We school year round, taking 6 weeks off from Thanksgiving through the New Year and 6 weeks in the summer. We also school 4 days a week, going Wednesday through Saturday and we start our day after lunch time (all because of my husband's work schedule). We also spend a lot of time at my parents cabin in TN, so we take our school materials with us ☺

Thank you both, so much, for the thoughtful replies. I'm relieved to hear that you do an informal approach to poetry, and I think that's exactly where I'm going to take ours as well. My kids are, indeed, younger (almost the same ages as yours, Piper, at 7 and 9) so the thought of trying to do an analysis was overwhelming. Thank you again, ladies ☺

I have a question for anyone willing to respond: I was wondering what those of you who do poetry during your morning time (or poetry teas) actually do? Do you just read the poems? I'm assuming you discuss after you read, do you have a guide that you use to do that? How much time do you typically spend and how often do you cover it? Do you have a list of favorites or follow a predetermined list? I've never been one to really be able to read/understand a lot of poetry (sadly) so I'm feeling kind of lost here. Any input would be much appreciated. Thank you ☺

Another secular homeschooler here... We gave CLE Math a try this year and have had great success with it (1st and 3rd grader). They are actually retaining what they are learning, feel confident about the subject and they actually enjoy math. I was so happy with the Math that we now do their LA and Reading programs. I can deal with the religious nature if my kids remember what we are taking the time to do :)

I'm currently using CLE with my 3rd grader and we like it. We use R&S for spelling so I cut out all spelling from CLE.

I'm doing CLE LA with both my first and third grader and it's going well. They are actually retaining what they are doing (vs when we used Growing with Grammar, my son remembers none of that). I wouldn't say they are ever really excited for grammar, but that's okay. If it gets done without argument and they understand and retain it, I call that a success and plan more exciting things for other subjects.

Not sure if this is a cyber week sale or just a regular price cut but Staples has the Desk Apprentice marked down to $29.02 (reg price is $50). I had it shipped to a local store so the shipping was free. http://www.staples.com/Staples-The-Desk-Apprentice-Rotating-Desk-Organizer/product_597003 Also, thanks to the person who posted the 30% code for a book off of Amazon. I got the Student Manual for CAP Fable for $12 and my mom ordered the Teacher's Manual for me for the same price.

Thank you so much for taking the time to answer me, that was extremely helpful :) Also, would you recommend the TM for both CLE LA and ST?

I hope you don't mind if I ask how the CLE LA worked with the Storytime Treasures for your first grader? I've been looking at the Storytime Treasures since you recommended it on another thread and am curious how those two work together, if the CLE LA is too much for a first grader as others mentioned? Is the LA too phonics heavy? Thank you for answering any of these questions and sorry for hijacking the OP!

So what would you recommend, if anything, as an alternative to the LA and Reading for my first grader? And for my son, who struggled a bit last year, would you say the 3rd grade Reading workbooks would still be okay if they are advanced? Is the 200 Level LA Phonics heavy or Reading? Or both? We don't have any experience with the markings so I'll need to learn that as well lol. Do you use their LA program as well? Thank all of you SO much for your input!! We are currently using ELTL and I'm just not sure it's what we need. I don't feel like either kid is really getting much from it so I'm looking to either supplement that or replace it all together. Both of my kids really do well with CLE's math, the constant review is exactly what is needed for my son especially. That's why I was looking to their other programs, thinking the review would be helpful as they forget things if they aren't reviewed often.

Hi everyone. I know there have been a lot of threads started about CLE programs, and I'm still sifting through them, but I was wondering if anyone who uses their reading program can tell me if it's grade level or if the Light Units are a bit more advanced? We use their math (LOVE it) and am going to be buying their LA and Reading. I have a first grader so I'm going with the 100 levels for her but I'm unsure for my 3rd grader. I gave him the placement test for LA and he scored high enough that he *could* start in the 300 level but I think I'm going to start him in the 200's to be sure we don't miss anything (I did Growing with Grammar last year with him....he retained nothing :/). Good idea? Anyways, there isn't a placement test for the reading. I've read on several posts that the readers are on grade level but the LU's are challenging so I was hoping for more input, I suppose. He's been a struggling reader in the past, has a hard time with applying what we've studied so I'm trying to find a better fit for him. Any advice is appreciated :)

We switched from Math Mammoth to CLE and we are all LOVING it. My kids needed the constant review and CLE hits the spot for us. And i really like the flashcards. Very pleased and won't be looking for another math program until they need pretty algebra (I think that's the level most talked of needing a different program?)

This is the same for my family, but we probably do all of our work but reading in the school room. Last year we had it in an upstairs loft area. It worked well but it literally drove me crazy to not be able to get a few other things done (laundry, dinner, lunch prep, etc) while the kids were doing their more independent work. So I tried moving some things down to the kitchen table and that just didn't work at all. I had stuff everywhere all the time and I spent more time moving things and trying to clean up than anything else. So we made the formal dining room into the school room and its amazing. I put an old kitchen table in the middle of the room; a kid sits on each end I'm in the middle and able to see what both are doing and help when needed. I love that everything has its own place and I think it helps all of us to stay more focused. Like others have said, its all about personal preference and how you and your family work. What works for some may be counterproductive to others. I know it sounds like a lot of work, but what if you just moved everything into that area and gave it a try? You may love it and use it all the time. Or you may just like the storage but still school elsewhere. Or you may hate the whole thing and end up moving it all back to where you had it had been before. As I said, could end up being a waste of time/energy and you may not have that but I'm one who has to try something out before I know if I will use it. Good luck :)

I hadn't received our letter excusing my kids so I actually just called the office to check up on it. Apparently the super didn't realize he needed to send those very important excusal letters out every year. Needless to say, they know now and we received it a couple of days later. (This is just the 2nd year that the local district superintendent is handling this vs the county so it's all a learning experience :) )

We did :) We pulled both of our kids out of public school after Thanksgiving last year. My son, who sounds about the same age as yours, had struggled with school since kindergarten. He was a struggling reader from the beginning but always fell on that line in schools: not 'bad' enough to qualify for the extra reading program but not far enough along to work independently, which is what was required as there were 28 kids in his 2nd grade class. Every year he was just a spot or two away from getting into the program but it just never happened. He started to notice that he was moving a bit slower than some of his friends because last year, before we pulled him out, he started to make comments about how much smarter one of his friends was than him. How he wished he was more like this other kid, because he was "smart" :crying: . Of course we did all that we could to show/tell him different but, as a mother, that broke my heart. We were basically after schooling with my son. He would get home from school at 3:45 and we would almost immediately start in on reading and math practice. Then we would move on to his actual assigned homework and correcting the papers he would bring home. By then time we would finish up it would be time for showers and bedtime not long after that (of course we squeezed dinner in there). We did that for a couple of months, and he was a good sport about it; worked hard and was making progress. But....he was always going to have to work a little harder and I just didn't want to make him do that kind of work after he had been in school all day. I wanted him to have time to still be a kid and actually relax and play at some point during the day, not go to school from 9-4 and then do homework from 4-7:30. I just didn't feel like it was fair to him and it definitely wasn't fair to my daughter, who was getting little attention during that time because his work was so intensive and my husband works evenings. So, after a month or so of doing all of this I started thinking about homeschooling and the hubs and I decided it would be a good move for our family. And my daughter, who was in kindergarten was the opposite of my son, she was BORED with what they were doing. She wasn't being challenged what-so-ever and was just using school as more of a social thing than anything else. Both get a little lonely sometimes, but they are both on the soccer team and have friends there (many on my son's team were in a couple of his classes in ps). They also play with neighborhood kids and both will be starting a class at our local science/history museum that will have 30 or so kids participating. I'm hoping those things along with the occasional field trip that we will (hopefully) be able to take with other local homeschoolers will fill that gap for them both. So yeah, we pulled both out and there is nothing that I regret about that decision. I have noticed such a big change in both kiddos, but with my son especially. His confidence is much greater and he's happy to just be who he is, play what he wants without having to worry about what the other boys may say. He also has a better verbal vocabulary. I hadn't really noticed that but a friend mentioned it when she came to visit for the first time in a year or so. I honestly think it's due to the read alouds we did last year. He has time to be more creative and explore interests and he couldn't do that before we homeschooled. He didn't have time for anything extra. And, we ALL love the freedom that homeschooling allows us to have. My husband works Tuesday through Saturday, so he would really only get to see the kids on Sundays (his hours the other days of the week are 11-9 so he would get home after bedtime). But now? Now we school Tuesday through Friday and do field trips as a family on Sundays/Mondays and the kids get 2 days with dad instead of just 1. We're also taking 2 out of town field trips next month with my parents, in their motor home and we wouldn't be able to do that if they were still in ps.

In our local PS the fees start in kindy and get higher each year. My daughter's were around $50 for kindergarten and my son's were $75 for 2nd grade (we began the year in ps but pulled at Thanksgiving). Those are just the book fees. Any and all sports and extracurriculars are also extra, of course. They had community supplies, so parents purchased the supplies and then the teacher shared them with everyone so that those who couldnt afford supplies still had access. Their school doesn't offer any kind of art for elementary, they had music every other week and my daughter didn't have a PE class until her teacher started doing it herself right before I pulled them out (and the PE her teacher did was Duck Duck Goose for 30 mins). My son really did need access to the reading program they offered to struggling readers, but every single year he was "one spot away" from being able to access those resouces. Needless to say my husband and I were unimpressed and pulled them out.

There is software, Calibre, that you can download and install on your main computer (if you use one, that is). It's essentially a library for all of your ebooks, in whatever format you have (epub, mobi, pdf, etc). You can create custom columns-I added one for tags. And then when I add a book to my library I tag it for whatever subject(s) it falls under. Then, there's an app (I'm assuming it's available for apple, but as I don't have one I can't say for sure) that you can purchase and download to your devices. Then as long as you have wifi and your main computer is connected you will have access to your entire library. You can then search, while on your device, by your tags or author/title to find what you need. I know it sounds difficult and time consuming, but I swear it's not. The learning curve is small and once you have it set up, it's amazing. I have different libraries, for my personal reading, children's book, educational books, and so forth. Anyhow, here's a link in case anyone else is interested. http://calibre-ebook.com/ And the app: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.multipie.calibreandroid&hl=en If anyone decides to try this and gets stuck, I can help :)

Oh, for all who do live in Ohio: I just found this out and thought I'd share. Sauder Village up in Archbold has Homeschool Appreciation Days in September. According to the lady that I spoke with on the phone, the admission tickets are discounted to $7 per person (anyone over the age of 3) vs their regular rate of $16/adult and $10/student. The dates are Sept 9 -13 and Sept 16 -20. http://www.saudervillage.org/home/default.asp

I didn't do anything for these last year, either. I *plan* on covering fire safety and music this year...phys ed is on my hubby and he dropped the ball on that one last year. I don't feel so badly though because both are active kids

I'm in Ohio as well, and agree with everything the others have said. We are going into our second year and haven't had any issues. I send everything in and get my approval letter in a week or so, our superintendent's office (who handles the homeschool families) is very nice and seems to be fairly laidback. We opted to do the standardized testing, I don't know any local teachers so I went that route. I haven't had too easy of a time meeting other homeschoolers, though. It seems like a lot of the local co-ops are full, not secular, or....to be honest....unwelcoming. I've recently been looking more deeply to find others because I just know, that in my area, there have to be SOME (Cincinnati). I hope to find something, as we could definitely use some interation. I will say, there are a ton of awesome field trip opportunities here. Also, if you are going to end up close to the Cincy area, the Cincinnati Museum has Homeschool Mondays. 90 min. classes twice a month on different science/soc. studies topics. I just signed my kiddos up for the first time and we are all excited :)

I have to add to this post. Just an FYI, the Life Planner that I bought last year had to be reprinted 7 times (no joke). They kept getting the font wrong, the pictures that I added were cut off and off center, the lamination stunk (bubbles) and the coils were bad. Now, they reprinted it each time, no issues there, however; my order was not very complicated and should have been done the correct way the first time. I did notice they don't allow phone calls any longer. They also changed that you can't order your planner from, say August of 2014-July 2015 anymore. Now it's just a 2015 and you can add the remaining 2014 in for an extra $5. Not a huge deal, however my last planner is set to go until November but I'm going to have to pay an $5 just for that one month. And it's going to be thicker. And yes, it is taking FOREVER to get a response when you have to email them with any issues. It took 8 days to get a resolution to an issue that I had with one of my gift vouchers. Ridiculous. To be honest, as much as I do love these planners the only reason I ordered the Teacher Planner last year and Life Planner this year was because I had so many gift vouchers from the misprints last year. I didn't pay anything for the lesson planner and just $12 for the life planner. Had I had to pay full price again, I'd look elsewhere. Seems as though their quality control has dropped dramatically.

We are starting the Tuesday after Labor Day here as well.

I used an Erin Condren teacher planner last year and while it was so very pretty (I love color!) I chose to make my own this year. I have two kids and I just didn't like having to squeeze everything into 1 box for each subject/day....and I frequently ran out of space. I never used the grid sheets or checklists and a few of the other forms in the front. What a previous poster mentioned earlier about this being geared toward a classroom teacher is right on. Unless there is a way to change how you map out your weekly lessons (switching columns/rows...I could never come up with a way to make it work) I would think that it would be hard to use for a larger family. Now the life planner? I'm ordering my 3rd one this week. LOVE those books. I looked at the Plum Paper planners, as they are very similar (and cheaper) but from what I gathered the front cover isn't exactly laminated. I *think* its a frosted type of plasticky cover over the thicker printed cover. I've never owned one, and was set to purchase has one except for that small fact. I need a durable laminated cover or the edges get all messed up. *oh, and the Erin Condren are undated. I bought mine in November of last year so I technically have another few months left in this one. But I'm ditching it and using the one I put together *please forgive any typos, I'm on my phone and auto correct nails me sometimes lol

I'll have a 1st and 3rd grader this fall as well. We did half of SOTW Ancients last year (only schooled for the last half of the year) so I *know* that we should have continued with that. However, I really wanted to do American History and geography this year (and next, actually). I wanted to be able to do some of the fun field trips that American history provides the opportunity for...and for the younger years. So we are going to do Early American this year, the rest to present next year and then start the history cycle the following year. Anyhow, it's taken me forever to decide on what resources I'll use. I do have The Complete Book of US History that Alisoncooks mentioned so I'll pull from that. I also just ordered the Elemental History's Adventures in America (the Teacher's Guide only...I bought some of the History Scribe units during the Currclick sale so we'll just use those instead of the workbook). http://www.elementalhistory.com/

Math- CLE LA- Rod and Staff English, Spelling by Sound and Structure CLE Language Arts CLE Learning to Read, Reading English Lessons Through Literature Reading Lessons Through Literature Pentime handwriting Just Write Writeshop Primary ETA: I know many of these are not secular but still thought that I would suggest them. We are a secular family as well, but I'm considering CLE and Rod and Staff because both are solid and effective programs.