PS- hoping to finish SOTW in one semester and focus on Science after the New Year so not leaving that out. They also participate in art, poetry and physical science at coop.

Can I hop on here? I always feel a little out of forums in general because I'll pop on every once in a while to ask a question and then forget to keep up. I read often. I'm doing school with DD7 and DS4 right now. We also have a second DS who is 2 and another boy on the way. We ended last year in the weeds a bit and took the summer off for pregnancy blah and I was a bit worried about this year and so far it's been great. I broke school into two periods this year since I anticipated we'd have to work around DS2's smash em up personality and a new baby in December. The first period is semi independent and the second is during the toddler's nap so I can focus on more active teaching. We start the day with instrument practice. DD plays violin,DS cello and then do a YouTube excercise video. The excercises are my attempt at OT for DD because she is extremely sensory seeking and though we don't really have trouble with attention she is usually only engaged if she has a specific task. She steams ahead like a freight train when she has something to do but the second she's done she starts making noise, banging on things or generally being a nuisance. DH is still the same way so I know kids like that can grow up to be just fine but sometimes it's a challenge. During period 1 DD works on Singapore 2B, Print Wacky Sentences and journal. DS works in Singapore 2B, Printing Power and journal. If they finish quickly they are allowed to read or listen to a book on tape and they almost always do. While we break for lunch I play the CC timeline song (we did CC for one year but only kept the timeline song) and the little one starts nap. During second period we do Story of the World (the Middle Ages), AAS2 and MCT which we all love. If it's a long nap we might find a documentary about the event or place we just read about in SOTW and then we're done. I can't believe how smoothly this is going and sometimes worry we're not doing enough. This is especially true for DD7 who should probably be doing more for writing than just journal and copy work. I'm meeting with a friend who is a writing teacher next week to see if we can beef things up in that area. DD is very reluctant to write because she perceives herself to be a bad speller which she is absolutely not (we do standardized testing aside from my personal observation) and it stresses her out to try. Ugh... How to explain to GT kid that they're not "bad" at a subject in which they never make a mistake!?

All About Spelling can go a long way toward helping kids who struggle a bit with reading to make progress without feeling like they're just doing MORE reading practice.

I don't know if this is the kind of response you're looking for but I HAVE taught a two year old to read so I thought I'd relate our experience. My oldest DD learned to read at 5 after a failed attempt at 4. When we "failed" the year before she just wasn't getting there easily and I laid it aside. She had known the letter sounds for a long time but the concept of making "c" "a" "t" cat wasn't clicking. Much like your daughter. With her younger brother I used the same method (100 e-z lessons) but he just caught it and ran much younger. I am always ok with trying a couple lessons and seeing where things are going and then picking it up later if we need to. To be honest I know that DS was just "ready" and DD was not. In retrospect it was a natural ability type of thing. He's now four and learning to read music with the same speed and ease. I really don't know if there's any advantage to very early reading though. Learning to read was not hard for either of them and the "teach your baby to read" folks I know seem like it's a lot of work for no noticible advantage later on. I have third who is now two and no where near reading. That's fine with me.

Thank you so much! That's reassuring. We do New American Cursive but I forgot to mention it. I appreciate a little feedback now and then as most of my Homeschool peers are either just starting K or at CoOp where I seem to be in a monority when it comes to taking school seriously. I'm not a tiger mom but we try to make sure we cover the bases and work in plenty of enrichment as well.

Interesting that others have pointed to Singapore as "mastery." I've seen it described both ways but I was taught using Saxon and find that Singapore incorporates far less repetition and review in its core. Maybe spiral is the wrong word but I feel like it's easy to move on in Singapore without mastering the previous topic. It doesn't necessarily have to be that way but it can happen. We sometimes supplement with Calculadder but it's hard for me to commit to as it feels very "drill and kill" to me. DH is of the opinion that she should know computation facts (ex: 12-7=) cold before moving on (rather than knowing them fairly well and understanding how to do them) which is what I mean by mastery. So not just know how to do the work but doing it quickly and easily every time. I tend to teach about 75 % of the way there and then move forward. I know a lot of homeschoolers are not huge fans of testing and I respect that, I really do as we all have different household cultures and goals. I've always found tests to be an accurate representation of what I knew and was capable of and feel similarly about my children so far. That could change. I think my question (typed quickly on my phone while the baby napped) is more along the lines of "are we doing as much as the average second grader?" My DD is one of the older kids in our social group and our CoOp is very laid back so it's hard for me to tell where we fall on that continuum as we don't have a lot of peers with similar approaches.

My DD7 is starting second grade. We're working through MCT's Grammar Island, Story of the World 2, Singapore 2B, New American Cursive, McMillan Science a Closer Look and AAS 2. She also does some copy work and works in a workbook called Write Wacky Sentances. We used the Iowa test last spring and she scored on a 4th grade level in every subject. I know this should be reassuring but instead I'm convinced this will be the year I drop the ball! Specifically in math and writing which are key. My husband was homeschooled and his mother has an unbelievable ability to teach to mastery. She was relentless and they never moved on until things were rock solid. We tend to take a more spiraled approach (hence Singapore instead of Saxon) and move on and then circle back frequently. Worried this is going to started biting me in the butt in these subjects. Am I being paranoid? Should I trust the test?

We started school yesterday and have been flying through our work. I wanted to leave plenty of margin in our schedule and see if I needed to add more as we went along. Already feel like I might need to add more to writing. Every day DD 7 does 1 page in the handwriting book Write WAcky Sentances, we work through diagraming a section of MCT's Grammar Island together (we're on direct objects) and she does copy work from her Awana memory work. Today's was "Believe in the Lord Jesus and you will be save..." What do you think? I'm specifically wondering if most second graders are doing more lengthy, advanced copy work. It's definitely her least favorite thing to do but I could add more there.

We do tea time as well! Same exact set up. My daughter loves putting together flower arrangements as a centerpiece.

Would love to know how some of you make space for cultural richness and wonder in your homeschool. We cover the basics and beyond academically but I want this year to be beautiful, to nurture my children artistically and to maintain a home life that feeds the soul. Wow. Not asking for a lot am I? I'm interested in both big picture/philosophical answers to this question and specific details and practices that support a richly engaged mind.

OP here. For some reason my phone made me sign in as my husband so I made his username almost the same as my own. I have Math Mammoth too (we've tried all kinds of things to stretch and break up Singapore for DD) and I didn't love love it. MEP looks like he might really like it and it definately comes at the material from a different angle so it might build strengths in places We've missed so far. I think I'll try that and add in some Of my husband's old Calculadder worksheets for a change of pace (he loves a huge set of problems that are all the same.) I really like Singapore for DD who is "mathy" in her own right and it works well for her brother I just want to stagger things a bit so that they're not in the same books because she is prone to perfectionism and feeling overwhelmed by the idea of hard work though she could fly through if she just let go and relaxed. We spent a month with Calculadder last spring drilling the 1-5 times tables and got them eventually but it was not a happy time. I've only brought them up casually over the summer but last night she just explained (and demonstrated) to me how she now knows the rest through 12s. Sigh. I sometimes wonder wheather switching to BA would make or break her.