Well, I have all my curriculum choices made and now my goals pretty much revolve around them. Of course I want my 4th grader to succeed in her subjects, enjoy them, and retain a good amount of what we study :). Beyond that, I hope to see character formed as we read wonderful books and interact with the characters, as we learn perseverance through difficult subjects, and as we surround ourselves with truth and beauty.

Well, we use and like Classical Composition, but it's fairly similar to W&R so I don't know if that would work any better for you. It has DVD instructions as an option, but we don't use them. I did a review here. I have heard good things about CLE English but haven't used it myself. We have had a lot of success with Rod & Staff. It has thorough review, but not the same kind of memorization as FLL. It is written to the student and is really easy to understand. We have done some of the exercises orally since there is a lot of written work. It also has writing lessons scheduled here and there, which you can skip if you are doing a separate writing program. The lessons will help with things like structuring a paragraph, so you might like that.

At that age my kids really loved Mark Kistler's Draw Squad. We paid for a 3 year subscription when there was a sale and it was very worth it. He also has a book of lessons that I haven't used yet, but am thinking of purchasing soon. I think I would put both DWC and HTTATC at about the same level, at least to start with. They actually complement each other nicely. Since DWC starts out with shapes, you could do that and the first exercises from the book, then move to HTTATC and do more experimenting with lines, shapes, etc. The later lessons in DWC are more challenging and this way they would have a longer introduction before starting those exercises. I like both resources a lot for young kids.

I just did a blog post about this a few days ago here. We use a memory box system, and also do recitations each day.

I like the Explode the Code primers for that age, Handwriting Without Tear's Getting Ready for School, and Developing the Early Learner. We also did Elemental Science Exploring Science, which added a lot of fun hands on activities.

I don't think many people are using MP full curriculum, but we love it. We also use R&S Math and I don't ever come across anyone else using it.

As a fun, lighthearted introduction, we like the Shakespeare Can Be Fun books. The illustrations are all done by children, usually age 8-11, which my kids love. The lines rhyme and do include some references to famous Shakespeare quotes, but are also easy to understand. We also really like Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare.

I think you would probably want Exploring Science for a 4 year old. It uses Science Play as a spine and has lots of fun activities. Learning Through Science is for 3 year olds, and there is only 1 unit currently available, which is about colors. It doesn't require a "spine" book and is more appropriate for younger kids (I think even some 2 year olds might enjoy it).

I have combined up until this year when I bought separate Memoria Press grade level packages. I do miss combining sometimes, but I also really like have the subjects right at their individual levels without having to tweak anything. I did finally start doing the Christian Studies as a combined subject, though. We also do read alouds, art and music all together.

We also live abroad and I totally get your advanced planning! It makes purchasing books and curriculum so much more complicated. I used Storytime Treasures with my son for reading practice, along with the guides. They have comprehension questions and activities, more suited for 1st grade work than K probably. When my dd was that age, I just bought a bunch of early readers from this list of "Emerging Readers" that I drew titles from. I didn't buy the whole package or use the guide. She just read the books to me, a little each day.

I never used a formal curriculum for that age, but Memoria Press recently released a Special Needs series called Simply Classical that looks really interesting. It's not really just for special needs, either. This next week they are supposed to be releasing the same program without the Special Needs aspect as a pre-K option.

We used the worksheets. My dd really liked them because they required less writing. I used them on days we didn't do a full lesson or for review. Some lessons I would only assign the worksheets instead of the book exercises.

Ok, I'm looking at my teacher book for GM. Each lesson is pretty much the same as the sample. There are the Facts to Know, Vocabulary, Comprehension Questions, and Activities. The Activities section is the one that varies the most. There are questions for discussing the illustrations in the D'Aulaire book. Then there are are questions relating the stories to Bible stories or characters, and instructions for adding to the lists in the back of the book. These lists are kind of cool if you like to see information neatly organized, there are lists of 50 sisters, mortals punished for hubris, heroes hidden in youth, sisters, unusual punishments in Hades, etc. I like the lists because it helps us remember what we learn to organize it that way. There are also activities that I would describe as "take it further." Things like looking up narcissist in the dictionary and researching narcissus flowers, drawing family trees of the gods, writing a paragraph (or discussing) topics like "compare Poseidon's personality to the temperament of the seas." These do have answers provided for you. More and more I am seeing that while the MP guides would be dry if you used them as worksheets that you hand to your kids, they can also be interesting and lead to great discussion if you take the time to interact with your kids about the questions and activities. We did some of the comprehension questions in GM orally since it can be a lot of writing for a 3rd grader. We had fun drawing illustrations and digging deeper, especially seeing how many references to Greek mythology show up in our culture today. My dd even dressed up as Athena for Halloween :)!

The Christian Studies teacher guides also include lots of background information and discussion points for every lesson that are not in the student book. One thing all the teacher books have and the student books don't is the reproducible tests and quizzes with answer keys. I used to be a non-tester for content subjects, but now I appreciate tests, not only as a way to assess what they've learned, but as a good reason for more intense review every 5 weeks of what we've covered. It helps us remember the key events and people ( or gods :).

Well, at least it is an awesome enrichment program, lol! Too bad the rest didn't work out for you. We've had lots of trial and error here (and I cringe to think of money spent on things that didn't work for us), but MP seems to be the answer for us. I hope you find something that is the (nearly) perfect fit!

Yes, my dd loved those! I also second the recommendation for Thornton Burgess books, The Adventures of Happy Jack, Chatterer the Squirrel, and so on. A Child's Book of Poetry would be nice, too, if you don't have something similar planned.

I remember reading somewhere that someone's ideal sequence for those years was: 3 yr. old: LHTH 4 yr. old: MFW K 5 yr. old: LHFHG I haven't really looked at MFW K other than online samples, but I have LHTH and LHFHG (a bit embarrassing that I have purchased so much curricula over the years that we didn't end up using!). I tried them with my kids, but for some reason they just didn't jive for us. I like the warm fuzzies I get from HOD and I think they write wonderful guides, but they just weren't the perfect fit for our family. I agree with above that its hard to find a perfect fit for that age. I would probably just go with independent subjects, not a package. Simple math, reading, handwriting and lots of read alouds.

Memoria Press hasn't actually changed their recommendations, but they have alternate plans available now. For their grade level packages, 2nd grade still includes PL. For 3rd and up, you can choose either the moderate or the accelerated lesson plans. The moderate plans take 2 years to cover LC (and some other subjects), then FFL would be started in 5th grade and continue at the pace of a program a year. If you're just doing Latin, you don't necessarily have to follow any of their suggested sequences. Just take it at the pace and level that fits your kids/family. My 4th grader is doing FFL but we just started after Christmas and are only on lesson 8, so I can't say for sure how we'll be doing in the future with it. My 2nd grader is doing PL, but I haven't decided yet which track he'll follow after this year. I want my kids to enjoy Latin as much as possible, so not overwhelming them is a huge priority of mine. One way I try to help succeed is to really make it a focal point of our school day. We sing Latin songs, use the DVD'S and CD's, drill flashcards daily and have fun playing Hangman and memory with Latin. I realized early on that my kids just couldn't retain so much vocabulary if we only spent 10-15 minutes a day on it. This takes a lot of time and commitment on my part, but I think the end results will be worth it. (hopefully!!!)

MEP was hit and miss here. It doesn't have quite enough teacher notes for me or review for the kids. My kids also experienced some frustration when they couldn't "get" the puzzles. I used R&S 1 with my son for his K and 1st grade, like MP suggests. My son also catches on to math concepts easily, but still needs lots of review with facts. I like R&S for its thorough review, and the way my kids know their facts once going through it. I also like the way concepts are introduced in it. I have Singapore first grade, but we never really used it so I can't speak to that option. I did start a review on R&S math second grade on my blog, but I only have part 1 of my review up now. I'm planning to get part 2 up today or tomorrow, and that will have more of an insider's look into the program.

You guys are awesome! I would never have even thought of having a Pi day. Now the creative juices are flowing... Really, just any excuse to have pie sounds like a winner to me!

I began OPGTR when my dc were young and just used the chalkboard and letter tiles for a long time. If you choose to start it, I would keep the book itself out of sight until much later! But if you already have 100 Easy Lessons, you don't need OPGTR just for teaching the letter sounds. You can easily do that yourself without a book.

Memoria Press uses them a grade level ahead, so my fourth grader is using Grade 5. She's not having a problem with it, so I guess I'd lean more towards doing 6th for a fifth grader unless you want it to be an easy subject.

I only have the second grade guide, but I believe they are all similar. The only thing that the lesson plans include that is not in the enrichment guide is the actual title of the book recommendations for the social studies and science portions. Maybe that is included in earlier guides since the 2nd grade supplemental book set was not yet finished at the time of writing this guide? I am really enjoying the MP enrichment. We had done FIAR years ago when my oldest was 4/5, and I feel like MP's enrichment takes the best parts of what I liked about FIAR but makes it easier to use and adds in the art, music, poetry. It's really a nice resource. Some weeks we do the bare minimum that is in the guide, and other weeks I find additional resources about the composer or artist, we do art projects, science experiments, etc. I like the flexibility of it. I have blogged about a few of our weeks here, here, and here.

I also like the Gospel Story Book, but I think my absolute favorite is the Vos Story Bible. I love how many details are included in the stories. She adds many events that are not normally included in children's story Bibles. We've read through it 3 times, and every time we move on to a different book, I miss it and just want to go back to good old Vos. The only downside is the lack of pictures. While my kids love good illustrations, the lack of them in this book really didn't bother them too much. I think they were 5 and 3 when we first started it, and even the 3 year old enjoyed it.

Whitehawk, I know what you mean. He addresses that in the book. Of course something is always lost in translation, but obviously we're not going to run around trying to learn Russian so we can read the original Tolstoy and French for the sake of Les Miserables. While it may be the ideal way to read great books, its just not feasible. I think his point is more that we should not neglect these ancient languages because of the beauty, formative quality, and cultural richness available to us through them. But I think you have a good point, too. I'm curious to know what you think after reading more.