I am not in Ft. Collins anymore, but we lived there for 3 years. We live east of Longmont now. If you are really interested in looking at some Memoria Press products, I'm pretty sure there are some things from MP for sale at Salt & Light Learning (a used curriculum store if you aren't familiar with it) in Loveland. I just bought MP's Famous Men of Rome there two weeks ago and she had several other MP things on the shelf. We aren't using MP right now, but I have been looking at it for a while and I would agree that the forums on the MP website are really helpful.. Send me a PM if you would like more info..

I freecycled my 1st edition after the 3rd came out. I regret it, but that is life when you are a ruthless declutterer.

Our library district has this book and I just put it on hold. I'm looking forward to reading it!

I agree with this. We use an exercise ball to sit on (i.e. roll alll over the room) while I read for my 10 year old and just turned 9 year old. We also have "Thinking Putty" and other quiet activities for all the kids to do during read alouds. Drawing works well if we haven't done a lot of seatwork first. In regard to the Burgesss books . . . my 13 yo daughter LOVED the Burgess books, and has since begged me to buy every single one from the Dover catalog. She still likes to read them occasionally, even though she is reading the Lord of the Rings books right now. When I read them aloud to my younger two boys, they were not as enthusiastic about them. I do agree with the others that the vocabulary/language is something that takes time to get used to. They warmed up to them, but they didn't love them like their sister did. I would keep reading them, but allow him to be in action while you read, and maybe cut back on how much you read at one time. HTH.

Core F is the core that focuses on various cultures. However, there are books in other cores that would fit too. i.e.: The Lion Storyteller Book from Core P4/5 has tales from other cultures. My 12 year old enjoyed hearing them (remembering them from years ago), right along with my 8 year old. Another would be A Grain of Rice from Core A. Then Little Pear and Owls in the Family from Core B; both of these are listed in the lists in the ECC book lists already, and there are more. I would request a free catalog from Sonlight and then look through the booklists. HTH!

Now, after reading this thread, I had to get up out of my chair and go get The Read-Aloud Handbook off my bookshelf and put it on my nightstand. I need some new enthusiasm, even though I have read aloud, in addition to "school" read-alouds, almost every night during our bedtime routine to my kiddos since my first was a newborn. I bought The Read-Aloud Handbook last year and haven't even looked at it. I am now anxiously awaiting bedtime so I can start reading. :001_smile:

I see myself in the article link, as well as the above quote. I've had the same struggle with parenting "experts". I am too easily swayed. What matters is what is best for OUR family, not someone else's family. This thread has been most enlightening!

My oldest was 12 last year when he started 7th grade. My dd will start 7th grade at age 12 in the 2012-13 school year. My next ds is 2 years younger than his sister, but I didn't start him in 1st grade until he was 7 (legally required age to start officially in our state), so he will be starting 6th grade when he is 12. Same for his younger brother. I wish I had thought to start my older two at a later age, but they are doing fine. The younger two can use the extra time to mature. I really like the idea that they will have more time to enhance their transcripts as someone mentioned earlier in this thread.

You are not alone! We've taken a very laid back approach to school this year and we are ready to ramp up with a more academic focus in 2011-12. I'm getting overwhelmed as there are just too many choices! We've used enough things to know what definitely does NOT work, but then I come read here and start to question my decisions. Momma to 4: ages 7,9,11 and 13 (I need to decide what curriculum we are using before making a sig line.)

My kids- ages 7,9,11 and 13 - orally narrate spontaneously about almost everything they read. It is just a natural thing in our house to tell each other about what we are reading. I have read aloud to my children almost every single night since my oldest was a newborn. When we started to read chapter books, I would play dumb and ask them to remind me what happened in the previous chapter. (Ok, when I had really little ones, I was often sleep deprived and wasn't actually "playing" dumb.) I also model narration by narrating to them about books I am reading. Now written narration has been a weakness here, so I don't have any advice in that area. We'll be working on that this next year with concerted effort. But we have had great success with oral narration.

Amazon.com has the release date for Writing With Skill as January 1, 2012, but fall would be great! You can pre-order it now from amazon.

As I get ready for the new year, I print out a yearly calendar that starts with July 2010 - June 2011, for example. Then I highlight each day we do school with a yellow highlighter.

We love living in Colorado after living in Southern CA for 8 years! We lived in Fort Collins for 3 years before moving closer to DHs work, so we are about 1/2 way between Denver and Ft. Collins currently. There are some nice areas west of Ft. Collins. I think the Red Feather Lakes area is nice. We were looking at property out there 2 years ago, before we bought our current home (unfortunately, we are back in the suburbs . . . long story). Our favorite property was in Lyons, but it was sold before we could make an offer. We have friends in the Masonville area which is nice, and also in Lyons which is a bit further south. Nederland area would be a nice area too. Our friends near Masonville used to homeschool, but now drive to town every day to take their boys to a private school. I agree with Satori, 4WD is a necessity, snow tires are nice, but chains aren't necessary. As long as you drive smart, you will adjust to winter driving. :001_smile:

I think I've made up my mind for next year . . . but can't be sure till we have the money in hand. I have a couple of weeks until then. I'm always excited by the "hunt", though it can be overwhelming at times. I think I'm a curriculum addict. :blushing: I'm struggling with grammar and writing curriculum decisions. Defintely planning to get some fun stuff this year from Timberdoodle.

I have spent a lot of money on things that did not work for our family - expensive math curriculum and other things. I made one big purchase of a complete curriculum that I thought would be great for our family. Many people I talked to loved it. I purchased it over a year before we needed to use it and then when we got to that point, I knew it wouldn't work. It was too late then and I couldn't take advantage of the 18 week money back guarantee. I sold it and made someone else very happy with a good deal, but it was a loss for us. I know I must be insane, because I was just looking at that same curriculum again last week. :tongue_smilie: I've since come to my ssenses. As good as it looks and sounds, it doesn't fit our style.

I feel so much better about next year! I've been trying to combine the CM idea of short lessons and lots of subjects per day, and it has not worked for my kiddos. The day seemed so chopped up. A friend and I sat down together and planned out our school years last fall. She is a lot more of a CM homeschooler than I am, but I thought I'd try it. It made me (and my kids) so frustrated. I think longer periods of concentration will help our brains feel less scattered.

Well, I'm not new to homeschooling, but have been feeling burnt out, so we have been homeschooling lightly the past few months as well. (Just the 3 Rs with some history/ literature read alouds at bedtime.) Halcyon wrote: Since I originally posted this thread, here's what we've done to make our lives easier. 1. On Monday to Thursday, we cover skills coursework: Latin, Math, Grammar, Writing, Reading and Spelling (twice a week for Spelling). 2. On Friday, we spend 5 hours doing our content coursework: History and Science, and throw in Composer Studies and Art once in a while. This scheduling idea is awesome! I have been mulling over schedule ideas for next year and am so thankful for this thread! Any more thought would be appreciated by me as well! Perhaps I'll pull LCC off my shelf and ACTUALLY read it. :tongue_smilie:

I thought it was interesting that in Timberdoodle' s Complete Curriculum, Jump Math is NOT included in their packages after Grade 2. They switch to Teaching Textbooks in third grade. In answer to the question "Is This a Complete Curriculum?" Timberdoodle answers, "Yes and No". So I think they think it is best for the younger grades or children struggling with math. I'm going to try it, but I think my up and coming first grader will need at least the second grade book.

I was just looking at the Timberdoodle packages and came here to ask about them too. Kristen, I'm wondering how much time the 5th grade curriculum took each day? We have been mostly CM, lots of living books, with not too much writing, like you mentioned was your case.

Thanks for sharing these! I love the hanging timeline! It will work perfectly for us. Mary in CO

I can do it with one jaw drop AND with two !? It depends on how I pronounce it. :tongue_smilie: Mary in CO

The Colorado state "homeschool" conference is NOT even called a "homeschool" conference anymore. I noticed this just last week when looking at a flyer. It is a "family" conference now. :glare: I'm not planning to attend, even for the vendor hall. I'll buy online. I know many people who feel this same way. I'd love to attend the WTM or a CM conference in the future. Mary in CO 4 Blessings: ds12, dd10, ds8 and ds6

I really like Cursive First. It looks pretty IMO. http://www.swrtraining.com/id17.html I didn't actually follow the philosophy of doing cursive FIRST. We did printing first. My oldest two used it and loved it. My 12 yo's printing is not so great, but his cursive is lovely. I am getting ready to use it with my just turned 8 yo. What they really liked was that every lowercase letter starts in exactly the same place. The capital letters are more tradtional. Mary in CO 4 Blessings: 6,8,10 and 12 years old (Still working on my sig line)

I just used the link, and it worked for me. I've never even seen this curriculum before. It looks very interesting for my 12 yos. Mary in CO 4 blessings: 6,8,10 and 12 yo (STILL need to figure out my sig line)

We love the NWF magazines: Your Big Backyard and Ranger Rick. http://www.nwf.org/ChildrensMagazineCenter/KidsPubs_Offer.aspx Mary in CO Mama to 4: just turned 6, 8 ,10 and 12 years old (need to work on my sig line)