Hi Ladies! I remember reading a post here about the What's in the Bible? DVD series, so I thought I'd post about a giveaway that I'm having for a free voucher (I'll mail it to you) the fifth DVD in the series - Israel Gets a King! here in case you want to enter. US only, closes May 19th. Have fun! :auto: I hope this is OK to post - I've seen other contests pop up here and thought I'd add mine :).

Well, what I'm hearing from your post sounds like you should maybe ditch the textbooks, use real books (like SL, which you mentioned), and do verbal narrations to start with. Fill in the blanks, multiple choice etc. etc. don't normally result in long term retention in many cases. Really talking to someone and discussing things with them helps SO much more! This can also move into written summary narrations once the verbal skills are established. Of course - this isn't really something that children can do independently! You need to be there to prompt them and help them along as they learn that whole oral narration thing. What I'm hearing is that maybe you need a dash of CM in your homeschool :). I could be totally wrong though :).

Have you checked out All About Spelling? It too works well for children who learn differently - mainly because of the multi-sensory approach (visual, kinesthetic, and audio). I'm thinking you could modify it a bit and do most of the spelling with the tiles, and not so much written work. You normally teach the concepts with tiles that you move by hand (no writing) and then your child builds with tiles too. Then there is dictation of words, phrases, and sentences, but you could choose how much of this to do. You could just use it with the tiles as more of a concept to spelling list sort of program if you left off the dictation.

From your post it doesn't sound like you really need one. Children don't need deep literary analysis until the later years, honestly. The only time we use a 'reading program' is for phonically leveled readers for beginners, and SL readers to build fluency. They are real books though :). Once oldest DD is through building her fluency (she also reads on her own), then we'll just be reading for her schoolwork (history, science etc.), and her own pleasure reading :).

Ditto on the DK readers. Honestly, I found the CLP nature readers too advanced for my beginners.

I think most parents universally find the writing to be too advanced developmentally for the ages it is recommended for. We don't use it either. It is more of a traditional, public-school approach to writing IMO as opposed to a classical one, so you likely won't find many moms here who actually like it around here :).

Those are amazing Amy. Thank you! Thank you!!

We use AAS with our 2nd grader, and it has done wonders for her writing confidence. Now that we are in AAS2 her spelling is really soaring. I'm a natural speller, so this is exciting for me to see :). I like it better than Spelling Power (which I have on the shelf) because it is so much meatier. It really digs into the whys, providing detailed explanations, rules, and models. It is working really, really well for us. For your older daughter, why not just let her keep reading? Sounds like she is a natural speller if she tested out of Spelling Power. I wouldn't worry about her :). Okay, I'm just going to say it since you asked us to talk you out of it! Don't go for the cyber school. Talk about stress. Little flexibility. External deadlines. Nonsensical scope and sequences. Mostly multiple choice. No formalized discussion and narration times. I am not a fan of computerized education (in most cases) for the above reasons.

I'm always in for sales and deals, so please count me in :).

I haven't seen a response yet as to whether or not you NEED WWE if you are doing WTM-writing across the curriculum. I'd say the simple answer is no. :) We do tweaked, loosely WTM-style writing across the curric in a relaxed way along with our Rod and Staff and AAS. It has been an absolutely wonderful combination and we've made HUGE strides this year. Absolutely amazing. We also do CM-style narrations of independent reading, and have done a LOT of copywork for the past two years as well. All that being said - yes, if you are teaching some punctation and mechanics in there, just WWE it yourself. It can definitely be done. I had a problem with using snippets of lit. instead of what we were actually reading. That just feels so anthology like to me, and I hate literary anthologies. Sigh. Now, it does take more time as a teacher to figure out the hows and whys in order to apply it to your studies, and I am definitely still learning (it's a curve!) but it has been well worth it :).

My PreK girl always asks to spell words too. She wants me to spell all sorts of things out loud for her and then writes them down. She is a prolific writer. But she can't blend consistently! Ah, it's a funny stage. To be honest, I'd wait until reading is well established, THEN start AAS as both spelling and intensive phonics review. We did AAS1 in conjunction with learning to read with my oldest DD, then waited for her to finish phonics before digging into AAS2. I sort of wish we'd waited to do spelling until she'd finished her phonics. With 2nd DD we are doing AAR Pre-1 while we wait for blending to really kick in :). Umm, so I guess my answer is, "I'd wait."

Thanks :). I was *thinking* that it might be biology, chemistry, physics in order of difficulty, because that seems pretty intuitive. I know they are sort of supposed to be interchangeable, but often there are slight differences in difficulty level even within the same level of something IYKWIM?

Owls in the Family is CRAZY GOOD! My oldest daughter really didn't want us to read it to her, but she LOVES it! I don't know, the cover didn't do it for her, but she has been rolling on the floor laughing - literally - at some points in the story. I agree, if anyone knows of similar books, I'm all ears :).

Wahoo! I'm all over this then! We've wanted to do owl pellets for a while, and we are currently reading Owls in the Family!

Well, we never did the 'whole-shebang' A Beka phonics package. We got the Handbook for Reading, and all the grade 1 readers (though we didn't finish them all, we just went according to progress/need). I would do a page out of the Handbook each day, she would read me a reader story out loud. Day in, day out. When we got to the end of the Handbook, we stopped phonics because she was reading fairly well. THEN we started AAS 2 (we had already done 1) and will continue with that for the REALLY in-depth phonics and spelling. We are using the SL reader sequence to build fluency :).

Well, we never did the 'whole-shebang' A Beka phonics package. We got the Handbook for Reading, and all the grade 1 readers (though we didn't finish them all, we just went according to progress/need). I would do a page out of the Handbook each day, she would read me a reader story out loud. Day in, day out. When we got to the end of the Handbook, we stopped phonics because she was reading fairly well. THEN we started AAS 2 (we had already done 1) and will continue with that for the REALLY in-depth phonics and spelling. We are using the SL reader sequence to build fluency :).

Oooh, I wonder if Canadians can enter - I'm going to check!!

Apologia Astronomy. Ugh. This is my second time TRYING to make it work, but I just really don't like reading aloud from the text. My daughter even gave me permission to quit.... The KBC lapbook that went with Apologia Astronomy almost drove me insane, I just couldn't handle the way it is designed, VERY hard for me to figure out which elements needed to be done for which lesson and where they were in the file! I had to have like three or four pieces of paper out at the same time. I think those are the only things we officially ditched this year!

Hi! We just started NOEO Chemistry I and I think it will be perfect for my just-turned eight-year-old. She is really, really liking it. BUT Chemistry II looks like a big jump up in difficulty. SO, my question is - if you have used the level II books, how do they rank in order of difficulty? For example - is biology easier than chemistry? How does the physics fit in? Or are they all pretty similar? Trying to think about what we might do after we are done this :).

Oh, this is super-easy to do with a SL core! For a 1st and K, I'd go with Core A. We have been doing an older version (Core K) with a grade 2, and PK4/5 here. They both absolutely adore the read alouds, the history is a bit tough for the just-turned-five-year-old, and a bit easy for my grade 2 girl. I think it is absolutely perfect for grade 1. My 5er girl just sits in for what she is interested in because at her age it can be very informal. I think Core B (used to be core 1) might be too much for your little one if you want him sitting in for most of the core. Core A on the other hand is very rich even for grade 1.

What I loved, or what DD loved? ;) If she had her way she would do ALL content subjects of course, but what gets the job done and WORKS for skills are: AAS (finished level 1, now onto 2) Rod and Staff 2 A Beka - A Handbook for Reading and readers (now done) AAR Pre-1 (for DD #2) WTM writing techniques - we had always done copywork, but I really appreciate the new understandings of narration (written) and writing out of the existing course of studies We have also really been liking Sonlight :).

I got deluxe! DD #2 LOVES her Ziggy. DD #1 wishes she had done a fun program like this when she was small. She actually watches/plays along because it is so fun!

http://www.joyfulnoisescripture.org/ They are kind of 'homey', but we bought a CD of all their KJV songs on mp3 for like $45 or so? It was a great price, they have quite a few chapter length songs, longer passages, and lots and lots of short verses too :).

http://www.joyfulnoisescripture.org/ They are kind of 'homey', but we bought a CD of all their KJV songs on mp3 for like $45 or so? It was a great price, they have quite a few chapter length songs, longer passages, and lots and lots of short verses too :).

AAH is an all grades resource for the most popular homophones. There are 3 for grade 1, 6 for grade 2, and quite a few more for each of the grades from 3 - 8. HTH!