Te, hee - yeh, 'obese', 'unbalanced' and 'I know you can do better than that - try again tomorrow'. The step workouts are excellent, though. The big problem I have with it is fighting off the eight children, so I can actually get to use it! Definitely worth the investment.

When I was pregnant with our last baby, it was a shocker - all I could do was pretty much lie around on the couch all day - so, that is what I did. I chucked a few workbooks at my guys - things like the modern curriculum press' 'Phonics is Fun', and some Maths workbooks, and then we made use of 'the box' via educational videos - Magic School Bus and the like. And that was it! I read them a story when I could, but we didn't get a lot done. This was my 8th baby, and my oldest was 9. That's still fairly young, so although I was disappointed that all my wonderful plans had gone out the window - it was fine, I discovered we still had plenty of time to acheive our academic goals. Take care,

I'm sitting here, watching the news - it's so terrible - just unbelievable. In Victoria, fires over the weekend have claimed the lives of at least 84 people. They have not yet gained access to many areas, and so the death toll is expected to rise. Over 750 homes have been lost, with several small towns completely wiped out. It's so hard to grasp the enormity of the tragedy. We were on bush-fire alert all weekend as well, with temperatures nearing 50 degrees Celcius, and high winds (we are in South Australia), but it was Victoria where the fires raged. And, they've just announced that they believe several of the fires were deliberately lit. How could someone do that, knowing the terrible conditions? Strangely enough, in the north of the country, in Queensland, it is covered in water - 2/3 of Qld has been affected by flooding - so much so that they are dodging crocodiles in the streets. They believe that a 5 year old has been taken by a crocodile, as they played by the edge of a river. And much of the rest of the country is experiencing it's worst drought in many years. Not much of an advertisement for our beloved country, am I? This death toll has really rattled me - I just can't even imagine the horrors people have gone through the past 48 hours.

Yes, it's enough! We took a little longer to go through the programme, but we completed LCII last year. I was a little concerned, because we didn't 'get' everything that was covered - but, having now started Henle, it's all clicking into place! I'm so glad we worked through Latina Christiana first, it has proved to be an excellent preparation for Henle.

I get a shocking headache whenever I use this stuff. It's now only used in our home when absolutely necessary. I'm sure it's loaded with chemicals.

Oh, yes - I learnt about all this the hard way! :tongue_smilie: When we first started out, I thought I knew exactly what we were doing, and exactly the resources we would be needing for the next few years - and bought accordingly. Of course, our plans changed, the children's needs changed, and so our resources changed, and I was left with heaps of brand new curriculum that we never used - thank heavens for the 2nd hand sale boards! Now, I only buy what we need in the immediate future - yeh, about a semester ahead. Still enjoy working on all those plans, though! :seeya:

Ah, yes - planning! I've always had a K-12 plan, from even before we started homeschooling. Of course, it changes all the time - new products come along, children's interests change, and different children respond to different materials, methods and ideas, but I always have a 'master plan' as our guide. As well, I have our yearly plan, so I know what we are aiming for this current year. I probably spend about as much time planning as I do actually teaching! Or at least I used to - after 12 years of homeschooling, I'm a 'little' more organised these days, and have more of an idea about what works and what doesn't with us. Of course, just when I DO have it all completely figured, that new curriculum is released onto the market to tempt me, but well, at least that means variety.......

We use an Australian Grammar programme, but, I have reviewed several grammar programmes, and we would otherwise use Growing With Grammar - I think it's an excellent grammar programme, that would work well with IEW.

I'm gearing up to begin Story of the World 2 in January, and I've just come across a 'Story of the World Workbook' on my computer - obviously, I've downloaded it from somewhere - a Yahoo Group, perhaps? It includes notebook pages, and a guide to what to do each day, which colouring pages from the activity guide to do, etc. In my very muddled head, I'm thinking a Yahoo group called 'hannah's homeschool helps', or something like that? Does anyone know? I'm asking because, well, I just wondered :001_unsure:, but also because it looks fantastic, and I wanted to say thankyou to the author - it will really help with our planning next year!

Hi all! Merry Christmas! It's just gone midnight here, and according to the Norad Santa Tracker, he's just landed in Australia! So, better get those stockings hung and make sure the little ones are all asleep! Have a good, and safe, Christmas. God bless,

Like others have said, there is a lot of cutting and pasting - but, as already mentioned, the children remember the material! And for some children, cutting and pasting is exactly what they like. We used 'Tools and Technology' a few years ago, and my guys can still tell me the info they learned - so, the material certainly is retained. But yes, the cutting and gluing can become too much. What we now do is use the 'God's Design' , but in their notebooks, we incorporate a lot of the Dinah Zike ideas - the making of flip-books, lift-the-flap books, etc., as well as mobiles, displays and such. 'The Big Book of Books' from Dinah Zike shows all the folds, and this, combined with God's Design, is excellent! I see Dinah has a new book coming out, specifically designed to be used with notebooks - so I'll be purchasing that one! Hope that helps.

We used the Knowledge Quest Maps with SOTW - worked well.

The first item recommended is the TWISS set. Really, this is all you 'need' to work through the IEW programme. All other IEW items stem from TWISS - this is the DVD seminar that will teach you, the teacher, how to teach writing. If you want, you can also purchase the SWI set - which is a DVD seminar presented directly to the students. That way, there's no waiting for you to watch 'your' DVDs before starting - the child can plug in the SWI DVD, and begin straight away. But TWISS is the 'must have', and a product you will refer to again and again.

I'm looking for a book that speaks to boys about their developing bodies, health issues, etc. I have a great one for my girls (The Care and Keeping of You), but my son is now 14, and his father doesn't really talk about 'such things'. I'm hoping the book will be Christian, or at least not in conflict with Christian values. Not something that goes into details about reproduction, but I feel he should have 'something' he can read about as he goes through the changes. Not having grown up with brothers, I'm afraid I'm not much help to him! Any suggestions would be helpful - thankyou!

This series is excellent! Although we have already been through God's Design for Life - Animal Kingdom, we are re-doing it, beginning in January - my 10 year old loves animals, and loved doing this book! Some people comment it can be a bit dry - not enough hands-on work, but I have found the solution! We have Dinah Zike's 'Big Book of Books', and use her ideas to put the info into 'visual aids'. We've made flip books, mobiles, etc., and it has been wonderful at bringing the info 'to life'. As well, the God's Design books fit perfectly in with the 4-year cycle - life science, earth science, chemistry and then physical science. AND, I'm discovering that many of the experiments are then repeated when they move onto Apologia Science in year 7/8! My older children are commenting that they 'remember this one', from doing God's Design, so it's an excellent preparation for high school science! Can you tell I kind-of like this series? And I say, if your child loves animals - hone in on it! Why not do the animals book, even if you've already covered animals? If they have an interest in this area, make the most of it!

I use TWTM, Designing Your Own Classical Curriculum and LCC as my starting points also, but also a lot of our lessons these days are based around the IEW products - incorporating the writing lessons into History and Science. And, it changes - we're similar, but very different nowadays from when we 'only' had four doing homeschool. Now we have eight, and are in some ways we are far more disciplined - and at other times, it's just total chaos! :tongue_smilie: And, of course, we choose a lot of Australian resouces - in Grammar, Spelling, History, etc., so the books above really do become our starting point, and we pick and choose, try things out, and go in different directions, never 'locked' into a set programme, but always having some sort of plan. Heard of the 'rules' of homeschooling? 1. It never hurts to have a plan 2. Things will never go according to that plan 3. In the end, it doesn't really matter!

Hi Susan - how frustrating! Oh, that they would warn us of these things! :glare: For 5-8th grades, we've found Christine Millers (Guerber's) History books (Nothing New Press) excellent - similar to SOTW, but in more detail. There are also maps, etc. included. They're the best we've found for this age group. But I also support the idea of Peace Hill Press buying the rights to the 1993 version of the Kingfisher book! We still use this as well. Hope you find something suitable - we look forward to the new version of TWTM - is there a release date as yet? God bless, Linda.

Hi Amber! Well, after homeschooling for over 11 years, the reference books we tend to use over and over are: Kingfisher Illustrated History of the World (we have the 'old' version - white cover, but the red book is good, too) World Book Encyclopedia. I've purchased a ton of 'junior' encyclopedias over the years, and they were quite useless - we tend to go to the World Book a lot, and can fnd the answers to most questions. An electronic dictionary / thesaurus! Brilliant reference tool, especially when the child is in the middle of a piece of writing, and needs to find a word to use. And, I'd also have to say 'Teaching Writing, Structure and Style' from IEW - I constantly refer to it for ideas, teaching tips, etc, and the same for 'Teaching the Classics', when it comes to literature. Hope that helps!

IEW for us - we've tried them all, but IEW wins, hands down. The longer we use it, the more comfortable we are with it, and the more benefit it is for us - both for my son, who wants to be a writer, and my 16 year old daughter, who was unable to string together a paragraph 2 years ago, and now punches out essays! :001_smile: I really never thought we'd get there - but step by step, we did, it's fantastic.

Yes, of course - it is OK to skip chapters - yikes! A concept, that after 12 years of homeschooling, I still can't seem to grasp! Thankyou for the ideas - they all do help.

Do you think SOTW could be used if you are only doing 2-3 history lessons per week (and still complete each book in a year)? How would you schedule it - read a chapter & narrate one day, with maps / colouring pages on the 2nd, or, any other suggestions? We've been using the 'Famous Men' series this year - I love them, because we can do history in 2-3 lessons per week, and easily finish one or two books a year. But, I miss SOTW! I'd like to go back to it, but don't want to be overwhelmed by the workload. Last time, we tried to do 'everything', and it proved to be a bit much, having such a large family with lots of work to get through. I'm thinking of using it with students in 1st - 4th grade. Any suggestions welcomed - thankyou!

Oops! Forgot to add another favourite - 'Teaching the Classics' - that really was an 'aha'! moment for me. I finally felt some hope for teaching Literature analysis.

Some of our absolute favourites are: IEW - TWISS in particular, but also 'Theme Based Writing Lessons', 'The Phonetic Zoo', and 'Linguistic Development through Poetry Memorization' Latina Christiana followed by Henle Latin Story of the World, 'Famous Men' series The ABCs of Christian Culture - History for 10-17 year olds (Catholic Curriculum - lots of writing and map work - fits very well with TWISS) This also includes the use of several texts, including the books from Nothing New Press - Story of the Greeks, the Romans, etc. Australia, the Wide Brown Land for Me! (Australian History) God's Design Science - LOVE this series, and fits perfectly with the four-year cycle. To make things more 'hands-on', we also include ideas from Dinah Zike's 'The Big Book of Books'. The combination works well. Apologia for Highschool Science - Science took YEARS to figure out, but we're pleased with the combination of God's Design followed by Apologia - God's Design introduces the concepts taught in Apologia very well. Teaching Textbooks for highschool Math Color the Classics for Music Appreciation How to Use Child-Size Masterpieces for Art Appreciation The Drawing Textbook and books from 'How Great Thou Art' And for Reference Books, The Well-Trained Mind, The Latin-Centered Curriculum, and Designing Your Own Classical Curiculum, as well as Cathy Duffy's '100 Top Picks'. Hey, we've only been homeschooling for around 12 years - we'll have it figured out yet. Linda.

It's from IEW - there's a whole series of them: Ancient History, Medieval, US History, etc. We've used the Medieval one - and loved it. However, it is assumed that you know the 'system' as presented in the TWISS set - theses are books that expand on that knowledge. It really makes it easy to implement TWISS, though, and are a fantastic addition to any history curriculum. Linda.

Hi Melissa! I'm Linda, and I'm a 'planner', too! When we first started, I had it all laid out, K-12 - knew 'everything' we were going to use - so naturally, our curriculum looks completely different now! Really, it's a lot of trial and error - some things you think will be a perfect fit, and it turns out they are not - others, you don't look twice at, and find later on that they 'are' the perfect fit! :tongue_smilie: I guess that's not much help! Well, after a few years now of trialing different curriculums (and we've tried a LOT), I guess my favourites would be: IEW - TWISS set God's Design Science (Magic School Bus DVDs for grades 1-3, still, though!) Apologia Science for Highshool Story of the World Famous Men of.... series from Memoria Press Prima Latina / Latina Christiana Linguistic Development Through Poetry Memorization (IEW) The Phonetic Zoo (IEW) Galloping the Globe Signpost Maths (Australian Series), Followed by Teaching Textbooks Phonics is Fun Workbooks There's no doubt more - they are the ones I can think of right now. Are you even more confused? I know it can be mind-numbing, but the planning is fun, too!