So in my house I do all the research, choose all the curriculum, and do all the teaching. My husband is very supportive of what we do, but he is really just a bystander. I would love to be able to discuss curriculum choices and methods with him, because it's always good to have a sounding board, but I know there is no way if I hand him The Well-Trained Mind that he would read it. He's just not a reader. Sadly, I'm also not very good at summarizing it in such a way that makes much sense to him. So what I'm hoping you can help me with is pointing me in the direction of something shorter than book length that would give him an overview of classical education a la TWTM. Or if someone here could give me a nice succinct summary that I could pass on to him, I would be so appreciative. I just really want to involve him without overwhelming him. Thanks in advance!!

Here is what I have planned so far. I feel like there's too much, but I want to do it all! Math: CLE Math 402-410 and Timez Attack Grammar: KISS Grammar Level 1 and Growing with Grammar 4 Spelling: Megawords 1-2 Writing and Reading: Classical House of Learning Literature and 6 Traits Daily Writing (summer) Vocabulary: Wordly Wise 3000 CA History: California Studies Weekly Handwriting: Handwriting Without Tears cursive Typing: Dance Mat Typing P.E.: Gymnastics Music: Flute World History: Story of the World 1 and Activity Guide Science: R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey - Earth and Space, extra something on Magnets, Electricity, and Forces Art: Combo of Artistic Pursuits, Meet the Masters, Draw Squad, How to Teach Art to Children, and Artworks for Kids Latin: Getting Started With Latin Music: Classics for Kids Read Alouds: From a variety of literature lists

This has actually been a problem in the past, but she has tubes in right now and regular appointments with an ENT. So pronunciation problems could be a carry over problem, but not an ongoing compounding one. She's younger because of a summer birthday. She actually started in public school for kinder through half of second grade. She's always been at the top of her grade level and tested in 90th percentile on her STAR testing this last year, so I really don't think I'm asking too much of her in requiring 3rd grade work. It's just the next step along. I couldn't fall back to second grade work for that very reason: she's already done it all and did well on it. But I definitely agree that grammar is not necessarily needed at this point. I've been doing it because it's the logical progression from FLL1 to 2 to 3. And my type A personality can't stand the idea of getting behind and out of order. :) She actually enjoys doing it and asks to do it; it's just not sticking. I sat down with her the last couple days to do her math with her instead of letting her do it on her own, and I realized she's actually got a lot more in her head than I gave her credit for. I think it was just a matter of getting her to focus, which is easier working with me. So long post short, I'm definitely going to take a step back on my expectations for her and let things just kind of flow for now, knowing that eventually it will all click in her brain. Again, again, again, thank you all for your suggestions, support and input!!!

Thank you all for your input and advice! I try and talk this stuff over with my husband and his eyes glaze over. :) It's nice to have a place to vent. I'll try and answer the questions you all asked. We did do WWE2, and by the end of the year she was doing pretty good on dictations. But there is quite a jump to WWE3, and even from lesson to lesson the level of dictations varies greatly. I actually don't feel like CLE is that advanced, and maybe I just need to lower my expectations on that one, but I really don't want to have to buy a new math program, so we're just going to have to make this one work. We were doing Singapore before and it was too patterned and easy for her to not have to think, and we've tried MEP, but she is just not an abstract thinker. So here's what I think we're going to do. For math I'm going to sit down and do the new learning sections with her so I can make sure she's actually ingesting the info and not just skimming like I know she has a tendency to do. Then I'll set her free to complete the review sections herself. There is also a reference chart that comes with the program that I will be better about referring her to so she knows where to find the answers. For dictation I'm going to break them into smaller pieces and let her write one small bit at a time. In the past (WWE2) I would sometimes let her look at the passage first and study the hard words and then dictate it to her, but to me this defeats the purpose of dictation, to hear something and keep it in your brain. I know for me, a visual learner, seeing the sentence first would make it a completely different exercise than just hearing it. I know she can do smaller chunks of dictation, so this should eliminate the conflict there. After reading around on the boards here and reading your advice, I'm going to make our narrations much more like a conversation, a retelling, rather than a Q&A. It will just flow better and put her more in control, which she craves. And as for spelling, I'm just going to keep plugging along. She needs major help segmenting words outside of the spelling environment, so I'll try and be better about encouraging that in other writing situations and pointing out spelling rules being used in other places. And just for a change of pace, and to see if it helps apply her grammar in more practical ways, I'm going to have her do a page of KISS Grammar each week with my help. So I think that's enough changes for now. We'll see how it goes while I'm checking out all the books/links you have suggested. Thanks again for all your help and reassurances! Sometimes we just need someone to talk us away from the brink. :)

My daughter, who is 8, is doing third grade work this year. She really struggles working with me, so we've done as many independent subjects as possible. But whether working with me or not, none of the work we are doing seems to be sticking. For example, she'll do a whole section on perimeter in math, review it in later sections, and then a few days later will be asking me what "perimedery" is. She can spell words while doing AAS because everything follows the current rule, but her spelling in everything else is atrocious! Today she wrote January as "Janwarary." And don't get me started on WWE and FFL. Dictation is a nightmare and no matter how many times she repeats verbatim the definition of an adverb (or anything else), she still can't really tell you what one is or how it's used. Just spits out the words without internalizing it. So what do you do when they get the answers "right" but it's not being internalized? Do we need a new approach? Is it just a matter of doing things so many times that it all eventually soaks in? Because that method might make us all crazy. I'm at my wits' end. Just for an idea of the subjects/curriculums we're using: CLE Math 300 Daily journal Daily reader that coordinates with history Cursive practice (HWT) WWE3 FFL3 AAS Level 3 Guesthollow American History (which she loves) REAL Science Odyssey Life Science ARTistic Pursuits So the big problems are math and language arts (though she's an avid reader). Any help/advice would be greatly appreciated!! Thanks!!