I've thought of since ds8 made this request about history - when in the 3 4-yr. rotations does a student delve in-depth into state and US (or your own country) history? When do you stop and take time to study things that can take a long time (like the Civil War, for ex.), not just skim over them in a few chapters? I ask this w/o ever having seen SOTW 2, 3, or 4, and w/o reading L and R stage WTM recs. Thanks! I so appreciate all the years of knowledge & experience you ladies always have to offer!

Ali, from what I can see on the online samples, BP looks great! Then again, so do so many others...*sigh*. I was just wondering what to expect out of the BP order itself if I ever make one. That would, of course, require a final decision on history for next year though! :lol:

What I mean is, am I right in thinking that Biblioplan does not have it's own BP book to read, but instead, is a schedule of other books (SOTW, MOH, Bible, and add'l lit. & hist. selections)? Or have I got it wrong? :confused: That's what it looked like to me from the samples on their site anyhow. Also, it looks like alot of reading. Do any of you using it struggle w/ fitting it all in? We're not used to doing more than 1 chapter of SOTW per week w/ maybe some Usborne &/or KF encyc., and a few additional history/lit books - which we don't always get to. We do map & globe work with it too. Would BP be a whole lot more than that?

www.nationalgeographic.com/xpeditions/atlas/index.html and www.eduplace.com both have printable maps you could use with a state study.

Another OPGTTR and FLL fan here! My 5-yr.-old is usually crawling around me on the couch, laying horizontally across my shoulders/the top of the couch, etc... when we do OPGTTR. It has been great for him. We use WWE and in the textbook (not workbook) I think SWB suggests for the parent to copy the copywork onto lined paper in your neatest writing, then have dc copy it. You could try that. As far as not hearing the rest of the stories, have you tried to explain that the WWE book just uses part of it to teach him something else, like how to find the main idea, etc.? If he understands that, then maybe he wouldn't get mad, but rather would want to get the books from the library. Just my 2 cents.

It really makes you wonder about the author, huh? My kids thought the weirdness was funny up until this book, Dorothy and the Wizard in Oz. Maybe in a few years they'll want to pick them back up again.

when the Wizard of Oz cut the Sorcerer of the glass city of the Mangaboos in half, finding that he (along with all the other Mangaboos) was vegetable, not meat. The other Mangaboos hurried to plant him so his two halves would sprout new sorcerers before they wilted or rotted. The picture for this event was what made my boys not want to read anymore Oz books. They were fine with Princess Langwidere changing her head for another in her collection of heads. :confused: They were the ones who kept wanting to read more Oz books, and since they liked them so much, we read them for fun. My dad said that most kids he knew back in the '50's weren't allowed such strange and scary literature, not even Grimm's. Do you know anyone who says the same?

...and I just used the science plan laid out in the WTM book. Since I have a K'er and a 2nd grader, I thought I'd go with what is supposed to be for the grade inbetween them (1st) and do life science. I have the '04 WTM edition and got the recommended spines, and some of the recommended other books. I did get some other encyclopedias as well, which has been helpful. Instead of just picking 20 animals for the animal portion, I have been teaching by classification. Susan addresses how to do this in the book. We started with vertebrates: mammals ending with marine mammals, then fish, reptiles & amphibians, and birds. I just made up the lesson plans and scraped together resources myself. Library books, esp. DK books and Burgess have been great. I'll second the Janice VanCleave books for interesting experiments - get her Animal experiment book. Since mine are littler, I get books by Jim Arnosky related to the animals we're studying. My boys love the art in them. Now that we're moving onto invertebrates, I am relieved to have Jessica's (Trivium Academy) Invertebrate, Plant, Human Body, Germ, and Medicine lesson plans/outlines. They are so detailed, down to what to read/do *daily*. They're on her blog and she published them on lulu, I think. Another helpful thing has been a subscription to cosmeo dot com. It's put out by Discovery Kids Channel and has anything and everything, not just science. I've never seen United Streaming, so I don't know if it's the same basic thing or not. It sometimes has language arts games about the science topic you're covering, or videos for different grade levels to watch. I like the ones that have quizzes at the end; makes my kids pay closer attention. I've been planning on using a curriculum for science (earth/space) next year, thinking that would make it easier since it would already be broken down into what to do weekly or daily for me. That's really important to do, or you'll get stuck on one topic for too long. We're still on birds. :D

I googled 'Christian homeschool curriculum fair' and found the Washington Homeschool Organization's convention coming up in June. It doesn't have every single vendor I'd like to see (no TOG, *sigh*), but it has alot! Plus, it's the closest state. ETA: This convention is one that Jessie Wise will be speaking at! (Duh! I should have checked the WTM convention list 1st). Where am I travelling? I don't know, wherever my whims take me! I just want to take off and explore with the kids, doing some fun experiential learning as we go.

I teach penmanship starting when they begin trying to form 'pretend letters' around age 2-3.5. I begin formal penmanship by Kindergarten, pre-K if they're ready. I started out w/ Abeka, and since that's the style and format my boys are used to, that's what I continue with. I have just started making some of my own penmanship pages on the Zaner-Bloser website (you select line width per grade level and type in your own text) using excerpts from their history, science, lit., and sometimes grammar rules or Bible verses. My K'er has excellent handwriting and my 2nd grader has picked up cursive this year like second nature. I'll continue cursive for my older ds next year in 3rd grade. I don't know if I'll buy a workbook for my youngest to use in 1st since it will just be continuation of manuscript practice. I could simply make my own, having him practice with content more valuable than "Ben has a red hat.", for example. Or, I'm also looking at Presidential Penmanship - they sell it in many writing styles including Abeka's.

Rebecca, those were my thoughts exactly! I mean, we're at 'level 4' out of 6 total levels of alert on this, yet the borders aren't tightened or closed. Other countries in Europe are tightening up their borders or at least beefing up screening for illness. Hmmm. Our governmental PTB are saying contradicting things with their actions. On one hand they raise the alert level, on the other, they remain lax in other preventive action. I've been wondering why they raised the alert level if they aren't actually doing much else - is it really as bad as they say? It makes raising that level seem arbitrary. Is this intended to cause panic or flood the healthcare system in order to push an agenda that wouldn't otherwise (without such panic) receive enough support? What else is going on in the world right now that the news media is distracted from, or that is being hidden from public media? It just seems as if something isn't right. JMHO.

Hmm. I think I did a poor job of communicating in my original post. It's not that I don't want to discuss other religions w/ my dc. I know that's a huge, intertwined part of history - it's the *why* behind people's actions in most cases. That I don't mind. I think Julie in MN put into words what I meant: that in addition to accurate history, I want the central focus to be on what is "close to our home and heart." So I guess I do desire for there to be more emphasis on some things and less on others, just as some who desire a purely secular history curriculum find SOTW too "Christian." Not that I want to leave other religions out - as I said before, I don't want my dc to grow up naive, ignorant, or intolerant. Karen, Sara, and others (I can't see the 1st page right now while I'm typing the reply), you've given me something to pause and think about. I've been going along wanting something that is open-and-go and treating SOTW that way. Perhaps history is a subject in which worldview and discussions need to be original, not scripted, in order to be tailored exactly for one's own family.

Well, I would never hand them anything if I thought it would disturb them. The ones I'm thinking of were even a bit cartoon-ish (to me). I handed the pages out, they colored them completely (they love coloring w/ markers), and then they asked to hang them up. It wasn't until a week later that one of them said they were scared of these pics. I realize I have made the mistake of believing that because a Christian (er, maybe I'm assuming, but she mentions going to church and other similar things) wrote the materials, and more importantly, because she is such a revered writer and educational expert, that I should follow her plan to a "T". I just got lax and stopped thinking that I needed to look at these materials w/ any discernment.

Just wondering if there's any place where I could see all the many Christian history curric's at one time in one place. VP was the only one at the fair up here this spring. We may do a little travelling this summer, and I'd love to schedule it around something like this. Do any of you know of any curric. fairs that would have TOG, MOH, BP, TQ, HOD, BF, MFW, etc., all under 1 roof?

Ugh, that doesn't sound very user-friendly, and neither does only having it in DE! If it weren't for the price and these things I may have just already ordered it! Since the site is in the construction stages, maybe she'd like some constructive feedback from you guys who've used it?

Obviously I am asking from a Christian perspective, which I do my best to incorporate into our homeschool. Do the stories and/or pictures of other gods, particulurly scary-looking ones, bother your dc? I don't mind my kids knowing about other cultures, their practices, religions, and gods that are in conflict with our own faith. In fact, I prefer they do know and grow in character and compassion from it. In using SOTW though, we are constantly running into lengthy sections that are mostly or only about historical people's religions. I don't mind to a certain extent, but I do mind when it is the bulk of or the main focus of the entire chapter. I realize that to 'get it', we have to learn where those people were coming from in their beliefs and philosophies. I know SOTW wasn't written to any specific religious audience, so my complaint is not with the author, of course. My kids are bothered by some of the coloring pages of ritual masks and other things, pages not noted in the beginning of the AG as "review before handing over to your kids". I didn't realize some of it would bother them, but after coloring these and hanging them on the wall for a week, they said it was scaring them. We make it a point to be very careful what we bring into our home for spiritual reasons. I have really been wondering if this history curric. is in sync with what I'm OK w/ spiritually. While I do not want my children to be naive or ignorant, I also don't think I want them quite so submerged in this stuff either. We do Bible separately, and I've been longing for a history curric. that is alot like SOTW, but with the main focus on God's hand in history.

:iagree: My state requires it around 3rd/4th grade. Can you tell that I really care about their requirement timeline? ;) It does make me feel just a little pressure to do *something*, but I haven't given any thought to curriculum for it yet. Although our state didn't join the U.S. until 1959, there's alot of interesting history here. I like to go all the way back to before the Russians came, and teach AK Native history - then move forward from there. Japan attacked the Aleutian Islands at one point, and just the sheer weather conditions made that an extremely hard war for the soldiers fighting. Anyhooo.... Ya, we'll cover it. I just don't know where to squeeze it in. I too would like to use local museums, oral history told from elders who lived through things when they happened, and mix state geography in as well with a big road trip. :auto:

Alison, I've had a hard time figuring out the book package thing w/ TOG too. They have their Bookshelf portion of the site, but it seems like there should be a "necessary books for Year 1" package for ea. age level. Anyone know if there is something like that?

You mean OPG, right? That would seem like alot of Language Arts! But then, I've never seen SL LA. You could tag OPG onto anything pretty easily since it's quick. I have the old I Can Read It book, the big all-in-one version. It seems to be similar in the scope of type of words ea. program provides for the child to read throughout and by the end of the book. OPG has daily scripted lessons for you to tell your child that the presented letters make a certain sound together. It is completely phonics-based, and I consider it a complete learn-to-read program. For extra pracitce, I use various readers I've accumulated over the years from Abeka, Bob books, etc. Something I had to learn the hard way w/ my older son is that phonics rules are usually a bigger part of a spelling program (but not all). I use AAS to supplement and continue phonics reinforcement. Before this school year, I'd always used Abeka for LA, so this is all relatively new to me, too. My poor older ds is the guinea pig for curricula. OPG doesn't take up alot of time. It's very to-the-point and no-frills (unlike some programs that have charts, memory cards, game cards, worksheets, and on and on), although it does have some games. You can get the magnet board & ABC magnets that PHP sells for it.

Thanks for your response! That does speak loads! It's nice to learn about the philosophy behind the practice as well. A friend of mine has a few levels, I just found out, so I will be able to look at them after all (yay!). She's starting her son next year a level ahead (orange for 3rd grade). I really like the idea of it - it sounds great - but with so many others finding it 'too easy', I feel cautious about it. I won't know until I look at it. Thanks for all the input though, everyone.

If you don't mind, what is DITHOR? :confused: I felt that way about the Blue level too when I was looking at the samples. It's meant to be 1st grade, but covers what my son has learned this year in K (in reading anyhow).