I haven't used it much yet, but I got the Zoo-phonics wall poster, flashcards, and CD. I like the animal visual to help with the letter shapes and how they incorporate the sounds with body motion. I'm excited to use it with my boys.

I thought the Nana Upstairs book was a strange way to start Pre-K.

I have yet to find a basic reading program I actually love - the scope, sequence, presentation, exercises... Didn't like 100 Easy Lessons. Like aspects of Reading Made Easy, Reading Lesson, Phonics Pathways. Explode the Code is boring and the pictures scare me, but I like the sequence. So frustrating, but maybe I just haven't tried the right one yet! Was hoping to find it with the first so I'd have it figured out for the rest!

We went through this series last year, but I didn't think about putting it with geography since we had done some geography in an earlier year. Thank you for the idea to use with my next little one! Those suggestions sound good.

Our library often doesn't have what I need and interlibrary loan ends up being not that much cheaper than buying it and having it in my library for the rest of the children to use later.

Was it this? http://wholeheartedmama.wordpress.com/tag/homeschool-science-curriculum/ We used the One Small Square books last year with our science as well as the Draw Write Now for the different habitats. It was neat!

My daughter is 8 and seemingly can't remember how to spell a thing. Spelling came naturally for me. We've been using the Reason for Spelling workbook and homemade spelling tiles like AAS. I'm wondering if I should just buy AAS or get the Phonetic Zoo. I've done a mis-match of things for reading - Reading Made Easy primarily but also The Reading Lesson, Sonlight's readers, Explode the Code, Critical Thinking Language Smarts, and others. I have the Winter Promise vertical phonics 1st grade set I was thinking of using next. I wish I could just find one thing I like the best that integrated everything I want her to learn. Suggestions welcome!

It's interesting to see strong opinions one way or the other. Use both, and if one or the other works better, lean that way. I don't like it when historical fiction follows a formula, like the triangle romance novel, but if it's a good story and grabs the attention and imagination of your children, why not?! Of course it should be supplemented with non-fiction. That's part of the fun of fiction - the desire to fact check afterward!

I've been wondering the same thing...if I'm missing something good by simply picking my own resources and then scheduling them out. I get irritated with most lesson plans though that plan out all the subjects for each day. Then if you don't get to every subject in a day, you feel like you can't go on until everything's caught up. I like planning out each subject independently. But of course that means I may be missing things that complement each other with the different subjects. With so many options I'm really having a hard time just going with one rather than trying to get in all the "not-to-be-missed" resources.

What are the best for early elem.? I wanted some basic reviews like you'd do with flashcards...math, phonics, letter formation, customizable spelling...