I'm using Wordmith apprentice this year (with 5th grader) and will follow with Wordsmtih in 6th and some Writing Strands also.

RS A is great and only has about 80 lessons so you could easily pick it up mid year. And since all concepts are covered again in RS B, if you have to skim a few things here and there it's no problem. There's a yahoo group for RS users, rightstart@yahoogroups.com, you might be able to pick a used copy cheaply. Good luck -

We got Silestone about a year ago and love it. It's an engineered quartz, which means its about 95% ground up stone with 5% resin and binder put in so you can get about any color you want, with different grain sizes available too. We've got Corian in our bathroom, and I prefer it to Corian becuase it has a more natural stone look, but doesn't require any maintenance or sealant like granite. Threre are a couple other brands besides Silestone, Cambria (I think) and I can're remember the other one. Check them out -

I've used both. I bought Shiller for dd when she was in first grade and I was new to homeschooling. The materials are colorful, but the contents jump around alot, and not in a logical spiral type way in my opinion. We only used it for about 3 months when I realized she wasn't retaining anything and I dumped it. During my time with Shiller I discovered RS and taught same dd from beginning of level B thru half of level E. They way it presents strategies in level A and B is wonderful, provides a great foundation. My dd is not "mathy" but she did very well with it and scored 99%ile on her standardized tests (that's important for some hs parents). More importantly, she has a great basic understanding of concepts - fractions were a breeze, which give alot of kids trouble. The negative for us was I didn't play the games enough (no time or desire, frankly) so I supplemented with Evan-Moore daily math practice for some spiral review, Calculadders for facts drill, and Singapore CWP for word problem practice. I also felt like levels D and E weren't as strong as the lower levels, maybe becuase my kids didn't use manipulatives much at that point and were ready for a more traditional program. In any case, I love it for the early levels, and if you have a child that's hands on, you can't go wrong. Good luck on your math journey!

Sorry, Maria, it was not my intention to throw out that acronym with no explanation! :tongue_smilie: Looks like the other posts covered it pretty well. It's funny, my tagline is "recovering curriculum junkie" but during my "recovery" period, AAS somehow slipped right by. Guess that's my excuse to fall off the wagon!

My dd6 is horrible with spelling, we've been using SW and it's been a complete bust. I was poking around on the curr board and saw mentions of AAS and didn't even know what it stood for. Figured it out, went to the website, and voila! Found what looks like a great fit for dd, and I'm so excited to get it and start. Just a big thanks to all on the hive mind who suggested it! :001_smile:

I think you're wise to consider combining your kids in subjects where possible, it streamlines your day and I think it's more fun for the children also. My oldest 2 are about the same spacing as yours and I currently combine them in Latin and religion. I've combined science and writing for them in previous years also, but decided to try it split this year. Next year we'll combine again for science. That's the beauty of homeschooling, you can try several approaches until you find what works for your family. Good luck with your decision and enjoy the WTM book! It was such an inspiration to me when I first read it a few years ago.

Rightstart Math doesn't have a separate teacher's manual, but it very clearly explains in each lesson how to communicate new concepts to the child, and is easily modified for those that want to explain it in a slightly different way.

I used the Listening Program for three or four 8 week cycles with my 10 yo daughter. I think I took a month or 2 off in between. I honestly didn't notice a huge improvement, and she put up so much resistance to doing it, it caused alot of stress in our family. She hasn't done it since last summer, but I'm not giving up on it completely. We've been doing the DORE program for the past year (not available anymore to new customers but similar to the program at www.learningbreakthrough.com) and I've seen much improvement with noise as well as emotional sensitivity since we began with that. Good luck, I think finding help for a special needs child is like trying to solve a jigsaw puzzle one piece at a time.

Thanks for the input. I think I'll gently try to have her slant to the right, or getting just to to straight up and down. There's no rush so we'll take it slow and see what happens.

I decided to switch my dds to italics for simplicity and legibility, so ordered the GD books. My 8 yo is a lefty and has previouly completed the DHK cursive books specifically for lefties, so her cursive slants left. Looking over the GD materials, it appears as though they expect lefties to write with a slant to the right. I think it looks better, but trying it today, my daughter was resistant. I think she can adjust it she just tilts the paper the other way, but not sure if I should push it. Any of you had a similar experience? Do your lefties' italics slant right?

It sounds like you found a great way to help her with her narration, that's the beauty of hsing! My 10 yo dd started WWE 3 this year. It's a bit unusual because she has excellent grammar and spelling skills and loves to read. But narration has always been difficult for her. So I started with WWE year 3, choosing my own litereature selections (at this point that's what you have to do since the workbook is not released yet). Anyway, after about 10 weeks of this she seems to be doing much better, so I'm planning to do only the several inlcuded assignments for year 4 in the WWE text, then we'll move on to Wordsmith Apprentice in about a month or so. I showed here the WA book and she seemed interested, so I'm hoping it will work for us. Good luck with your daughter, sounds like you're off to a great start -

I also like Cathy Duffy's "100 Top picks for Homeschool Curriculum" because it has a great questionnaire in the beginning of the book, which helps you determine which style of hsing might be the best fit for your family.

For MA, I'd have to say Minuteman National Park -

I also have had great sucess with the LC series. We've done Prima Latina and are now on LC1. I never studied Latin prior to this, and having the DVDs is wonderful, I sit and watch them with the girls and we all learn together. There are lots of great programs out there, good luck with your decision.