I feel the need to clarify some of my earlier post. I do feel that HOD's guides and the age ranges are a little deceiving. You can't look at it and say my child is in this age range 5-7 or 6-8 this will have 2nd grade work. My dd9 just finished 3rd grade ps and took the pre-test for the 4th grade test the state requires. It was heavy on history, mapping from memory of our state and landmarks and regions and topigraphical information. The science was very heavy and especially about knowing the different theories as well as the scientific method step by step. If she would have done Bigger only for her 3rd grade year she would not have done well on the state test. While you are using the scientific method in your experiments with bigger and the notebooking, it never explains it to the child. You never go through the steps of the process. The language arts and writing portions of this test is intensive as well and if we would have been doing HOD from the beginning she would only have had R&S 2 as a language arts reference. They don't use the real terms for things either. They say an asking sentence, a telling sentence...On the tests they have proper terms declaritive, interrogative...It would not have been enough for the state test. I think you have to look at your state and what they require and when and whether those things will be on the tests. My younger kids will have to test in 3rd grade which means at the end of this year in April or May my dd8 will be testing and I don't feel that HOD will have her prepared for it. As for LHFHG, it really is a kindergarten level program. I can't sugarcoat it and say that it would pass 1st grade standards. If for any reason I went to a different curriculum even and not public school next term, ds would not be ready for 2nd grade work. I couldn't just buy a 2nd grade curriculum and expect him to be prepared for it. Our state homeschool rules state that you must teach an education equal to or better than the public school equivalent. Having had children finish through 3rd grade in the public school system here, I know that they need more than what HOD offers. For the grades my children are in, I don't think that HOD would prepare them for the test by the end of 3rd grade. And I did do the placement and this is where they placed by HOD's chart. When I wrote my post, I was writing my experience and my opinion with my children. I think you have to take in to account your experience and your children. I know the public school system here and I know that HOD isn't on grade level with it at least for the LHFHG and BHFHG guides. That may not be the case where you are at. You may not be required to give state mandated tests at specific grades. I just wanted to clarify why I feel it is behind and what I am comparing it to is public school standards.

I started out with HOD this year my first time coming home to home school and I thought it was going to be perfect. I had went to the HOD board and asked questions and got placement advise and everybody on there was it is great. When I posted questions like you have here on the HOD board, I got HOD is great try this and this and it works perfect for us...You couldn't ask about changing any of it over there or talk about it if you did change things without being chastised. There was also a Big Brother feel to the board. We are doing BHFHG and LHFHG and LHFHG isn't recognizable anymore. I do think that HOD will give you everything and your child will be on target for his peers at 8th grade, but only if you do it until 8th grade and go through all the guides. If you switch to something else, before then your kids are going to be behind especially in the first 3 guides. Like LHFHG is supposed to be 1st grade and for ages 5-7. It is not really for kindergarten/1st/2nd like the ages it says. It is for kindergarten and maybe the first half of 1st. I have to add to it a lot to get what I consider 1st grade. My kids aren't retaining a lot of what we are doing in the boxes and I do feel like I am just working through the boxes. The science notebooking in Bigger is probably the thing I most like about it. The science in LHFHG is nonexistant. I think it is similar in Beyond. I have to finish it b/c we can't afford anything else, but I don't plan to use it again. The spelling and the dictation aren't really grade appropriate. It is super easy and my kids finished through 3rd grade in public school so I can say beyond a shadow of a doubt that if I did Bigger Hearts as 3rd or 4th grade that if for some unforeseen reason they had to go back to public school they would be behind and not ready for 4th grade. If my son went to public school 2nd grade after LHFHG he would be WAY behind. I have definitely changed it up enough that I realize that it isn't for me and I would rather have more choices in certain areas...science, language arts, reading, art... So I feel it isn't worth it to buy only parts of a "schedule" for recommended books. I wish that instead I would have bought some of the recommendations that I liked and scheduled it myself. I do feel like I bought a schedule and it is really something I could have done myself and gotten what I wanted for other subjects. I honestly am only using it as written for LHFHG for ...well for the storytime Thornton Burgess books at this point. The rest we are on our own schedule for even with the texts that we kept from the guide as well as I am adding FLL 1/2 and Singapore Science and we are only using History for Little Pilgrims for our history now. I am doing Bigger Hearts and I have found that even when you do projects that go further with science like the tcells and such that it is geared for the more younger end of the guide. You cut out the cells and viruses and antivirus...and play a game with them but you don't really learn what they are and how they work even in simple terms. They don't really learn the concepts behind it that way. My dd9 often can't repeat back to me things I have just read. It just isn't working for us this way and I have no real options but to keep going forward. We started the beginning of the summer so we are already 9 weeks in. If I continue at this pace, we will finish by February and then with tax money I am going to buy all of the kids more grade appropriate materials. I will do first grade with ds6, 3rd grade with dd8, and 4th grade with dd9. So that they won't be behind at the end of the year.

We are using Singapore Earlybird US 2a/2b and I love it. There isn't a lot of writing in it. I don't know about the new standards edition. I went ahead and bought the US 1a/1b and 2a/2b earlybird for my youngest. Singapore math has made math short, easy, and fun for us and he is retaining it and applying it in real life so I am happy.

I think opting out was the best choice for us at this point. I think it may have become overwhelming our first year to try such a large co-op and I am a believer that things happen for a reason. We will still have field trips, parties, and get-togethers with the homeschool group. We just won't be in the co-op classes. My husband confessed to me tonight that he was secretly glad that we won't be doing co-op this year. He thought that bringing the kids home and me tackling teaching was enough of an endeavor to take on this year without adding in the complexity of a co-op class situation. He didn't want to dampen my enthusiasm though about the thought of having other homeschool families and friends. Hopefully just being part of the homeschool group will help us to feel a part of the homeschool community.

There is no choice but to take the art class that they offer and all kids have to be in all of the classes they offer. We aren't in a position to increase the monthly expense that we had anticipated for the co-op expenses. I emailed and tried to nicely tell them that we couldn't do any more than the anticipated cost from the application. I had carefully weighed whether we could swing the co-op fees before filling out the applications so I know we can't budget any more money for it. It is pretty much given they are going with the art teacher now. Honestly, I had only met one family from the co-op and went to the co-op site and registered online. We were suppose to pay fees at the back to school party. So I haven't paid any money just filled out and turned in our applications with the intent to pay at the party. We will still get to go to the back to school pool party b/c it is for the co-op as well as the local homeschool group (those that don't opt to do the co-op). I am pretty bummed about it and the kids are too, but I figure it is better to cut our losses now than try to invent money we don't have and embarass ourselves by not being able to make the monthly fees. I guess I just didn't realize how quickly a co-op could change it's mind about the class and increase fees and such. I figured they had it set in stone when they posted their fees for the upcoming year on site and wrote up applications with them. I am wondering if it would have been a good thing for us to do anyway. It is our first year homeschooling. I just hope opting out of the co-op doesn't affect us being in the homeschool group which is made up of a lot of the co-op members as well. You have to be in the homeschool group to be in the co-op but not the other way around. I am a little bummed b/c I had already told the kids about it and they were looking forward to it, but we can only do what we can do and I am not going to overextend us to do it.

Well, we decided to join a co-op. There was minimal fees and parents were going to be volunteering to teach. It had music, art, drama, and p.e. We were very excited about it...until the post about a Professional art teacher volunteering for a minimal monthly fee to teach art to the elementary kids as well as the high school ones. It will triple the cost for art for the year. The cost of books opposed to the cost of the art teacher triples our cost and of course it is monthly instead of up front for the book, but I don't see us swinging it financially. We had chosen to do private music lessons for a fee for one of our children and were happy with the art book and parent teaching. We can't do the music lessons without the co-op and we can't afford the art teacher and the music lessons. What are my options? Does it look bad at this point if they decide to do the art teacher with fees if I say I'm sorry we can't do it and opt out of the co-op. The homeschool group is together with the co-op somewhat so I will be seeing the co-op at all the parties and field trips. How can I gracefully and without seeming bitter that they changed the costs notify the co-op that we can't do it if indeed they choose to do the art teacher? What is the protocol? I have already enrolled all the kids in the co-op and signed them up for classes prior to the art dilema. Am I obligated to do it and pay fees since I enrolled them? Does it look bad for me to say I am sorry but you changed the costs from when I filled out the application and that changes my situation. My kids are going to be upset. They were looking forward to it and I thought it would ease the transition home from public school for them to have outside classes one day with the co-op.

I like answer keys more than teacher's manuals especially for math. Abeka and BJU offer the answer keys and often CLP has their answer keys for a lot cheaper on some subjects.

I agree. My son transferred in to public school in the middle of the year for kindergarten last year and he had been doing wonderful journaling in Montessori school. At public school, instead of encouraging him with what he wrote and drew they actually circled it in red and wrote incomplete sentence. I don't think he could read incomplete sentence. I was shocked. This happened several times and his papers came home bleeding until he refused to write anymore. They wanted me to hold him back b/c of immaturity when they were the ones that had caused him not to want to do the work for fear that all he would get back was a bleeding paper and no encouragement. He came home telling me he couldn't read and he could only write "ugly". His self esteem was shot at the end of last year. He thought he couldn't do anything right and started not doing any work because of it. Six weeks home and he is reading and writing better than 6 months of public school.

Headsprout is good. You can get 3 lessons free. Another good one is Reading Eggs. You get 3 weeks free and there is a test that starts them off in the right spot. They are very similar. Starfall is good too and you have lots of readers to print out and worksheets for handwriting and phonics all free.

I would look at several and read the reviews before buying anything. Read lots of reviews and print the samples out to look over. Some off the top of my head are Abeka Christian Liberty Press Horizons Little Hearts for his Glory Hewitt's Tell me a Story Landmark Freedom Baptist Sonlight My Father's World It all depends on what style you are wanting to use and what you want them to be able to do at the end of kindergarten. I've used Abeka and Christian Liberty Press for kindergarten. Both are good but both are workbook style. Abeka's phonics approach is excellent for reading. I didn't find that Christian Liberty gave a lot of instruction on teaching their texts and subsequently we didn't do as well with their phonics instruction. Both Abeka and CLP seem advanced to me and they cover a lot in kindergarten. Abeka often has material displays in August where you can see their actual books. I'm not sure if CLP has any samples. I am using Little Hearts for his Glory for 1st and it is a k/1st guide. It is very different from the workbook approach and is very CM. Short lessons but they are meaty. They have a week's sample on the Heart of Dakota site. I like the unit study approach after all the workbooks and Hewitt's Tell me a story looks good and is reasonably priced. There is also a good sample on Hewitt's site. These are all ones I am considering this next go round with my youngest.

None of us are given an instruction booklet for the next 18 years when we take our precious babies home from the hospital. None of us have all the answers. I could probably write out all the stuff that I have done over the past 9 years with my dc and it wouldn't sound good and I would probably in hindsight laugh at some of the things I tried and cringe at some of it as well. I think your intentions are good. Follow your instincts and the advise that you feel is helpful. Follow your feelings about the kids first and most of it will fall into place over time.

:lurk5: I was just looking at this on homeschoolbuyerscoop this morning. I just don't know about it though...

I find it harder to do all of the HOD things if you have a lot of children. I have 4 kids that range from 2-9 yrs. old. A lot of the HOD activities seem geared to the youngest age on their age range and the academics seem geared to the mid to oldest age on their age range. I don't think my ds6 would have been ready for the writing in BLHFHG and needed the fine motor skills in LHFHG. By the placement chart, he fit into LHFHG for the 3r's but I feel LHFHG is geared to kindergarten. Nine weeks into LHFHG and we are zooming through parts of it. We will be done with math in 6 weeks both a and b books and through the R&S fine motor skills books and the handwriting book in the same amount of time as well. So I will have a lot of time to fill b/c we will only be 15 weeks into school when we finish a lot of the LHFHG texts. So it has not been worth it to me in the long run. I wish I would have looked at it for her text recommendations and researched them on my own and then purchased what I thought was a good fit and scheduled it for my child. My honest advise would be to take a look at all the curriculums and programs that you are feeling drawn to and write why you are drawn to them and what components you like about them and what you dislike about them. Most of these are just guides to other curriculum scheduled out for you. Take what you like from each and then you will have a "guide" that will be perfect for you and your child.

I found that I adapt more so with LHFHG than with BHFHG. I only skip the Bible in BHFHG. We tried the jumping jacks and I did them as well with her and it wasn't for us. I'm sure this method works well with some children, but it wasn't for mine. This was my first attempt at homeschooling as well and I don't regret buying LHFHG b/c it helped me to make my own schedule, but it also showed me that I can find curriculum that I like and put together a schedule just as easily as buying one already done that I may not like parts of and probably won't completely use the way it is meant to be used.

We are supposed to start at 8:30, but the truth is that it doesn't happen. We have been getting later and later. It is my fault. I am not a morning person. It definitely makes a difference in our day when we are up, ready, and starting on our schedule on time. New School Year Resolution-there is no such thing as the snooze button.

Here is the link for the journal prompts. http://www.busyteacherscafe.com/printables/writing.htm There is a lot of free printables on the site though and you may find other things also to help with writing. I find the journal low stress with lots of fun.

CLP didn't schedule it or there weren't any kind of instructions when I got mine. They have the class lesson planner that tells you how to break up each subject over the amount of days that your school year will entail. I was working through Noah Webster's Handbook before we started on Meeting New Friends, but we were still working on the kindergarten readers from CLP. If your child has a good grasp of phonics and is ready for Meeting New Friends then I would just do them simultaneously. I am assuming you are using Adventures in Phonics as well. I would do the Noah Webster's Handbook that correlates with the phonics being done in Adventures in Phonics.

There is a site that has journal prompts for everyday for the month. I would buy her a composition book and print out the monthly journal prompt and let her do it first thing in the morning. My girls are doing this and they have a trapper keeper comp. book that has a folder pocket and they know to take out the journal prompt calendar and write every morning. I am on the laptop and don't have it bookmarked in here. The kiddos are on the desktop so I will edit later and put in the url to the journal prompts.

I technically started out with Heart of Dakota's Little Hearts for His Glory for ds6. I love Abeka and it was great to teach my girls to read and write, but it wasn't for my son. I like Little Hearts for His Glory's textbook suggestions, but that is where it ends. I am not fond of the guide that goes with it (we used it as written for 9 weeks). The texts that I really like and work well with my ds are... A reason for handwriting K R&S preschool workbooks (we only use 2 but if I had to do it again I would get the whole set) Reading-The Reading Lesson Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten 2a/2b...the 1a/1b are good too if they need it Abeka is really a grade ahead with it's expectations. Have you already done Abeka k4 with him? I might would do Abeka k4 with him and add in the kindergarten science and social studies and then try him in Abeka 1st after that. I would go ahead and work through the Abeka k4 and after finishing it work through the Abeka k 12 readers I learn to read, I do read, and I can read as well as the handbook for reading during the summer before 1st grade. For extra math, I would do the Singapore Earlybird Kindergarten math alongside Abeka's k4 math. That is what I would do if I planned to stick with Abeka. I would tweak their k4 program to work as k5 for me and then go right into 1st grade after finishing the 12 k readers and Singapore Earlybird math.

I don't feel that you are doing your child a disservice if they are learning the material and have a creative outlet. Personally doing LHFHG, I found that a lot of the activities were on the young side for kindergarten and really young for 1st grade. I have chosen not to do the math activities that come with the guide. We are using the instructions in the Earlybird kindergarten book and finished our Earlybird 2a book this week in 6 weeks. I think a lot of the math activities are to draw out the math book for the year and are completely unnecessary. The instruction boxes in the earlybird kindergarten book are great and interesting and do not seem to be too young for the kids. I also have the Bigger Hearts program and have found that the math activities in it are young also and do not teach the Singapore method to you (the teacher) in order to help explain it to the kids. I plan to buy the home instructor's guides as soon as I can. I think the "activities" are more to draw out the math and keep it in short cm style learning. I haven't found it beneficial to us to use the activities at all with either LHFHG or BHFHG. We dropped all the memorization activities for Bible as well in LHFHG. For the activities to be so young, the Bible memorization is a lot. I find just going over the Bible verse together each day to be sufficient. Just wait until you get to the Bigger Hearts and it expects your child to do jumping jacks and push ups while learning 3-4 Bible verses a week. After 9 weeks of LHFHG, I have started pretty much writing out the schedule for the texts that she recommends and omitting the activities that are too young or too tedious for us. We got way ahead in our R&S books and handwriting books. The only part of the guide that we are moving on pace with is the storytime books. So I would say adapt it to meet your needs and don't worry about it.

:lurk5:

We are trying a co-op this year but it is for music, art, drama, and p.e. Things that I would never get done or umm.. I am not particularly talented at (LOL-very musically challenged!). I am hoping that it will be a good fit for us. My neighbor accross the street chose to only join the homeschool group for field trips and park days and that sort of thing. She decided against the classes this year. I think you have to weigh the good with the bad and see whether the co-op fits your needs with classes offered and time scheduled and whether your kids are liking it and making friends. What does MBTP stand for? I couldn't find it in the abbreviation sticky.

We just finished 2a in 6 weeks and looking at 2b it looks like it will be about the same 6 weeks or so. I think when we hit Primary 1a we will slow down though.

I really like Singapore math but I think my kiddos need more to learn the basic math facts. I am thinking of supplementing. For those of you than supplement, do you do your supplemental math at the same time or do you do one term singapore math one term supplemental math? I am leaning towards doing 1/2 year singapore 1/2 year something else for math and keep rotating with the same program on up. I think that would be easier than trying to do 2 math programs at one time. Has anyone btdt and have some advise? I am thinking of doing either Abeka math, R&S math, or scott-foresman/addison wesley math opposite Singapore math. Any advise or help or btdt experience would be great.

I have FLL 1/2 and that sounds like a good idea. Which definitions do you want? We just started so we are still on noun. I can make something up in paint shop pro. I can go to the back and it has the definitions but there are a lot back there. I am going to make one for us so I don't mind sharing it. What do you think is a good list of definitions to use?