I like to keep all of my kids together in history, so I just fold the little ones in at whatever level they are. Truthquest works pretty well for this. It only does American History for the early elementary years and gives suggestions for books for K-5 in their guides for younger children. Their upper level guides give suggestions for 5-12. Jean

I really enjoy the SL history and literature, but you have a point about feeling trapped in a schedule. When I do SL, sometimes it's hard for me just to go with the flow instead of feeling stressed -- if the IG says week five, day four that's where I want to be!! Really have to fight my box-checker tendencies! If you can be aware of that and give yourself the freedom to do it at your own pace, SL is a good program. I'm looking at Biblioplan at this stage because I don't want to do two cores or more of SL at a time. (My five youngest children are seven years apart.) But it's not a permanent decision. You could try SL now and switch to Biblioplan when you're ready to combine your two children. I love the SL books so much, that if I do decide to go with Biblioplan I would definitely incorporate many of the SL books into it. Jean

I like the child-directed concept at that age. Things my kiddos have liked: Usborne books: Science Encyclopedia, Science Activities and Wild Places stand out in my memory. Apologia: they all really liked Astronomy and Swimming Creatures. We really like the Christian Liberty nature Readers too. Jean

Honestly? I don't think you need to schedule that much academic time with a first grader. My goal with a child that age would be ten minute blocks -- ten min. of FLL, ten of WWE, ten of MM.... Ten minutes of focused attention goes a long ways, and an hour of academics a day is about right for that age. I might skip the WW altogether unless you're doing it for fun. And if your work schedule gets tight, you shouldn't feel guilty about skipping history and science either at this age. Jean, mom to ten: 30, 28, 28, 24, 22, 13, 11, 9, 7 and 6.

We like Apologia also! My 11 and 12 yo are doing Swimming Creatures right now and every night at dinner they tell us what they've read. We're all fascinated! I also really like the Christian Liberty Nature Readers. I read them aloud to the younger ones, or they read them on their own and narrate to me. We're learning a lot from them as well. Jean

I have bought SL Cores K-5 used. Usually I try to buy a complete core, but sometimes have to search for a few things that are missing. I try to purchase at least a year in advance to give myself time to search for the best deals. I enjoy the "hunt" and have purchased all the cores for about half the price of new. It takes some time, but I think it's fun. If I didn't enjoy it, or it made me feel stressed I would buy it new. So you probably need to evaluate it you would like the search enough to spend time on it, or if you'd rather just buy new. Jean

Ruth Beechick's three skinny little books, A Strong Start in Math, Reading, Language. Her ideas are simple, effective, fun and gentle. No bells and whistles, just one-on-one learning/discipleship. They accomplish exactly what a child needs in a short amount of time so that they have lots of time for their real job -- being a child! Jean

I'd like to know too! I'm curious about Galloping the Globe as well, if anyone can chime in on that one. Thanks!

We plan to homeschool our youngest five through high school. Our oldest five went to private schools for high school, and while it wasn't a bad experience we are choosing not to repeat it.

I hear several people recommending MFW and HOD. Both programs look good to me, but could someone jump in here with specific suggestions for age range? I have five children, ages 6-13 at home right now. Does anyone have experience with using one level of those for that much of an age range, or would you need to be using separate levels? Thanks -- hope I'm not hijacking!

I'm having difficulty finding a LA program that I really like. We've been using a variety of things, mostly CM 'ish materials. I'd like something that my almost jr. high students can be mostly independent in and something that will build a good foundation for the younger ones. So, I'm looking at R&S and CLE and my question is this: We haven't used diagramming to learn grammar thus far and I'm wondering if my olders will be totally lost if we switch now? TIA

We have really enjoyed Sonlight and it works well for combining up to a certain point. For instance, it is quite easy to combine children up to three or four years apart. Any more than that and it gets a bit difficult in my opinion. Truthquest has worked very well for us also in combining children with a wider age range. The TQ guides give book suggestions for multiple age levels. Jean

DawnL, If your 10 yo is naturally good at spelling, you don't necessarily need to use a spelling program with her. Another option would be to pull words out of her reading or writing assignments that she struggles with and make a list of those words. Or you could use AAS but at a faster pace. For instance, you could try just dictating some of the sentences to her and if she does fine with that go on to the next lesson. If you hit a snag you can just work on that. Jean