I'm pretty sure that the sixth grade and seventh grade books are about literature, I'm pretty sure. One is American literature and one is British I think, but I'm not sure which is which. I'm guessing that the third grade book coming out is going to have a folk tales and fairy tales theme, but I'm not totally sure. I am also not sure of the difference between editions. I will have to check and see which one I have.

No, I have only seen the cursive models in books 1 and 2 (if I am remembering correctly) and I have seen books K-4. I just have my daughters write all of their answers in cursive because it is more important to me to reinforce cursive than print. If they need help, I just write it for them somewhere and then they copy what I did. Also, there are no capital letters taught in either print or manuscript, so I have taught those as we go using my chart from Cursive First (whose letters are almost identical, if not identical for lowercase). In the manual, they do not start all of the letters at the baseline, but in the workbooks they do. I prefer them to start all lowercase cursive letters on the baseline so I was happy about that. That is how Cursive First teaches it. I have found that once my girls understand how to form the letters and make the basic connections, they don't really need a model. They are able to read from something in print and then write it in cursive. HTH!

I don't really believe in planning anymore. I kept going with Saxon Math for my oldest three who are good readers and decided to just have my non readers learn math facts with flashcards. I got a workbook with phonics and handwriting for my non readers and a grammar/spelling /vocabulary workbook for my readers. Other than that they read (or I read to them) and narrate from our home library. We rotate between Bible, fiction, and nonfiction. At night, they report about what they learned from their reading. The simplicity of this keeps us consistent and I don't need to plan anything. I have to keep up with checking work and that is it. I do want to add in some memory work this year and I forgot to say that my oldest is also learning music theory (and my boys will study music theory this year too). For art, they draw something from their reading.

I am using Recipe for Reading and the workbooks have lower case cursive alongside print letters so you can teach either or both. I am teaching both but having my girls write all answers in cursive. It doesn't teach capital letters for some reason, so I use my Cursive First chart for that. In the manual (which I bought but am not really using), the cursive models don't start every letter at the baseline, but in the workbooks the cursive letters all do start at the baseline. I am really liking the workbooks so far and I used to teach SWR at a co op.

My third child who is 8 and just finished 2nd grade is using the 4th grade Grammar and Writing book and 5/4 with no problem. He did Saxon Math K-1 and the first 40 lessons of 2 and then I put him in 5/4. And I figured if he can handle 5/4 he can handle Hake Grammar and Writing 4 and so far so good. Just saying that even though I plan to have my younger kids use the 3rd grade Grammar and Writing book, some children may be able to go right into 4 if their reading level is high enough. I have stepped away from the Saxon Phonics and K-3 Saxon Math because the scripted lessons take so long and I have so many to teach. I still believe the content is excellent. I also think that the more they can do independently the better and the phonics curriculum doesn't allow for that. The math worksheets could probably be done independently if the child can read well enough, though, with just a little help here and there on some new concepts. But I am just guessing. I haven't actually tried that. Right now my younger kids are just doing Saxon Math flashcards (you can buy separately for the middle grades kids for $10) and a different phonics program called Recipe for Reading (similar to Explode the Code and also O-G based). I am just using the workbooks, though; not the manual. I am hoping this will be enough to prepare them for 5/4 and the Grammar and Writing 3 but I won't know for sure until we finish Recipe for Reading with my 7 year old this year and see where her reading level is at that point. Part of me still thinks about how I wish I could successfully use Saxon Phonics and Math in the younger years but I just can't stomach THAT many scripted lessons (I have several kids in that grade range and it was taking me all day to do one scripted math lesson and one scripted phonics lesson for each).

He told me to email him in August and ask for an update. I think they are close, though.

I am having mine go through Hake Grammar books and then I want to use BBG or Hebrew with them. I am hoping to study ahead of them. I don't know what age my third child will be when he finishes the grammar books, but I am thinking it is possible that he could be halfway through fifth grade (11) when he starts it so I'm hoping he will be mature enough then......

Glad you are ok and hope you come back more regularly. The forum just isn't the same without you....

My kids are always embarrassed when they don't know my phone number since I am almost always with them so they never call me.

Why do people say the writing is weak?

Haven't seen her around in awhile.....Maybe I'm just missing her posts?

My 13 year old thinks she was born in the wrong century when she talks to other teens because she doesn't know any of the popular artists, doesn't play video games or have a cell phone, and she enjoys sewing and gardening which gets her very strange looks from the public school teens.

I am back to using Saxon/Hake Grammar. It just works and gets the job done. I am not planning to switch again and I will have mine go through all the books and then do a foreign language.

I think Primary Phonics covers through second grade level. Recipe for Reading takes them through third grade so maybe switch to one of the last books in Recipe for Reading or Explode the Code which goes through fourth grade. Explode the Code has a placement test you can buy.

I get lost in the lists of curriculum. I wish the curriculum was listed separately in the back and the methods were made the centerpiece of each chapter. I prefer your audios because they get to the heart of the methods.

We use Hake Grammar. There is a third grade level coming out probably sometime this year, but I don't know when. I am supposed to check with the author in August. But my rising 3rd grader is using the 4th grade level just fine.

Jennifer, Would you share yours? I am wrestling with memory work right now. I want to try out memory work being an individual pursuit (but required daily) for my older three and keeping my younger non-readers together with me. I have a ton of memory work songs and cds and such but I am struggling with whether to tell them what to memorize or let them choose. I am thinking of giving them something like a list like this: 1 Scripture passage or chapter 1 poem 1 character trait 1 manner 1 catechism question (these I want in order) 1 gospel point (also in order) 1 continent (countries, capitals, features) 1 week of memory work from CC 1 science song or history song? I don't know.....

My sixth child turned 4 in May. We are going to do Recipe for Reading K (if she isn't ready for the writing in the workbook I will either wait and just pull it out at the beginning of each month and see if she is ready yet or I will work with her using the manual for a few minutes a day. We are also going to do number cards and then move into math flashcards. I will have her copy the 100 number chart at least once this year when her writing skills permit. I have seen fruit from doing that with my third and fourth kiddos. Also, I read a story (either Bible, history/science, or fiction) to my little ones each day and have them do a drawing and an oral narration, which I write down for them in their composition journal. Each night they present their page to Daddy and tell him what they learned. We also do a lot of singing and memory work songs and just music appreciation through listening. They also do a lot of drawing, starting with either Ed Emberly books or Draw Write Now (or both). They also do a lot of child-led crafts with materials from the dollar store, which helps with their fine motor skills. That's it!!

I also want to say that I really wish I had spent more time training my kiddos in how to do chores correctly. I think that would have promoted reading readiness skills (because fine and gross motor skills are related) and would have made my life much easier. I always made my kids do chores, but I was not diligent to show them the right way and carefully make sure they were doing it well each time. Therefore, even though they were doing chores, my house looked very messy and that was stressful for me (which eventually had an impact on my health). Now it is harder to find time for that with my little ones, but we are doing better with it thanks to my husband's training. Also, I wish I had gotten rid of soooo much stuff or not acquired it in the first place because more clutter also equals more stress for me. Having less has made it easier to keep up with the house and feel like I have the energy to just be a Mommy and not just a teacher and housekeeper/cook/etc. I did do a pretty good job of obedience training and that has made life much easier than it would be otherwise. If they won't obey, it is hard to do any schoolwork effectively. I'm not saying yours don't, I'm just pointing out that that is foundational to homeschooling and worth prioritizing. If you do decide to cut back on curriculum, don't compare yourself to what others are doing. Just because others are doing some big fancy curriculum doesn't mean that their kids are actually learning more or actually happy about how much time they are doing "school" (ask me how I know). And also, I find that my younger kids who did far less "curriculum", are happier, and better developed physically and emotionally and mentally. They fight me a lot less because I didn't burden them so much with full blown curriculum when they were under age 8. They are very willing, (and often excited) to do their schoolwork and are more diligent with their chores. They exercise more and are more creative. One thing I did do wrong was put them in front of too much TV when they were young in order to keep them occupied and that has resulted in them being less interested in books than my older ones were. So I caution you to not keep the little ones busy with TV or other electronic devices.

I second what these ladies are saying. I just had number 8 less than 2 weeks ago and I have been homeschooling since 2006. I also learned that less is better, but less needs to be consistent. I so wish I had done less with my oldest two and just enjoyed them. I wish I had done more with holidays and seasons and such and just enjoyed being their mom. I stressed myself out so much and they lost playtime. I really wish I had listened to the veteran homeschool moms. With my ones who are not reading independently yet I am doing Recipe for Reading, which includes learning cursive in it. They are also doing math flashcards to learn their facts by rote (can I just say that learning the facts has been much easier with my younger ones because they aren't doing a math curriculum and are just memorizing the answers, but these answers are beginning to make sense as we go along). They actually enjoy doing their cards with me each day. After we finish their workbook pages for phonics/handwriting and their math flashcards, I read them a story. I rotate between a Bible story, a science or history article from our children's encyclopedia (Childcraft), or a chapter from Little House on the Prairie. They tell me back what they remember and I write it down for them. They draw a picture to go with it. At night they present it to Daddy. They LOVE this! I can always read more to them, but I only require them to make the one page for the day. We also sing a lot of memory work songs around our house and we sing a lot of hymns. We have memorized poems and nursery rhymes and the like over the years. We play different kinds of music (classical, Disney, various other genres) around our kids so that they just fall in love with music. This sets the stage for learning music theory when they can read and then we will give them an instrument. I buy them materials from the dollar store to create whatever they want with. I find this kind of craft time to be more profitable than planned crafts with a specific outcome and it keeps them busy for longer with less need of me than when the crafts are built into the curriculum and I have to direct every step. Also, I have a set of Draw Write Now and my kids love to use those to learn to draw. After they get the hang of looking at the shapes and such they begin to draw from any book. It is neat to see them take off. Drawing skills are foundational in my opinion. So I would plan to have a daily short time for phonics/handwriting, math facts, read aloud/journal page with drawing, and some time to just sing and do crafts together and call it good. Let them present to Daddy anything they learned that day. I promise you it is enough......

Ok, so I had very little (if any) requirements for their writing, but I did want them to draw a picture. The picture has to come from something they are looking at in either the book they read or another book (could be a drawing book or a reference book of some kind). My five year old has dictated sentences to me and also had me help her write words to label things. My 7 year old has just been dictating sentences to me, but today she gave me a full half-page of sentences. The 8 year old is writing a few paragraphs about what happened in what he read. The 10 (almost 11) year old started by copying a few sentences that went with his picture. Then the next day he wrote a few of his own sentences with great vocabulary. The next day I got three paragraphs that resembled the blurb from the back of a book (he wrote it that way on purpose.) And my oldest has given me up to a one page essay. The wording was awkward, but the content was good. Hers was sort of a persuasive essay about why people should read the book she had read. There are a couple of things I want to work on. One is that I want to show my kids how to jot down proper nouns, dates, and vocab words from each paragraph and stop and look them up in reference books. This will make the reading more of a slow process, but will teach research skills and end up covering several disciplines (history, science, literature, geography, possibly foreign language phrases). This will take awhile. I want them to begin to write more from the perspective of what THEY want to remember or what they got out of what they read, rather than what they want to teach us about it and maybe steer away from trying to produce an essay that feels forced. I don't want their goal to be to write a paper, but if a paper is what feels natural to them then I guess that is ok. I know I will have to model this so as soon as possible I want to be doing my own journal next to them or at night when they are in bed and still share mine the next day somehow. I have The Country Diary of an Edwardian Lady and I think it is a beautiful example of what a journal could look like. Hers is focused on nature, but it doesn't have to be. I would like to show them the notebooks of Lewis and Clark and da Vinci among others. I give mine special pens and markers to use when they make their pages because it feels more special. They are welcome to use pencil (and two of mine do), but for three of mine the use of markers makes it more exciting. I am hoping to read The Living Page this summer to add to my store of ideas. I want to model several types of entries for them so they can see all the possibilities. Thanks for the links!

I chose Recipe for Reading over Explode the Code because RfR teaches cursive and that is important to me. I used to teach cursive early but not first and then I was going to teach cursive first to my fifth child but RfR teaches them at the same time in Book 1 so I am just going with that. I mostly make her write her answers in cursive, but I do want her to know the proper way to print. It hasn't been a problem for her so far.

I know my signature is corny with all the alliteration, but I love alliteration and it helps me remember my goals :-) Later today I will post more detail. We just started this week, but already they are turning out better and better and they insist on presenting their work to daddy and each other each night.

My K book comes next week so I don't know yet. My four year old is going to use it. My five year old started with book 1 with no problem and I put my seven year old in book 3. I ordered the manual in case I need it or want more, but it will be here next week as well. They were on backorder. I hope to order the readers soon.

This is exactly what I am trying to do in our house after they read and so far it is going well.