If done as the publisher says I would say 10-15 minutes reading the textbook & doing the questions at the end of the section. And 20-30 min. doing the experiment. It is scheduled out as two readings then the experiment. It is 3 days a week, a reading each day and then an experiment. I picked up our Rainbow in Feb or Mar told my son (my sciencey one) that if he wanted to start that was fine with me or he could wait. He chose to start, soon found that he liked it and started doing both readings in one day then the experiment the next day, then repeated that each day we did school. He did the first year in 17 weeks that way. This next year we are planning on doing the same thing, doing it everyday during the second half of the year.

I only have one child using it but if I were to have two then I would get another lab book but not more lab equipment/supplies. I was lucky and found our lab stuff used, one child had gone through and there has been plenty for my son with some left over. But the lab book is written in with their findings from the experiments, activities, and has the tests in there, too. HTH

I use TOG and we just finished Year 3. The This Country of Ours book is actually a D level book. My son (12) read it but totally weighed it against what he has been taught at home, in Primary and now YM. When I questioned him about it, his response was along the lines of "Yes, it didn't say really nice things about our church but I know what is right and so it is not really a big deal." But he is also my very laid back, roll with the punches child. I have to agree with the previous poster that said we have much in common with the religious views (not counting Worldview something we don't use in our house), but we also talk about the LDS insights to those common threads that crop up our D discussions. HTH

That would be the Leadership book. Their suggestions for 5 grade age is basically let them do what they want. Try to inspired them to want to learn something of their own choosing. When they show interested, help them run with it. But don't force them to do any kind of work that they don't want to do because that will squash their love of learning.

My son who has dyscalculia is doing really well with MUS. Our progression was: In kindergarten (the only year he went to school) he used Saxon. He could only do about half what the other students did, the rest being homework. 1st grade: our first year home I tried him on Saxon again thinking if I gave him time it would click. It didn't work. 2nd-middle 4th grade: We switched to Rod & Staff. He did better, he was learning but there were still tears and he hated math. Middle 4th-current (middle 5th) grade: We switched to MUS. He is doing really good. We do everything, 2 worksheets a day (A&D, B&E, C&F) and the test. In May 2010, we have finally got him tested, where he got the dyscalculia diagnoses. His tester said that MUS was a good choice for him because he needs the mastery over-kill that MUS gives. HTH.

I put my son (now 4) on fortified rice milk when he was 11 months old. I even talked with his pediatrician, who was fine because of his history. He was intolerant to milk and soy based formulas. He didn't do well on the goats milk, either. He did fine and was actually my chubbiest toddler, which isn't saying much if you were to see our whole family. :lol: Now my Baby Girl has many of the same issues but worse! For her I have found that raw milk was worked great. I just shake the cream into the milk and we both drink it. I'm still nursing her at 16 months. She has many respiratory problems if she gets any thing with pasteurized milk in it. No one can explain that one to me but she is very wheezy, cold like symptoms. My personal opinion is that you are his Mom. You will know if it is working for him or not. His pediatrician only sees him once every few months. They are trained in the most acceptable path. But many children are born and thrive on less than the ideal, per doctors training.

If starting TOG in Feb/Mar makes you weird, then I must be weird. :lol: I started TOG last Feb! Go ahead and do it. Take some time to really look and read especially with the suggested books. Then just start. You can do it.:hurray:

For my dd6 K year, we finished up 100 EZ lessons, and did R&S Math 1. We read books from the library. Then whatever she absorbed from her older brother's history & science was gravy on the top. I took it really easy with her because at the start of the school year we had a new baby. Next year for ds4 I plan to do 100 EZ, and start really working his numbers and addition to ten. Read lots of books and have him tag along with older sister's science & history (which he already does about half the time). My primary goal in K is to get the kids reading and doing very simple addition.

Not sure about your workbook question, I bought the e-book so I just print out as many sheets as I need. About the body book, I would think it would be okay. So far, we aren't to body yet still working through the animals, we just read about the topic for the day, then dd6 narrates something back to me while I write for her. I would just make sure the the book you have isn't over the child's head. You could always give it a try, if it doesn't work then order the recommended book. HTH.

10 sided dice - dd6 is finally getting confident with basic math facts.

My ds10 has that problem. He went to PS for Kindergarten and I was told that it is very common at that age and they wouldn't put him in speech for that for a couple of years. After that year we started homeschooling. We are still working on it because I have chosen not to deal with the speech teacher at the local school. He has gotten a lot better in the past year, he will now say the right sound about 60% of the time. When I'm working with him (only during school time) if he gives me the wrong sound I'll make him correct it. Until this year he hated when I'd do that. But like I said it is finally paying off.

My ds10 has expressed a strong desire to learn Korean. Who knew, not a foreign language on my radar. :lol: I'm at a loss about where to even look to find a good, reasonably priced learning curriculum. Any ideas?

Have you tried the UHEA.org website? That would be the Utah Home Education Association. I haven't done much with them but I know they watch the laws for Utah very carefully. Which school district are you in? I have heard that some are almost nasty to homeschoolers and others are very good. I also know that there are yahoo groups for Davis, Weber, Box Elder, Cache counties and I'm sure that there are other ones too. I happen to live in Davis county and am a member of that group.

This year will be one of my $$$ years. I'm estimating between what I have spent and what I'm waiting on money for, I'll spend about $1000. But that includes the special phonics program to help my ds10 because he is dyslexic and his software recognition program because he is also dysgraphic and I really need the convenience of not being his scribe, about 2/3 of the money is just for those two items. I have ds12 (7th grade), ds10 (5th grade), dd6 (1st grade) and ds4 (prek-but I'm not buying him anything:lol:)

:iagree: And I'm very jealous.