I love too! What I love most is that it's sticking!:001_smile:

I have 1 UG and 1 LG, so I can that 1 hour should work. We don't use the writing yet either b/c we are using WWE. Here's our general schedule for the week: Day 1 - Core reading Day 2 - Mapping Day 3 - Vocabulary and LG Literture selections Day 4 - In-Depth Reading Day 5 - In-Depth Reading/Activity/or Timeline Figures My UG reads his literature on his own during the first part of the week and generally does his lit. worksheet on Thursday. I may him notebook with this next year. Still deciding...;)

Great News! I love AAS, and I have seen tremendous improvement in spelling! Thanks for sharing your victory. It encourages me!

I think one area you can scale back on is the the activity books. There are plenty of hands-on suggestions in the week plans without having an additional activity book. You can also have your UG and LG students use the same activities rather than do separate ones. My kids prefer to work together on their own project, but doing the same thing. I check my library to see what they have, and then purchase what they don't. It turns out to be quite a few books that I still need to purchase. We love the picture books for LG, and I find my UG ds reading them in his spare time. He's afraid to miss out!

Glad I saw this tread. I wanted to put an order in today. I would have been very frustrated.

We've been using MUS for 4 years. I'm happy with the program and pleased how my dc are understanding math. But I sense that my kids could use a bit of variety. I thought maybe we could use MUS as our base and just throw in a day or possibly 2 in a week where we do something else. I've looked at SM and even borrowed it from a friend to really put my hands on it. Saxon is overkill I think. I even tossed the idea of just buying the Horizons workbooks and using those a couple days a week. I'm sure there is something out there that will fit our family's needs. What am I missing. Oh, inexpensive would be an added bonus. My homeschool budget is about maxed for next year.

Thank you all. That confirms my first instinct that I don't need it.

We're giving this a try next year at ds' request. He wants to learn the "fancy cursive." I didn't buy the teacher's guide, but now I'm wondering if it might be worth the one-time investment. I've tried looking up the samples on the teacher's guide online, but only find samples for a Kinder lesson. Can anyone tell me more about what the lessons look like in the cursive books?

I'm not getting mine either. Today I replied to post and got a weird message about posting a poll. Weird.:confused:

Walk the World's Rim was tough to get into, but I challenge you to stick with it. It really is a great story.

We did this one a couple of years ago with our oldest. He learned so much!!!!

It might. But it wouldn't be for my current 3rd grader. I would have to supplement it to make it work.

I can relate to your agony of choosing. There are simply so many choices it's hard to know where to even begin! LA has been a struggle here too. I also have a degree in English, have taught school (both public and private), and now homeschool. We began with SL LA, and it worked for a while. BUT my philosophy of education has grown and evolved over the last few years of homeschooling. My LA choices now are far different than they were those first few years. I highly recommend listening to ALL 3 of Susan Wise Bauer's writing lectures. They were so eye opening for me! Before you think programs, I'd recommend thinking about what your goals are. Then find things that will help you meet those goals. FWIW, my boys don't find FLL boring. They really like the short lessons, and they particularly enjoy the optional exercises that are thrown in that vary things up a bit. Hope you find what works for you!

Because of Winn-Dixie Shiloh I know many will groan, but we liked it...Ginger Pye.

I understand. I am rearranging currently b/c "our princess" dumped ALL of our flashcards this week and skated on them during school!:lol: I spent yesterday putting them back in appropriate stacks and boxes. Needless to say, we are toddler proofing AGAIN. ;)

Yep, that answers it! I have to order Epsilon for Bug and need student books for Boo. He'll begin Beta. I also need the fraction overlays. Marie, we have our blocks in a plastic container and that works fine for us. If your looking to save a bit, you don't necessary need the wooden box, IMO.

Well, I officially more confused than ever! I appreciate all your replies. I will spend a little more time researching this weekend. I have a call into a df that uses SM and will visit with her some too. Maybe I can even put my hands on her stuff. That's half my problem...I just need to touch it to see what is there.

I have no idea. I have my things sitting in my cart. Yesterday, when I went to check out there was this little box for discount code. I had never seen such a thing, so I thought I'd ask here. I sure would love to save on shipping!

We are using it this year. We do it during breakfast. The kids are getting a lot from it, but honestly, I have been the most challenged by it. Amazing how the Lord is refining me through the lessons! We also have the coloring pages, and the kids really like those! I'd highly recommend it.

What didn't work for us this year: SL core 3 - We've done 4 other cores from SL, but this one just didn't flow for us. We've combined out boys in TOG and it's working very well. I guess every year is different...sigh. SL Science 3 - too disjointed for me and ds. He hated the water book. But loved the Mysteries and Marvels book.

Is there such a thing? If you have one, would you kindly share with me??? (on knees begging)

I can't answer this for you b/c we aren't using WA yet (we plan to as we enter dialectic and rheotoric). Here's a bump though, so maybe someone else will chime in. We use WWE only right now for the grammar stage.

Thanks. This is very helpful.

Okay, so you have them just write in the textbook instead of buying the workbooks? Trying to wrap my brain around possibilities and save money if I can.

Thanks, ladies. One more question: If I'm using it as a supplement, would I necessarily NEED the textbook? Or is it needed to understand the Singapore way?