I am always tempted to compare my children to what I imagine is going on with their same age peers in public school. But, that is the beauty of homeschooling. You can do what is age appropriate for your child. A child who is ready to learn to read and ready to advance in math will be so much easier to teach and will enjoy the process so much more. If you do want to compare... My six year old is only on lesson 56 of OPG, copies one 6 - 10 word sentence, and is on lesson 52 of RS A. It is probably behind many other 6 year olds, but this is what he (and I) can handle right now.

I have had two finish RS E. This is what we have done while waiting for Algebra readiness: 5th: MEP math (but my daughter is doing Math Mammoth 5 - MEP is written for classroom instruction, and I didn't want to spend that much time teaching math) 6th: Right Start Geometry and Life of Fred (but my daughter will do Math Mammoth 6) 7th: tried AOPS and more Right Start Geometry, but now doing exclusively Video Text (and he loves it!!) (My daughter will do VT as well - if we finish early I will try AOPS as a review)

My children have trouble concentrating when someone is practicing the piano - and they are usually not even in the same room. I would be worried about someone working on math right next to the piano lesson/practice. (Unless it is the type that you can plug in headphones and others will not hear you play.)

When I ask the question that way I usually get weird details as well. However, if I ask him to tell me what we just read, I get way too much! They do get better at narrations.

:grouphug: Sometimes it just takes time. My oldest was almost 9 before it suddenly just clicked. We used Ordinary Parent's Guide... and just kept slowing going through the lessons until suddenly, he could do it.

This is what we do. . I am always surprised that they usually have the money when they really want something. It forces them to carefully consider how to spend their money.

Sounds reasonable. I would expect that they would need a lot of help/training to clean up after dinner. Even my DH is not able to get it 100% clean. He just doesn't see what needs to be done.

A child can begin AAS, not knowing any of the letter sounds. The instruction book will tell you which sound cards to introduce each lesson. When they know those sounds (and the other information in the lesson) move on to the next one. The sound not introduced until Level 3 was probably a vowel team. My son knew about 90% of of the sound cards that were required to be learned in lesson 1 when we moved on. It will come with more practice.

I am where you are. I had planned to do the 6th grade book over 2 years and call it quits, but read something (maybe in the WTM) about the next few years being when grammar and writing really begin to come together and we see a point to learning all this grammar. We never finished the 6th grade book and just jumped right in with 7th grade. Things are getting very complicated for both of us in the verbs chapter. We are struggling, but sticking with it. So, no advice, but, yeah, I do think the grade 7 book is harder.

I never had any luck with the activities for the younger kids during school time. If they were going to keep them busy for any amount of time, they always needed my help. This is a very difficult season of schooling. It will only last for a few years, though. What worked well for me was starting our school day by playing with the little one. Building a fort, a block city for cars, playdough, etc. Start them out and then back off. The hard part is getting the schooling kids away!!

You will not miss anything in A. It is the same as B, but much slower.

I love being able to do history all together. If the concern is SOTW 4 at 8 years old, I wouldn't worry. The tough subjects were treated so gently.

I do this with my 13 year old. He has to get 80% correct or we do the same lesson the next day. (Odd problems the first day, evens the next). But for a young one, I LOVE the marshmallow story!

I wouldn't do the Elements at that age. My 8 yo was "along for the ride" when my 11 and 13 yo did it this year. They got much more out of it. I like Adventures with Atoms and Molecules.

I only used AAS for my children that are not "natural" spellers. The ones who needed to break down each word into syllables. AAS is too cumbersome and slow for kids who don't need all that. If your child is 7 and on level 3, my guess he is a natural speller. I am now familiar with the rules and can bring them up occasionally when needed for my dd. Other than that, I did not do spelling with her (she begged to do it this year in 5th grade).

My DD 11 still plays with the Loving Family doll house furniture (We made our own house) and also Playmobil doll house.

My DS has been working on RS G off and on for about a year. He about at lesson 90. I don't know if I will do it with any of my other children. This child really likes math and loves the drawing portions of Right Start. However, the drawing in RS G can get pretty complicated and sometimes doesn't work out at all. The math is very tedious as well. He has been a good sport with it and is learning a lot of math, but it is difficult.

That would have been very hard to sit and watch, but I agree that it was worth a try. My two youngest received speech therapy at that age. They were both very uncooperative and we tried all sorts of things. What finally helped was going to the speech therapist's office and I waited in the lobby. It was very hard for me to accept because I value to ability of the parent to teach their child. I wanted to see what the therapist was doing so I could do it at home.

I try to work with my night owl's schedule. He does some school work at night with my supervision. (I can't wait for him to be more independent with this!) Subjects I need to be more alert for are done in the late morning/early afternoon. We are still done at a very reasonable time each day. I read (no scientific source, sorry!) that teens don't start producing melatonin until 11 pm. So, that is my bed time for my son. No one is awake to enforce it, however... I like the idea of being out at dusk and in the sunlight upon waking.

I agree. Learning the spelling rules will help improve reading. Does your library have a separate section for readers? Reading those books together would be good reading practice. When an unfamiliar word is encountered, you can explain the rule. (If I can't remember the whole rule, I will just say (for example), "the e-a in that word says 'eh'")

I agree. 30 - 45 minutes is the farthest anyone should be expected to travel for a child's birthday party.

If you have a Bible Study Fellowship in your area I would recommend that. There is a program for the children as well. It is an interdenominational program and its focus is on what the Bible teaches and what the Holy Spirit is revealing to you. The children's program includes a memory verse each week. There is a family discussion sheet provided each week with additional questions so that everyone can discuss what they are learning.

My son gets chapped around his mouth. Someone suggested antibiotic cream at night. It really helped.

This. I was hoping you would have an option stronger than "no." I clean on Saturdays, when I wake up and realize what day it is, I am so bummed!

I didn't start B with my children until they were 7 (or almost 7). If you begin RS A in kindergarten and complete one book a year, you will finish the program in 4th grade. (Not including RS geometry). You may want to just wait on B for a little bit and play the math games. I like the way the topics circle around. Even though it may jump from learning about money to learning to tell time then back to addition, the concepts are all the same--looking at numbers in groups of ones and fives and tens. I think it is brilliant! Now that I am on my 4th time through the books I feel ok about skipping a few things. The fractals lesson is fine to skip.