Well, we do it MOSTLY oral - that helps :). Of course, we're only doing 2 right now, I hope this continues to work with 3! Also, there's almost nothing a whiteboard won't fix in our house!

Temple Cat is a fun, light-hearted read that pokes some gentle fun at worshipping cats. Cat of Bubastes might be a bit much for your littles. We have a cool book Pharaoh's and Foot Soldiers. It is a high interest read about different jobs in Egypt - cartoony :). My children really like it.

I would love to have the AAS box and dividers (I really like the AAR box), but our AAR bag...it's just sort of bulky and takes up WAY more room on the shelf than just the books would :(. I also find it a bit hard to keep the books up straight with it, they tend to slop around in there a bit more than on the shelf.

I do think it is important to start with level one because it teaches some really foundational skills - segmenting, recognizing syllables, compound words, and some basic spelling rules that are built on with level two. We started level one when DD was six, and it still took more than a few months for us to get through it ;).

I also flounder at this, so I'm going to eavesdrop. Thanks for the suggestions so far!

Bad dial-up double post!

The books are absolutely wonderful. We don't own the full core, but I have purchased many of their selections - both before I started scoping out the core and after - many of them are just wonderful modern classics for children! You really can't beat them for starting a library for your children - plan to keep them! I actually really like the large compendium volumes, the children can't pack them off as easily as they can single books. They are less likely to go 'missing' under the bed, in the bathroom, behind the rocking chair etc. as a single book is, so they are easier for me to keep track of! And even though they are heavy my 5-year-old is always dragging them out and bringing them to me to request stories from them :)

Full speed ahead here...which isn't really very fast to start with! LOL!

I agree. Sometimes I get the feeling that AAS is too hands-on for me as a teacher, and too time intensive, but I can't find anything as good anywhere else! So I just do it. Right after Bible reading (our first 'subject'), so it doesn't get bumped! I just had to bear down, get it done for fifteen minutes a day, and we're making great strides.

For us the phonological awareness games are totally worth it, but like you said - you might already be doing some of these things. There are fun games that teach syllable counting, simple blending, rhyming, differentiating between words, sentence length etc. They vary from lesson to lesson, hitting the same skills from different angles. My five-year-old is really benefitting from them, but she has articulation delays, so it might be that she needs extra work in these areas in any case :). I can also be a bit spacey about doing these things unless they are pre-planned and clearly written out!

I printed this free one: http://www.guesthollow.com/homeschool/history/timeline.html And put it in a binder with sheet protectors for my daughter. She LOVES IT! She is always looking for more things to put on it, books we can read so we can add figures etc. This is a pretty simple solution. We use the timeline figures from HSITW, because it saves a lot of time looking for art, but maybe your children would enjoy drawing their own? :) By the way, I procrastinated FOREVER before I did this because I couldn't figure it out, but this is easy to do! BUT, now that I have a Notebookingpages membership, I'm really intrigued by their system. Pretty affordable and looks SO nice.

1. Calls your name and tells you to get busy! MUS Alpha - we must be able to finish this sometime during the primary years!! 2. Swear you will get to....someday Artistic Pursuits. I love it. If only I had time! 3. Are planning to definitely use......maybe. Mystery of History - so neat. Great integration. Must figure out how to get this in somehow. I have the audio cds...maybe sneak them onto dd's iPod... 4. What was I even thinking??? Apologia Astronomy - I SO thought I would love this. Tried it twice. Just. Can't. Do. It.

Who me?:leaving:

We have 1+2/B+C on the shelf waiting for us to get started. The only book I'm a bit iffy about is "A Little Princess" - but that's because we are super-conservative too. The main history texts are pretty mainstream - Usborne and CHOW, but to be honest, SL doesn't schedule the pre-history readings that are focused on evolution, and we are used to handling evolution in any case, it just seems impossible to avoid in this life, so my oldest children are already becoming proficient at thinking critically about evolution's claims. SL activities are definitely optional, the bulk of the program is books (be still my heart!) I've never used HOD though, so I can't give you a comparison on that front :).

Not that I know of Kristin, sorry! Either way, have fun with your new programs. We love them :).

Allrighty! DD turned 8 in April :) We started a lot of new things in January, so we're sort of in between/finishing things, and we school relaxedly year round. So, finishing R&S English 2 - moving on to 3 We might be done PL, or have a bit to finish off, moving to LCI Math - please, please let us be done with Alpha! (Don't feel bad with math progress ladies! LOL!) We are pretty relaxed with math and didn't get started at all until grade 1 :). Two moves, a baby, a terribly relaxed schedule etc. etc. I can't wait to get to Beta! Hoping Alpha will be done this year! Yes, I am feeling a bit desperate here! AAS - finishing 2, starting up 3 SL 1+2 (B+C) with SL 2 Int (newly named 3) readers NOEO Chem 1 (already in progress) - if we finish this, we'll start another NOEO, just not sure which one yet Daily NIrV readings with discussion And family devotions And on Shabbat we're going to start MP's Christian Studies I - maybe today! I'd like to get back to doing Artistic Pursuits, I'm not sure how realistic that is though. I also have plans to start some composer study in place - finally bought Story of the Orchestra! Memory work - we're just doing this by subject mainly. The prayers in PL, the books of the Bible song (again), and we're memorizing the book of Philippians this year - http://thy-word-have-i-hid.blogspot.com/ Up to 1:6 so far, just started this together. Math facts...of course. Canadian provinces/territories - hope to have this done soon - within the next month or so. I'd like to add some poetry back in, but we'll see. We're also doing some notebooking in different subjects, we normally do some lapbooks, lots of different audiobooks, copywork, narrations (written and oral), bedtime reading from all kinds of sources This seems like a lot, but it is actually pretty relaxed, we don't do history or science every day, and only go 4 days/week.

Argh. I can't believe I just lost that post! Let me try again :). You likely know some of this already, but I'll start from the beginning :). The main part of what Sonlight offers are their cores. These are literature-based programs that use only real books and an Instructor's Guide (IG) to teach history, geography, and literature. So when you order a core you get a big box full of books, an IG, and some timeline figures. The books are broken into history readings (read together), read alouds (together), and readers (independent reading). There is also normally a poetry book or two as well. The IG schedules the books across the year for you (making it super easy to stay on track - no planning, wonderful). They also include discussion/comprehension questions, vocabulary, additional notes for deeper information, maps, prompts to timeline/map etc. A Sonlight core is a wonderful thing in my experience! Saves SO much on planning! Sonlight also offers LA that accompanies their readers but many families with more of a classical bent substitute this for something else. It is optional. Sonlight's Bible is also an add on if you have something you are already using. Sonlight's Science is entirely separate from the core. It is also literature based, but it jumps around a lot between topics in the lower grades (too much for us, we like to camp out on a topic for longer). Sonlight also has other recommendations - like for math, that they don't produce themselves. Again, our family using something else :). So, how does it work when you have a nursing baby? For me, it worked GREAT! Because I was already sitting in the rocking chair nursing, all I had to do was grab a book, read, and we had done school. WAY easier than a course that is heavy into hands-on activities - those just don't get done when I have a new baby. How does it work for combining? I guess it depends on what you are looking for and how flexible you are in your expectations. Because SL uses real books, they will appeal to children across a large spread of ages, but if you want something very fine-tuned for each age, it might not be best. What I am doing with my girls is picking something in between the levels of my two oldest children. My youngest I am VERY flexible with - she listens to all the read alouds (which she LOVES), and some of the history - I don't require her to sit in on that - and casually enters into discussions with us. She also does some low key narrations. My oldest I require to do pretty much everything, because the core we are doing is fairly easy for her :). There are also some free audios at SL's website that you can download that address teaching large numbers of children :). Honestly, SL is one of the things our children have enjoyed the MOST for their education. They always ask for more, and all I need to do is read to them and talk to them. I can do that, even at bedtimes and naptimes :). HTH!

We are using PL. That is all that we've used (I am about to start FF myself). So, is it a bit boring? Yup. But is it easy to teach and do? Yup. Is it easy to review? Yup. Do we like the DVDs? Yup. We make flashcards to review, and even my five-year-old is trying to sneakily get in on the memory work. I love that it has memory work built in because I can have a hard time figuring that out sometimes. It is very classical in methodology. It is very gentle and vocabulary focused. It's a great starter course for building some confidence. We plan on doing the whole S&S with MP. Even though I thought I wanted a classical pronunciation (I have two years of high school Latin in a classical style), MP won me over with their easy to use materials. First Form looks....awesome. I can't wait to get started (waiting for the workbook I ordered for DH to arrive - he agreed to be my Latin buddy!)

I have kickback links in my signature as well :). We use both AAS and AAR Pre-1, love them both!

I haven't used R&S, but it sounds like it is a solid, phonics-rules based program. If you have a solid, phonics-based program and you are doing what you said above, that's a recipe for success! I try to stay near my daughter when she is writing, so if she has any uncertainties she can ask while she is in process, and we can seize those learning moments!

I took a peek at the samples for the Core Tips CD online and it mostly looked like an interactive web links sort of document. That isn't great for us because we have super slow dial-up. I have purchased some lapbooks from the appropriate time periods to do with the children for our core B+C this fall. Tammi - their forum has different levels of participation. There is the free access, which just gives you a few forums. The full access you can either pay for or buy a core to access. It is a bit confusing!

I'm not really sure what you are looking for :). What most people mean when they talk about SL is the core. It includes readers, read alouds, history books, discussion questions in the areas of geography/history/literature. The heart of the core that Sonlight sells is the Instructor's Guide (IG). It is what has the books all scheduled out for you :). This is a very fun, engaging way for children who loves stories to learn with :)! It also builds great reading fluency if you follow their readers progression.

We are using SL and are very happy :). Nothing beats their reader progression to build fluency and joy of learning in my opinion! I can't wait to dig into our B+C with the children this fall!

AAR Pre-1 is a ton of fun ;). My 2nd DD is adoring it, it has a lot of great pre-spelling skills in it (segmenting orally, early syllabification etc.) If you are interested in doing both, I'd do AAR Pre-1 before starting AAS 1. Oh dear! The AAR is probably for your 2nd? Silly me! Your oldest sounds past the AAR Pre-1 stage :).

Here's what we did. We bought a pretty cheap world map, taped it to a light piece of plywood, taped a wall map of Canada to the other side (we're Canadian, you could do US), and voila! DH laminated the whole thing with just that peel and press laminating film type stuff. We pull it out when we do SL, look stuff up, love it.