MFW 1st grade curriculum. I am so pleased with this program. My daughters reading is progressing very well with this program. Blessings, Pat

would be what I am looking for. Thanks so much for the replies. Blessings, Pat

Is there a level of R & S math that would be a good review of basic math? Something that ties them all together before moving toward pre-alg. ? Which would be the best level for this? or is there something else you would recommend as a good basic review? Thanks! Blessings, Pat

So I'm halfway there. Thanks so much. Blessings, Pat

I see on the sale board it says you need to have 50 posts in order to post things for sale. How do you figure out how many posts you have? I don't think I have 50 posts yet, but I where do I find that out? Blessings, Pat

I do agree with the others, they are not rigorous like R & S. They are not intended to be. They are a very gentle way to cover language arts. They do cover grammar topics and review them at the end of a book. The lessons are short and very do-able in 15 minutes or less. This has been a perfect fit for my ds. He has hated all grammar programs we have ever tried. This year he doesn't complain one bit and I feel he is actually learning. To top it off, he is getting copywork, narration, and picture study along with creative writing and poetry study/writing. So I don't have to go looking for those things. If you want diagramming, Queens books will not contain this. I e-mailed them and they consider that twaddle. I don't personally agree with this, so I will add Analytical Grammar (at a slow pace) along side the Queen's books. Also, for report style writing you would need to use their History or Science study guides. They told me that kind of writing is contained there. Also, they said they have a creative writing program coming out in the fall. All in all, I am pleased with the program as I am not looking for extreme rigor for this particular child because it would not work for him. Pushing him is very counter productive, but a gentle easy approach is working very well. HTH Blessings, Pat

Queen's Language Lesson books or Learning Language Arts Through Literature. Both of these are very gentle introductions to grammar and depending on the level you pick, they would review phonics. HTH Blessings, Pat

If you like MFW, why not buy the level you like and just purchase books to go along with it. There probably wouldn't be much difference in cost between that and a Sonlight core. If you look at Amazon or library book sales you can get a lot of books cheaply. Just a thought, since you didn't sound exactly sold on Sonlight. HTH Blessings, Pat

I use Singapore along with Alpha for my dd. She loves math and can do both programs so far. She also will do drill sheets printed off MUS site and Math Windows for fact practice. My ds does drill sheets from MUS and flashcards. Occasionally, I will give him some Challenging Word problems from Singapore. I mostly supplement him for fact practice, as math is not his strongest subject. HTH Blessings, Pat

I don't remember the exact country studies we did, but I do remember the awesome game sheets you make for each continent. We had fun playing the game and you do learn where the countries are located on each continent. I would think you could just read about each country from a Children's Atlas. Maybe something that doesn't have too lengthy of descriptions. Then your children would get an overview of each country. A book I always thought would go well with ECC is Material World. They sell it on the Queens site. HTH Blessings, Pat

My personal opinion between these two, I would say BJU. We have used Developmental Math and I really felt it would work better as a supplement to learn math facts. My opinion though, others have children learn very successfully using Developmental. Now as for BJU, yes, I feel it is very teacher intensive. And I personally do not like having to wade through their TM. Way too wordy for me. It is a good program, but it moved too quickly for my ds. He needs a lot of learning before he gets things. So we were moving on before he had learned things properly. You could add a review book to the program if your child is like this. One other thing I didn't like is that math fact learning was not included in each leasson, as in not on the lesson sheet. You did this as part of the warm-up and the program does not specifically say learn this now. So you would learn the facts in some lessons and then it is up to you to schedule them as review. These are just my opinions based on our experiences. BJU is a very good program it just didn't work for us. We use MUS now and I do have to add in drill sheets (from MUS site) and I have the children do flashcards along with the program. If I am not consistant with this they lose their facts. If you want a program to include constant practice of the facts, I think Rod and Staff it is very good. It takes things slow in the early years and they really learn their facts, but it is old fashioned. No gloss or glitter. The TM is awesome. One caution, they have way more problems then a child needs to do in each lesson. Again, that is my opinion. Those are the programs I have had experience with I hope someone else chimes in for you. Others love BJU math, I just am not one of them. Another program that gets great reviews is Horizons. We haven't used that one. Surprising, it seems we have tried out everything before finally going with MUS for my son. MUS has been the only one that he has not complained about and he is learning so well with it. Good luck on your decision. I know it is hard to decide. HTH Blessings, Pat

We would like to avoid heavy crowds, but still have decent weather. (if possible) I was thinking the first part of Feb. before Spring Breaks begin. We are planning a trip for next year. Any other advice you might have? We are leaning towards camping at Disney. Would we be able to get around to the different parks easy enough from the campground? Well, I'm sure I will have a lot more questions in the future if you don't mind? Blessings, Pat

Thank you so much for your replies. It has been very helpful. Blessings, Pat

What do you use for writing with AG? I am kind of at a loss with that too. We are trying Writing Strands now, but I,m not sure I really like it all that well. What are you using currently and do you like it? Blessings, Pat

He has completed R & S Grade 3 a few years ago and we have done some LLATL and Queens Language Lesson books in between there, but nothing that equals R & S in rigor. Where would you suggest placing him? Would you think 5 or 6? Could level 6 be done with very little grammar prior to it? Thank you. Blessings, Pat

Which do you use Ecclesiastical or Classical pronunciation? I believe we will continue on to Henle after Lively Latin? Which would be the better one to go with? We have done Prima Latina and a little of Latina Christiana so we are familiar with Ecclesiastical, but doesn't Henle use Classical pronunciation?? Thanks so much. Blessings, Pat

It does look so good. I am using MFW 1st this year and like that too. I started looking at the Heart of Dakota stuff and that looked good. You know the grass is greener problem. Ugh! I think the hardest problem with hs is picking the curriculum. I sometimes wish there were not so many good choices. Sometimes, but it is fun to look. Thanks for your reply. Blessings, Pat

for second grade dd next year. Anyone use these programs? What do you like/dislike about them? They both look good. Please help me to decide. Thanks! Blessings, Pat

For my ds who had a hard time learning to read I tried Alphaphonics, Phonics Pathways, ETC, Reading Reflex, a couple of others I can't remember and many games. For him it really just took time and exposure to words. He finally kicked in about 3rd grade after I had him read through many books beginning with simple Dr. Seuss books. For my dd, MFW 1st grade is working beautifully, but she is a totally different learner than ds was and probably would have learned with any of the above mentioned programs, but I do love MFW. I say try Peggy Kaye's books Games for Reading, take your phonics very slowly, try having your child read out loud to you from simple books and you supply the words they don't know and give plently of time and don't forget the all so important read alouds. My son has made mention of knowing words by sight because he had heard them read to him so many times. Not all children can pick up reading easily, some just need more time than others. With some kids they just all of a sudden are reading whatever they want. This is how my ds was, he took longer to get there but is doing just fine now. Good luck to you. HTH Blessings, Pat

I just came back to check my post. Thank you so much this is great! I guess ds is going to have a wonderful study next year. Oooh, I'm off to check these things out. Blessings, Pat

I should add it would be for an 11 year old. So upper grammar / early middle school level. Thanks! Blessings, Pat

My ds would like to study knights and castles next year. Do you have any suggestions for books and activities that you have enjoyed? Any on-line sites that you really liked? Are there any already made up unit studies that you know of? Thanks so much! Blessings, Pat

We do 1 page a day, so dd will complete two books a year until she finishes the series. So she should finish 3rd or 4th grade. HTH Blessings, Pat

I have this on my self but have not actually used it. It would be good for 1st/2nd grade level. Each week there is a list of words which the student copies and then each day there is a sentence to be copied. You also quiz the student on the words orally each day. I would think it would be very effective. I plan to start it soon with my 1st grader. HTH Blessings, Pat

No, you are not wrong. I didn't mean to make you second guess yourself. What you have planned will work very nicely in my opinion. It will be a nice gentle way to teach. I, personally, like the extra reading instruction I am getting from MFW and thats why I wondered about still using R & S. I wouldn't continue to use R & S if your child hates it though and you will definitely be able to tell if your child is progressing. So go for it! You do have a very good plan. Both programs are very good and go well together. Blessings to you, Pat