We do Analytical Grammar after FLL 4. I usually do FLL 4 in 5th grade, then go to Analytical grammar 6th-8th.

My 12 yr old 6th grader did it this year, but he had to go slowly through it. He did a little per day for the whole year. I want to start my 11 yr old 6th grader this fall with season 1, but he may not be quite ready for it. I don't want to spend the money for JAG for him, so we will probably go slowly through AG. I'm worried that my 7th grader will find the 2nd season too difficult; it looked quite challenging to me. We are going to go slowly through it as long as it takes. I really like the explanations and the layout of the lessons.

I write my plans in the weekly grid of my teachers manuals and save those. I also keep any tests they took during the year (math, english, etc) and their history and science notebooks.

I wouldn't skip ahead. WWE 4 is difficult. I can't even do some of the dictations without a lot of concentration and I am good at that kind of thing lol!

I ordered mine today from http://www.christianbook.com and they are in stock. I ordered all 6 books and the shipping was only $5.

My state doesn't require testing, but I would like to see how my dc would do on a standardized test. Where can I purchase these and can I give them the test myself since it doesn't have to be turned in to anyone?

I had a relunctant reader and the pace of 1st was too fast for him. I recommend doing Explode the code 1-3 and Phonics Pathways through the long vowel words before you begin MFW (or at least before you start the new material, days 1-18 or so is review from K). Then I continued with PP until the end of the book for extra practice.

I think ECC second edition will be a breath of fresh air for you. There is so much more to it than reading, although there is a huge list of books to choose from if you want more than what is on the grid. I get my chidren's readers and just fun books from that list. We thoroughly enjoyed the cooking projects and craft profects that went with each country, but it wasn't overwhelming. I am NOT a crafty type of mom. I typically dislike hands on projects, but found the ones in ECC easy to do. My favorite part of ECC is the missions focus and Biblical integration that MFW does so beautifully.

I think it would be fine to start with CTG. You could always do ECC at the end of the 4 yr cycle before the oldest does High School. Then they could do the 7th-8th grade supplement and a junior high science which really makes it an entirely different program.

I would start him in WWE 1, don't worry about his grade. After doing the 1st level he will be prepared to move on. I did levels 3 and 4 with my 5th and 6th graders. It's okay:001_smile:

:iagree: These are the reasons I have used MFW happily for 5 years and plan to stay with it through high school. BTW, another reason I love MFW is the intentional but gradual training during the middle school years to become independant learners, so they will be ready to do their high school. The lesson plans for math and science in middle school are written to the student. In high school, all of the lesson plans are written to the student. I will continue to be very involved, but will still have time to teach my younger ones.

Well Adventures does go through the Wright Brothers, and SOTW 4 is the least appropriate for the younger kiddos so you could consider ADV and SOTW 3 as completing the cycle. That would give you time to do ECC and do the second cycle beginning in 5th grade. I don't know the specific reasons why you are not interested in ECC but the second edition looks great. I like the new AIG science book much better than the usborne books in the 1st edition.

Well, my kids love them and they are 6th, 5th, 3rd and 1st. We do one book per semester though. My sixth grader has been begging to do Zoo 3 so we will do it this summer since he is starting General Science in the fall. We have done Zoo 1, Astronomy, and Botany.

So are you going to continue with MFW after 3rd grade or do something else?

Yes it could work. I would check out a lot of library books on the science topics for her to read or for you to read to her. The Bible topics are very applicable for a wider age range. When I had a 3rd grader, 2nd grader and Ker we did CTG and K. My older ones often participated in the younger one's science. It was interesting to them.

I used WWE 3 and 4 with my 5th and 6th graders this year. They were not too old for it. SWB says anyone 3rd to 12th grade that doesn't have these skills needs to have them. They will continue to struggle otherwise. I had them take the year end evaluations until they couldn't do one. They both started in year 3 but were really weak in dictation. After a while they improved so I had my 6th grader just do the selections in the book for year 4. My 5th grader did WWE 3 three days per week and Writing Strands 3 2 days. This has worked well for him. He will do WWE 4 next year.

Maybe you could just do the weeks of level 1 that are in the hardback book. That might be enough to get him ready for level 2.

In MFW's high school it is planned for one of the high school years.

And you are just in time for the 2nd Edition of ECC which looks wonderful!

My dc do book basket where they get to choose what they want to read. For the 30 minutes of independant reading each day, I choose books from the book basket list for them to read. Usually it is historical fiction or a biography. I don't think you need a seperate reading program. We do reading comprehension and character analysis informally. I usually ask them to tell me about the book and ask them questions. At this point I want my children to love reading and don't want to make it tedious. In grades 7-8 MFW recommends doing literature analysis, vocabulary etc more in depth with the Progeny press guides.

PHP also sells the student pages for $11.95 at http://www.peacehillpress.com I plan to order those since I hate photocopying.

I bought the SOTW cds to go alongside CTG. We listened to it informally. My oldest son, who was 3rd grade at the time, had listened to the whole book the summer before we did CTG. He loved it! He still gets it out (3 years later) and listens to it.

I had my older children (6th and 5th grade) go through WWE 3 and 4 this year to fill in any gaps, particularly because they were weak in dictation. They did this 3 days a week. 2 days per week they did WS. For my younger children, I will do WWE 1-4 and then begin WS in 5th grade IMHO I think WS is best for the logic stage, after they are comfortable with summaries.

I have to help my son spell a lot of the words but he has done well with remembering what to write. Sometimes I do have to read it to him more than twice, especially if there is a lot of punctuation or direct quotes. I have been pleased with his progress. He is in 3rd grade doing WWE 2. We are on week 25.

Writing Strands for me too.