Relax! I agree with some of the other posters that she will learn this--in time! My ds turned 5 a couple of months ago and he will not start kindergarten until the fall. We have been working out of a K math text, however taking it slow. ITA w/ the others about ditching the workbooks and playing math games or "doing" math around the house. You can start up again in the fall with the workbooks. FWIW, my oldest sometimes gets his "p" and "q" mixed up as well as his "b" and "d". So I really, really wouldn't worry about it. :D

I don't think you're crazy at all for wanting to combine both programs. I had a chance to look at both of these programs in detail at a homeschool convention. What I plan to do is use Preparing Hearts as my main curriculum and supplement with ECC. If you purchase the TM for ECC along with the student pages and a FEW of the geography books listed, I would think this could be done 1 day per week. For me it all boiled down to not wanting to take a full year to do geography. My oldest is just starting out in the "history cycle" and I really need him to start "Ancients" in the 5th grade. I will be doing the Preparing Hearts/ ECC combo next year 2010/2011 for his 4th grade year. This way my younger dc can tag along with us. We will do American Hist./US geo. this year. Then move onto world history/ world geo. next year, then move onto Ancients. Before the convention, I was leaning towards Adventures , now I'm going with Bigger Hearts from HOD. However, I do like certain portions of Adventures. Therefore, I purchased the state sheets, state flag stickers, and some of the books listed from the program. We will keep a US geography NB along side doing Bigger using some of the Adventures resources. I think we are going to have a great school year!! I agree with the pp, Donna. It would be too much to do both programs in its entirety. I would use one program as the main curriculum and supplement with the other. You can't go wrong whichever way you decide.:D

Shannon, I just finished reading TWTM as well. I bought it Friday night and stayed up all night reading it. I have been stressing out as well. However, unlike you, I will be homeschooling all 3 of my dc in the fall for the first time. After having my oldest in school since he was 3yo, I'm freaking out b/c my oldest is behind in certain areas according to TWTM. If you are using HOD and you like it-I would definitely finish it for the year. I would probably go onto doing a year of world geography before starting the 4 yr history cycle b/c your children are so young. As for me , I will be doing American History this year-b/c my oldest hasn't had any history at all :001_huh: My K5 son will follow along as well. We will do a survey of American History this year (including US geography, US presidents, pilgrims, state flowers, birds, and biographies of people important to the time period, briefly focusing on American Revolution and the Civil War. Next year we will move onto world geography with an overview of world history (Preparing Hearts for His Glory). After that, I will follow this cycle: 2nd/5th- Ancients 3rd/6th- Middle Ages 4th/7th- 1600's- 1850 5th/8th- 1850- modern (present time) My dc will probably enter private school after this. :001_smile: HTH, Trina

Yes, if I remember correctly. I have the 2009 catalog. The kit includes: The Teacher's guide The student activity book the Drill book My ABC Bible Verses Trottino's Tale-book about moral stories-to be used as a read aloud Preschool readers- there are 5 of these; each book focuses on a short vowel sound

:lurk5: I saw this last weekend at the homeschool convention. It looks really good. It is on my shortlist for my dd next fall in 2010. :)

Jennifer, thanks for posting this link. I'm very interested in K12 and this link really has a lot of info. :001_smile:

I am a math curriculum junkie. Here is what we are currently using, of course not all at the same time: ds, 2nd grade: CLE Math BJU Math 2 Singapore 1B (finishing up, ready for 2A (standard edtn) this summer Now, after the convention in Arlington last weekend I'm probably going to change things up for 3rd grade. Here is what I'm drooling over: Teaching Textbooks 4 :lol: -This looks great!! BJU Math 3-not sure yet, we are doing CLE Math on a trial basis for now Singapore Standards 2B/3A ds, Pre-K: BJU Math K Liberty Math K (Christian Liberty Press) Once he finishes those, I'm switching to Abeka Math 1 and Singapore Standards Edtn 1A/1B dd, 3yo Kumon workbooks Critical Thinking Press' Mathematical Reasoning-Beginner level 1 (for 3yo) In the past I've also used Saxon and Horizons. I quickly dropped those. On my future math list for my oldest: poor thing, he's my guinea pig:tongue_smilie: Chalkdust Math- I saw this at the convention-can't wait for this Life of Fred

Hi Terri, I don't mean to hijack this thread. However, I just wanted to throw this website out there: www.naums.net. It's the National Assoc. of University-Model Schools. It is a great alternative between homeschooling and private school. Once you're on their webpage, click on directory of schools to see if there are any in your area. I'm in Texas, and I think there are at least 5 schools in my area. I'm considering this option for my oldest when he gets to 6th grade. HTH, Trina

There are diagnostics test available for purchase. I would recommend buying them . However, once I looked through mine, I quickly realized we would need to start at the beginning of 2nd grade and didn't even administer the test to my son. (It's that advanced IMHO ) HTH:)

In fact, I'm trying to figure out how to do HOD Bigger Hearts for His Glory with Adventures in MFW. :glare: I think doing both programs are totally possible within the time frame you stated. I'm leaning toward doing Bigger in its entirety and only doing MFW for the US geography/Exploring Amer.History/book basket portion. I would only purchase the TM(used) and purchase the state sheets, Celebrate America CD, 4th of July story, Red, white, and Blue, North American Indians, and the Thanksgiving Story. I wouldn't do the science/bible/art b/c I would cover that with HOD. Anyhoo, once you get it figured out, please let me know :D, I will be right behind you for the following school year.

BJU Math K hands down!! :D I also like Abeka K math as well.

In the state of Texas, your son would be going to the first grade in the fall of 2009.

It's a good thing I won't be making any major purchases until July. K3 Sonlight P3/4 Kumon workbooks www.starfall.com K5: Math-BJU Math K5 Phonics- HOP, MCP Plaid Phonics, Bob Books, CLP K readers Handwriting- ZB K Sonlight P3/4 3rd grade: if we homeschool this ds :001_huh: BJU Reading 3 GWG 3, Evan-Moor Daily Language Review WWE R&S spelling or Spelling Workout BJU Math 3 and Singapore Math handwriting- ZB 3 or New American Cursive Abeka Science 3 Analogies/ Mindbenders Combined: Bible- Ergemeiers Bible Storybook Adventures in MFW, Childrens Encyclopedia of American History, SL Core 3 Readers

I have a ds, 8yo, fininshing up 2nd grade. We will be focusing on writing, grammar, math, and handwriting. We haven't done any history or science at all, so I'm trying to incorporate that in as well. Writing/Grammar-Finish BJU English 2 Math- CLE Math (we just started this, we'll see how it goes)-drill math facts :multiplication handwriting-perfect manuscript (ds handwriting needs improvement b4 starting cursive) Reading- Sonlight Core 2 intermediate readers K12 science- K level for my 5yo ds. Big brother will piggyback from the topics with living books History- Read aloud SOTW 1 or listen on audio Continue phonics and math with 5yo ds It seems like a lot, however we're only doing 1hr per day 3-4 days per week, not including read aloud time at bedtime (SOTW) and 30 min. of independent reading for my oldest. ;)

If we homeschool next year for 3rd grade (I keep changing my mind), this is what we will be using: Spelling Workout or Rod and Staff Spelling BJU Reading 3 BJU English 3 or Growing with Grammar 3 WWE

OhElizabeth, I totally agree with you about this. However, because my ds is in school, I decided to not do the full curriculum of BJU b/c it is so much like what my son is doing in school. Therefore, we only loosely do the student text and I only do pages to correlate with what he is working on in school. The TM of BJU is great. I love the toolkit CD that lets you print everything you need, however for an afterschooling family it is not just "open and go". With CLE math, it appears "open and go". It will work for us because I need something he can do semi-independently. I also love the math drills and the oral math lesson done prior to the "new lesson" of the day. (similar to Saxon's style). With that being said, we are going to homeschool next year and I will still use both math curriculums. I appreciate your insight though. Thanks :D

SS in MD, Hi, I'll try to give you a some insight on what I plan to do with both curriculums. Now, we only just started CLE so I'm not sure how my plans will work out and remember, I do afterschool so we don't have the time to do both programs at a full length basis to actually finish in a "school year". I just purchased LU's 202-205 with the TM for CLE. If I'm correct, it would usually take 3 weeks to complete a LU? :001_huh: For us, it will probably take 4 weeks to complete a LU and I'm sure I won't give ds every quiz/review/test indicated in each LU. For example, in LU 202 there are 17 lessons. Lesson 5 is quiz 1; lesson 10 is quiz 2, lesson 16 is review and lesson 17 is the LU test. If I were to eliminate those 4 lessons-we would only have to complete 13 actually lessons per LU. Of course I wouldn't eliminate all of them, it would depend on whether or not he has a good grasp on the particular concepts. Anyway, I figured we could complete 3-4 lessons per week until the end of the school year. Once summer has started we will do CLE in the AM and BJU in the evening on a daily basis, except weekends. That way we are on target to complete LU 205 before the end of July. As far as BJU is concerned, we are loosely working through this. Right now in school they are working on measurement: length, weight, and capacity. So I usually mimic whatever math concept he is doing in school for reinforcement with BJU. BJU has math concepts broken down by topics/concepts. So I just pull the pgs out from his wkbk on measurement and we work through those lessons until I know he has grasped the concept. Sometimes, I let him do the chapter review and cumulative review at the end of the chapter. We do this about 3 nights a week. The BJU lessons are short. One lesson is one page-front and back. Sometimes we will do 2 lessons a day. The CLE math lesson is longer. I do plan to finish BJU math before August. If we decide to stick with CLE, I'm not sure when we will finish level 200. If we decide to homeschool exclusively next year, I think we will still continue using CLE and BJU. I will do CLE in the morning M-F and do BJU in the evenings as "homework" one lesson per day. To some it seems like a lot, but to me its needed. Math is not my ds strong subject and math needs to always be fresh with my son. My ds hardly gets any homework from school and I don't like that. So he definitely gets math homework from me. I hope I answered your question. I feel like I'm rambling. Whichever math curriculum you choose, you can't go wrong. They are both great programs. I would suggest ordering a LU from CLE to get a feel for it. I would also suggest browsing through a BJU math worktext at a local hs bookstore or even Mardels so you could get a feel for it. Also, I agree with OhElizabeth, that the TM are needed for the upper elementary grades. I probably will need them from 3rd grade on up. HTH :001_smile:

We just started CLE Math this week and so far I like it and my son likes it. He especially likes shading in the bar graph for his math drills, always trying to improve the # of correct problems. I also like how it teaches to the student, therefore he appears to be able to do the lesson by himself. We are still learning the ropes, but I think CLE is definitely a winner. As far as BJU math is concerned- I love it! However, I don't think I would ever use it exclusively. I've used BJU math for my oldest now for K, 1st, and now 2nd grade. All of them have been the newer editions. I like BJU math for the visual layout, the colorful graphics, the fun math games/activities that you mentioned, the different methods it uses to teach a math concept, the critical thinking/problem solving, and definitely its ease to use and implement. As far as the TM is concerned, it is wonderful- if you need it to teach math. Math and science happens to be my thing, so I really didn't need the TM. I've actually sold them all. The TM does not have to be "intense". You don't have to do everything in it. So please don't be intimidated by it. The few times I have used it, I would just skim over the lesson and see if there is anything worth going over. The student lesson is self-explanatory. Most of the pertinent info. is right there on the page, so my ds really could do it without my help. Ok, so why did I purchase CLE math if I really liked BJU math? Several reasons: I'm currently afterschooling my oldest, and I need a math program that teaches math using the spiral method. My ds school uses a mastery math program, similar to BJU math. He would actually work on a math concept for 2 weeks at a time, while forgetting everything else. Nevermind the fact that the school doesn't drill math facts at all! So I needed a math program that definitely reinforces math facts and also has the oral counting drill as well, e.g. skip counting. We are also using CLE for a trial run ( I only purchased a few LUs) If we like it, I'll order the rest and finish them through the summer. I do plan on supplementing with BJU Math a few days out of the week. HTH, :001_smile:

It depends on what day of the week it is. I work in the healthcare industry, therefore, I work a lot of 10 and 12 hr days. My main focus for afterschooling is math, reading, grammar/writing skills. My ds is in 2nd grade, so he does not receive a lot of homework. I will try to get 3-4 math lessons done per week, 2-3 grammar lessons, and we read every night for 20-30 minutes. We also do "work" on the weekends as well. I'm working on a schedule for the fall that will let me get to each subject I want to cover for the school year at least 3 times per week. I'm also planning to reduce my hours at work to gain another day off during the week. I will be homeschooling my Kinder. and a 3yo in the fall and possibly my oldest as well. But, as it looks like now, I will still be working full time outside of the home.

Currently, I'm homeschooling my Pre-K son and I have a newly turned 3yo daughter. My oldest, 8yo, 2nd grader, ds is in public school. I've posted several times that we will be homeschooling all 3 next year-our first year. However, my oldest is doing great in public school. This is our first year in public school. He has always been in private school, since he was 3yo (Montessori). Now, I've always been after-schooling him as well as the others. Basically, we've always done some type of educational activities/curriculum at home. The more I started researching curriculum, the more I want to homeschool-full time. However, due to our finances-(dh is self-employed) and I work full time outside of the home- we put our oldest in public school. With that being said- I'm NOW trying to work out a plan to homeschool my 3yo and my Kinder for the fall and send our oldest to public school for 3rd grade. There are things that he is learning in ps that he won't get from me at home. Also, we don't have any family nearby and at least he gets to have friends at school-even though we don't socialize with anyone after school hours. Hopefully, we will be leaving Texas next year and move closer to our family. :001_smile:

Math CLE Math / Singapore Language Arts GWG 3 R&S spelling Writing With Ease--also adding some creative writing CLE Reading Bible/History/Geography/Science Adventures in My Father's World Handwriting Critical Thinking wkbks-from Prufrock Press and Critical Thinking Co. music/art/PE/library/computer/Spanish-- co-op one day per week swimming lessons, sports skills class

I think you should try TT and not worry about the negative reviews. Your dd is 10, therefore she can do the work independently. I've read plenty of positive reviews about TT and will some day use it with my oldest when he's a little older -using it one or two grade levels ahead if needed. I think any math program that can TEACH your child math is a great program, especially since you said your dd has hit a brick wall on certain concepts. I think of TT as a personal math tutor. Once your dd is confident in math again-you can stop TT and continue Horizons or move onto something else. I know that Horizons is advanced, so I think going with TT6 would be a good idea and your daughter can still work through her Horizons workbooks a few days out of the week. Just my humle opinion. ;)

Angel, thanks for the suggestion. I totally understand where you're coming from. However, this is a child that already plays too much and if I let him totally off this summer, I will have major issues in August (especially in math). Therefore, we will have a light summer load: WWE 1 , CLE Math , handwriting and of course he will read to me daily as well as I will continue reading aloud to them daily. All in all it probably will be 1hr of work a day 4 days a week.:)

Hi, I'm calling on your expertise. My 8yo ds, 2nd grade, is in public school. We will be homeschooling him next year along with a kindergartner and my soon to be 3yo. My son is doing OK in school now. His main weaknesses are in math and writing. IMHO, his writing looks like twaddle and his handwriting is awful(even though he maintains an 85 average in school.) He doesn't appear to be retaining much and I'm not impressed with the lack of organization, the curriculum, or the focus on the TAKS test in school! It seems like he isn't learning much even though he brings home really decent grades. :confused: Now, I've been afterschooling for some time now, since he was 4yo. and I've become a curriculum junkie! I've bought so much to augment his education, but I don't get to use anything throught to completion, or I simply can't get to it at all. Earlier this month I posted a thread about past, present, future 3rd grade plans and I appreciate all of your replies. (I'm sorry I didn't post the link). Well, I'm changing my mind on almost everything b/c of expenses, the fact that I probably won't get to it or finish it out. I need some curriculum suggestions/ideas that will be easy for a new homeschooling family as well as challenging. My goal is to only homeschool for about 2-3 years and then I want to send all my children to private school. I'm also interested in a balance of textbooks with TWTM/classical methods. Thanks for listening!:D Here is what I'm coming up with: CLE math -daily- (already ordered, will be starting ASAP and into the summer) WWE 1 (work through this swiftly-move onto level 2, ds will be 9 in Sept.) GWG 3--3 days/week R&S spelling 2/3--daily Critical Thinking wkbks (1-2 days/week)- I already own alot of these handwriting- daily Adventures in MFW (American History, geography, bible, science )--combining with my Kinder. I probably will tweak this to some degree b/c I'm not an arts and crafts person. I really like the looks of this b/c it covers American history and US geography in a fun way and it will tell me exactly what to do. (I need hand holding!) Reading / Literature--a few readers from Sonlight Core 3 list and MFW book basket alternating with CLE Reading.---daily

Jennifer, I love your comparison to TWTM. I will be using K12 LA (independently) next year for my oldest. I have other curriculum lined up for history, science, and math (even though I like the looks of K12's science and history-so my plans may change in the near future.) As far as the accuracy of your comparison, I can't really say. I'm definitely not a classical homeschooler. I sold my copy of TWTM, it just wasn't for me and I thought "When in the world am I going to find time to do all of this?" We've been afterschooling our oldest since he was 4yo. He has always been in private school. This school year we put him in public school and it has been a mistake. He will finish the year out, then we will be exclusively homeschooling next year. I've done alot of research and K12 seems to be right for us. It seems to be a very thorough curriculum as well as a challenging curriculum. I need something like this b/c we don't plan to homeschool for the long haul, just through 5th grade. Then we will transition into a private school. FWIW, you did a GREAT job explaining the K12 program. Thanks