My top advice is...RELAX. (Giving this advice to myself as often as possible...STILL.) Your children have a natural proclivity to learn. They may not learn WHAT you think they should be learning WHEN you think they should be learning it, but they will learn. Learning is what God made children to do :). Welcome, and have fun!

Many use AAS for phonics, but we haven't. I wait until reading is established and we were mostly through phonics before going on to teach spelling as a specific and separate skill if needed (no natural spellers so far!) You'll need one teacher/student book "All About Spelling Level 1 Materials" set and the basic interactive kit to get started.

Oh my. Just pick one. Many children are still nailing down reading and more intensive phonics in 1st which should be the priority :). Two grammar programs at that age would be overkill. Really.

Just signed up for this, looks fun if your kids enjoy doing correspondence/getting their own mail. http://bible-n-more.com/ Not sure about doctrinal leanings - I think it's pretty straight forward from the samples I looked at. Free :).

We finished MOST of Pre-1 until level 1 came out and DD #2 was desperate to progress :). It helped SO much with her phonological awareness and even her speech (some artic. delays). Level 1 is helping with blending - which can be tough to nail.

They are folding the young edition into their regular site - Pixel of Ink. HTH!

I have both AAS and Spelling Power. I definitely, definitely prefer AAS - any book that asks me to read the instructions 3 times for weeks...well...too complicated (Spelling Power). The rules also aren't as clearly demonstrated and displayed as they are in AAS. I love how AAS is pretty much scripted, open and go.

We don't use the AAS tiles anymore if that's a deal breaker :). We bought the Sound Literacy iPad app for $20 or so - no lost tiles, you can write on it - doesn't make sounds, but it's awesome.

I started even my DH with level 1 and he has learned a lot of things he didn't know (heck, so did I when I taught it, I'm a natural speller, not rules based, so it helped me teach better).

We love it - recently reviewed: http://appsforhomeschooling.com/2012/homeschool-music-app-classroom-kinderbach-school-version-app-review/

It is teacher intensive - but if you just sit down with each of your children for 15 minutes each, you'll make GREAT progress and see awesome results - we have :).

My children have needed quite a bit of reinforcement of their phonics rules through using the new concepts in a REAL setting (aka - READERS!) So - yes, I highly recommend them!

I don't have them both, but I like Map Trek - it's easy to use if you're doing chronological history - just keep going map by map as your program progresses, easy to print from etc.

Agreed :). My 2nd DD knew all her letter sounds too, but wasn't blending, and Pre-1 really helped with her phonological skills and even her speech (she has some artic delays).

We are 'slow goers' on AAS. We are finishing level 2, and DD is finishing 3rd grade :). I don't have a problem with that, and neither does my DD. Some people go more quickly, and that's okay too. Since it's a mastery-based program, I'm going to tell you what you already know ;) - just go at your child's pace!

Honestly - once you get into the program - just keep going as your child progresses. I teach reading before spelling, decoding before encoding, and I think many others do too - hence starting AAR before AAS. HTH.

I guess my first question would be - does he need a spelling program? Some excellent readers are great spellers too - natural spellers. Some aren't (my oldest daughter reads up a storm, spelling doesn't come naturally for her though). I might wait and see if he can spell on his own or not. If he can't though, AAS is a great program - we use and love it. It is teacher intensive, but really - it's only 15 minutes/day - if you can swing that :).

AAS teaches spelling through a phonics-based technique, so yes - it includes phonics, but from an encoding perspective, not a decoding perspective (like a reading program does). Many children learn how to decode (read) faster than they learn to encode (spell). My oldest is like this, so she went through her reading program FIRST, then we did AAS to reinforce phonics AND to teach encoding - which didn't follow naturally for her. HTH! :)

Well, I honestly just read SL books - we cover a lot of ground when I'm nursing. Drop skills-based subjects that need more mommy-focused time and just do reading aloud with all the kids :).

Awesome!!

All About Spelling What's in the Bible DVDs Finally getting a dishwasher (just this week!!) Moving to a house with grid-based utilities (praise God for this - it sucked up so much time AND money living off grid) Little Bee Articulation app for my 6-yo with artic delays

We just started AAS after Abeka 1 - it covers SO much my daughter just needed more practice with easy readers to build fluency (we used the SL series starting with 2nd) and she was off!

Third grader YES, first grader could tag along and do most of it orally as long as you didn't expect total completion from him.

I love it. My 9-yo is using ours (I'm still making it) to look up her own issues, I'm using it for mine etc. We don't use it in a 'punishment' way but to encourage us to seek the Lord and His standards for our behavior.

We don't have the SL map, I did buy a large map at WalMart I think it was and laminated it to a very thin piece of plywood that I keep behind the couch - I don't have the wall space for a big map (too many books!!)