We really enjoyed MPTP's literature guide.

I emailed with Ms Lange about FOEW for my 12yo dd and she indicated that they would not be using AG next year. She said they were going to concentrate more on essay writing and less on grammar. She said they were going to try and do a grammar review of some sort but at this point were not planning on using AG. HTH,

Prayers for your family, the surgical team, the donor and their family.

Thanks ðŸ‘

My oldest started public high school this year. The two major hiccups were tests - especially timed and the generic chapter tests. In other words, learning to manage his time on tests has been a struggle as well as learning how to study for tests whose content isn't thoroughly outlined. For example, if a teacher said they were having a chapter 19 test in history he needed to learn how to: A. Ask for clarification from the teacher on content. B. Use different methods to retain the information (flash cards, reading notes out loud, outlining, etc. C. Manage multiple tests in the same week or on the same day. Those were the big ones. HTH!

We did a one year overview of world history in fourth using A Child's History of the World. I believe Calvert School schedules it as their fourth grade history textbook. It was a fun year and I highly recommend it.

We enjoyed Ancient Greece, Ancient Rome, and the Ancient Near Eastern World. I also like Ancient China. They are nicely done and I recommend the series without reservation.

When my oldest was in 6th/7th grade he read the chapters and I discussed them with him using the teacher's guide to bring out themes and give me some ideas of questions to ask him. At the end of the TG there was a list of 10-12 essay prompts. I assigned 3-5 of those. Some we worked on throughout the week and one or two I used as essay tests. As an example, with the TG to The Ancient Roman World: Unit 1 covers chapters 1-3. The "big ideas" in Unit One are movement, conflict, and change. The Unit Objectives are to cover the importance of oral history in understanding ancient civilizations, learn how and when Rome was founded, discover the impact that the Etruscan civilization had on the development of Rome, and to determine the origins of the Roman Republic. Timeline dates are given and some unit projects are suggested including writing a play, creating a large timeline, duplicating some famous artwork, and writing a research report on suggested topics. There is also a literature connection which suggests books and rates them as easy, average, or advanced. There are also some suggested vocabulary lists for each chapter. Each chapter has both reading comprehension questions and critical thinking questions provided. There is either a primary source activity or a map activity for each chapter along with a multiple choice, short answer, and essay question test. A random example of an essay prompt for chapter 4: On a separate sheet of paper, write an essay describing the class conflict in Rome discussed in this chapter. Explain why the plebeians and patricians did what they did, and whether you think the conflict was ever truly resolved. At the end of the book there is a page titled Rome Wrap-Up with 10 questions. For example question 7: Imagine you are a Roman during the empire. Write a two paragraph reaction to the entertainments held int he Colosseum. In the first paragraph, describe the entertainments. In the second paragraph, describe how you feel after going to see them. I found them useful but I only used two TG for the year (one for Greece and one for Rome). We read in some of other books but did not cover them in depth. HTH,

We used treasured conversations with my 8yo this year and loved part 1. I was able to thoroughly look at the new edition from CLE for grade 3 English and it appears to be a well thought out option for independent grammar.

Nice job! Thanks :)

Well, this one just showed up on my Facebook feed. It looks good! http://deliciouslyorganic.net/crock-pot-chicken-fajitas-grain-free-paleo/

I was taught the rules by my mom. I was in the fourth or fifth grade at the time and don't remeber them being taught in school. I have come across them in Singapore and saxon (6/5 I believe). Not sure about MIF - I have the fourth grade book but don't recall seeing them in there.

My 8yo ds is having a great time with this program. We started lesson 7 this week and are learning about adverbs. I am happy he is having so much fun with it as he is typically most interested in math. When we were talking about adverbs and changing their position in the sentence he started referring to the commutative property of adverbs ;) Thanks for writing this, our whole family loves it!

How exciting! Thanks for posting this.

We've always registered as homeschoolers with our local school district. My oldest son applied to the IB program last year and it was very easy to deal with them as a home schooling applicant. I see no drawbacks to our situation. What do you feel the benefits to continuing to use the umbrella school are?