Thank you Jean! We really enjoy an incremental approach as well, so while my oldest is still too young, I'm definitely short-listing this program :). It has been exciting to see her writing connections just starting to click lately. She told me a couple of days ago, "Mommy, I like writing now that I know how to do it!" All that copywork and narration (just starting dictation) is starting to come together in some mysterious way, so I think she'll be ready in 4th! :D

Hah! I couldn't get through it the first time either and now DD is making me do it! :lol: I feel like pitching it too though!:glare: I am looking for SOMETHING ELSE after we slog through it. Must start a thread - "If I DON'T Like Apologia Astronomy, I'll Love...?"

Good on ya!

If you visit Sonlight make sure you check out their media library. They have a lot of mp3s there, some of which are dedicated to teaching SL in a larger family with strategies to do that (including co-ordinating cores like SL 1 with SL 7). We are rarely 'on schedule' with our IG either. So, what I do is I just move through the days at our own pace. If we put SL down for a few days, I just open it up again and start on the next day! No 'dates' in the IGs, so that is pretty easy for me to do with no guilt! Also, an experienced HS mom told me once that sometimes you just need to buy what will work NOW, and not worry so much about...5 years down the road (LOL, talking to myself here! I do this a lot!) :) Sometimes a pre-planned open and go resource can teach you how to arrange lesson plans, and can actually teach you how to teach - SL is certainly doing some of that for me! Oh, we are rural too! I just CAN'T HS without having ALL the books on my shelf. Inter-library loans are so unpredictable - we might wait 3 months for a book out here :(. That's another reason I really like SL too - not library dependent.

I have next year planned already...but catalogs are always SO fun! I waste SO much time looking throgh them. Oh, no, wait. That counts as research....right??!! :)

I have SL 1+2 waiting on my shelf for as soon as I'm done our core K :). It looks like a GREAT year! We are going to use it as an overview of world history before we dive into a 4-year-cycle. That way I will have a general idea of where we are going with history in our more in-depth years! Like Heidi mentioned, it does look very full, both history and geography wise, so the littles might be tagging along a lot, but it would be pretty good for fourth. I'll have a 3rd, k, toddler, and baby when we go through. I can hardly wait to get started. (Sometimes I am tempted to skip the rest of K...I'm trying to talk myself out of that though!)

We like MUS, it's pretty open and go for us, with less 'stuff' to manage than RS!

I have an external hard drive that I automatically back up to, but I also plan to burn MM to a cd after I get it.

Thank you Jean for taking the time to reply. I do write extensively in my free time, and consider myself a competent writer. However, I am in the dark when it comes to teach writing skills to my little ones. Thank you for your feedback, I am definitely going to investigate the program more thoroughly. Are the student workbooks consumable or reproducible? Does the scope and sequence include outlining at some point? We also use a separate grammar program. The cost seems very reasonable in comparison to some other programs.

Well, I haven't done this - but now you have to tell... WHAT are you re-purchasing this year? :)

They don't have a LOT of material on their website, but I like that it is a comprehensive progym. program that starts in 4th. It doesn't seem there are a lot of easy to use progym. programs out there for homeschoolers. (CW...scares me.) So, has anyone used this? Is it pretty open and go? :bigear:

We use ziploc bags :) - sandwich bags work great!

Okay, I'm only up to page 8, but I must post! We actually like a lot of things other people don't. Like MUS - my daughter thinks Demme is a genius, and has said so several times :). R&S English 2 has been a huge confidence booster in writing for my DD. What hasn't worked for us - Phonics Road to Reading. Ugh, I learned that I can NOT teach from a DVD, no way, no how. I need something on PAPER! 100 EZ - daughter cried, I didn't like the made-up alphabet - my mom loved this for my youngest brother though Rocket Phonics - we liked the rocket and the card games, what I didn't like was the made-up alphabet (ugh), and the teaching materials were a bit confusing to me I think transitional alphabets should be outlawed. Apologia Astronomy - I think this is SO boring, and the KBC lapbook we bought is so poorly organized :( It makes me want to bang my head against the wall trying to find what I need to print for each lesson from the pdf. BUT, DD loves it, and I have the supplies kit, so we are chugging along :(. Sob!

Phonics Road - I COULD NOT make it work as a teacher. I can't learn to teach something from DVDs - especially something like handwriting and phonics without endless rewinding/fast forwarding etc. I MUST have something on paper for it to work for me.

And I still need to place my order! I'm sure I'm not the only one :). We need to wait until after the 20th.

Because SL's LA is integrated with their readers, you'd still have to pick a core year in SL and use the readers and the LA AND the TOG.... Seems like it could get complicated to me! Especially since the SL readers in the higher levels (core 3 and up) are directly tied to the history readings, it would be a lot of leg work to mesh it with the TOG weeks. Of course, we don't use SL LA, we use separate programs :). So, bump for you if someone more experienced wants to chime in here!

We use AAS as phonics reinforcement, but not as our primary phonics program. My DD moves much more quickly through her phonics than she does through her spelling, which is fine with me. She has become a competent reader much more quickly than she is...becoming...a competent speller :).

But seriously...have you ever cut out everything needed for The Phonics Road!!!??? AAS is EASY-PEASY in comparison! :)

I'm waiting on our set to arrive. My 2.75 yr. old has been tagging along for fun with the free e-book activities, but I don't expect her to formally participate. She's a Leap Frog fan too and likes to watch us do spelling lessons with AAS, but I'm just letting everything be osmosis for now; she's still just tiny :).

I bet your dc would love to help! LOL, okay, only let the 4-yr-old help, the 2-yr-old might create chaos! :)

Well, we are in Canada, so if I try to piecemeal it together online, shipping will kill me. I did get a 1+2 core used for a great price, but that only works for us if I can get the WHOLE core. Our library is small and rural, so I really need the whole core. I normally have a few of the books on my shelf already, but if I can buy used the savings are worth the duplicate copies. Unfortunately, I don't ever get free shipping from SL to Canada (wish I could!)

Well, I don't have it, but from the samples they are two very different writing programs. WWE seeks to build writing skills incrementally through copywork, narration, and dictation. PAL is designed to accompany a reading program, and teaches all the way from letter formation (integrated with their reading), and on into grammar and composition. As a result, the scope and sequence is going to be different, the approach is different...they are going to be...different. I don't think anyone has the PAL in hand yet to be able to give a 'hands-on' analysis.

I really, really thought about getting the workbooks, but ultimately decided this is something that I need to learn to do for my children, myself, so I can be a better teacher for them. Also, I just can't stomach giving my children isolated passages! I let DD pick her own copywork selections from her independent reading selections :O! I am still trying to figure out dictation, so I'm just using the sentences in AAS 2 for that :). She actually has a blast with that, a bit of a perfectionist so she likes that she can spell the words herself without asking me for spelling help. Narrations are pretty easy! Now, that being said, I know your feeling OP! It seems like it is too easy, or like it isn't getting done because you aren't making progress through the pages of a workbook! (Or...maybe that's just me!!) I had the Complete Writer on loan from the library, but it had to go back, I bought a copy and hope it's waiting for me at the post office next time we go to town, with my very own copy of WTM as well. I hope re-reading them will help quell the voice of my internal box-checker/page flipper! (Because, to be honest, sometimes the workbook still tempts me!) I need to draw up an LA schedule that I can check off that shows me how often I need to do narrations/dictation/copywork, then I can just check them off and satiate that inner box checker of mine!

If you want a very gentle intro to map skills, Follow That Map is a good choice. If you look it up on Amazon, I think I have a full review up there.

There are some yahoo groups too. I got a great deal on a 1+2 SL from Used Homeschooling Curriculum here: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Used_Homeschooling_Curriculum/