For some reason, I am not able to open the link. Can someone email the pdf? My email is hobbystamper at hotmail dot com. Thank you so much!

Thanks for the recommendation! I have been looking for something other than my current manual method which makes it tedious to move something that we didn't get to do to another day. The bump feature looks really neat. :) Thanks!!

I am currently teaching two but the third one always "want to do homeschool." So essentially, I have three at the same time. This is my first year and I tried what you mentioned - getting all to be working at the same time. I constantly ended up being frustrated especially when all three were whining at the same time. This past week, my oldest suggested something different and we tried it. It worked so much better. I started with my K'er and spent an hour with him on math and reading program. In the mean time, my 2nd grader is reading/playing with my youngest. When k'er is done, I focused on my 2nd grader and spent the rest of the time with her. There isn't all three working at the same time now. I am not as frustrated. If you are wondering what i am doing with my 3yo, well, she basically does coloring, tracing letters and all that.. still occasionally she would say "mommy, I need help." So when I let all three work at the same time, there were times when all three were saying that at the same time. I don't think if someone is not doing any "work" at any time, that is wasting time. You can let that one go on a break or do some of the independent read. Hope this helps.

It is the same situation here.. that was why I picked ES in the first place. But there was not many OE science curriculum that in the end I picked Apologia (YE) and just skipped over the parts that talked about that. So far, there was only one or two portions that had a brief discussion (we are at chapter 4), but other than that, it is pretty ok.

I bought ES Biology for my 2nd grader in Aug. It was so boring that we kept skipping it. In the end, we switched to Apologia and are loving it. It does not really work for my kiddos and me.

Same here. We used both WWE and WWW together. We are not doing GWG but just FLL. It is a bit slow for FLL 1 and 2 and so we did more than 1 lessons at one sitting.

Hi I am wondering if anyone use the SOTW tests? If so, how do you use them (after every chapter)? Are the tests necessary? I am wondering if they are helpful to help with retention (we do narration). Thanks.

I just went to the site and it is fixed now. Going shopping now.. :)

There is an article today from the creator of AAS on that issue: http://www.allaboutlearningpress.com/how-to-solve-b-d-reversal-problems/ Hope the link works.

My DD who is in second grade is using her grade level WWW. It is a bit easy for her, but it does teach the concepts well. We love it here.

Thanks for your advice. They are so precious to me. I am praying every morning for God to help me to have the patience... because I definitely cannot do it on my own. I guess part of all these are caused by my own self-induced pressure that I must succeed in hs-ing them to justify why we are hs-ing them. I guess deep down I might have feared that what if my DS still could not read (under my "teaching), what if I am ruining my kids' education, what ifs... etc. I do read blogs but sometimes that leaves me feeling more insecured because they all seem to have it together while here I am, struggling.. I will definitely check in here more often for creative ideas because I am so not creative when it comes to teaching.

Hi I am new to homeschooling. I just started in Aug. I was a full time working mom before this. We basically started homeschooling because we felt called to do this. I need some advice really badly. I am still struggling with my role change from a fulltime working mom to a full time homeschooling mom. I feel like I am not a good teacher to my kids. I am not patient. I tried very hard but when they are not focusing on their work and they simply said "i don't know" without trying, I just get so frustrated. For eg. my son would look at a word (we are learning to read here), and said I don't know. But he knows each sound from that word, and when I prompt him letter by letter, he could do it. So it is not that they don't know, but they are just not putting in the effort. Anyway, i need advice on two things: 1) How do you keep your patience with your child during school? Any strategies or tips? 2) Any tips on helping them to focus in their schoolwork? Or is this something they will outgrow in time to come? Thanks.

I thought I was the only one. Even though I called it the Fun math with my kids, I didn't enjoy teaching it. I don't really know why until I read the posts.. it is the transitioning and so many different thing in one session. I also do SM with my kids and I enjoy that a whole lot better. I do plan on sticking with it since the kids are not complaining about RS and it does complement SM in some ways..

I too started using them this week. I love the colors and that it gets the kids excited about writing on white board (to change things up a bit at times). BUT i dislike the fact that they do stain the carpet a bit. We were sitting on the carpet doing AAS, DD left the crayon on the carpet. We were working on the key cards and she didn't realize that her foot was rubbing the crayon as she talked. Before I knew it, I saw the crayon marks on the carpet, I had to quickly try to clean it off. It did come off some but I am not sure if it would have if i had not discovered it right away. Overall, it is good provided that you keep track of where the crayons are. :)

We are doing WWE and Winning with Writing. DD loves WWW so far. WWE seemed kind of slow for her at this stage (level 1).

I was using AAS at the beginning of the school year and I didn't really like the dictation list at the back. It seems so disjointed and make no sense without the words being in a context and DD has a hard time understanding it. I chanced upon SW and bought it. I actually first tried one of the sample page and DD and I love it. So what i do now is to use AAS for the spelling rules and then use SW for the dictation passage. I got the online version because I like to print it out and DD use the printed page as her working copy to practice words she does not understand etc. Then she does her dictation on a piece of paper. We are enjoying it.

I too skipped it initially.. but then I ordered it after a week of SOTW without it. I love it because it helps with the pronunciations and it gives a break from all the read alouds I have to do. I also download it on my phone and so we listen to it when we are out and about and we needed to catch up on our history. I will definitely keep ordering the audio.

Thanks!! This is a great article! I have bookmarked all the links she mentioned. :)

So I am going to invest in a proclick... and a laminating machine Here are my questions: 1) what size spine should I get? 2 )I read that some of you use some spirals thingy instead of the spines which is cheaper, may I know where do you buy them? 3) If you have a laminating machine, which one did you get? There are so many choices and I cannot figure which is a good one. Thanks!!

Hi, My DD is the same age as yours. She was also in first grade last year. I wanted to start her right at the beginning. I started her at Level 1 and it went by so quickly. We do about 2-3 lessons a day and four weeks later, we are about half way done with Level 1. I think once we start with level 2, we will probably go slower. If you think her foundation is pretty good, I think you can start with level 2. Level 1 is pretty basic - nouns, pronouns etc. But I like the poems, narration etc. We are new to homeschooling and so this easy first book has really ease us into it. HTH.

Oh I see. So my understanding of copy work is correct then? That i only need to get DD to write once? Thanks! :001_smile:

I just got my copy of WWE level 1 and plan to start using it with DD next week. I am a bit confused about why are there so many lines for the copy work for Day 1 week 1? Is she supposed to write it a few times? Or is copy work about writing it well ONE time? This is my first week of hs, hence i am really new to all these. :001_smile:

Hi, I just started using AAS level 1 with DD and I have 2 questions. We are at the step where she is required to spell using the tiles. She finds it slow to look for the tiles and would prefer to spell the words verbally. My question is whether spelling using the tiles is an important step that the creator of AAS has developed for something later on or can she just skip that step and spell verbally. My DD is in 2nd Grade but since I am new to hs, i decided to go ahead and start her at level 1. As a result, up till this point in time (step 9), she got a lot of the words right. My second question has to do with "th". I listened to the CD and the two sounds for "th" sound really different from what I envisioned "three" and "then" to sound like. Can someone enlighten me how should I pronounce "th"? Thanks.

I was trying to read Little House in the Woods. :) THey are fine when I read books with pictures because they want to look at pictures. As soon as I pick up a book with no pictures (or very little pictures), they groan and I lose them. Ok, I will keep pressing on and try to read short section instead of going by half a chapter. Sometimes it is hard to stop when the story was building up and I was looking for a convenient break in a story to stop. Should I even try to get either of them to narrate or should I wait till they could pay attention to me?

Hi everyone, I am new to homeschooling and I just started this past week. The first week is really draining mentally as I juggle to attend to two kids doing school. I think as I get used to the new routine, this will get better. I do need suggestions on how to get my kids (7yo and 5 yo) to focus during read alouds. It gets so discouraging for me when I feel that they are not really listening but is getting really distracted. When i asked them what i have read, they said they don't know. I feel like I am reading to a wall. My DS is also an active little boy who cannot sit still and so he gets really distracted easily. I know part of the beauty of hs is that he can be himself without being forced to sit still (in a ps). However, it also makes it hard for me to "teach" or read anything to him. I would appreciate any suggestions. Thanks!