We use Growing with Grammar here too... we really like it!

I think you have a good program... for spelling we use AAS.

Good ideas given above... we do 2 pages of MUS a day so you could up his math as well. Do you do history or science narrations. These take my kids some time. I'm not familiar with all the curriculum you're using... do you have grammar in there. Latin was a good suggestion too...

I just bought WWE3 PDF. I need to print out the teacher's portion since I don't like reading off the computer. I, of course, print out the pages for my ds. I like having everything on the computer, thus not having to photocopy. I figure once I print out the teacher's guide I won't have to do it again. I just print out a month's worth at a time. I will most likely purchase Level 4 this way as well.

I've done a lot of research and through that determined that the style I liked best is Classical Education. I didn't really come to that conclusion until after I started schooling and figured out what I was drawn to for curriculum (what worked for me and how my kids learn). Homeschooling is an adventure for sure! It may take awhile to figure out which "style" is you. You'll probably end up taking ideas from several places. I read WTM and it really just all makes sense to me. It gave me the broad overview that I needed to make sure we had a good trajectory. I don't use everything recommended by WTM, but a lot. Keep in mind WTM is not a "homeschooling Bible". It's a method that worked for the authors and has worked for many people. But, I don't believe that you should just automatically assume everything will work for your family. If you choose to follow WTM, remember it's a guide. As you school more and more you will learn how to school your individual children. One of the great things about homeschooling is NO ONE is really telling you what you must teach and how. Don't let even an excellent resource turn into your "boss"... you still have the freedom to make your own decisions! Enjoy your journey as you go... I think I've learned more than my children so far! :D

My 6yo is officially a Ker, but working at 1st grade level... this is what he does: Phonics/Grammar: Phonics Pathways/no grammar but will use FLL next year (if I owned it I would use it with him now) Reading (a program or literature?) library books Science Elemental Science (biology this year) History MOH with narration and timeline work. We just finger point for map work Math MUS Alpha

We don't. I used DITHOR last year with my oldest, but I found it was really too difficult for him. Many of the answers I needed to formulate for him. This year I am just having the kids read classical and historical/science orientated literature. We talk about what they read. They have some time when they read alone, then they each have a book that's just a little too hard for them to read independently that they read with me. This is what I use to have them read out loud and synthesize with me. I'll worry more about the later reading skills when they hit logic stage... for now, they are loving to read and learning a lot just from reading.

I think you've gotten some good advice... he most likely really needs you to be alongside him. My 6 and 7 yo are not independent (with a few things they are, but not all) and I think that's appropriate at the ages they are. The more I get into schooling the more I am realizing the benefit to me being highly involved in the children's work at their young ages. My 9 y/o has become much more independent this year... I see the benefit of me working more closely with him prior. Also... being physically present does not mean doing the work for them or helping them every minute. Some of the time my kids are doing their work just next to me... not necessarily needing my help... just my proximity seems to help them focus.

I don't particularly like ebooks either, however I did just purchase Elements and WWE3 in ebook. I am printing out the teacher part because I need that... but I'm actually finding it really nice to have an electronic version to print out sheets for all my kiddos when I want to. I print 4 weeks at a time because I organize our work by the month. I can leave everything else on the computer until I'm ready for it. I take apart all the workbooks we get anyway because I store their work in file folders by month for each child. Anyway... there are benefits to the ebooks... but I would have to say I need the teacher portion printed out for me!

:iagree: This book saved us a lot of headache and money!!

I don't have advice in the area of switching, but we use PP and to help with the clutter I cover up all the areas on the page except the one we're working on at the time. This helps my ds who would be completely overwhelmed looking at the entire page. I usually just show him one line at a time. I like the program a lot, but one change I would make is not so much on a page. It is divided up nice though so it's easy to cover the parts you aren't working on.

Thank you for this insight... very good to hear! Makes me less worried about the beginning of the logic stage. It sounds overwhelming to me when I read about it, but reminding myself that it's all a process is a good thing!

We also do Growing with Grammar with the older two. They never complain about Grammar and I love it because it's independent and not too much writing. There is also a lot of review from level to level. I always go over their work with them, catching any mistakes as well as making sure they understand, but for the most part they are independent. I've also decided for fun to start each school day with a "School House Rock" song. They have quite a few grammar ones of course....

I think you could reasonably do both... maybe you do 2 days a week World and 2 days a week American. Depending on how you do history, for us it would be a lot to try and do both each day. Or, you could do 1/2 year World and 1/2 year American...

I would second the idea of ARTistic Pursuits. You study a work of art and a technique each lesson. You could easily add more history in. I haven't led a co-op with it, but it seems very do-able. I know there are different levels of the curriculum. I think realistically it's asking a lot of you to cover that age span well. If there's any way to break down into groups I would certainly do that.

I intended to do that with my 4 y/o who is learning to read, however in the end I just stuck with Phonics Pathways. We do, however, use the letter tiles to blend and he LOVES it! The neat thing about using the tiles to blend is when he was blending 2 letter groups he would blend the two letters and then say something like "t" "e"... hey Mom, if you put a "n" on that word then it's "ten!" So we'd talk through some word families that way informally. I don't get that from him as much when he reads them on the page. I found AAS to not really have enough words to use for reading. I love it for spelling though. I did purchase the Beehive Reader and I do like it. It's a beautiful reader and my other ds6 LOVES the stories in it. My 4 y/o will read the first story this next week. We use it amongst Bob Books.

I'm using Noeo this year for Biology, but just got Elemental Science and I love it! As Paige said above it should be ready this spring... it's formatted very similarly to Noeo, but IMO "meatier" meaning more experiments, premade response sheets for the experiments as well as narration pages. Having all of that done for me means we do more science!

What exactly isn't going well? That might help people give you feedback....

There's a really nice Virtues curriculum at this site.... it's based on The Book of Virtues, but there are some Bible verses for each character trait.... look in the right hand column down under Book of Virtues.... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/ShiverAcademy/

I just got the pdf version of WWE 3. It really jumps up a notch and I've decided to move my 3rd grader into that. He caught up on narration/dictation quite quickly (we didn't do any last year so I started him in WWE2) and is ready for more. I'm excited for him to start it... looks good!

I think it's pretty normal... legible is what I aim for, not beautiful!

:iagree: I was a public school teacher and had to totally change mindsets when I started schooling at home. I LOVE this way of learning and could never go back to "public school" mentality... it takes time, but so freeing!! You will start to see a difference in your daughter the more she is able to relax and enjoy learning... not just passing or not passing tests.

We do a combo of timed tests (made by the online worksheet generator on MUS site) and online drill. We still move on, but I noticed once I had them start online drill for 10 min. per day the math facts really came. I love the online drill because it's just like flashcards except they can do it independently! The facts will come! And remember, not everyone is going to be super fast at recalling facts. My ds is fairly fast, but my dd is slower. She gets them correct though and does just as well as her brother in math, but just isn't quite as fast.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but an interesting site nonetheless! I never knew what a "blue moon" was! http://spaceweather.com/

I was exactly where you are last year. My two olders HATED writing. Tears from my daughter and a head down on the table for my oldest whenever they had to write! I was lost and had no idea what to do. Then I found Writing With Ease and we have LOVED it! The kids never complain about writing and my oldest ds has caught up to where I think he should be with dictation and narration. My daughter has also progressed extremely well. The thinking behind Writing With Ease is that you need to teach the process of writing which starts with trying to put ideas together in their head before they can even get it to paper. This, as a previous poster stated, is different than the grammar program which stresses the mechanics of writing. My older ds now writes fairly well short narrations on his own which I could have never asked him to do in September! We also happen to love the literature selections the narration and dictation/copywork comes from and leads us to want to read the book... another bonus!