Anyone?

I can not decide what writing to use next year for ds9 (will be 4th grade). We are finishing up WWE2, and he is doing well and does not mind it, so I know i should just stick with it. But. I love that ELTL uses whole books. I love that it covers grammar and copywork and literature and narration and dictation and memory work. The one thing that is stopping me is that it seems to be a step backwards in narration. ds is already great at whole narrations, and he is now doing well with summaries with WWE, but it looks like ELTL3 only has the first type. Does anyone have any thoughts on this? I looked at ELTL4, but 3 is just a better fit in everything else. Help! I need advice! If you switched from WWE to ELTL, were you happy with the change?

Thank you so much everyone! I think I need to make some major changes! First step is sleep. Now I just need to figure out how to get more :) I'll probably ask my dr to do a complete physical with all of the bloodwork (last time, only the usual ones that cause fatigue were checked. I don't know exact numbers, just tht everything "looked great." )

Thanks for the suggestions. I'll bring them up wth my dr. I thought it might just be 10 years of exhaustion catching up with me, but it seems like I should feel better now, not much worse...I'm 41, so maybe perimenopause is a possibility. I don't feel sad, just tired, so I didn't think depression.

I am tired. For the first time in 10 years, I'm not pregnant, I'm only nursing 1,, AND this baby often sleeps through the night. I get 7-8 hours of sleep about 4 nights a week , around 6 hours the other nights. I am usually very energetic. Now, I am exhausted even after a good night's sleep. I usually start to feel better about 5 pm, but before that, I feel awful! This has been going on for about a month. Thyroid test and B12 levels and iron count are all normal. I have soooo much to do, but I just want to be alone and rest. I mentioned adrenal fatigue to my dr, but he said he didn't think it was a real condition?? Any ideas? I miss my old energetic self!

Rethinking my question :)

Let's see.. OPGTR and Plaid Phonics workbook ELTL1 Finish Horizon K and Miquon Orange and then maybe RightStart B?? Or just Miquon and facts practice?? Learning about 1800's through Little House and other living books (with ds9) Science using Lets Read and Find Out books and Magic Schoolbus DVDs (with dd4) US states through picture books/mapwork (with ds9)

Anyone???

Did you do it in the context of a writers workshop? I need details, please! (Link to book http://www.amazon.com/Most-Wonderful-Writing-Lessons-Grades/dp/0590873040 ).

Thanks so much for sharing, everyone! When I re-read what I wrote about his day, it seems like he does already have lots of free time. Maybe I'm the one who needs more ;) I think working with the little ones first is the way to go. I've always spent time with ds9 first to make sure we got to finish what we needed to do before the craziness started, but now that he's older and can do more on his own, I may play around with switching it up.

Great advice here! Pondering it all. Thanks so much! Also sadly, it does take ds 1 hr in the morning to get chores done and breakfast down. He's a bit of an absent-minded professor-type. This morning he sat on his bed for 30 minutes just thinking about mowing/landscaping an imaginary lawn :)

Thanks everyone! Off to research WFH, JAG, KISS, and Grammarland with the worksheets :) MCT has always confused me. Maybe I'll peek at it again.

I really wish I had time to do this!

Thanks! Checking it out...

ok, I've been looking at grammar revolution but it seems sort of expensive for just grammar. I liked having ds do copywork with quality sentences and then pulling the sentences apart. I would love to do this with lit we are reading, but I still need some hand-holding. ELTL looks closest to what I want. Maybe?? I don't really need all of those other components, though. Anyone have other ideas?

Thanks everyone for sharing your routines. Re-reading each for inspiration :) I'd love to add some more project-time or fun group activities in because that's what has made our school days most enjoyable, but there's just no time!??

Right now, I wake ds a little before 7. Baby is usually already up, and 4 and 6 year olds are up around now too. I'd love to let ds keep sleeping, but all of the girls play best first thing in the morning, so that's when ds and I do his work-with-mom stuff. He does his morning chores and eats breakfast while I nurse the baby and get the girls ready and help them with their chores. 8:00 The girls eat breakfast where I can see them and the baby plays in the room with them. I do math and writing with ds (our 2 big focus areas this year). 9:00 The baby throws food and screams (uh, eats) in her high chair while I read science or history to ds and he does a noteboking page. The little girls play together. 9:30 ds is very active and really needs a long break here. I send him outside for 30 min, but honestly, he needs more. 9:30-10:00 I nurse the baby and spend time with my girls. Now it gets sticky. The baby goes down between 11 and 12. Before then I'm trying to grab 30 min or so with the 6 year old (she really needs more. but that's all I can swing right now) while ds9 stays with the baby (he can entertain her for up to 30 min before she fusses). grab a few minutes with my 4 year old (she is newly 4 but advanced--working at k level--so she could really use a longer time with me too), and settle ds9 down with his indep work (spelling/grammar or a lit lapbook piece, math worksheet, cursive), and give everyone a snack and let them run outside for about 15 min. When the baby sleeps, we take an hour and a half for read-aloud time. This is a favorite of everyone and impossible to do while dd1 is up. They eat lunch while I read. This takes us to about 1:30ish. We do 1.5 - 2 hours of outside time. Then, it's about 3:30 and time for quiet time (girls rest for 30 min, ds9 has 30 min of assigned reading and 15 min of free reading). Baby and I do dinner prep and try to pull the house back together. 4:30ish till 5:30 kids play then clean up their playroom. Dinner is 5:30. Baby goes to bed at 6:30 or 7ish, but often doesn't stay asleep, so I'm in and out till about 9 or so (working on this). DH bathes the girls at 7 and puts them to bed between 7:30 and 8. Ds9 does some kitchen chores and showers, then he and dh have time together (special to both of them). ds is supposed to be in bed reading at 8:30 but, especially if I'm not out there, he often isn't in bed till 9, and then is too wound up to sleep till 10. I hate to cut this special guy-time out (they do a read-aloud or science experiment, play chess,etc.), so I'm not sure what to do???

Ha! I just realized I posted this same question about 4 months ago. Guess I still haven't figured it out! Maybe it's a lost cause ;)

I'm not happy with the way ds' day is structured. I feel like he's not getting enough sleep. I don't feel like he's as challenged with school work as he might be, and the work we do get to feels rushed. He has lots of sporadic free time, but I can't figure out how to give him a big block of it since everyday is a bit crazy with working around the littles. (Quick! The baby is finally napping. Let me read to you! Hurry!) I'd love to see how others with kids this age structure their day--especially if you have younger children around too.

Thanks! This looks really fun!

Thank you everyone!!!!!!

Ds9 loves Hank the Cowdog and Roald Dahl's books. What else is funny? I'm looking to expand his reading selections a bit... Something funny that is not total junk would be terrific!

My 9 year old just finished the first part of TC (the grammar part) and to my surprise, he really enjoyed taking sentences apart and identifying parts of speech! I think he thinks of it as a fun puzzle. I know that the main point of TC is to teach the teacher to teach, but I need something with an answer key because I'm learning this along with ds. What else is sort of like TC for grammar? Everything I know about seems so...dry or something. Suggestions?

Thanks so much for taking the time to link all of that!

Thanks! Checking these out!