I've ordered from RR many times, and I've been irritated with the long shipping times before, but not enough to stop. Until now. I ordered almost two weeks ago... nothing. I called them this week to ask if an item was backordered, and they confirmed, but said that it was noted that it would ship on Friday. Nope. I actually messaged them this morning to inquire about canceling the order. I have Amazon Prime, and even though I was going to save a few bucks ordering from RR, it's not worth it. I'd actually like to use the items in the near future.

We're finishing up Core B now. Most of the readers were good (we skipped the missionary stories), but they don't tie into the history. I actually picked up some other books that I felt tied in better. My daughter especially liked Black Ships Before Troy and Tales From the Odyssey part one and two. I wasn't crazy about CHOW either, and I didn't feel like she was retaining anything from it. I got Story of the World volume 2 for next year, along with the workbook and test book, and they seem a million times more thorough. I bought Sonlight because it was my first year, and I really wanted something scheduled for me. For that purpose, it did what I wanted it to. I have no desire to continue using them, and I don't even plan on keeping it around for my son. Some of the books I'm going to hang onto, but that's all. If I had it to do over, I'd just use it as a book-list.

It took us a while to hit our stride. I have a toddler as well, and I was making things way too hard. We do math every day. 4 days of Saxon lessons, and one day of LOF. FLL, AAS, and WWE 3 days a week. Reading every day. Science and history 2 days each. School takes us 2-3 hours a day. More than that and I lose her. Less than that and we don't finish our goals. Sometimes we add in art or music too, but just as a fun extra.

This thread makes me happy. My daughter had a moment in math yesterday where I was kind of speechless. She is squarely on grade level in math. Not above, not below, just average. Which, I am completely fine with. One of the addition problems on her review yesterday was 5+2=?, and she seriously just stared at it like it was the first time she'd seen numbers. I just told her she had five minutes left and walked away. When I came back she was done and they were all correct. For a minute there though...

Thank you! I looked at the sample pages once before, but out of context they don't make much sense. I think I'll just get both and see how it goes. She is on ETC 3 right now, and I had planned to work through 4,5, and 6 next year.

I am planning on using AAR2 next year. I see that it has a workbook included in the set. Does anyone know if it overlaps ETC? I was going to buy both, since my daughter likes the ETC books, but there's no point if they're the same.

I have core B, and I found it to be really random and unhelpful. You pretty much have to supplement it. There aren't really that many lessons or explanations of what's going on. At the first grade level, I would assume that it would start at the beginning and slowly build on that knowledge. Nope. Right from the beginning there were things that she had no concept of. The copywork choices were awful. Lots of dialogue (so quotes) without any explanation of what they were or why they were there. There is the reading for the day, a way to practice the spelling words for the week, and sometimes a random fact presented as a definition with examples. Any kind of true instruction is in the "suggested" (read - completely necessary) extra books. They have ETC and something called Language and Thinking. I don't have that one, but I'm guessing based on the lesson titles that's is along the same lines as First Language Lessons. I stopped even looking at it after a few weeks, so I don't know if it got better. It's very expensive to be used just as a list of readers. I'm still buying the suggested readers next year, but I'll just schedule them myself. We used FLL, WWE, 100 Easy Lessons, and AAS. Next year we'll swap out 100 Easy Lessons with AAR2, and continue on that way.

What about a game like Math Blaster? My daughter is in first, and she can be the same way. Yesterday was one of those days. I was ready to take her down to the PS and sign her in. I think I'm going to invest in some games like that for her to practice with. We have the first LOF book coming too. Good luck!

My daughter really likes them. They progress in difficulty from 1-3. The first stories are Pat the Rat and similar. She's in the third reader now, and they are quite a bit harder. She likes how the stories are split into sections. I guess you could call them chapters if you were being generous. They're not brilliant children's stories by any stretch. And at times they manipulate the language to keep it simplistic. I does cause some "huh?" moments, but we just shrug and move on.

Thank you! I think I'll go ahead and leave it in there. I really think she'd get a lot from it.

I'm trying to figure out curriculum for next year, and I'm having issues. Right now we're using FLL1 2-3 times a week, WWE1 3 days a week, AAS1 3-4 days a week, and the books from Sonlight LA1. She was having trouble with some of the rules of reading, so we've been working slowly through 100 Easy Lessons on the side. The beginning lessons are really easy for her, but she likes doing them anyway, so we're just working on it until we get to the information that she really needs to go over. I know I want to use FLL2, AAS2, and WWE2. I'm toying with the idea of AAR2 as well. I feel like DD7 will continue to need more reading instruction. I like the look of AAR2, but that really seems like a lot! Our whole list would look something like this... FLL2 WWE2 AAS2 AAR2 Sonlight Core C with readers 2 (pieced together, not including LA) Saxon Math 2 (with Life of Fred Butterflies and maybe Cats here and there to break it up) RSO Earth and Space And then some fun electives for easy days. Artistic Pursuits book 2 German for Children CDs Typing Instructor

Here are some links to some programs Disney offers. http://www.disneyyouth.com/youth-education-series/ http://www.disneyyouth.com/individual-enrollment/ I know they used to have a program where you could eat lunch or dinner with an imagineer. I don't know if they still offer it, and there was a fee, but it sounds pretty cool.

My daughter is using it with the first grade readers, but I am finding it to just be poorly written. It introduces new concepts seemingly randomly and doesn't explain them particularly well. I closed the book on it this week. I'm just going to have her do copywork until I can get the WWE, ETC, and FLL books delivered. She does like the readers.

My first grader is liking it. We just got through the first few books, which she thoroughly enjoyed, and are headed into the second set.

I'd also be very interested, if you don't mind! lilybrooke14@hotmail.com