Learn to love the crockpot :)

Nothing much here during the day. I really need to go to the grocery but I don't want to so :) We had a long weekend so today was our first day back at school and later we get to go have dinner with my brother and a bunch of friends and family. He is having it at a fish place so I am not sure how I feel about that yet :001_huh: Not a vacation for us but I was singing Christmas songs in the shower this morning :lol:

I signed up for their emails and I once...about a year ago got an email and they were having a discount on some items, but that is the only time I have seen it.

I am using both SL and HOD. I can't choose really so I do both :) Right now I am on the last 6 weeks of P4/5 with my dd. This is her K year and she will be 6 in Dec. I think P4/5 is a great starting place because it transitions the kids from picture books to chapter books. The read alouds in LHFHG are just short chapter books, so by the time we are close to the end of P4/5 it is a good spot to start LHFHG. SL P4/5 takes about 30 minutes for us to finish and about 30 minutes for LHFHG so doing both really doesn't take that long togteher. If you add in a separate LA program that may take longer. I do LA K with dd also and then math. It is a pretty good place for her. I will most likely start her on Core A when she is doing better with chapter books. I did SL Core A with my ds for his K year and I wish I had waited till his first grade year. For my ds I am using Core B and Beyond. I am close to the end of B right now and about 9 weeks into Beyond. The schedules don't really match up the way we do it, but HOD doesn't really add much time onto our schedule. I had origionally intended on just doing HOD this year and combining my oldest 2 together in Beyond but they don't do well together yet so I just kept goign with Beyond for my ds and P4/5 with my dd. I liked HOD so much with my ds that I went ahead and got LHFHG for my dd. Bigger looks like a nice step up next year so I will probably have to decided on which one I want to go with then for my son. They are both good programs and I really like them both. The plus side is you can do HOD and just add in SL readers and read alouds or use SL and add in what you want from HOD. The thing that gets me more for HOD right now are since mine are younger there are more hands on stuff scheduled in the guides and my kids love that. SL doesn't really give you the hands on that some kids like, but as they get older they may not need that as much. :)

I would probably check out Winter Promise AS1 or some of the Readers from Sonlight that go with Core D

That is what I did last year, SL LA, FLL and WWE. It worked well for the most part I just added in a couple boxes at the bottom of the SL LA and wrote in what we did with FLL and WWE and cut out SL copywork, and in spots of FLL I skipped a few lessons if my ds knew it pretty well :)

thanks for the advice, I will look into all that :)

I will put in that doing 2 HOD guides isn't bad at all right now and I have 2 little ones to add in later so I totally understand wanting to combine. HOD does put in independent work for the kids as they get older, so your oldest will be doing some independent work by the time you add in your little one. :)

have you looked into trying to combine them with Sonlight? I am working through HOD and Sonlight and trying to get my 2 oldest combined. :) I tried combining this year in beyond but my dd who is 5 isn't ready yet, so they are in LHFHG and BLHFHG. I might take a year off with my oldest and try to combine them when dd is ready for bigger and use Sonlight for another year with my son :)

My ds really loves doing Shurley English and we are 2/3 of the way through SE 1. He is technically in 2nd grade but does mostly 3rd grade work. I was going to buy the 2nd grade book for it, but he really wants me to get him 3rd grade stuff :) Can anyone tell me if there is a big jump from 2 to 3?

We have the Leapfrog Letter Factory and my dd pretty much taught herself how to read after she learned the letters. I wasn't trying to teach her how to read just giving her something to do so I could do some school with my ds. I have the Sonlight K readers which are pretty much like BOB books and she loves those. They come in a box and I just let her play with them and she would look at the pictures and then she just started putting the sounds together. On the flip side, my ds would never have done that :)

I have my ds use R&S Bible 2 independently, read and then answer the questions, also copywork or handwriting. Math he does mostly independently, I'll explain a new concept and then he does it then I check it when he is done. I'm also trying to have him read more so I have him sit with a book for 10 or 20 minutes and have him read...but that also depends on a child's reading abilities too :)

My ds will be in second grade next year and I am trying to figure out what to do for LA (Grammar/spelling/writing). Some days he can do 3 sentences with no problem and other days it is a struggle to get him to do 1 at all or a few words. He doesn't mind doing AAS with the letter tiles, but that is about all he can do without complaining. Any advice :) Since he is my oldest he is the guinea pig of sorts and I'm not sure exactly what I should be expecting from him even. How much should a second grader be able to do and what program would you suggest, and what should I include? Thanks :)

www.aboverubies.org Nancy Campbell is a great author who really has encouraged me in all aspects of motherhood and is a huge supporter of homeschool moms with advice in all aspects of parenting. Her books are great, she has a free magazine she sends out and has great words of encouragement on her website and fb :)

My first question would be do you read longer chapter books to your dd right now? And secondly can she read yet or write yet? If she is ready for LA 1 then you could add in AAS. My ds doesn't like to write a lot so that has been great. If she loves workbooks then I would order the ETC books along with the LA program. People like those even if they don't like the LA from Sonlight. I personally like SL LA K and 1. We hit a road bump at 2 but I think that is because of my son's lack of interest in writing:) You could also add in a handwriting program if you like. My kids both love the Science DVD from Sonlight that have the experiments on them. I would say as long as you have reading, writing, and math covered you will have enough for a K year. Art can always be fun to throw in there too. Right now the plan for my dd K year coming up is SL Core A, Singapore Math 1, Finish up LA k and move into LA 1, probably do science B with her brother or maybe Apologia. You've probably already heard this before, but Sonlight core B isn't a typical 1st grade program, it is more of a solid 2nd grade program.

My ds loves Singapore. It is the first math program we have used that he likes :) Horizon had too much writing in it for him so it was a struggle to get done. We had tried Horizons, MUS, Miquon, and finally Singapore was the winner :)

1B would be fine to go into. I went with 1A after Horizons K and it was all review. 1B will get into basic multiplication and division towards the end.

I made sure we had all our addition and subtraction facts done. I eventually got another workbook, but when that is done we will move onto multiplication facts :)

thanks, I will check those out :)

This coming year will be my first official year homeschooling 2 kids. I have used Sonlight P3/4 through core B with my ds and dd is doing P4/5 right now. Having 4 kids I am really wanting to combine and truthfully I would like something where I don't have to hunt down books a lot :) Any suggestions? This will be for 2nd and a kindergartner. Thanks.

I used 100EZ lessons till the kids were reading CVC words well and then went into SL grade 1 readers with ETC.

I'd definitely go with my husband, but my family would go crazy if we stayed with them...mostly because of my dd who is 5 and has SPD :)

I am finishing up SL Core B...the first part of world history and I was wanting to combine my dd who is starting kindergarten with him. I was thinking about using SOTW 2. I saw where SOTW 2 was written for 2-5th I think so would it be too hard for her, or should I just redo Ancients and start with SOTW 1. Thanks