I will also add a few more: Christian Homeschool Moms Podcast Homeschooling With Kimberlee The Wired Homeschool Homeschool.com has some good audios worth listening to The Sociable Homeschooler

Thanks so much for the replies and suggestions. I believe each one of you are right...I will simply take my time through Ancients. It's just too much fun.

I have a 6 year old who has progressed quickly through 1st grade and has begun 2nd grade this semester. However, for Story of the World, we are using the first book - Ancient Times. Is it preferable that she should use volume 2, Middle Ages for her 2nd grade year so that she stay on the repetition "track" (1st-4th/5th-8th/9th-12th grades respectively)? If so, should we work through the book at a quicker pace in order that we get to volume 2/2nd grade...or does it really matter that we are using volume 1 this year? If it doesn't matter, I'd like to take our time through Ancient Times. We are having so much fun with it...but I just didn't want to throw the sequence "off track" by spending too long on any one volume... Please help. :001_huh:

Thank you all for your wonderful advice and input! I am taking each of your replies into careful consideration. I do think I will move on to some other math facts this summer (we h.s. year round) and just take it easy, picking up on some measuring, money, and telling time review-- some of which is not expressly taught in MUS. Then I'll come back to the 2's and 3's and so forth in the Fall. It may be that my daughter's learning style would be better suited for Spiral programs than mastery-- but we still absolutely love MUS and want to continue using it as our home base for math. She's a combination of visual and auditory learner, and can learn just about anything with great understanding by visualization on a marker board, so we'll try that too for mastery. Meanwhile, I won't concern myself so much about mastery of 2's right now, take a break, and come back in the Fall. Thanks again for all of your input!

Great idea! I am Googling Right Start now. i think taking a break is something we absolutely need. By the time we come back to it she'll probably be fresh enough to start this again.

I'm using Math U See which is a mastery program. My daughter (age 6) is having trouble MEMORIZING her 2's addition facts, but we've been on the 2's for a month now and I'm seeing her to start to burn out.:glare: One of the main aspects of Math U See is to require mastery of each step before moving to the next. After talking with the Math U See from their message boards they agree that she should master her 2's before moving to the 3's. However, this seems such a painful process and I'm wondering if there's any way to bring fun back into math for her again? Has anyone here had better success with teaching spirally than for mastery? What are your thoughts about learning the math facts at this age? Is it important to have them completely memorized rotely? (She can calculate them easily in her head, but just doesn't recognize the sum automatically when I flash her a card, for example 2+8). I don't want to turn her off to math with all the drill work, but she's just not memorizing them, and I think as long as she knows the concept for now, perhaps with time she'll begin to pick up on some of the facts and memorize them within the context of her learning... Is this true? Or should I continue to drill until she does know them by memory before moving on to the 3's? Thanks for your help!

You guys, this has been an EXCELLENT and resourceful thread! Thank you so much for all who have responded...:) I am vigorously bookmarking all of the websites and taking notes on resources you've listed. So far I like Explorers...we are using it now. It's very easy, no fussy business with crafts and such, but my daughter would like more crafts and hands-on materials so I print out coloring sheets from calvarywilliamsport.com I would like to try some of the Kay Arthur studies perhaps next year.

Should I check amazon? Is it still in print?

Just a quick question I'd like throw out there: Is there a particular bible curriculum for primary grade level you really like, and if so why? Thanks...

we're using Math U See with my 5 y.o.... This is an AWESOME program. We're on the Primer level (2nd level) and already my daughter's understanding of the HOWS of math is coming together for her (place value, why carry). She loves it, but I love it more b/c of the teacher/child weekly DVD lesson, teacher's manual, the manipulatives for hands on experiments, the song CD and songbook for learning math facts, the charts and workbook, and even the online support at their yahoo group. Very good program.

This is exactly what I wish to see happen in my homeschool as my children get older! Good point.

Okay, I was looking at this completely wrong (my apologies!) I'm looking in my bible reference for the date and it says B.C.-2100 (creation, the fall, the flood, the dispersion of races) -- not actually 2100 b.c. creation. It was rather confusing b/c it doesn't give a begin date -- so thanks for the heads up on the 4000 b.c. approximately for creation. I'll be looking into MOH... Thank you, Sue G., Donna T., Karen, Audrey for your quick response. This does help (and I can finally breathe b/c that 2100 date didn't look right to me either!) Good to know there's some solid biblical curriculum out there I can use for history along with SOTW...

I'm just wondering, for those of you who follow a Christian based history timeline... how do you make up for the discrepancy between creation (dated approximately 2100 B.C.) and the history of ancient civilizations (Greece, Sumer, Mesopotamia, Egypt) dated before 3000 B.C.?? When teaching with SOTW (plus Kingfisher and Usborne) how do you integrate the 2 timelines and still stay true to your faith (b/c remember, classical history is timeline-based in theory...) I'm teaching early elementary and want to get this right first time around so I have my routine down pat for the 2nd leg of the Trivium journey. All suggestions, thoughts, comments, and advice appreciated!

:iagree:I'd have to agree with Soph the vet. I wrote a whole post on this (new age,oprah, and the christian view of this particular book club series): http://demetriazinga.com/2008/03/02/oprah-eckhart-tolle-the-new-earth-and-the-christian-view/

Everyone, great links and feedback. Thanks so much. I'm checking out one of the sites now and currently giving dd her test...

I love the used curriculum sales at homeschool conventions. I usually end up walking away with loads of really good curriculum for under $10. Some of the stuff i pick up is old, from way back in the early '90's or '80's but it's stuff you can't find any more...and I think that's a good thing since much of the older curriculum (for example, Abeka) are good grabs.

This is a wonderful thread. I'd have to say my hits have been: Math-U-See FLL Misses: Abeka Language Arts

I have a 5 y.o. who is reading several levels above her grade level. She picks up her small text copy of the King James Bible and reads fluently. She picks up just about any book to read, and the 3rd-5th step readers at our library are just not enough for her I'd love to know how I can officially "place" her reading level to determine where she is (which grade level) she is reading at. Any ideas how I can find this out?

It's great to know that others of you have felt just as excited at some point as I do right now. It validates for me very much what this process is all about and that it really does work!

Jean and Colleen, thanks for the welcome and for your kind words. Yep! I'm really excited about being part of this awesome community and look forward to learning more and connecting. This education method has got to have the best support out there. The message boards here are ExTREMELY helpful and full of great advice from a community of people that are so excited about helping one another. this is great!

Another option you may want to try is backing up your bookmarks to a social bookmarking site like delicious.. that way, it's not just on your hard drive anymore, but hosted out in cyberspace ... plus delicious is a great way to see what bookmarks others have chosen to save and comment on them, etc.

There is sooo much about the classical education method that attracts me, and I'm only just starting out (my daughters are only ages 5 and 3 months!) The methodology is so systematic. I don't find that in any of the other theories I've been reading about and researching. I started my daughter's official kindergarten year with the idea of just "winging" in and pulling pieces together from different curriculum, but with no true end result in mind, which is just chaos, especially when a child's mind is so FRESH and READY for KNOWLEDGE. You know? So I wrote a whole post about this at demetriazinga.com, thanking Susan Wise Bauer and Jessie Wise for writing this book (The Well Trained Mind), which is giving me a fresh perspective on an age-old view of education... something we young mothers are desperately in need of in today's "do it your way" generation. Enjoy the post! :) - www.demetriazinga.com