Don't be a slave to the curriculum. It's just a tool. We skip about the first 20 lessons of each book then skip any lesson that feels too "review-y" to me. And we sometimes skip the games if they seem to "busy-work" for me too. RS is such a solid program.

I'm not sure how to appropriately describe what I'm looking for but here goes... I'm looking for a writing curriculum for mid- to late-elementary that starts teaching with more persuasive/technical/logical though process writing as the end goal. I feel like that's 90% of the writing that gets done in high school, college, and adulthood. We've got creative writing coming out the ears in our house so the curriculums that start with emulating stories and fables will be superfluous as she already does that in spades. We've got narrations nailed down so the retelling aspect is moot. It just seems that all of the curriculums I look at for that level are all just writing down retellings or summaries.

She's reading level 3 and 4 readers independently and early chapter books with me. I think we're nearly done with level 3 now.

This is where we're at now with my DD too. We read a lot together and I read a lot to her. Maybe every 3-4 days I'll do a lesson from where ever we are in the AAR progression. I've found that she reads a lot from context and pictures and knowledge of the subject matter but sometimes struggles with some of the harder words when just that word is written on a paper. So we keep plugging along with the phonics while she amazes me with what she reads.

I found this to be very useful. Thank you for putting it together!! ETA: Wow! Your blog is a wealth of information! We use a lot of the same curriculum and seem to have similar outlooks. /fangirl

Check out the Human Odyssey set.

We like Rightstart games and Sum Swamp.

'Sh' is a digraph. 'Shr' is a digraph blend. She's doing fine.

I'm using the older version of this to teach myself Latin ahead of the kids but have no answer keys for the first and third volumes. Does anyone have the keys that I could buy or know where to find just them?

When going through and selecting curricula for your child(ren), what curricula/books do you wish you would have learned from?

Long time listener, first time caller... We have a while before we start anything formal (DD is only 3.5) but we're planning to follow a Classical outline when we get there. As I delve more into this style, I'm realizing how truly deficient my PS education was. I'm trying to fill in some gaps while I have time. Besides WTM, any recommended resources? I plan to promptly start the readings in "Well Educated Mind" when it comes in the mail. Books on how to diagram sentences? I'm still not completely sold on teaching Latin. Can anyone recommend a good curriculum or book for me to teach myself to see what all of the fuss is about? Thank you!

Maybe just step back for a week or two? Stop doing AAR lessons, do some other literacy games, read some easy books, etc.

Yup...