Sometime this past winter I was browsing this forum and found a post with someone listing a weekly science project they had put together to go with SOTW vol 1. I remember thinking it was AWESOME, but didn't think more than that because I would be doing year 3 this coming year. Well we've switched up and decided to revisit year one again, and now I can't find the post! I"ve spent a good 1/2 hour trying different search terms and come up with nothing. Anyone else remember seeing this (or is it you?) and can help me find it again? Thanks! Amy

We just read Cheaper by the DOzen as a family read -aloud, and I was "inspired" by the family's listening to phonographs of foreign languages in the bathroom. :-). I used to teach Spanish, so I'm capable of adding it in to our our regular curriculum when the time comes, but I'm not ready to dedicate my instruction time to it for another year or so, after everyone in the family is reading. But to "jump-start" things, I was thinking of having some CD's we might just put on that they could listen to and repeat, particularly with native speakers. (i.e. INDEPENDENTLY!!!) Any suggestions? I want listening, not computer. I forgot to mention our children's ages are 7, 5, and 3. thanks! Amy

We are Christian. I appreciate lots of Charlotte Mason. That's why I generally call myself "eclectic classical Christian " when I describe our style, as I've drawn things from multiple sources that suit our family. What is the name of the group you're talking about? The only one I know of is Classical Conversations. Did I somehow miss a group here?

I have to admit I'm learning history along with my children as we do SOTW. I'm LOVING it, and wish I had had this experience as a child. As I read through the text and then check out various resources from the library, it becomes apparent that history is all in the eye of the teller. I'm finding conflicting information and various perspectives. Since our classical approach places a high emphasis on source documents, I'm wondering if anyone knows of a reader geared toward adults that would collate various historical documents / sources to help us piece through where all the information comes from. To give an example, we are in SOTW vol 2 this year. It says the Barbarians that invaded Rome were called Barbarians because they didn't take baths, live in homes, or cook their food. I'm not ​d​oubting this information (I'm making the judgement to generally trust SWB as a source, having chosen the curriculum). However, I'm just wondering where the evidence comes from on either side. A child's book we got from the library painted the Barbarians in a positive light and the Romans as the "bad guys," mentioning that we are used to having history as told by the Romans, and their information was wrong. Now I understand that the Romans and the Barbarians probably saw the same events through two different perspectives. I'm comfortable with that. What I'm wondering is as a historian, where does this information come from that is used to make these judgements? How can I tell what details have source documentation and what is more conjecture? Obviously, I don't have time to work through (or even know where to find) these sources, but I wonder if there is a layman's source document reader that might have some of these sources so we could look at them? Something like the Norton Literature Anthologies, but with Historical documents. Anyone have any suggestions for me? I have to know how to approach these books when they conflict with one another. Amy

I'm always looking to find other LOCAL homeschoolers who might have similar philosophies. We live in Oak Park IL and have 3 children: 7, almost 5, and 2. We live in a large enough area that I assume they are out there, so I thought I'd post on this board. We aren't part of a coop (the local coop around here that I have found is a classical conversations group. Though we utilize their timeline, since I didn't want to use their materials exclusively as our "spine", we decided not to take up one day each week for a coop, though I'm always torn on whether we should have done that just for the social aspect. ) But I assume there MUST be others in this general area with a WTM framework we might network with . . . If you're out there, I'd love to hear from you :-) Up for networking with those in Chicago proper or other Western suburbs too. wamly, Amy ​

We are not in CC and use the timeline cards. I only use the timeline as the "pegs" for a general overview of history. We add 7 cards a week and do them during breakfast. When our stack is too big to do them all weekly, we do a smaller segment and then do the whole thing one time a week. As a previous poster mentioned, I don't expect them to line up with what we are doing in SOTW because I just want the general chronology to sink in (even without knowing who the people / events are). I want to get through the whole timeline each year, even though we are only studying more in-depth a segment each year. When we get to these in our studies, they already have a framework. I think the pictures are super helpful in helping with the memory, and they are beautiful. We will be on our second year doing it this year. Amazingly, my 4 year old memorized the whole thing (with the picture prompts), no problem. I'm still working on it lol! I like the information on the back also; I plan to use this with our older children, focusing on the reading the backs just on the ones where we will be this year. I still use the SOTW review cards, but they aren't as good for just memorizing. So though I don't think that the CC cycles necessarily match well with SOTW (one of the reasons we aren't actually doing CC), I still see their timeline as a valuable resource. There is a Christian emphasis, but if there were certain cards that bothered you, I suppose you could take them out or prompt your children on what you wanted them to say instead. And I also really think something physical is much better than an app (but I'm a Luddite that way :-)

Does anyone know of a math facts (addition, subtraction) CD resource that has just a voice recording? I know I can make this myself, hypothetically, but I'm at the stage in planning where I don't have the time, so just want to buy something. I DON'T want cheesy tunes or classical music (as I'm afraid that will ruin many of a wonderful song:-). Thanks!

I'm doing my final ordering for the school year. I'm trying to add some independent reading for my 1st grader. We are on SOTW volume 2, and she reads about 2nd grade level (whatever that is :-). I was considering buying some of their readers, but I'm a bit hesitant on the "historical fiction" part. Does anyone have any experience on how heavy these are on the fiction vs. the historical? I do want the characters to come alive for my daughter, but want to be careful about adding in too much conjecture during the grammar stage when she will take everything as fact. Anyone used these or have something else to recommend? Thanks!

First of all, look at all you are accomplishing in a day! Take a minute to see all that you ARE getting accomplished. Secondly, I have similar ages along with a toddler, so I completely understand the difficulties that causes (I just put up a thread with similar questions). The one suggestion I would offer in your situation would be to make your toddler's nap time a more non-negotiable thing. At our house we have rest time for all three kids, non-negotiable from 1pm - 3pm. Sometimes I call the eldest down early to do work with me, but taking a rest just isn't an option. I don't care if they sleep or not (though my guess is that your toddler probably will still often need to sleep) To get your toddler in on this routine will be easiest if you still have a crib (because he or she will be contained). They are old enough at this age to explain what you are doing, and that they must stay. Start with a shorter time (say 1/2 hour), and give them books or things to look at. They may be upset the WHOLE time. But after a week or so (maybe a bit longer) they will get used to the routine, and understand it to be a quiet time. My eldest produces some of her best art and does much a lot of thinof her independent reading during this time. It might seem like your child wouldn't sleep or be quiet, but I (almost) promise that if you stick with it long enough you can carve out a longer period of time to work on things with your older children AND have a more rested toddler. Just my thoughts. Even without this though, it sounds like you have a LOT you get done every day :-)

I'm sure this topic has been covered before, but I'm new and didn't find anything in the recent posts. I'm gearing up for year 2 homeschooling and have a 7 year old girl, 4 1/2 year old girl, and 2 year old boy. How do I keep up with the work I need to do with the 7 year old and still find ways to do all the simple interactions/play I have cherished with the younger ages? I'm wondering how to not force the younger ones to "grow up" too soon just because the oldest is doing school work. I have NOT found it possible to just do schoolwork with the older and have the younger two play. The oldest can't bear the fact that someone else is having fun without her :-), and the younger two really want to be involved in what the oldest is doing. My current plan is to do morning time with things that everyone can engage in (SOTW seems great for this because of the coloring pages and activities, science reading, music appreciation, art, and handwriting (even the littlest can sit at the table and scribble). It isn't ideal, because the 2yo still gets into EVERYTHING, but we do our best. Then during afternoon rest time I do FLL, spelling, and reading practice with the oldest (we just finished OPGTR). I'm not quite sure where to put math in; ideally I would like it in the morning, but seems hard to do with a 2yo around, mainly because he distracts MY concentration :-)). I see the above as a doable schedule (it is sort of what we did last year and everyone survived . . . and even seemed to enjoy). But though this amount of structure is great for the oldest and okay for the middle, I still feel that I'm losing something by not having the time to just play on the floor with cars and dinosaurs with the youngest . . . the time to just "be" and not miss out on the special 2 year old year (I know I'm odd, but I actually really like that age) The answer for this is NOT "just do those things when you are done with school" because you all know that after school stuff is done there is still laundry, cooking, and all the other household stuff that still has to happen . . . somehow. The older kids still like doing many of those little kid things, but there is really only so much time. And any hints on how to get the 4year old and 2 year old to play by themselves without needing help would be great too. I'm just feeling that tension that when most people have a younger kid/baby, their eldest are starting school. So each child gets the age-appropriate focus. I feel like I'm going to have to sacrifice something, either the academics on the older or the little-kid stuff on the younger.

I just joined this board. I live in Oak Park Illinois. I'm hoping to connect with some other homeschoolers in our area with similar philosophies/teaching. Any way for me to see who on this list might live near me? Thanks!