Awesome! Did you just sign up for the monthly subscription and cancel after the first month? It doesn't look like I have the option to purchase just the materials at first. Thanks so much for your help!

Thank you! I'm relieved to hear from someone else who didn't love McRuffy. We seem to be in the minority. I've never heard of Spalding. I will definitely check it out. Thank you! I think I need to give these another look. Thank you for the suggestion! Honestly, this sounds like exactly what I'm looking for! I didn't think to look at K12 because I assumed it was all online. So you just purchased the required materials kit, is that right? Do you think that's all I would need? I think I might have to come to terms with the fact that I may not find an all-in-one curriculum. I will look into these titles! Thank you!

From what I understand you would not be allowed to homeschool. I live in Germany but we're covered under the SOFA agreement because we're military. Here's an article I found: http://german-way.com/blog/2009/02/03/homeschooling-verboten/ Good luck with your decision!

:iagree:

The thing I dislike most about McRuffy is the writing instruction. There's absolutely no instruction on how to actually DO the writing. For example, one of the first writing assignments was to write a research paper about an animal. It didn't list any of the steps involved in writing a research paper. It didn't specify how many sentences, paragraphs, etc. they were looking for. Nothing. My son has never done a research paper before. And unfortunately, all of the writing assignments have been this way. I've had to supplement with WriteShop Primary and Steck-Vaughn workbooks. I'm also not pleased with the grammar instruction. A new concept will often be introduced one time, with no assignment attached to it, and the child is expected to remember it. I'm also supplementing with a Steck-Vaughn workbook for grammar. When you throw in all the typos and spelling errors we've encountered (and we're only in week 16) it's just too much. I will say that the spelling portion is working well for us and my son loves the readers (typos and all) but I had higher hopes for this program. Thank you for the information about MCT! I have a clearer picture of what it offers now. How religious is the CLE LA program? We used Rod & Staff briefly last year and it was just too religious for our family. I would love to attend a conference someday! I think this is part of my problem. I would really like to be able to see things in person. We're living overseas but we will be leaving at the end of the summer next year so hopefully I can find a conference wherever we end up.

I'm currently using McRuffy LA with my 3rd grader and I'm not happy with it. I'm really hoping to find another complete LA program that is secular or easy to secularize. I'm trying to plan for next year and I'm seriously driving myself crazy over this. I've looked into Voyages in English but it's pretty pricey and I'm confused about what I would actually need to purchase. I've also looked into MCT but it seems like many people don't consider this to be a truly complete curriculum. I'm really hoping someone here can help me! Thanks in advance!

I'm in EXACTLY the same boat right now! I was up until 2 AM last night researching Language Arts programs for next year and am still no closer to reaching a decision.

:lol:

Fiction-The Poisonwood Bible Non-Fiction-How to Talk So Kids Will Listen & Listen So Kids Will Talk

:lol: :lol: :lol:

:lol:

:iagree: All great advice!

We have the Kingdom calendar too. Our son had no idea what the barrel was for! I told him it was for cider but apparently my husband had already told him it was for root beer. :tongue_smilie: Now a naked Santa, I don't know how I would begin to explain that one. Who wants to see Santa naked?!?

Unfortunately we're in the same boat here. :glare: I know EXACTLY what you mean about the way he says his name! I'll definitely be watching this thread to read the advice you're offered.

Holy cow! :eek:

:lurk5:

:iagree:It's not like it was intentional.

Wow! This thread makes me feel so much better about myself! I thought I was the only one who had failed to fill out my kids baby books. :001_smile:

:iagree:Having a separate school room has helped us a lot.

:iagree:

Reading this breaks my heart too. :sad: I'm so sorry your daughter is going through this. :grouphug:

I think that's what I need to do for the rest of our time here. We only have about 8 months left and I'm REALLY hoping the move is a positive change for us. Thank you! I needed to hear this! I don't know why I freak out about the house so much. I really need to learn how to relax and realize that anyone who would judge me about my house being lived in isn't someone I would want to associate with anyway.

Voted! I hope you win!

Thanks everyone! I think I need to just get up the courage to ask someone. I appreciate the examples of how to go about doing that. I'm always so worried the mother is going to be offended if I don't invite everyone over. I hadn't even thought about that! Maybe I'll be on here asking for advice about dealing with other people's kids in a couple of months. :tongue_smilie: :iagree:What do you do about it? This gives me hope!

I'm already feeling a huge sense of relief from reading your responses! It's so nice to know I'm not alone in this! I try to schedule play dates outside of the house as often as I can but we just got our first snow a couple weeks ago and unfortunately have a lot less options for meeting places until it warms up.