The diagnostic tests have a lot of phonetic markings for 1st and 2nd that your child may not know. If you don't score those questions and adjust the test accordingly, how does he place? First and second are very phonics based. If you don't need further phonics I might start in 3rd if the adjusted diagnostic test indicates that. You only need LTR if your child needs a learning to read program. I wouldn't worry too much about catching up at this point. I have children working all over the place in CLE in various subjects. CLE itself recommends you think of the courses as levels, not grade specific. They really encourage homeshoolers to give their children the courses they need, and to disregard grade levels almost entirely :).

Which hymnal do you use? We don't have one I'm really happy with :).

If you have multiple children it may prove to be too parent intensive (our reason for dropping it.)

We were able to start formal grammar in 4th with CLE after a rather hit and miss approach before that. It is very independent.

Other. I use ALL CLE for skills and Bible. I use ACE for social studies and science. Two publishers, both worktexts, both get done :).

Cursive. You can do keyboarding in 4th.

Do you use Then Sings My Soul as a hymnal?

Recently found: Wildflowersandmarbles.com Some really good stuff there.

I'm beefing up our morning time with a loop I can grow anything I want into. 30 minutes daily - lots of possibilities!

I'm trying a few tweaks. It may be too early to tell, I'm hopeful though.

I'd like to know about be art cards, too. Is it the Masterpiece art card set? Which hymnals do you all use? I have a hard time finding one with all my favorites. I've just been printing sheet music and putting in a duo tang so far.

I school while nursing (twins). Keep all your child's books in a little tub, have them drag it over and sit beside you on the couch. And take it easy. It's OK if school gets done in little chunks across the day. Hugs.

I use the cheap teacher planner from CLE or Rod and Staff. It is designed for a classroom setting - days across the top, blank periods down the side. I use he periods for my children's names - gives me room for 7 kids, one cell for each day. If you don't need really detailed lesson plans, it's enough. $3/$7.

Go for the grammar! I wish I'd done it earlier. I'm still struggling.

I'm planning to do a loop during our morning time after our core morning work to pick up the things that don't normally get done. I have a list of nine items. They are all content, none are skills based. So we'll do our core work, if we have time hit one or two content subjects. If we don't, no biggy - they weren't getting done anyway! 15-20 minutes then we are moving along. I hope it works!

Can you tell me more about your Bible reading schedule, Holly Ann? Do you read one chapter daily and alternate OT/NT? I'd like to do more Bible reading as a family. I always do Bible stories with the littles and the olders have a curriculum they use. I was thinking one chapter daily an a Psalm for the month (I'm a huge Psalm memorizer, personally.) We are doing something new for prayer time, so far, so good. We have a prayer jar, people can write requests on blank slips and put them in the jar, then at prayer time we pass the jar and people pull out prayers and start praying. Spontaneous prayers are always welcome, of course. We used to have a lot of people passing on praying, but now everyone prays, many times, very exciting! I just switched this to breakfast so DH can participate, instead of after chores. I hope that continues to go well :). I have an overall plan taking form. I've been slogging through a lot of blog posts at Wildflower and Marble and Amongst Lovely Things. I'll post more about it when I get a few more things sorted mentally.

Thanks, Lisa. How did you facilitate the age/grade related memory work? Did you keep it reviewed somehow? I always fret about the brain space issue of keeping it all going.

Our Sunday School gives two separate verses each week - one for youngers and one for olders (sometimes that is two verses), so they already have some different work going on there. My youngers just hang out too :).

I would say 5 counts as a large family, especially if they are all in school! I will only have 4 schooling officially in the fall. My oldest drops her memory work I she does it on her own, as well. She knows 8-10 Psalms and I'm afraid she'll lose them if she doesn't keep reviewing. I'm thinking of setting up virtual boxes on Scripture Box for each child - I am SO bad at keeping physical boxes going, and the toddler (whoever it is at that time) always dumps them. I am definitely going to buy some of those MP recitation guide PDFs!

We now have seven children. Our morning time is fairly simple right now - we pray, sing a hymn, do some scripture memory work, read aloud, and sometimes do some poems. I'd like to beef it up a bit, particularly in the memory work department by including more topics - geography, grammar rules, list of prime ministers etc. For large families - do you keep everyone on the same page and just do your work on a rotational basis so you don't miss your littles? Or do you give everyone their own memory work and review system? How does that work for you? Also, if you'd like to share what you include, I'd love to hear it. I'd like to hit some more CM elements like picture study, folk songs, and composer study. My 2nd born has developed a love for Mozart!

We really enjoy CLE and use the entire LA program until 4th, when we sub out the spelling for Rod and Staff. In 2nd it is still pretty phonetically focused, which some don't like when they are new to CLE and aren't familiar with its sound markings. We use it from the beginning though. With that in mind, 3rd and up aren't as marking heavy.

Amongst Lovely Things

I have been reading afterthoughtsblog.net the past few days and greatly enjoying it.

We like CLE, but 2nd grade is still pretty phonetic if you are new to the program. Third is an awesome place to start, in my opinion. take it easy this year (copywork, narrations), use CLE for 3rd?

Book purging. Reorganizing shelves. Hanging out here. Buying next year's get it done curriculum. Thinking of beefing up morning time and reading/listening/brainstorming about that. Preparing to tackle writing instruction wih my oldest and buying reference material to equip ME.