Such helpful feedback, thank you everyone. We will just stick to Hake! I know I remember reading somewhere that two of the levels are almost identical to each other, but now I can't remember which ones (I think it was either 4/5 or 5/ 6). Do you happen to know? That would be helpful info to have in case we need to slow things down and/or decide to skip a level.

About how long would you say each grammar lesson takes? I'm looking at this for my 5th grader, and would have him write directly in the textbook instead of copying into a notebook to save time. I'm toying with the idea of having him go through Fix-It Grammar at the same time, as he could use the targeted editing practice. Would the two together be complete overkill?

Also if he enjoyed Sassafras he might like the Quark Chronicles put out by Barefoot Meandering. From what I understand it’s similar in that it’s science embedded in a story, but the quality (and level of content) is higher.

You might want to take a look at the Tiner books (Exploring Planet Earth, The World of Chemistry, The History of Medicine, etc). I don’t recall any experiments when I looked at them.

I’m going to be doing Mystery Science with my kids in those grades. It’s very kid-friendly and easy to implement.

I’ve liked both GSWL and Latina Christiana (Memoria Press). I ultimately stuck with LC because I’ve got my eye on the Form series by MP for later years and like the idea of some continuity.

If it helps, I had the exact same concerns when starting WWE with my oldest, and now on the other side of WWE3 I have zero regrets. The idea that he may be “behind” his public-schooled peers haunted me. It also seemed too “easy” (at least until we hit the lengthier dictation in level 3- ha!). Fast forward and here we are at the beginning of 4th grade and I just now formally taught him how to write a paragraph. And you know how long it took him to get it? 1 day. He has the tools he needs to confidently get his thoughts on paper, so it just wasn’t a big deal. In fact I keep waiting for him to complain about the increase in output that I’m asking for this year, but that has yet to happen. Anyways, YMMV but I just wanted to throw my experience out there since my early feelings so closely mirrored the ones you’re describing. I’m so glad we stuck with it! ETA: I also wanted to agree with the above poster who mentioned reading the dictation passages more times than prescribed in the book. If I remember correctly, SWB herself published updated recommendations for WWE giving her explicit permission to read those passages additional times if the student needs it ?

The XtraMath app. My kid has his math facts down cold, and this was accomplished with pretty much zero help from me. $5 well spent!

I’m in a similar boat; I love MM and it’s been a great fit for my eldest, but I suspect my 7yo is going to need more review. MM has (somewhat) recently come out with a spiral review workbook to be used alongside the regular work text. Perhaps the best of both worlds? For $8, we’re going to give it a shot? Here’s the link to the 3rd grade workbook: https://www.mathmammoth.com/skills_review_workbooks/grade_3.php

Thank you for your replies, great food for thought!

My current 2nd grader completed AAR 1 and 2 last year. At this point I'm tempted to just put him in AAS (which we were planning to use this year anyway) and continue to have him read out loud to me in lieu of AAR3. Do you all think AAS provides enough phonetic instruction on its own for him to continue to progress in his reading, or would he miss out on important decoding skills? For reference, he can read books like Mercy Watson and The Bears of Hemlock Mountain with few mistakes. Thanks for any insight you might have!

We're in the middle of MM 3 and you're right, that measurement chapter is a slog. We often start to get antsy in the middle of those Measurement/Time/Money chapters. Treating those 3 chapters as one unit and looping through them (a Measurement lesson on day 1, a Time lesson on day 2, etc) has made them all more palatable by giving us a bit more variety :-)

We really like the books in the Let's Read and Find Out series. I'm planning to match those up with the Mystery topics we're going to cover next year.

My 8 yo loved the My Father's Dragon trilogy.

My kids love so many of the ones listed above, particularly the Ramona Quimby and Chronicles of Narnia Series. FYI, Audible is currently running a kids summer sale and a lot of these titles are included. All of the books in the Redwall series are on sale for $3.95, as well as Charlotte's Web and The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Tons more, too! The Tumtum and Nutmeg series by Emily Bearn is pretty fun. And while it's neither fantasy nor animal-centric, I also have to recommend Anne of Green Gables narrated by Barbara Caruso, if for no other reason than it was my all-time favorite audiobook when I was your girls' ages. :-)

Your post prompted me to go poke around on the Audible site, and I found this: https://mobile.audible.com/sale-audiobooks-kids-0-12/apc.htm I feel like I won the lottery. Literally 50+ pages of audio books for kids priced from $1.95-$3.95! There's a lot to sift through, but I found some good stuff including the Birchbark House, the entire Redwall series by Brian Jacques, and The Drama of American History series by the Collier brothers. But seriously, there are hundreds of books. Thanks for the heads up; I created an account here in order to share the link, I am that excited. :lol: