Horizons is spiral and can get mundane for some kids. Math Mammoth is master and on sale at www.homeschoolbuyerscoop.com for 40% off until the end of March - possibly 50% off if enough orders are placed. The author has tons of extra practice sheets, references to websites for extra drill and games, and answers her own email when one has a question on how to teach something or the program. Well done.

SOTW for history and Elemental Science for science. All other subjects are personalized to the kid (reading, writing, math, grammar, etc). We use SWB's guidelines for the most part. My first grader COPIES 1 topic sentence for each subject. My 3rd grader is allowed to copy the 1st grader's sentence and must compose 2 of her own on the same subject from that day's reading. Why? Because a 4th grader should be able to write a short paragraph or 4 sentences about something read or heard. I like the fact I can read out loud to both kids at the same time. We can discuss it as a family. We can do projects together. I like the fact that as my older has to dive deeper, it peaks my younger's curiousity to want to learn and understand as much as big sis, if not more. Both have been a great fit for our family and we look forward to our school year next year.

Another vote here: we love it. For us, since it is an oral program, it isn't just about grammar, it is about speaking clearly. My ds tends to say "liddle" instead of "little" type of thing, slur his 'R's if he says them at all so it became my 2-in-1 grammar and speech therapy program. He pulls it out everyday (more because he is a checkbox kind of kid and has an assignment sheet to know what has to be done before he can go read or play or whatever). But it works for us. YES, it can feel mundane to mom and dad but like many PPs, the average lower grammar student needs and benefits from such repitition. My dd did FLL and transitioned into R&S book 2 beautifully. And I DO make my kiddos do the suggested copywork because it is never much but helps prepare them for 2nd grade work. Speaking of which, our break is nearly over and I need to schedule my ds's next round of FLL lessons. :D Meanwhile sis gets to start Writing with Ease.... Mwhahahaha

This might be more of a challenge to pull off this time of year but it was the BIGGEST hit at our Star Wars birthday 2 years ago. Take a pool noodle and cut in half. Duct tape one end so it looks like a light saber. My husband had fun with a sharpie drawing on buttons. Make 1 for each boy and let them have a light saber battle. With pool noodles they can beat the crud out of each other and nobody gets hurt. Seriously - I have had more moms still thank me for those things 2 years after the birthday party that I will have to do it again this year now that we have moved to a new state and have a new group of Jedi Knights. This would be worth any effort to track down pool noodles this time of year. And this may sound odd, but my son and his friends love decorating their own cupcakes. Make up the frosting in Jedi colors and challenge them to make a Chewbacca, a Yoda or whatever - make it a contest - the winner gets an extra cupcake or something. It saves you worrying about a cake and the kids have a ball - but check with your son first, of course. Have fun!

My kids have been doing spelling via dictation for about 2 years now. They have done pretty well with it. Occassionally there will be a phonics rule that will trip them up on a more consistent basis: double the consanant when followed by a short vowel. Unfortunately I can't verbalize most of the phonics rules I know which makes it harder for me to explain to the kids the spelling rule when they mess up. I have considered Spelling Workout, per SWB, but I just got in Spelling Workout Book B today and I wasn't that impressed. Am I missing something?

EVERYTHING I have read, including the author of TOG herself, states that this program is designed for olders and has assignments for youngers but if your oldest is a younger, wait. GREAT programs exist for first up. My family fell in love with SOTW - and frankly, I wasn't excited at my previews. Once we got into it - well, it is a great fit for my 1st and 3rd. We will look at TOG on our second or third cycle ... that is if I don't go with Mystery of History and or SWB's newest high school program... too far off to think about. :) Good luck. There is PLENTY of fun in SOTW activity guide to keep your youngsters busy. Let's not forget about the fun of mudpies either. :D

Have you tried 6 weeks on, 1 week off? Until this year, I ALWAYS started to burn out around this time. I was cranky, didn't care, blah, blah, blah - nothing I am proud of. A friend of mind on this board suggested the 6-1 schedule, and like you, we just did a major move this past year and moved to town in August. This has been our best school year yet. We never get sick of school. We have time to do field trips, catch up planning and replanning, take care of house projects, etc. It has been the BEST for us. Now, it may or may not work as well for you with one child in PS but it is an idea for those few oddball weeks where schedules clash. You have had a BIG and rough year (BTDT). I agree with PP, "Why do you homeschool?" If you have good reasons to continue, then take a week or two, regroup and go from there. If not, then maybe PS... well, ultimately you and your dh will have to decide. A shifted calendar helped us a TON.

My heart goes out to everyone in Japan. My family survived Rita evacuation and hunkered down for Ike (20 minutes from Gulf) which were nothing compared to the tsunami. I remember the desperation for fuel, water, and food and it was nothing compared to what those towns are dealing with. I remember families from our church losing everything and not being able to access the street their house was on for months to see the damage - months. I remember driving through our town the day after the storm and it looked like a war zone with boats in the middle of the road, signs down, the heartbreak, the sense that life would never be the same again. It was, but it took a LOT of time and our hurricane was nothing compared to Sendai. One can't fathom until they have seen and lived through wondering how they will feed their children, let alone themselves. :grouphug:

Until recently, this site had free shipping. Now they charge a flat $4.95. That is still an improvement. Bummer I missed the free shipping - they had it for a few years. Oh well. http://stores.rodandstaffstore.com/StoreFront.bok

Same here.

Congrats! That is awesome!!

In bed recovering from surgery and have watched far too much news coverage of this. According to either CNN or ABC (like I can remember which station I am watching when), the deal with the seawater is there was a hole in the bottom of the reactor so as soon as the sea water goes in, it leaks right back out - they can't get enough volume of water in there to actually cool. Yes, I have heard several times that by flushing the reactor with sea water it turns into a big pile of garbage and is unuseable. Yes, there is concern over a third reactor blowing. I was disturbed by the report on Friday and Saturday that Japan is welcoming supplies to help with the reactor situation but only Japanese are allowed in or near the reactor plant to do any work. Um, what are they hiding?? Sounds suspicious to me. Right now backup generators were also damaged during the disaster which is why they haven't been able to use them. I believe I heard a report we are sending power, as are other countries - the challenge: fuel to keep the generators going - the region is also out of gas and the nuclear plant is what provided electricity. Reports this morning they have already found over a hundred people with unhealthy radiation levels. More people being tested and further tests being done on those exposed. The captain of one of our supply ships saw the radiation levels of returning planes to his ship and got the heck out of there. The levels are MUCH worse than being reported. In the stores still open, they are selling groceries with a 10 can limit per family and no word on what everyone will do for food tomorrow. My heart goes out to all of them. My family hosted katrina victims, lived through Ike and Rita. I have seen only small scale devestation and it was a year before life was close to normal for many. I remember during Ike's evacuation people physically fighting for gas, water and food. I remember the desperation and it was nothing compared to what Japan is dealing with and will deal with for endless time unknown.

No... don't give them to her... give them to me! :boxing_smiley: I have plenty of space to "store" them for you. :smilielol5: I'm with the others... hang onto it for now until you are more sure of what direction your family is going.

I am able to use ES Bio with a 1st and 3rd grader by doing the following: for the narration section, my 1st gives me a sentence, I write it on the wipe board and he copies. My 3rd is allowed to copy that sentence and then write 2-3 sentences of her own. (If I had a 2nd grader, I would say 2 sentences... 1 sentence per year with the assumption they are writing a short paragraph in 4th). I had to pick up Usborne Science encyclopedia for my 3rd grader because every once in a blue moon, there isn't enough material in the assignment to write about. My kids LOVE it. The experiments are easy and doable. It gets done. We will be doing ES Earth Science next year - same curriculum 2 years in a row? I think we have a winner. :)

Too funny. My daughter wrote sentences for taking my candy without asking and wrotes hundreds of times she would never do it again. 2 weeks later... you guessed it, a piece was missing. It didn't affect her learning. I made her do it all in cursive which made her better at cursive. It didn't affect the behavior. I'd still find other methods. When my kids do things with a bad attitude, I make them do it again and again until done with a good attitude. My ds whined and pouted about math one day which earned him a second assignment. When I found assignment number 2 behind the bookcase, he won a third assignment. He worked on math until 7pm that night. I haven't had an attitude from him over math in 2 months. When my daughter stomps away like a spoiled ... I make her come back, walk kindly. Today's psychology says I am forcing my kids to bottle their emotions and will turn them into Columbine kids. I think I am teaching my kids to MANAGE their emotions and show respect. You be the judge. Good luck with your attitude problem issues.

I have been buying more and more .pdf files in lieu of paying for workbooks but then I am paying to print them myself at the local office supply store. I am finding digital plus printing AS expensive as the workbook if not more so (and the cost of ink cartridges at home is insane). I have considered Math Mammoth Lt.Blue grade series but each workbook is ~150 pages * 2 per year, preferably in color... ouch. Suddenly Horizons doesn't seem expensive at all. What are the rest of you doing? Do you just buy the workbooks? Go digital?

Well, I did it. I bought the MTM and Mark Kistler at half off each on HSBC. I will pop over to RR and purchase the art supply kits just to save me from shopping so the kids can get going, especially since a Monet exhibit is in town right now (love it!). You guys have helped a ton! Thanks!

Angela, you are just a plethora of info! Thanks! I'll look at Kistler with my oldest this afternoon. I think I will still do the MTM since it is also on bargain pricing at HSBC right now.

For anyone who cares, I just discovered Meet the Masters is ALSO on 50% off on Homeschool Buyers Co-op. There are 6 different packs to choose from. So instead of $90ish for a 3 pack, it is $45. If you haven't heard, math mammoth is on at 40% off right now. The ONLY difference between purchasing it on HSBC and from the vendor, besides the price, is the HSBC is only a 3 year registration where buying from the vendor, right now, is lifetime, but that is expected to change soon, per the vendor. I also found the art supplies pack needed for each of the tracks on Rainbow Resource pretty reasonable. What a relief to not have to go shopping for all that stuff, espcially since I can't drive for another week or so, let alone shop.

HSBC is at 152 orders. That puts us at 40% savings so far with almost a month to go still. The blue price download is at $57 and could drop to $47.50 if we get 98 more orders. The light blue price is at $76.80 and could drop to $64 with 98 more orders. It appears the quantity is on total orders placed for MM, not by level or color or book or whatever.

My 9yo dd loves to color and draw but frankly, it has become clear, it is time to get the kid some training. Kinders can draw as well if not better. Sorry. I also love the idea of some art history. Hmmm..... Can anyone chime in on Draw w/ Children and or Meet the Masters? Good experience? Bad experience? Does DWC introduce the student to different mediums like pastels, etc or just pencil drawings? I know MTM uses different mediums. If y'all haven't figured out... I'm bored recovering in bed and decided this was the best time to research and rework curriculum. :D

Okay, SWB's WWE is awesome at teaching kids expository writing: narrations, outling, preparing for essays, etc. But as another thread on the board referenced, it does not address creative writing and many of us have kids with some sort of interest in creative writing. I *think* my 9yo dd may really enjoy a creative writing assignment from time to time. I will describe what I am looking for and if you know of something that may fit the bill, please PM or reply to this message. Thanks! No grammar. We have that covered every which way but Sunday. Each week the student would develop another aspect of the story: setting, character, problem, etc. Maybe this uses character webs, lists, etc. Rough draft. A little more development? Maybe talk about expanding sentences with adjectives, adverbs, etc (we are not talking a grammar lesson here, just encouragement to use descriptive words to help the reader paint mental pictures). Final draft. In my dd's world, some time for illustrations would be great. Anyone know of anything like this? If not, I will use the rest of my hysterectomy recovery time creating something. Oh heaven help my children with what I, a science/math/logic person, might come up with. :lol: So, speak up and save my children from their mother's grandious ideas. Ha ha.

Can I use the workbook without the instructor text? A few of you referenced that the instructor text was nice but the workbook can function as a stand alone?

Okay, so I am hearing the workbooks are a HUGE hit with mom and with most kids. I am sold. I will do the eval on both kids today or tomorrow and get them ordered. THANK YOU for your input!

To help hold myself accountable, to help teach myself how to effectively teach dictation and narrations, and eventually outlines, to my dc, I have decided to start down the WWE path. I have been getting "writers envy" and looking at our Abeka counterparts, PS counterparts, etc. I need to have an "official" writing program in house to feel like we are doing something official. Does that make sense? Nevermind the fact I need some guidance, at least for awhile, on how to teach dictation, narration, etc. For all of you WWE users out there, do you like the workbook? Do you wish you had gotten the workbook? Did it help to have the passages picked out for you, etc? Feedback from WWE users is appreciated. I would be using WWE2 and 3 if that helps.