Hi, I am from the UK. I homeschool my son aged 8. I use mostly American materials because I really like TWTM approach and I haven't been too impressed with materials from UK. We use: FLL, WWE (will probably move on to CW) Story of the World (I use a lot of Usborne books) Artistic Pursuits Singapore maths (with MM for additional practice). I think SM is a fantastic program. I haven't quite committed to a science program. We are studying Astronomy at the moment using a combination of Apologia and Elemental Science. I also throw in a bit of Singapore Science(MPH). Lastly I use the Memoria Press series for Latin. We are doing Latina Christiana at the moment but I am in a real dilemma about the teaching declension of nouns. I do not know whether to just go with the American approach or amend the materials in line with the English approach. I haven't had a problem with the other materials. In fact discussing the variations in spelling between America and England seems to be a good memory aid. I hadn't heard of Galore Park but I've had a chance to look through the materials and they look good.

Hi I have had the same problem. My son is 8 nearly 9 and until three days ago it was a struggle to get him to write anything. He is bright and very logical but struggles with spelling and writing. We are doing FLL2 and WWE2. I have just started Writing Strands as I felt he needed to do more writing. Three days ago, it was as if the floodgates opened. He decided he was going to write a story on his own accord and he produced a beautiful story, one A4 page long with fairly complex sentence structure and correct grammar (most of it). I really think he just wasn't ready and needed the skills that he is learning in WWE and WS. I think it takes time to build up these skills. Julia

I had exactly the same problem - My son and I finished book one half way through year two (and we started 4/5 months early). We are on chapter 34 of book 2 part way through year 3. I still do the writing as this would otherwise put my son off and it would take too long during the week. We do writing separately. In order to catch up we have been reading a story in each chapter a day, doing the questions and narration and either mapwork, test or extra reading. Once I have 'caught up' a little I will stick to one chapter a week every week and occasionally do a project or extra reading. The projects may continue over a number of weeks but I will not delay reading a chapter because we haven't finished a project. I love Story of the World and cannot bring myself to miss out any of the material. We have missed only one chapter since the beginning and my son was quite indignant about it. I find a lot of the chapters refer back to material already covered. I also want to finish in the four years so my only course of action is to speed up if I do not want to miss out material. I'd love to do all the projects and extra reading but our schedule is so busy that we already struggle with the work. Art and subjects that I do not consider core subjects take a back seat in our curriculum. I think SWB was right when she said you really cannot cover everything - mores the pity! Julia

I agree with the idea of an E reader or maybe an ipad. It is amazing how much you can take with you of the Ereader. Most of the WTM curriculum is available as Ebooks along with Math Mamoth. It would really save space. You could almost load up an ereader and take blank writing/drawing paper. Julia

Hi, The download of BFSU is available for $5. See this thread: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=221375 I really like MPH particularly the colourful text books, which has a magazine feel about it. My son is eight years old. We have just finished diversity. One day we read the text book chapter and then we do a workbook or activity sheet. We do this everyday so I might split the worksheets into two days depending on the size. We also use the end of chapter summaries as memory work. I think this is quite light and so we also do Elemental Science a couple of times a week - astronomy at the moment-and read Apologia Astronomy as additional reading. I hadn't been aware of BFSU until I saw the above thread and so I am also investigating incorporating it into MPH. At $5 for an Ebook it is worth having as something to dip into although it doesn't appear quite as easy to use as the other courses I have mentioned. Julia

It is also the only approach that made sense to my son. Julia

Hi This is my first post and I am from England so forgive me if I do not use familiar terminology. I saw your query as felt I should reply as I encountered a similar problem. I was stuck with what approach to use until I looked in the Singapore i-excel Heuristic and Model approach Primary 1 book, where a worked example was given. It involved systematic listing: 19+1=20 18+2=20 17+3=20 and so on Then look at the list for the two numbers that subtract each other to give the number required. The example given was for numbers within 10 but I assume the same idea applies. It's quite simple if a little drawn out. Hope this helps Kind regards Julia