Tara, I'm hoping that someone else answers your question, but in the meantime, I've been searching and this thread might be helpful.

Thanks for linking this!

You've not been a know-it-all at all, you've been extremely helpful - thank you very much! Good luck with your presentation to the co-op directors!

Would I need to get the full DVD course, or would just the seminar workbook suffice? I can get Writing Strands locally and have considered it too.

We're using Writing Tales.

Thank you for the recommendations - and free is fantastic!

I agonise about this as well. The learning outcome for Writing for Grade 4 in our national curriculum says: The learner will be able to write different kinds of factual and imaginative texts for a wide range of purposes. Assessment standards We know this when the learner: • Writes different kinds of texts for different purposes and audiences: o writes for personal, exploratory, playful, imaginative and creative purpose (e.g. letters, descriptive paragraphs, limericks); o writes informational texts expressing ideas clearly for different audiences (e.g. short reports , instructions); o writes and designs various media texts for different audiences (e.g. poster, cartoon strip, simple brochures); o converts information from one form into another (e.g. written text into tables). • Develops and organises ideas through a writing process: o chooses and explores topic and brainstorms ideas using mind maps, flow charts and lists; o organises ideas into paragraphs using simple and compound sentences; o produces a first draft with appropriate language and conventions for the specific purpose and audience; o revises work using own awareness of appropriate language, organisation and style, and feedback from classmates and/or teacher; o proofreads final draft for grammar, punctuation, and spelling, incorporating feedback from classmates and teacher; o ‘publishes’ final draft by sharing with relevant audience and/or teacher. • Presents work using neat and legible handwriting and proper form, such as headings, spacing for paragraphs, indentations, etc., as appropriate. • Applies knowledge of language at various levels: o word level:  selects and uses a wide variety of words drawn from language experience, activities, literature, and oral language of classmates and others; o sentence level:  extends sentences by adding adjectives, adverbs, qualifying phrases and clauses,  shifts from one tense to another consistently and appropriately; o paragraph level:  uses topic and supporting sentences to develop a coherent paragraph,  uses appropriate grammar, spelling and punctuation. It's pretty daunting and I don't know that we're going to achieve this with the progymnasmata program that we're using.

I'm looking for a typing program for my 9yo dd that is fun and effective. What do you recommend?

Would you mind sharing your plan?

Because of the ridiculous cost of postage, I take advantage of any willing couriers to bring a few books at a time back from the USA. I have Singapore math, SOTW books and CD's, science and geography for 2 to 3 years ahead. So far we've used all of the curriculum I've bought, but I usually do a lot of online research before buying as I can't just send something back and the 2nd hand market here is very small. This helps with curriculum-hoping! I also have a booklist in my wallet and whenever I find something at a reasonable price, I buy it. This includes SOTW, WTM, Sonlight, Veritas and other suggestions for high school. From our bookshelves you'd say we are very well read in the classics, but I'm afraid I'm mostly at a fourth grade level!

Thanks for linking this!

I've done one. You can view Word Attack at Lulu.com.

I'd not thought of adding journal writing before, but I think my daughter would enjoy it. The writing prompts in your link are excellent to get us started.

There are free book report forms available at ABCTeach.

My connection is too slow to wait for it to load today, but it looks like a full view is still available at Google Books.

Here's a list.

My dd has just started with 4th grade and I want to make sure that we're doing enough writing. Across the curriculum, she picks up her pencil for: Language Arts - Writing Tales. We're finishing off level 1 and going into 2 this year. - Character Italics for handwriting practice and additional copywork. - Word lists and dictation sentences from Word Attack spelling. Our Grammar (Kiss), Afrikaans (Sonder Trane) and Latin (Latina Christiana I) are all workbooks that require her to diagram, fill in the blank or write short sentences . History - Weekly history narrations for SOTW3 - On average she writes about 4 paragraphs. Science and Geography - We use workbooks for Science (My Pals are Here) and Geography (Discovering the world of Geography). These have mostly fill-in-the-blank exercises. Math Singapore Bible, Art Appreciation, Composer Study, Book reports and SA history are all done as self-reading, read-alouds and discussed orally. Is she writing enough or should we add more?

I made timeline figures and memory cards for SOTW1 and SOTW2 using Google Image. We have them up on the wall, but they could easily be used in a book. They are available for free at http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Hannah_hs_helps/files/HISTORY. You'd have to join the group to get access.

I have heard of a book called Natural Structure: A Montessori Approach to Classical Education At Home by Edward and Nancy Walsh. I don't own it myself. It used to be available from Catholic Heritage Curricula, but I don't see it on their site any more.

Due to a whole lot of *life* happening, it is taking a lot longer than I had hoped. I'm about half-way through. We're going on vacation for two weeks after Christmas, so it will take at least another two to three months. I don't want to promise anything.

I've done level 1 of a spelling program for my daughter. It's got the rule as copywork, a list of words that illustrate the rule and dictation sentences that use the rule and those previously learned. You can view it at Lulu. I'm working on Level 2, but it's taking a whole lot longer than anticipated.

We prefer to give where there is a specific need and have supported different people in the past (a blind child's Kindermusik lessons, college fees, university books for another student, a disabled person's rent, etc) so we know exactly where our money is going. In addition we do support a reputable children's charity on a monthly basis. There are beggers wherever we go here in town. At every traffic light. In front of the post office and library. Every parking lot or space has a car guard - people who "look after" the car to ensure it is not stolen. I usually give the guards a small donation as they're trying to offer a service. It adds up to do this daily! We also have many street vendors. And people selling stuff at the traffic lights. I will never buy food off them, but will support their informal businesses whenever I can. It's very hard not to give money to the street children, but its not for their good. They are mostly controlled by adults who exploit them. I sometimes give them fruit or milk, but I've never seen a child eat or drink this. They take it back to their controller. At least it can't be spent on drugs! The charity we support helps street children.

I'm late to the conversation, but I'm so excited I've got to share... I was Skyping with my sister in the UK on Sunday and she said she so wishes for a large family Christmas. We haven't seen each other in nearly two years. On a whim, I started looking at the costs of flights and one airline had a two-day 40% off Christmas special. So, we're flying to the UK on the evening of the 25th! The 26th is called Family Day here. Quite appropriately as my other sister and cousin and their families are also meeting us in London. It's going to be pretty crowded! On the 27th we're doing a big family outing. My kids are wishing for snow. They've never seen any. We were planning to travel later in the year, so this has just moved it forward. Total cost: just under US$2000

Thanks for all the helpful replies!

We manage to keep the surfaces in our house fairly tidy and clutter-free, so it doesn't look as if we live in a cluttered house, but I know that whatever cupboard I open has too much stuff and things we don't need. If you live in an excess-free, clutter-free house, how do you do it?? Do you have a decluttering schedule, rotating through a cupboard or shelf every day? A room a month? A major clearout every season? It seems that I'll have to rotate through everything in the house a couple of times before I've purged all the excess. I started a major clearout at the beginning of the year when we thought we were going to move, but looking at those same cupboards now, there's still stuff I'll throw away this round. And there will probably be more I'd be getting rid of in a third round. Do you just keep going through everything until there's nothing left to purge? How do you deal with the most difficult category - books?