With my oldest, she'd get a concept - have it down - mastered. Then she'd forget it because it wasn't being reviewed all the time. Just switched to CLE, really appreciate having the review planned for me instead of having to always add review in myself so she wouldn't forget...how to tell time for example (which we taught many, many times to mastery).

Reading Raven? It's awesome :).

CLE LA is spiral-based, we are (much to my surprise) finding we LIKE spiral based programs here...despite all my mastery-based philosophies at the beginning of our journey :).

KISS makes my brain want to explode. Honestly - I can't figure it out to teach it! :O We just started doing CLE LA and you can pretty much jump in at grade level if you're interested in trying it out.

It might depend on your level, but we just finished our first CLE LU and there was a final test. What it didn't have was the two in between quizzes that the regular light units have.

Just another thought - you could always give the LU test at the back of the 1st LU and do some verbal review of any missed questions, that way you'd know you were solid all the way through the last course of study.

We love AAS too (it's one of the few things I've managed to do consistently), but...and I hesitate to say this out loud....but... I'm looking into ACE Word Building 4 for my DD to work on after my new baby (#5) comes (due in a week). It's independent, seems to be pretty phonetic, and will both review what we've already covered in AAS to date and take her further. Just throwing this out there. :)

Sniff. :)

Well, the phonetic markings go way down after 2nd grade as far as I can tell :). We only have 4th, but based on the diagnostic tests most of the phonic sections are in 1st and 2nd :). Syllable division does really help with spelling later FWIW.

The only thing we don't like so far is that the spelling lists in our level (4) are pretty random. Related to a common theme perhaps, but certainly not phonetically grouped. Random list memorization essentially.

We are doing a BIG switch this year. We just started CLE Math and LA and I'm going to order ACE for science and history ('social studies') in a couple of weeks. We had a wipe last year on content-based subjects again, and I need something independent for these subjects for my oldest (she wants them badly) or they won't get done with new baby coming soon and working from home etc. We still read aloud together, but I don't want the pressure of making knowledge-based studies fly around here or it just won't happen :).

So! What do you keep from the huge stacks of finished CLE LightUnits your children accumulate? :) We're just finishing up our first one in LA and Math for my oldest - do you keep the quizzes and tests? Just rip out the score sheet from the back of the LU and keep that? Tell me what you're doing for record-keeping with these puppies! ;)

For 3rd we did AAS2, oral narration and summarizing, daily Bible reading, lots of free reading after finishing the SL readers for 3rd during the first few months of school, JOH Cursive (just finished this actually), some random punctuation with a sentence editing app. In retrospect, I think CLE LA would have been a great add-in for writing/grammar since we didn't do much of that at all. It was a crazy year though, we moved twice! :)

I'm going to say that's LOTS :). 1 hour broken into tiny chunks is about what it amounts to here.

Are you not wanting to keep going with CLE LA 3? Just wondering why moving on to that isn't on the list :).

Tried Apologia Astronomy twice. Couldn't make it go. Thought we'd love it. Didn't. It's okay to let it go if ti doesn't work. Really.

When are you due? I'm on the 3rd of November :).

6 - and not EVERY day like it is for her older sister (9). We do some at 5 that is interest led. My 4-yo is asking for 'school' - sigh. She gets printables :).

Just to clarify DD is 9 and in 4th (my siggy needs updating!)

We were really inconsistent with early grammar too, but we did the placement tests and she passed into 400 with little previous instruction (part of R&S 2, some punctuation, copywork, dictation, narration etc.). When we did the placement tests I DID NOT mark her on the CLE phonics notations because we learned phonics differently. I mean - *I* didn't know what they were asking, let alone her! She's doing fine so far in 400, so I'd say go for it. It's pretty gentle when it gets started :).

I think 1/2 page is developmentally inappropriate for most children in all honesty. 2 sentences of copywork is about all I ask at this age quite honestly. We do oral narrations as well of course.

:iagree:

We're using Ask Me WhoOo for the Children's First Catechism from GCP (it's the same one Big Truths for Little Kids uses). It *is* word for word, with some repetition, and it's amazing. 3 volumes all together, we're just on Volume 1 which goes up to question 50 or so I think :). Listen to the previews! Very catchy.

Have you done phonics instruction? If he's decoding, from here on out it's all just practice and fluency-building :). I used the SL reader progression just because it's such a nice way to move from grade 1 books (Hop on Pop etc. up to chapter books. We never do any reading comprehension/formal reading programs at this age at all though :).

Well, we just switched to CLE, but we're only in level 2 (they have Canadian math for 1 and 2), the higher levels use both imperial AND metric (lower levels too), but Canadian money in lower grades.