I can't stop thinking about this thread and dreaming for my kids! So now I'm thinking there needs to be some kind of homeschool dream specialist that takes your kiddos strengths/goals/desires and explores how to implement them into some amazing out-of-the-box school plan! Anyone want to be the forerunner? Help me dream for my kids and I'll help you dream for yours? DD11 lives for reading, French, baking, crafting, art, and horses... BUT she's really gifted at math/logic/engineering as well. Ha! How to tie those all together? Or maybe just focus on a few every year? I know next year she'll take a high school French course online and keep working with her tutor to grow her fluency... DS9 loves history, nonfiction, the outdoors, and is a natural entrepreneur. Last year at private school, he started his own football league, made all the posters, fundraised by selling fruit snacks to kids at break, bought jerseys, recruited players and coaches, created the official rules... We even ended up making football cards with each boys' stats and photo :-). How can I utilize these skills for school? There must be a way! Maybe spend the semester working on building a home business, like a poster mentioned above? DD7 is LOVES other cultures and wants to be a doctor/missionary. We just found out she's dyslexic, so academics have been more difficult for her than her older siblings, but she is sooo determined and hard working. She also has incredibly good fine motor skills and athleticism. Would a year of studying human anatomy and world missions be in order? I agree with the above too, LOVING hearing all your thoughts!

Would you do it? DS9 really needs help in these areas. Also general habits and hygiene (making lots of lists and following them seems to help). I always want to work on these things more intentionally but never seem to find the time. I'm thinking of allowing DS9 to have a ton of freedom about what he studies (definitely a self-motivated learner when the subject interests him) and how he spends his day, while one-on-one time with me revolves mostly around figuring out this other stuff. And we'd probably keep going with math... And maybe some assigned reading... Ha. It's hard. So would you? And any thoughts or ideas on how to?

We basically just matched up where we could. AO obviously goes FAR more in depth than SOTW, but we go through SOTW much quicker than normal (1 volume a semester) so that left us room to go deeper with AO readings.

On the "dreaming" side, I've often considered and semi planned on taking a semester off formal studies to really focus on habits, hygiene, social thinking, and self-regulation with DS9. Oh how he needs work in those areas, while academics come too easy... Perhaps it's still a possibility.

The comment about the worth of even accomplishing 25% of the out-of-the-box plans is so good for me right now. This school year we had elaborate plans that haven't quite happened the way we expected... We have a 13 month old in tow, so we'd planned on core schooling afternoons and making mornings all fun school. Made some beautiful schedule and pin boards and all... Monday was supposed to be "Farm School" where we went and shadowed/helped a local urban farming family we know in preparation for buying an acerage (which we are in contract on now!!). Tuesday was "School of the Spirit" which is hard to explain... Basically we paint and color and worship and talk extensively about random musings like what "Love is patient" actually looks like in real life, for us. Wednesday was "Nature study" in a more formal way including journaling and oldest working on her herbarium. Thursday was "Outdoor Survival" (in the woods behind or house) which all three are kind of obsessed with, led by DS9. He is quite the expert on edible plants and grubs, how many calories each will give, the best places to build shelters, etc. Friday was indoor baking (recent mini obsession with Great British Baking Show) and crafting (working on colonial cross stitched Sampler to go with American History). Well, we ended up traveling extensively with dh for work and rarely being home, and even to say it's happened 25% of the time would be an exaggeration... But it has happened! And for that, I guess we can celebrate :-)

Following! Excited to see what comes up here. I know we will do an extensive botany study (thinking about Guest Hollow's study) along with extensive gardening and our first try at rain water harvesting, composting, and beekeeping... For DS9, out-of-the-box is the only option... this year I haven't had time to plan well and I feel like we aren't doing enough. He is writing two non fiction books, though.

I am completely undecided about Lit/comp/poetry and history... Possibly AO Year 7 or A Mind in the Light Year 7. I keep looking at Omnibus but... the sample makes me excited and frustrated at the same time. Math- we will finish Pre-A and start Algebra, probably Foersters Art- The Virtual Instructor classes, one morning of extended time weekly and continue picture study rotation with youngers Music- piano, composer study rotation French- continue with tutor and duolingo, take an online class Science- we are moving to gardening zone 9 so thinking in depth botany study to go along with extensive gardening? Maybe tie in genetics? Need to research this more Bible- daily reading, Tozer's The Pursut of God and Lewis's The Great Divorce Wow I feel like I'm missing a lot... Too much else going on right now

Looking for options for next year. Dd has a pretty good background and is currently reading through Junie B Jones and similar books in French with a tutor. We will continue with the tutor and duolingo but looking for a class she can take for high school credit. Also, we are moving to California so perhaps could have cost of the class covered? Not sure if that limits our options though.

LITERATURE— FIAR selections, The House at Pooh Corner, Thornton Burgess books, The Real Mother Goose, James Herriot’s Treasury for Children READING— movable alphabet, phonogram cards/tiles (learn these first), BOB Books/early readers, then onto simple progression into beginning chapter books if child moves quickly WRITING— Sandpaper letters, sandbox for letter practice, wide-ruled notebook practice starting with shapes and lines and then moving on to write through all phonograms MATH-- C-rods, clock manipulative, geometric shapes, place value cards, education unboxed videos, whiteboard PRACTICAL LIFE/HABITS— Montessori inspired practical life focus, so kiddo learns self awareness, to get dressed, tie shoes, get himself water, enjoy cleaning up and things being in their place, etc. Lacing cards, lots of cooking and baking SCIENCE— living science with units focusing on simple concepts— gas, liquid, solid; classifying living things and maybe classifying vertebrates; life cycle of frog (hatch tadpoles); life cycle of butterfly (hatch caterpillars); Montessori style matching cards/photographs of different trees with real leaves/nuts, puzzles learning parts of flower, playing with magnets, etc. Using Let’s Read and Find Out Science books and other selections to correspond. MUSIC— introduce sections of the orchestra and individual instruments/their sounds through hands on exposure/play and listening to musical selections. Introduce 2-3 composers (Vivaldi, Beethoven, and Mozart maybe) and listen to their works often. Learn 2-3 hymns and 1-2 folk songs. Lots of free dance with contemporary worship and colorful silks. ART— Learn color wheel (Montessori style), free play and simple projects with paint, chalk, clay, markers, colored pencils, oil pastels, mixed media, foil, tape, mosaics, etc., Play with famous art matching cards GEOGRAPHY— Wooden geography puzzles, orally identifying continents and oceans on globe, sensory trays that introduce music/art/food/photographs of different countries and cultures FRENCH-- Immersion/language exposure as much as possible, Little Pim DVDs for fun BIBLE/DEVOTIONAL LIFE— Read through Jesus Storybook Bible, discuss openly whatever the Lord is teaching me in that season, Prayer Wall (pictures of friends/relatives/strangers from all over the world, choose one every day and pray together), prophetic art notebook for any pictures/words/verses kiddo feels lead to paint/draw and discuss, 2-3 service projects in our community (food kitchen, nursing home, etc.), Seeds Family Worship CDs for memorization OUTDOORS— All afternoon, every day, no matter the weather-- playing in the creek, building forts, collecting eggs, picking fruit, gardening, climbing trees, making up elaborate fantasy games… etc :-)

-we come from heavy ambleside/CM background? -we enjoy quality over quantity? -we are passionate believers but not reformed and believe strongly against 5 point Calvinism? -we like books that promote how to think rather than what to think?

We like the IP A LOT for the challenge problems, but most of the chapter/problems are not more challenging than the workbook. Just a select portion and then those designated "challenge." One major difference to note is that the IP has far more problems per page printed much smaller. The formatting is not like the WB/TB in that way and way more cluttered, kiddos must write a lot more, etc. With my oldest we could use just the TB and the IP in full, but with my middle (actually more mathy) boy we used the TB together/orally, WB selectively as needed on a whiteboard, and IP just challenge questions on a whiteboard. My oldest will work independently through hundreds of math problems with no complaints, but my middle boy wants to write as little as possible, so this worked for us.

Coming from a CM background (lots of living books and hands on nature study), Elemental Science Earth and Space was a bust for us... So incredibly boring. Poorly chosen reading material and simplistic/silly experiments IMO.

We use both. My kids and I love, love, love SOTW... They remember it extremely well (even years later), it's perfect for narration, and the audio CDs are so easy. We combine for history though, so despite being in "different years" with Ambleside literature, we do history together. We do include Ambleside history readings, but not all. Basically, Ambleside supplements our SOTW and goes deeper into many topics. We do still use four year cycle. Next year when DD11 starts year 7, I may have her go through the six year cycle and combine just the youngers with SOTW. Still deciding... But she will have been through all of SOTW, some of it more than once.

DD did pass the Barton pre-test (she's worked on a lot of those skills through AAR/AAS). She had a little bit of trouble on Task C but still scored within "passing." The Barton specialist thought the dyslexia may be more severe because of where DD is at based on how much work she's done. I have documentation (videos) of her working with AAS sounds/tiles when she was 4, and she's had consistent work with different programs since then (she will be 8 in May). So 3 solid years of instruction and she is still sounding out very basic words. She can read CVC type readers (Bob books) but still has trouble with almost anything else (Owl at Home, Little Bear, etc.). We were working through The Reading Lesson and she enjoys that, but again progress is S-L-O-W and she works so hard, but even short periods of time leave her looking physically and emotionally exhausted. She doesn't carry words over from one text/font/book to another and often sounds out a word (even in the same text, same page) countless times. I'm not sure why Barton lady said to hold off on starting Barton 1 until testing, but that was prior to Barton pre-test and I don't think she knew that AAR/AAS was O-G based? She went on a long tangent about how she's seen so many parents of dyslexics use those programs unsuccessfully... But again I'm not sure she really knows? She was pro-homeschooling and said homeschool parents are really the only they can recommend to do Barton tutoring because of time investment needed. So I don't think she was trying to use scare tactics to get business. Sounds like you all would go ahead and get started? Do you think it'll interfere with later testing/getting an IEP? We are planning on homeschooling throughout, but this girl has her heart set on being a medical doctor... Like dead set. Obviously things can and most likely will change, but if she does want to go a route with heavy college/graduate studies I would love her to qualify for any accommodations that could help her be successful.

Pre evals looked like DD7 has severe dyslexia (according to an internationally recognized Barton specialist). She said we should wait on starting Barton 1 until we get official testing because it could impact scores/remediate some of the issue. What do you guys think? We cannot get official diagnosis until late March/early April, and that feels like a long time to wait to start helping her! Considering just jumping in anyway... Or do we just keep going with AAS and reading simple stories?

Thank you all. I think we will look at Sequential Spelling-- I'll give her the placement test. She can't self-correct with accuracy, but it helps for her to try. I think revisiting the rules and syllable breakdowns would be helpful. She memorized them as rules but didn't get a ton of practice actually using them unprompted. Thanks for this! This sounds like just what she needs. Yes, that's good to think about. Maybe it'll work itself out in time. I know it is a cause of embarrassment for her, though (especially when she says words wrong out loud in front of peers). This is good as well. She's a decent typist but we are really hitting keyboarding hard this semester, so that should help.

Dd11 taught herself to read at age 4. She was reading chapter books in K and has kept up reading advanced selections (ambleside, etc) since then. She absolutely loves to read and her comprehension and analysis are really good. Her spelling, however, has always been a problem. Once we really noticed the issue (around 3rd grade) we tried some phonics/spelling remediation with AAS 1-4. She then went to a classical private school that used Spalding for reading/spelling, and within the year she had tested out of high school spelling (passed all tests and memorized all spelling rules) and no longer had to take the spelling class. She can easily memorize spelling words short term for a weekly test but they don't stick and stay with her. She also has a lot of trouble sounding out new words and mispronounces a lot. She reads the words and knows what they mean because of context exposure but can't actually say then correctly. In a recent free write exercise, she misspelled available, vacuum, luxurious, mysterious, littering, and management. What would you do? I'm thinking more reading aloud together. We also do dictation exercises daily, but I'm not sure what spelling program we should be doing, or if there is some other way to work on these skills. We currently have Spelling by Sound and Structure 6, but I'm honestly not too enthusiastic that it'll make a difference. Thoughts?

Dd11 taught herself to read at age 4. She was reading chapter books in K and has kept up reading advanced selections (ambleside, etc) since then. She absolutely loves to read and her comprehension and analysis are really good. Her spelling, however, has always been a problem. Once we really noticed the issue (around 3rd grade) we tried some phonics/spelling remediation with AAS 1-4. She then went to a classical private school that used Spalding for reading/spelling, and within the year she had tested out of high school spelling (passed all tests and memorized all spelling rules) and no longer had to take the spelling class. She can easily memorize spelling words short term for a weekly test but they don't stick and stay with her. She also has a lot of trouble sounding out new words and mispronounces a lot. She reads the words and knows what they mean because of her context exposure but can't actually say then correctly. In a recent free write exercise, she misspelled available, vacuum, luxurious, mysterious, littering, and management. What would you do? I'm thinking more reading aloud together. We also do dictation exercises daily, but I'm not sure what spelling program we should be doing, or if there is some other way to work on these skills. We currently have Spelling by Sound and Structure 6, but I'm honestly not too enthusiastic that it'll make a difference. Thoughts?

What an amazing thread... So glad to stumble upon this

So difficult and this would undoubtedly change, but here are some of our must reads- Preschool- The Real Mother Goose, The World Treasury of Children's Literature Vol. 1 and 2 K- James Herriot's Treasury for Children, Thornton Burgess Collection, The House at Pooh Corner 1- Little House in the Big Woods, Grimm's Fairy Tales, Charlotte's Web 2- Baby Island, The Sign of the Beaver, The Story of Dr. Dolittle 3- The Secret Garden, The Wizard of Oz, Black Beauty 4- Island of the Blue Dolphins, The Little White Horse, Narnia series (at least The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe and The Silver Chair) 5- The Hobbit, Anne of Green Gables, Tales From Shakespeare 6- Where the Red Fern Grows, Little Women, Swiss Family Robinson 7- Lord of the Rings, Bulfinch's Mythology, A Christmas Carol 8- The Giver, Oliver Twist, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn

MM sounds like what you're looking for. It's definitely more independent and scripted than Singapore (easier to teach in that sense), but still similar in approach. We've used both SM and MM and have found swapping between the two easy. Both have given the kids a really solid background and they have no issues with other math material. Keep in mind that MM has far more writing/problems for each topic, so if your third grader would prefer less writing, you might want to consider a different program-- perhaps Beast Academy, which can be fairly independent depending on your student.

So much change coming for us as well. We will finish SOTW 3 and then dive deeper into Early American with George Washington's World and lots of living books, as well as some really fun projects. We will make butter, cross stitch samplers, whittle arrows, sew bonnets, and build forts. Dd11 will transition into AoPS Pre-A, take her first bravewriter online course, and start some ACT prep work. I'm watching her begin to really take charge of her own education and she's getting so excited :-) Ds9 will switch from MM back to SM 5 and ditch almost everything else to work on writing his nonfiction books.He will also start more serious work in French. Dd7 will finally go in for dyslexia evals... In the meantime, I ordered Barton 1 to begin. We will keep plugging away with AAS and SM1. The biggest shift is coming for me I think... Feeling so much PEACE about our schooling and where everyone is at.

Can I find the level 1 pretest on their website somewhere? I can't seem to find it...

TOTALLY agree with watching education unboxed long division videos, and I also like the way MM introduces it. After those two things, my DS fully understands it conceptually (which helps him remember what to do the algorithm). Here is a video of Maria Montessori describing her steps for understanding long division conceptually. Basically, we start with problems that we can talk out easier. I wish I could draw/write out some examples but for something like 244/2, we write it normally with the division bar and then describe it conceptually, something like, "We want to divide 244 into two equal groups. If we take the two hundreds and split them into two groups, how many hundreds are in each group? (1). If we take the four tens and split it into two groups, how many tens are in each group? (2). Last, if we split the four ones into two groups how many ones is in each (2). **This can and should be shown with manipulatives or drawings** Once they have this down they move into problems where there are place value gaps, like 204/2. Same thing, except they realize the zero holds the tens place here. Then a problem like 240/2, then build up from there. When you do a problem like 388/2, you describe it along the lines of, "If we wanted to split 388 into two groups, how many hundreds would be in each group? (1). Are there any hundreds left over? (subtract 2 from 3 hundreds in the algorithm here and show with manipulatives). That leaves us with one hundred left so let's exchange that for 10 tens instead. Now let's "bring down" our other 8 tens (bring down the 8 in the problem). Now we have 18 tens to divide into our two groups, so how many tens would we have in each group? (9). Great, do we have any left over? (now you are always asking this to remind them to subtract in the algorithm). No we don't, so we are just left with our 8 ones to divide into our two groups, how many will be in each group? (4). I hope that makes sense and helps in some way. Definitely watch the other videos!

Should I jump right into Barton right away while waiting on public school? Also, I live close to this place that uses Barton materials. They have an eval for $400, mostly to create recommendations for tutoring through them ($50 an hour for 80+ hours, again not realistic). Would it be helpful just for the 1 hour consultation after?