1B and 2A (the two books together are roughly second grade) for Singapore. I don't know about the other curriculums. Singapore website has the placements tests on their website.

My Writing Aids arrived, too while I was on a 4 night camping trip with my son. You sound excited about it and now I can't wait to look through it myself! I hope I love it as well :D I'll post again what I think about it. I'm just about to finish our first unit with TOG and we have LOVED it! I am just getting my WA so I am eager to see what it holds :lurk5: Loretta (DS7)

(I don't know a single adult who uses cursive..) I keep reading on the internet statements like this but I know there are many adults who write in cursive. In fact all the adults in the generations of my family write in cursive. I write my grocery lists in cursive. I do most of my typing on a keyboard but I don't go to my computer office program to type my grocery list. I guess I am just so used to grabbing a pencil and paper and making a grocery list by hand LOL. I think there are still multitudes of people writing in cursive (imho) and it just depends on who you know! I agree though, that by and large people in general write by hand Very little (whether in print Or cursive) and Most writing done nowadays is by keyboard. my 7 y/o ds took it upon himself to show great interest in cursive writing. It started at about age 6 when he kept commenting "I can't read cursive" He was in private Christian school (teaching printing, not cursive) Off and on he verbally expressed interest. I am HS him now and about 3 weeks ago he just starts practicing cursive on his own! So being a big proponent of child led learning and teachable moments I am on board! He Wants to learn it! It wasn't on my radar at this point. I think he wants to learn it because he wants to read it! Simple. Interestingly, his printing is good, but not great! His cursive (although he is just learning) is so beautiful. I do not know why? I did not expect this and it is a huge bonus. If his penmanship can be neater by using cursive rather than print I am all for it! I was going to teach cursive anyways, but my DS decided When. he LOVES LOVES it? Is this unusual for a boy? He gets so excited writing his words and showing Daddy LOL It's like any subject .. there are some who will have an appreciation for one subject over an other. Some will want to focus on Piano or a foreign language. Another may be artistically inclined to sketch or paint. I feel that way about cursive in a way. I guess I am in the *teach it* camp, though. If the child hates it and parents could care less.. well, then - pick and choose what you are going to put your effort into. I can't NOT teach it since my son is begging for it :) I find cursive beautiful (always have) and one of my comforts as a child was writing in my diary, pen in hand. I also credit my mother for teaching me appreciation of beautiful cursive writing. She would show me and read to me letters from my Grandmother and would comment on my Grandma's nice writing. I have an emotional reaction to discarding the sentiment of the handwritten note! I am not alone in this .. although there are just as many who are just fine skipping cursive altogether or who are neutral on the subject. My son will learn to write and read both print and cursive. I think I would have waited a bit longer to add the cursive but that ship has sailed! Honestly I hadn't even got that far! (Deciding when to start cursive) I am still deciding on parts of this years curriculum so cursive was the LAST thing on my mind! Even so, I don't plan on making it a huge focus but I know it won't take him long to master it with his enthusiasm for it :lol: Loretta

I am in the process of making a school room too. Haven't actually started yet but I plan to put a LONG narrow table in the room to have a spot to keep projects out for awhile until the Unit Celebration (We also use TOG) One end for doing work. I plan on a 8 foot table. (I need to buy this). I also figure the table can double as extra guest seating for Holiday dinners. Bookshelves (I need to buy these). Shelving for Supplies & Curriculum, Resources Cork board .. to hang stuff up where I can see it Time Line around the room I usually keep a small storage tub on the table (right now it is the kitchen table) with scissors, pencils, stapler and what not. The easy reach tub stays out all the time. Maps for sure. those will be the basics .. since I haven't actually started on the room, It will be tweaked. Actually I can't decide WHICH space to make our space. We naturally gravitate toward the kitchen table but the stuff is taking over and we need to have meals there! I have a *california sun room* which is long and narrow. This is right next to the kitchen table room so is more central but it is around the corner. the other option is a spare bedroom. The room is full of natural light. Has the benefit of a closet with shelves. (the sunroom I would have to put shelves in) I can't get past that decision LOL. Which isn't unusual ha ha ha! I think it needs to be the place that is more out in the open where I cook, do dishes and spend most of my time during the day. BUT the dogs have their kennels in the sunroom. They sleep in the wire pen enclosure there at night. They also come in and lounge in there during the day. I really don't know Where I would move the *dog area* if i made that the school area, yk? Dilemma dilemma sigh Loretta Have fun planning your space!!

I guess that answers my question LOL! We are writing in them.. :) DH and I don't care about resell either. I was just wondering how you could use it without writing in it? loretta

I expected my DS to write his answers in the Workbook .. but now looking at the Textbook, it looks like a workbook as well. How do people re-sell these resources without writing in them? Looks I should be having my child write in the textbook as well! The only thing that seems like it shouldn't be (or doesn't need to be written in) is the home instructors guide. Am I missing something?:lurk5: Loretta

I read this several places. Also I found a website that says plan it out for your OLDEST child so that for 5th grade That child is in year 1. Now I only have ONE child, and there won't be any more. However my son is entering 2nd grade. If I start him on year 1 he will be out of order .. not in consecutive years books 1-4 for his high school years which would be ideal. So I am not sure what year to start him with. Obviously there are 12 years up through high school and one of the TOG years will not be done as many times as the others unless . I speed up here and there and *catch him up* so he will be in year 1 by 5th grade. Or I do them out of order and one year will be skipped one time. Which year Should I skip. also I realize some kids won't be doing TOG in upper high school, may graduate early, take college courses early etc. but Still since I am planning, this is really bugging me He has had K and 1st grade already. I could start with year two and skip year one to start with. He hasn't studied egypt and greece in depth. He does seem to know a lot about Moses and the burning bush .. etc. He has been in christian private school. At first I was considering sonlight and I couldn't decide on Core 1+2 (the combined which would catch him up in one condensed year) Then others were saying don't do the combined years .. you miss out on too much. Others say it was hogwash. So then I checked into TOG which I have decided on but am now having the SAME problem. I know the years are stand alone, as are the units. You can enter a unit in the middle of a year etc. But still I want him to be at Year 1 for Grade 5! If I don't do that what would it LOOK like for his Years , which one would be left out and Why would that be okay LOL? What are advantages disadvantages of both paths. Starting him year 1 for second grade (8 year old for most of year) advanced reader Or year 2 (for second grade) Maybe I could do a brief overview of the "Ancients" over the summer? Thanks.. for any help choosing. This is taking way to much time because of my indecison. :001_huh: loretta (Ben's mom DS

after 4 years .. won't have to buy the IG's Well honestly money is not an issue at all. I mean it IS in that I have wait till we get the money etc. but will not be a deciding factor. The reason I mentioned the price of the TOG is because I noticed it seemed that's why many families were going with TOG is that is so easily could be used with more kids at the same time .. thus saving money. I just wanted to reassurance that Tog would still be the best choice for a single child, or if sl would be best for a single child. I've even heard people say that if they only had ONE child they would go with SL because of the ease of it and that they would only have to buy one core. I was just trying to separate which one was BEST on it's own merits if you were taking the Single child VS the Mulitple child aspect out of the mix. Basically one more crazy thing my mind is trying to worry about over this decision. My brain was saying " Well TOG is good for families with more than one child" and I only have one child and SL is perfect for families with one child because you can focus entirely on one Core at a time and really get into it. Those things are still true.. sigh. But I can also get *really into it* with TOG and with only one child LOL. I also read about the *family discussions* and how all the children studying from the same year of TOG at different levels could all participate and enhance the learning of the other children. That that aspect was a big Plus of TOG. I was wondering if only ONE child that my child wouldn't be getting that aspect of it.. and that TOG would be weaker for one child as comparing to SL. I know .. I know ... my brain can find very interesting minutia to worry about :smash::smash:

I was reading someone's blog entry on the internet and she talked about how she switched from SL to TOG after becoming interested in TOG and SOTW. Is SOTW part of TOG, it seems it is not but people just add these? What is SOTW anyway? Is it just readers, are they textbooks.. with workbooks? confusing. Does SL also used sotw ? with SL is it Part of their curriculum? Also what does the term UG mean? There are so many acronyms used that I am just learning LOL. thanks, loretta:lol:

I don't know why it has taken me so long to get here. I have been fighting it but I realize now that TOG might be better for my son than SL. He loves activities and loves my involvement. I know that TOG leads them to plan their own weeks independently by year 5 so that would be good but he would thrive on the various activities and the way they weave together. I know that for SURE. My reservation was whether I wanted that much committment on my part and I made the mistake of saying a simple prayer night before last with my DS at bedtime. "help mommie know what to choose for homeschool" OY! He needs the program with more rigor, more challenge but also one that I can tweak to his ability (up or down) I know you can tweak with SL as well but with TOG it just makes more sense to me. We can go deep or not. Use the higher or lower writing, reading assignments. Plus.. a Huge plus for us is the hands on activities which my son LOVES , and I mean LOVES. with SL I could easily make up my own (which I would be good at because I am also crafty) BUT with TOG it's all right there and I can pick and choose which ones we want to do. I am very excited about it. He didn't study the ancients in first grade. They did some scattered social studies, history. So I guess I will start with year 1. I will research more about that but def have decided to go with TOG. My husband likes the idea of it more as well. He wants the one with the activities and loves the idea of the Unit study. SL is unit study too? Or I believe it is a combination of unit study, classical .. eclectic, something like that LOL :) thanks, loretta

I thought I had decided on sonlight but of course am now debating over Tog VS SL. I have one question about TOG. What year would I start with for a second grader. I am assuming year one (which seems obvious) but want to be sure. If it is a 4 year rotation .. and assuming 12 years for elemenary, middle and high school grades they go through the whole rotation 3 times. If my DS starts with year one then he will be *missing* some of it.. or not to worry about that?:001_huh: Another ? about TOG. Most every thing I read about it is that one of it's strengths is that it is great for families with multiple kids and ages. That it's pricey but the cost is offset by the fact that it can be used over again with all the kids. I haven't heard about many people who choose TOG for just one child when there isn't going to be more kids following LOL. I just want to hear about kids who use it for a single kid with no plans of using it with a second child. I just have one kid, who will be 8 for 2nd grade. I am trying so hard to choose between SL and TOG. :confused: any thoughts? and thanks

Melissa how old was your 4th grader when you did Core 3 with him/her? If you don't mind me asking. I am trying to select a core currently for my DS:) thanks

So I wanted to find out about the history geography he got for first grade. She showed me the book and they only did the first 4 units. It was more like social studies, not history or geography per se. There was a unit on *Thanksgiving* and some general cultural stuff. I also saw the workbook which had fill out pages with simple questions to answer. Like one work answers it seems. Someone posted and mentioned to purchase the core based on the child's writing ability and not their reading level. She said that in class they are writing 5 sentence paragraphs with a topic sentence etc. and that he did a good job of that - staying on topic with the paragraph. She said that he could continue to come to Chapel on Fridays (and that other students who are now homeschooled do that) So that is awesome I am def going to do that esp to transtition him .. he can still see his friends. :001_smile: I am going to check on amazon and see if I can see some book excerpts

Ya'll have been a huge help. Well it seems to be the consensus to go with the Intermediate readers so that is what I am going to do. I am going to find out what history he got this year in first grade. I think that will make my decision easier between core 1 and core 1+2. If he did core 1 w Intermediate readers. Then next year would be core 2 with advanced readers? I kinda like that idea. But I also like the idea of 1+2 with the Intermediates. Then what the year after? I guess that would be core 3 w whatever level readers. following that plan he would skip the 2 advanced readers altogether? should I worry about that?:confused: I am getting so much closer to nailing this thing down LOL :lol: Thanks so much

Hello .. I have read everything on the SL website LOL and used Sonia but still am having trouble deciding on a core for my son. I feel like Sonia just automatically recommends core 1+2 combined if it is your first time with sonlight. I know some folks don't recommend the combined cores (miss too much) A bit about my DS. I have just the one child and there will be no more kids following LOL. My older kids are 25 and 26 years old and are all grown LOL. He is 7 years old and will be finishing 1st grade in 2 weeks at christian school. If he was returning to his school in the fall he would be turning 8 years old about 12 weeks after school starts for MOST of the 2nd grade he would have been 8 years old. I mean he still will be LOL.. but I might start a few of our studies before the fall LOL. He is advanced especially in reading and language arts. He reads at the word list 6 on the sonlight test. He can read chapter books like Geronimo Stilton. He also likes the Diary of a Wimpy Kid and such. He can read just about anything but isn't going to just grab a long chapter book and curl up and read it.. even though he could. He can read short chapters but isn't into reading long chapters with no pictures Unless I listen to him or sit by him and have him read to me. The Station level 3 books are about right for him. His teacher at his teacher conference mid year said that we could look into him skipping a year or two in school! First I wouldn't skip a child two years! We also don't want to skip him 1 year either since I feel they just aren't giving him appropriate stuff. They just give all the kids in his class the same materials regardless of their ability which is one reason I believe the homeschooling will be ideal for my DS who can go at his pace in each subject. I really want to choose wisely. Sonia recommends 1+2 with advanced readers. I am not sure. I want to make sure the readers are right for him. they don't have sample passages of the readers on their website. they have general descriptions. 6 letter words with so many syllables. or books that have 150 to 200 pages per page with a picture every 4 pages. that might be okay. I am considering just going to Core 2 directly maybe with the Intermediate readers. Or Core 2 with Advanced readers. Maybe I could add some lower readers. Or do Intermediate readers and add some advanced. Uggh@ !@! so many choices :glare: I plan on doing Apologia Science. Singapore math. Piano lessons (music) he already takes. I am not sure for Language arts if I will use the SL one as many people don't like the sonlight LA portion. Plus I will need to decide on a phonics program. Or should I just do the whole SL program AS IS ? The main decision is the Core 1+2 or go to Core 2? Intermediate or Advanced readers? thank you SO much for any help.