I second the suggestions for the Betsy-Tacy books and the All of a Kind Family series. Has she tried the American Girl mysteries? They are much more complex than the American Girl books, and while they are not as complex as other books your DD has read, my 10 year old DD really enjoys them and they at least take her a couple hours to finish. ;-) The Lemonade War series is something else my DD really likes...not sure they are very similar to the other books your DD enjoyed, but they might be worth checking out.

We worked through most of them, but I will admit I was disappointed too. You get what you "pay for" I guess, and they are free lists. I felt like some of the words were a bit too easy, while many other words were too hard/too obscure (for a 4th grader still struggling with spelling, anyway). Overall I was seeing improvement in DD's spelling, so we kept at it. I've decided for this year to work through the Spelling Plus lists by Susan C. Anthony, and do markings with those words in an LoE manner. I am having DD "test out" of the words she already knows of the 1,000, then we will work on the rest. She has gaps where there are fairly common words that she just hasn't committed to memory so my goal for this year is that she masters many/most of the words on that list.

Amy, I used the Maestro books the year before last (when my oldest was 3rd grade...back when I was actually blogging, so you might be able to find some posts on my blog about it). Here's my spreadsheet of our units, which I loosely based around 1 Maestro book per unit. We actually spent less time on several units than what I budgeted on the first page of the spreadsheet, so we studied the Civil War at the end of that year (though I never added that to my spreadsheet). I'll agree with the others that I am not sure the books make as good of a spine for a 5th grader as they did for a 3rd grader. On the other hand, if you are adding in a lot of other nonfiction and just using the Maestro books as a nice overview of each time period that could work. I think your older DD would still enjoy them (If she is anything like mine, and reads almost every picture book in her younger brothers' library basket in addition to all her other reading).

Most public schools here don't start until the day after Labor Day, so we rarely start before that. DH wasn't able to get any significant vacation time away from work this summer due to a big Sept. 1st deadline, so we are going to go ahead and take the first week of September as a family vacation/staycation time and start on the 8th.

I think it makes at least some logical sense that west and fall are not on the spelling plus list - west is all short vowel sounds so easy to spell. Fall follows the same pattern as other -all words, and I think there are other -all words on those lists? I would be surprised if Autumn is common enough for these lists? But that may be regional - where I live, few people use "autumn" in every day conversation...unless it is someone's name! :-) (I know several people with that name.) I guess that does not help for true completeness, but perhaps at least some logic helps a bit? Lol...

Joining the party with #223... Can't wait to start reading it... :hurray: :hurray: :hurray: We are part of the "MCT Paragraph Town + TC + maybe some more W&R later this year club". DD would have been starting Narrative 2, but TC fits her needs much better. Not sure if we will still do Narrative 2 this year or not...we'll see how TC progresses. MCT is more just for fun/read-aloud. DD loved Island level last year, and wanted to continue on.

Speed card game -- It is more multiples/skip counting but of course that builds the foundation for multiplication,

i haven't used Tapestry of Grace, but I did start MOH with a 1st grader and we really enjoyed it. We did volume 1 when DD was in 1st grade, and all of volume 2 and part of volume 3 in 2nd grade, then took two years to do American History. History is my DD's favorite subject (and my boys don't mind it so much either) -- we'll be starting back over in Ancients with MOH this year with 5th/2nd/K'ers, and getting more in-depth with maps, extra reading, etc for DD. I had a lot of people tell me it was "too advanced" for a 1st grader too, but obviously it is a very personal decision because it was a great fit for us!

I have seen it...It doesn't appeal to me as much, but I am having a hard time putting my finger on exactly why. I think if DS7 were a bit more solid on the material in Essentials, it might make more sense. At the moment it seems a bit "random" in terms of the words covered, but maybe I haven't studied it enough to see the rhyme and reason to it. I like the "Dictation Resource Book" better for DD because it specifically covers 1000 most commonly used words, and I would like her to master those words at this point.

Thanks! My DD did the advanced lists this past year, and that worked out pretty well. The only thing that bothered me was that we spent a lot of time on some words that 4th graders rarely use, while there are some more basic words she hasn't really "mastered". So this year we are going to do the "Dictation Resource Book" lists (by Susan C. Anthony), using the "LoE Method" of marking/dictating words. We'll also do more spelling sentence dictation from that book, which we haven't done a lot of. I am hoping that doing this book will fill in her gaps of easier words. We may do some word root study this year as well. I am (believe it or not) still waffling about what to do with DS7 for this school year. I made it through (I think) about lesson 26 of Essentials with him last year in 1st grade, mainly only doing spelling. We took a "break" from it toward the end of the year while I was working on teaching him cursive handwriting. I know that spelling isn't always retained super well at his age, and his spelling is certainly way better than DD's was when she was 7.5. However, he still regularly forgets phonograms we've drilled over the past two years, and forgot how to spell words he learned at the beginning of 1st grade. We could "move on" and finish Essentials, but I also kind of feel like he needs to "do it again" so to speak. However, when I mentioned that idea he was really discouraged at the idea of "repeating" the same spelling words he did in 1st grade...so I am not sure if I want to use another book's lists with the LoE method...or what. I could also use LoE's high frequency lists from their website and cobble together my own weekly lists. I own WRTR 4th edition, How to Teach Spelling, and a few other resources. I could even use the lists from the beginning of Dictation Resource Book with him, I suppose. I think if LoE Foundations D had been out at the beginning of last fall, that would have been the absolutely perfect program for him at that point (then we would have started Essentials this fall in 2nd). But now the reading in that is to easy for him. I have pondered buying it and using it anyway for the spelling just because I will need it later anyway for DS5...but $50ish is a lot to spend on spelling for him when I have other options, and other things I need to buy this fall yet. So...long ramble...And I need to make a decision quick! I am hoping the last-minute pressure in the next couple weeks will help me decide (we aren't starting until September). And DS5...He will use Foundations. He has mastered pretty much everything in A except the lower case handwriting. So I think we'll start the year with a quick phonogram review and work on lower case letters. Then we'll start Foundations B. I am also working through the I See Sam readers with him, so I guess I am not using a "pure" LoE method in teaching him to read. :-)

I just got "Don't forget to Write" (for Elementary) via ILL at the library. I don't think I am going to end up using it this year, but it looks super fun -- lots of very creative lesson ideas to get kids writing across a variety of genres -- a lot of the lessons seem to include ideas for incorporating drama into writing. I am not sure how well this transfers into home use instead of in a classroom, but I could see a really creative student having a lot of fun with those lessons if you had the time to get the student started on them.

I have taken away the privilege of using a favorite toy (usually legos), but I generally only do that for an infraction related to that toy -- throwing them, not cleaning up, too much fighting over them, etc. For kids fighting with each other, I often make them say or write three kind things about the person they offended. This is harder than it sounds (at least for my kids) and calms them down sometimes to have to think positive thoughts about the sibling they were fighting with. We do assign "Washing a dish" as a chore for DD in particular when she loses her temper. It may make her dislike that particular chore a bit, but it is as much of a "calm down" time for her as it is the actual chore. She often ends up getting assigned several in a row if she is really in a bad mood...but by the time she is done she is much calmer (usually, anyway).

I wonder if maybe it is because this series is so new that there is less to say about it? It seems like most people who have tried Science in the Beginning like it. Most people are probably okay with jumping around to a lot of topics or they wouldn't have bought it. I think a few people are just starting SITAW right now. We'll start it in September, but we didn't do Science in the Beginning first. We've used BFSU and interest-led studies in the past so we are used to skipping around a lot. I've never done a year or even a semester of science all focused on one topic. I thought we were going to do that last year with Earth Science, but DD got extremely bored after oh, six weeks or so. I think if any of my kids really hits on a topic they like, I'll let them take that rabbit trail separately from our main science studies.

I'm swooning a bit, and glad now that DH asked me to wait until August for curriculum purchases. I had an expensive list of writing/grammar products for DD10, but maybe I can shorten that list a bit with this. Is there any explicit mechanics practice? Dd is weak in punctuation, so we need to work on that this year. Key for us will be whether or not DD will agree to a program with this much teacher-led "talking". She prefers independence as much as possible, even when it isn't the best thing for her unfortunately.

We like Castle Panic and Forbidden Island because they are co-operative games. We find that our older two (ages 7 and 10) can play with very little help, and even our 5 year old can play with "help" (which works pretty well on these games because they are co-operative). We also play at various times Settlers of Catan, Ticket to Ride and Carcassone. Our two older kids can both play these games with us pretty well. Settlers and Ticket to Ride, we often play to a lower point total to "win", in order for the game to take less time. The five year old wants to play but needs a lot of help, which doesn't work quite as well on those games since they are competitive (aka, "help" from siblings does not turn out to be in his best interest most of the time!).

The year before last we did a US History study that I generally divided up to match the Maestro books (Google drive file here). On each page, the Maestro book should be in the far left column along with a few other "spine" sorts of books. We didn't necessarily read everything listed on every page, but we did read a lot of it! Seeing this, I really regret not keeping a more detailed spreadsheet of what we read this past year. While I planned ahead for our year 1 of US History, I did a lot more "just skimming through the library catalog and requesting a bunch of books" for our Year 2 of US History.

With DD10, We went through Essentials twice (once with the regular lists, once with the advanced lists). One drawback I found of the advanced lists is that she was analyzing/learning some relatively uncommon words (at least, uncommon for a 9 or 10 year old). Her retention is dramatically improving as she gets older, and some of the more basic/common words we covered at the beginning of LoE (when she was toward the end of 2nd grade) were not retained. I've decided to go through the lists in Spelling Plus/Dictation Resource Book with her for 5th, to make sure she is closer to having mastery of the most commonly used words. We'll analyze them in LoE style. We also did not do a lot of sentence dictation with LoE, so I want to do more of that this year. We did the grammar in maybe the first 15 lessons or so of Essentials, but then it got to be too much for her at the time (keep in mind she was late 2nd/early 3rd grade). We did Sentence Family and Grammar land in 3rd grade instead. Then last year I thought i might do the LoE grammar, but just didn't feel the love for it. We did Grammar Island/Sentence Island instead. We did very, very few of the writing exercises in Essentials. DD focused almost entirely on Spelling in 3rd (we did a few writing projects from Write On!). Then last year we did the first two books of CAP's Writing and Rhetoric. We are going to do a more intense grammar year this year with Hake/Saxon for grammar, and we are going to do Killagon Paragraphs for Elementary and at least one, if not 2 more books of W&R. DS7 is taking a bit more of a meandering path. The LoE production schedule inhibited what might have been ideal path for him. We started the LoE beta test of Foundations when DS7 was half way through K (after spending the fall doing phonics pathways and just learning some phonograms LoE-style that fall). We went through nearly all of the Beta test lessons as written before he started 1st grade last fall. This would have been through nearly all of what was covered in C, plus a tiny bit of what became D. It was a real disappointment when the production of D was delayed, as it would have been perfect for him last year. Instead, we started going through Essentials at about 1 lesson or so per week just doing the spelling (I think we made it through 26 lessons -- though we took a break before the end of the year), and then just doing reading practice with an assortment of books of his choice. It was okay, but he wasn't retaining as much as I had hoped. It was just not enough review and practice. A more Foundations-like experience would have been much better. I am still waffling about what to do next year for him. He is definitely beyond the level of Foundations D in terms of reading, but I have a feeling the spelling would still be about right. But that is a more expensive option (though I suppose I would use it again later with the younger boys). We could start Essentials again at the beginning, but when I casually mentioned that idea, he balked at it (I think it made him feel like a failure to have to "start over" on the same thing). I'm also considering Reading Lessons through Literature (but using it as a spelling program) or using the WRTR or SWR lists in the LoE style (even though it would cover similar material to LoE, it at least wouldn't be "starting over" in his mind). DS5 has mostly mastered the material in Foundations A except the handwriting. So I am hoping to start his K year with some lowercase handwriting review, then move into Foundations B. I am really hoping his progression through the LoE material works out more smoothly. :-)

My DD was able to be fairly independent wilt CLE for 4th grade. It's not 100% independent, but most days my only role was to check answers and help on a couple problems she had trouble with.

I think there was a 2nd grade thread on the K8 board earlier this spring that I posted in...but we've made a few line-up changes (and maybe still have a few things up in the air)...Here is what I am thinking now: So, for 2nd grade DS, age 7: Math: continuing Right Start D + Beast Academy 3B (and beyond...how ever far we get with BA and/or maybe the next RS level...math is DS's very strong subject) Spelling/Reading: Currently leaning toward Reading Lessons through Lit (we've done two years of various LoE things...I think I want to try something just slightly different this year) Grammar: FLL2? or maybe ELTL (possibly nothing...LOL...didn't start grammar until 3rd with DD and that has worked out fine so far!) Writing: Bravewriter-style free writes/Jot-it-down sort of projects (not sure i want to buy jot-it-down, but that sort of thing if we don't buy it!) Handwriting: Bible verse copywork History: Mystery of History 1 (along with big sister) + book basket/lit to go along Science: Science in the Ancient world (along with siblings) + science book basket reading Latin(?): Maybe GSWL? DS asked to start Latin...but I don't know if it is realistically going to happen this year since I am already trying to figure out how to work in more school time for DS5 now that he is K age. We are also in a 2x per month co-op for science/gym/art, DS does Tae Kwon Do, and we are joining an ICC (Institute for Cultural Communication) public speaking club this fall too. Oh, and we are thinking of starting a DIY.org club. So, plenty of extra curricular activities! I guess I am a little more uncertain than i realized about all the English/Language Arts subjects. We won't start until the last week of August or maybe September 1st, so i have some time to decide. DH asked me to wait on any more curriculum purchases until August (it will be a better month for us financially)...so I haven't felt pressured to decide. We already have the math, history and science books...and if I had to go with something I already have, I own LoE essentials, a million scholastic e-books, and a few other resources I used with DD...So I could go that route if needed!

I was told that on here before...but it wasn't the reality for our group. If our group hadn't been located so far from our house I might try to stick it out another year in 4-H and help get the project groups started, but the driving distance was just too great (and there are no general purpose clubs closer to our home). From having connected with others in 4-H clubs elsewhere, our experience was definitely not unique. It seems there is a very high degree of local variety. I didn't know this about 4-H (that they would only be actually "doing things" at meetings if our 4-H group had project groups) when we joined, which is why we are looking for something new. I'm not sure individual project group meetings would work well for our family anyhow, since various children would not be doing the same project, so it would just multiply the numbers of meetings we needed to fit into our schedule. I like the idea of a DIY club where everyone comes and tries something new or shares what they have been working on. I guess that wouldn't appeal to everyone, but my kids love to try new things or learn new skills, and would like to do it with friends. Not sure if that is at all what the OP is looking for, but I am excited about starting a club that doesn't have to fit a super specific format of what is "supposed" to happen at the meetings.

We are considering starting a DIY group this year to get a group that is co-ed and focused on "doing things" together. We tried 4-H this year and between distance from home (of the county events in particular) and the fact that the times to get together as a group were focused on either business meetings or just "fun" stuff (not working on projects or learning how to do something new), it just turned out not to be a good fit for us. We really want a group that is about learning skills, trying new things and doing projects together, so we are thinking that DIY might be the best fit for us.

I wonder if you are not getting a lot of responses because there aren't many people who have done both programs? I am not super familiar with Rod and Staff -- I really only know what I have read on the forums -- but I think it teaches pretty differently compared to RS. While Right Start is very conceptual, discovery-oriented, and manipulative based, Rod and Staff strikes me as traditional and more procedural. Maybe someone who has actually used it can comment, but I don't think a student doing Rod and Staff is going to learn as much of the "why" or many of the unique strategies/methods you find in Right Start -- it is just basic, old-fashioned math. I did find that when my DD was in level D of RightStart, it was less time consuming for me than previous levels. Level D of RightStart has a lot of review and a lot of lessons that just extend previous concepts. With a short lesson, my DD was able to get the concept and spend time working on her own using the workbook. Admittedly, we didn't spend a lot of time during level D playing games though. Ultimately my DD wanted a math curriculum written to her, rather than one that relied on me to teach the lesson. She decided that she really, really dislikes listening to me explain math concepts. We switched to CLE after doing level E of RS for a couple months. It has been a decent fit for her. She only needs to talk to me about the math when she gets stuck, instead of having to listen to me explain every lesson! If RightStart is working for your DS, it could be a mistake to switch to something so different because he may not gel with a curriculum where the concepts are presented so differently. Or maybe he is the kind of kid that will do well with any math (I think my DS7 is that way -- he really "gets" math and is having fun doing both RS and BA). It's hard to know.

I'd say it is the more complex topics paired with the lack of visuals/materials to be read directly to the student to go along with those more complex topics. We finished BFSU 1 when DD was in mid-3rd grade. Some of the topics in BFSU 2 seemed reasonable for a 3rd/4th grader (simple machines, electricity, weather) but some were so "out there" that I had to think pretty hard to understand them (molecular/Brownian motion? Not often an elementary school topic!), much less be able to explain them to a not-quite-9-year-old. For the topics I found I could teach, like simple machines, I was drawing off of so many other sources in pulling the lesson together (library books, googling for pictures, youtube videos, etc) it seemed like i was hardly using BFSU at all any more. It was somehow different with the lessons in Vol. 1 that stood alone with simple demos. She didn't need a library book or a video to understand types of energy or gravity, but it was pretty hard to the BFSU 2 topics without those resources...at least for us. I only used it a bit here and there (trying it a bit when DD was in both 3rd and 4th grade) before deciding it just wasn't for us.

We are getting ZooBooks magazine, and my 5 and 7 year olds like it. I don't think it would be too "young" for an 8 year old. Each issue focuses on one animal, and I haven't noticed any environmental themes at all, other than mentioning endangered animals.

I just scanned the article, but I know that in the city I'm in, there are a number of k-8 public schools. The rest are broken down k-4/5-8. So it doesn't seem so "revolutionary" if there are already public schools in large urban cities doing that.