We're up! Following Foundations

I have a K'er and a 2nd grader. We have two sessions each day. The morning is mainly seatwork, and in the afternoon we do reading, history, & art/music. Anything that requires any substantial amount of reading aloud has to be done during my 18-month old's naptime. If not, I am bombarded with board books and loud protests that I'm reading history and not Goodnight Moon. However, even if a loud toddler wasn't an issue, it works pretty well for us to be at the table in the morning and on the couch in the afternoon. We usually take about an hour and a half for lunch and playtime in between. I guess I should add that my K'er doesn't work all morning. It takes about 30-45 minutes for him to do all of his seatwork (the time being largely determined by how often we're interrupted by my toddler climbing up on the table and grabbing pencils), and then he is free to play. My 2nd-grader usually has about an hour & a half in between.

I started my DD when she was 3.5 yrs old in OPGTR (starting with the lessons on CVC words) and she finished about 2 years later. We started adding in Bob Books early on, and then about six months into it, I started her on Sonlight's Grade 1 Readers. She was always ahead in OPGTR compared to the SL books, but sometimes there were words that were introduced in the readers first. (I had the same experience with Bob Books.) Overall it was a really good fit. I like the progression in the Sonlight readers. I'm now doing the same thing with my DS, although right now he's going at a slower pace. I started back in January with him when he was 4.5 yrs old and made it through the "silent e" lessons. At the beginning of this school year, I spent several weeks repeating the lessons on silent e. Now we're finally moving into the next section. He's also doing the Sonlight Grade 1 Readers. My goal is for him to complete OPGTR at least by the end of 1st Grade.

I read through it last year with my 6 yr old. We really enjoyed it, but I think she would have gotten more out of it if she were a bit older. We're on the second book in the series now.

In NC, there's a Renaissance Faire near Charlotte every fall. For earth science, there are many places to go gem mining in western NC. We just went to the Emerald Hollow Mine in Hiddenite, NC yesterday. There's also Linville Caverns in NC, but I've never been there. There's also Williamsburg for the colonial period.

Last year my 1st grader (strong reader) did: WWE (4x) FFL 1 (3x) AAS (3x) Reading (5x): We did this in the afternoons using Sonlight readers. Now she was writing very well, so we didn't do formal handwriting last year, but if we had she would have done A Reason for Handwriting 5x a week. Next year I'll have a first grader, and I'm sure he'll still be doing phonics. We'll do OPGTR daily, and he may do a couple of pages in ETC for reinforcement (he needs its.) I may start AAS slowly with him. AAS is so simple in the beginning that I wouldn't substitute it for our phonics. It would be like going back to the beginning! I think he can learn how to spell CVC words while doing more advanced phonics.

Regardless of whether you find a dvd curriculum, I agree with others that you should work with your little ones first thing. Are there things that all of the older ones can do independently? Some math, handwriting, reading? I would have them do those things first while you work with your littles. For my 5 year old, we do all of the seatwork in the morning, and then right after lunch I spend about 20-30 minutes doing read-alouds, etc with him. Of course, I only have four kids. I applaud you for taking on task of homeschooling all of your children. It's going to be difficult, but not impossible. Pray for the Lord's grace and wisdom each morning.

I understand about toddlers tearing things off the walls. We have one world map on the wall up high. It's not ideal because it's hard for my kids to see. But we have a large (3x4) magnetic whiteboard, and I use magnetic clips to hang maps on the board when we do geography. This works particularly well with our Sonlight markable map. We also have an inflatable globe that I keep on top of a bookcase.

We're up! Following Foundations

We use Rod & Staff roughly a year above grade level and Singapore (w/CWP) at grade level.

Here's the thread!

I agree that you should pick one spelling program. I would only do ETC if you feel your child needs it. My DD did levels 1-6 and, for the most part, it was busy work for her. My DS, however, is benefiting from the extra practice. I used/use OPGTR with both of them. I don't do a formal vocabulary program with DD and she's in 2nd grade. We talk about words that come up in her reading, and she's starting to learn Latin. She occasionally looks up words in TOG, but that's about it. We use both FFL and WWE. I skip narration lessons in FFL. We use Sonlight readers, although we did use some Bob books early on.

Ours is up! We went to a cool art exhibit last weekend. Following Foundations

When my daughter used the ETC books, book 4 was a challenge. She could read the words fine, but the open/closed syllable concept was difficult for her. Of course, she was only 5 when she did book 4. Now that she's doing AAS, she has no problem at all with syllable divisions. I'm now going through the series with my son, and I've decided to skip book 4.

These look interesting! Thanks!

We're up! Following Foundations

God's Design has an ecosystems book in their chemistry series: http://www.answersingenesis.org/PublicStore/product/Gods-Design-for-Chemistry-Ecology-Properties-of-Ecosystems,5970,191.aspx

I wasn't able to post a comment either....but I love your pictures! It looks like you had a great week!

We're up! This was Viking week for us... Following Foundations

This year we're using Harmony Fine Arts. In year 2, one of the options is using Artistic Pursuits, but she spreads out one book over year 2 and year 3.

We're up! Following Foundations

Maybe some Dutch street organ music?

I do things with my K'er throughout the day because I'm juggling 4 kids. Right after breakfast we practice his memory verses and catechism questions. He then has free time while I do with piano with my oldest and then 30 minutes of preschool with my 3 yr old. While my oldest is working independently on math, I reign my K'er back to the table. He does math, explode the code, handwriting, and sometimes critical thinking. I let him choose which book to do first. We then do a reading lesson the whiteboard. Then I turn him loose again. In the afternoon while the littles are napping, I will do read-alouds with him and he reads a little to me. Also, he works on any projects in the afternoon. Right now he's working on literature pockets (nursery rhymes). ETA: I forgot to mention that we also do Sonlight science. We either do that at the table in the morning after his workbooks or I do it at read-aloud time. Just whatever works on any given day....

We're up! Following Foundations

We're up! Following Foundations