I made a Charlotte Mason (via Catherine Levison) inspired book of centuries to put in a 2" binder. The pages I made don't look as pretty uploaded to GoogleDocs, but a rough idea: 19th Century: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B3AhyK8fpx8eMDFmN2JkNTMtZGU5Ni00MzU0LWFkZTUtNjk2ODliZTIzZjcz&hl=en 5th Century: https://docs.google.com/fileview?id=0B3AhyK8fpx8eYTljNTAwMTQtMTNmZS00YzNmLThkZmYtNDQ2Y2RkNzFjZTVh&hl=en They are color-coded, we have a title page, index tabs, etc. We have started writing names and events on the page where they belong, also coded by color into 6 categories. Sometimes a little picture. I print two facing pages with dates on the left and right...we'll add as many pages per century as we end up needing.

I'm adopted. I agree with "bad wording." I would have listed her as adopted. "Not a biological relative" is very strange and off-putting language, IMHO. Or at least, I can see why someone wouldn't like it. "Adopted" tells the story...an adoption date could have been listed. In my family's ancestry book, it explains that my sister and I are adopted. But it certainly doesn't say "therefore they are not biological members the XXX family." True or no.

:iagree: I think the Mosaic program is worth a look. http://bringinguplearners.com/myths-maps-and-marvels-download-lhotw-version-selection-page-2/

Some of the more comprehensive sites: http://www.amblesideonline.org/ http://simplycharlottemason.com/ http://www.secularcm.com/ http://www.tanglewoodeducation.com And Catherine Levison's site is: http://www.charlottemasoneducation.com/ I have read both of her books (Charlotte Mason Education and More Charlotte Mason Education) and IMHO they are worth reading but I'd suggest borrowing them not necessarily buying them (I think one read is probably good.) For your little ones, I agree that reading living books and unstructured play with as much nature as possible is your best start. I understand the Heart of Dakota is CM-inspired, by I'm not personally familiar with it other than reading their site.

I'll give the disclaimer: I'm not sure yet whether we will, in the long run, fall into the 'afterschooling' or 100% 'homeschooling' category...but for now my daughter is headed to K in the fall, she attended halfday preschool this past year and we keep working ahead on her level at home. I very much relate to your post and the questions you are asking yourself. I have some profession experience with both teaching and tutoring, and I feel strongly that making homeschool too much like away-from-home-school diminishes some of the best advantages of the opportunity to learn at home. And I think this is that much more true for kids who are attending brick-and-mortar schools part- or full-time. I find Charlotte Mason's *approach* to be my own answer to what you've brought up. Her short lessons, which are very conversational and Socratic, spacing out the content subjects at least any presentation of new material to once a week (which IMHO works very well for a focused, one-one-one coached afterschooler) and her emphasis on learning during unstructured playtime fits very well with the direction I see our afterschooling headed. I am not completely satisfied with the content of any available CM guides with which I am familiar, but after really getting comfortable with the structure, writing in my own sequence (for example a history progression) became a very manageable task. So that's what's informing me the most, as we move continue into the next phase around here.

We're doing a CM-inspired schedule with: I See Sam readers RightStart B Literature from the AO year 0 and 1 History from the Core Knowledge sequence BSFU and once weekly art, music, and I hope to use AO's ideas for nature study.

My daughter is similar. I feel pretty strongly, at least for us, we need to keep the writing as pressure-free as possible and let the mechanics come in time. I do have two *fun* suggestions...Games for Writing is very cool, some of the suggestions are very addictive. http://www.amazon.com/Games-Writing-Playful-Child-Learn/dp/0374524270 And also maybe using Grammar Land as a read-aloud? My daughter enjoyed hearing it as a kind of change of pace (the style is a little 'different.') I don't know that it helped her writing any, but I suspect she'll go back to the book sometimes and read it herself and it will be easier going having heard it once already. I've read you're DD's musing on your blog, and they are very cute :)

From what you describe I think you might like Nebel's Elementary Education which is a kind of blueprint for a science-focused curriculum across all subjects. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1588208923?ie=UTF8&tag=homeschofreet-20&linkCode=as2&camp=1789&creative=390957&creativeASIN=1588208923 ETA: It may not be pre-made enough for you, but could be worth the look.

We use BFSU and do one lesson once a week (okay, we've missed a few weeks, but we hit most of them.) I don't find the planning terrible, sincerely. I'm a 'science' person with a science background, but I don't really think that makes a difference. I sat down with the book last winter with a stack of notecards and a file box and went through about a third of the book in an afternoon (I've since more or less finished up or kept ahead of us, here and there.) On each card, I outlined the lesson objectives, questions to pose, and any demonstration that we were going to do. And then on a second (or third, some of them took up a couple cards) I picked out a couple books for reading and checked them against my local library catalog to be sure they were there. I really love the Read-and-Find-Out series and I gravitate toward them when there's one on the topic. On Sunday (that's science day here) we go over the new lesson objectives and talk about them a while, and usually do some activity if there is one. I keep the activities pretty simple...on 'Night and Day' week we observed the sun in the morning, at noon, watched a sunset, played with a globe, and traced DD's shadow standing in the same spot every couple hours. I've melted ice cubes, spouted seeds, pushed stuff around the house...nothing tons more complicated than that really. Then over the week, we put 1-3 books on the lesson in read-aloud rotation, and at the end of the week I help her finish a page or two of the science journal she's making as we go through. I don't find it bad, at all. It keeps us in a kind of continuous conversation about these very basic principles, and basically I let it give us a direction and topics for the conversation. I fell in love with this book when I found it; as an engineer and applied scientist I love this approach to gently draw attention to and clarify the most fundamental principles of science. It really does map out a 'foundation' for studying later with a more complete understanding and fewer misunderstandings/poor assumptions. I don't find it intended to be an indepth study, or at least I don't intend to use it that way. So, it's working well for us :)

My daughter took off with Progressive Phonics (free etexts.) By the time I found it we were at the intermediate level (she was 3 then) but she would have liked the 'alphabetti' and beginners at age 2, as well. She loved the 'taking turns' element of them. http://www.progressivephonics.com/ At 2 she loved starfall.com

Charlotte Mason's approach fits me/us very well. My biggest break with Ambelside's lists (which I think is very well put together and represents very careful, dedicated work) is the approach and sequence chosen for history. The editors wrote: which is not the direction I want to go. And their history selection does very closely follow this philosophy. They do suggest following an alternative, Beautiful Feet is one of the alternatives mentioned (The AO editors do recommend SOTW in year 5 when the sequence reaches vol. 4.)...I'm a Core Knowledge fan and stick to Hirsch's program (which also focuses on CM-style Living Books so I feel it's a good fit.) CK also is a sequence that studies American history 'alongside' world history, which is in the spirit of CM's choices for her students in England, IMHO. So, An Island Story is out, for me. It makes perfect sense for CM's students but not for mine, really. The church history and religious studies I have also tailored to be more representative of our own spirituality here. The CM schedule and methods we have begun and plan to continue sticking to reasonably closely for the forseeable future. The booklist, particularly history, needed some shifting to meet my needs.

My daughter did really well with the Progressive Phonics ebooks, which had more repetition than anything else we worked with. And they are fun (and free), too. http://www.progressivephonics.com/ The Nora Gaydos books are also very repetitious http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=ntt_athr_dp_sr_1?_encoding=UTF8&sort=relevancerank&search-alias=books&field-author=Nora%20Gaydos if that would help him.

I have been won over to how (directed) drawing practice is also handwriting practice. Practicing the skill of observing a line, curve, shape and reproducing it carefully and correctly is honing many of the same skills. Would you consider Draw Write Now? http://www.drawyourworld.com/ I had it on my shelf for quite a while, mostly because I have a niece who wanted to learn to draw animals, but I looked more closely at the concept and it won me over. I don't know the age of your children...learning specific, correct letter formation is obviously a rote skill. But for practice and improvement I think drawing instruction, including using the Mona Brooks style copying warm-ups like these: http://donnayoung.org/art/draw1-younger.htm, can be a fun, un-monotonous supplement.

She sounds a lot like my DD was at the beginning of this year (my daughter will be 5 in September.) The reading and math level at 3-almost-4 sounds spot on. Mine went to preschool 5 days a week, afternoon-only this year and it was academically a completely acceptable experience for her. (I say that because she has some anxiety/rebellion-y type issues that made the first couple months a mixed bag.) She began the year the week before she turned 4 reading independently at about first grade. The general language/literacy portion of the program was pretty typicall letter-of-the-day stuff. I have to say, she really didn't mind. She's my only, and she really wanted to go to get the chance to be with the other kids and was perfectly happy coloring the letter worksheet with her friends. She hasn't specifically chosen to focus on any differences in academic ability...like, if you ask her she totally knows that the other children don't read, but she doesn't seem to mind or think this is particularly significant. :001_smile: Two elements of the academic program that were generally helpful and useful for her were handwriting practice and storytime, you can't hear too many stories and they did a nice job picking good ones. Fine motor skills, I'm sure, too...they did all the cutting/pasting/coloring/gluing assorted tiny things to paper you'd do at home. She went to the local Y school largely because the program centers around large muscle play. This tires her out and gives her a chance to rotate through the pool, the gym, and the indoor playground. I picked this program for her pretty much for this reason, and it worked out really well for us. At home, we obviously keep reading (her reading and her listening), finished AAS level 1 and really like RightStart Math B; we have Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding and do a lesson from that every other week or so. We also really love Draw Write Now (HWT was kind of a bust for us.) In the fall, I have more Kindergarten curriculum planned out for her that we're starting to ease into this summer, but that's what has worked out for her 4yo Pre-K year and I really think in balance it all worked together quite well. Similar to a tone that I am reading in your posts...all things being equal if I could have had *exactly* what I wanted this isn't the way we would have done things. But, sometimes (most of the time?) we can't. ETA: If it helps to mention, from September 09 to now she's gone from first-grade reading to 2.5 or higher (she's going to be working in I See Sam level 5 next and she easily passed the 2.0 level reading fluency test, she could have placed higher), she's moving steadily in RS B, her printing is improved and she's composing little stories and letters, she can summarize and narrate stories back to you...basically I would say she's moved ahead on her learning curve nicely. The biggest drawback to the preschool is the hyping of K that they do!

Sure; I think that the level one program cut in half -- which could be: American (Columbus/Colonies/American Rev./Exploration West) in K, and World + American Ancients (Earliest people and nomads/intro to Inca, Maya, Aztec civ. and then Ancient Egypt and Mexican history and culture, past and present) in 1st -- could work very well. IMHO it would lack the kind of intro-vibe that the Core Knowledge K program has with it's light unit on maps/geography and the 4 Rushmore Presidents plus our current president. That would be easy to tweak. It's a shame to me that they can't publish those huge books in handheld size. But they are marketing to schools, obviously. ETA: I'm now remembering that the original poster will start SOTW next year. So scratch my idea. But you can order a few of the Core books from level one by themselves, if you want to.

The Core Knowledge books from Pearson are great, as are the teacher's guides IMO. Unfortunately, the only format they have available for Kindergarten are these gigantic, library-easel-style read-aloud books which cost $90 apiece (the content is similar to any K read-aloud...a photo per page with one line of text, 15-20 pages per book.) There is one book per unit, hence the $350 price tag for 4 K-level read-alouds. I like them and the program written to go with them, but that format and cost for a homeschool child just doesn't make sense (to me at least.) I have read all four teacher's guides, and IMHO the Maps and Presidents units could easily be done as per the guide using your own graphics (i.e., the teachers guide indicates that the children are looking at a map of North America or an illustration of young Abe Lincoln, easy to recreate.) The Native Americans and Early Settlers units are more narrative and would make less sense without the storybook to go along with it. The K level is the only level that is done like this, grades 1 and up have individual books for individual students. Hirsch's two books: http://www.amazon.com/Books-Build-Grade-Grade-Knowledge/dp/0385316402 and http://www.amazon.com/What-Your-Kindergartner-Needs-Know/dp/0385318413/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1275441586&sr=1-4 have a ton of good suggestions for resources, though.

I', a fan of the Core Knowledge progression for American History. In K they do 4 units: maps/continents/globe, Native American culture, exploring and settling American (Columbus/Pilgrims/first Thanksgiving), and 'the Mount Rushmore Presidents.' It's a good intro, in my opinion. What Your Kindergartener Should Know and/or Books to Build On would be all you'd need + a library card.

I love People, we read it tonight before bed. For preschoolers, this book is a lot of fun: http://search.barnesandnoble.com/Hello-World-Greetings-in-42-Languages-Around-the-Globe/Manya-Stojic/e/9780439362023

Two movies came to mind quickly, both are Christmas movies...the obvious It's A Wonderful Life and then a movie I loved as a kid, It Came Upon a Midnight Clear with Mickey Rooney.

I very much that any scope and sequence is something you draw up for yourself, to keep organized etc. That said, you might like looking at the the Core Knowledge preschool document, which is free for download now (yay!): http://www.coreknowledge.org/mimik/mimik_uploads/documents/494/CKFSequence_PreK_Rev.pdf

When we found ProgressivePhonics.com and their ebooks is when my daughter really made that leap from segmented sounding out to blending to thinking in blends to reading whole words phonetically without slowing down (much.) It could be coincidence that I found those and started her on the intermediate levels right when she was about to do it anyway, but their approach repeating a blend over and over through several poems seemed to really help.

Would he go for something like "Offering ___ services throughout SE WI's aa, bb, and cc Counties including the communities A, B, C, D, E"