If you are talking about the program from DGP Publishing then I would suggest starting with grade 5. It is the first year that diagramming is introduced. There is a comprehensive list of terms and definitions at the beginning in the teacher's manual. I think this method is less heavy on teaching with lots of definitions, but instead chooses to teach through application. For instance, once you have a general idea what a noun is you then go find all the nouns in the week's sentence (among other things). You analyze this same sentence for the entire week and will see each words' function over and over again. I see it as "learning by doing". My children were learning about compliments this week, a new term to them. We discussed what the teacher's guide defined them as and then let it be. By the end of the week they rattled off what a compliment was and it will be easy to find one in another week's sentence.

I know that things are done differently now than they were back then (1930-1950's when these books were used). I think the average joe had a better grasp of math during that time period, IMHO. I also have noticed with my own children that if they are not ready, they will not "get" the concept we are working on. I think if you plan on using Strayer Upton it would be perfectly fine to wait until third grade and do hands on things until then. My kids would have done better with it if I had waited. It has a lot of mental math and you have to be able to add columns of numbers in your head. This skill takes a bit of maturity because it is abstract. Cuisenaire rods or MUS Primer would be great for getting the concepts down concretely, but in a less aggressive way. I would play with things like this and then tackle SU in third. Oh, Strayer Upton does cover basic addition/substraction. It really starts at the beginning, it just moves to applying it mentally very quickly.

:iagree: My son is the same way. He did the two LOF books, but wasn't ready for Algebra so we backed him up and he is going through MUS Epsilon (almost done) and then Zeta. I have both Systematic math 6- Algebra 2 and LOF Beginning Algebra. I plan on using both. I may do MUS too if he wants to. I think that whole brain thing is important.:) You have to do somthing each day and taking different approaches keeps things from getting boring.

I am a long-term CMer and I really enjoyed both the All Day Seminar and Laying Down the Rails. I bought it to refresh myself and get refocused. She has a lot of tips and tricks for making CM very practical and easy. It is nice to take a peek into someone's day to day life and see how they do it. I am going to watch it again here soon.

Has your 7 year old daughter done Rod and Staff 2? Sorry if I missed you posting it or not. My almost 8 year old son is independently doing Rod and Staff 2. He is not using DGP with his older brothers. He just listens as I read the lesson and then I send him off to do the written part. I do think Rod and Staff is THE most complete program. I think it can be too much sometimes, but it is really handy to have around.

I think it is better to have the teacher's manual and forgo the workbooks. We do grammar on our marker board. If I did the reading program I would get the workbooks. I am thinking that is a nice program also. I talked to the author, Judith Holbrook, at the GHEA conference and I really like what she had to say. These materials are used all over in the school system, but she also made them to be homeschooler friendly too. http://www.dgppublishing.com/ Oh, I also use the DGP to round out my Queen's Language Lessons. If you are doing anything else for language arts and want DGP to cover the grammar portion I don't think you can go wrong. :)

DGP is cummulative so if you start in grade 5, for instance, you would have to make sure that your children are familiar with the concepts that are initially reviewed. My kids had done some Shurley so they jumped right in with no problem. The skills build as you go. They have a scope and sequence on their site. The teacher's guide also has an overview of the skills covered with definitions and things should you need to review before starting, or to help should you run into a snag. The teacher's guide is really necessary. In fact, that is all I use. We do the sentences on a marker board so my kids do not need the workbooks. I think it teaches more by having the kids see the principles in action over and over again and since they "live" with the concepts they stick better. If you have a good grammar handbook for reference you should be good to go with any level that looks appropriate. Grade 5 is when diagramming is introduced. We started there.

I have found it very hard to find a bible study per se, but we use The Scriptures version of the bible. I like the books found here: http://www.nazarite.net/store/todd-bennett.html They really spur on great talks of the "why" behind everything.

I like all the books from www.systemath.com. I use the elementary books with my kids along with MUS. The Practical Arithmethic books are very thorough and cheap too.:) My kids can do it very independently.

I like DGP Grammar. It is very thorough (if you use it each year), but it only takes 5 minutes a day!:) Seriously, I am using 5th grade with 2 students and it is challenging both of them, but it really sticks. It is something to consider if time is an issue. It is set up to put grammar concepts into long term memory.

Here is what my kids do in the specified age range: 2nd - 3rd : Read The Beginner's Bible by Karen Henley (or something similar) 4th-5th: Day by Day Kid's Bible by Karyn Henley 6th-7th: One Year Bible for Kids (NLT) to adult: One year bible in translation of choice They read one of these books through the year. It usually takes a year and a half because they don't always read on Sat. I like to get them in the habit of bible reading in order to build that habit. I am not fond of cartoon bibles, but again, it is the habit I am focusing on. I hope that they will feel something is missing if they do not read each day when they are out on their own. :)

I used FIAR for four years and loved it too. We still re-read the books often.:)

I'm surprised I don't hear more about the Simply Charlotte Mason Organizer at www.simplycharlottemason.com. It is a great tool and the curriculum guide is complete for K -12. It is so easy to customize too.

:iagree::iagree:

I like most of the books from Christian Liberty Press. They have lots of stories about children around the world. History Stories for Children and Pioneers and Patriots are two books my younger kids really like. I think they have inexpensive color books to go along with them. They are more "living books" than text books and great for narrating. Edward Eggleston books are great too.

I think we use different programs at times just to keep from getting bored.:) It is hard to look at the same book for months on end. My kids really like MUS, but I have been having them do Strayer-Upton too, especially when they have mastered their MUS lesson and yet I do not want to move on right away. I should say that no matter how many programs we use I still keep math time between 20 min -40 min (including any video watching time). Variety is the spice of life, you know. :)

I have A2. I liked it alot, but then I decided that I like hard copy books. I like their choices of books and the grammar and phonics choices are really solid. The only thing I would add would be Strayer-Upton Practical Arithmetic book 1 or 2 for word problems. The math is strictly working problems--no word problems. If you want something like it for free you could look at http://oldfashionededucation.com/ . It has MEP as the free math program which is a bit of a hit on the board here. The book choices are also really good.

Rod and Staff 3. I looked at BJU but it was too colorful for me. I found it distracting, but I tend to be a bit ADD anyway. My kids like the work too. My new 3rd and 5th graders are doing R &S 3 and my 11 year old is doing 5. No complaints as long as they don't have to write everything.

I have all the levels of this and I like it. What I like is that it has little spelling helps each day. That said, I personally prefer Spelling Wisdom from Simply Charlotte Mason better. It does not have the phonics helps, but it does cover the 6000 most common words and has an index to find more passages with words you need. I think Spelling Wisdom is a bit "tougher" but also is starts off very gently. I prefer studied dictation so this probably accounts for my liking this better. If you like the format of SS then I would use it. It is a great program.

The Strayer-Upton books really have a lot of explanation. I believe that after a time of transition they could be self-teaching. They break concepts down into such tiny chunks that getting lost would be a hard thing to do. I was at a homeschool sale last week and even though I am a died in the wool MUS user (and lover) I bought ALL the levels of Systematic Mathematics for $130--that's grade 6- algebra 2. It was too cheap to pass up (about $500 worth of DVD instruction). Anyway, the Strayor Upton books are what that author recommends and where I got the books from in the first place. I love MUS and will continue with it, but my oldest is going to be my guinea pig and try the Systemath courses. I like what I see so far, but only time will tell. I mostly bought the Systemath because we may not have the money to play with in the future and this course has the worksheets on cd which makes for less workbook buying. It is a back up plan should I need it. It would be cheaper in the long run over MUS, but again, time will tell. That said, I also have my MUS kids do one page a day in Strayer Upton. I love their word problems and each page really doesn't have a lot of problems unless it is a test or a cummulative review. If it was a workbook it would be perfect! If I had to go back and do it all again I probably should have stayed with Strayer Upton, but not started it until third grade as recommended in the books. They books are so inexpensive and thorough it makes them a great deal.

I have both. I prefer Spelling Wisdom. I think that Spelling Wisdom is better because it is very specific about covering all 6000 commonly used words and it has an index for finding other selections. This one is meant to be used as prepared or studied dictation. You can use them as copy work (and I do for my third grader) but my older kids use it as written and it really challenges them. It is more expensive for all the volumes, but there is a downloadable version that is very reasonable. Also, one book should last two years. I think Sonya Shafer has done a really great job of putting a CM spelling curriculum. I use their SCM organizer too, so I may be a little biased. :) Simply Spelling is good too, it just takes a different approach. That one is designed to be more like copy work with spelling rules added on to each day's lesson. You use the same selection all week with dictation at the end. It does not have the index to find more selections to work on the same words.

I LOVE these books. Placement is important, so be sure to look at the samples. My daughter is 4 and is using the first "Little Ones" book. It is perfect for her because she is learning the letters as we go. My daughter absolutely loves this program! There are opportunities for picture study, drawn narrations, copywork, poetry, etc. My favorite part is that it is a workbook that I will never throw away. It has her little heart and soul poured into it and it is a lovely reminder of her first school book.:)

Yes, I found the same thing with HOD. For those who have not seen it, HOD includes poetry work, dictation, copywork, narration, etc. all scheduled in the daily plan (the guide itself contains the poetry and things, not a different book). Rod and Staff covers grammar and usage, but the rest is written into HOD. I am sure MFW is wonderful and know many people that LOVE it, but I just wanted to clarify that specific math and english lessons are scheduled in the HOD book inside each lesson plan. PLL and ILL was redundant given all that HOD included already.

Shurley Jingles really helped my kids get them in their memory. We just use a fourth grade Shurley workbook to review them.

I started Heart of Dakota and I pretty much use it as written. I tend to drop things if they get to be too much as opposed to adding in things. Most "elective" type things are not scheduled though. I do add Latin, piano, typing, etc.