I'm going to have to say Rod and Staff. I just wanted to add to the confusion..LOL. This is my first year homeschool my 4th grader and I'm extremely happy with it. I'm getting a great review as I teach it to her. You can do alot of the grammar aloud together instead of writing it on notebook paper. I admit, when I first read this here on the forum, I was skeptical. I almost felt like that would be too easy and my daughter wouldn't be able to learn it unless she wrote everything down. For us, it has worked out really well to do the grammar outloud. My daughter does so much writing with Math that it's a nice change of pace and I can explain why she gets something wrong, see why she chooses the answer she does, and explain it as we go along. We do diagraming on the white board. She doesn't really consider that "writing" so it works in my favor. Of course she does their true writing assignments on paper or on the computer and she does the test from the test booklet on her own. I remind her this is to be done alone so I know I have proof and know that she really understood it and we both feel confident moving on. There is another workbook that we purchased that I occasionally have her do if I feel she needs more practice. Hope that helps- Carolyn

My 1st grade daughter is finishing 1st grade Abeka this week and will be starting Abeka 2nd grade. It has served her well. She understands it, loves the workbook and feels very confident about her math skills. I was wondering the same thing when I purchased the 2nd grade Abeka book as I was contemplating using Horizon's but just went ahead and stuck with what we know. I know she likes the colorful pictures and that draws her in. Carolyn

Thanks ladies for your help. So I should skip the workbook with her and do just the textbook until she has problem, then add workbook? Carolyn

I read and read before I purchased 1A and 1B US Edition but it's not until I received it did I understand why people are having so many questions. My child is already using Abeka 1st grade math and is half way through the book. She knows pretty much everything in the 1A and 1Bworkbooks already. Should I just let her work through them as she can, or do I still need to take some sort of systematic approach and use the home instructors guide and textbook? I didn't start off with 2A because I didn't know if she might miss something and wanted it to be easy at first and learn their method. I hope that makes sense! So my question is, can she work through them as a workbook and I start teaching her when she no longer gets it? Thanks for your help! Carolyn

Thank you NineChoirs. I'm sold! I'm purchasing it this morning. I really appreciate you taking the time to give me the information on it! Have a blessed day, Carolyn

I did mess that one up! I meant Vocabulary from Classical Roots. Thank you for reading my post anyway!! The 5th grade sample really looks great. Carolyn

We use Wordly Wise and my daughter doesn't like all of the writing involved. I'm thinking of purchasing Vocab. from the Roots Up Grade 4. Has anyone used this? If so, would you recommend buying the next grade up? I can only find a sample of Grade 5 online. Thanks in advance! Carolyn

I want to make up my own vocabulary worksheets using sentences with fill the blank vocabulary words. Is there such a website that can help me do this? Any recommendations? Thanks in advance! Carolyn

I found it in the Children's section in the back of the store with all of the other Harry Potter Books on a display table. I hope you find it! Carolyn

I too am thinking of adding a second math. I was just talking to someone today who told me Schiller's Math is the only way to go and her brother-in-law who is this great "Mathy" person says that Saxon isn't that great. I hate hearing the negatives AFTER I've already committed to a cirriculum. If there were only 1 Math curriculum out there then things would be so much easier! :) Carolyn

I know I saw a thread where someone was wanting a writing curriculum based on Harry Potter. I'm not able to find it today. I wanted to share that I bought a Vocabulary book at Barnes and Nobles today. It's called "The Unofficial Harry Potter Vocabulary Builder". I thought I might take a break from Wordly Wise 4, after 1 whole week of using it :001_smile: and try this for a change. It has 3,000 hardest words from all seven books and references the page number and book that each word comes from. My girls are BIG Harry Potter fans. Hopefully this will get my 4th grader in the groove to learn some vocabulary and spelling! Carolyn

Thanks everyone for your responses! I admit, I was having a weak moment! We did Math AFTER Vocabulary. While doing Vocabulary in Wordly Wise, told me she was going to recopy all of her vocab. words so she didn't have to flip back an extra page to find the answers. That would have taken forever. She's a smart girl but time management and speed is not one of her strong suits. We have gone over her assignments tomorrow and I gently explained she would need to write out the problems tomorrow. I think she is also trying to see what she can get away with. After all, this is all new territory for her. Thanks again- Carolyn

We had our first day homeschooling. Very interesting to see how 4th grade and 1st grade daughter handle the freedom of homeschooling. The little things they were excited about cracked me up. Not wearing shoes and chewing gum in class were two they were excited about! However, after today, I'm not sure that "not" chewing gum is such a bad idea after all! Oldest daughter is VERY much in need of doing everything like public school and told me it was very important she do P.E. everyday for at least 45 minutes. I told her to head on out to the trampoline. Seriously, I am going to let them run with me during part of my run tonight. She also can't handle noise but wants to stay in the new school room. (Enter 3 year old brother and active 7 year old sister):) Youngest is more "active" in school than I expected she would be. She doesn't stop moving at her desk. Does her work on her stomach in chair and has no attention span. If I have to turn around and get a different book, she has left the room. But, all and all it went very well. I think they learned a few things and I definitely learned alot about them! Carolyn DD 9 years old-4th grade DD 7 years old-1st grade 3 year old DS

Today was our first day of school. My plan was for DD to rewrite her math work on separate paper. She did her work in the book today and now I'm thinking it might be worth it to let her continue on this way. I realize I will need to buy a new book for the next child but it might be worth it time wise since she is very particular about her writing. It might take days!:) My question is: Do you all allow your children to write in the Saxon books? Thanks, Carolyn

I appreciate all the feedback on this. Do you all buy the recommended posters and flash cards to go with the curriculum and can you make due without them? Thanks, Carolyn

Thanks ladies! I truly appreciate you taking the time to give me feedback. That's what I needed to hear. Mariann, I can relate to your signature. I make everything too complicated! Who would have thought I would stress over 1st grade math but not 4th grade? Maybe that is yet to come! Carolyn

Thanks everyone for your responses. I'm still undecided. I like the idea of tearing them out and keeping them in separate folders but some workbook pages do contain the next days lesson. Hmmm...decisions, decisions. I'll try leaving them in the workbooks next week and see how it goes. This goes totally against my "very prepared and planned" personality! Carolyn

If you have used Abeka's Arith. 1, did you use the teachers manual? Did you only use the Teacher Edition Worktext to teach from? I'm looking through the teachers manual for Abeka's Arth. 1 and I'm wondering if it would be okay if I didn't use all of their suggestions in the beginning? I don't want to miss anything but yet alot of what they are asking the parent to do seems more geared towards a PreK or Kindergarten student. More like busy work for the teacher. Would it be wrong to let her work through the math in the workbook and if she has a problem, then pull out the manipulatives, felt animals, etc? It seems a little too scripted and time consuming. Maybe it's just me. I appreciate any advice! Carolyn

I'm trying to decide if I should tear out each days work from workbooks or let them work directly from the workbooks. I can see pros and cons to both. By leaving them in, I don't have papers to file away in binders. If I take them out, then it makes it easier for them to be more independent in their work and do the correct pages. It seems like things will flow faster. But then again, if we go out of town, it would be nice to take the entire workbooks so I don't have lose papers floating around and possibly getting lost. I'm an "all or none" kind of person and want to have a system in place before we start next week. Any advice? What do you all do? Thanks, Carolyn

I love Barb's Outdoor Study. I had planned on implementing it next week but my girls wanted to try water painting so I suggested they find something in our backyard to paint. I was thinking there wouldn't be anything there as we live in a subdivision with a small back yard. One brought in a Crepe Myrtle flower and the other a rock, a leaf and a stick and they painted for 3 hours! Then the oldest wanted to know how to spell Crepe Myrtle so she went to the internet and began to read about them. I'm so thankful for this site and for getting us back outdoors, even when it's 101 degrees! I found a CD with outdoor sounds of birds and water to play while they painted. We were in Heaven. I've ordered the Nature Study Guide and can't wait wait to have that as a resource. Carolyn

Thank you. I just signed up! Carolyn

Thanks for all the replies. I love seeing how everyone plans their days! I've spent all my morning condensing my yearly 5 day week plans into 4 and it looks like it will work out fine. Abeka Math may give me some trouble for my 1st grader but Saxon, R&S 4, and other subjects fit nicely into a 4 day week. I really like the idea of using Friday for field trips, nature walks, art, library, science. All of the fun stuff! Perhaps we can get the house cleaned first. A little motivation to do something fun is always helpful! On another note, someone on another thread mentioned Donna Young's free homeschool planner. If you need help organizing, I highly recommend the yearly planner. After putting things to paper, especially my first grader's Language Arts, I was able to see where I had too many workbooks overlapping and was able to spread things out and hopefully I'll be able to accomplish more without overwhelming DD. The Science yearly planner is nice to use for LA and History too. Carolyn

I'm toying with the idea of going with a 4 day school week. Does anyone have an opinion on this? Is it better to schedule for 5 and do 4 if we work ahead? Thanks, Carolyn

I'm still not sure what I will do. I'm wanting to start August 10th so I need to decide soon! Maybe I'll buy Rod and Staff and then use a little from both. I guess it's better to have too many choices then not enough. Thanks Ladies! Carolyn

I'm sure you all have had this question before. I'm really struggling choosing a writing curriculum for my 4th grader. I have already purchased Abeka Lang. Arts but the more I read about Rod and Staff Lang Arts, the more I'm thinking I should send Abeka back. Does Rod and Staff really have more writing than Abeka? Will this solve my need to supplement Abeka with a different writing source? By Rod and Staff offering more writing does this mean creative and reports or is this referring to the fact that the lessons require copy work? Last question: If I do go with Rod and Staff, should I go back to 3rd grade because they are suppose to be advanced? My daughter came from a great public school but I'm not sure how they compare to placement with Rod and Staff. Thanks, Carolyn