:iagree: We bought ours used and have had it for nearly 3 years and love it. We are over 100K, no major problems and it rides great on trips. It has gone on a lot of long trips. We have 5 kiddo's and the interior has held up really well.

For a just turned 5 year old? We are using Sonlight's P4/5 for her K year and they suggest the DEL books. Do you think the R&S would be just as good or would it be overkill to do them both?

The stetro pencil grips are my favorite and what I have my children use. They are usually around 50 cents each at my local supply store. http://www.amazon.com/Stetro-Pencil-Grips-Assorted-Colors/dp/B000KIEJKE?tag=780065172-20 I've also used this one myself, but my kids aren't a fan. http://www.amazon.com/The-Pencil-Grip-Ergonomic-TPG-11106/dp/B001SN8HOY/ref=pd_sbs_op_1&tag=780065172-20

You can read them on your computer using Adobe Reader...although I will admit that I much prefer them on my iPad.

The Core that I have only has notes every few weeks. Most weeks don't have any extra notes at all. There are many more notes and questions in the History Guide, Read-Aloud Guides in the back of the IG though.

:lol: I had to laugh at that statement and commiserate! My little guy is on full-speed ahead these days and while he isn't necessarily a trouble maker - he for sure isn't sitting still playing quietly with blocks! :D

I have the books and just reviewed the E-Learning. I was really thankful to b able to see in the E-Learning what was being explained in the books, it sort of helped make everything make sense for me. We will continue to use Professor B in our homeschooling. I am excited about how it approaches math. It uses the same expectation of recognizing numbers not counting.

She will be 13! This is a great start. Thank you so much. Gosh - I am so thankful for the week we get to stay, but is it bad that I wish we could make it a month?!

My daughter and I have 8 months until we leave for our trip of a lifetime to Paris. What resources, books, history, art topics etc., should we explore? I have her signed up for Mango Languages through the library. I have her studying some artists that I know she will encounter in the various museums, but what else? What would you do to prepare for a trip like this?! I want her to have some background meaning behind many of the things she will see and experience while we are there. Thanks!

Off the top of my head and I cant' think of any differences in phonograms. I will have to check again about the markings.

I think R&S Spelling is great for natural spellers.

I was so bummed about this, too. Not that I really need anymore spiral notebook or notebook paper anyway...LOL

My favorite is Burl Ives Little White Duck. There is a Sesame Street album with "We are going on a tiger hunt" that I listened to over and over, too. And the Beatles. :D

We have checked all of those out at the library numerous times. I figure I have probably spent enough in library fines to have purchased at least one volume by now!:lol:

We have checked all of those out at the library numerous time. I figure I have probably spent enough in library fines to have purchased at least one volume by now!

I just reviewed these for the Schoolhouse Review Crew and loved them! I am going to use them with Creek Edge Press tasks cards for our studies next fall. You can read my review HERE and then click through to the Schoolhouse Crew website to read even more reviews.

I just downloaded this and really like it! I am a pen and paper person, but this will be a great way to record and keep track of what is going on in one place. I am still in my free trial, but I think it will be interesting to see how useful it will be while I am planning for next year.

:iagree: I have the Yesterday's Classics collection and love it. It includes illustrations and an interactive Table of Contents. The quality of these over the ones available for free is significant. Another great option is Heritage History. Tons of books that are available in the public domain, but have been reformatted for e-readers. I have been very impressed with the quality of these as well!

They come with a suggested list of resources, some of which I already had and the rest we were able to make-do with what I have on hand. I tried to have many of my "Life Sciences" books that covered the topics on the task cards on the same shelf in the "learning environment" so it was easy for my daughter to find what she needed. We also have a set of World Book Encyclopedia's that were used a lot for various tasks.

The Bridge is purely a grammar program to get your child up to speed and ready to move into The Latin Road. If you need spelling, grammar, lit study-a complete L.A., then you will need the Phonics Road. I started my children on Phonics Road nearly two years ago and accelerated my oldest two through the first level pretty quickly (taking a rather long break after their youngest sibling was born) and now am teaching Level 1-3 to my three oldest and starting Level 1 again with my K'er this fall. If you have any questions about it, let me know!

We used the Life Science cards this last year. I reviewed them for the Schoolhouse Review Crew. I loved, loved, loved them! I have bought the Geography and Cultures and the Medieval Task Cards for our studies next year already. For our review period, I set up a simple learning environment and set my 6th grader loose with them. She loved being able to work at her own pace and I loved that she was able to make her own connections and it prompted a lot of independent study beyond what the cards were asking. It also gave her a chance to use all of these wonderful resources that we have in our home, but that don't always get used! I am going to use the Medieval cards next year with all of my children as well as the Geography and Cultures set. My older two will do their work independently and I will help my youngers finish their cards. I am really looking forward to it. I like that it gives us a basic structure and a guideline of what to do in a week, but it isn't on a strict "read XYZ pg. 2-4 on Monday, narrate pg. 7-8 on Tuesday" type of schedule. Heritage History has an awesome collection of Middle Ages literature that we reviewed as well, so between that and the Medieval Task Cards we will be good to go for our history studies next year!

The method of handwriting instruction is *brilliant*, IMO. It is manuscript, not ball and stick, so the children don't pick up their pencil when writing letters and it moves into cursive beautifully and easily. I had toyed with the idea of Cursive First, but after teaching my son with PR manuscript, I decided I don't need to. His writing is gorgeous and now moving into 2nd grade we are starting cursive and the transition has been painless. Phonics Road teaches spelling (and from that children learn to read) so if your son already has reading down, then PR will just build those spelling skills and teach beginning grammar and composition. You can accomplish much of the same with the Writing Road to Reading, though, for a much cheaper price tag. I am teaching 3 levels of Phonics Road right now...Phonics Road has given me a visual of how WRTR should look - and WRTR has taught me more about why we are doing the things we are in Phonics Road. Does that make sense?

Shannon - are you on the yahoo group? Someone else was just asking about doing PR 3 with a 9 yo boy and many of the mama's who have used PR for a long time have said that they slowed the pace way down so there wasn't as much writing each day. They were nearly in unison of the jump in skills from level 2 and 3 and didn't expect to finish it in one year.

Sorry, Hunter! Here is the link: http://homeschoolcrew.com/ You won't see our reviews of Professor B until the middle of July. We just received access to it on yesterday!

I am sooooo excited that the TOS Crew is getting to review Professor B. We will have access to all 3 levels of the online E-Learning. I think our reviews will post towards the middle of July. I was at our local used curriculum store yesterday and found a copy of both Level 1 and Level 2 books. From logging on today, though, I think I will be very thankful to have the videos to help us get started! I'll be posting on my blog as we use this over the next several weeks. From what I have read about Professor B and have seen so far, this looks like something that my family will be using for quite some time.