The funny thing is that IEW scares me a little. I think largely because I don't know what it's supposed to be doing--I've never sat down and tried to understand it. I use CW (we're starting Homer), and my experience has been that it takes me a while to wrap my brain around what they're trying to do, but once I sit down and study it out (with Homer I made an outline!), then it becomes pretty straightforward and not hard to do. Someone here said the key to Homer was rearranging it into skill levels instead of days, and that was just magic for me. Trying to read through about 10 skill levels for Day 1 before getting to the next day just made things confusing, so I wrote out just what we were going to do first: Skill Level 1 through all 4 days. Then SK2, then 3. Voila, it was much simpler than I had thought!

We didn't really like them; the lessons were very long and we found we could do fine without them.

I'd have school from, say, 9-12 for the oldest one, with a good break in the middle, or two short ones at 10 and 11. I have two kids, 9 and 6, so mine will look a bit different. But I usually send them out to at least run up and down the street or something in the middle of the morning. My oldest thinks 'recess' means "reading break," so I always have to throw her out and tell her to get some fresh air.

We do sing hymns, but I want to teach some of them to my kids more directly this year. I went through our hymnal and made a list of the ones I want to teach, plus a few classics we don't have. I'd love suggestions for a few more--what are the 'classic' hymns in your denominations, everybody? Can you link to the previous thread on this topic?:001_smile:

I fell in love with skirtys and sewed some myself. They have been a great success. Here's a picture:

I'll triple-state this. We never bothered much with the spelling, though I'm looking forward to introducing etymology this year in Homer. We did a lot of the grammar orally, since we got it in R+S as well. I focused a lot on copia and writing.

Really? Where? I'm only up to beginning Homer, but I'm a little surprised--maybe it was in the context of a fairy tale? There are some fairy tales, like Princess and the Pea. Have you got a link? (I'm just curious, I don't object to fictional evil wizards.)

If your son is 14, I would say to look at Older Beginners. CW also has a message board where you can ask the authors about this stuff. I love CW, but it took me a lot of study time to wrap my brain around what they're trying to do. It's pretty intensive. I'm not sure what ultra-conservatives could find in CW to object to; it's all classic tales and such. But there are myths.

The Greek is really for fun, we don't do much and the kids both like it a lot. I do plan to drop any R&S writing in favor of CW (which I adore and dd likes), and I've never bothered with spelling in CW--she's one of those kids who doesn't have to exert effort in spelling, so she does the spelling worksheet pages on Monday and we forget about it until a quiz on Friday. I will think about dropping WW, but will see how she likes it--I went and ordered some things yesterday morning that won't come for another month and that's one of them. The art and music I want to be pretty casual--just to know what the main things since 1850 have been. I plan to listen to the Beatles in the car in the spring. :D Well, of course I plan to ease into our schedule, as we always do--so I guess I'll see how it goes. It's a good idea to plan things after lunch that I don't have to be so actively involved in.

Hah, I can relate! I was really looking forward to VBS--which is at another church, ours doesn't do it--and when I called up to register, my friend who runs the office there offered me her job for the VBS week while she was out of state! We really need the money, so I jumped at it, but those hours won't come again until next year...

Of course I do! I love my family to death, but sometimes I could just kill for a day or two alone. I sometimes tell my husband that I'm going to go hibernate for a while, and disappear into the bedroom with a book and a snack.

I'd start with ancients. Have fun!

My daughter is 9 and reasonably bright. Last year, in 3rd grade, we could never accomplish quite as much as I wanted to do before lunch, and it was difficult for me to enforce study time after lunch as we did chores and had quiet time and prepared to go out for the afternoon. I feel that in 4th grade, she's old enough to be doing more and more serious work, and I need to commit to having study time after lunch every day. (I'm sort of wondering what the lack of quiet time will do to my sanity, but we'll see.) At the same time, though, the workload I have planned seems like a lot to me! There's just so much good stuff to do.... So help me out, hive mind: for a bright, crafty kid who reads very well indeed (and fast) and has no learning-related difficulties, how does this sound to you? Math: Saxon 65 (I tend to lighten up the lessons a bit and go a little slowly) Spelling: SW E (this is no actual effort) Vocab (new subject, but needed): Wordly Wise 4 Grammar: R&S 4 Writing: CW Homer/Poetry for Beginners Latin: LC II, very slowly Greek: Elem. Greek I, even more slowly and more for fun History: SOTW 4 + assigned reading, etc. Art and music appreciation to go with history, nothing very formal Science: Physics--2 experiments/week, + research 1/week and modern scientist biography 1/week. And the odd logic puzzle or geography work. On the one hand, it just seems like too much stuff. OTOH, I keep thinking of stuff I want to do and it's all so great! Argh.

I'm very excited about doing Classical Writing's Poetry for Beginners this year.

Thanks everyone. My 9yo adores paper crafts, so maybe I'll let her do it as an after-school fun thing. I do get her paper dolls sometimes too. It just looks to me that while the content is nice, it's a ton of cutting, pasting, and coloring.

I've just been given a History Pockets book on the Civil War. I think my duaghter would have a good time putting it together, but do you find that they are worth all the time of cutting and pasting and so on?

I'm not ready yet, but I'm very excited for school to start. I've been spending my spare time prepping!

Can someone tell me about Perplexors? I've never heard of them and they look interesting--I was about to buy Mind Benders for my 9yo but if these are better I want to know!

We did 5/4 last year and I did not let her do open book tests. We just went over the problems afterwards and looked at any mistakes--her weaknesses tend to be carelessness and quick recall of basic math facts.

Yes, I think he makes some excellent points. Science is one of the most difficult things to do well at home. I'll definitely be keeping these points in mind as my kids get older.

I don't know if your state has these, but California public school districts often offer independent study programs. Some are charters, some are from the offices of education, etc. They vary widely, but often give you money for school supplies and books, or lend you the books the local district uses. They might offer optional weekly classes in various subjects. I think they all have supervising teachers that come and check your progress every few weeks, with varying levels of detail.

I have as well. They are always so nice over the phone!

My daughter did the same thing, and was much happier when I quit timing her. I started doing it again when she was nearly 9, and by then she was ready to see it as a game.

Oh, how scary. We also have the nut allergies here and it's not a lot of fun, is it?

SWB also has a couple of seminars on teaching literature to logic and rhetoric stage students--they have excellent suggestions for questions to ask and how to go about doing the analysis. I'd suggest you look through the CDs and order one or two.