When does it start becoming less teacher intensive? I guess that RS C is a little less teacher intensive than A or B. He does usually have a worksheet that he can work on his own with after we have gone through the lesson. If D is less teacher intensive than C, I might just stick with it. I really love the way it teaches math and it is a perfect combination with Miquon (which has added practice). Maybe I should just not do it every.single.day.

We have been doing Right Start for a couple of years now. I am having a baby in June which will bring our family to 4 kids. I absolutely love Right Start A and B and will do that with all of my kids. I am getting a little bogged down in Right Start C. There is so much geometry. It seems to be a lot of work for me and I am unsure about the benefits. I am wondering if I should just switch to MM3 for next year (my oldest will be in 3rd). He has already covered some of this in RS C, but not everything. I am wondering if it would be good to have one less kid in such a mom intensive program. For those of you who use RS, when do you switch? What are the benefits to sticking it out? I really do love RS, but just feel there is so much extra stuff in there that I am not sure it is necessary. Also, I can't imagine having 3 kids at once in RS. It just takes so long every day. For those of you who like MM, is it comprehensive? How much time would I need to spend working with my child? He is very mathy and has done Right Start and Miquon (he is still going to do Miquon until he is done with the books).

I agree with combining in subjects. I cannot imagine doing all subjects separately! We combine in catechism, science, history, and morning basket time (our read aloud time where we do mythology, fairy tales, history, nature study, etc). I just try to focus some books for each child. Most everything is focused on the level of my oldest children, but I add in some books for my 4 year old as well. My oldest also reads a lot to my 4 year old. He loves to do that.

My son loves weaving, latch hooks, painting, and drawing. We are going to try to do basketweaving next year since he is so into American Indians.

The school district in the next county over from us tests incoming kindergarteners. If they cannot read CVC words, they are put in remedial reading classes and are usually stuck there until the end of 2nd grade. It is completely insane. My biggest regret was falling for the pressure to my oldest in pre-K. They taught him whole language and it took me months to deprogram him from pre-K. It was the biggest mistake I ever made with my kids.

dp

Double post

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Nope. :gnorsi:

I love doing the dictation exercises in Spelling Wisdom by Simply Charlotte Mason. Doing dictation is really easy and my son has really blossomed since we started doing dictation. Here is a good description of how to do dictation.

I bought the 500 kit for my son for his birthday (I bought him 100 for Christmas) and he loves it. It has A LOT more for the kids to do. He has started getting confident enough to make his own circuits as well. I'm glad I bought 100 first so that he wasn't overwhelmed, but he was ready to move on pretty quickly from there.

One more Faber question: which books could kids share and which books would they need their own?

Daily (4 times a week): Latin Grammar (starting in second grade) Handwriting/Copywork Dictation Math Reading/Phonics Religion Read Alouds 2 times a week: History Science 1 time a week: Geography Nature Study Drawing/Painting Picture Study

Faber looks really promising! Which products do you use? There are a lot of products listed on their website!!!!

I am wanting to start teaching my kids piano. I thought about outsourcing it, but we already spend too much time out of the house with gymnastics and team sports. I bought the first Suzuki book, but honestly I feel like I would need to train too much to teach Suzuki. I'd like something that teaches a little bit of music theory along with the proper fingerings. I'd also like something that will not be stressful for me! I am planning on teaching my 8 and 6 year olds. Thanks!

I haven't finished reading the posts, but I just wanted to say what I have taken away from it all. I have realized over the past couple of years that I cannot give what I do not have. I have realized that I need to educate myself first. I need to learn Latin, read good books, read philosophy, pray, and grow in wisdom. I need to enter the great conversation myself before I can help my children enter the conversation. I have given myself permission (which was hard) to give myself time each day for prayer and reading. I give myself quiet time in the day to contemplate. Often this time comes while I am cleaning the kitchen in silence. I never realized that my own education was so lacking. I went to a top college and then a top law school. I majored in literature yet I read very few of the great books and even fewer of the good books. I think part of teaching from a state of rest is not panicking about what you don't know. Instead, we just start learning and reading now. Every book I finish (whether philosophy or literature) has brought me deeper wisdom and more confidence in my ability to lead the education of my children. I am not going to lie. I feel very inadequate amongst so much wisdom on these boards, but we all have to start somewhere. Honestly, I learn a lot along with my kids. I never realized there was beauty in math until I started teaching my kids. I never realized the delight in reading a great story aloud with my kids. I never realized that poetry is best spoken and not read. I never read poetry aloud in college. No wonder I never saw the beauty! I never knew that there was beauty in grammar (probably because I was never taught grammar). I am learning along with my son and loving it. I put a lot of work into planning my childrens' education. I do the best I can and it is extremely important to me. But that said, I allow the Holy Spirit to lead my homeschool. A lot of times we veer from my plan, but it always turns out better that way. I think it is important to have a plan, but to be flexible with it. I go at the pace my children need. I don't feel any guilt about speeding up or slowing down. I am only concerned that they master something before moving on. I get scared sometimes when I listen to homeschool talks where they basically act like just living your life is education enough. I actually listened to part of a talk today where she was saying that multiplication tables don't matter and we all need to just make learning relevant to your kids (if they like horses, do math about horses, science about horses, history about horses, etc). I guess to me that isn't the definition of teaching from a state of rest. I feel like we need to expose our kids to the good, the true, and the beautiful and set out the feast of beautiful ideas that Charlotte Mason talks about. You never know where your child will see truth. Some of the books and ideas that have really resonated beauty to my children have shocked me. Who knew that they would find geography so inspiring? Who knew that Thornton Burgess books could bring absolute delight to our dinner table every night? I'm looking forward to reading the rest of these posts!

I started with First Form Latin which was really helpful for me. Once I was about half way through and a little more confident, I switched to Henle I. I have Wheelock's as well, but Henle is very much superior. There are so many translations to do and I have learned so much. I cannot recommend it enough. I am about half way through Henle I.

I love their paint supplies. I got the carrier, the paint, the paintbrushes, and the no spill cups. It makes clean-up VERY easy and painting is less stressful.

We usually school year round, but I am having a baby in June so we are taking June and July off. I am planning on having my oldest (rising 3rd grade) do some Latin review a couple of times a week. Both of the my kids will do (probably twice a week) a Miquon sheet, some handwriting, and a little reading). We will keep some of our read alouds going as well. At least that is the plan. We will see what sleep deprivation does to that plan!

My kids are slightly older than yours, but this is what we do (and we read a lot of books): We do our history read for breakfast (right now Mara Pratt's American Stories) We just started doing history for breakfast this year. It was folktales up until now. We do our fun read aloud for lunch. (Mr. Popper's Penguins, Pippi Longstocking, Paddington Bear, etc) We do our Thornton Burgess during dinner because Daddy loves it. (Bobby Coon, Old Granny Fox, Bowser the Hound, etc). I can tell you that my 3 year old LOVES these books. He doesn't really get the history as much, but loves the other read alouds. We also do Morning Basket or Circle Time a few times a week. This is when we read Bible stories, a poem a day, fairy tales, saint stories, nature books, Greek history and mythology (I wouldn't start this until your oldest is probably 7). We do about 5-6 books a day with VERY short readings (1-3 pages per book). My oldest reads a couple of picture books to the littles every day and I do picture books before nap and before bed. We really do read a lot. We probably read for 1.5-2 hours per day. This is the focus of our homeschool. I would start slow. Do a book with lunch. Pick a fun book (My Father's Dragon, Tum Tum and Nutmeg, Mr. Popper's Penguins, etc). Commit yourself to do at least two picture books per day. Then just add on from there once you get into that habit. Don't stress about it. You don't need to have anxiety about this. These are family memories that can really bring you together and give you common things to talk about. I cannot recommend a family read aloud enough (with Daddy too). This is the highlight of our day. Some tips: Reading while eating helps younger kids focus Keep the readings short. Stop BEFORE they stop paying attention. My kids love to color while listening to me read. A lot of these books have black and white pictures in the books. You can photocopy them and let your kids color while you read. Pick really fun delightful books and stories. There is something to be said for funny books too! Read poetry. Just read a poem. No discussion. Just let them start to get used to poetry. My kids love poems about animals. Don't forget picture books! Look for picture books with beautiful artwork and story lines. Read with excitement. Use different voices for different characters. Laugh with your kid at the funny parts. Don't stress! Build slowly and have fun!!!!

This is what I am struggling with right now. I am very CM at heart and love the rich feast that she lays for children, but it can feel kind of overwhelming to me at times to keep up with picture study, composer study, learning hymns, handiwork, and multiple books. I can see the benefits to multum non multa though. You can really dig deeply into what you are learning. You have more time to spend on subjects such as Latin that will build a foundation as the child grows. That said, so much of the delight from our homeschool comes in the books we read. How do you strike the balance?

We started with Prima Latina and it really had a lot of grammar in it. I don't think we needed grammar to prepare for it. I do Seton English which gives a lot more work on English grammar. I think you can start Latin and grammar at the same time.

I do my own geography. It takes me about 15-20 minutes to get it all set each week, but my kids love it and are learning a lot. At first, you can discuss the continents and overall geography and then move into each particular continent in detail. Here is an example of a lesson for us. I print out maps for free on this site. I print out a map with all the country names, etc, but I take off all the extraneous things to make the map simpler for my children. Then I print off a blank map without all the names, etc. I also print out two maps of the particular country we are working on. Here is the list of what I say to my children: Asia Lesson 7: Japan Get out the Asia map. 1. Color China red. 2. Color Mongolia orange. 3. Color Russia yellow. 4. Color North Korea blue. 5. Color South Korea green. 6. Write a capital P on the Pacific Ocean. Get out the map of Japan. 1. Find Tokyo. Write a capital letter T. 2. Find the Yellow Sea and write a capital letter Y. 3. Find the Sea of Japan and write a capital letter J. 4. Find the island of Hokkaido and mark it with a capital letter H. 5. Which island is Tokyo on? 6. How many large islands make up Japan? 7. Find Hiroshima. Mark it with a lowercase h. When we do geography, it takes about 15 minutes (sometimes longer because my son likes to color very carefully). I do this with my 2nd grader and kindergartener. My kindergartener needs a little assistance, but they seriously can remember where these countries are when they color the next week. I will sometimes get a picture book to read that goes along with the country, but that isn't necessary. For Japan, we did this book.

I am doing my planning for next year. My second grader completed PL this year and it went really well. I am using LCI next year, but it definitely looks more involved! How do you implement LCI? Can you share how many days a week you do it and what you cover each day? I'm trying to figure out the best way to implement the program. I won't be doing the Famous Men of Rome with it this year so I don't need to worry about that! Also, I started learning Latin myself with First Form I and then went into Henle I. I really don't like the different types of notation. It was hard for me to learn the Henle notation after working with First Form. Is it easier for a child to transition between the two types of notation? I'm just not sure why the don't use the same notation!!! Part of me wants to correct the whole book.

Which Thames & Kosmos sets did you like?