Wow, thanks everybody! We are using Math-U-See and Rod and Staff for math which my kids are successful with largely on their own. I just give additional instruction where they need it. We also use R&S for English, which I do orally and they complete the related worksheets. I do have my oldest also complete the writing assignments with R&S. We are using Learning Adventures for history, read aloud, science etc. I thought this would be great since I could combine the kids for alot of the day. The main problem is that when I have a bad day (or days) LA doesn't get done and then the kids don't have anything else to use for those subjects. I plan on keeping Learning Adventures and returning to it next year (hopefully!) but for now it would just relieve a lot of my stress to know that the kids' academic needs are being met while I work on getting well. We have used CLE in the past for some subjects, I'll have to reconsider them as well. I really like Memoria Press' materials - but it'll be too much $$$ for this year.

I have children in grades 5, 3, 2, and 2 in K this year. Unfortunately I need to change our plans due to a chronic illness that I am suffering from. I really need something I can hand over to the kids to work on independently (except the K'ers, I'll continue to work with them on reading etc.). Although we've never been a workbooky/traditional homeschooling family I think that's the best direction to go in for this period of our life. I am leaning towards Christian Liberty Press, can anyone give me feedback on them - or any other workbook or textbook based program that wouldn't involve alot of teacher prep? I first turned to Abeka, but then read so many reviews that said it's not best for homeschools that I scrapped that idea. I need to order materials N.O.W. so please help me out!

If you go onto the site and click the How It Works tab, you can click on any of the meal plans listed to see a sample.

Hi all, Just wanted to let everyone know that Yesterday's Classics is having their Back to School Sale again. Right now you can purchase all 225 books in Kindle or EPUB format for only $49.95! HTH some families! http://www.yesterdaysclassics.com/o/back.php

There's an online meal planning service called E-Meals. http://www.emeals.com If you sign up they will email you a complete weekly meal plan, each week for however long you decide to use the service. You sign up based on how many people are in your family, which grocery store you shop at and you can also select: vegetarian, gluten free, etc. if that applies to your situation. You get a complete shopping list to go with each meal plan and an estimate of what the total cost will be for that week's plan. I wasn't being faithful about getting our meal planning done and things were really suffering for awhile before we signed up for this. There's a great variety of foods each week as well. Good luck with your planning!

Finishing up plans before ordering, your thoughts are appreciated! DD 5th: History, Geography, Bible, Readers and Read Alouds: Sonlight Core E Science: Noeo Chemistry II Reading: CLE Reading 5 Language Arts: Rod and Staff English 5 with ILL mixed in for variety IEW A Rod and Staff Spelling 5 Worldly Wise 3000 Book 5 Daily Bible Copywork Math: Finishing MUS Delta then moving into either MUS Epsilon or Rod and Staff Math 5 DD 3rd: History Geography, Bible, Read Alouds: Sonlight Core B with other sibs Science: Noeo Chem I Language Arts: Rod and Staff English 3 with PLL for variety Rod and Staff Reading 3 OR CLE Reading 3....thoughts? Rod and Staff Spelling 3 Sonlight Readers 3 New American Cursive 2 Math: MUS Gamma (wondering if we should supplement with R&S Math 3?) DS 2nd: History, Geography, Bible, Read Alouds: Sonlight Core B Science: Noeo Chem 1 Language Arts: Rod and Staff English 2 with PLL Rod and Staff Spelling 2 Rod and Staff Reading 2 Rod and Staff Phonics 2 New American Cursive 1 Sonlight Readers 2 (finishing up) then Readers 3 Math: MUS Beta (maybe with R&S 2?) DD K: Rod and Staff Workbook Series A-I MUS Primer then R&S 1 Plan to begin R&S Reading and Phonics following workbook series Listening in on SL Core B if she wants to DD K: Same as above...the girls are 11 months apart so she is a young K'er. It most likely will take her longer to work through the A-I series. Also have a 2 year old in the mix. I'm considering some form of EASY foreign language (preferably Spanish or French) to add in for the older kids. I'm open for suggestions! We've been using R&S for math and enjoy it! We decided to switch to MUS for the shorter lessons and hands on component....but my kids haven't used the blocks or watched the DVD's and they are flying through their lessons.....so should I supplement with R&S again for the drill? Thanks!

Looking for books to add to our curriculum on Geography and Missions. I'll have a 5th, 3rd, 2nd and K'ers (although I don't expect them to sit in on most of the readings). I'm really interested in books for Africa and Asia and missionary bios.

Yes I purchased it last night and will have to start printing like a madwoman soon! Especially once I add in the Teaching God's....! I also plan to use Window to the World.

I will be using Expedition Earth with a 1st, 3rd and 5th grader. I want to have a missions focus as well so I will be adding on Teaching with God's Heart for the World and Kids of Courage materials. Has anyone already done this or something similar? I'd like to add missionary bios too...probably the ones from YWAM. What else should I add to beef up this program for my 5th grader? I see there are unit study/curriculum guides for the YWAM bios but I don't know much about them. My 5th grader will also be using MUS, Intermediate Language Lessons, Writing Strands or IEW, Spelling Wisdom, and Bible. We are about a month into Apologia - Anatomy and Physiology and I'm wondering if we should finish this now or put it on hold and do more Earth science/biomes while we do our geography core (like MFW ECC does). Any thoughts on that as well would be appreciated! I also have 2 Pre-K's and a toddler in the mix so I don't want to make it TOO complicated!

:iagree:

It won't be much help to you now, but I've just started a blog about our life with HOD here, but we just made the switch.....so it'll probably be more informative a year from now! :001_smile:

Thank you everyone for your replies. My oldest will be in CTC in the fall and I'm thinking that I won't add anything extra in the fall...we'll just see how the year goes. I may end up adding something in on Fridays (the free day) later in the year. I have such a tendency toward OVER-doing it...I'm trying to learn to step back and give my dd some breathing room! :001_smile: If we do add anything this year it will be foreign language. She's had some beginning Latin but I'm not sure we'll continue with that or switch to French at some point...anyway, thanks again for all your help!

UGH, I just wrote out a very detailed reply and had to walk away from the computer....my 3 year old deleted it. :glare: Anyway. First I should explain our background - we have used: HOD, SL, TOG, AO, MFW and Veritas Press....because I basically had no idea what I was doing and kept curriculum hopping. I thought I REALLY wanted the Classical method but over time I've learned a great deal and realize that I actually want a CM method. I owned HOD several years ago and chucked it b/c I thought it wasn't as challenging as TOG would be - I also didn't understand the format b/c I didn't know about CM then. Second, we've been using HOD Bigger, Beyond and LHTH with no problem (in terms of juggling 3 guides). I have 1 in Bigger, 2 in Beyond and 2 in LHTH so I do combine - but with 6 kids I can only combine SOOO much. My kids are very close in ages but they are NOT close in skill level. I made a poor decision in placement by purchasing Bigger and trying to combine my dd's 9 and 7. I have the extension package for my oldest but it's not challenging her and I had to move my 7 year old down to Beyond b/c she wasn't ready for Bigger skill wise. (She's only a 1st grader but my older dd is in 4th.) My oldest has already had TOG Y2 U3 and U4 (the Colonial period) and MFW Adventures so the history is largely review for her so far. She placed in either Preparing or CTC based on the HOD chart, but I moved her down just to combine them.....I should have just placed her in her own manual and I plan to move her up in the fall to CTC which is more fitting placement wise. I know that Carrie advises combining in most cases but in our case (with Bigger) it became more problematic than anything else. Next year we will be doing CTC, Bigger (1/2 pace), Beyond (1/2 pace) and LHTH. I'm choosing to go 1/2 pace so that they kids don't progress too quickly (i.e. I don't want my son to be in Preparing as a 2/3 grader...) I thought it would be really difficult to school this way - with the kids in separate guides, but it's not. I don't try to do them all at the same time. LHTH takes 15-20 minutes - during this time the other kids do their math. Then my oldest begins her independent work: Literature and Extension reading, English (R&S), Copywork and Dictation, Latin and any project from Bigger that she can do alone: art, science, mapwork whatever. While she does that I do the Beyond manual with the other 2. We're usually done with it all except maybe 1 of the 2 kids still needs to do Reading practice with me. If that happens I have my oldest take a break while I listen to the other child read (10 minutes or so usually). When the youngers are all done we do the remainder of Bigger. We usually start school around 9 or 9:30 and everyone's done by 1:30 (including taking our lunch break). As they age the workload will increase; but with HOD it largely becomes independent so my TEACHING time will vary but I don't have a problem with moving some schooltime to the evening with my older kids if I need to have book discussions etc. with them (which is also what many TOG families do). Ok, now - why did we leave TOG? Well, we wanted to use a CM format and not classical is one reason. The most important reason is I wanted something with more Bible integration. Don't get me wrong, I believe that TOG is Christian and God-honoring; but I wanted a better daily integration. For example in TOG Y1 you read through the whole Bible (Yeah!) but in Y2, Y3 and Y4 you don't. Largely you just do Church History during those years, but not a specific Bible study. This is a fine method but I didn't want to add in a Bible study for all those years. HOD has it scheduled daily - for me this was a great plus. Second: cost. We lived in a rural area with a very poor library system (and a TERRIBLE ILL policy) so we had to purchase all the TOG books. The way my kids line up we would not be re-using all of those books again. What I mean is, we purchased Y2 UG. The next time around I would need those same UG books but would also have to buy LG and Dialectic. The next time I would not need the LG books OR the Dialectic...it just depends on how your kids line up. With HOD I know that if I buy Bigger and plan it for 3rd grade - ALL of my little ones coming up will utilize that level and I won't be making additional purchases besides consumable items (if any). For us this really matters but in other households it may not be an issue. Also, although HOD is certainly not CHEAP....it does contain ALL of your child's subjects whereas TOG is really just History/Geography and Lit. Also, it saves ME time not having to write out daily lesson plans for all the extra subjects too - which is a big factor for me. Third - in the long run I realized that it didn't really matter to me whether my kids were all together for history or not. Once we re-started HOD I really found our day is working well and the children are thriving which has made our days actually run smoother. The other point you made is well taken - I'm still REALLY busy everyday. But I have 6 kids.....so I guess it's just how it is. Doing TOG would combine them for a history PERIOD, but it doesn't necessarily combine them on WORKLOAD. It also doesn't necessarily shorten Mom's day - but in some situations it might. If I was doing TOG I would still need to run a PreK and K program for my littler ones, so that became a non-issue in terms of our decision making. Ultimately it came down to the way Bible was integrated and the incorporation of all the additional subjects in a CM manner which won HOD for us. I know that was quite rambling....so I hope it made sense. Let me know if you have more questions. :001_smile: In the end, I still feel that TOG is a great curriculum but after much prayer we realized that HOD is where the Lord has taken us.

I've heard that if you want to add something onto your day you should skip one of the boxes already scheduled. Is this necessary? I'm wondering how other families handle this so that the day doesn't run too long.....specifically I'm wondering about adding in things like a foreign language and logic for CTC and up.

I made the switch from TOG to HOD and I'm very happy we did. I just wanted to comment on 2 things with regard to HOD. 1. The use of maps - I COMPLETELY agree with you on the TOG map CD's. I LOVE them. But did you see that HOD has partnered with the same company and now has Map Trek CD's avail? They are scheduled in the upper years but if it's a big deal to you now I'm sure you could purchase them and just pull what you need (you could also do this by ordering the TOG map CD's if you wanted to). 2. Teaching different guides: I agree this is daunting. However, we made the choice to split up our kids by their level, which means that in the fall I will be teaching 4 separate guides. It will be hardest THIS year b/c it'll be MY first time through each guide - however in the years to come as the younger children move up I will have already taught that guide 1 or more times, so the prep level for me will be minimal. I will spend the summers prior to the beginning of the school year reading the books for my oldest dd's level (which will be new to me) so that I don't have to try to keep up with her throughout the school year. I don't know if that helps at all but this is the plan we've made. TOG is a great program but it just didn't work for our family. :) Blessings, Caryn