Yes, they are put together differently in terms of which blade is on top. I bought my 3 yo the fiskars lefties that op has been using. Even at 3 yo with somewhat limited fine motor skill, I can tell a difference in how he works with them.

There is nothing in aar that needs to be colored. There are paper -based games, similar to file folder types of games. The cutting is not related to the concept being used. It can be done by the parent without losing anything from the child's learning. It doesn't have the large motor activities, but since the words and phonograms are already on cards, I found it very easy to add those myself. The other significant difference between the programs is that aar works on one sound of each phonogram at a time. Imo, this is a gentler way for a child to gain fluency. Loe has handwriting incorporated, but aar needs it added in. i think aar provides more material for gaining fluency, but I suppose you could just repeat things in loe to provide additional fluency practice. Eta: My comments are referring to aar 1 and up. Aar pre is a bit different. I haven't used that one, but I believe there are craft pages for the letters in that level. That isn't how the regular levels are though.

I would definitely do a reading program for her. I would personally opt for aar because it's all there, multi sensory, easy to use, and works well for a wide variety of kids. Regarding sibling rivalry, maybe you could do opgtr with your ds and then spend some time with him reading aloud to you. That would count as his reading time. Aar would count as your dd's reading time. It might be easier to avoid direct comparison in different programs. You could also stretch her reading time out a little longer than his so that she gets extra instructional time. Breaking the time up is also more efficient for learning, so if she does 3 ten minute sessions throughout the day and he does one 30 minute stretch, the time is still equal but she is getting a little extra oomph. Then they could do aas together whenever your DD is ready.

Before you switch you might try making mm more spiral. For ods this year, I have mm4 planned like this: Chapter 1 Chapter 2 First half chapter 3 and first half 4 in tandem Chapter 1-2 cumulative review Rest of chapters 3 and 4 Chapter 1-3 cumulative review First half of chapter 5 and first half 6 in tandem Chapter 1-4 cumulative review Rest of chapters 5 and 6 in tandem Chapter 1-5 cumulative review Chapter 7 Chapter 1-6 cumulative review First half chapter 8 Chapter 1-7 cumulative review Rest of chapter 8 Chapter 1-8 cumulative review Year end test If that still isn't enough, then you might consider switching.

Make your own boxes ;) and if you really want to feel like you got something done, make the boxes after you've already finished it. So what did you buy?

I dislike right start because when I asked which manipulatives were used for level a the rep wouldn't give me a straight answer. Good stuff there, but that single interaction with customer service ruined it for me. I dislike tog and winter promise because their security on digital products makes it so freaking unusable that it's more of a complete throw away of money than a cost-savings. I mean are they really that scared that I'm going to steal it? Because there are still ways I could circumvent the security and all they accomplished was making it ridiculously cumbersome. Hmm, I sound cranky...it's because I had to go to the dmv today.

I like aar. It is easy to implement. It's manageable with littler kids around because it's open and go. You don't need to prep activities or make word cards. You don't need to go scrounging around for readers and match them up to the sequence. Everything is just right there. I also think the method is easier for kids to build fluency with compared to the spell to read options. They are all good choices though, so ultimately you should probably choose what you think you can do consistently with a positive attitude. Aar and loe have relatively good resale and it sounds like choosing a program that is likely to work with many types of learners might be cheaper in the long run if you can use it for your youngers too.

Keep practicing until she is more fluent. Reading is much more enjoyable when it is easy. The I See Sam readers can be downloaded for more practice that is phonics-based, but not the fluency sheets. The aar method of reading a phrase, then going back to the beginning of the sentence to read a bit more each time is powerful. Use that with whatever you do for practice.

WRT keeping the books open: I like to close them because they store better that way for us (vertical on a shelf), but I found that using a paper clip as a bookmark makes it very easy to flip to the proper page, and the bookmark never accidentally falls out. I have used a variety- from the cheap Walmart folders on the back to school shelf to the Lisa Frank covers-both poly and the type that feels like super heavy paper with a waxy coating. I cut them in half at the fold, then take about 1/4" off the top so they fit in the pro lick hole puncher. I have used them with the 45 sheet spines as well as the 85 sheet spines. I am really not sure how many pages they count for toward the total. I have never bothered to count. I don't think it would be very much. The down side to folders is that you usually can't print the name on. You could print a sticker label though, or you could print on regular paper, then attach to cover with contac paper.

I like to use folders as covers. They last longer and the inside pockets are handy to stash little slips of paper or other tidbits. DD has a cute Lisa frank for mm. Ds has a Lamborghini cover.

I was about where you are when my oldest was pre-k age. I think reading/discussion of books is great for "all the rest" when phonics and math are over. If you have simple art martial available where the littles can't get it, that would be nice. I don't think you should push yourself to do the music/art/sensory stuff. We also live where "just have them go play outside for 2hrs" would be child abuse for 3-4 of the school-year months, and there's no chance in hell I was going to drag my toddler and preemie baby around town for daily outings and field trips. Working on reading for frequent, short sessions turned out to be the very best thing I did those days. It was quiet and could be done indoors while I nursed a baby and the toddler slept. He became an advanced, prolific reader. Fast forward to typical school age and he is able to get in all sorts of fun extras because I don't have to be at his side reading things. He could also help read to the younger kids when I knew they really needed it, but I just needed to prepare lunch atm. Remember that the baby years are just a small portion of the total school time your oldest will get. You can shift some more schooly subjects into your days now while you are tied down, and move the art, music, and nature exploration to a later date when your kids can all wipe their own butts, walk to the car and buckle themselves in, and nobody tries to eat their mittens. It will really be okay. Just be flexible. If your oldest can go to some sort of weekly activity it would probably be great as a social outlet. Also, seriously consider switching to something more streamlined after you're done with right start a.

We do M-F with Thursday as a light, fun day. We do music, art, and gym on Thursday.

The lesson plans can be purchased from MP on the single plan page. I have not used the trees, but we are planning to do astronomy this year so I purchased those plans. They are nothing super detailed or fancy, but well worth the $5 imo. Eta: sorry link is messy https://www.memoriapress.com/curriculum/individual-lesson-plans-subject/

I agree. Maybe I should have specified. We keep to a minimum of screen time so it didn't occur to me that someone might think a kid vegging in front of a tv would be play time.

Our ped says about 2 hours of unstructured time is sufficient. At least 60 min of physical activity can be part of the unstructured time or it can be part of something more structured such as gym class or sports practice. My kids meet those without me making a point to do anything. I get the feeling that most homeschoolers on these boards also have way more free time for their elementary kids than the requisite 2 hours. I can see how it would be tough to meet those if you drop your kid off at school at 7, then have them attend childcare while you finish working, then pick them up and shuttle them to their nightly activity while they try to cram fast food down their throats before it's time to go inside. It's just a different lifestyle. Compared to others on these boards, I probably have more structure than average for my preschool through 2nd grade kids. Even with the many things you see in my sig for ods, he probably has at least 4 hours of unstructured time per day on a typical weekday. The majority of his waking hours on the weekends are also unstructured free time.

I don't think there is anything comparable to HOD available. We use connecting with history, but it's not open and go with the daily plan. There is a new series similar to SOTW coming out that got some talk a couple weeks ago. It is called the story of civilization by Tan Homeschool. https://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/the-story-of-civilization-vol-1-the-ancient-world.html If you decide to keep on with hod, you might look at the rhetoric level lists of connecting with history to inform yourself on where issues might arise.

I think posting on the learning challenges board is a good idea. I have seen it mentioned that recipe for reading is an inexpensive og program that might be tried before Barton. I don't think your friend will have much luck with a boxed curriculum considering the challenges. I would personally do read alouds, documentaries, and audio books (from the library, so free) for science and history. I would skip art and music unless the kids really want it. If she must have something specific for history, chow is available on audio and has an accompanying workbook available. That would leave the bulk of the money and the time for language arts and math, which is really where the kids need to be grade level. For math, she could look at math mammoth and cle. Both are cheap and allow for independence. Mm is cc aligned, in case that is a benefit wrt returning to ps.

We usually aim to do 2 pages per day. In some of the b chapters we might work out of 2 chapters at a time, one page from each. We also do x Tra math each day. It usually works out that doing 2 pages is a pretty equal amount of work. Rarely, 2 pages will end up flying by quickly (lots of graphics on the page) so we might do an extra page. On days that are longer, I either cut out the x-Tra math session or drop it to one page. So far it has worked out pretty well. I find it easy to implement.

My ds is doing Pentime 3 this summer. He is slightly ahead in fine motor and wants to learn. He worked on Spencerian last summer, but over the school year I dropped the ball on practicing. For the most part, Pentime 3 is a good fit for him, but there are several pages where they are supposed to copy a poem or proverb and the spacing and sizing of the paper provided was insufficient. I just skipped those. It is maybe 5 pages in the whole book. The other issue you might have is that there are whole words and sentences at a typical 3rd grade reading level. If your ds is a beginning reader he won't get those. That's pretty much the entire book. Personally, I would choose something else or delay it until he can at least read at that level. If he is learning phonograms via loe, you could just write the phonograms yourself and have him copy those. There is also a handwriting book from barefoot ragamuffin you could check out. I think there is one that is written for a spell to read with a kindy kid.

Dh ordered a couple things for prime day. When I went into the account to get the shipping info, I saw the wtm I preordered had a green bar with a shipping date. I got all excited for a minute, thinking it was ready earlier than expected. Then I realized the month was August, not July. It was a five second emotional roller coaster.

Mine loves mbtp. I liked the bravewriter methods too, but there wasn't enough structure for it to work well in my home. With mbtp I have structure, but still some freedom. As a teacher, I will probably need more explicit help in giving feedback by the time we reach middle grade levels though; I'm more of a math/science person. The grammar seems right on target for us. There is instruction in mechanics, but we don't need to spend all year drilling irregular verbs, subject/verb agreement, or subject/object pronouns. Ds is capable of reading way beyond the reading level we are using, but he has still loved all but one of the books from last year. For most of them, he requested others by the same author and gobbled those up as well. The spelling is blah, but you might not need to bother with a formal spelling anyway.

What was wrong with mep?

Yeah, that's what I was looking at. I'd pay $8 at most for the kindle version.

I ordered in print. I only get the kindle if there is a substantial cost difference. In this case, the kindle edition is nearly as much as the print...I'm not going to tie up a device just for that.

So I'm curious. What does mp use for its secular sets to replace rod and staff English?