Abeka readers? My kids read them for fun :).

How is it going? It is helping me simplify if I aim towards preparing for a basic high school option like Ameican School. I thought is throw it out there in case it might help you solidify high school mentally, even if you decide not to go that way eventually.

Have you tried emailing Lisa? (I know this is an old thread.). She always gets back to me very quickly :).

DD 12 thinks Charles Perrault was handsome. She has a bit of a thing for old, dead guys.

For sure. It just seems like most of my FB friends who post these types of things are drinking the pink juice. ;) Trending right now, I suppose.

^^^ Sounds like Plexus. LOL, sorry!!

We'll, if it's selling something I don't dig it. OTOH, I lost 40+ lbs a couple of years ago doing THM style eating (my profile pic is ooolllld, before that) and did a before/after thing, so clearly I'm into that! I wasn't/am not super skinny, didn't pop pills, and exercised maybe twice. I just changed my food (and didn't even use any complicated ingredients - super simplified). If it's someone I know, and they've been working at it and just aren't trying to shill me, then yeah, I love it!

It is very, very basic in 2nd. You can easily start in 3rd. My oldest started in 4th and very quickly back filled the diagramming knowledge she lacked.

CLE starts simple diagramming in 2nd, actually.

Are you in Canada? Learninghouse.ca carries EIW. Cheaper shipping :).

Have you worked on easier child-oriented classic lit in tr past? I'm thinking of Heidi, Black Beauty, Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm type books before trying Twain? It can help to choose works of increasing 'difficulty' to ease into things.

What do you consider busywork in CLE? Honestly, with so many littles, I'd use CLE alone for all language arts at this age. It's easy to get done, covers all the bases, no transition time between all the 'pieces' of LA, etc. The work is solid, functional, spiral review, I don't see any busywork. If anything I would think of leaning harder on the CLE and eliminating some of the separate pierces you have going now. I know that isn't quite he answer you were looking for, though :).

Essentials in Writing is very open and go - video teacher!

Bad phone. Double post.

It's not just you!! It's way more grammar than I've ever seen before!! I'd stop after the 500s with my other kids. Really - the 600s were pretty crazy, too.

We stopped after 704. We just do EIW now :).

I still make my kids memorize Pluto....because I heart it. I do include explanation, though. :D

I was going to say AAR, myself. Very high quality. Very expensive :).

I heart Pluto. But, sadly, it isn't a planet, and I don't like that.

I'm actually making a list like this for my own kids! Poetry isn't included, that's separate IMO. It's also geared to readin independently in first and up. These aren't read alouds except in Baby/PK/K. Baby Goodnight Moon The Very Hungry Caterpillar Brown Bear, Brown Bear PK Harper Collins picture book treasury The Little Engine That Could The Story About Ping K Robert Munsch Grand Treasury (we are Canadian!!) Caps for Sale James Herriot Children's Treasury Level 1 Seuss Treasury Frog and Toad treasury Treadwell Primer (the Treadwells have great fairy tales/folk stories, simply told, and Mother Goose to boot) Level 2 My Father's Dragon Trilogy The Boxcar Children Treadwell First Reader Level 3 Charlotte's Web Little House in the Big Woods Homer Price Level 4 Heidi Brighty of Grand Canyon Aesop's Fables Level 5 Black Beauty The Jungle Book (we love Rikki Tikki!) Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm Level 6 Little Women Tom Sawyer Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare Level 7 Around the World in 80 Days King Arthur by Pyle Anne of Green Gables Level 8 Hound of the Baskervilles Robin Hood by Howard Pyle White Fang Most of these are tried and true for us, I haven't read the Pyles or Shakespeare yet, though :).

I always check gospelebooks for CC freebies and sales.

Thanks so much for taking the time to discuss this all with me!

We definitely need to do more reading aloud. It was pretty funny actually, she was trying to figure out the usage of the word 'toilet' in 180 Days Around the World. Defecating into the toilet became decapitating into the toilet!! We all had a good laugh here, too ;). It...means toilet in the OLD sense of the word anyway ;). So, with MW do you need the assessment book? Is it best to start at the beginning even if the words are fairly simple?

It does sound like MW could help. Today she read defecation as decapitation :/. She could sound it out once I told her to slow down and read it in chunks. I guess I stopped requiring oral reading too early. We just got Kindles and I'm loving the dictionary feature for her.

These are all great ideas. I know that remediating independently is not ideal. It is, however, where we are at for a wide range of reasons I'm not sure I want to list :(. Briefly, we are very much in survival mode, baby twins, multiple special needs diagnoses in progress, never-ending house renos etc. I did get her started on the recommended typing program since she has had good success with Read, Write, Type when she was tiny.