My boys are 8, 5, and 3. On any given day 15 minutes before we start, they are either eating, playing (or sometimes known as "play fighting" ;), or doing a clean sweep of the house with me. If I'm not eating or helping them clean sweep the house, I'm on the computer. (Things go best when I'm not. :) )

In terms of when to start AAS, I wouldn't worry about where you are in OPG, but just to make sure your child recognizes all letters and knows at least the most common sound for each (short vowels and most common consonant sound). They will learn all the sounds/phonograms through AAS, but if letter recognition isn't there, it'd be kind of hard. In terms of FLL, we started it with our middle son before he was reading c-v-c words (we didn't use OPG). My youngest even sits in on our lessons and is just learning "a" and "b". ;) With WWE, it seems that when your dc is able to write/do copywork, then it'd probably be fine to start (my middle son is doing daily copywork even though his reading is now just short vowels/blends/digraphs).

:lol:

Mine have never attended school, but I taught for 7 years if that helps. ;) 1. Phonics instruction - learning all the phonograms and how to use them/how to sound them out 2. Individualized instruction - go at their speed, at their level, and integrating their interests 3. Time to actually "fit it all in" - not only the core/foundational subjects like reading, spelling, writing and math, but also history, science, Latin, art, music, PE, etc.; plus we get it all done faster 4. No separation of family time and learning time - they know that we learn in a variety of ways and that we all are capable of teaching each other 5. Plenty of cross-generational and co-ed opportunities - siblings are playmates, they interact with people in our community of a variety of ages, girls are equally good for playmates as boys 6. A lot less stress

We use HWT for both manuscript and cursive. Both my older two are doing so very well. Ds#1's cursive is beautiful (I'm biased ;) ) and though the look of the HWT cursive in the book is a bit too "functional," it does a very good job of developing very nice cursive writers. :D I've also been slowly transitioning my oldest to 3-lined paper (his copywork paper that I make on the computer is 3-lined) yet he also still uses the 2-lined of HWT in the cursive workbook. He's never had a problem with switching - I explained once that the light gray line in the paper I made is the same line as the "top" line on the HWT paper.

Last year my oldest was 2nd grade. We used All About Spelling, and he'd usually cover 3-4 lessons a week. We tend to do spelling four days a week. It might not compare though as we don't have spelling lists or tests (not sure how the other spelling programs work).

We use the "bed" for b and d confusion. I printed a very similar picture off of Publisher - it hangs next to the chalkboard in the dining room for easy reference. I also taught my two older boys to make a "b" with their left fist (make a fist and stick up the thumb; if you hold your fist with your fingers towards you, it looks like a "b") and a "d" with their right fist (same idea as "b"). Put your two thumbs-up fists together in the shape of a bed (minus the "e") and you have an easy, portable way of telling the two letters. My boys will often make their fist b's and d's if we are reading on the couch and they need to sound out a word with either a b or d in it.

I just buy the student books. (I also bought the slates - 2 of them for at the time my two sons - but like a pp, they only get used here for drawing. We could have done without them.) I make the writing paper on the computer in Publisher (I measure the lines for whatever book it being used and make straight lines that far apart). Cheap and easy. :)

Have fun! :)

We had used OM K and enjoyed it, so we tried OM 1 with our oldest. I did not use it for long. I actually didn't want to delay academics that much, plus my son didn't really get into the whole gnome/fairy thing, which made it more difficult. The other thing that bugged me was the lack of continuity with the science/social studies lessons. I like things that make sense together and flow, which I didn't find with the OM 1. I know it works really well for many people and feel uneasy posting a negative review, but for us at least, it did not work nearly as well as I was hoping it would based on how we felt about OM K.

Part of me really would love an iPhone, not because I use a cell phone all that much, but so I could have access to the 'net anywhere. :o But, we just don't have the funds for the monthly cost. I love the Touch and am so happy with it. The boys would eventually love their own, but they don't realize that they wouldn't have free reign with them, especially on school days. ;)

I have caved and bought a couple full versions after we realized we really, really liked the game. One game the boys paid us the money to buy (it was $5, so each of the older two chipped in $2.50, which I thought was an acceptable compromise ;) ). :lol: on your dh's app shopping spree!

I love drooling over the app store. ;) But, I'm too cheap to pay for most of them, so we get a lot of the free/lite ones. My sons are always asking if I have any new games for them. I'm like, "Um, whose iPod is it anyway?!"

I have the 32, and it is huge, but I love not having to worry about what I'm putting on it. (I previously had very old nano and had to be selective about which songs I wanted on at different times - I couldn't fit all my songs on there.) Sorry I can't comment on whether 8 is big enough, but if it helps, I currently have about 1000 songs, 5 movies (2 are full length and 3 are 30 minutes each), 32 app's, and about 14 pictures on it, and that is all taking up not quite 8 GB. If money is not an issue, I say go 32 GB. :)

We own both as well. I love the Kingfisher, but I think the text of the Usborne is a bit better for the age of my children. My 8 year old would probably do just fine with the Kingfisher, but I think my middle son gets more out of listening to the Usborne. I'm not sure what you mean by comic-book like, but it is written with small blurbs around the page and illustrations. It does seem a bit cluttered, but not overly so for us. I also recommend seeing if your library or local bookstores have each to preview. And I agree with the pp, both publishers put out excellent books. :)

My first grader (not quite 6) is doing FLL with his brother, so he memorizes the poems as we get to them (I'm guessing that is about 1 new poem every couple weeks - we tend to only get to about 3 lessons in a week right now). For copywork, I have not started him in WWE. He does one sentence (between 4-6 words) each day. We are only focusing on cap's at the beginning and periods at the end and I try to make sure they don't always start with "I". For narration, he is just starting to do it - but it's more of me asking questions and him answering (usually I have to then prompt him to use a complete sentence). I try to do narration "prep" every day with boys my older two boys as it is not something we used to do and they need help learning how to do it, it seems.

(This is my first post!) My dh found the album on iTunes and wants to buy it - songs and videos. :) It sounded so good - it's nice to read a real review!