Thanks for your insight. I want to trust the process with my oldest (he's about to be 7) but in the here and now it's easy to worry when kids in public school around him are writing so much more. I keep telling myself to wait for the long term effects this type of work will produce. Thanks for the reminder. Oh and regarding dictation. We are still in WWE 1 so we're not doing dictation there. However we use AAS 2 and I dictate short phrases and sentences to him daily from there. They are very simple but I think will be a great help when we do reach WWE 2 next year.

My kids are little but I keep cups near the fridge and they love using the water dispenser:001_smile: so that is the drink they can get anytime and they usually do quite a bit. Diluted juice is allowed at meals. We have major issues with dairy here so milk doesn't show up very much. If they stop eating well, the juice goes away.

We start around August 1st or so. I usually take off a couple days at Thanksgiving and a week at Christmas. I also take off for vacations or if grandma comes to visit. Then we go on until about mid-June and take off 5-6 weeks. While I don't want to take off forever, I really need those few weeks to recharge. Then we make a huge deal in August about a new year. It works well for us. It makes it very easy then to do a day at the park or field trip or day with family since we always have plenty of days under our belt.

My Father's World K is very sweet and gentle. My kids have loved Sonlight P4/5 as well. We have also done Hooked on Phonics K and HWOT K. Singapore Earlybird is a gentle intro to math.

Thanks for the ideas. This is also something I'm looking for, so I'll check both of those out.

This year I have done level 1 and am working through level 2 with my dyslexic 6 year old ds. It is amazing. It is teacher intensive but it honestly doesn't take that much each day. We do about 20 minutes a day. He is really remembering everything. We are also using the readers which have really tied it into his reading.

:iagree: This is exactly how we approach it as well using AAS and WWE. They each have a different focus. It really has not been overwhelming so far and my ds is not a huge writer.

Great info...thanks!

One of the biggest things I do is make sure I am not overscheduling us with "fun stuff" (our area has tons of homeschool art, PE, etc...classes) which are great but we also have to go to speech/OT weekly...and we occasionally do swim lessons, soccer teams, etc... If too many of those are on our plate we are rushing from place to place and that makes school time more condensed and generally stressful. When we have few places to go, we can relax, enjoy, and take time for all the things that are fun: --lots of extra lego time --spontaneous nature walks with magnifying glasses --working on our fractions while baking --doing school at the library (we have a great library) --watching a great Magic Schoolbus So this is on me. Keep the schedule light...even when it is something great and fun.

Just bumping this up because I have the same question. I am purchasing level A for my younger son but want all the games for my older son (doing Singapore/Horizons) to do as well. Want to make sure I get the right things.

:iagree: I love the concepts and we are doing narration and copywork faithfully. However some of the curriculums mentioned just would not work for us and would be a bust. Others (FLL, WWE, SOTW) have been wonderful. You just have to keep a good balance of knowing where you're going and knowing your child.

I second (or third) the suggestion to find an eye doctor through COVD. We did earlier this year when my son could sound out words but seemed to only be able to see one word at a time...it went so slow and he was frustrated. He also rubbed his eyes or closed his eyes a lot. His vision is 20/20, but he really needed vision therapy (he could not converge, track, or zoom). I can't tell you the difference it has made in his reading. It's not for everyone but for us it has made a huge difference.

Great deal...thanks! I think I'm buying some SL stuff on ebay coming up so this is great!

I need to go back and reread the WTM in this area for next year. We did not follow her recommendations for science this year (we did SL science and loved it) but I'd be interested in what she says to do for science. Thanks for the reminder.

I also highly recommend Talking Words factory 1 and 2 and Storybook Factory. Math Circus was also a hit with all of my kids.

You might want to check over on the SL forums. I know quite a lot of people there use SOTW 1 with Core 1 (B) and SOTW 2 with Core 2 ©. That's what I'm planning on next year. I think someone over there even made a plan of how to corelate them together...I've been planning to hunt for it for myself for next year but haven't gotten around to it yet.

Thanks for the info. I've been looking it over, but I think I need to wait for level 1 for it to be a fit for us. We love All About Spelling though.

Thanks for posting this. It looks interesting. I'll have to look over it more over the next few days.

That was me last year (this year is getting much better so there is hope). Some things I did: When I needed to work with my oldest in quiet (or kind of quiet) I: -let my younger two color on dry erase boards. They could only do it then so it was special. -A super bubbly bath (not super deep) with all the toys they wanted. I can't tell you how much time by then 2 year old spent in the bath tub last year...hours. This was my go to activity. -my middle was good with the computer so they got to do PBS kids and starfall and audio books each with an ear bud in. -when desperate (which was daily) they got to watch a show in my room (I tried to pick a "baby" show so my oldest didn't complain). -they ate a LOT of snacks -pladough and water colors. Messy but provided lots of seated time when they didn't have to be quiet. I put down a big plastic tablecloth so I could basically pick it up and not lose my sanity over the mess (as much). This is what I did in the morning. It usually gave my 1-1.5 hours. In the afternoons we did anything else while she slept. I also did a lot of read alouds at night while my husband was putting her to bed. We would do chapters and chapters this way in peace and quiet. Anyway this got my through. This year (she's 3) it is better although she is still my most demanding child. And we still have bath mornings :001_smile:.

I ordered the HWT's paper with the smaller lines (it went with the 3rd grade level). I LOVE it for my first grader. He is writing much smaller now and it's great for practice.

You definitely can use it...I did this year with my struggling reader who was at the same point as your child at the beginning of the year. It has been a good fit for us (we bought the readers as well and have done all of those and that helped a lot). We're doing level 2 now and going strong!

HP is very fun and my kids love the games. For me, it is a great, fun enforcement of what we have learned separately (we use AAS and readers). I don't personallly think it would work well as a stand alone program...it would probably depend on where your child is at with reading, but I think for most, you will need more. But it is fun!

Now this is my first year doing this but I'm ordering the Stanford Achievement Test through BJU publishing and then I'll send it back to them for results. I had to send in an application to be a test giver but it wasn't a big deal. We are required by our state to do testing but not til next year. I wanted to do it this year to get him used to it.

I absolutely would vote for DisneyWorld. It's just more of the "experience". If you are there for multiple days you can go to all the different parks. I just think it's a bit more "magical". Of course I grew up in Florida so I may be biased. However, I would exclude July and August if at all possible. It is just so hot and so crowded. Have fun!

I do know how, but here's why: After college (pre-kids) I taught 6th, 7th, and 8th grade English at a Christian school that also used a Beka for grammar (thankfully not for anything else). Because of this, yes, I can diagram quite intricate sentences, but I learned right along with my 8th grades that first year...and I think that is how most homeschool moms can do it.