I'm only familiar with SWO. Definitely a workbook program, my kids have always done it independently- they do two or three pages and that's it, very little input from me, which is always nice!

Things I do... Encourage them to bring a book along when we go out somewhere- we live at least 20 minutes from everywhere and they are all lucky enough to not get carsick while reading. Weekly library trips Allowing them to stay up for at least 1/2 hour at bedtime- but only if they're reading. My 11 yo can read for an hour. We have a homeschool group bookclub that really got my boys excited about reading. We give books for Christmas and birthdays and encourage any one who asks for gift ideas to get books or a Barnes and Noble gift card.

Mine do binders for history, science, language arts, and Latin. No dividers, except for the Latin. Everything just goes in chronological order. I like to get the ones with the clear covering on the front to hold a title page. The week before school starts the kids decorate a piece of paper with the subject name, stickers, markers etc. for each binder. I love the binders, it makes it super easy to put a portfolio together. I just pull out a few papers and photocopy them.

We are on our 2nd year of SL. My two older ones (11 and 9) have used all of core C and half of core D. I am really amazed at how much they have retained- they are always bringing up things we read about last year and are able to relate so many new things to stuff we've already read. And I have learned and retained so much myself! I definitely think it is enough.

I thought I saw somewhere that TCW was designed to be used as a Friday writing program, after you had used your regular program during the week. Can't remember where I saw that now! But that is our plan for using it next year in 6th.

We usually buy everything at once and spend around $1200-$1300, for 4 kids. We use Sonlight along with TWTM recommendations so it isn't cheap- but I tell myself we are building a nice library:).

I've been driving myself batty the last couple days trying to decide what to use with dd (rising 6th grader) after LL1. I like the looks of LfC but what level would we start with? B? C? Or is it worth it to go through A for the review? She's done fairly well with LL1, but hasn't retained as much of the vocab as I'd like, and she would like to try another program- so LL2 is out. Would starting with Latin Alive instead be too much? TIA for any advice!

Mine like Chess for Children and How to Beat Your Dad at Chess.

I ordered a book of fun science experiments and another of art projects and plan to do a couple things a week from each. We also recently got a couple kids' cookbooks and plan to work through those. And I am seriously considering instituting a mandatory silent reading time each day. Other than that, I am planning to do "theme days". A field trip day most weeks, maybe a beach day, a science experiment day, an art/messy project day, and a movie afternoon.

I am using it with an 11 and 9 y.o, with Sonlight Core D science. Every couple weeks a song or two is listed in the IG schedule, usually linking up with something they've been reading about. The text of the teacher book is pretty advanced. I hand them the workbooks while we listen. My 11 y.o does the fill in the blank lyric page and my 9 y.o. just listens. They like it, the songs are very catchy and fun.

I loved it at first, but it got shelved b/c dd got too frustrated with the microphone. It didn't always work correctly and I was forever fidgeting with it. Then we got a message saying we needed to update something or other-and it wouldn't let us open the program. I need to dig out the original install CD I think and fix it. So far, it's more of a pain than it's worth!

We used it for a few weeks but it is definitely wordy and not very interesting most of the time. We are reading The Landmark History of the American People (a Sonlight history spine) now and it's going much better.

Here's ours. From our beach vacation. Kinda wishing we were still there!

We do an average of 3-3 1/2 hours most days (kids are 11, 9, 7, and 3). No way could I do a 6-7 hour school day right now, even with my oldest. We usually do 45 min of math, 20 minutes of Latin or Grammar, and the rest of the time is spent on our Sonlight Core (history, science, lit). Fridays are for art, Spanish and writing a weekly paper. We keep things simple, not a lot of extra projects and no busywork at all. We have a sort of mini-farm and need time to take care of the animals and garden, plus the kids have outside activities, and I like to exercise most days and spend some time writing. So far we're doing well with the shorter hours and I hope we will be able to continue them into next year. I've just had to remind myself I can't do everything under the sun and neither can my kids. We pick and choose and get in a good 3 hours, then move on to other things! I still feel like they are getting a great education.

At that age mine have done Spelling Workout, some independent reading from lit, history, and science, memory work, and piano practice on their own.

If you are just looking to get some extra practice in, you could consider just using the Rightstart games kit and not the whole curriculum. We have used a lot of the games in the manual to reinforce stuff and the kids always love it.

Ours: Math: Rightstart C plus LOF Apples and Butterflies Language Arts: FLL, maybe some WWE, SWO History/Literature/Science: Finish SL Core B, move on to Core C Art: Ed Emberly books (he loves these) and maybe Atelier Spanish: La Clase Divertida Music: Piano lessons at home

One of my mei tai's had a cool drawstring thing so you could cinch up the bottom part of the carrier around the baby's butt. I loved that, because with a smaller baby it made them feel so much more secure.

Ours: Our new baby goats- they aren't ready to come home yet, but we were able to visit them over the weekend.

I just consider the history part of the Latin, not extra. So I have the kids do 1-2 pages on our Latin days and if we are up to a history page, that counts as their Latin for the day. It's mostly just stories about Roman history, battles, wars, people....definitely not a thorough history or replacement for SOTW. My kids like reading the stories, otherwise we would skip it because I don't think any of it really sinks in and it's hard to remember all the names and places. There are printouts to make a "My History of Rome" booklet and the kids enjoy sketching a picture in that for each story they read.

I don't know anything about BP but we are using SL Core D this year (5th and 3rd grade) and it's been great. I love having everything laid out for me, even if I don't follow the schedule exactly;). I was afraid it would be too much for my 3rd grader, but I got him the "regular" readers and my 5th grader is doing the "advanced" readers and the read-alouds have been right on level for both of them, for the most part. We are using the science too and have had a lot of fun with it, the kids love the TOPS kits (though for me sometimes they get to be a bit much). I've been really happy with SL, and we'll be doing Core E next year.

I haven't actually looked at it yet, but I'm thinking of getting the one from Sonlight. I believe they sell timeline figures to go along with it that you paste in and then you can write stuff. Like I said, I haven't actually looked into it myself, but it's on my "to investigate" list.

Sounds quite heavy to me. I have issues with this too. I would definitely get your iron levels tested. I just had mine done and they were scary low. Anemia does make you feel shaky/tired and I do feel worse when it's "that time"- though of course it doesn't mean that's what it is for you. Still, I would see if they can get you in for a blood test sooner if your appt. isn't coming up soon.

My all-time fave is from dd's gymnastics teacher: "Look at me when I'm talking- I'll think you're listening". She also says" "Oh! I'm not asking you-I'm telling you" when the kids whine about something they were asked to do.

We have one up this week, here.