I have been bouncing around educational methods trying to find the one true fit for our family. I think I have tried every method known to man but I always keep coming back to Classical. I think the definition of Classical is what keeps drawing me back: the pursuit of wisdom and virtue by nourishing our souls with all things that are of truth, goodness and beauty. I am reading Norms and Nobility by David Hicks right now. It is a great read, albeit a difficult read. This is my third attempt at this book and, finally, I am understanding what he is talking about. Climbing Parnassus is another book that lit my spark for CE. Also Circe Institute has some great articles about CE that I have been enjoying reading. Circe also offers CD sets from their yearly CE conference. I recently purchased a set. There is so much good stuff in these CD's. I think I am finally 'getting' what CE is all about.

Usually we read a chapter a day, depending on the length of the chapter. If it was more than 10 pages then we would take two days to do one chapter.

Oh, Cathy, I am so sorry. I am praying for you and your ds.

We have always schooled year round. In the summer, we do math and then lighter things like art and science experiments. It's just life for us. The kids do not know any different and are fine with this. I agree with the other posters. Don't term it as 'school.' Refer to it as 'fun stuff' as that is what it is.

For us it has been Right Start Math, Natural Speller and SOTW.

We had alot of favourites this year. Hmmm, now to remember them. The Secret World of Og -- Pierre Berton Swallows and Amazons -- Arthur Ransome On the Banks of Plum Creek -- Laura Ingalls Wilder Prince Caspian -- C.S.Lewis Danny and the Champion of the World -- Roald Dahl Matilda -- Roald Dahl The LIttle Princess -- Frances Burnett Hodgson Caddy Woodlawn (I can't remember the author)

I usually read all of the Beverly Cleary books (Henry Huggins, Ramona, Mouse and the Motorcycle) as well as the Thornton Burgess books to my K'er. I find that these books are a great intro to the world of chapter books.

I let my kids read abridged copies. In our house, we read the same book over and over again, so the unabridged version will be read many times over, so I am not too worried about reading the abridged.

I have been using RS for four years now with my kids. My oldest is in Level D and my middle one is finishing up Level B. I will be starting Level A with my youngest in the fall. I love RS. I have always been puzzled by comments that RS is hard to teach. I find it very easy. It is scripted and everything is spelled out for you. In the first two levels, you may want to look ahead because there are lessons in which you need to copy a sheet from the appendix. In the beginning, I would look at the next day's lesson so I would be familiar with what was happening, but I didn't have to do that for too long.

My ds has always been aloof when it has come to academics. He could care less about math, reading, history, etc. I didn't push. I just let him play. I am so thankful that I did this. On his 7th birthday (in Jan,) it was as if the lightbulb was switched on. He has more interest in reading as well as learning about other things. He still doesn't want to do history with us, but he asks his sister to tell him what she learned, so he is still getting it. I am thankful for the great changes in my ds.

If you laugh at my jokes, I really don't care how old you are. ;) I am 45 yrs. old. I have a few friends that are my age but there children are grown and are not living at home any more. Most of my friends are 15, if not more, years younger than me because their children are the same age as mine. Age is not an issue for me. Having things in common is more important.

(((Jenne))), I am so sorry.

Singing--In the past 20 yrs. I have been singing on and off with a worship team as well as soloing. Right now I am not singing on a team because of time contstaints. I miss it. Gardening--I have lots of flower gardens and a vegetable garden. I am not good at gardening at all. In fact, I stink at it. It is discouraging to me to put all of the time and energy and nothing grows, but I do love spending the time outside mucking in the dirt. Scrapbooking--I haven't done it in a while but this past month I renewed acqaintances with a neighbour who loves to scrapbook. We are now meeting together once a week and scrapbooking. I am loving this time from a creative standpoint as well as a social one.

I am so sorry that you didn't get the response that you were hoping for. My family is very supportive of our hsing but my in-laws....well, that is a whole n'uther ball of wax. I was hoping that in time they would see that this was the best choice for our family. It has been 4 yrs. and they still say subtle, negative remarks. I deal with it by not dealing with it. I don't talk about hsing with my dh's family. It is the pink elephant in the room and I think it will always be that way. Although, I did tell dh's family about my blog and I know that my mil and dh's aunt and cousin read my blog. So they know what we do and that I am, indeed, teaching my children. :001_smile:

We love Greg Tang's books but Mathterpieces is our favourite. I give this to the nieces and nephews for Christmas presents.

I thought David Cook was awesome! I think the bottom three will be Brooke, Syesha and Kristy.

What worked well for me and my ds was letting him do his own thing. He was not at all interested in history or science. I did 'make' him do math, reading and writing (RightStart Math, OPGTR, ETC and copywork.) The rest of the time he just wanted to play. I am so glad that I didn't push him into doing something that he wasn't ready for. He turned 7 in Jan. and I have a new little boy. The light has been turned on and he is interested in a myriad of things now. We are not doing a formal history or science curriculum but he is actually listening to me read Greek Myths. He is also interested in fooling around with various science kits like magnets. Anyway, this is what has worked for us this year.

I did FLL1 with my oldest. It wasn't working as dd wasn't getting the basic parts of speech so we stopped. We have just started back up again wth FLL 3 in the latter part of Grade 3 and it seems to be sinking in better, this time round. I am doing FLL 1 with my ds but we are only using it for poetry memorization, narration and the other non-grammar stuff. I think when he is in Gr. 3, we will take a crash course in teh grammar parts of FLL1/2 and then move on to 3. From where I am sitting now, this is what I will do with my youngest as well.

When I was in my 20's and 30's, I could eat whatever I wanted. I exercised but I wasn't consistent. I turned 45 in Dec. and I have noticed a big change in the last two years. I can't eat anything anymore. I was feeling sluggish and just plain blah. I was also becoming a sugar addict. So I made some drastic changes in Jan. I stopped eating sugar (except my iced tea) and I am low carb. I also realized that changing my eating habits isn't going to totally do the trick so I am trying to be more consistent with exercise. This one is a bit harder. I used to be able to do high impact aerobics. Those days are a thing of the past. Now, I usually mix it all up with walking, weight training, yoga and pilates. I really like yoga and pilates. I feel so alive after I have done a session. Since I have changed my eating habits and increased my exercising, I have lost 10 pounds. This was the encouragment I needed to keep up with it all.

My kids want to see this but I am always leery about going to the show without hearing about it from someone else. Thanks for giving the thumbs up. My kids will be very happy.

I have three books on the go and one waiting patiently on the side. Tending the Heart of Virtue by Vigen Guroian You Can Teach YOur Child Sucessfully by Ruth Beechick A Might Heart by Mariane Pearl The one waiting in the wings is Peace Like a River by Leif Enger

My goals this weekend is to clean the house and clean out the flower gardens. The latter will take me awhile as it is a mess.

We will be doing school through the summer but it will be 'lite.' My dd will do math and my ds will be doing reading. I think we may also focus on history so that we can get SOTW 4 done for the fall. If we get that done before Sept. then I think we will do the same thing for science. Kind of like unit studies for the content subjects.

My kids are close together so I keep everything. But with such a big age difference I would sell unless there is something that you really, really like. With RS, if you are sold on that program I would keep it but make sure you have all of the workbooks cause they could change by the time your youngest is ready to use them. I plan on buying the workbooks all at once for my youngest just in case.

This year, our gems were in subjects that we have been struggling to find the just right curriculum. Finally we have founnd them. They are: FLL3, Vocabu--Lit and A Reason for Handwriting--Cursive.