Math Mammoth with Beast supplement and Right Start games. We started with strictly Right Start, but with 4 kids math was just taking too long. I needed something we could all sit around the table and do. With MM I can have everyone have their sheets out and float around giving directions and help. I also didn't love the scriptedness of RS.

Planning my 2nd grade year. I am feeling fairly sold (at the moment) on the MFW Adventures program and loving the history cycle that happens after that. Many things I like about the CM/classical-ness of MFW and the fact that I don't have to plan certain things but still have freedom with the book basket, etc. For LA we currently do a mix of ETC and ELTL and I See Sam readers. But The Good and the Beautiful LA just caught my eye, and it seems that it could almost take the place of all of these things. But I do NOT want to over-do our curriculum at all. Would it be too much to be doing MFW Adventures AND TGTB LA? Does anyone have experience with both of these programs? Or TGTB and any other program and if it felt like it was too much or didn't blend well, etc.? I'm not interested in any other programs by TGTB, except maybe handwriting. I would love some feedback on this blend.

I would look into Wayfarers if I were you. I love/hate all the same things you do about Sunlight. I bought PreK but never fully used it (just read through the books). But I LOVE the book selections of Wayfarers and the schedule is nice too. I like that I still have options, but not too many. Now, for the science, I'm not sure I would use Wayfarers, but since you are just buying the guide and not everything else, it is easy to fit in your own science on science days. We are currently using Mystery Science and my boys are loving it!

Give Your Child The World by Jamie Martin!!! This is what you are looking for!!

Also wanted to add... he did the Math Mammoth end-of-year test for 1st grade and scored 92%. So technically he could advance to 2nd grade math in MM. Even though we haven't FORMALLY covered some of those topics (measuring, telling time... he knows just through life). Thoughts on that? I appreciate any input!!

I'm in the same boat!!! 6, 5, 4 and a 10 month old! Right now we do morning time together, then I'm finding it works best to rotate kids. 20 mins with my 4yo, 40 mins to do math and reading each with my other kids. They do copywork and handwriting by themselves. I really keep it as minimal as possible. Because someone always needs something - food, diaper change, baby won't nap, etc. We have time on our side. In the afternoon I read our content lesson - right now we're doing beautiful feet history for 3 weeks, then we'll switch our block schedule and do a mystery science for 2-3 weeks. We do notebook pages where they draw a picture and narrate to me. It definitely feels like a dance. Some days I do a lot with one child and the next day I balance it out by doing more with another. The beauty of it is that they DO have each other to play with while I'm busy with the baby or doing school with another. I love that they're learning to play independently and also deepening their friendship as brothers (some days). I understand the guilt - but I think there are positives to the way things are set up also. Hugs mama!

We have been using Right Start Math this year. However, it has been difficult to get it done well. I personally have struggled with all the moving parts and feeling like it takes me too much time to wrap my mind around what they are doing and where they are headed before presenting it to my son. Some other factors here - I am teaching RS A to my kindergartener, RS B to my first grader, I also have a preschooler (with sensory needs) and a 10 month old. I really do like the method behind it - I see it working in the end. But my oldest is a math kid and literally can multiply simple numbers in his head even though we've never covered it. But the other day my son asked for worksheets and out of curiosity I printed of the Math Mammoth 1st grade test and he LIT UP and LOOOOVED the worksheets and asked to do it more often. So, here I'm stuck. I love the idea of RS but in my real life, it feels difficult to get done. It has too many moving parts and takes too long - especially when I'm trying to fit it in a baby's nap time. I love math worksheets and the idea of MM. My son loves worksheets and the idea of MM. But I see the benefit of visual math in a big way. I have heard of people using MM or Singapore "the Right Start Way".... can someone explain to me what this looks like? How do you use the manipulative in RS to emphasize the worksheets of MM? Would it be a mistake to switch to MM mid-year? I worry about losing the value of visual math, but also the days we did worksheets felt like a breath of fresh air because my son and I both felt more in our element. Help!!

I am VERY MUCH in the same position. I have RS A and B. I have a 4, 5, and 6yo boys and then a 10 month old girl. RS is difficult for me to get done. Part of it is that it simply isn't very open and go for me. My oldest DS recently asked me for more worksheets like he did in K (we did Singapore essentials). I was looking at MM, but unsure if I want to totally drop RS. Although I think I would personally like it better and I think it would get done. Not easy decisions!! Hah!

I’m glad to see some have skipped those parts. My kids really do resonate with this method of learning but sometimes I struggle to enjoy it for these reasons!!

Slight vent. I love the hands-on-ness of Right Start Math, I do. But I bought SO many manipulatives they said I needed. WHY must I then print out 37 hundreds squares out of the appendix. I swear every other lesson has me copying pages out of the appendix and cutting shapes out, etc. It makes it not feel open-and-go and is irritating to me. At this point with 4 kids and a baby, I need open and go. Vent over. But also - might there be a curriculum that truly is open and go but with the same hands-on visual approach? Or perhaps as we progress there won’t be as much of the printing and cutting needed before we can begin? We are in Level B.

I am part of one - and went to the conference in Nashville last month. Appearances aside, these folks don't push any certain WAY to homeschool or methodology. It's open for classical, charlotte mason, waldorf, unschooling. It really is as simple as it sounds, encouragement and community for homeschooling moms. Our group is really tight knit and we are doing weekly nature walks together and using Exploring Nature with Children curriculum together. So, basically, that is our science. We also do quarterly book clubs for the kids, where we all do the same read-aloud and our kids come up with a presentation. You'll find information about all of these sorts of things on their website in their content bundles. I've also read about handicrafts, note booking, nature journaling, the importance of reading aloud, and so much more. Their conference was largely about encouraging a mom in her relationship with her kids - no curriculum pushing, although Rea Burg did speak. But, for example, Sarah Mackenzie opened the whole conference by asking "Imagine your child in 20 years hanging out with friends, and one asks, 'hey you were homeschooled, what was that like?' What do you want them to say?" Many answers such as "interest lead" and "reading good books" and "hands on learning" were shouted out. And she pointed out that she had never talked to a group who said "We stuck to our rigorous curriculum". So her whole talk was about making curriculum work for you and your family and not feeling bad about shelving something that isn't working. A mom's relationship with her kids is incredibly valuable. People who spoke were Sarah Mackenzie, Sally Clarkson, Leah Boden, Rea Burg, Jodi Mockabee... and breakouts with others. I hear that Julie Bogart is speaking at their upcoming March conference! So, I'm a fan. It may sound soft and feel-goody, but honestly, I need that encouragement in these early years (schooling PreK, K, and 1st this year with a 7 month old in tow). Yes, on instagram it is easy to spark the comparison game. But I do love following these ladies for ideas, because when it comes down to it, they are all about simplicity. I LOVE the note booking methods that have been shared there and they have totally changed our homeschool. So, that said - I encourage you to learn more if you're interested. :-)

I believe it is second edition. I just purchased it a couple months ago. I didn't think to look for a list, but I will.

Has anyone else noticed this? Or do I have a dud? I'm doing Right Start A with my K'er and I'm only in Lesson 15 and have already found typos and content errors (like... stating to refer to Lesson 15, when I'm in Lesson 15... with no further directions). Also, typos and grammatical errors. I get that it is math and not LA... but really. I ended up skipping one portion because I really couldn't figure out what it was asking me to do. Please tell me the whole curriculum isn't so frustrating.

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Wow - thanks for all the camaraderie!! I know I'm not alone in this. Just to answer a few questions... I normally do school in the mornings - however two mornings a week we are out, and so I request a couple of things happen in the afternoon. Such as just reading with me for 15 minutes, which was the case yesterday. Today, I bumped it down to 10 minutes. I wasn't asking him to do 20 mins of handwriting. He had one (VERY SHORT) page and 15 mins of reading that I asked him to do and got this response. We RARELY do screen time. I definitely see hunger as a trigger though - and he is a perfectionist which makes this all hard. We were having a meltdown this morning and I decided to "pause" and have a snack and come back. It went much better after that. Also - as of today, the kids can get 30 mins of screen time once their work is done. If they fuss and waste some of their lesson time, then they lose screen time. He lost 5 minutes this morning and that whipped him into shape. I think this will be a good motivator. I kind of hate the idea of bribing good behavior... BUT - I think sometimes we just get in bad habits... and paving the way to good habits is hard work. Sometimes some external motivation like screen time helps to make these paths a little more clear and I really do hope for smooth and easy days. The obedience issue is tough with this kid. He is stubborn. It really flared up when his baby sister was born... so I do think there is some attention seeking with it. I'm hoping some changes I'm making will help. That, and time. Thanks everyone!

He is talking about the new words he has to read before he reads his story. Like fluency words in AAR, but these were the word list in his I See Sam book. He has an aversion to those sorts of lists. Hah.

I'm having a horrible time transitioning to more formal school with my 6.5 year old. He has a really bad attitude about it, and I'm not sure where it is coming from. But really he just wants to play all day. This afternoon, I asked him to do 20 minutes (total) of handwriting and then reading to me. He is bouncing off the walls, rolling around on the ground, saying "I hate reading these stupid words, I just want to read the book" and basically (to me) wasting the entire time I set out to do school. I set my timer for 15 minutes today and half of that felt like it was just getting his attention back to me to read the words in front of him. He CAN do the work. It's a matter of discipline it feels like. I'm tempted to say "if you don't focus, you'll be here longer" but I really feel like that makes it worse. When the timer goes off, I want to be done. I just want his attention for those 15 minutes instead of half of them to be spent complaining about the work. I also have a 5yo boy who is very eager to do school and is quick to please... probably because of the fit he sees his older brother pitching. I also have a young 4yo boy and a 6 month old girl. Granted... the attitude with my oldest isn't only with school. It just feels like we butt heads all the time in general. If he doesn't like his breakfast he argues with me. I'm simply just exhausted by him right now. It makes me feel like I should not even be attempting to homeschool him. And I'm really sad about it. I have worked and re-worked my schedule to better suit him (reading first thing? math first thing? morning basket? math in the afternoon? etc)... but right now I feel like he runs the show. I feel at a loss. Also - with the schedule, I feel like I lose so much time because I never really know when I need to nurse the baby, etc... and then we're interrupted by the younger siblings, etc. I'm just feeling very discouraged. I see some of these routines that others post, and it seems that when they say certain work needs to be done, their kids just do it. That sounds like a dream! Do I need to sweeten it up somehow? I feel like I just need ideas... or to hear that it will get better with time...

Okay, just to get this straight. You still used AAR to teach new phonograms, but just went in the order of I See Sam instead? I'm trying to figure out if I can just follow AAR, skipping the cards (and only building some words with tiles off the fluency sheets), and then do I See Sam alongside it. But maybe that is too much. Just trying to wrap my mind around it so that we can make progress and I'm not leaving any gaps!

Have you looked at the I See Sam app? I just bought one level to start using with my son. It has the phonograms in the beginning and then the words we will see in the coming book. It uses blending each time you click on a word in the way you describe above. I do like it, but will probably order hard-copy books too. I know I can print them for free, too. I haven't come across any that tell us to teach words as sight words yet.

I agree - if something is working, don't change what's working. But the fluency sheets are a big joy-kill over here (or battle, is more like it) and the cards have created a bad guessing habit. I'm sure I can tweak this to make it work for us, but over the past few months I have seen that something does need to change. Fluency sheets are only tolerated in bite-sized chunks which would take us many days to get through. He would rather be reading stories, and I don't blame him! Something I have found that is helpful is some of those readers that have the parent and child read together - he reads what is on his level, and I'm able to add some dimension to the story by reading other parts. Usborne has some, which we own and enjoy.

This is INCREDIBLY helpful. I have already started to do some of the steps you mention using AAR. We introduce the lesson, then I have been picking some words off the fluency sheet to do with the tiles. The past week of trial and error, this has the best result. I ditched those cards too. I noticed the sight-reading habit too, and even just ditching them for a couple weeks and going back to the tiles over and over again I see him sounding out far more often. Less guessing is happening. Fluency and automaticity are definitely the biggest struggles - and this is frustrating for my perfectionist son! I'm thinking this will come with time and practice. I am just beginning with my 5yo son now, and am thinking of NOT doing AAR at all and just starting with I See Sam. This makes me slightly nervous, but progress will be made I'm sure! Hah! Do you happen to have that document you mentioned that listed the words and sequence of phonograms with I See Sam? I would love to get that from you if possible. :-) Thanks so much for taking the time to reply.

How did you combine the two?

I should add, were about 70% through AAR Level 1. So we have a ways to go.

I have no idea if this is a good idea but my mind has been spinning in how to get AAR to work for us. What is working - the magnet tiles, the blending method, the new lessons... what isn't working? The fluency and practice sheets. Worksheets and my son just don't mix. He sees it on a sheet and freaks out. So I have been picking words from the fluency sheet and putting them on the magnet tile board, or writing them on a white board, or just listing a few at a time in his notebook. We work our way through them. So here are my thoughts. He doesn't love reading the readers. I have considered separating the lessons/fluency sheets from our reader stack in order to get through the lessons more quickly, allowing him to then have more options for books to read. He really wants to read books from the library. Or is even motivated more by the Bob books and the I See Sam books. I think he kind of feels like the AAR book is the book that never ends with all the stories crammed into that one book. I get it. He never closes the cover when he's done. So, I was thinking of using AAR for the lessons and practicing fluency sheets while using more variety of readers. We would probably read through AAR also but I don't want that to hold us back from progressing with the lessons (that I feel that he's ready for). Compared to other curriculums, AAR seems to move very slowly, but the tile method is working so I don't want to fully switch. Does that make sense? Has anyone done this? Is this a horrible idea? I want to hear it all. Reading has been a struggle and I'm trying to do my best to lighten this up for my boy and encourage some interest.