Well, we were using Beast and Singapore IP but have recently dropped IP. My second grader does use Khan as he thinks anything on a computer is awesome and all of my boys do Life of Fred on Fridays as that is considered our light and fun day. But, I do consider Beast to be his main math and would drop both Khan and Fred if they become unenjoyable to my son. Also, with Beast being published through 4D now I feel better about not out pacing them completely.

My youngest also gets mad anytime he has to write. I have learned that school is best started as soon as breakfast is over. If my boys are allowed to play, it is a crazy fight to get school started although it does happen eventually. After breakfast, they can work with me if I am ready or they choose something that they can at least start independently. This expectation has cut down on some of the frustrations in our house.

Thank you for your review of LFC A. It is helpful in making a decision to go with SFC. I will also look into him working on translating Spanish books. Our local library has a good selection of Spanish books as the Spanish Emerson School is near by. We use Hey Andrew for Greek - I tried adding in Elementary Greek last year to help solidify and slow him down and was very clearly informed that he likes Hey Andrew. My plan at this point is to finish Hey Andrew then look at something like Athenaze as that seem to be the program many use. I will look into this. My son would love to have an Exam to take. He thinks tests of any kind are fun :)

My son has dreams of becoming a writer. He writes a lot about what he wants to write about. However, my biggest fear in homeschooling is being able to teach my children how to write well. This is by far my weakest area. I have spent time looking at BraveWriter and it might work but I am concerned that I am still the primary teacher. I found http://writefromtheheartclasses.com/ and the classes look great. Has any one taken classes from them? What did you think? What classes have you used and for what ages?

I will check with the Librarian about Mango - I have not seen them and don't see them on the website but I know things are not always easily found. any other suggestions?

my middles son just turned 9. His idea of a great school day would be: - work on Greek - he is currently in Level 5 of Hey Andrew and loves it - work on Latin - he is taking a beginning course at co-op - start learning Spanish and French and a computer programming language conitue with Beast but is quickly out pacing - next goal is to get to AOPS Pre-Alegebra as soon as posible history and science are okay. but his love seems to be languages and computer progamming. I am planning to continue Greek and add Spanish and a computer language. any suggestions for programs. I have looked at Spanish for Children and KidCoder and just saw Clever Dragons tonight. Has any one used any of these. Any words of advice for a mom who only knows english teaching a kid that wants to learn many languages sorry this might be hard to read i am learninv to type more onnmy kindle

I am in the midst of trying to plan for next year and looking for suggestions. I have mostly pulled our history schedule together myself and I am looking to simplify my planning. As my youngest gets older there is just to much to plan and keep track of, I am afraid I am going to miss something big for my oldest. We have followed the 4 year cycle and many of the TWTM recommendations. I am happy with my choices for math, science and grammar. Writing gets tricky mostly because the assignments are so spread out in R&S and I forget to add in writing to science and history. It appears that there is more writing in the Logic stage of Elemental Science, we will be using Biology next year so that should help. This year, I put our history together based on reading through the Old Testament and added in other cultures and books based on the time period or the people groups the Israelites were interacting with in our Old Testament readings. As I start looking at the Middle Ages I feel overwhelmed and remember that my least favorite year of history was when we did the Middle Ages 4 years ago. This is a difficult time period for me to wrap my head around. What history programs are out there that have some of the planning done for me? Will help my boys to continue their enjoyment of history? Not have a ton of projects - we tend to do very few. My boys do most of their reading independently and all love to read. My youngest thinks it is great when I find books that he can read for history.

We have not completed Hey Andrew yet but my ds wants to. He is currently working through Level 5 and loving it. I did get Elementary Greek because I thought things were getting tough for my boys in level 3. I quickly found out that my oldest really just wanted to be done with Greek, and I let him drop it, while my middle loves it but enjoys Hey Andrew more. He is comfortable with the teaching style. I have not even attempted to keep up with him. I check his work only. We have been able to discuss things enough that he seems to understand. I require that include the accents in his translations and he is fine with that. Currently, he spends about 20 min 3 times a week on the work book and 1 day just going through flashcards. This child also wants to add in Latin full time next year, as he is enjoying a Latin class at our co-op and would love for me to also add in French or Spanish.

Elemental Science Chemistry for the Grammar Stage has been a hit in my house this year.

We use it for both grammar and writing. I find the instruction to be clean and understandable for me and my boys. The boys then use what they have learned as they write for Science and History. We would write across the curriculum no matter what we use but I have not found a need to add in anything more. I did add Cover Story for my oldest this year as his dream is to be come a writer. But, my guess is my middle will not do this as he dreams of becoming a computer programmer. So Cover Story for us is just due to interest not out of need for more writing instruction.

I require my first grader to read for 30 min during our daily quiet time. This has helped my boys learn to love books because the read something everyday and see it as a valued activity.

My 8yos decided he wanted to read Moby Dick after learning some of the story while reading The Bone Graphic Novels. After spending six weeks reading he completed his goal. I asked him for a book review which quickly turned into a retelling. My dh and I were very surprised at this writing as it was done cold with no imput or correction from us. Please, Let me know what you think and how we can encourage him in his writing. Call me Ishmael, is how a great book, called Moby Dick, started. It’s about a young man named Ishmael, who is bored on land and wants to see the watery part of the world, or the oceans and seas. He goes to the Spouter Inn and gets a room to stay in. Though, he had to sleep with a Indian-man called Queequeg. They quickly became friends. Also, Queequeg decided to come with Ishmael on a whale hunting trip! They find a ship called the Peqoud and signed up for the crew. Queequeg was a spear man, which means he helps capture whales. Before they left on the Peqoud, they went to a Sermon. The sermon they went to was to give them good luck on there trip. In the middle of the sermon though, Queequeg went out of the church! When the sermon was over, Ishmael went out of church to find Queequeg carving a little, black idol! Queequeg eventually named his idol YoJo. When they set sail they found out the that the captain was Ahab, who was whale hunter who had his leg bit off by Moby Dick! He was determined to get revenge on Moby Dick, and he wouldn’t stop sailing and hunting until he did! It was a long ride around the oceans and seas, it was so long that they caught 3 other whales! Also, on the way, Queequeg died. He was put in a coffin with his god, YoJo. When they did spot Moby Dick, Ishmael called down to the crew, Thar she blows!Thar she blows!. Ahab quickly set sail toward Moby Dick, and they chased her for 3 days! Once the three days were over Ahab tried to kill Moby Dick, but Moby Dick ate all of his crew and sunk his ship. Only Ishmael survived because he found Queequeg’s coffin nearby.

We use R&S almost independently. My boys read through the lesson, including the oral drill. Then, I go through the oral review from the teachers manual and the oral drill with them. This allows me to seen what if any written work they need. We do all the composition exercises and write across the curriculum and find it to be plenty of writing.

My middle son uses BA and supplements with Singapore IP and LOF. I would switch completely to BA but the books are coming out to slow for him. DS loves BA but also understands that he is going to run out of books soon. I am slowly finding the balance between the programs for this boy. Our balance seems to be 1 topic in Beast then 2 topics in Singapore. Usually we do not do all the practice but we do all the word problems and the challenge.

I have just skimmed the other responses. But my first thought is to find a topic that is of interest to your son, that you can help him learn how to learn more about. Then allow him to learn a programming language like Scratch. Once, he has learned the basics of Scratch, then he would need to show what he has learned through a game he has created. This will help to fill his desire to play video games because he will be creating them, but he will also be learning about history or science as you have decided together what the topic of his game will be.

I have used it with my boys and it worked great to get them to do dictation. My boys have never done any other spelling. I am not sure I ever will do spelling formally as they all seem to be natural spellers. I do love the varied pieces and that it is a great set for dictation.

My approach was to continue working through the ECT books until it was very much busy work - which was different with each of my boys. I, also, moved through phonics for reading independently. By doing this it allowed my boys to learn the phonics rules so they could read everything they wanted to and the writing with ECT reinforced the rules and helped with their spelling. My boys were all early readers and on about the same level as your DD at that age. I allowed them to read what they were interested in and had books for them to read aloud to me. During our read aloud time I was able to find the words they had trouble with and we could talk through the phonics. When, kids are picking up many things on their own they don't need all the rules taught for reading but they will need to see them at some point for spelling. Have fun reading with your DD. Don't stress if you haven't taught a certain rule. Allow her to read and talk about what she is reading. You will be amazed at what she can learn. You have helped her open the door to the world by learning to read and helping her grow a love of reading.

For all of my boys 1st, 3rd, and 5th, I create weekly assignment sheets from donnayoung.org. This allows them to see what they need to do each day. The boys also use timers for many things. For math, they typically set their timers for 20 min for the workbook. If they are not done in 20 min then it is homework. My 1st grader is still learning this and I do sit with him most of the time. But, if I give him 10 min to do his grammar he is more likely to get done because he wants to beat the timer going off. They also set their timers for computer based activities like Quarter Mile Math and Khan Academy. For us timers have been great for the days when they are less focused. They understand that they have to do everything on their assignment sheet and that if they waste time during school then they will loose freetime finishing up their school work.

I am using Khan this year by default in many ways. My plan was to use Singapore with Life of Fred, but my boys wanted to use Life of Fred as their main program. They need to have some extra so we are using Khan. It is working the best for my oldest at this point. He is in Decimals. My middle is currently working through Fractions and Khan doesn't seem to have enough smaller steps for him. We will see as the weeks go on. I have all the Singapore books I will need for this year if we need to head back to that. I know that doesn't answer your questions but hope it helps to know you are not the only one doing this. Oh, the new features available to coaches on Khan are really nice. It is really helpful to be able to recommend different options to the boys and know that they are getting some review and some new material as needed.

We use Hey Andrew. My 3rd grader is currently finishing book 4. He started in K to give him a challenge. We used Elementary last year to help supplement but this summer he told me that he likes Hey Andrew better. It is more of a puzzle to solve, with more practice and a slower pace. He is struggling with the endings but we are just putting in some extra time and looking at word groups or ending groups on different days. I have not been able to keep up with him so at this point, I correct his work and work on the flash cards. It is one of his favorite things during the day. My Kindergartner has started Level 1 and at this point is loving it. He loves that he can do Greek like his big brother. I have started Level 1 with all of my boys early but once they are reading fluently. I have found my early readers have needed a brain challenge that doesn't involve more writing - well at least in English.

My son wrote a book with NanoWrimo last year and will again this year. I lightened his writing load and dad did weekly evening write ins and a few on weekends. We then put the book away until Jan. My son then did an edit then my angel - my mil spent about an hour each seek for about two months editing his book. Finally he was happy and we were okay with it. My dh formatteenit and now we have five copies of The Opening of Par. My sonnies very proud of his work and looking forward to writing again this year.

My middle did Singapore 3A and 3B IP's as well as Beast 3A and 3B last year. It was a comfortable pace for him, as he is a mathy kid who loves the challenge of both programs. We also do Life of Fred on Fridays.

We have Our Country's Presidents. My boys have seemed to enjoy it when we read it.

We start Greek before grammar. My kids take about 3/4 of a year to go through Hey Andrew 1. Then, we spend the remainder of that year and the beginning of the next year on Alphabet practice pages. Then start level 2. If your student knows the alphabet and their sounds, they will be able to handle Hey Andrew Level 2 in second grade. We do about 2 pages per day practicing flashcards frequently. My language loving middle is going into 3rd grade and is finishing up Level 4, on the flip side my son who has no love lost for foreign languages finished Hey Andrew 4 at the end of 3rd grade. He was allowed to drop Greek at that point in favor of adding in more creative writing. I have found my boys seem to pick up grammar very easy and I think it is in part due to their learning Greek in what they thought as a fun, challenging way.