My second and third kiddos enjoyed working on the R&S preschool books while their big brother was doing school work. I also used the Wee Folk Art Simple Seasons units for preschool with each of my kids which is a great way to start some gentle formal schooling.

We've used both Spelling Workout and Rod & Staff and R&S is definitely a more thorough program. My kids just skip over all the spelling rules in Spelling Workout but R&S forces you to apply the rules in the exercises. R&S spelling in 2nd grade assumes that you are still doing a phonics program (theirs) so there is very little phonetic instruction in the spelling book and the words seem fairly easy... but that is ok for spelling. Encoding skills (spelling & writing) take much longer to develop than decoding skills (reading). R&S spelling 3-6 is phonics based. 7th and 8th is root word based and includes a history of the English language which is really quite interesting. R&S is workbook based through 5th grade then switches to text books. I would say you could use R&S a year ahead but I wouldn't jump ahead any further than that. Although the words can sometimes seem easy, the exercises can be quite challenging in the higher level books. I would start with the 2nd grade book in 2nd grade and see how it goes. You can always move through it faster if the words are too easy. Or sometimes I like to just let something be easy for a year. It will get more advanced as you work through the levels.

I'm not sure if you are looking for a single text but Winterpromise's American Story units might work well for you. It is a two year literature style history program to use starting in 1st grade. American Story 1 has an Native American add-on unit and then in American Story 2 there is an African American add-on unit. We really enjoyed both years and the add-on units did bring in more of a multi-cultural element that was nice.

We have really enjoy the IEW themed books after using WWE and some of WWS. I've never felt the need to buy the whole DVD package (but I don't care for any program that requires screen time). My kids can work through their assignments fairly independently. I usually work with them on the first day of the lesson to go over the new concepts and what will be expected. I then sit down with them again during the first and sometimes final edit stage. My DS in 6th grade needs a bit more hand holding than my DD in 4th grade who is a much more independent learner across the board. I let them pick whichever theme they want to do each year so they feel like that they have a say in it and I don't really care if it lines up with the history or whatever. They have both chosen to do the Narnia theme next year and I'm excited to check that one out.

I've always bought the Closer Look Science books directly from McGrawHill. It was the only place I could find the workbooks and I wanted to make sure my textbook matched the workbook rather than buying it used and ending up with a different edition, although I'm not sure it would matter too much. Amazon does usually have several used copied available and I believe that there is a free version of the textbook online somewhere (I don't have the link) but I prefer to have my kids work from a book. https://www.mheonline.com/program/view/1/5/347/002SCL/350/0022880054/ I buy the text book which is listed under "Student Materials" and the Reading and Writing in Science workbooks which are listed under "Additional Resources." I have bought the Activity Lab Book before but didn't use it much. You can get a good look inside the workbooks here... http://www.macmillanmh.com/science/2010/student/tn/workbooks.html There are also some online companion activities here... http://www.macmillanmh.com/science/2008/student/na/grade4/index.html Unfortunately there is no cost effective lab kit, but most of the labs use easy to find materials and the directions are found in the textbook. You just have to plan ahead if you want to add in the labs. What I normally do though is just pick up some basic lab materials like owl pellets and just do it some time while all the kids are in the Life Science unit not trying to match it exactly. I also figure a few really good labs per year is enough. There is no need to do a little lab each week. But you could skip the labs altogether and your kids would be getting enough... hence the get er done concept.

I would agree with many of the previously listed programs... Explode the Code R&S Spelling R&S Math SOTW Some others I haven't seen listed... Seton English for workbook style grammar that includes diagramming (you do need to add a writing program) Seton History starting in 4th grade And for those of you looking for a science program... We love the Closer Look Science books by McGraw Hill and use the workbooks with the text. The workbooks are key to making it a get er done program. The kids read the lesson on Monday then do 2-4 workbook pages Tuesday-Thursday that mainly reinforce the vocabulary. On Friday they do a journal entry in their science journal about something that they learned that week. Sometimes we do the labs, which are usually pretty easy. It gets done like clockwork every week and the kids love their textbooks. I often find them reading additional lessons or looking at other pictures. I know they have a good basic understanding of everything they need at this age. We use them from 1-5th grade. I also like that my kids are learning about similar things at the same time since each book covers Life Science, Earth Science, and Physical Science. I alternate which unit we start with each year so if we don't finish every lesson in one year it hasn't been that long since they've seen the topics. Bonus it is a true textbook so I've handed them down through the kids and the coordinating workbooks are super cheap.

Bump. Hoping to hear from someone who has used this.

With each of my kids I used something different. My favorite was Rod & Staff's Phonics/Reading program and it is the one I would definitely use again if I ever needed to. It combines both phonics and some sight word reading, which was great because with my older two kids I found myself making some flash cards for the words I just wished they would learn by sight. We added in the "God is Good" series of readers and my DD loved them. It is very Bible based and workbooky (so it may not work for everyone)... but that was great for my youngest. The teacher manuals are thorough and you can buy the flashcards and penmanship program to go with it. What I did was alternate days between the phonics lessons and the reader lessons. There is a lot of material to cover and you could spread it out over a year and a half to two years without falling behind in reading. The final units have some pretty advanced phonics/words for first grade.

With my oldest we went from AAS 3 to R&S 4 and that seemed about right. R&S 3 still requires mom time. There is quite a bit of info in the teacher's manual to introduce each lesson that is not on the student page. R&S 4 and up is written completely to the student... if I recall correctly. My teacher guide for lvl 4 happens to be at my mom's house at the moment, although I have the rest of them right here. Levels 2 & 3 have more early reading words and assume that you are using the R&S phonics books as well to get the rest of the phonics instruction. Levels 4, 5, and 6 focus on the spelling rules/phonics. Levels 7 & 8 are root word based and include a detailed history of the English language. You might not want to jump ahead too far, even if the words look easy. The exercises can be fairly challenging.

It is A Child's History of Art: Architecture. I just had a typo. It is by Calvert but I bought it through Christian Books. Here is the link... http://www.christianbook.com/a-childs-history-of-art-architecture/v-m-hillyer/pd/228502?product_redirect=1&Ntt=228502&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP Someone else was asking about it and I gave more details in this thread if you would like to read more... http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/547647-does-this-exist-history-through-artarchitecture/

I had posted on the Logic board looking for middle school anatomy course suggestions for my DD. My DD10 who will be 11 next fall, really wants to do an anatomy course next year. We sat down together and went through all the options I could find, and she really likes the look of Winter Promise's Human Body and Forensics course. I haven't been able to really find any reviews of the course and was hoping some people here have used it. We have used WP's American Story units in the past, so I am familiar with their set up but I haven't tried any of their science units before. Has anyone used this program? Which level the middle school or high school? Is there any sort of lab work with it or is it all worksheet/coloring pages? Are there any sort of tests/quizzes or just the notebook pages? I would appreciate any info on the program. Pros, cons?

This is my third kiddo doing third grade. Amazingly, all that curriculum that didn't work with my oldest, works perfectly for this one. LOL. This DD loves all the workbook, coloring pages, hands on stuff that my DS hated. For the most part I've just been able to pull the tried and failed curriculum back off the shelf and hand it to this kiddo. I haven't had to buy much of anything. Funny how that has worked out. So this is her curriculum for next year. Reading: Memoria Press Literature Guides 3 (the old set) for vocab and comprehension plus just reading other books that tie into history Phonics: MCP Plaid C&D Writing: WWE 3 and/or maybe some of MP's Intro to Composition Grammar: Seton English 3 Spelling: Rod & Staff Spelling 3 Handwriting: Rod & Staff Penmanship 3 Math: Rod & Staff 3 History: SOTW 2 with activity guide Science: Closer Look Science 3 I plan to do a semester of Life Science and a semester of Physical Science and skip the Earth Science this year. We have a ton of the Young Scientist kits that I will let her do as she wants. Latin: MP Latina Christina This is just for exposure. I don't worry too much about Latin until we start First Form in 4th or 5th grade. Religion: Seton 3 Art: How to Draw in 30 days, Seton Art 3, and she is taking sewing lessons from my mom. She might also take some additional art classes in the community. Right now she says that she wants to go into fashion design or special effects make-up. I'm not sure about that... but I definitely see her in some sort of art field. Music: Piano Dance: She will be trying out for our studio's Dance Company and will probably have about 8-10 hours in the studio next year. Extra: Classical Conversations Memory Work (we just do this at home)

Thanks for sharing.

wendyroo - Thanks! The vocab is pretty intense but the labs look great. I've bookmarked Mr. Q. Has anyone seen/used the Winterpromise Human Body and Forensics units? They have middle school level for 4-6th grade and then a high school version. We've used WP in the past for American History but I totally forgot that they had science units. http://winterpromise.com/product-category/science-programs/human-body-forensics-for-4th-6th-grade/

We have used all three programs you mentioned. A long time ago we used AAS through level 3 and gave it up. It just didn't stick with DS and DD is a much more natural speller so she didn't need the mom time for spelling that AAS required. We used R&S a couple years ago, used Seton for a year (we were enrolled in their whole program), and then switched to Spelling Workout this year. The kids like the look of SW better than R&S. It has cute pictures and game-like activities but my kids completely ignore the tips and basic spelling rules found at the top of the SW page. I do like the editing section that is included in each lesson, but I don't think that alone makes SW a better program. My kids can spell their words at the end of the week but aren't making any phonics connections which they can then apply to other words. R&S does a much better job of including the phonics instruction throughout the whole lesson so you can't miss it. But for your needs you should know that R&S teaches phonics rules through the 6th grade book and then switches to more of a root word study in the 7th and 8th grade books. If you are specifically looking to teach phonics based spelling rules, R&S is sort of done with that type of instruction by the end of 6th grade. You might want to use the 5th and 6th grade books to cover the phonics. After hopping around a bit we are switching back to R&S for next year and here on out. I bought enough books for all 3 of my kiddos to use the program through 8th grade (workbooks through 5th grade). My DS is actually looking forward to the 7th and 8th grade books because he loves all the language history that is included. We have already received our R&S books for next year and I caught DS reading his 7th grade spelling book to read the history stuff. Actually I have found it really interesting too. LOL.