I haven't used level 1,but we're using 2 , 3, and 5 right now. My kids LOVE the stories. My 3rd grader said Dr. Dolittle is now his 2nd favorite book (behind Junior Classics version of The Time Machine). My 1st grader is doing level 2 (we started like a month before the end of the school year), and he's enjoying The Wonderful Wizard of Oz. He draws pictures next to the copywork each time (we use the workbook, and it has a box provided for that purpose). We're also using Wayfarers, which gets some more modern read alouds in there. The kids are enjoying both. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

I would not combine in this situation. I have a similar spread in age and ability here, except it's reading. My younger child progresses so much faster than the older child that they were only at the same spot for a very short time when younger was in K. I purposely used different materials with them so it wouldn't be in the older child's face every day. He knows his younger brother is a better reader, but using the same curricula would have just rubbed it in, and again, they wouldn't have been together for long. Younger has far surpassed older in reading ability now at the end of 1st and 3rd grades. Older has made huge progress, and I've praised him for working so hard. He feels good about his reading usually... Until he tries to read Harry Potter and just doesn't have the stamina, while younger brother has read the whole series 3 times since Christmas. [emoji14] Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

Option 1. I had baby #4 in January of last year. I had grades K, 2, and 5. We actually got more done after baby was born than we did during pregnancy (with medical issues). My newborns, thankfully, all sleep a lot, so homeschooling was relatively easy. This year with a toddler has been a bit harder. Now she takes only one nap a day, she wants mom all the time, she screams during read alouds sometimes, and she's generally into everything like a good little 15 month old. :D The good news is, K and 1st don't need to take a long time. My issues this year have been more with being able to spend time with my 3rd and 6th graders. My first grader was easy. :) Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

I'm not crazy about the Apologia Elementary books as a curriculum for the year, but I do like them for reference. My kids can read them when they want, and I think they have read all of them. I don't mind doing one major topic like biology or chemistry of whatever in a year, but the breakdown of Apologia is a bit much for me. This year we did life science via Creek Edge Press task cards, and that basically meant reading a lot of library books, science encyclopedias, etc. We did life science the whole year, but it was different animals, human body, etc. My oldest did random library books from 1st-5th grade, and he has done very well with Apologia General Science this year. Speaking of books by Dr. Wile... I like his elementary series much better than the Apologia elementary series. And he does various topics throughout the year. I have Science in the Beginning and really like it. Sent from my SM-G900T using Tapatalk

I was likewise unimpressed this year. I saw that last year had an art program I was planning to use, but the one they included this year was high school level. Oh well. And finding which one was being included was a bear. The full list that you browse didn't actually have everything (including said art program), and while it said it was alphabetical order, it really wasn't. So I had to click on each bundle to see what they had. Give me a search feature or an ability to click on a publisher and find out which bundles they're in. I'll just order what I need from the publishers directly. Won't pay much more, and they'll likely get more money. :)

Zero. Baby naps in the afternoon and is a bear if she doesn't get her nap! Also, I need to prep dinner starting around 3ish. So I get quite stressed by being out in the afternoon. We are out a few mornings per week. One morning is speech therapy, so the other two kids do school in the waiting room (they have a nice table there), then another morning I have to pick up milk and eggs from a raw milk co-op... That only takes about 30 minutes, but it interrupts the day. Then on Friday we have Story time at the library for the baby, and the boys all do school work there (while listening to the stories), and then we hit Aldi while we're in town. My least stressful days are the ones where are home the entire day and can spend time reading together and not feel rushed because the kids want to go play.

I wouldn't make a 7 year old do art if he didn't like it. My boys aren't artsy either. They will sometimes pick up some paper and a pen and draw stick figures killing each other, then scribble the whole thing because it's exploding, but painting a picture of an apple and making it look 3D? Not so much. :) I leave art supplies available, and they have free access to the printer paper (free after rebate from Staples). Sometimes they'll decide to make something with tape and paper. Then I have to go buy a new roll of tape. :lol: But I will say that they really weren't much into artsy things at 7. Later, they enjoyed occasional painting or whatever. Yesterday we did Draw Write Now together, drawing 3 bears (from the Goldilocks story). I drew what the original picture had. My 9 year old gave Papa Bear 2 heads and giant claws. My 11 year old likewise did some silly stuff to his. I think my 6 year old was the only one that attempted to draw the bears somewhat like they were on the page. :) And he's the one with the best fine motor skills of the bunch, so he tends to be more willing to do art. Art doesn't hold my kids' interest for long, and that's fine. Frankly, I was an engineer with zero artist skills. Never needed them in my job of writing software. (and I do think of what my 9 and 11 year old did as art yesterday - I praised them for their creations ;) ) We do picture study in our language arts now, looking at good art and discussing it.

I think it's normal for the age. My oldest did silly stuff like that no matter what (rigorous and repetitive) grammar curriculum we used. As he matured, things settled out and he's easily able to apply the grammar. I wouldn't be concerned about it at all. It's kind of like spelling, where they know all the words during spelling time, but in their free writing they can't even spell "cat" correctly. :lol: Later, the spelling migrates to their free writing also. I've seen that in my oldest as well (though his rough drafts sometimes have crazy stuff, and we laugh and he finds all the mistakes and corrects them, because he really does know how to spell).

I have the book and like it, but getting the ebook makes it easier to print some pages out for multiple kids! :)

If the curriculum I'm using has a test, I'll put a grade on it, but they still have to correct everything missed, so... :lol: My cover school requires "grades" be kept, but I will often just put "A" if the subject doesn't have anything really gradeable (and it often doesn't). It's not like the "grades" really matter in elementary school. The only time they're needed is for figuring out a GPA in high school (and I'm sure there is some way around that as well - would love to hear how Kinsa handles that!). Grades are typically used in schools to compare to their peers in the same class. My kids aren't competing against anyone else. They're just learning. We move on when they've mastered the material. If the kid got a 70 on a test in school, they'd move on and keep going. At home, the kids get a 70, and they correct the work or even redo a chapter to make sure the material is learned. So don't worry about grades, especially in 1st grade. Also don't worry about levels of material. My kids are all over the place and often don't have any material the level that equals their age-based grade level. We start new levels in the middle of the school year all the time. Just meet them where they are. If they jump ahead, great - let them! If they need to park for a bit, that's fine too!

When using it by itself in the early grades, we read one section each day, 3 days per week. When we got to the end of a chapter, we did the mapwork. I sometimes got extra books, sometimes not. Kids read those on their own.

I like that it schedules more than just history, and since I'm using ELTL, that's scheduled to. I like the layout better also - it's easier for me to see what we need to do. BP, I keep forgetting to do certain things that I originally wanted to do. I also like that Wayfarers includes a preschool schedule (basically, reading good books and doing some fun preschool activities that build motor skills), so I can include my daughter later on when she's ready - she'll already be on the schedule in an age appropriate manner. :) I do like the BP Companion (which is basically a textbook), but only my oldest is reading it right now. The younger two were listening in, but some sections get very long, and I'm not good at picking and choosing. They say to pick and choose sections to read together, but when I tried to do that, I would think one section would be interesting, yet the kids had no clue about it because we hadn't read the previous sections. So I really needed to do all or nothing. My advice to you would be to print out the samples of both, so you can look at the layout and see how you would use it. Also, see if you're needing the extras in Wayfarers, like science, logic (middle grades), art, etc. You can sub your own things for those subjects pretty easily (especially art, as it's not scheduled - it's just on the list to do one of the choices, with no page numbers listed).

I hate the whole process of selling curriculum, so I keep most of it, even if I know I'll probably never use it. :lol: In reality, most I haven't reused, because either I get bored of what I use to begin with or I find something I like better. That said, I'm finally reusing Singapore that I used with my oldest. Just switched my younger kids to it, since CLE was starting to drag for both of them (particularly my 3rd grader). I guess I also reused the early CLE Math levels, since I used them with two kids. Thinking to the future with my youngest... who knows what I'll reuse. I don't know at all what kind of student she'll be (she's not even talking yet!). I don't know if I'll be sick of the materials by that point. There might be something I really like so much better at that time. So yeah, not locking myself into one curriculum for the future. Now if money is tight from year to year and you really need the money from selling curriculum, by all means, sell it! If you need it again, buy it used. All that said, I should really start selling some of my stuff... I have several things I know I'll never use. :p

Sounds like she's well ahead of her age in everything but writing, correct? I'd just let her do a lot of reading, provide plenty of art/craft type materials to mess with, and let her play. When you are at home, you can work on handwriting with her and "play" with math. At her age, 30 minutes is plenty. So your husband would only have to be taking her to the library and making sure she knows how to clean up craft type stuff after using it. :) You don't need formal school yet. It really is ok. (and I'm NOT an unschooler type) Btw, my middle son was speech delayed and has issues with handwriting. He wasn't ready to start learning to write letters until after he turned 6. We started in the second half of his K year (he has a November birthday, which has been a good thing for him). So while he was working ahead in math, he was barely learning to write letters. I just went at his pace. His writing is coming along. Still a struggle point at age 9, but it's improving hugely this year. His reading has taken off, and he's still ahead in math. My main concern is that he'll be ready for higher math before he's ready to organize it on paper, but we'll see. I was shocked when he wrote exponents neatly yesterday during math, so maybe he'll be ok. We might be doing Prealgebra on wide ruled paper though. :) He can line stuff up pretty well, but he can't really write small yet.

Have you looked at Wayfarers? I haven't used it yet, so it could very well be horrible. :lol: But I'm really enjoying her language arts program with my 3 school aged kids, and I notice that Wayfarers has preschool activity/book suggestions built in (basically reading and doing little activities to develop motor skills). My daughter isn't old enough for the preschool activities yet, but I could see really liking that when she's closer to 3! I know the English curriculum has been really nice in my household, cutting out a lot of daily angst over doing "all that work" in separate workbooks 5 days per week. Now it's 3 days per week, working with Mom, reading good literature and poetry, discussing grammar, doing some copywork/dictation/narration, adding in literary analysis for the older kid (my 6th grader is doing level 5). It really has made my homeschool a bit calmer since we started it a few weeks ago. We'll see how it goes when the newness wears off, of course! I'm planning to add in Wayfarers after we finish Medieval History with Biblioplan.

I use post-it tabs in both books, but I'm working with each kid,so not using it independently (we just switched from CLE, which we were using independently, and that was part of our problem with getting LA done each day).

Because I discovered Wayfarers and think I would like it a lot, but we are only 7 weeks into BP, so I'm finishing what I have before we change. ;) Since we are using ELTL now, it fits in well with Wayfarers. I'm a chronic curriculum hopper, btw. :lol:

4 weeks left of 1st,currently doing: Math: Singapore 3A LA: ELTL 2 History: Biblioplan Medieval Science: Creek Edge Press Life Science task cards 2nd grade plans: Math: Finish Singapore 3, start 4 LA: Finish ELTL 2,start 3 History: Finish Biblioplan Medieval, start Wayfarers Early Modern Science: Finish task cards, use Wayfarers science when we start that for history

We have 4 weeks left of 3rd grade, currently doing: Math: Singapore 5A (started last week) LA: ELTL 3 (just started 2 weeks ago) History: Biblioplan Medieval Science: Creek Edge Press Life Science task cards 4th grade plans: Math: Finish Singapore 5,start AoPS Prealgebra LA: ELTL 3, start 4 History: Finish BP, maybe go with Wayfarers for Early Modern Science: Finish task cards, use Wayfarers science when we start that. Not sure what I'll do in between. Our new school year starts mid to late June, so summer is a normal school schedule.

Math: AoPS Intro to Algebra LA: ELTL 5/6, and maybe finish WWS1 (he's a third of the way through it) Science: Finish Apologia General Science, then maybe the science in Wayfarers History: Finish Biblioplan Medieval and I'm leaning towards Wayfarers for Early Modern

My 3rd son is like that. When he was in K, I had him read some readers to me... The Free & Treadwell ones. He started at Primer and went through the end of the series. Sometimes we did copywork from it. He had a really easy K year, and I guess an easy first grade year as well. I'm not bothering with spelling because he's a natural speller. I'm not doing a phonics program because he intuited phonics (when coming across new multisyllable words, he has no problem). Reading stamina kicked in big time this year, so he can basically read anything that would be appropriate for him to hear. He has beautiful handwriting, so I started him on Pentime 3 cursive earlier this year. We just started ELTL a couple weeks ago (I'm totally in love!), and he's doing level 2 (though level 3 would have been fine),and that counts as all his language arts. Add math, and then history with both big brothers and science with one big brother, and he's done with school for the day. Easy peasy.

Yes, OPGTR is a phonics program. I think you've covered that base well. First graders reading real chapter books is not the norm. There will be some in every class who are, but there will be several who aren't. I would not at all expect all 1st graders to be doing that. Also, chapter books require stamina that sometimes comes a little later. My first and third sons both started reading independently at 4.5. The older one could easily read words at a 5th-6th grade level in 1st grade, but he couldn't tackle a Magic Tree House book (2nd grade level) until toward the end of 1st grade. It was a stamina issue. A year later? He and I both read LOTR separately on our own as kind of a race during the summer. He beat be unless I hid the books. :D My younger is in first grade now, and at the beginning of the year, he could read MTH books. At Christmas, he decided to try Harry Potter, and he's now read the entire series 1.5 times since then. Both kids were about at the same place reading level wise in first grade, but one had stamina for longer chapter books much later. Meanwhile, my 3rd grader (who is 9.5) started out with MTH books at the beginning of this year, and now he's able to do some junior classics and other 4th-ish grade level novels if they're not too long. He's started reading Harry Potter, but it takes him so long to get through a chapter, that he's decided to read other things for now. That is totally ok! He enjoys reading, and he's easily reading at grade level now. By middle school, he'll have no problem tackling those long HP books. ;) And it doesn't matter that his 2.5 years younger brother can read harder books. By time they're adults, I don't think you'd be able to tell that one ever read better than the other. Middle son has worked harder to learn to read, and it has paid off. Time and experience will help him get to those harder books.

My 3rd soon is a lefty. He was completely ambidextrous at 4 and on into 5. When he did writing at those ages, he'd often start with his left hand, then switch to his right hand halfway through. He could write very neatly with either one. He has settled into writing just left handed now, and he has beautiful cursive handwriting (best in the family!). He'll be 7 next month. Be does some things right handed. I usually don't interfere, but if he's clearly having trouble doing something right handed, I'll stiffest he try the left and see if it's any easier. Archery was that way when he was 4 and tagged along to cub scout camp with his 6 year old brother. He was trying to shoot the arrow right handed as he'd seen the instructor do, but he was not going anywhere near the target. I had him try it left handed, and he hit the target easily! He still uses his hockey stick in a right handed manner, though my husband gave him a stick without a curve, so he can use either hand if he wants. He eats left handed and cuts right handed. I would have no problem giving him left handed scissors if he wanted to cut left handed, but it is easier for him if he can cut right handed. I personally don't carry scissors around with me, and since most men don't carry purses, I doubt he would want to either. :) I definitely would never expect someone to use right handed scissors with their left hand. I've tried to cut with my sister's lefty scissors before, and that was hard!

I skipped Singapore 6 and did a full Prealgebra course instead (I used AoPS). After that, we went to Jacobs Algebra. I used the teacher syllabus/tests from Dr. Callahan but did not use the videos. That teacher thing is a free download.

I'm using it both ways. My oldest just started level 5 at the end of 6th grade, as that's the highest level out. It's actually a good fit for him, writing wise. He'll likely start level 6 about halfway through grade 7. I'm cool with that. He's an excellent reader, but writing is not his favorite. My middle son is doing level 3 at the end of 3rd grade. That's been a good fit for him, as his reading ability is finally at grade level now, but he's struggling with writing still. Level 3 includes copywork, dictation, and oral narration that is dictated back to the student to write. It says it's ok to work up to worrying the narration (by dictation) by the end of the year. He's been able to handle the dictation given so far. The copywork has been a tad long for him, but doable. We just had our first oral narration that gets dictated back on Friday, and I had him write one sentence. His oral narration skills are very good. He had just finished up CLE 308 before starting, so the grammar he knows so far, but that's ok. I think level 4 would have been too much for him. My youngest son will be 7 next month and is nearing the end of first grade. I started him at level 2. He technically could have done level 3, as he's quite precocious in all aspects of language arts, including writing and spelling. He's a natural speller, so I don't plan to use a separate spelling program with him. The dictation in ELTL will be enough. I'm actually letting the dictation in ELTL be our spelling for all three kids. My oldest is doing the spelling journal. Middle is not doing a journal yet, but we do analyze the words. If I find later that he needs a spelling program, we can do one, but I don't think it will be necessary. Anyway, younger son finds ELTL easy, but that's ok. He's a little guy. ;) I agree with looking ahead at levels 4 and 5 when making your decision. From your OP, I think you could really go either way and be fine. :)