FYI, Memoria Press has two years of US history that would be worth 2 credits. As homeschoolers, we set our own graduation requirements,so I would look at college admission requirements to determine courses. Here are minimum requirements for UNC admission: https://www.northcarolina.edu/prospective-students/minimum-admission-requirements I would also be thinking about if you're going to try to take advantage of dual enrollment in a community college for 11th and 12th. A course like psychology might be better taken in that environment where it can also count towards college credit. Just my two cents! Amy

We use the Classical Composition series published by Memoria Press. However, next year we're also going to dabble a bit with Killgallon's "Sentence Composing for Middle School." While it's not a full writing curriculum, I mention it because I think you could cover the book in the summer and it is a "writing skills" book. There are also Killgallon books for paragraphs.

There are also review worksheets available for LC 1 that have been very useful for my DS.

Having almost completed Second Form, I know the workbook isn't just a fill-in-the-blank. The exercises are to write out vocabulary words in dictionary form, conjugate/decline, and translate (both words and sentences). There is usually only one page per week of fill-in-the-blank that deals with general grammar questions, and usually the derivative section is fill-in-the-blank. The workbook is all about writing things out.

Memoria Press goes from R&S 6 to College of the Redwoods Pre-algebra. I would never regret solidifying math facts and operations over early exposure to algebra topics. You can look over some topics in Math Mammoth 6 or something similar over the summer if you want, but all those things will be taught in pre-algebra.

We don't add Bible in TOG Year 1 since you basically do an overview of the whole Bible throughout the year. I also used Leading Little Ones to God when they were little. In 2nd grade my children did Explorer's Bible Study Beginnings II independently.

We used some of the VP lit guides in 2nd grade (Pinocchio, Baby Island, and The Railway Children) , and I wasn't pleased. They're basically comprehension questions and some projects/activities. I wanted at least some vocabulary thrown in. I guess it depends on what you're looking for in a lit guide. I like the looks of Memoria Press's guides better. Next year we'll be doing MP 3rd grade and 6th grade lit. I used the "Little House in the Big Woods" guide with my 2nd grader this year. Just my two cents. You can definitely do the literature without any guides at all.

We used Kumon workbooks at that age--mazes, tracing, cutting, etc. I started the ETC primers when they developed some phonemic awareness (hearing sounds at the beginning of words). My oldest was about 3 when that happened, but my youngest was closer to 4 yrs old.

We'll be using both CLE Reading 5 and Memoria Press Lit next year in 5th grade. CLE Reading 4 and up is only half a year. We spread it over 1 year and do 2-3 lessons per week. I like the gentle way CLE teaches literary analysis, so I think we're going to stick with it.

I remember Mountain Born being difficult to read. It seemed that I had to look at a whole sentence before I could read it aloud correctly...if that makes any sense.

I've never seen IEW's Fix It, but we use Evan-Moor's Daily Paragraph Editing.

Besides the obvious things-math and reading, reading, reading-I would say Latin and music. We're also cursive people. My favorite reason for cursive is that it's beautiful. Our public education system has lost the cultivation of beauty in favor of the seemingly practical. If they don't think it will get you a job, it's dropped.

Love that one! https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T3dpghfRBHE

First Form moves very quickly. A 5th grader with no Latin experience can do it. LC moves slower and can be less intimidating. Since my DD (4th grade) had Prima and LC, she didn't need to chant declensions/conjugations every day in First Form. She did the DVD lesson on Mondays, and then divided up the exercises for the rest of the week. Yeah, there was plenty of new stuff, but she had a good bit under her belt. Even so, First Form is a big time commitment. I think she spent at least 4 hours a week. So I would think that a student starting cold in First Form would need to spend some time each day doing recitation. As such, First Form would probably be more of a time commitment for a child starting it with no Latin experience. Also, the Form Series has the goal of mastery of grammar forms. Once completed, the student can go straight into Henle II. So, First Form has to be mastered before going to Second Form, etc.

My DD is finishing up First Form this week. We love it! It's very systematic, with lots of drill. We use the DVDs.

I think I used this for Paddle to the Sea a couple of years ago. Very cool!

We chose Memoria Press Latin (Prima, Latina Christiana, Form Series) because the grammar-first method of teaching resonates with me. http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/3-methods-teaching-latin

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pensacola_Christian_College#History

FYI, Memoria Press teaches Latin with the "grammar first" method, which is different than Latin With Children. Here's a short article about different methods of teaching Latin and why Memoria Press uses the method they do: http://www.memoriapress.com/articles/3-methods-teaching-latin

I found our administrator through a friend, but I'm always seeing sources pop up through our local homeschool group. As others have said, there are many different parts to the WJ test. We pay $65 for the achievement test (math, language arts, reading) to meet state testing requirements.

I think piano is the perfect first instrument, but then again I know young kids learn the play the violin, too. I can't imagine starting a 4 yr old on guitar, though.

I think that's normal. My DS would probably spell "fright" as "frite." Although, he seems to be getting to the point where he may say it doesn't look right. Again I would encourage other dictation and copywork. It will give you an opportunity to address some common words that you haven't reached in AAS. My DS hasn't learned many words outside of AAS. We even had to practice the word "said" forever before he got that one. If you feel AAS is working, I'd probably stick with it.

Our memory work so far has been limited to Bible verses, poems, and grammar lists, the latter two being those in First Language Lessons.

My DD is in 4th grade and is halfway through Level 7. Of course, she is a natural speller and can also handle several dictation sentences at once. My DS is in 2nd grade and is in level 3. He is not a natural speller and doesn't have a great visual memory for how words are spelled. We'll just be going through the levels at his pace. It would be pointless to rush him. He needs lots of review, and he's nowhere near being automatic in applying what he has learned. What kind of speller do you have? My DD would have done just as well with a burlap sack spelling program. Some kids, like my DS, just need something systematic and deliberate to learn to spell. Doing dictation outside of spelling is a great idea. I always spell words for him that I haven't taught, but sometimes I will comment on why they're spelled the way they are (if I know). So it's a great way to get some extra spelling instruction in there before you get to it in AAS.

I can so relate. My DS will finish WWE2 next week. He also struggles with spelling (we're in AAS 3). He's actually done surprisingly well with dictation considering the fact that I have to spell every other word for him, but the longer dictations just don't go as well. Last week (week 34) I gave up on one of the Hobbit dictations and just had him copy it. And today I'm going to skip the longer dictation from Dr. Doolittle and do a dictation from FLL 2. I just don't see how he's going to be able to do the dictations in WWE3. Next year he will be doing MP 3rd Grade Lit. Their Intro to Composition program pulls dictation/copywork/narration from that literature, and the dictation passages are supposed to be much shorter than what's in WWE3. I think we will still do some summarizing from WWE3 because I like the variety of passages used in WWE3.