This has been a great thread to follow. I am trying to make a curriculum decision for my two sons who will be in 5th and 6th grades next year. I am hoping for something that develops their writing skills but is mainly student led. WWS1 seems like a good fit, but I wonder now after reading experiences if it will be too challenging for them. But if WWE4 is teacher led, I am not sure I can sustain it. Thoughts? Thank you so much.

With my eldest 2, I used Ordinary Parent's Guide by Peace Hill Press and both of them are avid readers. I supplemented with Explode the Code books and then Rod & Staff Phonics 2. Now I am using Logic of English Foundations and really, really like it. It's fun, interactive, and comprehensive. It teaches handwriting, phonics, phonemic awareness and introduces grammar.

Please post here or message me if you use/own an older copy of SWR! 2000/2002 Thanks so much.

Can anyone explain to me the difference between Singapore Primary and Singapore Essentials? I used Primary 1a a few years ago but don't know anything about Essentials A & B. Is that their "kindergarten" program? I, too, am looking for something to use before starting MM 1.

I just read this on bju. "May parents administer tests to their own children? Yes; publisher guidelines in 2009 now allow qualified, approved parents to administer the Stanford test without stipulations concerning testing relatives. Please note that some states may not permit parental administration of the test. It is the parents’ responsibility to ensure that state requirements are being met."

Two other non-family members in the same grade? Or just two other non-family members other than your kids, no matter the grade? Do you have a source for that? I'm trying to figure it out. Thanks so much.

I'm really enjoying this thread as I've spent several weeks now comparing SWR and LoE! Could someone who uses LoE Essentials help me understand how you are able to use advanced spelling lists with the Essentials program? One of the reasons I have been hesitating is that the purchase price would only get us through one year of material. Would you start at the beginning and teach the rules again, etc but use different words for examples? I know my boys will need more than one year of this excellent material, so I'd like to understand this going into it. Can new lists merge right into the Essentials teacher's guide? And for those using the beta LoE Foundations program, what would you do to prepare a 5 year old (who is sounding out small words but has trouble with writing letters) while we're waiting for the Foundations program to come out? Thank you, Mary-Margaret

Thank you!

SOTW is awesome. Either just listening to the audio CDs or actually reading it aloud. For 1st grade we read Christian Liberty Press nature readers; that's all we do for science. Though going through the Kingfisher Animal and Human Body encyclopedias like it outlines in the WTM is also good. I'd look into Logic of English. It would take care of phonics (written like ETC) and spelling and handwriting. Good luck :)

OPGTR has "Two Review and One New" show up regularly through the lessons. You are supposed to mark lessons that were particularly challenging and then go back and review two of those before doing the new lesson when you hit "Two Review and One New" lessons. I would do 1 lesson a day until we'd hit a challenging section, then I would switch to 1/2 lessons each day. But if your son is already reading, you may be able to get through a whole lesson each day. But I wouldn't push it if he gets fatigued. I made that mistake with my oldest boy and regret it. It's much better to go more slowly through and have it be an enjoyable experience for mom and kid! OPG gets so advanced in reading that you shouldn't be discouraged if it takes a year or two to get through it. I believe there are 130 lessons. The words he will be reading by the end will be very complex and far above grade level.

Yes, that would be a tutor-specific motion choice. The history sentences don't have motions that come down from CC corporate. The timeline motions are new this year and do come from CC, but I can't think of anything inappropriate on that level in the timeline motions. As a tutor of 4 and 5 year olds I can say that the motions I choose often have to do with word association rather than the meaning of the words. This is strictly to get them to retain the words themselves, as they will grow up applying the memory work in appropriate contexts. I agree that dealing cards is a poor choice of motion to represent slave trading; this is primarily due to the extremely sensitive nature of that particular topic. For example, to have the kids make antlers on their head to memorize "anther" as a part of a flower is a similar methodology, but on a neutral topic. I would imagine that if you brought that concern up with the tutor in question, she would be more than apologetic about the way her motion choice came across to you and your family. We love CC and if you were excited about the program as a whole, I would encourage you not to let that one experience turn you away completely. I feel that my children will have a MUCH better understanding of and appreciation for historical events than I ever did, and I believe that fuller understanding will bring with it sensitivity to horrific events such as slave trade, holocaust, and more.

After agonizing for a few months over whether to take the learning plunge with WRTR or SWR, I discovered LoE this week and think it is going to be a good fit for our family. I have two boys (2nd and 3rd grade) who are quite close in English and writing capability and should be able to benefit greatly from the Essentials program. I have a 5 year old who will be starting K in the fall, and I'm excited to use the Foundations program when it is published. Question: My boys are currently 2/3 of the way through Rod and Staff English 2 and 3. If I spend a year doing the LoE Essentials program with them, will it take the place of R&S grammar? I saw in the LoE sample pages that it covers parts of speech - but my 3rd grader is diagramming, etc in R&S and will I lose that if I drop R&S? I don't want to have them overwhelmed by adding LoE on top of what they are already doing. But I think the phonogram instruction is going to be crucial to their growth in language arts as a whole. Also we're considering putting our 3rd grader in Classical Conversations Essentials this fall. Can anyone comment on how the Essentials program meshes (or doesn't) with LoE? Thanks for any thoughts on these programs. Mary-Margaret

We are doing the Rod and Staff grade 2 phonics books this year. I love them so far, but would really like a consolidated list/poster of the rules they teach. Does anyone know if that sort of thing is available? Of course I can extract them from the books but that would be more work. :) Mary-Margaret

Anyone here who has a copy of Explode the Code book 3 in his/her possession... Do the answer spots provide two full and one middle dotted line throughout the book, as shown below? ___________________________ ------------------------------- ___________________________ I just bought book 3 1/2 because our bookstore didn't have a copy of book 3, and it only has one solid bottom line. My 5 year old really needs the three lines. Book 2 that we are finishing has the three lines. I'm wondering if it's a difference between the 1/2 books and the regular books, or if it changes as the books progress in difficulty. I'll return these and order book 3 if it has the lines shown above. To anyone who takes the time to help me with this, thank you so much. :) Mary-Margaret

Today I mailed in my first ever end-of-year assessment (for my oldest's kindergarten year). It got me feeling light and easy, and excited for starting school soon. I tried to pull my boys (K and 1st this year) in on my enthusiasm. "Hey guys! We're gonna start school soon! Are you excited?" My first grader's face fell... "Mom, since I'm in first grade this year, will I have to do more than I did last year? I don't think I'm going to like that very much." Sigh! How do I get them psyched up for school??

WOW! I just came back to the post tonight hoping for another response or two.. you ladies have been busy! Thanks for all the recommendations. I am really excited to check them out. Another friend reminded me of the "What Your K Needs To Know" book which I have, and does so a very simple American History overview that we might start with. I am intrigued by the "Stories of Great Americans for Little Americans" book. I see there is no one answer (as there never is) but I am sure we will be able to figure something out. Thanks again...

What are opinions on this book? The American Story: 100 True Tales from American History http://www.amazon.com/dp/0375812563/ref=rdr_ext_sb_ti_hist_1 It was described as a "progressive text" in one of the reviews. Not sure what that means! Plus it might be a little old for K? How about a book list that listed American history picture books chronologically? Perhaps I asking for too much? LOL

I want to do a light American history overview for my son (Kindergarten) this year to fulfill our state's requirements and would love something in a SOTW format... timeline/overview/story-like, but pretty basic since he is young. Any ideas? Thanks.

We did pull out the white board again today for the first time in awhile. I do think that helps - thanks for the reminder! Ok, this is good to hear. I was starting to think that it isn't realistic for him to read it through with proper flow after sounding it out. It really just isn't! He enjoys it a lot better when I help him read the sentence at the end. Excellent reminder. :) Thanks for the encouragement.

I am using Ordinary Parent's Guide with my soon-to-be 6 year old son. We are on lesson 52 and have been doing lessons on and off for probably 9 months now. We didn't do much over the summer. He's doing well and learning to read, but it is incredibly difficult for us to get through the lessons. I actually dread that part of school myself. First, one lesson would take us 45 minutes to get through if we did the whole thing, with both of us frustrated at the end. So we have cut them down to one page per day instead of the whole lesson. This has helped some, but it still takes a long time. I try to keep him on focus and we do not allow bad attitudes in school, but he just struggles to stay focused for that long. Second, he does great sounding out the individual words. Then when we move to the sentences, they are quite long and he can't keep track of what he has read so far. I used to make him read it again and again (sounding out each word every time because he couldn't remember it) until he could get the whole sentence but that was way too hard and difficult, and he hated doing the lessons. So now I help him with the sentence after he has sounded out each word. But I wonder why the sentences are so incredibly long for a program designed for such young children? Is it realistic for a 5 1/2 year old to be able to sound out a 16 word sentence and know what he read by the end? I like the concept of the program but we're struggling to enjoy it. Right now we skip parts of the lessons to make it doable to get HALF a lesson done in a reasonable amount of time and still be cheerful and enthusiastic at the end. :) Am I doing the right thing? Should we break the lessons down even more? It feels like we will be in this book forever. Thanks. Mary-Margaret

Wow, that is a lot for K4! I have been figuring that we would try 1st grade next year and if we can't get through it all then we'd finish the following year. I was 16 for most of my senior year of HS so I don't have a big problem with him graduating early, but only if it seems right for him.

So if it takes him 20 minutes to do one page of penmanship right now, I am either asking too much of him or starting too young, right? He can do it in 10 if he tries, but he gets distracted!

;)

This is really helpful. I know he will learn things even with minimal seat work! I guess my question is then, should I make next year a K year instead of trying to do 1st grade? How does it work, in a 4 year cyclical approach, to skip or do minimal history and science? If I don't try to finish SOTW or Science (which I realize is a very good possibility) then do you just go on to SOTW 2 or ? I am a literalist so I have to have a "plan" for the following year otherwise I will think at the beginning of this year that I am already behind! LOL

Thank you, Carmen! I really appreciate the input. So maybe WWE should alternate with penmanship instead of with FLL. Then FLL and Spelling could alternate, unless I just throw a few spelling words in with OPG which is a great idea.