1. Map Aids -- This is our 1st year with TOG. What we've experienced with Map Aids is that occasionally there will be a city to include on the map but the map that you print out does not have that area printed. Last week we were supposed to label Tarshish on our outline map along with several other cities in Assyria & Israel. The outline map included part of the Mediterranean Sea then headed east, showing the land area and rivers as far as the Persian Gulf. Tarshish is apparently in southern Spain so there was no land area to label it. The teacher's key showed it labeled in the Mediterranean with an arrow pointing west to show that you'd find it that way. This has happened a few times, so now I preview the maps making sure I can find everything in the atlas, before I give them to my kids. If something is missing I don't have them label that area but discuss where that city would be if necessary. 2. D & R Questions -- I can only speak to D as I don't have any R level students. There are times in ancients (that's the only level I'm familiar with) where my kids haven't been able to able to answer some of the questions. When I give them their questions, I tell them to let me know if they have any trouble finding the answers. If this happens, I may try to go through the books with them to see if they just missed it. Or I may tell them to leave it blank and we'll go over it at discussion time. I feel like I have a head's up about these things in the teacher's notes though, as they'll usually say something about how there's not a lot of information on ________. 3. I haven't found it too hard to use or plan, but it is definitely more time consuming than other programs I've used. I've found I do need to plan. Most things I've used in the past have been more open and go with me discovering things alongside the kids. With this I feel I need to prepare. I think it's because they're reading most things on their own vs. read alouds, so I have to prepare myself in order to know what's going on for discussion time. As far as time consuming for the student, it depends on your student and the week. My 6th grader reads much more quickly than my 7th grader so he gets his reading done more easily. This week though, there isn't a lot of outside reading for the period of ancient history we're covering. It's almost all O.T. reading. When I looked it over each boy would need to read over 200 verses per day to get the work completed. Even though it's the bible, it's just too much for my kids. We're splitting this week up over 2 weeks so that they can move along at a comfortable yet challenging pace. This will be the second time I've done this. Most other weeks I've felt the work load was fine.

I finished Strong-Willed Child or Dreamer? this week. It took me a little longer to get into this book since the last 3 non-fictions I've read told more of a story about some real life event. This felt much more clinical after those although it's not dry by any means. I requested it from the library after reading about it on one of the threads here. I read it with one son in mind for the "dreamer" part. It actually had nothing to do with that boy but described a different one to a T. And I wouldn't think of that child as particularly strong-willed or a dreamer. As I read I kept thinking, "So that's why he does that." The funny thing is, it also decribed me as a child and teen so you'd have thought I would have a better a handle on him! This week I'm reading Outliers.

Here's my first ever!

I have the G2. I don't talk on my cell phone much and don't send many texts, but I love the Internet feature. I was able to download an app that makes my phone serve as a wireless internet connection. This was the reason I opted for this type of phone. Now while I'm waiting for my son at his guitar lesson I can hook my phone into my laptop and have internet access. I also do this when my kids are in their co-op classes and I have some free time. I LOVE it! :)

I bought Harmony Art Mom's program and have been very pleased with it. We're doing Ancient Art and the Orchestra. It's listed for grades 5-8 but I'm including my 4th grader in the mix. She also has grammar level and rhetoric level. Her program gives you 3 options for art. In "Ancient Art and the Orchestra" Option 1 is straight picture study so if that's all you want to do, you can do that. The program has links to the artwork to study that you then print out. The 2nd option is for art appreciation and learning to draw. She does this through a variety of books you can purchase or get through the library. The 3rd option uses Artistic Pursuits. You get all three options when you purchase the curriculum. You decide which option you would like to use. I saw on her web site that she mentions using Artistic Pursuits & Drawing with Children in different programs she offers. Since you already own these you might be interested in one of them since she has the weekly plans all set up for you. You can also view sample pages there.

I can relate to where you're coming from. My oldest has always struggled with math to the point where I've also wondered if he has some sort of disability. He has gotten a little better now that but there are still times we struggle. You mentioned that you had posted about your math concerns in some prior posts. I went and looked at those so I could better understand where you're coming from. In one of them you mentioned being dissatisfied with how the ps system worked with your oldest daughter. Maybe it would help to write out a list of all the things you remember that frustrated you about that situation. For me, I'll have all these thoughts swirling around in my head but if I get them on paper where I can look at them one a time, it helps me see things more clearly. Maybe you'll see something there that will make you say, "Oh, I forgot about that. No way am I going through that again!" Even if nothing dramatic stands out to you, at least you'll have an idea of what concerns you might want to discuss with the IEP people. I've come to a place where I accept that math may never be my son's strong point. Don't take me wrong, I'm not giving up on him, but it's just not where he shines. So he does his math, I help him as needed, and we move on. He has a set time limit -- at 13 he must work on math for 45 minutes, when he was 8, I would have had him work for 20 or 25 minutes. If you decide to keep her home maybe you could try something like that. You'll probably have to sit with her for that amount of time, and help her when she get stuck, but at least you'll both know "it's only until the timer goes off." The rest of day you can focus on all the other things you want to cover and she can do some of the things where she truly shines. Whatever you decide, try not to make your decision based on fear. If you decide to enroll her in ps, have it be because you believe that is where she will get the best support she needs to learn, not because you're afraid that you're failing her. You love her and want what's best for her. You haven't failed her in any way :grouphug:.

We're using TOG Year 1. This is our first year. I have 2 boys in D and 1 in UG. Their ages are listed below.

I thought it was great. At times the story made me sad, other times angry. But the author did a great job of snapping me out of it when I needed it and reminding me where we are today. The book leaves you with some questions to mull over in the form of bio-ethics.

I finished The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks this week. It's my 3rd non-fiction so far, and the topics have been quite varied; from the bond market, to cooking, to biology. I was telling dh that I feel like I've been living inside a bubble and I'm finally getting a glimpse outside! Up next is Strong-Willed Child or Dreamer? by Dana Spears & Ron Braund. While I'm interested in the topic, it's not quite as engaging as the previous books have been. I hope I can keep up the pace and finish it by next weekend.

I turned out to be ISFJ. I think most of the descriptions describe me pretty well.

I kept mine all together at the ages that you listed. But if I had it to do it over again I would separate my oldest one out and give him more of a logic stage course. I'm guessing BJU would be something like this since it's geared for 6th grade. Last year "Artist" was in 6th grade. Some districts here have 6th grade in elementary and I wanted to do science together with everyone, so we used grammar level. This year we're doing logic stage science and he's really come alive. I think he was bored last year but just never said it. You could keep the younger two together and do the Apologia you mentioned with them. I'm not sure what's involved with BJU but we've done Apologia in the past (astronomy and zoology) and I don't remember it being too time consuming. I'm not sure how involved you'll need to be with BJU. I would think about what will give your oldest the right amount of challenge while keeping it interesting.

My parents do wholeheartedly. I think my in-laws do, but with a little reservation. It's my sister who has concerns. Now that mine are getting older she's always asking me if I plan to continue in high school. If I she senses any uncertainty from me she'll start in....What about the prom?....Z-man would love to be in school; he's so social....How are you going to teach high school science and all those hard math classes? So I've resorted to telling her that we're just taking it one year at a time. This is true in a sense, since you never know what the future holds. Although my hope is to homeschool all they way through.

We love this Turkey Enchilada Casserole. Yummmm!!!

I've read through 1x about 5 years ago. Based on some conversations with my dad I felt I needed to know what the whole thing said, from beginning to end. Since then, I just read here and there. At some point I would like to read through it again in chronological order rather than the canonical order that's present in most bibles.

I read Faithful Place by Tana French. It was my first fiction book this year so it was nice to have a change of pace. The book is a murder mystery set in Ireland. The author used what I guessed to be Irish brogue occasionally which made the dialogue a bit challenging at times. It also had quite a bit of foul language which caught me off guard since I read so much non-fiction. Despite these drawbacks, I enjoyed the book. This week I'm back to non-fiction with The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks.

We updated our kitchen this summer and my new dishwasher has a display that tells me how many minutes until the cycle is done. This is one feature that I love.

Latin in the younger years didn't work for us either. We ended up shelving it. My oldest, a 7th grader, is taking Latin 1 at our co-op this year. It seems to be a good fit. I am doing the homework also because I want to learn Latin and it is time consuming. I don't know what it would be like to be teaching it to him myself. You mentioned that you have a full plate right now but could try to fit it in. For me, that would make me stressed and my feelings would probably flow over into the teaching of the Latin and that would taint his perception of Latin. You may be different and things like that may make you rise to the occasion. I've just learned the hard way that too much doesn't work well for me, so I'd encourage you to ask yourself that question. For our family I plan to have each boy begin Latin in 7th grade and continue in 8th grade. Once we reach 9th, they'll have the option to continue taking Latin for high school credit or switch to Spanish. That's how it looks on paper anyway! I don't know that this really answers your question but if you decide to wait until high school to start Spanish you won't be alone. Also, you might try posting this on the high school board to see if you get some "I wish I would have...." responses.

We do science 2x a week. We started ClassiQuest Biology after the break. Today will be the first day of week 3. It's taking about 90 minutes each time. So far I really like it, but it's still early in the game. :)

I feel much the same way. When my kids have friends over, I think of it as "break time" for me. Imagine my horror when my kid was the one being needy at someone else's house! It was a couple of years ago. A friend offered to keep my boys while I had an appt. I was gone about 2 hours. When I got back, there she was, playing a card game with my oldest. They'd been playing about half an hour! I know her quite well....she's a lot like me....this card game wasn't her idea!!! I got the kids rounded up and into the car then went back in and apologized profusely. She was really nice about it but I still felt terrible. My son had no clue that this was even remotely strange. :lol:

I finished The Art of Eating In. It was on the Serious Eats site as one of the top ten cookbooks for 2010. I ordered it through the library thinking it would be your typical cookbook....lots of photos and recipes. It turned out to be a book about a 20-something New Yorker who quit going to restaurants for 2 years and learned to cook. There's a couple of recipes at the end of each chapter but the book is about how her life changes as a part of this experiment. It's definitely a story and not what I'd consider a cookbook. Having said that, it was an enjoyable read and I learned about some subjects that I'd never heard of: freeganism, urban foraging, and underground supper clubs, to name a few. Now it's time for some fiction after two weeks of non. This week I'm reading Faithful Place by Tana French.

Sorry Dawn, I hope my post didn't make you think that's what I meant. We left SL because it was becoming clear I would need to 2 different cores with my kids and I really didn't want to do that, not because I thought SL was inferior. At that point I jumped over to WP which worked out well for the first year but bombed the second, so we switched to TOG. My agreement with BlsdMama was because we definitely noticed a change in book styles when we switched. I didn't mean for it to sound like it was superior to SL. I wanted to let the OP know that the styles are different so a student may need time to adjust to that. At rhetoric level there is a lot more volume so trying to adjust to a new style at the same time you're increasing volume may be overwhelming for a student...and Mom! Sorry if I offended anyone.

:iagree: We switched to TOG in March...middle of the year I know, but it was time. Prior to that we had done Sonlight for 3 years and Winter's Promise for 1.5. It was an adjustment, especially for oldest son. In the beginning we really missed the books we were used to from Sonlight and WP and I questioned whether or not had I made the right choice. But I did want ds to be able to read to find answers to specific questions. It has been a stretch for him, especially when the answer to the question is more inferred by the reading than specifically spelled out. It's taken time and hand holding but he's getting there. I'm glad we made the jump at dialectic stage rather than rhetoric. My next son, 11 yo, can make these connections much easier so it depends on the child. There is still great literature included in TOG it just seems to be different from the types of lit we read for Sonlight and WP. I saw your considering starting with a unit. I think that's a great way to get your feet wet and see how you like the curriculum.

I voted yes, especially since you mentioned you don't get much snow. It doesn't snow a lot here so when it does, I'll usually give a snow day. I remember loving that as a kid and I want my kids to have the same memories. Plus, all the neighborhood kids are out playing in the snow and they want to join in. But, they just get the first day off for snow. If it happens to hang around the next day, it's back to business as usual :).

We went with Teaching Textbooks. He had been doing MUS for about 3 or 4 years but it was never smooth. I had him sample Saxon and CLE but he didn't like those formats. I had him preview Chalkdust because of the video aspect but he didn't care for the teacher. TT was the only one that he was open to. So far it's worked out pretty well!

I finished The Big Short by Michael Lewis. The subject matter was much more complicated than I expected. I learned a lot about the bond market but I don't know that I could carry on an intelligent conversation about it :D. This week I'm reading The Art of Eating In by Cathy Erway.