Trying to place my 4th grade natural speller in spelling workout. I have teachers manuals for E and F. With level E, he will miss one or two on any given list. With level F, it's more like four. When the level is appropriate, how many will a child likely miss on a pretest? Thanks,

Wonderful advice. Thank you all so much!

Thank you, Serendipitous. Your response is very encouraging. I haven't called the folks at IEW yet. That's a really great idea. I have watched the TWSS DVDs and my son does have a separate grammar curriculum, which he does very well with (it just doesn't seem to translate to his writing yet). I'm now considering something like CAP W&R. Seems like I would be able to hit on several skills with that curriculum. I also just looked at Imitation in Writing (similar to IEW but I think it would be easier to combine with WWE). Anyone else? thoughts about CAP W&R as a solution?

I need advice for my 4th grader. We started homeschooling him in second grade. I fumbled through different writing curriculum that year and nothing seemed to click with either one of us. Then, in third grade we started IEW SWI-A. At first, it was a miracle because my son was enjoying the lessons and actually looked forward to writing. But now that he is in 4th grade, I've noticed that his style is still extremely awkward (run on sentences, verbose, etc.) I was hoping I would start to see some improvements in these areas by now, but sadly, no. So I've started to wonder if this is because he's never had a solid foundation in copywork and dictation. I regret not pushing these skills harder when he was in second grade and I'm wondering if I should just stop with IEW this year and really push the copywork/dictation/narration work a la WWE. Or if that would be a mistake because he has already started to build some of the IEW skills (key word outlines, dress-ups, etc.) I hate to jump around and switch back and forth but the idea of trying to do both WWE and IEW at the same time is overwhelming. What do you think? stop IEW for a school year? stop for a semester? or keep going with IEW? If I stop IEW, will last year have just been a waste because when we go back to IEW, he will have to basically start all over with those skills? Maybe just continue with IEW but add in copywork??? I don't know. Thanks in advance!

Thank you so much for your replies. This has been a head scratcher. Now, I'm discovering a new writing problem with my 4th grader. I'll have to start a new thread for that!

I have a young second grader currently finishing up FLL 1 and WWE 1. In addition, I have a fourth grader doing IEW. They are both learning history with SOTW vol 2. My question is this: How much writing should I require of them? In other words, should the second grader be doing all of the assignments in FLL and WWE as well as some narrations in SOTW (where I write them down)? And should my fourth grader be completing his own 2-5 sentence narrations in addition to his IEW assignments that he does 4x/week? Finally, I've seen a lot of stuff online about SOTW copy work....how do people fit this in with all of the other writing mentioned above? Are people doing copy work in lieu of narrations for SOTW? Or in lieu of handwriting? I just don't want to wear the kids out unnecessarily but I also don't want to be too light and avoid building the appropriate skills. Am I correct that some history curriculums, such as Sonlight, don't require any writing of the student? Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

I love all of these suggestions. Thank you very much. I'm looking into each one right now. Anyone else?

My 4th grader already knows a lot of chemistry, however, he hasn't had much experience with algebra (which I understand is required for more advanced chemistry courses). He's been working through the Kahn Academy Chemistry program online and most recently, stoichiometry, chemical reactions, mole, avogadro's number (i don't know what that stuff is; he just talks about it all the time). He has read all of the Basher Chemistry books and the Wonderful Life of the Elements by Bunpei Yorifugi. He's also mastered the Ein-O Science Mighty Molecules kit and can build several chemical bonds. He's memorizing the periodic table. This kid is nuts about chemistry and unfortunately, I know nothing about it. I considered signing him up for a chemistry class at a co-op or enrichment school, however, all of these courses are for high school students who have completed algebra. As far as his math goes, he's not nearly as advanced. He's working through Life of Fred and Math Mammoth 3, and will likely work on Beast Academy. So I'm trying to find some more materials for him to work through and I was considering the following programs: -Elemental Science Chemistry for the Logic Stage -Exploring the World of Chemistry by John Hudson Tiner along with the Memoria Press guide. -Ellen McHenry's The Elements -Dr. Dave's chemistry I've also considered just getting him into another area of science all together since he may not be able to advance in chemistry until his math catches up. But he loves science in general and I've had a hard time finding challenging science materials at the elementary level. He studies anatomy, astronomy, geology, biology, physics etc. on his own. We do a lot of stuff at the planetarium and the nature center. But chemistry is the big passion right now. Even though he studies this stuff on his own, I would like a curriculum because I'm trying to get him away from his 2nd grade sister and I when we are doing science. He railroads the lessons and takes over and his sister hates it. If he had his own special curriculum, then I could more easily get him away from us so that I could teach her at her level. If I just say, "Go to your room and read your science books" he will feel like he's missing out. so that's why I want to get him something special, just for him. He would love to do something with a lot of experiments, as this is an area we haven't explored much. Any feedback would be greatly appreciated.

Thank you Coffeegal! Just to clarify, I'm not looking at the Rod and Staff english series. This one is put out by Pathway Publishers (I think that's what they are called?)

Thank you Hollhock! you have helped put my mind at ease!!! Anyone else??? Any other experienced Climbing to Good English users out there?

I'm thinking of moving over to this curriculum and I just have a couple of questions. 1) My rising second grader just finished FLL 1 and I would like to continue with FLL 2 and WWE next year and then start her on Climbing to Good English in grade 3. Would this sequence work well? Do we start CGE at grade level? 2) My rising 4th grader has been using a mishmash of Language Arts materials. We starting HSing when he was in second and it was really difficult to figure out his language abilities. He has done part of MCT Grammar Island and Practice Island, GUM Drops, IEW SWI-A, a little bit of FLL and WWE, some Evan Moor mechanics etc. This haphazard approach is making me crazy. I want to continue IEW and throw in a solid grammar program that we can build on and CGE really appeals to me. He is advanced and was a very early reader/speller. Can I start him at Grade Level 4 with CGE? Will this jive OK with IEW? Thank you so much!!!!

OK all you experienced Homeschool parents, I need some tips! I have a rising 4th grader and 2nd grader. We are schooling year round. At this point in my life, I'm in need of about 1.5 hours to myself every day or every other day in order to attend to some complicated extended family matters. During the school year, my kids attended after-school programs at the YMCA and this was my time to work. Now that its summer, I'm falling way behind and I'm really stressed. What do you do in order to get some uninterrupted time to concentrate each day? or even each week? Do you work in the mornings/evenings? have a quiet time every day? mother's helper? swapping with other families? I need ideas before I lose it!

I need a straight forward grammar program for my rising 4th grader; something without tons of drill and writing, and something fairly independent. This year we used MCT Island and supplemented with the rainbow resources GUM (for mechanics). While I loved MCT, i think I want to make it more of a fun supplement that we do as a family. So i plan to wait on Town until my daughter is a little older and we can just read through the books together. I have heard that Growing with Grammar and ZB GUM are both pretty straight-forward and comprehensive (with adequate review). Is this correct? If so, which program do you recommend? If you use one of them, what are the pros/cons? Thank you very much

This is all very helpful. I think I will start with Apples (especially since its already sitting on my shelf!) THanks so much!

This is so helpful. Thank you very much! Right now, I wondering if it would work to go from Foundations C into a spelling program like Spelling Workout and then maybe add in some explode the code for review/reinforcement. I intend to follow WTM for language arts as much as possible next year. Right now she does A Beka penmanship, FLL, WWE, and Sonlight Readers along with Foundations. So i'm thinking that when foundations C is over, I'll just get a spelling program and maybe do Explode the code. Would this plan work well or would I be missing something? Thank you so much!