Yes, I love it. Ever since it was time to bump the older boys up to the next level, I've been floundering. I haven't gotten a good handle on how to challenge them, or to successfully require more of them. TOG has helped me to manage this.

Specifically, it's helped me to get them reading more consistently, and to discuss with them what they're reading. Yes, the discussion should be a no-brainer, shouldn't it? But some of us are ... easily distractible ... and really need that piece of paper reminding us what we're supposed to be discussing.

In the last 8 weeks, Connor and Aidan have read:

A retelling of Don Quixote
The Landing of the Pilgrims (Landmark)
Perrault's Fairy Tales
The Witch of Blackbird Pond

In addition, Aidan has read Diane Stanley's Peter the Great, and several chapters of Story of the World. Connor has read through book 7 of the Iliad, several chapters of This Country of Ours and Our Island Story, and four chapters of Locke's Second Treatise on Government.

(Not all those works are assigned in TOG.)

That's not bad, is it?

Yes, we like it. The schedule is flexible, allowing for students to move between levels as their abilities dictate, and keeps us on a good track. The discussion questions are good - sometimes even excellent. And it's not so time-consuming that we can't do our own thing, like classical studies.

I've got the two little boys working at the Lower Grammar level. Aidan is well-placed in the Upper Grammar level; I had him do some Dialectic readings, just to see. He can read the books, but slowly. Soon.

The Dialectic level is actually a little easy for Connor, but I'm not willing to bump him up to the high school (Rhetoric) level yet. So, at his request, we're adding the Rhetoric government elective to his work - hence the Locke. Does this kid rock, or what? Neither Locke, nor the Iliad phases him. I must have done something right.

We are also doing the TOG geography. We are NOT doing the church history, or the writing program. I substitute out about half of the literature selections. I almost wish they integrated a science program with the rest, except that I know what that science would be.

Griffin explains feudalism:

"In medieval times, people were ruled by knights. Knights were ruled by kings. And kings were ruled by God. At least, that's what the kings said."

Then I prompted him for the moral of the story, which he said was:

"Never tell the truth after you lie."

We always kind of pegged him to be the televangelist of the family. Maybe we should be considering politics, instead? Campaign management?

I'm going to start putting my detailed report/journal behind the cut. Click to see!

Somehow we were supposed to focus on Native American tribes this week, and I managed to fail to assign any reading about Native Americans. The library did not have the recommended books, and I didn't realize the emphasis TOG was trying to place here. Because I want to stay "on schedule" for history, we are not going to pause to make this up, even though I do think it's important for the kids to learn about the Native Americans. I think, instead, we will find a way to spend some time at the Smithsonian American Indian museum.

Meanwhile, my kids are learning things about the founding of the colonies that I never knew. They are learning about how each of the colonies was founded, and about the Indian wars that affected each. The level of detail is something I simply do not remember from my time in school. We learned how the colonies came to be as a group, and we learned a great deal about the local Indian tribes. (Except when I lived in Panama; then, we learned about the Iroquois.)

Connor continued his math and programming lessons with his father. He also continued reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond, as well as selected chapters from This Country of Ours and Our Island Story. He attended his last writing class, for now. He learned about the imperative mood in chapter 8 of Latin Prep; I haven't actually checked his Greek work yet, so do not yet know if he learned anything. He watched the first two lectures of Elizabeth Vandiver's Teaching Company lecture on the Iliad.

Aidan learned to multiply fractions in Right Start E. He learned about appositives, and did more work with the third declension in Henle Latin. I haven't checked his Greek, either - do you see a pattern here? He read Diane Stanley's Peter the Great, and a couple of chapters of Story of the World. He continues to read The Witch of Blackbird Pond, and will read D'Aulaire's Greek Myths whenever we find it again. He outlined a portion from SOTW, and composed a narration based on the outline. He, too, did programming lessons with Dad.

He also attended his first pack meeting with our new Cub Scout pack. It turns out that we've been sort of misled about Scouts. Aidan actually joined as a Tiger, when he was old enough to be a Bear. We were told that this would not matter, in the long run, and that he could just join Boy Scouts when he was 12, instead of 11. It turns out that this is not true. So, he has just one year to do the entire Webelos program - and he wants his Arrow of Light.

Griffin had a rough week in Singapore 1B, until I remembered that we have not yet encountered subtraction in Right Start, yet. This is my signal to leave the Singapore on the shelf, and go back to Right Start for awhile. Once the concept is introduced there, we can continue with it in Singapore. Every day, Griffin does handwriting practice, two or three pages in Explode the Code (he's currently in book 2), grammar from First Language Lessons, and either copywork or narration. A couple of times a week he also reads from Phonics Pathways, and I give him dictation from that. His confidence in reading is very low, and he needs intensive work.

Lachlan resists the 20 minutes of schoolwork I ask him to do each day. Still, he did do most of his lessons in Singapore 1 A, and his grammar in FLL, and his handwriting. He also did one narration for me this week.

We all did a nice nature walk, that I'll get to in another post. That, and documentaries about dinosaurs, comprised our informal science for the week. Aidan did read about Newton in SOTW.

A few weeks ago we read about the Great Fire of London. This week we finally got around to coloring and assembling a paper London. Now we just need to set it on fire. Homeschooling is always better with fire, right?

Tonight we're exhausted. We went back into D.C. and visited the Jefferson Memorial, the Lincoln Memorial, and the Vietnam Memorial. We walked a total of five miles. It was a beautiful day, though.

Tonight we also celebrate Mabon, the Fall Equinox. This week it has begun to feel like fall - the days are still warm, but the nights are cool, and the trees are thinking about changing color. The neighborhood kids are back in school, and the grocery stores are selling pumpkins. And we're having baked apples and pumpkin pie, tonight.

Because of that last one, we're going to have to choose a school start time, and stick to it. He's too belligerent, and too slippery. I don't mind when they want to do things their way, or change things around, or play first and work later; however, when you abuse my flexibility and goodwill, you don't get it any more. And he is pushing every limit he can think of.

It's frustrating when the children present you with their challenges all at once. So right now, every day, I have a disruptive battle of wills with the youngest. Then, I have to muster up the patience after that to work intensively, carefully, and creatively with the next youngest, who will shut down at the first sign of difficulty. And school is hard for him. There's no way around it. He must learn how to face something that's hard, without being upset. And after that, I turn around to realize that the preteen boy brain fog has eaten all of the Latin vocabulary, the monarchs of England, and the multiplication tables. And the kitchen chores.

And I understand that both CPS and the county schools would be perturbed if the Mom/primary teacher started drinking right after lunch.

Connor got a full set of braces this morning. I don't know that he'll let me take pictures to share.

And on Monday night, we met the local Cub Scout pack. This year we'll have four boys in Scouts, so if you never hear from me again, you'll know why. Plus, we were informed that since Aidan has always been behind a year in Scouts, he has to do the entire Webelos program this year - actually, in the next six months. He wants to earn the Arrow of Light. I see now that it's good that we've done no formal science this year - the Webelos program is about to take care of that!

They just put the icing on the cake, though. Remember when I had my XM radio stolen from my car, last year? I called XM immediately, and reported the theft. They told me they'd deactivate it immediately, and put a special tag on that ID so that it could not be re-activated. Then they sold me a new radio.

I was just checking through my account last week, and realized that that radio was listed as active on my account. I did some checking and, sure enough, they never did deactivate it - the thief has been listening free, on my dime, for the past 10 months.

XM investigated my claim, and came back with this. Yes, it was their fault. Yes, they are very, very sorry about it. And they can offer to refund me the last six months of my payments, which, by their intriguing method of calculation, adds up to about half of what I pay per radio per month.

They say that they can't refund me the full ten months, because since I am billed monthly, they don't have the records for that far back (um ... huh?!); they also say that it's my fault for not having called them sooner.

Allrighty, then. I hope the $60 is worth it to you, XM, because I'm cancelling both of my existing radios forevermore.

We may just have to abandon school, though, until the election is over. My oldest child, at least, has the fever (my next oldest is not far behind), and all I do is read blogs and then either walk around giggling or raging incoherently. (No, I can't do your Latin lesson right now! Someone is wrong on the internet!) It would probably be more entertaining for all of you if I giggled or raged incoherently here. I'll think about. I generally dislike blogging about politics, but I might have to make an exception this time.

We've been looking for an Obama event to attend, something at which either he or Biden will be present. So far we've found nothing. This is a battleground state, though, so I hope he'll be back through.

As for the rest of school, things are much the same. We are still doing nicely with TOG. We're even mostly on schedule with it, if you don't count geography. We've just finished week 24 of year 2 (remember, we started with week 20), which dealt with William Penn, La Salle, the Salem Witch Trials, Louis XIV, and the ways in which Charles II, William and Mary, and Anne dealt with the colonies. It sounds like a lot, but it's gone very smoothly.

I usually do the end-of-week history discussion in the car. This works very well, as all the children are present and are a captive audience. Heh. The TOG questions are all geared towards Connor's history reading for the week, but if we are in the car then all the kids hear the questions and answers, and often Aidan is able to participate. Sometimes even Lachlan and Griffin are able to participate. Not likely this week, as I never actually read L and G's history to them. Bad Mommy.

One of the TOG questions this week asked the child to use his Bible concordance to find Biblical justifications for the actions taken in the Salem Witch Trials. I'm going to make Connor do that one. That will certainly lead to a nice discussion, don't you think?

Both older boys are reading The Witch of Blackbird Pond this week. This is one of those times when the TOG literature corresponds with what I was going to do anyway. This is a favorite book from my childhood, and I am going to love discussing it with them.

I had intended to school four days out of the week, and to save Fridays for art, science, and nature studies. So far, every week there's been some reason we had to skip a day of school and use Friday to make it up. This is not going to get any better, as our activities get into full swing, and as Scouts starts. Ack. And of course, we need more time for field trips ... who has time for school, anyway?

Other stuff: Aidan did long division in Right Start E. The little boys continued their Singapore, and Connor started up his math lessons with Jeff. Connor continued working in Chapter 8 of Latin Prep, and Aidan learned the 3rd declension in Henle.

The little boys and I worked in FLL and WWE. These two books are a little tricky to use together, since they involve so much repetition. I primarily use FLL. On days when the lesson in FLL does not involve narration or copywork, I do a WWE-style lesson. I'm very glad I did not buy the WWE workbooks, or I'd have felt compelled to use them. This system is much more flexible. This system has also helped me to see how the fable level of the progymnasmata can be done in a much more low-key way than Classical Writing.

Areas we still need to work on: Aidan is not actually doing any formal writing right now. He is writing a short story, though. That counts, right?

I'm pretty sure ... I'm positive ... that this was my first political rally. All my life I've been fairly anti-political. By that I mean that if you said "politics," I would instantly fall asleep. Or try to change the channel. Which was embarrassing if the TV wasn't on.

And yet, we went. The kids asked where we were going, so I told them: "We're going to get in the car, drive slowly through lots of traffic, get to a park filled with thousands of people and no parking, give up and go home."

It took an hour to drive the 7 miles to the park. On the way, I noticed I was out of gas. The traffic was stop and go, with no gas station in sight. We finally found one when I was down to just a couple of gallons. We pulled up to the pump, and it was then that I realized that my debit card was still on my dresser. Thankfully there was a credit card hiding in my purse, or we might still be at that gas station.

Once we drove by the park itself, it just looked like too much fun to go home. All those people! And they were having fun! It felt like a party! And the protesters! Connor kept complaining about them, while I vigorously defended their right to be there. It wouldn't have been as fun without the protesters.

We had to park a mile away - literally. So we were late, and ended up with a bad spot. It didn't matter. We could hear everything. Sarah Palin's speech was the same as it's been lately - even my kids recognized that. John McCain is a much better speaker live than he is scripted on TV. He didn't say anything new either, but he sounded great.

Somewhere in the neighborhood of 23,000 people showed up for this event ... and let me tell you, I have never seen a crowd that large be that polite. Everyone was polite. Everyone was friendly. Even when security totally botched the attempt to get all 23,000 people out of one gate, leaving us smashed against each other, everyone was still polite. And patient. There were kids everywhere, and many, many moms with babies in slings. (I so love to see babies in slings!) Complete strangers kept coming up to me to thank me for coming, and for bringing my kids.

It was fun. I'm scared.

It's 10:19, and no one has started school work yet.

Connor and I started our morning online, together reading some articles in the Guardian; one about how Barak Obama had wanted to join the military when he was younger, and one about CERN's Large Hadron Collider. Then he went off to his own computer to do research on antimatter.

Connor, Aidan and I rolled out bread, unloaded and loaded the dishwasher, and did laundry (OK, I did laundry). I reminded them (for the 87th time) that our swim classes start today, and so they need to have their swim trunks ready. They assured me that they are all prepared, and know where their swim trunks are. I suggested that they go ahead and get out said swim trunks, to make sure we're ready on time.

You know what happened next, don't you? Three children will be swimming today; two pairs of swim trunks have actually been found.

Yesterday we began the process of switching the office/schoolroom with the formal dining room, which means that the required history reading for the day cannot be found.

One child has decided he doesn't want to swim, after all. No, it's not the one we have no swim trunks for. That would be too easy.

10:38 a.m.

I found them. They were in said child's drawer. Imagine.

10:51 a.m.

Finally, we've stared schoolwork. The little boys are working on math and phonics. The two older ones are working on history reading and Latin. No one needs me yet, so I'm cleaning the kitchen. Actually, I'm typing on my computer, but you know what I mean.

11:05 a.m.

Lachlan and Griffin have an argument about Bionicles, and Lachlan runs off to his room in a fit.

11:16 a.m.

I blew it. It is a delicate matter, keeping the morning blood sugar level balanced. It relies on not drinking the coffee too soon, nor eating the breakfast too late. Would it be all that bad if I ate the entire bag of potato chips that's hiding in the laundry room?

11:29 a.m.

We begin Aidan's math and Latin lessons, in Henle and Right Start E.

12:18 p.m.

Aidan is finished with math (long division), Latin (3rd declension) and a history narration (He dictated, I wrote. Tomorrow I will dictate his narration to him for him to write, following the methods in Writing With Ease). Connor claims to be finished with all his day's assignments, except for Greek. He's probably right, as he won't have any math work until this evening, when he has a lesson with Jeff, and he won't have a writing assignment until tomorrow.

12:58 p.m.

We've all had lunch, though my blood sugar is not bouncing back, and I would like to eat a huge bowl of mashed potatoes. Griffin took a break after phonics, and has never returned to finish the rest of his schoolwork. Neither has Lachlan. They're off playing nicely together now. Later, they will not be able to escape. The bread is baking. Aidan is practicing piano.

1:30 p.m.

The bread is out of the oven. We leave for swimming. Aidan's swim trunks do not fit him. Really.

1:45 p.m.

We arrive at Marshalls. Griffin announces that he forgot to put shoes on. I stuff him into a shopping cart so that no one will notice. They have no swim trunks. I buy a pair of shorts that looks enough like swim trunks. I also buy Griffin a pair of shoes. They have wheels, so I'm counting them as a birthday present.

2:20 p.m.

Connor does his Greek lesson in the car. I find the rec center, cleverly tucked away behind a high school parking lot.

During the lesson I chat with the mom of some of the other kids. When she finds out I homeschool, she says to me, "Oh, my neighbor homeschools. You must know her, then!"

Yes. We all know each other.

4:00 p.m.

We arrive home. I finish up grammar with the little boys, and math with Lachlan. They go off to play, and I play on the computer and see about dinner. The boys all play on the computer, too. Connor and I notice some Very Large Crows in the back yard, behaving a bit oddly. On further investigation, we find that they're scavenging. So ... what kinds of animals bite squirrels in half? We have half a squirrel in the yard. I'm pretty sure the cats didn't do it. They tend to stick to moles and voles. (One of our cats brought us a live mole last week. He brought it into Jeff's office and let it go.) The crows seem very happy.

6:00 p.m.

Jeff arrives home and attempts to give Connor a math lesson. It turns out he did have an assignment, after all. He spends the time before dinner doing his math. They'll have a lesson later in the evening.

I walk two miles after dinner, finishing up while they do their math lesson, and while the little boys play with their friends from next door. The boys wind up their evening by watching Babylon 5.

The problem is that I don't like BUGS. I don't like surprises like this:

"Hmmm ... I think I see an interesting white flower in my tomato jungle. How weird - there shouldn't be any white flowers there! I wonder what it is? I'd better go in for a closer look at the little flower ... AAHHHH!!!"

I guess this is our science lesson for the day, except that I can't get Connor out to look at it. Wimp.

(Psst - Angie! You're right - they're carpenter bees. Thanks!)

This was our second week with TOG, and so far, so good. This week everyone read about the Mayflower, the Pilgrims, and the Native Americans who worked with them. It was very low-key. The older boys did their assigned readings - we even did the geography work. I read Three Young Pilgrims to the little kids, as well as the section on King James I in Kings and Things (H. E. Marshall). TOG does not schedule Kings and Things; it's my own addition. It's too delightful to skip.

The older boys did their Latin - Aidan wanted a change, so we're doing Henle. Really, there's no point in my saying what Latin curricula we use. We use one of three or four, depending. So for now, he'll use Henle. Both boys did Greek. Connor attended his writing class. I started Aidan, Lachlan and Griffin in Susan Wise Bauer's Writing With Ease, each at his own level. Aidan did lessons in Right Start E, Griffin in Singapore 1B, and Lachlan in Singapore 1A. Connor finished through Book 2 of the Iliad.

No one was overburdened with work, and we all had plenty of free time.

On most days, the big boys start their work around 10 a.m. The little boys prefer to play all day. Sometimes we don't do their work until 5 or 6 p.m. Tonight it was after dinner.

Monday we had a field trip:

It was our first time to use the Metro to go downtown.

We got as far as the WWII monument. On the way back to the museums, Connor jumped off a tree, landed badly, and sprained his ankle. That cut our trip short, as I had to support him while he hopped back to the Metro station, through the station, through the next station, and out to the car. It took us three hours to get home, with the hopping. It was not fun.

Rose asked how much planning I'm doing. Actually, I'm up to my eyeballs in planning, but I think that's just because I'm figuring out the system, and how to mesh their system with my system. They have everything very nicely laid out, but I must also have 1) my own overview of what I'm doing in a week, with not only TOG but everything else, and; 2) some assignment system for the two older kids so that they know what they are doing.

I'm experimenting with a couple of different spreadsheets for my own weekly overview. TOG has nothing to do with this - I always do some kind of weekly overview. However, now I have to fit TOG into it. I now begin to see why people make TOG workbooks for their kids. If I copy the pages for each child, I can just circle the appropriate reading and geography assignments and go. I can also add in the history questions, and any maps or activity pages (usually coloring pages for the younger set). Karenciavo seems to be the TOG notebook queen, and I assume I will succumb to the desire for those sexy Levenger Circa notebooks. (How sad it is that I can use the adjective "sexy" for a notebooking system.)

I have been using Pageflakes to give the older boys their assignments. They like this a great deal. I think it's a bit of a pain, but I can't think of any better options. Pageflakes lets me give them a reading list for the week, as well as daily assignments. I just have to remember to update them every week.

For years I journaled our homeschooling, using a paper planner for a basic idea, but only writing in it what we did, instead of what I planned. Now, I need an actual planner. A flexible, good planner for the Mac doesn't exist. I'm hoping Jeff will write one. It's on his list. In the meantime, I use Pages and Numbers to make up weekly sheets that tell me what each child is meant to work on in each subject on each day. I used a chart drawn up in Pages last year, and I'm experimenting with one in Numbers this year. (I'm doing this because Susie did the gruntwork of making the layout, and making it TOG compatible, so I don't have to. Ha. I mean, thanks, Susie :)

But what this means is that I'm simultaneously putting assignments into Pageflakes, making workbooks, and creating detailed plans in both Pages and Numbers. I am deep into planning Heaven or Hell, depending on your point of view. The upshot of this is that I do not yet know how much planning TOG will really require of me.

In the comments, KathyJo noted that it might be easier for a non-Christian to deal with the religious content, than a Christian of a different flavor. That may be true. I want to note that the worldview used in TOG is specifically one of providential history. If that is not your cup of tea, you are warned.

Here are some examples of Christian content we've seen this week. We had one question that asked the student to discuss John Smith's character, to think about whether or not he had the qualities of a good leader, and whether he should have been in charge of Jamestown ... and why we thought God allowed him to be the leader. That's an example of a question that's easy to modify. We simply do the first part, and ignore the second.

The student is given some Bible verses, and asked to use them to think about and discuss Galileo's positions, and why the Catholic Church was so threatened by his views. When we have the time, I don't mind at all doing an exercise like this. This can be a very interesting and informative exercise, and I want my kids to know how Christians think, and what the Bible says.

However, at the high school level, you encounter questions like: "What specific events in the story of Jamestown obviously show God's Providence at work?" And next week, at the Dialectic level: "In what ways did God provide for the Pilgrims?" Those will have to be tossed out wholesale, while I attempt to not gag.

But later on: "Using the Bible, define the qualities of a hero." Okay, we can define the qualities of a hero based on our own yardsticks. We can even compare our definition of a hero to a Biblical definition.

So it varies. There is still much we can use. Some of it we can use to learn about Christianity and Christians. And some of it will be kicked out the door.

We had our first end-of-week discussion today. It should have been on Friday, but, well, it was today, in the car on the way to and from the mall. (Captive audience!) It went really well, and was fun. Of course, encouraging Connor to discuss history is like encouraging a politician to talk about himself. Jeff enjoyed it a great deal. We particularly liked the fact that teacher's notes led us to discuss how the colonies were funded by joint stock ventures, and what that meant and how such companies work. All in all, a good discussion like this, with the whole family, is worth the price of the curriculum for me.

And oh, oh, I think the best moment for both of us was when we were discussing money and value, and Jeff asked the kids what "value" is, and Aidan responded: "Oh! Oh! Heinlein talked about this in Starship Troopers!"

Ah, the indoctrination is going well.