I'm waiting until 9th grade for my DS (who will be in 8th grade this fall). He struggles with anxiety and just came back to homeschooling last year after three years in b & m schools that left him with other deficits that are taking time to remedy. In his 6th grade year at one of the b & m schools he had a little Spanish that proved daunting so I had a taste of what foreign language study may be like for him. In high school I am hoping he will benefit from increased maturity and less need to focus so heavily on things like, say, writing and literature, and will have the time and energy to be able to comfortably tackle a foreign language. I am also considering Latin as it does not have a heavy focus on pronunciation (accent,etc.) Now my oldest DD is a rising 4th grader and has been begging me for a foreign language (French from her ballet studies). I am seriously considering starting her in 5th grade but only if other subjects continue to be primary. She is a totally different type of student than her brother and I think she probably could handle a foreign language in late elementary school along with her other workload. Yeah, I sometimes feel like an "oddball" when I read these forums or talk to other homeschooling families because I am not doing a foreign language with my kids starting in primary grades < sigh>. We have a lot of classical homeschoolers where I live and many of them have their children studying Latin beginning in about 2nd grade.

Are you talking about reading lists as in what books my children will be reading for analysis/literature (subject) or what books they will be reading "on their own" ("free" reading), or both? : ) I'm asking because my olders will have books to read that will be discussed and analyzed with me (part of their literature subject) as well as books they will read on their own.

Tanaqui, I've heard that same thing!!! I'm just not sure how easy it is to find the earlier books (from the 1980's, 1990's etc.)? I know with my library, if an author has written something like 40-50 or more books (as I think Korman has) and many are older, they seem to only have the more "modern" ones, go figure. For example, If I want to read his book I Want to Go Home (recommended to me as very funny) I would have to get it through interlibrary loan or purchase it.

I mostly used the Elementary (yellow) book and I also used Kilgallon's Paragraphs for Elementary School. I found these to definitely be challenging enough for 7th grade! I actually don't know who advised the Kilgallons about the "levels" of their books—the middle level books could be used with an advanced middle schooler but for a "typical" middle school aged student (starting in 6th grade) hmmm, not so much in my opinion. I would do a short Kilgallon assignment most days before getting into the WWS I lesson. Some of the WWS I lessons are longer and some are shorter. If we had a "longer" lesson, I would skip Kiilgallon. I also broke up concepts into smaller chunks than the books show. We would discuss concepts from a book and look at examples but I would retype sentences from a book (with working space beneath each sentence) so DS typically had no more than 3-5 sentences for practice per Killgallon lesson. This kept his interest up, as well, without tiring him. My DS benefits from a tight, repetitive spiral but you may have different needs. I think KiIlgallon complements WWS nicely since it's mainly about voice, word choice and sentence fluency (to borrow from "six trait" jargon) which are covered in WWS I but later on in the book. Kilgallon also helps to reinforce grammar (it's functional grammar) which my DS sorely needed because grammar was deemed too "old fashioned" to be taught by my "modern" school system. The last time my DS had probably heard about verbs, adjectives, etc., was when he was at home in 3rd grade. I prefer my child has a working knowledge of grammar before attempting foreign languages but that's just me : ).

Also for the funny: Slacker and/or Ungifted by Gordon Korman

Oh yes, I was in a sort of similar position this last school year as you find yourself in now. My DS came home for 7th grade after 3 years in school and NO quality training in writing. Really educational malpractice in my humble opinion : (. My DS has great voice and an excellent vocabulary, but he had absolutely no sense of organization or coherence in his writing. Everything basically was just "thrown" at the page. When he was home in 3rd grade I had started IEW All Things Fun and Fascinating with him, and that was helpful especially with organization and structure, but we had only done it lightly. As my DS was now older, I decided to use Writing with Style Level One with him and also Killgallon for sentence composing and style exercises. This has been a fairly successful plan (we are still doing it through the summer). I say "fairly" only because my son struggles with completing anything school oriented (he is one who would rather be playing with forts all day). However, even being so unmotivated, my DS tells me quite often how much he likes WWS, how "fun" it is (!!) and how interesting (he also likes the variety Kilgallon introduces) . Now, it helps that my DS loves history, and to a lesser extent science, because of the amount of time spent in WWS I with historical and scientific topics. It sounds like your DS would do very well given his talents and maybe the topics would interest and motivate him as they have interested my son. I can say that WWS I and Kilgallon definitely have improved my DS's writing! We plan to finish WWS I this summer and next year (8th) he will be doing IEW SWI B online and continuing with Kilgallon offline. The online class is to provide my DS some accountability that is outside of our home which I think we both need : ). For 9th grade, the plan is for me to teach him Lost Tools of Writing Level I combined with WWS Level II.

I've been using the Jade book (7th)and will finish with that and start Gold (8th) next year for my 8th grade DS. I will use Ruby for my 4th grade DD next year. With Mosdos, I think it depends on the level whether or not you would want the workbook. The Jade workbook is not worth the $ in my opinion and I wish I had not purchased it (from RR) but the Pearl workbook usually is well -reviewed and people think it's worth it. I am one who believes the teacher manuals are well worth the money and I have them for every level I use. I have purchased both Jade manuals for about $70.00 used and got both Ruby TMs for $43.00 used and both Gold TMs for $43.00 used all from Alibris, Ebay and Amazon. Check Bookfinder.com using the author's name (Judith Factor) for good used prices of everything but the Test CDs. I have not been able to find the test CDs used on their own and they do cost a lot on Rainbow. I think it depends on the level whether I will use/need the test CD—the older the student, the more I think it is useful to add in tests so I will not bother for the Ruby level. The cost for Mosdos materials vary widely so don't get discouraged if you see high prices. Just wait a day or two and a reasonably priced book will be listed. Right now on Ebay, someone is selling the 2 TMs, workbook and textbook for Jade for $125.00 total with free shipping. Bidding right now on Ebay starts at $49.00 for Gold 2TMs, textbook, and Test CD all in excellent condition. I bought Coral 2TMs, textbook and test CD for $109.00 including shipping on Ebay a few weeks ago (Buy it now or best offer) to use with my DD when she is in 5th grade. I like the program that much and that was a good deal so I bought early! I'm not sure if I will buy the Coral workbook or not yet. You really do not have to spend $200.00+ for Mosdos materials and they hold their value for resale : ).

Funny: Surviving the Applewhites Fantasy: The Dragon of Lonely Island As I am completing a list for my rising 4th DD, I would love to see your whole reading list......... : )

All my kidlets are 13 and under and they all play with toys. My 13 yo (DS) is the only one who plays with any video games and he is limited to an hour a day which only started last year, so up to age 12 he did not play any video games. They are all limited in television watching to later afternoons/early evenings and the time is limited. Consequently they all play with toys—Legos are ruling right now but my DS also loves his Nerf guns and some board games. Up until about the age of 11 he used to dress up in many types of costumes and play different characters with props (Jedi, policeman, pilot, etc). He also would act out parts from old tv shows (Emergency, etc.) He still sometimes plays with his Playmobil (pirate ship, firetrucks, etc). My DDs dress up a lot and roleplay with props (doctor, princess, policeman, etc.). My DDs also play with Playmobil, Legos, their dollhouse, stuffed animals, American Girl dolls, Barbies, medical kits (playing doctor and vet), making popsicle stick puppets and creating "shows," playing board games (Logic Street, Monopoly, Memory games, etc.), card games, building with Magnablocks and wooden blocks, building forts, playing with playdough, My Little Pony, doing sticker dolly dressing books, putting together puzzles, etc. They also enjoy watching and imitating Youtube tutorials on making things for mini-fig dolls and most any type of art project. DS also gets his sisters to participate in Nerf gun wars and leads them in light saber training "school." Everybody plays outside if the weather is nice—things like playing on swings, pretending our backyard is a "rain forest" and going on an "expedition," drawing with sidewalk chalk, riding bikes, gathering natural objects and making fairies and fairy houses, etc. Yeah, I notice that many of my son's friends have a very limited sense of play except for video games and watching movies. Most of my girls' friends also play with toys and have active imaginations—most of my daughters' friends are homeschooled.

LOVE the idea of a daily gratitude page for my oldest DD!!!! I'm adding that this year for her!!! : ) Also, love the idea of making additional graphs with some of the data collected. I do tweak the pages every year and add more (or more sophistication and complexity) and/or take things away as a child gets older.

I have been doing this for about four years with my younger kiddos. Each child has an individual binder. In the front of their monthly calendar binders I have a 100 square grid where a child colors in one square for every day of school until we celebrate our 100 day. I also use the grid to do some informal math with tens and place value. My oldest DD likes to color each square to make a pattern. After that page I have a page with each month in a square where we tally the days we do school. After that, I have a page protected sheet where the children write the day of the week (cursive or print) and the date in two ways using a wet erase pen. Then I have the typical month pages that each child fills in with the correct date for that day. We keep daily weather data on a grid/graph for each month (seasons are identified as well) and at the end of each month we collate the data and add it to an annual data chart (in the back of the binder). At the beginning of the month each child has a page where she writes her name either in print or cursive (For these pages I use page protectors and wet erase markers so we can reuse the pages): we have a page for the number of the day (older gets "harder/higher" numbers) and the children are responsible for coming up with ten number sentences that equal that number (older needs to use four number operations while younger uses two); we have a page for "word family of the day" (older gets more challenging word families) and the children are responsible for coming up with ten words that belong with that word family. We also have a page for sight words—I have a canister of popsicle sticks with age-appropriate sight words and the children each pull two sticks and copy each word five times. I also have other pages with page protectors that have names of the days of the week (print or cursive), names of the months (print or cursive) and numbers to twenty or 100. These pages are done a few times a month. We don't fill in everything everyday. Daily we fill in the color square grid, tally sheet, day of the week and ways to write the date sheet and monthly calendar and daily weather sheets. About three times a week we do the number of the day, word families and sight words sheets. A few times a month we will do the other pages, too. Once a month the children write their names. It takes anywhere from 5-15 minutes to do all of these activities, depending on what we do, and we use it as a warmup to starting school activities.

I have a rising 4th grader and a rising 8th grader (also younger) but I'm using Modsos for the lit portion of their language arts and likely will continue using that for 6th. The Hive has some topics in the forum on Mosdos if you want to learn more. We also like Well Ordered Language (grammar program from Classical Academic Press) and for writing IEW, Writing With Style, CAP and Killgallon. With DD #1 (rising 4th grader) I used CLE for language arts in 2nd grade and, although she admits she learned and retained quite a bit, this gentle girl was ready to revolt by spring. I was asked to "please, please never use CLE language arts again." <grin>. Her brother (rising 8th), on the other hand, thrives on repetition and very clear-cut instruction and will be doing CLE Algebra I this fall.

Garga, I'm curious, what would a schedule day typically look like? What subjects would you do on an "A" day, a "B" day, an "F" day, etc.? This is an intriguing idea!

We will be doing Mosdos along with reading and analyzing about six or seven novels from different genres. DS also will have an independent (fiction) reading book going and I read aloud to him about every other night year-round. He loves reading nonfiction and reluctantly reads fiction. As a result, he is somewhat "behind" where I would like to see him regarding reading and analyzing literature and poetry as a rising 8th grader. We take our time and the instruction is thorough.

I would do one lesson over about 3-4 days. We only have done Book 1 so far but Books 2 & 3 are on schedule for the next year although it may take us 1 1/2 years to do them.

Sparkly Unicorn, now you're cracking me up!!! I'm beginning to understand why there are so many "extra" free floating books around.....CC parents buy individual books or student notebooks (SWI B, etc.) but watch the videos together (?) That's probably also why IEW only sells the books separately but not the DVDs—to meet CC's needs.

Yoda Girl, I guess my question for you would be how did you get the newer DVDs on their own??? : ) I can't seem to find the new DVDs alone at. all. That's why it costs so much because people are selling the new DVDs ONLY as a set with the new book, urrgggghhhhh, and they get over $100.00 for the two parts, naturally. Thank you also very much for the input on what is in the newer DVDs—I have been wondering if they were updated entirely or not and what is actually in them, what they look like, etc. I have seen only the older DVDs which seemed pretty thorough to me and hard to improve upon. It always seemed to me that it was the older book that needed updating (mostly for formatting and clarity issues) not the DVDs. For cost reasons I just may have to match the new book with the old DVDs unless I can find the ONE person willing to part with the new DVDs for a price less than $100.00. Is that person even out there???? <grin>

Thanks for the response. I already have the newer seminar workbook (given to me) I just would need the newer DVDs to go with it which, apparently, I cannot buy separately from IEW without buying another workbook (that I don't need). And that set is almost $200.00 I believe. You can buy the workbook separately from IEW but not the DVDs in other words. So when I try to find the newer DVDs separately (like on Ebay) people are selling the workbook with it too and the bids all seem to end up being over $100.00. I have already spent so much on new curricula I just don't want to have to do that. Now, if I want the older version of the workbook, DVDs, or both together, I can get those things for MUCH, much less. So, it would be GREAT if the older DVDs could match with the newer workbook........... < sigh>

For those who know, did the DVD's for TWSS also get updated along with the workbook in 2015? Would it matter much to match the older TWSS DVD's with the newer TWSS workbook? I have been given a copy of the newer TWSS practicum workbook c. 2015 but it did not include the DVD's. Those of you who know, how much difference would it make to use the "older" DVD's with the "newer" workbook? I ask because it is becoming impossible to find just the DVD's for the C. 2015 version of TWSS without have to spend over $100.00. I can, however, find either the entire older set of TWSS, or even just the DVD's, for far less $$. Looking for an expert opinion from The Hive. OR if anybody is willing to part with the newer IEW TWSS DVDs for a good price I am also interested. Thanks! : )

I'm at the Heav convention right now and there are SO many options, as you know. I saw many different Pre-Algebra programs at the used curriculum sale mostly at the Middle School Math table. Not sure if I saw AOPS, though. The Rainbow Resource booth in the exhibit hall has lots of different programs to look through. I know, I'm no help at all..... : )

I'm in my convention hotel room right now in bed and watching cable......but NO ice cream, darn it!!!! I did have a very nice hamburger and salad though. And it's QUIET = bliss. I'm exhausted from about seven hours of shopping in the used curriculum sale and exhibit hall. Getting up early tomorrow to do it all over again <grin>

Yes, HEAV!!! By myself two whole days in a hotel with room service and with the kiddies staying home with hubby. I've made my lists and am ready to shop! I want Beast Academy too and will head directly for it as some guides were sold out under me last year! Thanks for the tip about searching the Used Curriculum sale online—I didn't know that was possible.

I have mostly been using Sentence Family and Well Ordered Language with my DD starting slowly when she was in 2nd grade and adding in more to her 3rd grade year. Sentence Family is a fun, gentle introduction to the parts of speech while Well Ordered Language is more formal, but not as dry as First Language Lessons, imo. My DD has loved both, but then, she loves grammar and asks to diagram sentences (!) I also tried MCT with her, thinking the story aspects would inspire interest, but she was put off by it. I don't think it will hurt anything to wait until a child is in 3rd grade or older to start learning grammar especially if he or she is not strong yet in reading, phonics/spelling and handwriting. In that case, I would use the time reinforcing and solidifying those things rather than introducing something new (grammar). My oldest daughter was ready to start some grammar in second grade but my DS was not. I didn't do any formal grammar with him K-3 and then he went to school for 4-6 and didn't do any there either. This year (7th grade) he's been home again and we have been studying grammar in the context of his writing. He's been a little hampered by not knowing specific vocabulary but his writing hasn't suffered from not having studied formal grammar for years.

I've used it for K-1st grade, 3rd grade and 5th grade math. From time to time I'll purchase a few months when the homeschool coop has a discounted deal. My DS (he used it when he was in 5th grade) was underwhelmed but then again, he dislikes math in general. My DD's have used the younger grade programs and have enjoyed it very much. Redbird uses a Singapore style of learning with an emphasis on place value and number sense. We use Singapore Math mostly so Redbird was a good fit for us as a reinforcement.

My 8 yr old DD is loving The Kingdom of Wrenly series (castles, dragons, adventure, etc.) and also has liked The Princess in Black series. When my now 13 yo was that age he loved the Bruce Coville series Mongooble and Me (wizards, adventures, magic, etc).