I got all the address lists just fine but we're a bit behind on sending any out yet. We just got 2 postcards this week so my kids are excited to start sending theirs out tomorrow. We're only doing about 5 a week. Our grocery stores, all of them, sell postcards. Who would have thought that the post office doesn't? Thanks for all the work on this, btw!

I'd want it all, rofl. I'm no help, sorry! Is the music in #2 instrumental instruction, music history/composers, or singing...? If it's singing or choir much like option 1, I'd choose #2 so that you could have that plus the other subjects. My kids would enjoy it. I'd check out the teachers like Mindy rec'd though.

I'd want it all, rofl. I'm no help, sorry! Is the music in #2 instrumental instruction, music history/composers, or singing...? If it's singing or choir much like option 1, I'd choose #2 so that you could have that plus the other subjects. My kids would enjoy it. I'd check out the teachers like Mindy rec'd though.

:iagree: Last summer when I realized I was in this (HS'ing, that is) for the long-haul, I went to the library and checked out a 3 foot tall stack of books on teaching methods, homeschooling, curriculum catalogs, etc. Ones that really shaped my journey were Homeschooling for Excellence by ? (forgot his name!) and Miki Colfax, and Easy Homeschooling (forgot the author). Previous to those books I'd been exposed to Abeka/Christian school style teaching and to non-religious Montessori school teaching. I liked elements of both and was trying to do a mix. THEN... I read TWTM. My mind was mush for about a month while it tried to wrap itself around all that info. It takes awhile to wade through it all and find your groove. The search bar here is a great tool when you want to know what people have said about any particular curriculum - that's how I've found out more about many. If you can't find what you're looking for you can always post questions about things too. Whenever I've asked anything, I always get a wealth of knowledge from those who've BTDT. FLL is grammar - not a writing composition/style curriculum. It came out before WWE, and WS was the rec. for writing composition/style before that in WTM. FLL isn't meant to be used for writing as well, although the amount of actual handwriting between the two, with penmanship on top of that (if added) may be too much for some kids. SWB rec's doing FLL orally or mostly orally for those in that situation. I've made myself nuts with curriculum choices and went through a phase of almost panic over trying to make sure I was making the "right" or "best" decision. There will always be something new, something else you hadn't heard of, etc. The grass isn't always greener. Something I've learned after spending too much $$ just to try things out: Most curricula (esp. math) teach the same basics in the long run, they just do it in a different order and on a different schedule. Research and compare as much as you need to, but when you've found something you like and have made your decision don't look back. Implement it and "don't fix what isn't broken". That's good advice I wish I'd taken sooner. ;) There's my 2 cents, YMMV and all that jazz. :D

Well there's a heap of good resources out there for science in those grades. I've pieced together my own Life Science this year for my K'er and 2nd grader using rec's from TWTM ('04 version), enchantedlearning.com, and Trivium Academy's complete scheduled out plan (on her blog and on lulu.com) for human, germ, medicine, and plant studies (thank you Jessica!). So I only had to peice together my own animal studies. I went the route of using the taxonomic classifications to introduce them and used Kingfisher 1st Animal as the spine. We always, always flesh it out much more w/ other encyclopedias we own (DK 1st Animal, Kingfisher Illustrated Animal, Kingfisher Illustrated Nature, and DK Smithsonian Institute Animal) and TONS of library books. KF 1st Animal isn't enough by itself, IMO. I tend to check out a month's worth of books at a time, so if I don't have time to run back and forth to the library then we don't get behind on studies. For worksheets I've used enchantedlearning's site a lot. We also use cosmeo.com for educational videos, games, etc. that correlate to any subject you type in the search bar. It's by Discovery Kids Education. I add real-life observations, experiments, and field trips whenever possible. If you don't want to piece it together yourself a la TWTM, there are many great curriculum options. Some I'm looking at for next year are RS4K, R.E.A.L. Science, God's Design for... series, or Apologia. Sonlight's science- though it's not on a 4-yr. trivium, is worth looking at, as they now allow people to order only the items they want rather than an entire core or all subjects. God's Design, Apologia, and Sonlight are all Christian curriculums while the other 2 I mentioned are neutral/secular. Hopefully that helps some, and if not, it bumps this thread up for you so someone else can chime in! :)

I just got done looking at TOG's site for the 1st time and if I could go back and switch, I would, but we're already partway through SOTW 1. I really, really like TOG's Biblical perspective on accurate history. It's at the top of my list for logic stage history, or if we ever switch. We're finishing SOTW 1 this year, but I'm going to implement a few of the supplemental suggestions here. So far, we've just been reading The Children's Illustrated Bible (rec'd by VP, it's the one by Selina Hastings) alongside SOTW 1. It's OK, but I'm left wondering about SOTW 1 Chap. 6 - the one on the Jewish people and Abraham. I was unable to discern what in SOTW doesn't line up w/ the Bible in that chapter, as I'd read here, although I haven't read Genesis or Exodus in full ever, and neither recently (except the children's Bible). Maybe someone else here knows what the exact discrepancies are. I have a feeling it may have something to do w/ Israel and the Promised Land (just guessing though).

What is the difference between TOG Classic and TOG redesigned? Is that like "Old SL" and "New SL"?

Whoops, I meant to say Aesop A, not Homer - I must have had a brain lapse, sorry about that. :D Thanks for all the info, Heather. I don't know how to do split quotes so I just wrote my words inside your quote - hopefully it will pick up the color difference! This is something I've asked about before, and I think you helped me before too, but it keeps coming up for me. If the 2 programs are similar enough, then I don't think I would change something that isn't broken, KWIM? I do hear many great reviews about CW, like yours, that make me interested in knowing more about it. I would love to be able to pin down the differences between the 2 before leaving one for the other. I guess I've got my research cut out and defined for me... just have to get to it instead of spending time here! lol Note to self: have that done w/in 2 weeks max. :D

Ya, I'm using WWE 2 right now for him in 2nd - we're about halfway through; and even if I chose the CW direction I don't know if I'd start him in 3rd or 4th, but I do need to decide. What I'm looking ahead to is the long-term direction each takes. I've read that CW starts progym exercises earlier - around middle school, and that WWE saves the progym stuff for hs - each have their reasons but I'm still stuck. Can anyone give a good comparison of WWE to CW - the differences? Ugh. I wonder what CW's return policy is. Maybe if it's good, I'll just order it to preview. This is becoming a pattern w/ me - narrowing things down to 2 choices and having to *see* both before deciding. Any help appreciated. Thanks! :)

Free word find = graph paper, dictionary, and 15-20 min. I know it's not online, but this was a favorite pastime of mine in gradeschool - making word finds for friends.

I need to narrow down which program to use for next year. My youngest will use WWE 1 for sure, but my older son will be in 3rd grade (the age CW suggests starting Homer A on their site). I've read so many great reviews here from CW users who've used it for a long time and have seen the results produced in their children's writing abilities. Can some of you who've used WWE awhile share similar success stories? I'm drawn to CW not only for where it goes long-term (I love the aspect of learning a different step of the progymnasmata each year in the later years), but also b/c of the results I hear about here. I need to hear some WWE reviews, from people who've used it longer. I'd like to see that it yields those kind of results. Thanks in advance!

Every night the kids and I cuddle up on my bed and I read aloud to them for fun, not a school book, just for fun. Last summer it was The Complete Works of Beatrix Potter, which led to some discussion of differences between life and language when Ms. Potter wrote those tales & now, and about the featured wildlife creatures. We read Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol which aroused similar questions, and some about morals and death. Now we are on the 2nd Oz book by Baum, and it has led to discussion of reality vs. fantasy, and what these things would mean within our faith were they real. We've taken nature walks (inspired by the CM gals around here - thanks!) tracking snowshoe rabbits and found their home. Now we leave vegetable scraps at their "door" and check back the next day - the kids get excited to see that the bunnies have eaten their "treat". We stop to notice their tracks, and if any don't match theirs we look up what they could be (usually birds or squirrels). It teaches them observation and research skills, and they consider this recess! In the fall we went cranberry picking for hours and hours - then we baked, canned, and froze the rest. My friend, an Alaska Native, talked with us about the importance of berries to subsitence living now and in earlier times when only indiginous people were here, & to the entire food chain here. My kids just thought we were visiting with friends. We play 4-way shut-the-box for math which allows my K'er to practice "grouping" (mulitplying). I toss a football back and forth with them as we count - by all numbers, starting from places other than 0 or 1, backwards, etc. My dc love it when we run into a fun book or something on TV that is about what they've learned in school. We just watched something about the Exodus which was great since we're doing Ancients this year. The kids would likely not have otherwise been interested, but even my 5-yr old was fascinated. This summer we're going to drive around the state and absorb all we can. I've got my research to do in preparation and if I find enough depth in the southern half, I may just do that this summer and the northern half next summer. I almost forgot - gardening season! The kids get so much out of this because I stop to tell them about what it is I'm doing, how I learned what I know about it, all the how's and why's. The local university has a phenomenal arctic research horticultural center that researches what grows best here and publishes it - every year I consult their data records to choose which species of each veg. and flower to plant and the kids like "shopping for our garden". They're learning about all the different species of things - that a tomato isn't just a tomato, there are all different kinds of them, and why some (not just tomatoes) fared better here in summers past than others. We are part of a homeschool co-op that meets every other week to do field trips and fun days. Last week we had a Polynesian day where we played cultural games and ate the ethnic food! This week we're going on a museum tour. They've been to a geo-thermal ctr. and the volcanology dept. as well. On off-weeks we go to a gymnastics place together which puts on a "homeschool PE" gymnastics class for the kids - my kids love it. They call it "recess with their friends". No spontaneous air travel in the near future here - but Carol, that King Tut exhibit in LA would match up nicely w/ our Ancients studies!

Doesn't Land's End have some that are plain, no animal head?

:iagree: I'm only in my 3rd year and I've done enough curriculum-hopping in that time to completely agree with Mommyfaithe's comments. If you use one program for ancients, and another for medieval, etc., that's OK. Or, if you make it all up yourself (preferably somewhat ahead of time, lol) that's OK too. I'm using SOTW 1 w/ the AG this year. We have the red Kingfisher history encyc. and the Usborne internet-linked that we always do additional reading from. We do the coloring pages and mapwork from the AG. But, I find other library books sometimes not on the SOTW AG list that I think they'll enjoy more, so we do those instead. You can make SOTW as evangelical (or not) as you wish dep. on which additional books you read. It's pretty neutral so it can be fleshed out in many directions. To get why SL doesn't place priority on chronological order of history or why they spend longer on some things, seemingly neglecting others, you have to read their philosophy on that. They say important content and events trump chronology. Also, Core 5 is very much set to instill a compassionate missionary's heart in the dc. I haven't looked into programs other than the 2 I mentioned. I have quite a few good friends using WP and one using TOG. I'm almost afraid to look around too much. I suspect most 4-year cycle history programs cover the same basics, and we're only in the grammar stage here. Maybe I'll poke my head out and look around come logic stage. :D

At our house, my boys don't mind phonics or grammar b/c they are climbing up the back of the couch and draping themselves upside down across me during the lessons, lol. It gets done, they learn it and they know thier stuff.

Abeka, Saxon, and Horizons are all solid programs but they differ in when they introduce concepts (sequence). Sometimes their sequences are so different that it's hard to find where to move a child from one curriculum to another on. With Saxon, my experience is that if your child only misses being in a higher grade level by 1 question on the placement test online, go ahead and put them in that higher level. Saxon is so slow and repetitive that the child won't miss anything by it. Abeka on the other hand is a different beast. It starts out painfully slow in K, assuming the child hasn't been exposed to much of anything (but not as much as Calvert K - which does end up covering a few concepts Abeka K doesn't, but Abeka covers them later). It sounds like Abeka 1 was a fit for your dc at the beginning of the year but it progressed too fast. Abeka does that, and by 3rd grade Abeka math looks pretty hard for even kids who get it (they still might not enjoy the tediousness of ALL those LONG problems). It also sounds like your dc is in that transition place where she would start processing what she sees concretely into the abstract (paper/pencil). I don't know if you've already tried this, but maybe as she uses her manipulatives, have her write down on paper what the equation would be. Another thing that works as reinforcement for my son is to copy or write from memory (without manip's) fact families daily. I started out letting him copy them from the dry-erase board, starting w/ the 1's addition family. You can find them all in order in one of the Abeka books, I think it's in the front of the TM. I increased him gradually to copying the problems but having to fill in the answer himself, then writing them from memory. It takes only a couple minutes per day. They all teach the same basic stuff, just at different places in the curriculum. It's easy to get hung up on what appears to be "left out" and wish to combine things or switch. Just keep in mind, they will all cover the basics at some point, they just do it in a different order from one another. Based on my experience, I would just go over it again and put her at grade level in Abeka. Use lots of flashcards and speed drills, or something like Flashmaster for reinforcement. I have a friend who uses Saxon with MUS as a supplement, so using MUS in that way is an option as well. You might want to research here on the boards what people using MUS exclusively think of it. What I ended up doing was I emailed within my local hs group and asked if anyone who had the books I wanted to review would be willing to allow me to look at them - I did the driving and didn't take the books w/ me, I just looked them over for 15-20 min. and took notes. Maybe people in your area would be willing to do the same? Just a suggestion to take or leave. FWIW, we settled on Horizons. :) We tweak and add other things along the way.

:iagree:

OPGTTR is wonderful, IMO. It is an all-in-one book, no pictures, but there's a reason for that (so the child doesn't try to guess the words based on pictures - that would defeat the purpose of 'phonics'). It does have material in the 2nd half or even last 2/3 of the book appropriate for your child's age/grade. I still use some of the last sections in it as a refresher once in awhile for my 2nd grader. I have read/heard many success stories w/ ETC, & they have an online option you can purchase through homeschoolbuyer's co-op.

Just chiming in with another enthusiastic recommendation for All About Spelling. It doesn't leave anything out. I suspect that since your dd is 11 you could skip level 1, but I'd look at the samples online to be sure. We just started using it and both of my boys begged for more. It doesn't feel tedious and it does give all the explanations; the "hows and whys". HTH

INFP, here. All percentages were "moderate", although there were some questions on the test (in the link in the OP) that I could've gone either way on. My reasons for hs'ing though, are largely for a better education, protection from a screwed-up culture, and so my kids can explore things in depth and nurture their inquisitve natures (N). It's the blasted P's fault that things are so disorganzied, including our schedule!

I agree w/ Starr's comment about getting the audio CD's. I have my boys listen to the same chapter a couple times to really get it in their heads, and then when we get home I'll ask the questions from the AG. If we're out and about in town w/ some dead time between appointments, I'll read them one of the additional recommended books in the car. Trying to do it all has been my weakness with SOTW. I have a friend who just reads it to her son. No extras. If you do that, even if you choose to do just a few extras, you could easily move on to the next chapter by the 2nd or 3rd day of history in your school-week.

Count me in! Thanks for organizing this, Christielee! Carrie and kellycbr, if you do a search for "postcard exchange", there is more info about this one there. It's the second to the top, I think (I need some coffee, sorry). There's not a whole lot more info than this, except that some plan to use it with their geography studies. Christielee, I have a new question: Once we are all emailed the compiled snail mail address list, what will be the instructions for mailing out postcards? If everyone starts at the top of the list, that one person would be inundated w/ mail while those at the bottom wait and wait. How do we do this?

I haven't used it to homeschool with, but I used it when I was a kid in a private school and my dd did as well. Abeka starts grammar in their LA program in 3rd or 4th grade. I have the LA 2 kit and can say there still isn't any mention of nouns or verbs. My daughter and I write and spell with more ease than my mom, husband, and other family members. I do think this is due to the thorough phonics/spelling base Abeka gives. HTH.

When I've used Saxon, I used it a grade level ahead (Sax 2 for 1st). Now, I use the Saxon 3 TM & Meeting book for the "math meeting", patterns, and more, mix it up with my own stuff thrown in plus what our Horizons TMs recommend. My boys, although K and 2nd and on different math levels, do "math time" together. It just works better that way. They both do the activities from the Saxon 3 TM/meeting book.

Now that's interesting, because Accords are on my list too, but not so near the top due to the extrememly bumpy road we live down. I'd literally have to c-r-a-w-l down the road in a car to not bottom it out. Except for church and maybe 1 or 2 other outings per week when the whole family is riding together, it's just me and the kids. DD is 12 and meets the weight/height for sitting in front, so she wouldn't usually be squished between the 2 boosters. Jeans too - why only Hondas? Just curious. :) I know people who are like that w/ Subarus b/c they say they last double the miles. I'm still looking for something for now...:auto: We don't want to pay for a brand spanking new model, so that makes the search harder.