Make sure you check out Paperback Swap. I've not bought any full cores from SL, but I've piecemealed them together and bought the IGs from SL. We're doing Core C now. It's a great core, and the girls love the books.

Since your son seems to get grammar quickly, you might be able to go right into FLL3 when done with FLL2. You'll be able to tell more as you near to finishing FLL2. FLL3 is very different from 1 and 2 with more writing and more application of all the memorizing and shallow understanding of grammar concepts in 1 and 2. We like FLL, and since it works and they are retaining, we have just continued that. The problem comes after FLL4, as there are no more langage lessons ... yet.

FLL. Moving onto Hake for 5th.

We use both programs for 2 different children. I tried MM with both DDs, and while middle DD thrived in MM, eldest DD was in tears every day, even when we backed up. MM fits our middle DD, as she loves to "manipulate" numbers in her head, and it feels like a puzzle to her every day. CLE works best for most students. It's traditional. Our last DD will do CLE, as she is not very mathy.

I'm doing Hake 5 next year with my dd. I waded through several curricula, including BJU, R&S, Shurley, MCT (that one is tempting), and I think Hake seems the most similar to FLL. FLL has worked so well for us, and both DDs doing it love grammar. I, too, was very disappointed there were no other installments.

Bumping. I have decided to try one of the Time Travelers CDs next year for American History, and I would like to know what people think too. I did find an excellent review on a blog, which helped me see how it worked a little better.

The reader schedules are available for purcahse separately for K, 1, 2, 3, and 4/5. It is just the readers scheduled out with comprehension questions. The reader schedule for Core D and up readers are in the expensive Core IGs. It sounds like your DD would do well with the 4/5 readers based on the test you took. Several books you may know of representative to 4/5 readers are Ralph S. Mouse, Misty of Chincoteague, and Henry and Ribsy. SL schedules harder/more challenging books with a tad bit easier to keep the child's confidence higher and to give them a break. The 3 readers are chapter books more like The Magic Treehouse. Short chapters with larger text and more white space than 4/5.

I haven't read this particular title, but have read several other biographies by this author, and they were very well done. Saint Valentine by Ann Tompert.

Awwww! So cute. :)

I'm not LDS, but wanted to recommend replacements on a few books. I am considering skipping many of the missionary style books myself. Regarding the Incas, Aztecs, and Mayans (which we haven't read), I'm considering replacing it with a series of books by Jane Shuter. She does a fantastic job with condensing the material, yet not dumbing it down. She has one on every single one of these people groups if I'm not mistaken. A Question of Yams is scheduled in the 3rd grade SL readers, and it seemed very easy for both of my girls in 3rd grade, so you should be okay there, if you decide to use it. Anyhow, that's all. I can't comment on anything else. :)

I am using Building Language only this year for my 4th grader, and she LOVES it. That doesn't answer your question about what she would be missing, but I do know that the vocab can be done alone. She loves drawing pictures for the parts of the word. I'm going to take the plunge and purchase the expensive Caesar's English next year (I think...yikes).

I have an older model (no color or touch screen), but I really like it. I am a book nut, so I really love having the books, though. I like how I can see a book and really want to get it and have it immediately. Also, I like how you can get a chapter long sample to see if you like it and keep it on your kindle until you purchase it later. It reminds me of books I might like to read.

It is close to 200 pages per year. I divide the A and B books, print front and back on heavier inkjet type paper (I have a laser printer; so worth it!). DD picks cardstock for the cover and back. Then I take it to the office store, and they spiral bind it and put clear page protectors over it, which costs about 8 dollars. I put all of the cumulative reviews and tests into one tiny booklet at the beginning of the year and have that spiral bound too, the same as above.

Remember, too, that at school, a lot of the time is classroom management. They don't do teaching instruction all day long. Some of the time is spent doing other things. So with a 2nd grader, it is going to take a significantly less amount of time at home. As Rosie said, you don't have to have him doing school 8:30 to 3 or whatever hours he was doing in school. It can be in the evenings for history, math during a lull in the day, taking advantage of the weekends. Just as long as you are making progression on your subjects (I would say 5 days a week just to finish your curriculum), you should be good. We actually school year-round too, so you could do a 4-day week, but have a shorter summer. In our state, we need 180 days of school. We do 4 weeks on of school, 1 week off with extra around Christmas and the whole month of June off. I work from home too, though not with extra children. It takes strict scheduling. I consider homeschooling my job, along with my paying job, and I put it above other things.

We did an apple also with salt and baking soda. I just wasn't brave enough! :)

If the curriculum doesn't keep adding fact families in 2B, I would just continue to practice the facts every day with various methods already mentioned in this thread. She'll get them eventually.

I have not done MFW, but one of the cons people have listed is that sometimes it can become repetitive. Read about the country, do the worksheet, etc. I was very drawn to that program too, but decided against it. I agree with the previous poster, do you like the style of SL, lots of literature with the nonfiction spine? Core A is really loose as far as cultures and you learn a little of this and a little of that. The read alouds are all just for fun. The first part of the core focuses on a quick jaunt through history using Living Long Ago, then the last part goes through the Children's Encyclopedia (excellent book, BTW). It doesn't flow as nicely as some of SL's other cores. They seem to get more cohesive as you go through them. When the read alouds relate to the history, that's where I get excited, and I see the girls making connections all over the place. Core B has a few books that relate to history, Core C a few more read alouds that relate, and then Core D is all out connections all over the place.

I don't think Core A is systematic at all. LIke a previous post said, it covers very light world history then goes into some cultural things, but not country by country. It's just an overview with a lot of information here and there and fun books to read with this age group. Core B is ancient history, although the first several weeks are a cultural mishmash. I have liked each subsequent core more than the last, but A was not my favorite. I will repeat it next year with my 1st grader, though, as we enjoy it, but its just not our favorite.

This part of your post sounds like her. She IS getting her letter sounds. We just have to go over it in many, many different ways. So she does understand symbols. She can tell me the sounds to about 10 letters right now and thinks of words that begin with them. She just hasn't progressed with numbers.

Thank you all. She does have an appointment with her pediatrician, and I intended on discussing this issue with her.

Well, not a huge amount of stuff. In that timeframe for math, we would do 1 page of a workbook, make a craft showing a big 4 (or whatever) with beans glued on it. I worked with Abeka K math at the very beginning of the year for 2 months, but it moved too fast, as it was introducing teen numbers, and she still didn't have the 0-10 down. I put that aside until we reach that point, and that's when I got a few extra workbooks to practice just those numbers she wasn't getting. I have CLE K stuff that we alternate with a workbook from Wal-Mart (Big K workbook or something like that). We just talk about the pictures when we do the 1 page (sometimes 2 if she wants). We've counted the appropriate number of beans while placing them on a felt number. She wants me to do school with her almost every day, and sometimes we skip it if she's overwhelmed. It doesn't feel like a lot, and I must say I worry about it (1 page and a craft or game), but she can't seem to handle much more. She'll count 8 things, and I'll show her what the 8 looks like. The next question will be 8 also, she counts them and turns a blank stare like she can't remember which was the 8. At first, I thought she was playing with me, but I don't think she remembers. Anyhow, thank you for your time. It really helps to just talk it out.

Thank you all for your responses. I don't feel like I'm pushing at all, as we only do 5 to 10 minutes at a time each for math and phonics once a day. We took a month long break several months ago. My frustration with my inability to get over this "bump" has colored my post and the comparison is kept to myself. All of the responses are reassuring, though. I will look at mep and see if that will help her. We play lots of games, so we will continue with that.

I am beginning to seriously think my current 5yo (6 in March) will need to do Kindergarten over. Both of my older girls by December of their K year were already learning numbers way past 20, adding, doing light time to the hour. My current 5yo is struggling with even recognizing 1-10. I am at my wit's end. I have done everything I could think of, including waiting for a while to see if she matures, played games (so many games!), used manipulatives, tactile learning, auditory learning, sight learning, finding numbers everywhere. I have bought 3 workbooks just to only be able to do 10 pages in it, as it moves beyond the 1-10. She is not getting it. I have tried jingles to remember how to form the letters. BTW, she will write all the numbers on her paper without me saying anything to her, but when I ask her what the numbers are, she only knows 1, 2, 3, 5. That's it. Seriously, is something wrong with her? We have been working on these numbers in a thousand different ways since July! Regarding reading, she is getting her letter sounds, but haltingly and with serious practice over and over and over (and over) again. She is just at the beginnings of blending. Please help. Also, as someone might mention it, my DH thinks that COVD vision testing is ridiculous.

I am doing the 2012 version of LA-K. While I can see it is much lighter on writing, it's still too much for my K'er. Plus, if you add the "optional" explode the code workbooks, they skip around in the letter portion of LA-K, so you will have workbook pages that have questions about letters we haven't learned yet following the SL schedule. I go over them with DD5 anyway, but she hasn't been introduced yet to the letter. I cannot comment too much on the older LAs, as I haven't used any of them, but from people that have used it (even the newer version), the writing portion of the curriculum has extremely little hand-holding and isn't incremental like many children need. I have heard that the organization is better in the newer version.

I could not believe how engaging Helen Keller: A Determined Life by Elizabeth MacLeod was for this age group. It has lovely photographs, a few illustrations with not-dumbed-down text. It is an advanced picture book, kind of scrapbook style. Love it! I hope to get to the others in this series as well.