So thankful for this thread! Its so nice to know I am not alone! It has been chaos at my house this whole school year with no end in sight. I have a 6, 4, 17 mo, and 2 mo old. All girls. I feel like :auto: all the time! :lol: My 17 mo old is making me crazy right now too. She is so disruptive, destructive, defiant, and adorable :001_smile: I have tried a variety of things which work some times and not others. Our current way of schooling: I do bible story right before baby falls asleep and give them all a snack to eat and a coloring page. The 17 mo old gets a colored pencil because she eats crayons. As soon as baby falls asleep for her morning nap (which ranges from 20 min to 1 1/2 hrs) I gather all 6 yo supplies and set on table. I set out the play yard. I get 2 beach towels and put on living room floor. I put some kind of toy on each towel and books on couch for 4 yr old. Its boring for her but oh well. I put 4 toys in play yard for 17 mo old-a puzzle, books, and then 2 other toys. I rotate these things daily. I just pull them from bedroom and I have some others stashed in a closet. I let 4 yr old work on her towels however she would like but she can't make a sound, come talk to me, or drag toys off of towels. The play yard is right next to the school table aka kitchen table. Some days she will play in there for 20 minutes, some days she cries as soon as I stick her in it. If she cries I set her on my lap, if she continues to cry-I grab a toy and stick her in her crib and close the door and let her cry while I rush through the most important lesson. I hate doing that but I have to right now. If she is happy though I get her out after 20 minutes and set her at table in booster seat and strap her in and give her a dry erase board and washable markers (she writes all over herself but small price to pay-oh and I try training her to not do that but some days I give up which is the opposite of training I know). That buys me another 5 to 10 minutes. And then everyone gets M&Ms or some other candy for being so good. Then they go wild and wake up the baby. Then I nurse baby and read books. I have a pile of books up high and grab them quickly before sitting down with baby. If it sounds like a lot of work-it is! And some days I cry and want to call the local school to check bus routes and eat too much chocolate because: 6 yo won't do her work, 4 yo is mad bc she hates the towels, 17 mo old howls bc I am not paying attention to her, and then the baby wakes up. I can't do anything during afternoon nap bc I would end up choking my 6 yo. :tongue_smilie: I desperately need that break for myself! 6 yo stays in room during nap time and rests but sometimes I let her up and she plays starfall or something like that. I think she still needs the rest and quiet too. The TV can't be used bc its in same area as table we use for school. And I honestly let them watch way too much tv as it is. I know its a season of life but its depressing to think I get to do this all again next year with the now 2 mo old. Oh well. Children are a blessing (the bible tells me so).;)

also, do you have to re-purchase the guides when they make revisions or will they send you updates?

i have a question too-is biblioplan best for grammar or logic stage or both? I had looked at it and read archived posts about it and seemed like it would be better for logic stage. So I thought I might wait and use it with MOH next cycle not first history cycle. But this thread makes me think it would be fine to use now. Could you use it with SOTW now and then MOH for second history cycle? Or am I totally confused? I haven't read logic stage stuff in TWTM so I may not know what I'm talking about.

So after reading everyone's input (thank you all so much) I think I will order SOTW and WWE so I can use them to help me finalize my book list. I think I will skip the Green Thumbs book. Our library does have several books about plants so I will just use those. I'll just do my best to do the memory work with dd. Maybe it won't be as intimidating to her as it is me :001_smile: I am going to try her notebook system. I can always re-work it if it doesn't fit our style. It's comforting to know that there are other mamas out there planning a WTM first grade too!

Thank you! The bolded stuff was especially helpful!

This does help! Thanks!

Thanks for sharing how you are doing things! I think I will go ahead and order SOTW and WWE, make my book list, then make my big order later.

:lol: this made me laugh out loud!

All of those sciences looked like too much for my dd. That's why I was going with TWTM recs-they seemed much simpler. I like REAL Science Odyssey a lot so I may change my mind... I have seen that system before. May have to use that. Thanks for the reminder. I have that same desk caddy thing! Love it!

I have read the book about 3 times, taken notes, etc. and I plan to follow her suggestions pretty closely (exception is AAS instead of Spelling Workout). I am trying to work a little Charlotte Mason in there but still haven't figured that out (other than nature studies and picture studies which TWTM already recommends). But I am still unsure about a few things... READ ALOUDS I am pretty settled on my choices for each subject (I think :lol:) with the exception of read alouds. In TWTM there are suggestions for history and lit but from what I can gather from this board SOTW and WWE have their own resource lists. So should I wait until I have received my SOTW and WWE before deciding on my read alouds? My library stinks and ILL is not much better (or reliable). So I will have to purchase quite a few books. I prefer to order my curric in one lump. After I make that initial purchase its hard for me to go back and order more-I always talk myself out of it thinking that maybe I can make do with less. But if there is a whole other set of suggested reading in SOTW and WWE then I am not going to sit here and pour over catalogs and book lists trying to figure out what to order. SCIENCE She recommends Green Thumb book for plant study. The description on Amazon (and by her) likens it to a gardening guide. We plant a pretty big garden every year and have flower beds around our house so would I need this book? Or is this just for people who have never gardened on their own? (Not that I am a master gardener or anything). MEMORY WORK She seems to recommend a lot of memory work-so much I can't keep it straight. Is this really doable? Can someone spell out how this plays out in day to day life? NOTEBOOKS Do you make notebooks just like she says? How closely do you follow TWTM suggestions? It was nice to read this book and basically be told what to do but so many people just do their own thing that I guess I'm afraid to just jump into something because a book told me to-does that make sense? I have just not been happy with this K year because I feel like I made some bad curric/planning/schedule choices and I really want to do better for this next year. Thanks for reading my rantings! I am about to go crazy trying to plan all this out!

Hate to hijack this thread but I am trying to plan 1st grade using mix of TWTM and CM. I am just curious how others did this. My basic plan is to use the TWTM way for history, science, and grammar. I am currently going through CM inspired book lists for these subjects. Its a little overwhelming. I plan to add in nature studies, picture studies, and music/composer studies a la CM. But thats about as far as I've gotten in my planning. So is this the kind of combining you all are talking about or am i just a 'poser'? :001_smile:

I ordered Sonlights p3/4 when DD was 4 and it comes with tons of fairy tales. I hadn't read fairy tales since I was a kid but I was horrified at some of the stories! I started pre-reading them and being choosy then I just put them away. My DD really didn't seem to be bothered by them but I thought it was just too much! I just didn't remember them being so gruesome!

I could have written the original post-nursing baby and all! I guess I need to invest in audio books because it seems like everytime I get a minute to read to my oldest who is 6 something interrupts-poopy diaper, spilled drink, etc. I don't read nearly enough. DH is uncomfortable reading aloud but will in the evenings some. That is my biggest FAIL right now.

Thanks for sharing! I love making forms :001_smile:

So helpful! Thanks a million for typing all that out for me!

I looked it up on Rainbow Resource and it said for grades 3+ so I passed it by. Would it be appropriate for a 1st grader?

I read 1999 edition and ordered newest one. Its good to know someone used recs from book and it went well. Thanks!

Thanks for sharing your plans. I guess I feel like I need it already planned out for me by a 'real' scientist! Its good to know others aren't following a specific curriculum. I looked at the Fun with Nature books-love those!

I will check it out!

I think you are right. I am eagerly awaiting my 3rd ed copy of TWTM so I may just go straight off her recs.

Thank you for the ideas!

I feel the same! I don't want to study plants for a whole year! But I do like it.

Anyone?

could you share your resources? I have been researching science for a while. I like RSO but DH liked the biblical tie ins with apologia and AIG. DH wanted to know what the point of homeschooling is if we just use secular stuff:tongue_smilie:But biggest hold up is that we really think all of them are too much for DD. But when we looked at Christian Liberty science-well that seems like too little. I want to do life science that isn't babyish but isn't over her head, I want Christian POV that is also no evolution & young earth, and I want easy but relevant science experiments (meaning not just for the sake of entertainment but to really increase understanding). I also like the thought of CM's nature studies but don't really know what they look like in real life. Have any of you done this? Even if you don't share my POV but put together your own life science curric could you help me? Or is this already out there and I just haven't found it yet?