:iagree: When a book is complete, that usually means my goals for their learning in that subject have been met for that year, so we are done with that subject until the following fall (except for math, of course).

Grade level isn't necessarily the number written on the textbook, it is the number of the year of schooling. Look ahead...at what point are you going to declare the child graduated? Spring of 20xx, January of 20xx, when? Then count back by years. Since we typically have twelve years of formal schooling, if they are in their third of twelve years we call that third grade. If they are in their eighth of twelve years we call that eighth grade. Use the time of year/month of their projected graduation as the promotion point for each preceding grade. Every year on that date give them a certificate, take them to dinner, or whatever, and congratulate them on being one year closer to graduation.

The method in this book, outlined on this website, discussed on this message board. Basically it outlines how to guide and discipline your children with the grace that God showed us...the opposite of the "beat the sin out of yer child" books...since that is not how God treated us, and why would He expect us to treat our children the opposite of how He treats us? It works, my children are a joy to be around (though they have their moments!), they are most generally happy to comply with my directions (and two of them are quite contrary by nature), and our home is a pleasant place to be. I am obeyed because I am loved, not because their hiney will be sore if they don't.

Grammar: R&S 5 Spelling: R&S 5 Writing: Apologia Jump In with The Write Stuff Adventure to break things up occasionally. My plan is for it to last for two years. Reading/Lit: MP 5th grade lit Latin: First Form Logic: Orbiting with Logic/Red Herring Mysteries Math: Still up in the air, lol! Daily Mental Math 5 with either Dolciani Pre-Algebra or R&S 7. We will have completed R&S 4&5 this school year, and R&S 6 looks like a review with little forward movement, so that is why I am considering 7. I would follow R&S 7 with the Dolciani Pre-Algebra. I am just not sure if I want her starting pre-algebra this young, which is why I am considering holding her off for another year (this is assuming it takes her an entire year). R&S 7 would slow things down and make pre-algebra that much easier. Spanish: continue with the free video series on knowitall.org (until we complete all three levels), at some point we will give SFC another try Geography: MP States and Capitals Health: Schoolaid Health 5 Art: Artpac 5 Music: R&S Music 6&7, continue piano lessons and children's choir Science: finish Apologia Zoology I, start Apologia Botany History: MP Famous Men of Greece Bible: MP Christian Studies I

:iagree: I gave it to my daughter and told her to come to me with any questions. We have had many good talks about puberty and all the expected changes, but without having to go as far as reproduction (we will eventually, she has a bit of an idea without knowing all of the mechanics).

Wordsmith Apprentice is another option. It is designed to be used independently, the lessons can be as long or short as your child needs, it does not have open-ended assignments (it is very specific, sometimes even prescribing the number of sentences and what they should include), it includes a bit of grammar, it is very inexpensive, and best of all...it made my writing-hating child actually enjoy writing! It is one of the first subjects she wants to do every morning! Before this we tried CW Aesop (monotonous and convoluted), and WWE (monotonous, and I have no idea why it should take four years for a child to learn what can be taught in a matter of weeks). We have Jump In lined up for 5th-6th grade, and it looks like it will (hopefully) be a good follow-up to Wordsmith Apprentice.

My oldest child did all of the writing in the 1st grade workbooks, just the sections that I thought necessary in the 2nd grade workbooks, and then back to doing everything in the 3rd grade workbooks. The 1st and 3rd grade workbooks are right on target for grade level and skills, but the 2nd grade workbooks are waaaaay off. There is far, far, far too much for a 2nd grader. I did not feel the least bit bad about picking out the sections that worked on skills that she needed (like sequencing or analogies) and crossing off the rest. She still had plenty of work to do and it did not hinder her comprehension of the stories. My second child did part of the writing in the 1st grade workbooks and part of it orally (writing makes her cry and wail so I limit it to the necessary stuff like writing a complete sentence). We completely dropped the 2nd grade workbooks soon after beginning the year since there was nothing in there that she needed to work on (she can sequence events better than her older sister and has full comprehension of the story after reading it once). Right now she reads the story in the reader and then does a narration. And I don't feel the least bit bad about all those unused workbooks. :D The workbooks are a tool for teaching a specific set of skills; use them to teach the skills that your child needs to learn and ignore the rest - if your child already knows it, it is just busywork.

The one item that I would recommend above all else is a place value chart. My youngest two learned place value from it in a matter of minutes, and it is really handy to teach things like how to count by 10's starting with a number other than zero (4, 14, 24, etc.), illustrating addition and subtraction problems, etc. I tried forever to teach my 2nd grader place value, and we have many of the manipulatives here that have already been mentioned and none of them worked. I think because this chart has the ones/tens/hundreds label and the spaces for the numeral cards above the pockets is why it finally clicked. She could see the number 78, both the number itself and its numerical representation in straws/bundles of straws. An abacus was just a pretty design to play with, and c-rods were also for making designs or building - they never translated to numbers for her.

I have not used Jump In, but I have it on the shelf for my oldest to use next year when she is in 5th grade (I am actually stretching it out over her 5th and 6th grade years). I am not sure if I would use it with a child any earlier than that; it dives right in to introductory paragraphs and moves on to different types of writing (persuasive, etc.) right away. It does not appear to include any grammar, so I would definitely use a grammar curriculum alongside it. It would actually be really helpful to the student if they already had a foundation in grammar before beginning Jump In (mine will have had three years of R&S English, including the composition lessons). Looking at the ages of your children, I would hold off until they were closer to middle school (the recommended age for Jump In) and use something else for writing in the meantime. My rising 3rd grader will be using Just Write book 1 (a really gentle intro to writing, mostly creative writing - which she loves), and my 4th grader is currently using Wordsmith Apprentice (a fun way of getting words down on paper, it does include a brief overview of basic grammar). Those are two options; there are numerous other writing programs for elementary that other people here can recommend as well.

My 2nd grader sounds *exactly* like your child. She is about to turn eight, and just this past week she has reached a point where she can do FIVE math problems in a row without me constantly reminding her to focus on what she is doing. Until now, if I were to give her five math problems (or a page of spelling or whatever!) she would spend two hours doodling on the page, dropping her pencil and doing acrobatics while picking it back up, talking non-stop to her sister, clicking all the lead out of her mechanical pencil just to put it back in, dropping her pencil again, grumbling when I remind her to focus on her math problem because she will lose her place and never get the right answer, dropping her pencil, talking to her sister again, knocking her book off the table...for TWO hours! And I never leave the table for one second, I am always right there begging her to put her pencil to her paper! I didn't change anything, I think she just matured a bit. At this rate I will be able to leave her to independent work at about 11th-12th grade. :lol: I do not hold out hope for any earlier, it just isn't happening. Thankfully you don't have an older child (my poor 4th grader has to get her lessons from me and do her independent work during all of this!), and next year your child will still be doing short enough lessons that you can have some one-on-one time with the 4yo at a different time of day. I am really sorry that I don't have any advice or hope to offer you, just commiseration. Hopefully your younger one will be like my oldest...I teach her a lesson and she goes off and does it neatly and in a timely manner. She has a much greater workload than my 2nd grader, and she often gets it done quicker!

I had all three Progressive Composition books printed on demand. On the google books page for the book you desire to be printed there is a dropdown menu on the left, "Get this book in print," I clicked on it and selected "On demand books." It went to a page where I could select from different stores based on price and whether or not they would ship to me (some are pick up only). Clicking "Get it" walked me through the checkout for that specific seller. The books do not have a decorative cover; it is plain white with blue stripes along the sides and the title and author printed on the front. The cover is a durable paper cover.

There are two more ways of getting a free/almost free education here in the US - signing up for ROTC or joining the military and using the GI Bill after the enlistment period is finished. The ROTC usually covers most of the costs of college (plus a living stipend), and in return the student has a paying job for the first four years out of college (albeit one with the chance of overseas deployment in a combat zone). The GI Bill is not free (the serviceman/woman pays a small amount into it for a short period of time at the beginning of the enlistment), but it is free money once the veteran goes to college, and it does not count as income when the EFC is being calculated or on an income tax return. These are not always popular choices, but they are valid ones. I used my GI Bill to get my B.A. and did not have to take out one loan - I graduated completely debt-free (and I served before 9/11, so I had a much lower GI Bill than is currently available).

My experience is based on grades 4 and below. 1) How long generally do you find the lessons take? 10-20 minutes on average, 30 minutes at most (this includes all oral class time and written work) 2) Do you do the lessons 5x per week or less? We do the lessons daily, so 5x per week. I have seen schedules that stretch them out in order to make the book last longer, but we would rather just be done with the book in 130 days. :D 3) Should I buy the worksheets, etc. (I have the TM&student text)? I like the worksheets; I use them to replace the written portion of the lesson (which means less writing for my children). There isn't one for each lesson, but there is usually one for each new concept. 4) How do you all "do" the lessons and/or what have you found to work best with your kids? We always do the oral review (in the TM) first; since the course is mastery based (each chapter just covers one topic in-depth), this helps the children not forget what was covered in the earlier chapters. We read through the lesson as written in the student book, do the oral drill, and then I assign any parts of the written practice and review that I think my child needs to work on and any worksheets for that lesson. 5) For those with upper elementary/middleschool kids, how far in R&S do you plan to go before switching to another program or not doing anymore "formal" grammar program? I have 5th grade sitting on my shelf for next year; I plan on using the program all the way through (or until I think they know enough and it would not be the wisest use of our time to spend the required time on it). 6) Who uses the composition portion, and do you like it? Or do most of you skip it and only use the grammar part? I use the composition lessons. I feel that it is valuable instruction and it really helps my children's writing. I am not the best at assigning more of the same types of writing across the curriculum and throughout the year (even though I fully intend to!), so we supplement with another writing curriculum. I don't feel that it is overkill, we just don't do an assignments in the writing curriculum on the days that we have composition lessons in R&S.

If you have the Jump at Home workbook, there is no teacher's guide for it. All the info the parent needs is in the front of the book. The teacher's guide on the Jump website is only for the other Jump math book I linked to. So that is one less thing that you will need. :001_smile: I think your plan sounds like a good one (using Horizons and supplementing with Jump at Home). I wish I would have heard about Jump at the beginning of my daughter's first grade year instead of halfway through her second grade year. As it is, she will be in third grade (at least) before she ever reaches anything close to working on grade level.

With my oldest it began this school year (4th grade) as she finally began to be challenged. Apparently everything was easy up until now! With my second child it began the first day of K when I pulled out the book to give her her very first reading lesson. Everything about learning is difficult and not remotely enjoyable for her; she does her schoolwork to get it over with every day. I have given up finding ways to make it enjoyable for her; if it isn't playing outdoors or with Barbies or watching TV, she is not going to enjoy it. She also complains mightily and drags her feet when it comes to chores as well, it appears to just be a personality trait. My youngest is still pre-K age so he hasn't yet had a chance to groan about schoolwork (although he has tolerated learning to read just fine and does math for fun).

Let me clarify...there are two different products. The Jump curriculum (which has a teacher's guide and lesson plans), and the Jump at Home workbook (worksheets organized by topic, no lesson plans or teacher's guide). Since I am just trying to supplement the full curriculum that I already use, I am just using the Jump at Home workbook. Every day I just choose several pages from different topics for my daughter to complete. They don't go along with the topics we are doing in R&S; conceptually she is still so far behind that I am just trying to get her up to speed with where she is operating procedurally. Speaking from experience here, I would not try to add on another full math curriculum if my child was not grasping the one I was using, and I definitely wouldn't add on two. More programs does not necessarily lead to better understanding of the material, just more opportunity to be frustrated. I recommend that you slow down, give your child time to mature a little (six is still young), and supplement with one supplemental curriculum. Again, I am speaking from experience here. :D My 2nd grader is about to turn eight and is just *now* grasping mathematical concepts at a higher level than my pre-k'er.

I have not used the full Jump math curriculum, but I have been extraordinarily pleased with the Jump at Home workbook as a supplement. My 2nd grader was struggling and had almost no number sense whatsoever, and this workbook has made a world of difference. It breaks things up into such minute, incremental steps that she is grasping the concepts finally! Just another option to think about, especially since you are already using other programs as well.

Congratulations!!!! :party: I am so very happy for you!

My OB advised me to wean by the time I was six months along because I was at high risk for premature delivery (the one I was still nursing had been a preemie) and nursing can cause contractions...not a problem for the average mom, but a problem for someone who tends to go into premature labor repeatedly. For a mom who isn't high risk...yeah, drink lots of water!

If I am understanding you correctly, you will have to notify the state of what you are using this fall when your daughter begins 1st grade. That is still four months away; even that short of time will make a difference in her abilities. I understand you want to have a curriculum on hand to begin then, but that does not mean that you have to start it beforehand. If what you are using now is not working (and I am not surprised, writing numbers sequentially to practice skip counting is in the R&S 2nd grade book!), then by all means look for a good math curriculum that you and your child can work with. All of the curriculum mentioned previously in this thread are good, solid programs that may or may not work for you and your child; you mentioned that you wanted a visual, tactile, auditory program...RightStart, Miquon, Saxon, Singapore and R&S (with the addition of manipulatives) all fit those qualifications. There are probably many more that I don't even know about; go to the convention and have a look around. Give yourself a few weeks/months to make the decision. :grouphug: I just want to reassure you that in the overall scheme of things, 1st grade math is not something to lose sleep over. Looking back, nothing in 1st grade is really worth losing sleep over. (And this is coming from someone who runs her homeschool like a drill sergeant and expects a high level of rigor in studies from upper elementary on up!)

I was running into the same problem the last few weeks, so I finally gave up and went the school-at-home/one room schoolhouse model. The "freely doing whatever subject for however long" was dragging on *forever* and making everyone miserable. It works for some people, but not us. :D Here is our schedule now: 8:30-9:00 Bible, alternating elective (Health, Art, Music each 1x per week) 9:00-10:00 Math and Logic 10:00-11:00 Language Arts (Grammar, Phonics/Writing, Penmanship, Spelling) 11:00-12:00 Geography (daily) and Science/History (alternating days) 12:00-1:00 Lunch 1:00-2:00 Spanish and Latin This schedule does two things...first, it keeps me from giving too much work in any one subject. The kids are young enough that each of those subjects should fit in that time frame; if it doesn't, then I need to re-evaluate their workload (or my priorities). Second, if the child sits and stares or doodles instead of knocking out her work, the work is done as homework on her own time after school is done, before any TV or playing. We sit together at the table (I don't get to wander off and check facebook :D) and I alternate doing the one-on-one teaching with each child. I made it clear to the kids that those are the maximum times for each subject...if they finish early, it is their own time and they can choose to take a break or begin working on the next subject block and possibly finish early for the day (a great incentive :001_smile:). This may not work for everyone, but it has made this week sooooo much smoother.

It sounds like you answered your own question. Speaking from experience, it is not imperative that a five year old do written math. It will be much easier for her to grasp at six, and I *promise* you it will not hinder her at any point in the future. I have an advanced 4th grader (easily grasps concepts and completes two grade levels/year), and the first time she ever opened a math book was the first day of 1st grade. Give her an abacus and/or c-rods to play with, a toy clock face with moveable hands, and a set of dominoes, and let her play with them until she turns six. Then bring the math book back out and surprise both of you with how easy it is and how quickly she grasps the concepts. :grouphug:

MP K was the only K curriculum that has ever given me pause and made me consider using a K curriculum. I, too, have an advanced rising K'er (began learning to read within a week of his 4th birthday, figured out on his own how to add, subtract, and tell time, is *fascinated* with science and learns/uses scientific terms), and he really wants to learn. I provide a learning environment for him to explore at will (he gives himself addition and subtraction problems to solve on the abacus, puts magnetic states on a metal map of the US, gets ideas for scientific "discoveries" and tests his hypotheses), but sometimes I think that since he would be capable of doing formal seatwork every day, we should be doing it (beyond 100EZL). I am trying to find that balance between keeping him challenged/feeding his hunger to learn and doing too much formal seatwork. Not much out there below the 1st grade level challenges him, so I have made the choice to put off formal seatwork until 1st grade and continue to challenge him with informal, play-based, exploratory learning. But I still glance at the MP K package from time to time. :001_smile: And then I remind myself that I don't want to teach R&S Math 1 twice (I can just do it once in 1st grade), and the SRA phonics books look similar to the ETC books that my son already has, and he has already done most of the R&S ABC series, and we already read the Nature Reader series for fun, and he is going to hear stories from the Golden Children's Bible this year when my two older do their Bible lessons...and then I go look at their K read-aloud set and drool a bit. :D

I have not used any of the curriculum packages...BUT, I have the 3rd and 5th grade packages (with several modifications) sitting on my shelf for next year, and I have looked through the guides and books extensively, so I can give you my impression. You can take it for what it's worth. :D I love the lesson plans. The third grade book has the weekly recitation in the back, week by week, covering all of the general subjects as they progress. The fifth grade lesson plans do not have recitations yet, but they are working on it. I love the teaching instructions for each subject given in the front of the lesson plan book...for example, it explains how to walk third-graders through forming, copying, and eventually writing their own complete sentence answers for questions in the lit guide. The schedule is awesome - it makes it easy to fit everything into the day and see how everything can be completed when spread out over the year. I like how the varying subjects - Classical/Modern/Christian studies, Science, and Geography - are studied in-depth once per week instead of spread out sporadically through the week (like we do with SOTW now). My goal is to simplify things next year (i.e. vocab is included with lit, history, and Bible and is not a separate book), and I really think the MP curriculum package will do it. It still uses my favorite things (R&S Spelling, Math, and until now Grammar), it is easy to substitute other favorites (Apologia Exploring Creation science) for the MP recommendations, and I feel like I am covering everything without going overboard. Plus, I can see the path ahead of me, so I don't feel like I am wandering aimlessly from year to year. :001_smile: Oh, and I like that a few lit books are studied each year in depth, and the rest of the book recommendations are to be simply read and enjoyed. Downsides...my children are not on the same schedule with Latin (we start PL in 3rd grade, not 2nd) so we have to adjust those lesson plans; MP is just now coming out with a writing curriculum, so I hesitate to begin it without seeing the future levels and being certain of the release dates of the future levels; and it is not as easy to combine students in some subjects (especially if they are starting a little late in the game like mine or spread more than one grade apart). I also only like the 3rd+ packages; I think the lower levels (especially the K) are overkill...but I am also not a fan of overly academic Kindergarten, so that is just me. :tongue_smilie:

Same thing I used with my older two: 100EZ Lessons Yup, that's all of it. My goal for K is to get the child reading well enough to have an easy start with R&S Phonics and Reading. Other than that, subjects are learned through play (or workbooks such as ETC upon request). The only thing my K child ever *must* do is a couple of reading lessons per week. Other than that, I believe in lots of books, time spent outdoors, and imaginative play.