sonlight has both readers and read-alouds by grade. we love their choices. amblesideonline has great lists too as does the read aloud handbook written by jim trelease

We've used it through grade 4. I found that my dd didn't understand math after using it, but she sure knows her facts and procedures well. But I really want more than that for her. I want her to be able to understand why she is doing what she is doing in order to achieve the correct answer. I think it will help her to do well in higher math. So I purchase Math Mammoth and although she completed R&S 4, she was unable to do MM4! I had to print MM3 and start her there. MM really teaches them to think and comprehend why math procedures work. I am also reading Liping Ma's book and am amazed at how the Finish and Singapore math programs teach. MEP math is totally free and is excellent too. I printed it as a backup, but like the simplicity of MM being all in one book with both the teacher notes and student work together on the page. Plus, I can print it for all of my kids and the 6 grades were so cheap! Feel free to ask more. You can read a lot about MM and MEP on this forum. If you want a straight-forward approach with no fluff but also not a lot of explanation of the why's of math, R&S will work, is inexpensive, and very easy to implement.

on about.com you can download free fonts that print with lines just for creating handwriting sheets. I am so psyched! http://desktoppub.about.com/od/freefonts/tp/Free_Handwriting_School_Fonts.htm hope that helps everyone else who wanted to do this an easier way! there are manuscript fonts that are ruled but the italics has no rules. hooray!

Do you prefer one over the other? Can you manage using both? Can you tell me any strengths of one over the other? We are in RS B and I just had 2 of my kids start MM. I like it, because it is so less teacher intensive seeming. But will I hate having left RS or should we press on?

this is why I LOVE this forum. always great things on here! thanks for sharing!

we've switched to using right start and math mammoth and are loving them. i bought saxon k and bagged it quickly! i also downloaded MEP recently for an extra. it is absolutely free and an excellent program. Math mammoth is so cheap as well. Right start is teacher-intensive, but i love the abacus and it sure does work. my son asks to do math with it and the math games it has too. not kidding, he really asks.

p.s. we also started tea time after reading about it here. we want to do it daily and cover poetry memorization and ambleside then. loving it!

in 2008 we had a crazy year of changes and did all dvd's from bju - not my cup of tea. so, we decided to have a fun but educational summer last summer. here is what we did: bought andrew pudewa's poetry for memorization plus the cd. memorized tons of them together. the kids were proud of their accomplishment and their memorization skills really improved! we learned every bird we saw in our yard. i think the kids now know more about figuring out things on their own. and i 2nd the ambleside suggestion. we switched to it and found the list of all ambleside choices that are on librivox.org for free audio download. we are all doing year 1 together and love it. we found the burgess bird book drawings that are online and printed them to laminate and also printed the cornell bird coloring books. love coloring birds as we see them in the yard. hung feeders and a hummingbird feeder in the window. bought visualizing world geography and learned several continents together. super fun. ages 5-13 all learned them. and i just bought the grades 1-6 download of math mammoth after reading tons of posts here comparing it to singapore. we are so excited about it and it seems so much less teacher intensive than rightstart, which i did last summer but haven't touched all year since. ambleside also lists great read-alouds and we are listening to pinocchio on librivox.org right now. great! switched to all about spelling instead of SWR. my kids ALL love it and so do i. started having all 4 kids read aloud to me. now we round robin reading our apologia science, which we all love too. we bought SOTW on cd's and also listen to it. so we only do math separately and some grammar. oh - we even are all loving doing Sentence Family together. the older ones do shurley together and the youngers do fll together, but evryone prefers sentence family! hope you find some things you can all say you love! forgot-my girls also say they love wwe, a first for us to love writing!

I was able to download the italic font and now want to create my kids' handwriting practice sheets myself. I've tried to do this online on one site and it was so hard to get the lines to end properly. has anyone figured out how to do it in word and have the dashed line in the middle and the top and bottom line? thanks!

We've bought all of the readers suggested by Sonlight for every grade level through core3, many of which were already suggested to you. Now my boys are enjoying the Third Grade Detectives series. Frog and Toads are funny, but seem like an easier reading level than you are looking for. Oh - The Christian Liberty Nature Readers series is superb - what a find! My kids are loving them! I think we'll have to read them again and again to glean as much as we can from them.

We were having the same trouble with our dd10, even though we used MUS foundations and intro with her before switching to another program. After reading a lot on this forum a few weeks ago, I saw a link to thesingaporemaths.com and we worked through it slowly and carefully. It has helped her so, so much! She needs a visual of what is really being said, and now she knows a systematic way to draw one. I also ordered the following books for further practice and help now that we have progressed through the help available on that site. Step-By-Step Model Drawing: Solving Word Problems the Singapore Way Singapore Math 70 Must-Know Word Problems I found that book cheapest and bn.com HTH!

Just as perkybunch suggested, we've been using a book suggested on this forum that has a story for each part of speech and sentence type. Here is a link to it. We love it. The child draws a picture of the person who personifies the part of speech and it really seems to help it stick! http://www.stmichaelschool.us/sentencefamily.html We also use shurley grammar as i think the jingles are excellent, but now that we've been doing Sentence Family, I think the kids are retaining more and making better sense of it all.

I think it is pretty teacher intensive, and we don't use the writing in it. We have only done through level 4. I do it with my 2 girls together. We will continue, because i do think the jingles will help them, especially in testing. But my two don't seem able to apply the jingles or knowledge outside of Shurley well at all. We are loving going through Sentence Family (found out about that on this forum so you could search for it). It is for youngers maybe, but if yours aren't solid with their parts of speech, then it would still be fun. And we just bought MCT but that may be teacher intensive too. I'm not sure which grammar isn't!

I'd be interested in buying this or hearing more about it. Has it worked for your child? Thanks!

Hi Aimee, I didn't address your question about visual learners, etc. My dd has lots of math woes and did great with R&S till she hit multiplication. Then she got stumped again and couldn't get the concept. I am unsure what to try with her. My one suggestion was that I just searched for "math" in the special needs forum, sorting the search by # of replies. The recommendations there helped a bit. We've tried MUS but mine couldn't grasp the concept of the 1 long block equaling 10 little blocks. I may try to slowly work with Rightstart bc/ it is so hands on and visual. We'll see! That's wonderful to here you have 3 from Korea. I wish I could get a girl! I am feeling a bit overwhelmed with my 4 on many days though, since one has special needs and the 4th is a bit challenging. So I am not sure #5 will happen!

We've tried just about every math program out there and are unsure what to do or if it is even worth the effort. dd(13) can memorize math facts and keep straight + and - for the most part. But once we got to 3rd grade and added in multiplication/division, she began to mix up all answers. So 2x3=5 or maybe 1 or maybe 6. Has anyone had a child like this and had success at long last with any approach? She doesn't understand what the functions mean, so learning new ones does nothing for her. She can't apply them, just memorize. Any ideas? Thanks!

i too say i liked the tm, and i bought the blacklines and made the copies the way it says to and was so glad. my dd needed the practice they provide when done the # of times each that the tm calls for.

and here is the sonlight list. there is a preschool3/4 years old list here http://www.sonlight.com/read-alouds-p-3-4.html I can't figure out how to just list them for you and a p4/5 we own both sets and love these. you can try to search for a used sonlight prek core p3/4 or P4/5 set online. that is how i think i got mine. we don't use SL per se but own all of their cores thru core 4 bc/ the book choices are excellent! http://www.sonlight.com/PC00.html American Tall Tales $15.99 $14.39 PA02 A Treasury of Mother Goose Rhymes $17.99 $16.19 PA03 The Lion Storyteller Bedtime Book $19.99 $17.99 PA06 The Complete Adventures of Peter Rabbit $8.99 $8.09 PA08 Milly-Molly-Mandy Story Book $13.99 $12.59 PA09 Stories from Around the World $16.99 $15.29 PA10 Eric Carle's Animals Animals $8.99 $8.09 PA12 Children's Book of Virtues $24.00 $21.60 PA15 A Child's Book of Art $19.99 $17.99 PA17 The Classic Tales of Brer Rabbit $7.95 $7.16 PA18 Uncle Wiggily's Story Book $16.99 $15.29 PB02 Family-Time Bible in Pictures $12.99 $11.69 PG01 People $12.95 $11.66 PG03 Stories from Africa $9.99 $8.99 PG04 Things People Do $12.99 $11.69 PG05 The Gods Must be Angry $5.50 $4.95 PG06 Then and Now $4.99 $4.49 PG08 New Toes for Tia $5.50 $4.95 PL01 First Thousand Words $12.99 $11.69 PL02 ABC $8.99 $8.09 PR011 Developing the Early Learner, Volume I $10.99 $9.89 PR012 Developing the Early Learner, Volume II $10.99 $9.89 PR013 Developing the Early Learner, Volume III $10.99 $9.89 PR014 Developing the Early Learner, Volume IV $10.99 $9.89 PS01 Is a Blue Whale the Biggest Thing There Is? $6.99 $6.29 PS02 What's Smaller Than a Pygmy Shrew? $6.99 $6.29 PS03 How Do You Lift a Lion? $6.99 $6.29 PS04 How to Dig a Hole to the Other Side of the World $6.99 $6.29 PS07 Why Do Tigers Have Stripes? $4.99 $4.49 PS08 What's Under the Sea? $4.99 $4.49 PS12 The Berenstain Bears' Big Book of Science and Nature $29.99 $26.99 PS13 The Year at Maple Hill Farm

here is the list from amblesideonline.com http://www.amblesideonline.org/00.shtml these are all so wonderful! It won't let me paste them all, so i added the link Year 0 Books Winnie the Pooh series by AA Milne and Ernest H. Shepard (Winnie-The-Pooh, The House at Pooh Corner, When We Were Very Young, Now We Are Six). Accept no substitutes for the original stories! Beatrix Potter series (Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, etc,) The Little House by Virginia Burton The Story About Ping by Marjorie Flack The Little Engine that Could by Watty Piper Blueberries for Sal by Robert McCloskey Make Way For Ducklings by Robert McCloskey One Morning in Maine by Robert McCloskey Ferdinand by Munro Leaf Ox-Cart Man by Barbara Cooney Stone Soup and other folk tale retellings by Marcia Brown Miss Rumphius by Barbara Cooney (CM idea of duty in bringing beauty to the world) The Story of Little Babaji by Helen Bannerman or other retelling of the Sambo story with more appropriate illustrations Brer Rabbit books by Joel Chandler Harris, read the online etext Poems and Prayers for the Very Young by Martha Alexander A Child's Garden of Verses by Robert Louis Stevenson (illustrated by Eulalie, Jessie Wilcox Smith, or Alice and Martin Provenson) A good collection including classic stories and folktales such as The Little Red Hen, The Gingerbread Man, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, The Three Billy Goats Gruff. (Joseph Jacob's versions online here and here) A good collection of Aesop's Fables, such as the one illustrated by Milo Winter A nice Mother Goose collection, such as The Real Mother Goose illustrated by Blanche Fisher Wright Mama Goose, a collection by Edelen Wille, or versions such as those by Rojankovsky, Marguerite De Angeli or Tasha Tudor, or Lavender's Blue, a collection of nursery rhymes compiled by Kathleen Lines, illustrated by Harold Jones Illustrated classic poetry such as Poems for Young Children compiled by Caroline Royds A good collection of classic children's poetry such as A Child's Book of Poems by Gyo Fujikawa; The Golden Books Family Treasury of Poetry selected by Louis Untermeyer; The Oxford Book of Children's Verse edited by Peter Opie If space is an issue, or you live out of the US and can't afford to have a lot of books shipped, you might take a look at The World Treasury of Children's Literature selected by Clifton Fadiman. It includes many classic picture books, poems and lesser-known ones. It doesn't include all of the illustrations, but the ones it does include (a few from each book) are from the original books. There are three volumes, but only the first two volumes would be useful; vol 3 has selections from longer chapter books, and whole books are preferable. Vol 1 includes: some Nursery Rhymes, some Aesop's Fables, myths, The Little House by Virginia Lee Burton, Play With Me by Marie Hall Ets, Goodnight Moon, A Hole is to Dig, Babar, some Robert Louis Stevenson poem from A Child's Garden of Verses, The Little Engine That Could, Curious George, Hillaire Beloc poems, The Story of Ferdinand, Pelle's New Suit by Elsa Beskow, A Kiss for Little Bear by Else Holmelund Minarik, Make Way for Ducklings, The Velveteen Rabbit, Alexander and the Terrible Horrible No Good Very Bad Day, The Three Bears, The Three Pigs, Whittington's cat, and some lesser known titles. Vol 2 includes Eugene Field's poem The Duel, The Owl and the Pussycat and The Pobble Who Has No Toes by Norman Lear, The Tale of Peter Rabbit, two poems by A.A. Milne, Grimm fairy tales, The Emperor's New Clothes, The Ugly Duckling, Ping, Where the Wild Things Are, Chicken Soup With Rice and individual chapters from Paddington Bear, Winnie the Pooh and Ramona the Pest. If space/cost is an issue, there are also story collections online: Nursery Tales Told to Children by Amy Steedman includes classics such as The Three Bears and Sleeping Beauty For the Children's Hour by Carolyn S. Bailey "A choice collection of stories for the preschool child, carefully selected, adapted, and arranged by two veteran kindergarten teachers." Children's Nursey An online library of classic 19th century illustrated children's books, including Lang's fairy books, Beatrix Potter, Peter Pan, The Water Babies... The Rosetta Project: An online site with lots of illustrated vintage picture books

We used SSRW2 and enjoyed it so much that I pleaded with the company to sell me grade 3. they actually wrote it, and I bought the readers, but they never published the TM and so I never was able to get that.

We love Visualizing World Geography. it is a bit cheesy, but does the trick for our family. they could at that age easily do it themselves and quiz each other.

i don't know if it is this one, but on the zaner bloser spellingconnections site, there is an editor game. http://spellingconnectionsonline.com/ see the proofreading link on the side. it is free.

The leap frog video has helped my boys so much to learn to see the comma and period. They both picked up on it from that more than anything I said. They make a big deal now of STOP! PAUSE! So, my 6 yr old son started this game last week: When he sees the comma or period, he quickly squeezes together his left thumb and index finger. He thinks it is fun and he enjoys showing me that he saw the punctuation. Perhaps making a game of it like that will help.

we are using visualizing world geography. even i didn't know my world geography and have learned lots. the photos and pictures are corny, but it works. We are working our way through each continent and everyone in my family can tell me all of the countries we've learned.

I preferred RS after trying both. I think it depends on the teacher and students and you really might have to try both to see. My kids and I love the RS games. Singapore didn't make as much sense to me, but I think it does to some as is clear by the other responses you've received.