We have two of these that we use. Melinda S in TX

Currently they do not have HIG, IP or CWP for the Standards Edition. If you are working in the lower levels, you won't really need the HIG. Is your son getting ready to start 1A? If so, I would recommend starting the CWP a level behind. Wait until he starts Primary Mathematics 2A to start CWP 1. All that said, I ordered several levels of the Standards edition to compare side by side with the US Edition we are already using. We are going to continue with the Standards Edition. We compared them side by side. In general, the Standards Editions are more culturally/politically correct. Names have been changed to include more nationalities. Names of fruits and some word problem have been changed to things more familiar to students. We did not look at Standards Edition Earlybird 1. We did look at Standards Edition EB2 and compare it to US Edition 2A and 2B. Major differences and the Standards Edition looked a more difficult. In the other levels almost everything was the same up to 3A. Everything in the US Editions was in the Standards Editions. Some sections in a different order and they added a very little new content. Mostly it was the same. Starting in 3B the differences became a bit bigger. They added a new section at the end (?maybe probability?) and again they rearranged and added a bit. In 4A and up, the changes are even bigger. Basically they crammed US Editions 4A-6B into Standards Editions 4A-5B. And, they did a cover slightly more. We are continuing with the US Editions for several reasons. One, I already have the HIG and that will save money. Two, I am going to take the children up through level 6B of the US Edition and then switch to TT prealgebra or algebra. I can't imagine starting prealgebra in sixth. Third and most important reason, the Standards Edition books are more visually distracting. They have a border on the top of the pages, writing on the bottom near the spine telling what the lessons are, little book page pics around the page numbers instead of just the numbers, and the pictures have been changed slightly and colored in (gray scale) making them more distracting. The US Editions have plainer less cluttered looking pages. I showed the books to my children. My oldest, in 5B, was too distracted and couldn't focus because of the page clutter. My second, in 3A, liked the "Singaporeness" of the US Editions better. My third, in 2A, thought there was more work because the pages look fuller. He didn't understand why he had to do more if he was getting it all right already. My fourth, ready to start EB2A, loves EB but was upset with the size of the book and the hardness of the problems. But, with the US Editions, they all had loved Singapore and had no problems. We're sticking with the US Editions and I will be selling the Standards Editions that I reviewed. Melinda S in TX

I would be interested in seeing your lists. Melinda S in TX

We live in Texas and have hot/super hot weather a lot. The temperature has been in the nineties for a month already. In the summer it gets so hot that noone wants to be out in the afternoons. We have a hot routine and a cold routine. Right now, we are on our hot routine and will continue until October or so. Hot routine we have outside time first thing in the morning. We get up early, eat breakfast, clean the kitchen, and head outside. We do animal chores, work in the garden, do nature study, our 30 minutes of vigerous physical activity, and then free time. At 11 I slip inside and bring out lunch. We eat at the picnic tables and then I send them in one at a time to get showers. After they get their shower, they go to quiet time. We are outside from 7am or so until 11:30am. On our cold routine (December through end of March usually), we do school and inside work until lunch, eat, quiet time, and then we are outside until dinner time. Someone does go out in the morning and do the animal chores, but we save the gardening and our other outside things until the afternoon when it is warmer. In between the hot and cold routines, we have a transitional time where we split up the inside/outside times. Like when it starts getting too cool to go out first thing in the morning, we may do an hour of work before we head outside. We school year round and try to spend at least 4-5 hours a day outside. Not all of this is free time. We work hard in our garden and taking care of the critters. Sometimes I will bring a book outside to read aloud during our "shade" breaks. Things like nature study, gardening, pe can be counted as school too. Melinda S in TX

Would someone post a link please? Melinda S in TX

I picked eclectic. We lean toward a CM approach, but add other things to the mix. Melinda S in TX

Join this yahoo group. There are samples under the photo album section. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/christianlightfamilies/?yguid=264608972 I have ordered online and by calling directly. Usually I order online because I am doing it late at night. Both were quick and easy. There are placement tests. You would have to call directly to CLE (1-800-776-0478) to order them. They are inexpensive and they ship fast. Melinda S in TX

We use PLL starting in 2nd and finish up in 3rd. Then we start on ILL, usually the second half of 3rd grade. These are not one lesson a day, some lessons may take several days. Also, sometimes there are things to be memorized and you can keep going while you work on memorizing it or you can stop until you memorize it. Melinda S in TX

We are using Singapore, CLE, and Singapore's CWP. Currently we have three doing these and it works great. Using two curriculums allows them to learn different ways of doing things and gives extra review. I like CLE because it adds in things like calendar, temperature, reading dials, etc., and it is a plain, wholesome program. No wondering what the story problems are about. These are consumable worktexts which saves much time and grief with oldest dd. Melinda S in TX

So far, we have used/are using Climbing To Good English 1-5. With a first grader, I would use CTGE by itself. Once mine can read well, we drop the phonics curriculum and just work on reading. If they come across something they don't know, I tell them and we go on. The best way to "learn to read", after you have some phonics instruction, is to read. CTGE has quite a bit of phonics at the beginning of Grade 1. Personally, we don't start spelling until third, so I would leave that out. If I were going to use two, I would use CTGE and LL for LO. They are very different. CTGE gets it done, but there are no Charlotte Masony type picture studies, narration, poetry, etc. I have not used CTGE with anything in first grade, but once we get to second grade we add Primary Language Lessons. In third or fourth we do CTGE and Intermediate Language Lessons. We do most of the written work in CTGE. If CTGE has a lot of written work today, we may do the PLL work orally. Or if it is something I really want them to do, I wait for a light CTGE day and we go back to it. Do you have a copy of CTGE to look through? Melinda S in TX

We like MCP Maps, Charts, and Graphs. Melinda S in TX

We use Singapore and CLE, and we stagger the start of them. We start K with the Singapore Earlybird books. Once we're done with Earlybird, we start CLE level 100. After a couple of months doing CLE, we add in Singapore 1A. When they reach Singapore 2A, we add CWP a grade behind. We do a lesson from CLE and Singapore every day, but we don't do every problem of the lesson. And they do one page of CWP per week. Using two math curriculums teaches them different ways of looking at the problems. It also allows for lots of review, especially if you are using the programs at different levels. Melinda S in TX

We are currently using Singapore PM with the goal of getting to TT prealgebra. We are trying to decided if we should switch from Singapore US Editions to the Standards Edition or just keep on going with the US. I asked on the Singapore Math forum and Jenny, the administrator, said, "I think Primary Mathematics 5 might be more challenging that TT pre-algebra." She did not specify which edition, but I have asked her to clarify. Melinda S in TX

We purchase most of our books. I try and get the most bang for my buck by buying used. Also, I try and get books that can be used over a period of time, rather than a one time look through. Our library is ok, but they don't make it easy. They don't usually have what I want. Interlibrary loan cost $2+ per book and you can only ILL three books at a time. You can't request books and have them held for you. You can look books up online to see if they are in, but you must physically pull them yourself. You can only have three books out of each Dewey Decimal section. You can't put books on hold unless they are not in the library. Many times I have been trying to get a certain book, saw it was returned, rushed to the library only to find out someone just checked it out. For us, going to the library is like practicing firesafety. We visit it a couple of times a year to make sure they know how to use it and then check it off until next year. Melinda S in TX

Just received my order today. It took eleven days to get here and they mailed it media mail even though it should have come UPS. Just a mistake on their part I guess. Melinda

I would like to do a history overview this summer. For sure I want to do a quick spin through world history, maybe US history also. Children are 13, 10, 7, 5, and two tagalongs. We don't need activities or coloring pages, just a couple of good read alouds. Thanks! Melinda S in TX

Normally, I receive my order within seven to ten days of ordering. The RR site says they will hold an order for five days to try and fulfill backordered items. After that they ship the instock items and will mail the bo separately. I have always received my order within two weeks, but I don't order from them June-August. Melinda

What does Singapore PM not cover that a more traditional curriculum would? For instance, I have not seem any calendar work, reading thermometers, and things like that. Since we are using CLE and Singapore together, things like this are covered. If I went only Singapore, what extra things would I need to make sure to hit on? Melinda S in TX

We have been using two complete math programs, CLE and Singapore Primary Mathematics. We started out with CLE and when we discovered Singapore we started using it as a supplement and to review and reinforce what we were learning with CLE. Does anyone use Singapore as a stand alone math curriculum? If I went only to Singapore, would I need to add any of the extra workbooks? We are already doing the CWP. Is the diversity of using two programs a good thing? The children really like both programs and think nothing of doing two math lessons a day. Mainly, I was thinking of reducing my workload and freeing up some time for us to study other things. Melinda S in TX

Does anyone use Tell Me More or Rocket Spanish?

We did French. They memorized the script and understood the story line but that was it. It didn't transfer over to them being able to say anything but a sentence they had heard in the story. After a while they were board with it. I do catch my littles, two and five, saying some of the words sometimes. Melinda

We have both. The children always choose Flashmaster over Math Shark. Melinda S in TX

I like to do them in order because they do build, but that didn't work with my third child. They didn't keep his interest so we changed how we used them. We did book A a couple of pages a day. When we got to book b we made the big switch. We did book b once a week and books c and d two days each a week. So we had one day for the Bible story and four days of schoolish work. That worked well for my third. Now my fourth is using them. We are halfway through book b and he is starting to make noises about are we done with this book yet, so I am going to start book c and only do book b once or twice a week. My four have all loved them, we've just tweaked the order a bit to maintain interest.

With my oldest, I plan to go through the Wordsmith series and then do Writeshop. She has some learning differences and WA is the first program that didn't bring tears and actually produced some writing. My next dd is a natural writer but she wants to do WA because she thinks it will be fun. I'll let her do it as long as she likes it, but I'm going to get her in the Bravewriter classes or something similar. The others are waiting on SWB's new writing series. Melinda

We're looking for a Spanish program. Can anyone compare Rosetta Stone, Tell Me More by Auralog, and Rocket Languages Spanish? This will be for 13dd, 10dd, and 7.9ds. Are there any other recommendations? Melinda