Wow, that sounds great. Can any of it be re-used or do you have to purchase it all again for your other kids? My oldest will be entering 6th, but the next will be entering 2nd, so it will be a while.

Does it come with the materials for the experiments? That is a constant problem for us!

To add to my earlier post, as some others have mentioned I also get my ds up early sometimes. He can get more done when his younger brother and sister are sleeping and he sees the benefits enough that he often asks me to wake him early. It's nice to see him developing some problem-solving skills on his own and taking responsibility for his work!

My son is still in 5th, but we have a weekly work list too, with assignments for each day. I also have to work sometimes and whether I am working or not, I do not do "school" with him after 3:00, so the things that he needs my help with should be done before lunch or right after lunch. If not, he will have more work the next day. Also, no electronics until all of his assignments are done and his "screen time" is based on the time he finishes. If he is done early, he will have extra time, if he is done more than an hour late, he looses his time. Whatever was not done during the week will have to be done on the weekend. Usually he is motivated enough because he wants to play video games, but some weeks we do end up with work on Saturdays or occasionally a Sunday.

Thanks. I always feel like I am "intruding" a little bit here because a strictly classical education did not work for my kids, but I have found lots of good information here.

Hi, I am not on this board very often, because we are not strictly a "classical" homeschooling family, but I check it out occasionally and I just saw your post and had to reply. I was trained in V/V last year becuase I wanted to teach it to my kids (since the LMB centers are so expensive). Anyway, V/V has also been amazing for my oldest son (going into 5th grade). He also has a PDD-NOS dx. We always had a very hard time with writing and I finally decided to get SWI-A (Student Writing Intensive, Level A) from IEW. We have been working through it over the summer and it has been great. My son also had a very hard time "maturing" his writing (especially with word choice). IEW methods help so much with that. There is a great yahoo group that I joined that helps you really understand the program. Parents ask questions and get answers from IEW staff and other parents and is especially helpful in what to choose. You could google yahoo IEW Families to find it, if you are interested. Also, they have a 100% money back guarantee. You can use it all year (or as long as you need to see if it is working) and if it did not work for you, they will let you send it back for a full refund. It also helps with the "blank page" problem. You can see some presentations on their website (www.iew.com). One other thing since your V/V tutor is leaving - we do V/V on our own at home. I wrote about it on my blog in hopes that some other homeschooling parents could benefit: http://hupostasis.wordpress.com/2013/05/25/lindamood-bell-programs-general-overview-using-gander-publishing-resources-at-home/ http://hupostasis.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/visualizing-and-verbalizing-at-home-3/ I hope that helps a little.

I don't like the idea of my kids growing up in a bubble. Plus, we are very committed Christians, but not politically conservative, so most of the "Christian" curriculum didn't fit us any more than the secular curriculum. We used a Christian curriculum for first grade (three years ago) and were very disappointed. I have mostly used an eclectic approach to history, but this year started using SotW and another called "See Time Fly" along with "living books" and other supplements and we are using RS4K for science, which I believe is done by a Christian, but stays neutral. In the past I actually used the K12.com online class for science and sometimes history because I could not find anything else I liked.

Hi! I am not on here very often, but I happened to read your post and I am about to begin talkies with my son (5 yrs old, ASD). I actually got a part time job at a Lindamood Bell center for the summer because I was so interested and I knew I could not afford to send my kids to the center. (I also have an almost-9 yr old that had a PDD diagnosis and still has some "issues") It is really amazing! There is so much real progress! Talkies is not done very often at our center and we don't have any kids doing it now, but much of it is based on the visualizing and verbalizing curriculum - just smaller steps for kids with limited language. I am not sure how verbal your child is, but you really do not need that much language to do talkies. My son is very limited and he will do fine. If she knows colors and numbers and names of common objects that is probably enough. Can you get a copy of the manual? I was able to get one through inter-library loan at the public library. Let me know if you have any questions. I know that I looked for info for so long on this program and had a hard time finding it!