Just posting this because I received an email saying "if you can't post, send the following info." I didn't know if it was real or a scam, so decided to start by trying to post to see what would happen.

Not a resource, but a possible natural-language translation for "therefore": "blah blah, therefore, this" means "because blah blah, this" as in he wasn't supposed to take the cookie, therefore he doesn't want me to know he took it equals because he wasn't supposed to take the cookie, he doesn't want me to know he took it vs. and: blah blah, and, this which just means blah blah is true and also this is true; there could be a connection, there might not be a connection as in, he wasn't supposed to take the cookie, and it's a beautiful sunny day in New Jersey I don't know if what I've suggested passes logical muster at the level you need, but thinking out loud.

I'm glad you like the game; it can be adapted for ecclesiastical pronunciation, if that's what you are using. Loved the picture of your two boys having very different POVs on this! Have fun--

Great daughter! Great question! Why not do dictations? When I studied French (up to the AP), dictees (sorry, am not going to add the accent) were a regular part of the lessons. I do believe, though, that their primary value was to make sure we could decode the sounds of French, at least slowly, as an aid to eventual oral comprehension of real-time spoken French. That's not as much of a need in Latin studies, but it's still helpful, as you want your children to understand you when you pronounce Latin words and read sentences. This will place demands on your Latin pronunciation skills . . . preferably that you be accurate, or if not accurate, then at least consistent . . . but Latin's not hard to be consistent in . . . and it's a noble goal to be accurate, especially if you anticipate advanced Latin studies in some setting other than your home. Whether this would lead to young children internalizing syntax patterns any more than their translation sentences do, is something I'm less sure of. (I'm not saying translation sentences don't have that effect--I think they do--just not sure that dictation offers any benefits in this area that the sentences don't; but maybe for a child with a leaning towards auditory learning, dictation would prove to be a better route for that benefit?) I did have a Russian text in college that employed pattern sentences to illustrate syntax, followed by translation sentences further employing the new syntax. (Stilman and Harkins, still highly regarded. And lest anyone think this is all sounding inductive or whole-to-parts, this was part of a basically grammar-translation program.) I think it was helpful, for me at 17 anyway, old enough and motivated enough to really concentrate on the patterns. I'm less sure what effect it would have on younger students. I think it's also very desirable for children to be able to read Latin accurately, at least in their heads. That is, to hear the right sounds when they look at Latin. An exercise I invented for GLA (Great Latin Adventure) that has helped with this is "Latin Code." Write what looks like Latin syllables and words, complete with long signs, such that if you read it accurately, it sounds like English words. When you hear the English words, you know you are decoding the Latin correctly. I won't try to put all the "Latin Code" here, but, for example, "Say you like Snoopy! We do." can be rendered in Latin-looking phonemes (e.g. "Sei" for "say," "i" followed by long "u" for "you," "laek" for "like," etc.) and then when students hear the hidden English sounds accurately, you know they are decoding correctly and they will then also be able to decode the sounds of real Latin correctly. It's a lot of fun. Thanks for getting our wheels turning with your daughter's question. I'd love to know if you do this with your daughter and how it goes . . . please tell the Hive. Enjoy!

Thanks everyone--I will look into all of these for our friends. (Strider, your comment brought back memories: I had to memorize a poem in second grade and my mother chose a William Blake poem for me, and taught me how to memorize.) Appreciate the help,

. . . from Christian family. Sorry, I hit the enter key by mistake at the wrong time while typing my belated title. Friends of ours have a nineteen year old daughter with brain damage, who can range from ten to twenty-three in her emotional age; who is not across-the-board developmentally delayed, but has areas of near-average gift and areas of great difficulty and challenge. She likes words, likes Jane Austen movies and language; gets something out of it, and re-tells various characters with their accents, but doesn't understand it all. She has a good sense of humor. Her parents would like to explore whether she might enjoy poetry. Can anyone suggest a good anthology for children younger than she is, but not too juvenile, with a mix of funny and serious poems? The family is Christian but not all the poems need to be. Thanks!

Westminster Seminary has these and more: http://www.wtsbooks.com/category-exec/category_id/573/nm/Questions_and_Answers Here's the group that that page came from: http://www.wtsbooks.com/category-exec/category_id/52/nm/Children_s_Resources Not exactly what you asked for but maybe also of help: http://www.ligonier.org/store/collection/childrens-resources/ Hope something here will be of help in your family!

Thanks, Mystie! I will look into these as well. I also found this: http://www.amazon.com/Relaxing-Piano-Music-Spiritual-Christian/dp/B004RIW7YS/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1341440803&sr=8-1&keywords=relaxing+piano+hymns From the samples it's lightly interpretative but still very recognizably mainly the hymns, unlike some others I found on Amazon where there was other material preceding the hymn.

Try these: I Googled "Van Gogh" in order to find again these sites which I'd stumbled across before. http://art.com http://allposters.com http://icanvasart.com

Thanks, ScoutTN. That one looks nice. Anyone else?

Hello all-- Your favorite CD's of hymns, instrumental only? And, could you please say what instruments dominate on the CD's and whether the sound is "background" style--not too dramatic, low, relaxing--or "foreground" style--more dramatic, orchestral, interpretive? And, what types of hymns are represented in the collections--a Reformed tilt? More of a Sankey tilt? Etc. Does anyone have the Hendrickson collection of instrumental hymns? It's piano, guitar, and strings, and I am wondering how much violin or other high-pitched strings there are on it. Thanks! (Seeking "backgroundy" and "classic/traditional" and nothing high-pitched!)

John and Tina Gilbert, I believe, from these boards, use this program and have posted about it. If they don't see the thread and chime in you could maybe look them up and pm them. KLOUMC has used it, after Great Latin Adventure, and likes it. I don't know if she uses the video, but she likes the text.

Yes!--I think I see monster-making in my future, too. They're great. Same lady has Blue Thing she makes costumes for--like Blue Thing dressed as a cupcake--how anyone thinks of these things amazes me--they are hysterical. And not too hard to make. Have fun!

This isn't a book but as far as a project, for girls a scrunchie is a great first project. Cut fabric 5" by 25", seam along the long edge, turn using a huge safety pin, run elastic through (1/4" or 1/2" wide), tie in a loose knot, check fit, tighten knot to right diameter for elastic, overlap ends, hand-stitch closed. Either fold under one raw edge before overlapping, or, before you stitch the long seam, fold back one edge. Stretch velvet is great, and you can get it cheap from fashionfabricsonline.com--it looks elegant and stays in the hair--but quilting cotton works too. Wearing two at once looks nice: gather some of the hair into a high upper ponytail, then all the hair into a lower ponytail. For boys, here's a blog with some ideas: http://southernseven.blogspot.com/2009/06/sewing-projects-for-boys.html Boys can also do elastic-waist shorts or pants early on; make them interesting w/ great fabric or with a wide stripe down the side or across the top out of different fabric. For all children, here's a list of links to some good ideas. Love the crazy doodle monster for hand sewing!: http://www.freeneedle.com/directory.php?directory=Children%20Learn%20to%20Sew! For girls, how to sew a skirt when you're five years old (from the above set of links at freeneedle) :http://www.ikatbag.com/2010/04/how-to-sew-skirt-when-you-are-5-years.html This lady has great projects and is a wonderful writer. I googled sewing projects for boys and came up with these and more leads. I LOVE books but sometimes blogs have wonderful big photos etc . . . Have fun! Also--if gutsy fabrics appeal to your son--of course there's denim etc. but also there are outerwear fabrics online at places like Seattle Fabrics (or some such name--a big outerwear place, definitely Seattle). He could make a storage sack out of ripstop nylon to take things to the beach or camping, etc. They have neat cords, cord locks, heavy zippers, grommets etc.--everything to make gutsy looking stuff. (You could put grommets in the bag to hang it on a hook--just because . . .) Enjoy!

You might also want to look at Getting Started with Latin, for a very slow and incremental approach with one word or concept per short chapter; works well for a range of ages; search here for issues on what to follow it with Great Latin Adventure, for detailed grammar explanations, lots of worksheets, derivative work and English-to-Latin translation; it's perfect for 6th and good for challenged 8th; lots of things follow it well Latin Road to English Grammar should also work for your sons' ages and is more of a notebooking program, with an emphasis on grammar; it has four levels or so, so you don't have to figure out what to follow it with, at least not for a long time Did anyone mention Latin Prep? You might also enjoy this thread on what to look for in a program. Happy hunting! I think you'll have no problem combining your two into one program. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=357753&page=2 BTW, would you want to elaborate on your older boy's syntax issues? Also, have you done any English grammar programs with him?

GVA, could you tell us some more about the philosophy of LNST--in the levels you were teaching--and how it related to your own language-teaching experience/views? I think LNST changes its approach from inductive to deductive at some point in the series . . .

Most of the Christian content of The Great Latin Adventure is in the derivative sentences. I believe a secular user on this board may have used it without the derivative work. I don't know how that worked out for her. The derivative work can be pulled out of the program, since nothing in the grammar and translation depends on it, and it's on separate pages. The whole program is loose-leaf so it's easy to just remove the derivative worksheets. That just leaves some derivative sentence questions on the chapter quizzes. But then you do lose the benefits of the derivative work.

Paler should work, or I think that in Photoshop, maybe even in Photoshop Elements--certainly Illustrator--it might be possible to convert to dotted. But I like your paler idea. A very soft, grayed-down color should work. Actually, it may be impossible in Photoshop to do a simple conversion but you could actually use the erase tool to just erase part of each letter in a dashed pattern. Or, Here's a low-tech idea I found online: "If it can't be done on a computer, you could print it out nice and big NOT dashed, trace over it with light paper and a pen, making it into dashes, then photocopy it or scan it. Seems kind of old fashioned, but it must be how they did this "in the old days" (I remember those dashed letters to trace over in school and I started first grade 1947-50) Sometimes maybe the old- paper and pen/pencil way might be fastest and simplest." I think the writer had a point there! Happy experimenting.

Probably this has been mentioned but Hillsdale is providing a ten-week (ten-lecture) condensed version of a class they teach on campus. The videos are archived online. http://constitution.hillsdale.edu/ They are now saying "last chance to register."

I vote for predicate adjective and agree that it's playing the same role as "finished" would, which makes it easier to see that it's a p.a. For it to be an adverb it would have to be describing how the past-tense being was occurring, parallel to a (rare) sentence like this one: "the castle simple was, proudly and eternally, on the lonely point." I think it's pretty unusual for a being verb to get that kind of treatment. Also the "put the adjective before the subject and see if it sounds right" is a helpful test, but like many tests it won't catch everything. Some adjectives won't sound right b/c of what kind of adjective they are and how we normally use them. But again w/ this sentence, "finished storm" helps us see what "over storm" would really mean; we just don't happen to use "over" as an adjective adjacent to the noun in that way. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm guessing that "over" as an adjective is always used predicatively! Fun question!

Do you want to translate in both directions, or just Latin to English? Also--is your dd13 accelerated or challenged in language? (I noticed the Temple Grandin reference). God bless as you guide her--I read one of Temple's books and saw the movie, and her life is astonishing.

Hi, all-- I've been experiencing major speed issues with the forum for a number of weeks now (pages taking ten or fifteen seconds to load, doesn't sound so awful till you try to jump around to many pages) and have read that some others are experiencing speed issues as well. SWB is providing to us, free to us, a great resource. I'm wondering if we happy users, in our great multitudinousness, might be overwhelming the available bandwidth. Moderators? Is this the speed problem? Members, if helping SWB to finance more bandwidth by paying to belong to this forum would solve the speed problem, would you want to? There are lots of us; maybe the moolah needed wouldn't be huge . . . Other info or thoughts?

For foreign language Latin would make a great preparation for German since they are both inflected . . . rather than alternate semesters (I think that could be rough on the retention front) what about Latin for several years and then German for several years? Doing both together later if your daughter's interests tilt towards languages, but not both quite yet? I studied Latin before Russian and it was a great sequence. Latin first, then Latin and French at the same time for a while, then Russian . . . so there is time for two languages in high school . . . but getting started with one and then adding the second may be easier for both of you.

Thanks, Elizabeth! I'll pass this lead on to my friend. If Elizabeth is still reading . . . do you like the Wiki source better than http://abasiccurriculum.com/homeschool/roots/roma/ ? I don't think she's going to get her definitions, and I think she'll be reconciled to that knowing the Hive has been asked! Thanks again E. and anyone else with a lead . . .

Chronically chilly and hard to fit and sensitive to synthetics . . . I have been having trouble finding sweaters and thinking of a knitting machine. I know how to hand knit and have basic hand-knit designing skills (can decide what shape I want pattern pieces to be, figure out number of stitches and rows using gauge calculations, etc.) I do tend to be prone to repetitive-motion injuries. I'm willing to read manuals and learn. Thoughts on whether I'd sprain a shoulder or elbow? (Trust me . . . I've sprained things crocheting . . . ) Is it hard to force the sliding gizmo back and forth? Or reasonable, just don't do it for four hours? Has anyone bought the Ultimate Knitting Machine (on sale currently at Joann)? Does it do a good job w/ worsted weight and above? Does the purl side look just the way the purl side does in hand knit? Thanks, anyone!