I love LCC 1, but do not follow it exactly!

I love the Struggling Reader phonics games. We also use Whizzizzle Phonics from Rainbow Resource. I use the ETC books as well. It is a great combo. Oh, and lots and lots of readers!!!!

:iagree: I would also add that Christ is very merciful and always allows us to turn back to Him.

I am planning on following the way that MP recommends and skipping LC II (I have heard it isn't as good as LC I) and moving into FFL in 4th grade. I will continue with the Form series (I LOVE IT and did FFL myself to teach myself Latin) until it starts to move too slowly for my child. Then I will move into Henle a little early. I am hoping to start Henle in 6th or 7th.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

Well said.

We used a combo of NOEO and RS4K. It was not.getting.done. We are a very science oriented family as well. My husband is a pharmacist and I was a Chemistry major and Bio minor. So, I shifted things. We read the NOEO books and RS4K text during Morning Basket (it gets done regularly). I have my husband do the experiments (this was my main reason for getting lazy about it). I set it up for him on his day off or in the evenings. He actually loves it. We don't always get the experiments in when they are supposed to be done, but it works. My husband spent 2 hours playing with the microscope with the kids. I would have spent 15 minutes. :lol:

I am pretty sure that my 1st grader wouldn't have had such a great knowledge of different countries. He loved seeing flags from countries he knew about during the Olympics!

I had to laugh as I was reading that thread because so many of those things apply to my kids as well. So, it got me thinking about what my kids can do or know that they wouldn't know or do if they weren't homeschooled. Please share!!!

I spent about 30 minutes on Circle Time (calendar, memorization, hymn study, a couple of picture books), about 30-45 minutes on seatwork (phonics, reading, math, handwriting), and about 15 minutes each on read alouds during lunch and at bedtime. I made sure that the kids had at least an hour of physical activity (playing outside, karate, etc) every day. Most days they played outside for hours... :lol:

I had to laugh because I use HST+, but I only use it to record what we did AFTER we did it. :lol::lol::lol:

Spelling Wisdom by Simply Charlotte Mason

This is an issue near and dear to my heart. I am a cradle Catholic who always went to CCD, but never really got catechised. My parents contracepted and were not shy about telling me how ridiculous the church is on this issue. I contracepted for years before having an awakening on this issue. I truly believe that if we continued using contraception, it would have destroyed my marriage. We are now using NFP and I cannot even tell you how my marriage has improved. There is a complete respect there now. I prefer to allow God to determine the number of kids, but my husband is dead set on not having another child. Even with this disagreement, NFP is such a gift to our marriage. Honestly, if I would have understand WHY the church teaches this and realized how reliable and non-toxic (to my body and relationship) NFP was, I would have NEVER used contraception.

:iagree: All of those books drove me crazy!!!!

I haven't used Montessori House, but I do use Montessori materials for preschool and pre-K and love it. It was expensive buying things, but so much cheaper than Montessori preschool.

Can you add something fun that will get the whole family excited? An afternoon of nature study a week? A really fun read aloud? A unit study to start the year that everyone will enjoy? Or maybe you just need to get going for it to feel right again. I have found that I often rely on feelings, but feelings can be deceiving. The enemy can change your feelings. I have come to rely more on what I know is right and less on feelings. Write a letter to yourself to remind yourself what you do love about homeschooling. It is completely normal to go through these periods, but you know what is best for your family! Best of luck!!!!

I think this is the most important habit to instill in our children. I think CM is right that the best way to accomplish this is with short lessons and a requirement of narration. My kids attention has increased dramatically. Now if I only I could work on my own... :banghead: I am definitely a product of this fragmented society we all live in and the fragmented education I received in PS!

Me neither!!!!!!!

I think that the religion courses that Kolbe uses are excellent!

I'm there! Anytime and any place!!!!! :party:

This will take awhile since he is already 6 and has probably been counting for awhile. I would just play the games and be patient. Here are a couple of our favorites: 1. Play memory using two sets of cards (preferably two different types of cards), one set for each player. You need to get the cards in order from 1-10. Whoever finds all the cards first wins. 2. The tally game. You need a set of cards for each player. Each player draws one card. Whoever has the highest card gets to give themselves a tally mark. Reshuffle when you need more cards. This gets kids to look at the cards really quickly. 3. Sing the Yellow is the Sun song A LOT. 4. Play one player memory with two decks of different types of cards. He has to find the two matches of each number. Just give it time. It will probably be a couple of months before he just sees numbers that way, but it is SO WORTH IT. Don't give up. Just play a game daily. BTW, if you don't have the games, I highly recommend them. They really are the heart of the program for learning facts.

:lol::lol::lol::lol::lol:

I have tried this before. I gave him three boxes of things that I thought should go (three boxes when I could have given him 50 :lol:). He was so overwhelmed and upset that I am not sure if anything actually left the house. He did get rid of two bags of clothes last month which was wonderful, but really it was just the tip of the iceberg!

OK. I am taking back my house when my kids are at "grandma camp" in two weeks (a whole week with no kids!!!! ). I want to have a plan of attack ready to go so I don't waste any time. My biggest plan is to clean out closets. We have too much junk in there so we can't properly store things. They also don't have shelves, but we cannot afford to put shelves in all the closets right now. Here is the main problem: My husband is a serious packrat. I would consider his parents hoarders. Most of their house is unusable (not the main living spaces). Our house is usable, but severely cluttered. I don't know how to approach this. My husband says I can get rid of things, but then gets very upset when I do. My mom tells me to just throw things away and not tell him, but she did that when I was growing up and it was very upsetting to me. She was constantly throwing away things that I needed or wanted. Our house was always clean, but I always felt invaded and upset. I do think my husband would be happy with the end result, but I don't feel right doing things this way. So, should I just declutter my stuff and the school stuff and then hope that when he sees the progress he will jump in full force? He is very adament that I not get rid of the kids' stuff although I am going to thin it out a little (especially clothes and toys). Have any of you dealt with this? Most of my friends' husbands just give them free reign over the house, but that is not the case here. I just really need this clutter to be gone. I feel so anxious when the house is cluttered and it isn't a good example to our kids. They think it is normal to have things everywhere. Any advice would be greatly appreciated!!!

We do 2 pages a day. DS is ahead in reading level from where he is in ETC but I am fine with that because ETC is solidifying his phonics. I think a lesson a day is way too much. By working on the same word family all week, it sticks better IMHO. Plus, I am a believer in short lessons for K. A whole lesson would take at least 30 minutes.