I have not used AAs with a 1st grader, so I can't speak to that. We started level 1 when my twins were at the end of 3rd grade. At first they did a step, yes, a step a day. Then they hit a point when they needed to slow down. Once that happened, we started doing a step a week. Here is how my week looks with both girls. Monday: Review word cards, key cards, etc. I have the girls write the words on paper, but a while board would work also if you have one. Tuesday: I do the new teaching and the spell with tiles. Wednesday: Spell on paper Thursday: More words and dication of phrases Friday: Dictation of sentences (Level 2 and up) With my girls, some days take 5 minutes and others take 15. It just depends. It is also possible to not spread it out as much as I have. I would do what works for you and your students. Jennie

I just noticed that, too. They really have come a long way in a short period of time. Jennie

I understand how annoying that would be, but I can tell you that CLE is slowly, yes, slowly, bringing samples and such on to their website. They just launched this new site at the beginning of the year. This is really quite a step for a Mennonite publishing group. I don't work for them, but I have been part of the email loop for some time now. They probably didn't tell you because they didn't know at the time or the person taking your order didn't know. I would encourage giving them the benefit of the doubt. :001_smile: Jennie

Aubrey, I was on bedrest for about 7 weeks with my twins. I can tell you what I would have loved. I would have loved someone to come and do house work: clean bathrooms, mop floors, run the vacuum, etc. Also, having a woman do the grocery shopping would have been great. My husband did my job and his job for several weeks, and it was a lot for him. He was quite drained most of the time. The first two weeks of bedrest are kind of nice. It is like a vacation. After that it is not much fun. I was on a modified bedrest, so I could get up and shower, etc. I bet your friend can't even do that. This will be very challenging for the family. It was nice when people would come to visit. My big day out each week was my doctor's appointment. Just be loving to your friend and treat her as you would want to be treated if you were in her shoes. Jennie

Lisa, I wanted to mention that when my older children went through the first lightunit of CLE language arts I felt as though I might have made a mistake. The kids responded to it okay, but I think I might have let go of the oversight too much. It is very possible that kids will leave things undone if they are not checked. My son did this for a week and then failed his quiz. Needless to say I was not a happy mom. His dad made him finish all his lessons on a Saturday morning. It took him two hours. My experience with CLE is that children do retain what they are taught, and I think that is because the curriculum is spiral. The information keeps resurfacing. Also, CLE is very good at asking for the same information in a variety of ways to make the children think. In the early grades of CLE the language arts is a bit brief. I actually don't really like the 200 level, but that is where one of my twins placed. So, she is working her way through it. Her twin sister is in the 300 level of language arts, and I like that much better. The only level of language arts I have not used is 400. I have been very pleased with levels 500-800. My oldest daughter who actually does very well in language arts has struggled a little more in the 700 books because that is where they delve heavily into phrases and clauses. I agree with you. We don't do much grammar before 3rd grade, but my twins were in 4th grade this year. We did FLL, but we dropped it before finishing all of the second grade level. Jennie

Here is another thought. I have been able to resell almost all of my R&S math and English. However, if they had been written in I would not be able to resell them. In addition, it just goes against my grain to fathom writing in a textbook. Plus this really only work if a person just has one child. I have four. I know people do write in the R&S books. There was a long discussion about this on the email loop. Ultimately it is personal preference, but I would just throw those thoughts out there as well. We also had copying issue which is why we went to CLE for math, but I think after using both programs that CLE is a stronger math program than R&S especially when our children will be going on to algebra in high school. CLE gives a better foundation in algebra than R&S. Jennie

:lurk5:

I have never seen it before, but it looks interesting. Jennie

It is not my intent to hijack this thread, but I think it might lend to the discussion a little. Would those of you who recommend physics first recommend physics before chemistry if you had a child who did a physical science and a biology course already? Thanks. Jennie

My son is using Bob Jones Physical Science as a 9th grader, and we both like it. I do not care for Apologia's secondary curriculum. The formatting of the text just didn't do anything for my son. he likes the lay out of BJU better. Jennie

I have used SS with my son and AAS with my twin daughters. My son used SS 1 for a year. While he did fine during the lesson time, I noticed that he could not apply the information to regular writing. I am almost certain that is because he was taught no spelling rules. One of my twins is a struggling speller and the other is a more natural speller. AAS works well for both of them especially my struggling speller. All I have to do is remind them of the rule, and they recognize their error and fix it. They are able to apply the spelling that they are learning to all their writing. I am actually going to go through AAS with my son even though he is now 15 because he missed some of the basics that he needs. I have a good friend who used SS this year with her son who is also a struggling speller. I had shown her my AAS materials, but she chose SS. Well, she just dropped SS and moved to AAS. Her son is now half way through the first book. He is a 4th grader. So, in my opinion AAS is a better program. Jennie

This is exactly what I have always told my children. Right or wrong we represent homeschoolers to the general public. We also represent our family and God. Thank you for writing my thoughts. :) Jennie

I don't know anyone personally, but I know of friends of friends or children of friends that have lost their jobs. Jennie

I have used both CLE and R&S. R&S is generally textbooks and needs more teacher attention than CLE especially if you have a child that struggles with reading a lesson and applying the information. My son always wanted to do his math and English orally, but with three other children I just didn't have that much time. My daughter who is a bit more of an independent learner was able to do a lot of the R&S on her own. R&S is more traditional and mastery based than CLE. In R&S math, if for some reason, you don't get to the last 2-3 chapters of a math book, your student will never cover certain topics. The same is true in English. CLE is a worktext format. All of it is consumable. We prefer this format. I know some argue that it is more expensive, but if it makes the work more palatable for the children and myself, then it is a good thing for us. The CLE curriculum is spiral in both math and language arts. Actually, I think that the reading is a bit spiral also. So, your child will eventually hit all the concepts. I find CLE to be more student user friendly without compromising quality or depth. I really only use the Sunrise Editions as the old non-Sunrise CLE is not as user friendly. Also, I found the high school science (not the Apologia) to be weak in content. Over the years, I have found other science and history that I prefer. Jennie

Yes, I have used it. In 2nd grade my children could not really fill in the blanks in writing, so we did it orally. I also used it as a quick science with my 3rd and 5th graders when we were moving and my life was in disarray. Jennie

Kayleen gave you a great comparison. I can't speak to BJU as I have never used it, but I have been very pleased with CLE for all the reasons Kayleen mentioned. Jennie

Hi Emily, We have used CLE for three years now. I started with language arts with my oldest two. They were in 5th and 7th at the time. We have been using it ever since. It is thorough. It includes diagramming which is important to me, but it doesn't over kill it in a single lesson. My children can read the lesson and complete the work on their own. If they can't it is fairly easy for me to pick it up and help them. I don't use all of the language arts components. We use a different spelling because I have struggling spellers. I really like the workbook format. We prefer it to textbooks. Last year I decided to try CLE reading in the upper grades. I was using 6th and 8th at the time. The material is so much better than the R&S that we were using. The lesson content is deeper and more inferential. The children come in contact with a lot of literary terms very early in the program. They are also introduced to Latin and Greek roots. This year I made the switch to CLE math, too. I sure wish I had known about it back at the beginning. I don't think we would have done a lot of program hopping. I think my oldest dd will be well prepared to go into Algebra 1 as a 9th grader. I did try some non-Sunrise Edition Bible this year, and I was not happy with the format. The content is very good though. I think there is curriculum for history and science that fits our family better.

I use bobbins and store them in a floss box. Jennie

Boo hoo! When our children were all little, we used to talk every week for a couple of hours. Now, that they are older, we have gone to email. It isn't nearly as nice, and I miss our weekly chats. BTW, we live about 3.5 hours away from each other by car. Jennie

This is us, also. :iagree:

My oldest used R&S math from 5th grade through 8th grade. I think it prepared him fine for algebra. However, I think CLE does a better job and had I know about it way back when I would have switched. I moved my girls out of R&S and into CLE. CLE does much more with algebra and geometry preparation. Jennie

I am pretty happy with our approach to science. I have done things a little different with each child and formed the program to meet their needs and interests. My oldest probably could have done well with a stronger program in junior high as he likes science. I think more chemistry would have been beneficial for him. We have the RS4K chemistry now for the younger ones, and I think he would have liked it a lot. My second oldest has used the Apologia botany and the zoology 1-3 books. This has been great for her. She loves to read, and these books are strong on reading. I am not sure what she will do as an 8th grade because we have an opportunity for her to take high school bio with a teacher next year. It is either that or she will do RS4K chemistry. Our twins have used a variety of little things over the years. This year they are doing Apologia Astronomy. They like it. One of the girls is very interested in hands on activities which is a little out of my comfort zone, but I try to accomodate her. I know that really didn't answer your question, but I would look seriously at the child and their interests when it comes to science. Jennie

I am very pleased with the content of Christian Light (CLE) math.

It is not unusual to be turning your thoughts to next year at this time. I have most of my curriculum already purchased as I am sure many other ladies do as well. You are in good company with that. :) We have used Christian Light (CLE) language arts for the past 3 years and have been very happy with it. We like that it is a workbook format. I like that it spirals though the material so my children seem to retain it better. No one around here as become bored or tired of the spiral method. I want a program that has diagramming, but not over kill of diagramming. So, for us CLE fits what I am looking for. I have used Levels 200, 300, 500, 600, 700, and 800. My students range from ones that struggle with language arts to those that find it fairly easy to learn. In the past I have used R&S, Primary Language Lessons, and a few others that I can't quite recall the names of right now. CLE has been the most comprehensive while still fitting my criteria. I do use a spelling program, All About Spelling. I do agree with the previous poster that dicatation is very influencial in improving the spelling skills of struggling spellers. We have always used Handwriting Without Tears for both printing and cursive. Now that my children have learned HTW cursive, I just have them apply that cursive to the penmanship exercises in CLE. Jennie

I am not familiar with Mammouth Math, but we have used CLE. It sounds like it would fit your needs. Jennie