Maybe All About Reading?

Fix It is like the polar opposite of BJU for grammar. I haven't decided if I love it or not. It's definitely far less teacher intensive. I like that they are working with sentences from an actual story and that it fits in copywork, vocab and grammar. I started my two oldest both in the same level (The Nose Tree), so it's all review for my oldest so far. This is my middle kiddo's first year using a grammar curriculum and she seems to be grasping the info. It just seems too simplistic, to cover grammar in minutes a day, (after coming from BJU which kind of beats the concepts until they are dead. lol) I am going to complete this year and then make a decision if we'll continue or not. It definitely isn't hurting them, so that's something.

Have you considered just using the workbook? The teaching portion for the writing units is very basic and everything you need is right in the workbook. This is what we have been doing since we transitioned away from BJU grammar. I think the only thing missing is the writing rubics, but you can find similar online if you need them.

We start cursive in Grade 4. We use A Reason for Handwriting because I like the way it looks and it isn't overly loopy. We use the practice pages for learning the letter strokes for each letter and then we transition to copy work. This year my oldest (grade 6) is required to do the majority of her work in cursive.

We started BJU in gr. 2 with my middle kiddo and the TM is very important. I find it very easy to teach from. At first glance the pages do look "busy", but they are very clearly laid out. There are large copies of the student text (with answers) and then each section is clearly marked as review, intro and then the new lesson. I skim the review and will only review what isn't mastered already. We skip the intro as it's often a weird little blurb about how God relates to math and it's typically a bit of a stretch and completely unnecessary to the lesson. The teaching is scripted and they typically show more than one way to approach the topic. There is also quite often a word problem of two to work on together. The lessons typically take us 15-20 mins or so. I love teaching BJU math and my kiddo loves the workbook, but she is tiring of the in-depth lessons. She picks up on concepts quite quickly and she just wants to get it done, which BJU isn't really designed for. We will probably be switching next year. We used the K level and are attempting the grade 1 level with the my youngest. I am not a huge fan of the grade 1 level. It just feels like overkill for something that should be pretty straight forward. Even at that level though, the meat is definitely in the TM. If I was to skip anything, it would be the workbook in favor of just doing the lesson hands on.

We have so many heavy, thick books that we ended up going with crates instead. Each kiddo has their own crate and then we have a "group" crate. They take up floor space, but I have them pushed against the wall and it's not bad at all. I always intended to build a cute little cushion topper for them so we can use them as seats, but I've never quite gotten around to it. We also have a checklist for things the kids are expected to do solo each day. This is something new we started this year and so far it's been working well.

My DD does this as well. I do as Merry suggested and mark them and have her go back and correct them. She doesn't realize that the words are spelled incorrectly, so she doesn't see the need to look back. I don't consider this sloppiness or laziness. It's just a mistake. If it's a word that is consistently spelled incorrectly, I will have her spell it with tiles, use it in a few sentences, close her eyes and visualize the word, etc. My DD will photograph a word in her mind and to her it's correct. She can read it a hundred times the correct way and when she spells it, she will still spell it incorrectly. With words like this we need to change her inner photograph, if that makes sense.

We are going to be implementing an earlier rising/start time. Right now the kids are up around 7 or 7:30 and they play, do chores, eat breakfast and we start at 9. It's a very slow start morning. I have found it harder to get things done with three kids in the rotation, so I am going to start waking the kids at 7, breakfast at 7:30 and starting school at 8am and seeing if it helps. I have also decided to allow myself two years to complete MoH vol. 1. We were trying to keep up with the recommended pace, but I felt like we were always just grazing a topic and the kids weren't really engaging. So I've given myself permission to slow down (which is actually quite difficult for me! lol) .

Do you find it easy to teach if she runs into a snag here or there?

We have debated about the DVD/online program as well. I think it might still frustrate her, as she really doesn't want to be subjected to a lengthy lesson. I do like the price tag on CLE better too...

Thanks for mentioning that! I hadn't even noticed.

I am looking for advice from those who have used CLE math in grades 6 and up. Did you find there was enough explanation for the child to pick up on new concepts? Does it make unexpected leaps and or break down things into chunks that are sometimes difficult to sort out where the concept is headed (like MM, for example)? We are debating about using this for our middle kiddo. She's currently using BJU, which I really like in many ways, but she has become very resistant to me teaching a lesson. She just wants to read it and get it done. Trouble is, BJU isn't designed to work that way very well. :( I am not a strong math teacher, however, and I like how BJU lays everything out. I am ok with using things like Khan Academy when needed, but I am terrible (and I mean terrible) at explaining concepts myself. Is CLE going to be a good fit?? We would be starting around grade 4 (would need to do the placement still), but I don't want to have to switch again in a couple years, so I want something we can stick with.

Does the Kindle Fire have a built in dictionary (where they can tap a word they don't know and it will pronounce it and give a definition?) and does it highlight words as they follow along?

We have PaperMate Ink Joy colored pens and have never had one break. They seem to last for ages too. We also have the Frixion pens and the kids love them!

Thanks, will check it out! I feel very old...I thought the kindle app would only work on a kindle. Oh my...I might be better off just handing it over to my kids and letting them sort it!

I am a bit challenged when it comes to iPads. We have an iPad mini that came preinstalled with iBooks. I have sorted out how to highlight a word and have it pronounced out loud but when you select an entire page to read it is awful. It doesn't follow punctuation and the voice is very robot-ish. Is there a better ebook program for these features? I'd like to use it for audiobooks with the kids and ideally I would love it to highlight the words as it reads them. Does this exist for iPad?

I also recommend Spelling City. Lots of AAS lists already on there, so it would cover your review and it's fun. We've done this in the past when we've finished early and decided not to move onto the next level. I have also had them do copywork sentences using the spelling words.

I think it has a lot of value. My middle kiddo is a natural reader, but working through AAR4 was definitely beneficial.

We repeated a grade (3rd), on paper, with my oldest. Nothing changed in our day to day life. We continued to teach at the level she was at. She's a November baby and we registered her for school when she was 4, based on the cutoffs. She's definitely very young for her age and in hindsight, I wish I would have waited a year to register her. I feel like it was my mistake, registering too early, and all I did was correct that mistake on paper. As much as grade levels don't factor in to our day-to-day life at home, they are very present the minute we step out of the door. Everyone asks what grade she's in. Many of our sports teams split based on grade (sure you can lie, but I wasn't happy telling my daughter to pretend to be a grade younger in order to put her in the appropriate group she should be in to be begin with), when we had any type of academic evaluation, she was always struggling, as the content was a grade ahead of what she was ready for. I didn't see the point of watching her always struggle to meet expectations a year ahead. Even our Sunday school classes are grade based and once they are in 7th grade, they no longer attend children's classes. It would have really been too bad if she'd aged out of those classes this year. I have zero regrets repeating that grade on paper. DD is a much better fit for grade 6 this year. She's absolutely not ready for the work load that would be expected of a junior high student. If she "blossoms" and suddenly excels, great! Then she's exceeding expectations for her grade level. If she's ready for college level courses early, great, we can do them. I don't see her being ready for college a year early, but if she is, then we can challenge the grade 12 tests and move forward. Because we homeschool we can customize what we teach her...but because we are required to register with a grade level, I do feel like it's important to have them in a grade that is appropriate to where they are at. After much debate, we really just felt like there was absolutely nothing to lose by changing that grade level.

I just heard about this, but haven't had a chance to try it out yet, but it's free. :) http://www.bookadventure.com/Home.aspx

If he's giving you one letter with his best effort, that's your stopping point. I wouldn't push him to do an entire line of poorly formed letters. That one, perfect letter, is all you need. You could also consider getting rid of the tracers and the lines. Have him write on the white board in huge letters. The smaller, neater letters will come with time. Right now I'd just focus on the proper strokes and move forward from there.

According to my family (and some friends) I homeschool because my oldest has allergies and I am terrified to be away from my kids and I want them to live in a little bubble for ever. I shall shock everyone and reveal the true reasons.... ;) yes, my oldest has allergies and homeschooling is definitely a perk as I don't have to worry every day that some kid brought an unsafe food for lunch and put my kiddo at risk. We had decided to homeschool long before she was every diagnosed with allergies though. My husband was basically wrote off by his teachers and he has struggled a lot because of it. He didn't want this to happen to his kids. It was his main motivation to homeschool. He knew we were more invested in the success of our kids than any teacher was ever going to be. For me, I wanted to be able to customize a program to fit my kids. I did very well in the public system. I liked reading and workbooks and was able to grasp the concepts as taught. My brother, however, really struggled. He needed hands on and different presentation, but was seldom given this. I didn't want that for my kids. Things that I didn't expect, but have now become motivators: my kids having such a close relationship, my daughters not dating at 11 years old, being present to witness peer situations and guide them through it when it happens (as opposed to hearing about it hours after the fact), watching my kids find their own voices - as opposed to drawing from those of their peers...I could go on, but I'll reign it in. I'll sum it up to say, we started this journey with a pretty simplistic idea of what we were hoping for and we've come away with so much more.

This. TT has been a great fit for my oldest and it does free up teaching time. We use it at grade level and finish approximately a grade and a half per year (we school Sept - June). We use it a little differently than suggested. My oldest listens to the lecture, works the problems on the computer and is done for the day. The next day, on paper, she does any corrections -- this includes any problem she had to try twice. All quizzes are done on paper and corrected by me. The presentation has made all the difference for her. She "gets" math now. We do add in fact review, as there isn't much in TT and we also add in a daily word problem. ETA: have you checked out the samples online? When I sat down with my oldest she was immediately drawn to the samples and was very excited by it. She kept saying "That makes so much more sense!!"

We tried WWE for a short, short spell and it wasn't a great fit for us. We used BJU English as a core for 2 years and as a supplement last year. Like other BJU subjects, it is very thorough and teacher intensive. I found the writing to be very strong and the exposure to different types of writing was great. But...I didn't find that it helped with the method of getting strong thoughts down on paper. We use BW now as more of a core and combine it with Essentials in Writing (not to be confused with IEW) and that has been a much better fit. I still have two levels of BJU that we pull out from time to time, but for the most part I just found it to be a lot of effort to teach, especially the grammar portions. It was too pricey to use as a supplement also, so that was a big part of what led us to switch.

We also have the Equine Science. My oldest has been using it solo, for fun, and she's already gotten a lot out of it.