These days I'm in love with Practial Arithmetic and Systematic Mathematics. The elementary books are cheap, easy, and very easy to teach from. I don't start the first book until third or later though. My kids moved through it very quickly at that point and I love that I don't have to add anything! I can't say too many good things about the older modules, but that is for kids 11 and up.:)

If you can snag The Picturesque Tale of Progress (8 volumes + index) on ebay or elsewhere it is amazing! Far more detail than I would imagine most hs texts would ever have and in a nice narrative form. KONOS world history uses it as a spine and I can see why. We are timelining through it, but it will take us several years.

My 8 year old loves this one (which you can get free from mainlesson.com): http://www.amazon.com/Stories-Great-Americans-Little/dp/0965273520/ref=pd_sim_b_1 My kids have liked all the Edward Eggleston books.

I know that we are really liking the Mara Pratt books. I have all four and they have nice, short chapters and seem to hold the interest of my children. We have been doing some copy work and dictation from them also. Jim Hodges also has all four books on one mp3 cd if you would want to add it to bedtime or in the car.

My kids are getting older and doing more of their own reading so I average about an hour each day. They also listen to audio books at night. Before they were fluent readers I read for 2 hours a day.

I just had to say how much I loved reading this. For those of us who did not have a nagging grandma constantly correcting our grammar it certainly helps to over learn. Being a southern transplant, I have picked up scads of bad grammar. "Ya'll git yer butts in here or ya ain't gettin any supper!" comes to mind...

LBC has ILL split up into three write-in workbooks. I splurged and bought them. I love the hardcover books and own the teacher's guides, but it just wasn't getting done. I have wanted to Lulu it myself and do the same thing, but never got to it. This makes it so much easier. I love ILL because it has many writing opportunities. Sometimes I just don't get to written narrations or I want to stretch their imagination, ILL helps so much in that respect.

Yeah, I was drooling over AG at the last conference I went to, but alas, I have been banned from grammar shopping because of my "grass is greener" syndrome.:tongue_smilie:

I so hear you! I like to leave a lot of time for writing and that doesn't get done if we do grammar every day. I have most of the R&S English books that I reference often, but we do most lessons orally and I skip anything that they know already. We probably do three lessons a week at most.

I have most of the books (2-8) that I have collected over the years. I use them as a reference and we do oral lessons about three times a week. My kids do so much writing with narrations that we sometimes skip those lessons. I'm a language arts junkie and cannot stick to one thing.:tongue_smilie:

My kids pick a section they are interested in and narrate from that part. They read through the 5 levels of CLP nature readers and then move on to Comstock. We also use it to add into to other nature studies they are doing--like an encyclopedia.

Let's see, I go overkill on grammar and have used: Shurley--love jingles, dislike everything else Rod and Staff--really like it, but can't do it all the time Intermediate Language Lessons WORKBOOK! Yeah!! Love this.:thumbup1: Queen's--love the pictures but would like a little more grammar. Perfect for little ones. DGP Grammar--a favorite here too. Hands On Grammar I like this, but haven't used it yet. Cozy Grammar and Punctuation--We use this for fun once a year. My favorite is whatever travels best. So that would narrow it down to Queen's, DGP, and ILL workbook.

:iagree:Just wanted to add another plug for ElizabethB's site! Love it.:)

I can't find it in the volumes at the moment, but I do remember the gist of it. Basically, you schedule things on the opposite end of the brain spectrum side-by-side. For instance, you may schedule a math lesson and then do a picture study and follow that with grammar and then hop to composer study. Throwing in a break here and there to run around helps too. Keeping the right brain/left brain things together prevents boredom and brain fatigue. I wish I was better at this. I want to be, but end up routinely putting the hard subjects all together which results in worn out, crabby kids. Will I ever learn?:tongue_smilie:

InHisGrip, I had to smile when you talked about your little girl. I'm trying not to cry about having all school age children. I miss the babies....but I digress :) I don't know if I had a very CM response for my whiner. He was booted outside anyway and drew a leaf, again. :confused: Now he is "enjoying" weeding outside, but cannot skateboard until tomorrow. I should have changed gears and did a different kind of lesson with him, but I didn't think of that right away. The little person's eyes were rolling at me and I knew that my yard needed weeding... When it comes to choosing whether a child will read the book or be a read aloud is largely dependent on how hard the book is and how long the sections or chapters are. I love the Mara Pratt books for American history and the CLP readers for science because the chapters are very short, but filled with good info that makes narrating easier. I have a couple of other science books that I am going to read aloud because they are harder (Jack's Insects and The Story Book of Science). Of course, I always read to my littlest one and try to pick out books everyone will want to hear. I am reading Outdoor Secrets to her right now. Basically, if I can't fit what I want to read out loud into an hour I just drop something. My kids can handle listening to several short selections, but tend to glaze over when I do one long one. We read for 10 minutes and then discuss/narrate and then start over with another book. One lit, one history, maybe a science book, a bible story, and a fairy tale. Sometimes I read more during the day, but they like listening before they go to bed better. The best advice I can give is to use www.mainlesson.com and print off a chapter or two out of a book that you like. See how your kids like listening or reading from it. Some books have seemed horribly boring to me but I had a kid that loved them.

Well, here is a peek into my day today. :) Independent work: Children get up, make beds, eat breakfast, brush teeth Everyone read their day-by-day bible and narrated (we also do family bible time right before they go to bed). Kids took turns practicing piano or typing (15 minute timer for both) Each child read out of his nature reader (CLP) and narrated, two kids drew pages in their nature journals based on their lessons. We alternate between read alone books and ones that I read out loud. Right now they are reading to themselves. Each child read a short chapter out of their history book (Mara Pratt) and my 8 and 10 year olds did copy work from it and my 11 year old wrote a narration on his chapter. Each one did a Draw Squad lesson on their own. Did one Language Lesson out of Queen's. More mom directed things: DGP Grammar (checked their work and explained prepositions...again) math (I float between kids) worked on a little phonics and math with my little girl (five tomorrow!) tonight we will read one chapter out of our lit, history, and bible before the kids go to bed--usually between 7- 8 pm. They are called on to narrate and add a little bit more than the last one. If time allows I will read another fun book, like Hans Chistian Anderson or something of that nature. We close with a hymn or other song and then send them off to bed. We will add in Latin and Spanish when they get here later this month. We have a lot of once-a-week things and today was nature study day so I made them go outside and learn something new. My 8 year old pitched a fit and said that nature study was "miserable". This from a child who will skateboard in 100 degree weather for hours on end. Oh well, it's the honest truth--today anyway.:tongue_smilie: We will do geography study tomorrw, and picture study on Friday.

We have been using it for elementary, but I know that HS follows the same format and schedule. It takes about 5 minutes a day and seems to reallly make things stick. It is my favorite grammar product.

Here is the Dover book I mentioned: http://www.amazon.com/Impressionist-Paintings-CD-ROM-Full-Color-Electronic/dp/048699774X/ref=rsl_mainw_dpl?ie=UTF8&m=ATVPDKIKX0DER and the TASCHEN: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Claude-Monet/Taschen-Portfolio/e/9781435107076/?itm=1 Sorry about the delay!

Oh, and SCM is much easier than AO. It is made for grouping kids together from grades 1-12 on their own level. I gave up AO when I couldn't combine and still keep my sanity.

Hi, I can tell you how I do things in relation to the SCM guide. I just do one book at a time per age group. She may have 10 lit books listed so we just read the ones that cover my children's ages and they all listen together working from the youngest books to the oldest. We do science together too. My kids who are fluent readers read their own selections and narrate every 4-5 pages or a chapter, whichever comes first. My "sit down and read" time is very short. I would say it is about 30 minutes to an hour depending on how much they like the book. I keep it short so they can produced detailed narrations. When we read just for fun I don't require narrations and can go much longer. Seriously, I take things very slow. I tried to CMize a Sonlight core and felt like I was running a marathon! Even going book by book we cover a lot more ground than I ever think we will. I use TASCHEN art prints from Barnes and Noble for picture study--we are doing Monet right now. They are huge and cost around $10 for 14 prints. I also use the Dover painting books. The books come with a cd that has all the pictures for printing, but the book itself has nice, large pictures as well. Blessings!

I use the SCM guide and add a lot of things. It is really, really easy. Sonya Shafter, the woman who owns the site, uses the plans with her own children. If you purchase a pre-made history, geo, and bible guide you will see that there is only a small amount to do each day and it is set up to not take that much time. I have the Matthew through Acts and Ancient Rome that I am planning to do. It helps to remember that things like poetry, picture study, map study, and composer study are only done once per week. Bible memory only takes a 5 minutes a day and narration is mostly oral. She also only reads one chapter out of a literature book each day. I think that the amount of things she has is small enough to add a lot if need be. Also, everything is very customizable.

I'm loving The Picturesque Tale of Progress by Olive Miller.

Have you looked at the guides from Simply Charlotte Mason? They are grades 1- 12 and 180 lessons each. Guides are done for Egypt, Greece, and Rome (and all tie into Bible and Geography). Her materials are so easy and managable without a gazillion books to choose from or buy. The geography is the simplest I have ever found--and effective. Also, we are just reading through The Picturesque Tales of Progress and reading go-along books as I find them.

Well, I am a CMer so consider that as you read our method: Narration: everyone does this after both listening and independently reading. The portions are kept short and only one reading/listening is allowed before narrating.The children write more narrations past 4th grade, but will always narrate orally. Narration is foundational within the CM method and carries over into all classes including math.:) Dictation: Once or twice a week for kids 3rd and 4th grade along with lots of copywork. We do daily prepared dictation beyond 4th grade, but they may be preparing for couple of days if the passage is quite long. Copywork: This is for everyday for everybody. The amount gradually decreases as dictation increases and grows to be a book of favored passages and quotes instead of directed assignments from me.

I was hoping someone would answer. I just bought two guides to do starting tomorrow.:) I think I am just going to photocopy all the A things and then the B things, etc. We will just do the A things until they are done and then move on. They said that copying was ok in their catalog for within family use.