We do the recipe box + index card combo, too. Here is a post with picture showing how we do it.

We mainly do poetry and Bible verses for first grade, but we also do recitations which contains some important information from different subjects (like conversions for math, parts of speech for grammar, names of continents for geography, Sates and Capitals). Since we use mostly Memoria Press, we use their recitations, but it would be easy to make your own tailored to your own curriculum. Here is a blog post about recitations and here is one on how we organize our other memory work.

Not only do we school year round, but our local schools are a mix of year round (with staggered starts all summer) and traditional schedules. So there is no real "official" start date after a long break. We do pictures, and I like to get pics of their shiny new curriculum displayed nicely, too. We have a special breakfast and dinner. But, no new school supplies (we just replace things as needed throughout the year).

Not sure if you want kits or books, but I just put together a post about our favorite kits here. Some of them are pricey, but the ScienceWiz kits are a great value (IMO).

Right now I'm reading Henry V using a Memoria Press lit guide. I'm not writing out all the answers, though! I'm also trying to stay a lesson ahead in Latin.

If you look at them just a workbook, then yes they would be dry and more like busy work. If you look at them as what they are intended to be, a guide, then they are great. Writing out well-thought out answers to the comprehension questions is a really important skill for kids to learn. The questions are not just for checking understanding, they help the student interact with what they read and compose a well written response. I've only used 1st, 2nd, and 4th grades, so I'm not sure about 3rd. For 4th grade there are good discussion questions that can lead to great conversation if you're willing to spend the time doing that. There are also worthwhile enrichment activities and copywork/ dictation passages. For 2nd grade, there are some really neat activities including things like making a Venn diagram, finding the author/illustrator/characters/setting and plot of a story, and some fun crafty type activities suggested. The amount of writing was overwhelming to me in the beginning and I probably would have been tempted to cut corners had I not looked around at the MP forum. Every exercise has a point to it, and after awhile I could see so much progress in my kids' abilities.

We are using MP 2nd grade pretty much as is. The only swap outs I've made were with handwriting and spelling, but I'm actually switching those over now, too. I taught my older dd Prima Latina in 2nd and am now doing it with my son. Here are my thoughts on it for 2nd: - I actually disagree that you need more English grammar before doing PL. We pretty much use PL as our grammar in 2nd grade, and its perfect. The only grammar needed is to be ready to learn parts of speech (nouns, verbs, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions, and adverbs are taught in PL). No other grammar is necessary. - PL just has 5 new vocabulary words a week in most lessons. Very doable. I do recommend using flashcards for daily review, and if you do that kids will master the vocabulary easily. - Latina Christiana is a much more difficult program than PL and does require more grammar. So while I would suggest starting PL in 2nd grade for almost any student, I also think its a great idea to stretch out LC over 2 years (3rd and 4th grades) unless a student is pretty advanced. As you probably know, MP now recommends this path for most students. - Couldn't be easier to teach. It was my first introduction to Latin, and we have done just fine even without the DVDs. I do like the DVDs for First Form, but I have found PL and LC pretty easy to do on my own. So, obviously you could just wait and start PL in 3rd and then do 4th grade moderate, which would put you at doing LC in one year. But I would say just follow the lesson plans as they are, which makes things simple for you, and do 3rd grade moderate next year,stretching out LC over 2 grades.

I agree. Horizons does look like a solid program and its tempted me several times, but I love the beauty and richness of MP curriculum and Horizons just doesn't come close to that. MP has beautiful art, music, poetry and literature. Not to mention solid phonics and math. Horizons does have great math and phonics, but the other components are lacking, IMO.

We just moved back to the US last month and I had to get rid of lots that I just couldn't justify going into a suitcase. There were lots of teary moments for me over books especially, but even things like Rod & Staff English books. Now we're using MP Grammar Recitation, but I really liked R&S a lot and was a bit emotional to part with it.

I never understood why its formed that way. I would rather my dc just write it the way you described, as an O with a loop. It makes much more sense to me, even though I learned the tricky 2. We recently switched from HWOT to New American Cursive, and I much prefer their Q.

You are so right! It can be so tempting to just hand my 4th grader the book and let her do the whole lesson on her own while I work with younger ds and corral the toddler, but I need to keep reminding myself that discussing the information is going to make her more independent and successful in the future. Now, on days when there isn't really a new concept I do just hand her the book. She's doing fine without much additional oral review.

They are about the easiest to deal with company I've ever experienced, so I wouldn't be surprised if they make an option available for you!

No. Latin is a core subject here, and we learn derivatives along with our Latin vocabulary so I think we're good on vocabulary. I'm hoping we'll get to Greek eventually, so we'll have most of our bases covered!

I also recommend the worksheets. Ludere is a nice supplement, but these worksheets really add a ton of practice to the program.

I did one last week! That would be great to post them again. I used to love reading those!

I think studying FMG that year also prepares students for The Trojan War, which is scheduled for use that same year.

This was our first year of "boxed" with Memoria Press and I'll never look back! Rigorous and simple to use. Love having lesson plans to just check off as we go!

Personally, I'm not sure I would do 3rd with a rising 1st grader. You would have to tailor it quite a bit, making it much more teacher intensive on your part. The later levels do get tougher, and usually even advanced kids are right at grade level rather than moving up a year in it. If you really want to do it that way, I guess you could just have the younger one do most of it orally, or using the worksheets instead of writing out the exercises, with the expectation of repeating the level for him/her next year. I'm just doubtful it would work in the long run to work 2 grade levels ahead in R&S.

We have used levels 2 and 3 and parts of 4 after FLL for 1st. Personally, I like it better than FLL. It's good and thorough, with lots of built in review. You can also purchase worksheets and tests inexpensively. The downside is that it would be a lot of writing if you required a kid to write out every single exercise. I just chose the ones I thought were the most valuable for writing out and then we did the rest orally, or I'd assign odds or evens to be done. Alternatively, you can assign the worksheets instead of the book exercises, which contain significantly less writing. Be careful not to cut out too much of it though, since grammar is best learned through writing (IMO). As far as levels go, 2nd and 3rd grades are pretty similar. As far as I remember, 3rd covers basically the same topics, just a bit more in depth. I would start a kid in either of those grades at grade level.

We also use Memoria Press Latin and treat it similarly to KrissiK. It is absolutely a core subject. Our experience has been that this is the only way to persevere with it. If you look at it as an enrichment subject, you'll never get very far. It's too challenging and demands too much time and effort for that. But if you are convinced that learning Latin is valuable and show your kids that by making it a priority, you can absolutely go all the way to translating Cicero and other authors. I have a review of Prima Latina (Memoria Press's beginning program for 2nd-3rd graders) here on my blog. I think its a great starting point for 3rd graders since its a pretty gentle introduction. We didn't use the DVD's for that or for Latina Christiana, but we are finding them useful for First Form Latin. Whatever you choose, I also recommend reading up on why Latin is worthwhile. My favorite book for that so far is Climbing Parnassus. Doing some research will help you solidify your goals and decide whether its worth committing to or not.

We just have Famous Men of Rome. We love the beautiful illustrations! You can also purchase just the original text for about $1 on kindle, but I think that for a book like this it is worth it to get the nicely illustrated MP version. The pictures really draw you in. I'm using it with my 4th grader, but my 2nd grader loves to listen in and I think the pictures definitely help with that.

I agree with these! I also like to get the Sonlight and Heart of Dakota catalogs for read aloud suggestions.

As far as concepts go, I don't think the jump is all that huge. The writing does get more focus and is more difficult, but if you're skipping the writing parts I'd say you're fine! From what you say about your younger child, he would probably do fine with it. You can always tailor the amount of written work to their abilities, which I'd do anyway no matter what level.

I don't think you'd have a problem getting young kids interested in the first 2 volumes. After that they were a bit harder for youngers to follow, IMO. We stopped using SOTW partway through volume 3. It was just too much jumping around from place to place and we became frustrated that we weren't remembering many details along the way. I know the purpose of SOTW is exposure, but we also really appreciate mastery-based curriculum. We switched to Memoria Press full grade level plans, so we are doing Famous Men of Rome now for 4th grade and did Greek Myths last year. 5th grade will be Famous Men of the Middle Ages. I like going deeper into an era and really getting to know the people/ timeline/ geography of the events. We still use SOTW as a read aloud now and then. We did really like volumes 1 and 2 for first and second grades, though!

Well, I guess I'd answer your question from a different perspective. While I'm pretty sure at this point that my kids won't be attending a B&M school, I am very sold on those same classical methods that you mentioned and would use those or similar products regardless. If I lived near Highlands Latin School, I would try to visit it often for inspiration (if they allowed me to :)). But I would still homeschool. I just love homeschooling for so many reasons.