My very protestant dh became officially Catholic this week-end (our baby was baptized on Easter, too, but that's just a fun fact!) So, in changiing to a more Catholic homeschool, I've changed my religious focus from Bible to Catholic catechism. We've been using the religion plans from Catholic Heritage Curriculum http://www.chcweb.com/catalog/index.html to prepare for my son's First Communion and it's been great. I bought extra supplies for my tag-along 3 year old and they both have enjoyed the hands-on parts. CHC is a full curriculum that's doable for Moms with little ones and you can buy just the parts you need. It's lighter than say, Sonlight, but sometimes you need that! I know they encourage independance and start with daily assignments for the kids in 3rd. If you email them they reply personally with lots of detail, so you could contact them and get more information. I hope you find something that works! PS It's not curriculum, but I recommed the Once Upon A Time Saint books for reading aloud. We've really enjoyed them.

http://harmonyartmom.blogspot.com/p/harmony-fine-arts-info.html If you want some ideas, you can look at her samples for each grade. I've heard great things about the lessons plans and am planning on doing the second grade plans with my third grader this year (to start at the beginning of the art history cycle.)

Yes, but the flashcards are shipped from England, so they come separately. I hope you like it. DB is really helping my son but it's not the funnest part of my day!!

My son has had it for about 2 years and I think it's worth it. I didn't do lessons, though, he just built from the instructions. He later got 2 add-on sets. I think hydraulics/pneumatics and motorized machines. Honestly, the projects aren't that exciting compared to some of the big lego sets, but the teach how things work and the legos can be used to build other things later.

I don't have an answer for you, but I started it with my son 2 days ago. He flipped out over some of the flashcards because the font was different - for example he thought the l was a j due to the little tail the l has. I put away the flashcards and am just using the text and he's doing fine. We'll see how it goes!

Your son sounds extremely like my son. I have just started Dancing Bears with him. I hope it helps! Here's the link. http://www.prometheantrust.org/

Take a look at PAL Reading (Primary Arts of Language) from IEW. I think your dd would enjoy it - it's got games and stickers. http://www.excellenceinwriting.com/pal-rc

Wow! He must be a natural reader. After finishing LTR, my son struggled to read on a first grade level...I actually couldn't continue on with CLE Reading 1 with him because it was too much. So, anyway, it's great that your son is doing so well!

I also want to recommend the Love Languages book. It's really helped my family. Dh and I express and receive love totally differently and our children are also completely different. I've noticed that ds (8) has gone though various stages where his needs changed. A big thing for him his one-on-one time with Mom or Dad. It's hard to make that happen sometimes, but we have a happier and more loving child when we make it a priority. This isn't to say one-on-one time is what your dd needs, but as an example of how a child can change when their "love tank" is being filled...when he doesn't get that special time, he complains about his lack of friends and being board and lonely. If you want to read the book, you can probably get it from your library. I hope things get better soon! Another book you might like is Your Nine Year Old by Ames and Ilg. I recently read it and the authors state that 9 yos in general are moody and withdrawn, but that it's a stage that will pass, so hopefully that'll be true in your case.

I've found coconut oil to work wonders on my dd. Ds had horrible rashes and nothing really helped long term. With dd, at the first sign of redness I would put on raw, virgin coconut oil and the redness would be gone- usually that day, sometimes the next. One time I didn't have any coconut oil handy and used regular baby cream for a day or two and the rash got worse than normal. I had to apply the coconut oil twice a day for a week at that point, but it still worked.

I second Making Music Praying Twice. It is made to do at home. My 8yo sings and plays along, so your 7 yo should be fine, but there is no music reading component. Every song is included on the cds, so you don't have to be able to read music. It's also includes a few Catholic prayers and songs, which might be a plus or not, depending on your family. If, on the other hand, you want to include music reading and solfege, Musikgarten curriculum can be bought without being an affiliate teacher, but you really need to have basic musical skills to be able to teach it. And it's meant for a class, so it's not as easy to teach, IMO! Oh, and it's expensive, at least compared to MMPT.

He's supposed to draw in the lines as if the missing dots were there.

Well, I think that by just following the directions, spelling, reading and writing are worked on. I checked his progress today and in 2 months he's gone from spelling at a 1.5 to a 1.9 grade level - which is very satisfying to me as his teacher! I realized that I didn't clearly ask my question which was, should I introduce fewer new words each week with more review of the old to retain the spelling, or is teaching more quickly OK. I'm wanting to follow Spalding's direction of 30 words per week, but wonder if 20 would be better for long-term retention. On the other hand, these words are so common, that I think the "WRTR language" used for spelling help would also provide review! It's hard right now not to just say "n...o...w" rather than the phonograms, but I'm sure we'll both get used to it in time. Thanks for your help.

I am using WRTR to help my 8 yo progress in reading. I'm not so concerned about his spelling at this point, but rather learning the phonograms and being able to read harder words. My question is, if I do 30 words per week with him, does it matter it he doesn't retain the correct spelling? I've noticed that even when we've gone over certain harder words (you, for example) enough times for him to temporarily learn the spelling, he forgets very quickly. He does remember other things very well, though, and is loving the program. Who would have thought that just flashcards, a pencil and a notebook would be so satisfying to an active 8 yo boy! I think he can see the value in what he's doing and likes the work as it's logical and not "fun." He is also gaining confidence in reading, which is wonderful to watch.

:lurk5: I need serious inspiration in this area!

PAL isn't that time consuming if you get the games ready before lesson time. For the first few months we spent about 20 minutes twice a day plus a few minutes of independent work time - I'd say about 5-10 minutes. You can also just practice writing letters in sand or some other non-paper way, or just skip the writing. Having all the review games means that writing really isn't that essential. As far as Pre-K, my 2 year old can do the first 2 games (alphabet and letter sounds). So, you could use it and just take it slow. The way PAL is set up, you can play the games as many times as you want before going on, so taking it slow is easier than other curriculum I've tried. I'll be using the games with my preschooler. But, if I didn't already own PAL, I'd wait to buy it when my child had a good grasp of letter sounds and was able to blend 3 letter words because PAL introduces harder phonograms (ar, ui, etc) right from the start and that's a lot for a little one!

We switched from CLE to MM. I really like the way MM makes us think - I have to take a moment or two to figure out how to do the problems sometimes. I think my son finds it very intuitive, though. The spiral nature of CLE ended up making the lessons longer than needed for him, and he really didn't need to do all that review. Once he gets something, the concepts stick. Hope that helps you decide!

Ours was often on 24/7, no fires!!

My son didn't understand 1+_ =10 at six or 7, but now that he's 8 that kind of problem is very easy for him. I think it's just a maturity thing. I didn't do anything other than give him more time.

Primary Arts of Language

IEW even pays the shipping costs if you send something back. I think that is really awesome of them.

SL has 1 experiment each week. The supply kit has the things you need to do the experiment and the dvd shows someone else doing the experiment. So if you're not into experiments you could skip both of those. The worksheets aren't crafty at all. There is a little coloring, but mostly it's just answering questions about the text. Sometimes there'll be an activity - cut and paste or draw a line to show your answer and sometimes - mostly, I think - it's just a line to write the answer. I ended up not using the worksheets, but my ds is not a worksheet lover, so your family might enjoy them!

We are loving it here, too. I am using it with my 8 year old, and we end up doing more than one lesson per day. He didn't spend much time with Mugs, although he liked him. But it's such a good program for him - the games for review rather than no review or drill-type of review. I'm hoping that PAL will help him become a fluent reader this year.

I recommend PAL. The way the phonograms are introduced and repeatedly reviewed in a low-stress way has really helped them stick in my son's mind. He likes adding stickers to the farm and going over the phonograms using the farm and the games. It's more fun than flashcards, although I've added those (from SWR) as well. My son is easily stressed when he feels that he doesn't know the material, so lots of straight-up drill makes him feel discouraged. We tried ASS but he got upset going over the same concept day after day and he didn't remember what he was supposed to be learning. PAL is more like a gentle rain that sprinkles in the knowledge, so you can move ahead with the lessons and still keep learning the older phonograms and concepts. We like PAL for that reason. :)

All those cutsy comments get really annoying! I like the idea of Apologia but have found that library books are more fun and we learn a lot for free.