That's what we have always done. Just the textbook and workbook. This is the first year I got the TM. I will say that we use BA for enrichment but there is nothing in the text the references using anything other than the workbook. I always work the problems next to him so I have not really needed it for correcting however I can definitely see how that would be helpful to have.

I have only ever used the text and workbook. I just this year, as we transition into 4th-5th, have found the need for the TM. I can usually get the text and workbook for under $20 on Amazon and ebay. I got the TM for around $40 on ebay. I have not found a need for the other books and I really don't think I would use them for K-1st at all. There are built in assessments and chapter tests already in both of the books. I personally would check Amazon first and just get the two books. I really see no need for the TM at that level. The layout of the text is very straightforward and makes it intuitive for me to explain the topics.

For us as a family we have been talking a lot about this being the year of stepping out of our comfort zones. So I am trying to model doing things that I find scary or that make me uncomfortable. It sounds silly but my first challenge is to set up and follow through with a dinner invitation to the family down the street that we met. If I want to have a community, I might have to be the person to build one and that is scary for me! Our other goals are to go to more shows/theater this year and work on cooking skills. The 8 year old's goal is to be able to make a meal from start to finish on his own.

Life is not all fun so why should learning be any different. I really dislike the idea that life for children should constantly be fun and enjoyable and they should be happy all the time. That's not the reality of what it means to be a human. There are a whole wide range of normal emotions and it's really not up to me to try to make sure they only experience a few of them. My job is to teach them how to manage themselves all of them even when not everything is fun and to help them see the aspects of it that are worthwhile. What does Pa Ingalls say? "That which must be done is best done cheerfully" or something like that. I don't enjoy doing the dishes but I still do them and the payoff is that we can cook and eat in a clean kitchen without bugs. I can approach it with gnashing of teeth and crying or I can take it for what it is and get it done diligently with a good attitude. I ask the same from them from their school work. When I'm learning to construct a new stitch when knitting or learn a new technique it is many things but fun is not really one of them. I enjoy the process, the exercise it gives my brain and the satisfaction of the finished garment especially after I have messed up many times and had to rip it out and re-do it. Now do I hope that learning is "engaging" if not necessarily fun? Absolutely but I don't jump through hoops to make it so. Either it is or it isn't but it must be done so let's focus and get it done. The other side to that is what I think is fun is often entirely different than what they think is fun. I truly dislike adult- directed activities that are framed as FUN. They enjoy what they enjoy. They can tell me what they find fun and/or engaging not the other way around. I try to accommodate that when possible but I often find it's better to just get our work done and then let them loose to figure out what it is they really enjoy all on their own.

I dialed everything back to math, literature and reading instruction. It took them a few weeks but they finally see the benefit of just getting it out of the way first thing. Now they ask first thing to do it and we are done by 9am. How long does reading and math really take? No matter how much they might need, children (everyone?) max out at a certain point. We just cannot spend more than "x" amount of minutes on math or reading. Anything past that and the quality of work is diminished and they can no longer focus etc. It's just no longer worth the effort for me once we hit that mark. Everything else is icing. I was super stressed about it but the reality is that not doing history, science and latin for a month will not ruin their chances of becoming successful adults. What time do you get up? I have early risers but if your children are not, would they be willing to get up at 6a and get some work done? Then everyone would be fresh, it could go quickly and you all have the whole day left in front of you.

The children are up and dressed before breakfast(7:30) every morning because it's just easier for us to then pick up and go for a walk, errands or whatever. I do get dressed if I have to go somewhere but I'm definitely not walking around the house in my nicer clothes. I have a limited amount of clothing I consider presentable so I see no reason to risk getting them wet and/or dirty stained to just sit at home. However we do not ever wear shoes inside and I don't typically wear make-up or any jewelry aside from my wedding ring. "Dressed" to me is jeans or pants, a skirt in the summer maybe and a simple shirt. My hair is done and my teeth are brushed. I dress exactly the same as when I was on the school run in the morning. My husband works from home though and he is in lounge clothes all the time. He may take a break and shower, change his clothes and go for a walk in the afternoon but bumming it most of the time does not harm his productivity in any way.

Our co-op meets once a week from September to June with a couple weeks off in December. The wider homeschool group meets up as things come up. So we might meet up once or twice a month. Play dates with friends happen within that here and there but mostly during the summer as a lot of our close friends are in school.

Yes my 8 year old has read all of the elementary books for fun. Some he has read several times. I leave him alone and let him do what he wants with it. Nothing kills his interest more than when I start trying to make something he enjoys into "school". When we need a light math day though,I do go through it with him and we do the problems orally with no pressure. He enjoys it that way because it's something we are doing together for "fun" but not because he has to.

What a great thread! This is what we kinda started doing last year and I really liked it. We had one composition book for math, one for L/A and one for Latin. DS has all blue and DD has red. I really don't like the lines for math so I ordered some graphing paper notebooks for this coming year. We had a binder with loose leaf paper for history and science but I think I will just use a notebook instead. I got some Waldorf notebook that have a blank page next to a lined page but I didn't know what we would do with them. Now I know!

I use the cut-off of the state. It works for DS since he did go to school for K and 1st so we just kept going. He just makes the cut-off by a couple weeks but I still go with it. I don't think anyone really cares what level of work they are doing when they ask. It is a quick way to tell how old the child is. I find myself doing it too since it's easier and paints a wider picture than just asking when their birthday is.

No real convincing needed. They do use pencils but given the opportunity to use a pen, they will jump at it. The rising 4th grader uses pencils for math, fountain pens on nice things like our Waldorf lesson books and Clairefountaine cahier and Papermate Inkjoy(the clickable ones) ball points for everything else. I love, love the Inkjoy pens for myself even. I got a nice, chubby fountain pen for the 5 year old to use from Imagine Childhood, but the 8 year old just uses the Pilot disposable ones.

We school through the end of July, take all of August off and then they move up to the next grade the day after Labor Day regardless of what we are actually doing. Mid-June through July it gets pretty light though. Last year we did end up starting up again before September after only 3 weeks off because they just needed to and I felt like it would give us more flexibility. Math and reading get done every day but then it's lots of life learning, playing, the beach etc. I was reading something (wish I could remember where) but it was basically that in the fall they are classical, Charlotte Mason in the winter and unschoolers in the spring and summer. That pretty much sums up how it goes.

My oldest started with Horizons, went to school where they did Singapore and we have been doing MiF at home for the past 2 years which we really like. My DD is still in Horizons K but I do skip stuff. We also do BA and LoF.

Clay, sewing and embroidery and finger or arm knitting.

It's deceptive in the fact that they may have covered the topics already but not in the way the workbook approaches them. So even if it is technically review, there is likely to be a lot of new applications to concepts(that are quite challenging) that you just won't get from the guide alone. Since you already are happy with RS, then I would second the recommendation of Murderous Maths instead of BA for summer reading. We got the whole box set on Amazon.

The kids and DH voted on Gallifrey Classical Day School and I have not been able to come up with something better to convince them to change it yet. Our colors are Tardis Blue and silver of course. When I found DH trying to incorporate the Seal of Rassilon into a logo for letterhead and t-shirts, I said that was one step too far. The only comments I have had was from the guy at Kinko's/FedEx who was binding my homemade planner. He was quite amused and said we should keep it.

We had considered it before we even had children as an option. Everyone here sends their children to school starting at 2-3 and it just didn't feel right to us. Then he turned 4 and it didn't seem like a good idea then either. Then came time for K and we were pretty sure we would continue to homeschool until 1st grade. He has an August birthday so would be young for the cutoff and we just didn't feel like full day K was appropriate. However to keep our options open, we applied to 20 schools which is the norm here. It's a very, very competitive and political process. We were turned off by the whole thing and I was set on keeping him home for another year unless we got a fabulous offer. So on the last day to accept a school, we got a fabulous offer! Kindergarten was wonderful. It was a combination of a fantastic principal,engaged and motivated teaching staff and a really active parent community. I remember looking over at my husband during their Winter Holiday program and he was crying and I was crying because these kids obviously were just so loved and protected and everyone was there to help them learn and grow. We thought we had found a home and community and were prepared for all the children to attend. Then cue first grade and city politics forcing the principal out and the valued staff, too much rigor with no purpose, forced longer school day etc. I was so broken-hearted. I also missed him desperately all day. He was having all sorts of problems and we could not find any workable solution to solve them. The schedule was harming our family dynamic.I started researching options around January of first grade. We knew what we wanted for them educationally and for some reason a "classical education" kept coming up in our discussions without us really knowing what that meant in real terms so I googled and ended up here. Our first year was an amazing success and so much fun. This year DD has been folded into our activities and DS2 will join us in the Fall. I'm now committed to continuing all the way through high school.

I devoted 5 hours a day, 6 days a week to training my body and working skills in gymnastics for 7 years. I never competed at the highest levels, I never would have garnered a scholarship at a top University nor was I anywhere near Elite Olympic levels. Was that time wasted? Was it purposeless? I don't think so. I developed a lot of ancillary skills that have translated into other areas. I am forever grateful that I had those years of study. It is benefiting me still in countless ways even decades later. The type of focused study, scaffolding and language dissection that a student gets from the study of Latin is still worth the effort even if it never progresses to expert level. I see nothing lost in that process unless it is complete misery that it taking away from other pursuits. I even like the fact that it is tedious at times. Working through that is a valuable life skill. The process IS the beauty. I don't think everyone needs or should study Latin. However the probability of not reaching complete fluency should not be a what holds one back. My 8 year old is studying Latin and Greek right now because he thinks it is fun. I am self-educating through Wheelock's on my own after bedtime. I won't ever be reading original works by the fireside but I am finding it tremendously rewarding and I wish it had been an option presented to me as a child.

That sounds like a promising idea. I think my 8 year old would be into it. He loves sharing his writing.

It can be stand alone but we use it as a supplement. My 3rd grader uses MiF as his main spine but once a week or couple times a week if he is motivated he also does BA. We end up just going more slowly through it which is fine. We are about a month away from finishing 3B. The only issue I would have with using it as a main is we might out-pace the schedule since 4D was just released. But since we are going slowly, once our "new school year" rolls around we will still be working on 3c.

Thanks, that's helpful. I forgot all about the flash cards.

I will be doing LOE Foundations B with my daughter in a couple months but not sure of what exactly we need. I have the TM and was obviously going to get the workbook. The cursive phonogram game cards are in my cart but I'm not sure if I should get anything else. Are the game tiles helpful? Would I be able to use our magnet tiles from AAR instead? Is there anything else that while not necessary, it would be nice to have on hand?

Okay we are almost done with Sassafras Zoology and I agree with many of the above reviews of it. However my children love it. Like really love it. My 8 year old is an encyclopedia and documentary kind of guy so we flesh it out a lot. My 5 year old loves the story and using her log book. I added in the science I felt was lacking and we have done several of the projects along with it. We also are doing RSO this year and science at our co-op weekly so it's just something low pressure that they enjoy. We are still going to use Sassafras Anatomy next year as well and I am going to add what I feel is necessary to suit our needs.

I agree with most of what has been written. I also felt it was a valuable skill to add to their tool box. They can choose to use it or not but I felt it was important to introduce it gently at a young age so then they have it if they need/want it. It has improved my son's penmanship overall. I just think it looks nicer and it is my primary mode of written communication. I guess I also put it into the same category as why watch a sunrise or why grow a garden? Beauty for beauty's sake.

I so understand. I have excel sheets of possible purchases and I have filled and re-filled so many carts. DH is like, "You researched it to death so buy it already and stop stressing over it". He had no idea though how much I spent, truly none. Sweet guy trusts me so much, he figures I saved what I could and made the best decision. Tax time was an eye opener though when he totaled everything up!