What is Writing Tales? I just bought IEW thinking it would teach writing and I wouldn't need anything after that. So, ds would still need something else after IEW Student Intensive?

Awesome! With links and everything! Thank you so much. We had German for 10 minutes a day somewhere, but I think lost it in the move :(

Another vote for History Through the Ages CD! She is wonderful and if you have any questions, you can email and she'll tell you why/how she came up with that picture to symbolize whatever it is. And then we cut out the pics and paste them in Wonders of Old Timeline Book. It is gorgeous, oversize book. The other thing is, that we did have a wall chart for the time period we were working on. For example: Middle Ages. And just marked a spot with a brief few words summary for any event or person. It was a nice visual aid. Right now we are doing Sonlight Core 5 so we aren't working on a timeline, but a large world map.

Awesome! Thanks for the link. We were looking for some foreign language stuff.

Your dd is actually still pretty young to be so stressed about math. Their brains are wired for concrete and abstract doesn't kick in until middle school. Because of forced early math exposure, many people develop mathphobia, math hatred, math avoidance, and other negative math syndromes. Maybe ease up if she isn't ready and try again later? Boys brains are wired a bit different and tend to handle the conceptual math earlier and easier...although not always.

Thanks for posting the link. I was wondering too.

We used Peterson Directed Handwriting and then copywork. Generally a sentence or paragraph from one of ds readers or read alouds.

wow. you guys are all hard core! LOL We do Sonlight 5 and add ins. We Loved Tale of Desperaux in our house and am VERY disappointed that they made such a wonderfully sweet book into a movie.

My 12yo ds disliked reading until he found books he liked. For awhile, I would read aloud to him and he followed along in his own copy. Thankfully, our library has more than one copy of great books. It really needs to be books that they want to read. After reading "junk" for awhile, it gets exhausting and they will crave something more stimulating. Maybe try joining a book club, where the kids get to pick the book all the others pick... with minimal rules. We allowed comics, picture books, chapter books, etc. in our book club. My son found The Ranger's Apprentice Series, Guardians of Ga'Hoole, and the Warriors series that way. All GREAT books that he would NEVER have selected. Neither would I have actually. Anyway, now the problem is getting him to STOP reading and so that he can do his other school work. lol!

I have slacked all these years on starting ds on a foreign language and want to definitely do something now before he gets any older. He wants to learn German, I'm thinking Spanish. I have heard great things about Rosetta Stone, however he doesn't like it at all. We did Power Glide Jr. last year and that didn't really work for us either. Any suggestions on a good curriculum? Easy to implement is a plus.

From everything that I have read, they need to decompress and "unschool" at least an entire month for every year they were in school. Take the time to rest and heal yourself and let the kids unwind until they are ready to do school. Taking a few months off will be good for everyone to get to know each other again and to figure out what they really need.

I don't know about writing with ease, but FLL is scripted - meaning you read what the text says outloud. It is suppose to be like English for the Thoughtful Child, but I honestly think ETC is much better and "cleaner". FLL seemed too busy and bogged it down. My son used it for 1st-2nd and now he's in 6th and doesn't remember any of it except for one of the dumbed-down, altered poems. HTH!

We tried a lot of different science curriculums in the early grammar stage. I think we were most fond of the Living Learning Books series. It follows the WTM 4-year cycle fairly well. It seemed easier to digest and implement for the shorter attention spans. The other curriculum, (Apologia, God's Design, and Christian Kids) seemed too formal and geared for children who are a bit older than your 5 & 3yo. http://www.livinglearningbooks.com/