I would definitely suggest Analytical Grammar- it sounds like a good fit!

We tried Sonlight our first year homeschooling, and I much as I wanted it to work, my son was too wiggly and needed more than just reading! We have done HOD since then, which may work for you if you put them in the same and use the extensions for the older (not sure though- we haven't gotten past Bigger yet!). Next year we are doing MFW ECC and I already have the materials. From what I understand, it works best when you use as many of the book baskets as you can. Since mine are younger I am going to try to read atleast one of their picture book selections each day. I would make sure if you chose MFW that you use the student sheets as much as possible. Your youngest may enjoy "working" with the others if you get him a set of student sheets also (that is what I am doing with my ds3 who will be 4 by the time we start- he wanted his own set of stickers!). Also Rod & Staff has a good set of workbooks that may occupy your five year old while you do some things with the others. Hope that helps a little!

That is a fantastic idea! I think I'm putting a laminator on my wish list:) It would save us a lot of ink and paper for copying!

Can you use dry erase markers on laminated sheets? I'm thinking it would be great for math drill and handwriting practice sheets!

She does say that it was designed for classroom use so "you can put a third- or fourth-grade student in at grade level without feeling that you have to backtrack." Hope that helps!

I wouldn't skip 3 either. We are using it right now and not only is it much more challenging, they are introducing several new things (diagramming being one). You could try maybe doing 2 lessons a day and get through it faster that way, but I wouldn't skip it.

We are having the same problem switching from McRuffy math to Saxon. Most of it will be reivew, so we are going to go through 5/4 quickly through the summer and cover the very few things that he doesn't already know. I am hoping by next fall he will be ready to move into 6/5.

I am in the same boat as you- but I have decided it is worth the cost (I Hope!). If not, it resells pretty quickly! I have a 1st grader that I will use it with too and it looks like a lot of fun to me! There is actually a webinar on IEW's website about PAL, and that is what sold me on it! If you have specific questions they have a yahoo group that is wonderful! I'll be watching to see what others say:)

You may want to try introducing All About Spelling. That really helped my dd6 to break down words and it also reinforced phonics. I was only using it with the intention of teaching spelling, but it greatly improved her reading skills too!

MFW might work for you (not sure about the High School because I don't have any that old yet- but I think they follow the same chronological schedule). We are doing MFW ECC next year, and like you, I want to include American History. We are using Fridays for a study on American and State History.

We really like Devotions for the Children's Hour!

I would suggest McRuffy (our personal favorite). There is a workbook, but it includes much more! There are manipulatives, games, and lots of activities that will help kinestic, visual, and auditory learners. I especially love K color math. My kids will play the games just for fun and they have all really enjoyed it! There are samples on their website.

My understanding is you are supposed to include any fees in your asking price. There seems to be a lot of confusion about that though. Personally, if the materials you are looking at are not hard to find I would hold off. The only reason I might consider paying extra fees is if the price was really good and it was something I really needed. I would just tell them you assumed any fees were included in the price if it is labeled ppd.

You might want to look into elemental science. If our science wasn't already part of our curriculum that is what I would be using.

My 3rd grader loves Sugar Creek Gang, Boxcar Children, Key to the Treasure, the Indian in the Cupboard series, and he also loves his Pathway readers!

Have you joined the IEW yahoo group? They have been having a discussion about this for the last few days. We won't be starting IEW until next year, but it seems that most people either use Rod & Staff (but without the writing portions when it gets into the older grades), Analytical Grammar, or Easy Grammar. I'm sorry I don't have first hand experience to share, but this is what others have recommended. Some say no formal grammar is necessary and you can just use IEW fix-it for 3rd through 12th grade. We are currently using Rod & Staff and I think we will continue this unless it gets to be too much:)

I wouldn't worry about him saying he learned "nothing". My kids always said that and it was so upsetting, but I learned that if I asked them specific questions about what we had learned then they would answer:)

I would encourage you to look into McRuffy math (it is our personal favorite!). There is a workbook, but there are also a lot of fun games that going along with learning new concepts. My kids have really enjoyed it and I really feel it is a strong, yet gentle, math program. It is reasonably priced too! There are manipulatives that go with it, but the kids use them through the rest of the grades too. They have a lot of examples on their website (it is the Color Math). Best of luck deciding- there is so much out there:)

I always wore those Sea-bands. They don't completely cure the nausea, but they definitely take the edge off! I remember never thinking they worked until I took them off to take a shower- then I realized they really were working!

Thanks so much for the responses! I think we are going to continue AAS through level 3 and then switch over to Phonetic Zoo level A (that is what IEW recommends too). I think my son will enjoy the independence- and so will I;)

I don't specifically set a timer, but if the children are not working hard, they do get punished. Depending on the child, that could mean loss of free time, going to bed early, losing something they wanted to play with or do after school work was done. I insist that when it is school time the kids need to work hard and get their work done.

What I would suggest first is try to figure out how you would like to teach your children (together or separate) and what is most important for you. For us, I need to be able to teach my children together as much as possible, so we combine science, history, Bible, and read alouds (we have used HOD but are now switching to MFW for next year). With math you will have to decide to use a more traditional program (like Saxon- or we use McRuffy, which we love!), or something like Singapore or Math Mammoth. I would suggest visiting websites like CBD that will show you samples of books you may be interested in, or you can go directly to the publisher's website and they should have samples there. I'm sure I left something out, but hopefully this will give you a start! Welcome!

I am teaching my son cursive because his manuscript writing is not very good. He is a lefty and cursive seems to be easier for him and I can actually read what he is writing :)

I also was going to buy something from this seller but I never heard back from her- thankfully no money was involved. I have made it my policy to not purchase from someone who has not responded with 24 hours (which she didn't) when I try to contact them. I hope your problem is resolved and you get your money back! I think from now on I will have to refuse to buy with personal paypal and just pay a few extra dollars to cover fees if it is something I really want.

We are just finishing up with Bigger and there have been several weeks that we have done it is 4 instead of 5 days. When we do that I will add a second days work of different subjects throughout the week (i.e. 2 days of math on Monday, 2 days of English on Tuesday, 2 days of handwriting on Wednesday,...you get the point:). Thursday and Friday's science and history assignments are the easiest to combine into one day's work. It has worked well for us, but we are moving into MFW next year because I want to be able to combine my children with as much teaching as possible, and the Preparing guide won't work as well for that as the younger guides did:( I, like you, am a box-checker, and MFW offers that too. Hope that helps you!