Like others, I don't do phonics, as spelling covers this. On a good week our schedule is: Spelling: 4 days (15 min/day) - This includes dictations. Handwriting: 4 days (5 min/day) - Right now we're concentrating on a letter each day. This will include more copywork once we've got letter formation down Writing: 4 days (about 10 min/day) - This incorporates narrations, dictations, and copywork. Grammar: 2 days (5-10 min/day) - This includes narrations, dictations, and copywork. Independent reading: 15 - 30 min/day, while I do phonics and guided reading with DD4 We also do narrations during history and science, and after "assigned books."

:iagree: :D

I'm an SE user. :) I haven't compared US with SE; I just knew from other posts that I wanted the SE HIGs to accompany the lessons. The teaching ideas in the HIGs have been valuable for me. (I don't use them for the answers ... yet! :tongue_smilie:) I am also one of those who uses the IP a half-level behind. I do this not because the SE edition has somehow put DD further behind, but because I want her to be consistently reviewing previous concepts while she's encountering higher-level ideas in the textbook/workbook. Right now she's using CWPs on level but a few units behind -- again, it's providing a great review of concepts. I haven't really noticed any difficulties arise from using the IP and CWPs along with the SE, but I have only checked through 2A. However ... if you're using the US Edition, and it's working for you, then I would absolutely stay with it. I just thought I'd share a few of the reasons why some of us may bring in different books at different points in the program.

Welcome to homeschooling! I feel that I can only really comment on your K selections. Saxon K is a good kindergarten choice, although you may find with a student as bright as yours that she will finish it quite quickly. (It's a very, very gentle K program.) If you end up in that situation, as I did, I'd recommend adding in some Miquon Math or Singapore Essential Math K. You could, of course, go into Saxon 1 early; however, I found that the leap in terms of writing expectations for my children was too much. I would definitely keep all of your students studying the same time period in history, and the same general topic in science. SOTW is a great read-aloud for any age, and can be easily ramped up for older students and kept simple and light for younger ones. I highly recommend it. RS4K is one science curriculum that offers the same subject (i.e. biology) at different levels and in very complementary ways. If you went with something like that, then all of your children would be studying the same science topic and their readings would actually be reinforcing each others' learning. It has mixed reviews (I like it, but would probably only get it in PDF form in the future). As for boxed curriculum ... I haven't considered any simply because I know that I am prone to tweaking the very best programs anyways. :tongue_smilie: At least if I mix and match my programs to suit my students' academic levels in each subject area, I have slightly less tweaking ahead of me!

If you go the route of Singapore (which both I and my daughters love), then invest in the Home Instructor's Guides for each level. They are worth their weight in gold, and help us as instructors understand the "why" behind some of the approaches. Singapore has a good K program (Essential Mathematics) if you want to start that early. If you're math-shy, something easy but slightly structured like that may ease you all into the Singapore Math program. (I've heard that Earlybird, another Singapore K program, isn't nearly as impressive. I don't know about that, but I know I've been very happy with Essential Math.) Hope that helps ...

We use Singapore SE as our main spine, with Miquon about once a week. I also use Math Mammoth to provide reinforcement on some topics.

Oh, I'm so glad to hear this. I've been doing this but have felt like I'm cheating. Now I can continue guilt-free, knowing that others in the Hive do the same! :)

Wow. Bill, as always, you've given me lots to think about. Thanks for offering such a thoughtful response to the initial question. I need to put my thinking cap on for a bit now ...

I recommend that you go with the Standards Edition (SE), as the Home Instructor's Guide is excellent. For Grade 1, you'll want: SE Home Instructor's Guide (1A and 1B) SE Student Textbook (1A and 1B) SE Student Workbook (1A and 1B) Materials that you MAY want to look at include: Extra Practice 1: This is for students who are struggling or need extra practice. I doubt you'll need this as you're using Math Mammoth, though. Challenging Word Problems 1: These are challenging. I'm using the CWP several units behind where we are in the text, while some have used them a full grade behind and still been very happy with them. Intensive Practice 1A/1B: These provide students deeper-level questions. If you have a student who finds the everyday workbook too easy, then the IP is for you. I use the IP a half-level behind as a review. Hope this helps! ETA: I wonder if by materials you were asking about manipulatives? Apologies if I misunderstood you: the important manipulatives for us have been counters (beans, paper clips, lego blocks will work) and the cards that are in the back of the SM HIGs. We've started using our Base 10 set a bit more in 1B and I'm glad we've got it on hand.

Too funny -- I just blogged about Miquon last night! You can find the post here. I also blogged about it last spring.

Wonderful!

I haven't been there, but ... you could get a set of phonograms from AAS and review them with her. I'm using AAS as our main spelling program, and it's doing double-duty as both a spelling program with DD6 and a phonics program with DD4. They sell the phonogram sets separately so you could use those on their own.

And I should have said that I agree with nursewithgrace -- the pressure on homeschoolers can be huge, whether it's externally or internally generated. If your curriculum ends up taking 2 weeks, it isn't that big of a deal in the long run: spend the time just reading together, exploring together, doing crafts and projects together, etc. It won't be wasted time by any means, as you'll all spend that time figuring out how your days might work, what your learning / working styles are like, and what areas you really want to focus on in the upcoming year. Hope this helps. :grouphug:

Welcome to Ontario! I just posted a list of homeschool resources sites that cater to those of us living in Canada here. It can take a while to hunt down suppliers that ship to Canada ... ETA: Handwriting Without Tears is at Teachers Little Helper. I've had good luck with them in the past.

This is so important. If you were to look at my blog, for example, you'd see a recent post featuring lots of cool projects that we did together. It might give the impression that this is how we do school all of the time. In reality I try to incorporate one interesting project a week, which represents perhaps 5-10% of the time that we spend on school. Still, it's that 5-10% that I talk about and take pictures of because it's a lot more interesting than talking about copywork and math drill sheets. :-) Realizing this about myself has helped me when I read other blogs where the kids are doing wonderful projects. I suspect that other parents, too, post the highlights. (Who wouldn't?) I now give myself permission to say "no" to projects when they're just too much to fit in. :001_smile: And, like you said, I just keep reminding myself of all of the good stuff that we actually do get to do together.

Five in a Row was a big hit here. I loved how my daughters' appreciation for art and geography developed through it. I'm using Singapore Essential Math with DD4, along with Miquon. It's been a really good fit for her, as she loves worksheets and structure but doesn't have the writing skills to keep up with it. DD4 is also sitting in on AAS lessons as she wants. She loves it, and it's a terrific review of phonics. (She did Jolly Phonics last year and, like your student, knows her letter sounds very well and is now reading.) We do 5 minutes of handwriting practice a day using a worksheet. I'm also making worksheets with sentences for her to trace or copy accompanied by a picture to colour. All of those are giving her the structure she wants. I mostly encourage her to play, though ... :-)

I used Educational Fontware to create a desk strip with a sample of every letter in both lower and upper case. My daughters are expected to bring it to the table along with their pencils every day. If I am asking DD6 to copy a sentence that appears in traditional manuscript font, I just point out to her that the handwriting we're using makes some letter shapes differently. She refers to the desk strip for tricky letters and mostly gets them all correctly. Whenever I am creating our own worksheets or copywork from scratch, I use the GD font from Educational Fontware to create it. (I tried StartWrite, but have a Mac and thus could only access the older version. It seemed way too clunky to use on a regular basis, so I splurged and got the font.)

Thanks for this!

My daughters have effortlessly moved from Saxon K to Miquon and Singapore. The strengths of Saxon K are, in my opinion: daily review of days, months, year daily pattern-building daily counting together (I forget to do this sometimes) gentle, oral lessons using manipulatives I'd agree with the idea that Saxon K is gentle enough to be considered pre-school (or K4).

Thanks for sharing my excitement. I HAD to tell someone about it! :party:

Lots of hits ... Story of the World (Ancients) is wonderful. We're using the Activity Guide, and even though I'm not a project person, I'm loving the projects. Animal studies along Well-Trained Mind recommendations, incorporating Draw Write Now - these are a highlight. Math is a favourite subject now that we're using Miquon as a lab once a week and Singapore on other days (Essential Math for DD4 and SM 1 for DD6). Writing With Ease 1 is perfect; in fact, DD4 has demanded a writing program for her now. Hoo boy. FLL 2 - A gentle, oral grammar program that we all enjoy. AAS - Again, DD4 wants in on the fun and is now starting AAS 1. Evan Moore Geography for Beginners - My girls beg for this regularly, too. Song School Latin - We all love this one! The only near-miss is Le Francais Facile Junior. It's okay, and it's probably one of the best programs out there for French. (There really aren't many!). I happen to have a mom who is a French / Spanish teacher, however, and in her hands the curriculum is being adapted and expanded to work well for my students. Without those fun extras that she builds in, I wouldn't recommend the program for kids this age.

Funny -- I was just coming here to share some of my AAS excitement, and saw your post! Today on our nature walk, DD6 wanted to label the picture she drew of a milkweed pod. She asked me, "Is it one of those compound words that we learned about?" When I responded in the affirmative, she nodded: "Okay, then I know how to do that," and promptly labeled her picture (correctly). I love seeing that kind of confidence in a child who just a few months ago would ask me how to spell CVC words. AAS has helped her make the connection between reading and spelling.

:bigear:

I agree with this - Saxon K is very, very gentle. (We prefer Miquon and Singapore Earlybird around here, but both my girls did Saxon K early on and found it gentle, interactive, and easy.)

We're in the middle of studying animals the WTM way, and I am so happy with this approach. It takes me about 1 minute to get ready for each lesson, which is great for me. It's also great for my girls: they BEG for science every day. We use Draw Write Now in conjunction with our study, and that seems to be the selling point for my girls. We read about an animal in an early animal encyclopedia (either DK or Kingfisher). Then I ask the girls to each tell me something that they remember, which I write down on a notebook page for them. (DD6 is expected to remember about 3 sentences worth of information; DD4 just one.) Then we pull out the related Draw Write Now book and they draw a picture. We're all learning, all relaxed, and all loving it.