We take turns getting the table ready, sometimes it's fancy tea cups, sometimes pretty paper stuff. Whose ever turn it is picks something, usually from outside as a center piece If it's me I try to pick a center piece that somewhat goes with my poetry selections. We take turns picking & reading poetry aloud. And since I like to kill 2 birds with 1 stone, we either do some poetry free writing or nature journal (if the center piece is something of interest from outdoors). Kids enjoy the poetry, setting the table and picking out the treat. We don't actually ever have tea, usually hot chocolate or lemonade. But my daughter loves the fancy tea cups.

We school 4 days a week, take extra time off around Christmas & Holy Week/Easter. And this will be the first year that we do a modified summer schedule. We will still take a week off each month of the summer. But we will continue Math & writing the rest if the summer. We always read, individually & read aloud.

I hear you, I sell stuff on eBay, and my used curriculum on this site And other homeschool used curriculum sites and that money in my paypal goes directly to next years books. I don't buy many new things. I'm always searching for used curriculum and rarely buy anything new.

Wow!

I'm a planner too, but our MT was one thing I tried not to over-plan. I wanted it to flow from the natural rhythm of our household. So, I started with just read aloud & prayer/bible/saint studies because it's natural for us to start our day with prayer. Then I started to add things that naturally felt right for us to add, poetry, art/music, memory & nature study, one thing at a time. Just letting it evolve over time has saved me from the stress I cause myself when I try to over plan or cram too much in. You will find what works best for your family by just starting with a few basics that are important to you. And congrats on the new baby. :)

If I only had 20-30 minutes I would do read aloud. But you could try a larger block of time with a break/snack when needed. My kids are 9 & 11 and they can't do it without a break, and a little treat helps too.

I had the same dilemma, my 6th grader has had latin experience, my 4th grader has had very little (latin roots & half year Prima Latina). I decided to use First Form with them both, because I don't want to be studying/keeping up with 2 different curriculums. So, they will use the same program but work at their own pace. If my 4th grader needs to move slower than that will be fine. But she is very bright & picks things up quickly. I will be learning along with them and I don't want to juggle 2 different programs.

This is what morning time looks like around here- We gather on the couch or on a big cushy blanket on the floor. We start early, we are all early risers so usually have breakfast by 7 and start morning time by 7:30/8 am at the latest. We stretch our legs about half way through and there is always a snack involved :) 1. Prayer, bible, catechism memory work, gratitude journal (everyday)- 30 minutes 2. Read Aloud (everyday)- 45-60 min Break 3.. Fine arts- composer or artist study, using picture books, Masterpiece art cards, classical music (3 days/week) 20 minutes 3. Poetry- some for memory work, some just for fun. We alternate poetry with a Shakespeare play (3 days/week) 20 minutes 4. Nature study, nature journaling. Or I read some kind of science to them. (2 days/week) 20-30 minutes 5. Math, latin, and phonogram flash cards we alternate these so we don't do them all each day. (everyday) 15 minutes 6. kids do their drawing lesson or a project to go along with our artist study, while toddler gets mommy time.

My husband supports us financially & in every other way, but he knows very little about our curriculum except for the subjects we are studying. He does go over flash cards, talks about what books they are reading and in general asks them about what they learned that day. He reads to them most nights before bed, fairy tales, short stories or the bible. I don't generally discuss curriculum or education with him, it's not that he's not interested but he hasn't done all the reading & research I've done so he doesn't really know what I'm talking about. He knows we are mostly classical and that I emphasize reading above most other things, but that's about it as far as my education philosophy.

I really like the idea of nature study during summer & art/music in the winter. Actually, I love it & Im going to do it. This will be our first year trying a (modified) year round schedule. We will still take a whole week off in June, July & August. In addition to nature study we will continue with math 3x week, writing 3x week and grammar 2x week, and phonogram review. And of coarse continue reading & bible everyday.

Following

Following too!

My 3rd grader did Prima Latina this year. My 5th grader has done Latina Christiana I and an online latin class. They will both start First Form by MP in the fall.

I use clear, shoe box size bins to store the cards. We have math facts, latin, roots, phonograms & geography. But the cards that the child is actively working on for that week go into the mini accordion style folders (that I think are made for coupon sorting). Each pocket in the according folder has the cards that they work on for that day. So they rotate between my storage tub and their individual accordion files.

I voted 1-2 hours. That includes our literature, bible and poetry. It's not all in 1 sitting.

We read aloud first thing in morning or right after math (still early though). My oldest 11, just listens. My 9 yo sometimes draws. 3 year old usually is in next room playing or eating otherwise he's just too loud. He interrupts us a lot so food for him is the best way I've found so far to keep it quiet enough for any lengthy reading. He's getting better a quiet solo play, so we are hoping to increase our time.

Great suggestion, thanks Tab. I would never have thought of that!

Thank you very much, I appreciate that info, very helpful!!

If you've been HSing for less than 2 years, how is/did your year going/go? This is our 2nd year. It's going much better than our first! What was your biggest accomplishment? My kids both love to read. We all love our writing program. ​They are beginning to appreciate & like things like poetry, Shakespeare, art, classical music, and nature studies. And doing these things last year was like pulling teeth. What are you looking for next time? Doing less but going deeper into what we do. I might try block scheduling for history and science What are you going to change up for next time? More living books What are you going to continue doing the same? Reading the classics Morning time for literature, art, music, poetry & religion What was the most drastic change you've witnessed in your kids? They love to read great literature. They are beginning to realize that mom might actually know a couple things & have some good ideas. What was most surprising to you, the parent? That my kids are pretty resilient to my mistakes, even if I mess things up, they are still learning more at home. If this is your 2nd year HS, how did it go compared to the first? ​Much better this year for all of us, I learned things don't always have to be perfect, I don't have to cram hundreds of curriculum into my day or try to teach everything. Less is more for us. I learned to relax and my kids did so much better this year.

I'm planning to buy a microscope to add to our nature table this year. Maybe this one. http://www.amazon.co...=I1MHPDF6HOZHKK We are not doing a specific biology curriculum, this will just be for fun & exploring. And it's for my 11 and 9 year old. How difficult is it to make your own slides? Are they easily "messed up" and then not able to see what we are supposed to be seeing. I like the idea of the kids collecting their own specimens and the prepared ones seem so expensive. Yet I don't want it to be so difficult to do on our own that it never gets done. Any thoughts or experience? TIA Julie

I'm planning to buy a microscope to add to our nature table this year. Maybe this one. http://www.amazon.com/dp/B005O0XVTS/ref=wl_it_dp_o_pC_nS_ttl?_encoding=UTF8&colid=JRBZLLNXBJTU&coliid=I1MHPDF6HOZHKK We are not doing a specific biology curriculum, this will just be for fun & exploring. And it's for my 11 and 9 year old. How difficult is it to make your own slides? Are they easily "messed up" and then not able to see what we are supposed to be seeing. I like the idea of the kids collecting their own specimens and the prepared ones seem so expensive. Yet I don't want it to be so difficult to do our own that it never gets done. Any thoughts or experience? TIA Julie

We use Harp & Laurel Wreath too. It has some analysis, which are called "study question" for the rhetorical stage poems. She has the poems divided into Early years/grammar stage/dialectical stage/rhetorical stage. But I use many of the rhetorical stage poems with my 9 & 10 yo. There is Christian content, some of the Psalms & Hymns. I'm not trying to talk you into it, but I think it has wonderful selections: Aquinas, Benet, E. Browning, R. Browning, Byron, Chesterton, Carroll, Dickenson, Emerson, Frost, Holmes, Lear, Longellow, Melville, Milton, Poe, Shakespeare(lots of shakespeare) Stevenson (lots) Tennyson, Thoreau, Whitman, Wordsworth, Yeats and many more those are just the more recognizable authors that I am familiar with. I agree with above poster, maybe try to find a cheap used copy. Other than that we mainly use the library for poetry books.

We used Saxon 2 homeschool last year and it had the meeting book. The grade 2 meeting book includes daily practice of things like skip counting, time, temperature, calendar, money and I think simple graphing. This is the only level I used because Saxon 3 intermediate does not have the meeting book, but something similar called power up.

We tried IEW this year & it was not for us, so I will let someone else talk about that. We love FLL, Ds just finished level 4 & dd will be done by the end of the summer. I love it because grammar was one of my weaker my subjects, I'm learning it again right along with my children. It's scripted, so I can't mess it up. Now that I'm more comfortable I can stray from the script, and I often do, but it's still there to fall back on. There is a lot of repetition & review, and again I am more comfortable skipping this now when I see fit. #1 thing though is that my children do know their grammar, they have retained everything! And they even love to diagram sentences. I know the scripted & repetitive style are a big turn off for some people. But for us it's quick, simple, effective. HTH.

WWE covers copywork, dictation and narration. Very different from IEW, I would look at WWE samples on the website, they are very helpful. We did both programs for the first part of our school year, we alternated weeks. But IEW just wasn't our thing. You don't need to do both. For age 8 I would lean toward WWE, but that's just me. I have come to strongly believe in SWB philosophy of writing. In addition to samples on the website, her talks on writing are beyond valuable. It would be a good way to become acquainted with her philosophy.