I know we are homeschoolers on this forum. I homeschooled my pre-ker this year and she will start K in the fall. I had planned on homeschooling using The Well Trained Mind. However, I just found a great private Christian Classical school in our city. The tuition is reasonable as well. They are VERY classical and seem rigorous and thorough in their curriculum and the teachers are experienced and most with advanced degrees. I have thought about returning to school myself to finish my BA for teaching as well. Have any of you considered sending your child to a Classical private school? I am still looking at all my options.

I have not used it yet, but I have read over the samples extensively. I really like what I see. I am going to get the Kindergarten teachers book and workbook and see how it goes.

Memoria Press will be at our homeschool convention at the beginning of June. I cant wait to look at it and thumb through the pages. I am comparing several curriculums for Kindergarten in the Fall. I dont think I will make my decision until after the convention.

I have joined the Winter Promise forum but for some reason I can not post any questions yet so I thought I would ask here. I am wanting to see the weekly schedule for the HIH program. I want to use it in the Fall, but I am curious as to what topics in History we will be learning about each week. Also, I am not thrilled with the picture book series that they use, so I was thinking of not getting those and choosing my own list from Amazon and the Library. For example, instead of the book Columbus' Chart I would get Christopher Columbus (Rookie Biography). Has anyone else done something similar? Any other experiences/blog posts you can share about this program would be great as well. THANKS!

Oh Man! I do not classical homeschool. I dont even own "The Well Trained Mind":eek: I come to this board because it is so active and there are SO many people with lots of experiences and advice to share.

I was wondering if there is any history stuff in SL P4/5? I was considering WP Hidaways in History but heard it moved very fast. Are there weekly topics for SL P4/5? If so what are they? Thanks!

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Great Information! I am very interested in the Character building that you all say is built into the stories. I think my daughters would greatly benefit from these. I cant believe all the topics covered in the reading curriculum. I would have thought these would be LA topics. I will go over the Scope and Sequence in more detail. What about the workload? Does Reading, LA and math with all those worksheets take a lot of time each day?

I have wondered this same thing. I plan on using CLE Language Arts and Math. But I was wondering about the Reading. I am not really into readers and much prefer that they read real books. Is this a necessary component or can I just have my child read level approriate books (after phonics of course) and then just do CLE Language Arts (or any other LA for that matter)? (I hope my question compliments the original post and doesn't take away from it:001_smile:)

I am considering both of these programs for my KG in the Fall. I like the idea of going through all the major points in World History with some fun hands on projects with Winter Promise. But I plan on using Core K for 1st grade for sure and Sonlight has such a good reputation. Any experiences you can share would be great. Thanks!

Thanks Guys! For some reason I just can't get into the P4/5 core. I have not bought it...but the Core K and up appeal to me a lot more. So for K this year I am going to piece things together and probably use CLE Learn to Read. For 1st Grade I will move onto CLE Lang. Arts, Reading, Math and add Sonlight K for additional reading practice and History. I am hoping that will work well.

I am planning on using CLE for math, and Language Arts (Possibly Reading). I want to use SL for history/literature and possible science (since I cant find an alternative I like any better). Can you please share how you use these two in tandem? Do you use SL Language Arts too and use their readers or stick just with CLE for that? Do the two compliment eachother well?

Thanks! That sounds almost exactly like my question and was very helpful. I welcome any other advice as well. Thanks!

My daughter will be starting Kindergarten in the Fall. We are halfway through 100 Easy Lessons so she knows all letter sounds, short and long vowels, and some blends/digraphs such as (th,sh,ch,ow) She can read short sentences and decodable books. She is very work-booky and can write her name. But she gets frustrated when trying to form some letters because they aren't "perfect". Anyway, I plan on using CLE in 1st grade. But their KG seems too easy for her. Do you think she could do the Learning to Read for Kindergarten at a relaxed pace and start Reading 1 in first grade?

True, True, True. I already can tell from our pre-k year that we will be relaxed homeschoolers. We have tons of manips and math stuff because I have a home preschool/daycare and have been collecting for years. She initiates MOST of her learning and plays, paints, creates all the time anyway. I know this is what she needs. I did do 100 easy lessons and we are 1/2 way through. She has done SO well with that and loves the reading lessons. She really likes workbooks...so I wanted to have some of that. I am somewhat worried about this being her official first year of school. I am sure family and friends will be asking questions and although they are supportive they also are clueless about homeschooling and some have negative feelings because of stories they have heard. Anyway, I guess I just want to use something so I can say we are. LOL! Maybe I will get over that...I dont know.

I have searched high and low and I can not find a KG curriculum that I like. I think I am going to use CLE for 1st grade, but their KG looks too easy for dd. I dont like the way MFW looks, Sonlight looks OK, but she already knows her letter sounds (we used 100 easy lessons) and the first grade looks too hard. What is wrong with me? Am I too picky? I dont have time to piece together a whole curriculum. Any suggestions?

I've been on there for the last couple days without any problems.

True. I am not looking to sit my kids down with a workbook and forget about them. Im homeschooling for a reason...I want the best for them. I plan on using lots of living histry books and science as well. But I would like to have something well done and VERY easy to use for the three R's without a lot of fluff. Fluff takes up too much time IMO. I am just wondering if CLE could help me meet those goals.

Oh yes. I'm sorry. I did mean CLE. Okay, so far so good on the information you all have given me. Another question...why are there some subjects with 10 light units and others with 5? Do you do them less often to carry you through the year? How long does it take for your child to get through a light unit? Do any of you blog about using or organizing your CLE curriculum? And lastly, have any of you used the KG program? Any and all input would be great! Thanks.

I dont know what curriculum we will be using but I have been looking into some independent curriculums. I dont like the way ACE (school of tomorrow) looks. Too cartoony. But I like the idea behind it. I have heard that Christian Light Publications is sort of similar but a little more rigorous and classic is style. Does anyone know if CLP is made to be independently done or with a lot of direct instruction? Thanks!

We have a creamy yellow 1900 farmhouse in the city on about 1 acre. It is in great shape and freshly painted in a creamy yellow with white trim. We just installed a white carriage style garage door on our detached garage. Our roof is dark grey/black. We want to install shutters/window boxes and a new door and I am wondering what color to choose. I really am leaning toward black or tuxedo grey for the shutters and either a black or red front door. Should the window boxes be white??? Any suggestions would be great! Thanks.

I am also interested in hearing from anyone who has used this.

Thank you everyone for all of your comments. I will for sure start her K schoolwork now. I still havent decided what to "call it". But I decided it doesn't really matter. I think I might keep a light schedule (3 lessons per week for each subject but just spread them out over 4-5 days so we arent doing every subject in one day. We will see how long it takes us and then just move onto the next grade level of work. I keep wanting to start"fresh" each school year with a new grade level of books, but I am realizing that is necessary only for a class full of kids. One-on-one we can just move along at dd's own rate. Homeschooling is awesome! It is just hard to de-school MYSELF!

SORRY. Double Post.

My daughter just turned 5 and has finished with her Pre-K stuff. I ordered her K curriculum (McRuffy Phonics and Reading and Singapore EB and Essential Math, SL P4/5, Science Excursion K). She is ready and waiting! But I dont know if I should start her K year early or wait until August?? If I start now (since she is 5) should I call it Kindergarten? Do you start your school year at odd times or at the traditional Aug/Sept time frame? I hate to wait because the new materials are at her level now. I dont know if she will be beyond this in 6 months. What should I do?