Oh, I like this idea. We started our world history cycle this year while ds7 is in 2nd grade. We're using EasyClassical's schedule which combines VP history with SOTW. So that would put us at the end of the first cycle when he finishes 6th grade. I've been wondering what we'd do then as I'm not sure we'll continue on to Omnibus but with only 6 yrs left and not enough time to do 2 more history cycles. It would be great to do 2 yrs of American history for 7th and 8th. Now what I'll do for his younger brother who is 4.5 and doing pre-K/K is another question...

My ds7 went thru the /b/ and /d/ reversal when he was 4 or so. I tried the "bed" trick with the hands and on paper and it didn't help at all. I tried having him write his letters in salt (because his handwriting wasn't good at all then). I told him that the /b/ had a big belly, just like the big B, and the /d/ was dragging a bag behind him. None of that worked really, so I just gave it a rest for a few months and didn't do anymore reading practice. When we started up about 2-3 months later, he had no more problems. He just wasn't developmentally ready. Now my 2nd ds who is 4.5 has good handwriting without much training at all. But he forms his letters the "wrong" way. I've started HWT with him and he can make all of the letters, but I have to watch him closely to make sure that he's doing it the proper way. He really resists the correction though! GRR!

Thanks for the replies. It helps to know that he'll give up using the blocks when he's more confident and ready to do so.

Just wondering how long ds7 should continue using the math blocks. He's using MUS, just finished Alpha, starting Beta next week. I've rarely made him do the worksheets or tests without the blocks, but when I make him try, he gets very frustrated and thinks he can't do it. I thnk it's more of a confidence thing than anything else? When he uses the blocks, he almost always gets them all right, and if he stays on track, he finishes a worksheet (20 problems or so) in about 10 minutes. In WTM, SWB maintains that younger kids (5-7yrs) need the blocks. So I've been relying on that in continuing to let him use them. Any advice on getting him to loosen up a bit about the blocks? Or should I just wait it out until he gets to that stage where he's dealing less in concrete objects and more in abstracts? Christy

Your schedule sounds similar to ours. We started this week, and it's looking like we'll do school from 9:00am - 11 or 11:30am. This includes Bible, math, LA, and history (MWF) or science (TTh). We'll take a break and have lunch then at 12ish. Then after lunch we'll do our Latin or finish up history or science if we didn't get it done in the morning and do our read-aloud (this while 20mo dd naps). Then either some quiet time or some art or something. It's a pretty loose schedule. :D I have a 7yo ds (2nd grader) and a 4.5yo ds who is itching to do K. It's been a little wild so far, especially trying to keep the 4.5yo busy and keep the littlest one out of trouble (ie...grabbing pencils and putting them in her ear, nose, etc).

They use the normal numbers (twelve, fourteen, sixteen...) on the skip counting CDs. But when they first begin to teach the numbers, Mr. Demme teaches them as one-ty-one, one-ty-two, etc.

Have you checked out the Explode the Code workbooks? They do phonics rules which translates to spelling rules. Ds7 who is going into 2nd grade rather enjoys those, and he wasn't crazy about Phonics Pathways either.

I think this is a great idea. I know I'd have trouble with the dictation too. Maybe I will try this with my rising 2nd grader. I know he will struggle with it. I'm sure it would be good for him to see me struggling too! :)

We are going to use Classical Academic Press's new-ish Bible curriculum for 2nd grade (and a 4yo tagging along). It's called God's Great Covenant. This year we'll use Old Testament, part 1. There is a part 2 for OT as well as the 2 NT books, but I'm not sure if the NT books are available yet.

I'm not using the EasyClassical writing. I only purchased the history schedule, so you could only use it for history/geography (or just history).

:bigear: Giving you a bump. I purchased the Old Testament & Ancient Egypt plans for this year, but we haven't started using them yet.

On the Math-U-See website, there are Online Drills. I'm pretty sure it's free and available to anyone because we never have to log in to use it. You can choose the math facts you want to drill specifically.

Thanks for the replies, especially those of you who have used both Saxon and MUS. I'm still not sure what we'll end up using next year, but you've given me more info/understanding than I had before. I don't know that I can devote an hour/day to doing Saxon. I have littler ones that require a good bit of attention. We're usually done in less than 1/2 an hour with MUS Alpha, and that's not me holding his hand the entire time either. But when I was looking at some of the later books of MUS - probably Gamma? - where they teach multiplication / division, the way they teach those concepts looks so strange to me. Maybe I'd get over that...or find that it's helpful to me even now, but I don't know. It was definitely a different way than how I learned math. And does MUS ever use a number line? How do they teach negative numbers? Ok, guess I'll stew about it some more. :tongue_smilie:

Ds7 will be in 2nd grade this coming year. He is not strong in math (or maybe he's just average, but definitely not advanced). He tested around the 50th percentile on IOWA tests earlier this year in the math sections. We've used MUS Primer and Alpha for K and 1st. But I started wondering if the mastery system is working for him and looked into some other math programs...Singapore, Saxon, Horizons, etc. I really wanted to go with Singapore, but in looking at it, I'm just not sure that he could handle it. I'd definitely have to start him in level 1A. So I gave him the placement test for Saxon, and he tested into Saxon 1 - pretty much because we haven't done measurements, time, fractions or money with MUS yet. So I'm working on that with him over the summer and planned to put him in Saxon 2 in the fall. He seemed really excited at the placement test and thought it was fun. (He never thinks math is fun except when he gets to do baseball math with dh.) So I was pretty sure that I should switch him to Saxon...even though when I looked it over at the homeschool convention, it didn't thrill me much. Now I'm not so sure. In looking at the table of contents, it looks very jumpy, like we'd be covering a different topic every single day! I get that it's incremental and spiral, but one day isn't long enough for him to get a grasp on a concept. Will this really work? Or should I stick w/ MUS in hopes that since we'd be doing those "fun" things like measurements, etc, this year with Beta, things will be more interesting for him?

Language Arts: - finish WWE1, start WWE2 - FLL 1/2 - ETC books 4, 6-8 - VP history selections and Sonlight Read-Aloud selections for Literature - various early chapter books as readers Latin: Song School Latin Bible: - God's Great Covenant, OT part 1 - Big Book of Questions & Answers Science: Apologia Astronomy & NB Journal with library books History: EasyClassical schedule combining Old Testament/Ancient Egypt & SOTW1 with lots of books Math: either Math-U-See Beta or Saxon 2, not sure yet Building Thinking Skills book 1

Have you tried calling VP and asking them about getting those pages? They seem very helpful and reasonable, and I wouldn't be surprised if they agreed to send you those pages since you just bought the Tirzah book. I'm sorry - I'm not comfortable with scanning them, though. Dh is an intellectual property attorney, so I try to be especially careful about copyright stuff...so as to keep the peace at home.:001_smile:

:iagree: Yep, it's in the notebooking journal, 2 days a week for 28 weeks. You could stretch it out longer if you wanted to do everything in the notebooking journal, or you can pick and choose...which is what we'll do. It's basically...read half the chapter, narrate and do an activity in the notebooking journal; read second half of the chapter, narrate using review Qs that are in the journal; do an activity in the journal; do another activity in the journal and the project at the end of the chapter in the book. It's pretty straight-forward, IMO. Without the notebooking journal, you'd just have to come up with extra activities on your own, or you might go at a faster pace, or supplement with other books. The notebooking journal is around $16-17 from christianbook.com, I think. Worth it, I think!

:bigear: here. I was just about to post this same question but searched first and found your post that no one responded to. Maybe this bump will get some feedback? I am looking at using this next year with a 2nd grader. I liked the looks of the samples online.

:bigear: I've been wondering too if I should start with 1A for my rising 2nd grader. We've been using MUS but I'm thinking of giving Singapore a shot (or at least supplementing with it). We're near to completing MUS Alpha. Christy

We're using WWE1 this year as a stand-alone. Like a PP, I borrowed The Complete Writer from the library and read through it, and I felt that it gave me a lot more confidence in the curriculum. When I read the progression up thru all the grades, it really helped me to understand the why behind it, not just the what and how.

We are currently using this with our boys (6 & 4) for evening Bible reading. It is completely appropriate for those ages, although I know the older one gets more out of it. But he is also an auditory learner, and I don't know that the younger one is. We think it does a great job of tying the Bible stories into a continuing narrative, like weaving the stories of the Jewish exile together - from Jeremiah's prophesies to the stories of Daniel and the return to Jerusalem. It's helped me pull together and understand the history of it all much better than drawing from different books of the Bible and trying to piece it all together. Granted, we are still in the OT, toward the end, so I can't comment on the NT and anything that might pop up as a theological point where there might be disagreement. We're also reading Egermeier's Story Bible in the mornings right now, and I think it is a great child's story Bible to read before Vos' story Bible if you have younger children. We'll definitely use both again!

I guess I'm not really looking at "rigorous" at this point, but not just entertaining either. I think what I want is a good, gentle start in Latin that we can build on in the future years. One that won't bore him to tears. One that won't make him dread Latin. But not one that is a total breeze either. Looking at Lively Latin right now....because I love that it incorporates the history with the Latin...so the search goes on... :D

Thanks for this idea. I'm looking at Lively Latin and I think it looks great. I love that it incorporates the history (like Minimus, although I'm not sold on the cartoon-y nature of Minimus) with the learning of Latin. It's saying that it's for 3-6th grades, but knowing your dd started it in second is encouraging. I'd love to tie it in with our history learning too. Perhaps we'll start it when we get to Rome in the study of the ancients. I just wanted to thank you for your recommendation - I'm really looking at it seriously.

My ds6 (7 this month) is a good reader, so I think he's ready to start Latin next year. I think I was probably leaning toward Prima Latina, but I keep seeing people here raving at Song School Latin. I haven't seen anyone say they didn't like it and only one person who said it just "did the job." Is it really so wonderful? So much better than Prima Latina? I don't know Latin and I don't know all these differences in the programs like reading vs. grammar, etc. I also saw a lot of good things about Minimus on here. When I looked at that further, I did like how it incorporates a lot of cultural learning into the program, but I thought I might wait on that until ds is in the SOTW2 cycle (we'll be doing SOTW1 cycle in 2nd gr). So...is Song School Latin really that fabulous?

I started ds6 in FLL1 and WWE1 partway thru 1st grade. He'll be more than halfway thru WWE1 by the time he's done w/ 1st grade and same with FLL1. I'm in no hurry to get thru them, although we may keep up with skill subjects (math and LA) in the summer even if we break from the other stuff. Both FLL and WWE are very gentle, so I think it would be fine to start with a slightly younger child if he seems ready. Only thing is, with WWE, it depends a lot on handwriting ability for the copywork.