In order to finish one book a year, we follow the schedule listed here: http://barefootmeandering.com/homeschool/planning/

Thanks so much, my kids are loving Beakman's World right now!

:grouphug: I think it's great that you and your children will have a break. It sounds as though some of them really need it. I don't have any advice to help you, but I will say that my 7 year old DD would not be able to do 4.5 hours of work. She's able to do 2 hours before she shuts down for the day. I know that all kids are different, but 4 or more hours of work sounds like too much at 7.

:iagree: We moved on to HOD's Bigger and it seems to flow better (though we add to the science). And DD likes hearing the stories of all the famous people not just tons of facts about events, places, and people.

You've already got the ones I was going to suggest so I can't be of much help. I've heard 500 Nations is a good video through I haven't personally seen it. I hope by bumping this up, others can help you more.

There are free unit studies at homeschoolshare.com in many topics and levels. If you're looking to supplement phonics Progressive Phonics is a free online download.

I guess it depends on what your end goal is for your child that you'd pull out of school. I would certainly pull them to let them be with the family during this difficult time. If you intend to put him back in school, than I think I would explain to the school the situation and ask to borrow the books that they would be using for the child. Most schools I've heard of have been more than willing to work with a child in this situation. If you will probably be keeping the child home, I would probably find a unit study that the child would be interested in to work on as time allows but nothing too strict or structured. More like a project with reading about the subject rather than worksheets and tests. I'd try to keep the child reading and doing some math as these are skills that I find my DD looses quickly if she is not using them. Then once things got settled a little more I'd re-evaluate to see if I needed to add in the more formal programs if it was looking like this would be for an extended time. I'm sorry that you are dealing with this, but I'm glad that you have the chance to be together as a family to help each other.

We personally do not do spelling or WWE until our kids are reading well. I spend all of our LA time on reading and basic handwriting. Then once those are mastered, I add spelling, grammar and WWE.

Yes, it sounds like everything you would need since they include one bound activity book which has student pages you can tear out and one set of student pages.

Doing SOTW with 2 children would require 2 sets of student pages from the activity book. You could either buy an extra printed set, copy the pages you need from the book, or buy the pdf version of the book to print 2 sets from your computer.

Could you do a unit study on something she is interested in while reviewing some math with your DD until you get something else settled? Since she's coming out of public school, this may be a fun way to ease into homeschooling while giving you time to get things lined up. Homeschoolshare.com has some free unit studies that can match up with library books. Then you can move into a more classical mode of education once your material arrives.

This is our family too. The only problem with this arrangement is that DH gets upset around Jan/Feb when the kids don't know "X,Y,Z". You didn't seem to care when I was picking things so we aren't covering that this year! :glare:

I noticed this too. I had AS1 to do this year, but I think it's going to be too much if I fully use the program.

Thanks for the video link. That was a big help to me!

:iagree: This is the great thing about homeshooling, you can tailor the subjects to fit your child and not make your child fit a certain mold.

HOD = Heart of Dakota I too had bought WP American Story 1 to use with my 2nd grader. And I too do not care for the paper crafts or the disjointed feeling of the program. For example, today was scheduled to read about 2 explorers in "Explorations and Conquest", then the notebook page was a different explorer and the 3D map was the route of yet another explorer that looks like it would be studied later in the week. In fact today (in week 4) I gave up and packed it into the basement. I'll probably save some of the books since they are nice books. But we'll be switching to either Heart of Dakota or SOTW. Not sure which yet. While that doesn't help you, it does let you know that you aren't alone.

Rod and Staff Phonics. DD just couldn't move at the 1st grade pace and actually remember anything. She seems to need more review. WinterPromise LA didn't work well for her either since the phonics she was learning, didn't go with the stories she was reading. And they had her trying to read words with endings when we hadn't learned them yet.

Here is a picture of ours:

Yes this is for my 7 yr old. I did notice that Bigger seems to be a big jump. Now I'm wondering if all the manuals have a big jump in between them.

I have a DD who has partially completed HOD's Beyond though we skipped around since I was an unsure mom listening to those around me. Should I start the guide over this year since we skipped around through parts of it, or should I just find a spot toward the second half that we haven't covered and start there? She says she doesn't mind reading some of it again and I could use notebooking pages with her this time around. I bought Bigger thinking I'd just cut our losses on Beyond. But I'm afraid that she's not going to be ready for all the writing in Bigger since she's been a struggling reader until just recently. I could cut out some of the writing, but would that leave me always simplifying the assignments for other guides too? Any thoughts?

I really don't know what to advise you to do. I personally think that 2 hours of school work for K is too much. Yet it seems you are needing to meet some sort of requirements. What I can tell you is that my DD is a young 7 and is just now enjoying some of the stories from Core K. In the last few months we've been able to enjoy "A Grain of Rice", "My Father's Dragon", and "Dolphin Treasure". Before this, she was having a very hard time with too many books without pictures. It sounds like your son is a normal kid who doesn't want to sit and do school work for too long.

Is the new program geared better for this age group (1-3 grade) due to the New Land book and The American Story? We have the old 2006 IG which uses the DK Encyclopedia. It also has some resources that are listed for grades 3-5 and my DD is a young 2nd grader this year. Should I just wait to use this program I have or is the newer version geared better for the younger crowd?

Giving you a friendly bump.

I love the looks of this program for when my kids get older. I'd enjoy hearing what others have to say about it.

Wow! What a great resource! Thanks for sharing this find.