We pretty much school year round (just more lightly in the summer), so we are still finishing our year when others are just beginning. We won't start our new school year until the new calendar year; January. Hey....it works for us. :001_smile:

:lol: I had to laugh. I was nodding yes to everything you said......until I came to your last paragraph, "This is my first year homeschooling, so maybe I'll feel more confident with my choices down the road?" Well....I don't know about that (maybe). But, I've been homeschooling since our first child was born (she'll be 18 in two weeks!) and I *still* second guess and *still* change my plans (plans I thought were written in stone). I guess after all these years I *still* don't wanna "miss the boat" on something good. Sorry....not much advice here. Hope it gets better for you. :001_smile:

I'd go with the Light Blue too (not that I am any kind of expert on it...I ordered the Light Blue series on CD but haven't gotten it yet). If you decide you want to go with the entire Light Blue series, it's still on sale at Homeschool Buyers Co-op ($70.80 for the download, $73.80 for the CD). But if you want to get it.....you gotta hurry. The sale ends in about 4 hours or less.

Hmmmm......I haven't heard of this before. I only had time to listen to the one of them. I always liked these: http://gardenofpraise.com/index.htm Scroll down until you see Musical Activities on the right side. Click on Musical Spelling Rules. I think it automatically starts the first song, 1-1-1 Spelling Rule. You can click on the others: Silent E, Y Spelling Rule, and Rules for Plurals. This is just cute music you sing to. You can print the music sheets too. Be sure to scroll down below the lyrics for additional spelling rule instruction and practice words.

Homeschool Buyers Co-op. All you need to do is sign up for free. Here's the link to the Math Mammoth; ending in less than 16 hours now! https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1447&source=HCOM-03-24-10

Thank you Joy! I will definitely check out your website and the other sites you listed that I hadn't heard of. I appreciate this!

Well, here and Homeschool Reviews are my favorite sites for forums. But.....I'm asking about *reviews*. I don't think they have curriculum reviews here (other than just asking people in the forums).

I hadn't heard of this site. Thanks for sharing. I just signed up. :001_smile:

My top review site that I always go to is Homeschool Reviews: http://homeschoolreviews.com/reviews/default.aspx This looks ok. I just found this but I wonder if this is a site I used to go to years ago and it has a totally different look (if so, I don't care for the change). It's Homeschool Curriculum Reviews: http://www.homeschool-curriculum-reviews.com/ I've been to Successful Homeschooling before, but just figured out today that when you click on an item you want to see reviewed....you need to scroll waaaay down to see any reviews. I could never figure out why there were no reviews (they were there at the bottom but I didn't know, LOL!):tongue_smilie:: http://www.successful-homeschooling.com/homeschool-curriculum-reviews.html I know of Cathy Duffy's site, but this is just her reviews, right?? She doesn't have reviews by other people?: http://www.grovepublishing.com/ Here's another one, The Old Schoolhouse, but I *think* this is just one person reviewing each thing too? I could be wrong: http://thehomeschoolmagazine.com/Homeschool_Reviews/ There's A to Z Home's Cool......but, I just don't get it. The site confuses me: http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/materials/CurriculumReviews.htm There's Homeschooling From the Heart, but she doesn't have too much there: http://www.homeschoolingfromtheheart.com/hsreviews.html Does anyone know of any other good curriculum review sites to share? I always wondered why there isn't one here. On second thought....maybe there is and I just don't know it??? :blushing: ETA: I should also mention that Rainbow Resource and CBD often have reviews too. These are the main places I buy curriculum from. Maybe other companies have reviews too??

The 40% off MM deals end September 8th at 3 am EST.

You can see by my signature what we are doing for K. Well, you got the most important stuff already covered with McRuffy.....the Phonics (which includes spelling and the Fancy Nancy handwriting :001_smile:), and Math. How about adding in the McRuffy K Science? It's gentle yet gives a bit of hands on for fun. Of, if you don't want everything to be McRuffy, you could look into the Science Excursion for K. In addition to these things, we basically just added in arts/crafts and Pianimals. But....in reality, all that you are already doing is probably just fine.

I think the TE is pretty important to have. A lot of the student pages would be pretty easy to figure out without a TE, because the page instruction is right at the top. But, some of the student pages you won't know what to do because the only instruction is in the TE (I'm thinking of the assessments). The TE is fully scripted (but you don't have to stick to that) and has reduced size pages of the student pages. Besides telling you what to do and say for each lesson, there are also a lot of comprehension questions in the TE that you ask your child. I am just going by the K level....I would assume the other levels have even more since they have a separate spelling book also. I almost forgot.....the TE will tell you when to use the items in the resource pack too.

I think you should get it. I'm looking at the Intermediate and inside the Tests & Answer Key it says, "This book provides you, the teacher, with answers to the Intermediate Science Student Text. This includes activity pages. Also included in this book are tests and answers for every major section taught in Intermediate Science Student Text." This is a fairly small book, compared to the Student Text; this one is 54 pages. It has reduced size pages of all the Student Activity pages with the answers filled in. It also includes 9 tests and 3 quizzes with their answers. I hope this helps somewhat.

For my youngest, she has McRuffy Phonics....but I also have Right Track Reading that I use parts of on occasion (the spelling with tile building). I just recently discovered Reading Made Easy and love that too. For Science we have McRuffy and Science Excursion (for 1st grade I think we'll still have two programs for Science....SE and Elemental). For Math we are using McRuffy and Moving With Math K (I love them both). But for first grade we will probably try MM along with Miquon and MMM (just kind of for play and a different way to approach math). But....then I just heard about MEP here. Oh my! I'm really, really trying not to look at that website...........because I still have MWM for 1st and 2nd sitting here too, LOL! And, just an fyi, this isn't too much for my dd. She'd much rather pull out Miquon and the rods and do another, different, math lesson than watch tv....or grab Reading Made Easy and do a lesson or two right before bed.

Well, it's probably too late to offer another suggestion. But, I will in case others might be interested. Here's another idea: Reading Made Easy by Valerie Bendt I recently picked up a used copy of this and ordered the 4 activity books from CBD (with my free shipping code :001_smile:). You don't *need* the activity books, but they are so cute and definitely add to the program. Can I say this.........my dd LOVES LOVES LOVES this reading program. It is soooooooo easy and I can't believe I never had heard of it before. I have tried countless reading programs over the years and this is my favorite. I highly recommend it and am thrilled that I got it. :thumbup: The blue box to the side shows samples and tons of reviews: http://www.valeriebendt.com/ReadingMadeEasy.aspx http://www.christianbook.com/Christian/Books/easy_find?Ntt=reading+made+easy&N=0&Ntk=keywords&action=Search&Ne=0&event=ESRCN&nav_search=1&cms=1

Tossing you a bag. Wow! What are the odds that this would happen on the night she had a tape recorder on?? That's really amazing. But, very frightening. I can't believe she didn't wake up! I wake up at every single sound. I'm glad she's ok. Has she looked around to see if anything is missing? I hope they catch whoever it is. Good thing she has this "evidence".

About a month ago I pre-ordered the printed version (I don't do eBooks :tongue_smilie:). We will be using it for a first grader. I'm hoping she's not too old for it. But, I wanted to start right from the beginning with this series. It looks really good....can't wait to finally get it in the mail. I just went back to the website because I couldn't remember when it's supposed to be shipped....looks like later this month! :hurray:

Thanks for sharing. Right now my 6 year old is using a Magnetic Responsibility Chart I got at a garage sale for $2.00. It's working out nice. It's super simple though.....holds up to 7 different chores and you put a magnet on when the chore is completed. I just checked Amazon....here's is the exact one we are using: http://www.amazon.com/Melissa-Doug-Deluxe-Magnetic-Responsibility/dp/B000NTZL7U/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=toys-and-games&qid=1283520743&sr=8-1 What are the circles drawn at the top of your chore cards??

Yep...it was about a 2 month wait from the time I ordered til the time everything got shipped. I did get quite annoyed about it. We actually haven't gotten much time to use them yet. But, what we have used....yes, I like it. I can see *maybe* having everything for the K kit on hand.....but the other ones?? Wow.....that's a lot of stuff. Sitting at the UPS for days?? How rude! :001_smile: Hope you get it later today and will enjoy it!

Did you get it yet?? I know the waiting can be hard. Sounds like you're getting yours waaaaay faster than I got mine. I ordered mine.....oh, last year sometime. She had to put the kits together (I had assumed they were already put together and were ready to ship.....wrong). Problem was....quite a few of our items were on backorder and she wanted to ship both kits at the same time. It literally was MONTHS before they were sent. She did keep us informed through e-mail every few weeks. But.....seriously, it was ridiculous!

:lol: Funny! Awww....poor daddy B.

I use the same suggestion about the "bed". When sounding the word bed out, the b sound is first and the d sound is last. And, they can visualize the headboard (the b) and the footboard (the d). If they visualize it the other way around, it won't made a bed (deb). Also, the lower case b can turn into the upper case B. That won't work with the d.

Science Excursion http://www.scienceexcursion.com/Curriculum/Grades/Kindergarten/

Well, I have to admit, I actually did leave them. :blushing: I just didn't know if it was something I wanted to try or not. I kept looking at them and wondering (I was at that sale for like an hour!). But, I was already buying tons of stuff ($44!). After I left I went to the library and got on the computer (our home computer wasn't working) and I came here to the WTM and HSR to read about it. They had really good reviews so I rushed back over there. Thankfully they were still there! I've actually done this many times too.....I later think I should have gotten it, then go back and often it's gone. But, this time it worked out and I'll remember that from now on (just get it!). Thank you everyone for your comments. I'd love to hear from more of you.

A couple of days ago I went to a garage sale. I was pretty excited because I got all the rods, the Miquon annotations book and 4 of the workbooks for $17.00. I almost didn't get them (I know....I had a crazy moment there), only because looking through the workbooks I just didn't really "get" it. But, I figured it would be explained in the annotations so I decided to go for it. I spent quite a bit of time over the weekend looking through them and getting a feel for it. I think I'm really going to like it. I'm quite sure my daughter will love it. Now I just have to get the orange book to start. Here's my few questions for now: Do you recommend the 1st Grade Diary and Notes to Teachers? Do you keep your rods in the plastic divider tray? I just dumped them all in nice container with a lid and I think that's better than sorting each time. I already ordered MM from HSBC, so I hope it's gonna be ok to use both. BTW, I also found 2 levels of Growing With Grammar at that garage sale. What are the odds?? :001_smile: