Great news! Now I'm really looking forward to getting the one I ordered off ebay last week!:D

We follow TWTM very closely and have for 3 years! Both my girls started with OPG for reading, and one finished it so far. We are on our 3rd year of SOTW. They both do FLL & WWE. My 3rd grader is doing Prima Latin. And they are memorize poetry frequently and study artist and composers. What we do different is: Spelling- we do dictation from McGuffey readers Science- we do a lot more nature study for the grammar years but plan on doing more WTM science for logic & retoric TWTM is flexable enough that you can add in all the SL reading you want! I like to get the reading list of SL, TOG, MFW, Verits, etc .. and pick to ones that will fit in with the WTM structure!

I'm thinking we could make it with: The Bible My OOP Kingfisher History/Science book & one good math book Thinking about this convicts me of all the useless books I have on my shelves. But then again... it's hard to get rid of books b/c you never know when your going to suddenly "need" them. Fun question!

One more thought is "Galloping The Globe". It is Geography based on Childrens' lit like FIAR and even has many of the same stories as FIAR but more activities.

I agree with the above posts about HSS. I just wanted to add that we have 2 giant maps (one US one World) covered in FIAR story disks and we have LOVED doing geography this way! It has been fun for my girls to stick them on and take them off for review. Now we just leave them up all the time and remember how much fun we had learning the different places!

We do spelling from dictation (McGuffey Readers) and use ABCs and all Their Tricks to learn rules for missed words. When/If we start more "formal" spelling with tests and lists we'll probably use Rod & Staff.

We love FIAR here and have been doing it along side the WTM for years! We have done all 3 volumes and when we get Vol 4 we will use it every once in a while as we do WTM. It may not be labeled "classical" but it is great! It can fit along with classical education very well. You can check out the FIAR forums too for more info!

I'd love to see the replies to this post. We have all the McGuffey's and LOVE the readers! But I could never figure out the spelling book. I tried, but I still don't understand all the numbers over each word. Now my dd takes a few dictation from the McG readers and any words she misses we study the rules for and then re-dictated the passage at the end of the week after she's learned the words. But I would love to know how the spelling book works- that might be easier than what we're doing! Hope more respond!

Thanks for recommending it! I was just on the Peace Hill Press link today looking at that CD and wondering... Should I?.... Should I not?.... Now I think I should! :001_smile: Thanks!

"Classical Cornerstone" (The post above mine) beat me to the links I was going to recommend! It was those articles that really shaped our homeschool! It is possible to do Classical Education AND Charlotte Mason! After reading what SWB wrote I realized that the 2 had more in common than I thought!

I used/am using FLL and nothing else. Sometimes a Language Arts lesson pops up in FIAR or something else were doing but we don't have another grammar curriculum. FLL is plenty!

We have done ALL the books in vol1-3. My girls were 6&4 when we started and we just finished this August (they are 8&6). When we did it we DID IT! We made notebooks and lapbooks and made it part of our curriculum across the board. We might so SOTW for a season or in the afternoons when we weren't doing FIAR. During FIAR weeks instead of doing a math sheet every day, one day a week we did FIAR math. Instead of doing Lang. Arts everyday, one day a week (a different day from Math day) we'd do FIAR Lang Arts. Then we'd do science and art together. We LOVE FIAR! As soon as I have an "extra" $75 laying around we will order Vol 4 b/c my girls miss it so much and they aren't ready for "Beyound FIAR" yet. All that to say, it is very doable with TWTM! HTH!

You might like Sonlight if you like Usborne books and experiments. You can buy a kit from them that has all you need for your experiments already made up for you. You can view samples at their website.

Wow! Thank you all for your quick responses. It sounds like just buying the TM and doing it orally might be the way to go! Thank you for recommending it! I would still love to hear how everyone else uses it if there are any others with experience. It sounds like it is a good program.

I think it is a wonderful book! My 6dd is going through it now. My 8dd finished it a few months ago. She has been reading on her own for a few years but I still wanted her to complete the book. It is designed to be used with other "real" books being read at the same time. We would do some OPG lessons- then read books- then do more OPG lessons... The OPG lessons gave them the rules in an orderly way and the real books got them reading!

Hello ladies! We have just gotten the Golden Bible and my 8 yr old thinks it's beautiful! I was wondering about the workbooks from Memoria Press. I looked at their samples on line but I was still wondering what kind of experience you had with them. Did you use them or read the Bible without? Did the kids write the answers or answer orally? If you think this is a good program to be used as it is, what makes it better than others? Any thought would be great!:)

How long and for what grades have you homeschooled? Mine never went to preschool- but formally this is our 4th year Did you know from the start you would homeschool or did some event point you down this road? When my first dd was 6 months old I was having so much fun with her and couldn't imagine sending her to school- the idea went from there Were you homeschooled? Not offically- I have LD so I went to school and then my parents bought all my textbooks and retaught me everything at home Does anyone in your extended family homeschool? My husbands brother and his wife- she and I have a lot in common What method and materials did you use your first year of homeschooling? Sonlight, five-in-a-row, and some WTM What method and materials are you currently using? WTM- with some Sonlight books and a week off every now and then for five-in-a-row vol4 or "Beyound" What books, ideas, etc. have helped shape your homeschool? TWTM, All Ruth Beechicks books, Charlotte Mason Companion What has been the most challenging aspect for you? Math and spelling- both I was/am HORRIBLE at What aspect has come naturally for you? Creative things and reading books What are your favorite homeschool memories thus far? Right now- my girls are into Birds and won't leave the house without their field guides (that they bought with their own $) What is the best advice you've been given? They are only young once- enjoy them and that LIFE is part of "education" and not to worry if the bookwork sometimes takes the backseat to life What advice do you give others just starting this journey? The same that I got, but I would also tell them not to fret about finding the "perfect" curriculum- there isn't one and we will make ourselves sick (and go broke) trying to find it!:001_smile:

Thank you ladies! You helped free my guilt in that area! I loved all your comments and how great that some of you have children in spelling bees- what fun! ElizabethB- thank you so much for all your links and resource recs. I am going to go back over them with a fine toothed comb right now but I wanted to thank you first!:)

Hello! I am fairly new to the boards here but not new to TWTM. I have a spelling question that I've been turning over in my mind for about 3 years now and thought I'd go ahead and ask. I have a 3rd grade dd that is in year 3 of SOTW & FLL etc.. We've followed the WTM recs for most everything but spelling. Every time I reread the book I think, "We should be doing Spelling Workout." But we just don't really like that kind of approach to spelling. Is there something that she will be missing that You guys think that she really needs that program? We could switch if I thought there was a huge benifit to it. Right now she reads a portin of the McGuffey readers and I dictate a few passages to her. What ever she misspells is her "spelling list" for the week. We use the book "ABCs and all their Tricks" and look up the rules for the missed words. At the end of the week she rewrites the passage and has learned those words. We like this.:) However, there is not a lot of "rule/pattern" type of learning and I'm wondering how much of that she needs. BTW, I am a horrible speller and was diagnosed LD in school and just never learned to spell. :confused: I'm just wondering what you all's experience is in this area?

This summer for some reason I had the grand idea that we would do Homesat. We ordered everything ($400- in books:confused:) and got the sat hooked up. After one week of trying to stick to the schedule I returned EVERYTHING!!! I thought it would free up our time- but instead it took soooo much time! Why do they need a half hour of handwriting? The puppets were cute and all but I may as well teach them handwriting for a few minutes and let them watch TV if they needed a TV show. Then there was the schedule. I couldn't do ANY co-op field trips or take any days off. Five days a week was hours of school. If we missed one day- there went Saturday. I know this works for some people and I don't want to discourage you if this is what you are lead to do. But since you asked -I would say the time and the money are the reasons I wouldn't/didn't do it. For us- there is freedom in just doing school with the WTM recs., being done by lunch, and taking days off for life when we need to! HTH and doesn't discourage you!:) Good luck deciding!

Some parts could be done orally- but I'm not sure how you would diagram a sentence orally? I didn't want the workbook at first but am glad I got it- it would be a lot of work for me to draw out all the diagram outlines. But I think the poetry, narrations, grammar memorization, etc... could be done orally!

Nature Study! I teach it and my children are in it! That way I know it doesn't get crowded out by all the other subjects and actually gets done!

Beth Moore has a younger version of the John and Jesus study! If that's to "young" for them- how about her adult studies?

We have the regular book (we bought it b4 the child's version came out). I started reading it to my teenage niece and my (then) 5 yr old picked up on the story and loved it! Now they are 6 & 8 and we have the audio version (10$) so we listen to it in the car or they listen at night in bed. I'm sure the children's version is beautiful- but you could go with the regular book also! BTW, it is a wonderful story! :)

Hero Tales- I think there are 4 volumes. We also loved Missionary Stories with the Millers