I do like AAR, but have modified it as well for my older DS. We don't use the readers for him. We find Sonlight readers to be more engaging, so whenever we're to read a story from the AAR readers, we just read the next Sonlight book. He doesn't like the tiles either, so I pretty much just use them for the syllable division stuff and use the dry erase board for everything else. I'm following the program as written for DS 4 though, until he complains.....but he's the type that may be just fine with it as written.

That's helpful! Thanks! Anyone else want to weigh in on this?

Other than the need for change, do you have a preference regarding which book you like best for your kids?

I'm trying to decide which Bible story book to use alongside SOTW 1: "Egermeier's Bible Story Book" or Vos's "The Children's Story Bible." I have a 7 year old with great read aloud comprehension, but I'm also trying to combine my 5 year old son with the Bible story portion of school. DS5 has average read aloud comprehension and attention for his age. I'm thinking of throwing in coloring pages from Calvary Curriculum in hopes that that will help DS 5 with either book when there aren't pictures to along with the story. Are there preferences out there with these books? Especially when it comes to the ages and stages of my boys?

I just switched from MUS (K), then Singapore (1st), to CLE (2nd). We're having to go back to the 1st grade level with CLE, but I'm liking the traditional approach that I'm seeing. I love the exotic approaches to the other two programs, but it took a lot of study on my part to be able to teach them (at least with Singapore). Things are laid out very well with CLE and I like that DS is going to be learning similar things to the public school Saxon kids in our community rather than having a very different scope and sequence.

I'd love to do spelling fewer than 4x's a week. We're doing AAS 2 and DS7 has trouble memorizing and applying the rules when I do it any less than that often. But we only do it for 10 minutes a day because any longer than that and he starts to melt down. But I'm happy with his progress with 10 minutes/4 times a week. Maybe consider squeezing in just 5-10 minutes several times a week? For memory type stuff like spelling it really doesn't need to be longer.

It just looks interesting....and pricey at $19.95/month! Curious if it's worth it. We have weeklky cooking class but I'm thinking it might be nice just for 2-3 months during the middle-of-the-year slump.

Any suggestions? I was on a Spanish kick, but it looks like a possibility that we may be moving to the Ivory Coast within the next few years and I want a basic foundation for DS before we get there should it actually happen.

Somewhere on here I heard someone say that one could do CLE but teach it according to Singapore style. We're switching from Singapore math to CLE because DS needs more review and doesn't seem quite mathy enough to get the Singapore way of doing things. However, I believe Singapore does have some good stuff to offer and I hate to leave it totally behind, but I don't want to be doing 2 math curriculums either. I was learning along with him through Primary Math 1A-B. So how would I best LEARN TO TEACH some Singapore methodology using the CLE curriculum?

We're switching from Singapore Primary math.

I get what you're saying. But I do think the CM philosophy of training children to give 100% attention to the task at hand is of great value. I don't want to require so much time at math that he needs to give his mind daydreaming breaks and begin to form a habit that will carry over into other classes and areas of life. I don't think it's practical for a 7-year-old to give 100% attention for 45 minutes. Is it? I can't see DS being able to do that at this point, though over the next few years we'll work up to that. Whatever time I give for him to work on math, I want 100% attention and focus. Is that a crazy way to go about doing math class? (Serious question. I'm not being snarky about this.)

I think I'm going to switch from Singapore to CLE, so I have the same question.

Just considering switching but wondering about this bit of info. I really don't want to do more than 25 minutes a day. Is that possible with CLE?

I looked at CLE and love what I see! At the same time, grade 2 looks soooo far above where DS is right now, finishing 1B of SM. I'm realizing that DS can do absolutely nothing in SM without me sitting there coaching his mind through it.....with maybe the exception of single-digit addition and subraction. And I guess he does fine with the graphs and patterns and such. But I almost feel like this year of math was a near complete loss. And that has me NOT wanting to go through 2A before re-evaluating, as much as I would like SM to work. I'm already feeling behind and don't want to keep stalled until mid-year next school year if 2A doesn't yeild results. But if I switch to CLE, I'm thinking we would have to start in the grade 1 books. So much in the sample lessons just haven't been covered yet. Could anyone who has done SM and CLE for these levels speak to this? My other question is whether something like Math in Focus would give more of an incremental approach which might change things around for DS.

I feel this is exactly what is going on!

Has anyone NOT switched out of Singapore in the elementary years and regretted it?

DS is in 1st grade and after 8 1/2 months in Singapore, working on math 20 minutes a day 5 days a week, we've travelled through 1A and half-way through 1B. I have the Home Instructor's guide and we've been doing most of the activities in that along with the Textbook, workbook, and Extra Practice book. I would call him a very average math student. I'm just not fully convinced that this style of mathematics is clicking with DS. Maybe part of it is that he only has about 1/2 is addition facts memorized, but I feel like he's not getting certain aspects. I guess I'm mainly thinking about multi-digit addition or subtraction problems. I don't feel like he understands WHY we go about solving them the way we do. AND he can never remember how to do them if we take more than a couple day break from them. (Truth be known, I'm a mathy person but have to review how we do these problems each time too, but I get the why's and love the mental componant.) I'm wondering if a more straight-forward traditional approach might connect better with him, but I'm not fully sure. But then again, maybe the Singapore style of mathematics just takes longer to grasp? I know that if a child connects well with Singapore, they end up being more mathamatically advanced than other kids their age. But my worry is that Singapore may be putting him behind, just because I don't know that he's really "getting it." He does definately love it more than MUS, which we used last year....mainly because of the colorful Singapore textbook and not having to use manipulatives ALL the time....though I do make him use manipulatives much of the time with Singapore to help him with the conceptual side. Any thoughts on whether we should hang in there or follow my gut and jump ship?

I hear over and over on this forum that early elementary kids retain next to nothing in regards to history. Now I get that there is some value in teaching history to give them a few pegs to hang info on later on, and in teaching them that people lived differently than us in the past and even in the present in other cultures....even if they don't catch all the details. So I get that it's good not to do away with it completely at this age, but why does it seem that there are many people on these forums that devote a significant amount of time to history at this age? My only thought is that maybe with more hands-on projects and historical fiction MAYBE a bigger impression might be made and they would remember a few more details? Otherwise, it seems like the above goals could be achieved in 15 minutes a couple times a week. I have SOTW for my 2nd grader next year, but I'm going back and forth regarding whether that is a waste of time and I should go for something MUCH simpler (not sure what that would be though). Or my other thought is that I should do it daily and do as much as the extra stuff as I can fit in to try to make an impression on DS. Any thoughts of philosophies on this?

I'd like to point out that that it appears she is asking for a 1st grader, as I know that some of the books are geared more towards the older crowd. (I have the same question, only my child will be a 2nd grader, that's why I wanted to clarify.)

I haven't studied the lit suggestions a ton, but are most of them books you could get through in a day?

And I really don't want my lessons to be more than 20 minutes....unless it's a hands-on project that we need to spend more time on. But I don't see us doing a lot of those. Mostly reading the book and picking a literature selection for each chapter. Can I do that in 3 20-minute sessions each week and still get through it in a year? Or is it worth taking it slower and making it last more than a year? Or maybe I should just do 4 or 5 days? I just worry about spending that much time and then nothing sticking with DS due to his age.....but maybe being more thorough would help it stick too. I just don't know!

We'd be doing Ancients for 2nd grade next year. I ideally want to do it just 3 days a week, but thinking that we'd have time to dwell on some of the info a bit more if we did 4 days.....or maybe we need to do 5. Just curious what others do.

I'm looking for the 1a one and am only seeing it for the U.S. edition, not the Standards edition that we use. I just see Extra Practice for the Standards edition (which I already have). Are these two books similar? Is IP more.....intensive...... than the other? Just looking for more practice for DS.

It looks really good! I'd like to hear more from anyone who has used it. http://exceleratespanish.com/