We use AAR and find it easy to use and DD5 loves it. We also just started the free trial for Reading Eggs and DD5 is really, really liking it. I just wish it wasn't on a subscription basis. If you get a friend to sign up too though, they give you an additional 2 weeks. You can cover a lot of ground on the free trial alone, I think.

We do 1 lesson a week. The only other things we add in are seasonal things, or stuff that goes with other subjects (clay flower pots for science, etc)

Our magnetic white board for AAS is tucked between the washer and the dryer between lessons. We also have a small one that the kids use for lessons from time to time. This one is propped up on a shelf. We are at a severe lack of space in my house as well. We do have a calendar that hangs in the kitchen, but we also have one for each of the kids that they can write on, cross days off, and so on and so forth. They keep their calendars in the cupboard with the school supplies.

All of the above?? :lol: I tend to freak out first and spend a day pushing extra work, then I calm down and think, "We'll never catch up, I'll just forget about it" and THEN I calm down further and go through the subject in question and cut out what we don't need and focus on what we do.

I try to stock up on notebooks during school supply sales in August when they are 0.13 cents are so. I buy a ton of lined looseleaf at the same time. We also bought 1 notebook and 1 pack of paper when we ordered HWT. We don't use that all the time though.

These are wonderful! Thanks!

I wish we'd had AAR for my oldest. I am loving that program! I also love MM, which we use as a supplement/extra practice with Jump Math That being said, this isn't the first time I've had a "favorite" and lost interest. I have a wandering eye...I stray often when it comes to curriculum. :lol:

DD8 has taken her time coming in to reading. One summer we literally stopped reading. She was hating every minute of reading and it was breaking my heart, as she used to love books! So, definitely a sign we needed to revamp some things. We made some changes to curriculum and so on and so forth...and last night I am putting dinner on the table and she keeps slipping something under the table everytime I get close. I asked her what she was up to and she sheepishly replies "I just wanted to finish this page." And pulls her latest chapter book out from hiding. I gladly gave her the time she needed to finish the page!! :) Tell me about one of your child's latest successes.

Lap books! I am a wee bit obsessed and will hoard any that I come across. We will neve have time to fit them all in, I fear.

Great link!! Thanks for sharing!

If it is curriculum/books that I feel we need, then I don't tend to look at that as splurging. Things that I tend to "splurge" on are - electric pencil sharpener (a must have, in my books! LOL), a Wii exercise game, or tid bits like that. Things that we don't really need in order to function...but they sure make my day easier! :)

Google was my first stop but I got a bit lazy with sifting through all the results and figured it was easier to post and pick the brains of all the brilliant minds here! :)

Thanks for the responses! I appreciate it! :)

Does anyone have some great links for free printable word problems? I am looking for grade 2-3. I have found some workbooks, but was hoping to avoid any more purchases.

We use Horizons. I find it very silly and basic...but it does cover the bases. We skip certain things and/or modify a lot. For example - recently it wanted me to use a puppet to role play with DD8. This may have worked with my 5 year old, but not my 8 year old...

I think we total about 45 mins/day. We do math fact review in the morning and then later on we do a math lesson and the workpage/assignment. Some days it is all hands-on and then we may review math facts or something again.

My DD5 started "writing" mumbo-jumbo about a year ago. She was copying letters from her older sister and we noticed things were looking really wonky -- which is when we realized that she was copying from across the table -- talk about upside down and backwards! Ooops! My concern was that she would form bad habits that would be hard to correct. I didn't want to squelch her love of writing though...so we let her do whatever she liked on her own and praised the effort, but we also started showing her the correct way (we started HWT). She quickly caught on to the correct way to form her letters. This was only our experience. I would say if your DC is interested, then it's a good time to start showing the basics. I don't think it matters which order the letters are taught it.

DD8 works from about 9am to noon. We aim to do any teaching-time in the morning and then she has her writing assignment to do in the afternoon while I do AAR, math and writing with DD5. We also will do art and science in the afternoon, but we only do these 2 days a week.

We started using HWT this year. I wish I'd been using it from the very beginning with DD8. Her writing has improved so much and she loves doing the practice pages.

Thanks for all the responses! It is just reassuring to know we aren't the only ones who have to forgo activities from time to time.

So far the ones that have been offered were through our homeschool group and they want a parent present to help, I guess.

We just started AAR Pre-1 and we also have SSRW. Although I like both programs, I definitely prefer AAR. SSRW takes an awfully long time to complete (not terrible if you only have one child, but nearly impossible when you have 3 - or at least I found it to be!) I also really like that AAR is still adding levels (I only hope this process is a fast one!) SSRW is a K-2 only and when we looked in to it we found that level 2 was rather hard to get our hands on, although perhaps this has changed? I also much, much, much prefer the AAR readers! We have level pre-1 and Level 2 (to help DD with AAS) and we enjoy them all. SSRW...not so much.

We live in a rural location - a good 35+ mins from the nearest city. Joining a lot of groups, sports, etc doesn't usually work out for us. A lot of the activities take place in the winter as well, which means a lot of missed activiites due to weather and poor driving conditions. We also have been running in to problems lately regarding age group limitations. For example - art classes split my kids into two groups, which is all good and fine except I am expected to be in both groups, which clearly can't happen. I have an 8, 5 and 2 year old. If I can get the 8 & 5 year old in to something, I can typically not bring the 2 year old. We don't have a sitter that is available during the day, and I am not wanting to put him in daycare. Seems to defeat the purpose of being home if all my kids can't be with me. I feel bad though. I guess it's hard to see all these great activities offered and then not be able to take advantage of them. :-( So, what I'm wanting to know I guess, is how other families make this work? Or do you just wait it out until the kids are older?

:grouphug:

:iagree: yeah, what she said!:001_smile: