Thank you for your responses. Clearly I missed the note about doing the first three steps simultaneously! Whoops! I guess we will move along to step two!

I am just starting All About Spelling 1. I went through the initial cards with my son to see which letter sounds he has mastered and what needs more practice. He knows all the letters and their sounds, except for some of the vowels. He knows the long and the short sound, but not always the other sounds. How important is it for him to master every possible sound of each vowel before moving on in the lessons? Thank you.

At my local education supply store, one can buy a large poster that is simply handwriting lines. I had tossed around the idea of making my own alphabet poster using this. That way the poster could be as simple as I wanted it to be. Instead I wound up buying a very simple ZanerBloser alphabet strip (that is intended to go aross a classroom). It didn't have any pictures. I love it!

This is an interesting idea. I thought about this, but I was nervous that my children would want to experiment and make the letters the "fancy" way before they were really ready for that. Or that they would make some letters printed and others in handwriting. I agree though that seeing it all the time would probably help prepare.

All of you are so creative! Thanks for these great ideas!!

Thank you for all your thoughts on this. I like the idea of using flash cards on a cork board, and the hanging the alphabet off of a string would work for us also. My boys know all their letter sounds and names (of course my girls do not yet), but I'm mostly concerned that they have a reference for handwriting and also for alphabetical order. I think a desk strip would work well if we weren't working at the dining room table. Everything has to be able to move off the table. I'm not sure if having a ring or a booklet would work; would we be too lazy to get it out to look up a letter for formation? I don't know.

I don't have a classroom. . .we are homeschooling mostly in my dining room. I think I should hang up the alphabet, so I bought one today at the teacher store, but it is so long. I don't know how to attach it to the wall without damaging the wall (it is multiple cards). I considered just making a poster of the letters, but I thought maybe the children should be able to see it in one long line instead of in multiple rows? Or should I just write out the letters on sentence strip and put it on the table instead of trying to hang it up? Advice?

I'm not sure what I'm going to do about music yet. I know for certain we are going to be listening to some songs from around the world as part of our social studies. I purchased Wee Sing Around the World. As for art, I purchased The Usborne's Very First Art Book. I love it! The reviewer at Amazon summarizes it well. But basically there is a work of art on the left to study. Then on the right side there is an activity to do. We have found the activities very do-able and they turn out nice. Plus I love having a little art appreciation each session.

Thank you for all these great ideas. I am inspired to start!!

My 4 and 5 year olds really enjoy memory work and I was thinking about having them learn the locations of the 50 states. However, they can't read yet, so that kind of rules out many puzzles. I'm thinking we will just practice using a large map, but I'm really looking for some other ideas.

Thank you so much. Your information was very helpful to me. I think I'm going to definitely hold off for at least another 6 months or so on WWE. We will keep plugging away at handwriting and phonics.

What are the prerequisite skills for starting WWE? Thanks!

Thank you for your responses. I don't really know if I am doing K or 1st with my oldest. Probably a mix. He is an older K if I went with our district guidelines. I'll continue with ETC, and then maybe I could try FLL, but hold off on WWE? He still could use more handwriting practice. He is not fluid in all his letters yet.

I have no idea what I am doing! I really don't have a full grasp of any of the curriculum out there. I sent back the Sonlight reading/LA because I didn't like it. We are currently doing ETC 1 and that is going well. But I'm not sure what to add or what the differences are? How does first language lessons and writing with ease compare to rod & staff books? I also keep looking at the IEW PAL reading and writing. Do all of these programs cover the same material? I'm so confused! Thank you for your help.

I have similiar aged kiddos to you. I just purchased FLL. Now I'm wondering if this would be a better choice for our family. Since I have no older children, I'm really just starting out with homeschooling and have no experience with any program! I'm also wondering when grammar will be introduced.

I'm doing this same thing. I purchased some of the books you listed: Global Art, Houses and Homes around the World. I also purchased: Children Just Like Me. After borrowing National Geographic Picture Atlas of our World (1978) from a friend, I decided I had to have my own copy of it despite the fact it is outdated. It is EXCELLENT! It has wonderful photographs, flags, maps, and a nice description of each country. I bought it used on amazon and the most recent edition I could find was 1994. I also bought Window on the World prayer book. After much debate for just one literature purchase (thinking I will borrow books from the library as we go), I bought Around the World in 80 Tales because is seemed the most young child friendly. I bought the Wee Sing around the world CD to listen to some music. I also decided to incorporate animal study into each area we are doing, so I bought The DK Encyclopedia of Animals. I'm going to work on basic classification of animals with my boys. HTH

Does anyone know if the Primary Arts of Language from IEW include grammar? I'm not sure if I should use this or FLL?

Thank you for the suggestion. I am not familiar with Five in a Row, but I will take a look at it. It seems like many people here like it.

I loved loved loved this suggestion of studying each continent! Thank you. I'm glad you loved HOD. The curriculum looks very good andmuch more sequential! I will look at the flyleaf readers. Thank you for the direction. The Child's Introduction to the World looks like a great resource! I agree that the books are great. I have many of the 4/5 ones on my wish list.

I started to HS my 5.5 year old. The four year old is doing some of the things also. I purchased Sonlight Core A, but I am not loving it. The science is jumping from topic to topic, and the history is also all over the place. I am also not happy with the first grade readers. My son knows letters/sounds and is just starting to sound out words. He has about 30 sight words he knows. But the readers were very contrived and difficult to follow the plot (I use that term loosely of course for any book at this level). The Bible readings are a bit advanced, since I'm trying to do morning devotions with all the children and not just the 5 year old (other children are 4, 2, and 1) I love the books that go with the SL program though. They are quality literature! Here is what we are doing that we love: Singapore Math 1a and Miquon orange Nature Study Kidwriting Explode the Code 1 Learn to Read in 100 easy lessons A Reason for Handwriting K Read alouds from Sonlight Scripture memory songs I really would like to add in some history. I was thinking maybe we would like HOD better for kindergarten? I have also considered doing Sonlight 4/5 instead. Maybe the history is better? Do I really need to do science for K? Is doing Nature study and just reading informational books enough? I am nervous to spend more money. Although I believe Sonlight will refund what I send back, just losing out on return shipping. I need some advice. Thanks in advance!