I'm in my middle 30's, so not midlife. But I'm right there with ya, but in a different way maybe. For me its more : Do I want to waste the rest of my life with someone who is so negative and bitter? What do I want to do so that I can be happy? I want things to matter too in the long run. Maybe this is different , but I know at my age I've finally woke up and want more out of life than what is.

Hmm, that's a tough one. I usually cry from frustration , but even then I do it alone. I've always been the one to keep a stiff upper lip. I too think I'm part Vulcan. LOL I have a pointy ear to prove it. LOL But then even Vulcans have emotions. I fine myself feeling like I want to cry a lot lately, but can't. Its because my youngest will be facing a very long surgery in May and I'm not wanting to get back on that roller coaster ride.

Alpha Omega's Horizons will also have Algebra 1 out in the fall. We ordered their Pre Algebra and are happy with it. Just the Pre Algebra along contains :algebra, trig , geometry and real life applications. When ever we come across something we aren't sure about I use Khan Academy. But the teacher manual has all of the solutions it it. The lessons are nicely laid out, though it does involve some teacher involvment. I never really gave their math a thought but when I got their catalog recently I thought,"what the heck?" and gave it a try. My daughter now enjoys math. I've also found it to be more advanced than CLE's math. Great for someone who has a child that enjoys math and likes the challenge. I hope AOP comes out with more Horizons for the upper levels soon because it seems its the only math she really enjoys to use. But there is that option there too.

It is said its supposed to.

Amen to that! LOL Critical thinking can be taught outside of a curriculum. There are tons of critical thinking books on the market.

Honestly I wouldn't go by what others have to say here. Each and every family has their own style and taste. We are actually a Catholic family using the workbook style curriculums because to save my sanity I have to and to date there are no available Catholic style workbook curriculums like CLE, Ace , or AOP out on the market. Plus my daughters love the little workbooks. It gives them a sense of accomplishment when they use them. So we will just stick with that. I use a combination of AOP, ACE and CLE in my home. My oldest uses AOP and ACE. We started off with CLE and I was bound and determined to make it fit her and it just wasn't possible. She needed that color to concentrate (what she told me).She needed the mastery of Horizons math. I was using CLE 700 with her (where she tested) and she just was breaking down. Missing from 7 to 12 problems. It was crazy. In the end she told me that it reminded her to much of Saxon ( a math program she hates with every fiber of her being) and that she needed color to concentrate. So there you go. Here I had avoided AOP like the plague because many people here would say how horrible it was. To find out it was EXACTLY what she needed. She's doing so much better now because the Horizons focuses on one topic at a time with review scattered through out the program. She's also using their Switched on School house for State History and she loves it. So there you go. You might just find what everyone doesn't like, maybe your diamond in the rough. We use ACE for English, History, Science, and Word Building. I do NOT find ACE to be twaddle. My daughter is actually learning better from it then past curriculums we've used (Calvert, K12, Abeka etc.) I had searched, and searched ,and searched. Tried so hard to use other programs that everyone gave glowing reviews of and none of them worked with her. Then I caved in , just like I did with the AOP and its been smooth sailing ever since. ACE leaves a lot for the parent too. We supplement with good books from the library on science , and history. We can add in a writing program that works, we can add in lapbooks, and DVD's to add more if we want to. Even if we didn't my daughter is still learning. I can say I went to an ACE school growing up, and , well, I turned out just fine. LOL I will say though that the ACE English is excellent. Its mastery and it works well for kids who need mastery. With AOP , I've heard good things about all of their subjects except LA. CLE has worked great with my younger three. We'll stick with what works. Are any of these better than the other? NO. It is all about what works for your child. We can all be picky about this, that, and the other , but in the end its about what works for each individual family. The ONLY way you can form an opinion about the curriculum for yourself is to try it out. The Paces, the Lifepacs, and the Light Units are all sold individually. Buy a few of each and see what YOU think of them. Not what everyone else thinks. p.s. I'd like to know about this political correctness thing with Ace. I don't see that at all in the Paces. Instead of saying it, please give some examples. As for the cartoon strips. They can be a bit cheesy but my daughter finds some of them funny. Guess they were meant for kids,not the adults.

You know what? I've had that same issue. I really love CLE math, I think its gentle in how it presents new concepts. My younger three are working really well with it, but my oldest just could not progress with it at all. She did the same with Saxon at the private school she attended. So with great trepidation I switched her to Horizons PreAlgebra, and wow, what a difference! Though Horizons is spiral it focuses on one concept at a time , and reviews past concepts. It only has two pages per lesson so my oldest doesn't feel so overwhelmed. I asked my daughter what she liked about it she said the color helps her concentrate, the lessons are shorter, and she said there was more explanation. After searching around I've settled with this for now. Its a bummer it only goes up to Algebra 1 right now. I'm hoping that by the time we get to Algebra 1 that they will have some more levels out. But I really like Horizons at about 4th grade and up. It seems this is where it focuses on one concept at a time, and doesn't seem so scattered looking to me. I was pleasantly surprised with it after shying away for years.

It is a year advanced but I am EXTREMELY disappointed with it. We're only doing K and its dry, boring, and I was shock to see only a couple of lessons on teaching how to learn to read a calendar, no teaching of money, skip counting, measuring . K is a mix of basic and advanced skills. It already assumes your child knows how to count and write their numbers. Its overkill on subtraction word problems. I think we were going through three chapters of difficult subtraction problems. The book is not divided into chapters so you don't know when one ends and the other begins. It really doesn't even teach them math facts, and it gives them problems like 20-14. Its just a random blob of math. I wish they would go back to Sadlier Oxford , this was MUCH better than what they have now. I dropped it and we're using Christian Light, and just mark assignments as complete. I can't use it anymore. My daughter is getting way more out of it then the K12 math. All I can say is K12 is NOT going to get a good review from me at the end of the year on their math program. I'm not sure if this is the new math garbage, but all I can say is YUCKKKKKKKKKKKK! Its the worst math program I've ever encountered and I've used many.

Many times Christian Book.com runs free shipping. Last month I had free shipping on an order and I didn't have to spend a certain amount either. Right now AOP is running 20% off with free shipping on orders $35 or more.

That does sound like a good plan. The long vowel sounds start in Level 2 step 7 and goes on from there. I would wait until he's spelling better to do the dictations instead of spelling every single word for him. Its one thing if you have to spell a word or two but every single one? That's just to much.

Bob Books , I see Sam books, Dr. Suess books. This isn't a book but Signing Time is a video that teaches sign for the hearing but has been used by parents to teach hearing impaired children to read too. http://www.signingtime.com/series-two-volume-3-move-and-groove

I use it as a supplement. My oldest is doing Horizon's prealgebra and we sometimes need the videos to help expand a concept because math is not my best subject. I'm relearning it all over again. So having Khan Academy,(and Hippo) is a great supplement to programs that don't have DVD's to help teach.

We have a television only because my husband believes he can't live without it. Me, personally. I can live without it. Granted there are maybe a few shows I enjoy watching , but I can even watch them online. Most times our tv is on for white noise , not like we don't have enough with four children. LOL Anyways we did live without tv when our oldest was about 3yrs old. We lived in a part of the county where tv signals could not be picked up, cable was to expensive so we lived without it for quite some time. That was the best time because I read more to my daughter, and she picked up so much when it came to reading. We moved since then, still live in a place where we can't pick up a signal but my husband has made sure we have money for the cable bill. LOL I still could live without it. But my computer is a whole other story. Its something I can't live without because its my access to the outside world. Living in the country and no friends that come over or neighbors. Well you can only live on an island for so long. :>)

You could have him use the letter tiles to do the dictation sentences but he'll find that very cumbersome after a while. And I agree, the writing part helps cement those skills once they've learned to spell the words. It would be pointless to skip the dictation ( which is started in step 11), and sentences (which aren't started until the very end of Level 1 anyways) because they review old and new words to learn to spell. I would stop the AAS and teach him to write his letters first. Then go back to it. If he's a quick learner then it shouldn't take you long to teach him to learn to write his alphabet. I wouldn't be using the AAS with my 5yr old if she didn't know how to write her letters because the program wouldn't be as effective as it is now with her writing.

That would be Alpha Omega. That would be the next curriculum that I could think of. CLE is the closest but the math and LA are spiral and not mastery. The rest of the subjects are mastery though with CLE though.

Yeah, in the manual it will tell you to spend about 15 or so on a lesson. Some days we spend a little more than that, some days a little less depending on my daughter's attention span. In the beginning we were doing 1 step a day. But once we hit I think lesson 11. I began to split it up a little bit when it began using the dictation. I would do the cards and then work on the new words with the spelling tiles. Then day 2 I do the cards and we would work on a few dictation words , and practice writing the new spelling words on the dry erase board. Then day three we finish up the dictation words, and then spell the words on paper and this seems to work for us now. Everyone has their own groove and you'll find yours too.

Well there is no such thing as 'free'. LOL But the curriculum and computers do come to you at no charge. We've used K12 through the public school route. It has its pros and cons. You get all the curriculum, but no , you do not get to pick and chose. Of course all state cybers run differently, but when we first began children used to take the K12 placement tests and then were put in the level they were able to work in. This has changed for us and now all children , regardless of ability have to start with the grade level they would be put in in a public school. Once you recieve those materials of course your child can start working in them and if they test out of some work and move on they can get the next level work. They also offer Advanced Placement Classes for all grade levels. When we first started we had as much contact with the teachers that we needed. Now I only have contact with my daughter's teacher on Kmail (their email system). I've never talked to her in person at all this year. We have a family Teacher Coach , who I talked to once and met once when she came to have us sign some paperwork. Other then that we have not had much teacher involvement at all this year. Of course this is different state to state. Yes, once a month we have an assignment, which is always something from the work in the K12 books that must be scanned or mailed in to them. Its not extra work. It was like that when we first started though, but has changed. Again this might be different for your state. K12 is a lot of busy work though. So if your not into that, then you'll be disappointed. I've used K12 for K, 1,4, and 5th grades. I decided to go ahead and try it again with my youngest but I'm finding I'm not using much of it with her, and she's not enjoying it as much as her sisters did. She is my small workbook kid. She loves the small workbooks of CLE and ACE. So I may have to rethink my strategy for next year.

Well there is no such thing as 'free'. LOL But the curriculum and computers do come to you at no charge. We've used K12 through the public school route. It has its pros and cons. You get all the curriculum, but no , you do not get to pick and chose. Of course all state cybers run differently, but when we first began children used to take the K12 placement tests and then were put in the level they were able to work in. This has changed for us and now all children , regardless of ability have to start with the grade level they would be put in in a public school. Once you recieve those materials of course your child can start working in them and if they test out of some work and move on they can get the next level work. They also offer Advanced Placement Classes for all grade levels. When we first started we had as much contact with the teachers that we needed. Now I only have contact with my daughter's teacher on Kmail (their email system). I've never talked to her in person at all this year. We have a family Teacher Coach , who I talked to once and met once when she came to have us sign some paperwork. Other then that we have not had much teacher involvement at all this year. Of course this is different state to state. Yes, once a month we have an assignment, which is always something from the work in the K12 books that must be scanned or mailed in to them. Its not extra work. It was like that when we first started though, but has changed. Again this might be different for your state. K12 is a lot of busy work though. So if your not into that, then you'll be disappointed. I've used K12 for K, 1,4, and 5th grades. I decided to go ahead and try it again with my youngest but I'm finding I'm not using much of it with her, and she's not enjoying it as much as her sisters did. She is my small workbook kid. She loves the small workbooks of CLE and ACE. So I may have to rethink my strategy for next year.

My oldest had the same issue with CLE math. Even though I like it she just did not. So we've switched to Horizon's Pre Algebra and its been a big hit for her. After researching I found that Horizons takes a different format once it hits their 4th grade level. It starts to focus on one topic at a time, and adds in a little review. The lessons are short with 2 pages. I noticed the earlier grades looked so scattered. I wondered which grade this same format we see with Horizons Pre Algebra started. So I was able to track it back to 4th grade level. I was looking at TT before this and it was just to darned expensive, and my husband couldn't justify the price they charge for a CD program. So I took a leap and went to Horizions and my daughter is happy. You might want to just try and take another look at it. All we do with the Horizons is teach the concept and my daughter goes off on her own, the whole concept is taught along with some review of other concepts. Its like mastery with review in my opinion.

I don't know of other programs, but I use the tiles when we introduce the new words. After that my 5yr old writes them on her dry erase board. The tiles do help her though remember how to spell the word. I know my 8 yr old likes the tiles, but uses them once too. After that its the dry erase board then the paper. I do use the cards everyday with my 5 yr old. Not so often with my 8yr old.

I don't see why you can't. I use our AAS tiles with our CLE LTR reading.

Its actually really more of a Prek program. Overpriced. You can actually get something better for less. I do like Calvert 1 and 2 though.

Can she hear the sounds YOU make? I would segment the word yourself so she can hear the sounds being made properly. This is what I do for my two who have speech issues. How did she do when she had to segment three letter words in Step 3 or how about Step 6? I would say the word, then slowly sound out each sound so she can hear it. Do that several times, then see if she gets the concept and can give it a try. If not just keep doing it. She'll get it.

Yes, i liked it a lot for my oldest daughter when we first started homeschooling. She is my bells and whistles kid and I knew that she would need all that color and cutesy stuff to keep her attention. She is very good with math so the mastery math worked for her, though I'll admit that it was really easy to forget adding drill in there though. Through the years she learned to understand math well, but was very slow in getting to the answer because she didn't know her math facts, still doesn't no matter what I've done now, so still counting on her fingers. I used it from K-6th , we stopped at 6th because all of a sudden BJU math didn't give her that warm fuzzy feeling evidently. I don't know. She just stopped liking it then. Now we are doing Horizon's Pre Algebra and she's happy with that. But they do have a good math program. Just don't forget to add math fact drill in there otherwise you will end up like where we're at. You need the teacher manual. Without it its a bare bones workbook. It spirals back around but no review of past concepts like other math programs (CLE,Saxon, Horizons etc). If you want practice of past concepts you'll need to buy their other workbooks that go along with it. But it spirals in a way that Chapter one maybe about addition, then chapter 2 subtraction, then chapter three geometry concepts, then it comes back around to adding again, but you may learn how to add three numbers instead of two. That type of spiral. But its not review of past concepts. To bad the 1st child always ends up being the guinea pig.

I'll have to ask and see about the science and the content, and see how it goes with our State History and see if we encounter this as well. I know that the 2012 version of SOS has fun games for the kids to play to learn the vocab and flashcards. It also has small tutorials on there by a teacher to explain certain concepts too. Did your earlier version have this as well? I'm not familiar with the early versions at all. This our first go with SOS. I'll admit from my end I do like the record keeping, all I can say is , wow! LOL You can keep track of all of their grades, even if its not an SOS subject. And it keeps track of the calendar, which is great on my end for our portfolio record keeping. Wished I had it all in the beginning of the year. But I'll have to keep an eye on the student content, see if my daughter learns anything from it, but so far she really likes it. It would be nice to have like a list of what the older version SOS's had and to be able to line them up with what the 2012 version offers now.