Thought of one more thing if you don't already have it- a laminator! We use ours a lot!! I don't know what I ever did without it:)

We used AlphaPhonics for my older 2 and I worried too that there may be some gaps. Once we started All About Spelling, all of those gaps were filled in:) I haven't used Explode the Code, but with my 3rd child we are starting PAL reading (the older 2 are following along just for fun!). So PAL reading may be an option for your younger kids, and All About Spelling would work for the older child who has already been through 100 EZ lessons.

Maybe an inflatable globe if they will do geography (if you don't already have one:)) Maybe a nice dry erase board- these boards are used all of the time in our house! -Oh, and plenty of dry erase markers to go with that! I would maybe look at some good puzzles- we use those a lot during read-aloud time. I'll have to keep thinking- I have kids similar ages :)

We do school year round for the same reason as you- we NEED the structure or things just get too crazy! During our breaks, which are typically about a month in summer, a few weeks in fall, and a few weeks around Christmas, we focus on the basics. We don't do our "formal" science, history, or geography, but we do continue on with math, language arts, and Bible. I tried taking a break from school completely this Christmas, but it was so hard to get back into the rountine, and they had forgotten some of their math I knew they understood before our break. My plan for the our break right now is to just stick with the basics, and then when it is time to add in the other subjects, I will do that one at a time so we don't get overwhelmed. I am also flexible in the summer so that we don't miss fun opportunities! But if we are at home, we do school work every weekday.

Possibly The Sugar Creek Gang. It is like Boxcar Children but not quite as challenging.

I believe Memoria Press uses LUV.

We just finished Bigger with ds8 and dd6. My daughter needed some help with the science notebooking when it involved a lot of writing, but other than that we just used it as it was written:) I am sure a 7 and 9 year old would work very well with Bigger!

We try to follow the 21 Rules of This House found here: http://www.fortifyingthefamily.com/21_rules.htm But really anything you use needs to be very consistent. When we slack with the rules, things take a turn for the worse! DoorPosts also has some neat materials- we made our own version of their If...Then chart and that works well too.

We try to follow the 21 Rules of This House found here: http://www.fortifyingthefamily.com/21_rules.htm But really anything you use needs to be very consistent. When we slack with the rules, things take a turn for the worse! DoorPosts also has some neat materials- we made our own version of their If...Then chart and that works well too.

In our house it is art, which is really my fault, not the kids- they love art, but I just never have the time to get the supplies together! It is one of the things I am really going to try to do better at next year:)

Let me start by saying that we are using PAL and loving it! My 3.5 yr old cries when it is time to be done! As far as using it with FLL, we won't be adding anything to PAL. We are now using an applied grammar approach, so with my dd6 we will use PAL, and we are reading GrammarLand just for fun:) When she gets old enough (maybe next year?) we will start IEW Fix-It, Killgallon, and we are learning Latin too. So I guess it reallly depends on your grammar philosophy.

Usually the kids listen to audio books while they are falling asleep. Sometimes we listen to them in the car. When we listen to them during the day we follow the same "rules" as when we do our read alouds- they can play something quietly (puzzles, coloring, lace and trace, legos, etc.) as long as they are not talking. I would say they probably listen to audio books about 30-60 minutes a day.

I haven't used this for the older grades, but I did try 3 rd grade- for about 2 days:( It was just a list of similar words to memorize. I was looking for something similar to AAS that wasn't so teacher intensive, but we very quickly returned to AAS. Rod &Staff may also fit what you are looking for.

Really any of your other selections would just be "extras" in my opinion. I think Kindergarten is all about setting a foundation in reading, math, and writing. Anything else is great, but I wouldn't say it is necessary. Just read lots of great books and enjoy your time together:)

Thanks so much! I guess if I would have just looked at the CD I would have seen that -oops! Problem solved:)

There are additions to the curriculum when you get to 7th and 8th grade for science and some reading. The book basket selections would also differ depending on reading level. Language arts would be on different levels depending on grade too.

Is it possible to make SSL Ecclesiastical?

I love the idea of the Poetry Memorization from IEW, but I had already spent too much money on next year's material (mostly from IEW anyway) and so I decided to write my own. I took poems from the book Favorite Poems Old and New and typed them up. I tape them on my phone using tape-a-talk so the kids can listen to it. They get to record their own after they have the poem memorized (they love doing this!). We do about a poem a week and review them old poems probably atleast 4 times a week. I don't know how to attach a file here to show you the poems, but if anyone is interested just pm me and I can email it to you. We also use this http://simplycharlottemason.com/timesavers/memorysys/ for our Scripture memory, and it is working out very well, too! I'm sure you could use it for poetry also.

I am reading Loving the Little Years (short book, but a great read!). DS8 is reading Mystery Ranch (Boxcar children). DD6 is reading Frog and Toad All Year (part of HOD emerging readers). Our current read alouds are Grammarland and The Magician's Nephew. Current audiobook: Mr. Popper's Penguins.

I'm not sure about the CAT test, but I just gave my son the ITBS test, and have many friends that have tested their own children for years. We ordered the test from BJU. You have to request to be a test administrator (fill out some questions and prove you have a college degree) then you can give the test. No one has ever run into any problems doing this since you have to be approved by BJU anyway.

:iagree: Definitely the Scotch laminator- I love it! I bought it (and the pouches) from Amazon. It was in the Gold Box a while back, so they may do that again sometime. It has saved me a lot of money in printing.

Ok, this may sound crazy, but we are doing a Latin book that uses Classical pronunciations and I am not sure I like it. It is the "w" sound for the "v" that is throwing me off. I just sounds to me like my kids aren't speaking properly- and all I can think it when they get to the infamous phrase "veni, vidi, vici" they will be saying "weni, widi, wici"! Is it just me- have I heard it too much in the Ecclesiastical pronunciation? So which pronunciation do you teach your children? Can you teach them both, or combine the two, without confusing them as Latin gets more advanced? I just can't get these "w" sounds out of my head!:tongue_smilie:

You may find this website helpful http://homeedexpert.com/nav.aspx. It takes a few minutes, but you sign up (no cost) and then they ask you questions about the way you teach best, the way your children learn best, and what you hope to get out of curriculum. Then they give you some suggestions as to what might fit best for your family. I found it to be a very helpful guide! You may also want to look into something like HOD or MFW for your subjects like Bible, science, and history. They are open-and-go and they do all of the connecting and plan all of the activities for you.

:bigear: I'll be watching for replies! My plan for next year is to do a combination of IEW writing, Killgallon, IEW Fix-It, and Latin to cover grammar/writing.

Definitely not too late! I think that many people are ready to buy this time of year (because of tax returns, usually) but it seems a lot of people won't be done with their curriculum until May or June. I would wait until closer to the time you actually need it to buy it new.