I'd like to know too!

Another vote for The Reading Lesson. I'm using it right now for my 1st-grader (I also used it for my older ds when he was in 1st grade) and I just love it! It's so easy to use and barely takes any time. Both of my boys have taken to it very well, no complaining. :)

Hmmm...... I thought I read somewhere that it starts with Level 1 (whatever that means). Sorry, I'm no help!

Okay, I know it's early, but a lot of you probably already know what's working and what isn't.....so come on, spill the beans! :)

Such good advice, thank you! I think math is about the *only* thing I've been consistent with, lol. :)

I agree with the pp, if she is already reading cvc words well, then MFW K will be quite redundant. The science part of it is really great, it's definitely the best part of the whole program, but it would be expensive to buy just for that. I never used the 1st grade program, so I can't comment on that.

I'm having my 3rd grader read aloud to me everyday. I think starting next year, I'll let him read to himself (still pretty much everyday).

I noticed on the "What is the worst hs item you've ever bought" thread, a few people have mentioned Writing Strands. I see this is what MFW recommends for writing and I was thinking about trying it out next year. Would anyone mind sharing what exactly you didn't like about it? Or if you have used it and liked it, what did you like about it? Thanks! :)

Yeah, I agree about the Queen's stuff..... so expensive!!

Oh my goodness, please share more! I've been looking at this and it looks really great, I'm dying to know what you didn't like about it exactly! :)

We'll be doing HOD's Bigger Hearts pretty much as written with DITHOR and Singapore 3A/3B for math. I'm excited! (Not sure about the kids though, lol. :))

Hi! I'm planning on doing Bigger Hearts and Little Hearts this fall and I'm a little nervous about doing more than one guide. I've done Little Hearts before and it's not that time consuming, but Bigger looks pretty teacher-intensive and I'm wondering how it will be doing both guides. I'd so love to hear from anyone who has done or is doing more than one guide! :) How doable is it? How long is your day?? Any words of wisdom would be greatly appreciated! :)

Another vote for HOD! We use it and love it! :)

I can't decide betwen these two! I'm planning for this fall for my 3rd grader..can't decide between R & S English 2 and PLL. They are so different and I like both approaches. Maybe I could do both?? Does anyone here do both? Or maybe that would be too much.... I think I am dropping HOD so I like that PLL would give us some dictation, narration, and poetry. But I like the thoroughness and structure of R & S. *Sigh* What to do....:)

I'm just wondering how many people here use the HOD guides completely as written? If you tweak, how and what do you tweak? Up until now, I've been using HOD as written with no tweaking really (we've done LHTH, LHFHG, and we're just finishing up Beyond). I'm planning on doing Bigger this fall, but I feel like there are things I want to change. For example, I'm not sure I want to do DITHOR *and* the storytime box. I feel like it's just too much lit analysis for us. Or maybe not?? I just don't know, lol. And the poetry and dictation...not sure if I want to do those everyday. I think I'd rather add in a regular spelling program and do the poetry/dictation maybe a couple of times a week. Anyway, I'm just curious about what everyone else does. :)

I did Little Hearts with The Reading Lesson a couple of years ago and it was a great year! I love TRL, it's so easy to use and the lessons are short and sweet. Just love it! My son did great with it and is a great reader now. :)

I'm also not getting e-mails. Glad to know it's not just me!

This. :iagree:

Funny you should mention this because dh and I were just discussing this and we feel the same way (to a point). I really struggle with this though....some days I am so tired and I can barely handle my own kids, much less the neighbors. I am not trying to make excuses here, it really is hard for me. I tried and tried (as did my dh) with the one boy we banned, but we just never got anywhere with him.

Oh wow, I didn't realize there were so many responses! Usually I get a notification in my e-mail inbox when there is a reply, but I didn't receive a single notification for some reason. Anyway, thank you! :) I've talked with dh to the point of driving him crazy and I've prayed and prayed about it and I really feel at peace with just staying with HOD. I have this feeling that I would regret leaving. I think I'm feeling this way partly because of my yearly spring burn-out, lol. :) I remember going this this same thing last year at this exact time, lol. I do love so much hearing everyone's experiences and stories with curriculum. :)

Do you have just one cat? You could try a Clevercat litter box, it does an *amazing* job at keeping litter in the box. Amazon.com carries it as well as Petco I know for sure. Right now we just use a high side (like 17" high) Rubbermaid Roughneck box for our litter box and it works really well too. Not quite as well as the Clevercat, but pretty darn good. :) Also, some litters are better than others about staying in the box. I heavy clay litter, like Dr. Elsey's Precious cat, is harder for cats to kick out. Seriously, check out the Clevercat box. HTH!

Ah, thanks so much for the replies. It's so good to know that I'm not totally crazy for being so super picky. :) I didn't even mention in my original post that there is one other neighbor boy that we actually cut off from playing with our boys completely. And I mean completely, there is zero contact. He was just awful...lying, teashing, just plain mean. I kept letting it go for a loooong time by thinking that kids are not perfect and we should learn to live with people's "imperfections". But finally dh and I just came to a point where enough was enough and that was that. And now I'm having problems with the other neighbor boy and I'm starting to wonder if it's just me, lol. :) Or maybe I'm being *too* picky. I just don't know. Yeah, this *is* hard!

We have a 6-year old boy who lives next to us and my boys just *love* playing with him. His behavior isn't the best and I feel he is starting to rub off on my kids. He always seems to be in a bad mood, he talks rudely to them, he's always yelling, etc. Not that my kids are perfect, but still..... I'm always in a quandry about how much I should let my boys play with him, how much should be supervised. There aren't many other kids in the neighborhood for them to play with. How would you deal with this?

Okay, I know this has been discussed ad nauseum on here, but when I try to do a search, it keeps saying "no matches". Maybe something is wrong with the search function?? Anywaaaay, I'm currently using HOD (Beyond), but seriously considering switching to MFW this fall. Has anyone started out with HOD but then switched to MFW? What were your reasons for switching? How did it go?? I really like the idea of combining my kids, it seems like it would streamline my day a bit. I'm not thrilled with how my boys are separated for every. single. thing. with HOD. And MFW looks a little more...I don't know, flexible I guess. I'm feeling very confined with the HOD guide. But I do really enjoy HOD, the book choices are great and it is very sweet. My son is enjoying it as well. So I Just don't know! I am soooo torn!! :) On the flip side, has anyone started out with MFW then switched to HOD? Why didn't MFW work out for you?? Thanks!

This is very good to know, thanks! Yeah, our attorney does mostly with tough eminent domain and I think she's well known as she's taken on quite a few high profile cases. She seems really great.