My daughter loves Secret Keeper, The Delicate Power of Modesty by Dannah Gresh. And check out the Secret Keeper website too, My daughters & I love it. http://www.secretkeepergirl.com/

This is my plan for my 2nd grader, she is fairly strong in LA and really enoys writing, phonics and handwriting. First Language Lessons 2 Writing With Ease 2 AAS- (our first year so plan is to start level 1) Prima Latina Pentime handwriting And I was thinking about adding some independent phonics work like R&S or ETC for extra practice and for independent time when I'm with my other kids- she loves workbooks. Do you think this is complete? Too much? Thank you.

Thanks for the encouragement! Sounds like you were a VERY successful hs teacher!;)

Great advice, thank you.

Yes, this is ds too. He gets 100% on spelling tests but if he writes them in a paper the following week they are spelled wrong. Thank you, I will check this out.

My son who is 9 tomorrow and just completed 3rd grade at private school cannot remember any math facts. We are starting homeschooling this fall so i had him take the saxon placement tests. All the problems he got wrong were simple addition/subtraction/multiplication errors. He gets the concepts & can figure out word problems. I see him counting on his fingers for single digit addition/subtraction. He memorized all these this year & passed his timed drills at school, but now seems to have forgotten them all. The last 2 weeks of school he passed his mutiplication table test, but has not retained any of that 2 weeks later. Would doing 3rd grade level math again benefit him if understands the concepts but can't memorize the facts? Any suggestions? We've tried flash cards, ipad games, saying them outloud. I was planning on Saxon math for him. Do you think there is a curriculum that may be a better fit?

Thank you all so much for the replies & suggestions. We are going to start WWS. I've been looking at the student & teacher sample. I think this is a perfect fit for her. And thanks for the reminder not to worry about grade level. As many times as I've read this & honestly do believe it, it's hard to let go of when coming from traditional schooling. I need to remind myself of this daily.:001_smile:

:bigear:

My 8th grader, new to hs and classical methods, has never done copy work, dictation, diagramming. she's advanced in reading, but doesn't like to write. I would say her grammar may be weak, she doesn't know all the parts of speech. Paragraph organization & sentence structure could use some work. Can you recommend a writing/ grammar program that may be a good fit, even if it's a little below grade level. She does well with workbooks & a lot of structure/ direction. Thanks for any suggestions.

Dd 8th grade will be new to classical methods, has never done copy work, dictation, diagramming. Her writing is probably on grade level for her current school but I'm wondering how she will do with mother of divine grace. I know her grammar is a little weak. Can you recommend a book or program to strengthen both grammar and writing skills. Maybe something she could start on this summer? Thank you for any advice or experiences you could share.

hhhmm...should I consider Seton phonics over Rod & Staff for second grade? I would love to support the Catholic curriculum but R & S phonics gets such rave reviews from everyone. Anyone have experience with both that can offer me some insight? Off to check out Seton phonics.

I'm going to have to look into the More Story Time Treasures, I have a 2nd grader too, finding the right reading books for her has been one of my biggest challenges so far. This is our first year so I'm sticking pretty close to TWTM but it's great to hear what other Catholic families are using. Thank you.

I will need to look into that book, I have heard about it. So, by reading together do you mean me reading to her, taking turns reading aloud or just both reading the same book then discussing? Or maybe it doesn't matter? Thank you, great idea.

Yes, I guess it would be more of an incentive to push them to the next level. They all read well, but get stuck in a rut & are reluctant to try something new. After ds read his first biography he was hooked, but getting him to just try it took some incentive. Maybe the incentive of gift cards for bookstores or kindle downloads would be a good idea. Thanks for all the responses.

this mostly applies to my 12 yo dd who is an advanced reader, but is reluctant to read anything out of her comfort zone. I created a reading list for all my kids which includes some of their choices and some of mine. I was thinking of offering an incentive (like cash) if they complete their list this summer. Bad idea? Curious of everyone's thoughts on this. We always read during the summer but have never really done a list and it's always been their choice, so not the best quality books. I really want to open their minds to all the great books out there and to encourage them to try different types of books. Thanks.

This sounds great, can you tell me what kind of paint you use for this?

Just finishing up Right Brained Children in Left Brained World. What an amazing eye opener this has been. Will be checking out some of the suggestions here.

Here is another review of that book and it has a few sample pages. http://www.love2learn.net/node/1317 I'm hoping to look at it next week at our Catholic homeschool conference/used book sale. There is another Catholic book called Creation to Christ http://cathyduffyreviews.com/history-geography/creation-to-present.htm and here with some sample pages http://www.love2learn.net/samples/histtime.htm This is more of a reference book I think, I'm really tempted because it looks to be complete integration of history, saints, popes, the Church with all the dates/timeline but it's expensive. Hope to look at them both at the book sale & then decide.

I was all set to buy this program but then talked with some people that said the same as pp, it is a mess. It has alot of potential but just isn't there yet. I am going to be using SOTW (ancients) along with The Old World and America by Furlong. Here's a review of it iif you want to take a look http://cathyduffyreviews.com/history-geography/old-world-and-america.htm I'm going to use it to help pull Catholic perspective into SOTW, mostly as a reference for myself, and maybe reading some to the kids. Maybe this would be helpful to you too. It's available through Emmanuel Books and they have some great timeline figures too.

Would you mind posting a pic of this when you get the chance, sounds wonderful. I have a small chalkboard wall in my kitchen which I love for bible verses, but I would prefer whiteboard for schoolroom, because it's smoother and cleaner. But I would love a whiteboard that is attractive too, since it's my dining room, yours sounds "pretty."

Thank you for the replies, happy to be able to check these off my list.

The kids each have a plot in our veggie garden, so they are growing veggies and keeping a garden journal/notebook. DS 9- handwriting. DS 9 & DD 7- keep reviewing math facts whole family- light & fun american history review, mostly read alouds, & dvds Reading!!!! And our usual camping, hiking, fishing & swimming.

I'm planning on using FLL, WWE and Saxon math, but I don't physically have these yet. I'm thinking from the table of contents thats it's pretty straight forward what I will need to do everyday. Do any of you write up lesson plans for these programs? Or are they pretty straight forward on what to do everyday? Thank you.

My 2nd grade dd will be doing Language Arts-FLL 2, WWE 2, AAS, Rod & Staff phonics & Prima Latina Math- Saxon 2 History-SOTW 1 Science- WTM style study of biology Religion-Bible Timeline of Salvation History with homeschool church group, Baltimore Catechism, Saint of the week. Art -Art appreciation & drawing class at co-op Music-Guitar lessons

This is my son, word for word. I just downloaded Right Brain Mult/Div from Currclick, I got this one for free last week http://www.currclick.com/product/49303/Right-Brained-Multiplication-%26-Division?it=1 My plan is to still use saxon, just supplement him with more visual stuff as needed.