Thank you all for your replies. I appreciate the candid/honest opinions about the abridged versions and non-classical literature. I needed a boost to my morale. Reading your responses has been a wonderful reminder to trust myself and my children when it comes to what to read. Thanks so much for the advice.

I have been searching the boards for book lists for my dd age 7. I see Dickens, Alcott, and others show up on some lists and I am stunned. There is no way my 7 yo is prepared for the subject matter in Dickens or the dialect. Little Women seems like a big leap as well. I know my dd is a solid reader for her age and handles the Boxcar series, Eve Bunting's books, and a few select Beverly Cleary books. Dickens is a huge leap. Are other 7 yo really reading these classics in the original text? We are currently reading through the "Little House" series as a RA at bedtime. She is able to read the words but has lots of questions about some of the items referenced/period specific words. This would frustrate her if she was given it as an IR. If your children are reading these classics independently, how do they handle the challenge of new words, unfamiliar terms, etc.?

I am in need of worksheets 31 and 32. I bought the worksheets booklet used and when I was making copies for this school year, I discovered the page containing 31 and 32 had been ripped out of the book. Since I own the booklet and making copies for multiple students is allowed, I am hoping that someone else uses this curriculum and will be able and willing to scan and post/private message me a copy of the two worksheets. We have been using the program for 3 years and the worksheets are a great help to my son. I just didn't catch that one page was missing in the booklet when I flipped through it at the used book store. The booklet looks unused otherwise. Thanks to anyone who comes to our rescue. We appreciate it.

I have decided to go for it with just the Harcourt Grade 5 student textbook. We have several hands-on experiment books that I can pull from to make it "fun". Thanks for encouraging me to try.

:bigear:

I researched Kolbe Academy and my dh thinks we should go with the 5th grade textbook we have. Can I use this and not have workbooks, answer books, teacher's editions if I spend some time this summer pulling together lesson plans? Is this foolishness on my part? I look at the hours upon hours I have spent searching for support materials for this book and feel like my time would be better spent pulling together lessons from the student text. I really wanted an open and go science program for 5th grade, but it is starting to look like I will have to create it over the summer. I am open to all suggestions.

I will look into Kolbe this evening. My Harcourt student text is older (2000) and I have been struggling with the Harcourt website to find the isbn information. I haven't heard of Kolbe so this is a nice lead to pursue.

You might inquire at your local library. Some libraries have sets of books and discussion guides for community led book clubs to use. I have seen many listed for adults and children on the local library I use. It would be worth a phone call or online query. Sounds like a nice way to enrich your lives and those around you. Good luck!

I have been loaned 5th grade Harcourt Science textbook. I was told there is a set of teacher's editions and a workbook that go with it. Do I need the TE in order to work through the text? I am stressed and pressed to find a curriculum for next year. DH wants a blend of science areas rather than an entire year of one. He likes the amount of text per page/lesson in the Harcourt text, but I am not sure how solid of a job I can do without a TE. I have not had any success trying to locate the TE set (looks like it is 3 books) or the student workbook. I have searched amazon.com, homeschool classifieds, and WTM (here) of course. Anywhere else I should look or can I go for it without a TE? Open to all suggestions.

I used Cursive First with my ds and my dd. Both asked to learn long before I had planned to teach either of them. So I took my ds through the program at his pace (3 weeks) in the late summer before his first grade year (age 6) and my dd went through it in about 8 weeks in the middle her first grade year (this current year). Both have beautiful cursive and love it. They loved the program completely. It is so inexpensive and easy to teach. Both children knew how to print upper and lower case letters before learning cursive so it wasn't really their first handwriting instruction. I encourage you to capture the enthusiasm and see how it goes.

:bigear: and have same age students and share your concerns

Not sure how detailed the schedule is but it is literature based.

:bigear:

his use of improper pronunciation guides? I was looking through his Life Science text as a possibility for my soon to be 5th grader and the pronunciation guides are more playful than accurate. After spending so much time on phonograms/spelling, Latin and Greek roots, etc., does this bother anyone other than me? For example, the word enzymes he breaks into "ends-imes". I just need others with more experience sharing 2 cents. My search for 5th grade science curriuculum has me pulling my hair out. I was revisiting this particular one when I made this discovery. Thanks for any comments.

My ds does not write in his books. Two reasons: 1) Space is limited in the book and doesn't provide adequate room to organize responses; and 2) I have a dd who will be using the materials in the near future and do not want to buy another set. I love workbooks and have always allowed the children to write and color and draw in any workbooks. Textbooks are another story. No matter what the subject their work goes on notebook paper. My ds is in Saxon 6/5 at age 9.5. When we first tranisitioned to Saxon after finishing Horizons 3, I would copy down the equations for him to ease the tranisition from workbooks to notebooks. After a couple of weeks, he naturally started writing the equations on his own. Now I just need to figure out how to speed him up. Good luck with the school year.

Katila wrote: DS is solid on math facts. He does the daily fact sheet that is part of each lesson and we also do the mental math for every lesson. We get through those in 15 minutes or so. We go over the lesson presented and each example problem. He grasps the concepts easily so we do not do the "Lesson Practice" problems and go straight to the Mixed practice. Katilac wrote: Your son is also a bit on the young side for 6/5, so, if he knows his math facts, it could just be that he is a bit overwhelmed. He seems to dwadle/linger over the word problems at the beginning (roughly the first 10). He then moves through the middle section (11 - 20 or so) very slowly. I think it is due to the need to recopy the equations from the book. The remaining 9 or so problems he does at lightning speed. When he started 6/5 we only did math book work 3 days per week and 1 day per week was games either on the computer or with someone else (board games, etc.). We took the month of July completely off from school due to a heavy travel schedule. We use it to do life skills and pleasure readings. So now it is August and we are starting our routine again, and I don't want to have a repeat of the last spring. Thanks for posing the questions and offering insights and suggestions. I really appreciate each of you for taking time to encourage and advise me.

Bump

We are starting our 5th year of hs'ing. My ds(9.5) is working through Saxon 6/5 right now. He is roughly 50 lessons into it. He is totally able to do the entire lesson with no errors and minimal help after the initial instructions, but it takes him a long, long time each day (easily 2 hours, broken into 2 or 3 chunks). Has anyone encountered this? Should I keep him doing 1 full lesson each day or spread one lesson over 2 days? Should I have him just do 1/2 the problems? He does not do the practice problems for each lesson only the mixed problems, because once you show him a concept he gets it. He used to take about an hour until we started 6/5 late this spring. I really don't want the kid to end up hating math because it takes so long to do a lesson. Thanks for any insights.

It sounds like I should go with TWSS and "All Things Fun...". Can I go with just the theme-based unit and be able to open and go?

My ds will be 4th grade age next year. He is a reluctant writer. He does well with spelling and grammar, but he just doesn't want to be bothered with figuring out what to write or how to put ideas together. I have heard a lot of praise for IEWs products. From what I can see on IEW's website, SWI-A looks like a 15 week program Is that correct? "All Things..." appears to be 34 weeks. Is this correct? Should I get him started with SWIA and then move into the other? Or, should I skip SWIA altogether? Any advice is genuinely appreciated.

Cursive First. My ds did the program at his request just prior to first grade (age 6.5) in about 4 weeks. He has done just fine ever since. I plan to hve dd go through the program this summer in prep for first grade since she is asking to "write fancy" now.

My ds did Horizons K - 3 and then switched to Saxon 5/4 without any gliches. My dd has done Horizons K and is finishing Grade 1. She has also done well with it and I anticipate she will transition to Saxon 5/4 after she finishes Grade 3. The hardest part of the transition for my ds was not having a workbook and using regular paper to work problems. Once we passed that minor moment, he hasn't looked back. He is now in Saxon 6/5 and we have no plans to shift programs at this point.

:bigear:...Anyone use Rod and Staff and IEW? I use R&S and love it. I think it is a great fit for my ds. I am considering IEW next year for him as a 4th grader. I would also appreciate some comments.

We put up a white tile board sheet from Home Depot ($12 plus some screws to mount it) this summer and use dry erase markers on it. So far so good. I really enjoy having so much space to write. It has made it much easier to teach both kids.

I have thoroughly enjoyed the program for 3 years and my children are thriving. This is my first year with dd but she loves the program just as much as my ds. It was bumpy adding a second student this year. Thanks to message boards and friends, SWR time is smoother now.