Hello all! We are a homeschooling family from Long Island, looking for penpals for my sons. We do a classical curriculum with a Waldorf/Charlotte Mason flair. My boys love to play outside, they like Legos, knights and medieval type play, and they both LOVE animals of all kinds. The youngest son is newly 7 and the older son will be 9 in June. They would prefer boy penpals, but girls are fine as well. Maybe age range 6-10? :) -Jenn

Thank you all for your suggestions. I am definitely not going to "take away" his books lol. That's the furthest thing from what I was trying to convey. I was curious (since he is my oldest) what the next level would be because he is going through them so fast and I know he'll be done with the series soon and looking for more. He enjoys his reading time and I couldn't be more pleased about that! I would never want to 'micromanage' his love of reading. I am appreciative of the direction I've been given and will continue to research some of the series you all have generously listed. Thanks again!

Thanks, I'll check that out. I am definitely going to let him finish the series since he loves it so much, but since he's going through them so fast I need some ideas on what to start next. I'll have to check out my local used bookstores and stock up :lol:

I'm not sure if this is the right place to post, as I don't normally post here. I normally just lurk around :ph34r: My eldest son is 7 years old and in second grade. He's been reading since he was 4 years old and has always loved to read by himself. We aquired some Magic Treehouse books last year and he took some time to read through during his usual structured reading time. He still likes to read them, but can finish them within an hour. Is he going through these books too fast? Should I direct him toward something more challenging? I love how he adores this series and hasn't finished every single book yet, but I also want to make sure he is reading at his level. I also don't want to frustrate him with books that he can't fully comprehend, as I don't want to kill his love of books and reading! Any advice? Any other series he might like to check out? Thanks for reading :bigear:

I will make this short and sweet. Last year when September rolled around I had an advanced 1st grader, an advanced preschooler, a 2 year old who gave me a run for my money, and a 1 month old. I KNOW EXACTLY HOW YOU FEEL!!!!!!!!!!! Well, although circumstances may be different here or there, I get the main fears and frustrations you are feeling at the moment. Let it go! You will be able to start slow, just like I did, and your children will still come out of the school year happy and excelling. The baby will be your buddy, on your lap all the time! We had a bouncy seat that I just brought from room to room with me as I went about my day. I am not going to say it was easy, it was as far from easy as you can get. I will tell you that it was rewarding and it taught me to let go of some of my habits from the past. I tend to over-analyse and over-plan. A tiny baby made that impossible. Throw cloth diapering 2 babies and breastfeeding in and I had a disaster waiting to happen. After a lot of stress and frustration I just started to let go a little and things all fell into place. If you feel God has put this on your heart, then please trust Him to make it work for you the way it should. He knows you best :) This year I have a 'know-it-all' 2nd grader, a Kindergartener who feels like its a race to get to where his older brother is, a preschooler who is so hungry for learning, and newly walking 1-year old who is into EVERYTHING!! I'm feeling some of the same stresses all over again, but I know the outcome already. We will have great days and we will have horrible days, and there will be lots of 'just made it by' days in between. Have hope Mama, and believe in yourself! I believe in you!

Thank you so much for this info! I will pass it along! I downloaded every single book and audio companion! We just bought some junior readers at Target from the dollar bin, and although they are abridged, I was still happy to have something. Now I have all of the unabridged versions!!! :hurray: FOR FREEEEEE!!!!!!

Thank you all for the reples! I think I'm going to continue to do the worksheets in the beginning for review, but we skipped some of the repetition part today since he's so bored with it and the lesson was bearable. I'm going to look through the manual and find a good lesson to skip to and start there. If we finish the curriculum early then we can move to something new and maybe a different publisher. I originally picked Saxon because I read it was heavily based on manipulatives, and since he loves that so much I thought it would be a good fit. I think we'll try Singapore once we finish this one. I'm so stubborn, I hate to think I spent money on something that wasn't a good fit! I suppose I'll chalk it up to this being our first year picking out curriculum. :confused: I'm so thankful for a forum like this with all of your support! Thanks again :)

We just finished our very first official Homeschool week!!!!! :w00t: I just have one question for all of the knowledgeable homeschoolers here: We started my son (5 years) on Saxon Math 1 because it seemed like the Saxon Math K was WAY too easy for him and would basically cover everything he already knew. He is a total Math lover! He plays with numbers and manipulatives for fun all day long. It seems as though Saxon Math 1 is a little slow to start. He has been counting to 100 for a long time now, knows his left and right, and has known about the calendar for a while too (we've been doing calendar work since he was 3!). He seems bored but I'm not sure if I should skip through anything. The teachers manual is a little tough to get through since it is all scripted. I don't want to miss something important, but I'm not sure what to do to keep him interested. Any advice? Am I missing something here? I know it has only been a week but I don't want him to be bored, which is the main reason I did not enroll him in public school in the first place! Also needed to add that the 3.5 year old is jealous that big brother does Math, so until his Math program arrives he sits in during our Math time and even he is breezing through it!