My 8 yo is also a terrible speller, and I switched away from Spelling Workout to AAS this year. We are almost done with Level 1 review. I have no "advice down the road" to give. My oldest is a natural speller, but I am just giving it time with this one and continually reinforcing. Some of it can be a maturity gap, and some of it is just a need for repetition. There was zero retention with SW. At least with AAS, I have a rule to go back to and say, "Remember..." I don't expect it to fully internalize right away because he isn't a natural speller, but I like all the review of rules and dictation in AAS that I feel offer better retention long term than a one and done list every week. I think this is a marathon more than a sprint, and reading, writing and spelling will all work together to improve over time from continued practice.

I was on the Rainbow Resource site and saw a new, updated version of Ray's called Ray's for Today. Cathy Duffy has a review, and they only have the first two levels out. I wondered if anyone else had come across this and had any feedback. I searched the forums and did not turn up any topics on it already. I have always loved the idea of Ray's, but I found it difficult to implement and somewhat outdated. This newer version looks a lot easier to implement. It also seems a tad pricey, but it is rather lengthy. Any other thoughts?

We do CAP writing and rhetoric series, but we also do the MCT for language arts and include their writing too since it does not take a whole year and is integrated into the other books. If I had to choose one, I'd probably just do CAP. I love this program!

The Good and the Beautiful incorporates spelling rules very similar to AAS rules. Spelling Workout supposedly does, but it did not seem very explicit to me other than the list for the week surrounding the rule example.

We are doing Elemental Science Biology, and then I am outsourcing next year for 7th grade. I have younger kids too, and science is hard enough for me without doing two levels. We used RS4K chemistry earlier this year.

A Christian author, to me, doesn't necessarily mean a curriculum is Christian. My secular charter in CA that forbid religious materials to be purchased had no problem stocking and ordering and recommending Life of Fred to us, and I am pretty sure MUS was also available. (Now I don't know that they were a standard bearer or anything.) In my opinion, I also do not believe a mention of church in a story necessarily makes it a religious curriculum either, just as I would expect history curricula, for example, to include discussion of other religions. But I can see where others may feel strongly otherwise. Being a conservative, even a social conservative, also does not necessarily make one religious. LOF can be perceived to have a more conservative slant. But even if Schmidt did make a LGBTQ comment, that does not make his curriculum Christian or conservative any more than a book written by a racist has to be racist. There are certain books and curricula I choose not to purchase because I dislike the author or company, but that does not mean the product itself is inferior in criteria. The work should be evaluated on its own, imho. SWB had a discussion on her fb page a week or so ago about Roald Dahl and his deplorable racism and social history and whether that made his works of children's fiction something that should or should not be read. I may choose not to let my kids read Roald Dahl, but it does not mean that Charlie and the Chocolate Factory is automatically racist and should be taken off any list. The book should be evaluated on its own. Just my $.02.

As far as the moral concerns, I will just chime in that I had the same concerns CalmingTea. Actually, I would say that it was more of a concern for my freedom in homeschooling. Homeschooling as a private homeschooler in CA is not very burdensome at all. What relieved those concerns for me is that some moms from my church were part of the charter and alleviated some of my concerns from their experience. I also met the teacher I would be assigned beforehand and loved working with her. I don't know that my experience would have been the same if I were assigned a different teacher, and a few other charters I researched looked very unappealing to me. So as with any educational decision, definitely do your homework and determine if it is the right fit for your child. There's a charter here in our new state that some friends had so so experience with, and it's only 650 a year per student. I'm spoiled by CA, and I definitely don't think it's worth it to undergo testing 3-4x per year for this low amount. I'm enjoying my freedom more as I did recognize subtle ways the charter influenced things. Overall, it was a net positive for us, but one size doesn't fit all.

We were with a charter when we lived in CA. I miss those funds! It was up to about 3000 per child this year to use on any secular curriculum and enrichment classes and zoo passes and field trips, etc. It was awesome! But I am also enjoying my freedom this year of not having to do all the testing and monthly meetings. Plus I will save a lot on what it cost us to live there. There are always trade offs. But if you are in CA, it is an attractive option.

Look at elemental science biology for the logic stage. They spend about twenty weeks on animals, ten weeks on the human body, and 6 weeks on plants. They also have resources for dissection projects.

We don't do the outlining. I sometimes do narration on what we read, but we really do more of a discussion. We love projects here. However, this year, I tried to do some projects that incorporated writing for my 6th grader. Such as...design a period newspaper and write an article as if you were covering a famous battle. Or write a fictional letter from a soldier to his family. I am also trying to do notebook pages periodically where they write a paragraph on a topic we just read. But I LOVE history, and outlining an encyclopedia sounds like a boring way to do it. I want them to feel the stories and understand the different perspectives and immerse themselves into it. We love hands on projects. But I do try to pare down to do the ones that provide insight and learning and not just busywork. Although, sometimes it's just fun to make a log cabin out of popsicle sticks.

I just found one hiccup with the editing. (We are only a few weeks in.) The proofreading marks aren't entirely accurate. They have you use a carat ^ for periods and end marks. Usually a period is inside a circle in proofreading. I can live with that. But the actual answers didn't match. In one sentence, you had "My friend Jane likes..." in the next sentence, you had "her dog, Max, ripped". One had commas offsetting the name, but the other didn't. Maybe they weren't focusing on commas or something, or there's an obscure grammar rule, but it confused my son. We needed something gentle for my son this year, and I was on a strict budget which led me to this. We will see if we stay with it. I know I want to do Writing and Rhetoric as we love it with my older son, and if you start adding in other stuff, etc. There's no point. I do think the biggest drawback of the program is the all in one factor because children might be in different levels of different aspects of language arts. The all in one is convenient, but there's a reason why a lot of curriculum is broken up into subjects for maximum customization to the child's level.

We are using the level 2 LA for my third grader. We skip the spelling because we are doing AAS, but it has a similar approach and dovetails nicely. The phonics is good reinforcement to solidify any gaps. So far, we really like it. I wonder if it's enough grammar practice sometimes, but it is meeting my son right where he is at and gently nudging him and challenging him. This is just what he needed this year. I don't know how long we will use it, but it's working well so far. It seems more Charlotte Mason vs. classical. The literature is more old fashioned. That can be a pro or con depending on who you are. We do WWE too, but sometimes it has narration and dictation that replaces WWE that day. We are starting one of their science units this week. I don't know about the history cycle for us, but it's an interesting approach.

My oldest is almost 12, and we are all struggling with something at this age. Hugs! One thing I am trying to remember is to get to the root of it. Yes, I have to address the attitude, but what's at the heart of everything after the attitude adjustment is in check. Keep the lines of communication open. Often times, we, as parents have to react to the situation. Make sure we are proactive too. You say you aren't having fun...make a point to have special time with her weekly. This could be playing a board game or going out for ice cream. Then open up communication. And that is hard sometimes. My son likes to clam up because he doesn't have the words to say. I just talk about the years he is entering and what will make him successful. Sometimes they feel scared and frustrated and just need to vent and be heard. Sometimes they just need a hug. When they were toddlers throwing tantrums, it was scary to them because they didn't understand the big emotions they were having. Of course we didn't stand for tantrums, but sometimes I just hugged them and comforted them through it. Sometimes tweens/teens are the same. They feel everything and don't understand how to process all those emotions. They need to know they're not alone and we are on their side. I still have my son take deep breaths to calm down. Then we can talk. Fighting about whatever issue when they are in rage or fight or flight mode or meltdown is useless. Calm the emotion first and then talk. It can be as simple as "I know you're upset, and I want to hear your feelings on this, but I need you to go sit in your room and calm down first." Then it might be something like, "It's ok to be upset, it's not ok to react this way. You need to have self-control. I understand how you feel, but you will still have a consequence for your actions." But if you have just calmed them down without meeting crazy with more crazy and they feel heard, the consequence is better received and internalized. I'm always, saying to my kids, "Go lay in your bed. You've lost the ability to cope with your emotions. You must need sleep." No point arguing when they are melting down from lack of sleep. Sleep is also a big thing. Sometimes, they don't sleep well at this age. You're definitely not alone, and I am definitely not an expert, and every child deals with this time of life differently. I often say that parenting is more physically challenging when they're little and gets increasingly less physical and more mentally challenging as they get older.

I also recommend starting with 3. There is a placement test if you want it to align perfectly, but it builds on itself, so I'd start at 3. (2 is just coming out, but it's not finished.)

We seek a more neutral program ourselves. To answer your first question, what you are doing is enough for second grade. Maybe add some hands on elements through a Magic School Bus experiment kit, and you are fine. Science is also my boys favorite too. At our classical private school in first grade, science was only once a week, and it was hands-on, so doing your own thing is enough. Pinterest has some great ideas if you want to keep doing your own thing. Science often isn't tested formally until fifth grade in most states if you do testing. Fifth grade is when I feel they need more structure to get ready for jr. high science and have some outputs like a science notebook. I did my own thing for a while, and I haven't found a silver bullet for science yet. So far, we have liked Elemental Science and RS4K. Both require gathering supplies for experiments. RS4K is a little more manageable for me because it's only ten experiments, and it has a well written textbook with good explanations that are scientific with correct terms and not too chatty. ES is a full 36 week course and utilizes the encyclopedias. No text. My only drawback is there is a little too much writing for my taste, but it's easy to modify. I looked at Mystery Science, and it looks great, but you also have to gather supplies. This is my biggest Hangup with science programs in general. I really like MSB kits for that reason alone. I supplement with some science and engineering classes sometimes bc my kids love this stuff. I plan to fully outsource when they are in jr. high.

For future readers who might see this post, www.civilwar.org has great free resources for educators including detailed classroom lesson plans that can be adapted. PBS has some to go along with the Ken Burns documentary as well.

Thank you! This is all great! Putting together a mini unit study. Gettysburg is fantastic! I wish we could take the kids to more of the historic places we loved when we lived on the East Coast. Miss living in Virginia so much!

I think the grammar of it is better than the writing. The writing is mostly five point paragraph models. The grammar is excellent for parsing out sentences, learning the definitions. We ended up switching later on in the program because my son could name everything, but he didn't have a lot of retention in understanding the relationships of the parts of the sentence. We had already planned to use MCT in upper grades so we just went ahead and switched. It's a good foundation for memory though. If you wanted to supplement more for understanding, look at something called The Sentence Family. Easy, inexpensive supplement for more depth in understanding. Also, Shurley does not diagram if that is something important to you. The TM for homeschoolers has a lot of flipping back and forth and has a bit of a learning curve, but stick with it and you'll catch on in no time. Also, I'd your child really grasps it well, you can alternate and do every other book for some cost savings and faster coverage of the material.

So it sounds like there are a couple possibilities. 1. Just because a child is advanced in one area doesn't mean he is in all areas. Could just be a maturity gap. If you really want to stick with RS, maybe shelve it for a bit and let his maturity catch up. He is already "ahead." Either stick with Singapore Essentials or do some living math with manipulative or play games. 2. It could be a bad curriculum fit. I feel like it is a little early to tell, but he may prefer a more straightforward or traditional presentation or just enjoy the workbook of Singapore. One of my children hates it when I make him do a bunch of singing or reciting things. He just wants to do it, and a workbook format fit his needs better for most things. Even still, I sometimes have to gently nudge this child to do things he doesn't like because school isn't always just the things we like. However, I don't suggest too much of this in kindergarten until you are more aware of his learning style and where to nudge. Either way, I wouldn't stress out over this too much. Maybe you can use some other ways to parse out ten and then he sees how easy the abacus is. There are sums of gen songs, go to the dump, cuisenaire rods, etc.

What are your favorite K-6 resources for studying the Civil War? Websites, activities, projects, books, etc.

Discovering Great Artists does just that, and they have art projects you can do to learn each style. They are not heavy on colorful illustrations though.

What is entailed in the self-paced set? It it online? Their website confuses me so much that I never even realized they had teachers manuals or lesson plans until I was a few years into homeschooling. Their samples are so minimal that I thought for years that it was just cards.

My son's preferred way of learning is not auditory, and FLL was agonizing to him, but we do stick with WWE. Sometimes it's personality/Learning style, and sometimes it's maturity. We did a picture narration today, and he hated it. He also hates open ended writing prompts that his charter school made him do on occasion last year. However, I have to look at the long road. Writing is going to require writing in your head to put thoughts onto paper. Some suggestions: 1. WWE workbook is for convenience with selected passages, etc. It was first written as one book meant for you to choose the passage within certain parameters. I have done both, and the workbook is definitely easier on the parent, but my oldest son much preferred the short stories I chose. 2. Consider maturity. Maybe the answer isn't to throw in the towel, but shelve for a bit. Sometimes homeschoolers think something isn't a good fit when there may be a maturity gap. Actively ask questions while you read and look at art for a month or so to build the skills and then pick it up again. 3. The issue doesn't seem to be WWE as much as it is actively listening. Try to build their stamina with some out loud reading first so they can strengthen these skills. Maybe they're just not ready quite yet, and that's ok. Homeschooling affords flexibility as long as we avoid the temptation to abandon challenges completely and meet the child where they are and incrementally work with them to meet the goal. I also agree to separate them for formal narrations.

This is some of the best news ever!

anyone else?