Are both the teacher's guides and the student books necessary? Or is the basic homeschool pkg sufficient? It includes: Grammar Island teacher manual Building Language teacher manual Music of the Hemispheres teacher manual Sentence Island teacher manual Practice Island student book Practice Island teacher manual Thanks!

Do you find the teacher manual's necessary for MCT?

I so appreciate your thoughts!! With regard to spelling, she is an EXCELLENT speller, so I guess I'm not sure how to decide on that one?!? Just incorporate it in when I see words spelled wrong? I wasn't sold on the WW, so I think I'll ditch that & stick with the MCT then.

OhElizabeth - Thank you!! Okay.....I've done some more research and here's what I'm thinking.....thoughts? LA - MCT (Grammar Town & Sentence Island), and Wordly Wise Spelling - Sequential Spelling Social Studies - MOH Science - The Elements (I think she will LOVE this!) Math - Horizons I'd love to add in some Spanish and keyboarding....any suggestions?

Hi everyone, I'm Kristin, mom to Shaylyn 9, Malea 3, and Easton 8months and I'm both new to the board (thanks Joanna) & homeschooling. I could type out a novel, but the short version is that my daughter Shaylyn is NOT thriving in the public school environment and is bored to tears. The school is unwilling to work with us, and she is acting up as a result. So, we decided to homeschool for now :) It has been decided that next Friday will be her last day. I'm very excited to get started, but completely overwhelmed with curriculum choices. So, please help me find curriculum (yes, I'm begging, LOL). I know everybody says to figure out her learning style and go with that, but I'm still overwhelmed. She is in public school 4th grade right now, but reads at a 12th grade level, tests into sequential spelling book 4, and Horizons Math 5, book 1. So, I've picked the Horizons math, and the sequential spelling.....but then I'm stumped. She picks things up quickly, and likes to be fast paced. She likes hands on, but also enjoys workbooks. She LOVES science and doing experiments, as well as art projects. I had picked out Lifepac for Science, History, and LA, but then read somewhere that they are fairly slow paced, which would not work well for her. I am on about as tight of a budget as you can be (think I'm already spending money I don't have, LOL), and would love a Christian curriculum. I found CLE to be VERY affordable, but don't see many people using it. Is there a reason for that? I feel like I need something fairly structured, and thorough at least for the first year until I have a better handle on everything and can start to incorporate things on my own. Any suggestions??? I can't get over how overwhelming it all is! Thanks so much!