I love it and it saves us so much time. The additional reading lists, maps, and review questions are what make SotW a full curriculum rather than a story book for us. You could do that all yourself but time vs money, the activity guide saves me at least an hour each chapter. The coloring pages are filler but they are great for keeping one busy while I work with the other on something. We only do probably 1/3 of the activities but the girls age they are some if their favorite school moments.

Coming back when I have 8 hours to read and research all the info. Thanks!

Just dropping in to say thanks for starting this thread. I'm starting earth science with a 3rd and 6th grader in 3 weeks or so and still completely at a loss for what to use. I'm also trying to decide if I should just make my own. Mr Q looks too easy. RSO looks great if there was a level 2 ready. ES just seems too......."read an encyclopedia and narrate". I'm thinking of buying ES just for the schedule, vocab and sketches and then building from it with other spines/ library books.

Kingdom Phyllum Class Order Family Genus Species Is the way we learned it. It was memory work from Elemental Science Biology and was listed that way in the Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia. I don't know if that is any help.

I'm missing something because I'm only finding RSO Earth science in level 1. You have a link to level 2?

Duplicate post, sorry.

I don't think she needs to be in WWE1, that's the thing I was trying to say. I don't know how to accelerate it best. I wanted to start at the beginning because in 5 years of public school, although bright, she had no exposure to dictation, and narration. Her only " copy work" was copying her spelling list from the chalk board. I started her in it because the Complete Writer said it was used for anyone even high school level that had no real writing experience. She's not got problems learning, she just didn't begin her learning in the classical manner. Does that make more sense? My question is more about how to get her caught up with this logic stage in time for rhetoric.I feel like she needs to go through a writing curriculum from the beginning because it is new to her but not because she isn't able to handle the more advanced. She reads way above level, has a broad vocabulary and does great in spelling. I feel she's capable but I don't know how hard to work her to get her to level in writing. It seems so much of our curriculum and most classical education relies on writing to move forward. That is our hang up. More advanced history, which she can easily handle, requires more writing. Logic stage science, more advanced writing. It's just this writing that I don't know if I should double up, skip lessons our what. We picked WWE1 because it was the beginning and I didn't want to jump into WWS with no foundation. I'm leaning toward picking up Fable. My understanding is that it is set up to be one semester. If we work time and a half at that we could easily catch up this year, right? Again, I'm not trying to imply that she has a problem learning, more that she had a late start learning this way and no writing experience at her public school that focused only on reading and math. This was a main reason in our decision to bring them home.

Wow that's a lot of helpful feedback. I was already half sleep when I started so I'll read it again tomorrow and glean what I can and get back with you. But off hand. Her diagnosis was just from the pediatrician, she does marvelous on the lowest dose of concerta so I never considered a psych eval but I'm not against it. The reason I lead with "no disabilities" was not to say "she could do better she just chooses not to" but was because last time I posted a question about her in WWE1 I was responded to with a comment that basically said, "she's just in wwe1 at 10? Have you had her checked for learning disabilities?" I wanted to head that off because I know she's bright in her own ways. I know she's not bad that's why I want to do this right by her. The picture you paint of games and puzzles and sewing sound wonderful but I'm stuck in this mentality of we have to get the "work" caught up first. We do have and need to play more often, Ticket to Ride. We love it. Like I said though, I'm going to read this with an awake mind and then I'll visit you in the other board soon. :)

Last year was my first year homeschooling. I started with kids that were 7 and 10 and my plan of attack was just do the next thing. I didn't see the point of spending hours writing out (or typing) what to do each day when most curriculum is laid out in lessons or you can just open up and start where you left off. Well, we didn't finish everything I wanted to. Part of that is due to me changing it up a couple times as we found out what works for us. The rest of it would have been helped with a plan. I tried telling DH on days he was with them to just do the next few pages in math, grammar, history, spelling and writing. His response when it wasn't done..."I didn't know what needed done". I had no idea, other than just eyeballing the side of the book to see if we were about half way through it, if we were on track to finish on time. I forgot to order books for our history reading from the library a week ahead. The main reason I think it would help though, is unforeseen situations. Both of my husbands parents were sick last year, both spent more than a week in the hospital with us being told that they could pass any minute. We spent countless hours at the hospital with barely time at home to shower every couple days.Then we had planning for funerals, out of state family guests and so on. Part of that time the kids were with us, part of it they spent with my mom. If we had a written plan of some sort, my mom could have kept on with their schooling. I am using the 36 file system this year. It is taking me a bit of time to write out every lesson, copy as needed and stuff folders. But not needing to print math mammoth worksheets the day of or copy activity guides, will speed up the school day. Also, if I had these folders last year, I could have grabbed one and headed to the hospital for them to work in the waiting room. I'm sure that type of tragedy will not strike again next year but it did teach me that time spent being prepared is not not time wasted.

We are doing Middle Ages this year too so this will be super helpful. Thanks!

My oldest is 11. Last year was her first year at home. She is on medication for ADHD but has no other learning disabilities. She is "behind" on where I feel like she should be, basically because of her time in public school. Also, switching to a classical education at the time when she should have been moving to logic stage, when she didn't really get a grammar stage base, has not helped. She had no formal writing training. She had no knowledge of outlining, narration or how to summarize main points. However in 3rd and 4th grade at her school she had the highest comprehension scores and accelerated reader points of anyone in the school. So it's not that she isn't capable, it't that she was trained differently early on. When we try logic stage assignments, she really needs her hand held to do the outlines and writing assignments which limits my time with her younger sister. I don't know if I should back off on the assignments and let her work at more of a grammar stage level while her writing catches up or if I should I push her to do it so that she isn't still behind when we get to high school. I don't want her frustrated and hating to learn but I also don't want her working on the same level as her younger sister forever. As an example, last year we tried to use ES Biology for the Logic Stage. It took her every bit of 60 minutes to write a one paragraph summary each time we tried. Her written answer to "Conclusion(What I learned)" was something like "I learned it was a maple leaf" or " I learned that sometimes things look different but they are not". I dont know where to put her in writing. Last year we used WWE1 for both kids. She is probably above that now, but I am not sure the best way to speed it up. Should I skip every other week, make her do double lessons daily, just skip WW2 and move to 3? I am thinking of dropping that all together and using Writing and Rhetoric and Writing from History with her, but again, where to start her and how fast to move becomes a question. I guess I am really rambling now, I am just so lost on where to put her.

Sorry, I just noticed this. She is just turning 11. I see that many love ES so I have really been giving it more thought. I think we were having some level of difficulty because, although she is entering 6th grade, she has not had a classical education or any formal writing courses until last year. So even though, she should have been entering the logic level of education in her content classes, she didn't really have the outlining, summary, and narration skills to do many of the assignments without frustration. I am trying to decide what we are doing for science this year and I am thinking of giving it another try. The price is right and I do love the way it is set up. Her writing has progressed over the year so maybe it will be easier.

Also, I see that was only a week or so ago, I am sorry for not searching more before asking again, and thank you for taking the time to answer even though it was just discussed.

Ohhh, thank you that is perfect. We will only be doing about 4 hrs of history per week, so it will be a "whatever you get done in an hour as long as I dont catch you daydreaming or purposely dawdling" type of thing. I wanted to approach science and history with a time limit and done approach but as soon as they know that they miraculously need to use the bathroom, get a drink, sharpen their pencil, go get a blanket, etc.. . I'm still trying to find a balance between not pushing enough to be a challenge and pushing to hard, so I really do appreciate the word of caution.

Last year, my first year of teaching from home. I had a 2nd grader and 5th grader doing SotW level 1 together. We enjoyed it, learned a lot and overall it was a success I would say, This year, as we do Middle Ages though, I am thinking that I really need to push my older student a little more. I have purchased SotW 2 and the activity guide for my younger child. I am sure that as we work on it DD11 will want to set in, color some pictures and do some of the activites, but I think she also needs to more. Looking through the sample of History Odyssey, I really like the way it is set up. (Read this, do this map, outline this, explain these words). I love that it looks like it could be pretty independent. Now, I know I could make the SotW work for her by assigning the same stuff, but I would spend a lot more time making those assignments and lose some time from helping the younger one. My question is, how difficult would it be to get the History Odyssey to match up with the SotW. Ideally, even though they would be working on two different lesson plans, I would like for them to hit at least the major literature at around the same time. Reading things like Beowulf and Sir Gawain together and spending a little extra time researching some of the main people and events together. We check out a lot of library books on each chapter and it would be so much easier to continue just getting several of different levels on one topic and letting them pick from that pile. I worry that if I need to get books about Charlemagne for DD11 and others about the Dynasties of China at the same time, they both will suffer. It wouldnt have to match up exact, just within around the same month even. Would you try to alter the order of them to make them match up, or just try to make extra work for the older child?

We tried Elemental science Biology for the logic stage last year and it just didn't get done. My goal was that for DD9, and just a reading topics from DK first encyclopedias with DD7. Neither were really a hit. I'm wanting to do earth science this year but I would love to do it together, maybe just assigning extra reading, outlining and vocab to my 5th/6th grade older child. It states 1st-4th grade. Have you tried this our do you think this would be enough for my older one? Or is there something else you'd recommend (In a similar price range). I knew there is a big gap between them, but I felt she wasn't quite ready to tackle elemental science lessons alone, and her younger sis couldn't do hers alone. After separate math, grammar, writing, spelling, and vocab, I really need to keep science, history and Latin together if I'm going to get then done at all.

I know science curriculum questions asked a lot but maybe a few can share their thoughts on RSO Earth Science. Last year I tried Elemental Science Biology with my Dd10 and tried just picking topics from the encyclopedias fire DD 7. Neither of them really got done.I don't want to do it, they don't want to do it, feels like busy work.I feel like science it's the one topic I want most to help them enjoy and want to learn more of. Nancy Lawson looks like a bit more than I wasn't pay. I picked up Science in the Beginning to cover through summer and they like it. Can RSO work for a third and 5th grader together if we dig a bit deeper in some things? Anyone love or hate it?

I was taught both ways are correct. My thought is that if it is always correct to have it but sometimes it's correct to not use it. Why not just use it? Very little effort and ink are wasted on this poor tiny comma. Also most times I'm making a list or series, my biggest or main item is the final. "We didn't make it to the reunion because it was calling for rain, Eric took a nap, and I went in to labor." I usually want that extra pause from the last comma to set of my "AND".

I think many people are here because we agree with the philosophy of classical education. Personally I don't think students of years past, whose education we model from, had all that fun and entertaining of an experienc e. It was probably more rigorous than fun. However, learning should be engaging and shouldn't be miserable or they will grow to hate it. I think content subjects can especially afford to cater to enjoyment. It may just be me but I I feel like today's world spends too much time sugar coating life for kids. Skill subjects are the students job. In real life, as adults, employers are not going to be concerned if a job is fun, they just want it done. I think schoolwork should not be drudgery, but I also think it's a valuable life lesson to show our young ones that sometimes a job needs done, like it or not.

We tried Elemental science Biology for Logic stage last year. It was the one topic we just didn't do. I may still try to work through it for summer some, but DD just feels like it is busy work.

I do feel like MM "teaches" math. My 2nd grader is in 3A and I have to have her read it aloud to me once in awhile and a handful of times I've had to explain it a bit more, but for the most part, she is learning it on her own. My 5th grader has been completely independent with it and progressing wonderfully.

My girls are 10 (4th grade) and 8 ( second grade). They would love penpals. Let me know if you are still looking or want another set.

I'm very interested in both of these. I'm having difficulty figuring out where to place DD though. She's 10 but this was her first year homeschooling. I purchased and went through WWE since she had no football writing in public school but it was way below her level. Using the Writing and Rhetoric, would I need to stay with fables? Or could I skip that one and move ahead?

Ack..... I just find this. We have just stated reading The Magicians Nephew and are on chapter 6, with Queen Jardis just getting back to the children's world. Should I put it aside now and get LWW? The girls are loving it so far.

I have the ugliest handwriting, as does my left-handed daughter but we will send you a letter.