I use a separate binder for each of my dd7 subjects. They fill up so quickly! English has a Writing (trying some IEW techniques) and a Spelling tab. Even though we use a Rod & Staff workbook for spelling we still needed a place to file spelling pretests/dictation/tests. History has a Narration section and a Map section (where we also file other worksheets). Science is divided into Geology/Space/Human Body/Water--all the subjects we will be covering this year with the worksheets and experiment plans already printed/copied and organized in the order we will tackle them, along with blank paper for vocab. Art has sleeves for putting projects in. Etc, etc. If you don't do a lot of worksheets or writing, you may not need multiple binders. I know we do. They will be full by the end of the year, for sure. I think you just need to make your binders work for you!

Our school system starts after labor day as well, and typically I do the same thing so that I can enjoy summer to the fullest. Truthfully, though, the weather in Western Washington has been less than summer-y this year and I felt motivated to start early. Also, I will be taking a few weeks off in October for the new babe, so I figure that starting a little early will help me not get behind :) But I say, wait if you want!

I have not, but I will now :) I already ordered a whole bunch of these recommendations from my library. Thanks, ladies!

Thank you all! I cant wait to look up some of these books. I am having my 4th child in October and am afraid of losing the passion for school as I get wrapped up in all things baby. I'll be taking some time off and want to be sure I am ready to jump back in. Good books always help!

For Kindergarten we did seasons (why they change, what months are in which season, what the weather is like, how plants and animals change during the seasons, etc.), habitats, classification (identifying what animals are in the various groups such as reptiles, mammals, etc), and plants (made seeds sprout in the windowsill, grew radishes, went on nature walks, collected and identified leaves, learned the names of local plants and trees, etc). I had no curriculum, I just came up with stuff. It depends on what your child is ready for, I suppose. But anything hands on in nature is a definite for Kindy, I think. :)

I would love to hear what book(s) you have found to be encouraging/inspirational/helpful or just plain enjoyable to you as a homeschool mom. Besides WTM, of course. :) I would love to get my hands on some new books for myself! I spend so much time immersed in kid books and am feeling the need for some personal reading to inspire me for this coming year...My share is this: 101 Devotions for Homeschool Moms. I have not started it yet but in scanning through it I can tell it is going to bless me like crazy. Your recommendations? They do not have to be religious in nature. :)

We have taken some classes in a co-op setting. It was not a true co-op where parents were taking turns instructing, rather more of an alternative (state funded) school for homeschoolers where "qualified" parents or trained teachers could instruct in various subjects. Even in this setting the academics were somewhat appalling to me. I felt that if I did not sit next to my daughter the entire class that she would have no clue what was happening or what was expected. It seemed unorganized and chaotic. None of the parents had ever heard of classical education and most did not even expect their child to sit in their seats throughout the lesson. I wish that there was a rigorous, classical co-op around, because I would consider it for things such as music and latin. However, there are always cons, and scheduling with two under 2 will be next to impossible. I found that going out was such an interruption, too. We would never get all our schoolwork done on a co-op day. I just dropped the whole thing after a few months. The right co-op could be invaluable. I think they exist, but you have to be choosy...

Interesting. I am starting IEW with my DD7 this year and I love it so far. However, we are only working on rewriting using key words and I feel this is such a necessary skill that does not come natural to most kids. I actually feel that it AVOIDS plagiarism since kids would tend to copy word for word from a source if they had never been taught outlining or summarizing. Someone above said that for a natural writer IEW may be frustrating and I see how that could be true. However, my daughter has no experience with writing and I have found IEW an excellent place for her to start. As always, though, different things work for different people and not everyone will love the same writing program.:)

I don't know what everyone else does, but I make up all my lesson plans ahead of time in basic outline format so that I know what I should be doing day by day. My daughter has a binder for each subject: the lesson plan for that subject is in the front, and I make necessary copies for the week (or as far in advance as I want, really) and put them in sequential order. We have only to open each subject folder and we know what to do for the day. I order library books for each subject week by week and have them on hand. I also make up copywork a week in advance to put in her English folder, based on the readings we will be doing. Is this a lot of work? Yes. But I can do it all on a Sunday evening and it saves me SO much time during the week. I hate the scramble to prep while I am supposed to be teaching. It throws us all off and feels very stressful to me. However, I am a super organized person, so keeping ahead of myself seems very natural. I think a workbox would work the same way-just keep a week ahead of it and then file it all on Friday or Saturday. Don't know if this is helpful at all, but it works for us!

I did Kindergarten phonics with my daughter when she was 4, and she was ready for it. She could read and write easily at 5. However, I don't know that I would jump ahead with SOTW. Just my opinion. We did it in first grade at 6 and I thought it was perfectly suited for that age. We used the year she was 5 to do in depth science units on local plants and animals, our community, American History, basic world geography, and famous artists. We also studied French and Horizons K math. I felt that this was perfect for K, but I know that everyone has their own opinions. Do what your child is ready for, and what you two are interested in. I really don't think that there is any "right" way to do school.

Lots of real books are important to us. No texts. Also, hands on projects to demonstrate as many principles as possible. Then some worksheets or logs to solidify the learning process.That is our science routine, and we use Evan Moor's Scienceworks series to implement it. I admit that science is my least favorite subject, but I am trying to make it very fun for my children (it is one of their favorite subjects). I think textbook science turned me off to it when I was in school...

Same here. I will read their books only once if I find them to be nonsensical. We don't own many silly books either. But she sure brings them home from the library! Rainbow Magic is definitely a favorite. But I won't read it aloud :)

I like the idea of taking along the list and having my daughter hunt for the selections! We may not get one of each every time, but I think she would consider this to be fun! Great idea.

The You Can Change the World Books Vol 1 & 2 have background info on each country and specific ways your family can pray for people who live there. They would be great for a missions study.

My dd7 is a voracious reader. She has read her way through all the Disney fairy and princess series at our library as well as tons more. She picks books at her reading level and just flies through them. I have let her peruse and choose at will (with some limits-I check to be sure the book is age and content appropriate) thinking that any reading is good, so long as she is reading. Is this really true? I know that the library format laid out in WTM is that the child would choose one biography, one history, one science, one practical and three personal choices. Do you actually do this, and what is your experience with it? Is 7 a good age to start this? It seems like it might be hard to find biography/history books at a 2-3 gr level on the shelves at my library! I am wondering if too much fluff reading is actually doing more harm than good, and would love to hear any thoughts or experiences with this. I don't want to turn my daughter off to reading by requiring certain books...is this a real concern?

I decided to use cursive workbooks with my 2nd gr daughter this year to take the work off me. Otherwise I would have to come up with copywork and teach the strokes, etc. I will be doing K with my son and needed some subjects that she could do completely alone. If that is not an issue for you I don't think a curriculum would be necessary if you provided good instruction and cursive modeling.

I'll have to take a look at the CGE 3. I wasn't thinking I would purchase it since I have Rod & Staff for 3rd grade, but now I am intrigued...

I will be doing the 3R's with my K son in the fall. But he will also be doing science, art and French (and as much history as he can handle) along with his grade 2 sister. It seems almost effortless to just take him along for the ride. He will not be required to do the amount of memorization, reading and written work, obviously, but he will be doing the hands on and oral stuff with us as well as the read alouds. His sister got a LOT more for K than he will be (her being the first born and all), but I think he will get plenty. He is not as ready as she was to do all the work for K anyway.

I love the Rod & Staff preschool as well. Both my kids really enjoyed working their way through them.

I sort of agree with the previous poster. I am going through the "math dilemma" this year myself with my 2nd grader and have thought a lot about this...First off, does your son know all those math facts by heart? If not, I personally think that the repetition and review would not be a waste of time. I've come to the conclusion that memorizing all the math facts is the most important aspect of 2nd grade (IMHO). However, I do understand that R&S could be "boring" and it really doesn't cover a lot of other material besides the fact families. We are focusing on fact family memorization and drill this year (my own pieced together curriculum since I could not find one that was meeting all my needs!), but I also ordered Daily Math Practice for 2nd grade to give my daughter a few extra daily problems to keep her math skills well rounded. In addition I am also doing a daily Math Mastermind activity for hands on manipulative math. Perhaps you could supplement some "fun" math into your routine to give your son something to look forward to after the facts are practiced...?? I hope you figure out a good solution. Math was my hardest subject to iron out this year! I did not feel I could keep moving on with Horizons, which we have done since Kindy, since she has a VERY weak grasp on her math facts and has to use counters to figure many of her problems out...

Haha I have this anxiety too, due to my type A personality. I have found that it helps me to take a Sharpie and put a diagonal mark through any sections I think would be just pure busywork to my daughter (I did this with my Climbing to Good English 1 workbook last year). It feels and looks more deliberate to me so that I don't see the blanks glaring back at me :)

CGE calls them "respellings", which is why we do, I guess! :) And I do think that it could be useful for her to know this...someday. I find that I have always easily intuited how a word should be pronounced (spelling and phonics are very natural to me) and have never had to use this function of the dictionary. I don't know that it will be the same with my daughter, but I suppose I could cross that bridge when I come to it...

Has he done a lot of preschool work in the past? My 4 year old loved doing Rod and Staff's preschool workbooks while his sister did her schoolwork. We have always loved that curriculum and it is great for 4 & 5 year olds.

Thanks for your responses. I think that reading the pronunciation spellings in the dictionary could be useful at some point, but I really think that it may be overload for my daughter at this age (and for me, with a new baby expected in October). It seems like something that a middle or high schooler could pick up much more easily and quickly. I also appreciate the comment that the CGE book was designed for Amish schools which have a different focus than I do. Because you're right...we will be heavily into history and science this year, as well as French and a myriad of other things. I just always like to get opinions before I completely scrap a portion of curriculum!

I ordered Climbing to Good English 2 for this year to do some solid review before we get to Rod and Staff English 3 next year. Something I noticed right off is that it is heavy on having 2nd graders learn dictionary respellings. I never learned this skill in school and am wondering how many of you have had your children do this. Is it necessary or even useful at this age?? It seems it may be confusing, especially for a weak speller (we are working on strengthening our spelling this year), and I am considering just marking through all these sections in the CGE book and skipping over them. Any experience or thoughts on this?