Love: AAR1, we'll be moving to level 2 and AAS in a couple of weeks! Sassafras Twins, dd and I have decided to reread zoology after summer before going on with their anatomy Looking forward to trying Brave Writers free Charlotte's Web free sample next week Hate: BJU Math, we're switching to MM soon A Child's History of the World, dd can't stand it so we'll be switching to SotW Somewhere in the Middle Handwriting without Tears, don't love or hate it. It just is.

We're using the Sassafras Science Adventures. Dd loves being able to color as I read to her. We were thinking about switching because of how light it was, but with how much she enjoys it, I can't bring myself to change it. This year we used the lapbook guide and I think that's why it wasn't doing it for me. We're doing the logbook (notebooking) pages next year. While the books will be the same, she'll need to look at other resources (encyclopedia, internet, library) to find some of the information. Since she's only going to be in 1st, I'll be doing the heavy lifting and help her with the research/writing parts.There are also easy-to-do activities for each chapter. The books are written for k through 4 I think and it should be pretty easy to keep it simple for your younger kids while beefing it up some for your older kid. Word of warning, though, it dialogue in the book is a little on the awkward side. There's nothing inappropriate, just doesn't always have a natural flow to it. The coloring pages, as much as my daughter loves them, aren't all that great either. Still, for elementary age kids, I believe it'll be easily adaptable to each age and there are lots of samples for each component (novel, lapbooking, notebooking, guides, coloring pages) to check it out.

From what I understand, Charlotte Mason is pretty much a specialized version of classical education and there's a lot of similarities between the two and only a few differences depending on your approach. CM values short lessons, living books instead of text books, and nature study. There's probably a lot more to it than that but it's the major points that I've found. I don't believe that it's too big a deal if you don't identify entirely with one or the other since many families draw from a variety of methods. I agree that All About Reading is a great program. We're finishing up level 1 with dd who'll be in first grade in May and their pre-reading program with ds, who has a speech delay and has shown tremendous improvement since we starting him on it just a few weeks ago. It's very open and close after the initial prep work to get the material organized. We literally just grab the teachers manual and pages/book we need for the day and get going. Our first grade plan: Language Arts All About Reading level 2 All About Spelling Level 1 First Language Lessons Brave Writer Jot it down Brave Writer A Quiver of Arrows (literature) Handwriting without Tears Math Math Mammoth Life of Fred History: Story of the World Usborne Internet Linked Encyclopedia of World History Science: R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Fine Arts Music and Art appreciation from Confessionsofahomeschooler.com My priorities when choosing our curriculum were for a literature rich and hands-on learning environment that could be easily adapted for both our kids since they're only a year apart. Dd catches on easily to most concepts while ds needs a bit more time and attention due to his speech delay and his need to do things his own way.

We did 6 weeks on / 1 week off this year. It worked out great but once we start upping her daily work to include more than just reading, writing, and math, I know we'll need those breaks more often. After being in public schools growing up, I love the flexibility that homeschooling is giving us. Right now we're on an unexpected week long break thanks to the flu and we're gonna start back with the 4&1 break next week so Dd gets the new rhythm down before we start adding new stuff in.

I'm in full planning mode now and think I've got everything figured out. Language Arts All About Reading Level 2 All About Spelling Level 1 Grammar: First Language Lessons Penmenship: Handwriting without Tears grade 1 Writing: Brave Writers Jot It Down Literature: Brave Writers A Quiver of Arrows Math Math Mammoth Life of Fred once or twice a week History: Story of the World Usborne I-L Encyclopedia of World History Science: R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey Sassafras Twins Anatomy and Botany Fine Arts: Artist and Music Appreciation units from Confession of a Homeschooler Dd Also wants to learn the piano so we'll be getting a keyboard and using lessons from Hoffmanacademy.com until we know whether or not it's something she's serious about. We're doing year-round homeschooling 4 days a week (Ds has speech an hour away every week and we listen to audiobooks in the car) and a 4 week on 1 week off approach. While the 3R's will be done every school day, I'm planning a block schedule where we do Science/Music for 4 weeks and History/Art for 4 weeks. The hit or miss thing is why we're doing year-round. At the moment, our whole family has the flu and we've declared a sick week (or two). At most, we're doing at-home math and re-reading the stories from AAR1.

Thanks for all your input! I've had pretty firm plans for Dd's first grade year and was hesitant to change them. I'll be going with BW since it seems more her style and we'll be able to change it up as needed. I appreciate all the help!

My personal choice would be with lesson plans, but I'm thinking she needs the more relaxed approach of BW. From what I've seen of the samples and reviews, it'd give her more of a say on what she works on. I'm just worried about her missing something by not having a more structured approach. Hopefully, combining FLL and BW will help prevent that, though.

We do copywork once a week where she works on the letters/numbers she struggles with, a word or two and a single, short sentence. We also do a page or two out of Handwriting Without Tears each week, so three days tops and never much. She's fine if she's dictating to me. We'll create little books out of construction paper, she'll draw pictures, and I'll write down her story. But if it involves her doing the writing, she'll withdraw. There's rarely tears, but she's obviously not happy about it.

We're waiting for income tax time to buy, but yeah. Dd(5) is close to finishing AAR1 so level 2's a must and I figure it'd be better to get what we need now instead of waiting til the last minute. I've had most of her 1st grade curriculum picked out for years, so I doubt I'm gonna change my mind anytime soon. Just gotta figure out our writing plan.

Since I'm planning on buying curriculum in a month or so, I'm planning Dd(5)'s first grade year. I've got pretty much everything picked out except for writing. I'm already planning on using First Language lessons for grammar and was planning on using WWE as well until I came across Brave Writer. Dd does not like writing, so I was thinking that the more relaxed approach through BW would suit her better. Is there any pros/cons to either of the programs I should know about to help me decide?

We're using the Classic Starts series for the most part. At the moment we're reading Anne of Green Gables. My plan had been to only do these during our morning time but she loves Anne so much we've started reading it before bed as well. Alice in Wonderland is supposed to be here tomorrow. Next year I'm planning on re-reading them using the literature lapbooks from confessionsofahomeschooler.com.

I've been using AAR for the last year and a half. DD started the pre-reading when she was 4 and we moved right into level one when turned 5. In the beginning, she struggled with blending but after a few lessons she started to catch on and now we're more than halfway through it and she's reading amazingly (she'll be learning compound words in the next couple of lessons). It's costly but worth it in my opinion. We didn't have Ziggy in pre-reading for her but we did by the Ziggy Game book and She loves it, they're simple fun ways to review the cards. One thing if money's tight. We made do without out the tiles for a long time since they were causing an issue with blending for her. Instead, we used a small whiteboard and wrote the word down instead. Usually they change a single letter at a time (Map becomes Tap becomes Sap) so I'd just say if we took out /m/ and add /t/, what word do we have? She caught on a lot faster after that. If you go without the tiles, all you would need is an index card box and the dividers that are pretty cheap from AAR. I couldn't imagine forcing a curriculum on her if it's not working. We want DD to love reading and got lucky enough that the first thing we tried was a hit with her. Math, on the other hand, was another story and we had to go through 3-4 different curriculums despite being on a single income.

I had a speech impediment as a child as well, and I was reading long before my mom took me out of speech classes (I ended up learning on my own with family support). While I could read at a 2nd to 3rd grade level by the time I was six, very few people could understand me when I spoke. I say that, unless it's frustrating her, keep helping her. Take your time and don't push and be there for her. There's nothing worse than trying your hardest to make yourself understood only to have the person who's supposed to be teaching you get angry because you haven't accomplished what they want you to (which is one reason we're homeschooling). I'm sure that with support she'll be reading and speaking.

I'm a mom of two and live in Alabama. While neither of my children or school age yet, I'll be starting my dd on a preschool curriculum soon and plan to continue homeschooling them instead of sending them to public school since the ones in our area aren't that great.