Do you still have slots available. I will take one, if you do.

My kids have liked all of those and are currently loving Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH. We also recently read several in the Viking Quest series and The Best Christmas Pageant Ever.

My son finished AAS4 and I'm going to start him in R&S's spelling program after the new year. By the end of level four it seemed that he had learned most of the major spelling rules and was now learning groups of words spelled similarly. I figure he could do the same with a less teacher-intensive curriculum. Plus, I have others that need AAS...

I believe the elementary books, Alpha through Zeta are intended to be used 1st through 6th grades. However, because of the non-traditional sequence, you will learn some things ahead of "traditional" programs and some things after. This is why the placement tests are so important for people switching in mid-sequence. As for the rods, I don't think the color is a big deal. Like someone else said, it's helpful to know what color they are to "grab" the number you want, but the color doesn't matter beyond that. You can always count the squares on top if you are unsure. One thing I have noticed about MUS (we've used Primer - beginning of Delta) is that some chapters you'll just fly through and others you'll spend a couple weeks on (like multiple-digit multiplication!). Just go at your child's pace and you'll be fine. We supplement with Singapore's Intensive Practice and Challenging Word Problems, mostly due to the fact that we finish a book is less than a year. I think it's a great program for really knowing the basics. Good luck!

Hi, We also school Jan - Dec and we also had a 2nd and a K this year! What worked for me was to divide the year into quarters (3 months each) and plan for 10 weeks of work per quarter. We work about 7 weeks from Oct-Dec because we take off from Thanksgiving to New Years. This way I could plan what I wanted to get done in each quarter, which helped me stay on track without obsessing over scheduling software. And this method also allowed for taking days or weeks off without getting off track. Happy planning!

Sorry to reply again, but I missed that she can't figure out "How many more..." I would reduce the scale of the problem and use concrete objects. For example, I would put 10 matchbox cars on the table and 7 pennies. Then I would ask her how many more cars there were than pennies. Match them up one by one until there are 3 cars left over. Then I would write "10-7=3" to help her find out how many more in math language.

Maybe the problem is that your daughter doesn't know the names of the parts in subtraction: Minuend - Subtrahend = Difference If your daughter knows that the answer in a subtraction problem is called the "difference", that will key her into subtracting. If you are looking for something a little more conceptual, maybe you could restate the question as "How many more...." after reading the original wording so that she can make the connection between the two. Good luck!

My birthday is Dec 6th and my parents started me in Kindergarten at age 4 because I could read. I was always the smallest and the youngest, though I always attended the local magnet school and excelled academically. My social life, though, was horrible between 6th and 9th grade. I just didn't fit in. This is one of the reasons that we chose to homeschool: the mismatch between academic and social needs.

We have finished WWE 1 & 2, and are looking to start level 3 after the new year. From what I recall: WWE 1: Read story to child + oral narration. Copywork. WWE 2: Read story to child + oral narration. Dictation. Later, dictate narration. WWE 3: Child reads story to self + oral narration. Dictate narrations back to student. Dictation. Is there anything else? WWE 4: ??? I am wondering what skills are introduced in Level 4. Do they write their own summaries without the intermediary step? I've heard that the dictations get even harder, but I'm wondering if I could skip level four and do something like Writing Tales, then pick up WWS in 5th grade. Just curious. Thanks!

I guess my situation has been yours, so I feel your pain! When my oldest was really the only one who needed seatwork, we did it when the others were sleeping (from 1-2pm). This allowed him to concentrate on his work. When everyone else was awake we would go places, read stories, do activities that included everyone. This worked for Kindergarten and 1st, but in 2nd I had to start adding in some morning "schooltime." This past year, my oldest was in 2nd, my second in K, and my third doing some pre-K work. We work at the table for about an hour in the morning, usually math & latin for my oldest, math & phonics for my second, and random preschool stuff for my younger two. Then when the youngers have a naptime/quiet time after lunch, my older two finish up their seat work in peace & quiet. Each year I have been nervous about the addition of more kids to the "school" and the additional courseload for the older kids, but as the kids have gotten older, things have gotten calmer and we haven't really had too much trouble getting our work done once we found the right routine. I think for us the key has been routine. When kids know what is coming, they don't fight it or try to talk their way out of it...though sometimes I have to make an extra cup of coffee to make me want to do it. I guess my advice is: do what works best for you now. Next year will be completely different! Blessings!

My oldest read all of the Sonlight lower level readers. Up through level 2, he read them out loud. For level 2int (now 3) we alternated reading pages out loud. For level 2adv (now 4-5), he read them silently. I do have to say that the 2adv readers seemed particularly "girly." He wasn't really interested in a couple of the books and wasn't really paying attention. I decided we'd just skip the ones he really didn't like. And we read The Whipping Boy out loud together, and it was really difficult to read. I don't think my other children will read that one. We ended up switching over to the literature lists from Veritas Press. Good luck! Julie

My two oldest boys learned cursive in kindergarten with Handwriting Without Tears. They liked the book and the lines were just the right size.

I'm trying to get into a good routine this year, but I'm wondering whether my students will retain more by doing a little bit of spelling and grammar daily, or if I should just do them on alternate days? What are your experiences? Thanks! Julie

Downton Abbey is a PBS Masterpiece Classic miniseries that exposes the drama in the life of an English aristocratic family in the early 1900's as well as the drama in the lives of their servants. You can stream it on Netflix or wait for it to re-air on pbs. Beware: it'll suck you in!

Downton Abbey

My oldest son started reading really young and had the same problem with the Amelia Bedelia books: he could read them fine, but didn't get the jokes. I think it was a maturity thing because now (2 years later) he thinks they're hilarious. My second son started reading later (at age-level) and the jokes are right-on for him. Just as a warning, we also had problems solving the Encyclopedia Brown mysteries. Congrats on your library, though. We have to buy most of ours here.

My youngest is going to be three next month and things have become so much easier, especially over the last year. Of course, now I've got more kids to educate, so it seems my busyness has morphed... The problem I have now is comparing what I can accomplish with my kids and what the single-kid mom can do. Good luck with your cat-herding! Jill

I don't know about the Scholars lesson plans, but the self-paced online class lists the daily reading assignment for both Level 1 and Level 2 at the end of each day's class. Best wishes!

We've just started ourselves, but I'll try to answer some of your questions. My oldest is signed up for the VP self-paced online history class for Old Testament and Ancient Egypt and he is loving it. It makes his history lesson a lot more fun (and independent)! There are five lessons for each card. Each lesson starts with the history card song, so that it is memorized quickly. The first lesson goes over the card and has him answer the worksheet questions online. The next few days review some of the source materials, play games, and have videos and other historical insight about the weekly topic. The fifth lesson is the test. Oh, and there's a talking sphinx that he just loves. There is a mapping component to the history. The teacher's manual includes a 16-page map that you tape together and when you finish each card you get a medallion to place at the appropriate place on the map. One thing that I really like about VP's OTAE course is that the history timeline integrates bible and regular history. You know when along the timeline Joseph was taken into slavery and at what point moses lived. I never really integrated the two before myself. You can use any of the five elementary history classes in grades 2-6. If you go to the self-paced class link, you can get the "historical literature" selections for either Level 1 (grades 2-3) or Level 2 (grades 4-6) for any of the classes. If you go with the self-paced online option, you don't have to buy any of the supplemental materials because it is all included in the video (essentially lowering the relative cost). All you need are the cards and the historical literature for your child's level. As for the cards, we laminated them (for protective purposes) and I let him play around with them, read them, and organize them as much as he wants. Obviously, I think Veritas Press has an awesome elementary history program, but I think that it would be dry, boring, and repetitive without the self-paced option. Hope the helps, Jill