I have a friend who did auditing for Costco. So, if you notice the huggies at costco are plain old regular huggies(the cheapest huggies when you go to other stores.) The kirkland brand diapers are the huggies supreme (the nice ones). A lot of the Kirkland products are good name brand products.

Where are you at in your curriculum planning? Are you looking for a program that incorporates spelling or a stand alone program. My dd and I are starting with the Phonics road to reading and writing. It is supposed to be a full Language Arts Curriculum, and a lot of people on this board really like it. So I am giving it a go. It does reading, writing, grammar, spelling all in one program. Why don't you want to do AAS? It is a good program if you are looking for a stand alone spelling program. The teacher's manual is fantastic. It is teacher intensive, but to be honest, at the first grade level most everything is. The Natural Speller is a book I mentioned in another thread. That was my back up for if Phonetic Zoo did not work out (Don't be fooled by the Zoo part, this program is for older students and would not work for your first grader.) The Natural Speller is a k-12 book. It looks really good. Have you read TWTM and what they say about Spelling? They have a program they really like (as do a lot of people here). You have to see what calls to you, what your teaching style and your dd's learning style are.

I think it might be the time of year, there seem to be a lot of people having issues with spelling, you are not alone. I was there last year. Here is my thread on Phonetic Zoo. At age 9 your boys should be ready for it. We love this program. DS does it independently. In 8 months he went from a low 2nd grade level of spelling to low 4th grade(DORA reading test both times) . No tears, no fuss. It might be worth you looking into, it will for the most part take you out of the roll of spelling teacher.

It looked like it. I only thumbed through a copy at our local homeschool store. It looked really cool. I was going to get that if Phonetic Zoo didn't work out. It is all spelling k-12 in lists, and then gives you ideas how to teach it, activities etc...

nope. My ds did a few weeks of one of the WWE courses and just did not take to it. We jumped into WWS this year. He is in 5th grade, so we are going slowly and doing 1 WWS week over 2 actual weeks. He LOVES it. We are on week 14 and doing well.

I have just got this and watched my first DVD. I am pretty excited about it (as is dd). She is not the most engaging of speakers, but she is clear and I understand what she is telling me to do. It also is not very long (about 20 min.) We went to Michael's and bought a wood box, some paint, and stencils to make dd's box. We are diving into the program next week, so I will watch with interest.

I am a huge fan of Phonetic Zoo.( the link is to my review and a thread on it) That being said, it is just a list of words. However there is a reason for that. There is a great lecture included in Phonetic Zoo that explains why a list of words is good. I have also looked at, but not used The Natural Speller. It has lists of words, and then in the back all sorts of activities you can do with the lists. You pick the ones that work for you. One that stuck out with me was alphabetizing by first letter, then later to the 2nd letter etc...

Are they going to bring out more levels? I know there was talk of Greek Prep in the way of Latin Prep, but I thought that was planned for Fall 2012. What are you going to do after the one book? I am hijacking a little as we are trying to plan where to go next. My son LOVES Latin Prep, so it would be great if they were going to do that with Greek. Is it Attic Greek that the course teaches?

We started in 3rd grade too. Math was hard. I really wanted to make Singapore work, but it just ended in tears. We tried so many things and at the end of the year we found Teaching Textbooks. For us, it has been one of the best curriculum's. I had my son do the sample on the computer and he begged me to buy it for him. I was so surprised that he was excited for Math. He kept checking the mail box to see if it had arrived. The nice thing about TT at this age, is it starts at 3rd grade, so they do not expect that the student has already been doing the program for 3 years. Therefore, it explains everything really clearly. DS went through and just did the quizzes until he got less than 95%, then he listened to the lesson and did the sample questions only, followed by the quizzes until again he got less than 95%. At that point he started doing each lesson. Then in 4th grade we discovered Life of Fred. We started to supplement with that. My son loves Fred. Towards the end of 4th grade beast academy came out. He did the first 2 levels with the workbook. Best of luck.

So, He is using the workbooks and the cd. You could start with level 2, I went with level 1 as he was doing it on his own. I figured the repetition would be good. For the most part Level 1 teaches the alphabet. Yes level 2 goes over it, but I think that the learning 2 letters a week was fast enough for him. If you really want her to do it on her own, I would have her go slow. Once all her work is done, if she WANTS to do more, great. DS came up with the idea to do this one his own (thank you Percy Jackson) and the first 2 Hey Andrew books have been great. There are other alphabet books out there, I have just had experience with Hey Andrew. I like that he was easily able to do the work with no help from me. The second book introduces more words so that the student can see how they work together, and he has found that he can read them. Taking the time over the alphabet seems to have made him comfortable with it. I do not feel that doing Hey Andrew 1 and 2 has made it so that we have to stay with Koine. I am thrilled with the introduction it has done. It also was not too much money from what I remember, and he now knows that he really does want to continue with Greek. After 1 and 2 I feel that he can start a more rigorous Greek program and is set up for success. We are going to look at Koine and Attic, Online and DVD courses. He still wants to do it by himself, so we won't do one where I need to figure out how to teach it. He is looking through everything with me, and after the first 2 Hey Andrew books, he knows what he likes and doesn't like. Best of luck.

We have one very like this. Electric and cordless. I use it for more than just tea. Whenever I am cooking (pasta, lentils,whatever) I boil the water in this to start with. So much faster. I lived in the UK for a few years. They did a study that at the start of halftime in England football (soccer) matches, there would be a nationwide surge of electricity used as everyone turned on their kettles. I have this for when I am making a single cup of tea. (loose leaf) and one like this for when I am making more than one cup. We put something like this over it to help keep it warm. Something like this to strain the leaves. We love tea....(both sorts :D )

Ok, just finished a book with book club and had to throw it out there. I loved reading it and was enthralled while hating it at the same time. Fascinating read. Gone Girl.

Thank you. So TT7 is the one to skip then?

Evan Moor Teacher file box is back. https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/teacherfilebox/?source=Home-Page&c=1 For those who don't know. It contains just about every EM book. $70

The SWB lecture is so worth the $3.99. Then print this out to take notes on while you listen. I felt so prepared and calm about Lit after hearing this at a conference.

One big difference between the 2 that I am finding is that Koine has a lot more programs out there :) We are using Hey Andrew this year. As we are also doing Latin we are just doing 2 lessons a week. We bought the 1 and 2 bundle. He is just about done with book 2. I don't know a huge amount about it, but, ds has done this entirely on his own, and he wants to keep going. (He came to me the end of last year announcing that he wanted to learn Greek.) Look at the first 2 years as an extensive alphabet book. Lots of places have alphabet books. I just know that Hey Andrew has gotten my son more excited about Greek and not driven him off. Now that he has finished almost 2 books we have been sitting and looking at other programs. He is helping to pick what he wants to use next (and Hey Andrew is still on the table). This is one that we are looking at http://classicalacademicpress.com/index.php?main_page=product_info&products_id=75 We were really hoping MP First form Greek would be available, but it is not yet. As a side note, I love GP products, but I believe there is only one level of their Greek program available.

Hi, We use TT with my son. I am not looking to change programs or debate how rigorous TT is. :) I spent an hour searching threads last night and could not find the answer anywhere. So, I am sorry if I missed it and am asking a repeat question, if I am please post the link here. I am just having so much trouble fully figuring out the new boards. I seem to remember a thread where someone was saying that one of the levels between 6 and Algebra could be easily skipped if you were using 2 programs or your child was really doing well. That 7 and Pre algebra both contained a lot of review. I just can't remember which one and I am trying to figure out our Math sequence for the rest of the middle school. He is doing TT 5 right now (in 5th grade) with R&S 5 and LOF, so I think he is pretty well rounded with the whole Math thing. He is scoring above 90% in every lesson of TT. So I think we can skip whichever one is best to skip. We would like to start Algebra in 7th. Oh, and he is just finishing LOF elementary and about to start Fractions (The start of the 5 book, year and a half LOF pre algebra.) Thank you for your help.

Thank you, he is happy and feels like he is accomplishing something. Something that someone said in another thread. To clarify, Phonetic Zoo is for older kids. I guess the zoo part is misleading for some.

I would do a search for this on the logic and middle school challenge sub-board. There has been a lot of science chat there. We like Galore Park Science.

I have also been stalking this thread, and I have some questions. Logic, the Art of Argument. What grade could that be started in? In other words, could we start now in our 2nd half of 5th grade? Math: When do we switch to pre Algebra. I know some programs have a year that can be skipped if your child doesn't need the extra year. DS has been catching up so much in Math, but I don't know when to start Pre Algebra. What would be a good, independent vocabulary thing? I think we need to work on this. So here is our rough plan, I think a lot of it is staying the same as this year (Which is nice) Math: TT6, then moving to either TT7 or TTpre algebra, continue LOF, R&S 6 Language Arts: Writing: Finish WWS1 and start WWS2 (I am planning 4 years for the three levels.) Spelling: Continue PZ wherever we are at. Grammar: R&S 6 History: We are starting our own three year cycle. He is picking his favorite parts of history right now by reading all 4 SOTW over the next 2 months. Then we will do an in depth study of his favorite parts of history. We will start with Egypt and Greece. I am going to use the Dorothy Mills books, Famous men etc.... It is going to be a lot of reading for him as that is a strength of his. Geography: Must start Mapping the world by heart at some point! Logic: Still researching, I need something that holds my hand. I am looking at Art of Argument. Latin: Latin Prep 2 Greek: Looking, we might switch from Hey Andrew, but we will keep going with Greek. Science: Galore Park, with fun experiments from Timberdoodle and Home Science Tools. Art/Drama: Weekly homeschool classes (back to back and same building, LOVE!) PE/Extras: Tae Kwon Do, Ballet, Tap, Gymnastics, Swimming, Piano, drums, singing. I am a little worried about how the nutcracker rehearsals and prep for his 2nd degree junior black belt are going to fit. I think we might drop everything but ballet, Tae Kwon Do and piano in the fall. Typing: Typing instructor for kids. Am I forgetting something?

We have had a lot of luck with Phonetic Zoo. I just did an update of my review. Basically I had a 4th grader who tested at low 2nd grade for spelling at the end of last year. We did the same test today and after 8 months of PZ, he is now testing at a low 4th grade level. :) He is going slowly, one lesson took 15 tries, but he has caught up over a grades worth in 8 months, and he likes the program.

This is our plan with our younger child. For a child that could not get into Singapore (aka my son) We are doing TT and LOF. We are slowly adding R&S now that he is catching up.