*shrug* At least he does laundry. I do laundry like your DH. One in the dryer, one in the washer. I have clean, unfolded laundry sitting in my hallway right now. Folding laundry is a job for late afternoon, after school, when I am worn out and ready to go hide in my bedroom and fold laundry. :D

School goes on as usual unless there is a measurable fever (like 100 or higher), or they're puking. We don't usually take sick days for colds, allergies, or unnamed maladies that stem from not wanting to. If your throat is a bit sore, have a sore throat lozenge or some tea. If you're sneezing I'll give you a box of tissues. If you're really sick, then you can go to bed and not do school. I don't know if I'm too harsh, but I don't want them growing up thinking that it's okay to just blow off responsibilities under the guise of being 'sick', you know? So we don't do that. If I can see that they definitely are ill and need rest, then by all means.

This morning I was reading a listing describing a 'poco dot dress'. Really? I decided her spell check must have just been off or something. But no, she spelled it exactly the same three more times! :cursing: I wanted to leave her a comment saying, "It's polka dot! Polka dot!" But I didn't. Spelling and grammatical errors drive me crazy. There's nothing more irritating than seeing 'convenyense' on a giant billboard beside the road. :glare:

Don't worry, Jandy :thumbup1: Both of my readers have learned the letter names before the sounds, and it didn't hinder them at all. Just like a cat is named a cat but says 'Meow", they can learn that a letter has both a name and a sound.

It really all depends on the child, and that's true whether you are a classical homeschooler, a Charlotte Mason homeschooler, a Waldorf, homeschooler, or an unschooler. My oldest taught herself to read before she turned 4. She was passionate and focused about it and I did not try to hold her back. I followed up with phonics because I wanted her to have the tools to keep moving forward, but she was the driving force. My second already knew his letters and sounds when I set out to teach him, from listening carefully to his older sister's lessons. He was a breeze to teach and reads very well and with good understanding at 7. My youngest is 4. We are doing Pre-K or K4 with him this year. He is very different from his older siblings and has very little interest in letters and reading. Neither does he really enjoy being read to. So, I am expecting him to take longer than the other two, and that will be okay. We will go at his pace. When he is 6, if he has not yet learned, I will no longer give him an option. We will do short, age-appropriate lessons at that time whether he's interested or not. :laugh:

Oh, we definitely have a math odyssey here too (and we're not even to 5th grade yet)! USED: Liberty Math: DD did this in K, and it was ok. Lots of repetition, boring. She did learn from it, though. Horizons: solid math, but there was just too much on the page. DD would get completely overwhelmed before she even started. Math In Focus: pricey, and not my kids' learning style at all. Certainly not my learning style. Regretted this one. A Beka: like Horizons, solid but very messy pages. MEP: my son used the primer level of this and it was ok, but it was too easy for a K'er. He was bored. Probably should have just used Yr 1, but I was bored too and we moved on. CLE: great math! I still love CLE. I love that it is traditional math, clearly taught, and well laid out. But, there are 4-5 pages in some lessons, and even though my kids handled it well, there was just too much! My kids do not need to do flash cards and speed drills and 5 pages of lesson every day in 2nd grade to master the math! They just don't. If they struggled with math, maybe. They don't. So, this year I went completely rogue :svengo: and ordered MCP (Modern Curriculum Press) math for both my kids. Inexpensive, short lessons, not 20 pages of practice for each thing, no speed drills, and no flash cards. Ask me again in 6 months how we like it, but right now it looks just about right for us.

CLE 400 should be a good place to start since you went through R&S (which is very similar). They may need a brush-up on their cursive (with a cursive workbook or something), but the grammar should be right on. As another poster mentioned, you can easily cross out anything you don't want them to do, such as spelling or writing. If you're very unsure where they should be, the placement test is the surest way to find out! We used CLE from 100-300 levels. The lessons are just so long! I wanted something shorter, to make room for more history and science this year, and so went with Easy Grammar this year. We'll see how that goes!

The primers (Get Ready, Get Set, & Go For the Code) teach the consonants (phonics and writing). Book 1 introduces the vowels and blending. We usually try to get through the primers in pre-k, books 1-3 in K, and books 4-6 in 1st. I haven't used ETC as a complete phonics course. I think it goes along very nicely as a writing supplement to a book like Phonics Pathways, Ordinary Parents Guide, or The Reading Lesson. But by itself it seems very light in actual phonics instruction. On the upside, it is mostly independent.

The K-8 series is available as a free download at coreknowledge.org :) It is not a curriculum. More like a guideline to make sure all the bases are getting covered.

I think with toddlers and babies in tow, relaxed and flexible is going to get you the most mileage [emoji846] For instance, having set times when you're 'supposed' to do things will go out the window quickly. Ask me how I know! Our first couple of years were pretty crazy. This year for second, I am focusing on building some independence into DS's day. His reading is solid, so we won't have to work on that. Morning Basket: DS's will have Bible, art & music appreciation, Life of Fred, and poetry. First seat work block (approx. from 10-11:30): Easy Grammar 2 (very repetitive format, easy to accomplish with only a little help from Mom) Math: I will teach the lesson (5-10 mins) and then he will do his worksheet. Spelling: 10 min lesson Wordly Wise: vocabulary, spelling, handwriting all in one. Latin: watch the video, work on the lesson with me. Maybe science if we have time; otherwise after lunch. Lunch and recess. After lunch I'm planning an hour to do Biblioplan with him and big sister together. Possibly science as well at this time. There might be a little more, but right now that's all I can remember. [emoji1] Sara Mom to 8.5yo DD (4th grade), 7yo DS (2nd grade) and 4yo DS (K4)

Both of mine (so far) have been about 2 years to fluency. I would say we started around age 4 and by 6-7 they could read chapter books comfortably to themselves. Sara Mom to 8yo DD (3rd grade), 6yo DS (1st grade) and 4yo DS (preschool)

Congratulations! That was so fast! Prayers for a sticky baby and an easy pregnancy! Sara Mom to 8yo DD (3rd grade), 6yo DS (1st grade) and 4yo DS (preschool)

Yay for healthy baby! I'm so thrilled for you too! Sara Mom to 8yo DD (3rd grade), 6yo DS (1st grade) and 4yo DS (preschool)

Yay! I'm so happy for you!

Praying for you both (you too Arctic Mama) and for good ultrasounds today *hugs*

My 8-year-old is singing Latin chants with her 6-year-old brother. Quite happily. Without any prompting. Priceless. :D

I have one of those :/ Yeah, there's no 'being polite' if you want to see results. I've learned to say, "Keep your feet off my bed." "Mom will do the chocolate sauce." Etc. If they're not inclined to obey, I help them :D My hands will take their feet off the bed and continued disobedience results in discipline of parent's choice. Some kids are just born to push the boundaries. It's not fun, but if the boundaries are very clear, it's a bit easier.

The teacher's manual is helpful in that it has the correct answers to the comprehension questions in it. I've also used it to discover exactly what they were looking for when it asked the student to 'name the rhyming scheme' of the poem (I'm a poetry newbie too and had no idea what they meant, lol). But it doesn't really include teaching ideas or scripting. These TM's were created for use in a classroom with teachers who know the material they teach, so in many cases they're basically an answer key. But I've liked having the answers. We started in 3rd, as they suggest, and I probably wouldn't use it before that. The questions and terms they study are fairly advanced. (I'm 33 and I never learned what alliteration or a rhyming scheme was, for instance). On the older end, it is used into the 6th grade core, and the next book (I think it's an American poetry anthology) starts in 7th. But we haven't gotten that far. :) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

We are using it starting this year in 3rd. As with all of Memoria Press's materials, it is simple, straightforward, black and white. For each poem, it begins with the poem itself, and a space for the child to draw an illustration about the poem (my daughter's favorite part). I like that part too because it really shows how they see and interpret the poem. Next there is a page for the student to copy the poem (aids in memorization). Next there are vocabulary and comprehension questions (teacher aided, because no actual teaching is done in the text). For each poem there is an exercise in a poetry-specific topic, such as alliteration, meter, etc. The third grade poems are fairly short and childlike, but they get longer and more detailed as the book moves along toward 6th grade. Hope that helps some!

15 minutes a day is plenty :). Maybe 30 minutes if she enjoys it. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Honestly, if MFW isn't getting done, HOD won't either. If she likes more independent things, why not look for something a little less mom-led? My third grader is enjoying America From the Beginning, which is a textbook she can read herself and then write the answers to the questions on paper. Simple. Independent. She's learning, and it's getting done. I tried to make HOD work. It probably does for some families. Just not for mine! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Real-ter. We're in Maine, so that might skew our pronunciation, lol.

It's an expensive reading schedule, basically, since you aren't going to use the math, LA, Bible, or science. As a previous poster said, it does not schedule the literature. Also, both Stories of the Pilgrims and Boys and Girls of Colonial Days are quite inferior to American Pioneers and Patriots, in my opinion. Your best option is probably just to do AP&P and leave the rest alone.

We chose to study classical pronunciation simply because it is closer to the original language (not perfectly, I'm sure), and we have no Latin at our church. If we did, I probably would have gone ecclesiastical. I think it's personal preference, honestly. The differences are not so major that we could not go back and forth as needed.

I'm well into my thirties and I still use a whisk broom and dustpan. Sweep the dirt into a dustpan with a tall broom? Pshaw! Do it as a child? I'd give the kid that can do it a medal!