I did a blog post here about a year ago about Classical Composition. We are at the end of Fable now.

We don't use a curriculum. We read books from the library, which I usually feel like cover at least as much as any textbook would, probably more. We go to the science museum often, take daily nature walks, and sign up for classes at local nature centers. I do have the kids make notebook pages, which are mostly diagrams or pictures about what we are learning. After a field trip, they make a notebook page about what they learned there. Honestly, I LOVE doing science this way. I'm learning so much alongside my kids, and its totally no-stress and no-pressure. When they get to 7th or 8th grade we will most likely begin a formal curriculum, but I am making the most of the freedom and flexibility we have during these years.

We like this picture book.

Not entirely about Sacagawea, but Naya Nuki is one of our all time favorite books. I love the writing and the story.

Great to hear these confirmations! I love our natural and fun approach to science.

Thanks, that looks like it might work well for math. Any other suggestions?

I want to purchase something simple and inexpensive to give my kids some basic test prep before doing end of year testing. This is the first year that my kids will have to test, as required by our state. The new Spectrum workbooks get mixed reviews. What have you used successfully? Btw, my kids are in 2nd and 4th grades.

I'm curious about this, too! We don't use a curriculum, but read a lot from the library, do simple experiments, and spend lots of time both doing nature study at home and doing classes at nearby centers. My ideal thing would be to keep it this way until 7th grade, and then do a real textbook. Anyway, I'm listening in...

Well, I read the hardback WWE and decided to apply the principles on my own instead of using the workbooks. Honestly, I don't worry at all about the various grammar points that are taught (we have a grammar program that thoroughly covers all that), I just select sentences that I like from our current read aloud to use as copy work (and then dictation). We do narrations WWE style for history and literature throughout the week.

Unfortunately there is no magical right answer :). It sounds like she is doing fine and as expected, especially for a 4 yr old. When I hit similar roadblocks with my dc, I'd often try pausing to review for a few days, only to find that eventually it would all "click" at some lesson farther down the road. If she's not frustrated with the sentences or words on the lesson, I'd just keep moving ahead and expect it to take some time until it all comes together for her. OTOH, if she becomes frustrated or is in tears about it, just slow down and let her gain confidence by practicing on what she already knows. Remember that you have lots of time! Even if you eventually find yourself behind where you wanted to be, you can always double up lessons later once she is reading more fluently. And its okay to take a couple of years to go through the book, especially when you begin on the young side.

Hamlet is my favorite for well-known quotes. There are a lot of good sections, but for memorizing a passage I'd go with Hamlet's speech to himself, "To be or not to be..." Those words come up so often in everyday life and its nice knowing their origin and context.

Sometimes I flip back through previous chapters and hit a few of the oral review questions to keep it fresh. There is a lot of review in R&S, but sometimes the oral drill topics focus mostly on the chapter at hand, not necessarily on previously learned material. Going over some of those early questions once or twice a week helps my dd remember those topics.

We're doing pretty much the same thing, and also add dictation every day. For grammar we use Rod and Staff which does include some more formal writing lessons (but just a few, not all that often).

Thanks for this! I'm getting ready to teach a co-op class on China for 3rd-5th graders and these resources look helpful.

I do pause frequently to explain things. Many of the cultural references are confusing to kids, so I stop to let them know what is going on. I'm also pretty sure that there are entire paragraphs that go over their heads, but we just keep going. This book is part of their preparation for listening to David Copperfield and eventually A Tale of Two Cities, which are two of my favorite books. If they get used to the language and expressions in A Christmas Carol, hopefully those will be a bit easier to enjoy.

I started it when my kids were 7 and 5, and that was fine.

We're doing something similar for the next couple of weeks. We will reread A Christmas Carol for the third year in a row, adding in some biographies about Charles Dickens and life in London during his time. We'll also read The Nutcracker and learn about the history of that, then do some simple Christmas Around the World books from the library. For picture study, we're doing The Annunciation by Fra Angelico and Madonna of the Magnificat by Sandro Botticelli (using our Memoria Press art cards, but could find these or similar online). For music, we'll listen to parts from The Nutcracker and also Carol of the Bells. Poetry will be Christmas Bells by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow. We'll memorize Adeste, Fideles (O Come All Ye Faithful) in Latin. I'm looking into different nature themed art projects and crafts that we can combine nature study and art with (and make some gifts for family members at the same time). I'm super excited about our plans! BTW, I started reading A Christmas Carol to my kids when they were 7 and 5 and they actually loved it, which was thrillingly satisfying to me since I LOVE Dickens. Don't be afraid to go with the real thing!

There is Memoria Press. Definitely a different approach, but with their Famous Men series you are camping out for a long time with each civilization. They are also a very Catholic friendly company. Many of their users are Catholic. We're using A Child's History of the World as a spine and lots of library books to expand on each culture. The book does jump around a bit, but I'm finding it pretty easy to still read all the chapters in order but focus on one civilization at a time.

Yeah, I've also asked for curriculum for myself (to use teaching the kids) for both Christmas and birthdays. My parents got frustrated, saying they wanted to buy me something for my gift, not something for the kids. But since I spent so much time drooling over curriculum, it really was the perfect gift for me! We had a negative experience with Christmas once. I had special news that I was sure would excite the kids and created an elaborate scavenger hunt with clues for them to find it out. As soon as they deciphered it all, they burst into tears and were inconsolable for a long time. Totally shocked me, and now I'll be very careful about what gifts and surprises we do on that day.

One of the main reasons we went with MP last year was for the lesson plans. I had a one year old and needed the simplicity. Previously we had been following WTM fairly closely with some exceptions. We already used Rod and Staff math, grammar, and spelling, and MP for Latin. I think the total amount of time per day is about the same, with the exception that MP does not combine subjects like history and science that WTM would suggest you do together. That obviously takes more time if you are doing more than one core. The literature guides also add a bit more time than doing lit the WTM way. I followed the plans pretty much exactly as they were for almost the entire year. I wanted to see if I could do it (I'm a tweaker at heart). They worked well for the most part, but I came away feeling that I'd rather plan myself even though it does take more time. I like the freedom of moving at my kid's pace in subjects rather than following a set guideline. For me, that is where a lot of the beauty of homeschooling lies. It really depends on your personality as a teacher. Some moms love having the plans all laid out for you (and I did at first, too), but others want more freedom, flexibility and spontaniety than that offers. We will continue to use mostly MP products, but I am scheduling the subjects myself to suit our own family. I'm also combining my kids for history, science and Bible. I want to have more time to dig deeper with these subjects, reading and discussing more. I simply can't do that with 2 cores to teach. There isn't enough time in the day. It sounds like your oldest are working at the same grade level, so that might not be an issue for you.

I run at around 3, when we're finished with school and my toddler is still napping. I stay close to the house, just lapping back and forth on our street until it adds up to 3 miles. On some weekends my dh and I love to get a long run in together at a state park, but that's only if we're lucky enough to get the grandparents to watch the kids. Exercise is important to me. I think the good long term results are worth the slight incovenience of scheduling it into my day. I love the way I feel when I'm in shape, and hate how tired I feel when I am not. I absolutely think it makes me a better mom.

There are so many other wonderful Dickens books that I prefer over Oliver Twist anyway. Go with Great Expectations, Nicholas Nickelby, David Copperfield, or something similar. I don't think Dickens should be skipped altogether, but there's no need to feel tied to a specific book.

We have only used 2nd grade enrichment. I liked it especially for the art and music. We had a lot of fun with it, adding to the social studies and science topics with lots of extra reading and fun activities. We had already read several of the books (but not nearly 90%), but that still worked okay. Actually, I was glad when we came to a title we already owned and didn't have to purchase or borrow. I think the enrichments are great are because you can absolutely make them what you want them to be. If all you do is read the book, read the poem, look at the art and listen to the music, you are already set and can feel great about what you've done that week. On the other hand, if you are the type that loves to tweak, add, and go deeper, the suggested topics provide the perfect springboard for you. Now, if you are antsy to begin a more systematic, in-depth study of history and science in 1st grade, this isn't going to fit the bill.

It bothers me, too, and I'm never sure why. We've never been on track for a normal year, and we finish our subjects at different times. We'll finish our math books in December, but just started new grammar books. I've always just gone at the pace my kids need and moved on to the next thing when they were ready. Sometimes that fits nicely into a lesson-a-day schedule, and other times it looks pretty different. Oh well. In a way, isn't that the beauty of homeschooling? You can meet the needs of your kids within the unique context of your family. If you need to work on weekends, go for it! If you can only manage 4 days a week for more weeks, that's fine, too.

We like Rod and Staff a lot. It does have some diagramming in 3rd grade, but not an overwhelming amount. It starts super-simple: identify the subject and predicate and put a line between them.