Thank you for all the suggestions! I think I have been too focused on getting the reading done and need to just set a time frame and let him be done. I don't want to reward his delay tactics (food, drink, etc.) so I will have to be more diligent to be clear on my expectations (don't steal my drink, etc. LOL!). Honestly I don't want him to read 30 minutes a day but sometimes it stretches into that, so I just need to set a timer or something and let him know I do expect focus in that timeframe. Like several have mentioned, I do need to keep him moving through the day because he has a lot of energy. And, yes, sugar intake probably needs to be curtailed also! Although he is only 6, he is able to read at a second grade level. So I think I am also kind of struggling with challenging him without burning him out. I don't want him to hate reading because of our reading times. Thank you for all your input!

I wouldn't say he is struggling to read. Depending on the day he is more distracted or less, but today he was distracted from page one. So it literally took ten or fifteen minutes to read a paragraph or two because he kept stopping to get a snack, a drink, pick his toes, play with the blanket, etc. LOL. He does okay with our regular math--MIF--but Xtra Math is a drill program. He hates it. He sort of likes Math Bingo because it isn't timed. I don't know anything about KONOS. What is that?

I'll be the first to admit--my six year old (just turned six in June) and I are wired very differently. He is more of a free spirit, creative, outgoing, people-oriented, and bright. However, it is sooo hard to get him to focus. Sometimes reading is painful. It's not that he can't--but he skips words because he is distracted. He reads one line and then he is picking his toes or trying to eat a snack. By the end of four or five pages sometimes I am struggling to not be angry about it. I know in part it is his age, but what is reasonable for this age? We have the same issue when we try to do Xtra Math. He hates it and literally cannot stay focused for the whole three to four minutes. I have tried everything I know. I need some suggestions. Some days I feel like he might need "medication" but I really don't want to go there. I homeschool so we should be able to be flexible and help him cope with this, right? If he can spend thirty minutes drawing, he can spend thirty minutes reading, right? Thank you in advance for your input. I know my attitude is kind of stinky!

Also on the subject of where to send the notification--our particular district makes us send it to the county. So don't assume you are sending it to the school district. Verify with whoever you need to, and not to be paranoid, but I wouldn't be leaving my phone number with tons of people. Do you really want them randomly calling you? Probably not. I always leave my phone number off the notification form. It is not required.

I notified last year and did just what OHElizabeth mentioned. We were directed in our local homeschool orientation training (by the Christian Home Educators of Cincinnati) group not to be very specific. I did not have a problem. I just had a table that said "Math" and the column next to it had the name of the curriculum I was using. For things like health or first aid, I just put "various library and internet resources."

We use a free online program called Xtra Math. I recommend it if your kids like drill and competition. It's worth a shot at least. My almost six year old hates it but my 7.5 year old loves it. I am going to look for something different for my youngest--I'm off to read the other posts here. Thanks for this question--I'm sure there is some good information in this thread!!

I am not sure I answered all your questions now that I look back at them. Yes, you will need to supplement with history. Either individual history topics with books or with a curriculum (SOTW, MOH, etc.) Yes, you will need a separate math curriculum. Yes, you will need a separate science curriculum or to supplement what they do each week--they only cover about 15 minutes of science a week in CC. You will need to build something off of that or use a curriculum. Yes, you will need something for grammar, reading, and writing. Yes, they do give you a book list to supplement everything. It just depends if you like doing that versus having everything laid out for you (e.g. a science text versus 20 different books from the library)

This past year was our first in CC, and we are not returning in the fall due to money. I have two boys, one who is age 5 (turning 6 in one month) and one who turned 7 last September. They were in different classes. My personal opinion is that CC is a great program but it depends on your child if they will like it or not. It is very academic versus social. My oldest complained it was like "school" (we pulled him out of PS after a year in KG there). I was in my youngest's Abecedarians class almost every week. What they covered was pretty different (in terms of scope and difficulty) than the other older classes. For example, we might mark up a map using dry erase markers in Abecedarians, and in the Apprentice class (my 7 year old's) they would be practicing tracing maps. We did a lot of songs for things in the Abecedarians and there was less of a focus on understanding some of the facts over just memorizing them (for example, the layers of the atmosphere). I was given a breakdown of the CC day at some point and I found that oftentimes our day did not quite match up with that. As you know when you teach seven or eight 5 and 6 year olds, things do not always go as planned. Case in point: my five year old spilled plaster all over himself when we were doing an art lesson. =) So, take those schedules with a grain of salt. My oldest's tutor did a great job covering everything because she kept everything very fast paced. She was also an experienced tutor. I do think there is a difference in who you get as a tutor in how well they present the material and what tools they use, so I want to echo the other poster's recommendation to sit in on some classes. It also helps to get a feel for how the director runs the campus. Many people told me they used CC as their spine and then built everything off of that. I did that with geography, and tried to do it with science. I used my own math curriculum, grammar/writing/reading curriculum, and SOTW. You can match up SOTW with CC but CC is geographic versus time-oriented so when I looked at the match ups (CC will give you the breakdown of what SOTW goes with which week, what pages, etc.) I found that it wasn't something I wanted to do. So, we did memorize the timeline and history sentences but I didn't worry about crafting our history curriculum around them. I just started the kids in SOTW 1 and sometimes things matched up and sometimes they didn't. Eventually we got to things we had covered earlier in CC, etc. I had no problem with that. Personally, I did not enjoy trying to use CC as my spine for science. We jumped around in topics a lot from life science to earth science and back again and I guess it just felt disjointed to me. I found myself longing for a more fluid science plan. So this year we are not doing CC on campus and I am not planning on doing science around the statements. We may cover some of them as they come up in the curriculum I chose, but otherwise they will be extra. I see the value in memorizing the science statements separate from the science curriculum. However, I know of other moms that have no issue with basing their science on the CC statements. If you choose to build a curriculum around the CC foundations guide, let me recommend the Half a Hundred Acre Wood website mentioned previously. Also do some searches on Pinterest--there are tons of boards with ideas pinned for CC stuff. Good luck!

You definitely want the new timeline song so you need the newer version of the CDs. We did CC on a campus this past year but this coming year we are doing it from home. I am not 100% how I am going to do this either. We are not doing the science experiments or art, and I think we are going to skip some of the science memory and just stick to the grammar, Latin, geography, history sentences and timeline.

In reference to what Heigh Ho is saying, I guess it depends on the school. My son was in public school for K last year and they required d'nealian and I was aware that by the end of grade 1/early grade 2 there were significant marks off if you missed tails, etc. They said they were using d'nealian to transition kids better to cursive. The irony of it is at the end of his K year his teacher said they are no longer teaching cursive therefore they would no longer require d'nealian. By this point he had already "re-learned" to write d'nealian style so I wasn't going to go back to ball and stick. Anyway. All that to say do what you feel is best, because who knows what the school will do? LOL.

i use the d'nealian workbooks by Scott Forseman. They sell them at CBD and Rainbow Resource Center. When we completed those, I generated d'nealian worksheets online.

Also check out some of the free sample pages from here: http://harmonyfinearts.org/sample-pages/

I like Artistic Pursuits but my kids are younger. Have you seen this (below)? I have liked it for the art appreciation piece. It was free when I downloaded it. I used the code from here: http://moneysavingmom.com/2012/11/free-adventures-in-art-ecurriculum-75-value.html http://www.cornerstonecurriculum.com/Curriculum/Art/art.htm

I have yet to go, and I live in Cincinnati, so I am curious too. I have heard there are a couple exhibits in the Creation Museum that might be disturbing to young children. So, you might want to ask if you have little ones. Some friends with preschoolers said the petting zoo is fun. BTW, plug for Cincinnati--the zoo is great here. It's worth seeing! The Museum Center (as someone mentioned) is great too. And, if you are up for a long weekend--the National Museum of the United States Air Force (about 1.5 hours north) is totally free and an awesome museum--you could spend days there. Lots of great history exhibits in addition to the aircraft you can see up close. P.S. If you come to Cincinnati, get some ice cream at Graeter's. =)

It's my first year homeschooling, and in CC, and I can tell you I LOVE the timeline song. It has helped my boys learn the timeline so much. Plus it really has helped to gel so many other things. When we are studying SOTW and we get to the part about the Visigoths I can have them sing the part about "Visigoths sack Rome" and it starts to just make sense. Plus when we are studying our Bible and it references leaders there is a common point. I will admit I spent the whole year in CC without owning the cards. I do own the cards now, but I didn't get them until our year was almost over. So, you can totally teach the timeline without the cards, but I am sure it really helps. But definitely buy the audio for the song! Also--FYI--this is the first year for this timeline song. In the past with the Veritas cards there was an emphasis on learning a movement/sign language for each card, but this year the song made a lot of that unnecessary (though they did try to teach the movements). Everyone I know who has been in CC for a long time said the song really helped their kids memorize the timeline better. Our campus had the most Memory Masters we've ever had, and the director credited it to the timeline song.

This is my first year but my 1st grader has done this: 1-2 Chapters SOTW/week plus coloring pages and geography markups CC geography about 30 minutes math 3x/week (finished entire year already at this pace) daily math drill on Xtra Math art or music 1x/week for 30 minutes gym 1x/week at co-op plus sport in the fall PAL-Reading and Writing 3x/week until we finished reading, then just writing 3x/week FLL--started once we finished PAL-Reading 2x lessons/day (about 15-20 min) handwriting--about 1 sheet 3x/week plus other stuff for PAL Science--about 1 hour/week plus co-op and CC science He reads to me 20 minutes every day Mon-Fri I read to him 20-30 minutes Mon-Fri (not counting bedtime or history reading, Bible, etc) Spelling--started a few months in--15 minutes/day about three days a week (now five days/week) plus CC review once a week

I am using what the others said they used. We finished the workbook quicker than I thought (for my 1st grader) so when that was done I used an online handwriting worksheet maker and made worksheets using the Children's Shorter Catechism.

I am using MIF for grade 1--1A/1B. I go over the text with them, and then have them do the workbook section. Generally at the start of the chapter there is a review, and then the beginning of the first section and then it tells you to complete the first workbook practice. So we might spend one day doing the review and the first section, and then the next day my son will complete the workbook section cited in the text. On the next day we go over the next section, and if there is time, he does the workbook section cited in the text. Sometimes the workbook section takes two days and so we spend the first part of his day doing the workbook, and then review the next text section. Essentially, I shoot for about 20-30 minutes max a day, but my kids are younger. I don't know if that helps or not! Sometimes I find the textbook work takes us the whole session. Sometimes it doesn't--it just depends on the concepts. My guess is that as we move up we will not be able to do the text plus the workbook section in one day.