I am confused! If I want to use abeka's phonics program to teach my child to read, what exactly do I need to order? :confused:

kind of like my book basket post: how does it look at your house and does anyone use it with K'er? I don't know if anyone watches Sid the Science Kid but they always draw pictures in their journals after experiment. That was kind of what I had in my head but I wasn't sure if there was a deeper meaning. Hope this doesn't get me kicked off of here-but I havent read TWTM. I just enjoy the discussions about different curric. I think I will read it though. Obviously I am missing out!

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Thanks! I figured it was self explanatory but I guess I really wanted to know how people use them. And if it was only "designed" for kids who were reading independently. We have books accessible all the time but not in any kind of organized way. But none of mine are readers yet!

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My DD is 6 and will be starting K next year. She knows most letter sounds and is starting to try to read by herself, sounding out small words. I was thinking about going ahead and starting a phonics program now since she is so interested. She also loves writing and drawing. I was going to use The Reading Lesson but have heard good things about Abeka Phonics. Only thing is I am not sure is which Abeka Phonics people are talking about. Is it the Abeka Homeschool K5 Phonics, Reading & Writing Curriculum? Or the Letters and Sounds K? Or something else? Any help would be appreciated!

I have seen lots of posts about book baskets but unsure of what they are/how to use them. Insight please? I will have a K'er next year.

Can anyone give me a nice summary of notebooking? I see all kinds of posts about it. Looks like a good thing. My dd is 6 and will be starting K. Probably young for starting but I wouldn't even know what/how to do it. What age do you start? Is there a right/wrong way to do it?

I am trying to choose K curriculum for DD who is 6 and eager to learn. Narrowed down to 2 or 3 now. I know I want hands on with very little workbook. I have 2 tag alongs age 3 and 6 mos. I can't spend a lot of time gathering supplies, tried it for pre-k stuff and just didn't work. DD6 and I love books but DD3 wanders around during reading but wants to do everything big sis does. I love teaching with books. I don't really like workbooks. We live in very small town with bad library system. I tend to plan a lot of things and then get overwhelmed and do nothing so I am trying to be realistic of what I can accomplish. I don't know how I would do if I had a list of activities to choose from-I would want to do them all then end up doing none of them I am afraid. FIAR blogs I have looked at overwhelm me-looks like a lot of work and a lot of time planning/gathering etc. Read Jane Claire's example of typical week and doesn't seem anything like these blogs I have read. So question is: does it seem like it would be a good fit? How much work is it to gather supplies? If you used it and quit, why? What are the drawbacks? I want realistic view of FIAR please.

Enjoyed reading your links. Thanks for your input. I am not a "go against the grain" kind of person but God really shook up our life in the past few years and pushed me out of my comfort zone. I do have a vision for our family but I am afraid of that vision at times because it is so counter-culture. Being counter-culture is hard for a recovering people pleaser!

I feel so much better knowing I am not the only one. I don't know many homeschoolers so thanks! This year we will begin K with our oldest. I have 2 more little ones and plan on having more. I worry about being able to manage school, housework, childcare, pregnancy, etc. I worry that it will be too easy to take the day off when I don't feel like it and we will get behind. I know K is much easier year. I don't worry about the academics. Just the management of it all. I am just glad to know others have questioned their decision even when they knew it was right thing to do.

I plan to begin homeschooling next year. I feel strongly most days that I want to homeschool, feel that is the direction God is leading me in, and DH and I think that will be best for our family. But every now and then I get extremely anxious about it and want to say forget it! But then it passes and I get excited again. Anyone else out there who went through this before beginning "official" homeschool? Any advice to calm nerves?

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Looked at your blog and handleonthearts.com! Wow! Love your blog and i love the handle on the arts sonlight packs. That would be a big timesaver. Thanks for sharing that with me!

Do you mean SL does have a worldview? Or HOD does not have a worldview? I was a little confused reading that first sentence with the rest of what you said :)

Thank you all so much for the input. I have MFW K that a friend gave me but we have a terrible library (we are in rural area) and from looking at it we would need to take lots of trips to library. And for some reason, I am just not drawn to it. We love books, but I have a 3 y/o and 6 m/o and have trouble keeping them entertained during book reading. I am afraid I just wouldn't be able to read that much. My 3 y/o thinks she is older DD twin and wants to do everything she does. :001_smile: From looking at LHFHG it seemed that I would be able to include DD3 in a lot of it. With SL, she does not like to sit through that much reading. My K DD could listen to books all day and all night. I have read everything on SL website and catalog but still have an uneasiness about it. But when I read about HOD, I think it must be too good to be true. Is that to be expected when new and trying to pick "perfect" curriculum? I don't want to waste time and money! I don't want to spend our first year frustrated!

Planning to begin K year in August with DD who will be 6. We used Sonlight P3/4 this year. I loved most of the books (we didn't like the fairy tales, too dark for us). I planned on using P4/5 for K year but now I am having second thoughts. I downloaded 3 week plans and was not impressed. I dont like going back and forth with the books, I dont like the lesson plan grid, and activities seemed like stuff I could come up with myself. I heard the science part was great. Now I am looking into HODs LHFHG. I like the lesson plan layout, seemingly easy to use, and looks fun and hands on. Only reservation is that a friend of mine used the Little Pilgrims book and hated it (her words exactly). I like that SL has a world view-I want my DD to know about missions and foreign countries and cultures. I love most of their books. I just really don't like the layout. Does HOD focus mainly on US in future years? I thought I would supplement LHFHG reading with some of the SL books from P4/5. Any suggestions on which were favorites/can't miss? I also don't know what to do for phonics. Planned on Explode the Code but someone said it was boring and suggested Abeka K5 Phonics. Or I thought about going with SL Language arts with K readers. One more thing: LHFHG uses singapore early bird. Would I have to stick with that from now on or could I use MUS primer in 1st grade? Is it an easy switch? we dont have many math skills other than counting and number id. Sorry so long-feeling overwhelmed!!