I don’t share my goals for academic performance with the children. My children aren’t going to automatically work harder to memorize their math facts just because I tell them I want them to memorize their math facts this year. In fact, some of my children would probably work towards the opposite of my goals just to rile me up. I have some ornery ones. I do sometimes say things like we need to be done by 11:30 today because we have an appointment or I want to finish this chapter by the end of the week. I ask for feedback on a pretty regular basis. What was one thing you enjoyed today? What is one thing you wish we didn’t do today? Give me a reason we should skip the review lesson. Tell me the story of how your history book ended up in the garage deep freezer. 🥴

We use a very bland LA curriculum specifically so I can add variety to it. I just finished making a grammar escape room and prefix scavenger hunt for us to do this week. Last week we had poetry picnic in the living room, complete paper plate poetry writing and themed snacks to teach poetic elements. I’m in deep with the “stuff”. And we all love it. 😂

I get up at 6:00ish. I toss in a load of laundry, make coffee and read until 6:30ish. Breakfast is available at 7:00. Kids can come and go in the dining room as they please until 7:40, then I start cleaning it up. School starts at 8:00. I expect some semblance of grooming and tidying of the bedrooms before school begins. We do Morning Time for about an hour, followed by group content subjects. People start working on individual (mostly skill) l subjects around 10. I go person by person, oldest to youngest. I’m typically ready for a break around noon, although there are times it takes longer than that. We are typically out of the house in the afternoons, but if we are home, we have afternoon occupations and quiet time. Unmotivated or unfocused kids may still have unfinished individual work to complete. We do formal school four days a week (or three if there’s something happening.) Friday is my planning day and our cleaning and errands day. Kids have monthly passion projects they work on while I’m planning. Cleaning/chores: We have a weekly and monthly checklist. Weekly stuff is usually handled before dinner if we have time, monthly stuff we usually do on a slow weekend. No big deal if we fall a little behind and things end up being done on two month schedule instead of one. We have a small house and I need general tidiness to feel at peace. So clutter and mess aren’t really our struggle, it’s the deep cleaning that I struggle to get done.

I’d probably get something from TPT or maybe a fun guided workbook from Usborne/PaperPie or similar. I’m not sure if this is what you're looking for, or if it'd be too young for your daughter. We like this seller's writing packs though. I’ll link the big pack so you can browse her options. https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Fun-Writing-Activities-Yearlong-Narrative-Writing-Prompts-and-Centers-Bundle-4181377 Another option, more mature and straightforward https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Creative-Writing-Unit-Short-Story-Activity-Prompts-Rubric-Graphic-Organizer-1600963?st=abed8c802312248ebf443e6628312890

I have a “book club” with my son. We read the same booK in the evening and discuss it in the morning over breakfast (he’s an early riser, so it’s just us usually & maybe the baby). I have seen him begin to delight more in reading books at his level since we started this. Now, it’s certainly not a picturesque book club. There have been times I’ve wondered if he was even reading the book. I’m often the one doing the sharing, but when he’s into it.. it’s a beautiful thing. 😊 As far as rewards go, his ultimate reward is that he can stay up however late he wants reading our book. Haha. But after we finish a book we go to the book store and we *buy* two copies of whatever book he picks out for our next read. Buying new books is a bit of a novelty in our house; we primarily use the library or go to the thrift store. Have you read The Book Whisperer? I read it a few summers ago and remember it being inspirational for me.

Marble runs, snap circuits, keva blocks, and tinker toys are well loved in our home. I never feel bad about adding to the lego and Magna tile collection either. If you have the space, unit blocks are well worth the price. For read alouds/quiet times we don’t use many hands on things anymore. In the past I have liked kinetic sand, tannagrams, peg board/push button pictures, pot holder loom kit, perler beads, geo board, and soapstone carving. We liked scratch art and foil art type things too. We used to have a really awesome water pen board that was like dry erase board but used water pens. I will be odd ball mom that doesn’t like subscription box kits. I found them over priced and low quality for the money. I also felt like I had to be really involved in most them because the directions weren’t always specific enough for my kids. I bought some STEM cards from Carson Dellosa and set up little bags with the supplies for grab and go kits. Much cheaper and my kids got the same amount of enjoyment out it.

We’ve used both. I think they are both very thorough and academically complete. I like CLE because my children don’t have to write everything out. I also like that it’s an all in one, and that they review things from several years ago. This works well for some of my children that forget things like phonics & spelling rules. I also just like CLE as a whole and enjoy using their curriculum. However my children aren’t big fans of the Language Arts, they find it boring and tedious. It is multiple worksheets everyday. I like R&S because it’s gentle and somehow it still manages to be rigorous. The lessons aren’t super long, so the dry aspect of the curriculum is somewhat mitigated. We do a mix of oral and written work with R&S. I feel more involved with R&S, which I like. We do not care for their spelling or their readers. IMO it goes into a lot of depth in the older grades, and a lot of that information is not needed for students that aren’t planning to major in English. While I do appreciate the Bible stories and Christian living, it can feel almost smothering at times. The English has more Bible in it than their science. All that said, we use it! (And a couple of other resources for variety’s sake.)

https://books.google.com/books/about/With_Pencil_and_Pen.html?id=-lIXAAAAIAAJ This should work! It made me download it as a Google Play book this time. When I originally downloaded it I was able to get as a pdf. If I can find the pdf I will PM it to you.

I can’t think of an exact secular equivalent to Calvert. Disover! Might be an option although I believe it’s “neutral.

I remember looking at this! Yes, it does look sweet & gentle. I think the K level had stories too, right? I should put MCP K on a list so I remember to check it out again. 😆 I completely understand about Saxon K. It is scripted but I wouldn’t want to leave that for a “sub” either. Do you use other subjects from CLE? We are trying several subjects from them next year. My 8th grader is super excited about the Horticulture course and Small Engine Repair elective.

We love CLE math! I wish I would given it a chance long before I did. (If only I could turn back time!) My youngest two children aren’t school aged yet, but when they are I will probably do Saxon Math K and then move them over to CLE Math 100. I really loved Saxon K (I know many do not) but it was fun and chill. My son learned so much, even though some days we just played with the manipulatives. There is almost no writing, which would be a nice step into cle since they start from the beginning. I bought it for like $10 used on eBay. Although, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with starting 100 now. You could split the lessons into two days and just do 101-105 for kindy.

I used it primarily with my 3rd & 4th grader, but even my 7th grader enjoyed it. I’m not “outdoorsy.” I like to take walks around the block, but that’s about it. NSNS takes it beyond the basic backyard style nature study. I think Cindy does a great job engaging the students in biology/nature topics and it always leads to lots of excitement and interest after the videos. There’s a good amount of depth in the lessons, I’ve been really impressed. We’ve done it two and half years.

This year was a blur. Hits: CLE math with real life math projects sandwiched between units. All the vintage books we used for ELA. No Sweat Nature Study List style planning. I’ve always used the traditional weekly grid, but the list style works much better for me. Taking school out of the house. It’s amazing how much my kids can accomplish in two hours at a coffee shop. Misses: co op poetry tea time, I think we did one all year. Oops.

Our academic year runs July-June because our last day to turn in paperwork for the previous school year is June 30. We can start filing paperwork for the upcoming year July 1. That’s really the only reason I do it that way. We celebrate the first day of school in August and that is when we begin our new history and science cycle. Math and Language Arts curriculum just keep going. Sometimes my children are ready to level up in the middle of winter, sometimes we’re in the same book for 18 months. It just depends. We school year round, 15 days a month. December is always Christmas school, June & July are always summer school months.

It says primary school. I’d guess 2nd-4th grade range depending on the child’s abilities.