there does seem to be alot of repetition in FLL4 from FLL3. It was a bit boring for my son, so we just hurried through it, skipping things that we didn't need to work on. There are new things in there, and it goes more in depth in some areas. And it mentions multiple times that if your child did FLL3 that you could skip this part/memory. That being said, my son still liked it, it made him feel good that he remembered the things, and it kept everything fresh. We plan to take it a little easier this year, and then we will be doing AG for 6-8th.

Thank you, that is just what I was wondering. I have the Abeka Algebra 1 book. I was looking at it and it just didn't seem to be much instruction, and in some cases, very few problems to work. We have dd signed up for saxon through a coop type program, but I am not sure it is right for her. She struggles with math. I love math. And I love the chalkdsut video samples that I saw. My dd just didn't get them. Of course she hated the look of video text and teaching textbook too. I think if she had her way, she just wouldn't do math at all...but since that isn't an option... I will have to look at Lial. Thanks again.

I have always just had my kids alternate. I read a section, then ask for a volunteer to narrate. Then read the next section, and the next one narrates. Since I have three kids, they don't always get to narrate daily, but between SOTW, encyclopedias, and all the reading we do, I figure that they narrate enough.

I have had my dd do abeka math since 4th grade, she is now going to be switching to saxon for algebra. I gave her the assessment tests and she is struggling to get through the 87 and algebra 1/2 tests. Is saxon that much harder than abeka, or could it just be summer forgetfulness? Amy

thanks. I may have to try this next year. My dd may have more motivation with fewer classes. She sometimes seems overwhelmed with the pile of work to do. We already have this year planned, but we will have to talk about it for next year. Amy

I have always had my older ones do the encyclopedia page that corresponded to the chapters in SOTW. It just seemed easier that way. We do the chapter reading, then the map, and I introduce library books all together. The children pick the library books they are interested in. Then the older one would go do the encyclopedia work and read the book of her choice, and I would read the library books the younger ones chose. Amy

I am curious, my dh has actually suggested that we try this. Semester classes, doing half the classes the first semester, and the other half the second semester. My concern is how would you keep the knowledge in math or science for the 6-8 months that you aren't using it, before the next fall when you would use it again. I have a hard enough time with my kids forgetting things over our 6-8 week summer break. Do you have some sort of review planned in? I am interested in it, but am curious how it would work. Amy

About your son.... My daughter just turned 14 and will be starting 9th grade next week. I planned to do the Aesop/Homer for Older Beginners for the year. Then I saw that they were doing a one month tutorial for the month of August (starts on Monday). Since my daughter has had some experience with narrating and summary, I decided to put her in the one month class, and I will follow along with her each week. I am hoping that doing this class with a tutor will help me grasp the program and we can start with Diogenes Maxim in September. Just thought I would mention it as an option. Amy

Okay, sounds like I am not that far off. I was planning on her reading 150-175 pgs a week, and then writing about it. Then my reading aloud to everyone about 100 pages a week. Amy

What is a reasonable number of pages to expect your 9th grader to read in a week? I am thinking mostly of history and literature. She loves to read, so that isn't a problem, I just don't want to overwhelm her by expecting too much. Amy

I am splitting up my kids for the first time this year. I have a 9th, 5th, and 2nd. And I found that everything was being simplified for the younger two, and the older one was not being challenged. Especially with her starting high school, she needed more of a challenge. She will be doing her own thing, checking in with me and discussing, but doing the work mainly on her own. My 5th grader wanted it on his own as well. So I will have a check in time for the first and last 5-10 mins. To explain what to do, and then to check afterwards. My 2nd grader is with me. So he will be the only one I actively teach. As I said, this will be my first attempt at it. I am dissappointed because I liked having them all together, but as they are getting older, and since they are 3-3 1/2 years apart, they just moved away from being able to do that. We are all doing biology, just at their own levels. So hopefully the discussion will still come in at the end of the day instead of during the lesson.

I couldn't find a program that I liked, so I put together my own. I planned it for 9 months, and planned different things to learn for each month. I am covering 4 different areas. Some things will be covered quickly, like the cleaning and other things. But the cooking and sewing sections will be introduced at the beginning of the month and then practiced over the month. I bought Better Homes and Gardens and Betty Crocker cookbooks for her. I have tons of sewing/crafty books that she can pick projects from. I also got Home Comforts, Fly Lady, and Side-Tracked HOme Executives for cleaning and organizing. We just plan to work through each topic. It may take longer than a year to get through since it won't have an assigned time slot, so I figured when she got through, she would get a credit for it. Here is the besic plan: For cooking: Month 1- meal planning, picking produce, knife safety, nutrition, napkin folding Month 2- veggies, including potatoes- how to wash, peel, prepare, cook, bake, steam, saute, boil, and salads Month 3- eggs Month 4- healthy snacks, garnishes, relish trays Month 5- ground beef Month 6- chicken dishes Month 7- desserts Month 8- yeast dough and quick breads Month 9- grilling, making a roast, making a full turkey dinner (this would be the "final") Home Management- she already knows most of this, but I wanted to go over it so I didn't miss something: 1- basics of dusting and cleaning, straightening up 2- cleaning a kitchen 3- cleaning windows and floors 4- cleaning bathrooms 5- cleaning dining room 6- cleaning living/family rooms 7- organizational skills 8- laundry 9- how to "quick clean", plan your cleaning schedule Crafty Sewing- for the most part, it will be mini projects, and just learning the skills involved so she can go deeper if she desires to 1- Crochet 2- Flower arranging and wreath making 3- Card making and calligraphy 4- Needlework 5- Knitting 6- Basketry and rug braiding 7/8- Sewing 9- Quilting Other 1/2- Manners, hygiene, posture, etc. 3- Budgeting and finances 4- time management 5- first aid, telephone skills 6- making your house a home 7- basic home and car repairs 8- child raising info 9- gardening

I have been looking at this program for a while. I am wondering, is it worth the extra money to get the video too, or would just the workbook be good enough? Amy

I have tried to solve it like momof7. I will offer my dd several sentences, switching words around, using synonyms, etc, and try to "show" her how just tweaking it a bit can make a sentence sound alot better or worse. It doesn't work every time, I guess it depends on how stubborn she is being, but it does help alot. And at this point, if she chooses her original sentence, as long as she isn't being spiteful but truly prefers it, I let her use it. Usually 9 times out of 10, she will choose a different sentence, as long as I am not being too critical of her work. :D Must remember those tender feelings.

thank you for the link.

Has anyone used this program? How long does it take to do? On the video, she said 1 track per day, but I didn't hear or see how many tracks there were. My dd is slowly improving in this area, but I wondered if something like this, something so structured would be helpful. Any thoughts? Thanks Amy

thanks for the website. There are lots of neat ideas there, and I was just skimming. Amy

I did look at JAG, but from what I saw online, it looked like it was the first 10 lessons of of AG stretched out. I don't know if I want to spend more on that, especially when I already have some diagramming books and Easy Grammar sitting on my shelves.

My ds has done FLL for grades 1-4. And I think I will do AG for 6-8th, with the review books thorugh high school. I don't really want a heavy duty, labor intensive grammar program for 5th grade. But I don't want him to slide and forget things either. I was thinking of maybe doing Easy Grammar, maybe Daily Grams with it, and then add a little diagramming practice 2-3 times a week. Would that be enough to keep things fresh? Is there something better for a in between year? Amy

I tell my kids that they are in what ever grade matches their ages. Not that I really cared, but I realized that the people asking "what grade are you in?" were really asking "who old are you?" It just has made it easier for us to "blend" with friends and relatives. Amy

thank you! I had planned to do physical first, but she really wants biology. I just didn't want to make a mistake since she is my first high schooler. Amy

My dd wants to take biology this next year, 9th. Then wants to do physical science the following year, 10th. Is there anything with that progression? I did general/physical, biology, chemistry, and physics. I know that physical is more of an introductory science course and didn't know if colleges would look down on taking it in 10th or if it would even matter. Amy

I can see the benefits of doing history both ways. We have always used SOTW, so have done history chronologically. This year, with my younger two, we will be tyring History Odyssey, which is done geographically. I like how in the 2nd level books, every little bit there is timeline lesson. The children look over what they have learned, and can see what was happening in other areas of the world at the same time. So it kind of brings in some of the chronological into it as well. But as I said, this will be our first year, so it will be interesting to see how it works out.

Thank you so much for the replies. Some days are okay and some are bad. It occurred to me after reading the responses that she could just be struggling with missing some of her activities. This school year we tried an enrichment program that was a full day Friday and a PE class on Tuesdays, then a home ec class on Thursdays. With the summer, all of those things are on hold until September. I will have to see what I can do to help fill the void this summer. Honestly, I was just enjoying the freedom of not having to go anywhere, I forgot that teens needs more social time. Amy

I haven't used Primary Language lessons, but I have used FLL all the way through. One way we deal with the repetition is to make a joke out of it. When we come on the common/proper noun definition, my ds always starts laughing and can hardly get through the question. And some days I just skip the repetition when I know he has it. It requires a minute or two to read ahead, but that is it. I have been very impressed with how much my children have learned from FLL.