Logic Countdown looks good, and I don't mind bumping it to twice a week if that proves necessary. My boy is super logical and will probably find it fun...my girl...well, she needs some gentle practice if we are going to to the Art of Argument in 7th or 8th 🤣

I've taken 2 kids from Miquon only into Beast. So it CAN be done. But I've definitely had other kids who needed drill drill drill, so much repetition. I wouldn't decide that, necessarily, with a kindergartener though. It may be as simple as a maturity issue.

Favorite beginning Logic source? This is for my 5th graders (planning next year already, I know) so something gentle and preferably even fun would be nice. I don't plan on spending more than once per week on it, at this point. My WTM copy (3rd addition) suggests Building Thinking Skills or Mind Benders. Has anyone used either program and has thoughts?

I think there are many subjects that can be pursued until mastered and then dropped; cursive typing, spelling. Grammar I personally never full drop but next year I plan on scaling back and reverting to review-only through diagramming with my 5th graders. Other subjects I don't necessarily drop but I cycle. We only study Geography formally every 5 years (we do a history cycle then geography then another history cycle). On off years we study it informally through history and interest.

I've been running a small hiking group for several years now. Its the highlight of our homeschooling week, tbh, and we've made so many friends. I've never had any liability concerns. I am just meeting other families to hike, so I guess I've never considered myself responsible for more than my own children. I do understand what you mean by noise and no, there's no way to keep the kids quiet. I'm always shocked we see any wildlife at all, but we do - deer, elk, moose, turkeys, quail, hawks, eagles, porcupines, ect. We've made great discoveries. I try to keep hikes between 2-4 miles. That's all my 5yos can do without complaining and I find that's a good distance for most kids. I'm upfront about trail difficulty and length ahead and let members decide for themselves. I expect lots of lagging/stopping/slowness. We are WAY faster and get WAY further as a family. I have kept the group purposefully small. At the largest ever it was 10 families. 4 to 6 is ideal. I have also kept it by invitation only and word of mouth. Sometimes I'd invite a potential family to hike with me, just as a one time thing, then later invite them to the group if it worked out. Not everyone who says they are a hiker actually is.

Yes! I meant logic, of course. I'll see if I can edit the title. Thanks.

My kids (so far) were all reading by the end of C so I never went on to D either. I moved them into Language Arts Through Literature (writing via copywork/narration and grammar) with so many minutes of assigned reading (10 per grade) and an occasional journaling assignment. One of my kids still needed additional focused spelling help and did rod and staff as well.

I am preparing to jump into our second cycle of SOTW. But, of course, the older children are, well, older now. I'll have two 5th graders (ages 10/11), a 4th grader (age 9), a third grader (age 8), and two first graders (age 6) to be exact. Does anyone have any favorite tips for beefing SOTW1 up a bit? I'm especially interested in a good mythology anthology for the middle grades age group. We have a Useborne collection but it's most appropriate for my younger kids.

If I'm using Logic of English Essentials just for the spelling (no grammar, no composition) should I get the student workbooks? Kids are 9,9,8,7 if that matters and 3/4 of them need deep help with spelling as visual memory is very low.

I have a girl, age 9, that honestly just has to add another subject to her day. Her siblings all have an instrument, or a language, or etc they pretty much self study or take as an outside class and then do assignments during the week. She does bare bones school and then wanders around bored and irritating everyone that's engaged in something. Anyways. She does draw a fair bit, and enjoys painting. She's not interested in a class and honestly I'm not interested in adding a lot to my day teaching-wise- we do art appreciation in our house as a group. But is there some way for her to self study? A book, a YouTube channel? Something deeper than just arthubforkids, but more manageable for a 9yo than adult-focused painting videos?

I'm all set for next year with my usual eclectic mix of this and that... But as I add more (and more!) students and the oldest get older and more in need of depth while the youngest remain little I begin to wonder...would a box simplify things? In the beginning creating the wheel every year was fun, it's still fun at times I suppose but I'm increasingly interested in cutting corners. Tapestry appeals to me for several reasons. It seems like it's well organized which speaks to my type A love of a graph, it's literature based which is how I already teach, it assumes multiple ages/levels which is quickly becoming my reality. Has anyone used it? Thoughts? Do you just add math/science? I guess I'd also need spelling and Latin... which brings me back to the main question at hand. Does it simplify your life? Or nah?

That's exactly how I got my family nature journaling! First I just did it myself...then when they seemed interested I made a "family" journal that everyone was allowed to make additions in, and only recently have my older kids been interested in keeping their own. We also live way up north. We tend to take pictures and bring them home when it's too cold to take sketches on location. I started off with nice colored pencils and spiral bound multi-media books. We've since also included small travelers paint boxes for dry brushing. I organize my family book by seasons. So Summer page with any lists I'm keeping. Then pages for specific outings with date, location, weather, and labeled drawings. Then a Fall page with any lists. We live in an area with distinct seasons and my kids are young enough I like to keep that a focus. They like to look back and see if we can find those flowers/animals again the next year.

Yep mine have to make their own and be finished by 8:30. We have "set" breakfast plans for the day written on the white board- bagels and cream cheese, yogurt and granola, muffins made the night before and some fruit, overnight oatmeal, eggs and toast (bigger kids scramble eggs for themselves and a younger kid), frozen waffles made early and rewarmed, frozen breakfast burritos made early and rewarmed, etc.

I suppose so, but they are also so painfully cheap...I'm not sure it's cost effective.

It's important to my kids to keep our morning structure. So you have to be fed, dressed, and ready for Morning Meeting at 9am. We do a simple morning time: just prayers, hymn, bible, memory review, and a reading. Then we talk about our day. It takes 30 minutes but it collects everyone together and makes sure no ones still in pjs at noon. They each have daily requirements of chores, math review, journal assignment, and reading time. Sometimes I'll toss out a bonus item onto the checklist like build an obstacle course, or make a giant domino line, or draw a comic strip. And we also have a weekly rhythm of activities- Monday pool day, Tuesday hiking, Wednesday library, Thursday lake, Friday park. I'll often allow movie time in that deathly 3-5pm period on the hottest days, as we don't have act but we do have a basement tv. Otherwise 3-5 is our quieter time for reading, board games, art, etc.

We are in the same position with heading into SOTW 4 with younger tagalongs. We decided on a year of us geography/history. We will use Roadtrip USA.

We also reinforced ours while anchoring to the wall (not in earthquake territory...just had lots of toddlers). It was easy.

We continue Morning reading, scaled down to prayer, bible, a fun lit reading, and memory review. Then they independently do a half sheet of math review, a journal entry (switching between lots of different forms of writing- letters, fiction, non fiction, etc), and 10 minutes per grade of age appropriate non-junk reading (comics and beastwars reserved for personal time). Piano kids keep up piano. Sometimes I bust out a subject that got ignored the last year. This summer I'm toying with trying to get everyone typing... but for the most part we just 3 r's it and try to enjoy the weather.

That makes sense. And I have to admit, even though I've wanted to from the beginning I've never been able to get cursive first to work for ANY of my kiddos. :(. It's a lot to think about at once. I know is it's possible. I know people that did it! I just can't make it work.

I've used LOE several times now. I never understood it to be asking children to write words solo. We have always done the spelling segment together orally and with white boards (both explicitly states in teachers manual) "Chowder" to use the above example, although chowder is a much too advanced word for level A. ;) "Ok, how many syllables?" If they need help I clap it with them (or under chin if they prefer that, or hum it) "Chow- der." "What phonogram is first?" If they need help I say "ch" "How do we write ch?" If they need help, I say "c h together say ch" and write it on my board, they copy on theirs "What comes next?" If they need help I say "chow, ch, ow" "How do we write ow?" And so on. There is a script to follow in the teacher's book in later levels with spelling hints. Level A does not include hints as it does not include any letters that aren't using "first sounds", nor any multiple letter phonograms or multiple syllable words. It should theoretically be pretty straight forward.

Kind of. I mean, I used SOTW 1 with a first grader. Then I did SOTW 2 and then 3 over the next 3 years (we rabbit trailed a bit). As we did so I continually added students. They just joined in. This week we finished SOTW 3 with 4th, 3rd, and 1st graders. Granted, they are all in that K-4 age group. I'm aware most large families have a *ahem* more generous spread than I do. Which makes it harder. But we read the SOTW chapter together, narrate or do the comprehension questions together, do any activities together...then the kids get different ability-appropriate extra reading assignments and do either oral or written reports on them. I don't see why middle school kids couldn't follow that model. You just keep upping the extra reading. Next year because I'll have two kindergarteners joining us I'll be skipping SOTW 4. It's just too mature subject wise. We are doing intensive geography instead. But I'd likely make that decision even without the 5 year olds. And after that we are all starting over again with SOTW 1.

I also offer a stack of books (maybe 6-8) from a wide variety of genres. When the stack is down to 2 or 3 I replenish. Sometimes a book sits there overlooked in the stack for months and I just give up on it. I rarely require a certain book or even a certain type of book. If I really want it read then I will read it aloud.

I considered skipping the first section as well. In the end I did not, as it was the Fall and I felt he could use practice writing sentences after our summer break before tackling paragraphs. And I'm glad I didn't skip it. While he didn't learn to identify verbs or adjectives (as he already could) he did learn HOW TO USE THEM. This is a step that ELTL never really addresses, although I love that program. My DS wrote very simple, short sentences. Partly out of laziness but also because he simply didn't know better. Section one taught him the difference between writing "The baby cried." and, "The red-faced infant wailed." It's also only 8 or 9 weeks if I remember correctly. So YMMV but I'd suggest doing it.

I agree that what you are asking doesn't line up with my experience with first graders. In 1st grade my kids are generally still learning to read. I focus on oral narration, drawings, and simple copywork (only including words they can read). Only after they are reading fluently (in my experience late first or early second grade) do I start them on writing original sentences. And not till 3rd grade do I begin paragraphs. But if you have an advanced or precocious kiddo just bounce up a few grades. There are lots of writing options in the 3-5th grade category. I've enjoyed Treasured Concersations and Writing and Rhetoric.

For what it's worth, I've used the first 2 sections with my 3rd grade boy. He is a struggling writer and needs painfully clear step by step direction and teeny tiny bite sized goals. This was perfect. We just started the 3rd section. It took him in one year from panic and tears whenever he was asked to write an original sentence, to easily writing 3-5 sentence paragraphs. He's still not happy, and they aren't always beautifully creative, but they make sense and he's doing it. His grammar was already rock solid from years of ELTL, so I can't speak to that. I have 2 more students starting the program next year and I'm honestly toying with having him do it again with them. Once through to write the sentences and once again to improve them? I haven't spoken to him about it, but he'd probably be game. He really loved all the stories it starts you off on writing in section 2.