For those of you that either have or are using SP, would you mind telling me at what level your child is with the curriculum, and also what grade level they are? (For example, a 5th grader at Level F.) I'd also like to know at what grade level your student(s) were at when they completed Level K. Thanks for the feedback! Blessings, Lucinda

Absolutely, hands down, The Well Trained Mind. Blessings, Lucinda

MUS is an excellent program that I highly recommend. It worked for us for two levels, but then we had issues because my dh's work schedule changed drastically and he was the back-up teacher. I feel that MUS needs a to have parental input even though Steve is the instructor, so my dd started to struggle without her dad. We switched over to TT and my daughter began to soar in math. She LOVES TT and is doing wonderfully. The program is very interactive, which is a nice change from MUS. I still believe in MUS, but TT has a great deal to offer for students that are struggling with math or just need a change. I know there has been some debate on this forum about TT, but I personally agree with those that say as long as a child is learning, advancing and enjoying their math curriculum -- then it is a good choice. Blessings, Lucinda

:lurk5: I have the same question. And what about sales from Bookshelf Central? Do they have sales at the same time? Blessings, Lucinda

Very nice resource! Thank so much for sharing it. I will definitely consider it for 6th grade Bible study for my daughter and I next year. Blessings, Lucinda

I actually love the literature selections for both SL and TOG, and I've been known to slip in a SL reader as a read aloud or fun reading on the side. But when it comes down to it, I selected TOG because it is such a thorough program and I love using the TN's. My dd and I are having very worthwhile discussions this year thanks to the great documentation that TOG provides. Blessings, Lucinda

Spelling Power includes British spelling of English along side American English throughout the program. I also love SP because I don't have to buy a new book every year - it's a full curriculum in one TM. Blessings, Lucinda

I'd recommend the obvious, The Well Trained Mind by SWB and JW. Blessings, Lucinda

Anyone? :lurk5: Blessings, Lucinda

I personally think it would work for you to start at that point with your dc. You should also get opinions from other TOG users since I've only been using the curriculum this school year, but it makes sense to me from what I've learned so far about TOG that you should realistically be able to go through the four year rotation with your older and younger together for the next four years using the levels they would both need for each year plan. You should then be able to move your youngest from LG/UG to D level for the next 4-year rotation. You might consider going to the TOG forum or one of the TOG Yahoo groups and posting a question about how to do this. There are a lot of TOG users here, but the other sites are helpful as well. Blessings, Lucinda

:lurk5:

I wouldn't beat yourself up for not being morning people. We really don't have to follow a set pattern that resembles what everyone else out there appears to be doing. Homeschooling should be about what is natural for your family instead of trying to fit your family into a set mould. You are the boss and can make decisions that are best for you and your kiddos. If they are learning, thriving and growing then what does it matter if you start later? My dd and I start at about 10:00 a.m. nearly every morning. I get up a lot earlier than that, but as an older mom I find that I need quiet time to myself before we start school for the day. Dd gets up and eats her breakfast, does morning chores and gets dressed while I have my devotions and quiet time. It's just natural for us to do it this way and we are as happy as clams. We usually do school for a couple of hours then eat lunch at about noon, then jump back in for another couple of hours before being done or going to co-op three times per week. If we get a little off our routine to take Grandma to the doctor for instance, we just adjust the next day and catch up, or we might even do some of our work after dinner. As you can see, we are structured yet easy. I think schedules are great, but at the same time we don't want to become rigid. Flexibility and grace have a place in daily life too, especially when it comes to children. Blessings, Lucinda

I think it depends on personal preference and how good the library system in the given area actually is. In our case, our libraries don't have all the books that I would need so it is not worth the money I would have to pay annually to have access to the system. When the library does have the books we need, I don't like it to have to give them back or renew them at a scheduled time. We often like to keep a book around for awhile and re-read it or at least refer to it to refresh a memory. That is why I prefer to obtain our own books, but I know that not everyone can or even may want to do that. We prefer to have the books that we want to keep on our home library shelf, and then we either donate or sell the books that we are ready to let go of. Blessings, Lucinda

Ellie and Aime -- you have made my day! Thank you so much for your input. And thank you, Aime, for taking the time to look through your books tonight. I think your advice is perfect, and that is what I will plan to do. Blessings, Lucinda

Thank you, Aime. Your post confirmed my suspicions. I'm really torn about whether or not to stay with the same 5th grade book. One part of me keep saying, "Save money and stay with the book you have." :lol: Blessings, Lucinda

One would think so, but here is the case. We live in a small rural community that is 10 miles away from Town A and 11 miles away from Town B. Both towns are connected to the same public library system, but you have to live within city limits to use either library at no cost. If you live in a nearby town or out in the country, you have to pay an annual fee to use the libraries. Once you pay the fee, you have access to all libraries in the system. There is a special card you can get for no charge, but you are substantially limited on how many books you can check out at a time. Kind of a bummer if you ask me...Sometimes I pay the fee if I think we'll be using the library a lot during a given time, but I still don't always get the books that I want. Blessings, Lucinda

This is our first year with TOG and we love it so much that we have already bought our Yr. 2 plan and I'm setting resource books aside -- which I'll explain in more detail below. There's plenty to love about TOG. What I appreciate the most is that it offers a Christian worldview as we look at history, it is highly organized and laid out for me - the teacher, it has fully integrated subjects that are rich and meaningful to us, and it is very thorough with detailed information and student activities. I'd also add that I think in the long run, when you consider that the materials are used and re-used through the four year rotations of history -- especially as you go through them with multiple students at different levels, the cost is actually dirt cheap. What I don't like is that there are really great activities and reading suggestions that we have to skip over because we just don't have time to do it all. I guess if there is a problem with using a curriculum, this is the best kind to have. :~) Aside from these points, here are some other thoughts and some ways that I've come up with to save money: We are also fans of SOTW, and use it along side TOG for our UG studies. I started my daughter on TOG last fall at the beginning of 5th grade. There are options on what type of TM you would prefer (i.e. digital, hard copy print or both...) We bought a used Redesigned Yr 1 plan, a hard copy version because that is my preference. I want to be able to continue school no matter what -- no matter the weather or even in a crisis, so my hard copy books are always available. I plan to put these tm's away and use them again up ahead when my dd is in high school. My thought is that technology may advance so much by then that the DE version will be out of date anyway. Hard copies are a good thing in my opinion for both reasons I've listed, plus buying used copies saves me money. By purchasing used I paid almost half for all four units than I would have paid brand new. And I did the same thing just recently by buying a gently used Redesigned Yr 2 hard copy edition. I already have it on the shelf to be used for 6th grade next year. For resource books, we do a couple of things. First, I belong to Bookmooch.com and Paperbackswap.com where I post books that I am willing to give to others in exchange for points that I can spend on books that I want. (All I pay for is postage to mail my books to people that request them. So I post all sorts of hs books that we are done with as well as personal books on both sites.) By doing this, I have already obtained at least 15 resource books for next year's reading assignments! Sometime this summer I will take inventory of what I've accumulated and determine what is needed for the rest of the year. From there I will purchase books from Amazon.com or from local bookstores unit by unit until we have all the resource books that we need. In other words, I don't pay for the entire year's resource books at one time. This is my way of breaking it down to reasonable costs during the school year. Some people do use their local library for resource books, but it does not work for us because we live in a rural area and the use of our libraries is not free and they most often don't have the books I need anyway. If you live near a good library system, this would be a wonderful way to save money too. This is my way of using an incredible, faith - centered curriculum that is dearly loved and appreciated by my family in a way that is very realistic to our budget. As you can see, I am always looking ahead and obtaining books before we need them. We do plan and budget in for a large curriculum purchase in late summer each year, at which time we buy math, Latin and our other subjects, but this is how I am able to obtain our TOG materials without getting hit too hard in the pocket book. There are a LOT of TOG users here in the hive, so there is a wealth of help and support if you have more questions or make the decision to give this great curriculum a try. Blessings, Lucinda

I confess, grammar is not my favorite subject in the world. We do include grammar of course, but we practically go at a snail's pace. My dd has a pretty good handle on the subject despite this, so I'm not really worried about it. This year we have been working our way through Easy Grammar 5, which corresponds with her grade level. After using teacher intensive SE for two years previously I really thought we'd move faster through EG when we started last fall - yet we are not. At this point we are not even halfway through the book and there is no way we will be done by the end of June when I had planned for us to "officially" be done with 5th grade studies. If you have used EG for both 5th and 6th grade, I would love to read your suggestions on what I should do next. For one thing, how different are the two grade levels? Would you suggest that we just keep going through the same book we are in when we pick up with 6th grade, or should we jump up to 6th grade level? Thanks in advance for any pointers you may have. Blessings, Lucinda

I don't have a favorite tempera paint because I only use them maybe once a year for color mixing. But I can tell you that there are some "washable" types out there that are terrible, so stay away from them. They are not a good consistency mainly and they don't blend very well. I prefer to buy tempera paint in person so that I can look at the colors in real life. I look for pure primary colors that will mix nicely to make desirable secondary colors. That is something that you really can't see online on your monitor screen that may not be calibrated to show exact color. So do keep that in mind if you are buying tempera paints for that reason. Otherwise, I think that most brands are probably fine. As for brushes, there is a brand that I have found to be excellent for children's art. The brushes that have lasted the longest for us are DaVinci Junior and we use both rounds and brights. Here is a link to see the brushes on the Blick site. These brushes are well worth the money and are great for water based paints. Hope that helps. Blessings, Lucinda

I am an art teacher at a private school as well as to students from my studio, so I buy a LOT of art supplies each year. I use Blick frequently and would have to agree with the other posters. There are other suppliers that I use as well, but for the price, the variety of choices and for the dependable service and shipping, you couldn't go wrong with Blick. As you try out various materials over a period of time, you will learn first hand which brands are better than others. I believe that brands are more important to know than which supply house to order from actually. Blessings, Lucinda

Yes, TOG is more than just reading lists. It is a classical method of teaching children of multiple age levels (or even to one student) in a unit study format. The "spine" of the curriculum is history that is taught in chronological order and repeated every four years. The recommendation is that you begin TOG when the oldest child is in 5th grade, but many families have worked around that, doing what fits best in each given situation. So the rule is not hard and fast. TOG is not just about history, literature and geography. It is also about worldview, Bible, the arts, composition and writing and philosophy and government. It is a tapestry of subjects that are wonderfully woven together into a rich liberal arts preparatory education. As to costs, I hear a lot about this from others and sadly many people hear that and turn away without really checking it out. Compared to a private school education, TOG is quite reasonable. And when you consider the re-use of the books (especially for large families), the big-picture cost is beyond reasonable. It is, as one poster said, "dirt cheap". Mindy has some great suggestions, and here are a few more from me as you consider looking further into TOG. To begin with, I am also a fan of SOTW, and we use it along side TOG. I started my daughter on TOG last fall at the beginning of 5th grade. There are options on what type of TM you would prefer (i.e. digital, hard copy print or both...) We bought a used Redesigned Yr 1 plan, a hard copy version because that is my preference. I want to be able to continue school no matter what -- no matter the weather or even in a crisis, so my hard copy books are always available. I also plan to put these texts away and use the same ones again up ahead when my daughter is in high school. My thought is that technology may advance so much by then that the DE version will be out of date anyway. Hard copies are a good thing in my opinion for both reasons I've listed. By purchasing used I paid almost half for all four units than I would have paid brand new. And I did the same thing just recently by buying a gently used Redesigned Yr 2 hard copy edition. I already have it on the shelf to be used for 6th grade next year. For resource books, we do a couple of things. First, I belong to Bookmooch.com and Paperbackswap.com where I post books that I am willing to give to others in exchange for points that I can spend on books that I want. (All I pay for is postage to mail my books to people that request them. So I post all sorts of hs books that we are done with as well as personal books on both sites.) By doing this, I have already obtained at least 15 resource books for next year's reading assignments! Sometime this summer I will take inventory of what I've accumulated and determine what is needed for the rest of the year. From there I will purchase books from Amazon.com or from local bookstores unit by unit until we have all the resource books that we need for the nine weeks. In other words, I don't pay for the entire year's resource books at one time. I would like to do that, of course, but we don't have the ability to lay down a big chunk of money all at once, so this is my way of breaking it down to reasonable amounts during the school year. Like others have said, some people use their local library for resource books, but it does not work for us because we live in a rural area and the use of our libraries is not free and they most often don't have the books I need anyway. If you live near a good library system, this would be a wonderful way to save money too. This is my way of using an incredible, faith - centered curriculum that is dearly loved and appreciated by my family in a way that is very realistic to our budget. As you can see, I am always looking ahead and obtaining books before we need them. We do plan and budget in for a large curriculum purchase in late summer each year, at which time we buy math, Latin and our other subjects, but this is how I am able to obtain our TOG materials. Blessings, Lucinda

Welcome to hs'ing to you newbie's on this thread. I have one dd that I brought home to school just after she finished 2nd grade. We pulled her out largely due to the girl drama that had already been going on at her school. The first year was challenging in some ways, but now we are in our third year and we both couldn't be happier with the decision. As to science, I have heard wonderful things about Apologia. We are in a general science group that my friend teaches and that is working for us this year for 5th grade. If it weren't for our group, I'd be using Apologia. For grammar, I would recommend Shurley English. It is scripted out for you as the teacher and there are some great jingles for your dd to memorize that help tremendously with the parts of speech. This might help a lot as you get established in hs'ing. We did SE for the first two years and I can see that it was a great foundation for my dd. We've moved on to another grammar curriculum, but we may go back to SE because it is excellent. Other really good programs are Analytical Grammar and Abeka, but I have not used them and don't know how teacher friendly they are. As others have suggested, I can't recommend that you get a copy of the Well Trained Mind book. It is an excellent resource for hs'ing families. Blessings, Lucinda

Since you are here on the Well-Trained Mind board asking this question, I think it is only appropriate to suggest that you follow the book's suggestions. SWB's book is the path to an excellent education! If you don't already own the book, I highly recommend it as a valuable resource. If you follow the WTM model, then your daughter would begin with ancient history in 5th grade, move on to medieval history through the age of exploration and colonial America for 6th grade, then early U.S. and World history through the 19th century for 7th grade, and finally the modern age (20th and 21st century) for 8th grade. She would then repeat the cycle for the four years of high school, but of course at a much more in-depth level. I do ask for input from my dd on certain things, but when it comes down to it I am the teacher and I choose all curriculum based on a lot of research and a lot of prayer for wisdom. Blessings, Lucinda P.S. My dd is in 5th grade this year and we have been studying the ancients. I can't tell you how much fun it has been for her at this age. :~)

I have also been praying and am joyous to read the good news this evening. Praise the living God! Blessings, Lucinda

But how did you decompress the plug-in files? ??? Lucinda