Interesting discussion at a birthday party the other day. It was between educators, a doctor, and lawyer non the less :lol:! We were talking about how memorization is much easier before reading occurs. Once children learn to read it seems memorization has less emphasis and no longer needed as much. What are your thoughts? We found it even funnier that non of us could remember an entire poem! Well minus myself and the poem DS and I have been working on. But, honestly I don't have it down nearly as well as he does!! Kind of proving the point...

For us: Phonics Road Right Start Math Considering Gods Creation and many science books Spanish at slow pace- Discovery Streaming Reading books together from library Possibly TOG if not I have SOTW 1 to start on Kindermusik and I'm looking into another activity to do with him Art is not a formal program, my own things I come up with. I do have Abeka 1 so I will pull from it at times.

For kindergarten this year I was given a report card from the kindergarten teach at our local school- where he would have gone. I just went through midyear for myself and checked what he had completed and where he still needed work. I will do the same at the end of the year (although we will go through the summer). Otherwise I just make sure he is completing the assignment and doing his best. We do redo until it is correct no matter what.

Make it fun whatever you do. Take breaks, take days off. Go outside and explore. Read, read, read. You don't need a curriculum, I found that out and ditched mine. We check out a lot of books at the library. Work on math for a bit, play some games, and then explore. We visit friends and family and talk about things. We snuggle with books and watch movies together. We play, we do puzzles, we cook, we color, we draw/paint, we pretend we are pirates. We play and build in the dirt, play with legos, we clean the house together. We even sometimes don't do "school" shhhh! But we have learned a lot. Oh and we love to travel and listen to books on tapes as well.

Thanks! Yes, we only use it for the lunch buffet at our local Pizza Hut, worth calling around to see if one will do it!

Fun thread! We are ending our first year I guess soon?? We plan on continuing through the summer so I'm not sure of our end date, lol. We plan on a break close to our two May birthdays and then back on in June :) We decided that SL wasn't for us and I finally ditched it and just have been reading through the books. We ditched HWT and formal handwriting for now, however he loves copywork so we do that. His coloring skills have blossomed, we have had to take breaks from reading but he is doing very well. I have found that anything related to science is good to go. We could do science all day long. I was also disapointed to find out that he isn't a huge craft person :( But overall we have had fun and many times when we are out doing something fun and pass by the school I realize how lucky we are as a family. My two year old knows her alphabet and numbers, my just turned four year old is almost keeping up in math and is asking to start reading. I never would have thought the younger children would be picking up as much as they are!

Think of how much tog, your littles are getting! lol.

Oh and love the point about being able to switch levels, I never thought about that but it makes perfect sense. Plus age wise I will have a 5 year spread at one point, I do not see any other curriculum where you can combine like this. I mean I know something may come up between now and then, but I am looking at least getting my moneys worth before it happens. We don't mind paying a good amount of money on a quality curriculum, versus spending the same amount on four differnt ones we don't like.

Thanks everyone! My husband and I were looking through the sample and the SOTW book I have and he said, why not just add in SOTW when you want? SOTW is a great book, I just don't think it would be enough for him. We have already traveled to many historical places and he is always way into it and I think he will be my science/history lover- like his mom ;) Not sure about the other three, but I feel with such a rich program I don't see how they couldn't. Do you add in timelining? What do you use? I also love the lapbook options and honestly will not go out of my way to do one unless it is done for me.

I've search and poured over threads, almost all of them I'm sure LOL! I am really feeling pulled towards this curriculum in so many ways. I have STOW and I just don't really love it as much as the samples of TOG. I want it to self educate and know I can do it other ways, but it just isn't as fun. I know it is expensive and that by the time my children are in high school something more exciting may be available. DH is on board with me as we are huge history lovers. I know my children might not be, but out of four at least one has to be right? :glare: It is part of our current curriculum budget and will be bought over time (books) and library usage as much as possible. I just have a hard time after 4th grade figuring how to get everyone on the same page. I didn't like SL and am not a fan of HOD. I'm just confussed as to why everyone says it really isn't written for the LG/UG levels, it looks fun and very educational, is it b/c the other levels are so amazing that the rest just isn't as great looking? I mean if it was just that program LG/UG for four years and nothing else would the opinion be different??

After sunlight la k being a flop for us I am ordering on Monday. How long does it usually take to arrive? Dh watched the video that came about the material and we both thought it is exactly what we've been looking for. I'm just worried about all the writing, any tips? Do they have a yahoo group?

So for the BJU would the student and teach textbooks be enough? For lower levels?? And then I could always just read sonlight books when I think they fill in, that is what we are doing w/ all of their books. I feel like the books they choose are wonderful, but the curriculumn as a whole isn't working for us :(

Anyone? :blush:

Thoughts on BJU versus sonlight? We did sonlight this year minus science and will not be continuing with the full program although I will use the catalog to look at book choices ;) But, I do like the look of science. However, I also love the look of BJU. Help!! Thanks :)

Anyone? :blush:

The only thing I would say is that with TOG after 4 years you'd have the four years purchased, everyone on the same schedual of history so less teaching of history, and then only the books. The first four years will be expensive, but break it down over the long run (if you plan on HSing all through). If you do Sonlight you have that purchase every single year for the first child, not just four years. You don't have to have every book, have you looked at the library to try and see how many they have? Do they have books similar in subject? I tend to always become distracted with Winter promise as well, but in the long run what I want to accomplish education wise doesn't fit long term. Pretty much the Animal one is the only one I'd do.

For a first grader, I'm thinking of TOG. However, in general do you always begin with the ancients? I think DS is capable of understanding it no problem and we could go to the Egyptian display at the Indianapolis Children's museum so that is a bonus for us. However, he really wants to start with the pioneer portion of it year 3. I was wondering if this was ok? I know that 2 of mine will start at year 1 and then no matter what when the other 2 come in it will be year 3. So what are the reasons for starting with ancients? I borrowed TWTM book from the library so I'm unable to reference it right now :blush:

What is everyone's take on it? I'm thinking about ditching a formal workbook thing and just doing copy work and dictation and helping him correct as we go. We finally have pencil grip down and the letters are starting to come along, however repeating all the letters over and over is not helping. We put it away for a few weeks and now he actually wants to write. I didn't know if someone had a reason why I should be doing it??

Thanks! I figured I had overlapping somewhere :) We are going ahead and doing TOG even though he's the oldest so we can get all the materials while we are still buying the other curriculum for only one and two, not four. So the cost will seem less. I figured up their ages and such and I should never have more than 2 stages at a time versus other program where I would be teaching at least 3 different levels. I figure combine as much as possible b/c I know I won't be able to on math and reading/spelling.

I am expecting it to be too much writing, but I plan on doing some of the writing to help in that area :) Ok so should I do OPGTR as well? :blush:

I know that it is possible and I don't want to overlap and overkill too much. I'm trying to get set what we will be moving onto. First I want to do AAS, I know that for sure. Do I need anything else phonics wise? Phonics Pathways and ETC is what I was thinking of using as well. He is getting ready to complete SL LAK in a few weeks. Now I also plan on starting TOG level 1 and getting the writing aides to go with it. But, I was looking at WWE too. Would this be pointless? Then how about FLL in addition to that? Is it too much. And this will be for a first grader. I'm sorry, I know that some of you that have had experience with this would probably have more insight before I buy a bunch of stuff I might not need :)

I am finding level A to be very short. I think maybe it was b/c it was taking soooo long for his other math program to sink in and it ended in tears. So this seems much faster. We aren't breaking into two parts yet b/c he is understanding it much easier. So maybe it depends on the child as well? I think the OP was asking about level A right? I'm not sure about older levels.

I have this one: http://www.amazon.com/SanDisk-Sansa-Clip-MP3-Player/dp/B002MAPRYU/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1294506169&sr=8-5 And the reviews for it are great, I love it. And just a warning, if I do audio books I get nothing done until the book is over :blush:

Thanks Faithe, that was a great post :) I almost completed a degree in elementary education before becoming frustrated w/ the school system in its entirety. So, sometimes it is hard for me to accept that school can be any other way. My children have started going into where we have all the school stuff set up in the evening and begging to do things and I found it odd, however they are more night owls. This is even on the weekends. I have started sending them outside to be with daddy more often during the day. It seems when they wake up they have so much play energy it is hard to focus them. I have thought about switching our times. It is also hard on us b/c my husband works a lot of hours in the summer when the weather is good and fall. He gets home after dark, or we are working outside putting up hay or in the garden until after dark so bedtime is always late and they seem to be set in that pattern. In the winter my husband is usually laid off and they want to catch up on daddy time and help him do everything he does outside. We are shortly getting ready to start maple syrup and I know that will take up a lot of time and they will want to be outside helping tap/collect/boil down. So I guess I was hoping I wasn't the only one that had a difficult schedual to work around and for someone to tell me it was ok to do "evening/night school" We also plan doing "school" all year with breaks when we need them. And for me to not do a formal math, spelling, etc. lesson every day.

Don't feel silly. I love things in pairs, even numbers. I have heard of many other adults loving certain primes or numbers as well. I have to have evens when I eat certain foods, it was worse when I was younger- as in if I had an odd number of M&M's I'd throw one away and eat them 2 at a time ;) I told my husband when we married it was either 2, 4, or 6 children. When we had #3 I told him he knew what that meant haha. So yes, we have 4 and are done. I function perfectly fine in life and have been able to tone down my "oddness" and it has never affected me other than maybe someone laughing at me for a second. I also had a best friend in HS that was the exact same way.