Am I allowed to make a recommendation? My mother and I developed one when I was a home schooled teenager. We sold our extra copies to our friends, and now it is my home business. I clicked here to see what people were recommending, and since there hasn't been a large response, I though I'd ask what was okay for me to say. I know I could've posted without revealing who I am, but that didn't seem ethical. :-)

I've never heard of this...going to check it out now. I have a very bright little girl that has too much energy...I bet this would help her direct it to more profitable places. Her siblings will rejoice! (As will her rear end, haha.)

Somehow I missed the last few posts until now. Thank you! I can't believe how helpful everyone has been...I should've joined years ago. I have read TWTM, at least the first section for the grammar stage. (I hadnt thought about reading ahead yet but that's a great idea.) I wasn't sure how it would work out *practically* for me to feel we have skipped so much. I'm glad for the reminders to prioritize Language Arts and Math. I had forgotten that in the drive to make sure I'd covered everything. :-) We are having a lot of fun. That's part of the "problem." I know my kids will enjoy learning anything, and it's sometimes hard to choose what not to learn. :-)

Wow! Thank you! I'm glad to have your support. I can already feel it. One dear lady IRL told me she thought I just felt guilty...and that my son didn't have a problem. :-) So--stumbling across y'all was a real boost. Josh turned five over the weekend. He is a middle child, but we don't let the older two (both sisters) talk for him. He substitutes a lot of sounds, but I recently noticed he is starting to use some of the correct sounds. The only professional help we've had is ONE visit to an ENT. She tested his hearing, which was fine. Oh, his pediatrician caught an asymptomatic ear infection, and we have no idea how long he'd had it. ($$ and a transportation problems have kept us from getting checkbox in the past.) It hasn't worked out to get to the speech therapist yet. :-/ Don't know if these details are important, but I thought I'd mention the following: he still sucks his thumb. As a smaller child, he drooled a lot. I think it was a muscle-tone thing? IDK. His vocabulary is good--maybe even advanced. His cadence is always correct. His great-grandfather was a musical genius, and genius runs in the family. My husband can understand Josh a lot better when he sings. Don't know what to make of that. He understands what I tell him....he just doesn't have the right sounds. I have a list somewhere of the English sounds. I plan to do a "sound inventory" to get a baseline and start charting our progress! So far we have "Teach Me How to Say Ot Right", "Speechercise" (used once a month), and those handout from a speech lady. :-) TIA for whatever help you have for us. You've already made a difference in our lives. Sarah

I'm so glad I found this thread, I could almost cry. I just joined the board last night for help with something else and thought I'd search for speech help to see what came up. I'm so excited to "accidentally" find you guys! My son needs speech therapy but we are having trouble getting to it. Would it be okay to hijack this thread and ask if people could post resources for at-home speech therapy? I'd be more than willing to start another thread but this seemed a good place to start. Thanks! Sarah

I was hoping to hear something like this, Hunter. Thank you so much! I like your quotes, too. And to agarnett, thank you for the nice welcome.

Thanks! This has been helpful. I really appreciate everyone who's posted. Here is one remaining doubt. (Perhaps I circumlocuted before.) ----If I plan to do Biology again in 5th grade, how much Biology *do* they need to pick up in 1st grade? Same with Ancient History.--- I think my use of the word mastery was misleading. While I'm not aiming for mastery, technically, I do want enough "mastery" (pegs) for later but don't know if we gained even that much of those to have in 5th grade. Parents of 5th graders plus...give me some hindsight! :-)

Hello, I am trying to finalize my plans for our school year and need some help. Specifically, I'm trying to determine which subjects they need to "repeat" and which subjects they have mastered. Growing up as a homeschooled student myself, my mom always said that at this stage, parents will know what the kids have learned. Unfortunately, I don't find that to be true for me. :-) How do I know if they've mastered the science and history material enough to progress? (I feel fairly confident in testing the other subjects.) Here is my situation: I have one entering 2nd and one entering 1st, and three younger ones. We tried to do the first grade curriculum for the older two. We weren't consistent at all though. The only book we finished is SOTW, but we merely read through it in a few marathon sessions. The girls drew pictures each time, and reading through it a second time, they seem to remember a lot. For some subjects, like math, my gut tells me to do a placement test and then start accordingly. (Oh yeah, we did do some spelling and math lessons.) However, for science and history, I'm not sure if we should repeat it or not. We could even spend the first semester doing the 1st grade science and history, and then start 2nd grade in January. Or we could just start 2nd grade now. My kids read a lot. We don't have a TV or do outside activities. They ask a lot of questions. But is this enough to compensate for lack of formal learning? I'd love to hear from those who have already done WTM a few years, but ANY help or even a "hi" would be appreciated. Thanks a million! Sarah