Hi Everyone! I've benefited greatly from your collective wisdom and read frequently on these boards. Thank you! I have a question as I look toward beginning to put our upcoming school year together! I need help!!! Here is what I know works for me...I do NOT do well pulling together a ton of activities (my kids make their own art, I don't need to direct it). We must have tried lapbooking at least 5 times and never finished one, for example. We do well reading together. We do BEST on curriculum where we just follow the next step. So, I've done really well implementing AAR and want to continue, mostly because it is so easy for me to just open and keep plugging away. I have massively failed at doing MP enrichment activities...if I have to pull something together myself, I do not get around to it. (I work outside the home in addition to homeschooling and just can't get to the internet to look for ideas, etc.). We haven't done well on SOTW 1 either...it just isn't that engaging to us, I don't know why. Even though at the beginning of the year I printed and bound ALL the activity pages into workbooks for my girls...I have no excuse for not doing it, we just haven't really liked it very much. We have read a ton of read-alouds that aren't connected to history at all...Roald Dahl books, Charlotte's Web, Princess and the Goblin, Little House, etc. We get those done. We've even read some science books together and enjoyed those. So, I feel like my kids are getting the "basics", but at some point I should probably start doing some science/history curriculum with them, right? I am just at a loss of where to go for next year...try SOTW again? But I don't really want to. Try a science program??? Just keep with the basics and read-alouds about whatever we want? Ideas? We have to go with some type of curriculum because we live in Mexico and there are no lending libraries here, so I need something with readers/some guidance or we don't have anything...Here is what I know we will work on: Oldest DD (will be 8, 2nd grade next year): AAR 3 and 4 AAS 3 and 4 FLL 2 WWE 2 New American Cursive MEP Year 2 (Math program) Second DD (will be 6, 1st grade next year) AAR 2 AAS 1/2 FLL 1 WWE 1 New American Cursive MEP Year 1 Youngest DD (will be 5, kindergarten next year) AAR 1 A Reason for Handwriting K Math??? Probably Singapore K until we start MEP (I don't like MEP reception) So, as you can see, I have NO idea what to do for enrichment, history, science, etc.??? Any ideas of programs that would fit my needs...we need some type of doable and engaging "enrichment" in the history/science/art arena. I've considered Sonlight, but I'm not sure...I just don't know if we would be able to all fit into a Core. I've considered MFW...but, it seems that I have to pull things together with that curriculum, and in the younger grades the LA is included, not a good fit for us. Beautiful Feet programs look like they might be something I could do, but I don't know. I have no ability to actually look at programs before I buy. I have to buy based on recommendations and internet samples. Anyway, I just thought I'd throw it out there for suggestions. Thanks for any help you can give me!

Thank you everyone for the help. AttachedMama, I actually went back and read your posts about this very issue and your comments on other threads were incredibly helpful. I think I am going to stop AAR 2 for a bit and cycle back through level one and work on more automaticity for a bit. Then see where we are at. I liked your idea of working through cards and tracing the b/d on the couch (my daughter reverses those all the time)!

My DD7 (turned 7 late September, so we call her 1st grade), is doing AAR 2. She has a phonological processing delay, and so reading has been a STRUGGLE...but by sticking with it and going slow, we've made a LOT of progress. She finished AAR1 last year and we are in lesson 29 of Level 2. She is grasping the concepts, can read the word cards (pretty quickly, but she always has to say the first sound first and then the rest of the word...it's not exactly sounding out, but not quite "fluent" I guess). She reads the fluency pages well. She really likes the sentences because it breaks the sentence down for her, and after that, she reads the sentences fluently and with expression. BUT...the READERS...oh my goodness. We die. She gets VERY discouraged by the number of words on the page (although the same thing doesn't bother her with the fluency pages). It feels to me like the readers are more advanced than the actual lessons in the teacher's manual. What to do? She needs to read to me for practice, but the readers are just too much/too overwhelming for her. She can move on in the lessons, but not the readers...I just don't know if we could move on with lessons, read some simpler stories for reading practice, and then cycle back through Level 2 after we finish it the first time and add the readers? That's one thing I've thought of. The other is she is very motivated and picks up other readers we have (Primary Phonics), asks me what "ai" says in words like "sail", I tell her, and she remembers that and can read the much simpler Progressive Phonics stories even with elements that AAR hasn't introduced yet. I am NOT wanting to change programs though, because with her processing difficultly, AAR's method has been amazing. I don't think we'd be where we are without it. I am just wondering if anyone else has had similar struggles with understanding/doing well on lessons, but not in the reader. (And then, there is my dd5 who we just started on AAR 1, and it's going soooo easily for us! It's amazing the difference between a struggling reader and a child who is just picking it up.) Thanks for any help you can offer!!! Emily

Thank you everyone for all the ideas!! I think I was stressing about lining the math up/staying "on track", whatever that means, and its nice to think about not worrying about that. I think the biggest thing is my dd likes to keep learning new things even if she needs some review of the old, and she picks up math quickly. So the insanely slow mastery pace of rod an staff was burning her out, even using it "ahead". I am nervous about using MEP a a spine but I think we would be happier with that an using rod and staff just for occasional practice/reminder to me of basics she should know.

So, my dd is 6 and finishing K this month. We used Singapore Early bird last year, which she liked, and because I had it we used rod and staff 1 this year for math, which she found fun at first and then it became too easy and she went from loving math to tolerating it. But, I do feel that rod and staff gave her a really good foundation. So, now after reevaluating, I found and started MEP with her. We love it. I think it's amazing actually. My question is...do any of you combine 2 such programs which are completely opposite in approach? (We are done with rod and staff 1 and zooming through the first half of MEP year 1 so we can settle in on the second half over the summer). I have rod and staff 2, but I am considering just doing MEP and using the workbooks to practice facts. Or do you all have other ideas? Thanks!!! I guess my concern is not wanting to bounce around...but I also want my daughter to continue to enjoy math.

I have been reading here at WTM for a long time but am finally figuring out how to post, lol! This is my first year homeschooling...we live in Mexico and I have been so encouraged and helped by reading here on these boards...now it's on to contribute and ask questions of my own! I still can't figure out how to add a signature...so if anyone has answers that would be much appreciated! Thanks!! Emily

I am so sorry to ask this again, but it looks like you found where to add your signature...do we need to have a certain number of posts first because I still don't see where to add a sig?

Did you figure out the signature? I am having the same problem!

It has been worth it for us. My oldest is using AAR 1 this year as a 6 year old struggling reader and it has helped immensely. But like others have said, if you think your child will learn to read easily, I would use it. My daughter needs the hands on, slow pace, and the multiple reinforcements of each step!

We live and work in community development in Mexico. The poor rely on tortillas and beans. And, yes, to what another poster mentioned...when you have to buy water to drink anyway...it's not much more of a stretch that people drink so much soda. It's killing them...we work with so many people who have amputated limbs due to diabetes, but we have the hardest time changing habits (who doesn't, right?). Anyway, I don't think it's bad for your children to appreciate good food...our friends here do, too. But they also understand they have to eat what they can. We work in one neighborhood where most of the food consumed comes from the dump. Maybe you could watch some documentaries with your kids? I love the book "More with less" too...it's a Mennonite cookbook that has its motivation in living simply out of love for others. Maybe your family could cook through the book together or something? If your kids make the recipes even if simple maybe they would be more inclined to eat it! Also, the pictures linked to are what maybe middle class families eat ? ...the picture from Mexico does not represent what the "poor" eat...depending on your definition of poor, I suppose.