I only skimmed the other responses, but we used OM 6 and OM 4 this past year. I had debated it for years before purchase, but finally decided to jump in. It was great at first but in the end it bombed. My 4th grader had a lot of frustration with the daily journal assignments in OM4. He doesn't enjoy writing in any sort of creative way so a lot of the assignments caused us grief and had to be modified. The creative projects in both levels were great, but ultimately too much stress for me. I felt like someone was always saying something like "Hey I need an organic tomato and a dry lima bean or I can't do science!!". For OM4 we were supposed to construct a Native American village, using natural materials only a few weeks after we were told to construct a landscape and populate it with clay creatures native to our area. For a parent who enjoys helping with that sort of thing, or a child that is very self-directed, it would work. For me, it just caused guilt and a lot of time. OM6 had a lot of projects that my normally crafty daughter just didn't want to do. Many of the creative ideas for that level were just in list form with no directions. Thing like "paint a picture in the style of x". There was a ton of writing, much of which we ignored because it felt like way too much. The topic choices were not popular and I had to modify them. Also, I felt like she was constantly being told to "look up information about x at the library"'. After I paid all that money, I would have expected more of the information to be there-not at the library! The biggest thing with it though was the lack of reading. We used Sonlight before that and are back at Sonlight now and my kids are happier. Most of OM's reading is in the syllabus and my kids really prefer a kind of "curl up on the couch and read" sort of education. Anyway. Despite all this, I do think it is worth trying if you are drawn to it! I have friends that love it and use it each year. Just wanted to share our experience with it.

We are switching to more of a year-round schedule. We just took a few weeks off, our new year starts on Monday.

My kids are 12, 10, 8, and 4 so this isn't so much an issue anymore..but I remember it well! I usually worked with one kid in the kitchen while the others did independent work in the living room. That way, my talking was less disruptive to them, and the equally disruptive toddler would stay with me as much as possible, usually on my lap or on the floor or doing something at the table or wreaking havoc! It isn't easy, you can only do the best you can! I found it helpful to make up a master list of ideas for my toddler to do. Things like, wash toy cars in the kitchen sink, print out a coloring page online, do a puzzle, play with the shape sorter, etc. Then in the morning before we started lessons I would try to pull out a couple of things and set them up at the table for her. Having a list is helpful because you can refer to it when you start feeling frazzled and can't think. I bet your other kids would like taking a little break to set something up for the little one to do. Having them take turns playing with her is a great idea too and one we used a lot!

Life of Fred Sonlight If we had just those two, we'd be good.

I almost never pre-read, though I think it is a great idea in theory! My kids read so much there is just no way I could read it all before them. I do plan on pre-reading my older kids' school books this fall though so I can discuss with them. I haven't done that in the past, but I think I need to now that dd is going into 7th grade.

We usually use the summer just to finish stuff up. This summer, I think my two older ones will need to be finishing up their math programs-unless they surprise me and get super fast these next few weeks! I may also have dd12 finish her Latin level b/c she was so very slow about getting it done during the year. Other than that, if they finish a subject, we will stop and hopefully they will finish as much as possible by the end of June because I need a break! We will start up full-time again in mid-August. So during our break they will only work on those things they got behind in during the year, and probably only for about 1 hour per day.

My older ds was 3rd grade when we did Core D. He did great with it. My younger ds is in 2nd grade and Core C is perfect for him. Trying to imagine my now 4th grader sharing core C with his brother....I think I might have to beef it up slightly. The readers are pretty easy for an advanced reader. Still, I tend to like to keep mine on the older end of the recommended age range b/c they can do more independent reading that way. I do think adding in your first grader to either Core might be a stretch. I have combined kids within two years, but more than that I prefer to do a separate Core for them. So...I'd vote for Core D for your older two, though I don't think you would go wrong with B+C either and you could always add to it if it felt too easy.

If I had to choose just one, it'd be the Muppets. It is just fantastic. But dh and I watch the Patrick Stewart version every year as well and I love it too.

Mine is just about to turn 12. She is getting pajamas, a sweater, nailpolish, cute socks, batteries for her Hex Bug, earrings, an origami page a day calendar, a Klutz quilting book, a loom, a basket of bath supplies, a journal, a picture frame, and an amaryllis bulb to plant. Plus some candy.

My 4th grader started with Apples. I think that is what is recommended on the LOF site, too, to start at the beginning if a child is below 5th grade. He is going through very quickly, because he really enjoys it and actually asks to do more, so many days he does three chapters in a sitting.

We did go, for years. And we loved seeing everyone, but it got to be too much. Same reasons as you. We want the day to feel relaxed, we want to spend it in our own home, with our own tree and not go driving around (my Dad is a 40 minute drive away). We stayed home last year and they came to see us. I made it very clear that we would happily see them on a different day if they didn't want to drive, but that's what they wanted and it worked out fine. I have been getting a bit of guilt this year, but I am choosing to ignore it. I want my kids' memories to be about Christmas at our house-not being stuck in the car in holiday traffic, getting home late, and being grumpy when they go to bed!

It makes me nauseous. If I take it with juice and food though it is much better. For some reason taking it with a glass of water or milk doesn't do it, but juice does.

That is terribly sad. I'm so sorry for you and your family.

We have been in a process of simplifying for some time now. I have a 6th, 4th, 2nd, and 4 y.o. We do 3 hours of school a day. I follow a loop schedule, where I basically list out my subjects and then just loop through them. My loop plan is here. We often start with math, then move on to the next subject on the list. When 11:30 hits, we are done for the day (we start at 8:30). Next morning, we start with math, then pick up wherever we left off on the list. It's working for us. Actually this week, we have been keeping math properly in the loop and I think that may work too. There are downsides to this way of doing things. I think we will have to go to more of a year-round schedule to get everything done, and we don't usually hit every subject every day. But the shorter days are soooo much more relaxing for me, it's easier to take care of everything else that needs doing, and the kids of course love it. They are much more efficient if they know we will be done before lunch :D.

If it helps, I am doing Town level with a 4th and 6th grader. Next year, I plan to start my 3rd grader on Island level.

Pretty much what the pp said. We have the main book, the history reader, the activity book, the answer key, the CD and the DVD. DD loves Headventure Land too. She doesn't so much love the DVD, but I think it will be helpful as the lessons get more complicated.

Have you seen the Developing the Early Learner workbooks? They are very well done. DD4 loves them. No printing, at least not in the first couple books. She also loves Starfall and Kiddie Records Weekly.

I bought four copies-one for each child. We haven't found writing in the books to be a problem and the kids really like having their own. The plan was to get one for the three older kids and then have one to do myself, but the 4 y.o. stole mine and insists on "writing" in it whenever we break the books out :tongue_smilie:.

We are using it too. Love it! I haven't blogged much about it yet, but I plan to. You can use it as often or as little as you want. We aim for twice per week. So far we have started keeping lists of wildlife and plants we've seen, walked outside and gathered natural items to make into an arrangement, taken a walk outside and jotted down everything we could see/hear/smell, and I'm sure there are other things. It's a great book!

I thought about trying it with the library but it just seemed like it would be a huge hassle. I do save a lot of money though by buying books from Amazon and Rainbow Resource. RR especially is often much cheaper than SL. Then I order the IG and any books I couldn't get cheaper elswhere from SL.

We love Getting Started with Spanish! And there are free audio clips online to go with each lesson. We are only spending 15 minutes three times a week but we are learning a lot.

There is a suggested schedule tucked towards the back of the main book. I don't know why they didn't put it up front, b/c I was super confused too about how to go about it. Look for the schedule, it makes more sense after reading it :).

I would drop anything that threatened to kill the love of a subject like a hot potato. I don't know anything about WT, but we ended up switching to Writing Strands and it has been much more enjoyable for the kids than WWE.

We switched to MCT Town level after FLL 3. It is much more popular around here. For my next ds, I plan to do MCT Island level after finishing FLL 2. We had the same problem-the kids found FLL 4 long, boring, and dull. MCT has been a hit so far.

We have only done Nanowrimo, which we will do again this year. It is our writing for the whole month of November. We don't do history papers or science reports, and we'll probably skip the Writing Strands assignments too to make time for it. I have found that by letting them do it during school time, there is more interest from the reluctant writers in the family than if I suggest they do it on top of the other work.