My daughter might be odd, but she has been addicted to any of the free Louisa May Alcott stories at Librivox for a few years now. She ADORES them. I think she has listened to The Eight Cousins a dozen times on her iPod.

Well, I only do assigned reading from phonetically leveled texts as part of our phonics instruction in grades one and two - I don't assign any reading for content/retention at those levels. They would have to be very, very simple books. We'll be starting grade three this fall and now she is ready to do SOME reading for content/instruction on her own. I think waiting until upper grammar is best for this, until then you are really building fluency and confidence with most grade-level readers.

Leap Frog Letter Factory all the way if it is still a struggle for those short consonant and vowel sounds.

Much curriculum does - at least in our home. Math, spelling, grammar, etc. are all cumulative and incremental around here. We're done phonics now, but that too... Content subjects - not so much, you can DEFINITELY jump around in history and science, but for skills you might want to find something and settle in :).

Have you listened to the Bluedorn's talk about learning Classical languages? You can find it at their website - http://triviumpursuit.com They recommend teaching Greek if you can only learn one ancient language because you can read the NT for yourself! If you can teach two, they recommend Latin first, then Greek. Latin first because it has the same alphabet, and because of the HUGE benefits of learning the grammar and vocabulary for English speakers. We are starting with Latin using Memoria Press courses at a couple of levels (one for DD, one for myself), and in another year or two hope to add Greek, and I'd even love to learn Hebrew, but that is a ways off :).

MOH is best for 3rd through 8th grades. BUT here is what we are planning for this fall. We'll be doing SL B+C but I hope to integrate the MOH readings and possibly some of the hands-on activities as well to correlate with the SL books. We do have the audio CD for MOH 1 so we might just end up using that. Something to consider :).

I'm a natural speller too, so hear where you are coming from! One of the most important things for us as natural spelling moms to do is to learn the rules alongside our children so we can remind them to apply them or use them to explain new spelling words when we run into spelling oopsies in their writing in other areas. I would recommend you do take a look at AAS. It is rule-based, but it is incremental and includes a lot of review, so it slowly builds upon itself and the rules come slow and steady. It is really working for us, AND it is scripted, which I think you'd like based on your post. It tells you how to explain, demonstrate, and test for understanding of spelling concepts. It is very detailed and doesn't just leave you hanging with implementation :). I wasn't sure if my daughter would dig the rules, but she was SO frustrated with her spelling ability, and learning the guts of spelling has really, really improved her writing confidence. It is very reassuring to her to be equipped with the rules she needs to spell correctly.

Yes, yes, yes! The SL sequence is excellent at building fluency and confidence. We are using the level 3 readers to build up to real children's novels and build endurance because we've been stuck on the easy, short chapter book level for a while and I'd like to see my oldest stretch into longer works

Yep, we will be this fall. I'm using SL 1+2 (now B+C)..might take us more than a year though :).

I agree that AAS might help. It sounds like you need a systematic phonics based spelling program that actually teaches CONCEPTS instead of just memorizing word lists :).

After blending was established we just used A Beka's A Handbook for Reading along with their readers for practice. Pretty straight forward.

We are using AAR Pre-1 to teach those pre-blending skills. I was surprised to find that my 2nd DD had such a hard time with the rhyming in the beginning, but things are coming along nicely. She too, knows all of her short letter sounds (thanks Leap Frog), but hasn't been ready to blend! She can sound out all the sounds, but then blurts out a totally unrelated word ;). I'm really liking the advances she's making in the phonological awareness realm, and it's open and go, so it actually gets done.

Well, my daughter knew most of her short letter sounds at 4, courtesy of Leap Frog. I thought AAR Pre-1 was expensive, I balked, but I bought it. And we couldn't be happier. The phonological awareness activities have actually proved challenging for this child (who has recently turned five). I'm very sure that she is building valuable pre-blending skills. And it's SO fun and easy to use. My eight-year-old even sits in on it she likes it so much...and my three-year-old too. She also really, really wanted to do something schooly, but isn't blending yet, so this has fit the bill perfectly for us. So, I'll be the dissenting voice and say that, yes, for us it has been worth it - and yes, we got the puppet. The children love him :).

We had one miss - Apologia Astronomy - for the second time! Missed last year, mssed this year too.

The only program I've used is AAR, and I did balk a bit at the price, but felt it was worth it. It is definitely the most gentle of the three. That being said, I don't do any formal school with my two-year-olds. I would wait until at least three to do AAR Pre-1 - I'm doing it with my five-year-old and my three-year-old likes to eavesdrop and sing the ABC song but she isn't required to 'get' all the phonological activities. Hey - some of them are tough for my five-year-old so she's getting a lot from the program. Like a PP said, just read a lot together. I think 2-year-olds are still babies :).

I guess I'm a wimp, but Henle and Wheelock both looked FAR too dense for me even though I had two years of high school Latin using Cambridge (it wasn't really grammatically intensive). I went with First Form Latin. It is pretty gentle and gives you lots of workbook pages to master the material. I really like it. Once I finish then I'll be more confident to tackle denser material.

Well, what SL DOES include from your list is suggested discussion questions for the read alouds and the readers. Some 'find on the map' type geography activities for all of the books where geography is specifically noted. Timeline figures and prompts of when to put them in are included in the IG. There aren't worksheets though. If you buy the LA (I don't) then there are activities correlated to the readers that could count as worksheets I suppose. I think it does do a lot of hand holding :). That is why I like it! I love that everything is pre-selected and already scheduled out.

Hey, I think I have that over-thinking disease too Colleen :P !

Thanks Kel! I have a spiral binding machine too! :)

We have it, rarely use it, I just make sure to chop off those 'uh' endings when teaching.

Oh, one more thing! Does this seem pretty open and go, or is there a lot of advance planning needed?

Thanks!

:lol: Can't help you there then! You're done for! :lol: You might change your mind in the future though...I did...;) You can always stretch out two SL years into four and call it a four year cycle though ;). SL 6+7 = four years of world history that way...;).

I've been looking at the samples and it does look continuous stroke! I do have another question - is the only thing you'd need to replace with future students the farm chart and stickers?

I have Y1U1 DE and I keep wanting to dive in but I just can't get around to the planning out the lessons/book choices and that does the entire program in. I realistically need to stick with open and go programs.