We've never done games and I hope we don't ever get there, to be honest! My kids have the Narnia books, Magic Treehouse, Elsie Dinsmore, The Hobbit, and tons of classics that were free like Peter Pan, A Little Princess, The Wizard of Oz, etc. Whenever we finish a read aloud, I put it on their kindles so they can read and reread it themselves.

Really? I haven't heard that before. Does it actually happen? We've owned kindles for about 5 years now and have more than 1,000 books. We've never had any removed.

We all have our own kindles in our family (okay, not my 1 year old yet) and use them all the time. I love the flexibility of them, I can stick it my bag and literally carry around hundreds of books with me wherever we go. We live overseas and travel a lot, so it is especially useful in our situation. My kids enjoy reading their kindles and figured out pretty quickly how to navigate with them.

We are using the MP guides this year. I understand why people say they are dry, but they do have some interesting activities interspersed here and there. They also build a lot from year to year, growing in complexity and more in depth discussion. I really enjoy the discussion topics because they have helped us bring out the main themes in the books and lend to character analysis. They also include good writing activities.

Memoria Press' Latin programs are great! Prima Latina is a gentle introduction for a 3rd grader, or if you want to go crazy and make Latin a focus of your year you could also jump right into Latina Christiana. If you like to sing in Latin, I would definitely recommend these! The audio CD's include several songs and my kids love them. We also have Lingua Angelica (also by Memoria Press) which is a CD of Latin songs, with a songbook and workbooks. I wouldn't recommend trying the workbooks with a 3rd grader, but you might enjoy the songbook and CD. Music is a great way to learn, and Latin songs are so pretty!

We really loved Om-Kas-Toe for those ages! Also, Tolliver's Secret and A Lion to Guard Us.

Just want to say that I'm with you on this!!!! Totally understand the baby screaming in the high chair while you're trying to read. Doesn't make for a very peaceful environment, does it? It sounds to me like you have a very full day and are doing a great job. I know there's always room for improvement in our routines/ schedules and I hope someone has the answer you need (and I need one, too!).

What ages are your dc? My dh is chomping at the bit to read LOTR to our kids but they are pretty young. They've read The Hobbit a few times already and are eager for more, I just want the timing to be right.

I think its hard to follow a pre-made schedule at that age. We also did Saxon K, the ETC primers, HWOT primer, Developing the Early Learner and the Rod & Staff A, B, C series. Just working in some (not all) of those a day, with LOTS of reading and some crafts or messy art projects here and there is the perfect preschool program. Read lots of nursery rhymes, fairy tales and classic stories! I completely agree 100% with Homeschool Mom in AZ that reading aloud is necessary and the best thing you can possibly do.

It's tough and I feel your pain! My 9 year old is my oldest and often has to stop her school work to play with the 1 year old while I work with my son. I often feel slightly miserable about our chaotic homeschool routine at this season in our lives, and have to remember that it is just for a season and things will calm down eventually (I hope). Eventually, the littles will be older and able to entertain themselves while you read to your olders and give them more focused time. One thing that I've tried to do this year is not worry as much about quantity of work as about quality. This is very hard for me, because I am a pretty rigid planner and like to accomplish any and every goal I set for ourselves. But, like you mentioned, I don't want everything to be rushed or the goal to be "get it done as fast as you can!" So I try to relax and do a good (or somewhat decent) job with the subject at hand, and not worry overmuch about the other subjects yet to be done. If we don't get to every subject, fine. I schedule in lots of buffer days to catch up on work that we're behind on. Now we do Math and Latin every single day no matter what, but sometimes I'll stretch a math lesson over 2 days so it doesn't take as long and we'll have a few extra minutes to spend on writing (or history or whatever).

We read it often and used to use poetry as part of our morning time. Now, my oldest is using Memoria Press' Poetry for the Grammar Stage and we love it! She copies the poem, we analyze it and she answers questions about it. We memorize them over longish periods of time, so its more of a pleasure than drudgery.

Memoria Press. Has great lit based studies in the Enrichment portion, and also has good solid phonics instructions.

The Ein-o kits are great, too! My son does it completely independently.

Sounds like my ds7! We have three Science Wiz kits, Electricity, Magnets, and Inventions. He can do them himself, which is a nice touch. He also asked for the Thames and Kosmos Physics Pro Workshop for his birthday and he loves to fiddle with that. We have the Optical Science one, too, and that's fun but not as much about how things work.

Here are some of the resources we use. This weekend we'll make a salt dough tomb and some chick in eggshell centerpieces.

We recently read Farmer Giles of Ham. It's a shorter read, and very funny.

You can also email them and they will send you the order codes. I had the same weird thing happen with items not showing up in my cart. So beware, you're purchasing them even though you can't see them there! I ended up with both R&S spelling and Spelling Workout for the same grade in my last RR order, all because I didn't see the R&S there and couldn't delete it.

Elsie Dinsmore- my dd's current favorite!

Good for you! My children feel pretty woeful at times, too. My dh is always telling them they don't know how good they have it!

Gotta love box day! Full curriculum packages are especially fun to get- more comes in the box :hurray: !

Welcome! You can't do better than reading the classics yourself, and the Well Educated Mind is an excellent resource for that. I've really enjoyed my own journey with the classics, and like you, I started before my oldest was school age. It's really good preparation. Like the previous poster said, MP Latin is excellent, both for learning alongside and for learning ahead of your kids. I'm going through First Form Latin myself ahead of my dd. As a bonus, there are helpful sections on diagramming in the back of the teacher manual (for English and Latin). Diagramming really helps it all "click." If you have the resources, I'd recommend getting yourself a Latin course like First Form Latin and working through it slowly. You have lots of time! Sign up to receive Memoria Press' free magazine/catalog. It always has great tips on the hows and whys of learning Latin. If you really want to go deeper in your research, read Climbing Parnassus. Here is a review of it I wrote lately.

Could you just have her do the odd numbers individually, after she reads the lesson to herself (it is written to the students and the TM doesn't really add any extra instructions), and then come to you later for oral drill and checking her work? We do several subjects like that, with independent work completed first followed by a follow-up tutoring session by me. You may even be able to combine the oral drill for a few days so that you only do it 2 or 3 times a week.

Honestly, I think you're probably fine without a formal lit program (and I love the pp's suggestions for Shakespeare!). Reading quality books, including poetry and classics, is the best literature program you can have. Having said that, we do use MP lit guides and I like them. I know they get a bad rep here sometimes for being dry, and I can see why. But, we've had a lot of fun with them, too. For the 2nd grade level, there are occasional activities that bring in art or other creative skills. For example, my son made a Jack Frost picture with glue and salt on black paper. It looks really cool and we still have it on display. That was for Little House in the Big Woods. He doesn't like writing out the answers to the comprehension questions at all. It's probably his least favorite thing we do. And I could scribe for him, but I don't. We come up with good answers together, I write them on the board, and he copies them neatly in his workbook. I require him to do this because it is teaching him the valuable skill of answering questions using well-written, complete sentences. I consider it part of his education in writing, not just literature. But it is hard work, and sometimes feels like a battle. The books themselves are great, and I like the slow pace and immersing ourselves in one good read for a while.

Another vote for Prima Latina. It can easily be done in just a little time each day, and is not grammar heavy. There are just a few vocabulary words each week, normally 5-6. I have a post about it here.

You might be more interested in GSWL, but I have a post about Prima Latina on my blog here if you are interested.