Thanks, Alice and SFossum. I have much to think over before next year! (Isn't it a little weird, Alice, to be chatting here? ;-)

Thank you all for taking the time to post your children's compositions. I'm currently using WWE 4 with my 9 year old daughter, but I'm thinking ahead to next year and wondering if I want to go ahead into WWS or do something else for 5th and come back to it later. Thoughts?

I have one dd in level C and one in level E. I've used RS with both girls from the beginning. I usually spend a couple of hours a day on math combined for both of them. (I'd say 1 1/2 hours, anyway.) I've mostly used MM to supplement for extra practice, but I finally concluded that it was too much for us. I was having to teach both RS and MM, and that's not what I wanted out of MM. Anyway, for the past couple of weeks I've just made a concerted effort to play a math game, too, with both girls at least four days a week. That has worked better than giving them MM, too--the frustration factor for them is much, much less, and we're still getting in some good practice. (They LOVE the math games.) I've also been using Beast Academy with my fourth grader (using the 3A book so far) for more thinking practice.

I love reading all the responses! Some of you might be interested in a monthly feature on my blog, Read Aloud Thursday: www.hopeisthewordblog.com/category/books/read-aloud-thursday/

I guess I'm not exactly a fan of book reports, either, which is why I'm asking what others do, if anything at all.

Do you have a certain form, or is this more free-form?

Bump

So many good titles! I have to mention again The Mysterious Benedict Society. My girls love the series (though we never read them aloud). My younger dd got the series for Christmas!

I'll start. We're reading an Oxford Junior Classics version of Don Quixote (recommended in SotW AG) and Because of Winn Dixie for a library mother/daughter bookclub. With my 9 year old I'm reading Thimble Summer and with my 8 year old I'm reading Caddie Woodlawn. With my 3 year old I'm reading miscellaneous picture books.

My girls listened to Trumpet years ago via audiobook and I also read it aloud. What a wonderfully fun story! I host a monthly read-aloud roundup on my blog, if any of you are interested. Here's the January post: http://www.hopeisthewordblog.com/2014/01/30/read-aloud-thursday-january-2014-a-day-in-our-read-aloud-life/

Yippee!!!

Thanks! Anyone else?

My children, grades 4 and 2, are working their ways through WWE 4 and 2, respectively. I would like to add a weekly book report, but according to what I understand about this age, I think perhaps something a little more specific than summarizing a whole book is actually what I'm after. Do any of you do this? Talk to me about it, please.

My children, grades 4 and 2, are working their ways through WWE 4 and 2, respectively. I would like to add a weekly book report, but according to what I understand about this age, I think perhaps something a little more specific than summarizing a whole book is actually what I'm after. Do any of you do this? Talk to me about it, please.

I enjoyed The Incorrigible Children of Ashton Place series. I have not read it aloud to my children, but it reminded me a little of MBS because of the wry humor. Here's a review I wrote for my blog: http://www.hopeisthewordblog.com/2013/04/05/the-incorrigible-children-of-ashton-place-by-maryrose-wood/

Thanks for the good advice, skeeterbug! We've been off for a little over a month, and I'm itching to finish the year. I think I will just try to add one subject back at a time and count the days we manage just the one subject a huge success.

Our routine had begun to slide in the last month of pregnancy, so we were down to the bare bones (math, language, handwriting, spelling, and composition, with history when time permitted, and always reading aloud). We start after breakfast and piano practice, work until lunch, and then do whatever is left after rest time in the afternoon. Now the problem has become that essentially naps for happen for the almost 3 year old because he's sleeping too late to take them (due to my sleeping too late to wake him up early). That means now I'm training him to stay in his room during rest time, so working on school then really isn't possible. Anyway, I feel like we've lost so much momentum, I don't know how to regain it. My girls read almost all the time, so I don't feel like they've necessarily lost ground, but we really need to get back in math and writing, anyway. The other thing is just having time to plan or get materials ready at all. I'm struggling.

No one? Please!! I'm desperate! ;)

Our newest little one is a month old, and I really need to restart our school routine to wrap up dds' 3rd and 1st grade years. For the life of me, I cannot figure out how! I also have an almost 3 year old ds. With lack of sleep, nursing, lots of poopy diapers, etc., I just haven't been able to get it together yet. Any btdt advice?

I've also read that it's important for a child's feet to rest on the floor while writing to ensure good posture. Since she's at the dining room table, perhaps a large book (dictionary, etc.) could be placed under her feet to give her stability.

FWIW, I do what the previous poster does and write the words I think my dd might not know on the white board. (It's a little one that sits on the table right by where she's writing.) She knows to look there as she's writing.

Daisy, I don't guess you'll see this, but I am another devoted reader of your blog. I really understand your reason for stopping, though, and I admire you for it.

I didn't see a thread so I thought I'd start one. We're starting our spring break a day early, so I got ours posted this morning. Thanks for reading!It has been a doozy of a week!

We had a "get it done" kind of week.

Finally got ours written up. Thanks for reading!