Directly from R&S or Rod and Staff Books ( www.milestoneministries.com ) ( which is not a rod and staff website . Just a website that sells Rod and STaff :>) . But they are very highly recommended .

Well for quite some time I've had no real want to teach Latin . I'm not familiar with it . But my oldest is showing an interest in it this year. So I may . Not sure yet. My oldest is learning French and my 2nd Spanish .

We used the 2nd grade grammar and I bought both the student text and TM . I ended up only needing the student text . I think its pretty self explanatory for us that you don't really need the TM . But everyone is different and you might find you need it . Plus their curriculum is so inexpensive that if you find you don't need it your really not out a ton of money and you can just resell it :>) Love their grammar program. Just wasn't a good fit for my oldest because she was young and had difficulty writing out of the book . We did do them orally but for some reason for her it didn't solidify the facts :>)

One thing is for sure there is no perfect math program . What works for one family doesn't always work for the next . I'm not familiar with Teaching Textbooks so I don't know . I really think that some of the comments on here are awfully harsh on this though . Okay ., so it doesn't work for you and your family . Great . But for those that it works for that's wonderful . I personally think that trying to cram higher thinking in math in a child that isn't ready for it is pointless . I agree PS math books are full of fluff. They don't work on the basic math facts like they should in the beginning . They try to cram 100 differnet ways to solve a problem and a whole bunch of facts into children who aren't ready for that type of higher thinking . ( this is coming from experience and I'm not going to debate it ) . Even on the National News about a month ago they admitted that we need to go back to the basics with children . That children are behind in math because they aren't grasping math because of lack of knowledge of the basics . What we need is math with both mastering and spiraling . But since math companies only go with one or the other its going to stay that way . As for this guy's letter. He has a right to defend himself that's for sure . To nit pick every little thing he says is just wrong . He is probably trying to tell you all that he feels his product is better then what you would get in a public school anyday . And it could be . And I didn't pick up on and finger pointing in his letter at all . I didn't see him say " you need to use my product or you are inferior . " He just wanted to compare his product to the others and that was what he felt about it . I mean really ladies . With as many math programs there are out there . We could nit pick all day about what was wrong with each and everyone of them .

From what I've seen on their website they have a Homeschooling editions . It does look really good . I like :>) http://www.summit.org/curriculum/es/homeschool/

Well a 5th grader is kind of young . And if she is living under difficult conditions that is a great aspiration . It means she really loves her grandma , and she does have hope . What it does sound like is that she needs a mentor . A guide if you will . Someone who is going to show her things she can get interested in . The will to want to do something doesn't always come from within all children . Sometimes it needs to be worked on and if inspiring for the future is not talked about in the home , she isn't going to think about it either . I mean Grandma I'm sure has done all she has wanted to do in her life so she isn't going to talk more about the future ( some grandparents are like this ) . So this little girl needs someone to point her in the direction of her future . Other then just books , take her on a field trip to the Humane Society , show her the people there that work there . Maybe someday she may want to be a vet . Take her on a field trip to a fish hatchery , a hospital or doctor's office , daycare etc . If she isn't exposed to the workforce she isn't going to know or care . Just stick with it and show her you care about her and what she becomes in the future . Some children know what they want to do from the get go but they are few and far between that actually know at this age and stick with it and go on to do what they want . Most children will say they want to be a teacher, vet , fairy princess that rules the land and sea . Some children will want to buy a house for their grandma . Expand on that . Do a project that will show her what she needs to do to buy a house for her grandma . To buy a house you need money . Well to get money we need to get a job . What job would you like to have to get that money to buy your grandma her house ? If she doesn't know then maybe go to the library and get some books on other professions ( with picture ) . Let her read them , or even better you read them to her . My oldest is 10 and I still love to read to her , and she loves it too :>) Once she decides , then book a field trip . Maybe she may want to work in the social services field if she likes to help others :>) There is a learning opportunity . As much as I love books , they can only give so much . Sometimes it takes you and getting out there to show her that this BIG HUGE world we have is full of opportunities for her . There is no need to tell her that she needs to do more . You can by example show her and whatever decisions she makes in the future is totally up to her :>)

Well first the basics anything else is just gravy of course : Math , Grammar , Writing , Handwriting , History , Science , and Phonics . Art and French for one child and Spanish for another :>) Phys Ed ( swimming , soccer etc. ) We are using Calvert so its an all in one curriculum . I've pieced together curriculum too in the past .

We haven't used the CD -Rom so I'm not sure what's in it . But how young are we talking about ? I really don't recommend using CHOW until at least 3rd grade. Minimum . I think its a wonderful book for children in grades 3/4/5 . But to go any lower in means nothing to small ones . But if you want to continue this is what we are doing with CHOW and it seems to really solidify the facts for my oldest ( who is 10 by the way ) . I bought some really great books to add more to it , and to set those facts in . Barnes and Nobles carries two really great reference books that go lovely with CHOW . They actually were an accidental find for me . But they go REALLY well with studying the ancients . The names of the books are " 100 things you should know about " books . We have one on Ancient Rome . And the other one we have so far is called " Discoveries Ancient Greece " . They are both beautifully illustrated and great for elementary aged children ( even grown ups too :>) They are VERY inexpensive . They are big books at I paid 5.95 for " 100 things " and 6.95 for "Discoveries " . So they don't break your pocket. They have other books on Rome , Egypt , Pyramids , Gladiators etc . If you go to my blog( link in signature ) you can see a small review of the first book I mentioned . Then I went to www.notebookingpages.com where they have free notebooking pages. And we wrote and drew pictures , whatever was needed to remember the content . You don't even have to buy the other books. You could just do CHOW and notebook to help with the facts too . They have free basic notebook pages, timelines etc that you can copy . Hope some of those ideas help . The one thing I know is that CHOW is really best for children who are in at least 4th grade, minimum 3rd . To really appreciate the book :>) I know both my husband who is a history buff , and I have enjoyed it and have learned a great deal and world history this year .

I too am a big believer of " If it ain't broke , don't fix it " as well . If Saxon is working for them . Then by all means stick with it . Saxon is a fine math program . It is a very good all in one program . I used it for K and 1st so far and have found no real need to supplment . The only time you need to be looking is if its not working for your child . Also if Saxon 5/4 is an issue with having to write out problems you could either type them out for him. Or switch to CLE ( Christian Light Education ) math . Their math is the closest to Saxon then any other math program and its in workbook form . Other then that smile that you have something that works well with your kiddos :>)

Calvert for 1st-4th so far . Though I can say I miss using my own stuff .

We do one page a day . My girls love HWT's . So spending 5-10 minutes each day is reasonable . Plus for me it keeps us on track doing it everyday so that we don't forget .

Hello all . I saw this program mentioned in another post . So I checked it out . It looks like a great program . But had one question . Is this program only used to teach children to write and summerize ? Does it teach other writing skills ?

Ohh. I like ! I think this would work really well for my daughter .

Just wanted to add. My daughter is 10 and that is even a bit better then what she can do and we've been using Calvert . I don't think I've ever heard of Writing Tales . I'll have to check it out later . But for some children writing can be difficult . My daughter is doesn't do well either with either summarizing and narration . Even though she is a smart cookie . Writing doesnot by any means come naturally to her in the least .

Saxon has diagnostic tests on their website . It is very accurate . I think you could easily do with 1 meeting book . Because the student doesn't write in it. You do for K .

Cool . Thanks ! This will be great when we start up our garden .

The highest level is 10th grade . Um. You could probably go up to 8th grade . But 6th is not long enough .

My 10yr old's writing was much like Rose's son's . All captials . The bad part is now that she is 10 she still has a bad habit of using those capitals where they shouldn't be.

Okay . To me this was pretty decent. My 2nd daughter was doing Calvert 1st for K . But she was a kindergartener none the less. Of course she is 8 now and her handwriting has improved since then . She's also my best one with handwriting at the moment . So this is what she had at the end of the year . I have a few sheets where her handwriting was even a bit better then this . Now my husband if I can dig out his 1st grade handwriting paper . His handwriting was Immaculate for a 1st grader . I mean unbelieveably immaculate. I asked him how he did that ( as his handwriting isn't that neat anymore ) and he said the nuns put the fear of God into him :>)

I guess it depends on the district . I know that some of our public schools actually start cursive in K believe it or not . It just all depends. I found starting cursive with my oldest ( who had difficulty with printing ) . Really boosted her confidence and improved her handwriting , even in printing. It did take a good few years for that to improve . She was 6 . I wasn't sure if she was too young or not to start and I talked to an Occupational Therapist and she said you could start using it anytime . That cursive is what they use for children who have handwriting , fine motor difficulties . So really 3rd grade isn't the magical number either . It just depends on the public schools you have in your area and teaching cursive at any age at any time doesn't put them in any disadvantage whatsoever . Both of my girls learned cursive in the last half of 1st grade with Calvert .

No . REally there is no magic formula . I know Abeka has cursive in K . Even my mother in law said when they were children ..way back when :>) ... children were taught to write in cursive first . My oldest started HWT cursive at age 6 since her printing was so awful . It really helped to improve her printing actually . My 2nd at the same age .. Cursive is much easier to teach with all the loops and curves . More natural for children . So whenever you chose to teach it is totally up to you .

We used Sonlight Science K and we loved it . Uses living books and has a DVD that goes with it . You could easily use the DVD all by itself . But the books go along well with it . Its very hands on and would definitley go back to it if I weren't cyberschooling my two oldest . The IG ( manual ) is well put together . Has all the questions you need to ask and you can modify it in any which way you need to if you have multiple students using it . The experiements were fun , the DVD was very helpful in telling you which ones produce something spectacular and which ones only produce something small . My girls loved the out takes of where they show sometimes experiments don't always go the way you plan either . Though I thought the guy was a little cheesy for K , my girls just loved him and thought he was the funniest . I think though the farther up you go the less cheesy it maybe :>) LOL. I had to sell my Sonlight K ( which broke my heart ) but kept the Science DVD because my girls now at age 10 and 8 still love to watch it . You can watch either on the DVD player or your computer . I liked the books alot that go with the series. I just got my Sonlight catalog today and was again looking at the science again .

I know alot of families have used Daily Grammar http://www.easygrammar.com/index2.html with success .

Wow ! Thanks for the links . This is great . Keep them coming !

For children who have no difficulties with handwriting . A Reason for Handwriting . Its a great program that has just enough practice and the children get to write a Bible verse at the end of the week on paper with cute pictures that they can color . For children who struggle . . HWT's all the way . Its an easy to teach program with great results . I recommend it for children who don't have problems with writing either .