Hey there! I checked the other threads with similar titles and couldn't find the answer I am looking for :001_huh: I bought MegaWords 1 for my daughter. She is 12 and has some trouble spelling some words, but is usually more of a natural speller. She tested right out of it ... blew it out of the water. (So now I have to sell a completely unused curriculum on the For Sale board. Again.) Google searches have brought up nothing as far as placement tests go. I would hate to buy MW2 and have her test right out of that only to have to sell it and buy level 3. Meanwhile, she doesn't have a spelling program to do until I find the correct level of MW for her to be working on. Can someone help me with placement in MegaWords? Is there a list somewhere of the words that are on the Check Tests for each level? If I had seen the list of words for MW1 before I bought it, I wouldn't have even wasted my time.

Excellent questions! I'm sure I won't be able to remember them all, but I will try... Math Singapore Math - liked it, but wasn't a good fit at the time Teaching Textbooks - like it and DragonGirl is still using it after a year Math U See - liked it, but MonkeyBoy got too distracted with the blocks and just wanted to play with them MEP for math - like it for MonkeyBoy and still using it Social Studies / History Story of the World - didn't care for it History Odyssey - didn't care for it Beautiful Feet Early American History - liked it Science R.E.A.L Science by Pandia Press - didn't care for it Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding - liked it, but we decided to go the unit study route with science Dr. Dave's Science - flipped thru it, didn't like it's approach to science, sold it Language Arts Michael Clay Thompson's Language Arts - liked it Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading - didn't care for it First Language Lessons - like it and still use it Growing With Grammar - like it and still use it Writing Strands - like it and still use it Explode the Code - wasn't a good fit for MonkeyBoy... too much writing for him Plaid Phonics - didn't like it Latin for Children Primer: A - liked it, but wasn't a good fit for DragonGirl Song School Latin - like it and still use it Latin Prep - like it and still use it Handwriting Without Tears - like it and still use it with MonkeyBoy Getty Dubay Italic Handwriting - like it and still use it with DragonGirl Unit Studies Five In a Row and Beyond Five in a Row - liked it We recently started a unit study by Intellego and I reviewed our first week on my blog. I'll definitely be buying more of these! :)

:lurk5:

What a relief! It's almost over! :)

CONGRATULATIONS!!! :grouphug:

This is awesome! Thanks for sharing! :D

The Dragon Academy ~ Those are beautiful cases and beautiful collections! Your son obviously loves what he does! My son is interested in insects, but doesn't like collecting them... yet. I think someday he will be. Especially if I started a collection 'for' him -- I'm sure he'd be more inclined to continue. :D Thank you for posting that photo!

What a generous offer! I already started making the worksheets... LOL... but if you don't mind, I'd love if you can send me a couple samples of yours so maybe I can glean some more ideas! :001_smile: We are also on Level Two with my daughter. Thanks so much! My email addy is: whimsicaltwist @ gmail . com [remove the spaces]

Thank you for sharing this. When I first saw this thread, I didn't even bother opening it because I thought, "AAS isn't meant to be independent." :ohmy: Then I noticed that my daughter hasn't gotten in one single day of spelling this week because her little brother is so demanding of my time. Off to look for this thread! :tongue_smilie: It never even occurred to me to make worksheets from AAS! My daughter (surprisingly) loves worksheets! And she needs to review the spelling rules at least twice a week or she'll forget them. After reading your post I realized that I could at least make worksheets of the spelling rules (blue cards) and maybe we can do the rest orally and on the white board like we've been doing. That would really cut down on the time I would need to stop 'directing' my son and working one on one with my daughter. (I feel guilty about this, but managing my son feels like a full time job in and of itself. :( ) Thanks for the idea!

Thanks for the replies so far! I'm so excited about our field trips that I hope to take this year!

I'm planning a field trip to a beekeeper for our family this month. It got me thinking, "I wonder what the Hive's favorite field trips are." So tell me: What have been your family's favorite field trips?

Wonderful news! I hope you get the answers you need to get resources readily available for you! :001_smile:

REALLY not trying to start a debate. I've tried Googling for this, but it's really hard to get any hits for exactly what I'm looking for. I am thinking about continuing my degree for my RN. I figure by the time I'm done my oldest will be 16, so they can school themselves by that point, or maybe they'll be going to charter school by then. Who knows... Before I really delve deep into applying for college or anything, I'd like to find some resources on how this HCR bill has affected / will affect health care careers. Does anyone have any links to good articles regarding this? Has it been discussed here before? If we're allowed to share our opinions about this, please do! I like to hear what other people think. :) Thanks!!

:iagree: BFSU is GREAT! We just received our volume 2 and are really looking forward to it!

On the contrary, FIAR is supposed to be able to be used for what it is. Besides adding in phonics for younger children; adding in a writing program and a math program (was there something else?) for older kids, then FIAR can be used by itself. (FIAR uses applied math, but most people want their children to have an actual math curriculum.) Unless one wants to, one would not have to add in any extras and a whole lot of extra planning per week. However, I love to plan (I feel weird if I don't... LOL), so I'm always looking for extras to do, go along books to add, et c. We didn't 'find' FIAR until later, so we didn't use BFIAR so I can't comment there. We also do not use the Christian supplement as we are secular. We :001_wub: FIAR!! Candace, your blog is FANTASTIC!!! Thank you so much for sharing all of your wonderful ideas and projects! I'll be spending a lot of time there tonight. :D

You've been hiding from us, Angela! So good to see you! I even emailed you because I was worried. LOL I forgot about Growing With Grammar! My daughter has been using it. She started in 3rd grade, then switched to MCT for 4th. Now we're back to GWG for 5th. Shouldn't have switched... classic example of "if it ain't broke, don't fix it!" Ha!

:iagree: This is what I wanted to say... just couldn't find a good way to say it. Thank you OhElizabeth! :)

I'm sorry. :( :grouphug: Are you still going to the same optometrist? Maybe you can find someone that is more aggressive about his treatment? It won't be too late if it doesn't get corrected by the age of 8-10. The treatment will just require more effort as age progresses. So that's good news, right? :) Have you taken him to a developmental optometrist? I've read that Vision Therapy is a good treatment for amblyopia (along with other things -- eye drops, eye patches, et c.).

It's already been mentioned, but when I read your question my first thought was: MCT?

My son is a VSL and is very wiggly. I don't know if your daughter is wiggly or not, but for us that makes a huge difference in what curriculum we can use with him. When we first started homeschooling, he started out with Singapore. Then about a year later we added Miquon to Singapore. (Those two curriculum go very well together.) Even though he liked them, learned a lot from them, was cruising along just fine, and I liked them -- we had to give them up. It was just way too much seat work, worksheets, and writing for him. Next we tried MUS, but we had the same struggles you did. Those blocks! LOL Our newest math curriculum is MEP and we are loving it! We printed out the manipulatives and I laminated everything. He does very well when he has hands on things that he can move around, touch, et c. There are a lot of worksheets that you can print out, but we don't do a lot of seat work, so I haven't printed a lot of those. I have him stand up to do activities, come up to the white board to solve problems, et c. Plus it's FREE! After spending so much money on curriculum that we tried and failed, I was so happy to have found a complete curriculum with a good foundation that was also FREE! :D Another curriculum that I've heard is good for VSLs is Right Start Math. Good luck choosing!

We are really enjoying BFSU volumes 1 and 2. A great science "kit" is Academy of Science for Kids. Good luck choosing something that your kids enjoy! I think that's the hardest part!

Thanks for the link! The "map skills" book looks cool, too!

What WONDERFUL news! CONGRATULATIONS!! :party:

My husband wishes he could bottle my scent. :001_huh: So, yes, my husband is obsessed with my scent. I love his scent as well. :001_smile:

I still love All About Spelling. We started this 2 years ago and I would never give it up! :001_smile: We haven't officially started MEP yet, but I have gone through the lesson plans and did a lot of research. It's all printed and ready to go for tomorrow. I've been excited about this for a couple weeks now! :001_smile: