I did find the rhymes in motion and fingerplays corny and we really didn't get over it after using the curriculum. By corny, I mean that they didn't really seem to be useful and often felt forced to try and make them work. They often didn't have a tune to go with the fingerplay and it was often not catchy or easy to spout off the tip of your tongue. The rhymes in motion also seemed to be a little bit hard to carry out and not necessary. The rhymes in motion with LHFHG seemed more like preschool. The art activities were often geared to the young end of the age range and the more we did the more I wished we were just using a separate art program. I started tweaking and adding b/c the activities for the age ranges were so varied and a lot were geared to the youngest age on the age range. We gave up after 3 months and moved on to something else.

I tried 3 different guides and found the activities all seemed young for the age ranges of the guides. So I can totally relate to the corny comment.

I know the feeling. This is the way HOD felt to me. We would read a bit in a book and then stop and then the next day we would read a few pages in a book and then back to the first book. I have actually switched to Christian Liberty Press. They have a lot of good history readers that tell history in a fun way. These are the readers not the texts. I like the texts as well, but the readers are really great. We switched to a more text approach with History and Science for now. I couldn't really feel like we were doing much more than spinning our wheels the other way. I am still using Writing with Ease and First Language Lessons though and going through a Lit. study for reading that has a great list of books and activities. It gives me the best of both worlds to mix and match our subjects with traditional and not so traditional.

We had been using 2a and 2b US edition and I have only seen metric. We did cm and m and g and kg. No inches and feet and no lbs. and oz. I looked through both books and it doesn't have US that I see in 2a or 2b. I have 3a and 3b and it looks like 3b covers the us system of money and measure. It also still does a lot of metric. I would say it is predominantly metric. I don't know if it covers US systems more later or if at all. We have switched to using R&S as our main math and doing Singapore as supplemental with just the workbooks. I want them to know metric as well so this works for us.

Try Christian Liberty Press. They sell Abeka Language with their own answer key and texts. It saves a lot of money. You just have to schedule it yourself.

Well, I tried letting my dd9 help this year picking out some things and well...we tried HOD. She loved the catolog and books that were going to be read, but it was so easy. I just don't think it was challenging enough and I don't think she was retaining all that I was reading aloud. The history was pretty good, but the other options seemed light and she was breezing through it and the activities seemed geared to the young end of the guide. She also is artsy and loves to color, but after notebooking only with science for 3 months her notebooking looked worse and worse and her enthusiasm for the experiments lessened. She was totally slacking but had gotten used to the easy work and when I challenged her with another spelling program on her grade level she totally balked. That made the decision for me that we needed to change from HOD. She loves the catalog for HOD and looking at the books, but I know it is not the program for her or me. I decided to do a co-op once a week with a professional art teacher, language arts with classic books, music, and drama. So she is still getting her artsy, craftsy stuff in during the week. So I would say get her input, but also weigh were you want her to be in the end. If you feel it doesn't challenge her and she could do more, then it is time for a change. My child liked HOD and balked at changing, but I knew that she wasn't being challenged and that she needed something else. I feel that I will be giving her the artsy part she needs at co-op. I will say this she loves the homeschool curriculum catalogs period. Think about us Moms when we get the catalogs and how great it all seems and how we want to buy it all and then think back to when you were 10 and the big Sears Christmas catalog would come and you got a bad case of the giveme monster. I will listen to my dd9's input, but unless I can see the books in person I am not going from her liking a catalog or from me liking a catalog ever again. I will see the curriculum in person from now on out. R&S is good for Math. Abeka is expensive, but you can get their language arts and some history from CLP for cheaper b/c they give their own answer keys. We moved from R&S English to ABeka Language and love the change. I wouldn't keep books that I could purchase again in a few years if I wasn't going to use them until then.

This is probably going to be frowned upon, but I had kids coming home from public school this year and it was starting to go this way with my oldest-4th grade dd9. I realized that she had no fear of consequences like those at ps. If she brought home bad grades b/c of incomplete work or extra homework b/c she goofed off at school, we (parents) were on here and she was punished. She saw no punishment besides during school hours at home mostly and was checking things off that she didn't finish and dawdling or doing poor quality work all morning. So I bought a behavior kit from the school supply store and if she is on red when Dad comes home, there is punishment from someone besides just me, the teacher. I also gave her quite a few zero's and 28's and 34's on some assignments that were either 1. not done 2. not finished 3. not done correctly 4. just plain sloppy and totally not acceptable. I put all the grades into homeschool tracker and told her that she was failing. I told her we would finish out this year but my grades were real and if she tested me back to ps she goes but she would have failed this year. I did this for a week with the zeros and bad grades. It made a big improvement on her attitude. And the first time Dad came home and she was on red, there went the Nintendo ds for a while. I see Dad as the principal of our school. If I am the only bad guy, then at some point she just takes me with a grain of salt. Just like at school, if the teacher is your only concern and you aren't afraid of getting in trouble with her then the parents are brought into the equation to maintain order. I do set timers and anything she doesn't finish during school hours during my set time for the activity then she is doing for homework with Dad when he gets home. She doesn't want to do homework with Dad if you know what I mean. Homework with Dad means he knows that she goofed off or gave me issues so that I couldn't work with the other kids. I know it sounds a lot like school and that is the way it had to be for us. She had no fear of failing, no fear of punishments from anyone besides me, and no respect and care for my time that I was putting into her education. It was hard to write 24 on an english grammer lesson that she totally bombed and didn't even do by the directions trying to slack, but it was totally worth it when she realized she had to work for me to give her the grades.

I've had the exact opposite problem b/c I am a lefty and so far all my kiddos are righties. There is a lot of left handed things that will make life easier. Back when I was a kid, I wound up having to learn to cut right handed and such. I have since found all kind of things to make being left handed much easier. http://www.thelefthand.com/index.html Oh and the fine motor skills sound okay. My ds6.5 first grade still rushes and his looks sloppy. I have just bought fine motor skills workbooks to target those areas every day aside from his regular curriculum.

This is our last week with HOD. We started June 1. My 1st grader will have finished LHFHG in 15 weeks except for the storytime books. We will continue reading the storytime books but move on to doing a mix of things for the rest of our 1st grade year.

With this being my first year, I did this as well. I spent $300 on HOD's BHFHG and am only going to use the history from it. I can't really sell it until I am through with the guide for history so I have the other books just sitting on my shelf.

I think it looks pretty good and I totally understand about having one that fights you on stuff. We have loved The Reading Lesson with ds6 and it is painlessly getting the job done. They have some printable certificates on their web site that my ds loves to put stickers on as we finish each lesson. I looked at FIAR and would love to hear how it goes with a lot of children. I have 4 kids and was nervous about trying it with all of the kids being at different ages and stages in reading. So we are researching it a bit more. I think it looks like a good year for you and the kids. :grouphug:

Definitely. Having to remediate poor handwriting habits later on is much harder than correcting them in the first place. Been there, done that with 2 that went to public school at first.

Handwriting without tears is really great. I used printing power with my dd8 last year and it was a lifesaver. I don't know about remedial phonics. We are using the Reading Lesson and love it, but I am not sure how it would be for an 8 yr old. They have samples on their site and you could definitely use it with your 5 yr old. I have used Hooked on Phonics with success with my girls before 2nd grade. I found it very easy to use and the kids enjoyed it and improved their reading. I plan to use it again with ds6.5 after he finishes The Reading Lesson. We also use a slant board and pencil grips during handwriting time. It really has helped my dc's handwriting. We also keep a poster on the wall of the manuscript letters and a numbers chart to 100 that seems to help my ds with his reversals.

It looks good to me. The only one I really know anything about is FLL (doing it with my 1st grade ds). FLL is really easygoing and we love it. I wish I would have gotten Abeka for history and science. ;)

I have done about 1/3 of LHTH and found it became very repetitive. I am going to do Hewitt's Preschool Plus when he gets to be 4. It looks really good. http://hewitthomeschooling.com/book/bgroup.asp?i=8052 The sample gives you a really good idea of what to expect from it and the books you would need. http://hewitthomeschooling.com/book/bxpp.asp

I personally love FLL 1/2 and have started it with ds 6.5. I agree with the previous poster that phonics and reading come first. My son probably wouldn't have been ready for even gentle grammer like FLL until now. His fine motor skills have improved and he sits longer and listens better and just seems to have matured. My girls were early readers and would have been ready for FLL 1/2 in K instead of 1st if we would have homeschooled them then. I think it depends on the child. I think FLL is so light and gentle that it is a great introduction without seeming overbearing. We tried R&S this year with dd9 and I am going to switch her to FLL 3 and WWE as soon as possible. I just didn't like R&S and love FLL. After FLL we are switching to Winston Grammer and Write on Track in 5th grade. I will do the same with the youngers go through FLL and WWE until 5th.

I think LFBC stands for landmark freedom baptist curriculum.

We are doing The Reading Lesson and I love it. My son also doesn't do well with a lot of writing. We use Reading Eggs on the computer as well.

This is my biggest fear this year. That we won't fit in with other homeschool families in co-op b/c we are schooling for different reasons.

I definitely did this this year. It is my first year and I wish I would have found this site sooner. I just didn't know that sometimes all-in-one doesn't work and they all look good in the catalog and on the site and on the message boards for their particular curricula. I looked at sample pages, printed them, compared them, and thought this is great. I ordered and thought, "What have I done?" This will never work. You can't get a good feel from a few sample pages. I totally missed this year. Coming to other sites besides particular curricula sites was the best thing I could have done. Yes, it has given me lots of curricula choices to research and drool over. Fortunately, I don't have the money to jump on everything I love at first site b/c of my very expensive miss this year. So I am really changing things out as I "know" that it will be better than what we are doing right now. Next year, I will go to homeschool conventions and such and see it in person. It would have made a very big difference if I had done that this year.

We are also having trouble plodding through the Egleston books. I am thinking about either getting Abeka history or Beautiful Feet's Primary American History.

I agree. Bigger's history progresses pretty well. The rest we zoom through. We are going to finish Little Hearts in 15 weeks instead of 34.

My ds6 in a typical day does: A Reason for Handwriting-10-15 min. R&S Fine Motor Skills workbook-10-15 min. Singapore Math-10-20 min. depending on topic FLL 1/2-10-20 min. depending on lesson Singapore Start Up Science-15-20 minutes The Reading Lesson-15-20 minutes History for Little Pilgrims-15-20 minutes Read Alouds-time varies Starting in Sept. on Mondays he will also do co-op from 2-5 pm for language arts, music, art, and p.e. It takes us 2-2.5 hours to do his work, but he is rotating in and out of kitchen with the other 2 school age kids. He also will begin cub scouts this year as well.

Wow! This is great. I have both a 3rd and 4th grade dd's that just came home from public school this year and don't really have any experience with dictation and my 4th grader did poorly on the state test with reading comprehension. I was thinking this would be good for both girls. Does this sound like the right level to start them with?

Do not push them to change their preference. It will not make their writing neater or increase their motor skills. I am a lefty and write neatly. I have no idea how my motor skills were as a child or at what pace I got neater handwriting. My cousin who was a lefty until he was forced to switch by a well meaning relative around 4 yrs old has the most horrible handwriting I have ever seen. Whether you are a lefty or righty is based on a brain preference. Lefties are right brained and righties are left brained.