I love the Apologia books, but I agree, it gets old after a while. I don't really want to change though. I actually was thinking of using more than one of the books a year but spread the actual books over 2-3 years instead. So do 12 weeks of Zoo 2, 12 weeks of Astronomy and 12 weeks of Zoo 3 or whatever books sound good. Maybe even break it down into quarters instead. Not sure, but I've been toying with the idea for next year.

wrong thread...sorry

Mine keep anything we might do in a history binder; maps, notebooking pages, projects, etc. It's not a lot there, but just in case. :) We also do all the vocabulary and questions orally.

Since AAS didn't work for you, I found this free one I might try with my son who still struggles a bit, worth a try or at least a look maybe. :) http://www.donpotter.net/education_pages/ Scroll down to FREE DOWNLOAD: Remedial Reading Drills (1936) Good luck,

You might want to look into all-about-spelling.com for him. It's a spelling program, but teaches all sounds. It's helped mine with both spelling and reading. HTH,

Sounds like I need to just find D'aulaire. :) I'll keep my eyes open on the For Sale board. Thank you to everyone,

We used it entirely secularly. I found it no problem at all. The one book I highly recommend to go along with it is Children Just Like Me which is also completely secular and even touches slightly on each of the children's religions in all the different countries. HTH,

I've just recently been drawn towards LCC and in trying to move in that direction, I'd like to read some Greek myths for literature. I've spent so much lately, I'm not sure about buying D'Aulaire's. Would any of these from mainlesson.com be just as good? James Baldwin, Old Greek Stories Padraic Colum, The Golden Fleece and the Heroes Who Lived Before Achilles Robert Edward Francillon, Gods and Heroes Samuel B. Harding, Greek Gods, Heroes, and Men (in progress) Nathaniel Hawthorne, Tanglewood Tales Nathaniel Hawthorne, A Wonder Book for Girls and Boys Charles Kingsley, The Heroes Josephine Preston Peabody, Old Greek Folk Stories Told Anew James Baldwin, A Story of the Golden Age of Greek Heroes Elsie Finnimore Buckley, Children of the Dawn W. M. L. Hutchinson, The Golden Porch Charles D. Shaw, Stories of the Ancient Greeks Thank you in advance,

Local craigslist frequently have some selling their curriculums. Sometimes local freecycles do too. Just a thought. http://www.craigslist.com http://www.freecycle.org

Crazy I know. Not sure what I was thinking at the time. :001_unsure: I should have explained further that what I've done is made Sonlight 3 the core and now I just added in the readers from AS1. Hands down mine have liked Core 3 best. They felt we jumped around too much with AS1. My daughter doesn't like the Landmark of American History so I don't require her to listen to that. I'm like you, I teach to the oldest and the younger is learning by osmosis. :) Actually she's liked the readers and read alouds, just not Landmark.

I couldn't decide last year either. :) Mine are 8 and 11 so I chose to try both WP AS1 and SL3. Long story short, not easy to combine the two difference programs. My preference is for Sonlight now that I've tried both. I like the way it flows better than WP, but that's just me. It would be very easy for you to buy one or two of the paper craft books that WP uses and add them in (Colonial America and 3D Maps come to mind). But that's only if you don't mind having to add them in. If you want that all added in already and not have to even think about it, WP may work better for you. There are also quite a few younger American History books out there you could get to help your younger depending on the reading level. I think Charlotte is selling quite a few in the for sale forum. We've loved the books in SL3 this year; not one that we haven't liked yet actually. Good luck with your decision,

I chose to do both Sonlight Core 3 and WP AS 1 with my 8 and 11 year old. I thought my daughter would appreciate the slightly younger books and the hands on crafts. I also, mistakenly, thought I could easily combine the two and I even tried adding in Time Travelers (TT). Nuts, I know. :) I think they are both good programs, but I lean heavily towards Sonlight now after trying to use both. I ended up choosing Sonlight as the core and I just now add in the extra books I had from WP where they fit in chronologically. Same with the "crafts". I adore the questions from Sonlight for each book and I feel Sonlight flows so much easier. However, as Siloam/Heather once mentioned, WP is more of a unit study approach. If that's what you like, then its perfect. If you don't care for that approach, you might want to rethink it. One thing we have kept from AS1 is the Native American Focus, except that we do it once a week on Day 5. Along with any other crafts that we'd like to do (3d maps, colonial americal, etc.). My plans next year are to do the same as this year really: Sonlight 4 with AS2 readers and do the African American Focus on Day 5 each week. The extras you get in the WP guide just aren't enough, to me, to trump Sonlight. I can find my own wonderful websites to go along with our time period just by googling (and I get to "plan" but not a whole curriculum this way) and I just do a search at Netflix to see what movies might go with the time period. I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who tries everything though. :D Maybe I should look at Veritas Press........

The more moms I talk to, the more I hear this same complaint. I was worried about this as well with both of my children. My daughter is 8 and is a very good reader and reads at a 7th grade level but stills skips things at times. My son has been slower in reading. He's 11 and is only at about 3rd grade. He skips and adds things too. My personal opinion is that it just takes practice, lots and lots of it. There's alot going on when reading; paying attention to the word you are reading, your eyes staying focused on just that word and not seeing the other words around it, sounding out, processing that in their brain, etc. I still correct them, but I see them getting better, albeit slowly. :)

I can't answer all the questions as I haven't used the activity book but the abacus does come with a brochure that has instructions on how to use it. I can't recommend the abacus enough to most people so I'd definitely try it. Good luck. :)

Here is what we are working on: Language Arts - FLL3 alternate w/GWG3, AAS2 (going into 3), WWE Math - RightStart C and 1 page of Singapore Intensive Practice Science - Zoology 2 Swimming Creatures History/Geography/Literature - Sonlight 3 and Star Spangled State Study Art - Atelier 3 Music - Story of the Orchestra and Themes to Remember Just bought Lively Latin, so I'll be adding that in too I also want to add in Writing Tales 1 later this year

Myself personally, I'd appreciate a small section in each book rather than one teacher manual for all. I, too, am really liking this better than I expected (no offense). :) I know you are actively working on this, however, do you have any kind of time frame of when this would be completed?

We're actually using American History Stories by Mara L. Pratt. Best of all it's free: http://www.mainlesson.com/display.php?author=pratt&book=ahs1&story=_contents This is just Volume 1, there are a total 4. However, if you are interested, they have others too: http://www.mainlesson.com/displaybooksforamerica.php We've enjoyed many of the books here so far. HTH,

:iagree: That is exactly why we use both. Some days I just don't want to teach math, so out comes Singapore. I always make sure that what they do in Singapore has already been "taught" in Rightstart though, so its more review or possibly showing them how to do something a different way. Plus, just as Heather said, Rightstart is more hands on. We've gone the past week to two weeks without any worksheets at all but there has been plenty of learning. HTH,

We are not young earth nor Christian either and we are going to use it anyway. I wouldn't feel comfortable letting my kids loose with it themselves though. I'd like to make sure we have discussion about it all, then they can make up their own minds. I am going to be supplementing, if needed, with the Complete Book of Our Solar System. It might be a good option for you? Here's a link at Amazon so you can see it: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Our-Solar-System/dp/1577686055/ref=sr_1_7?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1235091525&sr=1-7 HTH,

I'm not much of a critic unless I really don't like something so I'm no help there. :) I really like what I see so far. Can't wait to see more. :cheers2:

I tried to tackle both and I wouldn't recommend it. :) Both are great, together, they are too much. If you are very good and could only pick a few things from TT to do, then it might work. I felt like we were "missing" things though by doing that. HTH,

Well, it depends on what you are looking for. The new Activity packs don't seem to be history related in the same manner as Time Travelers. I haven't used the Activity Packs so this is just from looking them over. I have used Time Travelers. I bought all four planning to use them this year along with our Sonlight Core 3 and 4. However, these are much more a curriculum in themselves. It was just too much for us to do alongside Sonlight. I highly recommend them, though I'd say for older children. Even my 11 year old thought it was a bit much. They are very easy to use. Basically a lesson a day. They even come with a monthly calendar/lesson plan you can use. Lots of projects and games and cooking, etc. Oh, it can be alot of printing. So make sure your printer can handle that. You'll also need cardstock, imo. As I said, you could use them entirely as your only curriculum. HTH,

I have it, looks great, just haven't used it yet. I do plan to though. :)

I'm interested in learning more about why HFCS is bad. Can you ladies point me in the way of some websites or books to look over? Thank you :)

That's right. The 2nd volume is not needed until Core 4. :)