We had some struggles with writing this year, too. My son (6y/o 1st) was doing a small amount of handwriting and was not forming his letters neatly or fluidly. I had started the year with a pre-cursive modern type of script, which was pretty, but not producing the nice handwriting that I wanted. At first, I thought he just needed to write more to improve his handwriting, but this just turned into sloppy writing, so I scrapped the modern manuscript, bought Getty Dubay Italics A and B and quit requiring writing in every other subject except for spelling and math. I then read about Skittle School somewhere on these boards and implemented one skittle for every perfect letter. And the letters had to be absolutely perfect to earn a skittle, too. I did that for a couple or three weeks, and went from skittles to stars on a chart (to earn a toy after 100), and did that for a little while. By the time he was 1/3 of the way through book B, he was writing neatly and quickly. I found the progression of amount of writing in the Getty Dubay books plus his growing maturity did the trick. About a 1/3 of the way through the Italics book, I started requiring more writing in his other subjects, and 1/2 way through Book B, I just went with requiring all the writing in all his other subjects (and dropped Book B) and kept on him to be neat. Everyday I circle letters that are not neat, and make him redo everything that is not absolutely beautiful. :) If I let him write sloppy ONE DAY, it goes downhill so quickly. So I stay on him. But he no longer complains about his writing and I'm finally ready to add WWE 1 in the next couple of weeks. I did put this off because of his writing skills. We have done oral narration all year. There's our 1st grade writing story. :)

Looking some up! Thanks for your replies!!

I have five kids age 7 and under, with one on the way, and will have a K-4, 1st grader and 2nd grader next year, have some church responsibilities and am planning a Friday co-op next year. I don't have kids in sports yet (I admit to dreading that a little, we'll see how it goes when the time comes...) AND, I'm planning on tackling MFW adventures next year. I've looked at SL and WP as well as TOG (which is just way over the top too much prep for me at this point!) - and find MFW both in line with my goals at this point, i.e., not too heavy, but just enough to help us get history and science in and enjoy it. Well, I have hopes, anyway. :) I really think we will like it. The daily schedule is what I need in terms of structure, and I can buy all the required resources from them in one big box. Simplicity. It gets me every time...:tongue_smilie: I will actually begin the program this summer, so I'll know by the fall if it's doable with the co-op, too. But I think it will be fine. :)

Alot of people keep them for their libraries because they are really nice books. I was fortunate to buy the whole set from a friend who was getting rid of all her hs materials. However, I would have just bought them from BF as a package had I not stumbled across that deal. We didn't even really use the program as a whole this year, just enjoyed the books. They are a nice collection of books.

I find myself more classical in nature when it comes to curriculum choices, but I love AO for it's quality of literature. I dropped several books we didn't like, but that happens with every book list I get... Mostly we just read the books. I am going with a more structured program next year, but we did enjoy what we ended up doing with AO this year. I do like to use narration, dictation, short lessons, and habit training, but also like plenty of structure in the academics, so my idea is to follow a more classical approach during the school year and use summers for some CM aspects that I particularly love, but have a hard time working in regularly (picture study, Shakespeare, nature journals, etc). MFW has lots of CM styling it it's approach, so we will get some of that next year, as we will be doing Adventures. So, a WTM/CM is certainly very doable in my opinion! For me, though, following AO exclusively was never an option, as there was not enough direction for me in the academics.

This is awesome. Congratulations!!

Awesome.

We have tried both R&S and Singapore. To be fair, we haven't actually tried Singapore 1st grade yet, but I have it, and I'm not sure it's for us. The kids and I both did well with Essential Math (Singapore K). I hated R&S format. The scripted lessons and such. I gave up on the whole teachers manual and just use the original book for teaching ideas and concepts. I do love the abacus and we use it frequently. I have dabbled in Miquon. The C-rods are a wonderful manipulative, but linking blocks have also been a great manipulative. I supplement a little, and not regularly, with Miquon. So, I found this year that my son needs a ton of repetition. I use Professor B CD-rom program to teach concepts (which is wonderful, my favorite of all math programs--hands down) but doesn't have enough repetition for my son, so I am now combining ACE Math PACE's for repetition (colorful pages, little comic strips for interest, he likes these things) and CD-rom Professor B for concepts and mental math. I know we are combining programs (and you mentioned that you didn't want to do that), but for us it's working well. I found that it's rather hard to find material that has enough repetition and review actually written into the material, and that's what's nice about ACE. It's easier for me to cross out problems, let him skip a page or two, than to search the internet for a few more pages of what he needs before we head into the next unit, you know? Anyway. Good luck with your search. I, too, looked at BJU - and really liked it. But it was $100 without buying any manipulatives, and I also had a hard time seeing past that massive TM. Prof B is around $80 for three years of math on CD rom. ACE is $32 for a year of workbooks. Leaves me room to fill in with manipulatives as I want. :001_smile: So far it's going very well. Too bad it took me most of the year to figure all this out! My poor kid.

So many great posts!! We are finishing up 1st grade and K with my boys. I count 1st grade as the first *real* year of homeschooling for me, as K ends up being pretty relaxed. 1st grade is where the "rubber meets the road" for me.:tongue_smilie: I learned so many of the same things as others! Like having to re-buy all school supplies mid-year. I particularly learned so much about myself. I like workbooks. I like to just turn the page and find out what's next, instead of making beautifully detailed and thought out plans, only to find myself NOT following them. I learned that I needed a chore list for myself in order to keep sanity in my housekeeping. (Thank you motivatedmoms.com!) I learned that I would need a play yard for my 15 mo. old twins if I was going to get anything done! I learned to drop everything to get school done. Period. I learned to wait to check my email until school work was done. Yup. Believe it or not...:D I found out that watching my children grow and grasp what life means and be there with them has been the most special thing in the world. I'm so thankful for the gift of homeschooling. Also grew alot tougher skin about making my kids do things right. "Nope, erase it. It wasn't right..." "Because you were so sloppy, you have to do another handwriting page. Do it right this time." Phew! Their handwriting looks beautiful now... :tongue_smilie: (wiping sweat from my brow...) So many more things learned!! It's been a really great, frustrating, sort of "birthing" feeling kind of year. Love it.

This is almost exactly what we do!! Seems to work the best here...

:iagree::iagree: Thanks for your post! It's a great reminder every now and then! :D

So I wanted to add that if you have a good handwriting book, a good phonics instruction book, and a good math book, you can add lots of read alouds and give yourself time to think through HOD, MFW, etc. There's soooooo much to consider, and it can be WAY too stressful. :) Give yourself some time. It's ok. It's not all about curriculum anyway, there is your homeschool philosophy to consider and "the bigger picture". When you have that nailed down, curriculum falls into place better since you know what goals you're looking to accomplish. I hope that makes sense!! :) (That said, I've always loved the look of MFW K - it looks sooooo fun!) :D

I know exactly what you mean. :tongue_smilie: Two years ago, I could not have known where I'd be today curriculum wise, so I wouldn't worry about history (although I worried tons then, too!). K has turned out to be a very relaxed year for us, and I didn't use a boxed curriculum, nor will I ever for K and 1st. I've just found some terrific phonics and math resources that I go with for those grades. Mostly, I just use K and 1st to get them ready for the programs I want to use from 2nd grade on. Like WWE and MFW and Latin, etc. Not that I have to start them in 2nd grade, but I want them to be able to be ready skill-wise. Anyway. I'm going with MFW this year for 2nd, and I wouldn't use it earlier than that. Gotta run!

I read your post with interest last week. If I were doing memory like I *should* I'd have something to post as well. Your post got me thinking and planning though - and I'd love to be a part as soon as I get my act together. :) So I'm :bigear:, so to speak... :) Thanks for your post. I don't blog, so can't put a link, but I'd love to post what we're working on. Right now it's so little, it's sort of shameful, but basically we're doing 1st grade Scriptures and a hymn. We will get back to catechism soon, and I will add other subjects (grammar, spelling rules, vocabulary, poetry, etc.)when I get next year's curriculum up and running - in about a month hopefully! Just wanted you to know I love your idea! Sarah

I used Ambleside online last year for my 6yr. We used year 1. We loved it. I followed the schedule, but just left out books that I didn't prefer. I did add some of our own book selections as well. I found AO very easy to follow, as it is basically a reading schedule. I just bought the books and started reading. I did narrations and saw really great improvement in memory and storytelling in my 6 year old. I was very pleased with his progress in that realm. What I didn't like were the history and science selections. I mean, the science selections were ok, but not really what I or my kids really wanted, I think. I mean, I like studying nature, and nature stories, but we like actually delving into chemistry and physics and reading historical biographies of scientists and such. The history was just too old fashioned for me. I spent too much time explaining what a "savage" was and why we don't talk about Indians in that way anymore, and such. It was just too much of a bother in that regard, so we did BF early American history for the rest of the year. I absolutely LOVE the literature selections. we read Pinocchio, Alice in Wonderland, as well as the original Winnie the Pooh, and poems and Aesop's Fables and other of their suggestions. These were all totally wonderful. I also felt that the reading schedule was very easy to work through. Sometimes I would read through everything in one or two days if I had the time. It really is not much reading. (Ok, so I did skip some books, but put in some of our own as well) I felt that the reading was not in the least bit overwhelming. I plan on using AO as a strong book list resource, and will do their reading schedule next year as well, but am going with other resources for history and science. We'll see how it works out. :) I think I'm setting myself up with more read-alouds. ;)

Thank you so much, ladies! The links have been wonderful and I've been able to see more options for me. :001_smile:

Awesome. And I totally agree. :)

:iagree::iagree:

Having come from an area (and family) that was rich in the "quiverful" idea, I like to come at the situation with loads of sensitivity. There can be alot of regret mixed into the whole affair. Because of this, I think one needs to search the heart, and be at peace with the decision - but after the decision - don't look back. I believe strongly that the Bible places an enormous amount of value on children, and my husband and I believe that with every child we have, it is both a blessing and a tremendous responsibility to individually train that child. I fear that individual children may get lost in the shuffle of a large family (I am one of 12, and have known plenty of lg families in my growing up years). I have also known some wonderful large families. There are two sides of every coin that must be considered. However, given your situation, and your original question, I honestly would not have any more children, and would probably decide on a permanent method of birth control - and I would not look back. I would decide to rest in my decision before the Lord and enjoy my husband and the wonderful children that the Lord has given me. But this is me. Not you. It is such a personal, private decision, that, honestly, no one has the right to even ask about. I can see that the idea of not "wanting more children" is kind of a heated debate in this discussion, but really, how wonderful will the childhood of a little one be, with a mother and father who really didn't want the child in the first place? How horrible. I married and had children without thought of actually wanting them. And I regret that I was not as good of a mother then, because of this. It was such a wonderful feeling to finally, at my fourth pregnancy, realize that I wanted these children. My children have become precious to me, and my fertility has become precious to me because of this change in outlook. I will pray that the Lord will give you and your husband peace in your decision and grant you the grace you need to walk the path that He has for you. It matters nothing what other people think about your family. You and your husband stand before God alone. I know of the pressure others can bring. It is judgemental and not a little unbiblical. As much as you can, reject that judgementalism with all your heart and soul and mind and rejoice in the wonder of the family God has given to you. God bless you.

Thanks Stephanie! I'll look into them! Alexandria is quite a drive from my house, unfortunately. If they could come to me, that would be great! ;) My ears are open - anybody else have suggestions??

I am new to this area, and looking for a midwife. I know of a couple of organizations that either do not fit my criteria, or are not taking new patients. If anyone has any recommendations, I'd appreciate it! I'm going on 14 weeks now, and need to get some real plans going to birth this baby. :) Please pm me if you know any names of midwives in this area. I'll appreciate it so much!! Thanks! Sarah

(sigh..) I love it. It's perfect. We don't have a name yet, although my husband and I jokingly call our school the "Academy of Actual Learning". Got that idea from someone else on these message boards... :lol:

I love the AL Abacus. It is my favorite manipulative. (with the c-rods coming in a close second) I'm sure that we will use it extensively as we get into manipulating numbers beyond ten. I love that you can manipulate so easily to 100 right in front of you. Coming from a Math education that greatly lacked in both manipulatives and strategy, not to mention any kind of mental math - these concepts excite me way more than they excite my children!! :lol: So glad that you are experiencing success. Nothing beats that feeling...

Absolutely!! I hear you. We are experiencing the very same thing, here. It's awesome to see it work! In my opinion, Prof B is a genius. An absolute genius. :lol:

I found my answer! NM! :)