Thanks so much. Yes we read that, and we want to keep up with Illinois, however I dont think that will be an issue right now. One of the reasons my daughters want to hm is because we just moved from Kansas and they are re-learning stuff they learned two years ago. We brought in their work from Kansas and the schools even said, oh they will learn that later. So we want them to stay where they are. And my youngest son has an IEP and the schools here do not have the man power to get everything he needs. They are great teachers, just so many students. So we are going to try to do it with him. Finding lots of support, and thanks again for your thoughts!!

We had a similar experience! I switched to public school in 8th grade and all the work was very easy compared to what I had learned in private school. And my sister was diagnosed with a physical illness when she was in grade school and couldn't accommodate her.

Good luck to you and your family!

Has anyone seen the latest Drive Thru History series Acts to Revelation? I'm requesting the public library get it and trying to decide if it would good to go ahead and purchase it regardless of the price. We've really enjoyed all of the previous DVDs, and have recently been rewatching The Gospels.

SnowAngel

Late last night I wrote my final journal entry in my homeschool log book and wrapped up Kindergarten with my son!

We're going to take a complete break today and tomorrow and HOPEFULLY do some fun Easter related things. Then on Monday we'll at the very least do some reading and some projects that we just didn't get to (hey, I paid for them, might as well use them up!), and then the week after that we'll do a couple days a week of math and phonics review so the kiddos don't forget everything by the time we get to July.

Question: Have any of you homeschool alums ever done either Story of the World OR Mystery of History OR (Bonus) both of them? Just curious as to what you thought of the curriculum.

A couple weeks back I got to meet my current homeschool hero/fav speaker, Andrew Pudewa, who is the head of Institute for Excellence in Writing. (fledge1, look up his videos on YouTube and take notes. ) I talked him through where my oldest two kids were at and he recommended a few things which I went ahead and ordered. Once I get them I'll decide whether I want to incorporate them this year or save them for next year. A good friend of mine has the same stuff I do and she alternates semesters where she uses Logic of English for phonics and IEW for spelling/writing. I might look at that too as we totally burned through LoE last year.

We didn't, for our history curriculum we had Abeka, Drive Thru History, and the American Heritage series plus library books. Those sound slightly familiar, so might have had friends that used them.

Congrats on finishing the year, fantasia!

SnowAngel

We did not use either, but from a quick glance, I really like that The Story of the World seems to be specifically created to be enjoyed together as a family, rather than that being an after-thought. I haven't seriously looked into either though!

Two more weeks until we start up again. What??!?

Has anyone seen the latest Drive Thru History series Acts to Revelation? I'm requesting the public library get it and trying to decide if it would good to go ahead and purchase it regardless of the price. We've really enjoyed all of the previous DVDs, and have recently been rewatching The Gospels.

Somehow I missed this post of yours Snow. No, I haven't heard of them but they look REALLY interesting. Did you get a hold of the DVD set? And if so, did you watch and were they good?

Back in April, I discovered a site called Homeschool Summits, where about every 8-12 months, a young couple hosts an online homeschool convention. It's free to watch for about a week, and then if you pay for it, you can have lifetime access to all of their videos. This in turn led to my finding a whole lot of audio recordings of my new favorite people at homeschool conventions, which I bought and have been listening to repeatedly all summer long.
I tell you what, I have learned a phenomenal amount from listening to these giants in the homeschool movement (like the importance of teaching a Christian worldview if that's what you believe, as well as teaching to mastery rather than just flying through things without understanding, just to name a few). And (bonus) I also learned about all sorts of curriculum that's out there which gives me more things to research and look into as my kids get older. This is certainly going to change my focus on how to handle school in the future as my kids get older.

But back to two weeks from now. I'm doing Sonlight as my primary curriculum again; that covers most of history, Bible, science, poetry, etc. We'll pick up with Shiller math, though I did do one lesson a week (minus a week here and there) to keep it fresh in my son's mind so he wouldn't forget his lessons. And then for phonics we'll continue on with Logic of English where we left off, and that's mixed in with Institute for Excellence in Writing. I did end up getting that curriculum because Andrew Pudewa (mentioned him above) suggested to go ahead and start my son on it because he's ready and I might as well do so.

The IEW curriculum is very interesting because they don't send stuff for your kids per se (though I did order one book to get started with and make my life easier), they send stuff for you, the parent. Then they teach the parent how to use any curriculum the child is using (or even things that the child is most interested in and passionate about) to develop writing skills. So I've mixed it in a little bit with my schedule and I'm curious to see how my kids do.

No, I haven't yet. I'm going to submit another request to the library for it.

During Wretched's recent Reformers Sale I bought It's Not Greek To Me, the siblings are so excited. I printed a copy of the student's manual today and will probably try to start it next week. It seems like a good summer course.

SnowAngel

Day 1 (Monday) was a bit rough. The kids were in shock from my suddenly ending their summer TV binge and I was flustered and couldn't quite remember how things flowed. So I was stressed, they were stressed, some tears happened, but then things sorted themselves out and by Day 2 we were back into our rhythm from the previous year.

My daughter Ariel insisted that she's in Kindergarten this year. I told her that was fine, she could do whatever she wanted. Hopefully she doesn't freak out when we start Co-Op in a couple months because based on age she's still in preschool.

We're reading Charlotte's Web. I didn't remember this book being soooo funny! My memory is the movie from the 70s.

Here's to a second great year!

Good luck fantasia! Charlotte's Web sounds like a fun start to the year!

Ok. We are finally joining the homeschool world. We are using My Fathers World. Hope it’s good!

I'm very excited for your fledge1 You're teaching 2/3 of your kids correct?

I have a good friend in real life that uses MFW and really likes it, and I don't know if you ever knew wisewoman on here, but she uses the same curriculum for her oldest kiddo. I've heard all sorts of good things about it!

Thanks mm1991! We did floating in water experiments today. My bathroom was very wet.

I'm very excited for your fledge1 You're teaching 2/3 of your kids correct?

We are actually going to do all three this year and see how it works out. My wife already has the whole year planned out, of course knowing things will change. However, all are excited.

Good luck, fledge!

How's your year going so far fledge1? I'm curious to hear what you think of My Father's World. I have a lot of friends that use it and love it.

I wanted to let everybody know that HomeschoolSummits.com is hosting another free online convention called Family Relationships coming up October 14-20. I can't recommend these enough, even if you only have time to watch one or two out of the 26 scheduled. (My favorite speakers I know of thus far include Voddie Baucham, Hal and Melanie Young, Steve and Megan Schiebner, Israel and Brook Wayne, and Rob Rienow.)