I definitely want several good examples to model from. Modeling has proven very effective for us with IEW writing. Using argument strategies by modeling and then applying them to your own ideas is the progression I'd like to see.

My daughter and I just read the first chapter of A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston. She and I both agreed we learned more in those 9 pages and 30 minutes, than 62 pages and 24 hours of Introductory Logic by James B. Nance. I'm looking for logic curriculum that would present a characteristic of a good argument like avoiding loaded emotional language, provide both positive and negative examples, and then provide the student with negative examples to improve. I would like these characteristics to slowly build to the end goal of producing a well written argumentative or persuasive essay. Ideally we want to pursue AP Language after 2 more years of writing. The Elegant Essay from IEW is somewhat structured this way, but doesn't go far enough. Other thoughts: She and I both do best with practical application. Writing is the vehicle I want to use to teach logic for her. I have no logic background and can spend, at the most,1-2 hours a week teaching this subject. Any thoughts are welcome.

My daughter and I just read the first chapter of A Rulebook for Arguments by Anthony Weston. She and I both agreed we learned more in those 9 pages and 30 minutes, than 62 pages and 24 hours of Introductory Logic by James B. Nance. I'm looking for logic curriculum that would present a characteristic of a good argument like avoiding loaded emotional language, provide both positive and negative examples, and then provide the student with negative examples to improve. I would like these characteristics to slowly build to the end goal of producing a well written argumentative or persuasive essay. Ideally we want to pursue AP Language after 2 more years of writing. The Elegant Essay from IEW is somewhat structured this way, but doesn't go far enough. Other thoughts: She and I both do best with practical application. Writing is the vehicle I want to use to teach logic for her. I have no logic background and can spend, at the most,1-2 hours a week teaching this subject. Any thoughts are welcome.

You can do it with younger kids, just make sure the material they are using to make KWOs is super easy to read, as in a year or more behind their normal reading ability. This makes it easy to focus in on the new skill of making the KWO. This still holds true for my 13 year old. The best essays come from material she is either very familiar with or easy to read. My youngest was just turning 7 and did fine with IEW. Another tip is to narrate the KWO back to you the day he writes it and listen as you narrate the one you wrote too. Repeat this again before writing or letting him dictate it to you. My non typists handwrite their own rough drafts (although I have had to write next to really young ones as they write theirs to demonstrate margins and skipping lines), I type them size 18 font triple spaced with all of their misspelled words and grammar punctuation errors; I print them; We polish together; I add polishing corrections to the original and print; We proofread based on their individual rule list; I add corrections, resize, and double space; They choose a border; Final copy is printed and stored. Best Use of money ever for us. If the younger to follow the oldest, IEW will be used 24 years, less than 11$ a year.

Algebra 1, myhomeschool math class with Jann in TX, or Currclick class, or Derek Owens, Blue tent English honors 1, or intro lit with melodee skiles Biology Landry Academy or Friendly Chemistry online History ?I'd want an asynchronous class here. Elective of some kind? computer programming with Khan, or scratch. or great courses videos and 2 -4 papers High school credits: I'm not there yet, but what I've gleaned off the highschool and college board is it depends: - On where you live. TX you can't. You still need basically 4 higher level math regardless of when algebra is taken. -For my beginning 8th grader who is already doing some highschool work too, I'll keep grades and course descriptions as if it's her 9 th grade year. Then if for some reason we decide to graduate early all the paperwork will be there.

Tamarin 6 yo - 1st-ish Saxon, LOF, Mosaic w/ SOTW Lemur 5 yo - K-ish EtC, FIAR, OM Howler 4 yo - Trying to figure out her speech delay..... Capuchin 6mo - Newly hatched I've had 6,4,2 and then 7,5,3 for ages. Each family's dynamics are so unique. It helped me the most to glean ideas from the threads from large families. FIAR and OM I would do together for all three. I'd write out where the 5 and 6 year old are with narrations and what type of growth I'd like to see: Longer, more descriptive adjectives, topic and clincher sentences, complete sentences. If the older needs SOTW, I'd let her listen to it on tape during quiet time or bedtime and possibly pick one hands on project that is just hers or that she wants to lead with her siblings maybe 3- 4 a year. Now the what fits your kids part- The emotional and connectedness needs drive what will work for your crew. If the six year old truly wants to do everything 5 year old is doing both at the big table with you plus two to four extra lessons a day (LOF, Saxon) while the rest play or during quiet time that wouldn't be bad unless the 5 year old is too distracted. It could work especially if you are demonstrating, or working like a fellow student between them, even working slightly behind to see if they can do the next step alone. You might need to do this twice a day 4 times a week aiming for at least 8-9 mini lessons a week; think 30 minutes for both the 5-6 year old and an extra 30-45 for the 6 year old either right after releasing the 5 year old to a quiet activity or during quiet time. If you have shorter more frequent learning sessions, it allows for more flexibility when life happens. Maybe something like this: 8-9:30 breakfast and chores/ hygiene 9:30-10:30 FIAR/OM very simple, outside, living room, 10:30-11:00 both 5 and 6 year old ETC and any handwriting. This is where I might let the 4 year old watch a DVD, 11:00-11:30 6 year old LOF. Depending on how distracted the 6 year old is I might pull her close to me at a kitchen counter, even using a highchair or stool. I'd love the 4+5 year olds to play in a different room or even outside here. The biggest goal here is not the school work but for the 6 year old to concentrate for 10 minutes or even 5 minutes to begin with, to give you her best in order to join the others in whatever fun they're having. 11:30-1pm 6 year old finishes 5-10 minutes of independent work if needed near mom in kitchen who is preparing lunch, lunch, chores/ hygiene, play 1-2:30 quiet time for 4 year old and 6 month old; 1-1:45 ish quiet time for 6 year old, Grab 5 year old after putting 4 year old and 6 month down for quiet time for some work or just a special book 15-20 minutes. Keep this as long or as short as needs demand. Baby may need more, or maybe 6 year old needs a full hour of work or a special project. 1:45-2:30 5 year old has quiet time. Work 6 year old in Saxon and another small math or easy handwriting whatever is weakest If these times seem long, I've padded them for the 10 - 15 minutes of interruptions and transitions that this age group deals with. In other words, 9:30-10:30 FIAR might get 30-40 minutes of actual work. If I ended up with speech homework with the 4 year old, I'd have to do it before breakfast and again 10 minutes of work before the 5 year old in the afternoon. What made success for mine was staying home 4 days a week and having 8-9, 20-30 minute sessions of seatwork per week. When quiet time was not working after a holiday or illness, I'd take a week and get that discipline back in place first before doing anything more than reading to them, chore training, or playing with each other skills. Biggest Hugs as you test out what works for your crew, Melody

http://www.headventureland.com/index.php?option=com_k2&view=itemlist&layout=category&task=category&id=3&Itemid=113 http://quizlet.com/subject?q=latin These are two we have used.

norton family is one. Not a camera though.

Thank You very much.

I've been planning a logic stage biology. Here are some freebies I used. http://www.biologyco...com biology but all kinds of top quality animations and simulations. http://www.oum.ox.ac...ezone/index.htm biology and earth science simulations http://www.udel.edu/biology/ketcham/microscope/scope.html Highschool level stereo microscope lab. Compare plant and animal cells. Follow the checklist exactly. http://www.spongelab.com/index.cfm Huge site of animations and simulations. Easy Microscope simulation. Build a Body is a great wrap up for human anatomy. http://www.dallaszoo...ge/web-lessons/ web lessons and worksheets on life science.

Huge resource companion site for grammar and writing instruction textbooks. Most are used in freshman college but many are also used in 11-12 grade English. Create a free student account. Take the diagnostic test. Set up Comprehensive plan or a textbook plan like Easy Writer.

I don't know your kids ages, but I'm typing up a syllabus now for life science for my 10 and 12 year old. It uses Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia and DK Nature as a spine. We're doing some hands on labs, some modules off of Adaptive Curriculum, some videos from Understanding the Human Body, and some Netflix videos. I'm basically following Biology for the Logic stage, which is only 25$ as an e book anyway. I'll finish next week and can e mail. It's currently in excel.

We went from Singapore 5B to Saxon Algebra 1 without difficulty

I was looking for more information about this book. The Brief Bedford Reader –Kennedy - I prefer my kids to study essays done by professional writers versus peers in order to understand how to write an essay. This particular volume isn't very big, but it offers a lot of instruction and it probably one of my favorite high school English resources. The first part of the book talks about reading critically, writing effectively and using and documenting sources. The second section talks about the different methods for writing essays: narration, description, example, comparison and contrast, process analysis, classification, cause and effect, definition, argument and persuasion. So for comparison and contrast, you will read about the writing process and then read Suzanne Britt's Neat People vs. Sloppy People. At the end of the essay, there are several questions for discussion regarding the topic and the writing strategy. This is followed by essay topics and finally the essay's author gives their own thoughts on writing. I found this free site. The diagnostic test on grammar mechanics and correlated lessons are free. http://bcs.bedfordstmartins.com/exercisecentral/Exercises I signed up as a student and took the diagnostic test. The topics align to the test allowing you to work on needed areas.

Hmm? I'll take a stab at it having done science notebooks for 2-3 years with similar aged kids but not with the resources you've mentioned. Specifically for scientific method at this age we worked on observing like a scientist. We started with sorting buttons into piles and describing why we sorted them, size, color, function. It helps to work on separate senses. Touch observations can be isolated by putting mystery observations in a bag. Smelling observations can be isolated by being blindfolded. The goal is to widen the variety and detail of the describing words and add accurate measuring words. The next concept was to help the kids with guessing/ estimating then testing. How many bounces will this ball bounce when dropped from this height? We usually use a table of columns and rows to label what we're estimating and the actual results. I ask them for a conclusion sentence. What did we actually prove? Then a title that includes main concept we explored. Lifting Magnets # of magnets guess how many paper clips picked up actual number of paper clips picked up 1 5 9 2 10 13 3 15 20 More magnets lift more paperclips. As skills progress, they may want to design their own experiments and learn to only change one factor per test.

At 13dd has brought several books to me and discussed their problems issues. I do a quick scan of the genre and the back summary. TOG prints a heads up on which pages are violent, graphic, morbid, sexual etc in the dialectic and rhetoric level books. Age 2-7 I pre-read or picked from trusted lists. My goal is to teach them how to regulate themselves as a lifestyle from books, to food, to emotions, to internet, you get the gist.

Collaborative Problem Solving website helped me break down some problem solving strategies with one child whose world was crashing and wasn't able to do more than throw similar tantrums. I had to realize that working on their problem solving skills was more important than academics, getting supper on time, and any extra currics. We slowed our whole family down. We scaled back school and even house hold rules back 50-60% for this child, until we could get a steady pattern of success in problem solving, attitude, and most importantly the confidence that problems could be solved. For us it was better to travel at 5 mph than to have nuclear meltdown. Hugs and hugs, It is the most difficult part our journey so far to have to change day to day strategy in the midst of a crisis.

IEW works efficiently when you can give the child a well written paragraph 6-10 sentences long with a topic and concluding sentence that is 2 reading levels easier than what you use in reading. This usually means a 3-4 grade text that you are using to make an outline of and then narrate back and write. The reason for this is they need something easy but content rich and easily understood because they will be doing their grunt work breaking down how the paragraph is organized and rewriting. This technique isolates the skill being worked on organizing and writing from comprehension and reading. Writing skill: If the child is going to be writing from the outline by hand, it is best if they can easily write 6-8 long sentences without tiring or having to think about letter formation. If it is only the physical act of writing slowing things down, you can be their scribe or typists or many have taught typing first. Grammar skill: They should be narrating 6-10 complete sentences at a time to you. IEW works on using different sentence structures. It is necessary first to have the complete sentences to improve upon. I did start 2 children at the end of second grade after using FLL and the above milestones. We moved very slowly, I modeled each step sitting beside them as a fellow student as they copied me. Gradually they started adding their ideas to the outlining and to the narrating back. We'd often narrate the outline multiple times theirs and mine over 2-3 days before writing. I'd even model writing from their outline sitting next to them. They'd say their sentence and I'd write slightly behind them writing their sentence. They could lean over and check their work against mine. I totally agree with pp that 4-5 grade is plenty early. I gained little starting in 2nd. I started because it was the cheapest option to cover LA for all 3 kids with books we already had and because IEW was what I wanted to use through highschool.

Saxon would be explicit with lots of repetition and review. They have several video options with different levels of worked examples. You might ask about TT on the logic or highschool board.

The Elegant Essay from IEW. It would teach her how to write essays. It does not cover how to decide what to write, as in write a 1200 word essay on a biology topic, or give extra essay topics. It does take you from a specific essay assignment such as a persuasive essay on internet: hero or villian, to brainstorming, to outline, to essay, and proofreading. The book especially works on introductory and conclusion paragraphs also transitions between paragraphs. Another option might be Write@home essay workshops.

I printed the Lion, Witch and Wardrobe and Wizard of Oz. These will keep us moving. These are much more than regurgitating facts. Thanks

http://d3r1z7wkgqhj9d.cloudfront.net/BLS%20sample.pdf Would this work Biology for the Logic stage. It has similar topics and a list os scientists to study, several dissections. It can flex higher or lower in learning levels. If anything look at the sample and the main spines and the labs, then pull mini lab kits from a place like Home Science Tools. http://www.hometrainingtools.com

Thanks everyone, It's good to know Latin at the highschool level is doable without a Latin background.

Congrats, It is great to know there are folks who actually do this.

So far what I'm reading is 2 parents have done primarily, grading, and independent study at the highschool level for children whose parents have 0 Latin. 1 parent has taught 2 years highschool Latin with no previous Latin and without outside help.