My HS budget may be non-existent...

[FO4UR]

Linney's Latin Class

http://www.linneyslatinclass.com

 

 

Thanks!

[Hunter]

Okay, good, you took Latin in high school. I find that people who took it in high-school are much more confident about teaching past GSWL with the vintage book.

 

Latin can take up a LOT of school time. It's another subject that is good for people on a budget and no long checklists for content.

 

I started a thread on Beechick. If the money is still a bit off, you could stay REALLY busy reading your Beechick books and planning Latin.

[ElizabethB]

Don Potter's Latin page:

 

http://www.donpotter.net/latin.html

[FO4UR]

It's been a while since I looked on Don Potter's site.  That's enough Latin to last a few years.  

 

My kids could really impress some HSing naysayers by reciting Ephesians....in the Latin Vulgate. :lol:

[chiguirre]

I want video lessons, and computer generated drill.  I want reading schedules on a grid, all done for me.  I want narration prompts (with answers) all written in a beautiful workbook.  I want MATH that does BACKFLIPS on a TRAMPOLINE!!!

 

I can make my own pretty checklists.  BUT, I need the materials we are going to use FIRST.  I can write my own lessons, and maybe that would be best (y'all would miss me though :crying:  :lol: ), but I don't really want to. I can use public domain materials, and/or what I have on the shelves and hard drive...but it's more fun to think about how you CAN do those things when it's not needed than to face actually HAVING to DO those things.  jawm!!!

 

 

For the math, Karen's suggestion of the Virtual Homeschool Group is great. I've looked at their Saxon Alg 1 and it's really well done. It would be hard to find a nicer program even if you paid big bucks.

 

For the lovely checklists and narrations, look at Laura's Classical House of Learning Materials. She's done a great job building on SOTW. It's also free, but honestly, one of the nicest options out there for history.

 

http://www.classicalhouseoflearning.com/

 

For the future, you know you don't have to let the government have your money all year interest free. If you have the discipline to set aside the taxes you will owe and not touch the money under any circumstance, set your withholding so that you owe the IRS instead of getting a refund. I see no need to be more generous than necessary to the IRS.

[Zoo Keeper]

Another good Latin option is Latin Book One (by Scott and Horn) on Yahoo.  My oldest enjoyed using (some of) it after GSWL.  You could also S T R E T C H out GSWL by having your son redo some lessons translating English to Latin, instead of translating the Latin into English.  I did this with my two older boys and it really made them think. 

 

Science?  On the TOPS website you can print out lots and lots of samples from different modules. TOPS along with copious amounts of NOVA has been a great spark in our science for the last two years. 

 

I'll be praying for you; I know that it is hard to feel like you are trying to make bricks without straw...

 

BUT, Hunter is right, in that your "lean" times may just be very, very full and blessed.  For a variety of reasons, the past few been extremely tight for us financially; I haven't been able to get much of anything I thought I needed.  BUT ;) I've been shopping the shelves (mine own and the library), slowing things down, and enjoying the ride more. 

 

 

[AimeeM]

I think Horizons is excellent.

I have tried CLE with him.  It gets us into a rut. He does well when I pull review from Strayer-Upton, CWP, etc...but focus learning like Singapore tb.  Time-consuming!!!

 

I think Saxon would be disastrous.  He's a whole-to-parts learner.

 

Horizons?  What else?  

 

I will check the library for those books.

 

 

 

 

I've got both RB books.  

 

 

 

I like the paragraph writing assignments.  I've been heading in that direction with him.  8filltheheart's writing has inspired me too.

 

 

I don't know where to go to find good used books locally.  (humph!)  I know there are plenty of HSers here so there must be a place where they buy/sell used books.  When I've looked at LLATL before, I've always dismissed it based on the book selections per level...it's never been a good fit for *my* kids.

 

 

 

I really think the key for my oldest is going to be writing my own lessons for him, based on what I know.  (This kind of freaks me out...doubting how much I REALLY know.)  I canNOT put him through another trial of a curric only to *fail.*  Whatever I do with him, it has to *look* like I just assigned this out of thin air so he doesn't see his own weaknesses compared to what other kids are doing.  That's why paragraph writing and 8's methods will work, I think.  I can tweak gradually as we go, and hopefully get him to high school able to write coherently.

 

 

I don't worry about content, tbh.  Somehow, my kids never fail to glean all sorts of information.  They are history and science junkies. I will splurge on SOTW 4 b/c I like how SWB makes everything fit together chronologically, and do without the AG unless I find it cheap/used.  I've got an idea for science.  We will utilize the library, and I'll spend some time teaching the kids how to utilize some kid-friendly search engines.  I saw a sample of a high school science based on inquiry, and I think I can tweak this for middle school.( I *have* a great science teacher book that includes demonstrations/experiments organized for inquiry-based science.) Basically, I will ask questions, have dc do some simple research, and write.  Here is where I can have ds11 just write paragraphs paragraphs paragraphs. Then he can read my teacher's book, and do the demo's for my other kids.