but different races age at dofferent rates. & bone scans aren't a perfect test for age. My ds#1 (who is a gymnast) had a bone scan done at age 7 as he is very small for his age. The results placed him over 2 years younger than his birth age. Now (at age 14) he's still smaller & younger looking than most his age & people take him for being 2-3 years younger than he is. I wouldn't want bone scans to be used to prove age. Small kids are already dicriminated against enough in sport. JMHO,

I was panicing that something was wrong with my computer & I've spent the evening up-dating everything. I guess I'll just have to wait until IE sorts out their problem.

Your 7th grader is just the right age for History Makers (a survey of World History). Then he can do DaW (ancients - 500BC) in 8th, EoC (500BC-1500AD) in 9th, etc. This leaves 2 years for Trism's modern history book & most people reccommend 2 years to complete that. Or look at Sonlight's core 6 (this year) & core 7 (next year). SL 6 & SL 7 use SOTW 1-4, so it's really easy to include younger children. My dd used SL 7 as a 14yo as written & it was one of our best years. This would put you where you want to be to start Ancients in 9th with your eldest. Both Trisms & SL cover history, geography, literature, + most of English. You would only need to add math, science, + a foreign language, if desired. Fine arts can easily be touched on through the history study. JMHO,

FLL 3 / 4 (we have 10 lessons left in FLL 3, then will begin FLL 4) Lively Latin 1 IEW's Fables, Myths, & Fairy Tales writing lessons Schonell's spelling cursive copywork daily assigned & free reading I work 1:1 with DS#2 on LL + FLL (MWF) / IEW (TTH). DS#2 works on spelling, copywork, & reading independently. Once a fortnight I give him a dictation for spelling to assess the words he's worked on. I have been very pleased with FLL. It is a gentle approach to grammar that doesn't require a lot of time daily, but my ds has a better grasp of English grammar than most highschool students have here in NZ. FLL does include diagramming, but it is taught progressively & helps my ds to see how the different parts of a sentence fit together. Lively Latin does cover English grammar, along with Latin vocabulary / grammar, Roman history, English derivitives, & a bit more. If you are thinking to introduce Latin, along with the other languages your dc are learning, I would recommend that you look into LL. Otherwise FLL would be a fun LA as it has a variety of LA subjects covered (grammar, narration, poetry, simple writing, dictation, ...) JMHO,

I have him complete a Miquon book between MUS books. (DS#2 will finish MUS gamma next week & will use Miquon Yellow before starting MUS delta.)He has no confusion with the rods. Miquon has helped him to think outside of the box & MUS has taught him the "whys" of math. JMHO,

I'd like a copy of the FLL 4 / WWE 4 plans. TIA,

so "yes" we are schooling. Last week was week 1 of term 3. We tend to change curriculum around July, even though our year runs February to December. Last week went well & I think Trisms is going to be a good match for dd & ds#1. Ds#2 really liked the different history focus for each day. Blessings,

Heather, Sarianna's had no trouble understanding Biology. We use the free schedules from DonnaYoung & she works independently. I check her Study Guide & go over any problem areas with her. She's scored 85-90% on most tests. How she studies is: 1---Listen to assigned readings on audio cd while refering to the text. Take notes on what she feels is important. 2---Do OYOs as they come up & refer to companion CD as noted in text. 3---Do labs as they come up & write up labs to be put in science notebook. 4---Do roots corresponding to module from Science Roots. 5---Check OYOs when finished reading chapter. 6---Complete Study Guide, using notes taken, but not the text. 7---Take test. We use the quater tests after every 4 modules. To review for the quarter tests I have her complete the module summaries found at the back of the text. This takes her a week-1 module a day + 1 day for the quarter test. I've found the Biology text easier to grade as the answers actually give how may points each problem is worth. We haven't reached the disection labs yet, but have had no problem with the microscope labs as we bought the prepared slides from SL. I probably didn't need the audio cd for Sarianna, but knew I would for the boys. It has been an unexpected help in teaching her to take notes from lectures, a very important skill in university. HTH,

My 16yod will be starting Trisms EOC this month & I am wanting to get a list of literature for her to read. EOC suggests 1 book (historical fiction or biography) for every 2 units. The suggestions in the teacher's manual seem quite young. What would you suggest for the following topics: 1. Maya (100BC-AD 1000) China--Ch'in (221-171 BC) China--Han (171 BC-AD 220) 2. Persia (530-323 BC) Hellenic Greece (232-146 BC) Sparta (600 BC-AD 396) Athens (700 BC-AD 404) 3. Alexander the Great (336-323 BC) Macedon (359-323 BC) Mauryan Empire of India (321-183 BC) 4. Roman Republic (500-30 BC) Roman Empire (30 BC-AD 476) 5. Germanic Tribes (200 BC-AD 430) Celts (750 BC-AD 50) Early Christians (AD 33-500) 6. Byzantine (AD 313-1453) Early Middle Ages (AD 500-1050) Vikings (AD 700-1100) 7. Islam (AD 600-945) Moors of Spain (AD 716-1492) Romanesque (AD 1000-1150) Feudal / Monastic 8. High Middle Ages (AD 1150-1300) China--T'ang (AD 618-906) China--Mongol (AD 1100-1368) 9. Japan (660 BC-AD 1300) Russia (AD 862-1589) TIA

My 16yod will be starting Trisms EOC this month & I am wanting to get a list of literature for her to read. EOC suggests 1 book (historical fiction or biography) for every 2 units. The suggestions in the teacher's manual seem quite young. What would you suggest for the following topics: 1. Maya (100BC-AD 1000) China--Ch'in (221-171 BC) China--Han (171 BC-AD 220) 2. Persia (530-323 BC) Hellenic Greece (232-146 BC) Sparta (600 BC-AD 396) Athens (700 BC-AD 404) 3. Alexander the Great (336-323 BC) Macedon (359-323 BC) Mauryan Empire of India (321-183 BC) 4. Roman Republic (500-30 BC) Roman Empire (30 BC-AD 476) 5. Germanic Tribes (200 BC-AD 430) Celts (750 BC-AD 50) Early Christians (AD 33-500) 6. Byzantine (AD 313-1453) Early Middle Ages (AD 500-1050) Vikings (AD 700-1100) 7. Islam (AD 600-945) Moors of Spain (AD 716-1492) Romanesque (AD 1000-1150) Feudal / Monastic 8. High Middle Ages (AD 1150-1300) China--T'ang (AD 618-906) China--Mongol (AD 1100-1368) 9. Japan (660 BC-AD 1300) Russia (AD 862-1589) TIA

English spelling---Sequential Spelling copywork---Light Home Publ. writing / grammar---Trisms HM, including IEW literature---Trisms HM speech---ToastMasters course Math MUS---Epsilon / Zeta Science Apologia's General Science Latin Latin Prep 1 History Trisms History Makers Electives Sea Scouts Gymnastics (compete at level 6 + coaching fun gym class) Drums (Pipe Band & Drum Line) Karate sailing has paper run Most of the above we have been using since our school year began in February, but Trisms & Karate will be new to us as we begin the second half of our year. ToastMasters will be a one term extra class with a couple of other HS/ing families. Ds is NOT excited about that class. Finding a balance between schoolwork & activities is a challenge as his activities are more relevant to his goal of enlisting in the Navy (in his eyes ;) ). Blessings,

I like weekly sheets for my dc, but usually by mid-year "life happens" & I don't get their work sheets completed before mondays & the amount of work we complete drops off drastically. So this year I made up yearly sheets for each subject & a term sheet with a box to check off for each child. This way each dc only needs to look at the term sheet to see that A, B, C, etc. need to be completed today & they turn to A's year sheet & work on the next block of work. No more messy planning pages from when "life happens." And I can use dd's subject pages with my ds when he's ready. Blessings,

I have all the pages we have NOT covered yet in the front of ds#2's Latin binder. These pages are on top of the first divider. As we complete pages, I file them in the appropriate sections so we can easily refer to them as needed. We also, don't complete the history pages the same day as the readings. Instead at the end of each unit, I have ds#2 complete any history pages for the unit as a bit of review. I have found that by working through the LL pages in the order that they are printed, we have a nice variety of material covered. We simply aim to complete 1 section daily. Blessings,

for Language Arts: Lively Latin 1 (Latin, vocabulary, grammar, etc.) FLL 3 (finish last 10 lessons), FLL 4 (grammar, dictation, etc.) IEW- Fables, Myths, & Fairy Tales (writing) Schonell's The Essential Spelling List (spelling & dictation) Crawly Critters Cursive (penmanship) + assigned reading from history lists + read-aloud literature from CM & WTM lists Blessings,

supermarkets & fastfood chains will be found in both Swanton & Newport. I know there's a Walmart in Williston (~1 hour south of Swanton on I-89), but I'm not sure if there's a Walmart in either Swanton or Newport. Both towns are pretty much on the Quebec border. And if you like skiing, Jay Peak is less than an hour drive from either town. HTH,

I don't know Beecher Falls, but I have family in Swanton & the last town I taught in was near Newport. Swanton is nice. It's located on the shore of Lake Champlain. The closest bigger shopping area would be St. Albans (about 20 minutes south on I-89). Newport is the biggest city in the Northeast Kingdom of VT. I liked Newport. It is located on the shore af a big lake as well (I forget the name of the lake, it's an Abinaki name.) If you have any questions, let me know. I grew up in Essex Jct., but we had a farm in Franklin & spent most summers there & most of my dad's family lives there. Blessings,

That equates to about $8.72 / gallon! It cost $110 to fill my toyota on sunday, before petrol rose 6 cents! My car goes almost a week on a fill-up.

economics, psychology, sociology, geography, philosophy? JMHO,

to begin geometry when half way through Algebra 1 & begin Algebra 2 when finished Algebra 1. She's behind as we really needed to play catch-up in math after 6 years in PS & 2 years with Saxon. JMHO,

I aim for us completing 1 exercise / day. This takes 15-45 mintues a day, depending on how long the exercise is & whether it asks for translating a paragraph. I wouldn't expect LP 1 to be done independently unless: 1. You have a good background in Latin & 2. the student is extemely self-motivated. I work with my 14yos & am able to help when he runs into trouble as I have been learning along with him. My 16yod is using SYRWTL Latin 1 mostly independently, but she is a lot more mature than my 14yos. My 10yos is using Lively Latin & we complete a section /day & it takes us about 10 minutes. Lively Latin covers grammar, derivatives, & Roman History as well as Latin. JMHO,

you are bound by the laws of the country where you are a resident. Military bases are sometimes special cases, but for all other ex-pats are subject to the laws of the country where they live. I don't believe your friend will have trouble HS/ing in India as education is a privilige in most 3rd world countries. JMHO, Deb, a Yankee in NZ

My son plays drums in the local Pipe Band. He's due to take his level one exams for the Royal NZ Pipe Bands Assocaition in July. These are similar to the Trinity Music Exams for other instruments. Ds's drum sticks last longer as the sticks are a lot heavier than the sticks he used when playing the drum set in the Youth Music concert band. Drums are the ideal instrument for active boys IMHO. Blessings,

My 14yos isn't advanced & needs to focus on the basics as well. My plan for him this year is: Math: MUS-finish Epsilon & begin Zeta + finish Key to Geometry (books 1-3) Science: Apologia General Science Latin: Latin Prep 1 Spelling: Sequential Spelling for Adults Penmanship: Lighthome Publications Copywork books (great for older boys who need work on their handwriting) History / English / etc. : Trisms' History Makers (we'll begin this in July) Music: Scottish Drums PE: competative gymnastics, sailing Social: SeaScouts JMHO,

"school" lessons / work / service has played a part in our HS journey. Now that my dd & ds#1 are in their teens the work / service parts play a much bigger part in our week. Both dd & ds#1 are working on their Duke of Edinburgh Challenge Awards. Dd has completed her bronze award & working on her silver. Ds#1 has just begun working on his bronze. DOE is made up of 4 parts (service, skill, physical, & expedition). The gold award adds in a residential componant as well. This balance is much the same as found in the Moore Formula. Each section requires a comitment of ~1 hour / week over 4,6,or 12 months, depending on the level beings worked on. Dd volunteers ~2 hours a week at the SPCA & the extra hour helps to cover weeks she's unable to help due to illness, etc. I've set up with the library for ds#1 to help out 1-2 hours a week. Regular volunteer work can provide that all-important character reference for the first "real" job or tertiary education. JMHO,

I use Lively Latin with my 10yos, Latin Prep with my 14yos, & SYRWTL Latin with my 16yod. Each dc is doing well with their respective curriculum. Latin Prep moves a bit too deep, a bit too fast for my 10yos; but Lively Latin is just the right mix of Latin, grammar, & history. Latin Prep is just right for my 14yos working with me. Both progams are a much better fit for my dc than LC1 & PL were last year. My dc found those programs boring. JMHO,