https://flic.kr/p/JbCQPF https://flic.kr/p/J2Jkif Hope that works One is the group plans page for 5 days. The other is the individual child plan for 5 days. The little initial on the left indicates which child. I then fill In With pen the exact plans each week as we approach.

I did Logic of English with all four of my children. I also did RLTL with one. I purchased Rod and Staff Grade 1 Reading and Phonics to use this year. I think it is exactly what my last child needs. I probably won't do all the reading workbook pages, but I like the looks of the phonics a lot. I also plan to make sure my child knows how to actually read the sight words and not just treat them like sight words.

This was such a beautiful and helpful response. I'm going to check out your blog post next. I adore the idea of having a notebook that could be "conversational" back and forth to at the very least have my son delve deeper with his thinking if not his writing. I also really like just focusing on ONE "editing" or grammar item at a time. The whole process would just be too much to get everything correct I think at this point. I'm going to go with this one or two things to point out verbally. This makes a lot of sense to me. Thank you. I wonder about my children's visual memory also! This is the method I used when I taught the writing process in school, but in this case I'm referring to the child writing written summaries of their readings.

I'm going to attempt to move my son from oral to written narrations. He is not a strong writer, but he does give excellent narrations. He can do summary narrations and long ones with all the details. When he begins to do written narrations, should I be correcting them for punctuation, grammar, and spelling? It seems like that would be quite discouraging, but on the other hand I have always expected their written exercises to be correct. What was/is your approach?

It is absolutely doable at that level to do most of it orally and with the whiteboard and do the rest independently. I personally don't think CLE is busy work, but if you aren't going to use the spelling or the writing than maybe it is a lot of extra that you don't want. I really like all three programs. However, I seem to have found my groove with Rod and Staff right now, so that is what we are going with for now. But if I was pressed for time, I think I would do ELTL because I feel it is very solid and beautiful with very little busy work. I haven't used Abeka at all.

Well, even though I have used CLE, R&S, and ELTL, I have never used HOD except for preschool so I really can't help you out on that. Hopefully someone else can!

I should add that all three of these are really good solid programs. They are just different in the presentation and amount of written work.

ELTL 2 will probably be your shortest lesson time. Rod and staff has quite a bit of work to it at level 3. Using some workbook pages instead of the book would cut that down. You could do grade 2 of Rod and Staff and just do most of it together orally. ELTL would still probably be the shortest lesson time if you aren't including the reading time.

Your children could listen to the novel on audio book, but other than that it is not independent at all in my opinion. It is a sit on the sofa and do it together type of curriculum. We really did enjoy level 2 of ELTL. Rod and Staff isn't really independent either. The bulk of the review material is in the teacher's manual. My children did best if I personally taught the lesson. However, the work in the text and/or worksheets can be done mostly independently. CLE is designed to be the most independent of the ones you listed.

Feels awesome when we find something that works for our child!

I'm happy to hear another good review! Thank you for this review. I appreciate it. Thanks. I LOVE Pathway! We own all the readers. The stories are so sweet and often humorous. We have used Climbing to Good English in the past. I have Learning Through Sounds which looks good, but I think this particular child needs more than what it offers.

Great advice; thank you! Good to know that the phonics could be used ahead of the Reading to keep the reading phonetic and not sight-word based.

Thank you for this! I'm glad to hear someone speak positively about R&S phonics/reading. I know it is not that popular here; however, LOE was not going to continue to work for this child. It was too much too fast even going slowly. Loved your last line!! It is hard to see the finish line from the starting line.

Excellent description for a non-user! Good research! I've used portions of both math and liked them both. I liked them for different reasons for different children. I've used portions of both language arts. You don't have to use CLE Language arts AND their reading. They stand alone, particularly after the learn to read series. However, CLE spelling, writing, and grammar are all in the Language Arts book, although you could choose to skip part if you didn't want it all. Rod and Staff English, spelling, and reading also each stand alone and are in different books.

Thank you for sharing what you are doing. It is helpful to hear someone else say that she felt like she was holding off so as it was. I don't want to give my last child LESS of an education, but I do want to teach to THIS child and not the imaginary one that is just like her siblings. My youngest is sooo very sweet. I want her to love school and not ruin it with my expectations.

Thank you for the encouragement. Since we did Logic of English last year, I feel like we will be able to decode most of the sight words with what she learned last year, so as not to treat them like sight words with drill. We will probably do LOE Essentials or WRTR later :001_smile: That looks like a very nice year! I like Essentials, too. Thank you for helping me to justify! Yes, I think I need to learn that slow and steady is fine and works. I like to say it to other people. I just didn't want to try it out for myself. :blush: Thank you for this. We will try to actually read the sight words instead of memorizing them. But, I do think a program that reviews a lot is exactly what my child needs to feel successful and to be successful. I like when everyone is parented and taught the same! :lol: Thank you. This was very helpful to me! We have the summer birthday going on here, also!

So I have three children that sort of followed the same path, basically doing first grade work in K, and maintained that 1 year ahead schedule so far. They thrive on math like MEP and Zacarro and Horizons. Then came my last child which dared to not be like the others. I regret even trying to do kindergarten with her last year. She wasn't ready, but I really wanted her to be ready. I wanted her to use the same curricula the others did. Total Fail. RightStart B did not go well even at a slow pace. MEP was a disaster. Logic of English Foundations A and B went okay. So this is my plan for next year for first grade. Rod and Staff Grade 1 math (ducky version) Rod and Staff Grade 1 phonics and possibly reading or Pathway readers and also easy early real books Pentime Read Aloud: Listen to fairy tales and picture books read by mommy Join in family work: learning the states, poetry, picture study, art, listening to music, singing, hymns, Bible, Swim Lessons Ballet class Field Hockey She does lots of imaginative play and drawing most of the day. She is very content to independently play. What we aren't going to do but I'm going to feel guilty about: Writing with Ease 1 Climbing to Good English 1 MEP 1 Challenging Word Problems 1 Science Does this plan seem weak or on target?

If the price was for a lifetime, I'd definitely do it. Just seems a lot to have to resubscribe every year for the dated materials.

I really don't have much to add to the previous poster! She already did a great job of answering your questions! We used FAN with CLE (and Horizons and Rod and Staff and MEP). In other words, whatever math program was our spine, we still supplemented with either FAN process skills or CWP. I prefer FAN because I think it does a much better job of explaining HOW to solve the problems. Level 1 of FAN is really basic. I honestly believe it could be skipped; however, I really wouldn't use the program above grade level unless you have a super strong math student. I did level 1 this past year with my first grader who was doing 2nd grade in Horizons but it was too simple. I wish I had just done level 2 with her. With my boys they did FAN math one half to one full year lower than their regular math so we could focus on solving problems and not on the actual arithmetic skill. I don't know of a teacher manual but I think the book offers a good deal of help in how to solve each type of problem.

I realize this is an old thread, but I recently bought a workbook from Prufrock press and it won't print. The text size is too large. It is like it isn't scaled to print. The lady at Prufrock Press told me I needed to talk to Adobe support, but adobe doesn't appear to have support. I'm so frustrated! ARGH!

If you are in central PA, pm me. I would definitely go with an evaluator with homeschool experience also.

I really want to like something, but there is absolutely nothing that I want.

I did Big Book of Lively Latin with my 10 year old this year. The level was good for him and I plan to use it with my second son next year. The review by the previous poster is very good. I agree with everything she wrote. We chose BBoLL because my son had zero interest in Latin, but I was insisting upon it. He had a very good year with the program and almost never complained. We will finish up BBoLL next year and then most likely move onto book 2.

To do some of the games, you will need the game cards also. The phonogram cards are helpful if you don't want to make your own. If you don't have a white board, you might want to consider that.

LOE is worth the investment if you want everything written out for you with lots of games and fun. LOE is colorful and straightforward. Some people don't need all the hand-holding of LOE; others do. You do not need the handwriting book. Handwriting is fully integrated into foundations.