CC is coming to our area next year. We have an informational meeting this weekend. I have been on-line trying to find out all that I can. I also am on the fence. Our best year of homeschooling was the year that we did not take any outside co-op classes. My four ds' always remind me of this. The only reason I would do it...is because I will have a ninth grader next year and I like the accountability, although I was looking forward to doing great books with him. I always have grand ideas, but now it is harder to implement when they are all moving in different directions at different levels. I had them watch the videos on the site and they really do not want to do it....but I told them that dad and I will make the decision. I would be interested in hearing from someone who has participated for a few years.

Three of my four boys loved Typing Instructor Deluxe.

We have used Prima Latina and are now into Latina Christiana. I agree with the others that you do need a grammar program. We used FLL 1 and 2 and really enjoyed it. We are now using FLL 3 for one and the older boys have been using R&S.

I would suggest HWOT as well. Also, they hold seminars all around the country and I attended one and it was so helpful. They teach you how to teach your child. Three of my four had very poor fine motor skills. When the oldest was in PS (K) they suggested that I have him work with an OT. It was expensive and not worth it IMO. I have found that working with HWOT and using Ready Writer and Callerobics as supplemental work has been as effective as the OT. Also, 5 is very young. Only one of my four ds' could print well at age 5. My youngest is 8 and he is just now capable of doing good neat printing.

I have four ds' and a husband with poor spelling. I had them tested by an educational psychologist last year and if it is any consolation, she mentioned that spelling has nothing to do with a person's intelligence. She suggested that we do the Wilson Reading Program which breaks down all the word patterns and teaching them systematically. We have been doing the program for about 14 months and I have seen improvement in their spelling. Quite dramatic with one of them, but not as dramatic with the other three ds'. In learning about the program, I was told that the spelling improvement will not come until the last part of the program. It is a program with 12 units of study, with about 5-8 sections in each unit. We are on unit 11.

I love to plan, but know that things will never go as planned! Our best years have been when I have good plans and good routines. This has not been one of those years because of extended travel and involvement in too many things. I am regrouping and have started to use Homeschool Tracker software to lay out the plan. It seems to be quite flexible and allows to reschedule when things don't go as planned.

I have not used Memoria Press's on-line Latin, but we are enrolled in their on-line Logic class. My son does enjoy the class and he feels accountable, which I really like. He reads the book, does the exercises and then attends a on-line audio/visual chat. He enjoys the teacher and responds well to having a little competition. The teacher asks questions and they have to answer. He also has quizzes at the end of class and they earn points by being the first to answer. After the chat, he takes quizzes on-line and it records the grades. I am planning to do Henle Latin this way next year. We have worked our way through Prima Latina and are using Latina Christiana I. They are not thrilled about it, but they do learn. I have Lively Latin, but with four of them, I know that I do much better with curriculum that allows you to easily pick it up and do the next thing. I am working on a plan which incorporates Latina Christiana, and the LC DVD's, Book of Roots, and Ludere Latin. I think if they know exactly what to pick up and it is small chunks, they do just fine with it.

My boys enjoyed the A to Z Mysteries at this age.

We will end in mid-June with full days, but the boys will still do math, piano, and reading throughout the summer, except for real vacation and scout camp weeks. I find that if we do not have a morning routine to focus them in on starting their day, everything is too chaotic. We will get up eat, do chores, do work, and then they are free. This routine seems to settle them in, and they go off and play outside or play creatively. If I leave it open, they wake up, follow me around and say "what can I do?"

My son takes MP Logic On-Line. I had many questions prior to enrolling and Memoria Press was very helpful. I have not tried to e-mail...I have only called, but every time I have called they have spent a great deal of time answering my questions. I was considering dropping the class because we had a conflict with class time. They told me that there would be a link and we could listen and review what happened in the class. He did offer to refund my money if we did not want to do it this way. We decided to stay in the class. So in summary, I have been very happy with the support by telephone.

I have my kids tested every year. I like getting the information to see what areas may need improvement. Also, I want them to feel at ease taking tests.

We went right into Teaching Textbook Algebra and my son is doing fine with it. I also own the NEM and am trying to incorporate this into his work . I have loved using Singapore and I am missing not doing the text with him. He is doing fine with all of the TT problems, but because I am not talking him through the lesson, I don't have a feel for his grasp of the concepts as I did with Singapore. NEM seems to build in algebra and geometry, which I really like.

We finished Singapore 6B and went right into TT Algebra 1. I did have my son do some of the probability and negative number units from TT Math 7, but he seems to be doing okay this year with Algebra 1. I have always liked the Singapore math because it seems more challenging than some others, so I keep going back and looking at NEM.

We used SL-K and SL3/4 LA. The K LA seemed to be fine for my son, but I just couldn't keep it up. I am going back to FLL and WWE. We used FLL 1 with three of my four boys and they all loved it, and can still sing the jingles and say the poems. They had fun doing FLL and liked the fact that it was one short lessons per day. Also, it was so much easier for me to teach. Just pick up the book and do the next thing. After six years, I am realizing that as much as I would like to do the full plan, I just never carry it out. We finish everything that is ...just pick it up and do the next thing.

We have used Singapore for six years and have loved it. I would not skip any of it, even though they seem to know it well. Although, we do skip reviews though, if they did well on all of the exercises. But I wouldn't skip a bit of the textbook, because they seem to reinforce things with problems that are a little different or just a little more difficult.

Teaching Textbook really teaches as a slower and more understandable pace. You could introduce lesson and then she listens to it on computer. We have used Singapore all along, which was sometimes challenging, but TT seems to be a very easy approach to Algebra.

We used this several years ago and then let it slide. I was cleaning the classroom today and pulled it out and intend to start using it again. As I went through the flashcards, I realized that my boys really did learn with them. They will often bring up the info from tele, phono, etc and tell me what it means. The oldest was in 5th grade when we last used it. We will be using it tomorrow! It is not a must, but a great supplement.

My four boys used this in ps, so I decided to continue at home. One of the teachers kindly took time to show me how to test them for placement in the word sorts, and it is a little bit complicated. I have to reveiw it each time I test them. We did this for several years, but then I felt like they weren't really progressing. In ps they did so many group activities with the words. They talked about the pattern, sorted it together, and then individually. They practiced by timing each other sorting. They alphabetized, wrote sentences with different features using the words. I think the group activities is what made it work so well. With four boys, I had a hard time being creative with the activities and they ended up sorting, writing the words, writing a few sentences with the words, and I think they became bored with this. It didn't seem to be working. I still have all the books and go back periodically and test them to see if they are improving. We are now using Sequential Spelling. They like it because it is quick, you write and self-correct words in a pattern, and then you are finished. It does seem to be working.

We could never fit science in either. In the early years, we would pick a topic of interest (ants, penguins, snakes, etc.) and read books at bedtime or watch videos in the car that related to the topic. They have such fond memories of these simple studies. I still have a hard time, so I send them to a science class this year, but we still do the video learning whenever I can find videos that go along with the topic they are studying.

I have been homeschooling four boys for six years and we love Singapore. We tried Saxon, but my boys thought it was boring. We use the supplemental Singapore books, especially the Challenging Word Problems. These word problems are often two, three or four step problems in the uppper grades. I really believe it has given them a very good foundation. My oldest went all the way through Singapore and then started Algebra 1. They have all tested well in math on their year-end standardized tests. The con is that they don't cover probabilites in the old version (which is what we have). I know they now have a new version that has probabilities. My second son is in 6A and he does the textbook independently and then goes on to the workbook. If he gets a problem wrong, I go back and make sure he understood the text. It has really been very easy to teach.

We had the same experience with Phonetic Zoo. My boys did not like it and were not progressing. We decided to try Sequential Spelling. They enjoy it because it is quick, doesn't require studying the words, and it seems to work.

I am a natural speller, but I have four ds' who take after hubby and are not natural spellers. I could not teach them the rules. They are now taking the Wilson Reading Program with a tutor. It was the same price for one or for four, so I sent all four of them. They are learning the rules and teaching me.

I think it depends on the child. I was a natural speller, but my four ds' are not. I never learned the rules, so it has been difficult to tell them why. I do kind of wish I knew the rules. I am now sending them to a Wilson Reading Program tutor. They are learning the rules and teaching me. It has given them more confidence in their spelling and reading.

I have and use both of these, although my ds' didn't use Mind Benders until 4th grade. We used BTS earlier than this. I had different results with different children. My K-1 visual ds sat down and did many pages of BTS because it was fun. One of my older ds' who is also visual loved Mind Benders, but my auditory learner did not like Mind Benders. He did better with them when I read him the problem.

Like JenW, I did critical thinking with two ds' about two years ago. We did it for a couple months, but then dropped it. It was one of those items that I found hard to fit in and it was more difficult for me to teach it to them. If they questioned why the answer was a particular answer, sometimes I had a hard time telling them why. I felt like I could have used more help with teaching it. We had done all of the Mind Benders and they really enjoyed those. They are taking a mind benders and brainteasers class at co-op this year, but I have purchased Memoria Press logic and intend to use that with my 8th grader.