There are always going to be parents who neglect their children's education, regardless of regulations. The government cannot insure that all children will be reasonably educated without tyrannically taking over that responsibility from parents, to whom it rightfully belongs. I think we all know that our society's abysmal lack of literacy is NOT the fault of unschooling, or lack of homeschool regulation. While I lament that some "unschooled" children may reach college age functionally illiterate and unprepared for adult life in the real world, I believe that they are in the very small minority, and a huge number of children in our nation's public school system fare much worse. Children who are raised in a loving home with parents who are personally invested in their well-being (even if their educational choices are what many of us would consider foolish) are much better off in general than the far greater number of school students whose irresponsible parents don't care what they learn and use school - whether public or private - for nothing more than glorified babysitting. Most of us homeschoolers are properly educating our children, who on the whole will far exceed any government standards, and I don't want my own parenting freedoms taken away in order for the government to try to force the slackers to get it together. Even the most well-intentioned parent makes poor decisions at times, and it is a reality of life in the human race since the beginning of time that all children - including my own - have to deal with the consequences of those decisions, and ultimately, no amount of government intervention - short of a totalitarian regime in which all children are wards of the state - can change that (and who thinks that our government will do a better job than the average parent?). Lest anyone misunderstand my last point, I am all for government intervention when abuse and physical neglect are involved. Protecting people from that level of harm and punishing the perpetrators is one of the primary responsibilities of government. But that's a far cry from educational regulation.

I know you're looking at the second edition, but FWIW, with the first edition, going from Level A to Level B, I only needed THREE additional manipulatives, which cost me a grand total of $12.25 from RR. That takes into account buying the mini math balance, which is $4.25 compared to $12.95 for the large one (and which is $25 from RS - yikes). Since Level A can be skipped altogether (Level B reviews everything from Level A), you might consider buying the first edition of Level A for this year, and switching to the second edition for Level B. I'd be switching if Level B were going to be out in time for us to use this coming school year. Also, I have all the manipulatives for Level A plus the ones I just got for Level B in a medium-sized bin (15-qt rectangle) with a lid. Storage is also why I bought the smaller math balance - the large one would take up way too much space. HTH!

I'm planning to do almost exactly what you mentioned. I think it will work well for us, since I love the flexibility to take time off when we need it and the built-in opportunities to get back on track. DH will have one day off during the week (either Friday or Monday) so that will be a light school day for us and we'll go full throttle on the other four, and use that fifth day to catch up on things that didn't get done, and/or to do outings and activities, etc. I'm going to try planning out six weeks at a time and then evaluate and adjust. I'm also planning a long break between Thanksgiving and New Year's, and then another in June. We're moving sometime this summer or early fall (don't know exactly when) so we may have to take a chunk of time off pretty early on, but at this point I'm getting all my ducks in a row and will start the first or second week of July. Even though K year can be very light and laid-back (ours was), I think you are wise to set some kind of schedule for this year, even as just a trial run. I experimented a bit last year for K and I'm so glad - it gave me a feel for what worked for us without having any pressure, and I am more confident in what I want to do for this year when there's more at stake in having my stuff together!! A planned structure with flexibility is the best of both worlds for me. I need to have a plan, but being able to easily adjust it while staying on track for the year is very important for my sanity. HTH!!

I bought this exact one a few days ago (when our ink-hogging printer/scanner/copier finally gave up the ghost), and I LOVE IT so far. I know I will miss the scan/copy/color options we had on our other one, but for cost-effective, efficient everyday printing this is awesome. We just need to get a scanner one of these days, and then go elsewhere for color printing when we need to do it, which isn't often - it's not worth the extra cost of having a color printer for very occasional use. I feel sick when I think about how much money we spent on ink for that other printer. Ugh. If you decide you want this printer, snag it now - the price on Amazon has been as high as $119 recently, and last week it dropped from $99 to the current price of $84.99, which is the lowest I've seen it in a long time - I had it my Amazon wish list for months, checking on the price and waiting for a good enough reason to justify buying it - LOL! I know it was down to around $75 a few months ago (when I first heard the rave reviews about it here on the forum) but maybe that was a fluke or something. I wouldn't hold out for that price at this point. HTH!

OP, not sure if this will be helpful to you, but fwiw, my DD6 is also doing OPG (we're on lesson 175), and we went through a period in which she did a lot of guessing of words that she could have easily sounded out if she tried, mainly based on the first letter. I could tell that she just didn't want to make the effort, or was trying to go too fast, etc. So, I simply said: "Don't guess - take your time and sound it out." And she did. I kept reinforcing that, and she almost never guesses now.

I totally agree with this. I just enter my maximum bid and let it play out. The bottom line with an auction is that whoever is willing to bid the highest will win it, regardless of the timing of the actual bids. I am often amazed at how much people are willing to pay when the bids come in at the end. Recently I had bid a maximum of $105 on something that was quite used, but widely available for purchase online, brand new for $170 including shipping. After the auction was over, I checked the bidding schedule out of curiosity and mine was the highest bid right up to the last hour or so, and after a frenzy of last-minute bidding, the winning bid was $160 plus shipping. I just shook my head in amazement.

I checked out the Usborne preview pages on Amazon and it looks perfect for what I want. I'm sure that DD will enjoy looking through it - the text is very readable, and the format is simple - enough to introduce and reinforce concepts without being overwhelming. The internet links will come in handy as well. Thanks for the suggestion(s)! I'll go with the Usborne and be done with it.

I don't have the book yet, but I am planning to use BFSU for my upcoming first grader, with her 4yo sister tagging along. Is there a good science encyclopedia that I should get to go along with it? We will try to get supplemental books from the library when we can, but I'd like to have an encyclopedia handy for when we want to look up something on the spot, and for DD6 to peruse on her own, as she does read pretty well at this point and would probably enjoy something like that. Thanks!

This, mostly. I can't really say I don't like teaching it because I find it to be very easy to teach (I can quickly skim the lesson and edit on the fly as needed), and I like seeing DD get the concepts, but it really does feel too spiral. I hate having a concept introduced and then abandoned, only to be reintroduced at a seemingly random time and abandoned again. I just don't get the point (though as a non-math person, the problem could be with me and not the method). I'D probably be more comfortable with a mastery rather than spiral program, but since I think it's working okay for DD at this point, I've already bought Level B, AND I've heard rave reviews about Level B in particular, I'm going to stick with it for another year and evaluate my options after that.

I am using Essentials with DD6 for spelling only, mainly because she's reading really well and is getting toward the end of OPGTR, which is pretty advanced at the end. So, we just need spelling instruction for her at this point, which will of course improve her reading as she becomes more familiar with the spelling and syllabification rules. I really don't know anything about Foundations, and though I am certain that it's very well done, I'm not sure I would have used it. I am not going the whole hog with LOE, mainly because I agree with SWB's approach of teaching reading, handwriting and spelling as separate skills rather than combining them (as Spalding, SWR and LOE do). My DD is an intuitive child and picked up reading very easily, and would have gone out of her mind if I had bogged down the learning-to-read process with lots of detailed rules and explanations, and even though OPGTR is most definitely a phonics-based program, it doesn't teach the concepts in enough detail for the child to be able to spell correctly. That's fine with me - I love how DD's reading has taken off, and I'm mainly starting spelling now rather than waiting until she's finished with OPG because she's always trying to write stuff down and sound it out herself (which gets hilarious results at times), and she asks me a zillion times a day how to spell words. Anyway, that's my perspective. Language arts is my area of strength, and I'm very happy with the straightforward simplicity of OPGTR for getting my children reading fluently. But since OPGTR doesn't explain phonics rules in detail, even for the parent, I am glad to now have the LOE tools at my disposal if and when they are needed for supplementation - DD4 might process reading differently, and if she has issues with why something is pronounced a certain way (which DD6 generally did not) I'll be able to address that with confidence.

I think I'm okay with the prep time, especially since the rest of our curricula is mostly open-and-go and requires very little prep. And even though we didn't start in K, I may go ahead and plan to take three years to get through all of it - the last thing I need is to feel pressured by a timetable. I don't care if DD isn't ready for book 2 right at the beginning of 3rd grade. And since we do a year-round schedule of sorts, that will give me even more flexibility with scheduling this. Thanks for the input so far...please keep it coming!!

LOE is a detailed, phonics/rules-based program, and is very scripted. I've never used AAS, so I can't compare them, but I love how LOE analyzes spelling words. The lessons are very open-and-go. Great format. Here is the link to the Foundations A page. On the right you'll find a bunch of sample lessons: http://http://www.lo...dations/level-a Edited to add: FWIW, I use Essentials, not Foundations, and I'm only using it for spelling. I'm teaching my kids to read with OPGTR and combining it with LOE's spelling portion and using the LOE phonogram cards to supplement OPG.

Another vote for Lands' End!!

After thinking I'd go with something more along the lines of WTM recommendations, I have fallen in love with the concept of BFSU. I really want to make this work, but everything I'm reading says it's difficult to slog through the material and implement it. Two things working against me are 1) Being a newbie HSer, I prefer open-and-go curricula, and 2) I am strong in language and the humanities, but I am probably what you'd consider illiterate when it comes to science - my science education was abysmal, and that's actually one reason why BFSU appeals to me - I feel it will give me a science foundation that I never had, which will be helpful in teaching and interacting with my kids. As much as I like open-and-go, it's important to me to understand what I'm teaching, and with science I realize that I'm going to have to make a time investment at some point unless I outsource it. DD is going into first grade, and her 4yo sister will probably tag along with the lessons. I've got them all excited about studying animals and plants during next school year, and I guess with the flexibility of this program I can choose to focus more on those topics as long as the prerequisite lessons are done, right? So, please convince me that I can do this and that it's worth it - but be honest about what it will require of me. I want to know what I'm dealing with. I haven't bought the book yet, but I just signed up for the yahoo group and will look there for advice and encouragement, but I'd love some input here as well. Thanks!!

Looks like you've made your decision, but in case it helps you to keep your brain shut off (LOL!), I toyed around with doing Tapestry of Grace starting with first grade next year, and even though I could have borrowed the entire Year Plan and books from a friend (worth literally hundreds of dollars) I decided it was overkill for the grammar stage and chose to do SOTW with activity guide instead, in order to keep it simple. Unless something else comes out that I like better I'll probably start TOG when my oldest is in 5th grade, because it is an excellent curriculum for those wanting a classical, Christian approach to the humanities. In case you didn't know, TOG was originally conceived as a program for rhetoric level students that was adapted for the other levels so the whole family could study the same period of history with age-appropriate material. That's really where TOG shines - not so much for grammar level only, and IMO it is not worth the cost or planning time for that stage. And it's not really a curriculum in a box the way Sonlight or MFW or other boxed curricula are, so it really wouldn't help that much in terms of having materials chosen for you - you still have to gather all of your resources, and in fact, I've heard that it gives so many choices each week that the process of choosing can be overwhelming, which kind of defeats the purpose of a curriculum in a box, IMO. HTH!!

I haven't used AAS but I just started LOE Essentials for spelling and I can already tell that it's simply organized and gets the job done efficiently. I think it would be perfect for your DC, based on their ages and the pace you want. The lesson layout allows for easily extracting the spelling portion if you don't want to use the grammar stuff.

I don't have much experience yet, but I'll chime in on this. I'm mostly following TWTM and am using all of the PHP programs for my kids' ages (OPGTR, FLL, WWE, SOTW, TGS), which cover reading/grammar/writing, history and Bible, and I'm using many of the TWTM recommendations for other subject areas. I get overwhelmed with choices, and doing it this way and narrowing down my options is so helpful because I don't even look at anything else. If you like the classical method/approach, TWTM seems to have it nailed (though there some purists who will argue that TWTM is not as strictly "classical" as it could be - oh well - even if that's true, that particular aspect is not important to me). Yes, using TWTM/PHP requires choosing your own Math, Science, Handwriting, Spelling, and Fine Arts but then, so do many of the boxed curricula, apparently, and TWTM gives annotated lists of recommended resources for all of those subjects. And in skill areas like math, handwriting and spelling, having the flexibility to tailor it to your child's learning style can be important, so buying a boxed curriculum with those subjects included could be a waste of money. Even though you have to buy each piece separately, the recommendations in TWTM (especially if you use all of the PHP products) really do offer a boxed curriculum approach of sorts, but with great built-in flexibility. IMO, the best of both worlds, and I'm hooked. :)

Yes, these are awesome!! There's a Praise and Worship one, too. The Praise and Worship one is my favorite - I like the music so much I listen to it myself sometimes - LOL!

We use this, too. Such a great system. I choose my own passages, though I've consulted a handful of online resources for suggestions at times. We started out with mostly shorter ones but I've thrown in some longer passages as well. It's amazing how much a 2-year-old can memorize when given the opportunity!! I have a video of my then-2-year-old saying 1 Corinthians 13:4-6. Currently we're memorizing Psalm 145 (one of my favorites - it was read at our wedding), and I'm thinking I'll have them do the whole thing. We do our scripture memory at the breakfast table, btw. That insures that it always gets done, and it's a great way to focus our hearts on Jesus right at the beginning of the day. :-) In case it's helpful, here's a list of some of the verses/passages in our box, in no particular order (I cut and pasted the list from an email I sent to my cousin, so I had already typed it out!): John 3:16 Isaiah 53:6 1 John 1:9 1 Corinthians 13:4-6 Romans 3:23 Romans 6:23 John 15:12 1 John 4:19 1 John 4:7-10 Psalm 100 (all) Psalm 119:11 Philippians 2:14 Psalm 107:1 John 8:12 Psalm 118:24 Colossians 3:20 Matthew 20:28 Matthew 22:37 1 John 3:16 Galatians 5:22-23 Ephesians 4:32 Colossians 1:13 Romans 3:20 Nehemiah 9:6 Psalm 95:6-7 Psalm 126:3 Psalm 145

AWESOME!! As soon as I can get to the store I'm buying a Nook HD+ with a BN credit I've had since Christmas! I am soooooo excited about finally getting this and can't wait to see how useful it will be for homeschooling. It's really for ME, since my oldest is 6 and won't use it unsupervised, but please do share more as you can. I'm very low tech at this point - I don't have a smartphone and am just now plunging into the world of tablets, so I really have no idea of what apps and features are available or even where to start. Thanks so much for the info!

Nope. I downloaded the whole thing last night with no problems. Maybe it's just a temporary glitch?

I downloaded Mr. Q's free Life Science but haven't looked through it in detail yet. Is there a list of living books that go along with it? I really like the approach and student text for Mr. Q, but I also want to use quality living books as enrichment, as we'll probably go light on the experiments and worksheets (we'll focus on oral narration). I bought a used copy of Living Learning Books on the cheap, mainly because I knew it had both fiction and non-fiction book lists to go with each topic, and I'm sure I will utilize that when those topics come up in Mr. Q, but I don't want to reinvent the wheel trying to find stuff that goes with Mr. Q's topics if there's something that already exists. Thanks!

That's a good point. I can't say I have a dream device, actually. I still prefer paper books for most things so for the foreseeable future I probably won't do most of my reading on the e-reader, but I do need something that will adequately handle my pdf ebooks and that can be useful for homeschooling as well. My next purchase will probably be a smartphone, maybe as early as this summer. Depending on what we can afford, I suppose a smartphone could be my small, portable device and I'd be happier with the 9-inch tablet, mostly for home use, but portable enough when I need it to be. I'm leaning heavily toward the 9-inch at this point, unless someone wants to try to talk me out of it!

No. I believe that the universe was created solely by God's divine agency, however that may look to us.

Bumping since I changed the thread title in hopes of getting input from Kindle people as well.