It didn't work for us either. It seemed to suck the joy of reading out of my ds8. He is just doing free reading of his choice until I decide what to do for next year!

We have had great success with AAS! My son is 8 and just started a few months ago. He is in level 2 now and it moves fast if they have the basics down! He brought me the white board that we use for spelling today, and he had written on it "I love spelling!". He is not one to get too excited about school work, so that is saying A Lot! We bought the Phonetic Zoo to try after he finishes at least one more level of AAS because I like the philosophy behind it, but if it doesn't work I know what we will come back to using:)

:iagree: My kids really enjoyed Art With A Purpose, and it is reasonably priced!

I wish I could tell you for sure but we are just ordering it now! I watched the webinar on their website, and from what I understand, you would have plenty of time to fit it in. I have read that people adjust it to their schedule, and maybe don't do as much as they suggest every single day. That is my plan because I have older children I need to teach also. I know that the first month is supposed to take the longest, so I thought about doing that over the summer when I wouldn't have regular school work to worry about. Hopefully someone else will reply that has actually used it- I would love to know too:)

We used LHFHG when we had a newborn in the house and there were many days that we didn't complete all of the activities, and I just had to let that go:) We substituted reading and math too and that was just fine. I have a dd6 who will be doing 1st grade (some 2nd grade) next year. She is going to be doing her own language arts and math, and the rest she will join in with her older brother in MFW ECC. I have decided that 2 guides/ levels is just too much for me! If I had a first grader again, I would probably just do my own science and history thing, especially with a newborn, since I felt like we missed out on many of the activities anyway. For science, I would probably just find areas of interest to your daughter, read some books, and maybe do some homemade experiments or notebooking (which would probably be more of you notebooking than her:) This year with my daughter, I did the writing and she drew the pictures. For history, you could probably just use History for Little Pilgrims. Unfortunately I don't have any great recommendations for history! But really I would just concentrate on the other subjects and leave the history and science for when you have the time.

If you are looking for cheap, you could use something like Alpha-Phonics, which is what we used for my ds8 and dd6. Now that we have a little extra money we are going to use IEW Primary Art of Language reading and writing. It looks like so much fun and I think all of the kids will benefit from it (we plan on using some aspects in the writing program for them)! They have lots of info on their website and even a webinar you can watch that shows what it is all about.

All About Reading has some great readers that might be worth looking into! We also used HOD emerging reader set and all of those books worked well!

:iagree:You might want to also look into PAL for reading and writing (and it includes AAS!). They have a lot of fun games that will make reading enjoyable, and the handwriting is covered with stories for each letter, which makes it fun too! But if you decide to stick with what you have, I used Alpha-Phonics for my oldest 2 and they both went through a phase where they didn't think they could read. They both eventually hit a point where there was a breakthrough and they started reading everything! So regardless of what curriculum you choose, he will get there:) As far as the science, I have not used Apologia, but I did look at a friend's books. She used it with her children and loved it, but I honestly couldn't even see my ds8 doing this. I might suggest maybe just some living science books like Usborne or the One Small Square series. My kids have really enjoyed those.

The CD-ROM is just for pronunciation so if you are comfortable with all of the phonogram pronunciations I would skip that. The flash cards do come with the student pack, and they are color coded (red-sound cards, blue-key cards, yellow- phonogram cards, green-word cards) so the dividers just keep them separated and help classify which cards your child has mastered, which ones need reviewed, and which ones they haven't learned yet. I wouldn't say the dividers are necessary if you can keep them organized on your own.

We like Hero Tales and Missionary Stories with the Millers:001_smile:

Yes, we are doing ECC next year! Thanks for the suggestions since we seem to have children very similar in age (I have ds8, dd6, ds3, and ds1)! If you do decide to go with HOD next year, I do have to say that Bigger was our favorite year with it, so you should enjoy it:) We would have gladly stayed with HOD if I could have figured out how to put my children in the same guide, but I guess for now we will try MFW! Best of luck with deciding on curriculum- it seems that both HOD and MFW are great choices:)

Next year we are planning on trying MFW. I just didn't think that I was up for teaching two guides- I don't know how other people do it! And it was either that or go back to one of the guides with the extension packages, but that would mean my ds would have 5 or 6 years in a row of American history. Hopefully we will do well with MFW:)

I have a ds8 and dd6 using Bigger this year (she was 5 when we started) and she was able to do most of the work. I had to help her with some of the notebooking since it was too much as times for her, but that was about the only thing I tweaked. I wasn't up for doing two guides since I have a ds3 and ds1:) I think for a 7 yr old she would be just fine doing Bigger (and we liked it better than Beyond too- especially the science!).

I tried New American Cursive with my ds6 and he did not really retain anything that he learned. If you use it I would recommend supplementing with your own practice sheets. Now he is 8 and is using Cheerful Cursive, and he chooses to write cursive with just about all of his writing! The people who make Cheerful Cursive also have Happy Handwriting, which in my opinion is just OK, nothing I would rave about:)

For handwriting, we currently use Cheerful Cursive, and they allow reproducing copies for your family. Donna Young also has a website where you can print off handwriting sheets. For art, Rod &Staff has nice art books that are reasonably priced and you don't need to buy many extra materials. It is called Art with a Purpose.

We didn't care for DITHOR. It seemed to be too much for my ds8, he was not enjoying reading anymore:( I find it best to let him do free reading with a book he chooses and we are using Pathway readers for basic reading skills.

We are just finishing up Bigger and using it with ds8 and dd6. I would recommend doing Bigger , especially if you have had a not-so-fun year this year:( We are actually starting MFW next year instead of HOD because I wanted to keep both children in the same guide and I kept reading how Preparing was much more advanced than Bigger. I was able to adjust some things for dd6 to join in this year, but just wasn't sure how next year would work. Hope that helps:)

I chose Song School Latin because it is a very gentle approach to teaching Latin. It is basically a workbook that goes along with a CD. Each new song on the CD introduces a few new vocabulary words and then there are a few workbook pages to go with it. If you look into Song School Latin keep in mind that the teachers manual is not really necessary. I chose this program because my dc love music, it is very gentle for a first intro to Latin, and since I never took Latin I thought it would be easiest for me. After we finish Song School Latin we will use Latin Primer, only because that is what they recommend -only I don't know much about it yet.

Personally, I think it is much more important to know letter sounds than names. My 3 1/2 ds is doing the same thing:) As far as reading we are going to use PAL for him in the future (maybe next year because he has older siblings to keep up with:)

Don't go for the small kitchen! I made that compromise and now it makes me crazy every day- no one can ever be in the kitchen with me!

You might want to look into McRuffy. That is what we use and it is very teacher friendly. The teacher's manual is very easy to use and explains everything you need to do or show the student and it tells you which drill sheets to use with each lesson. I couldn't be happier with this program. We have used it for two dc from K to 3rd grade, and even though they have different learning styles, both have done really well in math. They have a lot of samples to look at on their website. BTW, we use the color math, which is the newer version.

I have wondered the same thing. We use R&S right now and I am actually looking into Climbing to Good English for next year. It is supposed to be a thorough as R&S with a more independent workbook style (and less wordy too). I don't hear much about it though so I am not positive on what we are going to use. I'll have to watch for replies:)

I am curious about his too since we are looking into it for next year!:bigear:

My ds turned 8 in September and we are just finishing with Bigger. He had no problems with this level but I have heard that there is a significant jump going into Preparing. Unfortunately I don't have experience with that level, but this year was good for him even though he may be considered young. FWIW, my dd who is 6 was able to join in for most of the year too with only a few adjustments here and there (I wasn't up for doing multiple guides:)

Forgot to comment on the grammar:) We don't start that until 2nd grade so I think holding off on that is just fine!