I ordered on 7-21, and just received a shipment notice today. Looking at the tracking page, it seems to have actually shipped yesterday, and UPS should bring it to me tomorrow! :D

After reading all the replies and considering further, I decided to "start at the very beginning, a very good place to start," to quote Julie Andrews. I suspect we can do two lessons in a day, and so finish levels 1 and 2 in one year. I'd rather start her on something a bit easy than something a little too hard. Plus, she'll be exposed to some great literature. :D Thanks everyone for your input! ETA: We did our first lesson, and I think the first book was a good choice. She had a little trouble remembering what I read in order to answer the questions. She really enjoyed it though. I've tried several different things for writing, hopefully this program is a keeper!

Thanks Jenny! That's about what I've decided to do too. :tongue_smilie:

My DD and I have decided to use Writing With Ease. I am unsure where to start with her. She's just finishing up third grade, which would put her in Level 3. She's never done any sort of narration or dictation work though, so I'm wondering if I should start her in Level 2 instead. Thanks for any opinions or advice! :lurk5: Cris in Woodstock, GA

That's so cool! We'll probably start mummifying ours next weekend.

Mine is about 2 1/2 weeks shy of being 9, and we're just finishing up 3rd grade. SOTW is our 4th grade history, we're just getting started a little early with it. The activity guide says level one is primarily intended for grades 1-4. I might hold off for a year or so, until your K'er is a 1st grader.

DD and I started Volume 1 yesterday. She loves that she can listen to the audio and follow along in her book. She also likes that it's more of a story, unlike the social studies text we abandoned. :D We are going to do cave paintings this afternoon, and we'll move on to chapter 2 tomorrow.

Mavis Beacon has a program geared toward kids now, which is what I'm using with my 8 year old. She likes it a lot.

:iagree: I have a 3rd grader and a 7th grader, and they love to pick at each other, or band together to try to avoid school. :D

I'm using HWOT for cursive. I bought the teacher manuals, the chalkboard, etc. All we've ended up using is the student workbook.

I couldn't find an all in one program I liked for 4th grade. We're doing WriteShop Primary level C for writing, and then moving on to Wordsmith Apprentice. A Steck Vaughn workbook for spelling, that I will combine with the Spelling City website. Steck Vaughn for phonics as well, Shurley for grammar, and novel studies for reading.

I'll have a fourth grader, and this is what we'll be doing. We'll have some sort of art as well, but I haven't quite decided on that yet. Math- Horizons 4 Science- Noeo Chemistry II History- The History of the World Volume One- Ancient Times Geography- The Trail Guide to World Geography Grammar- Shurley English Writing- WriteShop Primary Level C, then Wordsmith Apprentice Phonics- Steck Vaughn Level D Spelling- Steck Vaughn Linking Words to Meaning Reading- Novel Studies. I suspect we can complete one in about thirty school days, so I'm aiming for eight. Tall Tales of America by Mary Pope Osborne Socks by Beverly Cleary Bunnicula by Deborah and James Howe The Egypt Game by Zilpha Keatley Snyder Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH by Robert C O'Brien The Door in the Wall by Marguerite di Angeli Little House in the Big Woods by Laura Ingalls Wilder Little House on the Prairie by Laura Ingalls Wilder

I pulled both my kids mid-year this year. The 7th grader never went back after Thanksgiving break. I enrolled him in an online middle school. He was doing so poorly in public school that we started 7th grade over from the beginning. He has teachers he can email with, and he submits his assignments online. He needed to be accountable to someone besides me. We've been very happy with Keystone, and will return for 8th grade. The 2nd grader I pulled at the end of January. I promoted her to 3rd grade (she was more than ready), and we are using the Calvert program. It's all right, and it's helped me learn how to schedule and teach, but I've found that I want to change or supplement too many things, so for 4th grade I'm putting together my own curriculum.

:lurk5: I am in the market for fountain pens too! What kind did you get, and where did you get them? Edited: Never mind, I found the brand name in an earlier post. :)

I just started using Level B with my 3rd grader. Level C might have been a bit better, but she has very little writing experience. We're using the schedule for doing a lesson in one week. We're only on lesson two, but so far we both like it. She really likes the guided writing practice. I'm intending to continue on and use Level C as well.

I'm new to homeschooling (started with my son in late November, and my daughter in late January), and I was looking for a homeschooling forum that welcomed secular homeschoolers as well as Christian ones. We aren't classical homeschoolers, but I enjoy reading all the posts, and I'm going to start my DD (who will be in 4th grade) on The Story of the World in the fall.:)

I'm trying to put together my fourth grade curriculum, and I'm stuck on literature. I ordered Learning Language Arts Through Literature, but I don't think I like it. I can cover grammar, spelling, and writing. It's reading that has me stumped. Would we be okay just doing novel studies, or are there any better options? I would prefer a secular program, if that makes a difference. Thanks!

I am using Calvert's third grade right now. I won't be using it for fourth though. The science, reading, and social studies are all from school textbooks, although we will be reading an actual book later in the year. Don't be intimidated by their composition program. Basically they give you a journal prompt, and you help your child write a few sentences. I am not impressed. In fact, I dislike it so much that we've just done a mid-year switch to Write Shop Primary. I changed out their art too. I do like the spelling and math though.

We are currently using Calvert math for third grade, and we like it well enough. I was considering switching to Horizons for fourth. Anybody have likes or dislikes of the program they care to share? Thanks!

If you don't mind "distance learning", how about Keystone?

I'm using Calvert with my third grade DD. We're pretty happy with it. I agree with not using the ATS service, though. I'm planning to use it for 4th grade as well, though I think I'm going to do different reading.

Wisk. Tide makes me itch.

My DD is doing 3rd grade Calvert right now. The web based spelling program is used in concert with Scott Foresman's Everyday Spelling, and the words come from that. Some of the words from the first few lessons are dry, dream, dragon, something, morning, large, orange, page, friend, march, smiled, hoping, smell, then, together, breakfast, deep, video, asleep. Hope this helps!

Second vote for Calvert. I'm using it with my 3rd grader right now.

When my DS, then about 8, was diagnosed with a heart condition requiring surgery, Atenolol was what they gave him to control his heart rate until the surgery could be scheduled. It worked perfectly for him and there were no side effects that we noticed.