I don’t nature. I tried. Especially during 2020 when that was all there was. We got lost multiple times, I got stung by a wasp, DS got soaked on a 3 mile trail after stomping in a puddle that was deeper than we anticipated, the list goes on. My nature journal is comprised of stories and pictures of our hot mess express. So now I use No Sweat Nature Study by Cindy West and call it a day. I am tempted by BF’s Season’s Afield. But no. I will not. Nope.

If he has stopped enjoying the formal phonics lessons, I (personally) would stop. There is a lot more to phonics than knowing sounds. Phonemic awareness, phonological awareness, blending, segmenting…. You could work on these skills without formal lessons all while continuing to encourage a love of literature.

On the Night Train My boys are obsessed. We’ve listened to each episode multiple times.

Print Path OT on teachers pay teachers. It’s similar to HWOT but uses three lines. We tried HWOT but the two lines just weren’t for us. For cursive we’ve had success with Catch on to Cursive from Masterbooks. I’m not a big masterbooks fan, but something about the fishing theme in the cursive course has really *hooked* the boys.

This was done at the private school I taught at. We did not combine core subjects. If the student was in 5th grade, they were taught 5th grade arithmetic and language arts, including spelling. There was some combing with composition. Bible, science and social studies we would take into consideration what the majority of the class had used the previous year. So in a 5th/6th class where the majority was 6th grade and had completed 5th grade science/bible/history we would either transition to BJU 5 or 6 for those subjects that year OR decide to use Abeka 6 for the whole class and then transition to BJU 6 the following year for incoming 6th graders. Obviously you’ll want to speak with admin about the curriculum map. If they are operating the 5/6 combo as a cohort that’s one thing. They would all be doing 7th grade content subjects together next year. But I would be disappointed if my 5th grader was doing 6th grade work this year and then essentially repeating 5th grade next year. I have heard of some schools that use Abeka using their videos in combo classes. Are they doing that in your daughter’s class?

We’ve finally hit a groove with the school routine this year. It feels so good. I feel like I’ve become a lot more realistic this year. I’ve also become very comfortable with sticking to basics for the skill subjects and adding to it as I go. In previous years I’ve had a whole curriculum map and aligned a million supplements and spent hours finding books to match on top of that. My planner is basically just a record keeper this year. It feels weird, but also great. Haha.

Thanks guys! I will check these out. This is going to be fun!

My boys are crazy about Baking Impossible. It’s a baking competition show that incorporates engineering. They are 7,8, and 12 and have requested we have bakineer science. Any ideas? I would like some sort of engineering spine book so that I can explain everything properly.

In my experience adhd at 5 looked like meltdowns at the drop of a hat. It looked like a constant stream of consciousness/non stop talking. It looked like interrupting all. the. time. It looked like regression. This was a major hurdle when learning to read. One day he knows /ch/ the next day he’s never seen it before in his life. It looks like not listening or following directions very well. When he would get in trouble, he would say things like no one loves me or I wish I had a different family. I didn’t realize this can be symptom of adhd until recently. He was/is exuberant and hyperactive. To the point where it could be problematic in public. If you suspect something is going on I recommend a developmental pediatrician for a full eval and plenty of self care for yourself too. I’m a quiet introvert and with three vivacious boys…. yowza.

I thought this was going to be about 3 year olds. 🤣

I always make changes. Ugh. Idk why I self sabotage all my summer planning efforts every year. 🙄

I didn't really care for MFW K, so I might be totally off point here, but what about a level of Five In A Row w/ the Christian supplement or Memoria Press Enrichment 1? Beautiful Feet has a new Seasons Afield science. It looks lovely.

We haven’t, but that’s a great idea. Thank you! Right now, I read most of it and just point out words I know he can read. We didn’t end up working on anything tonight. My 7 and 8 year old wanted to have a cookie making contest with him. I’ll be finding sprinkles for weeks. 🤪

These are wonderful! He’s coming over shortly and I will try them out and report back. His teacher handed mom a huge stack of sight words readers to work on at home. She passed them to me and I had to work SO HARD to keep my mouth shut. They are terrible. We did buddy read a bit of Frog & Toad yesterday. He was getting really into it. He said might actually read a book that was funny like that. 🥳

Thank you! I saw it at the library and thought it might be an option. I’d never heard of a rine before. So that’s embarrassing.

Does anyone have experience with Rime Magic? @ElizabethB @HomeAgain

Well….. I ended up switching our math to CLE, supplementing with Dreambox and Matific apps. We’re still puttering around with Miquon but not enough to really be “doing” it. LA I swapped to CLE. Love it. We use TGTB on Fridays for a little variety. 2nd & 3rd grader are doing Notgrass 50 states together. It’s fine. I’m not in love but gets done most of the time and they like it. I don’t see us finishing it in one year. 2nd & 3rd are using Science Fusion. They love it. If we do nature study one day we skip it. They’re over Mystery Science. We’re also doing a Wild & Free book club. It could basically cover all of our content subjects. Some weeks we are so busy with it we don’t even get to Notgrass or Science Fusion. And then there’s all the fun stuff and seasonal stuff. 🤪 How’s everyone else? Any curricula changes?

I would go back to Abeka K3 or K4. It is not worksheet heavy. I taught both k3 & k4 and students we’re generally successful and happy. Remember Abeka starts ‘em young and it can be too much too soon for many children; especially if they are coming from a gentle program. K3 is letters, k4 is blending two and three letters. Alphabet Island by Learning Resources is a fun game your older children could play with your k5. Leap Frog Letter Factory movie is great for letter recognition and sounds. Or you could wait until first grade. 😊 I’ve got like 99 curricula recs but honestly I would just keep on keeping on with Abeka. It really is a solid phonics program. Do you have the charts and ladders?

Weekly: Library trip Homeschool Art at a studio Homeschool park day (tbh I usually only go every other week) Church activities. Christmas musical is coming up, so that’ll be an extra night a week to practice. Monthly: Lego club Board game society Young Historians Club Homeschool day the children's museum Homeschool day at the trampoline park Other field trips as they pop up. Ex. “Homeschool day the pumpkin patch” I would like to get them into a sport but I’m not committing to 3-4 nightly practices and games every Saturday. Nope. Maybe they can try ultimate frisbee in the spring. 😂

At 4/5, all of our friends were made at library story time. My kids don’t really have friends at church. It’s total chaos with 100+ kids running around and then it’s the lesson. It’s like this at Awana too. We haven’t really gotten back to our pre pandemic level of friendships. A lot of people moved or just kind of disappeared. I don’t FB so it’s easy to lose touch with people unfortunately.

I need this for myself. I’ve been trying to mend a sock for three months. 😅

Thanks everyone! Lots of wonderful ideas, I’m appreciative. I’m trying not to over invest myself. I’m going to check out the Rod And Staff. We might still have some ETC books laying around. I feel like I have ton of phonics stuff but it just feels weird to sit down with somebody else’s kid and start a whole program. Lol I actually just ordered CLE LA2 for my 2nd grader! He’s a strong reader already but I’m glad to see it’s popular.

Thank you! I will check this out. I do have some magnet tiles with letters on them that I’ve been meaning to bring out. I think this child would like snapping the letters together and we could practice blending. I definitely think it’s ABT. Covid shut downs impacted Kinder and 1st, I think last year they started out virtual and then mid year went in person. Poor kid has probably just fallen through the cracks.

Yes, this kid does not want anymore worksheets. Between math and LA there are 4 worksheets a night. This is basically what I’ve been doing, just with Heggerty as my base since I already own it. I felt like pointing out the phonics in the sight words wasn’t helping but maybe it just hasn’t been long enough. When I tried Draw Write Now (book 1, starting with the hen) we went over pens, lens, tens, etc prior to trying to read the paragraph. It was a no go. I ended up just reading it to the child after seeing the struggle and letting them draw it and copy “hens.”

What would you recommend for an 8 year old that is not reading CVC words yet? Child is a PS student. The child comes over to my house for about an hour every afternoon. The kids usually play but the mom asked me to help with HW. I realized DC cannot read, at all. I have been using Heggerty and playing phonics games. We tried Draw Write Now and I quickly realized that was a big mistake. I do not think DC can blend. However DC is a bit limited with how long I can practice my stuff because there is a 20 words sight words list to memorize every week and a spelling test on the sight words. Mom really wants me to work on that. I really don’t want to tell her that’s not going to help because then it will be me vs the school. Ideas?