Math: Saxon 3, R & S 2, Activities for the AL Abacus (supplement in summer) Grammar: FLL 3 Composition: WWE 2 HW/CW: NAC 2, PL Copybook Spelling: AAS 3 Latin: LNST 2 then PL Greek: MP alphabet book then HA 2 Memory Work: CC, IEW Poetry, Memory Work Notebook Grade 2 section (has catechism and Scripture from CLP, and MP Grade 2 Recitations Reading: AAR 3 (when it comes out), OPGTR, McGuffey First Reader for oral reading practice Literature: VP and MP 2nd grade lit and guides For third I would just bump everything up a level except I would do Saxon 3 Intermediate and another year of NAC 2 (there are 2 versions). When we finished OPGTR I would just use word lists from Classical Phonics. stm4him

I am thinking about my long term schedule and our schedule for next year. This year I have planned 2 hours about 4 days a week to do History, Bible, and Science. Right now that is all getting messed up b/c we are showing our house and our outside activities are now only taking place on Wednesday afternoons and some Sunday afternoons (not including church). I am thinking it will look like this roughly (M=morning, A=afternoon, E=evening): Monday M-school A-piano lessons E- Women's Bible Study Tuesday M- CC A- tennis or golf w/ Dad E- family devotions Wednesday M- School A- violin lessons E- Small Group Fellowship/Bible study Thursday M- school A- drawing class E- family devotions Friday M- school A- orchestra E- family devotions Saturday History/Science/Bible/Art/Geography/Nature Study all day E- family devotions Sunday M- church A- beach and naps :-) E- AWANA Now, the activities may change their order b/c I don't have those scheduled yet. I know CC is on Tuesdays and I know AWANA is Sunday evening. When I say school I mean the 3 R's, Latin/Greek, and Memory Work which are all done by 2:30. Then we have the rest of the day for taking them to their activities if we can use one day of the week for the other subjects. I have two questions. 1. With this schedule when do I clean my house? (Though I've learned we can get it clean quickly when we try) 2. Does anyone else do all their content subjects on one day like this and does it work? Thanks! stm4him

Thanks, that was very helpful to me, too!

Keep in mind that the first child is expensive but it gets progressively cheaper each year as you reuse the materials with other kids (assuming you are having more). Also keep in mind that many private schools are $7,000-15,000 per year per kid and the average they spend for per public school student is something close to that. So I don't feel guilty spending the money on their education. I'm just going to say that for a first year K'er to use the curriculum I wanted to use for Math it cost $200, but for my second child to use it was only $30. The only thing that doesn't get cheaper is their CC tuition, but eventually I want to tutor Essentials so that will help with that. What I would do is make a list of the core curriculum and then a list of supplements you'd like to have. Then you know what is most important to spend your money on and do the rest as you are able.....If I have some time later maybe I can come up with how much it is going to cost us next year per student with a PreK, K, 2nd and 3rd grader.

I don't know as much about this as the rest of you probably but I'll put in my two cents anyway. I've read a lot about CM from simplycharlottemason.com and various other places and I've read most of WTM as well as several other books on classical education. These days we are headed very purposely in a classical direction whereas we've tried a little of every method over the past six years. I love a lot of CM ideas and think that you will find them in several classical education books and companies such as Teaching the Trivium and Memoria Press. I think there is a lot of overlap and I am definitely for keeping as much CM as possible in our methods. I see so much overlap....copywork, dictation, narration, nature study, living books, etc. I don't know that I've seen anywhere where classical educators advocate not doing the things she has advocated......but there are definitely things they have said to do that she did not emphasize (or possibly even agree with). When we compare CM and classical I think WTM isn't the best source b/c even though I love that book and refer to it often, it is meant to be a very, very practical book with lots of direct information about curriculum, time spent daily on various subjects, etc. It is not a book that oozes the theory behind it in great depth; I don't even think that was her intent. I am a very practical person; just tell me what to do and how b/c I agreed with the why from hello (slight exaggeration). So I for one, very much appreciate her spending a great part of the book on telling us how to actually accomplish a classical education. But I think there are books out there that draw out more the theory behind classical education (both the neo-classical and the latin-centered versions), and there I think you find a lot of overlap as I said both in methods and in the ultimate goals of education. I think we are too quick to reduce classical education to a memorization of a bunch of facts followed by formal logic and eventually rhetoric with latin thrown in when in reality it is so much more than that. I think Leigh Bortins and CC have done a fabulous job of explaining the why and pulling in the best, and most clear explanations of the theory behind classical education from various excellent sources. The articles in their new magalog (which I just finished reading today) are a great example of this. Grammar, logic, and rhetoric are tools we are teaching and Latin (and the process of learning Latin) is also essentially a means to an end and not necessarily an end in itself. The greater picture is to teach our children the tools to examine the universe around us from throughout history to today and be able to point all of it back to Christ; to see truth, goodness, and beauty. She says, " Expose your children and students to a broad base of knowledge in a wide range of subjects...Provide plenty of opportunities for review and recitation. Give them an education rich in content, fertile with the tools of learning, and nurtured by thoughtful conversations. Keep soaking in knowledge, growing in understanding, and bearing fruit in wisdom!" In their mission statement it says, "In every subject, God has hidden His truth and beauty. It is our pleasure....to discover Him as we learn. Our studies should also prepare us to reason clearly, speak eloquently, calculate accurately, and write convincingly so that we have the ability to make God known to others." In their model it says, "We believe that each child is uniquely and wonderfully made, and the people who know and love a child best (the parents) are the ones most motivated to help that child succeed." I think these are all things with which Charlotte would have agreed.......She was a wonderful person with an enormous contribution to education and I don't think any classical educator would disagree with that, either.

We also just have sections set up using IKEA Expedit bookshelves. I can easily see and find what we have. I have sections for earth science and astronomy, birds and bugs, sea creatures, health/anatomy, land animals (including dinosaurs), nature study, science encyclopedias, physics/chemistry, and animal stories. My history topics are grouped the way VP does them. I have a section for World Geography and one for US Geography. I have one section for atlases, dictionaries, and thesauruses. I have picture books grouped by author. I have a biography section for boys grouped by last name and one for women and one for biography books about various people. I have one section for poetry. And I have one section for extra resources for myself in foreign language, language arts, math, memory work, etc. I also have one section on practical skills for kids. I have a section of chapter books also grouped by author. And I have a few sections on Bible related books and reference books. I have a row of encyclopedias and other reference book sets I've picked up here and there used. I have one section of books of book lists. I'm sure I'm forgetting something but you get the idea. My kids just know where they sections are though I don't have them labeled b/c they change every once in awhile to adjust to adding more books. If they can't find something they come and ask me and if the little kids get something out (or the big kids for that matter) and they can't figure out exactly where it goes they put it in a basket and about once a week or so I go and put them back.......All books are to be returned when they are finished and they are not supposed to have more than one or two out at a time but my son sometimes breaks this rule :-)

The most important things in some sense is the geography and the timeline. Every day I would have them review the timeline and either trace or draw and label the map depending on your child's age (I believe there are recommendations in the guide for this). The Science Acts and Facts cards are great too and we put those in order and memorize them like a timeline as we go along. You could buy the cycle you're on and the famous scientists set. Anyway, the rest you can do in the car with the cd and a set of flashcards if your child needs to see it. I forget how old your child is but that is only if they are reading of course. I would just take one day a week and introduce the memory work for that week for about half an hour. If you want to you can do the experiment and fine arts project too. Let your child do the resource cd on the computer whenever he or she wants to as well. By just doing this much you will be surprised what fruit you will see come from it. In our house over and over this year the kids have been interested in something they see or hear around them based on having memorized it in CC. In my experience (been homeschooling 6 years now), the kids are more interested in learning about things they've already memorized however random those things might seem, than to memorize things they're supposed to be learning about. Remember, to them a lot of what we try to teach them seems random or irrelevant to them. But if they are motivated to memorize something after that it has a familiarity to them that makes it come alive when they encounter it. With a CC community that motivation comes easily to most students just by their attendance. When doing it at home I would find another form of motivation (winning prizes for whatever they can memorize, invite family over to watch them, or some other special thing), but I would stick with it for a year at least and then see what you think. I doubt you'll be disappointed you did.......

About the second or third year we were homeschooling I had that kind of money to spend from our own budget (fast forward to today and things aren't going so well so I'm very jealous :-). I bought tons of books as I boycott the library b/c I always rack up fines. Anyway, I bought tons of science kits, craft kits, various curricula to try, and a ton of books. Guess what. The science and craft kits are still in their boxes. I've changed my mind a million times about curricula. But the living books on my shelves have been invaluable. At first the kids didn't pay that much attention to them, but now they regularly go down to our "library" and pick out books to read on history and Science and whatever else interests them. I'd buy as many of the Veritas Press living books as I could and Memoria Press read aloud collections. I'd buy the Dr. Seuss Science books (MP also plans to sell these at some point) as my kids love those. I'd buy the Kingfisher Encyclopedia as well. I'd definitely buy curriculum and books about classical education (Classical Conversations has a great selection) so you can learn all about it. $3,000 can go so fast! I also agree with the idea of buying a laminator, white board, book binder, etc. If you don't have a laptop that would be great (a refurbished mac is ideal). Anyway, I would buy your curricula for next year first and then school supplies and finally I would invest in some awesome living books that will last for years to come! Audiobooks count too! One more thing: if you are a Christian buy Christian books and the reason I say that is b/c you can find awesome secular books very easily, but books like those found at Vision Forum and other Christian vendors are much harder to find at used book stores and libraries. Vision Forum's history and science DVDs are so incredible!

I'm SO excited about the new history cards and guide and there were a few other things in there I didn't know about like the new geography fold outs, the new Latin fold-out and the Scripture and Books of the Bible songs added to the audios. So awesome! Now if only I had money...... :-(

I don't know if this will help at all but I wanted a Shurley type grammar program but didn't think I could handle teaching multiple levels of Shurley (at some point I will have like 5 that would be doing Shurley) so that was when I decided to go back to CC. I know that with Essentials they will all be doing the same grammar and writing assignments and we can work together and they cover grammar very similarly to how Shurley does it and more. I plan to have mine also do Shurley 7 after that but stretch it out over middle and/or high school just to keep the grammar fresh. This way I can make sure they all get a thorough grammar study without stretching me too far. And in the years before 4th grade I can do FLL with them b/c that only takes a few minutes each day. If I start at K they can finish by the end of 3rd and do Essentials in 4th-6th. HTH!

I don't have a 7th grader and my 10 year old is not on grade level so her work load isn't what your 5th or even 3rd grader may have but age-wise she is close. I have a 7 year old, 5 year old, 3 year old, 2 year old, and 8 month old. Here is what I would do: -Join CC next year b/c your 7th grader will learn to work more independently doing his/her Challenge assignments. There should be consequences for not finishing and he/she should be allowed to work in a separate room as long as the work gets done. Even now I would let that child work in another room and have strict penalties for not finishing the assignments. First I would have a discussion about whether they think the workload is right for them and anything they want to talk to you about but ultimately you are the parent and you have to make the call about what you think his/her education should contain. -I would write our a list of preschool activities you have in your house and then just rotate them every 20-30 minutes. Set a timer and don't allow the little ones to play with anything else or get out of their area or their chair or wherever you designate until the timer goes off. Let them watch a few short educational videos during one of the hours. If you have a fenced in yard take advantage of it as much as possible in the afternoons when you're doing projects with the older ones. Try to find half an hour to an hour while the others are practicing instruments or doing independent work to pay complete attention to your little ones. If they know they have Mommy time each day they will often be more willing to play alone or just with each other in the morning. If you have a playroom or bedroom let them play dress up or just with their toys for an hour a day together or separately. -Start school at a certain time of the day and have them all do the same subject at the same time (not talking about the 7th grader) so you know who is doing what and can monitor them. Call each one to you for a few minutes every hour to check their work and answer questions. I sit in a big chair for this and they sit with me. I can see the others working independently or playing quietly with their activity at a glance. This is our order: Math and Logic Grammar and Writing Spelling and Latin Memory Work (do this mostly together and make it fun) Lunch and break Reading/Literature/Phonics History, Science, Geography or Bible together (reading and projects) Exercise and music practice and preschool We start at 8:30 each day. We end at 4:30 b/c we do a 2 hour block for the history, science, Bible time. We do read alouds and family devotion at night after dinner and our chores are done. We do bare minimum chores in the morning so we can get started right away. During Math little ones pick a preschool activity they can sit with. During Writing they color, cut, paste, etc. During Spelling and Latin they watch short movies. During memory work they play in a bedroom. During reading they nap or have quiet time in their bed with books. During history they play in the family room with blocks or quiet toys or go outside in our backyard. Have a regular routine and crack down on the discipline initially while you are instilling it and in a while it should flow pretty nicely.......

7:00ish Morning routine 8:30 Math (when our minds are fresh so no meltdowns) 9:30 Grammar and Writing 10:30 Spelling and Latin 11:30 Memory Work (we do a lot of this together) 12:30 Lunch and break 1:30 Reading/Phonics/Lit (nice to be able to sit and read after lunch and while littles take naps) 2:30 Science, History, Bible, or Geography 4:30 Exercise and Music practice and Preschool (including read aloud) 5:30 Chores, dinner, family time, free time 8:00 Family Devotional, littles go to bed halfway through 9:00 Read aloud to older kids 9:30 kids in bed, Mom time to finish chores, read, computer, etc. The one hour blocks work well for us b/c they aren't too short or too long. We have a longer block in the afternoon so we can dive into the topic. The little kids get their time with me while the older ones are being productive with music practice or getting a little exercise. And we fit in read aloud before bed when it is natural to wind down with a good book. When I did read aloud in the morning it caused us all to feel sleepy or lazy and we didn't feel like then sitting with bookwork to do. If we get the bookwork done by 11:30 it consistently gets done. During Memory work time we change positions a lot and play games and such so it is more fun which is good since they start getting restless after all those other subjects. Then after lunch most of what we do involves reading or projects. I highly recommend this order! It works very well for us after trying many other ways.

1. I would have wall to wall bookshelves with different sections so I can organize them by topic. 2. I would definitely recommend carpeting as I have found that rooms with hardwood or tile floors are too noisy and echo too much, especially with a lot of kids. But I would consider having a portion of it without carpeting for art projects. 3. I would have one small table for small children to sit at for coloring, playdoh, activities, etc. 4. I would have at least one desk for working alone b/c I have some that don't do well at a table with other kids when they need to concentrate. 5. I have two tall bookshelves that have cabinet doors on the bottom that are almost as tall as I am and inside I have shelves of preschool activities. On the top shelves I have the curricula we use daily and my teacher's manuals. On one of the shelves inside the cabinet I have curricula we are planning to use soon (I like to keep the next book on hand so I order less times per year). And I keep 3 of those "Really Useful Boxes" from Staples (clear w/ handles) on the top shelf. One is for crayons, pencils, dry erase board erasers, a small calculator, little notepads, gluesticks, small scissors, and pencil sharpeners. These are in various sized really useful boxes so I can easily get them out and let the kids take them around the room. One of them has teacher supplies that I only need once in awhile like paper clips, rubber bands, large scissors, etc. And the last one is for math manipulatives. I use magazine files for the kids workbooks and some of my teacher manuals. I have one large Really Useful Box for their binders which I pull out at the end of the day to store their papers in. 6. I have (and highly recommend) one really wide chair with an ottoman with storage underneath. That way I can sit comfortably all day and call my children to sit next to me to work one on one or have some of them kneel at the footstool for a lesson. I have our large whiteboard with our spelling tiles on it stored in the ottoman that I can pull out for spelling. 7. I have a closet with all of our craft supplies in it that I don't want little kids getting into without help. 8. I have a bookshelf with various types of paper, magazines they can cut, and coloring books from all different topics. There are drawing books here too, as well as page protectors, transparencies, blank books, and Evan-Moor workbooks that they can make copies from for projects. One shelf has memory work type audios and other cds and software. 9. I have one white cabinet with pull out drawers for markers, colored pencils, tape and glue, and index cards. They can pull these out and take them wherever. Inside is also various other school supplies that we don't necessarily use daily but which are helpful such as index card boxes, spray adhesive, fandex sets, sharpies, etc. 10. I have a large chalkboard with sidewalk chalk on it. 11. I have a peel and stick type world map and USA map. 12. I have one long table for us to sit at together if we want to. Now in our house these things are spread out between three different rooms. The small table, large chair, desk, and bookshelves with bottom cabinets are in a bedroom upstairs where we spend most of our time b/c it is carpeted and warm. The bookshelf with paper supplies, long table, and smaller cabinet are in our living room right now (we have a family room/den as well). The craft closet and library bookshelves are in our rec room in our basement. But if I had the kind of room all in one place that you are talking about I would try to fit as much of it as I could into one room........

Can one use Singapore as a supplement with just an answer key if they are getting their instruction from another program? I'm very happy with Saxon after trying many other things (including SM though to be honest I didn't give it much time), but LCC recommends Singapore or Right Start and although I love Right Start too it is only something I would use in the summer after we are done with Saxon since I can't handle two teacher intensive programs. When I look at Singapore I think that part of the beauty or appeal of it would be that it looks pretty independent. I wonder if adding all the extra teacher guides and extra practice books scare some of us off when in actuality it could be used just fine as is with an answer key. I'm not sure I would use any of it as our Math time already is full (and I had other supplemental plans anyway for summer and "off" weeks) but I just thought I'd ask in case I ever change my mind and want to try it :-)

I have 3 suggestions. One is to second the suggestion for Saxon K which has a calendar book and some pages to photocopy in the back for handwriting practice. The second is the book called Counting With Numbers from Rod and Staff which is also only a few dollars. My son is doing both of these now and really doing well with them. The third is a new workbook out by Memoria Press called the Numbers book. We plan to use it next year as part of our K program.......

We loved CHOW and we listen to SOTW in the car. Soon I would like to add in the AG pages and tests. I would either use CHOW as a yearly read aloud at the beginning of the year or as a world history along side an American History such as American Studies from Memoria Press. I think we will go through SOTW in 2nd-5th and do CHOW and MP American Studies in 6th. I really, really wish they had an audio for CHOW! The only part I didn't like was the beginning about evolution but I used that as an opportunity to explain our beliefs.....

I found that I wasn't really writing the next day's assignments down b/c we just always do the next one.....pick up and go. But I like a long term look at where we are as well as being able to see what we can realistically squeeze into one year!

bump Please take a look......:)

What about this one I just made? Tell me what you think. Should I add anything? https://docs.google.com/document/d/1rR0YgH7HBjAtRn5QQ9e3Giwy3R9_7dFnM7PzxiuYIc8/edit

We use FLL and WWE and OPTR and we LOVE AAS! Definitely not too early!

Can you tell me (or show me) how you set up your chart?

I have tried all kinds of planners, including one I recently made myself, but I never follow through with using them very long. I really like to have an idea of where we are in the year and what we have left to do, and am constantly counting how many more days/weeks we have left in different books. I was thinking of creating some sort of document with the assignments already laid out so we can just highlight them when we are done with them. This would not be dated but perhaps I would have a space to write a date or at least the start of each week or something. I realize this would be cumbersome b/c you would need one for each book. I did this once when we were using CLP workbooks and I just stapled them inside each book and checked off as we went. I did that one quarter per sheet. Some of our books now wouldn't work to have something stapled inside so I might just make one folder per kiddo with these in them. Anyone done something like this before? I figure remembering to highlight what we did each week is easier than writing it all in. That way if I forget I can still go back and highlight up to wherever we are, rather than trying to think in my head which days we did what. And I could see at a glance where we are...... Thanks!

Testing sig.....

For some reason I can't seem to figure that out..... stm4him

CC. The first time through my oldest was 5 and I couldn't see the benefit of memorizing things we weren't learning about that year and things she wouldn't need until she was much older. I thought I could do it better at home and it wasn't worth the exhaustion and the money, etc. After saying for years I would do it myself and not actually ever doing it I went back and now I can totally see how it all fits together and the long term benefits and I really, really wish I had stayed in b/c my daughter would be going through cycle 3 for the second time instead of the first time and this would be much easier for her. We're planning to stick with CC all the way through for many reasons.... stm4him