THIS.

I never used formal spelling with 4 of my 5 kids. If they spell well in their writing, a program is unnecessary, IMO.

At that age my small ones loved Jim Weiss CDs: especially Fairytale Favorites, Giants, Old Testament stories, and Famously Funny.

Certainly not "no one." I teach philosophy and about 50% of the homeschoolers I know IRL teach it in some form.

I will finish the whole series for the fifth time this year. The 2nd and 3rd times through were worst. Fourth and fifth were easier. In my opinion it is totally worth it.

DS#1: homeschooled K-12 (dual enrolled for 11th and 12th.) DD#2: homeschooled K-10th, charter school 11th and 12th. DD#3: homeschooled K-8th, charter school 9th-11th (current) DS#4: homeschooled K-8th (current) DS#5: homeschooled K-4th (current)

Yep. Twice.

Well, since many of us old folk have been homeschooling with The Well-Trained Mind since before WWE was written, I would say it is not necessary. I began homeschooling in 2001 and followed the recommendations of the 1st Ed. of TWTM. We did use FLL and lots and lots of narration and copy work (more than what is in FLL.) We began Classical Writing in grade 3. That system worked brilliantly. So much so, that even after WWE came out I refused to switch up what we do. I have graduated 2 who are now in college. They each scored perfectly on the English portion of the SAT. I say that simply to point out that any approach, done consistently and systematically, will be successful. So, WWE works great for many people, but it is not the only right way - just like all other subjects and curriculum. Go with what is working for you and yours. Nancy

5 kids...anywhere from 18 months to 3 years.

I personally love Kodaly for ear training/sight singing.

Well, I had the exact same set up a number of years ago. Boy 16 mo. older than girl. Kept them together for grammar, history, science, Latin, etc. Separate for phonics and math. Worked out great! They are now a freshman and sophomore in college. The question is the maturity of the younger. My daughter was mature - so it worked out well.

None of my five children did extracurriculars at that age. They all started something they were interested in somewhere around ages 8-10. They are all capable, bright, well-adjusted humans now. My preference was to be at home or out together as a family when they were young. I would definitely do it that way again.

No, we did neither.

I used PP with all five of mine. I chose it because we began homeschooling in 2001 and PP was what the first edition of WTM recommended. It is very much open-and-go. There is nothing to "wade through" in the beginning. Just start on p. 1 and do a page or two per day. It is simple and straight forward. The only phonetic symbols they introduce are long and short vowel signs. That is only briefly...they disappear quickly. Each of my kids spent 18-24 months going through the book. They were very solid readers by the end. Personally, I don't think you can really go wrong with any of your three choices. Sometimes the best thing is just to pick one and go forward.

We absolutely adore IEWs poetry and have been using it for about 10 years. We just skipped the poetry in FLL (unless my kids really wanted to do it.) Generally speaking, it took about one year per level, although we did stretch the last level out a bit.