We have used all of the same curriculum! In first grade I did the WWE workbook with my son. I liked it because it already had the words written and ready to be copied (with the lines there), and a little spot for him (or me) to write the date and I didn't have to write it out for him on my own page. Are you just thinking of doing the reading from WWE to yours and not the copywork? If that's the case, you wouldn't need the workbook, but if you will have him doing some of the copywork and want to make it a bit easier on yourself, you may want it. I bought both the book and the workbook, but only ended up using the workbook, because it had all of the same info in it, plus the workbook pages. I did HWOT with him at the same time, because it really went more into how to form the letters. We did it for Pre-K, K, and 1st and will keep going as long as we need to. I love it! And I agree, you can do one three days a week and one 2. We also used OPGTR and Explode the Code. Love, love, love AAS and highly recommend it!!

We love this!!! Thanks for sharing. We all needed a little laugh today.

Yes, I had it done years ago by my holistic doctor's dentist. I would definitely go to someone who knows the ins and outs out keeping you from swallowing any mercury. I then took a supplement to rid my body of the mercury. My energy levels increased dramatically.

I agree. We did US History in 8th grade, and now are doing the first year of World History in 9th grade, then will do another of World and then US.

We're new to High School and I'm so glad you asked this question. My daughter does cheer leading and in order to count it for P.E. on her transcript here in GA she had to log 75 hours--per half credit.

We have thought about doing it at home, but it seems to me the ITBS (which is the only one I knew about at the time that I could administer myself) was more expensive than the one given by our local homeschool group. And my daughter really doesn't do well with distractions, so we had her go do group testing. But I would really like to test my son this year at home. Does anyone know which tests you can administer yourself?

I have the same laminator and love it so much! I bought the pouches from Oregon Laminators, but am excited to know that Sam's carries them. And it is daunting at first to laminate them all, but once you get going, you can just do one pack in a half hour or so and once they are done, you will be so happy.

I agree about the white board. There is something about it that my son just loves! We have on on an easel from Ikea and he just gets so much more excited when he can use that instead of just drawing on the paper at the table. We use Singapore with him and there isn't a whole lot of writing. There is a lot of mental math, which may work better for some than others. And when he's tired of writing, I will tell him just to figure out the answer and I write it in.

All About Spelling! Love it!!!

I third Learning Adventures. It's based on units in time and has everything you need except math. Very little prep and some really cool experiments, projects and recipes to go along with it. We love it!!!

I wanted to read this to get the same information. DS 7 is still working on the Bob Books and hates every minute of reading. He loves Dr. Suess, so we go with what he loves.

We have no electronics too until school is done, so my ds 7 and daughter 14 ask me--"When Can I start school?" every day. With two the same age, it must be much harder. We also do read-aloud while he's eating breakfast. It's easier to get him to sit. We try to do the subjects in the same order every day, and he likes me to stick to it. That way he knows when he's almost finished. And our neighbors were out walking or bike riding first thing every day. I tend to stay in my pajamas until 1pm or so, so I'm not sure if I'm ready for that, but thinking about doing it when we start back up in order to help him focus better.

I'm planning on doing SSL, Headventureland and Classical Communications with my 2nd grader, and saving more for third grade.

We love HWT!!!

My ds is the same age and at the same reading level (or actually probably behind). What has really worked for us well are OPGTR, AAS, ETC, WWE and Bob Books. We have just gotten to the point of doing some Dr. Suess books, and I love the sonlight read-alouds, history and Readers to fill in. We're about to use Story of the World next year, so I am anxious to check out some of the recommended books to go along with that.

We used ETC for Kindergarten and loved it. For first grade, we were really focused on OPGTR and AAS and I sort of forgot about ETC until a friend talked about using it with her son. I added it back in and found all three to complement each other very well. Even though my son is not reading too much yet, he can do the ETC books mostly on his own which is a great confidence booster for him and one less thing that I need to sit right beside him for.

I totally agree!! We had the opposite situation with my ds who was a late bloomer with reading, but it has totally helped his reading. All About spelling incorporates multisensory learning, auditory, visual and kinesthetic--so it really helps your child to grasp the words. And I love that once the child had mastered all the phonograms and sounds, you can just move on. Yours may fly through it at first, but you'll know that she is getting it. I absolutely love this program!!!

We had great luck with The ordinary Parent's Guide to teaching Reading. There are no pictures and you start with the basics and slowly move on from there. My first grader knew most of the letters and sounds, so we skipped that part and went on to the next part. He was still struggling with reading the sentences, though, so I just taylored it to meet his needs and began writing the words on the write-on wipe-off board and he was able to read them so much better. He does the same thing with guessing using the pictures, but I think that's perfectly normal. The more he learns the words, the less he looks at the pictures. Go really simple with Bob books until they get used to how to sound the words out. I have to say All About Spelling has been wonderful too. It also teaches all the phonograms and concentrates on words that are very similar. I absolutely love this program and so does my son. And there are fabulous readers now to go along with them!!

I agree. We used the same three last year for my first grade son and I actually backed off the writing on WWE after a while and just read the stories and asked questions, because we were really focusing on reading and it was a bit too much for him. I then added some Explode The Code in, because it's one of our favorites. Great choices!!!

My first child fought sleep terribly. We tried everything we could think of-rocking, swing, car. She never fell asleep nursing--uggghhh! She did seem to have colic, although the sleep issue never really got better until she was a year or older. One night I was so frustrated and just plopped her in the front carrier so that I could at least wash dishes and she went to sleep. After that we put her into it every night and rocked her into it until she fell asleep. She was really needy--thought there was no more difficult child in the world, but now she's 14 and (well, still has trouble falling asleep--heehee), but goes to bed on her own. With my second, I just automatically carried him in the sling--and that's pretty much how he slept, and thankfully he would fall asleep nursing. Guess I'm really not much help here, other than to say just do what works for now and if you have to take a break from school, let yourself. Hope you will get it all figured out.

Wow! Thank you for all of the great ideas and the encouragement that we can do this. I love the no tv unless it's educational idea. We have done this occasionally while we were eating lunch, if I just needed some peace or to get things done. Maybe we could try that on the weekdays and then they can save their shows for the weekends. That could help wean us. I feel empowered. Jackie

Neither of my kids (14 and 7) like reading much. They are both active and not good at sitting--like me. We read our normal school books, but nothing extra. But I would love to get them to love reading. I'm thinking the only way to do it is to really cut down on TV time and replace it with reading time, but it's such a scary thought. Right now, they work diligently through their schoolwork, knowing that once they are finished they can watch television, play on the computer, ipod, DS, etc., and my DD has an hour or two of a break between school and gymnastics, which she does 4 nights a week or church on Wednesdays. Mind you, they don't spend the rest of the day with electronics, but they probably spend 2 to 3 hours a day when you include them all. So how do you do it in your house? Jackie

We keep all of our homeschool books in a separate playroom/school room, but mostly do school in the kitchen. I'm really picky about the kitchen being clutter free so I keep a set of plastic drawers (the clear and white kind from Walmart) for each kid. I keep whatever they are currently working on in their respective drawers--math, history, language arts, etc. That way they can easily pull out what they need. As they finish a book, I move it back up to the school room and replace it with new ones. Jackie

This looks great! I too have a 7-year-old who has really struggled with reading. I may look into it. Thank you! Jackie

My 14-year-old has always struggled to keep her room clean. We did it together forever and then she got to a point where she didn't want me in there helping her, because it just stressed her out even more. We have a rule that you have to pick up your room every day before school. That seems to help, although most days I forget to check until we're all too wiped out to think about it, and she has a short break between school and gymnastics (which she does 4 days a week). After a while it just becomes overwhelming to her and she doesn't know where to start. Any suggestions? She workd really well with checklists, so I have thought about making a daily list that says--make bed, put away clean laundry, put dirty laundry in basket, etc. What works for you?