Did you and your children enjoy Elemental Science? I've read so many mixed reviews but I love how it's done so much that I can't bring myself to dismiss it as an option!

I'm planning my daughter's first grade year and I can't choose between these two! My biggest concern with Elemental Science is that I have to buy a lot of the books separately and some of them seem difficult to find. My biggest concern with Noeo is the quantity of books (seems like too much, reminds me of Sonlight). Anyone have some insight?

Thanks, guys! I am absolutely going to buy Sum Swamp. My daughter has just started getting into card games (uno, go fish) so I was planning on getting a game that would specifically help with addition. :)

There was a period of time when my daughter was sounding out words correctly but then blending them incorrectly, and I was astounded by how much patience it required from me (For example, she'd say st-i-ll, but after blending it would come out "skrivel"). And then all of a sudden one day, it just CLICKED. It was a beautiful moment. Either keep at it or take a break for a month or so and focus on simpler, 3 letter words.

While I think you should have discussed this with your husband before giving your daughter the option, please try not to feel condemnation over this. You messed up. It wasn't the first time and it won't be the last. I agree that you should humble yourself and apologize to your daughter. Talk to her, hear her out, take her out to dinner, do something fun with her. Talk to her about what she thinks would make her homeschooling experience better.

My daughter is 5 and has been doing Kindergarten work for about 3 months. She's almost done with the Math-u-see primer and I really don't know what to do now. Is it too early to start her on Alpha? Is it too early to start her on Math Mammoth Grade 1? And how do I go about combining these 2 programs? Thanks!

With some subjects, I found that my daughter was proceeding with learning whether I did formal school with her or not, she just wasn't proceeding correctly. For example: I didn't want to start handwriting with her until first grade, but she was constantly writing, making lists, etc. and developing bad handwriting habits.

I'm sure it's different for everyone. I despise Amelia Bedelia. She does the stupidest stuff imaginable and ruins everything, but in the end it's ok because she bakes great pies.

Thanks! Should you wait until you complete it to start Spelling?

I'm currently doing The Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading with my daughter and (forgive me if this is a stupid question) I'm not sure what I'm supposed to do when I'm done. Do I need to start another phonics program or is that enough?

I struggled with whether to do the Primer as well. We ultimately ended up doing it and we don't regret it at all. If money is an issue for you, I suggest going right to Alpha. If you don't mind spending a bit more, I would use the Primer to lay a more solid foundation for math. My daughter loved it, and because it began so easily, she started off with some major confidence. Math quickly became her favorite subject.

Thanks for responding! I've been doing some research on it lately and I've also read that there are a lot of typos and grammatical errors in it. Have either of you noticed anything? I've been going back and forth about whether to use Noeo or Elemental Science for weeks now.

Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading A Reason for Handwriting- Which we're really disliking so far. We may ditch it for copywork. Math-u-see Primer Bob Books Explode the Code For History, we're just reading various books from Beautiful Feet's Early American history pack. For Science, we're been reading various Usborne books.

Can anyone who has used Elemental Science please tell me how it deals with evolution? I'm a christian who is very interested in this curriculum, but I'm a little worried after reading online that it's a secular program. I'm not looking for a curriculum that's religious in nature, like Apologia, but I also don't want one that's going to teach against our religion. Any Christians used this and felt entirely comfortable doing so?