I have a similar plan. We already use and love Rightstart, All About Reading, and All About Spelling for our math and reading. I plan to use MFW first for our Bible, Science, and Writing. I did the same with MFW K.

I found a great thread the other day about fluency sheets on the All About Learning forum. I will try to find it and paste it here later. Fluency sheets have been hard for us to get through as well. Sometimes I felt like we were stuck on the same lesson just because it took us at least 3 days to get through the fluency sheets. I have changed it a bit and now we are finishing about 2 lessons in 3 to 4 days unless he needs more time. I do the review cards in the morning during/right after breakfast to break up his reading some. The first day of a new lesson, we do the new teaching and the first section/page of fluency depending on what he can handle. Many days, I have him read every other word. We just read as far as he can make it. The second day, we do the activities, go over the new review cards, and more fluency. The third and fourth days, we read and reread the stories from the following lesson along with some fluency work. If he is catching on reall well, then we only do a quarter or so total of the fluency pages.

I didn't start it at the beginning of the year because my son wasn't quite ready for the writing portion, so I went ahead with the plan listed below. Our year is going really well although I feel Bible is lacking and my ds isn't crazy about his science this year, but he loved it with MFWK. I am also missing writing, which would be covered in MFW first. I recently came across a great deal on a MFW 1st teacher's guide. After reading through the manual, I love the Bible and Science. I think my son would enjoy it as well. We are set in math and reading, so I would skip those parts. I was planning on starting it after Christmas when his handwriting and reading had gotten to more of a first grade level and finishing through the summer, but now we have another little one coming in June which will disrupt my plan. My dillema is that I've already spent the money for our curriculum this year and it is working. I thought since we started early that I would be done with P 4/5 and science by Christmas, but we won't be done till early spring at the rate we are going. I would still have a few things to purchase in order to switch back to MFW. I really want him to go through this program for the excellent foundation in Bible. The two options I'm considering are to add it in now, dropping our current science and Bible or wait and use it for his second grade year. Then I would use Adventures when my oldest are 6 and 8. I kind of like the second plan, but I don't want him to be behind either. I can't make up my mind!!!!

I LOVE the builder boards!! My kids would love those!!!

I also agree that there is a point at which a child is "ready" to read. I worked with my son at 2,3, and 4 years old trying to get him to recognize his alphabet to no avail. All of a sudden, he was able to recognize most of them at 5. Did my teaching help some? Probably, but I think he would have been just fine had I not pushed him so much. I continued to push him to learn how to read during his 5 yr old Kindergaten year, but he just could not get blending, no matter how hard I tried. Just as with recognizing his letters, he was able to start blending shortly before his 6th birthday. He is now making steady progress in reading and loves it. I wish I had avoided some of the tears and frustration during his kindergarten year. I plan to gently introduce the rest of my dc to reading. If they don't seem ready, we will back off for a few months and then try again. My husband's reading experience was similar to one mentioned ealier. He could not read at all, despite lots of help through special ed, until he reached 3rd grade. He said that it was like night and day, one day he couldn't read, the next day he could.

These are some great suggestions!!! Thanks!

Thanks Kayla, but we already have those.

My son will be two in a few weeks and I have no idea what to get him. I feel like we already have so many toys that don't get played with!! He hardly played with any toys relatives got him for his first birthday, because he plays with his older siblings so much. I am looking for something in the $20-$40 range. Educational would be best since he has plenty of the typical toys from his brother and sister. So far, the only thing I can think of is the Melissa and Doug Latches puzzle, since he loves to try and figure things out right now. Any ideas???

There is an adventures set for sale in the for sale/swap board.

Sounds like a great plan to me. I may do that as well next time we go through MFWK, depending on how crazy life is with baby 4. :)

I think adding AAR1 would be perfect for beefing up the phonics. I loved the Bible and Science, but my son got bored quickly with the phonics. I think it could work wonderfully for some kids, but my son needed something more varied and fun. MFWK was perfect for us once we switched out the phonics for AAR1. This year we r doing P 4/5 for his first grade year bc he wasn't quite ready to start MFW 1st. After looking through the manual though, I kind of wish I would've waited and started MFW 1st a few months into the year.

I had the same problem when my son was doing worksheets in MUS. It would take forever!!! We switched to Rightstart, which has very little worksheets, and he is doing much better.

My son is six. He has almost gotten all of the lowercase cursive letters down and is doing really well in handwriting. When do you teach manuscript or do you? He rarely writes in cursive when he is doodeling. He likes to get his notebook out and write random letters and sometimes simple words, but always in manuscript. I am wondering if I should teach manuscript alongside of cursive so he learns how to form the letters correctly? I would still emphasize cursive and require him to do the majority of his work in cursive, but I do want him to have nice printing too. Any suggestions?

Neglect in some cases, maybe, but definitely not all. I was self-educated and despite a few holes with my math and writing, I was well prepared. I still got almost all As once I attended a difficult private school for my last two years and later college. But, I am the type of person that loves school and loves learning. My brother, who was dyslexic and did not like school, ended up quitting in high school and getting his GED. Would he have been better off in public school?? No, I don't think so. When she pulled him out in middle school, he was being teased for his learning disabilities and getting nowhere academically. She brought him home and taught him to read with her training as a dyslexic tutor. He is now an electrician and rents houses.

It is possible with some kids, but I wouldn't reccomend it. I think a certain level of independence is good, but complete independence can leave some holes and be extremely frustrating on the child at times. I did this when I was homeschooled. My Mom was not able to be very involved in my homeschooling because she was a working single Mom. I LOVED school and LOVED learning. I still do! I started homeschooling in 4th grade and did pretty much everything on my own including correcting my own work. I even ordered my own curriculum as I got older because I enjoyed looking through the catalog, picking everything out, and checking subjects off as I comleted them. She would check things over in the beginning, but as I got older, and she had to work more, I pretty much did everything myself. It was VERY hard and frustrating at times, but mostly, I enjoyed school, so it wasn't too bad. I even gave myself spelling tests at times because I wanted to finish the PACE (A.C.E) I was doing and didn't want to wait. I would record the words and then take the test as I listened to the recording. :) I think working independently taught me some valuable lessons in taking the initiative to get things done on my own, but my writing needed some major help when I attended private in 11th and 12th grade. I also discovered that math could be much more enjoyable and I could actually understand it when I had a teacher. For math, many times I would look at the answer key for a few problems to try and figure it out and then do the rest of them on my own. One major thing I lacked was in learning how to take what I learned and apply it in different situations. Application questions/essays on my tests in college were very difficult for me because I did not learn to do those in elementary/high school. I was able to learn it eventually, but I do still struggle with this concept some. Can it be done? Yes. Should it, probably not completely. For my own children, I will encourage them to become more independent as they get older, but I plan to always be involved in some way to make sure there are no holes, especially in subjects that may be more challenging for them.