Just discovered this book at the library and my 7 year-old is loving it (me, too), so it's neat to hear the author read it--thanks for posting. I'm surprised I'm the first one to reply in all this time!

My thoughts exactly. I also hope Amber posts her eloquent and powerful response on a blog or somewhere that more people can read it.

Resurrecting this thread because there was dialogue about the Pearls here, and I'd rather not repeat myself in the newer thread.

Just popping in to say I appreciate this thread. TulipGirl is my go-to blog for getting the latest and most thorough information on this. She is very knowledgeable and a wonderful writer & homeschooling mom.

That site seems really good, too. I think I'm going to subscribe to Discovery and get the first Digger Doug DVD, but if anyone else has any experience with these materials, please share before I go ahead with this...

Funny, I didn't read these replies until now but that's where I ended up anyway! :) My pastor has been showing the Creatures that Defy Evolution clips in church and he just put in a plug for subscribing to Answers magazine, so when Google brought me there yesterday, I did just that, and will definitely be making their site one of my regular destinations--so much good stuff!

Just wanted to give an update. When we read SOTW today, I stopped every few paragraphs and had her narrate what we had read, so by the time we got to the end of the section (it was a few pages long), she really knew her stuff and was actually eager to write! I asked her to come up with three sentences - one for the beginning, one for the middle, and one for the end. She did it beautifully. Glory to God :) To clarify for the previous commenter, TWTM says she should be writing part of the narration and I should do part of it, so that's how we've been doing it. However, it's not the actually act of putting pen to paper that wears her out--it's the synthesis of ideas, so that's where I took all of your input and revised my method. I think I've done this before but my expectations have this crazy habit of going off the chart without me realizing it, so I have to rein them back in and that's exactly what our "crisis" and your feedback helped me to do. Science also went very well. We studied fossils and I just had her write one sentence defining a fossil, which I guided her through aloud first, refining her ideas into a more concise sentence (which equals less and better writing for her). One thing I didn't mention is that I think my being a writer both helps and hinders this process. I spent a year teaching freshman at a Christian school and I was appalled at their lack of writing skills. I've been very concerned about this area so that's one reason I wanted to lay a solid early foundation, and why I prefer classical to Charlotte Mason. I stayed up late reading and researching, and I was thinking of changing curriculum (select parts or getting a package--pricey and nothing feels like a total right fit), but today I realized that our materials are fine, it's just me that needs to handle them differently. I really do love TWTM and so does my daughter--we had a conversation about it and she made it clear that she likes the books we're using for every subject. I had thought about changing out FLL for something more workbook-ey but she protested, and when I asked why, she said "I like the sound of your voice." That's enough to melt any mother's heart :001_wub:

We're wrapping up geology (in this segment of earth science) and I'm hesitant to teach the fossil info I've got in the Usborne Rocks & Fossils books and the Magic Schoolbus: Inside the Earth (which she's already read a bunch of times on her own since silly me didn't look inside it first). I'm tired of changing billions and millions of years ago to thousands of years ago, and finally "a long time ago." I'm not strict about a literal 7-day creation (i.e. 24 hour days) but I'm more skeptical of dating methods than of the Bible (which I believe is the inspired and infallible Word of God), and tend toward belief in a younger earth than an extremely old one. Well, that's a whole nuther conversation, book, etc...:lol: ...Anyway, just wondering if there's any website where I can go this morning (we're doing history now so science will start in about 45 minutes) to replace or even just supplement the secular fossil resources we've got.

I found them on Main Lesson because I was searching for literature to correspond with Medieval Islam and his versions of the tales from Arabian Nights (forget whether they were in the Red or Blue or both) were the only ones that also had illustrations, so we read Aladdin onscreen but I can't say my 7 year-old really enjoyed it. Then again, she may have been spoiled by the Disney version ;) On the other hand, she liked the novel of Jungle Book (albeit abridged) even after having seen the Disney production. I wouldn't read Lang's books cover to cover, but they are useful for finding stories that correlate with a certain culture & historical period (esp. when there's a dearth of literature otherwise). So rather than purchase them (unless I stumble on to a great deal0, I will continue to just read them on Main Lesson. And maybe check out the audio editions (if they're free) mentioned in the other thread. I also would rather my children be exposed to other realms of belief and culture when they are with me (so that I can compare/contrast it to what we believe and help teach them critical thinking from an early age) than have them discover it for the first time when they are older and on their own. I think there is a healthy balance between protecting and sheltering, and of course it's different for every family, every child.

Thank you all for helping me reclaim perspective. I guess it's pretty obvious that we are dealing with generational perfectionism :blush: I think the fact that I've been "winging it" so much lately (due to being overwhelmed and backlogged) has driven me to trying to "maximize" our time when really it's diminishing it. I always think that if I can get more organized and better prepared, it will go smoothly, but alas, I can never seem to get there! :rolleyes: My husband was the teacher today and he came up with a technique for narration that seemed to help--giving her key words for her to make into sentences. I was surprised that worked since her least favorite part of Spelling Workout is at the end of each lesson where she has to write something with the spelling words, but that may be because they aren't easily related to the topics they give (see my blog post about the world's biggest pizza). The other reason, though, that he had an easier time with her (besides having more patience since he only does it once a week) was because the reading I had them do was not school-related. They read chapter one of Paddington Bear, which naturally she liked and could retell more easily than say SOTW or Aladdin from Arabian Nights (not the Disney version obviously!). For now, I will try to :chillpill: but I'm also going to look into MFW, TOG, and the others mentioned in this thread. I know I need to ease up instead of always feeling like we're not doing enough. Sometimes I'm even tempted to just take an unplanned week off to regroup and try to get more caught up, but then I worry that I'll be struggling to fill her time since her natural tendency will be to want me to let her watch DVDs or go on the internet (which I regulate now to once a day during dinner prep and more time on weekends). And the best laid plans of organizing our office / school room always seem to take a backseat to the needs of three young children and household chores...vicious cycle...but knowing you can relate helps :001_smile:

Thanks for the helpful feedback so far. I may start with those suggestions before I do something drastic, but I'm still wondering if this might be meant to be a catalyst for a bigger change, so keep the ideas coming--thanks :) Off to Bible study now...

Really hitting a wall with my seven year-old and narrations. We're using TWTM and it seems like I'm spending way too much time walking her through the comprehension questions (which I make up), then the aloud narration, and finally the dreaded putting it on paper. We're doing this for history, science, and literature (correlating with history), so it's a good chunk of time as it is, and she's really resisting the whole format, despite how bright she is--I think it's a combination of her perfectionism (worried about not getting it right) and her age/temperament which tends toward the literal, details, facts (the sensing vs. intuiting preference on the Myers-Briggs). So we either end up writing way too much (because her memory is like that) which wears us both out or I get frustrated spoon feeding her the main ideas. So I'm wondering if there's a better way to go about this for her temperament and my sanity, as well as time--my poor early kindergartener is basically on her own doing art all morning, which she's happy about, but I want to be with her more, and she's not interested in what we're doing. Not to mention juggling housework with prep and planning for school times (her math workbook has gone uncorrected for the last few weeks and I haven't even had time to teach her the new concepts she's learning purely by example). Our mornings are packed and then at lunch my almost three year-old comes home from preschool and it's all over (having him there three mornings is akin to giving myself training wheels for homeschooling!). So I'm curious what alternatives to the TWTM might be a better fit for us, preferably other forms of classical but I'm trying to be open to anything that has more of a literature feel than a textbook one (and yet my daughter can't get enough of The Magic Schoolbus). What made me think we should stick with classical was how much she loved SOTW I and the mythology, but that was last semester when I had just pulled her out of public school (at her urging) and I skipped the whole narrating/writing part, so we basically just read and did the questions from SOTW AB. All of my children are advanced (taught themselves to read very young) and enthusiastic learners (on their own terms of course!). My oldest (the 2nd grader) loves science and animals, is highly articulate and creative (in speech and writing), a very fast reader, but even when she finishes a book on her own, she wants me to read it to her. She's very relational and visual--loves colorful pictures and prefers illustrated chapter books. Thanks so much for your input! I'll be gone all morning but am looking forward to reading your responses in the afternoon. Meanwhile, I've taken Cathy Duffy's 100 Top Curriculum Picks down from the shelf (for the umpteenth time) as I go back to the drawing board for what I'm sure will not be the last time...:tongue_smilie:

The Red and Blue Fairy books with illustrations are online at Main Lesson It's like Gutenberg but all children's literature -- have fun! :)

My short answer is now you know why we have so many denominations and movements :001_rolleyes:

Well, then I guess should shut up about stem cell research and specific sex acts (not detailed in Scripture), and for that matter, the trinity, since that term is not stated anywhere in the Bible.