The best thing it did for my ds8 is reinforce his love of math. He went from dreading another math lesson (even though it is easy for him) to doing 6 lessons of Singapore PM in his bed with a flashlight 2 nights ago. I think he needed a goofy factor in his day. That was worth every penny.

:iagree: I think my oldest would have mutinied if I'd started him in any other book besides Apples. Now he's doing Decimals and Percents alongside Goldfish. Even though the math in the elementary series is easy for him and he was ready for Fractions earlier than I anticipated, he enjoyed the early books and learned some interesting things along the way. For me, it made sense to buy the whole series for my littles coming up. Yes, the story does start in Apples. The story builds on itself through the elementary series. However, the plot line is pretty easy to infer so I don't think it would keep you from starting in a higher book. It would drive some crazy (like my oldest) to start in the middle.

My boys love it! We play the banana peel game about 4 times a week upon request. It is helping them retain the vocab we've learned this year and my 3yo is picking it up as well.

The history portion is chronological; it is the read alouds that don't necessarily correspond with the historical time period. I don't think I'd do SL without the read alouds at this level. The lit is rich and an important part of the core IMHO (just not always related to history). The history is good though and my ds really likes CHOW, UBWH, and TT, FWIW. We did supplement a bit with SOTW just because my ds wanted to read more CHOW but I didn't want to zoom ahead. SOTW fit in nicely. I'm not sure you could go wrong either way.

This is perfect for us. Ds8 is almost done with Decimals but I was hoping to hold off on PreAlgebra for a bit.

We are loving Sticks Across the Chimney!! It is similar in style to Wheel on the School but even more charming. We haven't to Good Masters yet but a few on the SL board said that they had intended to add it to the core anyway and were very happy SL added it.

Sorry! I take back my information. :tongue_smilie: I don't think Judy has much interaction with the IGs. She's too busy putting fires. This year has been particularly crazy with the IGs being delayed. I only got my new Core C IG a couple of weeks ago and the book order had been rearranged from my 2011 version. We had to back track a bit because of it (we were on week 4 with the old IG before I decided to upgrade). The new IG and extra books have totally been worth it. I bet Judy knows a lot about the new Core F IG. :lol:

Sticks Across the Chimney, Eric the Red, Good Masters Sweet Ladies, and a Door in the Wall are coordinated with history/geography. I'll probably have ds reread Sir Lancelot when it fits in since he read it in one day. He loved that book.

I think it also had to do with the big back order issues this year. I do think they are limited in the number of IGs and books they have because of weight and room. The year I went to my last convention (and decided on SL because of the booth) they didn't have all of the IGs but a good sampling. The rep was a SL mom who serves the area. She was very helpful when I was deciding on a Core. We corresponded several times via e-mail. I think there is a lot of variation with the SL reps. The three-week IG samples online have helped me a lot since I don't go to conventions anymore. I feel the opposite of you with regards to the core. I really like the mix of lit and historical fiction in the early cores. I've also loved the history in Cores B and C (Core A not so much but the lit more than made up for it). I'm a little nervous heading into Core D next year. I will probably need to schedule more non-history related lit but I'm not sure how we'll fit in as much as I'd like. Since my ds8 is a voracious reader, I might be assigning some as independent reading.

I've never used My Wise Grammar before but I think it'll come in handy this year with C. Is there any place to see a sample of WordBuild? I'm interested to see how it would fit in.

I'm waiting on SSL2 and hoping for SSS1 but those are just fun extras. I'd be going crazy if I didn't have an ETA on math or history. BA coming out with level 4 in the very near future would be great but I think ds8 will miss the whole series.

Yes. I'm mostly doing that because ds8 scores at the top end of the scale and I didn't want them to be too easy by the end of the book. So far he's only max'ed 7 of the 55 we've done with significant time left.

Thanks for these links, Hunter. We've used McCall-Harby and McCall-Crabbs book A with great results but Reading and Thinking looks interesting. I agree with getting the individual books from Spalding. Both the SWR and Spalding editions are the right version of McCall-Crabbs but it is easier to work with the small books, especially if you have more than one student using them. The only thing I miss is Sanseri's order (she orders them by difficulty) but that has been easy to do myself. It is time-consuming but I only have to do it once for all my dc.

I was thinking they'd be great for narrating through subjects as well. You're probably the only one that understands how happy this makes me. I also added the advanced phonogram cards. I was a little caught off guard when we got to List N since I completely forgot we were starting advanced phonograms. I made my own on the fly but would like ones that are the same size. Of course, I added My Wise Grammar for Sweet-C. So much for a little purchase, but I got free shipping :lol:

I just ordered a few of them. I'm really excited about it; this will be perfect for next year. I bought three of the old ones two weeks ago so it's a good thing the boys have just discovered a love for journaling.

2nd and Kinder: Hits: SSL w/ Latin Monkey Match (loved this!!) Sonlight Cores B & P4/5 SWR (again this year) FLL2/WWE2 (saw ds8's skills soar) McCall-Crabbs Book A (ds8 loves those little tests) LOF Elementary & Fractions Singapore PM I Can Do All Things Art Noeo Biology I Eh: Seymour's CT K-3 (not really a miss but we got bored of doing the same book for two years) Misses: None this year

How did I miss this?!?

:iagree: Earlybird was terrible for my mathy boy at 3.5. We are sticking with Essentials from now on but Miquon and Cuisenaire Rods are fantastic.

Have fun stalking Fed Ex! Even with 5 cores on the shelf, I still get really excited for box day.

Singapore Essential Math has worked for us at that age. Book A is more of a preschool level than K.

We're pretty much repeating what I did last year with my oldest. Some of the levels are different since they have opposite strengths. LA: SWR, WWE1, FLL1, WWW1 (just for fun), SL Readers 2 (finish), SL Readers 3 Math: Singapore 1B/2A, IP 1B/2A, CWP 1, Miquon Red, Horizons 1, LOF History/Geography/Lit: SL Core A Science: Noeo Biology I Latin: SSL 2 (praying it'll be done sometime this year) Critical Thinking: Lollipop Logic Art: ICDAT, AP Spanish: Salsa Music:. No idea but I've got to do something with this oh so musical child

We get ours from Lakeshore Learning. $6 for a large ream.

Mine have changed a bit. I added MCT's BL for Vocab and changed Logic to Prufrock Press. He's also studying Greek on his own this summer using SSG, Greek Alphabet Code Cracker and Hupogrammon. That should be interesting.

Check out MFW's preschool package. I have the toddler package which has been great and am buying the preschool one for this upcoming year.

Each lesson is two pages (one page front and back). Also, the tests are easier than a typical lesson so doing a lesson and test in one day isn't so bad.