My oldest will be 9 and in 4th grade this year. He is the one who struggles with spelling. My 2nd ds is 7 and in 2nd grade and is a natural speller. I don't want it to be too easy for him, but I want something he can do independently too.

I have used SWR for 4 years now, but I'm thinking of doing something different as I will be teaching 3 children this year and the time to teach SWR is more than I want to spend on spelling. My oldest is not a natural speller, my 2nd sees a word and knows how to spell it, and my 3rd begins K5 this year. Do you think Rod & Staff would be a good fit for the oldest 2? For those who use Rod & Staff what do you use before to teach the phonograms and beginning spelling? I've just always used SWR to teach my boys to read and spell.

We are going in October and this was super helpful for me. Thanks for sharing!

Thanks! This was helpful for me too!

My 3rd grade son took the Stanford 10 last week. I received the results back this morning and the only thing he struggled with was Word Study Skills. I'm not sure exactly what that is as we did not practice for the test. I have a feeling he may not have understood what was being asked, but never the less, I want to make sure I'm teaching him all he needs. He has struggled in spelling this year (we use SWR) and seems to have a hard time retaining words from week to week (I always include words from past lists). Is there a spelling curriculum anyone would recommend that covers word study skills and helps students to retain spelling words? I've looked at ABeCeDarian Word Study, but I'm not sure. What about AAS? My 1st grader is a phenomenal speller because he has a photographic memory and if he has read the word, he can spell the word. The only problem with that is he doesn't want to sound out words for spelling, but just write them down. I will also have a K5 student next year so I would like to get something I could use for all of them. Should I get something just for Word Study Skills and keep SWR? I've liked the curriculum (we've done since K5 with my oldest) or is there something that would work for both? Thanks!

I'm definitely in the minority on this board, but I love CC. This is our 5th year and my kids have learned so much and so have I. No curriculum, community, or company is perfect because we are sinners and perfection won't be met until we reach eternity. I have never felt pressured at CC and I have seen directors and tutors do everything in their power to help a family who was concerned about paying for it. In full disclosure, I am a director this year and was a tutor for 4 years. I began a new community this year because in our area the other campuses are bursting at the seam. CC doesn't want to turn people away who want to participate. Also, in my time of holding info meetings, I don't pressure families to recruit their friends. I let them know of an upcoming event in case they know of someone who is interested. In fact, I had two moms so excited last week about CC and all their kids are learning that they were telling other moms on a field trip about CC - not because they were pressured, but because they were excited. Check out CC for yourself; it might be the right fit for your family and it might not. :-)

The way my community does it is that tutors pay half at the beginning when the director gives us our check for the first semester. Then we pay the other half at the beginning of the second semester when the director gives us our check for the second semester. It typically washes out and some people make money depending on the size of your group. Our group is large, so I do make a little something that I put into an education fund to buy books. If you do CC, I would encourage you to look for the curriculum online. I saw on homeschool classifieds the Foundation Guide, 4th edition (the newest one), for $38 with shipping. You can find everything much cheaper if you search for it.

We did the same thing with honey - used the 2nd sound of "ey." It just made sense to me and my son.

I would say don't do it. As a tutor that had a new director last year, it was very difficult because she had never been through a cycle & she wasn't much help to the tutors. She had been in CC for one year & hadn't tutored that year. My director the year before was a seasoned CC tutor & she was so helpful to me. I really feel that to be a director, you need to go through at least 2 cycles & have been a tutor. That's just my two cents!

I like your schedule. I might try this next year.

Thanks for all your responses. I think I'm going to start on July 15th with just a couple of subjects (math and phonics). When we get back from vacation, we'll go to a full schedule. It was interesting hearing how everyone manages their school year. I love how homeschooling is tailored to each families needs. :-)

I'm trying to decide when to start school. Last year we began the first full week of August and were finished a week before Memorial Day. This year, my husband and I are going to a conference July 31st-Aug 2 and then we are taking our family vacation Aug 10-17. My husband says wait until Aug 19th to begin school, but that doesn't give us much wiggle room throughout the fall. Plus, that would be a full 3 months off and I don't know if it's good to take that big of a break. I'm considering beginning on July 15th to give us more breaks through the year. When do you like to start school? July? August? September?

I did this with a seller last week. They asked $30 for the materials and I offered to pay $25 and she said yes. I do think it is fair to bargain and I'm not offended if someone wants to bargain with me.

Thanks for sharing this ministry. I've never heard of it and it is a great option. People are right that you really don't make much by the time you pay for an envelope to ship the materials and the shipping, not to mention Paypal fees. This seems like a much better option. Thanks!

We are starting Saxon this year with a 1st grader & are using Math 2. I think Math 1 is more of a kindergarten math & plan to use it in a year with my kindergartener.