I think your plan is doable. I read one section (not chapter) of SOTW three times per week. Then I'll do an activity on a fourth day, usually Friday. Last year we did SOTW vol 1, and including the maps and narrations, it only took about 10-15 minutes per day three times per week. I didn't add much lit last year. It made it too long and involved for my son at such a young age. This year with SOTW2 we are using the lit connected to history for "reading" so I don't count that as "history time." When we did SOTW1, ds was 5 when we began, 6 for most of it. I don't feel he retained much at all until we hit Rome. But he remembers countries, geography, some basic empires, and his attention span improved greatly. I guess I don't worry about retention too much at this age, or rather, don't expect it just from the history itself. For retention this year, we're memorizing a VP Middle Ages timeline song. Outside of that any retention is just extra gravy.

Thanks! What kind of cursive, if I may ask further, and can you save your copy work as files on your personal computer?

What if you got the instructor's guide for WWE instead of the individual workbooks? Each year is broken down into 36 weeks, with about 4 terms. The first week of each new term (where expectations are increased) gives a full sample from the workbook of what that week would look like. You could just use each of those samples from WWE1-3 until you get into trouble. Then you could just get the workbook for that level (if she just needs level 4 for example) and go from there; or you could continue making up more of the types of work she needs practice on yourself.

It also really like MUS's way of teaching place value with decimal street and the blocks. They call the ones "units" so it's not as confusing. They also play a game called "walk the blocks home" where you pretend there was a storm and all of the blocks are out of place. The child puts them in their appropriate homes, assigns numbers to them, says the number and then writes it. In further lessons, they see the concept in addition with regrouping, then addition with regrouping with money as a pp said helped them. My ds has a firm understanding of place value, and I just used this method to tutor several African boys in the village here. I could see light bulbs going on!

Times are so different now. Homeschooling doesn't have the same stereotypes it did when I was in high school. It's exploded, and there are so many more opportunities for "socialization" etc. I think "weird" kids are the products of personality and parenting, not necessarily homeschooling. There are lots of weirdos in public school too, but we don't usually blame their weirdness on their choice of schooling method. This is a change from what I used to think! I also used to think that the best possible education I could give my kids was the one I'd had (private Christian school). After researching, God changed my heart. I'm now excited about our homeschooling journey, and think my kids will receive a wonderful education. Here's my testimony in full.

We have Theodora and two others on pdf. We don't have Ethelred. I liked Theodora, because it's difficult to find lit for 2nd grade that isn't too hard (in my opinion) for certain weeks. I felt Theodora was a bit too hard for my ds (meaning certain words were too hard to decode), but it was at the beginning of 2nd grade. I've already seen improvement in his fluency this year. It is a short chapter book, with 1-2 full-page pictures per chapter (short chapter, in Theodora, I think there are 7).

I just want to throw out there that it could be better this year because he's more mature and has more stamina to listen. I felt that way too at times with my son last year; we're 11 weeks into SOTW 2, he just turned 7, and I feel it's going better this year. Anyway, have you considered My Father's World? (Their year of US history for 2nd or 3rd grades)

I have friends who, rather than using the activity books suggested by TOG, just use SOTW's AG along with TOG and the scheduled SOTW supplemental readings. If you were to go that route, I suggest you simply use SOTW. It is excellent for the younger grades, and if you don't mind putting some things together yourself, you could add in church history portions yourself. When doing ancients with my young 1st grader, I found some LG history books to be over my child's head. SOTW was at a better level. I've seen a lot of maturity in attention span and stamina though, in the past year, so maybe that wouldn't be as true in 2nd and 3rd grades.

Stuff by Robin McKinley (like Beauty) or Lynne Reid Banks

...my barely turned 2yo "singing" at the top of his lungs: ammmm, iiiiiiis, are was wahhhhhhhhh; beeeeeee, beeeeeeeeee, beeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeen. Over and over. Thank you, FLL. :glare:

We just started now, and all my kids had birthdays this month, so the oldest two are 7 and 5. We started with Lion-Wardrobe, and Aslan's death was upsetting to my sensitive 7yo; but his resurrection made everything better. And we read that part on the Saturday right between Good Friday and Easter. Perfect timing! I was worried that it was too early for them to enjoy it, but the chapter lengths are good for their age and comparable to other read-alouds we've been doing; and the chapters usually end in an exciting moment. As the others said, I don't expect them to understand it all; but I do want them to enjoy it!

Here's ours! While you guys are on the home stretch, we're only finishing up our first "trimester" of our year, complete with stomach issues and all. :)

What she said describes me as well. There are cheaper effective methods than ABeka (which would certainly help you with the practice element), and I think you mentioned the best ones for your situation. I suggest you get one of them, and use it as a guide for when you feel like doing the Beechick method but want more guidance for a more struggling or average learner; or use it solely for your really busy times in life.

I am interested in your document as well, Gil, thanks!

Here's why I chose to use MFW vs. TOG and BP, which were my other top choices. Terribly hard decision! :) http://itavitaafrican.wordpress.com/2013/08/13/why-i-chose-my-fathers-world-vs-biblioplan-or-tapestry-of-grace/ I haven't actually used MFW yet, so take my comments with a grain of salt. But I have all of the manuals except EX1850, and have read them cover to cover a few times to get a feel for it. And I had more people here in Africa already using TOG and pulling for me to use it too. And I still might someday! I think taking into consideration your personality and time as mom-teacher is important. I feel that MFW fits me better for the lower levels, and TOG for rhetoric. While I might like more lit help in the stage than MFW offers, I have listened to SWB's lectures several times and taken notes on how to handle lit discussions myself in that stage. Without access to a library, I also liked the flexibility that MFW offers with its book basket. At this stage in my homeschooling journey, I am still fairly happy to plan things--like for example, picking out lit to go with SOTW2 (what we're using this year), and making my own copy work from that lit for WWE2. However, I could see how in 3 more years, I wouldn't want to be going through all of the planning for TOG. It just wouldn't get done when I add in more kids into the mix. It's funny--boscopup and I have had similar experiences with BP, but went different directions for now with MFW and TOG; that s just one demonstration of many that they are both great programs, and people will see it differently depending on their circumstances and personalities. For example, as far as bridging the different ages and abilities, I think MFW could easily work for that, especially with lit. For EX1850, it's already set up so that you have two levels built in to the TM. I would probably consider letting the older girls read some or all of her history readings by herself, and doing the younger extension history aloud with the younger set. Or just read SOTW 3 aloud to them all, and let her do the other readings in GW's World...something like that, so that you're not reading it all yourself. Yes, you could start TOG yr 1 in 8th grade, or you could consider doing ECC again with the older extensions before doing the 4-year TOG cycle in 9th-12th grades. Just some thoughts! Hope you are happy with whatever you choose!

Bob books? ABeka readers.

great question. I was wondering the same thing.

For me, managing all of the little ones can be stressful, especially if I tend towards perfectionism and put guilt on myself for what wasn't perfect that day. ( every day)

Here's mine: Moth Mix and the Maori

I'm so glad you asked this! We just finished reading The Tale of Despereaux, and I was wondering what to start next. The Princess and the Goblin was a possibility, as was Narnia. I read TPATG, and I think it was sort of scary, and the language would be harder than Tale of Despereaux, but I think my just-turned 7yo could handle it.

I agree with Chrysalis' post above (#15) on how to handle spelling and grammar. We just started 2nd grade in 2014, so we're only 8 weeks in. My curriculum for this year is linked in my signature. Last year, I used SCM's 106 Days of Creation Science with my 1st grader, and I thought it was a wonderful introduction for a 1st or 2nd grader. They give suggestions for nature study once a week. They utilize three of the Thornton Burgess books, so that would go together nicely. And my son really enjoys Christian Liberty's (CLP) Nature Reader 1 so far. He asked me to buy them all (we only have 1&2). 106 Days also schedules CLP's Nature Reader 1 for a few days about bees and something else I don't remember right now. If you click on the weekly report tag on my blog's "tags" section, and look through 2013's weekly report you can find the sections pertaining to 106 Days to see if you like it. I don't think ds retained much, but I wasn't really looking for retention. We added some concepts to our memory for the year, using Living Memory, which is similar to SCM's memory system. For example, ds memorized colors of the rainbow, names of the planets, parts of a plant, days of creation and what God made of them, characteristics of mammals, reptiles, fish, and amphibians. We also learned a list of the systems of the body. 106 Days concentrates almost half of its lessons on the human body. The sections on land mammals and birds were simply a Thornton Burgess book. For the section on the human body, I scheduled ABeka's 1st grade health reader to go along with it, and canceled a few of the 106 Days lessons (like on reproduction, for example!) Anyway, you can get a mini-review on my blog: 2013, A Look Back Lapbooks: This year we are doing one with Apologia Swimming Creatures. It was very affordable. I think it helps ds to retain and learn some of the terms. The Apologia text is over his head sometimes. I don't think I'd want to do one for history, and I'm not sure about lit. :) Maybe only if they actually liked it; but if too much analysis was killing their love for lit, I'd kill the analysis (lapbook) at this level.

Mine are similar to Mom in AZ. Toddlers--help pick up toys and books. Put dirty plate and cup in sink. Age 3 help take out the trash to our burn pit and the compost to the compost pile. About 3 1/2, begin folding clothes (easier things like shorts and washcloths.) Age 4 fold all of their own clothes and help fold younger siblings' clothing. (I do all adult or big items like towels.) Learn to bathe themselves. Help bring in groceries and put some away, if able, on shopping day. Dust with feather duster. Sweep garage (gets really dirty in our rainy season.) Age 5 Begin teaching to wash dishes and clean bathroom sinks. (We have no dishwasher.) Our dishes are too high in our cupboards, so they can't help put them away yet. Age 6-8 Able to clean all bathroom fixtures. Learn to sweep. Age 8-9 Begin learning to cook simple items. Sweep. (Our entire house is tiled--no carpet.) And I don't now much past that. :) I currently use a chore chart from Confessions of a Homeschooler as outlined in my blog here. I may try to streamline it someday.

I use the binder system ala Living Memory, which I think is the same idea as SCM. I only have one child so far, but will soon have two using it. I'd thought for now to just go at the pace of the youngers for general things we're learning together; but for Scripture memory, poetry, or anything that I assign differently or more of to the older, I would use different colors of paper for the different kids. For example, general stuff for all and oldest kid is white paper (since that's what I started with), orange is second kid, yellow third, green fourth, etc.

I agreed with a lot said here, just snipping because it was long. The above expresses my sentiments on my blog pretty well. I'm not always sure whether it's worth the work or not! But the grandparents across the world love it. I don't know if I "qualify" as plain jane or overdone. I hope I'm getting a balance, but I'm not sure sometimes if I won't be burned out in a few years. I also agreed with the person who posted right after Walking Iris when she said that there are truly some super-homeschool moms. I think the tendency with a question like this is for all of us to want to say that we're not "overdone" or "fake" or whatever negative connotations are being applied to the flashy blogs currently, all the while worrying that we're not up to A+ standards of the pretty, flashy blogs with 1,000s of followers. We want others to validate that we're just as good, even if it doesn't look like it. :) Have you noticed that our culture has a hard time with heroes? I've been thinking about this for some time now, when, for example, I watched the evisceration of C.S. Lewis's works in the movies. We can't have heroes. They have to have foibles and issues and problems. Peter has to fight with Caspian the whole movie and have identity or authority struggles. We like words like "raw" and "gritty." To apply that thought to this--some of those impressive blogs may be impressive because they really are impressive people. Not saying they don't have Real Person problems, but they are organized and really can write curriculum, do the projects, buy the books, have the budget, and still like homeschooling and have their kids like them, etc. And maybe it wouldn't hurt us to try to step it up in following their examples. Maybe not in all categories, but some. Anyway, just a thought.