I used it with my 3 year old, and her 2 year old brother tagged along. He mostly would repeat the name of the letter and scribble his coloring page. She went through the program fairly completely. She BEGGED for the game with syllables, which I didn't think she would be ready for. DS will go through it again this coming school year, after he is 3, maybe even waiting til 3.5 or older, as he has some delays. It is a really fun program that dd loved!

Thanks to everyone for their input. I didn't say it much in the initial post, but I was already feeling some hesitation for many of the reasons you all shared. As moms, we have quite different styles, and I would HATE for this to potentially cause friction in an otherwise wonderful friendship. I plan on telling her why I can't, and I am pretty sure she will be understanding. She is fairly new in town, so I will offer to help her research all the options. Thank you for confirming things already rolling in my head!

This is the EXACT reason why her mom has asked me!

My dc are in their rooms at 7-7:15. Lights out (except reading lamps) at 8pm. Reading lights out 8:30 or so. Kids tend to wake up 7:30-8:00am. If they were still asleep after that, I'd figure they needed the rest. I've never woken them up for school, unless it is an activity that requires us to leave the house. Granted, my oldest is a first grader, so its not like I have much experience yet :-)

My friend is planning on going back to school and work. She doesn't want dd in standard daycare and has asked me about keeping her. Dd will have just turned 3. I have my own 4 kids (7, 3, 2, and 4 months currently), though only the 7 year old is really doing "school." I'm at a loss as to what is fair to charge her. We will talk about it closer to time, but I don't know where to start. It will be 3-4 days a week, probably 8-9 hours a day. I live in the South in a midsize town. She is an only child who is used to a lot of attention from her mom. She does get along well with my children, over all. I don't want my oldest's schooling to suffer from me having to pay attention to yet another little one, honestly. I also don't want to do anything that would mess up a great friendship. She and I are good friends, and our husbands are GREAT friends. We have not talked any details yet. I would imagine it would be lunch and 1-2 snacks and nap time. She would probably like some simple preschool. Help!

Oh, thank heavens I'm not the only one that dreams about which curriculum to buy!

I'm doing FLL, WWE, and AAS right now. I think AAR would fit nicely for a child needing the phonics work. I haven't used AAR2 yet, but from what I've seen of the lower levels, I think it would work well. FLL and AAS can be quite short lessons, as can WWE on certain days (narration takes my dd awhile). So, that would leave time for a longer lesson, if AAR2 is longer.

I've only used MM for telling time, but it worked well for dd. At first, she was slow to pick it up, but when we tried again a few months later, she surprised me with how quickly she learned it.

I agree with the others. If MM is working, I wouldn't change. I don't know for certain, but I don't think the version would matter too much. You can email Maria (the author) and ask her if you'd like. She is super helpful!

When I saw the title of your post, my first thought was AAS! So, it seems you're on the same track as us. We finished OPGTR last year, breezed through AAS 1 and are a little over halfway through AAS2. We do use the tiles bc my dd is very hands-on, and there are some aspects (like labeling syllables) that having the tiles really helps. DD often writes her words on the white board (since she gets to choose from all the fun marker colors!). Sometimes she writes on paper too.

I know what you mean! I have seen items listed on Ebay for MORE than the publisher sells it. Crazy. People sometimes pay it, too. I have a budget to keep in mind (like most of us!), so I have a list that I keep on my computer of curriculum I have in mind for upcoming months. I take 5 minutes and search, almost every day, on here, Ebay, Amazon etc for those items. When I find a great deal, I swoop in on it. It has taken more than a month of searching almost every day for some items to be low enough that I feel they are a good deal. I would imagine that a lot more will be available for sale in the summer, when people have finished up their school year and are selling their things then. This is my first year really homeschooling, so perhaps that doesn't hold true, but it would make sense.

We are going through AAR very slowly, so we don't do much of a fluency page at a time. What we do though, is have dd close her eyes, point to something on the page, then open her eyes and read the word or phrase. Makes it a little more fun.

I haven't used MFW, so no help on that one..... :-) However, AAR and AAS can be used together but your child may (probably will) be on different levels. DD has just started AAR 1, and we are going VERY slowly. When she finishes it, we will probably start AAS1 if she's ready. So she'd be in AAR2 and AAS1. Children usually learn to read much faster than they learn to spell, hence the difference in levels. DD1 can read almost anything, but spelling is much, much different. If your children are ready for AAR2 (check their website for a "placement test") then they may be ready for AAS1). I haven't used Spelling Workout, but I THINK it is just spelling, not a reading program.

I agree with everyone on both points... 1. Your son needs to be able to form all his letters well before starting WWE1. and 2. No worries if you are "behind" in this one. Good luck!

I have the ones that you can order with AAS/AAR. They've never fallen off for me, and I bought it used, so not sure how long the previous person used them. I did have some tiles that I needed to add my own magnetic strip to. I used a roll from Home Depot, with sticky back, and it seems very secure. I only put those on a week ago, but I don't foresee them falling off.

That's going to make a lot of people happy, happy, happy!

I am using AAR and AAS currently. I've only used the basic kit and never really felt like I was missing anything. I have many reusable "grocery" bags that we use for the library, and I am using 2 boxes from Target (width of index card boxes but much longer, so easily hold all the AAR cards) that were just $3.99. If you have the extra cash, sure, why not. For me, though, I've never missed them. Hope that helps!

When we start 2nd grade in the fall, I think we'll be on Math Mammoth 2B then. We are in 2A for the end of first grade. This is my oldest child, so we haven't tried a lot of curriculum so far bc MM has worked for her.

Fabulous. It would be like pulling teeth to get my 7 year old to write that much!

Beginning of first grade, when dd was 6. We went through FLL1 pretty quickly, as a lot of it she was familiar with from K (a different program though), so now, towards the end of 1st grade, we are in FLL2 and WWE1.

Oh, and spelling is All about Spelling, starting with level 1 in first grade.

You'll get a huge variety of answers for this, but what has worked for us... Handwriting: HWT in k and 1st. Dd asked for cursive, so we started HWT Cursive halfway through first grade. Will continue both cursive instruction and copy work (as well as print) through the next few years. Writing: WWE starting in 1st. Planning on using it for at least two years. Will reevaluate after WWE 2 next year. Grammar: FLL . Planning on using through all four levels. Phonics: We tried several things but OPGTR worked really well for dd1. Using All about Reading for dd2 and plan on using this for the younger siblings in our family as long as it works for each of them. I'm definitely keeping my copy of OPGTR though in case we need it!

I admit I love it when my dd stays up late reading by flashlight! I'll take her love of reading for a bit of tiredness (every now and then anyway) !

We did this for a number of months, and my dd loved it! She begged for "Super Science Day" often, more than once a week. If we didnt have a day taken up with co-op now, we would still be doing this! It made that day a very fun day, and she barely noticed making up the extra math etc on the other 4 days.

thank you!