We teach capital and lower case letters at the same time. We write words properly after that (upper where appropriate, lower when appropriate). I'm not a fan of teaching them all uppercase first. But then again I can't stand HWT LOL.

The way they schedule books is one of the main, if not the main, complaint I see on message boards about Sonlight. It definitely drove us crazy.

MUS, Saxon, Singapore and Life of Fred.

I really think it's because the school and homeschool environment are totally different. In many ways if you don't do enough in K in SCHOOL they struggle because they enter first grade with 30 other kids if they are remotely behind they will struggle to get the attention they need. A teacher with 30 children at 10 different reading levels has a heck of a job truly building up each and every one. But at HOME they can flourish learning to read at their own pace, work on character issues, play, etc. and still get all the one-on-one attention they need to thrive as first grade rolls around.

Stop trying to make me spend money! I've waffled on this for two years now lol.

On them being committed to long term memory, my husband learned incredible amounts of scripture as a child and can pull all of them up at will. My 60 year old mother can still recite things she learned in school like the Gettysburg address, etc. from back when memorizing those things was done by ALL children in all schools lol.

Every one's different on how much they need to do each day. My oldest memorizes pretty quickly. With large passages there are different techniques that can help as well. One of my favorites is you make a sheet that has only the FIRST LETTER of each word in the whole passage. So they can pull out this code looking paper and work through it from memory but with "help". It also helps eliminate the need for ME to work with them correcting random words they get wrong lol.

Ours is just table time. Though I read on a blog today where they called it together time and I kind of like that.

We do long passages but they're long Bible passages at that age. So my 6th grader is memorizing a chapter in Romans right now and will move on to more chapters after he finishes this one. I need to pull TWTM off the shelf and check out some of her recommendations. It's been so long since I read them last I don't even remember. He also memorizes other things alongside it as well. He just works on them at different times. I don't think memorizing a long passage hinders one from memorizing other things. You just spread out how long it's going to take to get memorized. My son won't work on his passage more than once a day and will work on science, geography, etc. memorization at other times a day. That said, I don't think we'll memorize the Magna Carta :) The Declaration of Independence maybe :)

Yeah now they say for 5th and up it's perfect for those with no Latin at all but is fine for younger grades if they've done Latina Christiana. My 6th grader is doing it having no Latin background and it's a perfect fit age wise.

Mine are thriving using task cards as well. We are on week 3 and it's going smashingly well. Geography and science is actually GETTING DONE and with happy children and a mom who's hardly having to be involved. LOVE! SO glad you found something that excites your son!

I hadn't even gotten a chance to open the email from them today and try and get it. Bummer.

My older children are doing both and having no problems with it. My 4th grader is doing Latina Christiana and Rosetta Stone. My 6th grader is doing First Form Latin and Rosetta Stone. Both are doing them easily and not struggling with doing both languages at all.

Memoria Press recommends starting with First Form Latin instead of LC with a child that age. My 6th grader has no prior Latin experience and jumped right into First Form Latin. It even starts with pronunciation. It's meant to start with children who have no prior experience.

Yep missing most of the first 7 lessons. Sorry.

Oh yeah special "not back to PS school" outing or fun food day. Doughnuts?

Awesome you fixed the proxy issues. I couldn't enter the other day because of it and forgot to come post here about it! Off to enter!

My 6th grader has been getting up early and doing a few subjects early. It has been a life-saver in him getting it all done. With scouts twice a month, scout and ahg activities and our twice monthly grocery run we lose 2/3 of a day every week as well. His early morning rising and schoolwork has changed everything!!

We have multiple virus and security things going on our computer and RS works just fine with our Vista.

Math: Saxon 7/6 with Life of Fred Fractions and Decimals Bible: Explorer's Bible Study –Quest: Promises R&S Reading (Bible) 4 (he loves it an is insisting he finishes it so whatever lol) Long Bible passage memorization and short passage memorization with the famiy Science: CEP Life Science task cards History: CEP Geography and Culture Cards Literature: Potters School Online course literature selections, some readings from the cards and choices from mom Writing: • Potters School Online Writing Course • Geography & Science writings English: finishing R&S 5 & and doing R&S 6 Language: First Form Latin and Rosetta Stone Spanish Logic: Finish Logic Liftoff, Orbiting with Logic and move towards Fallacy Detective and Thinking Toolbox Cursive – New American Cursive II Typing: BBC Typing Art: Picture and Artist study Music: • Classical music "survey" • Recorder • piano Scouts, etc.

We don't start testing until 6th or 7th grade. And we ONLY do it to teach test taking skills for the SAT, etc. I KNOW what my kids know. I know whether they get all their math problems right or whether they're struggling with multiplying 6s. I know how well they comprehend what they read or whether they know much about plants. I don't need a test for that and I really don't care to put the pressure on myself or the children to meet some sort of arbitrary school standard. Test taking is a SKILL to learn in school if you plan on going to college. We treat it as such. In Jr. High they take tests to teach that skill and we'll evaluate after each one what they felt like they did well and what they did poorly, working on those skills during the year in small ways.

Nevermind. Took a placement test :)

It depends on how natural they are :) At 6 we don't do spelling really so I can't comment on that. At 6 we're still doing Explode the Code, copywork, etc. and basic basic dictation. Any spelling issues are through dictation. BUT with a 9yo.... My now 11yo is a natural speller. I tried to do Spelling Power with him when he was 9. He tested deep into high school/adult level spelling. He almost never has spelled a wrong word. And if he does I show him it's wrong and he never spells it again. I don't do spelling with him. Now if he's just showed a propensity for spelling and it came pretty easily but didn't spell years and years ahead, we'd probably do something like Spelling Power (which I only think works for natural spellers!) for a few years until they got to the point where they could spell just about everything.

Glanced at the Decimals book and it has 33 "chapters"/lessons. My oldest will probably bump to 2 lessons on Friday now that I actually LOOKED :001_smile: because I want him through Fractions and Decimals this year.

We use Life of Fred on Fridays as well. I'm looking at Challenge Math thanks to this thread though :)