I can't speak to Apologia but we love SIB here. DS loves science and I've tried ES and RSO and SIB is by far the favorite for both of us. I really can't say enough great things about it. I am very science averse and usually cannot answer any of DS questions about science. SIB is great because first of all it makes sense and it's easy. The text is actually well written, really explains a topic, and is not at all boring. The reading is short, like a page or less that introduces a concept and then there is a demonstration/experiment that actually does something related to the concept, and it's followed by another short reading that further illustrates the concept. It's not just an experiment to do something but has meaning. DS has really gotten a lot out of it. It's super easy and quick to use so we usually do a couple of lessons at once, which is great since I often slack on science! Plus I love that it's a variety of topics so it keeps it interesting and fresh. It also requires no extra supplementation. With our other science I have to flesh it out with books from the library, and then get around to reading them, but with SIB everything is explained so well in the short passages that I don't need to add onto it. I think it's also great for a variety of ages. He recommends notebooking and has questions for younger and older grades. Even my 4 yr old enjoys tagging along and doing the experiments. She's definitely not getting as much out of it as DS but she's having fun and I know I wouldn't mind doing it again for her when she's older where I would hate having to repeat ES or RSO!

DS loves CTC Mindbenders and their riddle book. He really enjoys figuring out the Mindbenders and is very proud of how quickly he can do them now. I remember enjoying those types of puzzles when I was younger so I thought it would be fun. As a side benefit I think it's been an excellent reminder to read carefully. Definitely not necessary but enjoyable.

NewHSMom you're blog is one of the first ones I saw on AYOPS! It is such a moving post that it really inspired me! I remember considering it and finding your post when I went to a Google it. It really made me want to try it. Thanks again! So I splurged on it. I know it's set up by seasons to start in the fall, do you think I should just wait, I was considering starting in August and just doing it slowly to ensure I match up with the seasons, or skip ahead to summer and start now?

My DS loves humor and his favorite series right now is My Big Fat Zomie Goldfish, which is a series of mad capped adventures. He also loves Timmy Failure, where the boy acts as a P.I. with his imaginary polar bear. If he likes science there is a series with Frank Einstein that are also fun,

Since you're in CA have you looked into any virtual charter schools? There's so much fun stuff you can buy with their funds that might inspire you. My 4.5 will be in TK and still gets the same 2k to spend as my oldest who will be in 2nd. She is doing AAR Pre, but it is very pricey so I'd probably skip it unless you had charter funds for it. MP First Start Reading is super easy and DS enjoyed it. You don't need the TM. She loves MP Jr. K. There's only one book to read a week and two days of activities that you could split up. It has really cute poems and there's a separate craft book. My favorite year of MP Enrichment was the K book. It's really great and could help you schedule in some fun extras and really doesn't take long. What about doing art with your two youngest? My 4 year old does Artistic Pursuits along with her 7 yr old brother. It's a great use of charter funds too since you can buy two of the supply kits. Have you done Miquon? I don't think of math as fun but DS enjoys Miquon and I think gets more out of it than other math we've tried. I'm not a fun, artsy and crafty type of person but I want my kids to have those fun messy experiences so I just splurged on A Year of Playing Skillfully. It's very pricey, but I'm trying to think about how cheap it is when broken up over a year, and I hope to do it for a few years. You can look at a sample month and maybe it will inspire you. It looks very hands on and doesn't require reading tons of books you've already read. It's recommended by the authors for up to age 7 but I googled and found lots of blogs where people used it with their older kids too so I'm hoping my 7.5 yr old will enjoy it too so it might work for both of your youngers. I'm pretty much out a FIAR dropout but have you tried it before? There are tons of blogs with fun ideas to make it work.

I love AAR, it's a great program that can be tailored to individual children and will teach them to read very systematically. It's tricky at the beginning because it teaches in a very different order than most programs so a lot of the beginner books aren't really accessible until AAR2 but if you stick with it they will be confident readers. We started very slowly with AAR1 and broke up the lessons up over several days. When it finally really clicked and his reading stamina took off we went much faster. He finished 1-3 in K and 4 as he was starting 1st. He started 1 without being able to read CVC blends. It's the kind program that's easy to slow down or speed up. After AAR1 they recommend AAS which will help cement phonics rules.

Thanks! It would be for DD 4.5. I definitely lean to more classical so she is slowly working on reading and writing and math. She tags along when she's interested in science and history and art. We are doing MP Jr. K and AAR. OM definitely seems behind on letter introduction and math but I was hoping to incorporate the projects and artsy stuff that doesn't come naturally to me. Which is why I'm wondering if the nature table really is a must? I want to include more of what I wouldn't really do, so I'm inclined to skip it but is it something I should make the effort to do?

Anyone?

Anyone?

My ES gave us OM K when it was returned. I think I now have all of the books that go with it. I've looked through them and while I find all of the books annoying I'm intrigued by it. It's not a curriculum I would have ordered but since it's free I am willing to give it a try. I'm not CM or artsy at all which is why this could be good to do something different with DD. How many important is the nature table? I doubt it's something I would do. We pretty much only have oak trees around here so going and getting a pinecone isn't going to happen. But is it worth ordering stuff to do? I was great about doing sensory bins for DS but I haven't done stuff like that for DD. How much did your kids enjoy it?

I am so torn about this! I'm not artsy or crafty at all. I love reading to my kids and the classic model appeals to me. Luckily thus far it's working well for DS and he loves science and history and what we've done so far. DD is super easy to please and loves everything we do. I was looking at what to spend charter funds on when I saw AYOPS, which unfortunately the charter won't cover. It looks so FUN and playful and all the stuff that's not really my forte. The upper age range is 7 which DS will just barely fit. I love the idea of adding more just fun for them, but of course the price tag is steep. I'm sure this is something that could be cobbled together, and I was better at this stuff when DS was younger, but I know it's not something I'm going to get around to doing even if most of it probably is on Pinterest somewhere. Since we have charter funds I don't have to worry about buying much, just the secular materials which aren't covered, so this is doable, but is it worth it? I'd love to hear from anyone who's used it. Was it worthwhile? Did your kids enjoy it? Was there an age range that wasn't interested? Here's the website if you haven't heard of it: http://www.thehomegrownpreschooler.com/shop/ I also signed up for their newsletter and they sent this coupon code for $30 off through 7/4 which is why I am thinking about ordering it now: PLAYUSA2017 I think you can see one month as a sample.

I highly recommend Science in the Beginning. It teaches very well and unlike everything else I've tried requires no outside supplemental reading material. The text is easy to read AND understand, then there's a short experiment/demonstration that shows the concept and a little more text to discuss it. It's a science that really explains concepts hands on. There's also a separate kit with supplies if they would be hard to find where you are. It's based around the concept of the first seven days of creation so it begins with light, then water and so on, so it goes through a lot of concepts instead of sticking with only one. It's hands down our favorite. My DS loves science so I've tried a lot of options and bought BFSU based on the reviews but it's firmly on the shelf. It seems hard to execute and not written for the science averse like me!

For Miquon I would just work on a section at a time. Start with A then B and so on. Some of the pages look really strange at first and lots of times DS got right away what they were asking for before I figured it out. Some of the pages will go quickly and some will take longer.

I was really impressed with Miquon once I got over how different it was. I think it provided an excellent foundation for learning concepts.

Memoria Press has a series of workbooks called First Start Reading that might appeal to him if he's impatient to get started. They do a great job of tracing letters and introducing blends. It builds up to reading passages. You don't need the teacher's guide so the workbooks are cheap.

No idea about that program but have you looked at All About Spelling (AAS)? They do a great job if incorporating spelling rules and dictation.

Another vote for All About Reading (AAR). It's super easy to use, fun and very thorough. My DS is an amazing reader now thanks to AAR.

I'm not sure if ETC was worth it for DS. It was never challenging for him and he never learned from it. It's more handwriting practice than phonics review for him. If you want to be sure that he gets all necessary rules consider AAS. It's very systematic and is great about important rules. It's super easy to teach and doesn't take long.

Very good questions...I have no idea of any long term goal! I hated memorization in school and never would have made DS memorize anything if I hadn't read about all of the benefits in TWTM. He's finishing up FLL and there are reminders about reviewing older poems in there. Does FLL2 say anything about reviewing older poems? It does seem silly to work on reviewing When I Was Six now but he loved Mr. Nobody the first time he heard it so that could makes sense for longer retention. Honestly those are probably the only ones he's actually liked. He hears a lot of poems from ELTL and MP Enrichment and doesn't care for most of them. I substituted some of the FLL ones like The Caterpillar for ones we liked better from ELTL. it will be a couple of years before he hears DD doing the poems he's already learned. Can you share your goals to help me figure out mine? Thanks!

It sounds like he likes humor. DS' favorites are the Big Fat Zombie Goldfish, which is pretty much what the series is about so if zombies are ok it's really funny. DS is always reading parts of the series to me and telling me about it. One little sister and other people did have some sort of zombie contagion but it all comes out right in the end. His second favorite would be the Timmy Failure series, there's an imaginary polar bear and the boy is a P.I. Does he like science? If so the Frank Einstein series is great too.

I hadn't intended to start spelling so early, I think it was K here, that seemed early to me, but AAR recommended that spelling begin after AAR1 so that's what I did with AAS. I'm glad we did. AAS is very systematic and teaches that rules to cement good spelling. I know in school I just had a spelling list and no instruction behind it. AAS is great because it teaches so the child can retain the rules to actually use. It's also been great for beginning copywork. It was hard for DS in the beginning to retain the sentence to write out. The TM is reusable so if this is for your oldest you could retain it for your next and it's really very affordable. It's also very easy to use because it's scripted and the lessons don't take very long.

I was very anxious about teaching math. I asked lots of questions about it here and went with Math In Focus because it's supposed to have a lot more of the steps that Singapore leaves out. I was very nervous about teaching Asian style math since it's so different from what I was taught but so far it's been great.

While doing a review of poems yesterday I realized that I haven't been consistent enough with reviewing previously memorized poems. Like When We We Were Six, DS loved that poem when he learned it at six, but obviously now that he is seven it's not as fun for him. Should I drop it? How long should a poem be retained for? I'm not sure if I should remind him of older poems that were obviously simpler than the ones he can do now.

Oops! Sorry, it is VP. Anyone use it?

I am bookworm too so I understand where you're coming from. What if you tried movies as a backward enticement to the book? I always make DS read or listen to a book before he sees the movie but if you are having trouble finding something to hold their interest would seeing it help? If they saw the first Harry Potter movie would they be interested in hearing you read it or the second one aloud? Or the Tinkerbell movies? Aren't there a bunch of fairy books for girls? Have you tried audio books? I also made DS listen to the whole book before I got him the audio book. I thought Peter Pan was just ok when I read it for the first time aloud to DS but we put in the audio book later for a road trip and it was compelling because of the voices done on the CD. He still loves that cd. He can't get enough of hearing Harry Potter aloud. I just got him an Amazon Dot and Audible so he can listen to it whenever he wants. What about nonfiction? Do either of them prefer hearing about real people for history? Or science? Animals? What about an American Girl doll? Would either of them want to read the books that went with the doll? Is there anything they want that you could use bribery for? Reading = screen time? Reading so many books earns them...? Since they aren't excited by read alouds yet I would try really hard to find something they want to listen to. Until they are begging for more chapters it might be harder to find the right book to hook them to read on their own.