I prefer the Pinkney one. The Milo Winters one is good, but for some reason my own kids have all (all four!) had comprehension problems with the Milo Winters version, whereas they don't with the Pinkney (same one as linked above) or Dan Daily (http://amzn.to/1IoZz5s) collections.

I <3 MUS The clever manipulatives make it simpler for me to teach and help and have helped my own sense of how math works rather than just know how to get the right answer. For the last 4 years, since I had multiple math students, we started with a math hour. I gave everyone the next page they should do, staggered who had a new lesson if 2 were ready, and could move from student to student depending on who needed "at-elbow" help vs. "hovering." But I do think math requires the hovering stage and can't be totally independent. My mom set me off as independent with Saxon at 12 ("just come to me if you have questions" -- ha! Like I was going to volunteer for frustration) and I totally shipwrecked and no one knew it for 3 years, when I was halfway through Saxon Algebra 2 and clueless. So I'm committed to checking math pages every day and working with students to make sure they get the right answers. However, now that I have four students actually doing math, I am not going to have everyone doing math at the same time because it was too crazy at the end of last year and I just stopped the Kindergarten student so I could help the older ones. They'll all have their math page and assignment, and the older two (7th & 5th) will get started on their own, but have a "tutoring time" with me where we'll start by looking at their math together. Usually the increments in MUS are small enough and explained well enough in the video that they can do it, but sometimes they hit a conceptual roadblock. For my 2nd grader & K/1, I'll sit and do their math with them, one on each side, but it takes 15 minutes tops. I make sure they can explain what they're doing with the blocks and make them use the blocks to figure out the answer rather than wildly guess. It is hugely helpful for me to not be the one to introduce concepts, though - the math teacher can be turned off and on, and no matter how many times he has to repeat himself, he's always cheerful and has a joke. If I had to teach 4 math lessons in succession, I would not be smiling by the end. When I'm only jumping in to help, I can manage that. :)

Mine has built up gradually over seven years - it's not all from scratch! :)

I ironed the details out, everything is purchased, and the checklist is made! Woot! http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/2015-2016-second-grade-plans<--- details of our second grade plan.

I do get everything ready in the summer, but I do very little lesson planning at all. In the summer, I do all the work to set everything up as "do the next thing." We print out new weekly checklists on Monday (then I can tweak if necessary), but everything is written as "read the next chapter in history" or "do 5 lines of cursive practice." But all the books are bought, all the handwriting practice pages printed, all the memory work binder pages set up and ready to go (I swap out our new material and review pages between each 6-week term - but the material we'll do is already decided and prepped). I leave a blank after "Latin pg ___" on the checklists, but we sit down together for Latin, I flip to the chapter we're in and hand him the book opened to the page I want him to do. Each morning for math, I open up the math book, tear out the page I want them to do, include a note if I think they need to watch the lesson, and their checklist says "math page 100%". So, we're never behind. We are where we are and we pick up and do the next thing each day, but everything is ready to grab so we aren't held up by needing to print pages. I don't do any planning or prep on weekends. However, we also don't use any curriculum except for Latin and math, and I don't care whether we do 1/2 a book, 3/4 of a book, or more than a book in a school year - we end when we end and we pick back up the next year with both Latin and math. All other subjects are read + narrate, or read + write or it's something I'm doing "at-elbow" with them (like phonics). I correct everything same day and they have to redo it to my satisfaction (for writing, they get several days after feedback, but math isn't done until it's 100%). I'm about halfway done with our next school year planning.....time to buckle down and just get it all done and set up! We begin July 6th (we've been out since early May).

Oh, these are some great resources! We've done Morning Time in our homeschool since my oldest was 5, and now he's 12. :) I've been working on listing out all the things we've used over the years on my blog, here's the list so far: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/memory I also have a printable with 5 steps to start a morning time that fits your family and a video of a real, live action Morning Time in our house. :) Morning Time is an essential in our homeschool.

Thanks, Jennifer! :) Yes! I consider our Morning Time the heart of our homeschool day. All my posts and resources (including a video of a real life Morning Time!) is on my site here: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/memory

Yes! I let my boys do that from the time they could read and it's been great for us. I'm starting 7th grade now with my oldest, and both the 12yo & 10yo (who have been reading for enjoyment from the time they were 5) are knowledgeable, can have conversations about anything, and are interested in a huge variety of subjects because they want to read anything they can get their hands on. Now, in 7th grade, I'm adding more structure and having him write about his assigned reading, but I fully plan to continue the "read widely for enjoyment" plan for all the others until 7th grade.

Here's what I'm doing with my 5yo boy K/1 student: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/k-1-homeschool-plans He's my fourth 5-year-old, and all my other kids are on track after a light K/1, so I'm not uptight anymore. :)

Here's what we're doing: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/k-1-homeschool-plans

My 5 1/2 year old is K/1 - he can read fluently already, and most of his school time is alongside his sister who is in second grade. So, even though he'd be going into K, he's doing 1st grade work, pretty much. Good thing grade level doesn't really matter! :) Here are the specifics of my plans for his K/1 year: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/k-1-homeschool-plans

My 5th grader will mostly be reading books, but I also have assigned him one book for the whole year – Pilgrim's Progress – that he'll read slowly and illustrate in a hardbound sketchbook with quotes. He likes to draw and is excited about this.

The audio lecture by SWB on Teaching Children to Work Independently has several great ideas for staying on top of the kids and for keeping them moving in their work. For math, I had a dawdler. Here are things that helped: 1) The daily agenda (with times) loosely laid out visually for the day. Learning the sense of time is something that takes time and practice. On our whiteboard, I have all the hours of the day laid out in a column, and I'd block off time (like "school" block, not each subject). I'd only let him sit and try to work on math for 30 minutes max, then he could work on something else and come back to math again, and if he didn't finish his work in the school block, he had to do it in his afternoon free time block. That cured both my later-elementary boys of dawdling & not moving on in their checklist on their own. 2) I'd send him out to run a lap around the yard if he got mopey or distracted or whiny or otherwise not paying attention & complainy. "Sounds like you need fresh air & exercise to clear your head! Go out, run to the fence and back, and try again." This usually took 3 times out before he'd be ready to sit and do his work. 3) When the concept was difficult, I did have to sit next to him the whole time to keep him moving forward and not just flubbing the whole page. I had to sit there and say, "And then what? Is that what you do next? Did you add those correctly? What's next?" It's annoying, but sometimes it has to be done. SWB calls it, "Parent at Elbow," and her saying that it's a necessary phase helped me deal with it and accept it.

I really recommend Pam Barnhill's Plan Your Year kit, which includes great instructions and planning pages for working all that out for your own family: planyouryear.net

Story of Science by Joy Hakim & The Disappearing Spoon

Yes, I was going to recommend Renee at FIMBY, too.

That looks great, thanks! That will pair well with my move this year to returning to nature study as partly independent work. http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/nature-study-as-independent-work

I'm excited to be reserving time for a 1-on-1 "Colloquy" on Fridays with my 12yo. I'm excited to do Grammar of Poetry & Art of Argument. I'm looking forward to continued consistency in Morning Time and how much that brings us all together, from the 2yo to the 12yo – after 7 years, our singing is noticeably improved! I'm going to have the 10yo & 12yo illustrate and copy a quote from a chapter a week for a solid piece of literature (Pilgrim's Progress for the 10yo, The Odyssey & The Aeneid for the 12yo)

Evernote!! http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/plan-homeschool-year-in-evernote http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/how-to-make-homeschool-lesson-plans-in-evernote But my kids get a checklist each week on their clipboards that's a table made in Word: http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2014/moms-daily-homeschooling-list http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2014/independent-work-checklist

Try reading "Drive" by Daniel Pink about the incentive/motivation thing.

We give the IOWA test, and you have to have a 4-year degree to administer it. I had to send a copy of my degree once to BJU, where we order them, so now I'm an "approved administrator" and can order the tests.

Here are some things that have helped us keep up good attitudes over the years: * Circle Time together with memory work and singing (singing together is huge - you can't be cranky while singing) * Giving everyone who can read their own checklist so they know what's expected of them up front * Finding ways to give those 8yo+ some input into what and how we do things, within reason. Examples: choose a chore from the list, choose what order you do your independent work, choose when to take a 10 minute walk in the morning, choose which book to read for history from a shelf of selections I've made (like biographies) * Take a day and do Latin outside in the park if the weather is nice * Make a cup of tea to sip while doing math It's hard work, but keeping up the camaraderie and cheerfulness is essential to working together and not burning out.

I like Our Mother Tongue for grammar basics - very straightforward and clear. I'm currently working through Henle Year One while also learning alongside my kids in Latin for Children Primer A & B. Any study you do on your own before you start or while you're teaching will help you so much! It's good to get on the right path early. :) Good work!

We relisten without doing any activities or anything else. At 6-8 my oldest two also read lots of biographies for their free reading, but I didn't worry about matching anything up. They have a great grounding in history knowledge, even without tests or lesson plans or activities. :) Time to start that now with the second set! Doing geography rather than more history sounds like a great idea. That's what I'm planning on doing next year for my 5yo & 7yo.

I wanted more Latin translation in our daily Latin work, so I made up a sheet with spots for parsing and translating a Latin sentence. We've been using it for over a year now and using it has really increased the effectiveness of our Latin studies (especially mine!) So I finally cleaned it up, made it into a pdf, and put it on my blog for free download for others to use. :) I hope it helps your Latin as much as it has helped ours. The great thing about it is that you can use this worksheet regardless of which Latin program you're using. http://www.simplyconvivial.com/2015/free-homeschool-latin-practice-page-and-a-giveaway I'm also currently running a giveaway from CAP for a year of premium Headventureland access. :)