I'm thinking about using MFW 1st grade for next year. I know that they are revising the first grade curriculum and won't reveal it until March. I think it's going to be basically the same, but just more user friendly. Maybe I'm wrong about that. My other option is the piece together first grade on my own. This is what I would probably use: Lang. Arts: First Language Lessons 1, Writing with Ease, Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading (using it this year), Spelling Workout History/Geography: Story of the World 1 with the activity book (plus our memory work from Classical Conversations) Science: Undecided. Maybe one of the Apologia books, but I might do Sonlight. I feel like I need something laid out for me b/c I bought BFSU for this year, and I can't seem to use it. I'm just too scatter brained. I'm hoping that I can pick it up and use it before the end of this school year, but so far I've been too overwhelmed. Math: Horizons first, and maybe MUS Alpha. We're doing both this year, and to be honest, it feels like too much. But I like both of them for different reasons, and I'm not sure if I can pick one over the other. She has a very firm understanding of math concepts thus far, and I think it's b/c of using both approaches. Why am I drawn to MFW? Mainly b/c it lays it out for me. I'm doing okay this year, but I really lack organization, and she's going to have more work next year. I also want to give her more hands on activities, rather than worksheets and textbooks. I tried to use FIAR this year, but just like BFSU, I have trouble using it. It's like I do better with something that tells me exactly what to do each day. I don't do well with vague instructions. Why am I drawn to piecing it together on my own? B/c I can use what I want to. I want to do things the WTM way. I do! I just feel like I don't do it well.

I think the issue with the video that you are speaking of was that she has the actual song in it. If people can just listen to it on youtube, then why would they need to buy it? KWIM? It's still on youtube, but you need a direct link.

CC came out with their own cards this year. The problem with the VP cards was that CC ran into copyright issues, and couldn't list the card names anywhere, or create a song with them. Now that CC has their own cards, they are able to include the card names on their CD's, in the Foundations guide, and they were able to make a song for it. The cards are not the same as the VP cards. I like them better. I say that after I bought all of the VP cards last year, only to find out that I they would be obsolete this year. I was pretty upset at first, but I quickly got over it when I received the cards and listened to the song. Why do I like them better? For one thing, I like them better b/c the VP cards focuses more on the western hemisphere (mainly the US) after the founding of the US. The CC cards stay pretty balanced and cover more world history (ex. Australia Becomes a Commonwealth, Lenin and the Bolshevik Revolution, Fall of Communism in Eastern Europe, etc), . There are also more cards for the 20th century.

The cards are pretty expensive. There are 4 sets, and they cost about $20 per set. You can actually buy just the song. You can buy just parts of the song, or the entire song for $8. The cards are nice, but we really don't refer to them much. Here's the link to the song: http://www.classical...acfahitiso.html ETA that the cards ARE nice. We just don't refer to them much b/c my daughter is still pretty young. I've tried to read the cards to her, and she gets bored. But we do play games with them where I put 7 out at a time and mix them up, then I have her put them in the correct order. We'll get lots of use from the cards. Even if we decide to stop CC, I'm going to continue to use them. Here's the link to the cards, just in case you're interested. http://www.classical...acandfahic.html

Do you have a problem with CC's timeline, or is it that you just don't want to join a community? If you like the timeline, you can order the CD. There's a wonderful song to go with CC's timeline. You can even order the cards. I have no experience with other timelines, so I really don't have any other advice. All I know is that b/c of the song, I have almost all of CC's timeline memorized. My 6 year old has some of it memorized.

We're not too far from finishing A Reason for Handwriting K, and I was going to get the first grade book. I was reading TWTM and I saw that SWB recommends Zaner Bloser. She makes it sound like ZB is easier to transition into cursive. I've looked at samples of ZB online, and it looks like basic manuscript to me. The K book does look more advanced than A Reason for Handwriting K. ARfH K just goes over the lowercase and uppercase letters, and there are no words to copy. DD just traces the names of animals. I wonder if I should go to ZB, and maybe do their K book? Is there really a difference in the style between the two? Thanks!

Thank you so much for the recommendations! I'm very interested in the sonlight book list. I assume I can only order it by phone? I can't find anything about it on their website. Many of the books on the list are easily found in the library, so I can just buy the books that are harder to find, like the one about a ball of string.

DD is starting to read, and I'm not sure what to do for readers since we do not do a boxed curriculum. We have access to some decent libraries, so I'm sure I wouldn't even need to buy anything, but I wouldn't know which books would be best, and which order to go in, etc. I could buy the sonlight books, but I'm not interested in their LA curriculum. W/o buying the curriculum, I wouldn't know what order the books go in. So what do you do if you do not use a boxed curriculum?

I requested the catalog, and there seems to be a lot of material for each grade. I was looking at first grade specifically. Are there no package deals, where you can order everything? On the website it seems that you have to ring everything up seperately. I haven't even added everything, and it's come to over $1,000. Holy moly! Is that really how much it costs? I was just curious. I probably won't get the curriculum b/c aside from the price, we probably wouldn't have enough time to do all of it.

I'm nowhere near Challenge A, and I know very little about it, but I'm curious. If you do Challenge A in 6th, do you repeat one of the challenges, or is it your goal to finish Challenge IV in 11th grade?

I did a group order for some Classical Conversations lapbooks back in July. I took the orders, gathered the money, placed the order, then distributed the email with the downloads. There were two ladies who didn't get their money to me, and we were going to meet up for park playdates, but I ended up not being able to go to the park for those playdates. Since I felt it was my fault that they weren't able to get their money to me, I went ahead and placed the order and told them that they could get their money to me whenever they could. One lady paid me back, and one still hasn't. :( I've sent out a few emails since then, and she didn't respond. So on Wednesday I sent a private message to her on FB. I know she read it on Wednesday morning, b/c FB now tells you when someone has read the message. I know that she's been on FB since Wednesday morning too. She hasn't responded. It's not like she's a complete stranger! She's part of another Classical Conversations group that's 45 minutes away, and we have mutual friends. I'm trying to give this lady the benefit of the doubt, but I'm losing my trust in her. :( And if I ever organize a group buy again, I will not place an order w/o payment again. Whether she pays me back or not, 3 months is too long of a delay.

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A local homeschool family lost their husband/father on September 18th. It was very unexpected. He was healthy, and then he suddenly came down with a brain infection and never recovered. He left behind his wife of 11 years and their 5 children. A few bloggers have put together an ebook bundle and are selling it for $5. 100% of the proceeds will go toward this family. I think this offer is only good through Wednesday. Here is the link with more information on the ebook bundle: http://life.yourway.net/barlow-family-benefit/ And here is a website created to collect donations for the same family: http://www.youcaring.com/fundraiser_details?fundraiser_id=9680&url=thebarlowfamilyfundraiser

We are in our 2nd year of CC, and so I bought the VP cards and used them for one year. Then I found out that they were doing away with them and I was initially upset. But I quickly got over it. I really love the CC cards so much more. All for reasons that have already been said. I love the song. I love that it includes more world history b/c the VP cards focused more on U.S. history after the pilgrims. Yes, there is "lumping" together, but you know what? It's squishing more facts in this way, and with the song it makes it soooooo much easier. We didn't come close to memorizing the VP cards last year, but this year's just begun and we almost have the song memorized. Something else that I like better about the CC cards. There are more cards for the 20th century. The CC cards cover events that I wondered why they were missing from the VP cards. They cover the fall of communism in Europe, MLK Jr. and the civil rights movement, Gandhi and India's independence, Watergate, the Antarctic Treaty, and the abolishment of apartheid in S. Africa. The CC cards really are all that and a bag of chips. LOL!

Thank you so much for responding, everyone! Sorry it took me so long to come back and check on this thread, but I really appreciate all of this advice. We shall see where we are when the time comes, and if I feel that a grammar program is needed, we will look into FLL. :) And I will try not to feel like anything else is needed. I realized when buying for this year that I tend to want to do too much. For instance, I got three phonics programs for this year, AND I wanted to add some Abeka phonics to the mix too! I'm glad I didn't buy the Abeka Phonics, b/c I can't fit everything that I've already bought. I decided just to mix ETC and HOP for now. So lesson learned, more is not better.

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My daughter is in K this year, and the law in WV has been that you do not need to report anything to the state until your child is a first grader. I don't know a whole lot about all of the legal mumbo jumbo, but that's what other homeschoolers in WV have told me. Well, this year I've heard about two people having issues with the state. One woman thought about putting her daughter in public first grade, and she was told that since her daughter hasn't done K that she can't go to first grade. Another person had no interest in sending her daughter to PS, but she got a letter letting her know that her daughter needed to complete K. She contacted them and let them know that she homeschools and that she was following the law. So she got a response saying that her if her daughter were to ever go to PS that she would need to complete K. Like, if she tries to enroll her daughter for 3rd grade, she'd have to go to K first. What is going on here? This kind of scares me. I guess the state is going to begin requiring K, but why are they being butts about this before changing the law? Should I report to the state that we are homeschooling this year? I kind of have the attitude that I shouldn't do more than what is legally required of me, but I don't want to run into any problems.

We just started K, but I'm already kind of thinking about next year. We're using a couple different programs for phonics, and we're doing handwriting, but we're not really doing anything as far as grammar. My main goal this year is to get her reading. We will add grammar next year. I'd like to either use FLL or Abeka Language for grammar. Should I just stick with one, or would it be possible to do both? I don't really know FLL. I only know what I've read about it and I've seen sample pages online, but I've never used it and I've never put my hands on it. I am familiar with Abeka though. I've taught first grade in a private school using Abeka.

Thank you!

I know what a hypothesis is, but when doing a science experiment, which is the correct question to ask to find a student's hypothesis? We're doing an experiment on why fish float belly side up. (Yes, this is for Classical Conversations, haha!) We're filling a plastic bag halfway with water and half way with air, and seeing whether the bag floats air side up or water side up. When asking a question to find a hypothesis, do I ask why they think a fish floats belly side up, or do I ask whether they think the bag will float air side up or water side up? I'm just not sure if the hypothesis is guessing why fish float belly side up, or if it's guessing what will happen with the experiment. I hope that makes sense. Thanks!

Kidsteals has some Little Pim sets for sale. I'm kind of interested in getting the Spanish set. We're memorizing some Latin with Classical Conversations, but I eventually want to teach/learn Spanish b/c of how useful it is in the U.S. I wonder if this would be a nice intro to Spanish, or if it'd be a total waste. I don't know much Spanish, so I'd need to learn it as DD learns it. Link to kidsteals: http://kidsteals.stealnetwork.com/

I can't speak for the science cards, but the history cards are very general about creation and other stories from the Bible. There is no date given for Creation. The first three cards are "Age of Ancient Empires" which marks the beginning of the first set of cards for Ancient History. The dates on that card just say "Creation-c. 450 AD. The second card is "Creation and the Fall" and there is no date. The back only gives an overview of the story in Genesis and on the timeline there's an arrow that points to indicate that it happened before the timeline begins. The third card is "The Flood and Tower of Babel," and it too has no date and an arrow to indicate that it happened before the timeline begins. The next card is "Mesopotamia and Sumer," and the dates are c.3500 BC, c. 2800 BC. Everything after that is recorded history and has nothing to do with the creation of the world. In my humble opinion, since it gives no opinion about WHEN the world was made, is that it can be used by both those who believe in young earth and old earth.

My kindergartner will turn 6 in October. The cut off here is near the end of September. We are actually doing kindergarten work this year too. I just haven't been rushing anything.

Yeah, I think it'd be easier to read on some sort of handheld device. Man, I want an e-reader so bad!

Why do I want this, even though I don't have an ereader? BTW, Mandi Ehman, author of "How to Have your Cake and Eat it too," is a personal friend of mine. :) I feel like I know someone famous. :)