DS and oldest DD are using CLE Language Arts, CLE reading, LL (alternately with CLE reading), and CW. Twin DD's are using CLE Language Arts, AAS, WWE, CLE Reading for one and R&S reading for the other. Jennie

Honestly, we came from 5 years of SOTW, and I just couldn't get going with MOH. So, I will probably sell mine. Jennie

Not unless I want to get sick. It happened years ago when I was still a girl living at home. Anyway, I do put mine in the fridge, but since the temps will be in the 30's it could go in the garage. I would recommend keeping them as cool as possible. Jennie

I would just make them. I make my mashed potatoes in advance using a make ahead meal recipe. It is basically potatoes, salt, pepper, butter, sour cream and cream cheese. Then I reheat them in the crockpot on Thanksgiving. Jennie

There is also Real Science-4-Kids. http://gravitaspublications.com/ Jennie

Just a little FYI, when you are looking at a photo in an album of a Yahoo group you can chose to view it large. It is a little link down in the left corner of the photo page. I had trouble viewing the pictures at first until I found this. I am glad you were able to get the samples. Jennie

I take Super Mom also. Jennie

I read aloud on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday for about 45 minutes each day. I have a voice disorder, so I can only read for that amount of time. It takes me about a month to read one book at that pace. I couldn't read during our first quarter because of a surgery, so we have really gotten going this quarter. I am on my second read aloud. Jennie

My 9 yo daughters started using CLE last March. I would definitely recommend that you have your dd take the diagnostic test as you really want an accurate placement. I don't know how long you spend on math, but we are definitely done in 30 minutes. I understand the wondering about another curriculum. Perhaps you could get the diagnostic test and just see. I can tell you that CLE doesn't start any division with remainders until the last lightunit of 3rd grade. Wishing you the best, Jennie

I don't have children the same ages as yours right now, but once upon a time I did have a similar situation. I had a 3rd grader, 1st grader and 3 yo twins. This is basically how I managed my day. Reading/phonics with 3rd grader while 1st grader plays with twins. Twenty minutes later I switched. Reading/phonics with the 1st grader while 3rd grader plays with twins. Then we did FIAR. This help in that we changed location and after the story we had an activity. Next I did math with 3rd grader. First grader played with twins. Twenty-thirty minutes later we switched. At this point we had probably been at "school" for 1.5 to 2 hours, so we went outside or had some other play activity. This was the time in my homeschooling when the Charlotte Mason ideas were practiced a lot. Jennie

The third grade book is not much different than the 1st and 2nd except for the fact that it is a textbook. The format is the same. There are no tests. The real change in R&S comes in 4th grade. Only one of my children has done R&S in 3rd and then moved into 4th grade. I had to sit with her just about everyday in 4th grade. Up to that point she was pretty independent with the 3rd grade book and had no problems copying the problems onto paper. I still did every other row of the computation problems. That being said, my youngest two used R&S 1st, 2nd and part of 3rd. I had HUGE problems with one of my daughters once we got to the 3rd grade book. Copying the problems was more than she could bear. So, in March of 3rd grade I switched the twins to CLE. I gave them the placement test. One placed in 2nd and one placed in 3rd. After that we had no more problems because it was all in a workbook. I don't feel bad at all that one of the girls placed in 2nd grade math because the content is much different from R&S. R&S focuses a lot on computation and some basic application (clock arithmetic, money, etc.). CLE introduces geometry, metric and such in the early grades. Since it is a spiral curriculum it is a gentle introduction. I now have all 3 girls in CLE and they are doing great. I haven't used any of the other programs you mentioned. I think you probably need to determine if your child would do best in a spiral or mastery program. This will help you eliminate some programs. My understanding of MWM is that it is best applied in a classroom. I only have one friend who used it. Best wishes, Dee. Jennie

I cook my macaroni completely, but to the lowest number of minutes. So, if the instructions say 8-10 minutes I will cook it 8 minutes. In my mac and cheese I put salt, pepper (preferably white pepper), and dry mustard. My kids do not care for bread crumbs on their mac and cheese, so I skip this. I also put some sort of meat in mine (hot dogs (cubed), ham (cubed), cooked breakfast sausage. This makes it a main dish, and I serve it with rolls and a salad. Jennie

Kathy, I did not use Keys To Fractions and Decimals with an LD child, but my regular ed daughter used it with the same results. I felt the same as you. I thought the concepts were introduced and explained well. In my daughter's case, she needs a spiral math program. She needs concepts repeated over and over again ad nauseum. I am wondering if this would be true of an LD child. Wouldn't they benefit from repeated exposure to the concepts all throughout the instrution. I just wanted to let you know that you are not alone in having this happen. Jennie

If I could do it over from the beginning, I would use Christian Light Education (CLE) math for everyone.

I would suggest copy work and dictation. Have you checked out Writing With Ease? The copy work and dictation will give him the experience he needs with the written language. I have found that dictation and copywork improved my struggling speller's spelling a lot. After that you could move into a different type of writing program. I don't have a lot of suggestions for that as I have not found one that I can heartily recommend. Congratulations on all the great work so far. Best wishes, Jennie

We are scheduled to be off this upcoming week of Thanksgiving, but there are some things that did not get finished last week. So, we will finish those up on Monday and Tuesday. It will probably end up that we only take 3 full days off next week. I take two weeks at Christmas.

Handwriting, phonics, informal math, and FIAR. Jennie

I have not had experience with them, but my oldest daughter was involved with Pioneer Girls for a while. Jennie

We have just started WWE with my 9 yo twin dds. I gave one the assessment for year one and the other the assessment for year two. My conclusion was that one was ready to begin year two, and the other I started in week 19 of year 2. I tried using the sample pages for Week 19 from Peace Hill Press. The lines are just too big for older users, so we will be skipping the workbooks even though I like the idea of having the stories, narrations, and copywork already figured out for me. Now, I just have to figure out what stories I will be using. Jennie

I prefer 4-H to Girl Scouts. Jennie

The local grocery store is selling them for $0.39 per pound with a $25.00 purchase, but we get ours fresh from a local source for $2.28/#. Jennie

My son just failed the Chapter 7 tests. This is not the first test he has failed either. My ds has no learning issues, but he does have carelessness issues. I feel that I should be able to assign partial credit for the work, so I go through the solutions CD to figure out where I can assign partial credit. I did sign up for a one month trial with ALEKS. My son really, really likes ALEKS. I think he tends to do better with a program that is not linear. Perhaps that is why he liked Miquon so much. Also, there is something very motivating for him about filling up that pie chart. He definitely is learning the new material. My problem is that there is no way that I know of to actually test them and assign a letter/number grade. We will probably go back to TT Algebra 1 after our free trial runs out. I feel for your daughter. It has to be very discouraging. There are many business and consumer math programs out there. I wish you the best. Jennie

I was going to recommend just archiving the subject as well. It gets complicated if you have assignments that have been put into that subject before. If you archive, it then it won't be on your drop down list anymore. Jennie

Typically, my children just lay on the couch and listen. As they get older they like to read along with me. This does have a downside if they are constantly interrupting each time I skip over a word. I think I have gotten them out of that habit. Sometimes they poke each other or roll on the floor. Occassionally they will color or do a small craft. Jennie

We have two of the Vision Forum dolls. I have not heard of LOF dolls. My girls claim that the dolls in the new VF catalog have different faces than the ones that they got from the old catalog. I bought the VF dolls because I got a good price on them in January. Jennie