I can't get the link to work. Anyone else??

He is almost 12. I have a 5 yr old who would probably be interested as well although he told me today "just knowing how to speak English is good enough" for him. :lol: What are some good choices?? Thank you!!

Thank you so much!! This does seem to be exactly what I'm looking for.

With all this talk of vaccinations, I'm curious to see what a suggested delayed schedule would look like. I have seen the recommended *regular* schedule and the idea of getting all those at one time is kind of scary to me. If we decide to vaccinate, I know for sure we won't follow that schedule. My older two are current (well my 5 yr old isn't getting his boosters but has had all the infant vaccinations) but my younger two aren't. My 3 yr old only received his 2 month vaccinations. My youngest hasn't had any. My situation is different from most who haven't had their kids vaxed. My favorite aunt was a nurse who handled all of the vaccinations for my older two boys. She was wonderful...loved on my kids when they cried, loved on me when I cried because of their crying, was gentle and kind.... She was diagnosed with cancer when I was pregnant with my three yr old and stopped working shortly before he was born. I took him in for his 2 month vaccinations with her replacement. It was a horrible, horrible experience. She passed away while I was pregnant with my fourth child. The time between then and now has given me time to weigh my options but to be honest I'm still kind of on the fence about the whole thing. Everything I have read is either vehemently opposed or for vaccinations. I have yet to read anything that suggests some are more important than others. My pediatrician asks if we're up to date any time we are there. I reply with a no and she moves on. She is pro-vax, but feels these decisions are best made by the parents. My husband is just as confused as I am on the subject. All this to say I would like to see a delayed schedule if one exists online. I have googled but only found simliar requests to mine....no links to any online info. If anyone has their own delayed schedule that they wouldn't mind sharing, that would be helpful too. Also I've glanced through some of the other threads on this subject. I'm not asking for opinions and whatnot either way. Really I would just like to see a delayed schedule. Thank you!!

SOOOO scary!!! I couldn't imagine!! I too burst into tears while reading your story. Thank God she stayed put and the young man waited with her.

My oldest and 2nd are 6 years apart. I wish they were closer in age. They aren't very close brothers. My 2nd and 3rd are 23 months apart and I think that is a great spacing!! They are best buds!! Both frequently say the other is his "best friend in the whole wide world." They watch out for each other. My 3rd who is 3 says "don't be mean to my brother" when I get onto my 2nd. Since 23 months worked out so well with those two, we planned the same between our 3rd and 4th. Would have been perfect if #4 hadn't decided to come a month early!! :lol: So there are 22 months between 3 and 4. I think they'll be great friends. too. My younger three birthdates: June 29, 2004 May 22, 2006 March 24, 2008 And just for fun, my oldest birthday is Jan 21, 1998. I guess I have a thing for the 20's!!! :lol: The biggest downside to having all three so close is the my oldest being so apart from the younger three. He feels left out sometimes. We try to make him feel special though by letting him do things that the youngers aren't allowed to do yet like special bike rides to the library via the ice cream place and playing at friends' houses. I really wish we hadn't waited so long in between 1 and 2 though.

Here is a list of words by book: http://wordlywise3000.com/word_lists/

That is TOO cool!!! LOVE it!! :001_wub:

We use MEP and Saxon for math. I go back and forth in my mind as to which is the supplement. :D I like both for totally different reasons. We use OPG and ETC. I do consider ETC the supplement to OPG and we don't do ETC everyday. I'm also going to throw in some Blend Phonics and Progressive Phonics next week just to get more practice for him. We have R&S English and spelling, WW, and TLP for my oldest. Right now we aren't using TLP but I plan on adding it in after Christmas. His spelling is pretty horrible so I decided to add spelling this year, although I can't quite let go of WW because I love it for him so much.

Thank you for the link to the game!! I'm sure he will love it!! :D

Thank you for the replies!! We may just backtrack a bit. I have BOB books, but always forget about them. We'll pull them out and see how he does there. Just happy to know we're on the right track!! :D We started making books of the little stories a few lessons ago just for fun. I am printing the words on index cards I cut in half. Then he glues them to construction paper and illustrates them. He is having a good time doing that so we could go back and make books of the rest of the stories. Maybe it won't seem like backtracking to him if we do that. He is big on moving forward, not stopping, and definitely not going back....gets that from his Daddy!! :lol:

:iagree:

I have never taught anyone to read. My oldest was taught in public school. My k'ner can read any cvc word but he has to still sound out every word which is fine. He is doing GREAT! However when reading a short story likes those in OPGTR, I think he is just reading each word and not connecting them into the sentence. He doesn't get that he is reading a story. I have to reread it for him to get that it is a story. Is this common? Are we still on the right track or should we put OPG down and work on sounding out words more smoothly? Is there something else we can work on? I have Don Potter's Blend Phonics printed out. I was thinking about stopping OPG for a while and working on that.

We use storage tote and hanging file folder as well and it has been such a blessing to our homeschool. It has made my oldest SO independent which was what he needed. He has ADHD/ODD and this system keeps him on track. Instead of having to direct him back to his work after...every....single...lesson, I'm only having to send him back to his workbox after lunch!! He stays with it all morning, only coming to me when he needs help, has a question, or he has reached his math or English file. We have a whole new language in our house. Instead of telling me he has finished copywork, English, Math, etc; he says "1, 2, 3, and 4 are done." :D I love it. My 5 yr old loves the workboxes too. He knows how many numbers have to be completed before he can get on the computer, go outside and play, or whatever other activity he really looks forward to each day. We also like to travel with Daddy sometimes. Our workboxes keep us organized and all of our books together. We can pick up and go anytime!! Seriously I have yet to find something I don't like about them!! Here are pictures of our boxes.

I have 12 set up for my boys but I'm finding that my k'ner consistently needs at least 6. We have separate cards for history and science (no boxes) though since we do them together. I don't have a lot of space here so I use a hanging file box and hanging files for our workboxes. Each has two expanded file folders for bulkier items. I will probably use those Sterlite three drawer organizers for my youngest boys when they are ready so I can fit all their daily art projects in one drawer. I plan on getting the big 12x12 ones. Probably two each so they would have six drawers each to start. I can easily fill 10-12 or so files in my 6th grader's workbox.

My 5 yr old can do his copywork pages that I print (working on writing the letters neatly) on his own. Plus I can get him started on ETC and he can usually finish on his own. I have both older boys write in a daily journal. I have my 5 yr old tell me what to write, then he copies it and draws a picture. I get the daily journal prompts from here. I have some file folder games that I made for him to do on his own. Here are some links to my blog where I talk about some of the independent things I made for the youngers to do: http://monkeyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2009/08/preschool-corner.html http://monkeyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2009/08/fun-activities.html http://monkeyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2009/08/week-2-tot-school-august-10-14.html http://monkeyhomeschool.blogspot.com/2009/07/school-and-workbox-excitement.html Even with just the baby's naptime, you could get quite a bit accomplished. I would try to do as much as possible during that time and do more library book reading and fun group activities together when the baby is awake.

While you work with one, could you have another play a game with the youngers? Have the others do copywork, journaling, or file folder game? Then switch everyone around to work one-on-one with another? For example: 16, 11, 8, 6, 5, 2, and baby born 1/09! 1on1 with 11 while 8 plays with 2 and baby. 16, 6, and 5 do whatever independent work they can. Then while working with 6yr old, 11 yr old plays with 2yr old and baby. While working with 5 yr old, 16 yr old plays with 2 yr old and baby. Everyone else do any independent work. While working with 16 yr old, 6 and 5 yr olds play with 2 and baby. Everyone else do any independent work. And so on. Plus can you put both tod and baby down for a nap at the same time? We do science and history during baby's nap time.

I love both of these!! Use both for buying and selling. As far as buying curriculum, I usually buy as I sell. Plus I buy throughout the year as I see a good buy on the WTM for sale board and the two listed above.

Because we didn't like R&S math, I wasn't sure about R&S English after it was recommended to us. I LOVE IT and my oldest doesn't mind it (...and I'll accept that). I didn't think I'd like OPGTR for no other reason than a feeling. I LOVE it!! My only complaint is that I's and l's are typed the same way (l) so my ds gets confused on that sometimes.

My 11 year old's printing and cursive are both horrible. We are focusing on cursive, though. My dh had some of the same learning disabilities as our oldest as well as dyslexia and in an effort to get him caught back up to his peers (after they finally realized he had dyslexia), his teachers and tutors just skipped teaching him cursive. Still can't write in cursive to this day, and he has trouble reading cursive. His opinion is that cursive is more important for reading purposes (most adults write in cursive), and it is easier/faster to take notes in college and at work with cursive.

I don't think the company is Catholic. There isn't anything on the website to indicate that. The Latin series does have some Catholic prayers and such in it though, not anything that would offend a protestant though. I read through some of the bios and noticed a graduate from Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. There were no priests, sisters, or other graduates from a Catholic school listed. That should be a good clue as to the denominational lean of the company.

My 11 yr old son can't write to save his life. :tongue_smilie: Seriously, he was in public school until last year and obviously wasn't taught/didn't learn a thing about writing (or grammar for that matter). We didn't do a writing program then as I was trying to just find out where he was academically. This year I am taking writing and narration very seriously, but I'm struggling to teach him. I heard R&S English is good for teaching writing, so far he has only been giving topics to write. He needs something that teaches HOW to write. He has NO idea! I sat right next to him and did a (barely) half page narration and a half page writing lesson from R&S. I had to hold his hand through the whole process, and he still didn't get how we went from the topic sentence to the conclusion. I LOVE R&S English for him, but I need something different for writing. I don't know much about IEW other than it is too expensive for us at this time. I would love other suggestions as I have no idea where to even begin here. What about Writing Strands, Five Finger Paragraph, Apologia Jump In? Any other suggestions? Thank you!!

I hope it is ok that I start this week's report. :D If someone is in charge of that and I overstepped, please lmk!! Here is our week 3!!

Starfall and ETC here!! My 5 yr old LOVES both!!

We completely changed our curriculum across the board and it is WONDERFUL!! We didn't have near as much fun last year (and we're only 3 weeks in to this year) but we did have many, many problems. I am SO excited to have found the AWESOME resources we're using!! Good luck on your new school year!!!