:iagree: That's exactly how I feel. It is really hard to trust the process.

First Language Lessons My Father's World Rightstart Math

:lurk5:

It looks like a pretty even 30/30/30 split between the once a weekers, once a monthers, and all the others who are apparently bad at changing sheets (or never sweat). I'm in the bad about changing them camp. My children's sheets get washed when they need to be (i.e. company coming that will be using their bed, dog got muddy paws on bed, someone wet the bed, etc.) It averages out to maybe once every or every other month. My husband is oily and we cosleep with spitty babies (not currently spitty, but we go through seasons), so ours end up changed more often, 1-2 times a month. They definitely could use a weekly washing but I just can't manage it at this point in my life, with 5 littles to take care of and homeschool.

MUS is not parent intensive at all. It's very easy, open and go, once you get the hang of it. Or rather, once your child gets the hang of it. Especially if you use the videos to teach your child. Rightstart is very parent-intensive. It's good, but might be a bit much to pull off at first. If you're leaning towards MUS anyway, maybe you could just go with that one?

I have an older 1st grader, turned 7 in November. She just really started reading. She can read Frog & Toad type books with relative ease now, but nothing much harder than that. She has many of the common sightwords and other common words mastered now, so she doesn't have to sound everything out. But it's been a recent thing. Maybe in the last 2 months. She's by no means reading well yet, she's not at the level of most end of 1st graders I know. But she's much farther ahead than her older sister was at this same age. I don't hold back based on reading level. It's only one indicator of their ability. I do wait on writing lessons and continue at their pace with writing, reading, grammar, etc. Everything that is related to reading. But we continue to move along in grade level (or as fast or slow as they are able) with everything else, based more by age.

We have nearly finished MFW ECC and really enjoyed it! I will stick with MFW for next year but may do my own science. This years science was good, but next year looks really weak and doesn't fit with the WTM model. MUS - we did for several years and finished many levels, but as we neared the end of it mid-year we jumped ship to Rightstart math. We may end up back with MUS at some point. Rightstart is super teacher intensive and I don't know if that will work for us. We totally jumped ship on Easy Grammar and moved over to FLL which we love right now, but give me a few months. We've only been using it for 2 months. We've hopped around with phonics. Man, writing it down, it sounds terrible. The only thing we're really finishing this year is MFW. :glare:

:iagree: We are also military and the majority of states have a cut off of Sep. 1, so if I were you and thought I'd move frequently, I'd hold her back. For us, I keep my kids at their grade level by age for all social activities, but at home, we move as fast or as slow as needed for academics and don't really worry about grade levels. I want them to be with their peers in social settings.

I'm fairly certain that could go either way. Would your nursling have enough mama's milk while you're gone? Will you plan on pumping during that time? I've heard of babies weaning in that time even if you pumped prior and during. But I've also heard of them going back to it. FWIW, the most I've left a nursling, about 18 months old, was 36 hours, without pumping, and she went right back to nursing.

My favorites too! We've loving FLL too!

If you're talking prefolds and covers, I'll second Green Mountain Diapers and for covers I like Bummis Super Whisper Wraps. For AIO's, I love Cottonbabies Bumgenious Elementals.

I never expected this thread to go 10 pages.

Ellie, thank you! :hurray:I've made a dent in ed. 5 of my WRTR book. I feel like I'm starting to grasp the method and it makes so much sense. I can't even tell you how many times I've said to my husband "hey, there is a reason for....I always thought the English language was just messed up" or "I always told the girls that was just a sightword/exception." LOL! I'm excited to start it with them, but I'm going to need the next month or two to read both editions through so I can fully grasp the method. So for the notebooks...I have a 7.5 yr. old who is technically a 1st grader this year because she has her birthday in early November, but by some states standards she would be in 3rd grade next year. By my standards and most states she'll be an older 2nd grader next year. I'm toying with having her make a rules notebook along with her older sister. Do you think she'd be too young this coming summer? BTW, I also totally understand why you said it's not something I can just do over the summer and I do foresee us using this program for a long time. And thank you, Hunter, for convincing me not to go looking too much further into LOE. ;D

Osh Kosh and Hanna Andersson are my favorites for that age range. I find a lot of clothes used on Ebay, and they still look very nice, even almost new sometimes, but for half the price.

Yes, that's what I was talking about. Since WRTR just teaches the first 3 sounds. I'm completely not opposed to teaching "think to spell" and the babi sound, but I was curious if it was easier for our modern minds/accents to handle the LOE/AAS approach or if in the end, it's easier to "think to spell" and just use the first 3 sounds of Y. I understand the history of it, and quite honestly, many people in the south, with their "strong" accents speak quite close to the more accurate Y sound. At least my husband I think so as we've been playing around with that sound as we read through it.

I've been reading through WRTR and really like it. I think it will be a good program for us, but I'm curious how LOE teaches the Y sound compared to WRTR and if it would be easier to understand.

I don't know. I voted that your probably making too much of it. But... I had an u/s with my last DS and the tech said things like "don't look right now" and turning the screen away, and kept slipping with "he" comments, but then said "oh, that doesn't mean anything, we just always say he in regards to the babies, makes it easier." Anyway, he indeed came out a boy. I kind of suspected, but those comments were a little more obvious than what your tech said.

We've been doing MFW ECC this year and have really enjoyed it! And yes, they have 7/8th grade supplement that you'd probably want to use for your 11, almost 12 year old if you wanted to do this with both girls. And if your 9 yr. old is a solid reader, I imagine they both could do a lot of it independently. I find a lot of the work to be over my girls heads (the advanced portion, we definitely don't do yet) and they are 7 and 8 this year, so I think there would be plenty for an older elementary/middle schooler to enjoy. We really enjoyed the countries game the first half of the year, but I fell off the bandwagon with that since January. I have found that I need to look for other recipes for some countries because the suggestions are not always that good. And of course, there's no Greek study, that comes in the following year of MFW study. I also supplement with netflix and youtube videos as appropriate. I'll admit that I really enjoy the missionary stories, so if you don't, I'm not sure how much it would appeal to you. My girls adore the missionary stories too. ETA: I'm fairly certain the game is included in the parent/teacher supplement, but you would need to get one for each person that would be playing the game or make color copies for each person. Also, the colors coordinate to the Classroom Atlas they include.

I think MUS was the overwhelming suggestion because you need a non-scripted program since you don't have 180 days to devote and you need something less teacher intensive (as Saxon or Rightstart or others might be). But Mathtacular or Math tutor might be fun too, I'm not too familiar with them. You might even consider a Rightstart Abacus and math games, I love the way Rightstart explains addition and multiplication and the games are much more fun for learning facts. Of course, you could not do an entire Rightstart program in the summer, nor are they very focused on one subject of math (addition or multiplication) as MUS is, so that would never work. But the abacus and games might be enjoyed by all of your children.

Kristin, that looks like a really neat program! I'll look into it. We're going to hit the Spalding method hard this summer while we relax on all the other subjects and I really think both will take off reading quite well after 3 or 4 months in the program, as they're both on the verge of taking off anyway. We'll continue it, of course, but I will be able to ease up on the intensity of our phonics/spelling/handwriting study at that point and might be able to look at the Song School Latin or another program.

We just switched to it at level C. But although the games book is fantastic, games are not suggested often. The focus is really on understanding how the numbers work. They say that automaticity should come from playing the games, so I guess you just have to remember to do them on your own. My kids love them, so I try to play games at least once a week.

Thanks for the suggestions. It does say that your primary focus in K should be getting your kid reading well and even starting on that goal in pre-K so that by the time they get to 1st grade, you can focus on grammar, spelling, writing and all the fun subjects. I just read it over the last few weeks. But yes, when a LD is involved, it also says to realize that you're working on a different time table and to accept that. It just seems that there's so much focus on beginning Latin in the elementary years while they're still young enough to absorb it easily.

Looks interesting. I wish there was an audio sample. We like the Rightstart games for working on memorization, which I do feel is important, but my kids do not have all the facts memorized.

I understand from TWTM that I should have had my kids reading well, before they entered 1st grade. That didn't happen for either one. My 3rd grader is at an early 2nd grade reading level (reading harder picture books like elementary Usborne Science books), my 1st grader is at an early 1st grade reading level (emerging, reading books like Green Eggs & Ham). My 3rd grader in particular does not have her vowel sounds mastered, as she has dyslexia and auditory processing issues. So, although I completely understand the reasons for beginning Latin with them soon, I'm just afraid that it would confuse them if I did a program that teaches them to read it. Correct me if I'm wrong, but it looks as though, even in the K level, Prima Latina teaches reading of Latin? Don't you think that would confuse a child on the vowel sounds and any other letters that make different sounds if they were not rock solid in English first? Are there any programs that would teach Latin roots without teaching them to read it so there's less confusion?

So glad to find this thread as I've been seriously considering if I should grant my dd's birthday wish (turning 9) for a Kindle. She's dyslexic and slow to start reading. She's starting to enjoy reading now, but we're not yet to chapter books. We're considering a Kindle Touch, but really have no Kindle experience here. We don't own one, nor any current technology really, such as an Ipad or Ipod or smart phone. I've wondered if she would be able to enjoy it given her struggles with reading, but also wondered if it might help her along.