I recently purchased one unit of TOG DE - year 2, unit 1. I've read the materials over and over and we are ready to start our first week. I cannot figure how to "set up notebooks" as it suggests for the students. Could someone tell me where this is explained? I can find the "Year 2 Setup Information" document, which describes that every student needs a notebook, they need tabs and they can decorate them, etc. But I can't find where it describes WHAT the tabs are supposed to be and so forth. I'm sure it will be easier as time goes on to find information using TOG DE, but right now I feel like I'm trying to find a needle in a haystack. Help?

My midwife recommends coconut oil for moisturizer.

I would think WWE2. We did about 25+ weeks of WWE1 with my 7yo, as he really needed the handwriting and copywork practice, but there was no dictation unless it began in the very last weeks (which we did not do). We recently moved to WWE2, and he is doing just fine. It starts gently as well, still covering narration but at a faster pace and encouraging summaries from the beginning, which only occurred near the middle/end of WWE1. So there is my opinion, coming from having done most of 1 and on 2 now. Others further along will chime too, I'm sure. :)

Some do go away around age 3 or 4 per our pediatrician at the time. Her own son was a case of that, anaphylaxis early on, no allergy after age 4 (via peanut ingestion challenge in controlled circumstances). I honestly forget the statistic she gave us but I seem to recall around 30% maybe "outgrow" it. My son was not as fortunate.

Count me among those who detest poetry. It is not because I didn't have a solid background in it, from good teachers at that. I had years of it in high school, AP classes, dynamic teachers. I still hate it. I understand it when I want to/have to, but I never ever seek out poetry to read. That said, I teach it to my son. He can make his own decision like I did. I probably even go overboard on the exposure to overcome my bias of avoiding it. And so I don't pass on too much dislike in my voice, we do a lot of audio CDs of poetry, poetry to song, etc. The most exciting, enjoyable stuff I can find for his age level is what I look for. I honestly still detest it, even at that level. But he is so-so on it, doesn't seem to hate it or love it so far, so that is good. :D

We school year round, with a week off here and there for camps in the summer. It is a little harder, of course, because the kids in the neighborhood are knocking on the door early in the morning. We do a lighter schedule to still allow for plenty of summer fun activities. My oldest has ADHD and anxiety disorder. He thrives on a consistent schedule, day in and day out, every day pretty much similar. Transitions are quite hard for him. He is much better when he knows exactly what to expect every single day, so that is how we do it. We school every day except Sunday, all year long. But we do less than we would each given day than if we only schooled 4 or 5 days a week for 9 months of the year.

I didn't vote - some we have done in 1 year, some in less, some in more. I'm starting core 2 right now, so still in the lower cores. And our pace in any one core varies widely. If we love a topic, we stretch it. If it is just "okay" per the kids, we just go regular pace or faster and move on to the next thing. :)

I wish this too. I ordered from them and Amazon the same day and got the Amazon order 2-1/2 weeks faster. I like Rainbow, love their selection, but sure wish I could have updates.

Me personally, no. My oldest has anaphylactic shock to a variety of nuts - peanuts, cashews, walnuts and a milder reaction to some of the others. He was just allergy tested again yesterday in fact to update his profile and so forth. It did play a role in our homeschooling him. He was in the ER shortly after he went to an early learning center at 3 (I worked FT then). We informed them of the allergy, etc., and gave them his epi-pen. They indicated complete understanding. And his teacher forgot within a month or two and gave him a peanut butter cracker with the snack the kids were having. They called me instead of giving the epi-pen or calling an ambualnce and it could have killed him. What if I hadn't been home? They were shook up and only then admitted they didn't understand the severity. Within a month his whole face was swollen because they gave the other 3-year-olds peanut butter at the table and didn't clean it up properly (3yo kids are messy!). He got it smeared on his hand and face but not ingested and swelled up incredibly, eyes swollen shut within minutes. We pulled him out and started on the journey that led us to homeschooling, until he was "older" at the time. Well, homeschooling works for us so we still do it. :D I do in fact meet an incredibly large number of homeschoolers with various degrees of allergies present in their children.

This is the critical point here. If you are going to use the actual LA and not just the readers, you need to pick on writing ability. This is just not stressed enough at Sonlight. They assume a much higher writing level than reading level for a particular LA package, at least the ones I have used so far, up to LA2 advanced. LA K includes how to read. I'm using it with my pre-K child right now. It includes for example Getting Ready for the Code, etc., series of books suggested as the optional workbooks. It still has the strange thing of during the same day teaching the child what sound the letter M makes for example, teaching them to write the M and then .... having them write out their entire address as the LA "writing assignment" for the day. :confused: And this is before they start to teach reading with their little book set at all. It seems to be like this all through their LA, almost as if the person suggesting their writing assignments does not read or know anything about what the child is doing for the rest of the LA, or is writing them for at least a level or two above what the child is capable of at that point if you were to match the LA to reading level. Now maybe this evens out core 3 and above (I hope so!) but it is crazy in the lower cores and something to be clearly aware of as you are choosing, if in fact you plan to use the LA and not just the readers. The readers themselves prior to core 3 do not align with the topics covered in history by the way either. Once you hit core 3, they align.

We are about to start Medieval times in study with my oldest, and I know my 4yo would be interested. I found a great book about Knights by Gail Gibbons at the library that is just his level. We have only been to a festival a few times, prior to kids. The ones we went to had plenty of kid-friendly activities, and a good atmosphere, but that was also a decade ago! Hope you find this fair is one you want to attend with family, because what a great opportunity. :)

It sounds like you have a good system that is functioning the same as the SL map anyway. I personally wouldn't invest. We do have the markable map, older style. We use it LESS than an outline map book and other maps I print out.

My 7yo DS does the family room (toy area) by himself, and my 4yo does their combined room by himself. Each though only does it after literally months of training them HOW to do it with a parent sitting with them saying things like "now pick up all the Legos and put them in the bin" and so forth. My 7yo is pretty consistent now and pretty fast. He occasionally skips stuff shoved under the coffee table and so forth, but I'm pleased with his work overall. My 4yo has the easier task because their room has less toys of different types. He does ok by himself now 75% of the time as long as it is done diligently daily. If it has been a day or two and the room is particularly messy, he needs the assistance of a parent or his older brother. Again though, I really had to spend quite a bit of time teaching them and working together with them before they made it to the independent stage. And we do it right before dinner (meaning while I am cooking dinner). They have to complete it before they eat. Sometimes my younger one is a few minutes late if he is procrastinating, but the smell of dinner usually leads to a sudden bit of energy for the cleanup. He always has a huge smile too when he is done, so proud of himself, and we are always free with the praise. :)

My DH finally started treatment a few months ago (after our son began treatment) and wow what a difference. He feels a lot better about himself concerning his work performance, says he just thinks clearer. I have to admit a LOT more is getting done around the house without constant nagging on my part - a HUGE relief in our marriage. He takes a really old stimulant. I can't recall the name, but it is from like the 50s or 60s, very well studied. He has a short time period in the blood too, which he wanted. He has to take it 2x a day, but then it wears off for sleep. If he doesn't take it on the weekends, we can really really tell ("we" meaning his family).

There was a big article in the LA Times last month or this month about charters and the positive impact they are having in that district in terms of competition with the regular PS. The feeling of the author in analyzing scores and interviews, was that the charter competition has led to increased performance in the regular public schools in the area. I read it hardcopy, but it may be online at the Los Angeles Times site as well if you are interested in it.

We have done SL from P3/4 through core 1 now, about to start core 2. Overall, I have been pleased. But I just purchased a unit of TOG DE to try. I love the literature in SL, but I do feel like I could be doing more with my 2nd grader (we are in the 2nd 1/2 of 2nd grade right now) in terms of history. So I'm going to try to blend TOG with SL some, taking selections from both. We'll see how that goes in one unit. I have used SL language arts through LA2 int now and don't particularly care for it at all. Like a lot of people, my problem is the readers are extremely boring for his reading level but anything higher is too hard for his writing level. Plus, of course, I can't really go beyond LA2 adv anyway because in core 3 you need to have the LA match the core. My hope is TOG will provide some more meaty reading selections for him. He does his own choosing too at the library, of course, but recommendations that correlate with the time period being studied are always welcomed! I love that TOG has so many additional/alternate suggestions to keep a voracious reader going. I know a lot of people suggest SL is just too much reading, but I haven't found that at all personally. Again, we just finished core 1, so perhaps I haven't really hit it yet. Right now I can easily keep up with reading all the required core 1 plus P4/5 for my younger son, and we are complete by early afternoon even with breaks and seat work time. A SL LA reader that is scheduled over 2 weeks takes my son less than 1/2 hour to read at this point. For the last couple months we have been doing 2 weeks of core 1 every week. My oldest is advanced in some ways, but honestly even at double time it has been a very manageable load, and I have added extra seat work, WWE, FLL and lapbooks plus some extra library reading in there. SL science to me at this level is scattered all over the place, probably deliberately at a "survey" type of thing, but we find it frustrating and lacking in depth for his interest level. He does a week or two of science in a day on his own easily with perfect comprehension. So that isn't working for us. Others love it, so take what you will from our opinion there. :)

We love Weiss here. My 4yo is especially interested right now in his "Uncle Wiggly's Storybook," "Animal Tales" and "American Tall Tales." We also have Mother Goose in the "Wee Sing" collection that he likes quite a bit.

We too love the Kumon ones here. Even my 2yo loves hers, so she can be like the big guys. She likes the cut/paste one best. There is coloring, folding, maze books, stickers, etc. We get most of ours at Costco.

We used the A to Z as part of Sonlight's core K program. It was okay for us, but not a great fit for our family (we're Catholic not Protestant, but nothing I offensive on the CD). The content was fine, and my son did like it. I personally grew up Protestant and it would have been just the thing to help me memorize those verses. ;) Edited to be more clear - we used the A to Z one on a 5 yo - worked fine for him.

I was elementary in the later 70s and early 80s - we did multiplication memorization but not addition/subtraction. And past that stage we did do a LOT of memorization of course of the rules into algebra, geometry and so forth.

We budget for it. We did not when we had CC debt and a car loan. All money went to those, but we were also fortunate that our kids were younger. We still do have a mortgage, and we pay extra towards it, but we have some fun money too for activities for the kids and as a family. What works for our family is a balance of paying off our mortgage faster while still making good memories and enjoying life today. I agree with the poster though who said if you are using your CC to pay for kid activities, that probably isn't a good idea. A stressed out, financially unstable family is probably worse for the average kid than no fee-based enrichment activities. If you absolutely cannot afford it right now, there is always the local park, story times at the library (ours has a few for older kids) and so forth --- free stuff. Then add back some of the others later when the finances are better.

I thought they were worth it simply because they gave my son confidence in his ability to read the "whole book" by himself. For that reason we got the sets. He could have done some of the Dr. Seuss at that time, but he didn't feel he could. After the bob books, he was confident and ready.

Poor thing! We have had our share of rotten Dr. visits. And my newly turned 4yo took up biting again for a month or two last fall. I'm very thankful it seemed to pass. I honestly don't think it was anything we did (the No Biting books, talking, etc, etc., etc., seemed not to impress him) but just was a phase, a phase I thought we had passed when he was 2, but a phase nonetheless. Hope you have no further incidents and the doctor visit just pushed her past her limit.

We have liked Sonlight. I have kids similar in age to yours, so will answer from my perspective: LA: Pick based on writing level not reading level. My son can read anything he picks up with great comprehension and enjoyment. He did LA2 int this year and it was a good, challenging fit. It started the year with the basics of teaching writing a paragraph and went forward from there. There was not much grammar at all (I supplemented). There is what I feel is a LOT of creative writing though. But then again we did WWE 1 this year too, and I am based towards that rather than a lot of creative writing ala Beechick. The LA2 int and the WWE worked for us - I skipped part of La2 writing. I supplemented grammar. I picked out assignments here and there in SL LA that I felt were interesting, and to see his progress. It is easier for me to supplement the too-easy readers with library books than to completely tone down the writing component of the LA. I did LA1 in his K year, and it was difficult for him. He was a good reader but struggled with writing. If your younger is stronger in writing, it may work for you. Or you can be her scribe. I am just starting core 2, so cannot comment from a personal perspective there. We enjoyed core 1 thoroughly and stretched it out. I have been happy with SL in general. We have done all their current cores through 1, now starting 2. I tweak them a bit, but I love the foundation for this age. Their science, I feel, is just OK, not great. It skips all over the place, and the experiments do not align with the rest of the week. That drives me a bit batty. It has changed a bit I hear since my current version though so may be a bit better. I do not think science is one of the particular strengths of SL.

Rainbow Resource carries it too. I am anxiously awaiting mine. :) I use SL, but I wanted some other figures, and honestly with 3 (soon 4) kids, paying each level each kid for the sheets made the CD worth it to me.