Rod & Staff also has a remedial phonics program that is designed for 3rd grade and up called Developing Better Reading. It is short and sweet, only 30 lessons, but it covers everything.

I don't think this has been mentioned yet, but no, you do not have to be going to the same college in order to get the Pell Grant. The colleges will both verify that you have a spouse enrolled at the other college. I can't advise you whether to marry before/during/after college, but I would highly recommend going to college before you get pregnant, have kids, and begin homeschooling...I waited to go to college until I had two kids, was homeschooling one of them, and then I had a third child (and continued to homeschool) while attending full-time. It is not impossible, but it was HARD, and the entire time I felt like this :willy_nilly:, LOL!

You're right, those coloring pictures are truly sweet! My daughters will really enjoy them, thanks! There are a lot of different activity sheets to print from that site, as well as pages of ideas for math games...I am definitely bookmarking this one!

I have GTG, as well as A Trip Around the World. I did not realize when I bought GTG that I could print off the different activity sheets (flag to color, map activities, word searches, etc.) from Enchanted Learning, and that the book list was practically useless to me (I don't go to the library often enough to make it worthwhile). We use A Trip Around the World as our main spine for our countries and cultures study, though it is not a workbook. It tells some basic facts about the country, some interesting facts (like inventions), some words for the student to learn in that country's language, some ideas for activities, and a recipe or two from that country. I also use Children Just Like Me and Window on the World to supplement the study.

The three subjects that my 3rd grader does that I do not see listed are art, music, and writing. She only does art and music once a week, but writing is a daily class. We still haven't started CW; we are working through an outlining book that I saw recommended on this board (and it is awesome!!!). If my 3rd grader ever asks for additional work I have a book called 101 Ways to Love a Book from Teacher Created Resources...it has 101 different projects that can be done after reading a book (i.e. cook a meal of the main character's favorite foods, make an old-time radio show based on the book, write a letter to the book's author, etc.). This gives her something to do that makes her think about the book, but isn't going to kill the joy she had in reading it.

I know a kid by that name and his parents pronounce it shaw-mus. I don't know if that is the traditional way it is pronounced, but that is how they say it.

As you can see in my siggy, I use a lot of R&S materials. I can't speak for their higher grades, since I haven't used them yet, but I am very happy with their 3rd grade curriculum. I like their spelling program; it is not explicitly stated in the textbook, but each lesson seems to cover a different phonics rule (i.e. plurals, short vowel/doubled consonant, silent "e", etc). The math and English are very thorough and my 3rd grader seems to be retaining everything very well. R&S reading does not have a very good reputation around here, but I have used it since my oldest was in 1st grade and I like it a lot. I have found that at the beginning of the year the lessons in the workbook appear to be very overwhelming to the student, so I don't assign everything for each lesson. In 2nd grade I didn't assign the complete lesson until she was in unit 4. This year I only pared things down for the first couple of weeks. I have also found that the key is to read the story together and go over the discussion questions in the TM so that I am sure that she understands the Bible story. The workbook lessons include things like comprehension questions requiring either a short answer or a complete sentence, outlining, synonyms/homonyms/antonyms, dictionary exercises, mapwork, discovering the meaning of words from context, and the last exercise in each lesson (so far) is a review of a phonics rule. I did not like R&S science for 2nd grade, but beginning in 3rd grade it changed to a standard textbook format so I decided to give it another chance. It covers what I would guess is basic third grade science topics. Definitely not science according to WTM, but that didn't work so well in this house :crying:. The TM includes lots of extra stuff, like ideas for presenting the topic and extra facts about the topic that aren't in the student's book. There are lots of experiments and projects to choose from each week that coordinate with each lesson. I don't use their social studies, I like SOTW, so I can't comment on that. Oh, and I like their penmanship - my eldest has nicer handwriting (print and cursive) than either I or her dad!

Cornmeal pizza crust 1/2 cup cornmeal 1 cup flour 2 tsp. baking powder 1/2 tsp. salt 1/2 cup water 2 T. olive oil Mix ingredients together, knead 5-7 minutes, and roll it out on a baking sheet. I usually bake it for a few minutes before putting the toppings on and baking it for a bit longer.

Oh, wow! At that price, it would be cheaper to look at the table of contents in each book on RR and buy what you think you will need...even if you end up buying a book or two below his level you will still come out ahead money-wise. I agree that it is quite a hefty price to charge just to place a child in their books....

The basics take 1 - 1.5 hours, depending on the amount of whining (all hers, I promise :tongue_smilie:), and another 30 minutes in the afternoon for history or geography.

Yup. Two weeks into this school year I ate my own words and bought a preschool curriculum. I never felt the need for one with my two older kids, but I noticed this year that my youngest was getting very little one-on-one time with me, and the older two were getting hours of it every day. So I began using the preschool curriculum from Hubbard's Cupboard and I ordered CAC. Now my youngest gets about 45 minutes of my undivided attention every day, which he absolutely cherishes - he knows exactly when his turn with Mommy is, and absolutely nothing had better get in the way of it! He gets a Bible story, puts the date on the calendar, we sings songs, I read him some stories of his choosing, we play a game, and we do a craft. For me, the only way to do it was to schedule it in. Otherwise, I will keep telling him "in just a few minutes" up until bedtime....

It is covered in R&S phonics (grade 1 & 2), but not in R&S English.

I am :bigear: as well...I will have a 5th grader in two years, so I am also looking at the options for Bible curriculum at that time.

We are using R&S. Pros: I like the traditional style of cursive, and it is a very effective method of instruction - my daughter has very pretty handwriting now. Cons: it does not last for the entire year, so I have to provide copywork the rest of the year so that it is practiced every day.

Everything that we are using for 1st grade is listed in my siggy. She has been doing copywork since K, but she uses letter tiles for it - once she has reached the point in penmanship where she has learned correct letter formation for all the letters, she will move to traditional copywork. She will continue copywork as her only writing instruction until 3rd grade, when we will begin formal writing instruction. On her own she likes to make up sentences on the whiteboard or chalkboard, and she writes about her drawings, on cards that she makes for people, etc., but I don't require her to come up with sentences or paragraphs as a part of her schoolwork.

We are using R&S Spelling 3 this year, and the only time I have used the TM so far is to read the sentences for the spelling tests. So you will do fine with just the student book. You would think I would have learned my lesson after purchasing the TM for grade 2 spelling :tongue_smilie:

We love R&S Math here, too! I have looked at other math programs, but as long as it keeps working we are sticking with it.

My mom trained me in all of this stuff when I was a kid, but for the same reasons you mention I am failing in training my own kids in these things. If you look at my house you will see that I am not allergic to a messy house, I just hate to add to it.... I am :bigear: here, too!

just checkin' out the siggy....

Bumping up an old thread here.... I have yet to see this mentioned on this board, but my newest curriculum find is Daily Mental Math, published by Didax. I don't know how to link to it, but I got it from Rainbow Resource. I am using the 3rd grade book to supplement R&S with my 3rd grader, and it is amazing! It covers all of the stuff that R&S has a reputation for not covering sufficiently in the lower grades, like graphs, estimating, mental calculations, etc., plus it introduces multiplication and division before R&S in a very easy to comprehend manner (i.e. sharing is dividing, so if two friends shared ten cookies, how many would they each get) - and all in ten problems a day! I love, love, love it!

Thank you all for your kind welcome! :001_smile:

I just got my degree and I have been homeschooling the entire time. Now my oldest is only in 3rd grade, so the first couple of years were pretty easy, but the last two years were quite difficult (but doable) since I was schooling two. I took all but a few of my classes online, which really helped since it was very flexible. I kept a schedule, though, and it made a world of difference...in the mornings I would do school with the kids, and in the afternoons I would work on my schoolwork for several hours while the kids watched movies or played. The key for me was to follow the schedule and keep my focus on what I was supposed to be focused on - none of my own schoolwork and no computer time for me when I was teaching my kids. I took classes full-time all the way through, except for a short break after I gave birth to my third child (I stopped classes a few weeks before he was born and started classes again when he was six weeks old - guess I didn't already have enough to do each day :lol:). I am sure you can do it, it sounds like you have some great support! Best of luck to you!

Thank you :001_smile:

I have been lurking on these boards for the last couple of years, ever since I read the WTM, but I wouldn't give myself permission to register until I finished my degree. Well, I finally got my BA last week, so here I am! I have three children, and have been homeschooling them from the beginning. They are in 3rd, 1st, and pre-k. I hope to eventually get around to putting my curriculum in my siggy, but for now I will just say that we use an eclectic mix...mainly R&S with some other stuff thrown in. I look forward to getting to know y'all!