We started the year off with HOD Preparing. She seemed like she liked it at first, then is saying she doesn't now... so I decided to try Mystery of History, and she does not like that either... we have tried SOTW in the past, and nope... didn't like that one too! I am starting to think that maybe she knows I will switch if she does not like it. She has asked just to do a textbook history, but I am pretty certain she will not like that once we get started on one. What should I do?? I DO think HOD Preparing is simply not engaging her, as it seems a bit babyish. I have HOD CTC, and thought about just starting her on that instead. But, here is the deal... she will probably complain that it is boring, or that it is too much reading. Should I just buckle down and tell her that she is doing it no matter what? I am so tired of spending money and switching!!! Has anyone encountered this? Of course I feel bad forcing her to do something she clearly hates, but sometimes it just has to get done. We made it to 4 weeks on Preparing, 2 weeks in MOH, and about 3 chapters of SOTW. HELP!!!

Thanks for the responses! My 10yo is a good reader, but she needs to learn to pay attention as she reads. Sometimes she has trouble telling me what she has read, so I thought using a curriculum would help teach her that. I just bought Deconstructing Penguins on my Kindle, so I know that will help as well. I guess I was also worried about literary terms and things like that. I just want to make sure that my child is an excellent reader:)

I am on the fence as whether or not to use a reading curriculum for my 2nd and 4th grader!!! I know many are opposed to it, so if you do use one, can your tell me why? I feel like a reading curriculum would be good to help the child really pay attention to what they are reading, and they would learn things like setting, plot, ect.... I know you can do this with Novels as welll.... But I honestly cannot pre read each and every book my child reads. I also don't want to analyze a novel to death, but just want them to truly enjoy it!! I would love your opinions. If you do use a reading curriculum, which one do you use.

Well... I watched them at the bars for 15 minutes, and there was not a coach there:( I then had to run some quick errands. Very frustrating. One coach was at Vault, another was going between floor and beam. But the head coach who trains bars was at the front on the computer. Hmmmmmmmmm

This is my daughter's 2nd year to compete... She is a level 4 this year. She had a GREAT year last year, and the coaching was great.. this year, eh.. not so much. I just went and watched a few hours of her practice, and the girls were working on bars, and there was not a coach at the bars helping them. They were literally on the bars alone. Is this normal? I am feeling a bit frustrated, because it just seems to me that someone should always be right there COACHING them. My dd does very well at meets, but I just feel like she needs a bit more pushing, you know? Soo.. please tell me how your gym handles practices... I soo feel like my sweet girl is on her own a lot this year. She still score over a 37 on her first meet, but she can do so much better if someone would just critique her a little bit. Me and several other moms are noticing the lack of coaching lately, and just don't know how to handle it:(

Heart of Dakota is a wonderful program!! If it fits your family, then keep moving forward with it! I wish it met ours, and there are many things I will take from it! I love most of the books in their guides and will use them, but, I prefer to read through the whole book at one time! We will continue to do poetry, but I prefer to pick it out:) It is almost like Heart of Dakota trained me and launched me out to do my own thing. I do think some copywork is good, but I want to choose what we are doing. I want to choose the bible verses that we memorize. However, we have honestly had such good days with Mystery of History so far!! We read the lesson, did some notebooking work, and they started their own timeline, and wrote a quick summary by their timeline piece. We are now using the Vos Children's Bible and absolutely LOVE just reading it in order!! After our history, we read several other books pertaining to the time period, and it was so relaxed and they were enjoying it!! We also are finishing Life in the Great Ice Age, and will finish Grandpa's box too. After Grandpa's Box, we will start Tirzah.. I will still read many of the books from the Preparing Guide:) They honestly have the best book list. It just works better if I don't have all those boxes staring at me, telling me what I need to do! LOL

Thanks Storygirl! I actually went and looked at it this morning, and went ahead and ordered it! Thank you so much for sharing your experience with me! I am hoping my dd will have success with it!!

Thanks for all the replies!!! Unfortunately, after really looking at our days with trying to do HOD Beyond and Preparing, and then I have a 5yo to start schooling, we have decided to drop HOD. It is a tough thing for me, but we really, really want to go back to learning together. I was tweaking HOD to death, and it just made sense to do my own thing! Sooo, we are using Mystery of History 1, and Science in the Beginning. Today was the first day of our new plan, and it was SO. MUCH. BETTER!! We completed out Math, English, Spelling, IEW, and Reading by 11, took a break and did History and Science from 12-1:30.... Funny thing... I DO make them do notebooking for history, but they made it their own, and put what they wanted to, instead of being told exactly how to do it. No writing or anything for science today:) We are just enjoying reading and doing the experiments. Oh, and we are moving our read alouds to bedtime:) And I GET TO PICK THEM OUT!! I am still using many of the suggestions HOD has, as they have great books. I will continue to use them as a resource! I applaud those who can pull off HOD!! It was so tough for us to "do" it. The work was not hard, but we were just getting it done, to get it done, instead of really learning and enjoying everything. I guess I have FINALLY figured out that I am a piece together my own thing kind of gal. Oh the FREEEEEEEDOM!!!

I have a set of the Original McGuffey's Eclectic Series 1836... they were reprinted by Mott Media. I started looking over them again, and they look like something I can use to help with her comprehension and vocabulary. The stories are short, but are so rich! Love!

I am noticing that my dd struggles with reading. She can decode words, but it seems like she is having trouble with comprehension. I have to choose novels very carefully for her, or she will not understand it at all. :( Should I consider doing a reading curriculum like Christian Light or something for her? I am at a loss as to how to bring her comprehension skills up. Advice?

My dd is hating Saxon math. She is doing well with it for the most part, but she complains that it does not stay on a concept long enough to really "get" it. I am thinking she is a mastery learner! I am thinking of moving on to R&S 5. Does anyone know what grade level I should start? Is 6/5 equivalent to R&S 5? Saxon has been easy for her, except for a few new concepts here and there, and then she does not spend enough time on them to "get" it. Or I am considering CLE math... advice??

Susie.... I would try again next year, and just tweak it! Or even try again in January. My 10dd JUST turned 10 at the end of July, so she is a young 10:) My dd LOVES everything she had read, or I have read to her!! It is just the copywork she was really hating. The vocabulary and the research just was not beneficial enough "to me" to do. She knows how to research, so I am happy with that. She just finished reading Noah's Ark, Noah's Flood, and after she finished, she got online and started "researching" about Noah's Ark being found all on her own will. That is what I love..... when a fire has been lit, and she does it at her own will:) This showed me that she will run with a bunny trail with something that honestly caught her interest... Also...I am not sure she could have handled Preparing at 9... and I know my soon to be 8yo probably couldn't and really benefit from it!

Thank you for all the replies!!! This helped me not feel guilty for tweeking! I plan to continue with HOD, as there are more things I like about the guide than not like. It was just mainly all of the copywork! We dropped most of the copywork the past few days, and it has made a huge difference. Instead of doing copywork for science, she has to narrate to me, and I also ask her specific questions, as I read through their work before they do. She has done fine with that! I will probably make her write a narration on her science once a week too, since she is ready for that. I am a big IEW fan, and it gave us so much more time to focus on her IEW lesson, since we were not bogged down on copywork. :) Now, my son in Beyond, will continue most of the copywork because he "needs" it. But I only require a sentence or two. He also has to write out his lessons for R&S English, so I think he is doing plenty of writing. I agree that it is better for kiddo's to be on the older end of the guides! I already have Bigger and CTC on my shelf, and I will tweak those a bit too... but as I said, I really do love the history in the guides and that is enough for me to keep using it!

I am on unit 3 of heart of dakota, and while I love some aspects of it, I am really struggling with some of it as well. I am doing Preparing and Bigger. I love the history in both of them, as do my kids. However, I am NOT crazy about the science at all. My 10yo dd loves the science books, but hates the copywork and sketching associated with it. Is it ok to ditch the copywork and sketching and just let her read and absorb the books?? I feel like their is a ton of copywork in HOD. I understand that there is some benefit to it, but my kids hate it, and it is starting to take too long and feel like busy work. I do have them do dictation 3x a week and have them copy their bible verse 2x a week, and then they write it from memory in their comp. notebooks at the end of the week. Also, my daughter love the Draw and Write through History, but hates all the copywork with it!! Part of me feels like the work that they do in English is enough "copywork"... But, I feel guilty not checking off those darn boxes. Oh, and both kids HATE crafts and projects. They would rather just read and discuss... and many times they ask me to read more from their history readings! Vocabulary.... I prefer to discuss outloud and talk about it. We don't do the research, because after we read the history, we already know the answers to the research questions. Does this plan sound ok? Do the history reading as scheduled, but ditch all the projects/crafts Do Draw and Write through History, but NO COPYWORK!! Thinking about ditching the bible boxes and just doing my own thing, and verses with both kids together!! Do the science reading, and ditch all the copywork and sketching. We are also going to add in Science in the Beginning for fun as well soon. In bible, we just memorize the verse and discuss.. copy verse 2x a week and write from memory 1x a week. In poetry, we just read the poem and discuss it, and do the activity, and then they paint a picture describing the poem on Thursday. We use Rod and Staff English, and they write out one section each day. We use All About Spelling, and they write out the extra words and I usually dictate about 3-4 Sentences a day. We are starting IEW Student Intensive A with my 10yo dd next week, and have already started Bible Heroes with my 7yo ds. Is this enough?? What am I missing? I am all about streamlining the work and getting it done! Why do I feel guilty for not following HOD to a "t". We do not use DITHOR either. I have them read a chapter or 2 a day from their current novel and they are working through CLE Reading 2 and 4. When I do the above, we get done pretty quickly. When they do HOD as written, it takes FOREVER!! Help!

Thank you! That is just what I needed to hear! I like that it is only 4 light units so we can continue working on novels as well. I think the mix of the two is just what is needed!

Glad to see this topic! My 4th grade daughter is struggling with reading, and comprehension. She is reading half of a chapter out loud to me daily, but I was considering getting CLE Reading to help build her comprehension level. Do you think that CLE would help with that. Thanks, Jennifer

I am wanting to hear from people who use dictation for spelling. Does this actually work?? Do you just "work in" spelling rules as you go along? I am considering using Spelling Power in addition to dictation, but am not sure if it is needed. Tell me your success stories..

My 10yo dd is struggling to sound out multi syllable words. I listen to her read aloud and she honestly misses most of them. She is a fairly slow reader as well. She does not have the best comprehension as well. She was homeschooled for K, then public for 1-3rd. I am unsure what to do. I have considered going through All About Reading 4 with her when it comes out, but am afraid it will seem too babyish with her:( I also have a 7yo who can read like a champ... Actually, he is almost a better reader than my 10yo dd. I am going to go through All About Reading 3 with him. My 10yo dd is very competitive, and I know it will cause major problems if I have her go through a program that her 7yo brother is doing. Does anyone know of a program that can help her with multi syllable words, and also help her build fluency and comprehension, without making her feel like a "baby"?? Please help!! One other thing... when i assign her a book to read, she takes about 30-40 minutes to get through a 4-5 page chapter. You can tell she is struggling, but she does not want to admit it.

My 8yo son's Ipod touch of 3 years bit the dust:( He is a minecraft fanatic, and listens to music mainly on his touch. I am considering getting him a Kindle Fire instead. I think he would like the bigger screen. Advice? As long as he can play minecraft, we are good!

Do you use the blossom/bee charts in Math 2? Also, do you make the boat posters ect... I am wondering if it is worth the effort? Thanks!

Saxon Phonics teaches sight words. Rod and Staff teaches sight words as well. I have used both of these programs. I have used Saxon with my older three, and Rod and Staff with my younger three:) I personally love Rod and Staff. R&S teaches extensive phonics, but also has words to memorize in their reading program. So, while you are learning phonics and decoding skills in phonics, you are also memorizing words for the reading program. My kids loved this because they felt very successful when they could "read" the Bible and Nurture Readers. Both methods work very well together! My younger kiddo's are reading very, very well due to this method. My 7yo is now finishing Rod and Staff Phonics and Reading 2, and the child can read just about anything! We do not do all of the Reading Workbook, as it would be too much written work... but we do a lot of orally. Probably more information that you wanted, but this is what has worked very well for us:)

Thanks for the responses everyone:) I have decided to just do grade level with my ds. His motor skills need time to develop, and I don't want him to hit 5/4 too soon! I appreciate each one of you sharing your opinion, and your experiences!! This helped me so much!! Ellie... I am sorry you took an issue with my comment. I am not quite sure how to "read" your comment. I was not implying that there was something "special" about skipping 87... I forgot to add that one of my dd's also skipped 6/5... So she basically did Saxon 1-5/4 skipped 6/5, did 76 and went into Alg 1/2. She is very mathy, and I was not aware that most skipped 87. Another dd of mine did each and every level including 87 and Alg. 1/2 because she needed it, even though she had an 80% average on all levels. She just needed more time. I was just asking if others normally skipped ahead levels, mainly for the K-3rd grade.

I am wondering if you you use Saxon a year ahead... I know that Veritas Press recommends 1st grade in K, 2nd grade in 1st, and so on. However, I see that TWTM suggests to use it at grade level. I have always used Saxon at grade level for each of my older 3... and most skipped 87 and went straight into Saxon Alg 1/2. I know that my 7, almost 8yo could do Saxon 3, but I know that he would get more time to cement his facts down if I did 2. This should be a simple decision... Why am I making it so hard. He was in public school last year, and honestly, I don't think they did a ton of "decent" math. It was kinda scattered and just random worksheets. They did not drill the facts at all either. Help!

Which did you prefer. I have used R&S, but not CLE. Part of me would like something a bit more independent with a workbook format, but I really like Rod and Staff as well. However, some of the lessons in CLE look very loooooong. I know that CLE includes spelling.. how does CLE spelling compare to Rod and Staff Spelling?

I bet it is a stage... I am sure that PS is great for some kiddo's, but I would not let her go. I speak from experience. My older ones wanted to go to PS and I let them in HS. We had to deal with A LOT of stuff!! It was not worth it at all. My 7 and 10yo were in PS last year, and they begged and begged to come home. The year before that, they wanted to go... LOL They learned real fast that the grass is not greener!