I, too, talked with Art Reed at the Midwest convention, such a nice man! I enjoyed his workshop as well. We use the DIVE CD's for 54 and 65. Starting at Algebra 1/2, we will use Art Reed's lessons. My kids and I really like DIVE and if Mr. Reed didn't make his CD's, we'd continue. With DIVE you don't see a teacher, just hear his voice along with a virtual chalkboard. With Art Reed, you actually see him standing at a white board while teaching. I also got Mr. Reed's book, which is very helpful. http://homeschoolwithsaxon.com/index.php

My 8yo ds is struggling, too. I was at the Midwest Homeschool Conference in Cincinnati last weekend and looked at Rocket Phonics. I talked with the author for quite some time and was impressed with it. It uses a lot of games to get the child to use full body movement while learning. I then called my dd at home and had her look up reviews on RP at Homeschoolreviews.com and all the reviews were very good. Then I prayed about it. After looking at several other programs I felt led back to RP. I went back to the RP booth and bought it. We start Monday! I'm going to use it with my 8yo, 5.5 yo, and 3yo at the same time. They have demonstration videos on Youtube if you want to see it. I know I haven't used it yet so I can't tell you how well it works, but I'm very optimistic and love that I can use it with my three youngest at the same time. Check it out: Rocketphonics.com

Please don't switch! I did a lot of curriculum hopping with math and am so sorry I did. My two oldest kids (12 and 14) are very behind in math, don't understand it, and they hate to do it. We switched to Saxon this year and it's going fine, we will stick with it. I sure wish someone gave me this advice when we started home schooling.

Does anyone let their child write the answers right in the text instead of having to write the sentences out? The books are quite inexpensive so I don't have a problem buying new for each child, but I'd feel bad throwing a hard cover book away at the end of the year! I know a lot of mom's have the child do the work orally, but with 6 kids, whew! How long would that take?? So, what do you do?

Hey, thanks Ladies, you've all been very helpful!!

I don't think Phonics Pathways come with the Pathway Readers. I think they are totally separate curricula. At least I've never seen the two go together. I use PP and love it. It's an open and go book, no frills, no fuss. You can use any easy readers you have in your home. We use Explode the Code books along with it.

I thought PP was very easy to follow. Just read the directions at the beginning and go. I looked through OPG and thought NO Way!

Ha! I can still see Mitch's Christmas album cover! I loved singing to that every Christmas as a kid. Thanks for the memories!

Hey, thanks Ladies!! You've all made it "click" in my brain, great ideas!

Please help me understand how to do SWB recommendations for history with a wide age range of children! I've read SWB article "Classical Schooling with Multiple Ages" but I think it was written before she wrote her SOTW series. In that article it says to have the grammar stage kids work in the Usborne and Kingfisher books along with the logic and older kids. Ok, no problem. But what about using SOTW? Would I be doing two separate curricula, splitting the kids up? (grammar kids doing SOTW and olders using the other rec. books). Is this easier than what I'm making it out to be? In the Fall my kids will be in: 9th, 8th, 5th, 3rd, 1st, and 3.5yo. Thanks for your help!

Hello All, I'm new here and thought I'd post an intro and questions. My dh and I have 6 children ages: 14dd (8th), 12.5dd (7th), 9.5ds (4th), 7.5ds (2nd), 5.5ds (K) and 3dd. This is our 9th year homeschooling. We started our hs journey using Bob Jones with videos. I've dappled with Char. Mason and classical, to going back to BJ, now this year we switched to Saxon for math and ACE for science, English, and spelling. History pretty much has not been done this year. My older kids are behind, especially in math, due to my curriculum hopping. They do not have a good foundation in English or math. My 7.5yo (boy) is a later learner. He is struggling in reading (only 3 letter words) so he's working on Phonics Pathways and ETC book 1. Progress is s-l-o-w. OK. So. I've purchased TWTM book three times. I really like it and want to homeschool classiscally. I'm having a hard time wrapping brain around it all and trying to figure out how to implement it with 6 kids. I think that's why I've always fallen back on a set boxed curriculum. Where do I begin??? I'm thinking of using MOH for all the kids. This seems easier to me than the suggestions in WTM. I just can't comprehend how to do the history with many age levels. What do you think? I do have the schedule for MOH and SOTW combined. If you've done that, feel free to chime in here! For my older 2 kids, I'd use R&S English, 6th-10th gr. books. For my 9.5 yo, would it be OK to start on FLL 4, then into R&S? Since he's quite weak in English, should he start in level 3? I'm going to start FLL 1&2 with my 7.5yo. I looked at WWE and not quite sure I understand it. Do I need the hard cover book in addition to the soft cover workbooks? What level do I begin? My kids have very little writing practice. Is WWE for a certain age level, or could my olders use it, too? I understand WTM spelling suggestions. We're sticking with Saxon for math. How about Latin? I'm also interested in Greek. Not sure what to do with the olders. Should I teach Latin with all kids combined? What curriculum would be good for that? Feel free to comment on this! Thanks for listening to me this far! I really want to follow the WTM, but am really at a loss how to begin! I sure wish I started this right from the beginning. I'm going to the Midwest Conference in Ohio in April where Susan Wise Bauer will be speaking, so looking forward to that! I hope to be able to pick her brain a bit!:D Thanks, Terri

I haven't been to that group in a few years and decided to go take a peek and it abruptly ends in Oct. 2008. What happened??:confused:

I'm not sure about a forum for SOS specifically, but there is a Yahoo group for Alpha-Omega curriculum (SOS, Lifepac, Horizons, etc.). http://groups.yahoo.com/group/alphaomegahomeschool/?yguid=253098607