Another idea is to use Classical Writing. It provides a very structured approach to analyzing stories, paragraphs and sentences and then helps you use that analysis to rewrite your own. Once you get past Aesop (the first level) it gets pretty rigorous, though, so you will need to decide if you want that level of language arts.

:hurray: Congrats to all. I have good news. I found a lump in my br**st and after two scary weeks found out that it is only a cyst. It's gone now and I'm back to "normal".

Bumping up for you. I haven't read either one, but based on the Amazon reviews, I put Breadwinner on my dd's optional reading list for this coming year.

I agree. Make a 30-45 minute period every day just for reading. I would make part of that time require reading (your choice) and the other part something that he chooses from the library. Perhaps then he will try harder to find things that he enjoys. Definitely do some read-aloud together so you can see if he is having problems with words. FWIW, I have the opposite issue. My dd is great at reading, but hates math. I decided that I would be okay if she is just at grade-level in math, but I set aside 45 minutes every day for math. I don't set any time aside for reading because she will do that on her own.

Reading aloud has worked great for my dd, but we've been doing it since she was born. We usually read books that are slightly above her reading level. Although now that her reading level is so high, we read classic books that she wouldn't choose to read herself or books that might require more discussion. I've seen so many benefits--an increased vocabulary, great discussions, "snuggle" time, and a willingness to try more types of books for her own reading. A BIG caveat: my dd is an auditory learner; she loves to listen to us read and she loves books on tape. I am a visual learner and I hate it. I very much prefer to read my own books. The only way that I can concentrate on audio-only is if my hands are busy with something else.

I just used the workbooks, rods and notes. The lab notes was plenty to understand the program.

I put creation, Adam & Eve and Noah on the front of the timeline then made a jagged line to separate it from the dated figures. I put Abraham at 2000-1900BC right after the Sumerian reign. I put Joseph at 1700 during Egypt's middle kingdom and then Moses being around 1530-1378 in Egypt during the time of Thutmose and Hapshetsut. Of course these dates are debatable, but they made the most sense to me. It's been so long that I can no longer tell you where I got the dates, but they don't follow the YE point of view.

I agree that you should get another opinion. Most conservative orthos will not pull teeth unless absolutely necessary--if the upfront plan is to pull teeth, I would be concerned with the recommendation. Twelve is not too old for a palate expander. My dd is 11; her mouth expanded to where it needed to be in just three months. It made room for her permanent teeth and her other teeth are already straighter although she'll still need braces. Our plan has one set price for everything, $3500 (expansion and braces).

I also recommend that you start with Miquon Orange. It is a good introduction into using the Cuisennaire rods. Perhaps you could even start it during the summer. In addition to the rods, you should get the Lab Notes book so that you know what is expected for each page.

They are both good; it's a matter of preference. I like the language of Egermeiers better than Vos.

I'm not familiar with Shurley, but I have used CW with Harvey for several years. With the two programs, you should have everything covered. CW recommends getting a diagramming resource, but I've been able to do all the diagramming just from the information in CW. The outlining in CW is pretty basic, and I plan to do a little more outlining in our history this year--but I won't get another LA book to do it.

I've heard that Chalkdust is a good program, but I've never used it. We've switched from Singapore to Life of Fred. You could jump into LOF pre-algebra from Singapore 6.

This is exactly what we did! It was great.

Bump. Anyone?? :bigear:

Thanks to the sale posted on these boards, I now have the 3-book set of Story of Science as well as the teacher's guide and student workbook for the first two books. I'll buy the guides for the last book when I need them. I'm undecided on how to schedule these into our history cycle. It seems like it makes the most sense to combine them with our history. However, next year, we will be studying modern history. So, please help with my options. Option 1: Wait a year (7th) to start Aristotle Leads the Way so that we read the books in order and combined with our history. I'm leaning toward doing Omnibus, so that would also be a three-year cycle. However, that would put Einstein into 9th grade and the books are aimed at 5-8. I would have to add something to it, to make a class for credit. Option 2: Start with Einstein next year to match up with our modern history. Then follow on with Aristotle the following year with ancient history. However, it seems like the Einstein book is the hardest of the three, plus we would be starting part way through the series. Option 3: Don't follow my history cycle at all--just start with Aristotle. What would you do? Why did you choose that option?

We just got this book from the library. I have only paged through it, but it looks pretty comprehensive and written toward the age group that you want. Made You Look: How Advertising Works and Why You Should Know

I don't have a high schooler, but I just read Les Miserables for myself. It is so thick and meaty, that I've decided that we won't do it for high school. It is a wonderful book but it would be a huge time commitment.

I just bought the Genius book from Rainbow, but I don't have it yet! RR has sample pages on-line though, if that will help. There are solutions in the book. I didn't compare the two books, so I can't help you there.

My sixth grade dd: Real Science 4 Kids: Chemistry with KOGS (actually doing this in the summer) Classical Writing: Diogenes: Maxim with Harvey's grammar, Intermediate Poetry Life of Fred: Beginning Algebra and possibly the up-coming pre-algebra First Form Latin (We've gotten behind, so I'm thinking about doing an on-line course.) History/Literature/Art/Music: A plan of my own making that still needs to be made! We will be on modern history. I'm using History of US, SOTW, Guerber, Abraham Lincoln's World and much more. Miscellaneous Fun Stuff: Editor in Chief Software, Revenge of the Riddle Spiders, Reading Dectective RX Friday co-op: Spanish, Art, PE, Drama, Science Extra-curricular: Equestrian, Choir, Piano, Swimming, Awana

We're doing 6th grade this coming year and our schedule looks pretty similar. I combine literature, art and music with history, so that they aren't separate subjects. For vocabulary, DD chooses 3-5 unfamiliar words from her reading and copies the definition out of the dictionary. It's simple and effective. Another idea is to write definitions for more English derivatives from your Latin lesson. We do science over the summer, so we have one less subject. Also, I don't have logic as a separate subject. Those are all "games" that I use as rewards for getting her work done. (He, he, he... <evil laugh>)

At about the same age, we really dived into science ala WTM. We did biology--mostly animals, but also plants and the body. There are so many great books to read for that age. The words can be challenging; there are fun pictures; and you don't have to worry about content. We did some nature journaling. For each subject, I had dd narrate orally to me. I typed it for her and then she decorated the page either by drawing or with stickers. I bought tons of animal stickers! We went on nature walks and made trips to the zoo. Dd was also doing Singapore math with Miquon, but she directed the amount of time spent on it. Of course she thought that it was play, so she wanted to do it a lot. At 4.5 years, we started SOTW, FLL and latin. These are definitely doable at this age if your dd has good comprehension. We read together a lot and I spent at least an hour a day doing a read-aloud. This allowed me to edit the content if needed. We did lots of history projects and crafts. We stuck with the WTM schedule. When we came to year 4, I focused on inventions, art, people, etc. and skimmed the wars. It was a great year. For language arts, I didn't do much else except that I bought cheap workbooks as I found them. DD loved workbooks so that was another form of play for her. It was mostly busy-work though, I don't think that they added much educational value. I look back on those early years very fondly, and I really wouldn't change any of it. Oh yeah, our "formal" school never took more than an hour, but our "informal" school was all day long.

The one TV show episode that I still laugh about 25 (yikes!) years later is the Moonlighting (Bruce Willis, Cybill Sheppard) parody of The Taming of the Shrew. Now, that I'm thinking about it, I might have to go buy it.

We just finished Homer B. It was much more challenging than Aesop or Homer A. I didn't love all of the lessons and it was more work for me, BUT I love the results. Also, by the end of Homer B, dd was starting to work quite independently. I allowed her to type almost everything which cut down on the complaints a lot. I definitely intend to use the entire CW program--I can't wait for Shakespeare!

The LOF Fractions and Decimals & Percents books are pretty short, so we used them as a supplement to Singapore math. However, there is another Pre-Algebra book LOF:Biology. Adding all of those together could be an entire year's worth of work.

For Aesop, all you NEED is the Aesop Core. From this book, you can make your own plans for the year, either using their models (free on-line) or your own. I love to plan and didn't have any problems doing it with just the Core. If you want the lessons completely done for you, you should order the Student Workbook.