One of our all time favorites!

What did your kids read for school this past year? Or what are you planning to have them read next year? I love reading lists! :) (Please share age/grade level too). I haven't really started lists yet, but they're all doing ELTL so I'll start there. (Some of the books on those lists we recently read too.)

Oh, Winnie the Pooh! It's been a few years since we've read through the whole thing. I think we need to do that this year. :)

These are so fun to read. Thanks for sharing, and keep 'em coming! :)

I'm so glad you posted this! I was planning to teach my children Spanish because I thought it would be so much more useful. However, I myself studied French for 6 years and would feel so much more comfortable teaching them that. We'll see what they want to do when the time comes but I'm thinking I should be more flexible and take interests into account. PS - my daughter loves Fancy Nancy too. She loves to say "Ooh la la!!" lol

I'd love to hear what your family is reading together right now. :) We're visiting the ocean in a few weeks, so we're currently reading Seabird and I have the Burgess Seashore Book ready after that. When we kick off our school year in August, I am planning to read The Hobbit (so excited to share this with them!) I'm about to start looking through books lists to write up a list of read alouds I want to do this year, and I'd love to hear what your family is enjoying too!

I think I will give that a try so that I can get exactly what I want on each page. No more, no less. :)

This is super helpful. Did you just create the template yourself?

Anyone else? I'm especially interested in your planner (not student planners) with how you organize your week for multiple kiddos. Thanks!!!

To the bolded - thank you! I needed to be reminded of that!! :) Yes to art. I have some ideas and plan to add that and music in after we get our main subjects into a routine. I like the idea of fun Friday. :)

Thanks all! Language arts is the area I'm just not as sure about. Am I hitting the pieces I need to hit without doing too much? All my kids seem to be natural readers and spellers so far so I don't want to add extra programs just for the sake of doing them... But am I doing enough? The plan is to get math and reading going on a routine then add others as we can (or as toddler allows us! lol) If you read my other thread last week about being anxious, this is kind of what I'm talking about although I'm far less anxious than I was last week. :)

Thanks MerryAtHope! It is definitely helpful to see how others have done it! :)

LOL. Thanks. :laugh:

Would you mind sharing a photo of a week in your planner, especially if you have a bunch of kiddos? I'm trying to figure out how to write out weekly plans for my 3 (eventually 4) and I'm very visual so it helps me to see how others have done this. Or if there's a previous thread like this, can you direct me to it? Thanks!!!

This is what I have planned for our first year. I already have most of this, still need to order language arts, so any suggestions on that are appreciated. Overall, I'm feeling pretty good about this plan. It think it provides enough structure and rigor without totally overwhelming us in our first year. Thoughts? DS11, 6th grade math - accelerated class for gifted kids at local univ. If this becomes too much for him, we'll pull out and do AOPS. reading list, still working on IEW ELTL 5? (Is this overkill with IEW) Elemental Science Physics SOTW1 with siblings because I already have it, will add some additional readings He's in piano lessons and Scouts and wants to add cello lessons. DS8, 3rd grade BA finish 3, start 4 reading list, still working on ELTL 3 ETC 8, then probably start a word study/word origins program Cursive handwriting He enjoys writing stories on his own so we'll just stick to that for now, practice editing, etc. follow with brother for science, get out into nature SOTW1 piano lessons and Scouts DD6, 1st grade Singapore1 and Miquon read aloud to me daily Progressive Phonics ETC 3 and 4 ELTL 1 Handwriting She writes/spells pretty well. I think I will do spelling lists from her writing and to go along with ETC and ELTL. read books and explore nature for science SOTW1 she takes dance classes and wants to start Girl Scouts 2 year old wreaking havoc while we do all of the above :)

This! I am definitely trying to remember this.

I absolutely believe that!!! :)

Thank you - this is so helpful! Your post is helping me reframe my thoughts and focus on priorities. I think we've got math figured out. I'm going to get LA planned this week, then work on the extras. We are traveling for most of July so I want to have my curriculum ordered asap and hopefully have most of it in my hands by July so I can take it with me and start my long range planning. I don't think I'm going to schedule out every week, at least not at the beginning but keep it more of a "do the next thing" schedule, at least for the subjects (math ) that lend themselves to that. And the others, well I will plan by the week as I can but remember to be flexible as we go along, like you said. Again, thank you for your advice. :)

Excellent advice. I need to learn to prioritize and not feel like I have to hit the ground running doing every piece of every subject.

My 6 year old likes Milly-Molly-Mandy. I'm planning to read the first Little House book and Charlotte''s Web to her this year.

LOL, I was mostly just kidding about that list of extras. I think there are a lot of cool things people here are doing with their kids and I hope to incorporate more down the road but I'm starting out slow. 3Rs, some science and history, read alouds, and yes I would like to do some Bible study with them too, but even that might be put off a bit, or we might just start with a little Bible reading every day and keep it simple. I will check out the rest of your resources tomorrow. Thanks! :)

LOL, see my response to your other post. IEW is high on the list for my 11 year old. :)

This is excellent advice. And I really appreciate it. I just want to clarify that we do follow a general structure/routine around here and I see that continuing as we start homeschooling. When I said relaxed, I meant in the *amount* of work/subjects we do. So I plan to focus on the 3Rs, add a little science and history, but not stress myself our trying to get in foreign languages, Latin, music/composer study, artist study, literature analysis, basketweaving, etc. All the things that look fun but that we don't NEED to do right now. :) Is that a little clearer? I will start that thread soon. :) You have given me a lot of advice previously on the LC board and I truly appreciate it. :)

LOL! Clever guy!

Right now I'm stressed about choosing curriculum for everyone. I'm trying to focus on that but my mind keeps jumping to the next few things (long range planning, or how I'm going to plan out a day, how I'm going to keep the toddler busy while teaching the older kids, etc.) So I'm just a little (or a lot) overwhelmed thinking about all of these different aspects of homeschooling. I'm starting from scratch and with three kids including a middle schooler, there are just a lot of decisions to make. I know we can change our minds but I'm hoping to avoid wasting time and money. :) Language arts seems to be my biggest issue right now. There are so many pieces and I want to make sure we're covering what we're "supposed to" cover without overwhelming my kids. I am slowly getting a feel for what I want to do, and I'm learning that it's a process figuring this stuff out. :) I really appreciate your advice about finding my priorities. That is very helpful as I work through the planning process and I hope I remember it when we're in the thick of things and I can't always get it all done. Thank you!