There is a cheaper Animal Habitats study put out by WP now, did you see that? It's listed under science programs: http://www.winterpromise.com/animal_habitats.html It would be easy to bring a first grader along for this as well.

((hugs)) to you. Obviously I can't tell you for sure it's do-able, but I know if it were me I would WANT to do it. I think I'd try to figure out a way to buy something less time intense than Virtual Academy for your kiddos... maybe CLE? Or the Timberdoodle packages. Make sure you let/have your older children help out as much as they can.

Here's one more suggestion, Emmy... have you looked at Heart of Dakota? I think you could use Bigger Hearts for His Glory for your oldest. You know I'm a big WP fan, but HOD is my "second in line" if I ever decide to switch, unless I went with Truthquest and did it all on my own.

Another way to add some of the WP fun to world history ala SOTW would be to buy the Hideaways in History program. You could go ahead and get it now and use the first nine weeks this spring along with the end of SOTW1. Then next year, use the second nine weeks with SOTW2. You could still buy some of the QMA activities materials if you think the Hideways and hands on stuff from HIH wouldn't be enough hands on for you. I plan to use Quest for the Ancient World when my oldest is a fourth grader. I will have a first grader then and plan to use the first nine weeks of HIH (with SOTW1) for him. Then when they are in grades 5 and 2 we will do QMA with the second nine weeks of HIH (and SOTW2).

We have loved WinterPromise American Story 1 for my second grader this year. The integrated readers and creative writing from the LA program are great too.

If you are looking at WP LA1, you should not be looking mostly for phonics. LA1 is aimed toward strong fluent readers. Adv K LA is aimed toward students who know their alphabet and are ready to blend sounds, so it is stronger on phonics. We did LA1, after my ds already had a strong background in phonics and was reading well. We LOVED it. It includes Explode the Code 6 and Right Into Reading Book 2, both of which include phonics practice. The strength of WP's LA1 is its awesome readers. It also furnishes weekly creative "narration" or writing practice related to the Amer Story1 or Children Around the World themes. If you want a traditional workbook style LA, with integrated "real book" readers and writing exercises, WP is the program for you. I can't say anything at all about Abeka phonics because I have never used or even seen it.

WinterPromise offers Adventures in the Sea and Sky as a one-year history overview from the vantage point of transportation. It's aimed toward 4th-6th graders, but there is an Older Learner Guide available. That adds high level projects (and more materials) to the study and looks very intriguing to me.

I second the WinterPromise suggestion. I did parts of I'm Ready to Learn with my 4yo this year. I know had I done it with the oldest we likely would have done the whole thing.

((hugs)) to you. Just a bit of comfort... maybe if you get up early, and you're still tired because you didn't sleep as much at night, once you finish school maybe you could get a nap. I'm sorry you're having a tough time sleeping now. Hope the doc can figure out how to help you.

Oh, "no"! It's funny, I'm usually very strict about punctuation and such, but I have "Never" noticed that about the WP catalog, and I've had it downloaded on my desktop for a few weeks, LOL. The Brooks probably "caught" the quotation marks habit from "Sonlight" since they used to use SL years ago.

It depends... and he doesn't ask me to. I take that back a little bit, he does occasionally say, "Are you coming to bed?" if I'm zombied into the computer for 30 min or more after he retires. Mostly we like to go to bed at the same time. It gives us a chance to re-connect as a couple. Sometimes he gets up and goes to the YMCA for a workout at 6, and I don't get up then. But then he comes in for a shower and breakfast/coffee, so I get up around 7. That's when our alarm goes off. If I'm sick or have had a rough night with one of the kids, I may very well sleep in. I love to get up with him and put on the coffee, fix breakfast if he doesn't want cereal, and send him a packed lunch if he's on a health or frugality kick.

I would call the Brooks and ask them if they have any PDF samples they could email you. The whole WAM program has changed significantly, as a previous poster noted. The spine and several other books have been replaced. It's definitely an overview of science and not "specific". This year we have studied: Observation/Scientific Method Trees, Flowers Birds Crustaceans Insects Solids/Liquids/Gases Water Astronomy and we still have some Physics lessons to go. There's more, but that gives you an idea what is included. I am really struggling over the temptation to buy the new resources and IG (it would be my third WAM IG), ROFL. I probably will submit to my weakness in a year or two when the little one is old enough for WAM.

Right... I noticed that in our curriculum as well and realized EXACTLY why they do it. For the same reason that children must ALWAYS add starting on the right side, then moving left, even before they rename/regroup/carry. Teach the proper order and direction of thought in the beginning to avoid confusion later.

I cannot BELIEVE someone is telling you this. Job's comforter indeed! ((hugs)) to you, and I pray that God will give you peace. I believe infertility is as any other illness, an instrument of Satan which God allows to bring about some eternal good... which might be even the very adoption of your children. To believe you are being punished by God, I would have to believe that my MIL (kidney transplant recipient, miraculously surviving decades of lupus) is being punished, which I very much reject. Her life is a testimony to God's grace and healing power, even though she daily struggles to overcome the "fiery darts of the enemy" in her body. Was the flu my family suffered with last week a punishment from God? I cannot believe it was, but instead it was a trial to bring us closer to our Saviour.

My little guys both had Tamiflu a couple of weeks ago. I was so glad they could take it. They only had fever for one day and then mild cough after that. I couldn't take it, being preggers and I'm just now getting over a severe cough. Dh was diagnosed late and his lasted longer too. No side effects here except they vomited a couple of times within a half hour of taking it (sensitive tummies here).

((hugs)). If you are overmedicated, I would think you would know. I got a real buzz postpartum with my last pregnancy because they left me on the same dose for like 8 weeks postpartum as I had been pregnant. I had a headache, and was very lacking in patience (snapped easily).

I vote for waiting until you can get a potty chair. Unless that will make her really stressed out (I know some kids can be hard to dissuade once they have their mind made up on something).

I am coming to WP from a Pathway Readers/Learning Through Sounds background. In that setting, 6 or 7yo children come to first grade without any K background. They learn horizontal phonics, but all in one year. So the kiddos go from learning the ABCs to reading More Days Go By (similar level to the Step 3 readers at WP's LA1) in one year. With that background, the easy readers, build fluency over 2-3 years approach seems foreign.

We did WinterPromise Animals and Their Worlds for first grade, but it's a whole theme, not just science. The next little guy will likely do Singapore Start Up science and parts of World Around Me from WinterPromise.

I agree, BJU Math sounds like a great fit for you and your student. The super part about it also is that for Jr. High and high school you can always go to the DVDs if you need teaching assistance. This is our first year with BJU Math and we have loved it. I was always scared it would be too teacher intensive or didn't want to spend a bit more for the program, but it has been well worth it and NOT all that teacher intensive. We love BJU.

I think it sounds like you have an SL kid on your hands! Even though I love WP I know we would probably like SL if it were our cuppa tea, which it's just not a fit. I agree with the previous poster who recommended you not just pick a history Core based on the child's age. The Core K material seems plenty steep in comprehension difficulty for a first grader and by going a level "below" it saves you from having too-hard material to wade through in later years, as there are some "jumps" in maturity at the Core 3 and Core 5 levels from what I have read.

Oh, I sure do love hs boards! I thought my ds8 was an oddity! Ever since he was 5, we have had little dramatic episodes with math, not frequently, but when they happen they are so terrible. One way I have found to get around it is to decrease the number of problems assigned daily on the topic he seems to have difficulty wrapping his mind around. Instead of doing all of those problems in one day, we might do half of them and half of a totally different topic on the same day, so we do the same number but in a different order than typically assigned. I'm hoping we will avoid the issue completely this chapter, as we're on 4 digit addition and subtraction. If not, I'm prepared to skip over to the division chapter to mix things up a bit. (We had a long row of very terrible dramatic episodes when we tried a spiral curriculum, because ds could see there was no end in sight to the identical looking lessons).

WP *does* include address and alphabetizing. It's part of the instructor guide, so you wouldn't know that unless you got your hands on the guide. SL and WP are hugely different in style. WP is a workbook based traditional style LA program, which uses vertical phonics to teach children to read. Because of the vertical phonics, children become prolific readers while still writing novices. (so sometimes WP readers look a bit tough for the grade level assigned). SL uses a more "natural" Ruth Beechick style of LA, with copywork and dictation (from what I understand), more holistic and whole language-y and without workbooks. Their readers tend to be more of a typical grade level for the child's age. Those of you who have experience with SL LA need to set me straight if I'm incorrect on any of this, as it's just from reading the catalog and looking on the website. We are happy with WP LA here. It has a gentle but solid feel and I plan to continue with it.

:lurk5:

We have used BJU Math for the first time this year, and for the first time both ds and I are satisfied with our Math program. It is such a relief to see that ds's natural math ability is beginning to resurface after I allowed it to be dampened by boring math programs.