I agree to a point. For us the money is worth it even as a supplement because the other aspects of CC are important to us. The presentations, community, science experiments, and art. Sure I can do most of that at home or in a coop but, for now, the CC model works for us. It also helps to keep me accountable some on those weeks I just don't want to do school. One of my three is testing for MM and we still only spent 30-45 minutes daily during the week reviewing memory work and then we listened to the CD in the car. That said it is not for everyone. The one thing that I am not thrilled with about it is giving up one day a week for it.

We love All About Spelling and I am using it will all of mine.

It doesn't take over our week and we haven't made it the spine of our curriculum. It is more supplementary in our house. I love how much my kids have learned in addition to our regular curriculums. They have made great friends and the weekly presentations have been great for them. Mine are in Foundations and Essentials this year and next year I will have kids in Challenge A, Foundations and Essentials. ETA: I am expecting Challenge to be the majority of my son's curriculum but it is fairly well rounded and fun stuff he can still do with me and the younger ones.

We love CC but I don't know that I would give up my kids music lessons to do it. It would be a hard decision. You can do foundations at home with the book without being part of a group. Essentials has been great for my kids though and I am excited about challenge for my oldest next year but if mine were the ages of yours I would choose the music lessons. Once they are essentials age, ~4th grade, then I think it becomes more valuable because of essentials. I think learning writing in a community can be very helpful.

Great!Thanks! I made my own this year but I don't love it and I am trying to decide whether to put the time into tweaking it or trying to find something out there already made.

This is how we do it for the most part too. My kids love making the connections between CC and other things and I love seeing them make the connections. Great idea about writing the history sentences in the books!

I am looking for a planner that will have room for my lesson plans and also our daily stuff like drs appointments for each kid and sports practices. I want it to be divided by day and then by family members. Any suggestions?

I like being able to watch the tutors present information and then being able to implement it on my own. I also like that even if I never manage to get art science into the curriculum completely they do a little of it at Cc every week. I second attending an Open House if at all possible. The presentations are also great. Even my youngest is now completely comfortable speaking in front of people.

We will have 1 in foundations, 1 in foundations and essentials, and 1 in challege A. We balked because of the price at first but are happy we did. Tutoring can help offset some of the expenses. Just doing essentials is a good idea too. The fees cover the costs for the building, tutors, and stuff like science and art.

That is what we are running into. This was our first year homeschooling and although I am happy with the choices we have made next year is going to be a bit more chaotic (if that is possible) so I wanted at least part of it to be scripted and we just have to check the boxes.

Does anyone use CC with another full curriculum? I know it is meant as a full curriculum but I am not good at fleshing out the topics. I would like a curriculum to use along with it that already lines out my literature/history/geography etc. I don't care if it lines up with the timeline for CC as I don't particularly love the way it is organized anyway. We love the memory work for CC but I am not a fan of building my whole curriculum around it. Next year I will have one is 2 in Foundations, 1 in essentials, and 1 in Challenge A.

I have had a lot of frustrations with CC this year too. My family and I enjoy the program itself but there have been a lot of customer service issues that I am not happy with. It takes forever to get items from them and getting registered for CC Connected has been a nightmare for me this year. I think it is because they grew much faster than they expected so I am trying to be patient. Plus I live in Hawaii so everything takes extra long to get here.

Here's mine http://pinterest.com/tm_burriss/

I am waiting on mine too. Hoping I get it tomorrow ;o)

We have done favorite animal, favorite Bible Verse, Funny story or joke, demonstration of how to do something, recite a poem, tell of a favorite historical figure...

This is our first year homeschooling. I am using SOTW for history along with some supplemental stuff as needed. I am not doing a science "cirriculum". We are just going to wing it with science this year and study things we find interesting. We just moved to Hawaii so I am thinking a study of local plants and landforms will be included.

Thanks!

It's going on sale at HSBC on 1 Aug.

My 1st grader is reading but not fluently. Should I purchase a phonics program for him? Is AAR a good program? Any other suggestions. This is our first year homeschooling. He was in PS for K.

Thanks ladies!

Do I need to get the books, CDS, and AG or just the books or cd and the AGs? I tend to want to buy everything all the time instead of what I actually need.

Thanks everyone! I am leaning towards SOTW for this year and then once I get more of a feel for homeschooling move out from there. Decisions, decisions.

Looking for a History curriculum that can be used by all my kids ages 12, 9, and 6. I had planned on SOTW along with Usbourne Encyclopedia but am wondering if my oldest is beyond that now. This is our very first year homeschooling so I am very much a newbie.

Thanks for the links. I am looking at them now and they are definitely helpful.

I have read WTM twice, along with highlights and notations LOL. I also have a list of books I have seen on here that I am reading through. I think I have read too much and am overwhelming myself. I get it in theory but I am having a hard time with the nuts and bolts of planning out a year and settling in a certain curriculum or path for each subject.