This has been a fascinating discussion to read. For those of you with knowledge of other languages, do you think the reason these possessive pronoun adjectives, possessive nouns, and compound nouns are so confusing is because English doesn't really have a genitive case? The English possessive case is kind of like the genitive case, but not exactly. I have limited familiarity with German and Latin, and I'm thinking that that the genitive case would be used in many of the examples discussed in this thread: her cat Jane's cat (cat of Jane) hockey player (player of hockey) I don't know it's been a long time on both the German and the Latin. Perhaps I'm more confused than ever. Does the genitive case clear these things up?

I had to make the same decision in planning for this current school year. I had a K and 3rd grader last school year and chose to go a little more quickly through year 3 and part of year 4 up to about 1900 using SoTW cds and SL core 3 & some core 4 books for my 3rd grader. Then this year we started back over with the Ancients with a 1st grader and 4th grader in TOG Year 1. When we come around again I will spend less time on the Colonial America and early US History; we did tons of that last year, big field trips, costumes and the works. Next time we get to modern history we will spend more time on the 20th century history and SoTW 4 topics. Just another idea to consider,

In my experience the amount of independent work a child can do varies dramatically from one child to the next, but I don't really like to turn much learning over to them until I'm sure that they have successfully transitioned from "learning to read" to "reading to learn". For me I don't think this happens until after phonics instruction is completed and the reading level is at least upper elementary, maybe 4th grade or above. Before this point independent work is limited to skill areas where repetition is a large part of the process. My ds was only beginning to work independently at the age of 7 (2nd grade) on maybe a phonics worksheet and a math worksheet. In K and 1st I literally was dragging this very bright kid letter by letter through his school work: "What letter comes next... ok, now write the letter... how does it start... don't forget to start your letters at the top... now what letter comes next ..." ad nauseum. Now he is in the 4th grade and working very independently on everything he's asked to do. He gets all of his assignments at the beginning of the week. They are broken down by day but he has some flexibility to work ahead and/or catchup the next day. Some assignments are complete when the task is completed; others are done in specific time increments. For example art is done either 15 minutes a day or 1 hour a week. When the time has completed he can carry over any unfinished projects to the next week. Together we do spelling tests and editing on writing assignments and alternate working together with independent work in science and history. What I mean by alternate is that this week we might do history together me reading aloud and doing any assignment together while he does his science independently except for comprehension questions/discussion. Then the next week he would complete his history independently except for narration/discussion and we would do all the science together. I do it this way so that he can practice independence in these subjects but I can still keep close supervision and accountability. Also he really enjoys doing it together. My dd, 6 and in 1st, is far more independent than ds at the same age. She will do 2-3 pages of ETC and handwriting independently (after I've taught the lesson). She will also do some math independently. Beyond that I don't expect much independence because her reading comprehension just isn't good enough yet.

Last year we used parts of 4 of the God's Design books: the 2 chemistry books and 2 of the physics books. Each book contains 30-35 lessons, and all of them have some kind of activity for each lesson. In the books that we did, most of the activities were hands-on experiment type activities; only a few of the activities were just pencil and paper activities. Most of the experiment supplies were easy to come up with. We skipped some of the experiments that had supplies that were harder to come up with, but we did at least 2/3 of the experiments. My kids love experiments so we usually did 2-3 experiments a week. The Chemistry and Physics books are geared for 3rd to 8th grade, and I was doing them with a 3rd grader. Each of the books starts out easier and gets harder as you progress through the book. My ds didn't have much trouble comprehending lessons in the first half or so, but some of the later lessons went over his head. On the other hand, I have been surprised at how much my dd (K at the time) remembers just from watching and helping with the experiments. I wasn't really even trying to teach her any of it. I also supplemented some with the Usbourne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Science because the 1st and 2nd edition books don't have a lot of pictures and are all black and white. All the books I own are first or second editions. However I am definitely going to buy the new third editions if we use GD next year when we do Earth and Space (my current plan). I don't own any of the new editions yet, but I've looked at them at our local homeschool store. From what I can tell the main part of each lesson is essentially unchanged, but an easy section geared towards lower elementary has been added to the Life Science and Earth and Space books. Also color pictures have been added to the text, and answers have been removed from the comprehension questions in the books. I believe the answers are now on the teacher CD along with the ability to print all the worksheets and lab sheets that used to have to be photocopied.

I'm currently using R&S English 2 with my 6.5 yr old dd. She doesn't read well enough to do any of it on her own but we do it all orally. It takes less than 10 minutes and she thinks its fun. It's a very gentle introduction to grammar. My ds also did R&S English 2 orally when he was 6 and enjoyed it. He's now doing R&S English 5 almost independently as a 4th grader.

What about More Mudpies to Magnets recommended in WTM for preschoolers? It goes up through age 5 I think and is full of experiments many of which are chemistry based. You could also look at some of the Janice VanCleave experiment books.

I know I'm chiming in a bit late, but I wanted to offer some thoughts for those who are expecting their children to cover all of the Saxon Advanced Math book in one school year. I offer this only to provide additional information to help parents make the decision that is best for their child. This is quoted directly from the Preface (p. xi) of Advanced Mathematics: An Incremental Development Second Edition by John H. Saxon, Jr: "For high school students who complete Algebra 2 in the ninth grade, this is a three-semester book. These students can begin their study of calculus the second semester of their junior year. The book is a two-semester book only for the top third of high school students, i.e., those who complete Algebra 2 in the ninth grade and are highly motivated. They can begin their study of calculus in the fall of their junior year. For high school students who complete Algebra 2 in the tenth grade, this is a four-semester book." I offer this information because I'm currently teaching this book to a small group of homeschool high school students. This is my first time teaching it so I'm working every single problem in each lesson before I teach it. It takes me 1.5-2 hours to work a complete lesson (not including preparation to teach the lesson). Just by way of background I took 4 semesters of Calculus/Differential Equations and went on to use that math to get an Engineering degree so I'm not struggling to get through the math. I work every problem thoroughly and correctly so that I can effectively answer questions on any of the homework problems if necessary. My students will cover the book over 2 school years and are encouraged to spend about 3 hours per lesson. Anyway, I share this so that you all will know what level of time commitment is necessary to complete all 125 lessons in this book.

Follow My Leader by James B Garfield is about a boy who loses his eyesight in an accident. He learns to get around and then to use a guide dog. I just finished reading this aloud to my ds9 and dd6; they both loved it.

I think this hits the nail on the head. Ancient times and the Middle Ages are about distant ancestors and other people, but the 20th Century is about our grandparents, parents, siblings, friends and neighbors and their involvement in historic events. It's very personal. The other piece of this issue is that the 20th Century is the best documented, most photographed century in history. Pictures can really bring the atrocities of the 20th century right into our homes in ways that even the best writings about ancient times can't. The 20th century isn't necessarily any worse, but it is the closest. For me that was reason enough to limit our coverage of it and focus more on people and inventions than politics and war.

I'm not sure I'd recommend The Usborne Illustrated Encyclopedia of the Natural World for first grade--not if it is the same book I have which is copyright 1994. I'm using it as a supplement for my 4th grader, and I think it's great for him. For me it has too many words and not enough pictures for a 1st grader, and most of the pictures are fairly small. It does have a "See for yourself" box on some pages that involves an experiment of some sort. For my 1st grader I'm using the DK First Animal Encyclopedia. It's got great pictures accompanied by short text. It doesn't have experiments though. I'm collecting those from other sources like the Janice VanCleave books. HTH,

Is there a reason why you have to start school on Monday? Can you designate Monday a teacher workday to finish up whatever is still left to do? Then you could start school on Tuesday and make up the lost day on Saturday or at some point later in the year. Alternatively, can you do a partial day of school on Monday with the things you already do have ready and then spend the rest of the day completing your planning? Then you'd only have a partial day to make up later. It really depends on how much more time you need to finish planning and how important it is to start school on Monday? Can you find the time to finish the planning for the first week of school in spite of the in-laws coming and then finish the remaining planning the following weekend? Just some ideas to consider. I hope you find the right solution for you.

This coming school year will be our first experience with Essentials so we haven't actually done any Essentials yet. My understanding is that the class is also supposed to include some games that reinforce Math facts and improve speed, but that this comes third after the writing and grammar portions. So in reality, a pretty small portion of the class is spent on Math. So, yes Essentials is primarily a writing and grammar program.

We actually signed up for it more for the social benefits of seeing the same people consistently once a week and being able to make friends over the course of the 24 weeks. Not that we don't appreciate the academic benefits, but they were much harder to see and understand in the beginning. A typical morning includes presentations (show & tell), science experiment, art or music, and memory work instruction and review. How much time you put into the memory work really depends on what you want to do. If you are really into it you can spend 15-30 minutes a day (more in preparation for the memory master test which is totally optional), but you don't have to. Every kid learns at a different speed so they all end up learning different amounts and different pieces of the memory work. Last year we spent very little time reviewing the memory material at home partly because it was my first year homeschooling two children. We probably spent about 20 minutes a week listening to the audio CD you can purchase for the memory work and that was about it. My kids didn't learn as much of the material, but so what? They'll do it again in 3 years and they learned a lot this past year anyway. Not all families do Essentials for a variety of reasons including not being ready for that level of writing instruction, not liking IEW, financial reasons, or just not wanting to be in Essentials. There is no reason you couldn't choose your own writing and grammar programs and do them at home instead of doing Essentials.

Early in my days of homeschooling I remember reading that the purpose of Elementary level science was to build enjoyment of the subject. The purpose of Middle School Science was to introduce them to the topics they will study in high school, so that when they got to high school it was not ALL NEW material--it didn't matter so much what they knew because students would be coming into it from all different backgrounds, schools, and curricula--they just need to have seen some of it before so they weren't overwhelmed with new material. It was only when they got through high school that it mattered what they knew--that is they were expected to have covered the contents of a typical high school Biology text for example. Keeping this in mind has really helped me avoid worrying about "gaps". Also following WTM cycles has also kept me from entirely forgetting broad areas of science. So following the WTM cycle we try to cover memory work, read great books and do fun experiments. I apply this same philosophy to history as well. Hope this helps.

My comments are in purple.

I own this, but I'm only just getting ready to start it in a couple of weeks; so I can't tell how well it works. If you have questions that I could help with by looking something up in the guide I will try to help with that. I did find all of the books I needed, but one of the reasons I chose this curriculum is because I already had several of the books. I only had to buy a few.

I can relate to how you feel, too. I have a 9yo ds who I suspect (without any real testing) is probably somewhere near the dividing line between well above average and truly gifted. When I get on the Gifted Boards and read about some the amazingly gifted children's accomplishments I think wow, that is so NOT my ds. However I hesitate to post our experiences on the regular boards either because our experiences aren't very typical either.

Living Learning Books (LLB) Level One is about plants, animals and the human body, It studies 12 different animals over 20 weeks and those weeks could be stretched to fill nearly a school year if you have access to a good library. To me the best part about this curriculum is the great lists of books, both interesting nonfiction and fun, but relevant fiction. We found a lot of really great books in their lists. If you don't have good library access it would probably wouldn't work out so well because you'd have to buy a lot of books. It also includes video lists, internet links, project/experiment instructions and some coloring pages. I also heartily second the recommendation for Zoobooks. We added in Zoobooks for animals not included in LLB to stretch to curriculum out by several weeks. They include great, colorful, informative write ups about the animals, sometimes project/experiment ideas, and some puzzles and games that relate. Maryanne ds-almost 9 dd-6

We have just finished our third year in Foundations. I use the material as a supplement to our regular curriculum at home. I know some moms use it as their main outline adding resources from the library to flesh out the memory work, but I like to have curriculum that is more planned out than that. I just choose curriculum for each subject (LA, Math, History & Science) that works for us and add in the CC memory work in addition to our regular curriculum. Next year will be our first experience with Essentials, so I'm not quite sure what to expect yet. I'm holding off on purchasing any grammar and writing curriculum until I see whether I need to add anything to Essentials. Many say that it is enough, so I will wait and see. Maryanne ds-9 R&S Grammar, SL Core 3, Saxon, God's Design Science, Classical Conversations dd-6 WP LA, Singapore Math, misc History & Science, Classical Conversations

When my ds was in 1st grade and finished Saxon 2 early we worked on Singapore Challenging Word Problems 1 for the rest of the year. He's now in 3rd grade doing Saxon 5/4. Last spring he tested very highly on the word problems portion of the standardized test. I credit working through Singapore Challenging Word problems after completing Saxon each year. Maryanne