Being too soft. I wish I had grown a spine and told them to suck it up earlier.

While starting, I'd just count the warmup and cool down as part of the 150 minutes. As you get more fit, you can probably tweak things a bit. Make it manageable to start.

I completely forgot about this thread! Thanks for bumping it up. I'll check out spelling power. Everything I've heard about it made it seem like drudgery for kids. And I'm so past unnecessarily mom-intensive stuff.

We just ruled out disgraphia for her, so that's not a concern right now. I have considered other options, but I just don't feel like I have the time to execute them well at this stage in life. With all of the younger kids underfoot, I get really stressed and end up skipping things. I need something that will get DONE that doesn't require me holding her hand the entire time. I am leaning heavily toward CLE. I think the writing in EIW is definitely enough hand-holding (have you seen the syllabus?) but then I'm back to having to add back in cursive, grammar, and spelling, which just makes my head spin. I'm so torn. If I skipped spelling and cursive next year, it could work, but I don't know how I feel about that.

I've never had much luck at those curriculum sales. Unless you're looking for something really common, like a Saxon textbook, it's really hard to find anything. From my observations, it seems like people hold onto their curriculum for way too long and by the time they try to sell, it's outdated and yellowed.

She finished FLL2 about this time last year. She did some of WWE 1 and 2 with a co-op sorta thing for 1st and 2nd. This year we've been doing Daily Grams, cursive (which has been a total bomb), Sequential Spelling. I'm about to drop the spelling and put copy work back in there because her writing is unacceptably bad. So she knows basic grammar. It's the writing output that we struggle with.

I'm looking for a LA program for next year for a 9yo/4th. This child has a hard time with written output and tends to be a dreamer. Would you lean toward CLE LA 3 or EIW 4? CLE sounds great, but I wonder about her stamina to complete the whole workbook. Would it be better for a distractible child to have spelling time, then grammar time, then writing time, all using different programs? Or is it best to just keep going? Sometimes I wonder if all the breaks I give between subjects just draw things out and make it worse. Like maybe our days would be better and smoother if she only saw LA on her list rather than cursive, grammar, spelling. Has anyone used CLE a year "behind"? I hesitate to put her into EIW because her handwriting is so horrible and sloppy and I fear that the amount of writing required in there would force her to write too fast and end up with a big sloppy mess of words. But I love that it covers the writing process while CLE doesn't appear to at that level.

If it were between Mt. Pleasant and Traverse City, I'd go with Traverse in a heartbeat. Another vote for Grand Rapids here. If you want land, there are a number of communities with a very rural feel that are still only 20-30 minutes from downtown.

Mulling this over...

I teach at other times. The things I listed above are independent. And yes, I would give her a checklist and be available for any help that's needed. I don't care if she works at the kitchen table or in her room. I'm surprised so many people are against this. Does everyone here sit with each child 100% of the time?

She's not working independently now. I'd like to get her more independent and I think she would like that too. I am giving her 1 hr of work and 2.5 hours to complete it. I've never tried this. I think she'd do better with ownership of the schedule (think Self-Propelled Advantage). But basically, yes, she is a dreamer. When I sit with her, she is getting off track and frankly I don't have time to deal with her nonsense anymore. When she puts her mind to something, she can zip through it. I'm experimenting next week to see if that will translate into better school output...and fewer grey hairs for me.

This is mainly for an 8.5yo. She will be responsible for spelling, math, facts practice, copywork, and a Daily Gram. It should take less than an hour and I am giving her 2.5 to complete it. I'm so sick of prodding her all day and she's a fairly independent child so I'm going to give this a try for a time. I feel like I have nothing to lose. Does it seem like a bad idea to assign more work for failure to complete the rest? I do have 3 other children at home and I can't it rewards like going to the zoo based on her performance or she'll ruin everyone's day. I appreciate the ideas!

I went to UMich and graduated with an engineering degree about 10 years ago. It was a highly ranked school at the time (might still be). I was also a highly successful high school rower that opted out of rowing in college. There were a number of swimmers in my engineering program. They were not only Div I for swimming, but they also did non-collegiate swimming (World Championships and such) during the school year. It was a pain if you got in a group project with one of them because they'd be gone so much, but it was permissible. When I attended, you were accepted into the engineering school and then declared a major in the 2nd year. I don't recall there being any sort of application process for the specific engineering program. It's an option. Certainly she's have no social life other than what she gets with crew, but if that's what she wants, she could go for it.

I'm going to be granting my kids some independence on when to complete daily assignment starting next week. To make this run smoothly, I need some way to help them comply and not just completely blow things off. What are some reasonable rewards for finishing on time (or consequences for not). I'm prefer it not be related to screen time, junk food, or money. But at this point I can't think of a single thing that doesn't fall in that category.

For 4th: Diligence More specifically: Increased attention span Neat writing Good attitude Nitty gritty: Master all 4 sets math facts Complete next level math Learn to write a good paragraph Learn cursive Review and deepen understanding of grammatical terms Continue plugging away at spelling

I have a 6yo that loves spelling. I ended up dropping it from his daily schedule because the only time I can find words hard enough (at least grade 6), there's no way he can do the work or write his answers in the small space. I'd like to keep him interested though, and maybe enter him in a spelling bee in a few years. How do I go about that? Can you recommend any programs to help natural spellers completely master spelling that would be age-appropriate?

It seems like most of you schedule your younger kids. I always have and I am questioning why. Most of what I have picked out for my oldest is independent, so I might see if giving her freedom to choose would be helpful.

I'm especially curious how larger families handle this. Do you make a set schedule and have the kids follow it (i.e. spelling at 9:30, break, math at 10...) or do you let them decide when to complete each task? If you do the latter, at about what age have you found that works well? I'm not enjoying being taskmaster. I wonder if I gave my kids a list of their daily work and told them to have at it if the quality of the work/speed might improve. I'm mostly hoping it'll help my spacey 8yo/3rd.

I am not an AAR user, but I can tell you that after a few years of catering to a child that "doesn't like x" you may end up with a monster on your hands. I wish I had bucked up and said "tough!" to my oldest earlier on. Perseverance in dealing with boring material is a great skill to teach. :-)

Those books looks super cute. The problem with programs like CLE is that his skills are all over the place. I was looking them over and the spelling words are insanely easy for him, even the 3rd grade one. Writing-wise he is 1st grade, but he's way past phonics, needs advanced spelling, and catches onto to concepts quicky. He doesn't need much review.

Which site/curriculum?

I will look into those. Thank you.

I'll look up the Basher book. I should add that he's in CC and is going nuts with the memory work. He begs me to quiz him every day, so we're getting latin in that way. Do either MCT or this Basher book cover proper nouns?

DS (6) is gifted, accelerated, whatever. He's been reading well since he was barely 3. He devours new material and I can't seem to keep up with him. I have 3 other kids to teach/wrangle and I would like to give him some acclerated material, but don't know what to throw his way. He actually loves doing workbooks and working independently, but he's still 6, ya know? He could easily handl 3rd grade English material, but definitely not the writing that's required. I was about to do FLL 1 & 2 with him but he'd clearly finish it in a few weeks and I'd like him to be on a different track than his older sister (who is not advanced). I'm mostly wondering what to do about grammar. He wants to know all about the parts of speech, when to capitalize, etc., but I can't find something that moves quickly enough at the right level for someone his age. Does that make sense? What's out there (preferably something that doesn't require tons of one-on-one time without a ton of repetition. I was thinking MCT Grammar Island, but I still need a resource for teaching basic writing mechanics, because he's not had exposure to that yet.