My first grader was also reading really well when we did CLE 1 and I typically tried to skip the schwa and other phonetic stuff that was overkill. We added some handwriting and copywork and just lots of free time reading. I am not sure they really need much else in first grade. We are adding a writing program for 2nd though.

Honestly, BCP just made my acne worse. A lot worse. And I had mood/depression issues as a lovely side effect. I tried all the major ones that claim they improve acne... with no success. But I didn't get pregnant, so they did accomplish their main objective :) I know it sounds odd, but going dairy-free has cleared up years of cystic acne and I have met several other women that told me changing their diets really helped (typically reducing carbs, sugar and/or dairy). The book Feed Your Face might be worth reading, it by a California dermatologist and offers some good diet suggestions to improve skin. There are some pretty mild, non-irritating topical meds these days that any dermatologist should be able to prescribe or let her try samples.

I have been off a couple years, I noticed my cystic acne greatly improved after a couple weeks. My husband's asthma almost disappeared after a couple months. I would give it at least a month.

While I have not tried to work and homeschool simultaneously, I will admit that I feel like I sacrificed a lot of my time and self for my oldest (now adult child) and we shouldn't have centered our family around her "needs" which were really passions or interests at the time. In hindsight, I wish I would have chosen to make time for myself and not always driven across town multiple times a day or week for some great teacher/camp/opportunity that she just "had" to do. I really wanted her to have these great experiences, but life is full of choices and trade offs, and sometimes the parent needs to benefit too. If I were you, I would start slowly back into working if that is something that would be enjoyable for you, even if it means your child can't do "everything."

We have the poster and cards from We Choose Virtues, and although they are nicely made, I think they are expensive for what they are. The poster hangs in our main living area and we do refer to it, but there is not much to do with the cards or poster once you've gone over the material a few times. I am not sure if you need more of their products to really make it work. I could have just printed out or created our own list of house rules/virtues. I have no experience with Integrity Time, but it looks like a more complete program based on the website, but it seems really expensive.

I would check with your physician, but in my experience they aren't always helpful with stomach pains; it probably depends on what kind of pains the child is desribing. My dd7 has had stomach issues since she started eating solid foods as a baby. However, her pediatrician (and a GI Dr) just chock it up to stress, nerves, etc. It wasn't until we started removing foods from her diet that we realized it was in fact food related. If all else fails, start removing things like dairy, gluten, eggs, acidic foods, etc for a while and then re-introduce them back into the diet one at a time and see what happens. I actually found the allergist more helpful and concerned with stomach issues than our primary doctor. Go figure.

What ages is Membean best suited for? I couldn't tell from the website.

I actually haven't read her books, but I have to say I have a highly sensitive child (both emotionally and physically) and it can be a bit challenging at times. It is easier to handle now that she is 7 compared to when she was toddler or preschooler. I guess I should read some of Aron's books, maybe I'll find them helpful. I do think people frown upon "sensitive" children as being weak or odd, but I try to remind myself that the world truly needs more caring, compassionate people in it.

I think the manuals are really helpful and inexpensive, I wouldn't skip them.

We eat a lot of main dish salads with homemade dressings, roasted veggies in olive oil (carrots, cauliflower, brussel sprouts etc), grilled meat or fish. If I am grilling I tend to grill the vegetables too. You have to toss them in oil and season them first. Basically all my dinners are simple things like that. Last night we had grilled salmon with just some lemon pepper and a big salad with some homemade dressing (just balsamic, olive oil, and minced garlic). The night before we had hamburger patties with grilled onions, peppers, and zucchini and coleslaw-type salad, but it just had a homemade lemon juice/olive oil dressing on it, not mayo. I ate my burger topped with guacamole, my family prefers pickles. It is a big change to not focus the meal around the grains, but over time it gets easier. You just need plenty of veggies and a meat. For us, finding more vegetables everyone will eat has been the most difficult part. I don't really use recipes though now, since all the cooking is so basic. I bought a few Paleo cookbooks and I never use them.

I live in the area and we are contemplating leaving because the cost of living is high, not as bad as California, but still high. I think the job market is picking up some. Homeschooling laws here aren't bad and there are a lot of homeschoolers and homeschool activities, especially in Beaverton. I do think there is a drug problem. I am not sure if it is better/worse than other places, but it is very present, even in the nicer suburban communities. Having lived in the Pacific Northwest my whole life, you would think I would be used to the rain, but even I find the winters here depressing. There are a lot of beautiful, outdoorsy things to do, but really only during a few months of the year. The beach is really cold and hiking or camping in the rain isn't that much fun :( Portland is close enough to drive to the mountains, ocean, or desert fairly easily. It seems to me that the Portland area is pretty liberal and basically the rest of Oregon is fairly conservative. This divide can be kind of strange and create some weird politics. It's a very "green" place to live in regards to access to recycling, composting, organic and natural foods, etc. I took these things for granted until I traveled out of state and couldn't find a recycling bin. I was so confused. We have them everywhere. We have some really nice parks and park & rec programs. The Multnomah County Park and Rec is awesome (I think they have even won some awards recently), and has amazing music programs through The Community Music Center and Multnomah Arts Center. The arts in general seem very accessible, regardless of income. We have a large library system and it's easy to use neighboring county's libraries if desired. The libraries are very homeschooler-friendly.

I am not sure your situation, but my dh has been dealing with some long term health issues and it has been really exhausting physically, emotionally, and financially. It's obviously the hardest on him, but it is really trying on the whole family. We have started to have "appreciation" time before dinner each night, where each family member says something they appreciate. I have heard of other versions that focus on the best thing that happened to you today, or one positive experience/interaction you had today. I think stopping to focus on something, no matter how small, that was positive and then sharing it before the day ends has been really helpful for us and made us reflect more on the good things that are happening around us, even if health isn't one of :( I am sorry you are having a rough time, I wish I had better advice.

I've only used CLE LA and reading for first grade and we are not quite finished with the year, so I am not an expert of anything, but I'll try to answer your questions. I think you could easily do a different spelling program, I didn't bother this year, but next year I might. The words seem a bit random to me, some of them are themed (like colors or numbers) and some of them reflect the phonics that is being taught; the words seem like appropriate words for the grade. The spelling is fairly integrated into the lessons, but they word lists change quickly so it's not like you are studying the same few words all the Light Unit. I think you could easily add in a spelling program and not stress about the ones in the Light Unit, but I am not sure it would be easy to take all the spelling word portions out or skip them, as they are typically used in cross word puzzles, choosing opposites, practicing alphabetizing, etc. My daughter is a strong reader, quite a bit above grade level, but we still find the grade 1 reading to be fun and she is learning a lot. I was surprised how much the reading program covers, so I wouldn't be worried about doing a grade lower if that is reading level your child needs. I would imagine she would still learn a lot. I think it is very easy to skip items, but my dd will not allow it. I am so tired of the dictionary markings (or whatever they are called) and I am constantly telling her to just skip that portion of the lesson and she won't. The way the lessons are set up, I do think you could just skip the portion that is getting repetitive. Having only used grade 1, I am not sure if the writing is adequate for the whole program. I can say, first grade has a lot less creative writing than our experience with public school, but there is much more focus on punctuation, contractions, and parts of speech. My dd writes stories and poems for fun, and we do copywork so it wasn't a big concern for me this year. I have purchased CAP's Writing & Rhetoric Fable to use towards the end of 2nd or whenever she is ready. I do not think CLE is behind at all, but I guess it would depend as to what program you are comparing it to. The lessons are short, and often repetitive, but they do cover a lot and provide plenty of practice throughout the year. Our only complaints with CLE is there has been a lot of coloring (perhaps this a first grade thing) and my daughter finds some of the lessons annoyingly preachy (we use mostly secular materials, so she is not used to all the Bible verses inserted into her school work). Honestly, I like the LA and reading so much I am considering CLE Math. I really like the set up of how easy it is to teach and how so much is packed into short lessons; it's not like the kids get super bored. The Light Units are also small and easy to pack up and take to Grandma's house or the doctor's office if needed.

We started it in fall 2012 for my then kinder and although I liked it well enough, she hated it. I knew it wouldn't be cute or colorful, but we had used Rod & Staff workbooks and she liked those a lot so I figured she didn't need anything flashy. Perhaps they have updated it since we used it, but it was dreadfully boring in my opinion, and even fun subjects like art and poetry were not enjoyable for her. It was also not a good fit because she already knew how to read, but didn't have great fine motor skills required for all the writing it expected. I am sure it is a solid program, but it wasn't fun for my daughter, so we dropped it after a couple of months (we ended up using Christian Light for reading/language arts and Singapore for math and she was much happier). We've also tried Build Your Own Library , which has lesson plans for reading, copywork, history, and science and we enjoy that quite a bit. Good luck.

One of my children was always easily distracted, so it was best that she worked facing a wall. My youngest can really focus, and rarely gets too distracted by things she sees out the window, so we work at a table set up in front of large windows in my school room. I prefer the natural light and space of working at a table, but it would never have worked for my oldest. I would take personality and age into consideration. Older, more independent kids could work at a desk easily, but younger children that need help constantly probably do better at a table.

About 15 years ago I stayed home to raise and homeschool my stepdaughter. This was before I had a chance to start a career. I was in my early twenties, and although I did attend college, I didn't finish. Financially we did not need me to work and for the most part I enjoyed staying at home. We had another child that I currently homeschool. However, over the last several years my husband has developed some serious health problems and we are faced with the reality that I don't have the ability to support us if necessary. So, now here I am in my thirties going back to college. I can't say I have major regrets, I think I made the decision that made the most sense for my family at the time, and I have wonderful memories of raising and homeschooling my kids; but in hindsight, I do wish I would have finished college and at least worked part-time or had meaningful volunteer work that would look good on a resume. I think it will be a difficult transition for me to enter the workforce and leave behind my identity as a homeschool mom. For me it has been helpful to realize that my role might need to change because of necessity (or desire) and I am not a prisoner to my decision many years ago to stay home. I hear people mention "seasons" in their life, and I think that is really true. A lifetime is full of different stages and you have to take each one as it is. Having a career after many years of staying home, or the reverse, isn't really a bad thing in my opinion.

My oldest did Kolbe the first two years of high school, and we made sure she did Core or Honors for all her classes, because it looked the most rigorous to me and we figured it would be best for the college application process. And honestly, making her accountable to following their lesson plans was important to us. I would just pick the courses your child is strongest in to do the honors, if you feel they need that designation. If I remember right, honors wasn't that much more effort than the core for some subjects. I am not sure how important the designations really are in the end though, I would just do what makes sense for your situation. In hindsight, I realize I over planned and my child ended up choosing to go to a local community college for a tech degree so her Kolbe transcripts weren't as important as I thought they would be.

I have used Earlybird and Singapore 1 without any instructors guides. And then I wanted to try MIF for 2nd, because it looked so nice. We used MIF without the teacher's manual (because they are so expensive). This year we went back to the standard's edition with the Home Instructor's guide for 3rd grade. I prefer to have the instructor guides at this point and I don't want to spend a crazy amount of money so we are sticking with the standard edition. Although my daughter understood the math, I think I might have been a better teacher had I had the instructor guides the whole time. I did think the MIF books were very colorful and cute and they did seem to break down the steps better, so if you child needs to see more of the process, they might be better choice. Switching between the programs did not seem to negatively effect my child, so I wouldn't worry too much if you choose one version now, but decide to switch later on. I think my advice would be to go with the Standards Edition with the HIG since it is the more affordable option.

I would not expect my 7 year old to spend 45 minutes on math per day. I think that is a long time to concentrate on math at this age. We rarely spend more than 20 minutes a day on math, but we use a different program. Even in CLE LA, if the lessons are taking too long, we just stop and pick up where we left off the next day. It works for us.

We have used Kolbe for high school and you can order all the lesson plans and texts from them and they will keep records for you and grade a certain number of assignments, but someone would still have to take charge the daily work and most assignments. From our experience, it was a very rigorous program and unless the children are independent, self-motivated students, I wouldn't personally use it if I had to work full-time.

We are a couple years ahead in SIngapore Math, but my daughter really enjoys math and it seems fairly easy for her. We rarely spend more than 20 minutes a day on math, but we do school year round. A lot of the topics are review for her (like telling time and money) and she just whizzes through the problems without any need for explanation or teaching on my part. My oldest child was the opposite, and Singapore was pure torture for her, even working way behind grade level. Personally, I wouldn't try to get ahead, I would just try to give them a solid foundation in math and try to make it as fun and enjoyable as possible. One of the great benefits of homeschooling is we get to let our children learn at their own pace.

You might want to look into MathBuddies, which is the Singapore Math online component for grades k-5 http://www.mceducation.us/math-buddies/ It's about $100 for 12 months access. You can only work one grade level at a time, but you can email customer service when you have completed a level and they will give you access to the next grade. So, essentially your kid can fly through math, at least online. We still do the textbook and workbooks, but my dd7 really loves the computer "game" and she will find topics that interest her that we haven't covered yet and work on them. It's been a great to have on those days when she cries I wont' just sit and do math with her all day :) I also had TeacherFileBox last year, you can get a discounted rate at Homeschool Buyers Coop https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/teacherfilebox/?c=1 If your kid enjoys worksheets, this is the way to go. It can be frustrating to search, but if you get on of their catalogs it makes it easier to know what to look for. You have access to multiple grade levels and subjects. I would also suggest you don't buy too much in advance. I was completely shocked how fast my daughter completed materials. What I planned to do next month, all the sudden was way to easy for her. The first year I spent a lot of money on things we never even used because it was too easy for her by the time I went to actually use it. I would also try to focus on learning about things that are interesting to him (animals, weather, space, colonial times etc) for history and science. School is so much more enjoyable at this age when they are learning about things that they really care about and they retain the information so much better. There are so many curriculum choices, try not to buy everything!

When my daughter was that age I purchased the Rod & Staff workbooks. They gave her something to sit and do and she loved the little pictures of animals and farm life. She also enjoyed the Scholastic Magnetic Pattern Blocks, mazes, and Kumon workbooks (Let's Fold, Let's Cut, etc until she was ready for the bigger Kumon workbooks). I think some kids just really enjoy sitting and working on something.

Thanks for the replies. I had forgot about NAC and my daughter will love the merkat, so I am thinking we'll try that first. It's nice to know HWOT worked for so many, at least it can be my back up plan.

My dd 7 is really struggling with handwriting. It doesn't help that she is working above grade level, so the writing output required is greater than average. I really wanted her to work on cursive, and we tried Pentime in the fall, but it didn't go so well. I had dreams that she would have beautiful cursive handwriting, but at this point I just want her to have some legible handwriting that doesn't stress her out. I am not a huge fan of the HWOT cursive font (although we did use the print), but I think it would be easier for her than a traditional cursive program. If you used HWOT Cursive do you regret it? Is there another, prettier, option out there?