My little guy loves doing school along with his brothers and we've been doing more formal work this year with him. I'm still thinking over what to do with him next year as he will be turning 5 early in the school year, but I think we will still consider it K4. Our main curriculum with be FIAR which I am looking forward to! I'm trying to line up the books to correlate with his older brother science (Zoology) as well as give him a chance to study a bit of the world with geography in the books. We did this with my olders a few years ago and LOVED it! Lots of learning through play! Math- Still deciding here, but learning towards MEP or Essentials Math Art- FIAR and Homeart studios Reading- AAR level 1 when he's ready History, Science and everything else- Along with his older brothers. We are using MOH 2 and Quark Chronicles Zoology so he loves to listen along with them and joins in with them for Latin and other foreign laguages I'm sure this will change, but for now that's what we have planned.

Thank you for all the suggestions! I'm still trying to decide which route to go and checking all these out.

Thank you for the detailed responses. Lots to think about and look into! We had been doing typing, but now I'm seeing we need to get back into that more for will probably be my first step as I look into the other things.

Thanks for the thought. He was actually dismissed from OT and nothing was brought up at that time about the handwriting. I brought it up initially, but then I can't recall her specifically addressing it. I may give them a call to see if there's something they suggest.

My current 4 yo desires to learn math. It's a daily question in our house. And to be honest, since he's not school aged yet I don't always get around to it. I have MM and MUS and we've tried MUS, but it just doesn't seem to be a good fit for him. He really detests using the blocks, but does comprehend the work beyond that. I think with his young age that MM will be too cluttered for him. I want a curriculum, not just printable games or dollar tree books. Any suggestions for him?

My DS has horrible handwriting and will say his hand physically hurts after writing for just a few minutes. We used HWOT when he was in K, but since then have done copywork and some letter tracing. He doesn't have consistent letter size (even when using the lined paper for younger children), spacing is inconsistent, letter formation is sloppy. I've tried cursive and he does this fairly well, but still difficult to read. Where should go from here?

Thanks! Love free resources! I'll try them out tonight 😀

Thanks! I will definitely check into that. About often do you have the lessons with her? How long are they? I wish we had that nearby, but we live out in the country, so there's nothing close enough to us. It would be over an hour drive and I can't do that with all the kids tagging along.

I don't feel as if we are using teacher intensive materials, but I think that I need to really think about if this is true. We do combine a lot for my older two, but my younger are doing something completely different from them (and theirs is FIAR which is teacher intensive, but they are young- pre-k still K next year). I do plan everything out at the beginning of the year of how many lessons per week need to be completed so we end by our end of the year and then weekly plan it out for them with a checklist of what they need to complete by Friday. One DS won't do more work than "required" for the day, so maybe I need to stop writing assignments for them per day and focus on weekly lists. Typing all this out is helping me think this through! Plus it reminds me of the wacky year we have had with getting our house ready to be on the market, being on the market and preparing for a move, so maybe that's where some of this is coming from!

Thanks for all the thoughts. Still trying to think this through and see how it can work for us. I'd love a day to just sit back, run a few errands and enjoy time together. Considering yesterday was the first time in months I found the time to go grocery shopping at the actual store (been doing delivery service), I know we need to change things up. Yes and No. Typically we have 2 days of Science and 2 days of history, followed by the core subjects which I feel need to be completed daily (math, writing, grammar, spelling, foreign language, etc), but then there doesn't always seem to be enough time to complete those things as well as any extras (projects, art, music, etc) we'd like to do. I'm also trying to juggling planning all the needs for my upper elementary kids and my just beginning school kids, making sure everyone gets their needed work done and the individual interests. So maybe I am trying to do too much and either need to cut back or spread it out more. That's why I'm asking.

I think this would be a great gift. They may not realize how great until later, but not having to spend the money on diapers will be huge! The only negative it seems from that site is that it only offers pampers or huggies and what if those brands don't work for them? We cloth diaper, but when we do use disposable, there are only a couple of brands of diapers that don't give my kids rashes or leak. The only other thing I didn't see on there is what they consider to be a month's shipment? If it's just 3 boxes total for a 3 month supply, then it's overpriced IMO.

My DS 6 (7 in a few months) keeps asking to learn Chinese. Whenever I ask him what the one thing he wants to learn, his answer is always Chinese. Where do I begin? I have heard needing a tutor, but I'm going to guess we won't be able to afford this, although I'm willing to save and do this later if I see him being serious in learning/studying. Curriculum suggestions? Where to begin? Online tutors which are affordable?

I've always wanted to keep our school work to a 4 days week, but never seem to to be able to fit it all in. Any suggestions of how to plan it and get everything done wit overloading those 4 days?

Science in the beginning comes with mfw ctg which is after Ecc. The science book they have with Ecc makes more sense than science in the beginning since the Ecc book is ecology I believe which covers habitats. Science in the beginning correlates somewhat with ctg since it covers the days of creation and ctg begins with creation. We have used science in the beginning and really enjoyed it. Some of the things were above my kids (k, 1, 3rd). They loved the experiments, but since you need to do the experiments for each lesson it made it tough for me. I'm just not an experiment person and the lessons refer to the experiments throughout so it's tough to skip. It is well written and we learned a lot. Each unit is a day of creation and you will learn about things that were created that day. So for light, you learn how it reflects, the rainbow and such.

If the copyright allows, then typically I will copy since I will use it over and over again with all the kids. If the copyright doesn't allow me to, then I won't copy and then I consider cost of the book and then decide if its worth the cost to buy new ones for each child.

We used AAR for my two boys and they did really well. About 3/4 of the way through leave 3 we stopped (at the beginning of the year). They were both reading fluently above grade level with good comprehension. At times they will misread a word or two (reading at a 6th grade level- currently 6 and 8), but not too often. When reading a higher level they will struggle more often, but not horribly. I'm wondering if we should continue the reading instruction finishing g level 3 and then moving onto level 4 or if I should just allow them to progress on their own?

Does any have this and use it? It's on sale right now and I considered buying to go along with MOH.

I use and like mus, but wouldn't pair it with beast. I like that mus is mastery and it has been right for one of my children. He likes the DVDs and blocks and he has been able to progress very Mickey in understanding of what and why for math. But since it is. Astray I just don't feel that it compliments beast well. I have another DS who is more math inclined than his brother and he uses beast and we also love that program. It is his main curriculum right now. We will usually spend about 20 minutes a day doing beast, splitting the lesson up. He will usually do 2 pages or so a day. We also supplement with mm. I use this mainly because he began in mus and finished alpha so quickly that I realized he needed something more, bought mm and he starting flying through that as well and then we picked up beast to slow him down a bit and challenge him. When he need a break from beast we will do a few days of mm to fill in gaps (he went from mus alpha to mm 3rd grade to beast) or just practice simple things. Mm and beast have complimented each other nicely and I've found it easy to go back s d forth between the two as needed.

We went with a 7, 6, 3 and infant and we all enjoyed ourselves. There were shows that they could watch, they enjoyed looking in the museum, but didn't necessarily want to stop and read much so if you are one who enjoys this, it may not work out. They loved the gardens and petting zoo and taking a ride on the camel. For us it was a nice relaxing two day visit. DH and I enjoyed it quite a bit. If I remember correctly there are discount tickets at local hotels and I believe maybe for homeschoolers as well. Look on their website for discounts. Hsdla members get a discount I think.

I've used the regular construction paper size, although some of the projects a larger sheet does make sense (still I just use the smaller paper since that's what we have on hand and its easier for me to display then). I also just bought the tempera paint at hobby lobby because of price, it washes out of clothing and mine are on the younger end (I have Pre-k - 3rd doing it). I can notice the difference in quality in paint of which she uses and what we use. Hers will get a better coverage, whereas ours is not as thick I guess you'd say. But for our elementary art, I'm more than okay with that. I'm not sure we've done any of the clay projects yet, so I can't comment on that, but if its just modeling clay, I've found that they sell a 5 lbs package at hobby lobby and its less expensive than the crayola. We love doing HomeArt Studio. Its my kids favorite part of the week! ETA- I saw the grade levels you have...not sure if you were going to do all kids together or separate, but I've found that all my kids- Pre-k through 3rd have enjoyed working on all the projects. Right now we are in the 2nd grade one with all the kids. They just work on them according to their ability.

I'll check out Guest Hollow's list. My kids do like Gail Gibbons books, so we will check that out. I think the Eyewitness books are just too cluttered maybe for them. Those books haven't held their interest and they are avid readers.

This book looks almost exactly what I was looking for. I am going to need to get this one! Thanks for the suggestion.

Any others than the eyewitness one suggested. For some reason I just don't like it. I was hoping for something different. Not sure exactly what.

I'm looking for a recommendation for a reference book about plants. It would be for Elementary (3rd and 1st) as well as preschool. Something that gives information on different types of plants for my kids to look at pictures, read information on their own. (It will be used to accompany Quark Chronicles- Botany)

Maybe consider reading Quark Chronicles?