Okay - that makes more sense! I know it is no fun to have to spend on safety and unseen things like electrical, but I am sure it was worth it. Ours is a 1959 ranch which is also generally in good condition, but it does need some updates, but I know that there were inevitable be surprises and things that need to be remedied once we start to open things up. Thanks for sharing the details! It helps to know where the money goes.

We already have a range that is still in great condition, maybe 6 years old. An anonymous friend sent us a gift card for a new dishwasher, but our refrigerator will definitely need to be replaced. It will match the stove, and we were thinking one in the $1300 range. But yes, new vent hood because we want to relocate the stove (requiring just a 3 foot extension of the gas pipe - plumber said maybe $300 to do it), a new window, new flooring (luxury vinyl plank), cabinets, and counters. We were hoping to do IKEA cabinets and laminate counters since our kids are still pretty hard on any surface of our home. Also, in this neighborhood I don't know that we would get our money back on something like quartz if we had to move. We are hoping to get a quote on the new window, knocking a small partition wall back a bit, and the gas line. We could install our cabinets and counters on our own, and get a friend to help with the dishwasher if needed. I'm just surprised that they spent 50K and they did most of the work themselves. But maybe I didn't see the full scope of what they did. I also am sure ours will be more expensive than what we originally thought.

50K and you kept your original cabinets? Just out of curiosity, where did most of them money go to? I have been contemplating a minor kitchen remodel but was hoping we could keep it under 10K.

I know that this thread is really old, but thought I would add to it just in case others are thinking about Deep Space Sparkle. She now offers monthly and annual subscriptions to her site and we chose to take the plunge and invest in it, primarily because you get three bundles per month of lesson plans for grades K-6/7 that are yours to keep forever. Most of the lessons we have done so far have been a hit with our kids, but if you don't want to pay for subscriptions, she does have free projects on her site, and has published a book with 24 projects called Draw, Paint, Sparkle. We had our kids go to art lessons this past spring and had to pay $50/child + $15 for supplies each + a facility fee - all said, it added up to almost $300 for 14 weeks of lessons, or $20/lesson, and I was very disappointed with what they did there. When you consider that you can use the lessons for all of your children and download them, many of her lessons are only about $.60/lesson, and you can use them in co-ops, teaching your own classes, etc. She also has an EPIC Curriculum that covers all of the elements of art in 1 year for each grade level and is coming out with a new art history curriculum (Art Through the Ages) that has videos for every single one of the 125 lessons this August. You can't download the videos if you decide to leave but they do make it easier to teach some of the lessons.

We have only used CLE's reading program for 1 year (grades 5, 3, and 1) and while I was concerned that the stories might be too simple, my boys surprisingly have really enjoyed them. I too like that it only takes half of a year to complete - I am planning on adding other books in to supplement but we still get the basic literary analysis that comes with CLE's program.

I know - I didn't realize how much I used this forum until it was down for awhile!

Also, if your son thinks that CLE has too many problems, he will probably think the same of MM - I have found that they have triple the problems of CLE in certain situations. My son had one page where he was supposed to crack two riddle codes and there were about 30 long division problems (with multiple digits) just to find two answers. It was ridiculous.

The last part (MM being a slog) was also true for us coming from CLE. MM just felt like it was too much, in too many different ways, and in a very small font/cluttered layout. I didn't leave CLE for the same reasons you did, but more because I wanted better training in problem solving. Some kids seem to like MM much better when they switch, but for one of my kids it was a total disaster. I tried blending MM and Beast Academy and while they were both challenging and had interesting problems, there was almost too much of a challenge in applying everything and not enough review. What I would say is, you can try a summer break book from Math Mammoth and get it as a digital download. Find your son's grade level and try it out with him to see how it works for him. My older son, after switching, ended up staying with MM but he doesn't love it the way he did CLE, and where he used to feel confident in math he now considers himself not that good at it which is really sad. I may put him back in CLE for grades 7 and 8 because I like their format in explaining the problems so much better.

I heard about this a few months ago here on the boards but can't find out when it will be released or where I could get a sneak peek. I'm in the middle of deciding on language arts curriculums and would love to know if this would be a good fit - anyone else know?

I have never used Singapore Math with my own kids, but I do use Beast Academy. Even though a particular concept (like multiplication) might be on grade level, what they do with that concept is far beyond what I have seen in typical 3rd grade work. I use it as a problem-solving curriculum and love it, even when it makes my son cry on occasion (and that was on a 3rd grade problem after finishing 5th grade math in another curriculum). That said, I am glad he learned his basic facts and algorithms in another separate curriculum because they don't do drills or review. While they might build on previous concepts, I am realizing that I need to pull out the main ideas we have learned in different sections and regularly review them with practice problems so that he can remember what he has learned. I know that they are coming out with an online version in 2018 and am curious to see if they will provide more reinforcement in that area.

I too struggled with the expense of Beast Academy, but decided that I would just try one book at a time (they are broken into four units a year, so investing $25 for the guide and practice book is easier than $100 for all). We do Math Mammoth as our main curriculum and struggled a bit with how to schedule everything, and I ended up having 3 days a week of Math Mammoth and 2 days for Beast Academy. I think that both the guide books as well as the practices are important in understanding the concepts fully. The guide books teach/give examples, and then the practice books flesh out these concepts in a variety of problems and puzzles. The puzzles to me are golden - my son who finished 5th grade math had to start back at 3A because their problems involve a lot of creative thinking, and even though he's doing "multiplication" or area and perimeter, what they do with these concepts in the problems takes it to an entirely different level.

I have a 9 y.o. who had finished 5th grade in his regular math curriculum earlier this year, and then I had originally started him on BA 4D and it was too hard for him. There are two things to think about when you are doing BA - not just content knowledge, but how they are thinking about the problem. My son had a lot of content knowledge (multiplication tables, how to do long division, multiply/divide fractions, etc.) but was very weak on how to think about problems or creatively solve them. We actually went back to 3A so that he could work through all of the books and get a better foundation for how to approach problems and I don't regret it at all, in fact, I am learning new things myself! I would echo others in encouraging you to wait for 2A.

I also really like the looks of the Simply Charlotte Mason Enrichment guides - https://simplycharlottemason.com/store/enrichment-studies-volume-1/

Thank you! I started using Math Mammoth recently but only have purchased a few sections - with 4 kids I will get a lot of value out of this!

I've used CLE 2nd grade twice and never thought to not use the spelling - that's one of the reasons I bought it for, after all! My boys both seem to be natural spellers, so they have done fine with it. I can't vouch for a student who might not naturally learn how to spell things, though.