I used HWOT but skipped the wooden blocks and we never really did clay or anything like that. I do think the little chalkboard for writing the large letters is helpful. I don't know that the extras are necessary but I do know that for my daughter she definately benefited from the specific instructions provided in HWOT. Tracing letters just wasn't helping her understand how to form them. She needed to know the steps for writing the letter. Handwriting was a frustrating and unproductive exercise for us before switching to HWOT.

I really labored over the decision between lfca and LC1. I decided to use lfc for two reasons. First, dd found the cap materials to be more fun and interesting and there were activity books, Internet games, card games, etc to go with it. Second, LC1 repeats all of the vocabulary from PL and only starts minimal grammar. LFC was a big step up in work and is more challenging but it jumps right in to grammar. You start memorizing declensions and extensive vocabulary in the first lesson which you then build on as a base for understanding as you move through the program. LC 1 seemed like a lot of unnecessary review. I figured we could move slowly with LFC of we needed to but at least we would be learning new information. We'll probably stick with CAP materials for now and figure out the later high school years later. I also plan to use some additional memorization of Latin pulled from the Andrew Cambell book on Lulu.

I did SSL then Prima Latina and now we're on Latin for Children. When we finished SSL dd wasn't ready for the grammar and additional work in LFC so Prima Latina made for a good in between book. Dd liked SSL and it was fun for her. There's no grammar really so it's mostly just learning vocabulary words and if I remember correctly a few short sentences like, "What is your name?". Prima Latina only covers basic grammar in that it identifies the part of speech for week's vocabulary word list. It also covers derivatives well and dd still remembers and uses several words like "pugnacious" that she thought were fun. The main difference between the two publishers is that with SSL and LFC there is more of an effort to make the material a little bit fun. In SSL there are the songs and pictures and activities in the book. In LFC the lesson DVD features children doing the chants occasionally accompanied by arm movements. There are also some animated shorts between lessons that dd finds amusing. Their website also has games and activities. Prima Latina is just a prunciation cd and plain worksheets. IMHO there's nothing wrong with that but dd definately prefers the CAP materials. I'm pretty happy with the sequence we used and probably would do the same thing if we started over. I thought it was a nice mix and progression. Lfc is a big step up in the amount of grammar and memorization required.

I also use mus and both dd and I like it. It's not the cheapest thing out there but the dvd's and manipulatives are worth it IMHO. I would recommend checking out the free samples from th first few books before investing. I usually buy the teacher book and DVD used from my local homeschool store if I can find it because it saves me $20 or so.

We use th challenging word problems book and the iPad app as a supplement but almost never use the bars. Dd doesn't care for them and says she doesn't need them to solve the problems so I don't force her. eta: I just wanted to clarify that it's not about the bars being hard to understand for her. She just says she doesn't need them. That may change when we get to more difficult problems. We're have cwp third grade.

I prefer a study Bible with lots of good notes and cross-references. I like John MacArthur's study Bible. I enjoy reading either King James or New King James but also have the NASB because that's the version our church uses during worship. ETA: many years ago when I first started attending church with my husband my parents who are atheist Buddhists bought me a very nice leather study Bible with my name embossed (is that the right term for writing on leather?) on the front. It was one of th nicer and mor thoughtful gifts my parents have given me. It was kind of their way of saying we think you are crazy but since you're an adult we'll support this whole religion thing for the sake of relationships.

I think Reg and momsinthegarden have a fire and he mentioned that holding it while reading is fine. I read in bed with the iPad and don't find it to be too heavy but I have read some reviews where people mentioned that they prefer the size & weight of the Kindle for reading.

This isn't exactly what you are looking for but our homeschool p.e. group uses the presidential fitness council standards for determining whether the kids in our group are in track with their peers. There's a ton of information on the website about Heath & fitness for kids. This would of course be for kids 6 years and older so if you're talking about toddlers it wouldn't work.

I'm in the minority in that I'm not a big fan of Singapore for the core curriculum. I do use the challenging word problems as a supplement and we just started using the iPad app. We use mathusee and I started accelerated it quite a bit because it also seemed ridiculous to keep doing easy problems over & over when she got them all right the first day. The way we do acceleration could probably be use switch MEP also. We watch the lesson DVD and then I watch dd work a few problems. If she does it easily I let her take that lessons test and we move on to the next lesson. This means we're moving through several years worth of curriculum in one year but she's no longer bored and I'm comfortable because I know we're getting the fundamentals down before getting in to upper math.

On the kindle app for the iPad there is a night reading mode where the background changes to black and the print is white so that you can read in the dark without having the bright light that disturbs others in the room. I also had a literati ereader before the iPad and it had the same option. I would think there is a way to do the same thing on the nook and/or kindle.

The book I tested in google had an option to switch between flowing text and scanned pages. I just checked and changing to the scanned pages options does make the text and line spacing options disappear. I was in a book not a PDF and that is where the sepia option appears. It looks like in pdf's you can only adjust brightness.

You can't pinch & zoom in google but you can change the text size and line spacing. When you touch the bottom of the book in the middle and select the Aa at the top to adjust font you can make the adjustments. Have you tried the sepia option in iBooks. It's much better IMHO than the bright white. You also get to that option by selecting Aa.

The kindle app has the black background/night option but iBooks doesn't . You can adjust the brightness as Reg suggested and in the font selection menu you can turn sepia on to make the book background easier on the eyes. Eta: adjusting the brightness in iBooks seems to change my brightness in general so I have to change it back before exiting iBooks.

I have google books and I just opened one of the books it came with and there are day and night reading options and options for line spacing and text size that seem nice. The ebook store has good prices. I tried to download a free book to check the process but it wouldn't work. It might be my connection speed or something.

Dd6 recently became pen pals with the daughter of another board member here. I responded to a request on the networking board. I give her an assignment to write a letter during lesson time to make sure it gets done. They've only exchanged a few letters so far but dd is thrilled to write and to receive the letters. I plan to keep substituting letter writing for the occasional lesson until she starts writing regularly without being prompted.

I recently heard a speaker at a conference I attended say that people in general are predictable but specific people are totally unpredictable. I think that statement sums up the the WTM suggestions perfectly. I think in general they are appropriate for a large majority of children. That doesn't necessarily mean they will be right for your child. I see comments on this thread that say grammar stage shouldn't ever start before age 9 but other comments state that a 5 year old can do perfect narrations. I think WTM is an incredible resource to help us develop our own plan for our specific and unique children. Nobody's system is a perfect fit for everyone.

I considered hey Andrew for dd earlier this year while deciding on a Greek curriculum. I almost bought it but decided at the last minute to get song school Greek and dd is really liking it so far. We did the Code Cracker for learning the alphabet first but SSG covers the alphabet so it's not necessary. The songs were the deciding factor because they really helped when we were doing Latin. We are currently doing Latin for children & SSG at the same time. I would think you could use song school for both of them and maybe do Greek for Children also with the 9 year old after the alphabet is mastered.

They definately need to monitor blood pressure over a period of time and blood sugar. Significant drops in either can cause fainting. My dad is mildly hypoglycemic and has always gotten dizzy or felt font when his blood sugar is too low. Earlier this year he had a heart attack. Even though he is almost completely recovered doctod require you to take medicine for a year to I prove heart function. This medicine lowers blood pressure. Since his was normal to start with he had several fainting episodes when he first started the medicine nd now has to monitor is blood pressure daily.

Thanks reg for the info about the kindle cloud and I agree about the adjustment to the brightness in iBooks and kindle app. I don't find it as difficult to read as I thought I would. I assumed the backlit screen would be hard on my eyes but I turn the brightness down and it's fine. I also like the night reading option in the kindle app since dh always falls asleep first and I prefer not to disturb him. I don't think you need books in both the kindle app and the cloud option but you probably need both loaded if you want to read offline because you can in the app but not in the cloud.

I use both. There are more free kindle books but there are also some cool things available in the apple store that aren't available on kindle. Also, I put most PDF's that I download for in iBooks because it's easy to just click the open in iBooks option in the browser. I also have the kobo reading app because I had some books on a literati ereader before I bought the iPad. Reg - can u read kindle books on the cloud on the iPad? I think you mentioned that once befor but I couldn't remember the specifics.

What about the more advanced life of Fred books? Dd considers those to be more of a fun supplement than actual work.

I just found this yesterday and I'm considering using it: http://runofthemillfamily.blogspot.com/p/story-of-world-resources-for-volume-one.html

:iagree: we did exactly the same thing. While I didn't feel dd mastered the book. By the end of it we moved on and I found when we returned to syllables later she knew what to do.

This site forum is better than google. I've looked several times for reviews and couldn't find the ones I was looking for but the links here look great.

There was a note somewhere on the page about taking two years to cover the book but it mentioned breaking in July to restart in September? Based on the dates of posts I think that means 2 months ago so she is adding new stuff as they get to it every few weeks.