Thanks fellow mamas! :) I am so excited!!

Hmm, art, music, and the first time we've really 'done' formal science was this spring. LOL!! Seriously, don't stress science until 3rd grade. If you get the 3 Rs done and read alouds, you're good ;).

I would not worry about the vocabulary, if you read to your children and discuss new/unfamiliar words you can drop vocabulary all together IMO.

At the end of the tunnel! Finally, finally MUS Alpha is coming to an end at our house! Rejoice with me! Over the past...almost two years...we have had many stops and starts, progressions and regressions, but now...we have only one lesson left to go! I just put in my order for Beta yesterday. I am doing the wild and crazy dance of joy! We have made it through new babies, post-partum depression, several moves, and have finally come out on the other end. Yep. DD will be in 3rd this year, but we are taking (ahem) a rather relaxed, very mastery based approach to math. Multiple digit addition and subtraction here we come!!!

OK - seriously, DO NOT worry about this comment. A Beka does teach a few sight words in the readers - no biggie. We used A Handbook for Reading and the readers to teach DD #1 to read, and it worked great. When you get a sight word it will be in the reader as 'words to watch for', SO just point out the word and say, "Hey, look, this word says 'the'." Then get on with the reading aloud together. :) A Beka reading works just fine and dandy :). Go mama go!

I like NOEO if you like lit-based. We are doing the Chemistry 1 and it is pretty neat :). Another thing you might want to look at is Christian Kids Explore Biology (faith based). It is pretty balanced (you need to choose your own supplementary reading), with a classical slant (includes memory work lists), fun hands-on, and a text to read aloud.

Latin WILL change your brain (and that of your child) as you study it if your brain isn't normally neat, orderly, and regimental like a Roman army. The language is very much like a well-trained military force, divided into distinct groupings or categories of words, orderly declining itself to express varying meanings. It is really neat to study. I had a couple of years of Latin in high school and it did amazing things for my vocabulary. I don't agree that memorizing vocab lists is more effective, knowing Latin roots helps you to extrapolate the meaning of words you've never seen before, its incredible. It also helps you understand the way language really tends to work in the nitty gritties (grammar) because it IS so orderly (as opposed to English which can be pretty wild) and helps you see connections between many languages if you know the BIG MAMA tongue (Latin). We are very happy with Memoria Press' Latin courses, you even get to memorize some prayers, so because you are Catholic that might be really neat for you!

We just rip it open in the middle of the floor. Dig dig dig!!!

We think AAS is worth it for us, but Spelling Power is very very affordable, though it doesn't offer as much in the way of INTENSIVE phonics instruction for encoding, more of general rules - if you have a natural speller this should work well.

Well, we really do like AAS here, but I haven't used the R&S spelling. We do use the English and do most of it orally :). AAS is done mostly oral too, with lots of interaction so my daughter really digs it.

Umm, I just stopped myself from buying R&S English 4...when we are still in 2, starting 3 this Fall. So umm, either you're NOT crazy. Or we both are. LOL!

You can definitely start now! AAS doesn't even do vowel teams until level 2, so dive on in!

Their book definitely does! It also offers the BEST take on why Christians should homeschool that I have EVER read.

We really like Rod and Staff for English - it is non-consumable, doesn't use workbooks, and honestly we do most of it orally. I also use the WWE handbook to teach ME how to teach WTM method writing which doesn't require a workbook either if you are willing to take a bit of time to figure it out. We use AAS too, another non-consumable (on MOST things). We also use A Beka's A Handbook for Reading and leveled readers to teach phonics - non-consumable again, we don't get any of the workbooky stuff.

Because AAR doesn't specifically teach letter formation it should be pretty easy to use whichever penmanship style you use :). We don't use HWT but we just do whatever letter we are doing in AAR order in a tray of lentils and on the paper etc. It isn't to mastery at this stage, just another introduction/repetition for us.

Have you looked at The Easy French? They have a Junior version that is pretty light and fun for children. I think learning a modern language intuitively is a bit different than learning Latin gramatically. I wouldn't want to substitute one for the other, learning the grammar of such a regular language like Latin is really great for the brain, not to mention the vocab!

My daughter is reading Great Illustrated Classics right now and really enjoys them. We do enjoy some 'vintage' read alouds too - think Yesterday's Classics, those are all older but really great (though they aren't often considered 'classics'). Some of the classics are definitely language heavy.

For our family, we did need two separate programs. DD #1 learned to read much more quickly than she learned to spell and she needed a lot of leveled reading practice. We use AAS to teach the encoding side AND as a sort of intensive phonics review :).

I'm not a hands-on mom either, but I love books AND I'm totally sold on the importance of reading aloud to children. If you haven't listened to Andrew Pudewa's talk - Raising Competent Communicators you must! :) I figure I can get a few birds with one stone with SL. 1. Read aloud time gets done to build vocabulary and linguistic patterns and structures. 2. Develops a love of learning - it REALLY does. 3. Gets content subjects covered in a way that is engaging and FAR more memorable than textbooks and fill-in-the-blanks, multiple choice - you name it. Memorable AND engaging. 4. Cuddle/calm time. Nothing soothes my children more than a story. I'm the mom and I love it.

We do four days a week and totally take the fifth off :). My children often do self-directed work that day though, like lapbooks, handcrafts, etc. - for fun you know ;).

We are using AAS and it is great. Big thumbs up!

We do four days (which is every academic day for us). Short lessons :). We normally do one step and a tiny bit each week.

Yes! We like 'em!

My children pick it up from me too. I look at the IG and look at the order we are going to read the books and pull them off the shelf and say, "Oh boy, look at this one! It looks so good! I can't wait until we get to read this!" It is really contagious :). As to your other question, we only watch one movie/day - strictly limited except for on sick days :). No free for all TV here :).

I love the books in this core! We have been slowly buying them with gift money :). I hope to buy the IG someday - these are the types of books we could have in permanent rotation with the preschool crowd at our house, have fun!