I would buy the SOTW audio (my boys LOVE listening to Jim Weiss), and listen to it the rest of this year...You can get the activity guide that has coloring sheets if your children like that...My boys loved the audio so much that they listened to it for a second time in one day, about 8 hours of straight listening while they played with breaks for meals :001_smile:

My boys also loved the myths (Theseus and the Minotaur is their favorite), and King Arthur...You really can't go wrong with the Jim Weiss CD's...My boys wish he could read everything for them ;)

Animal Tales is my favorite for that age group...I have many others (we love Jim Weiss), but that one is my favorite...

My husband is a year and a month older than me...

Yes, that is new to me too...I know I haven't seen it all, but I thought I heard of it all :)

I think Elemental Science should be more popular than it is...It is a great science program...

I can't answer the rest of your questions as I do not belong to a CC community, but I would recommend the cards, the history and the science...I am getting them and I don't even belong to CC...It is a great resource...You don't need them, but I recommend them...Since I don't belong to CC, we are going to work on them one year at a time instead of all 4 years of info at once...

Just hearing of this... :grouphug: to Kay's family...She will be missed...

Rod & Staff English and Math Memoria Press Latin DVDs Story of the World Audios These three things would be in the mix no matter what I use until the boys age out of SOTW and R&S...

This is just my personal opinion, but I wouldn't go from MP Jr. K to MP 1st grade...It is too much of a jump, especially if you are dealing with a younger child (not yet 7)...Why do you want to skip K?...You can just do it next year...MP really ramps up in the 3rd grade and beyond...I wouldn't skip ahead, it would just make the later years of Latin and Literature much more difficult...

I own both editions, but have only read the third...I bought the third edition first, then happen to see the first edition at a used book sale last year for a few dollars, so I picked it up...I didn't realize they were that different...You make me want to pull out the first one and see the differences...

My second grader did spelling for the first time this year...He used Rod & Staff Spelling, and it starts spelling in the 2nd grade...I don't do spelling in 1st grade or Kindergarten...If my 2nd grader was still struggling with reading, I would wait until 3rd grade...

This sounds good, but I am not at all familiar with Sonlight, so I am not sure how many "cores" there are...I have Tapestry of Grace and it goes by years, like SOTW so I only know year 1, 2, 3 and 4 and what those mean...Is there more than 4 cores?...How many years does it take to cycle through Sonlight?...I just assumed all this time it was a 4 year rotation like the others...

:lol:

I am in a similar situation as you (I have an upcoming 7th grader, 3rd grader, and 1st grader), and my oldest did not finish year 2 this year...We have finished ancients... This is what I would do if I were you...I would listen to SOTW 1 on audio before you start next year (it is about 8 hrs of listening time, my boys have listened to it several times...They even listened to the entire thing in one day once)...I would then start year 2 of whatever curriculum you choose with your upcoming 6th grader, putting her in the perfect spot for the 4 year cycle...I wouldn't even bother doing formal History with the 1st and 3rd grader...Many here will disagree, but it is not really necessary...You can get plenty of History in doing only two cycles and starting around the 5th grade...You can easily start the 3rd and 1st graders on Ancients when your oldest is in 9th grade and they are in 4th and 6th...Just concentrate on the essentials with the younger two - reading, writing, and math...You can always let your younger two listen to SOTW audios if you don't want them to completely miss out... My disclaimer is to always take what I say with a grain of salt, as I am no expert here...I just say what I would do in whatever situation...Now I need someone to tell me what to do... :blushing:

I could have written what is in bold too...

:iagree: This...I could have written this same post...

Good point about the word families...I never thought of that... A previous poster mentioned waiting until fine motor skills are developed, and I thought I should mention since I like teaching cursive first that my boys are 6 years old when they start Kindergarten, so they are a little older than maybe many here who start school earlier...My kids were still playing at 5, doing no scheduled academics at all...

I have a pretty strong and forceful voice so I am not sure if my voice is tired, but I know I get tired of reading aloud...I have been gradually doing it more and more, slightly lengthening the time I read because I believe it is important for the boys...But I generally don't like reading an entire book aloud...After about half an hour I get tired of the focused energy it takes to read aloud, which is different than just talking in a conversation...

:bigear: Listening in because staying on track throughout the year for the long haul has always been a struggle of mine...Whatever I don't have planned out completely just does not get done...I have to come up with a better system! Thanks I.Dup. for starting this thread...

My upcoming third grader picked up manuscript writing around Kindergarten age, but I taught him cursive writing in the first grade...He writes cursive almost always and has a very neat, beautiful handwriting for an 8 year old...He now says he finds it easier to write in cursive because it is faster for him...My upcoming seventh grader knows how to write in cursive to some degree, but wasn't taught as young as my other son...I really wish I had taught him in first grade...I have an upcoming first grader who I have already started teaching cursive to... My thoughts are this - whatever you want them to primarily write in, you should teach first...There is much time to practice cursive in first grade, but harder to start in third grade when you are use to printing and your work load just became more difficult...You will have to think not only about your writing, but also about how to form each letter...I like the cursive taught first way if you intend to teach it it all...

The original thing that really fascinated me about Hunter's comment was the part about choosing curriculum that is totally different from yourself, thinking you need to be something that you feel is better than yourself...I am really using this time to think about who I really am, not who I think I should be...I think a lot of the time my curricula choices reflect who I think I should be, what I think I should offer my kids...Maybe that is why nothing has really worked out for us so far...I am exploring this idea of figuring out what type of lifestyle we live and homeschool according to that, instead of trying to change our lifestyle to fit the homeschool I *think* we should have...This may come out sounding confusing...I really hope it makes sense...

That bold part is me, totally...But what if you have to "stretch"?...What if you cannot accomplish what needs to be done as you are? I love your response...I just need to think about the ways I can maximize what comes naturally to me...

I read a response written by Hunter on the K - 8 boards that I want to discuss without hijacking the other thread, so I am posting it here...Here is Hunter's reply... It is the parts in bold that I really want to discuss...I have always looked at curriculum in terms of what I think will best accomplish what I think needs to happen, but never thought about different types of curriculum being more suited to certain types of individuals...I mean, I know that is true, but I never stopped to think about how that is so - what type of person does better with which type of thing?...What type of lifestyles work best with what kind of thing? I hope this is not too vague and makes sense...What do you think? Also, do you think you are attracted to curriculum that is most unlike yourself?...I find myself really resonating with the bold, red part :blush:

This is the best thing I have read or heard all day...I tell you, Hunter, you have some of the best advice on these boards...