My daughter (also a student at the University of Arizona) called me yesterday to let me know what was going on. Fortunately, she was safely in her apartment off campus . . . but I was still absolutely sick to hear this was going on. From what I understand, there were multiple reports of a guy carrying a gun, so presumably this was not just a false alarm or misunderstanding. It really, really concerns me that he apparently got away. Barb, where was your daughter at the time? She must have been scared. :( So sad for the whole Arizona community, though of course I am thankful that nobody was hurt.

So encouraging to hear. We've used WWE up to now (and AAS, for that matter; we prefer their dictation), but I think it's time to add in more. In fact, my daughter just was evaluated this morning, and her writing skills came back as a problem area. So . . . can you please tell me more about your experience with Essentials in Writing this year, particularly since you also use both WWE and AAS? Thank you!!

Do you happen to have an Ipad? If so, consider buying a Reading Rainbow subscription . . . around $29 for a 6 month subscription, and there are many wonderful picture books at various levels. I think it's a bargain, all things considered. You can download the app for free and download the first book at no charge to check out how it works. HTH!

We like Daily Word Problems from Evan Moor as well. Usually very quick, literally 3-5 minutes or less . . . but a pretty nice variety of topics. No direct teaching - just review of previously learned topics.

Totally agree (with all due respect to Boscopup). Very teacher intensive program, no doubt about it. But I don't know how an elementary math program could not be. RS math took some getting used to, but she has now gained my total confidence, and I think it is a brilliant program. Yes, there are a couple minor things that we don't do, but I use the program about 97% as written, and my kids are thriving with it. I've actually used Singapore (all levels of primary math) with my older two students. Singapore is an excellent program, but I like RS even better - especially for very young students. As for the copying, you can buy the pre-copied sheets for a whopping $5 or so each year. Well worth it for the convenience - and it takes care of most of the copying issue. :) The games are brilliant; my kids literally beg to play them. How clever of the author to find a way to drill math facts and make it fun!

For anybody following this thread and teaching "the Right Start way", do you do the subtraction algorithm exactly like she shows it? With just the underline under the number that is going to trade to the place digit on its immediate right? Or do you teach it more like this: http://www.croydonmaths.org.uk/subtraction.htm See "Stage 4" example. This is still left to right subtraction, but has a tiny bit more writing than the pure Right Start way. It seems like the extra bit of writing might make it less likely to make silly mistakes. But perhaps there's an important reason to follow the more minimalist approach that Right Start seems to take? Any perspective from you Right Start C veterans? What do you think, ScoutTN? Thanks in advance!

I am resurrecting this thread in the hopes it might help somebody else. :) I am a HUGE fan of Right Start and have learned over the years to trust the curriculum, even when it seemed a little . . . strange and/or uncomfortable. But today we got to Level C, Lesson 86, and I too was stumped, in a nearly identical way to the original poster three years ago. It seemed like they literally left a paragraph out at the printers or something. I came looking for help from WTM, and not surprisingly, the Hive came through for me. Thank you to the original poster and to those who answered! And here's hoping it helps someone else who will be reaching Level C, Lesson 86 shortly! :)

I agree with every word. It's worth it to get AAR . . . A great program!

Adventure books that have been big hits in the last year are: My Father's Dragon (plus the 2 sequels) The Dragonling (plus the 5 sequels) The Enormous Egg Tumtum and Nutmeg HTH! :-)

Please, PLEASE can we not have spoilers for Season 4? PLEASE?? That needs to be labeled in a separate Season 4 spoiler thread. I ignored your spoiler warning because this thread is about the Season 3 Season Finale, which I have seen. It is bad enough that I was inadvertently spoiled as to what happened last night by several posts that dropped very heavy hints about the Season 3 finale/Christmas special . . . in threads that simply began as discussions of the current Sunday night episode. :(

We seem to have similar tastes . . . so I'll recommend Nancy Larson Science: http://www.nancylarsonpublishers.com/ After researching this one quite a bit, I bought to do next year with my rising 1st and 2nd graders. Full disclosure - I haven't actually started yet, but the materials look fabulous. And my husband, who is a medical educator, was extremely impressed. HTH. :)

Nicole, just to clarify, I am a HUGE fan of Sonlight. I think I've purchased something like five complete cores in my homeschooling career. Many of their choices are absolutely fantastic . . . but I think that many of the books you listed above would be better enjoyed, and better appreciated, by older kids. I just was trying to make the point that those ages would be best served, in my opinion, by reading choices like: Sam the Minuteman The Long Way Westward Eat My Dust (Henry Ford's First Race) Lewis and Clark: A Prairie Dog for the President plus the wonderful Jean Fritz books, etc. Since your 3rd grader will obviously be at a higher reading and comprehension level, you could always add in a few additional choices. That's what I'm planning to do for my rising 2nd grader (who will be an older 2nd grader, born Oct. 2005). I'm going to incorporate many of the American Girl books that will fit the best into our joint reading sessions. My first grader will obviously be less interested in them. ;)

I'll give this a shot, since I did those Sonlight cores with my older kids, and am getting ready to do 2 years of American History with my youngers (who will be 1st and 2nd grade next year). I'll be blunt; I think you have too much. You have some marvelous books on there, but in my opinion they're better for logic stage kids. Books like Johnny Tremain, Walk the World's Rim, Witch of Blackbird Pond, and Carry On Mr. Bowditch. All four of these books are excellent and memorable, but better used with mid to upper elementary students. They'll get more out of them if you wait. And you won't have to "drag" them through them. The good news is that there are SO many great books on Am History for the younger set. Maybe concentrate on what Heart of Dakota and My Father's World offers for the younger (roughly 1st - 3rd grade) set. Save the more complicated books for later. :) And I'll be following this thread with interest, since I'll be doing something very similar as well next year. If it helps, I'm strongly considering using the following as my "spine", then adding in many wonderful readers and basic biographies: http://simplycharlottemason.com/store/stories-of-america/ Good luck!

That makes total sense . . . I guess we kind of combined both Emerging Readers lists, so I can completely see having to just use both sets of readers when everything is said and done! :)

Thanks for posting, Dassah! Great input as well. :)

Holly, you make a lot of good points - thank you for your input!! :)

I love what Diane W wrote and agree with it so much!! Let's see . . . My eldest two are homeschool graduates; I started homeschooling them in the 4th and 6th grades, respectively, and continued through high school graduation. They attend two different universities and are both in their honors program. One was awarded a full academic scholarship, and the other was awarded a partial academic scholarship. I am now homeschooling my second group of kids, who are currently in kindergarden and first grade. Here are some random thoughts and opinions: I know it's popular to say that education isn't the filling of a bucket, it's the lighting of a fire. Well, I suppose we can all agree with that to a large extent . . . we all want our children to WANT to learn, to be intellectually curious. But the reality is that, yes, education is ALSO the filling of a bucket to a large extent. Or an even better metaphor, perhaps, is that educating your child is a lot like eating an elephant. So it really is best to make sure you're taking lots and lots of bites, one way or another. It's certainly ok to be flexible; this past year, I homeschooled for much of June, July, and August while my husband was deployed, and then we took off much of October and November to relax as a family, travel, and visit extended family. But it wouldn't have been ok (for us) to have taken ALL that time off (five months straight) and just reassure ourselves that "oh well, we're still way ahead of the public school". There are ways to be flexible AND dilligent, and we aim to be both. I am a huge believer in reading aloud to my kids, at all ages, and have been inspired in that area by The Read Aloud Handbook. Similarly, I always gave high quality literature (the "very good" and the "classics") a prominent place in our homeschool. I outsourced a lot when my students were in high school; I especially recommend The Potter's School and Pennsylvania Homeschoolers. I found it helpful for a variety of reasons: getting my girls used to firm deadlines and other teaching styles, and letting them take specialized classes from experts in that field. It also came at a good time, as I had their two little siblings in less than two years . . . and my time was understandably consumed with nursing, changing diapers, and toddler supervision. I didn't want the education of the older two to be negatively impacted because we had two more children. Of course there were the inevitable effects (many of them positive), but to put it another way . . . I didn't want to just slow their education down to a crawl for months/years on end just because I had two babies in a short period of time. I agree that writing is vitally important and a critical component of a good education. I also think that it's one of the hardest subjects for a homeschool mom to teach, perhaps because writing is so personal. I found it to be incredibly valuable to start outsourcing their writing instruction right around high school . . . or around puberty, when those mother-adolescent relationships can become very prickly.

This summer I was on a BBC kick and watched Wives and Daughters, North and South (the English miniseries, not the one about the American Civil War), and Lark Rise to Candleford (there are 4 seasons, I believe). Are were excellent, and all were free with Amazon Prime. :) HTH!

I agree completely! (have used Pre-1 and 1 in their entirety; working on level 2 now) In a nutshell . . . go ahead and get the readers. They are high quality and integral to the program. :001_smile:

Short answer . . . yes, the two very often go together. My eldest daughter is gluten intolerant and is (not coincidentally) doing her honors thesis on Celiac Disease. My "lay understanding" of the correlation is that, when the cillia are damaged in the intestine, the producers of lactase are often also damaged. So it is very common that someone who is newly diagnosed with Celiac should also stay away from dairy products. Frequently, that person can go back to dairy once the cillia are healed - but not always. Everyone's situation is different, of course, but in my daughter's case, she can do dairy just fine as long as she sticks with Lactose free milk and/or ice cream; cheese is no problem unless in large amounts. (taking the Lactaid tablets is another good alternative to the special milk or ice cream)

Based on how you're describing yourself and your son, what about Nancy Larson Science? http://www.nancylarson.com/index_hs2.html We've ordered Level 1 for next year (when I'll have a 1st and 2nd grader), and the materials have arrived . . . it looks fabulous! My husband is in the medical field, and has had a great deal of science, and he is very impressed with this curriculum. I'm very impressed that it's put together for me, and will require almost no prep work . . . but it looks truly fun and effective for my kids. :) Hope this helps . . .

I'm planning the same thing next year and was having trouble finding quite what I want. I love the Elemental History program, but it covers only the first half of American history, and there are no plans to write a second book at this time. If you're ok with doing early American history only, I think it might be perfect. For me, I'll have a 1st and 2nd grader next year. I was looking for an engaging spine that I could easily supplement with the huge variety of historical fiction and biographies that are perfect for this age. Here's what I found for a "spine: http://simplycharlottemason.com/store/stories-of-america/ I'm then planning to supplement with books - Sonlight and Heart of Dakota have some great American history book choices that are ideal for the K-4 crew, in my opinion. HTH!

My 1st grade daughter does the Evan Moor "Reading Comprehension" workbook daily. It's something constructive to do while I'm working one-on-one with her little brother. There is a short reading (maybe 3 brief paragraphs, on average) on a variety of fiction and non-fiction topics, then 3-4 comprehension questions afterwards. If you did that with your son, it would take literally about 5-10 minutes per day. If nothing else, it's giving my daughter just a bit more reading practice, plus getting her used to the type of reading comprehension questions she is likely to encounter on standardized tests. Hope that helps! :)

Thank you, twoxcell - that is very helpful! Glad to know that your son has enjoyed all of the HoD book choices. They do look like great choices! Were you careful to read them "in order"? That's probably not very important at the 4/5 level, when your son is fluent . . . but it might be an issue for my daughter at Levels 2 and 3, when she still has a lot of growth ahead of her in the reading department. :)

Bumping, hoping to get some more input from people who might have used both of these reader sets . . . anybody else? :)