My dd read almost all of the MCP Phonics Practice Readers when she was learning to read and at that time we could find them at the library but now they only have a few. I'm gathering materials for my son as he is way more advanced than my dd and will be ready to start soon. The readers are now out of print and cost a lot to buy online if you can find some of them. Anyone know of some substitutes that follow the progression of phonics like the MCP readers did? I've come across Primary Phonics but I don't know much about them.

I thought I was the only one still doing SOTW in 6th grade but I see I am not alone! :001_smile: We are going to use K12's Human Odyssey in March when we plan on finishing SOTW 4. My dd really wants to do Notgrass America the Beautiful too, so I'm thinking of having one day of American history a week and we should hopefully finish it in 2 years.

My library does have them but I have an opportunity to buy several (used) at deeply discounted prices and wondering if it is worth it.

We did AAS up until Level 6 and got burnt out because it is so teacher-intensive but my dd also loved Spelling Workout and continued to do it alongside AAS. She now does it only and still loves it. I don't have to do anything but put the list on Spelling City and then she takes her pretest and test on there and grades her own workbook. Very easy and does the job!

We loved Fizz, Bubble & Flash!

I noticed that TWTM recommends a lot of VanCleave's books and I was wondering if they are worth buying. Are the experiments good? Easy? Include easy-to-find materials?

We use the Saxon Teacher CDs and plan on getting that too for Algebra 1/2. In the CDs we have, she shows the work for every problem, if it is the same for Algebra 1/2, I probably won't need the solutions manual. Anyone use the Teacher CDs?

These are tentative plans as I'm not sure how much we will finish before we start 7th grade, which is usually October or sometimes January when we start a new year. We are schooling year-round right now and hoping to catch up some in math, Latin and grammar as we school through summer. Bible - MP Christians Studies IV Math - Saxon Algebra 1/2 Grammar/Writing - R&S 7 Spelling - Vocabulary from Classical Roots A & B Logic - MP Traditional Logic I Latin - Henle 1st Year History - Human Odyssey Science - Earth Science & Astronomy (encyclopedias, experiments, etc.)

I guess my question would then be, do you need the work shown? Have most done without the solutions manual and the answer key been enough?

Do you need the solutions manual for Saxon Algebra 1/2? I noticed the homeschool kit only includes and answer key and it says you have to buy the solutions manual at $45 separately. This is new to me because up until now the homeschool kits have included the solutions manual.

Forgot to mention something else that may help you. Have him do a lot of copywork, it will help with seeing and writing words correctly. Not sure if you already have done copywork but we did copywork for 1st and 2nd grade, so she got a good idea of how sentence structure should look and was more aware of words and how they are spelled.

From what I remember either from TWTM or SWB, spelling words correctly most of the time won't show up in writing until around 5th grade and that has been true for us. So if he is passing spelling tests, he is probably fine but if he is having trouble with that, you may want to try All About Spelling - we did and it helped my dd a few years ago, who had issues spelling. AAS includes dictations with the spelling words in them and I think that really helped my dd as well.

We took a break for months, then started Rod and Staff English 5 and for some reason, the way they laid it all out in there to write, really helped her. Since then, she has been able to do narrations easily but history was lagging, so I had her evaluated and couldn't believe she was actually advanced in writing. We found out she had no interest in history and that was part of the problem, so we came up with the idea to do history narrations in Minecraft (that she loves) and that seemed to resolve the issue! Here is an example of her Minecraft history narrations: http://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2015/05/narration-with-minecraft.html

In the 3rd edition, a lot of the books recommended have been hard to find, so an updated book list for reading and history would be helpful. All About Spelling is an unbelievably amazing program that helped my dd who had issues spelling. We love just about anything we try from Memoria Press, they have a lot of new things that I would like to hear your thoughts on. Notgrass history is another that would be worthy of a recommendation in middle and high school. The logic stage history wasn't something we wanted to try per the recommendations in the 3rd edition, so we are going to try out Human Odyssey. It seems like the middle grades history is needing more guidance and/or recommendations. We LOVED the SOTW - there is nothing better for the early years in my opinion, wish there was something like that for the logic stage. A lot of the resources/extras were also hard to find or no longer for sale, so that would need to be updated. In the earlier years, it really helped reading the WTM website about sample schedules from different families. I would also like a section on the chronically ill homeschool mom and some tips and ideas.

Loved Prima Latina with the DVD teacher and then you can move right into Latina Christiana I, which also has the DVD teacher and we are enjoying it! We plan on following the same progression as in the WTM: Prima Latina Latina Christiana I Latina Christiana II Henle First Year Latin Henle Second Year Latin " " Third Year " " Fourth Year

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My dd11 is doing Latina Christiana I and is very interested in word roots. I found out that MP's Book of Roots actually coordinates with LCI's lessons. Has anyone used it alongside LCI or done it by itself and if so, would you recommend it?

Here are our plans for 6th grade: Bible - Memoria Press Christian Studies III Logic - Critical Thinking Book 1 & 2 English & Writing - Rod & Staff English 6 Math - Saxon Math 7/6 Latin - Finishing up Latina Christiana II and then going on with Henle First Year Latin Spanish - La Clase Divertida Spelling - Spelling Workout E, F, G and H *(read note below) History - Human Odyssey 1, encyclopedias, timelines, atlas, books on topics Science - Botany, Zoology and Anatomy with encyclopedias, timeline book, labs and projects, supplementing books on each topic Art - Home Art Studio DVDs *You may wonder about the spelling and why I scheduled 4 SWO books, well my dd will have finished up all the levels of AAS by 6th and she really wants to do the SWO workbooks. She is currently going through 2-3 lessons a week in SWO D. Assuming she will continue at that pace (since it is a lot of review of AAS) we may finish up the SWO books by the end of 6th.

Oops - just realized you said "American" history, sorry about that! We used Story of the World for all history, it did include American history throughout the world history but isn't an "American" history only book.

My dd11 is using Rod and Staff English 5 and it is mostly independent, though there are a few oral questions at the beginning of the lesson but it only takes me about 5 minutes or less to go over them. She does everything else on her own - exercises, worksheets and tests.

We aren't using a writing curriculum at the moment because we use Rod & Staff English 5 and it is teaching about paragraphs, writing, etc. It is supposed to fulfill the writing curriculum, according to what the WTM says. I'm going to see how it continues to go and if I feel she needs something more, we will probably use IEW B. So far though, she is more at ease with writing - just the way R&S presents it seems to really be helping her.

Elemental Science follows the method in the WTM book, it is basically a plan of how to use certain books and then includes worksheets, tests/quizzes. For 2nd grade, we did it on our own using the WTM layout. I documented how we did Earth Science each week if you are interested: http://www.cambridgeshireacademy.com/2012/01/earth-science-topics.html We used the Usborne First Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of Our World as our spine. It has been a few years, so not sure if all the links still work but if you click on each topic, you will see a post of what we did for that topic (books, videos, games, etc.).

My dd had spelling problems at that age but we found that AAS did help her and we are on level 6 now and she is a great speller! She reversed her b's and d's for years until about age 10 and it corrected itself. With WWE, you correct as they write, from what I remember I would stand over my daughter as she wrote.

I agree with others, start at the beginning - we have K-5th and started at K.

I can't imagine that the WTM books would lack anything that Abeka has. From what I understand, Abeka is advanced but that doesn't make it better. It really isn't a race to the finish, it is also enjoying it while you go through the 12 years of schooling and finding what works best for you and your child(ren). We have been doing the classical approach from the beginning and we are now in 5th grade and I don't regret the method we chose. In the WTM book, she does list Abeka for certain subjects but we didn't use any of their products. I liked the curriculums you mentioned, except for WWE. Though it was great for teaching narration, copywork and the beginnings of dictation - by the 3rd book we just couldn't take it anymore. Next time around with my son, I plan on using just the first 2 books. You mentioned afraid your kids would be behind and then have to put them in public school. I highly doubt that if you actually teach your kids. Testing proves this - no matter the method - homeschoolers are ahead of private and public schoolers. Check out the National Home Education Research Institute to reassure yourself!!