We'll buy the SWB, but it'll take time to come out here, so I think we'll bridge with Spielvogel, which was a great recommendation, thanks a lot!!!

Hi, we used SWB's grown up books for ancients and medieval, but she hasn't written the last two yet. Outlining from an encyclopaedia didn't work that well, so I'm looking for another history spine for the next two years. I'm mainly searching for something with a lot of depth, both my dds are good readers and like history. Any suggestions, what worked for you?

Hi, my dds are about to finish Physical Science and I'm wondering if we need to get the kits for the following books. Since we live so far from anywhere and I've got somebody coming from the States, this would be a good time to do so. But do we need them? Did you use the Apologia Biology, Chemistry, and Physics books and found the kits useful? Some feedback would be great!

Hi, so far we've used SWB's grown up history books as a spine for cycling through world history again. But sadly she hasn't written the last 2 yet. Would My Father's world work? The dds are 14 and 12 and used to reading lots of history. Could you maybe link me to a discussion/description of My Father's World? Where would you buy it, Rainbow Resources don't seem to have it. Thanks for the help, Friederike

It is that assignment and both your suggestions sound great. Did you have your's read a few books by Camus, Sartre,...? My dd would do that, but I'd have to deal with a lot of "his world view doesn't make any sense, why is he so hopeless,.....!" Whenever she doesn't like somebody/ something, I get to hear about it, :glare:, a lot !

We hs in a (somewhat ) classical way and every 3 years we go to Europe and our kids attend ps for a few months. Over the years I've found that the academic advantage that they have helps them to focus more on social interactions and figuring out how things work in a ps. That they're used to working much harder at home than what is expected of them in ps hasn't been an issue at all :laugh:!

We loved the three lower MCT book levels, but find the Magic Lens level a lot harder to engage with. Anyway, dd has done 3 essays for Advanced Academic Writing and I'm struggling big time to help her find a topic for the 4. essay. Could you share what thesis your kids wrote about? My dd would like something in the field of psychology if possible. Other areas would be fine, as long as it isn't history or religion (she's writing lots about those already). An added challenge is that we don't have an English library anywhere near us and have to use the internet. I know MCT abhorrs that, but I just can't change it. Somewhat deperate, so any suggestions would be welcome at this point!

Having gone to German school we read at least 2 or 3 Kafka books. I used to love them then already, though nothing seemed clear. Just recently I reread "Der Prozess" (the court case?) and in some notes that I had it said that more than 100 books had been published with interpretations of it. Social, economic, religious, phychological,....interpretations. MCT has his students read "Die Verwandlung" (metamorphosis) and then discuss if he really turns into a big bug. One of his classes discussed if for a week and the students kept changing their mind. It sounded like lots of fun. I'll do it with my dds soon. If you liked the metamorphosis you might like "Die Taube" (the pigeon?) by Suesskind. It always reminded me of Kafka's bug story.

Mine all did Rosetta Stone at a young age to supplement the somewhat weird Russian lessons they had in Tajik school. They did all right with the first level (enjoyed the clicking and making quick progress), but the second one got so complicated that dd kept getting lost. She's my big perseverer and seeing even her struggle I had the other two only do level one. It gave them some Russian vocab., which was the main thing I was looking for. I personally don't believe that you can learn grammar and spelling well with Rosetta Stone, that is if you're not esp. language gifted.

:party::party::party: That's what I was hoping fo,r but fearing that with all the other stuff she's writing it wouldn't happen anytime soon. How on earth does she do all of this?! Never mind, as long as I can educate my dc with her books I'm happy:D.

Sorry, I thought I got it right. I didn't mean the kids one, I meant the grown up version where there are only the first two on the market. I keep mixing up their names.

Does anybody know when SWB is planning to write the next book in that series? We're using them as a spine for history and would love to keep going with them ;).

I should be packing cause we're going on holiday in a few hours, but I much rather write some more about exchanges:tongue_smilie:. The Catholic Church is so big and somewhat diverse that I'm not sure how exactly you can go about it, but I'm sure there are ways to arrange a request for a host family. I do this ever so often when friends or relatives want to go to the UK (dh is British). I'll ask about in our family of churches who would like to have a host student and usually something comes up. Another way of arranging things would be by finding some French people where you are and ask them if they know somebody. That is actually how I managed to go to the States, my voice teacher in Germany at the time was American and she asked a friend,.... and I ended up staying with an opera singer;).

Sorry, I don't know of a specific organisation, but wanted to say, there must be thousands and thousands of Indians who would love to stay with you :D. I've lived in all sorts of countries, some of which were politically very anti-American. However, esp. young people were super keen to make it to the States even from those countries and India isn't like that.

I was an exchange student in CA for half a year (I'm German). That way I didn't lose an academic year in Germany. Most subjects were ok to catch up after I got back, for one or two of them my grade dropped some. My parents condition was to find a Christian family, so I didn't go with an organisation, but organised it myself. Once I showed up at the local High School they just told me which level I should choose classes at and were then flexible enough to let me change after a few weeks. Apart from English and US government there wasn't really anything that I learned academically during my time in the US (German gymnasium goes a lot faster and further than American High Schools), but I would recommend it to anybody. There was so much else to learn! That goes back some years now, but I've arranged for the daughter of a friend to go from Germany to the UK and there again the school was happy and capable to place the student at the right level. I know that there aren't that many Americans who go overseas at your daughter's age, but many Europeans do and most of them make very positive experiences. Whatever gets arranged won't be written in stone either. During my time in the States quite a few of the other exchange students changed their living situation once they were there. Hope that helps some,

What's wrong with The Body Shop???

Well, most of the books we use are designed to be used during one school year that is shorter than what we do. I then add in other books and things to do, before starting the next book in that programm. E.g. when ds had finished his Apologia book we did some Adventures with Atoms, when the dds had finished with their German we read another book and discussed it,... For LA we got our MCT books some time in Feb. last year and are totally out of sink with a normal school year. It worries dd13, but I keep telling her it doesn't matter. As long as they're on level or ahead to where ps is at their age I don't mind where we exactly are. Ds on the other hand loves being ahead with Singapore Maths and doesn't mind at all that he's in the middle of a book just before we're going on holiday.:tongue_smilie:

When I've asked somebody who has been abused herself what she'll do with her children to try and prevent it happening to them she replied that she'll try and keep the lines of communication open. So in addition to the suggestions above I try and ask all of mine ever so often if they ever feel uncomfortable with anybody,....

:iagree: and it is well put. When we used to stay at my parents or leave our kids there they would apply different rules and sometimes openly disregard ours. It wasn't huge and we weren't there that often. By now this isn't an issue any more and the relationship is still intact.

:iagree::iagree: The tricky bit with Harry Potter is that they do get so much darker and whilst my ds 9 was allowed to read the first one, I don't want him to go further yet (the second one will be ok, too,...). However, they are so addictive, that I find it hard to say no, I read them all through as soon as they came out. I know I'm a grown up and he isn't, but I so hate hypocrites!!

A few years back my dh was reading it to our dds and ds, who was then six, got too scared. This spring dh read it do ds, who's now 9 and he loves it and keeps begging for The Lord of the Rings. That one took dh a whole year to read to the girls, it'll be another loooong year.

:iagree::iagree::iagree: And don't go for his latest, it is terrible!

For my dds schooling does take that long, but mainly because they do so many languages. With only one other language than English their schooling would probably be done at around 2 o'clock with an 8 o'clock start. I know quite a few home schoolers who have shorter days, but they don't follow the WTM. We don't even follow it fully, it's just too much at times. We're trying though!:auto:

This isn't a progamm, but since sport happens out of schools in Germany you could get your dc enrolled in a club (Sportverein). They are usually in the afternoon or evening and start for small ones already. If you're interested in church then most lively churches will have a mid-week meeting where they'll do a lot of games and stuff, in addition to a bible story. That would also be a very welcoming environment. That way you could still go to your English speaking congregation on a Sunday, if that's what you're doing.

One way I've found helpful to get my dc more engaged is to "farm out" the subjects I don't love myself. I realize that's not feasable for a lot of mums, but there might be ways to trade with others. We have a fair share of visitors and I always try to find out what makes them tick and then see if they can't do some of that with our kids. So our last visitor loved composing music and he was happy to do lots of music theory with all 3 of mine. He's also a chemistry major and did a great introduction to the periodic table with my girls. A biggie is dh doing maths with the older ones. I fear they would hate the subject if I would have to fight my way through it with them.