I am starting a literature program for my 4th grader, we have just read literature up until this point and I feel like I need a little more structure this year. Has anyone used DITHOR and/or Lightning Literature to compare the two? Pros/cons?

I want to find a Spanish curriculum that can be used by a non-Spanish speaker and continues through high school.

We switched from Singapore Math, which is mastery based to Saxon Pre Algebra this year and have been pleased. My littles do CLE now but I plan to transition all of them to Saxon when they enter 7th grade. It's spiral without a lit of flash, it's getting the concepts down and executing them. It's a solid program, in my opinion. We tried AoPS and it just wasn't for us.

What is ELTL?

YES! Me too.

Same here.

Thank you. Thank you. Thank you. Precisely how I feel. My oldest is entering 7th and I am completely at a loss. Yes, I have the curricula, the ideas, the books but the confidence of when to back down and when to push and when to pull and when to... I have to rely upon God because honestly, I might lose my mind otherwise. We are transitioning just as much as they are. This is new and uncharted waters for me, pray without ceasing sisters.

Here's what we do in 1st: WWE1 (10-15 mins) FLL1 (10 mins) Phonics Pathways with Reading Pathways, BOB books, and the All About Spelling readers (20-30 mins) Then, I read aloud to her. HTH

I also, heartily second this suggestion.

I stopped WWE4 with my oldest and went to Killgallon Sentence Composing and it was perfect for us. We then started back with Writing With Skill and it was perfect.

Are there any prerequisites for this program?

Precisely! It fit the bill for us perfectly this year. Again, precisely. :) I recommend it.

The last three years we have not taken summer off but this year, I am tired, I want a break. We are going to take all of summer. I am going to use that time to plan for the fall, make copies, get spines cut and spiral bound, etc. the kids will continue with mathematics reviews, writing everyday and reading everyday, because to me reading and writing aren't "school" those are things you should be doing anyways. So, add in the pool almost daily, library summer programs, and vacationing at the beach and visiting grandparents and our summer is quite full already. We are really looking forward to the break.

My son loves Tin-Tin, Calvin and Hobbes, Foxtrot, Garfield, Peanuts, Mutts. His favorites, Mutts, Foxtrot, and Tin-Tin by far, hope that helps.

My DD7 will be entering 2nd grade and has finished the Phonics Pathways book and Phonograms from WRTR and reads fluently and has even finished some series. I just started her in R&S's Spelling by Sound and Structure, it's great. She's a natural speller anyways and has a thorough phonics background so we just go over any new spelling rules and talk about the sounds. It's quite simple. Just something else you maybe hadn't thought of yet.