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amyable
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| Posted: April 23 2008 at 10:54am | IP Logged
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Cay Gibson wrote:
All I can say is THANK YOU, LORD! for Teaching Textbooks! 
Even my 6-yr-old sits on a stool watching her sister work through the 5th grade math. I might not have to teach her math at all.  |
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This is happening here too!
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Amy
mom of 5, ages 6-16, and happy wife of 
The Highly Sensitive Homeschooler
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Sarah M
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| Posted: April 23 2008 at 3:16pm | IP Logged
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Best: my library card and Homeschool Share
Worst: Saxon K (no, you really don't need a scripted lesson to teach kindergarten math....really!)
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Waverley
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| Posted: April 23 2008 at 3:28pm | IP Logged
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I've gotten some great ideas here. Thanks everyone for sharing!
Best:
* using the Liturgical Year as our "spine" for religious education. This includes all the great blogs out there with information and The Catholic Mosaic.
* Explode the Code
* Bob books
* FIAR
Worst:
* Phonics Pathways
* Cuisinnaire rods
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TracyQ
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| Posted: April 23 2008 at 8:08pm | IP Logged
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This has been a neat thread! I'm enjoying it very much. 
Best:
Write With the Best http://www.edudps.com/WWTB.html http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/product?item_no =477100&netp_id=440387&event=ESRCN&item_code=WW (there are two volumes, we used both with three kids in various levels)
Hands on English http://www.grammarandmore.com/product/hoe.htm
Spelling Wisdom- for daughter, 7th grade..http://simplycharlottemason.com/books/spellingwisdom/
Trisms- (for 10th grader)- http://www.trisms.com/
Life of Fred Math- (7th gr. daughter says, the jury's still out ) http://www.livingmath.net/MathPrograms/Algebraonup/LifeofFre d/tabid/864/language/en-US/Default.aspx
Worst:
We don't have a worst, just that I wasn't as diligent as I'd hoped to be, but that's normal for me. We kind of go in waves every year.  
All in all, a pretty good year!
__________________
Blessings and Peace,
Tracy Q.
wife of Marty for 20 years, mom of 3 wonderful children (1 homeschool graduate, 1 12th grader, and a 9th grader),
 homeschooling in 15th year in Buffalo, NY
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BrendaPeter
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| Posted: April 23 2008 at 8:53pm | IP Logged
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Great thread!
BEST: The KISS Method (Keep it simple, Stupid!), Lively Latin, Online Henle class with Memoria Press, DIVE cds, IEW TWSS (can't believe I let the cost stop me from buying this incredible program!).
WORST: Reading about the Montessori Method so late in the game  ! Already working on those plans for next year .
Honestly, this was our best yet simplest year in 9 years of homeschooling.
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Blessings,
Brenda (mom to 6)
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Natalia
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| Posted: April 23 2008 at 9:14pm | IP Logged
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BrendaPeter wrote:
| BEST: The KISS Method (Keep it simple, Stupid!), |
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I would love to hear about this method  Really Brenda what did you do different to keep it simple?
Natalia
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BrendaPeter
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| Posted: April 24 2008 at 5:03am | IP Logged
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Natalia wrote:
BrendaPeter wrote:
| BEST: The KISS Method (Keep it simple, Stupid!), |
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I would love to hear about this method Really Brenda what did you do different to keep it simple?
Natalia |
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Hi Natalia,
This is a good place to start:
Ten Ways to Simplify Your Homeschooling
Feel free to PM me if you have any other questions!
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Blessings,
Brenda (mom to 6)
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Cay Gibson
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| Posted: April 25 2008 at 10:28am | IP Logged
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I wrote something on KISSing our Curriculum while I was planning last summer, if it helps anyone.
Reading back over it, we really did KISS this year, and I'm very pleased with the results.
__________________
Cay Gibson
"There are 49 states, then there is Louisiana." ~ Chef Emeril
wife to Mark '86
mom to 5
Cajun Cottage Under the Oaks
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BrendaPeter
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| Posted: April 25 2008 at 1:38pm | IP Logged
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Cay Gibson wrote:
I wrote something on KISSing our Curriculum while I was planning last summer, if it helps anyone.
Reading back over it, we really did KISS this year, and I'm very pleased with the results. |
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Oh Cay - I love it!
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Blessings,
Brenda (mom to 6)
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Karen T
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| Posted: April 25 2008 at 1:45pm | IP Logged
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for 9th grade ds-
BEST- continuing with Teaching Textbooks AlgebraII, using Amy Welborn's Prove It books in religion, Seton English 9
WORST- MODG Religion
for 2nd grade ds-
BEST-Miquon Math, using BOB books and ETC to finally get him reading
WORST-Mom not keeping up with our science (Stratton house kits - great, easy, just didn't do enough of it!)
for K/1st grade dd-
BEST-BOB books and ETC, Mary Daly's history timeline
WORST-Miquon math
Notice i have Miquon on both best and worst, for different kids? amazing how that works. I'm still searching for the best math for dd.
Karen T
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4 lads mom
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| Posted: April 25 2008 at 3:58pm | IP Logged
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Best--MODG for my 14yo ds...who is very academically driven....and loves the structure
--Abeka math grades one and two for my six and nine yr old ds's..it is a good review, I realize my nine year old needs the success of the second grade book to fill in the holes and review extensively...his short term memory suffers....and this has helped. We are often doing 5-10 pages at a time, and when I tell him we can really skip ahead , he insists on doing every page.
Worst--Seton's history for grades one and two...what was I thinking? They are okay, but we could've done just as much with real books. I think with Lily's trach and ds's major surgery, I just wanted to make sure we had "something" for history....I'm a slow learner, girls!!
BIGGEST BLESSING--getting through the school year without Lily getting horribly ill....and making it through 6 yr old ds's major neuro surgery in one piece. THANK YOU LORD!!!!
Great Thread!!!!
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Mom of four brave lads and one sweet lassie
Scenes From This and That
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Kristie 4
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| Posted: April 25 2008 at 4:04pm | IP Logged
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That's great news 4 lads mom!
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Kristie in Canada
Mom to 3 boys and one spunky princess!!
A Walk in the Woods
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TracyFD
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| Posted: April 26 2008 at 9:05pm | IP Logged
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Best--Serendipity's Alphabet Path and Gnome Math, ETC, HWT, read-aloud time. Catholic Mosaic.
In Between--Horizons Math, then Singapore Math - just can't tell yet what works the best, but the kids did like the CHC math games if I made them cooperative rather than winner/looser
Worst--Cuisenaire Rods, CHC materials - I had high hopes, but it just wasn't a good fit.
Next Year Going Back To--FIAR Vols. 2 & 3, memorizing a poem each week and reciting on Friday night, weekly science experiments.
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Tracy
Mom to 3 girly girls,
1 absent-minded professor, and one adorable toddling terrorist.
Pinewood Castle
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EmilyC
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| Posted: April 28 2008 at 6:50am | IP Logged
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Let's see...
Best: Lapbooking, FIAR, Catholic Mosaic, Primary Language Lessons, DK Math Made Easy workbooks, Serendipity's Math Gnomes, Theresa's Harry Potter Unit, Sonlight K's Discover and Do dvd (my twins adore that dvd), homemade reading incentive charts for the twins, starfall.com, beeswax crayons
Worst: All my curriculum hopping this year! Math Mammoth (made dd cry), MEP Primary Math (too confusing and not enough guidance for me), Rod and Staff English 3 (sooooooo boring!), Teach Your Child to Read in 100EZ Lessons, Montessori materials ( I made lots of stuff, and NO ONE used it--what a huge waste of my time!)
__________________
Emily,
Wife to Rob since 8/98
Mom to 4:
Sarah (13) Robbie & Riley (10) Regina (nearly 3)
My secular lit-based curriculum:
Build Your Library curriculum
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Jess
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 2:10pm | IP Logged
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Best: definately Teaching Textbooks for my 11 yr old dd. We just started them and she really enjoys it, finally she likes math!!!
Also Catholic Mosaic, Reading Your Way Through History, and lapbooking/notebooking
Worst: not having tea time like I wanted (very fussy baby who doesn't nap well), and not reading aloud as much as I would like (same reason), and Singapore math for 11yr old dd (the reason we tried Teaching Textbooks)
__________________
God bless,
Jess
+JMJ+
wife to dh('96)
mama to dd(13), dd(11), ds(9), dd(6), and dd (2), and baby girl born Sept 14!
star cottage
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Tina
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 3:47pm | IP Logged
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Best: Math-U-See, doing the nature notebooks (and taking nature walks when possible) and history notebooks, celebrating the liturgical year with a weekly teatime and craft(the girls LOVED that). Also the Flower Fairies books for nature, copywork, art and poetry. Reading MANY stories, probably more than all previous schoolyears combined (sad, I know). And definitely Christmas Mosaic. I plan on getting Catholic Mosaic over the summer. CHC spelling works well for my 9 yr. old as well as Seton's handwriting.
Worst: I overplanned the year out and ended up chucking the whole thing. I have more realistic thoughts for next year. Not doing enough with my toddler (until more recently). Too much clutter and disorganization. I know it's not "school" per se, but it has a definite effect on how school goes each day.
~Tina
Mom to dd12, dd9, dd5, ds21mo.
The Best of Times
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teachingmom
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Virginia Bluebells
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| Posted: April 29 2008 at 10:55pm | IP Logged
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Now, how did I miss this interesting topic?
Best:
Switching from Singapore Math (which I like a lot!) to Saxon for my 6th grader. Who knew it would be so much easier for this particular child???
Also, CHC's Language of God grammar workbooks for the elementary years. They are gentle and very easy to do quickly orally while discussing the page.
Worst:
The teacher and mom (that's me!) dropping out of Henle Latin I after Christmas. I had intended to learn along with my 8th grade dd all year. I got behind and gave up. She continued along, but now needs to spend her 9th grade year on the second half of Henle I. I think an online class will be the ticket next year. 
I have to add a "worst" from last year because one of my girls keeps reminding me how she wasted an entire year of grammar because of it. It's two computer cd-roms entitled "Grammar Made Easy" and "Punctuation Made Easy." She now tells me that she really didn't learn anything from them and the CHC program is much better.
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~Irene (Mom to 6 girls, ages 7-19)
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12stars
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| Posted: May 05 2008 at 11:43am | IP Logged
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I just wanted to say thank you all for sharing, this thread has helped me more than you know.
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CandaceC
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| Posted: May 05 2008 at 11:54am | IP Logged
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I love this thread!! Thanks for sharing, everyone!
Though, I will say, it makes me a bit sad to see several moms that homeschool very similarly to me (FIAR, CM, lapbooks, nature walks) but live so far away from me! I wish I had more like-minded ladies in my area to chat with and encourage each other!!
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Candace - wife to David since 2000...mommy to Hannah (Feb. 2002), Emily (April 2003) and Caleb (March 2005)
His Mercy Is New
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cfa83
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| Posted: May 23 2008 at 9:05am | IP Logged
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The all time best - Cay Gibsons' Shakespeare class my daughter signed up for. She already had thoroughly enjoyed Shakespeare, but Cay you took to another level. It was difficult for all the kids to see the class come to an end. It grabbed the interest of our 12 year son. Yeah! 
I would be remise if I didn't mention Teaching Textbooks again. Revolutionized our home.
The all time worst - can't say. If something is not working, I chunk it immidiately for something else I have on my shelf. What works for one child, may not work for the next.
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Linda
Married to an incredible man, mother to 6 precious (and I mean precious) children: Grace, Michael, John, Faith, Hope and Andrew
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Topic: School year's best and worst
