Not an unschooler here. :D I totally agree with this. One curricula that might really work for you is The Struggling Reader. This teaches phonics and sight words casually through game play. The games are really fun. Their website is down right now...not sure what is up with that. Read Ruth Beechick's books. They will help you be calm about it. I would say that taking a break might be just what she needs. Get some interesting level 2 or 3 readers and just let her read them when she wants to.

Look on page 11 of the student text. Amo can mean I love (simple present), I am loving (progressive present), and I do love (emphatic present). They will choose any of the three translations and use them interchangably. Don't get flustered. Latin isn't easy and you will start to get the hang of it after a few weeks. FFL is very user friendly once you get used to it. My best advice would be to stay at least a week ahead and do all of the worksheets. That way you can find these things in advance. I have done this program for myself so if you ever need help, just email me: thechoatefamily@gmail.com. I am not on these boards very often anymore!

I am planning on using the MP Latin sequence instead of grammar. I am going to do Analytical Grammar later on to make sure they know what they need to know. I can't speak from experience since I haven't done it yet though! I can tell you that I am teaching myself Latin right now and have learned A LOT of English grammar in the process!

They go well together, but that would be A LOT of Latin. It really just depends on how much time you want to devote to Latin. I have used FFL for teaching myself. I bought Lingua Angelica to go with it and didn't use it that much. It is a really great program though. Maybe it would be good to use over the summer to keep the Latin strong. The music is lovely.

It really depends on the soccer schedule. How many practices will they have? I would definitely wait until you knew that schedule, especially if you have to sign up for a particular day of the week for Tae Kwon Do. Our Tang Soo Do (the precursor to Tae Kwon Do) is very flexible. We go twice a week any days between Mon-Thurs. My kids both just started gymnastics on Mondays and we go two of the other three days to Tang Soo Do. They are in separate classes in gymnastics, but the classes are back-to-back. If you were going to do Tae Kwon Do, I would have the whole family train together. It is excellent for all age levels and you would not believe how much it helps kids to grow in discipline and their abilities to use their bodies. Tae Kwon Do is really something that needs to be a constant for them to advance and not something that is continually stopped and started IMHO. Good luck making decisions! I struggled a lot over adding gymnastics, but it isn't so bad being out of only three nights a week. When we did t-ball, it was 4-5 times a week. My son is going probably going to stop gymnastics during basketball and baseball seasons, but we will cross that bridge when we come to it!

You might really like Bravewriter. I know that I got it heavily discounted from HS Buyers Co-op.

How do you use these books? Do the kids read them on their own or do you do it with them? My son is a pretty good reader. Do you just do a chapter a day a couple of times a week or just let the child dictate how much you do?

My son is in 1st grade. We are a third of the way through RS B and in Miquon Red. Which LOF books would you recommend? Where is the cheapest place to buy them? Thanks!

If you do have to cover it every year, I would just read a few biographies throughout the year. Some other great resources for books that you can read once a week for US History are: SCM's US history books (nicely done and easy to deal with) Stories of Great Americans (short bios of different Americans) I don't know anything about Ohio history, but couldn't you just do a few field trips to different parts of the state and learn that way?

BTW, whatever program you choose, the RS math games are amazing. I cannot say enough good things about them!

We are using Miquon as a supplement and Right Start as our main program. It works really well. We spend about 20 minutes a day on RS and then about 5-10 minutes on Miquon (two separate times, usually with reading, phonics, etc in between). I absolutely love RS. I love the way it teaches math and it works really well for us. I have used MEP a little, but prefer Miquon. My son has learned so much about how math works from that program. The combination is excellent. My daughter is using RS A (she is 4.5 years old). We do about a half a lesson a day, 3 times a week. She loves it and can already do simple addition. I am about to start her in Miquon as well. My suggestion with using Miquon is to let the child play with the c-rods for a couple of weeks before you actually start using the program. You will not believe what they can learn from just playing with these rods. It is amazing. Also, the Lab Annotations, Teachers Guide (can't remember what it is called, but it is cheap), and the First Grade Diary are musts. I actually need to get the First Grade Diary out and look through it again. I did use SM before switching to RS. The workbooks are great and I know that a lot of people love them. My son was REALLY frustrated with having to count all the time. They will have pictures of birds and 5 are on the branch and 3 more are coming up. It really annoyed him. That might not bother a lot of kids though. I do love that RS actually teaches kids not to count. I also like that RS moves a lot more quickly into advanced math. My son is very good at math and in RS B (about a third of the way in), he is adding 4 digit numbers. HE LOVES THIS. I think I honestly should have just not done the workbook for SM and did only the IP and the CWP. If you do go with SM, I can sell you all my stuff. :lol::lol::lol:

I am using AG to teach myself grammar since I never learned it in school! I can't say enough good things about it. It is easy to use and straight forward. Plus, the creators of the system will answer any questions you have and are very friendly and helpful.

I bought the book and use a lot of the selections in our memorization time during morning basket. My kids love the poems included. I add scripture verses and other poems I find as well.

Thank you so much for this post.

You can buy a card deck on the RS website for $6. I am on my kindle so I can't post a link. Sorry!!!!

For the record, I did do kindergarten last year. I just didn't report it since I didn't have to. :D

My kids were having a gymnastics class and we have just started going there (a few weeks ago). Anyway, this mom was complaining about how our state is trying to change the law to make pre-K mandatory. I was telling her that I homeschool and that, under the law, kindergarten isn't even mandatory. I just had to report this year for the first time (we just started 1st grade). This other mom said that kindergarten was definitely mandatory. I told her that the law says it isn't, but that the school system can decide whether to place an older child in kindergarten if they aren't ready for 1st grade. She got really angry and said that she works for the public school system and she should know. Then she stormed out of there. I definitely did not want to be antagonistic at all. I was trying to explain the law to this other mom because she was considering options other than PS for pre-K. She wanted her child to stay home for pre-K. Now I feel bad and embarrassed. I never say anything bad about our school system even though it is definitely terrible. I don't try to convince others to see my side. I basically lie low and only talk to people about homeschooling if they are interested. Our school system is VERY anti-homeschooling and often tries to intimidate people into sending their children to school. Should I apologize next week at gymnastics or should I just pretend like it didn't happen?

My son is 6 and in 1st grade. He spends about 5 minutes on copywork. Sometimes (like today), the sentence will be slightly longer so I will tell him he only has to do half. He usually ends up doing the whole thing though since he loves handwriting.

By the way, if you are interested in what CM expected her students to know, read this. I was shocked when I read it! I would never have passed one of her exams!!!!

I am fairly well versed in CM and have been basically using CM in my homeschool (although I am by no means an expert since we have just started homeschooling). I just recently read the 1st version of LCC. I have to say that it would be very easy to use LCC in a CM manner. So, you could read his suggestions and then have the children narrate. LCC suggests reading a few books carefully which is very in line with CM methods. Usually, you are only supposed to read a few pages of each book per day. As far as the extra subjects, LCC states (I don't have time to find the exact quote right now) that focusing only on a few subjects will leave plenty of extra time for other pursuits. So, the ancient languages, classical studies, Christian studies, etc are the bedrock of your education. These are the things you spend the most time on. Other things such as picture study, art, etc. can be pursued as well, but should not be the focus. I think that is exactly how CM ran her schools. I believe that CM was giving the children a classical education. If you look at her sample exams, they have to know extensive Latin to pass them. She didn't teach Greek and instead focused on French as the second foreign language.

I would add in some fun stuff like picture study, composer study, art, music, etc. Otherwise it looks great!!!

Read this and this. If you still aren't convinced, read this. :seeya: Seriously, I wasn't sold on my kids learning Latin until I started learning Latin myself. I started with First Form Latin and moved into Henle. It really is a serious study and it is such a beautiful and logical language. I really can't see a downside to teaching your children Latin. Like PP said, you could wait until a little later (maybe start First Form in 5th grade), but I am planning on following the Memoria Press track and starting in 2nd or 3rd.

:iagree: I don't have much to add. The program is very spiral which can be good or bad depending on your child. The book is painless to use and is definitely not boring. The man who wrote the books is also easy to get in touch with when you have questions. The included games are really a lot of fun. Even though we switched programs, we still play those. The main reason that I switched was because I read Liping Ma's book and decided to do asian style math. We had a brief period of using Singapore and then switched permanently to Right Start. I have the teacher's manual for Color Math K if you want it. Just PM me.

I have a lot of those art books too. I love them!!!!

My oldest is in first and I plan to use picture books for quite awhile! Books like Akiak and Togo are great picture books for older kids. Also, we will continue to read our mythology, Bible, and world cultures picture books. I love that in Teaching the Classics, he says that you should even use picture books in high school because they are an easier way for a child to analyze a shorter story which can be translated into analyzing a longer story. I have been collecting lots of great picture books and plan to keep using them!