R&S Spelling is not teacher intensive at all. I give them a quiz once a week and that's it. Two of my kids are using R&S spelling at the moment and I have been very happy with it.

96.97% - I missed one of the economics questions.

Master Ninja Theme Song! ('cause those Van Patten Brothers are so headstrong)

I enter every new book purchase I make into Homeschool Tracker Plus. I categorize them in the "Grade Level" field. For example, if I buy a book for TOG, I list it as "Year 3 LG" or "Year 2 D" in the field that asks for the book's grade level. It also lets you categorize your books by school subject, but I haven't played around with trying to generate a list from that field. I like that I can enter my new purchases by typing in the ISBN number. The book list is searchable, and I try to check it before making a new purchase to avoid buying doubles of something I have already. (I have been known to forget that, though.)

I'm using Phonics Museum for the third go-around now. All three kids enjoyed the readers and did fine with it. My son enjoyed the puzzle pieces for building words. My daughters enjoyed the songs on the CD. They all enjoyed the pop-up "museum" with the paintings to hang for each letter. I used it as written with my firstborn (minus the card games). I eased up a bit with my second and third children and only pull out the Teacher's Manual occasionally. The readers are on the long side. I think in a classroom situation, they are supposed to be read round-robin style. With my kids, I took turns reading the books with them. They read 2 pages, I read 2 pages. I'm glad I bought it and on the whole, I don't have any complaints with it.

We're in the middle of our third year of using TOG. We're still doing Year 2 because I am doing it at a half pace so I could add in more books for my eldest. My school-aged kids are 11, 8, and 5. I don't like to rely on the library, so I buy all the Dialectic books for my 11 yo. For my 8 yo., I read the SOTW chapters from the Alternate resources page in TOG. I will sometimes give my 5 yo. coloring pages from the SOTW Activity Guide. I try to buy a mix of LG and UG books for each week that look interesting if I can afford them, but I lean on SOTW and the Activity Guide pretty heavily for my 8 yo. My 5 yo. is really just along for the ride :001_smile:. As for the "buffet": My 11 yo. takes notes on her readings for the week to be ready for our discussion time on Tuesdays. I give her the reading assignments for the week and let her divide up the readings herself. She does her literature worksheet on Wednesday, map work on Thursday, and the history quiz from Evaluations on Fridays (I make this "open book".) My kids work on their lapbook on Mondays together. I assign writing assignments if I think they look interesting, but I don't use TOG as our primary writing program. I don't give my 8 yo. very many of the Student pages to complete. I consider SOTW the core of his history work. I'm not a project mom, so I skip all of the mom-intensive "fun" history projects. My 11 yo. is fairly independent. I check her worksheets and discuss the readings with her. I assign her a grade based on the quarterly exams from Evaluations. I read everything with my 8 yo.

Rainbow ships faster than CBD for me, but then I'm in Illinois...

I just loaded our crockpot with stew for tonight: Potato and Bratwurst Stew 1 pound browned bratwurst 1 quart chicken broth 6 peeled and cubed potatoes 1 diced yellow bell pepper 2 diced carrots 2 stalks of celery, diced 2 medium onions, diced 1 bottle beer 1 teaspoon garlic powder 1 teaspoon poultry seasoning 1 tablespoon parsley flakes 1 teaspoon salt 1/2 teaspoon black pepper Place all ingredients in the crockpot on HIGH for 3 hours or until vegetables are tender. One hour before serving, combine 1 1/2 cups of half and half with 1/4 cup of flour and stir into soup. Cook for another hour on HIGH. I like to serve this soup in bread bowls.

My eldest completed LoF Fractions, Decimal and Percents, and both Pre-Algebra books concurrently with Singapore. I think we began them when she was in 4A/4B or 5A/5B. She did the Pre-Algebra books last year while working through 6A/6B. My dd enjoyed the story and likes math, so she didn't mind the extra work. She usually did one lesson from the Fred books each day after her normal math assignment. I didn't schedule it. She just worked through them on her own as an optional assignment. She would sometimes skip Fred if her Singapore assignment was especially long.

With my second grader, I read the Bible, SOTW, and usually a chapter from a literature book, to him. He reads his science assignment to himself, and then answers questions orally. I usually have him read a chapter from a literature book or a history book on his reading level. He reads his grammar lessons from R&S, but I go over the directions with him for the written part of the assignment to avoid any confusion. He writes out his answers. My ds prefers that I read everything to him, but I am trying wean him off of that.

My kids love science. For Kindergarten, I use Singapore's Start Up Science series. I use Rod and Staff's elementary series for the Grammar stage. I sometimes add in a few books I think are interesting. I keep lots of science books around the house for free-reading. I tried Ellen McHenry's chemistry curriculum but I was a bit disappointed with it in the end. It was fun, but I felt some of the assignments were a waste of time. My dd liked it though. My eldest is now finishing up Apologia General Science. I know textbook based science is not the most popular route, but it has worked well for us. My ds jumps with glee when it is time to do R&S science. He much prefers doing narration of his science reading to doing narration of his history reading... I just asked my dd the other day if she was happy with Apologia and got an enthusiastic "Yes!".

Image Grammar sounds intriguing. Time to buy yet another book! :tongue_smilie:

Has anyone used the Body of Evidence DVD series from Answers in Genesis with a middle schooler? I'm thinking of supplementing the human body related modules in Apologia General Science with these DVDs. Any reviews?:bigear:

donnayoung.org is where I found mine. However, I tried to go to her site just now and it wouldn't load. Perhaps it is down for maintenance?

Rhetoric in the Classical Tradition by Winifred Horner. I found it used for less than $5, so I figured it might be a place to start. Plus, I think I've seen it mentioned favorably on this board before. I'm hoping to get my hands on a copy of D'Angelo's soon. So pricey...

My dd is working through the Introductory Logic book by Nance this year. She is really enjoying it. She likes logic so much she even expressed interest in working through my old college Symbolic Logic book when she hits high school. Congrats on self-educating ahead of your son :001_smile: I'm working through a textbook on Rhetoric here myself. I need more hours in my day...

I let my dd use her calculator occasionally starting last year when she was studying pre-algebra topics. She is doing Algebra this year and she is technically allowed to use her calculator unless her lesson says otherwise. I don't think she uses it much though.

I don't know where one would buy one now (since mine is 15 years old), but I have a leather bound Thompson Chain Reference that is in great condition (except for one page torn out of Isaiah...kid related damage :001_smile:). I remember mine had a slip in the gift box it came in that made a big deal out of the fact the binding was "Smyth Sewn". I don't know what that means, or if they make them that way anymore, but it might be something to ask of a bookseller about the Bible's construction.

If I am understanding your problem correctly (and forgive me if I am not), I have another reason to add as to why SM does it this way. In SM they emphasize that idea of two parts of a whole and it gets expanded later on in their bar diagram method of solving word problems. You draw bars and see how one number is a portion of another number and if you have some values for parts of the "bar", you can deduce the value for another part of the "bar". I illustrated this concretely in the earlier stages of SM using Cuisenaire rods so my kids can visualize a "missing" piece of a bar. Like lining up a 10 rod with a 4 rod and showing how a 6 rod would fit in the missing space. When SM gets into these bar diagram based word problems, you can see the method to their madness.

My son used to make "noises" (think game-style noises) every time he came up with an answer to a word problem in math. It's like he had his own battle theme. He does it less now...

I make mine show their work. You run into problems later when the problems become more complex if you don't. It is easier to make the process automatic while the math problems are easy than it is to reteach when the math problems are harder.

My dd has completed the vocabulary, writing and poetry for the Town level and we both loved it. I don't use the grammar portion because we are continuing with Rod and Staff English. I won't let go of diagramming, although my dd has easily picked up MCT's 4-level analysis. We dabbled in the Practice Town book, but in the end I dropped it because it seemed redundant. I guess I can't really say whether it is complete or not because of the supplementing we do. Rod and Staff is really a complete LA (though no vocabulary). However, my dd ENJOYED doing MCT, so we kept at it. We are continuing with the Voyage level this year. I am much more impressed with Essay Voyage than I was with Paragraph Town, but that may be because my dd was already well-versed in writing paragraphs before we began the program. My favorite part of MCT is the vocabulary. It is much better than the programs we've tried in the past. My dd loves the poetry books. I am still on the fence about continuing on to Advanced Academic Writing next year based on some of the things I've read on this board, but I have no clue what to switch to if we left MCT behind. MCT clicks with my dd. I like Mr. Thompson's overall writing philosophy. We may continue on in spite of my reservations and tweak if necessary. I plan to stick with his vocabulary because I can't argue with the results we have had with it.

John Brown's Body by Stephen Vincent Benet

Blackthorn Winter

I like to keep grades for our core subjects. We live in an easy record-keeping state at the moment, but I've had to move too many times over the years to take staying here for granted :001_smile:. I also have a dd who is not very motivated by a letter grade. On the one hand, I find this admirable, but on the other hand I want to get her used to being evaluated before the grade keeping counts for college admissions. I kind of like the idea of using a more mainstream math program for testing mastery of basic algebra instead of mastery of "competition" algebra, but I'm concerned about trying to match up topics. I have copies of Dolciani (newer edition) and NEM that I could try to draw problems from. <sigh> Lots to think about. Thanks for the suggestions, Regentrude and Lewelma :001_smile:.