Thank you so much for these links!! I will check them out.

Any live or have lived in the east Texas area and have a vegetable garden? I grew up in Alaska, so gardening here is completely different! Anyone have any good books to recommend or tips for me? Thanks!

Thank you everyone for the replies! I have some thinking to do. Part of me would love to get ahead of my kids, but on the other hand, realistically, it would probably work out better to just learn with them. I imagine myself getting started but not following through when things get busy. One other question, those of you with kids spaced fairly close, how did you teach Latin? My kids are each two years apart, so my thought was start ODS around third grade and then YDS two years later when he is in third grade. Then again when DD is in third grade. Is this a good way, or would combining be better? I don't want to hold ODS back by waiting for YDS to catch up, but I also don't want to go crazy keeping up with three kids in three different places. I know I have a good while before I really need to worry, but my mind wonders this stuff anyway :-).

Has anyone studied Latin in preparation for teaching their children? I'm thinking of doing this. What programs would you recommend if you have?

I just looked on the website because I couldn't figure out why I WOULDN'T have bought the teachers guide....well I figured it out. It's over $100! That'd be why! From what I could tell by the website, the teachers guide is more for classroom use, not homeschool. I have just switched my DS to Zaner-Bloser from A Reason for Handwriting, so I can't say for sure if it works. But I like the looks of it better and from what I can tell looking through it the workbook looks pretty self explanatory. I can't see spending $100 for a teachers guide.

I don't have the teachers guide for Zaner-Bloser. Is it needed?

Thank you for your response. That make me feel better about switching!

Ok, my 5.5 DS has been working through ARFH K. He has made it through the lower case letters. He actually has very neat handwriting, but doesn't enjoy it much most days. Which is normal and fine with me. We just plug along a little each day. I also have Zaner-Bloser K. I bought it first and planned to use it per WTM reccommendations. For some reason I bought ARFH also and started it. Now I am sort of regretting that. I like the continuous stroke that ZB does and think it "may" be a bit easier for DS. But I don't want to confuse him but switching methods. Would you do it? Would it even, possibly help? Melissa

I just bought Elemental History to use with my 5.5 year old DS. Like you I wanted to do some American History and states before starting the history cycles. We haven't started yet, waiting on the books from Amazon. But I have gone through it pretty well and I think it will be a good fit. Just the right amount of work for a K'er. I am exited to get started. Let me know if you have questions and I can try to answer them :-). Melissa

I just bought the digital version of Elemental History. It's by the same lady as Elemental Science. It is geared for early elementary and goes lightly into American History along with state study. Each week you focus on one or two states. It was $17.99 I believe. Melissa

Great ideas! I will definitely try those out!

Thank you for the replies! They were very helpful. I think that I will keep moving forward, slowly. Any thoughts on switching to OPGTR from AAR?

Hello! This is my very first time posting here, although I have been lurking for a year or more! I have three kids and I am working with my oldest DS (5.5) on reading and have a few questions. First, we are using AAR1 and have been for a few months, but just recently have been consistent with it. We are only on lesson 8 currently. He is doing pretty well I think. He knows all the letter sounds and is able to sound out pretty much any CVC word. But he still has to sound out every single word. I know that this is very normal and I am totally fine with it. He really doesn't like the fluency sheets, even if I break them up over a few days. So I thought he might be more interested in reading more "real" books. I got out the Bob book and the Fun Tales (SL early readers) that had words he would know. At first, this was helpful, but then he got to the point he sort of memorized them. He started guessing on almost every word and would get upset when I asked to to sound it out. So I backed up again. I pulled out all the AAR cards I thought he might need more review on and wrote some on the white board with a missing letter and asked him to tell me the missing letter. He had no trouble at all with this. I also tried showing him a card and then saying a word which may or may not have been the word on the card and asking him if I got it right. He did awesome at this as well. That made me feel better, that he was actually getting it but I'm a little unsure how to proceed. Should I continue teaching new material and just practice it in different ways or should I stay put where we are for a bit and really practice the words we have so far? I am fine with going slow but I struggle with feeling like I am holding him back. Another, sort of unrelated, question. Like I said before we are using AAR1 right now and I can't decide what to do next. I already have OPGTR and have been thinking of just using that once we finish AAR1. I kind of flipped though OPGTR and AAR1 side by side to see where to start but they do not really match up well. Has anyone does this? Where did you start? Or do I really need to get AAR2? Thank you so much for any guidance! Melissa