These words are much harder than the spelling bee list my first grader had last year.

Well, here in MO I have to count the HOURS! (in 1/2 hours if I don't complete a full hour) - I always thought it is much easier counting days than hours.

In 1-st grade last year with my oldest (6 then) I just read some passages from the Bible (one of the main translations), in order, and talked about them. Used an Atlas, too. We went through the Gospel of Luke, Acts, and some of the letters of Paul, and John. We did read some of the Old Testament stories to during devotional time in the evening with Daddy.

We skipped a few little subchapters, like about Confucius, and some others that did not seem relevant for my 6 yo. We did not skip ancient Egypt, greeks, China, or any of the roman empire, because we travel to Europe to see family often and is more tangible to my children (ages 7 and under now). Whatever you skip, it is not going to affect the education of your 6 yo.

I used STOW vol 1 without the Cd. I did buy it for vol 2 this year so the kids will listen in the van. Vol 1 does not mention creation. So I started history with the Bible about creation. Every time it talked about the gods of this and that religion, I saw this as an opportunity to tell the children the difference between these gods and the Real God. It was very good for us this way, cause we always stopped and talked about the real God.

I would plan to start school a little earlier - my goal is 9 or 9:30. My kids wake up before 6 (one does, but that is the end of sleep for me, too). Have you ever heard or used "blanket training"? The little ones (last schol year I had a 4 and a 3 yo - and we did this even earlier - are on a blanket each, separate from each other, and are not supposed to step our of the blanket for ...however long you train them. They have toys, books, other things that interest them and are available just for this time. And they have to be quiet. This gives me 30 min to concentrate on my oldest (who was 6 last year). Another thing that kept my boys quiet was to put them on starfall.com for 30 min while I explained something to my 6 yo. Arts, crafts, science - was all together. History was read-aloud while the boys played around us. To make it more fun, I took them on "field trips" or nature walks - I will do this more often this year, it is really important for the kids to be out. Especially in the woods. You will get into a rutine, but it will take a while. I really did not find anything extremely efficient for dealing with the 2 and 3 yo, and a year later dealing with the 3 and 4 yo. Nap time helped a bit to do more quiet school. But they will just have to grow up and mature, and that takes time. It is hard, but it is rewarding.

Thank you for sharing!!

This is our first year of EE, doing earth science, and after looking at the schedule, I know I will not have a chance to do it every day, I am thinking of scheduling it 3 times a week or so.

Fun, fun fun!!! How old is your daughter?

I am *thinking* about planning :-)) We start August 2-nd - with a back to school little party on August 1-st!

I would not worry about the memory work in FLL if she is doing CC - unless it is grammar memory work - like definitions of nouns, etc. In first grade we started WWE in January, and we always do 2 lessons together (one dictation, one narration), about 3 times a week. In my humble opinion, some of the FLL1 lessons are redundant - if you do them like we do, every day. So you can go fast through some lessons and double up. Have fun!

My friend really likes Bible Study Guide for all ages, with the children's activity pages. I bought one of the guides, but my kids are still young, so I may need to wait a bit.

Elemental science has a unit that goes hand in hand with the CC cycle 2 - Earth science and astronomy for the grammar stage. I did not know about God's design for heaven and earth - I would have looked into that.

I bought it to use it a little later with my children ages 7, 5 and 3.5. For now I just read the Bible (NKJV and also children's Bibles), do memory work, and this coming year will concentrate on character. My friend used it with her kids and they loved the student pages. This is all I know.

I have Level one and never used it when my dd was in first grade - this past year - it just seemed too much for a first grader. I am doing FFL and she likes it - especially the poems. It is not intense at all, not like Shurely seemed to me.

This is something new from Memoria Press - but I don't think it is what you are looking for - anyway, they have samples - it is under literature study guides for second grade - Mr. Popper's penguins.

Thank you for your conversation, ladies. It helps me a lot. I find Singapore very easy to teach. Rs was so boring and slow. For me and for dd. I do not know if my dd is as mathy as I was (I hold a masters in both electrical engineering and computer science, but don't work anymore) - dd gets the topics most of the time - not all the time - and we use the manipulatives as described in the IG, she likes that, she "sees" well this way. She likes the pictures, too, because she is very artistic - something that I am not - but it helps her. She does not like to do the exercises, but I do not give her a choice. I will stay with what we are doing - my dd learned already the 3-digits addition with carrying from the Abeka workbook, although it has not been touched on Singapore yet. My friend that really likes RS and can't stop talking about it has a completely different background than me, she was an art teacher and likes the scripted lessons in math that drove me insane... so there might be part of the ...explanation. I do like scripted lessons in grammar and LA, as English is my second language, I did not grow up American, but not math or any other kind of science. I will still look into the activity and worsheets for Rs. I wish I could find the math card game book used somewhere... Thank you all for helping!! In Him

My just turned 7yo can fin d Egypt, China, India, Italy on a map. She know that these people did not worship the true God - they are polytheists. She knows names of some of the egyptian gods, and some of the roman emperors. We travel internationally to Eastern Europe often, so it makes more sense for her, the world, geography, languages. Really, what I am happy with at the end of SOTW 1 (she dod nto carfe for the narrations or questions), my dd LOVES history - the stories there. The coloring pages. The link to the Bible stories that she knows. We did add quite a few books from the library. She would just do history for school all the time, especially if there were craftgs involved, too. She looks and looks in the Usborne History book all the time.

Wow! Thank you all for sharing your wisdom with me. Yes Elizabeth, it is mostly to appease my mind that I amn doing "some" Rs, that I would look into the games. My dd would love games, but she does well with what she is learning. I do not like to change curriculum, so I will keep doing what I am doing. Thank you again

Never heard of these: "Rightstart activities & worksheets for AL Abacus as a supplement to Singapore. It's the same as RS , just not grade level and not scripted. Much simpler, easier and cheaper " I need to go check them out of the RS website. Sounds good. Thank you.

Thank you for your advice - i will most likely stay with Singapore, but since I still have all the RightStart manipulatives, maybe I should get the Math Game book they sell? Never tried the games... I think my problem is my friend thinks RS is wonderful and would never do anything else, and she told me even the classical christian school in town uses RS. Singapore is more interesting for me to teach than RS. And my dd likes it, too. But maybe adding some RS games will make it more fun? Anyone tried their game book, just for fun? I do Abeka just so I will have an idea what they teach in an US curriculum - after Singapore, it is really easy for dd to do Abeka, but has some little topics here and there that SM does not touch.

I am not sure if I am doing a disservice to my children (oldest in second grade) by using Singapore, since it seems most people think RightStart is much better. We always used Singapore, and really enjoyed this past year with 1A and 1B, and it is easy for me to teach, as my background has lots of math. I did try RightStart B and it was going too slowly for us. But maybe I should have stuck with it. I also used Intensive practive and Challenging Word problems. I have all Singapore I need for second grade, and already sold RightStart B, but I wonder if I should try it again. Is it really much better? I used a combination of Singapore and Abeka Worktext - to be sure she tests well. What would you do?

Please, what is JAG? What grades are you two talking about anyway.

I really like Singapore, with manipulatives, and exercises, but my dd does not like the workbook - she does it anyway. We supplement with the Abeka worktext - colorful and drill. And Challenging word problems when we have time, and Intensive practice. I like Singapore, but my background has lots of math in it. My daughter does not have issues about getting it either, but she does not really LIKE it. She would be just fine if she never did any minute of any kindof school in her life again...

I need suggestins, also, for a 7, 5 and 3.5 yo