We are using Lightning Lit 8 this year. So far we really like it. Meatier than Llatl for sure, and you can choose the amount of writing assignments.

I tried supplementing with Math on the Level to get the daily review. It worked, but it was a ton of work. We ended up switching to Saxon for the long haul.

We are using Botany as part of Guest Hollow's botany curriculum. It looks like she really fills it out and my 8th grader is really enjoying it.

These are great lists. Thanks!

I'm considering combining my 1st and K for McRuffy Science but I'm not sure which level to go with. Any experience?

Lots of people skip the meeting book. I gave it up during 2 and I have to admit, I wish I had done all that skip counting when it came time to memorize multiplication tables!

Just throwing this out there. My daughter is a voracious reader but just didn't like to write. The harder I tried, the more she balked. She chose Cover Story last year for grade 7 and her work improved greatly just because she enjoyed it.

We love tea time. We usually bake something in the morning. We bought fancy teacups just for this. Everyone takes turns reading aloud their choice of poems and the younger kids actually just make them up.

We really liked Math on the Level. It's got a bit of a learning curve and it's pricy up front, but it's a great way to create your own without leaving gaps. That said, we did finally switch back to Saxon because I didn't have the time to plan.

I'm doing school this year with a 1st grader, kindergartener, two 3yo, and a 1yo in the house (and a 13yo.). We start with breakfast together. Before they leave, we do math. The little ones play with manipulatives while I work with the bigger ones. Then we head outside. When we come back, I settle the the littles in with playing and do reading, etc with the biggers. After lunch, we do unit study types projects and anything that needs one on one while the babies nap. I never do morning snack. They want the snack type food and then they don't eat lunch. That makes me grumpy. We do have afternoon snack because we eat a late dinner.

I second My Fathers Dragon and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.

I second My Fathers Dragon and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.

I second My Fathers Dragon and Mrs. Piggle Wiggle.

There is no way my 6 year old can do 30 minutes of piano. We often use timers here. Just give me 5 good minutes of work on this subject and you can go. The timer holds me accountable. And once involved, they are often happy to keep going.

The blog se7en.org.za is great for how she does Sonlight with a large family. Just search organizing school. She's full of great, no nonsense tips. Now I just need to be so disciplined!

Have you looked at Cover Story? We used it this year and my daughter really liked it.

The timing on this is perfect, thank you!

I ordered it this month. We're looking forward to checking it out. Our science was a bust this year. We felt like we we just checking checking off boxes to say we did it. We actually dropped it about a month ago. I'm hoping that this will be more engaging.

We used to coordinate with the public school, but the longer we've homeschooled, the more we set our own schedule. As my daughter gets older (she's finishing grade 7), I actually let her pick which 36 weeks she want to "do school." She is motivated to be done by Memorial Day and plots the calendar backwards. She has a good sense for when she's burning out. My littles are still happy to have school every day. We'll adjust as they get older.

I've been there. I think we tried half the math programs out there. We tried fun, we tried buckling down. If it helps, my daughter has now realized that with Saxons spiral approach done every.single.day she can keep slogging ahead. It will never be her favorite, but that's ok. I don't like doing laundry, but I still need to do at least the minimum. Age and maturity has really helped with her cooperation.

I can't imagine the homeschoolers where I live excluding anybody, there are just not enough of us to tell people they can't join. But our group is mainly a social group. I just wanted to chime in with a potential reason that veteran homeschoolers might be skeptical of families with just younger kids. In the seven years I've been homeschooling, NOT ONE of the enthusiastic families that have joined our group with only preschoolers and toddlers have actually ended up homeschooling.

I always had visions of lovely lapbooks and then my oldest thought that with all the cutting and pasting I was genuinely punishing her. My next round of kids loves it, so now I'm rethinking curriculum choices, ugh!

We had a couple of years of math angst. We dropped Saxon because I was bored and she didn't like it. We then struggled through many programs and realized that she absolutely needed spiral review. I used math on the level to build my own review for math mammoth. Ugh. In the end we circled back around and realized that Saxon actually had what we needed and she just gets it done. It's not her favorite, but she accepts that it works for her and vows to just use it and move on the the subjects she finds more fun.

I loved Sherlock Holmes (and still do) but I seem to remember thinking the last time I read them that Holmes drug addiction in some of the later stories wasn't something I wanted my daughter to read. She is older now, so I'll just preread and then discuss them with her.

My daughter is not an enthusiastic writer, but she is looking forward to this. That is reason enough for me!