Congrats to your ds, Quark! And to you as his homeschooling mom! :hurray: I hope you find the right blend of opportunities for your ds.

I have condensed many weeks of TOG, trying to get all four years into a three-year time frame. This was with younger kids, but since you're planning to do all four years in high school I don't think it will be a problem. I would start with the Week Plan Titles and decide which topics you are content to save until high school. Also, as Tracy P mentioned, there are getting started weeks and review weeks that you can chop off the schedule as well. You can make note of which topics got short shrift and be certain to cover them well during the next cycle.

My dd's pediatric ophthalmologist would say it is not normal. Dd started doing that not long after turning 2. She has bilateral accommodative esotropia and has been wearing glasses full time since she was 2.5. We caught it early enough that she has most likely been spared having surgery. Not sure how old your dd is, but based on our experience, I would want it checked out by a pediatric ophthalmologist. Keep the pictures on the phone and bring them to the appointment. On the other hand, when my older Ds crosses his eyes purposefully, only one goes all the way in unless he tries really hard. The other one turns in but less noticeably. So maybe that's it. Was your dd trying to cross her eyes?

I read through the archives on this subject, and it seemed testing via a talent search meant some dc were able to test with their age peers and others weren't. So if that isn't a sure thing, the difference seems to be the stat reports and possible award ceremonies/scholarships. Thanks for helping me sort things out!

Ds is currently enrolled in Duke TIP's 4th-6th Talent Search and will need new test scores to continue in the program. I'm not sure Duke's program is the best for him due to location, etc. I've researched other talent searches but am undecided which would be best. Would it be better to have him take the SAT/ACT independently and then apply to whichever programs best align with his goals and abilities? Or is there a compelling reason to enroll with a particular talent search before taking the SAT/ACT? TIA

I have Redesigned and it still suggests you can do weeks 4-6 and then go back and do weeks 1-3 if you prefer. I haven't done it myself, but this is my second time through Y1; having read through the curriculum several times, I don't see why it would cause a problem.

I must have missed that one in all my Great Courses browsing. Now I know to add it to my stalking...I mean, waiting-patiently-for-the-right-sale list. Thanks!

What's the Super Star DVD? When I Googled it, none of the hits seemed to fit this discussion.

I'm planning to do Rod and Staff 5 and 6 this year. I've eliminated the writing and the redundancies. We'll do most of it orally. We're finishing Practice Island and will move to MCT's Town level in December. I want to do R&S 7-8 next year and then continue on with MCT and transition to more grammar in context in middle school.

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We're are on our third year of TOG after doing MFW K and MFW Adventures. Once I had my first TOG year plan in hand I realized it had everything I liked about MFW plus more. I love this because I feel like anything I might want to do is at my fingertips, and I enjoy having the choice. For some people, this is overwhelming and that makes it a bad choice--totally understandable. Could you try the three-week sample with your 11yo to be sure he loves it as much as you think he will? If he does, TOG can be customized for your 9yo. If he doesn't want to label maps, find places on an atlas and globe instead. Skip the crafts. Maybe think about what your 9yo would get from MFW and see if you can still find it in TOG. All this, of course, assuming that it really is the best choice for your older one. :) We have mainly used the library for LG and UG during Y1, Y2, and Y3 of Tapestry. If you go to BookshelfCentral.com you can see what books your 11yo would be using and check if your library system has them. I keep our TOG books in a separate cupboard from the other 70+ books we have checked out of the library.

At first glance I read this as "reinvent" myself. And after pondering it a bit, I thinking it might be more accurate. :D

If I wanted to get a good understanding of this program what would I need to buy? Any chance the teacher manual alone would suffice or would I be missing key parts of the puzzle, e.g., do you need to see the student workbook pages to understand what's being explained in the TM or are they really just for leading the students through the curriculum? Thoughts on the CDs/DVDs would be appreciated too. TIA

I'm on my third time through MFW K. I really like the Bible/science tie-in. We have a lot of fun reading, learning, and doing crafts without feeling overwhelmed by a too-packed curriculum. If I were in your place, I'd do ECC and MFW K. As a PP said, I don't think your little one would be overly interested in ECC (disclosure: I haven't done that program, just read through the samples repeatedly) and the K program really is short and simple (second disclosure: I've never used the reading portion of it so I'm talking about the other parts :001_smile:). Overall, I liked MFW but moved to Tapestry of Grace after doing MFW K and Adventures because it seemed easier to keep my dc together with TOG and TOG did seem to have more meat to it. I think MFW has plenty, but I like overkill. :D

I probably made it sound more extensive than I intended. I figured it would probably turn out to have one paragraph each for 3-4 civilizations and because he's a 5th grader they would all sound pretty similar. :D It was more the idea of following a thread through through the year and also what the skeleton, more or less, of a report with different sources would look like. I like this idea a lot. It sounds like a great way to organize discussions. Thanks for sharing!

I value your experienced opinion. A "book" is probably a better idea. Thank you!

Next year my oldest will be in 5th grade and we're cycling back to the ancients. Thinking about the importance of water to early civilizations, I had the idea of asking ds to work on a research paper, taking notes on the importance of the Nile in Egypt, the Tigris and Euphrates in the Fertile Crescent, etc. and then putting a paper together near the end of the year and maybe looking for similarities/differences among societies or even moving in to how we use water today (most of the water where we live is piped in from far, far away). I thought he could do his notes and bibliographic info in an Inspiration document that he comes back to with each new civilization we study. Any merit in this idea? Suggestions to make it more reasonable/useful/profitable?

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My older dc listened to it frequently before beginning FLL (I skip FLL 1 and condense FLL 2 to fit into the second half of 2nd grade). They enjoyed the poems, and I enjoyed that they had the pronoun, helping verb, and preposition chants memorized before we got to them in the book.