I'm looking at 5th through 7th. I think we'd start with Anne of Green Gables. Rather than just choose one year, I thought I'd pick and choose books based on interest and the history time period we will be studying.

Are the teacher guides necessary? Or are they just answer keys? Thanks!

Mine is up- though not school related this week. We were on vacation!

Thus far we've used Growing With Grammar, though I'm considering a switch to Hake for oldest dd next year.

No, it's doesn't have to be education related. Your photo is very sweet.

Let's share our links for Wordless Wednesday. Here is mine!

She discusses playing classical music in her classroom as a cue for the children to get into writing mindset. She turns the music on for 10 minutes, the children are expected to write without talking during this time. She says many authors have rituals or routines.

Digging Princess

We had a hilarious experience at a co-op class when the teacher asked the kids to stand or sit in a circle. It was hilarious watching her try to mold 15 homeschool Pre-k to 1st graders into a acceptable circle formation. Also lining up, the first several times that happened in sports or co-op situations they were so confused. And being asked to sit "criss cross applesauce"

I used a weekly binder for my 2nd grader last year. The front had a clear pocket with the weeks assignment sheet. I made a table in Word with Mon-Fri across the top and her subjects down the side. She could tell at a glance what work she had to do each day. Then she had dividers labeled Mon-Fri and Daily. Behind each day were the worksheets she needed to complete, then behind Daily she had math drill sheets and handwriting sheets, that due to being front and back couldn't be placed behind the daily dividers. Each Sunday afternoon I unloaded her work into completed work binders, reloaded and made a new assignment sheet for the upcoming week.

I vote community table because my children are still at the age where I need to be involved in most every subject. It makes me easier to help them when they are all close together. I feel that my oldest will soon want her own space for concentration though. I'm leaning toward buying 4 of these desks and putting them together as one table--then I'll be able to break them apart when the kids are ready for that.

I'm bumping this post up hoping that someone can help with the above questions. Thanks so much!

I used WWW 3 with my (advanced) 2nd grade daughter this year. For the most part I have been happy with the writing instruction. It was adequate, it was easy to get done, and she could complete assignments almost independently. She enjoyed the lessons and I saw her transfering things she learned to her journal and story writing. I may use it again next year for her, but I am still researching other options. I love that it is so clearly scheduled and assigned, but at the same time I dislike that there are 36 weeks with 5 days of assignments each week. We often have four days of academics due to field trips and that made it easy to get behind. I had to look ahead to find short assignment days to combine. I also dislike a 36 week writing curriculum as I would prefer to have the freedom to take interest and/or review rabbit trails without either getting behind or drowning in multiple writting assignments. I also felt that it did not have enough variety or instruction in brainstorming techniques and first drafts/editing. The first half of the year was heavy on grammar and sentence writing, while the second half was more paragraph/short essay focused. I felt that the first half of the year could have been condensed and shortened since there was much overlap in WWW and GWG. We will be sticking with GWG next year, but will likely change writing. However, if I don't find a better fit for my daughter then I will stick with WWW and know she is getting adequate instruction.

sorry duplicate post

Thank you so much for your help! I'm glad to know that others are using a grade level (or two) below their oldest child successfully. I do not want to move my 2nd grader up to a higher level for fear of damaging her hard won self esteem as reading is just beginning to click for her. Currently my (almost) ker and 2nd grader are much closer in academic ability than my 2nd and 3rd graders are. The youngest has finished sections on short a and i in ETC 1 and is moving ahead quickly, while the middle child just finished ETC 2 today (with struggle), and the oldest child finished the ETC series years ago and could read my NIV Bible perfectly by her 6th bday. All of the oldest's language arts curriculum will be at least 4th grade level next year. So, I'm guessing my options are either combine the youngest 2 into the 1st grade book and use 3rd with the oldest. Or use 2nd with the oldest 2 and K with the youngest. Can anyone comment on the level of independent reading and writing ability need in levels K, 1st and 2nd? Also how much time daily should I expect to teach/work together with the levels and how much independent time for the kids? Thanks again!

Monday bump, surely someone has used this program and can advise me if I should combine kids or go with 3 different levels???

Anyone have experience with this curriculum and multiple grade levels?? TIA!

I would like to use Positive Action for Christ next year in our homeschool. I will have a Ker, 2nd, and 3rd grade students. Is is possible to do 3 different levels at the same time or should I try to combine some/all of the kids?

I do both. I have 36 weekly hanging file folders, however I've found that instead of breaking up the work at the beginning of the year into 36 weeks I prefer working by quarters so that I can tweek and adjust if we get a bit off somewhere or if plans need to change. Inside each hanging file folder each child has a regular file folder and I have one for group work, teacher pages, etc. At the beginning of each unit (TOG, so about every 8-10 weeks) I take an afternoon to pull apart math, grammar, spelling, ETC and all other workbook pages and file it in the correct week and child's folder. I also look ahead and print out any science sheets and TOG sheets (such as literature and maps) we will need and place them in the appropriate folder. Then, each weekend I take about an hour to pull out the hanging file folder and work on organizing our week into our individual binders. Since my husband has a variable schedule this helps me since some weeks we do 4 days, other weeks we may have a day or two with only a short time to do school and have the rest of the days be longer than usual. Each child's binder (and mine) have dividers labeled Mon-Fri and a "daily" divider. At the front of the binder I keep assignment sheets. I write down each days assignments (binder activities and also reading assignments and projects that may not be in the binder) and all worksheets are placed in the binder behind the correct day of the week. At the end of the week I move completed work to binders. Each child has a 3 inch binder with subject (math, writing, science, etc) dividers where I keep the completed work. On Monday morning we open our binders and get to work :001_smile:

I love our SOTW hardcover...if I could I'd have both the hardcover and the pdf.

Science-- 3 times a week, though I sometimes move a detailed experiment to a 4th day and do the reading/study on the usual 3 days. History/Social Studies-- at least 4 days a week Math- 5 Phonics/Language Arts - 5 Geography- (for 2nd grader only)1 Spelling- (for 2nd grader only) at least 3, more if dd is having trouble mastering her list Critical Thinking/Logic= 2 Handwriting= 5, unless we write a paragraph for another subject area, then we may skip handwriting Music/PE --music, rarely. PE at least 3 Art= 2

We start a new year in late July (for reporting purposes) after we take an 8 week break from May to July, however most of the children change "grade level" near their birthday. So, dd 8 moved from 2nd to 3rd grade workbooks in the fall, 5 year old started real Kindergarten books in the winter and 6 year old will turn 7 and move up to 2nd grade in the spring. I move my kids up as they finish/master their curriculum no matter what time of the year it is, so we are getting new stuff in and replacing finished workbooks monthly, it seems, around here.

We have a bookshelf in another area of the house that stores all of our curriculum and books that are not used daily. I also have a large plastic file box stored in a closet that has all of our weekly file folders ready to go for each week of the year. Then we have a file crate (looks like a large milk crate). I move the weekly hanging file folder to the crate to store loose papers and worksheets, then 4 weekly binders (one per child and mine), and all the reading books and other curriculum books that we will use for the week. On Monday I carry it downstairs. It sits on the kitchen table during school and then I put it just inside the doorway to the room during meal times. On Friday I carry the crate back up stairs and reload it during the weekend. We keep a large pencil organizer on the kitchen counter that is big enough to hold crayons and such along with our pencils.

My dds have binders with dividers for Mon-Fri. During my weekend planning time I rip out workbook pages and put them behind the correct divider in their weely binder. I put a weekly assignment sheet in the front of the binder with any work listed (such as reading pages, science assignment/experiment) that is not in their binder. At the end of the week I move completed pages to a 3in binder behind subject dividers (math, LA, history, etc). We all love this setup, the kids know at a glance what is expected of the each day and for the most part everything is right there together.

Thanks for all the suggestions so far! I saw the BJU review books, but I'd like to do something different. A lot of the review book would be wasted, so I don't want to spend my $ on that. But, this suggestion made me remember to pull out the TM cd from the BJU level. It has more than enough math facts sheets to last 6 weeks. I'll print out and give her one a day to take care of some fact review. Past that, I'm not opposed to fun/games, but would mostly like workbook/book based learning so that the rest of the children don't revolt during math time! A game or fun learning activity that all of us can do together would be good though. The Critical Thinking Co. and Singapore word problems sould like great options. I will be looking at those to see what levels and books to get. I haven't looked at LOF in awhile, but last time I checked the new elementary series was well below her math ability while the old books were too far ahead.