I have used both, and my preference is for AAS. I confess that when we first started using AAS it was time consuming, but that was because I was trying to do one step per day. NOT GOOD. Now, I do one step a week or there abouts. It takes us only about 15 minutes per day or less. I have two children in two different levels of AAS. Typically I approach my planning this way. Monday~Introduce lesson/spell with tiles Tuesday~Review and spell on paper Wednesday~Review and spell the "more words" on paper Thursday~Review and dictate phrases or sentences Friday~Review or skip Now, some lessons have more "lesson" to them and that might determine what I do on each day. However, that is a general plan. My girls both know and understand the rules because they repeat them regularly in review. Also, dictation is a fantastic tool for teaching spelling, and AAS has it included. Jennie

My children all help with the food gifts which is what we give to grandparents, coaches, leaders, etc. One of my 9 yo dd is in a 4-H group, and they are making Christmas Ornaments for each of the girls in the group. Apparently this is a tradition. This is our first year in the group. The leader sent me this link, and it has a lot of ideas. http://www.nicolecrafts.com/ Jennie

For teaching biblical truth we really appreciated Training Hearts, Teaching Minds by Starr Meade. I purchased it from Timberdoodle. This took about 15 minutes each day. We did it last year. I have not found a way to put it back in our schedule this year, but I am hoping because it is very good. Jennie

They have had a ton of free shipping deals lately. More than I ever remember. I expect it will continue. Retailers are really going to go out on a limb this year to make sales. I am on their email list and I get these in my inbox. Jennie

In my experience, the preschool teachers that I my children had were convinced that the children would never write in lower case if they used captials first. Also, they wanted to teach the children to match what they would be learning and using in kindergarten. I imagine it would reflect poorly on them as a preschool if the children weren't where they were supposed to be. This was about 8 years ago, so things could have changed. However, that is what we found with the first two children who attended preschool. Jennie

Still they are all euphemisms for saying what you really don't want to say in the first place. When I first thought of this it really bothered me to realize that I had been violating the 3rd commandment as the intent of the commandments are broader than the exact wording. I try to avoid them all. Still I am not perfect at it. It is hard because they seemed to be so ingrained in us. Jennie

Heather, Interesting! I am not familiar with the SWR approach, but it does seem it would be rather confusing for spelling purposes especially for a child with phonics and language issues. Thank you for sharing the list from SWR. I am familiar with AAS. I would not call them word families. It really is a different animal. Jennie

I split the PP book into 3 sections. I considered the first section to be 1st grade, the second section to be 2nd grade and the third to be third grade. I never went past section 2 with any of my children. I viewed PP more as a quick phonics and spelling instruction. It never affected my children's reading. I would split a page up over a couple of days, and we never spent more than 10-15 minutes on it at any time. In the beginning I used a sticker chart for my twins. Perhaps they gave me a hard time. I really don't remember now. I would let them pick a little sticker each time they finished the lesson. I had a 3x5 card marked with a grid pattern. They used that as a sticker chart. When they filled the card I would give them a bigger treat. I see nothing wrong with shelving it and reading. Jennie

I have not used SWR, but I have used AAS. AAS is strickly spelling (phonics). One of my twins has finished level 1 and just started level 2. The other is still working through level 1. I am curious how you are defining "word families". I ask because my understanding is that word families would always have the same endings (cat, hat, mat, pat, sat, etc.). My experience with AAS is that a rule (or sound) is taught and the words that apply to the rule (and some that break the rule) are introduced. However, stict word families are not. My twin daughter who is still in level 1 has some visual processing issues and struggles with phonics and spelling. AAS has slowly helped her make some progress in spelling. I have two children who stuggle with spelling and two that don't. I feel like I have been round and round this spelling issue a lot over the past 9 years.

Capital letters all start in the same place...at the top. Lower case letters start in various locations. That is the reasoning behind teaching capital letters first. As I stated originally, it was never an issue for my children. The preschool teachers were sure they would be forever scarred if they learned all capitals first. I never found that to be true with any of my children who are well past learning to print now. Jennie

I only have one, and it is Matthew Henry's. I appreciate having it. Jennie

My son had his on at 12 1/2. He is now in the retention phase and has been for almost 6 months. He also had to have all of his permanent teeth. She did "help" out a couple very loose baby teeth in the first 6 months of treatment. He was not the original reason why we went looking for an orthodontist. It was for one of the 9 yo twins. Like Barbie's daughter, she had a narrow upper palate, and it needed to be moved out before the upper teeth could come in properly. We visited three orthodontists, and I am VERY glad we did. Of the three that we went to, only one thought it necessary to address the fact that she was still sucking her thumb and had some tongue thrust issues. This did help. My dd's teeth came in, and all was well for a while. Now she did have an expander, and she is now in braces on her front 4 top teeth. However, by checking around, we bought ourselves 2.5 years of time. Otherwise the poor girl would have had an expander at 6. It was tough enough at 8 1/2. Also my orthodontist doesn't put all the metal on at once and wish you luck. She had braces as a kid and is very sensitive to what the child will be going through. So, she puts it on little by little, and let's them adjust before adding more. Jennie

I am not familiar with what MFW uses to teach phonics. We used several programs, but eventually landed on Phonics Pathways as the best fit for all the girls. My son could have benefitted from it too, but he was older when I started using it. I have used ETC. I did run into some retention problems with it. It is easy to learn the "system". I think it is good for review. I am actually considering purchasing some of the books again for my youngest who has spelling and phonics trouble. I would say, as the others have mentioned, it is good for review, but I wouldn't lean on it completely. Jennie

I am sometimes very overwhelmed by the love I still have for my husband after 17+ years. It hasn't always been that way, but six years ago when I truly decided to follow God's will, it turned around 180 degrees. Things are not "ideal" or perfect like I would like them, but things re good, very, very, good. Jennie

A man from my church just had this. It has to be taken care of right away as blindness can occur. I had not known this before this week, but I would take this very seriously. Jennie

:iagree:We are of the same opinion.

Christian Light has a Basics of Diagramming book for $3.00. It gives a very brief explanation and then show examples of the diagrams. This is the only one we have every used. You could also try an English Handbook like the one R&S sells. Best wishes, Jennie

My oldest daughter has read and enjoyed them. I am not sure if she has read any of the Rose books, but she like the ones that have more of a pioneer bent. Jennie

Dinner is as close to 4 PM as I can manage. We have traditional food for the most part. I just did the menu with dd this morning. Turkey/gravy Bread dressing mashed potatoes butternut squash carrot salad cole slaw cranberry sauce relish tray with pickles and olives rolls and butter pumpkin pie pecan pie apple pie homemade whipped cream coffee, tea, milk, water, pop, wine Everything is served buffet. I only tried sit down service once in this house and really disliked it. That's it, I guess. Jennie

UGH! My husband just cleaned in the basement yesterday. In an ideal world I would only keep one year, but I think there are up to 3 years down there. I guess I have to weed out. Jennie

I just let my children write in capitals in the ETC book. We used HWOT. Eventually, they learned to write conventionally. It was never a problem, and I never stressed out about it. Go ahead and start teaching him capitals. Let him write in capitals in the ETC books. Jennie

It varies, but they all write in lowercase and capitals now. :001_smile: This was not a worry for me nor was it frustrating especially prior to first grade. I would say that by 2nd grade they consistently wrote conventionally. If she can make the transition easily to lowercase then have at it, but I wouldn't make it an issue. BTW, we also used HTW and ETC. Jennie

The one I have put together withrecipes from the internet. Jennie

Thankfully, they don't start kindergarten doing 5 subjects at an hour each per day. They come into the picture slowly. When my twins were 4, I started them first and did 30 minutes. That was preschool. The rest of the time they participated in the "Trickle Down Education" as was mentioned earlier. We taught history and science together as long as we could. I still do history together. Let them be as independent as you see they are able. We also incorporated the short lesson style of CM in the early years, and I used Managers of Their Homes as a guide. As you add more children into your school it will be come clearer as to what works best. Jennie

We used soft ornaments on the lower branches and a firm no repeated as necessary. Jennie