We've used BP Year 2 this year (for 2nd grader), with the SOTW 2 AG. Next year I'm going to use Cool History and the Parent Book with BP 3 and SOTW3 , and probably still get the SOTW 3 AG for the maps. I love it and wished we'd used it for Ancients. I think I may buy the e-book Bundle for BP 3. I liked having the e-book, and it wasn't all that much printing (and not too bad since my printer does auto duplex). I was just thinking about you today, Suzanne, when we used SSL that i bought from you! (The TM)

I have a 2nd grader who also doesn't have them all down cold. But she completely understands all the concepts we've covered. And she is learning her multiplication facts much easier for some reason than the +/- facts (because she already knows skip counting songs probably). I use the Abeka Speed Drills book, which I like because the drills are short (12 problems); it was very cheap and I'm glad I got it. I wish I'd used it in 1st grade. Last year I tried Calculadder, and it was nothing but torture and tears for us. We're also now going through the book Two Plus Two Is Not Five, and I wish I'd used that started it in K or 1st because it is good, systematic practice without being stressful. DD gets a chocolate chip (a big one) for every page she completes. That book has tiers associated with tricks to remember the facts, and the child practices the flash cards associated with that tier. Sometimes we play addition war with two sets of playing cards. I also own the Giggle Facts set of games, which my dd likes though we don't play those as much as we probably should (I do like them). I wouldn't stop your other math; just add in a few minutes a day of focused drill and make it fun if you can.

We started at lesson 42 at the beginning of first grade (where they started blends), and doubled up (or more some days) like you. My dd was already reading, but I wanted to make sure she didn't have phonics holes. You aren't behind. My dd liked the BJU Press readers, and the Nora Gaydos books (Now I'm Reading). We also had good success with the readers that the library had -- I just picked out ones that would be at her level (loved anything by Cynthia Rylant).

If you are motivated, you can definitely do it at home. I would get the guide and the audio CDs. The other memory work CD is nice, because you can do review of the material on your computer and have the graphics and maps along with the songs, but it isn't absolutely necessary. My advice is set aside a block of time each week to introduce new memory work, and a few minutes a day to do your review. I wish I could tell you I myself did it at home successfuly, but we did CC last year in a group, and I thought I'd try it at home this year. It has been sporadic at best and it is my fault (my dd would do it every day if it were up to her). We have listened to the CDs in the car a lot. I really miss the group aspect and so does my dd (I have no idea what you mean by tickets -- must be something specific to the campus you were looking at). We will probably rejoin for next year.

I agree with everyone else about reading SWB's book, and waiting for 1st grade for WWE 1. I LOOOOVE WWE and we are on week 20 of WWE 2. WWE 1 was hard for my dd because she had a hard time with handwriting; we used HWT and that has been great. I highly recommend HWT as a handwriting program. We're starting the cursive now and she's doing really well. She has made a step level improvement now in her handwriting speed and ability, so the actual writing is much easier for her. I would focus on handwriting for K and start WWE 1 in first. There's a big jump from WWE 1 to WWE 2 because of dictation, imo. Also, the narration difficulty jumps because you start teaching them to summarize. WWE1 is just narration and copywork, but those skills are vital. The literature suggestions are great; we've read many of the books that the literature excerpts come from because they have piqued dd's interest.

If you want a traditional but conceptual program, you might look at BJU. It is very manipulative driven in the teaching. It is colorful, and my dd has done well with it (she's now using 2, used 1st and K too). It has worksheets for each day, but not overwhelming. Most of the lesson is you teaching her with the manipulatives and explaning the concept. The TM is very scripted, though not as much so as Saxon. It also has a story theme through the book, that you can skip if you don't want to use it (for first grade, it was about a clown and his pet seal); however, this has made it fun for my dd. It is a Christian curriculum, though you could deemphasize that aspect if you wanted to. To maybe make you feel a little better, I have been obsessive about math also. I have read reviews about and looked at almost every available curriculum more than once and bought several (some that I have then sold). I still have the urge to look at math more than anything else for some reason, even though my dd has done well with BJU.

I know BJU isn't on your traditional list, but it is definitely for a Sociable Sue. Also, it is very scripted. It requires student/teacher interaction to be taught. It is laid out in a topic-by-chapter mastery format, like Singapore is. Also, place value is taught similarly to Singapore. It is most definitely traditional, so I'm not saying it is like Singapore in the Asian math way. I used Sing. 1A and 1B somewhat with BJU 1. I have used BJU the past 2 years, and looked a lot at Singapore (and tried briefly as I said above). I may use Singapore w/ BJU 3 next year. LIke someone else said, CLE is might not be the best fit for a SS; I tried with my high SS daughter and it was not a good fit to have her just doing workbook pages (and a lot of them compared to BJU). Also, Saxon/CLE are so spiral/incremental that I could not use them personally; they are the polar opposite of BJU, Singapore or Math Mammoth in how they break down every topic into tiny bits vs. having one chapter covering one thing. Just an idea.

I forgot to answer about the tests...both for 1st and 2nd, I bought the tests as part of the set. They are identical in format to the review pages at the end of each chapter (different problems of course). In 1st, I would usually also use the test; however, for 2nd if she does good on the review page (and I can tell just by how she does through the chapter) I don't even bother with the test. If you are going to get the Reviews and manipulatives, it is probably cheaper to buy the whole set and the tests are included. But if you buy it all separate, I might not buy the tests. I have looked at almost all the popular math curriculum, and I keep coming back to all the things I like about BJU. One piece of advice is make sure you supplement the math fact practice in 1st and add in some gentle timed drills; I wish I'd used "Two Plus Two is Not Five" and the ABEKA Speed drills in 1st grade (using them now in 2nd) to get those +/- facts nailed down because they still aren't solid and we're starting multiplication (which the facts are easier for dd, since she already knows skip counting songs). Also wish I'd bought a Flashmaster sooner. For me, the fact practice is the one weak part of BJU, though overall I like it.

For 1st grade, the nice thing about the reviews book is that it includes a fair amount of addition/subtraction fact practice; I used it about 75% of the time. Not really using it for 2nd, however. I'd buy the manipulatives; it would be a super pain to cut them out like pp said (you do have to punch them out). And then you have exactly what goes with the lesson and won't have to think about (you do also need unifix cubes).

This situation was 1.5 years ago now (my post date -- November 2009), but I just want to say that I did all this and a lot more, to the extent that I practically should have been getting some of the tutoring discount. There were weeks that I was the only other mom in the room for much of the time, and 3 of the 8 kids were out of control. Many times those kids would not respond to redirection AT ALL. Also, there was one mom with a little sibling "lap child" that never took any hints; she would sit in the back and read books to her 2 yo. and let him play noisily with toys in the room (Sunday school classrooms equipped with preschool toys). I talked to the director and tutor on several occasions about how to help the overall campus discipline problem, and not just our classroom. There was no written discipline policy, and no nursery for this campus at the time (both are in place now). When you are paying over $400 tuition for a program, it is not right for some parents and kids to make it a chaotic experience for the others. CC is NOT a co-op, and even though the moms are supposed to be helping, it is also not right to expect the other (non-tutor) moms to keep disruptive kids who aren't their own under control (even if those kids are tutor's kids). After talking to people at other campuses (and visiting other campuses), I've learned this is very much campus and director specific,and not a symptom of all CC campuses, to be clear. Later in the year we ended up with a different tutor (because of a shift in campus enrollment) who had much more classroom control (and more parental participation), which greatly improved our CC experience.

I own WRTR and have considered switching to it from AAS. I haven't because AAS is so open and go, and is also an Orton-Gillingham approach to spelling (though it is not Spalding, as some people would point out). I actually bought a 1st grade manual from Spalding and sent it back ; it seemed too much written for a classroom to seem helpful to me considering how expensive it was. If I do end up using WRTR at some point, I will probably use a short book with it called "Starting a Spelling Notebook: A Nuts and Bolts Guide to the Writing Road to Reading" that was written by Mari McAlister, a homeschooling mom who uses WRTR. I ordered it from Adoremus books and it only $11.5 (Adoremus is a Catholic Homeschooling website, and I think WRTR is recommended in the Mother of Divine Grace Classical catholic homeschool program, written by Laura Berquist). I'm not Catholic, and not using MOGD, but I heard about this book somewhere and ordered it; it lays out HOW to do WRTR step by step (she suggests some slight modifications you could choose to do or not; it is much clearer reading her "how to" than trying to sort it out from WRTR directly). It doesn't take the place of WRTR; it is additional help in how to do it, and give several different approaches depending on the age and capability of your child. For $12, it is a deal. You might even be able to find it used. http://www.adoremusbooks.com/startingaspellingnotebookanutsandboltsguidetothewritingroadtoreading-2009edition.aspx

I'm not sure why this thread was resurrected. I was the original poster in November 2009, so that is almost 1.5 years ago. I found out that the chaos was quite specific to that campus; I visited another one in my area that was completely different, and did have a nursery. The campus that I was in at the time had no nursery so all the little kids were in the classrooms and it wasn't just my dd's class that was out of control; this year they apparently do and things are considerably better from what I hear.

Here's the article: http://dev.welltrainedmind.com/tips-for-narration/

Have you tried having her just narrate from a couple of sentences or a very short paragraph? And then working up to having her narrate more & more, eventually a full chapter, or piece of a chapter? I think for a 6 yo, narrating an entire chapter is ALOT. I found that to be true for my dd last year. This year she can just barely do the SOTW 2 chapter narrations (and not consistently) and she is 8; sometimes I just ask her the comprehension questions and require full sentence answers. Then I read the narration sample given in the AG to her. She does very well on the WWE 2 narrations, however, which obviously are MUCH shorter passages. Somewhere in the WTM site archives, you may be able to find an article written by SWB on how to teach narration, where you work up from reading them 2 sentences and then have them narrate that, then a little longer, then narrate, etc. I have it printed out, but it was from a couple of years ago. It is probably also what is in the WWE textbook, which I haven't looked at in a long time. I wouldn't throw in the towel yet -- narration is a DIFFICULT skill. YOu could also search the Charlotte Mason type sites (Simply Charlotte Mason for ex.) for HOW TO DO NARRATION tips. You will like the Audio CD's. I never read the chapter out loud myself anymore; I much prefer listening to Jim Weiss :).

I've seen her in person at the Midwest, bought the CD's at the conference, and ordered the others from PHP. Hearing the information makes it stick better for me than just reading in the WTM somehow. I think I have most of the lectures, and they are all very good. Like someone else said, hearing it makes it seem very doable.

The props are all optional. You can adjust it to fit your needs totally. I read the stories and DD plays with the puppets a little. I use the manipulatives to demo the lesson. I rarely do all of the lesson as written; I just do as much as DD needs to get the concept -- sometimes I teach from the worksheet front. It is a great program. We're using it for 2nd, did first last year, and dd used K in Christian K program. I usually do the review and fact practice first (as written in the TM). THen I teach that day's lesson, then DD does the worksheet. Occassionally, I'll have her also do the Reviews book worksheet as warmup (from the lesson before or earlier), but not so much this year as she did in 1st grade. I also have her do an Abeka speed drills section (I bought the Speed drills & tests booklet for 2nd grade) because I want this added in, and BJU doesn't build it in. You can print fact practice pages from the BJU TM disc, but I like the ABEKA approach of 12 problems to be completed in 1 minute.

It may come with nothing...my Dell came with Windows 7 with just Microsoft Works. Microsoft Office is the actual program that includes Excel, Word, Powerpoint, Access, Outlook. It should say "Microsoft Office Home & Student" or whatever version of Office if it has it loaded, if it has any.

I've noticed a similar improvement in DD who turned 8 in January. Esp. with math we have fewer struggles, and suddenly handwriting isn't as big of an issue.

We did last year when we did Classical Conversations, and I was using SOTW 1 at home. They sort of mesh together; there are things in each one that aren't in the other. I really don't think they conflict. My dd enjoyed doing both of them.

I used Easy Classical Weather, Earth Science & Astronomy for about 12 week this year. It was OK, but we jumped ship and started doing Apologia Astronomy, which I also have issues with, but I like better, probably because it is all there in one book mainly (though I do check out extra library books). We really only did the weather unit. I had good intentions of doing nature study, but just never got around to it even though it was staring me in the face every week on the schedule! I think my big problem with EC was I felt like the lessons were choppy with jumping around from book to book; I've realized I don't do so well with grid-scheduled curriculum that use bits and pieces of books, sometimes jumping all around in the book, instead of having you moving through one main spine. All the jumping around often made me feel like my dd didn't have the right context for the passage I was supposed to read for that lesson. The library book list was OK, but pretty much for books that were for younger than my 2nd grader (at least for weather), from what I remember. Also, because the spine books are secular (Weather!, the Geography book), I was starting to get annoyed with all the things I would have to skip or explain that disagree with my creationist beliefs (the author of EC is a Christian, but the books used for EC are secular). If you want a secular science curriculum, this won't matter to you obviously. I didn't really use the quizzes. The Evan Moor books were too young for my 2nd grader (and she doesn't love to color), but some of the things for older kids (like in Weather! and the Geography book) were too advanced for her (and I'm not a cut & paste mom, generally; if you are, the Evan Moor books could be your cup of tea). I did like how the schedule was laid out, with notes for what you would need for the next week. It was easy to follow, and it did keep us on track. It is a well thought out plan and ALOT of work went into it, but I think it just didn't work for my personality as a teacher. I had a very good experience with the owner of EC with getting questions answered before I bought it. I also considered Elemental Science, but I thought I liked the list of spine books for EC better, plus I thought we'd do the Nature Study assignments. I was planning to sell the EC schedule and some of the books that go with it (definitely the Evan Moor books) on the Sale & Swap board this spring, just fyi. If you have any specific questions about EC, reply to this or PM me. I haven't looked at it in a while (since before Christmas) but I can get it out to jog my memory on specifics.

You have just listed our first grade LA curriculum, except we used Ordinary Parents Guide for phonics. Really all of those take very little time each day, and FLL you will only do 2 -3 times per week like Siloam mentioned. It isn't too much. We're now in level 2 of everything for 2nd grade, except not doing OPGTR anymore (actually, we're about to start AAS Level 3). Sometimes I have DD do a MCP Phonics workbook page just for a little extra phonics reinforcement, however. They are all great choices! And they work very well together. Also, AAS level 1 is VERY easy. I almost wish we had skipped it. edited to add: FLL 1 and WWE 1 (and Level 2 of each for that matter) line up really nicely if you are doing them in parallel. You will cover corresponding topics (like adjectives, or commas in a series, etc) and it is great reinforcement. For that reason, at least for me, I was glad I did them together versus having WWE lag behind. My dd has had no trouble with the jump in skills in WWE 2, but LA is her strength area.

I was just wondering this today myself! We are on chapter 4 of Astronomy. I have mixed feelings. The text is kind of annoying for me to read a loud. It has somewhat of a dumbed down, overly chatty tone imo. Some of her word choices seem strange (dumbed down) to me (like the word "stuff"; I have read that too many times in just 4 chapters it seems). I am totally surprised I feel this way about it, because most people I know who have used it love it. I do appreciate the creationist viewpoint, because that is why I chose it to begin with. My dd likes it OK, but not as much as I thought she might. I also go the notebook, but that is becoming a little burdensome for dd, who is only 8; it probably was not necessary but it is nice to have it all right there and I think it may be keeping us on track (but I am skipping a good portion of the pages already or else I am doing the writing for dd, who hates the physical process of writing). I'm only spending a week on a chapter, btw. Two weeks per chapter seems a little drawn out. Unless the ship turns around before the end of the book, this may be the only book we do in this series.

:iagree:THis is what I used with my dd who did private K and was reading at the level you described when I started with her in 1st grade. She had started reading on her own prior to K with no phonics teaching. They did just the basic letter sounds of phonics in her K class. SO I started OPGTR at about lesson 42 (wherever it is that blends start). It is inexpensive, but very thorough. The scripting worked well for me, but some people who don't like it do better with Phonics Pathways, which is similar but not scripted.

There have been a couple of recent threads on BP that I remember responding to. I am using Year 2 with a 2nd grader this year, and plan to use Year 3 next year along with SOTW 3 (using SOTW 2 this year). I've also used the SOTW AG to some extent, but might just go with all BP resources next year along with the SOTW 3 text. It is great, and I love how they've broken the books down by age. Many of them have been at my library, and almost all of them we have liked. I think it might just not be the trendy thing to use right now, or not a lot of people know about it. I don't think there is anything at all bad about it. I've told several friends about it this year, since we've really liked it, and at least one of them has ordered it for next year. I really wish I'd know about it for ancients, because I think we'd have loved using it with SOTW 1l. I can totally see using it for a 2nd history rotation with the older grades recommendations for books. My one piece of advice is don't go crazy buying books, especially ones for older ages than your child is (which I did a little bit...bought the Famous Men of books which are beyond my dd's level for sure). The recos they make in the beginning pages about what to do with younger kids are on target, imo.

Grandma comes to my house for a couple of days. My dd loves it. I have found it it amazing (and admittedly very disruptive) in the 4 conventions I've been to that people will bring very small children into sessions. Nursing infants are completely understandable, but it seems crazy to expect toddlers and preschoolers to stay quiet and non-disruptive for hours. Personally, I would get nothing out of a convention if I had little kids with me but I'm sure some people feel like they have no alternative.