So far, SOTW again with SL Core 6 - so Usborne Encyclopedia of World History, some Genevieve Foster and a lot of really fantastic historical novels. Also added IEW history-based writing lessons.

What did you study? Would it help qualify for a different job?

No kidding. If my thermometer is correct, 16F is about -8C. I think that's PERFECT weather for walking, if dressed correctly. Anything too much below -15C (3F)... nah. Short, necessary sanity breaks only.

If I understand it correctly, a "cougar" refers to an older woman trolling for younger men. Don't know why.

Yahtzee!

I read it out loud a couple of years ago, primarily for the 11yo but the then-7yo enjoyed it, found nothing too scary and still remembers it.

Here in BC, all mention I had heard of the upcoming Olympics had called them the "twenty-ten" Olympic Games. But recently I saw a newscast about the "two thousand ten" Olympics. I'll have to pay attention next month - maybe that's how I'll end up deciding which to say.

:iagree: Exactly.

My middle ds seems to grasp math more easily than his big brother, and we enjoyed our time with Miquon and Singapore. I wanted to introduce him to the more traditional logarithms and moved him to a Canadian curriculum for the past couple years. We now appear to have the same issue: he's lost the ability to mentally add double digit numbers, etc. If we go back to Singapore or something like it my guess is he can recover that ability. And it *is* important, IMO, for him to be familiar with traditional methods. But ya, it's a little disheartening.

Lord of the Rings: Part One - The Fellowship of the Ring LOTR: Part Two - The Two Towers LOTR: Part Three - The Return of the King Harry Potter & The Philosopher's Stone HP & The Chamber of Secrets HP & The Prisoner of Azkaban HP & The Goblet of Fire HP & The Order of the Phoenix HP & The Half-Blood Prince HP & The Deathly Hallows

Next year: English Math Science History/Geography Foreign Language P.E. Fine Arts Bible Health/Planning/Elective - not sure what here, but something?

Wow, kudos to your dd! She's a trooper to do all that. The goal is 90% accuracy - 9 out of 10 words spelled correctly. Page 9 has over 100 words - so if she's spelling more than 90 of them right, she's definitely good to go on! TM page 11 is the pretest (check test). The result you got this evening confirms she's doing well with the lists you've already done, doesn't it? Yay! The procedure for the post test is in the TM, listed as Step 5 for each individual list (so for List 2 that would be TM p. 16) Hope you're not totally confused. That was the biggest hurdle starting Megawords for me, too. Once we had the check test sorted out, it was smooth sailing. Good luck to your dd with list 3. I'm sure she'll continue to do well with it.

Before you begin the book (ideally) you give them a check test for reading and spelling of each list. The information is in the teacher's manual, p. 10 and 11. Then when they take the post-test at the end of each section, you can see whether they've improved. There's a handy chart for you to record everything - there's a copy in the back of both books - so you can easily compare. Maybe give your dd the check test for lists 3-8 and then you'll be able to see the improvement. :)

Yup, there is a big change between elementary and the upper levels. For TT Pre-Algebra one watches the lesson on the Lecture and Practice CDs then does the problem sets in the workbook. Since the entire lesson is printed in the workbook, I know some kids, including my own the last few weeks, that just skip the computer step altogether. It also comes with a Solutions CD and a Test Solutions CD, but so far I've just explained errors to ds as I marked them.

As a hockey mom who spends way too much time sitting in the stands having relatively meaningless conversations, I think this is a FABULOUS idea. We keep talking about having exercise classes in another area of the arena, but no one ever actually runs with this idea. I would start with an easy read, something light but with big ideas. Unless it's been done to death, how about To Kill A Mockingbird? Or something newer like Life of Pi? People can be intimidated by the classics, but a title such as Emma is accessible, I think.

I bought Moorehouse's book from Cornerstone Learning Resources in Kelowna, B.C.

That's the reasoning I'm working with, lol.

Ack, same company but I think I meant Switched On Schoolhouse (SOS) for L.A. on the computer. :willy_nilly: :leaving:

TT Pre-Algebra is a big change from the elementary years. Mommy7 is right, you watch the Lecture CD, then do the work in the workbook. The parent then must grade it using the answer key. Depending on the parent's comfort level with explaining concepts/showing solutions, you could probably do this level without using the computer components at all.

For the K-2 age group there's a simple little book called A Child's Story of Canada by Karin Moorehouse. In theory, it should be easy to fit in with a full schedule. :D Farley Mowat's Owls in the Family is a light-hearted Canadian read-aloud that my kids enjoyed sometime around age 7.

Do you mean L.A. on the computer? You could try LifePacs.

Pierre Berton's series for pre-teens and teenagers is called Adventures in Canadian History. I have one title - Parry of the Arctic - but we've yet to read it. Hope it's good!

Another guide worth looking at is Modern History Through Canadian Eyes by Heather Penner, also available at CHER. She schedules resources chronologically, from Aboriginals through the 90's, with several different spines to choose from, as well as correlating world history selections, particularly SOTW. I'm hoping to use this with my oldest for gr. 9 next year, along with SL Core 7. Our first time through the history cycle, I threw in a few books from Nicola's Canadian History Reading List along with SOTW and called it good enough. :tongue_smilie: With the younger two, we've done Donna Ward's Canada My Country and now Canada's Natives Long Ago along with SOTW. It's been a good fit for us.

There are other professionals with a different viewpoint. You could recommend Hold on to Your Kids by Gordon Neufeld, Ph.D. and Gabor Mate, M.D. If I can restate some of their thesis intelligently :001_unsure: peer-oriented children are less likely to mature and individuate than those with healthy attachments to adults. To help develop true independence, healthy family ties are far more important.

Sounds like you have two potential plans, both of which should be fine. 1. You could spend time in the Key to series after TT7, then begin MUS' more advanced pre-algebra in the fall. (I'm not a math whiz either, but when I compared pre-algebra programs last year, I thought MUS looked more difficult than TT, too. Which is why I went with TT for my ds. :D ) 2. Or you could move through the TT sequence more quickly, beginning their pre-algebra after TT7 and moving onto Alg 1 after that. I guess it depends what you want her to do for algebra. ETA: Upon re-reading both Karin's and your posts it sounds more like you're considering this: Key to series combined with TT Pre-Algebra, followed by MUS Pre-Algebra with TT Alg 1 You know, that just makes so much sense. Kind of like continuing to stretch a child's decoding level, when teaching reading, but working on fluency at a more comfortable level. Huh.