You might want to get them to grade level in MM before supplementing with MEP. I think focusing on completing the one would help his esteem more. Once done MM, then add in MEP, even if from way earlier levels...

We are using FLL and WWE 1 and my older kids use MCT. My youngers join in and are learning lots. But none punctuate sentences well. Is there something that teaches this with mastery? We used Evan Moors Daily Punctuation, but it went quickly and didn't have any teacher notes/guide so it was like offering practice with no explanations. Not quite right for us!

Just fwiw - I bought this and while it is a wonderful curriculum, it required library, much prep, and never got accomplished in my life. It was one of the many things I felt guilty about NOT getting to. I totally believe in knowing your limits. For me, this means not planning on needing the library. That is just how my life is right now. If you are the same, this isn't the one for you. Neither was BFIAR, although I did put a book a week in our file folders this year for my 5 y.o. and have faithfully read that book every day of the week I assigned it for. This has been wonderful!

We use italic by getty dubay and I like it a lot. it is easy to learn and i like the handwriting style too.

Ditto. Both are perfect for us. No attempt to match up topically. MEP seems to cover measurements thoroughly and we haven't seen any in MM yet.

We used Shurley 1 through 4 then switched. No comparison. My kids despised Shurley, but I thought the classical approach was the way to go. They didn't understand it. They memorized how to parse but had no clue what it meant. After 9 weeks of MCT, they can all tell you the part of speech of any word in a sentence. I'm sold. And they like it. So we are all sold. I'm looking forward to using the other books in the series! We've not quite finished Grammar Island yet and do it as a family. Oh - it isn't less time-consuming, but much less intensive in that I wanted to poke my eyes out when we did Shurley. Now I am happy. Ahhh. That's less teacher intensive in my book!

We are doing the same as you, SL 3 & 4, and using Beautiful feet primary with all of the kids combined too. We LOVE BF. It blows away SL IMO. I just ordered someone's Paths of Exploration to add on I think (if it isn't overkill for us) and to check it out bc/ I think we'll do Paths of Settlement next year. All of my kids especially love the D'Aulaire book choices in BF and the coloring. And we love Stories of the Pilgrims. I can't believe how much we have all learned in 9 weeks. We are also singing the Kathy Troxel States & Capitals song, learning the Preamble, and stuff like that. It has been super!

Thanks! I might bite the bullet and just buy it. Crazy me since we like what we are doing, but all love the art/drawing so much more than I expected and like nature study too. So I think the additions would be welcome. Is anyone ready to sell their Explorations?

Thanks so much Kelli! We are already on our way with our year in Early American, but I'd love to add the drawing to our day. Is there anyway to do it without buying the whole program?

I thought I'd add a bit about our experience in case it is helpful: We started with MUS and used it for 2 years and just didn't like it. So we switched to R&S and used it for 1-4 (repeated 1 to get facts solid). It was drill and kill. No understanding here, just know our facts and memorized how. So we had finished R&S4 in the spring of 2010. We switched to MM. I tested them and had them do MM3! (remember we should have been doing 5 in theory) and it was no cake walk, but I truly thought it would fill our gaps and teach dd to think in a new way. We did it this summer spending a ton of time on it with me at her side. Then we moved to MM4. We just are on 4A, doing 5 pages a day. And ---ahah! --- she is suddenly being able to do some on her own, and certainly has grown lightyears since spring. We will finish MM5B by June if we keep up the 5 pp a day pace. It is a lot, but worthwhile to me and she is managing with my help. The notes at page tops are enough for me to walk her through an explanation and we are doing great. My others are also doing MM and all are doing great. We tried Saxon for a few weeks years ago and Miquon too. I didn't prefer either personally, but may have liked Miquon if I had started with it and had fewer kids to teach it to. We also did a bit of RS and love it but I couldn't do it with all 4 kids. We do use the abacus still sometimes. HTH!

Could you all let us know how this is going for you? I especially am interested in the water coloring. I see it on their site, but couldn't find it in the samples. How is that used? Thanks for insights! Also, if I already have several of the other subjects covered except history, is it worth it for just the history and geography? I love living books and staying on a subject and reading a bunch of them is fine with us. We are using BF primary this year with lots of extras pulled from every other history program out there and we are loving it. We love to color and i think we'd like the water coloring if it is frequent. We have handbook of nature already too. thanks!

We've enjoyed it! I prefer buying and holding the books, so would have liked it more had i just done that. instead, i tried to do it using googlebooks and librivox.org audion versions anywhere I could. Not my cup of tea, although we all now love librivox after using it. I think you should try it. It is free and the book selections are wonderful. We only shifted to beautiful feet this year bc/ i really wanted American history this year and we borrowed all of it - free is good. Otherwise, I think I would have purchased all of the AO selections and continued.

We are enjoying this year the most ever. We've used Sonlight (didn't love the selections chosen for the ages they were chosen for) and also Veritas (way too much way too young for my kids) as well as SOTW1 in the past (don't love a spine so much as great books) but tried BF this year. My kids love the coloring pages and the stories are perfect. I like all of the books instead of the one spine like in SOTW and I like these book choices more than SL, although my older 2 are reading SL core 3 on their own using the schedule in addition to joining in on BF. What should we do next year? What would we love as much? I might add, I bought the Truthquest guide this year for "extras" and find it overwhelming -- too many choices, very few are noted as being especially wonderful. I'd prefer something that is very doable/achievable and full of wonderful books. I'd rather purchase as much as I can and only use the library if we feel like it, not bc/ we have to, bc/ of our current season in life with other responsibilities. Also, sometimes we do projects from the Homeschool in the Woods Time Travelers cd's. Oh, I do prefer a Christian bent rather than secular. Thanks for any input on what worked for you!

My kids found MEP to be much easier to do than MM and used MM at a grade lower than MEP.

we are loving our year with BF Primary american history. my kids range from 5 to 13 and I added in Sonlight core 3 books for the older 3 kids and they just read them themselves acc to the schedule. And i have been doing lots of extras on a shelf for them to pick and read for 30 mins per day. We are loving that too! We use Stick Figuring through the Bible for Bible, Math Mammoth, MCT Grammar, Apologia Elem Science, WWE... We don't mind pulling from lots of resources and are loving our year! (We also did file folder scheduling which I am adapting as the year goes on, but it really helps us get everything done each day.)

One other idea too that has changed our day: I borrowed a friend's MFW to peruse. In it she suggests a 15 minute time called book basket, in which you put similar books out for your kids. They grab one and read for 15 minutes. We scheduled this. I put any extras I had that relate to our history, nature, and science studies of just that week on a shelf like a gutter shelf so the fronts of the books face out and entice. When we get to that part of the schedule, they scramble for their pick of the day and go read. And, lo and behold, I get 15 minutes with my 5 y.o. to do OPGTTR and MEP reception! It has worked perfectly. They are loving it. I've been ordering books to meet this time need from paperbackswap and using other curriculum suggestions, like from HOD and Truthquest and Winters Promise and others, just picking the books that look totally fun. I never imagined my kids would be flying through so many books so quickly as they are in book basket time!

I just order these after a friend told me they are listed on the veritaspress site in their early readers: Early History Reader Collection Gr 5 You may be a homeschool family teaching this time period to younger children, too. This collection is for you. Selected with 2nd or 3rd graders in mind, these readers will provide resources that will satisfy the needs and curiosity of the subject matter in ways directed to their age level. Item Number: 255276 Price: $30.50 Refer this page to a friend Related Items: The 18 Penny Goose George the Drummer Boy Sam the Minuteman George Washington's Mother Red, White & Blue Ben Franklin & the Magic Squares Christopher Columbus George Wash. & the General's Dog Lewis & Clark: A Prairie Dog for President Also, we are totally LOVING the D'aulaire and other books used in beautiful feet primary for early american. So my 10 y.o. and 13 y.o listen in on those with my 5 and 7 y.o's and then the older 2 do SL Core 3 as well. It is going great! The favorite part is the history notebook we are keeping, following the Beautiful Feet recommendations for coloring pages based on the D'Aulaire books. My 5 and 7 y.o. LOVE our history now. They can answer all of my questions. Sonlight alone was sucking the life out of history for all of us. This has been an answer to prayer.

thanks!

Columbus by D'Aulaire

MEP seems to stretch the child. Search for it on this forum and read more if you would. One problem my dd had in MEP4 this week used the same exact #'s in 5 different problems in a row, just changing the wording so she had to notice the differences and understand the nuances of language: George has 324 stamps and Rita has 3 times as many. how many does R have. Helen has 324 postcards which is 3 times as many as Mary... Steve has 324 marbles which is a quarter of the # that Jack has... Johnny has 324 football cards and Mike has 1/4 that many... Charlie has $324. How many cars can he buy at $9 each and how much $ will he have left. I just loved seeing her think and work it! MM's problems rock too, they just don't stretch my dd quite this much. They are just different. Like I said, we have all 3. I am a curriculum junkie and I love MM and MEP and RS and wish there was more TIME!

We've done both. If it were me, I would use MEP as your backup. Free online. Just google it. It covers problem solving/thinking skills so well. MM is great, don't get me wrong, but I think MEP covers a different facet. We have all 3.

MEP http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm mathematics enhancement program.

we listened to rumpelstilzkin on librivox.org for free yesterday on my ipod when we went for a walk :) We'll try to do some of them that way.

We are doing Beautiful Feet. My kids are loving it. The D'Aulaire choices with the coloring page idea are super. But then, my kiddos like to color. The Your Story Hours recommended have been great too. And we got the American Drive through History dvd's for a fun bonus. Really enjoying it. I have my 10 and 13 y.o. reading Sonlight 3, but it is so dry compared to BF. I didn't know about Guest Hollow when I bought our year's things. It might be a great option.

We supplement with one page of MEP per day - it is free online too. It adds to MM. It has more problem solving/puzzle solving type questions. I really like the blend. If I had to use just one, MM is by far my favorite. Simple to implement. My children have gained so much. I actually can't wait to have them retested by our state this year bc/ I think they will have gained in leaps and bounds.