We do read alouds (aka. book on CD in the car) all together. We have a PK4, 1st and 3rd. Prima Latina has been a good fit for us so far. You may want to consider a more structured phonetic spelling curriculum. With kids so close in age, you can all learn the rules and phonograms together.

We pulled our kids from a private school for this year. I have a PK4, 1st and 3rd. We love using the trivium. For much of our stuff (especially science and history), we do memory work from CC. We did join a community but you could do it on your own. Every age and learning style can do memory work in their own way so it's been great. Everyone does hands on stuff together. For the 3rd grader, we reinforce it with more formal ways (independent reading and writing and research), and he does Latin. For the 1st, more age appropriate copywork or visuals or coloring. The PK4 is just along for the ride. We have separate math and LA curriculum.

It's been great for us and as mentioned above my kids have picked up things about each song from the lyrics. It's made the composers familiar so their ears perk up when they hear them in other contexts. I think it's a great gateway.

I would recommend the Brain Integration Therapy Manual and Smart Moves: Why Llearning is not all in Your Head for starters. I would let academics take a back seat while you focus on his emotional needs. I'd also recommend watching the dvd from www.candokids.com for math. Cursive may be a good option because it helps with spacing and is a gross motor skill as opposed to a fine one.

Instead of focusing too much on sitting time, I would buy Carol Kranowitz's How to Raise an In-Sync Child and do those activities with some stuff from blogs like www.icanteachmychild.com or http://www.modernparentsmessykids.com/.

Have you gone through Karyn Purvis' materials? We're doing some pre-training for an intensive training right now and have found her stuff amazing. You can buy her DVDs at http://child.tcu.edu and there are free resources at http://www.empoweredtoconnect.org . From what you've described, I would recommend her video series with her book. The resources at ETC may not be thorough enough. Hugs! I partially feel your pain.

Just found Spelling Town http://funwithphonograms.com/sample. Anyone use it?

Is there anyway to get just the Rule Tunes somewhere? I don't need the entire curriculum and don't want to pay over $200 for just the tunes!

We do pretty much everything by song. Even my non-audio learner picks them up.

Besides SSRW and PR, are there any other spelling programs that use songs to teach the rules?

My kids learned cursive first in K at a local classical school. we are now HSing and my son will learn it first next year when he starts K. It is a gross motor skill so tends to be easier to pick up at young ages. Additionally classic cursive can be taught from only 4 basic strokes (we teach by stroke instead of another order). My DD who tends to mix b's and d's and p's and q's never does with cursive because they are all distinctively different. At our CC community, I've noticed my kids are much more efficient writers because they use cursive. There is research that suggests the brain develops continuity of thought during writing while using cursive that manuscript does not allow. My kids have never struggled with reading manuscript and writing cursive.

ecj98 and jcgonczi, do you mind my asking which schools you are associated with?

thanks guys!

Do you think that introducing a homeschooling option to a school would take away from the community of the existing school?

We are actually helping to launch a hybrid program at our school. There are some concerns at the school so I'm really looking for a classical school that has offered a hybrid program as well so we can seek advice from them and gain advice from their experience. It turns out to be a little less than half for tuition.

Does anyone have any experience using a hybrid of school and homeschooling with a Classical Christian school? Our school is considering offering a homeschool curriculum that will be supported by qualified teachers 2 days a week in the classroom.

Have you heard of Classical Conversations? There's one starting in Northern Maryland (Bel Air). It's a national organization and it seems like anyone can start one. I think there's an active one in Bowie.