Lol The thread is not new, but it's been interesting reading for me. I got MBTP from the charter and used most of our budget on it. It sounded so fantastic. And I suppose it would be if that was all we had to do. But it isn't!! We focus on math and reading. By the time we get to MBTP it's just irritating. It was so expensive and while once in a while the activities are amazing, a lot of the time things are redundant for us - or don't match other things we are doing. I edit it all the time. We will pick each topic and curriculum next time. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

You may want to post this on the accelerated learner board as well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Where I'm from Epiphany is a big deal. The three wise men bring gifts to the children to celebrate that they brought gifts to baby Jesus. The kids go out, cut grass for the camels and leave it under the tree. Children festivals are plentiful with grown men dressing like the three wise men and having kids come and tell them what they want. I already took our tree down (last day for our trash to take it for recycling was yesterday). However, after homeschool tomorrow my kids will get the gifts my parents and aunts sent them on the mail. I live in CA, and very far away from my parents. At their house the tree is still up and tomorrow my nieces and nephews will be coming over to my parents house to get their gifts. The gifts are delivered exactly like Santa. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Well! I got the level 1 free from my ES. I looked through level 2, but I think it would be wiser to review blends, learn syllables and compound words first. I am excited and thought I'd announce it here - since nobody in my immediate family understand why I am excited to look/use new school books :) I may get the cards and letter tiles... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Lol thank you. Of course, I've looked at those workbooks. Explode the code. Sometimes I'm a little lost with all the acronyms. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I've tried searching on a few threads but I still don't know what ETC is - can someone be kind and tell me? [emoji55] Umsami I'd love to know why your 5 yr old doesn't love AAR because I'm considering it for next year or sooner if I can find the funds. I also have a 5 yr old in K Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

He can read the words on the placement test, not all very fluently as he still needs to sound out some. We have not talked about syllables at all yet. And we haven't formally read compound words, even though he can read some on his own and some with me covering part of the word. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I want to follow this thread too. We don't have a Kindle but if DS starts to read more independently (even if it's just readers) we may get him a Kindle for his birthday in June. So I'm following and would love to hear answers to all these questions, including the one about audiobooks/ebooks at the same time Can you do that? I thought that you do one or the other - but I would love it if my son could listen and follow along reading. Because he loves Magic Treehouse but he cannot read them yet. We get audiobooks from the library because I am not going to read those to him constantly (not my favorite lol). Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

My son would need to start on AAR1 because based on the placement test there are a few things we have not done yet... So yes it would be way too expensive. They cover topics Abecedarian didn't cover at all. I'll keep AAR in mind for next year when I get a new budget. We may be able to do AAR2 and AAS1. We'll see. Really, thank you for the suggestion as there are so many choices it's just overwhelming. We'll use OPGTTR for now because I already have it. We've used it before, it's just a little boring. Last year I found First Language Lessons at a second hand store for $4 and got it but didn't look at it because my son was so young. I looked through it today for the first time and it is gentle enough to use with him. I think he'll enjoy it and it adds grammar instruction. I think with some copy work , sight word drill -which he likes- and letter tiles/magnetic letters spelling of some of the simpler words on OPGTTR his LA will be fairly complete. It will be alright for now. But I really prefer open and go instructions lol :) Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Those programs look amazing! I know we don't have that much money left from the charter. Oh I'm so tempted to buy them both myself... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'll look into it. Thank you! Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DS is 5.5 and August-December we used Abecedarian A-1 and finished with A-2 earlier this month (dec). It worked fine. My son likes structure and the curriculum was easy to implement and we never had tears or frustration. We homeschool through a charter and our ES gave us Abecedarian B1 and B2. I was looking through it and I have some serious doubts. Level B feels like a completely different curriculum. Abecedarian does not teach the silent e rule, for example, which we've been using (on our own reading time). They are teaching phonics as in "these are the ways we can write a sound" and then the student sorts (writes) the words. The space provided for word sorting is inadequate for a child who is still learning to form letters uniformly! The lessons are about 30 minutes. I know my son will not sit still that long and even if we have a break, he would then expect a different activity when we get back to homeschool- I can see him complaining already. Instead this is what I'd like to do for K LA: 1. Use OPGTTR 2 or 3 times a week. 2. Reading practice on the couch, low stress. Library books, some readers or passages from Reading A-Z 3. Writing (name, address, copy sight words, dinosaur names, the date). 4. Journaling, with me writing down his stories. Letting him draw and color, maybe trace a sentence of his choosing or something like that. 5. Story time (which we always do). Do you think my alternative plan is appropriate? Other ideas? I feel like I'm growing up as a homeschool parent as I'm almost certain I'm right. I would like an organized plan for my ES :) thank you for any help you guys can provide. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I used the ordinary parent's guide, Bob books and Starfall when DS was that age. This year (he is 5) we have been using ABeCeDarian A-1 and we are almost finished with A-2. It's a parent manual and a workbook for A-1 and another set for A-2. There's also a set of readers, but you don't need them at first. So you could try it out and get the readers if you feel it's needed. I like it. It is partially scripted and most of the time it is open and go. No need to prep as long as you have enough letters for spelling. The program calls for spelling chains every few lessons, more so toward the end of A-1. You could just use dollar tree magnetic letters. It integrates writing and phonics, which is what I wanted for DS at this point. If that is not something you are looking for 4.5 yr old, then this will not work. The writing portion is a little annoying in that I don't love the way they write some of the letters (the t is terrible). I keep a ruler handy, as for some reason the workbook only provides the bottom solid line and the middle dashed line. DS needs the upper solid line or he tends to write everything under the dashed line. Otherwise, it is working great for us. DS could read cvc words well when we started this and some sight words, but he wasn't writing at all. So for us this curriculum has been review of early phonics. But it has been good for writing, shape letters and understanding well the sounds of a word (beginning, middle, end). While using this program we also do sight word drills and games. So his reading speed and understanding have improved dramatically.

I am working with a charter in CA. We like the iReady lessons. Your DD may enjoy them too :)

I've posted a few times on these boards, but mostly I have been a silent observer. I am not sure we belong in this particular forum as I feel DS is only slightly ahead, but even that seems to be received with mixed answers elsewhere. I found this thread by searching for almost the exact question you asked above. I recently switched DS (after following suggestions from here and downloading a sample) to MM1 from Saxon1 and we had been doing about 3 pages a day when I started finding threads that were appalled at having slightly older kids than my own do that many worksheets per day. I started worrying that I was pushing DS too hard (even though he does the worksheets fine). I had posted a question in the K-8 and did not write his age because I didn't want to hear more: "let him play" (he plays!). Of course, someone asked how old he was... Just wanted to say that you are not alone in that feeling. I am constantly wondering if I am doing too much. Or too little. The doubts are always there for me too. I imagine that no matter what you do, someone somewhere will find it either lacking or too pushy. Reading this thread has been enlightening for me too. So thank you.

We used the first two sets of Bob Books after DS had learned his letter sounds using Star Fall. It worked well for us. We used them on their own during our pre-K school time (which was formally a saxon K math and bob books on a good day). Once he had read the two sets we moved on to do OPGTTR the rest of pre-K. We picked them up once in a while, but not often. My son grew bored of Bob books, but they were good for a while. I hope to use them with DD when she is ready. Flash cards? My son likes them for sight words. We are using them in K... Never thought he would enjoy them. I used them as a suggestion to see if it would be ok and now we do daily sight word drill while he jumps or wiggles. He asks for them if I forget.

Originally I ordered Go Math as our main math curriculum. When I got it, I was overwhelmed! The teacher manuals are nothing like Saxon, where you read a script. Go Math comes with about 12 books that were designed so a teacher could organize a class. Our ES looked through and mentioned she had been trained to use those teacher manuals. It made sense to her. Go Math, as far as I know, is not designed with homeschoolers in mind. I am not sure how easy it would be to use their teacher resources unless you have experience with them. The student workbook was very colorful (first grade) and certainly more appealing to kids than Saxon. Since I ordered through a charter school, I was able to return the lot right away. I didn't actually use it.

Thank you! I'm downloading the Math Mammoth samples right now. They look good.

Yes! My son is in Kinder, I didn't mention it above. This is why he wiggles a lot and we do a lot of breaks. He loves the manipulatives. We homeschool with a charter and they got us MBTP and ABeCeDarian plus the Saxon that I already had. I think its too much work. I've already been alternating days for MBTP and skipping some of the busy work he really doesn't like (coloring!) but I do not like to skip math or reading practice. So if there's a lesson he already knows, we skip it but then do all the work on MBTP, which is a nice change. I know it would be cheaper to stick with Saxon for now. We will use a different math curriculum next year. I'm very intrigued by that Beast Academy. I looked them up and my son was in the room and he thought I found him a new game. :lol: But I told him that was a possibility for when he was older as it is for third grade, I think. So I'm still wondering about what to use. And since my Saxon was only $10 I'm open to buying something else. Ds is my oldest and I always wonder if all the work and repetition that seems pointless to me, may not be pointless to him and may be good for his development. I want to teach at the correct pace for him. I just don't know what that is.

Last year I bought Saxon Math K and Saxon Math 1 for $10 each. It was a good deal and Saxon was recommended in TWTM so, I bought them. I also got the manipulatives on Rainbow Resource. I neither love nor do I hate Saxon. I was irritated sometimes by the amount of parent prep. My son has done well with it. While he's never cried because of math, he protests the calendar routine and some other repetitive tasks the curriculum assigns. I want homeschool to be enjoyable, not to see the light in his eyes dim with boredom. We changed the calendar routine (colorful magnetic calendar) and we skip some of the routine sometimes or we will do a game or play with the abacus. As far as the rest of the lessons, I get the feeling that sometimes Saxon is moving a little slow, probably due to the spiral nature of it. Today, after filling out a drill adding doubles up to 9, my son asked me how much was 200 + 200 and I showed him how to do it... we went off on a tangent. But if you would have seen his delighted face, you wouldn't have stopped either! We started adding other simple numbers like 100 + 100, 1000 + 1000, 400 + 400... Then we had to go back to the worksheets (because I'm that mom that likes to check boxes), that are all very similar and of course, my son can finish with no trouble. He does not mind a page with 20 addition problems. He actually gets a kick of completing them fast. lol I do not do 2 or 3 lessons in one day because we have other subjects to complete and he is still too young to sit still for too long. In fact, sometimes we complete Saxon in two chunks with a break. Sight word drill is enjoyable for him. Probably because we get off the table and he wiggles while he reads them... I downloaded a sample of Life of Fred Apples and read it to my son and he liked it. A lot. I ordered the apples book to use at bedtime. I think it will be a nice supplement and we may get the whole set if the religious content isn't too overt. After all that, I would like some opinions. Should I stick with Saxon while doing Life of Fred for fun? Or should I switch him to something else? I want a rigorous math curriculum that does not repeat itself so much? Something that will make me feel like we are indeed covering all the bases. Drill is fine. I am sure we can slow down if we need to, but its hard for me to figure out how to get Saxon moving without missing things. We are secular, but we are not offended by a religious curriculum as long as the religious content isn't a central part of the content.

This year I've been homeschooling my 4 yr old boy (5 this summer). We had a very productive first month of homeschooling. We did about 30 minutes every other day using Bob books, Saxon K and some cutting, coloring or mazes. In that time he sounded-out and read the first two sets of Bob books (he had played with starfall and knew most letter sounds). Once that first month had passed he started refusing to do any school. We stopped because he is 4 and I want him to enjoy school. Around the end of September when he was bored I'd ask if he wanted to do school. Sometimes it sounded like an exciting proposition so we kept on going with Saxon K (which he calls the fun homeschool) and occasionally he would read one bob book for a special treat. Eventually we started with OPGTTR. DS was doing well. He was reading (sounding out?) the passages in the book, but his eyes would glaze over. He was doing it for the special homeschool treats. Once again, the time came when he did not want to read it because he thought it was boring. And to be fair, it is kind of boring. Then my husband got transferred for his job. Between the craziness of keeping a house ready for showings and preparing for a cross-country move by myself and two kids, we did not do any formal school between January and March. He did play in the computer a lot with starfall (which is now boring) and abcmouse (which also became boring) and pbskids. This excessive computer use was because I had 20 showings in 6 weeks. While unpacking after the move, I found a still wrapped set of new Dick and Jane books my MIL got the kids for Christmas. I was very adamant that I would only do phonics with DS based on OPGTR. But since it's been a while since we had done anything I thought, well why not? Let's see if he can read them. So I took book 1 out. All the "Oh, oh, oh." sounded hilarious in my head so I read it out loud in the funniest way possible with faces and voices and all. Then we discussed the pictures. Lo and behold, my child wanted to read it himself. With giggles. I know many of those words are sight words, but in the last two days he has chosen to read the first three books (granted, they seem fairly simple) but he went from sounding out Bob books to almost fluent reading. Since he is more amenable to reading Dick and Jane if I read them first (in my hilarious mommy voice) I am not sure if this is really reading or if he is just repeating. I didn't know he could recognize "yellow" and "blue" we never reviewed those words. Like I said before, he did a lot of computer time during the crazy move so maybe he picked them up then? Should I just go with it? If so, we would move on to what? I feel a little lost since I've never done this before and the logical method (to me anyway) is to follow a curriculum in order rather than jumping around. We had done several OPGTTR lessons and he can sound out words like h-e-l-p and blend, but we never moved on to multiple syllable words. I am confused and I do not want to mess him up. It is likely DS will soon find Dick and Jane boring too, but for now he does like them and the pictures. Opinions and suggestions would be appreciated. I do not post often because my kids are little and I am very new. However, I've read several threads before posting this. I will therefore add this note which I think is unrelated, but perhaps will prevent replies such as "just read to your kids and don't worry about it" ?: We do lots of reading using books the kids pick out from the library and if it's nice we will go to playgrounds several times a week. DS is a mini paleontologist (joking, he just loves dinosaurs) and recently we've moved on to obsess about planets. And yes, both DS and DD (3) play with Lego, blocks, boxes, dolls (action figures), cars and such. Plus we do lots of science (planting, weed pulling, looking at stars, talking about germs) and experiments. DS is not yet writing. I offer crayons, colored pencils and paints and he does a little "abstract" art which is fine. As of age 4, he cannot write his name and I'm ok with it for now because he can spell it lol. He does color in the calendar square for Saxon math. I am bilingual, so occasionally we do Spanish time. And all the other normal things ...

Thank you for letting me know. I have been asking myself when and if they will call me back. I am having fun with my dream list of classes :)

This is an older thread but it answered a lot of questions I had on this matter. We just moved to CA from another state that does not offer any funds and was wondering about this. I am indeed looking at Sky Mountain Charter for next year, which is the one that serves our area. We will see if it works out since I have yet to get a response from the enrollment team and the ES. So thank you Momto4inSoCal for your post and everyone else for the insightful comments.

Thank you!

I am already planning the Christmas presents and budget. I am looking at the Leappad 3 and Leappad Ultra. I was wondering what you more experienced mothers think of these products? These are for my four year old DS and maybe for our DD who by Christmas will be close to age 3. We do not have iPads but we have iPhones. The kids play occasionally and both know how to use the star fall apps and a few others. The idea of controlled web access is very appealing.