This year, we did science M, W, and F and history T and Th. On Tues, we would read a chapter, narrate, use part of that narration for copywork, look at the history encyclopedia and that's it. She never wants to do the mapwork that day. Thursday, she does the mapwork and we read a related library book, and possibly do a project. The projects have fallen by the wayside this year. There have been a few weeks where we did two chapters and skipped additional read alouds, and I assigned her to read an extra book or two. There is always the option of skipping a chapter or two. For instance, you could skip the Shakespeare chapter and cover him in another way, and the last chapter is just kind of an overview, and doesn't seem extremely vital.

I haven't been through it thoroughly, as I have not yet used it to replace a few chapters in SOTW, but fwiw, Kimberly Hahn (Scott Hahn's wife) recommended it in her book on Catholic homeschooling.

Yay! Thank you, Lori D.! I was hoping you would have some recommendations. Movies from the first half of the 20th century are about dd's speed.

Earlier this year there was a thread about movies that go along with SOTW 2. I was looking for a list of movies that would go along with SOTW 3, Early Modern history, but have not had much success. Any suggestions that would work for an 8yo?

:iagree: We have completed several weeks of ELTL, and dd asks to do it, even though the act of writing is still somewhat laborious for her. (I don't have her do all the copywork suggested.)

A Mother's Rule of Life might work for her. It will not work for those of us who have toddlers and babies. I look forward to a few years from now when it might become a possibility for me.

This is what the public school taught when I was there. When I was in 5th grade, all of a sudden, we were studying the Revolutionary War. Just the War part. The soldiers uniforms and battles and things. I had no idea why. It made no sense. I guess maybe because they figured 11yo's could not understand the politics behind it? Teaching history chronologically just makes sense to me. I think that to most kids and their perception of time, 200 years ago and 2,000 years ago are not really that different. Why not start at the beginning so that they will have a clue as to why later things happened?

Thanks for your help! It's nice to know there are choices out there. I knew there had to be, but you know, the whole hate shopping thing gets in the way. :001_rolleyes:

My 7yo might go along with this. I do not know if it would be acceptable to the youngest. I have no idea where she got her distinct preference for pink and frilly.

1st kid - 14 mos 2nd kid - 14 mos 3rd kid - weaned himself at 8 mos 4th kid - 16 mos I just substituted food for nursing, until it was just before bedtime. At that point in time, we changed the bedtime routine to include an extra story or song. It was all so gradual that it didn't seem to cause undo stress to either me or the kids.

Anybody know where to find some? I hate shopping. My MIL will go to Kohl's and bring back short shorts. I have looked at Old Navy and found nothing but short shorts. My husband bought some off of amazon and they are short shorts. Our dd is 7. This is ridiculous.

Not a full curriculum, a "mini-curricula" for first grade addition. Ellen McHenry's Prof. Pig's Magic Math. My dd has really enjoyed it and moved ahead in getting faster at her addition facts.

If you're just using it as a supplement, sure - why not? I don't have any experience with Greek at all, so I can't say if just the CD would be good for learning Greek. It would be exposure, so that could be a plus if your kids are young.

We just started using English Lessons Through Literature. My dd is not crazy about writing and copywork, but this is a curriculum she actually asks to do. I keep the copywork light and don't ask her to do it all, but it is working so far. I like that it includes copywork, narration and picture study. We are using Year 2 and have not yet run across dictation, but I think it comes later on.

Spelling Workout did not work out for us. Dd could zip through the pages and didn't remember a thing afterward. We went with AAS, which has been working out, although for dd, spelling is a thing we need to do all year long, otherwise she forgets everything. Some people get a lot of use out of the tiles, my kid doesn't really like them, though I do pull them out for lessons that are more challenging for her. We do just about everything on the whiteboard.

MEP stands for Mathematics Enhanced Programme. It's a British curriculum that is available online for free. http://www.cimt.org.uk/projects/mepres/primary/index.htm I am just starting to use it, so there are probably a lot of other people on the forum who can give you a better overview than I can. I find it intriguing because it's not worksheets full of addition problems. We have been working on Year 1 and there have been several problems that I could not just look at and come up with the answer, I had to figure them out. I guess you can just do the worksheets, but there is a lot in the lesson plans that also help to teach and reinforce concepts. They can be a little intimidating, but as with lots of things, I have found it is just a matter of sitting down and doing it.

MUS has been a disappointment here. Part of that is the program, and part of it is me being a newbie. We did Primer, Alpha and half of Beta. I'd watch the videos with dd, and she would fly through the worksheets, getting almost everything right almost all the time. Well, we got to this year, and she was getting most of the problems on adding with regrouping right without understanding what she was doing. So this year, we have been working a lot with solidifying her addition facts so that she is faster with them (ie flash cards) and trying out MEP. The thing with MUS is that the worksheets seem to be just additional examples of the single concept taught in the lesson, without any variation. MEP seems to show a single concept in a variety of ways. Regardless of whatever math curriculum is used, what I know now is that you need to practice those math facts in addition to whatever is going on, whether is through flash cards and/or games and/or drills.

The following links have some quick assessments. http://www.thephonicspage.org/On%20Reading/readinggradeleve.html http://a2zhomeschooling.com/all_time_favorites/reading_level_assessment/

I just discovered this page by accident the other day - perhaps it is what you're looking for? https://sotw-videolinks.blogspot.com/search/label/SOTW%202%20-%20The%20Middle%20Ages

I can't help with your request for a curriculum, but as something fun you could try doing mystery hundreds charts. There is a great range of difficulty available and there are lots of free ones out there on sites like Teachers Pay Teachers.

That is wonderful you have a natural speller! Not everyone has that gift. As for my not-gifted speller, I will never again take a long break from spelling. It took twice as long for her to get back into the groove as the time we took off over the summer. We will be doing spelling at least every other day this summer.

My MUS set has blocks for numbers 1-10, and 100. I understand what you mean by having something tell you what you need to do. I like that, too. :-) We have been using Ellen McHenry's Prof. Pigs course as a supplement, which is free and has math games that have an entirely different flavor to them than Kate Snow's. (We like her games too, but it's just a nice change of pace.) We also use MEP, which is also free, and has a very different approach to math. It's from Britain, so sometimes the wording is a bit foreign, but the lesson plans give good directions for activities to do above and beyond the worksheets. You can see the scope and sequence, which they call "Scheme of Work" here.

If you already have MUS, why not? If you don't, it seems like a very expensive supplement. I second the Education Unboxed Videos -the few I've seen explain things almost the same way as the MUS videos. Also, I have a hard time seeing the difference between MUS blocks and Cuisinares. I've never actually seen or used Cuisinares, so someone might correct me, but they look awfully similar, and Cuisinares can be purchased for a lot less than the MUS blocks.

I really enjoyed Kids' Art Works! by Sandi Henry.The supplies needed were pretty basic. The directions were easy to follow. There were enough guide lines for the finished product to look good, but still look like a kid did it, kwim?

It looks like you have all the academics down. Do you have any ideas for art or music?