This is my first year of homeschooling, and my eldest is currently in 2nd grade. We've been using Prima Latina. I have never taken Latin before, and chose Prima Latina mainly on the recommendations of the only friends I know who homeschool, who used it with their 2nd grader. I know others have commented that it's dry, and not having seen any other Latin programs, I can't speak comparatively. But, I still remember the day I received the PL curriculum and thumbed through the textbook. I had previously been a little wary of this whole area of study, not having gone through a classical education myself and not quite "getting" the importance of studying Latin, despite having read all the articles on the benefits of doing so. But once I read through the PL text, I was so excited for my son to start on it. Everyone says that PL is a gentle introduction, and that's how it felt to me--gentle, but yet enough exposure to and basic understanding of the language/vocab that I was really thrilled about it. I love that my son has been memorizing lovely Latin prayers, and I think he feels that Leigh Lowe (the instructor on the video) is a very nice teacher. =) I wouldn't say it's been an exciting program, but it has indeed been a gentle introduction to the language which is what I was hoping for for 2nd grade. The question for me now is, what should I do next? I haven't given it a huge amount of thought, but I am trying to figure out what to do next year. Continue with Latina Christiana I? Try out Lively Latin? Not sure. I have read about the whole macron issue as well, which perhaps is not a big deal if you're planning to mainly to read and not to speak Latin in the future? Still needing to do research on this question. Good luck with your decision!

Just to bring closure to this thread (for me, anyway!), I have decided to go with simplified. I recently talked it over with a relative whose parents are from Taiwan and who originally learned traditional; her mom has worked at the Yale library and said that the Library of Congress apparently recently chose to redo their entire library of Chinese content into simplified characters. My father-in-law, who is Korean but has been learning Chinese and does a great deal of business there, says it makes sense to learn simplified first then if my kids have any interest and inclination, to add the traditional later. So that is where I have ended up. Thanks for all the great input!

I am a new homeschooling mom and while I like what I read in WTM, I was a little nervous personally about starting with the ancients with my 2nd grader, plus as history isn't my strong suit and this was my first year, I thought I would be able to manage American History better. So when I was looking for a curriculum to shore up the holes I still had left--history, Bible, geography, science--I found Adventures in My Father's World, which starts 2nd graders in American history, then from 3rd-8th the students do a five-year cycle. I don't know if we'll continue with MFW through the whole cycle but we have had a great year with Adventures and I can't at this point see a reason for switching! But anyway, just wanted to reassure you that there are many ways to go about it! Good luck!

Ours is finally up! Link in signature. Merry Christmas, everyone!

I'm using Better Chinese right now and have the first book in traditional characters.

Hi everyone--I have a question for those of you whose children are learning Mandarin. Our son was enrolled in a Chinese school for two years but then this year we pulled him out due to scheduling issues and just continued with the curriculum ourselves. We are not Chinese-American and thus had no idea before entering the school that it was started and run by Taiwanese Americans who largely prefer the traditional characters, which is what we have learned to date. I am debating whether to switch my son to simplified characters at this point, or if there are reasons to continue with traditional. I'm not so concerned with preserving Chinese culture (at least with regards to my kids' language study!) and it seems as though the majority of mainland China as well as schools in the U.S. likely teach simplified characters. But, before I make the switch, I would be interested to know if anyone here has chosen traditional characters instead of simplified, and if so, why. I have heard (although I don't know if it's true) that if you have learned traditional, you can probably figure out simplified characters but that the reverse is not necessarily true. Also, I am wondering if we make the switch, whether that will pretty much negate any of the progress that my 7 year old has made with learning characters to date. He's memorized tons of them over the past year and a half, and I'd prefer that work not go out the window! But if I'm going to bite the bullet and make the switch, I imagine that now is the time... Thoughts? Thanks! Helen

I just started homeschooling this fall with our 2nd grader. He had not learned much math in K-1st grade in public school, and that bothered me, which was one of a number of reasons we decided on homeschooling. We started with MUS Alpha to help shore up his addition facts. But for some reason, I didn't feel comfortable with the curriculum when we hit subtraction. We switched to Singapore, which I started from the beginning at 1A to make sure the foundation was there. I felt their explanations of how to handle subtractions, although somewhat similar at times to MUS, were more thorough and helpful. We also do online drills several times a week, which I think really helps. Without the consistent practice, I am pretty sure those facts will disappear from my son's brain! I have heard from my public school friends that subtraction is much more difficult and much less intuitive for children than addition and definitely takes more time to get comfortable with. My son is probably twice or three times as fast with addition than subtraction, FWIW! Good luck with your decision!

I haven't posted one for weeks! But finally finished a report yesterday, link is in my signature. Look forward to reading all of yours!

Ours is finally up, too, link in sig...weeks 8 and 9....I can't seem to figure out the photo layouts in Blogger so forgive the funny placements of pictures at times!

We also like this one: http://www.mathsisfun.com/numbers/math-trainer-addition.html I like that you can use the number pad to type in the answers and it shows which ones your child answered incorrectly. I use it with my 7 year old 3-4 times a week for ten minutes. HTH! Blessings,

Here is what our 2nd grader is doing (our first year of homeschooling): --Classical Writing Primer (which includes narration, copywork, picture study, nature study, and some grammar) --FLL (when it seems redundant with CWP, we opt for CWP and shorten our time with FLL; since we are starting from the beginning with the book in what is labeled "First Grade" we are going faster with it when we can) --Spelling By Sound and Structure (R&S)--the recommendation from My Father's World/Adventures which we're using; also considering adding some phonics work because our son never really had any formal phonics --New American Cursive And plenty of reading time, of course. =) Plus his work in MFW in Bible/history/science also give more opportunities to write and narrate. Lastly, we do a weekly summary and presentation for dad, so there is an oral aspect to his LA work as well. HTH!

Thanks for the responses. I realize in hindsight I sound overly critical of the book, which I didn't mean to communicate. (That's what happens when you rush to try to post something with three little ones running around!) Anyway, I certainly mean no disrespect to the Bluedorns with my comments; just trying to better understand their perspective. I appreciate all the feedback! Thanks again.

(Accidentally posted this on the General Board and am copying it here where it was originally intended!) I am reading Teaching the Trivium right now...there is definitely much in it that I find questionable and I am an evangelical Christian though probably not as conservative as the Bluedorns. Anyway, I am wondering in particular what people think of what they said about teaching grammar at a later age. Their contention that teaching grammar to children under 10 could be potentially damaging to the kids was really striking! Is there any kind of response anywhere that people know about regarding how TWTM/SWB feel about the Bluedorn's contention? (They make a similar claim about delaying mathematics, which I did find reference to on these boards elsewhere with a search.) But I was definitely a little troubled by their ideas on the dangers of teaching grammar...since I am a new homeschooler and using FLL with my 7 year old and teaching him the basic definitions of the parts of speech. But according to the Bluedorns, I am potentially wiring his brain in a way that will make it much more difficult for him to understand English grammar at a more advanced level down the road. Where does this idea come from??? I'd love to hear from anyone who has insight about this concept or who knows if SWB has ever responded to the claim. Thanks!

I am reading Teaching the Trivium right now...there is definitely much in it that I find questionable and I am an evangelical Christian though probably not as conservative as the Bluedorns. Anyway, I am wondering in particular what people think of what they said about teaching grammar at a later age. Their contention that teaching grammar to children under 10 could be potentially damaging to the kids was really striking! Is there any kind of response anywhere that people know about regarding how TWTM/SWB feel about the Bluedorn's contention? (They make a similar claim about delaying mathematics, which I did find reference to on these boards elsewhere with a search.) But I was definitely a little troubled by their ideas on the dangers of teaching grammar...since I am a new homeschooler and using FLL with my 7 year old and teaching him the basic definitions of the parts of speech. But according to the Bluedorns, I am potentially wiring his brain in a way that will make it much more difficult for him to understand English grammar at a more advanced level down the road. Where does this idea come from??? I'd love to hear from anyone who has insight about this concept or who knows if SWB has ever responded to the claim. Thanks!

I'm using CW Primer this year with my 2nd grader. This is my first year homeschooling. My son is a pretty strong reader and hasn't had any trouble with the amount of copywork. (The quality of his writing, however, is another topic entirely!) In addition to CW Primer, we also use FLL and Spelling by Sound and Structure (R&S) as recommended by MFW Adventures, which is our main curriculum. I skip FLL lessons that may be redundant with what we are doing in CWP in terms of amount of copywork, picture study, etc. We are also starting cursive this year. CWP can take anywhere from 10-20 minutes total a day. The days we do an Aesop' Fable take us longer, to read the story, define the vocabulary, etc. HTH!

We've finished Week 7. Link in my sig, and off I go to read what others have posted!

Also in Naperville! First time homeschooler, still getting my feet on the ground, but having a good year so far!

I recall reading somewhere in the HIG that you can use the Mental Math questions however you'd like. Mostly I do them orally and make it a game with my boys, combining it with something they love to do (i.e., my kids love golf and we do a math-and-putt game where they can putt every time they answer a question right). I also have the Mental Maths photocopied and sometimes I will take them with me if we are running an errand and work through them as we are walking or driving somewhere. I like the idea of doing the questions orally rather than using them as a visual drill because I think it's good to practice doing the math in their heads. I use other tools for visual drilling where I can have my son practicing his facts for a longer period of time. Anyway, HTH! Good luck!

This is my first year of homeschooling, and when we first started out, my plan was to use our dining room table as our central school area. We don't have a separate eat-in area in the kitchen, so this table is also where we eat all our meals. I tried it out during the summer to see how it would go and quickly discovered that it would not work for us. My eldest is 7, and I have a 4 year old and a 2 year old, and as soon as I would start schoolwork with the eldest, the little ones would come running and want to be involved. But keeping them at the table with us and quiet/occupied was always a challenge. I found it too distracting for our eldest for this to work and decided we need to be somewhere else in the house. Our basement is our playroom, and I realized that with some reorganization, I could turn one wall of the room into a school space, using furniture that we already had and adding a bookshelf. (You can see a photo here on our blog.) This has ended up being the right solution for us, at least for now. I can work with the elder two boys and the youngest has enough to amuse himself; or, if it's too noisy, the eldest can go to his room or upstairs for some peace and quiet. And especially because I have boys who like to move around, trying to keep school confined to a dining room table wasn't working for them. So this is working for us now, and I do like that I have a space that has all our school materials in one place that's a little bit out of sight. Of course we use other areas in the house when needed--kitchen, office for any computer work, etc.--but our basement is where we spend most of our schooltime. Hope you find a solution that works for you!

Isn't it fun how we're all one big connected happy homeschooling family thanks to the Internet, Carrie! =) I could NOT imagine homeschooling without it!

We are not Chinese American ourselves but felt it was important for our kids to learn Mandarin. We enrolled our oldest son in a local weekend Chinese school in kindergarten and 1st grade; the school used the Better Chinese program mentioned above, and with the CD-ROM we've enjoyed the curriculum. This year, due to scheduling conflicts, we had to pull out of the school but we are going to continue the best we can with the CD-ROM/textbooks. And we have made arrangements for a local Chinese-speaking high school student fluent in the language to come and do the conversational portion, which is the hardest thing to replicate in any online/CD-ROM experience. I am hoping that if my son can study the textbook and learn the characters during the week then practice speaking with the tutor, we'll be able to keep up for the year. We'll see how it goes!

still a newbie with these boards. is it kosher to "bump?" or bad etiquette??? :001_huh:

I usually post mine way late. This week, for once, I'm posting early! We also do co-op on Fridays so we finished our Week 6 today. Link in my signature. Look forward to reading your blogs!

Great insights so far from everyone. Here are more specifics about my DS7: --Way ahead in reading --Not a "natural" speller but his reading has helped him here; but, he has never had phonics so we're trying to address that --So-so in math. His PS 1st grade experience gave him very little work on math facts. Appalling little, actually! --Seems to handle narration/dictation/copywork just fine with what is required in Classical Writing Primer --Printing/Handwriting--about right, I think, for his age? Our schedule: 8:30-9:15 a.m. Piano practice 9:15-9:45 a.m. Bible 9:45-11:45 a.m. Our main instruction/work time. We do handwriting, Classical Writing Primer, First Language Lessons (skipping anything that seems redundant with CWP), Singapore Math, and then whatever history/geography/science lesson goes along with MFW) 11:45 a.m.-12:45 p.m. Break/Lunch 12:45 p.m.-1:30 p.m. Reading Time 1:30 p.m.-2:00 p.m. Language Time (Latin or Chinese) 2:00 p.m. Finish leftover material from morning, tidy up, free time I can't imagine spending less time on anything than what we have here. It feels like what is necessary to get everything done. And I can't imagine spending more time either! So schedule-wise, it feels like it fits us. I think I posted about this on an earlier thread. We do have "light weeks" scheduled every 3-4 weeks this year, during which we just do some math and CWP, then have lots of time for more creative endeavors and going deeper into anything that is of interest. So that is a fuller picture of where we are, if that helps. =) Thanks, everyone! I love these boards!

This year is our first year homeschooling, primarily with our 7 yr. old who would be in 2nd grade in PS. I began homeschooling out of a sense of calling from the Lord, or else on my own I don't think I ever would have thought of it! But now that I've researched what homeschooling is all about, read WTM and many other books, I do feel I've come to a place where I understand and embrace all the wonderful benefits of homeschooling that most of you veterans already know so well! The challenge for me is in the day-to-day and in the questions that I find myself wrestling with. For example...what I lack that a typical PS teacher would have is a frame of reference for what is acceptable/good/excellent work for someone of my son's age. I have nothing to go on but my own instincts, which I know should be considerable and enough, but I often find myself second-guessing. Should his handwriting be better? Do I expect too much, am I expecting too little, etc. I know some subjects, such as math, you want to go at the students own pace while continually nudging them forwards in their abilities. But in other things, I find myself at a loss to know if what he is doing is "good enough." I would love to hear from others how they manage these kinds of questions! The concurrent question that I am wondering about is whether being at home results in my son setting lower standards for himself. Perhaps being at home is so "comfortable" that he doesn't feel compelled to work to the best of his ability, despite my seemingly constant reminders that we must always strive to do our best, whether we are in a school setting or at home, that God desires for us to give Him our best effort in all that we do. Still, I think there is something about being at home that makes him inclined not to do his best. Or maybe I'm just being too picky about his work? (See, this is related to the first question!) As much as I now have come to love the homeschooling lifestyle overall, I do wonder if my son would be more motivated to do better if he were surrounded by other students, where it might be more natural to compare and to choose to excel. And I say this not because I think he's doing poor work; it's just that I don't really know what I can expect from someone his age, and sometimes I wonder if I am pushing too hard. Lastly, sometimes I feel like our daily schedule requires that I am pretty much a taskmaster all morning. If I don't keep constantly moving us along, keeping the kids on point, then we run the risk of not getting anything done in a timely fashion! I love that My Father's World/Adventures incorporates activities of a more creative nature because on my own I'm not sure I'd come up with any of those activities! But I wouldn't say our homeschooling is very relaxing, especially in the morning when I'm trying to get us through our main subjects (Math, Language Arts, History/Geo/Science). Everything calms down after lunch, when DS7 is doing his reading time and his language study while the younger brothers are asleep. (Or we also catch up on anything we didn't get to in the morning). And we're always done by 2:30 p.m., which I do love. But so far these past six weeks we've been homeschooling, it feels like we just move from assignment to assignment. I try to be flexible when necessary, but mostly we just march through the list of things to accomplish in the school day. I'm fine with this, but I'm just curious to know if this is a normal thing! Anyway, these are just some things on this new homeschooler's mind, and I'd love to hear any thoughts or feedback on anything I've raised here from all you experience homeschoolers out there who know way more than I do about these issues! Thanks in advance for your feedback, which I welcome!