My girls have Friday afternoon/evening and Saturday as their free days. Aside from Sunday School in the morning, we do an hour or two of work after Sunday dinner. Yesterday we had to start early -- at about 3pm because my 8 yr old had a project for her book club. Normally, we'll work from 6:30-8:30 on Sunday night.

We used ETC as a standalone and my girls have learned to read and write just fine. Of course, we did lots of accessible easy readers, games, websites like starfall, too...

We download and print in color using the draft option on the computer. I sometimes have had the books spiral bound (for like 2$ at a print shop) but we are now just using binders. If you buy the books from Lulu, they will not be in color, which sometimes does matter.

Book Depository is great for some items -- it ships free internationally!

:iagree: I'd just add that if your public schools are like ours, your kids have just never had any grammar instruction before. Of course she's going to struggle with CLE 500, a program intended for kids who've done five years of grammar. Ignore the grade levels. There is nothing inherently graded about grammar or writing -- it's not consecutive and it surely isn't a race. You can learn grammar or how to write a paragraph when you're 8 or 88. Unless you've got your heart set on CLE, I'd probably consider a book more appropriate for your 7th grader rather than going back too far in CLE. There are plenty of age appropriate options that start at the beginning.

I don't really worry much about reading levels printed on books. Most reading level formulas involve the length of words and the length of sentences and these don't always correspond with actual ease of reading. In my mind, it matters more about the child than about a reading index... If my child is really interested in a book, she'll be eager to tackle something more challenging. If she's never encountered the subject before, it'll be more difficult. If there are pictures to help lead her, she'll find the book easier. If my child has a low tolerance for frustration, a more difficult book will be trickier. If my child has a short attention span, she'll need a shorter book - or a book with shorter chapters... I know there are leveled readers and some people take them very seriously, but I figure -- what's the worst thing that will happen? If it's too tricky, she'll set it aside or persevere without fully understanding. And then she'll come back to it later. If it's too easy, she'll read it quickly. It's not really a big deal either way.

We used Level 1 chemistry last year with a second grader (albeit a weirdly mature second grader) and I think it was a bit of a stretch for her. It was also just kind of dry... I wondered if maybe I should have tried the pre-level 1. Could you do the pre-level books with both, but supplement for your fourth grader?

I've been a teacher... and I've been written textbooks... and I've been involved in committees to establish school and district standards for different subjects. And here's the truth: it's all kind of arbitrary. Teaching, curriculum development, and decision-making about education and policy are not sciences. It's usually just done by a group of well-meaning people. It can be done just as well (and probably even better) by you -- who are an expert about your child.

Minimus is a fun little program that is ideal for mid to late elementary school. I can't imagine that many preschoolers would appreciate the context -- a Roman family living at a fort next to Hadrian's wall in 3rd century Britain.

We used ETC as the sole phonics program and my daughter did great with it. My sense is that by age 8, if reading isn't starting to click, you might want to look a little closer at what's going on that is preventing him from really getting it. Everybody learns to read at their own speed, but maybe there's an obstacle (vision? learning style? dyslexia?) that is keeping him from being successful.

We're going to start Story of Science next fall. I think it'll be awesome for my history buff daughter. I have a copy of Aristotle Leads the Way and the student quest guide. I noticed in the first chapter quest guide, students are supposed to read the myth of Persephone, but I don't see where it is in the student quest guide or the textbook. I'm wondering if I need to have the teacher quest guide to fully implement the program? Thanks!

We're using CLE LA 100 for the first time. I think, maybe because it's Mennonite, it has a different feel than stuff you'd see out of fundamentalist Christian publishing houses. It's more like reading something from a different culture, than proselytizing. There are a few references to God which are not problematic for us. And there are regularly sentences relating to obedience. "I like to obey my father." kind of thing, which is a little weird for my kids (and maybe it's just that we don't use the word 'obey'... we say 'follow directions' or 'be respectful/kind/etc...') I love how easy it is to implement. The only thing I don't care for (and this is from a linguistics perspective) is that they have exercises in the books that children with normal acquisition wouldn't have trouble with. Like on pronouns... Plenty of kids do have trouble with knowing whether to use an accusative or nominative pronoun as the subject -- especially with a conjunction -- like "David and me/David and I went to the park." which my kids could definitely use -- but we don't have that. Instead, my daughter has done exercise after exercise on whether it is "I and David went to the park." or "David and I went to the park.", which wouldn't be a typical issue for native English speaking kids. Also, I'd much prefer if the diacritic marks matched with the IPA, instead of CLE creating their own. What use is it that my daughter has learned that a voiced /th/ has a line under it and an unvoiced /th/ doesn't? At least if she was going to learn the difference (which again, isn't something that really is essential at this age), why not have her learn it the way a dictionary will show -- /ð/ or /θ/ ? Still, I like that mechanics and spelling and handwriting and phonics and grammar are all in one. So, for right now, we'll be continuing.

The Stanford 10 Online test, published by Pearson, is only sold to classrooms or educational psychologists. I don't think homeschooling parents can purchase it, though I do love the idea of an online test with no turnaround time in scoring! Sorry...

The last time we travelled (for 3 weeks to the UK), I put together three weeks worth of prinited pages that I had spiral-bound together. I did it specifically for the trip so that there were journal pages or history readings that lined up with the places we visited. I limited everything to about an hour each day focusing on history, math, and writing. It worked really well.

We homeschool because we're disappointed with the lack of academics at the local public schools in the town we moved to. We tried... really! But there was no history, no foreign languages, no grammar, no science, no handwriting, no spelling, questionable math program, no textbooks, no grades or other form of accountability... My kids just take electives at PS and we do the rest at home.

Right Start is much more Montessori-like than Singapore. I'd start with it and switch to Singapore later on...

I've thought about using it more systematically, but honestly... we don't. After regular work is done, the girls either do Brainpop or write a letter or do a geography puzzle or play Timez attack or some other unstructured independent educational activity. I often say they need to watch and do the quiz on whatever topic we've been studying, but after that, they can watch whatever they want. I've been thinking that I might do a health unit, since there are so many topics about diseases and body parts... I suppose I'll make a list of the topics and have them systematically go through them.

Ooh! Ooh! Pick me! I can correct you! :tongue_smilie: Investigations in Number, Data, etc... (AKA TERC) does *not* use borrowing or carrying and doesn't write addition problems in columns at all. I believe children are supposed to construct their own methods for adding by drawing pictures, using a 100 chart or 500 chart, or using a number line. It is used in our school district and popular at the homeschool support PS my kids attend. :glare:

First of all, don't panic! Seriously... it's not going to be hard to catch up. Learning all elementary school math that you need to know will take an average 5 year old about 6 or 7 years. But start at 8 and it'd probably take 4 or 5 years... Start at 12 and it'll take like 2 years. When I taught in the juvenile justice system, I was able to get high school students from basic addition to pre-algebra in a year. You haven't doomed your daughter to a life of math failure. I'd be sorely tempted to give RightStart B a try in your position. Then maybe move to Math Mammoth in the blue series (so grade level isn't an issue -- and just remediate skills one by one). Another option is TT -- Teaching Textbooks has done wonders for my daughter's opinion of math and it'd certainly free up some time for you, but, I worry a bit that she may miss the underlying concepts. TT (at least TT5) does a good job of teaching procedure, but is not so good at answering why it works or what it means. Alternatively, could you go back to Singapore? Maybe she just wasn't ready for it at the time. Maybe it'd be easier now?

I wouldn't start at the beginning unless he really needed it, or if you think it would give him some confidence. I'd say if he can read C-V-C words without trouble, skip book 1. Book 2 is about consonant blends with short vowels. If he can do it, then I'd skip it. Book 3 is where it gets more complicated -- silent e, -y, digraphs, two-vowels together. I think books 4, 5, and 6 could probably be used interchangeably since by this point, most kids are able to read enough to tackle the sentences, and the skills don't really build on each other. I haven't gotten to book 7 or 8 yet. :tongue_smilie:

I doubt very much they care about what you've been doing academically. From K-3rd grade, my daughter has attended 4 schools (we moved...) and while each time, they did request files from the previous school, nobody ever asked what she had been doing with academics. I imagine that changes for high school, but in elementary (esp. 1st grade) it's not a big deal. The exception is probably if your son has special needs -- gifted, learning disability, etc... Past work might serve to get started an evaluation for an IEP. More likely, you need to bring in a birth certificate, proof of residency and vaccination records.

If you're looking for something secular, how about Mr. Q's? It's free and pretty cool! http://www.eequalsmcq.com/ClassicScienceLife.htm I think it'd be appropriate for 2-4th grade, though you could supplement a little for your 4th grader if you want something meatier.

It's like a 130 year old version of MCT's stuff.

We use it, and I like it because it's solid and affordable and easy to use. My older daughter just hates it because she says that the word problems are really dull and the problems are repetitive. I think she'd despise Saxon and most textbooks. The only thing that seems to speak to her are LOF (which she's not really entirely ready for I think) and TT. She also likes Murderous Maths (which isn't a textbook). So take her opinion with a grain of salt: I think she wants a math textbook to entertain.

Saxon 54 follows Saxon 3, so is intended as the 4th grade book. But also 5th graders who place in that level could use the book. (So the first number is the grade of a slower paced student and the second would be more accelerated).