We do 4 days a week and school most of the year. We take a long break at Christmas time due to Christmas and all 3 of my kiddos have birthdays around Christmas. Then we start strong again in Jan. We do a little lighter work during the summer, sometimes only 2 or 3 days in a week due to activities. I like being able to be flexible.

DD (4yo almost 5) is making her bed, getting dressed, and brushing her teeth. DS (2yo almost 3) is busy trying to get in DDs way and distract her from her chores so that she will go play with him. I am putting the baby down for a morning nap. As far as transition...we really don't have one. We just have a general routine. Breakfast-get ready for day-do school while baby is napping etc.

My DH is very math smart (engineer) and he looked over this program. His review of it was that it could never be a good stand alone because it doesn't teach the standard methods that we all use to complete basic math (+-*/). He considered it a program full of the fun little math tricks math teachers show you to answer problems. That it was always fun when they taught you those nifty tricks, but it was only to introduce a different way of coming to the same answer, you always went back to the standard way for doing the problems.

Posting just for the sake of adding to my #s so I will not longer be just visiting!

I dont know if I am very much help...I only compared the Earlybird K level... The difference in the K level is that the US version came in 4 really thin books. 1A and 2A and 1B and 2B. We used the A levels. They were ok. There was not a lot of practice in each concept, which was fine when it was easily mastered, but not so great if DD didnt get it. Sometimes the pics were confusing to her. After the A books the Standards edition came out and we used level B. I also bought level A because I was unsure if they would be the same and if I would need to backtrack a bit. The Standards edition came with a workbook and a text book. The pics were much better and thus much easier to understand. There was more practice with each concept, and with the activity book, there was cutting and pasting projects. DD really liked this! We are continuing on using the Standards Ed. We actually start 1A in 2 weeks.

I am new here, but reading this post has been so good for me! I am going through all of this and it is so frustrating! I have a 4yo DD and she has always been ahead. I am just an average kinda person, but DH is gifted, so I was not shocked when she started doing things very early. I have not had her tested or anything, and I don't know that I ever will, but I am having a hard time with finding others who get what it is like. DD started reading simple CVC words at 2.5 and now at 4 is reading most advanced beginner type readers. At 2.5 she asked for a workbook and we went through a PreK one. Now at 4 she is doing mostly all 1st grade curriculum and some 2nd. I am tired of never being able to share without it being called bragging. I am tired of the looks I get and the other parents who tell me I am pushing too hard or that kids shouldn't need curriculum until they are older. My DD LOVES school the more workbookey the better in her opinion. What a breath of fresh air to find people who relate!:)

I have some Qs about BJUP science too, hope this is not hijacking... Is BJUP more rigorous than Apologia? Do the DVDs do the lesson, so I do not have to know much about science to teach it? If I am using the elementary levels of Apologia, when would I need to switch to BJUP to give my kids the best start? And what would I start with? My kids are young, but I want to make sure I know what I am doing ahead of time to help lesson backtracking.

This is my first post! We have not started TOG yet. I had bought it to start this fall, but felt it might go over better next year. We will start in Aug with TOG 1 with 1LG student. It is exciting to see so many people positive about TOG. I really think I made the right curriculum choice! p.s. where is the spell check....spelling is not my gifting!