I used Draw Write Now, also, along with the Drawing for Children activities on Donna Young and any beginning how-to-draw books our library had. I used them as free time or independent work activities for the kids. http://donnayoung.org/art/drawing.htm

Not sure if it's what you're looking for, but here is a YouTube video by Penny Gardener, whose Italics: Beautiful Handwriting for Children we use. She has a YouTube video of her teaching all the lessons and uses terms like "ceiling line" and "basement line" and all that. The great thing about having a video of the lessons is that she never gets tired of repeating herself!!

I've picked up a lot of elementary-geared fiction reads at library sales and such, even being somewhat picky about what kind of book I buy. My oldest two (who are my only readers right now) do reread books, and the bookshelf is in their room. My plan right now is to keep all the books (and slow down on collection!) until all my kids are past that reading stage and level. So, with another baby on the way now, that gives us another 10 years at least we'll have that bookshelf full. Then I'll purge and only keep the best, the ones I'd like to have on a shelf for grandkids to read during visits. That is, if there are any left by then. My kids seem to be terribly hard on books.

That's pretty much all we do and will do, even with my oldest going into 4th grade this year. We read the Apologia books like read-alouds (or independent reading) rather than use them like a curriculum. And we garden and do nature walks sometimes. And I get books from the library on whatever the boys say they're interested in. It's working for us! I'm not concerned about "doing" science until late middle school or high school, particularly if they are well read and interested in the world.

We do a year-round schedule and kinda sorta have an end date, but not really. We use MUS with a mastery approach to math, so they just do the next thing they're able to in math, regardless of when they finish a lesson or a book. We just keep going (or not, depending). We won't finish Latin (LFC A) before the year ends, but I bought LFC B for next year. We have to test in late May or early June, and that will be the "end" of the year. We'll take 3 weeks off then start our "new" year picking up at the same spot with math & Latin lessons, but new crayons, revamped memory binders and checklists, cleaned out desks, new books, and a new history cycle.

We do 6 weeks on and 1 week off, with 2-3 weeks for Christmas, 2 weeks around Easter, and 3-5 weeks off in June when we "finish." I find after 2-3 weeks off, the kids start being at loose ends and acting up more and just generally not thriving as well as they do when we have routine and they have productive things to do. On break weeks, though, they get to pretty much do what they want, except screen time is limited to an hour or two of wii once per week. My readers love to read, so I don't have to make them or assign reading, and they keep reading on break weeks.

I like http://www.pennygardner.com/italicsbk.html But it is italics. Which style are you teaching? Have you looked at donnayoung.org?

We school 6 weeks on 1 week off, with occasional longer breaks. I don't think I need a weekly planning period to work out more detailed plans or get papers set, but I should do more -- that is, any -- prereading. It's just something I'd have to make time for. Sigh.

A homeschool planning retreat sounds marvelous! I just do mine in fits and spurts as I can fit it into my days with the kids. I do it all at once, but that is more setting it all up and getting things ready to go so that I can then wing it as we go. Math and skills things I have our MUS book, but they proceed as they master things, so I make decisions in the moment for stuff like that. Everything else is mostly memory work (all ready to go and laid out) and books (read the next part). I just started a series on my blog about planning a year-at-a-time. I'd only ever seen one other person talk about doing it this way, so I was curious what the hive had to say. I love talking planning!

I am beginning my third year of planning, preparing, and printing all the next school year's stuff at once. Anyone else do it all at once? I just haven't been able to make a weekly "teacher's prep" time work out regularly, and I find that if I don't have our papers ready-to-roll, I lose students when I go to pull or print what they need. How do you do your lesson/plan/materials preparation?

Mine are, too! And I'm hiding them from my 8 & 6yo, though it seems silly. :) We school year round, so having them be new books is a big part of giving us a fresh start feel. :)

Teach America to Read & Spell: http://www.exodusbooks.com/details.aspx?id=20142 Exodus has a thorough description, and I wrote the review at the end.

:bigear: Nothing here has worked yet. :)

Same here. I had one, 3yo, during Day #1 potty-training, squatting playing with blocks, pee, and never move or notice at all. Back went the diaper for another 6 months. Took to it right away by then. It took him longer for awareness to click in.

My oldest is only in 3rd grade, but he took 2 1/2 years (we started him at 5 1/2) to get through Alpha. Alpha does only addition. They have to master all the addition facts before they can move on. Once he finished it, though, he finished Beta in half a year and is now blazing through Gamma. I love MUS because of the ability to slow it down or speed it up according to the student's ability. Plus, I think the solid foundation in addition and place value in the first book, even if it takes longer, pays off later. My second son is not quite 7 and almost finished with Beta. We just go at the student's pace. We don't have to do every page (as the program specifies). But if we need more practice, we can print off more practice pages from the website. I love MUS, but I do agree that it wouldn't work well to switch to or from it in middle grades. It has a totally different scope and sequence that works if you stick with it (if the sort of program works for you -- I prefer mastery & my sons are visual, so the blocks and DVD help). You can watch demonstration videos on the MUS website. I am looking forward to getting to Epsilon and fractions with the overlays. I think Steve Demme has very clever ways of teaching concepts. I used Saxon growing up and I learned how to get the right answer (until algebra 2) but had no idea how or why anything worked. And I hated the repetition of Saxon. Shudder. All I knew when I started looking at programs was that I was NOT going to do Saxon just because *I* didn't want to open those books ever again. :) Not surprisingly, I ended up picking the program least like Saxon. :)

and if you can, strap them in booster seat at the table or put them in a playpen with the special activities. That worked great for my daughter when she was 1-2.5, but hasn't so much for my current full-of-vim-and-vigor 2yo. He sits on my lap or gets into trouble. My mom got him a leapfrog alphabet toy that he'll be happy with in his crib sometimes. I contemplated getting a playyard gate thing, but I'm pretty sure my son would just figure out how to climb over it. Part of the way I deal with it is with my attitude. Training 1 & 2 yos is more essential than 1st grade with a 6yo imo. If math & phonics happen w/ 1st grade we're good. Audio books help us get read-alouds in while letting me still be free to manage the toddler, too.

My vote would be to keep him in books (a difficulty in itself, sometimes!) and implement something like tea time discussion. Also, having him do written narrations on at least some of what he reads would be a good idea. I have my 6 & 8yo sons draw comics or illustrations for science or history sometimes, too. Talking, drawing, writing: something to have to represent and "own" the material helps it stick. My husband was that sort of student. My older two seem to be like him, and he says to give them the time and space to read and to listen to them when they talk about it. :)

Little House books read by Cherry Jones. Yes, even for boys. 5 & 8 is the perfect age. Wind in the Willows (http://freeclassicaudiobooks.com/) Hank the Cowdog books are hilarious and read by the author.

This sounds like me, too. For this year I'm trying the non-paper-route for my lists: checklists w/ records/notes in Evernote (and I can include pictures of work, too). They can be emailed from Evernote to my husband if he wants. I might try Google forms instead of a paper checklist for the boys, but the computer would probably become a bottle neck. For the last 2 years I've thought about making up a form less like a grade sheet and more like a progress/evaluation report. I haven't done it yet, but I think this is the year. More students, older, and I'm having a baby in the middle of the year. I need to find a way to keep us on track.

I am always late, too, and the only perk is going to the grocery store and having people back away when they casually say, "oh! When are you due?!" and I say, "3 days ago." IF ONLY the baby would fall out right there....THAT would be nice.

I'm planning 4th grade right now, too, and trying to make it more independent since I will be having our 5th baby in early November. I taught IEW to homeschool kids grades 4-7 for 4-5 years back when I had no kids and only babies. It is a GREAT writing program, but very teacher-intensive (I taught 2x/week classes). I know schools often start it in 3rd grade, but personally I got the best results from 6th & 7th graders, all of whom were able to catch on quickly, learn fast, and really "get" it, even the reluctant writers and those who had never done any writing or grammar. 4th & 5th graders did well if they were verbal and strong readers (ie, read a lot for fun) to begin with. Otherwise it was painful, but possible, to work the students through it. You can do it, but it takes a lot more time and energy and tears; personally, my plan is to postpone real writing instruction til 5th or 6th grade, and focus in on it in 7th grade. Audio books (we get them from the library) and just having conversations where you make him defend what he says would be good preparation for writing later. You can't write if you don't think and have things to say. To write you don't just need information, but ideas and thoughts and opinions. That is the spade work that makes writing come more easily later. All that to say that I think postponing IEW for another year or two would not only be ok, but even more beneficial. For geography/mapwork I print out blank line maps of continents and have my 3rd & 1st grader label the countries. They do it copying from an atlas map for several weeks until they feel ready to try it from memory, then they work at doing from memory. It's all independently done. They also love GeoPuzzles where the pieces are shaped like the countries.

I've been listening to CiRCE for years, too, and also have read and enjoyed LCC. I agree that I've never heard Kern or the other speakers mention Campbell, LCC, or Multa non Multum BUT I have heard Kern say that he thinks the upper grades should spend time deeply in few books rather than try to "get through" an entire "Great Books" canon. I think there are similar ideas, but CiRCE is more broad; they don't promote a This is How You Do It approach. Rather, they're working toward cultivating wisdom that can be applied appropriately in specific situations.

Here's what I do: 1. Download the entire book's zip file. 2. Right click and open with iTunes. 3. Put all the files into a playlist. 4. Plug the iPad to the computer, open iTunes, and select that playlist as one to sync onto the iPad.

We do all our memory work during "Circle Time." I got the idea from preschoolersandpeace.com (she sells an eBook about putting it together. Here is my post on CT for this current school year: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2012/2011-2012-school-year-circle-time-or-morning-gathering I'm putting together our next school year now and will be posting more about CT, memory work, and organization next month!

I keep track of my kids' reading as soon as they start with the Bob Books. I set them each up with their own Goodreads.com account. When they get to 100 books, they get a present. I have a couple friends with kids on there, too, so we can see what each other's kids are reading and get ideas.