Agreed! I read a lot of the 'lesser known' Jungle Book stories to my oldest when she was around 5, and she really enjoyed them! Rikki Tikki Tavi is a great one!

That was sort of tongue in cheek Farrar, we have a huge collection of Seuss at home :). Sorry for the misunderstanding!

Ugh, I'm so sorry ladies. I don't understand why this keeps happening! Well, I do...it's my dial-up, I think it's timing out and refreshing, then I'm ending up with double-posts at times. Please excuse my bad connection.

Five in a Row has great picture book recommendations, there are also some good picture book treasuries like...drat, I don't have my copy unpacked from our move yet! Blueberries for Sal Make Way for Ducklings The Story About Ping The Little Engine That Could Anything by Virgina Lee Burton Caps for Sale The Story of Ferdinand The Real Mother Goose Any of the Frances books Anything Beatrix Potter These are on a LOT of reading lists I think...and my children love them all! Seriously, we can't read any of these too many times in my house without having a lapful of children up on my knee to listen to them. Basically, you are looking for picture books with staying power, not the new fluffy bookshelf fillers that come out every year (though some new titles are good too.) Eventually, doing lots of reading with your children should give you a good feel for what is 'twaddle' and what isn't. I try to do picture books every day for my littles, and some chapter book every day for my older (my wee ones normally nap for this, they fall asleep while I'm reading.)

I hope this is okay to post, but I wrote a free e-book that helps parents to choose a handwriting style. It talks about all the major styles and considerations in a wide variety of areas. You can download it here, no strings attached at all... http://bogartfamilyresources.com/products/free-downloads/ HTH any dealing with this issue. I really went through this with my own children, and wanted to save parents from having to reinvent the wheel with their own countless hours of research!

My avatar is the real me :). I look like that pretty much ever day with some slight variations!

Have you checked out the Ambleside Online book recommendations? I like their choices unless they contain objectionable elements for our family (I screen for fairies/magic etc. but that's a family by family thing.) My 4-yr-old is really into picture books more than chapter books right now as well - my oldest daughter started getting read aloud chapter books around that age (we started with Little House on the Prairie.) However, they are many GOOD picture books with rich vocabulary and word choices, just try to avoid loading up on a bulk of rather senseless ones (though we do love Dr. Seuss at our house!!!)

Are the kittens licking her? My 7-yr-old is allergic to cat saliva in particular, so if she comes in contact with it she breaks out. If she doesn't, she's normally pretty good around the cats. Also - strangely - some brands of cat food seem to provoke a stronger reaction in her than others!

Have you checked out the Ambleside Online book recommendations? I like their choices unless they contain objectionable elements for our family (I screen for fairies/magic etc. but that's a family by family thing.) My 4-yr-old is really into picture books more than chapter books right now as well - my oldest daughter started getting read aloud chapter books around that age (we started with Little House on the Prairie.) However, they are many GOOD picture books with rich vocabulary and word choices, just try to avoid loading up on a bulk of rather senseless ones (though we do love Dr. Seuss at our house!!!)

Thanks for the advice! I'll definitely check into Wheelocks and the LatinStudy list!

I haven't used RC, but my daughter would go insane if she had to do math for 1 - 2 hours every day...so would I most likely ;P. Our total seatwork takes 1 - 2 hours and I'm thankful for that!

She did a great job! They almost look like they are from a modeling portfolio!

The early levels are pretty easy to teach, but I was thinking of something more concise - like the low-down/overview for adults ;).

She could be a natural speller :). I didn't know any of the spelling rules until I started teaching my daughter! :O! Just keep an eye on her writing (whether formal or informal); I don't think you need to do a formal evaluation, just see if she's able to spell in the course of her daily homeschooling/correspondence activities (as long as her word choices are appropriately complex.)

Oops. Sorry about that! Internet connectivity problems and hit the refresh button!

This might be a bit different than you are looking for, but if you don't need a recorded CD and are willing to do the rhythmic talking for your children you might be interested in some of the ditties for historical events here: http://sizzlebop.com/ditties.htm

Hi All! I had a couple of years of Latin in high school, but, sadly, I've lost much of ti, though the vocabulary benefits have stayed with me. I'd love to brush up on the structure of the language (like what exactly are those declensions all about?) Does anyone have a book recommendation for me BEFORE I dig into Latin with my little ones? Thanks!

Illuminations is very groovy! It makes it VERY VERY easy to schedule readers alongside MOH readings. There is a LOT included there, even full length novel studies etc. I think it's definitely worth checking out if you like to use MOH as a spine. :)

Just another AAS family here. I like the concepts, mastery-based approach. We take around 1 lesson/week, but we have had to go back and rework our ways through certain concepts again...and again one time ;). BUT, that's all good, because I make sure that she KNOWS her concepts before we keep on trucking, and if in review later on she struggles we can just go back again and do more work in that area!

Agreed, it depends on if the child IS spelling well or not :). AAS would be great for remedial work if there isn't a strong phonics foundation and spelling has suffered as a result. If some work is needed on the more advanced/complex Latin-based words you might want to look into a roots based vocabulary program instead because that will automatically beef up spelling skills of those words :).

We're using AAS with my 7-yr-old, but I'm almost thinking it could have waited until she finished up her phonics. It is a bit like phonics reinforcement, but I find that my DD isn't really a natural speller (yet in any case), and it does teach encoding in ways that our phonics program doesn't teach decoding (like when to use c, when to use k at the beginning of a word, when to use k or when to use ck at the end of a word etc.) We've done a little in Simply Grammar, but found it a big vague - like the 'being' verbs, and what is a sentence, so we just picked up Rod and Staff, Building Christian English 2 and I'm very excited!

Hugs. I hear you, curriculum is ever, ever so tempting! How about going with a boxed/planned curric like Veritas Press? It's nice, lit included, classical oriented etc.

Are you looking for music or literature? We have the I Am Reading Latin series, it comes with a CD: http://www.bolchazy.com/prod.php?cat=latin&id=617X And these: http://www.bolchazy.com/prod.php?cat=latin&id=7032 (No CD) I normally just read them to the children on my knee and they enjoy it :). That's all I know of for little ones (they also have some Seuss translated into Latin, we have The Cat in the Hat done that way), but am always excited to hear about other resources!

You should check with them about making copies. If you get in touch sometimes they'll let you copy for a second child, but I think it depends on the product. When I emailed them about God's Great Covenant they told me I could make copies for ONE additional student, but that's it. So DO check before copying!

I actually found TWTM sort of overwhelming and too too much when I first read it. The scope and sequence sounded SO rigid! Of course, there ARE more flexible ways to homeschool classically :). Teaching the Trivium is a great book, and much more flexible/relaxed, particularly for young children. Their introductory sections are actually the BEST introduction to the WHY of homeschooling for Christians. BUT it is big :). I haven't found a short one yet, but I haven't read The Core, which looks good.