My little guy that's doing Singapore 3 does CWP using the copy I used with my oldest years ago. I just cover up the answer, and he writes everything out on a sliding glass door (I'd use the giant white board we have, but it's in the baby's room for now :p). It's a little harder to do that with IP, especially the puzzle type problems. I'm not using IP right now. I've decided that my little guy doesn't need to be challenged to the max as long as he's happy. He'll do AoPS when he gets to Prealgebra, and we sometimes do BA (I have all of 3 and part of 4). There's only so much challenge you can give to the 4 basic operations. I think it's easier to challenge them at the prealgebra/algebra on up levels. I think doing Singapore 2 and then switching to BA 3 would be a fine idea for you. Or MM 2... Really, they're both excellent programs that teach math well. MM is more incremental and has more problems and less white space, so aesthetically, I tend to prefer Singapore for that reason. I did use MM 1-4 for the oldest when he was accelerating though. I haven't had to really accelerate my younger kids as much because they were able to start earlier, and thus didn't need as much acceleration.

You clearly haven't seen what my local public schools do. :lol: Yes, they absolutely put on random movies just for the entertainment of the kids. The last month of school, they do parties and movies because testing is over and they aren't teaching anymore. I'm quite serious about that. I have friends whose kids are in the schools and have verified that that's what happens at the end of the year. There are a good 3-4 weeks of no more academics. When *I* was in school, we did academics until about the last week of school, and then it was parties and movies. But back then, they weren't teaching to the test. They were teaching students, and testing as part of that process, but we still learned things after the test. That is no longer the method used in many school districts across the country, sadly. This part I agree with. :)

I make a spreadsheet of what I plan to use for each subject, where the best place to get it from is (Rainbow Resource, Christian Book, Amazon, Better World Books, or the publisher themselves). Most curricula is cheaper at RR and CBD. Regular books (literature) is often cheaper at Amazon or I might be able to get it used from BWB with their 4/$12 deal. I order everything at least a few weeks before I need it. I currently have everything we'll use next year, since our "next year" starts June 13. ;) I'm still entering stuff into my online homeschool planner, but I've got the first 6 weeks nailed down, and most of the year is in there now. We also change levels throughout the year, so I order things as I need them. Then there are the times I change our entire curriculum at the last minute, like I did the last month of school this past year. :lol:

I like to remember that my kids don't have homework after school. Then I don't feel so bad about going until 3pm. :P I'm schooling 3 at a time, so it just takes a while. I've streamlined some things, and we do history and science on separate days. But if we're spending time doing read alouds and such, it's going to take a while. My kids aren't sitting at a table writing all that time though, so it's not like at school.

My kids didn't have any trouble with the grammar (but they're all math minded, and grammar is somewhat mathematical - diagramming has been easy for everyone in my house). But the diacritical marks... yes. My 3rd son did CLE LA 100 and 200, and I just had him skip that stuff if it got too ridiculous. Toward the end of the year, we switched to ELTL, and I like it much better. Language arts is probably still taking about the same amount of time, but my kids are reading/listening to more good literature and poetry during that time, and I like the writing instruction better (copywork, dictation, oral narration to written narration).

Are you wanting to use R&S/CLE for all subjects? I'll warn you, that would make for a really boring school day. :lol: I've used R&S Phonics and Reading for my struggling reader, which worked great for him. Once he outgrew the need, we dropped it. I've used R&S Spelling for my older two kids. They did very well with it. It's a strong program. We are currently giving another spelling method a try (studied dictation). I've used CLE Math and LA for all 3 kids at various times. We recently switched away from it because my kids were getting bored (and not really challenged), but also because they had become TOO independent, and their learning suffered from that (which I tried to not have them as independent, but the kids would do a lesson before I got a chance to go over it with them!). We've moved to more literature-based curricula (except math, of course). At any rate, don't be afraid to change curriculum on occasion. I mean, if you're hopping and hopping and hopping because you think your kids aren't learning... the problem may not be the curriculum. ;) Or if you're hopping because you see something new and shiny and hopping gets them behind, that's not so good either. But if your kids are learning and you decide to make a change at some point because you see a need, it's not the end of the world. Goodness, my oldest did Saxon K-1 (in private school), Math Mammoth 1-4, Singapore 4-5, AoPS Prealgebra, Jacobs Algebra. That's 5 different publishers for math. Guess what? He's really good at math! He has had ZERO problems switching math curricula. I ALWAYS use a placement test. When we changed from MM to Singapore, I even went back half a level (he'd completed MM4A and part of 4B, then went to Singapore 4A). As the teacher, I was able to look at the scope and sequence and determine what my child needed to learn, regardless of the level. He got a full elementary math education and has done very well in algebra this past year. I didn't switch math curricula on a whim, but I noticed what my child needed at the time and made changes based on that. So we switched from Saxon to MM because Saxon was completely boring him and I needed a mastery program to accelerate to where he really was. MM made it very easy to do that, and I didn't have to break the bank going through 3-4 levels in a year. When he settled down in the acceleration department and I noticed that MM was TOO incremental for him, I decided that Singapore would be a better choice at that point. I'm glad we used MM initially, and I'm glad we used Singapore for levels 4-5. It didn't hurt him one bit to make those changes, and in fact I think the changes were good for him. Sometimes, exposing them to different methods can reinforce what they've learned - seeing it in different contexts. I'm currently not planning to use CLE or R&S anytime soon, as I've found things I like better, but that doesn't mean I won't use them again at some point with kid #4. I can't predict what she'll use. She's not even talking yet. ;) I can very much say that each of my kids have had different needs in the early years. One was really good at reading and math but weak on writing. One was really good at math but weak on reading and VERY weak on writing. And the third is strong across the board and Mr. Independent - just a completely different child. So what one child has needed, the next one hasn't necessarily needed the same thing. And then their needs change over time, and I change things based on that. I'm not trying to replicate school at home. I'm trying to educate my children in a way that works well for me and them.

I live in a low COL area with a lot of high tech jobs - north Alabama, Huntsville area. Huntsville is called the "Rocket City", and there is always the joke of, "It doesn't take a rocket scientist, but if it does, we have several to choose from here!" :) Tons and tons of engineers and computer scientists that are well paid. Housing is fairly cheap. You can get a nice 3 bedroom home built in the 80's in a safe neighborhood for around $120-150k. A family just moved in down the road from me to a house that's a small fixer upper (100 years old and hasn't been lived in the last couple years) for just under $30k, and it had an entire acre of land with it. The road is quite safe, though somewhat rural. So there is a wide range of housing options. The really large 4-5 bedroom houses can run $250-300k, but it's easy to find something under $200k. It's often cheaper to buy a house here than to rent an apartment. Now the jobs here will be lower paying than other parts of the country. When my husband graduated college almost 20 years ago, he was offered a job here for one amount and a job up in Boston for over twice that amount. He took the job here. Why? Because in Boston he would have been able to afford a shoebox apartment, no car. Down here he could afford to buy a 3 bedroom house in a safe neighborhood (not a big fancy house, but a good house for starting a family) and a new car. His salary was less than half here, but his standard of living here would be higher. So yes, salary differences are there, but with the cost of living factored in, you can have a higher standard of living here without going into debt.

I have a 6 week rotating menu. It's somewhat flexible, in that at the beginning of the week, I look at it and decide if I want to try something new or swap something around based on what's going on that week. For example, this week was technically supposed to have Pork Carnitas on Tuesday and Pork Tenderloin on Thursday. Well, we just had two cookouts over the weekend, and my husband had done a couple pork butts and several hot dogs and brats. We had enough leftovers for another meal, so I made leftovers night Wednesday and changed Tuesday/Thursday to chicken items, so we wouldn't be eating pork all week. And hey, chicken happened to be on sale at Aldi this week anyway, so win win. :) The 6 week menu has been sooooo helpful to me. I'm homeschooling 3 kids all day, along with chasing a toddler. Dinner time is at 5 (and about half the week there are activities after dinner, so dinner really needs to be at 5). With the distractions going on, I often have to start prepping dinner at 3 or 3:30 to get it on the table on time. I don't have a grocery store nearby, and making a grocery trip will take an hour. I don't have that kind of time when I'm deciding what to eat. And frankly, at the end of a long day of homeschooling and chasing toddler, my brain is ready to checkout. I don't want to have to think of something to eat. If it were left up to what I feel like making, we'd be resorting to boxed meals, and I don't want to do that. I make things from scratch every night. This has cut down the grocery bill some, because I am not going to the grocery store multiple times a week (I can't walk in without spending $50+, it seems). I can go once and get everything I need for the week. I don't worry about what's on sale as much, but I do plan a Sam's trip around my meal needs so I can get chicken or ground beef at good prices and freeze the extras. Right now, my freezer stash is low because we cleaned out the freezer and moved it to the garage and plan to get another one very soon for the cow that's in the process of being butchered. So until I get another freezer (the old one has half a pig in it and won't fit a whole cow AND half a pig AND my normal freezer stash), I need to only freeze what fits in the fridge freezer, which isn't a whole lot. But on a normal day with plenty of freezer space, I'll plan ahead... If I see that a meat I use often is on sale, I can buy it and prep it for specific meals and stick it in the freezer. That makes meals even easier if it's already seasoned and ready to go! When I make tortilla soup, I make as much as my pot can hold and freeze in batches that I can use as lunch for myself a couple times in a week or use two bags for the whole family (I'm a wee bit addicted to tortilla soup). I keep frozen veggies in the freezer and buy fresh ones as needed that week. I am wasting less food because I'm not buying veggies that end up getting unused (the vegetable crisper - where good intentions go to die). So yeah, dinner time is so much less stressful now that I have a plan, and each week is so easy to plan because the big picture is there already, and my husband won't have to complain about having chicken every day because I've built in plenty of variety into our menu on a week to week basis. I even have 6 different Taco Tuesday dishes! The menu is there as a tool, not a master. If we really don't feel like xyz, I'll change it out for something else, maybe trying something new. But it's helpful in that I don't have to think of all our dinners for the week every week. I used to plan a week at a time, and that's when I'd end up having the same dish every other week, and my husband got tired of that dish. That doesn't happen any more. If there is a repeat on the menu, it's 3 weeks apart. Very few things repeat. The 6 week menu has been a sanity saver in my house! Breakfast and lunch are not planned... that's fend for yourself. You can have leftovers or make yourself whatever. The only kid not able to make their own food is the toddler.

SAT 10 is not timed. I believe the ITBS is timed. We found the SAT10 to be painless here. I administered it myself (just have to have a Bachelor's degree and watch a 6 minute video online). I haven't tried the online version. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

I'd say mostly A here. I have two who play hockey and are good at it. Another one played hockey for a bit, but it was very clear that he does not need to be playing any team sport, for the sake of the team. We tried karate with him. It was ok, but he didn't put much effort into it. Now he's doing no ECs, and I'm ok with that. He has speech therapy once a week, and my sanity can't take being out away from home all the time. We'd never get school done. My kids get plenty of physical activity playing outside with the neighbor kids who are also homeschooled. They run around, ride bikes, climb trees, play in the creek that's about knee deep, etc. So I'm not worried about them not having ECs right now. When the non-team player gets older, he might find an interest to pursue that doesn't involve teams. Right now, he needs more time climbing trees. :) Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

I think you would be fine using ELTL level 2. All of the books are available on Librivox for free (audio), or you could read them aloud yourself. My kids listen on Librivox and follow along on their kindle. My oldest and youngest can read them themselves no problem. My middle, who is using a level behind his grade level, can read the books but still needs a little help sometimes, so listening to it is good for him. Level 2 has all copywork, no dictation. Narrations are done orally. Wayfarers does a 4 year rotation, so year 1 is ancients, year 2 is medieval, etc. Each year is split into 3 terms, but they are sequential. So for example, I'm doing year 2 this year, and term 1 has weeks 1-12,term 2 has weeks 13-24,and term 3 has weeks 25-36 - for a full 36 week school year studying medieval history. It's normal to feel nervous when starting homeschooling. I know I did! You sound like you've done your research well. I'm sure you'll do fine. :) Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

My kids use Frixion pens for handwriting (including Pentime when we were using it until very recently). I love them. But yeah, the ink runs out quickly. I need to see what refills cost...

Looks good to me! My middle son, who was slower to learn to read, did very well with R&S Phonics and Reading (we sounded out the sight words and explained the phonics involved). That's the program that really pushed him forward into reading. He couldn't handle Spalding and its spinoffs at that time. That was too much to remember all at once, and he so badly wanted to READ. Now he's reading great. His spelling is better than I expected from a struggling reader (it's not great, but he's able to do the studied dictation in ELTL level 3, so I'm happy with that... we analyze the new words in a Spalding-esque manner). We also didn't do much writing until about 3rd grade. He's coming along well, and he will be well educated by time he finishes high school. ;)

My son uses a regular college ruled notebook. My rising 4th grader is using level 3 and not doing a commonplace book yet. He still has the printed out copywork. He's not ready for regular ruled paper either. You might look for one of those cursive handwriting notebooks with the smaller lines... I know they exist somewhere. Maybe someone else knows what I'm talking about. I did buy the work for level 5. He can mark the passages for grammar in that. It's not necessary though. You could type it up yourself and just leave plenty of space between lines for markings. I don't think recall there being anything else in the level 5 workbook. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Did you administer the test yourself? When I administered this test to my son a couple years ago, I looked over his answers after he took the test so I could get an idea of what he did right and wrong. That gave me a better idea of what his weak areas were than looking at the scores, which basically told me nothing I didn't know already. I suspect your child either wasn't serious about the test (possibly randomly filling things in) or didn't understand specific wording of the test. I would not change your homeschooling based on the one test. Maybe try another test or practice test that you give yourself and see what exactly is going on when he takes it.

My son used Jacobs Algebra last year. I downloaded the (free) parent test booklet from the Ask Dr. Callahan website and used their problem assignments and tests. My son enjoyed the book and learned well from it. Since he's young, I'm doing a second pass with Art of Problem Solving Intro to Algebra in 7th. He did their Prealgebra book and enjoyed it. Those books are HARD though. I also own Foerster and like that too. I just went with Jacobs because of the age of my student. Foerster has some humor in the word problems, but not necessarily humor my son would recognize. Dolciani would also be good. I used the Prealgebra book at times to give more practice in topics he struggled with in AoPS Prealgebra. And note that the books designed for public schools have waaaaaay more problems than you need to do, so please don't make your child do them all. When I was in school, we usually did all odds or all evens (depending whether the teacher wanted to allow us to check our own answers in the back of the book or not). Some of these books have a ton of problems available. That's good in case you need more practice in a topic - you can go back and do the ones you didn't do previously. ;)

We're using Apologia General Science. My son did half the book in 6th grade and will do the other half in 7th. I gave him a choice of doing Wayfarers science for 7th (since we're using it for everything else), but he wanted to stick with Apologia. He likes the book. :) I've always enjoyed the Wile books. Like a PP, I wasn't crazy about Apologia's elementary series (she gets into theological stuff that I disagree with and has absolutely nothing to do with the science being taught anyway). We've used Virtual Homeschool Co-Op's self-paced course to get a lecture and online quizzes/tests. I have him outline the chapters as he reads, and he does most of the experiments listed (there are a few we skip). I've been so pleased this year that he was able to gather supplies and perform the experiments without me involved! Yay for maturity! :)

It's really easy to miss! It took me a while to figure it out when I got to lesson 6. Then I finally realized it was right next to the big number 6 - "Narration: The Otters and the Wolf". :lol: I'm thinking one of the other levels had the model story mentioned in a different place, and it was easier to notice it. Not sure. Anyway, the model story is introduced in lesson 1, then the written narration (dictated from their oral narration) is done in lesson 6. This pattern repeats. So every 2 weeks you have a new model story, and at the end of the 2 weeks, you write down the narration (or part of it).

I'm using levels 2, 3, and 5 right now. We started them about a month before our school year ended. My kids are going to be in grades 2, 4, and 7 when we start back up. Yes, the oldest is working 2 levels behind, but I'm cool with it. It's been a good fit for him, and I don't think the level will matter much in the long run. That and level 6 isn't out yet. ;) Level 2 is all copywork and oral narration. My kid that's doing that level is a natural speller, so I'm not using spelling with him even though there is no "spelling" involved in this level. He really doesn't need it. Level 3 has copywork, oral narration, and dictation. There is dictation twice a week. The kid using this level is not a natural speller (and may even be mildly dyslexic), but he is doing well with the studied dictation method. We look at the passage, find any words he doesn't know how to spell, then analyze them a la Spalding/SWR type methods. So he is learning the how and why of spelling in the context of what he's writing from dictation. This is studied dictation, so we don't write it until he thinks he knows how to spell all the words and knows where all the punctuation goes. I was a little worried about dictation with him, because writing is a very weak spot for him, but level 3 has had exactly the right level of dictation for him. So it's all been good. :) Level 5 has copywork (usually 1/2-1 page in their commonplace book), oral narration, dictation (often a paragraph), and written narration. The commonplace book entries are done daily, dictation is twice a week (and again, it's lengthy), and a writing assignment is once a week. The first week was literary analysis. He was to write a narration about one of the assigned short stories (there were two of them), then include if he had sympathy for one of the characters and tell why or why not. The next week is a condensed narrative (summary), there is writing an outline, various descriptive writing assignments, etc. The last lesson in the book has them write a persuasive essay with introduction and conclusion. Each week has added a chunk to their writing toolbox. Looking ahead, I like where it's leading. Oh, and level 5 spelling, I'm doing the same thing with this child as I am doing with the level 3 child - pick out the words he doesn't know how to spell, analyze them, study the dictation for several minutes before writing it. I also have this child keep a spelling journal, as is recommended in the curriculum (she has a free download for that). This child is not a natural speller, but he is able to notice a word is misspelled visually and often can fix it. His rough drafts are typically riddled with spelling errors (and the occasional letter reversal, which we both laugh about together), but I can tell him to find the misspelled words and correct them, and most of the time he can do it. He might have a couple he doesn't know how to spell, but he can tell what he wrote was wrong. He reads a LOT, so I guess he has a good visual memory for spelling, but it took him a while for his physical writing ability to catch up with his brain, and the spelling hasn't fully integrated with the writing yet. It's getting there though! I've seen such huge progress the last 2 years, I can't believe it! So anyway, right now, I have no plans to supplement ELTL at all. It is our complete English course. The boys are enjoying it. They love the books they're supposed to read. And now we're being more consistent with copywork, dictation, oral narration, and written narration every week. Plus we're actually reading poetry every day, doing picture study every couple weeks, etc. All the things that I wanted to do but could never pull together myself and be consistent with... it's right there, done for me. :) I think some of my friends are tired of hearing how much I love ELTL. :lol: (and we're using Wayfarers also and loving that!)

Sonlight is known for pushing the envelope on appropriateness. That's why many people used their cores on the upper end of the age range rather than the grade level that marks the younger end. When I used Core D with my 8 year old, I saw a lot of people saying they wait until 10 to use it. He was fine at 8, but I could definitely see where it would be more appropriate for age 10 for most kids. And that's why some Sonlight users got annoyed when they went to doing grade level packages with the level being based on the lower end of the range. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Another vote for Leapfrog Letter Factory. My oldest learned his letter sounds at age 2, but the next kid was 4 and still didn't know any basic sounds (which is FINE). Popped that DVD in and 3 days later he knew his letter sounds. :D Note that it was still a while before he could read. Reading really clicked with him around age 8 and he took off at 9. My oldest, at age 4, resisted anything resembling me educating him. I backed off and he learned quite a bit on his own. He just wasn't ready for formal school. A couple years later, he was a ridiculously easy homeschool student. My middle son, the one that learned letters from Leapfrog, has a November birthday, so he didn't start K until he was getting close to 6. That was the best thing for him, really. He wasn't ready to start handwriting lessons until a little after he turned 6. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Let her use manipulatives even if the text seems to not want them used. You're the teacher, and you're using a first grade text with a 5 year old. Most 5 year olds still need manipulatives. My 5 year olds did first grade texts with manipulatives also. Now I can't remember the last time we used a manipulative, and my youngest just started Singapore 3 a couple months ago. When he was doing first grade math, he always had manipulatives available (his favorite was chocolate chips). The mental math concepts are repeated each year. I also agree with the PP that you may need to add more fact practice in there, but it's also ok to wait and see if you need it. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

My son's private school encouraged inventive spelling in K. I think the way they teach writing, it ends up being necessary. Now in my homeschool, I don't do inventive spelling because I don't have them journaling or writing on their own for school until they've been doing copywork and dictation for a while. And since there are so few kids in my home, I have the time to spell for them or walk them through sounding it out and help them determine the correct phonograms. That said ,when my 6th grader writes a rough draft, it's going to be horribly misspelled, and I'm ok with that. If I tell him to find the misspelled words and correct them, he can. And we laugh when a letter reversal makes a word sound funny or makes a different word. :) But the fact is that he CAN spell, but if he is focusing on generating good content, he's still immature enough in his writing/spelling that spelling is going to suffer. And as a perfectionist, it paralyzed him to try to generate good content while thinking hard about spelling. I had to tell him it was ok to misspell words in a rough draft. Mistakes are expected in rough drafts. So yeah, if a 5 year old is writing sentences in their own (not copying), I expect some inventive spelling to be going on. Even stopping and asking how to spell a word can ruin the train of thought and result in simpler content than the child would otherwise do. Now I prefer to not require so much content at a young age (oral narration is good), but I'm homeschooling, so I have the luxury of working one on one with my students. A classroom teacher will have to have different methods (and the district may require certain methods - teachers don't always have much leeway in how they teach). I imagine the teacher meant that spelling was not important for that assignment. The goal was to get more content. Having a pencil allergic child, I can understand that. ;) Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

My kids have learned cursive at different ages. My 3rd son learned in first grade using Pentime. He's now doing all school work in cursive and starting to do outside stuff in cursive on his own. His manuscript was good, but spacing was still irregular (as is common in early first grade). Spacing isn't an issue with cursive. My kids all use Frixion erasable pens for everything now. They are great pens. I got them at Sam's. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

I have no idea what Trello is, but I use Homeschool Tracker Plus (download version), and when that no longer works on my machine, I'll switch to the online version. It calculates grades no problem. You can do different weights for grades. You can say "15 points possible, 12 points were earned", and it will automatically show you the percentage. My favorite feature of HST+ is the reusable lesson plans. If I use the same level of a curriculum with multiple children in different years, it's very simple to use that existing lesson plan with the next kid. I make all my lesson plans at the beginning of the school year - no dates attached. I then assign lessons on a weekly basis. If we get off schedule even with the weekly scheduling, it's easy to reschedule them. After using HST+, every time I try another planner, I always feel like it's unusable for me because it doesn't have xyz feature that HST+ has. I'm pretty sure the online version is basically the same as HST+, possibly with some extra features (and ISBN search working again - that was handy, as it would populate all the data about a book in your homeschool library). Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk