I need a little help and ideas for making some sort of organized plan for our home school. This is my first year HSing my 6 and 7 yo (1st and 2nd grade) and we need a type of schedule that doesnt go by days or certain times but some how organizes all the different subjects and keeps track of the amount of time we spend on each...if that makes any sense! The trouble is I am a single mom who works fulltime and my work schudule is all over the place and changes week to week. I usually work nights but the days and time is always different and hard to make a typical scheduel like- Monday 8am-9am: math. Not sure if anyone else has a schedule similar to what I am trying to make and could share a glimpse of it or can maybe point me in the direction of a template somewhere online I can check out. I'm just having trouble picturing what I might need but know I do want some kind of better organization then we have now which has mostly been "OK we have 1 hour to do HSing lets do um...math then a page of spelling I guess...??" If anyone can give any ideas I'd be much appreciative :)

Just spent some time checking out the WWE workbooks and the teaching text book. I'm wondering which one people usually buy since buying both seems pointless. The textbook has all the grade levels-is that better when you have 2 or more kids at different levels? The workbook lays out a nice lesson plan though. If I went with a workbook would level 1 be too easy for an almost 8 yo 2nd grader? I'd also like to use this for my 1st grader and it'd be cool if I only had to buy one thing! :)

I have a gift card to Amazon (woohoo!) and am looking for a great writing program I can buy for my 2nd grader and possible something my 1st grader could tag along with. My 2nd grader already has a Harcourt Language Arts workbook which covers grammar pretty well but I'd like her to have a little more of a dedicated writing program that would help her with comprehension and writing. She seems to enjoy writing OK but needs help getting her ideas and what she wants to write down on paper. Any suggestions would be much appreciated :)

Thank you all for the replies. This is what I needed to hear before going ahead with a purchase! Just some reassurance that it was a good buy :)

I'm new to teaching at home so am second guessing myself a lot, in math especially! My latest question is with c-rods. They look like they could really help my son (6 yo in 1st grade) but we are using MM and im wondering if they "go" with that program well? He is really struggling with grasping the idea of addition. He can't get the number line thing that they go over in MM at all and I can see that he just isnt picking up no matter how much I explain this many plus this many. We use blocks and an abacus so far for visuals and those help him a lot so I'm thinking c-rods would be even better for him b/c he could see how the number 8 is bigger then 4 and so on. So I guess I'm wondering if anyone has used c-rods without using Miquon Math and if it helps or would confuse a child more b/c it doesn't go with the current math program? I should add that I do like MM and don't want to switch from it if I don't have to, I think I just need an extra something to help my visual learner "get" addition!

We are just starting out so maybe some of this will change but with my 1st and 2nd grader who have had no real history yet (just have been in PS K and 1st grade so far) we are going to start with early American History. I got Elemental History http://www.elementalhistory.com/info.html and bought this book too to supplement the lessons- http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/1561896799/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o02_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 Both just arrived so we havent dove in yet but I like the looks of both and am excited to start! After they get a good base of American history we will move on to World history in some form. I really wanted to start with America first b/c I felt it would be easier for them to concentrate on one country to start out and also it's our country and I want them to know about it! We were watching a local middle school trivia show on public television the other day and the 3 kids on it had no idea who wrote the national anthem! and it was multiply choice...that kind of makes me sad and makes me want to teach my kids about their country before anything else! Not sure I'm right doing that and might find later on it would have been better to start from the Big Bang but we'll see :)

I am single and so need to work full time. I am trying homeschooling this year with a 1st and 2nd grader. I have childcare available through my mom for when I am at work and I work a lot of nights anyway so so far it is working out OK. I do feel like it is going to be hard on me as far as spreading myself pretty thin with work, schooling and everything else but I'm committed to making it work and enjoying it so far! I plan to school year round to make sure my kids get enough lesson hours.

We are already schooling b/c we school year round but I was thinking on the first day of school for our would-be-public school I'd do the picture just b/c we did it last year at that time and I like having that timeline of photos of the kids from each year. Plus I'll feel left out when all my friends on Facebook have "back to school" pics posted on that day! ;) I like the go out to breakfast idea too- we might do that on that day just too just b/c I like going out to breakfast and this is a good excuse :)

Thank you for all the helpful input. I checked out The Complete Book of US History and that seems like exactly what I had in mind, I would also supplement with some library books and more activities but it seems like a great spine and timeline to get us started. SOTW has also interested me and I have a friend who homeschools and has book 1 which she said I could borrow so I will probably pull some from that as well.

We are just starting homeschooling so I have stuck with the basics (math and LA) to start but am getting more comfortable with this teaching thing and would like to start looking at History we could use. I have a 6 and 7 year old and I'd like to teach them together with maybe a little more writing or something to make it more of a challange for the older kid. I'm interested in starting with just American history first but if someone has a different opinion on the best way to teach history from the start I'm open to opinions and all ears! I also would like something secular but understand that some biblical learning can be necessary in history. Also not too pricey and free is even better :) Thanks!

I use MM for my 6 and 7 year old, I am really enjoying the method of MM so far and the kids are doing great with it. I am not a good math teacher because I had a terrible time of math in school as a kid, I just never "got it"! I am really feeling like if I had this math as a start I would have been better at math in my later high school/college years- it is really clicking with me and I'm finding it easy for me to teach so far. I have the PDF downloadable version and print off each lesson as we go. When the kids finish a lesson they get to hole punch it and put it in their math binder- it's like a reward for them when they finish a lesson to use the 3-hole puncher! sometimes kids are easy to please :)

Or vice versa? I am trying to find a good program for my 6 year old 1st grader. He can read pretty good for a just-finished-K-kid and knows all the short vowel sounds and knows the sh, th, sounds and some other blends. I want to find a kind of all-in-one spelling phonics program that will mostly be spelling with some emphasis on phonics rules so he can learn what he is missing to become a fluent reader. I don't have much interest in AAS or anything else expensive, just looking for a simple workbook that might teach spelling with a phonics twist. His older sister (7) is a fluent reader and I just got the level C Spelling Workout book for her and like it so far. Is the B level SWO something I should look at for my son maybe?

We just started using this so I can't give an in depth opinion but I found these free books http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghb.html online and that is what I plan to use for my 7 year old. I thought it looked good and covered everything I wanted to teach her this year. Also I am finding it easy enough for me to explain and then have her work on. She did the first page of the 3rd grade book and seemed to like it.

I just found this phonics site http://soundcityreading.com/index.html and wondering if anyone has ever used it? I have a 1st grader who I am trying to find phonics work for and liked the looks of this one just a little confused by it and wondering where to start? can someone who has used it tell me what parts they used and how they used it? Thanks :)

Thanks for the replies. Seems like the general idea is they really dont need as much of a break as I thought they might need. Sound good to me, i'll follow their lead then. I am still organizing some of my supplies and still need to buy a spelling program so I'm not ready for full swing right now anyway!

My two kids (6 and 7) just finished up their K and 1st grade year in public school and now I plan to homeschool them. My daughter is excited and keeps asking when we will start but I know they need at least some down time just wondering how much? I plan to school year round b/c of my full time work schedule. Our school time per week will sometimes be limited and I figure a year round program would be best. They are coming off a year of PS which meant a 7:45-3:00 day 5 days a week so I feel like they have earned some straight up play time before we start with the academics again. Does anyone have advice or experience to share on this subject? I'd appreciate any insight :) Thanks!

oh believe me I know I'm extremely lucky! I couldn't do half of what I am able to do without my mom. A night time/weekend job would be impossible if all I had to rely on was standard daycare. She really is the best and has been totally on board with homeschooling which was make or break with the whole plan b/c this means she will be seeing a bit more of the kids! Even without expensive daycare costs I still scrap by most weeks but I still do what I can to help her out with anything I can do. It's become a habit that everytime I see her and say the standard goodbye when I leave I just automatically say "thankyou!" everytime too! I could never say it enough

Thanks so much for all the helpful replies! this forum is great :) Looks like MM but be a good one to try. I will be doing all lessons with them just hoping they can have worksheets to bring to their Grandparents house to work on (they would have help there if needed) while I have to be at work. Looks like my youngest would be good with the Grade 1 stuff (he is finishing K in PS right now and did well) and my oldest might breeze through the Grade 2 and be ready for Grade 3 already but I would hate to have her miss anything important in the 2-a or 2-b books so we will start there. Does anyone know if I buy the download can I save it to a google drive? My current computer is on the fritz and I'd hate to have it crash and loose all my MM stuff!!

but its really hard! I didnt think it would be this hard to pick out homeschool supplies! Can anyone help point me in a good direction? Math is being tricky for me. I have a friend who also homeschools and uses MUS and highly recommends it but I have also been looking at Math Mammoth. Are they totally different? can anyone else give a recommendation on either one? A little background on us -My kids are 6 (boy) and 7 (girl) and this will be our first year homeschooling-they are in K and 1st grade in PS right now (almost done). I want to start schooling around August and we will go year round since I am a single parent who has to work full time. My oldest is at a 3rd grade level and my youngest will be at 1st grade level. they both are good learners and like workbooks. The youngest does best with hands on for sure but my oldest seems to take to anything. I will need something that they can do independently sometimes b/c of my work schedule and limited lesson time. If anyone can offer some more direction on this subject (or any for that matter!) I'd be most grateful! Thank you :)

Hi, I'm new to this forum and already finding lots of useful information here! I'm also new to HSing, I have a daughter who is 7 1/2 finishing up 1st grade in PS right now and a son (6) finishing up K in PS. I have decided to HS and have started shopping for cirriculum...I'm overwhelmed to say the least! I am working on finding spelling for both kids first and the teacher my son has now uses and loves, Words Their Way in her classroom and so recommended I check into that. I found that there seems to be a homeschool version but can't find out much about it or look inside to see which levels I should get. Has anyone used either the homeschool bundle or the orginal version and can help me with any input or review of the program? Thanks :)