I'm enjoying this thread! This will be our second time through CC's Cycle 2. My oldest is moving on to Challenge A & self paced Omni 1. My other two will be in 5th and 2nd. The last time we did this cycle, I paired it with SL's Core C. We also placed all of our history sentences in our SL "Book of Time". It was a great match for us that year as my girls were in 1st & 3rd grades. This time, we are using the VP MARR with my older navigating and brother tagging along. I love Sonlight, and this next year will be our first without a Core, but their next pass through this time period is too advanced. I am also excited to see the VP take on MARR since I have loved their OTAE with my youngest this year. They manage to explain amazingly deep biblical understanding to young students in a way that relates to them.
A group of parents did a Wisdom & Righteousness Cycle 1 lap book with the younger siblings of Essentials students this past year. They are beautiful and very well done. It was a bit beyond my 1st grader's interest level as the year went on, but might work better for a 3rd grader. I tutor Essentials, so was not in the room when they worked on them.
I also ordered the "Everything...History" book since I have enjoyed the science one this year. I'm reading the posts on Halfahundredacrewood as well. There are so many great options. The hard job is forcing myself not to try to incorporate every good program or idea!