This was our's a few years ago... it has changed again, and I need to update. WE have an additional storage closet, which is nice, but maybe something will trigger an idea?

I use to teach kindergarten and I've used the following programs either while teaching or with my own children: Sing Spell Read and Write Phonics Museum Phonics Pathways Ordinary Parents Guide All About Reading I have favorable thoughts about everyone except Ordinary Parents Guide (similar to 100 Easy Lessons, I believe)... we both cried after every lesson, it was not fun and we both hated it... I wouldn't used Phonics Museum unless your child is very high functioning... as I don't think it should be called "phonics" museum... because it relies heavily on memorization and doesn't do a great job at true phonics, but it can be a great resource as the readers are very interesting and historical. Sing, Spell, R and W... is nice, but costly and is most like a traditional school program, it is effective and works well. We liked and found Phonics Pathways to be effective, but it didn't seem to have enough or to cover the concepts in as much depth as I think (and my student) needed and I ended up spending a lot of time either repeating lessons (because she wasn't ready to move on) or trying to supplement. All that to say my favorite is All About Reading... it is the best of everything, highly effective and really nearly fool proof. My 1st and 3rd children are remedial readers (struggle to pick it up at age 5 or 6) and they have flourished since we switched to AAR. Our 1st goes to tutor who specializes in dyslexia and she said it is the best packaged phonics curriculum she has ever seen and is very similar to how she was trained to teach dyslexic or struggling readers... My 2nd and 4th children are also loving it, moving right along and making phonics/reading seem easy!

Here was our Ancients Lesson Plan: http://shecanlaugh.blogspot.com/2013/06/how-to-make-story-of-world-more-like.html And here is a listening list for Ancients: http://shecanlaugh.blogspot.com/2014/06/story-of-world-1-ancients-online-audio.html I'll post my SOTW #2 plans soon... not quite ready yet. Also I posted some of our activities for Ancients if you click on the Label "Story of the World #1" it will show you some of the stuff we did...

Well Ambleside lists several of the books on Librivox that are included, and I had to go to the links and look at the chapters on librivox and try to match them up. Since we haven't completed it yet I have NO clue if they will really be what I want them to be or not... or if there are more chapters in each text that might apply to various chapters in SOTW. I also just googled things like "librivox middle ages" or the specific chapter covered like "Byzantine" or things like that and saw what came up. I am/will make a list of SOTW #1 and what we did used last year... it was far less, but still good stuff. I'll post it when I get it completed.

I just put together our plan for next fall and included a chapter by chapter list of free online audio books (mostly Librivox) for our use this year... Just wanted to share. HERE Any to add??? Update... HERE IS A LINK to SOTW #1-4 audiobook compatible lists.

Thank you! That is helpful!

Thank you all SOO much. That is super helpful. Most of these are read alouds... some I'll ask my older to read to us, but i'll have to look at them first to make sure she can read them. I buy them assuming I'll read them. I also found a treasure trove on Librivox today... I'll post it when I get it on my blog. I think I filled nearly every chapter, and the ones I didn't I am not really concerned about filling. Again, thank you! I edited my amazon list too... and cut some I think we'll be better off not buying or that I found other books for in my home or on Librivox.

SOOOO helpful! Thank you!

What chapter would Apple and Arrow lend itself to? I have it but havent read it...

I do have the activity guide and love it! I guess it is just sort of daunting sorting through all those titles. I set down yesterday to google a bunch of the suggested titles and found a really nice selection I think we will enjoy... I just always get a bit of panic that I might miss "a good one". Haha! But then again part of the fun is just seeing what you get and where it takes you as well! I don't know if anyone will be able to view this, but this is my amazon "wish list"... I pulled all the titles that seemed to catch my attention. There is about one book per chapter of SOTW. I think there were a few chapters I didn't find much I liked or I already have something for that chapter in our home already. If you can view it, please see if I've picked good ones... mainly I'd like to avoid "flops" or ones that are "too high" for our 1st and 3rd graders. Thanks! Our Book List

I love adding literature to accompany SOTW. I am planning our curriculum for next year and would like some input for the middle ages SOTW that is great literature for children age 6-9 ish for read-a-louds. Anything you LOVED!

There was an outbreak in northern Uganda not long after I was there and I think also about 9 or so months ago in eastern Uganda (near DRC)... they were able to get it contained fairly easily from my understanding... that is, once people recognized what was taking place. http://www.theguardian.com/world/2012/nov/15/uganda-hit-new-ebola-outbreak

My daughter is about 1/4 of the way through the Beta level... she has completed Primer and Alpha... I just realized it seems to be really weak in covering time (briefly during Primer), money, and all measurements... Do those things ever get covered? I need to look ahead in her book. But as she hasn't gotten much at all practice with any of these I am realizing I need to do some supplementing or personal instruction in these areas, because she needs to get it, as will my two boys who are currently about 3/4 through Primer. Thoughts on this? If you use MUS have you found it gets better later on or have you had to cover this in other ways? And if you did, what did you use? Thanks!

An additional question... Our toddler (age 3) is a very busy girl. She is slightly delayed, both motor and reasoning abilities... We are working on getting her evaluated. Honestly I am so afraid our 3 yo will not get enough time and attention... both emotionally (as she is sort of more "needy") and also just in basic supervision and skills. My husband suggested asking a friend of ours to do "preschool' for her 2 or 3 days a week ... as in me planning it and her coming over to do special school time with our 3 yo on her own and to sort of be an "aid" to me. I like that idea... Any good ideas on things that would be appropriate for a 3 yo to do for an hour and a half to two hours, three or so days a week? She will be 3 years and 9 months when we would potentially start her "pre-school"... but she is probably at least about 8-12 months delayed in all areas except language. Her fine motor is so-so,,, but she still just scribbles to draw and doesn't draw pictures that are symbolic or have shapes yet. She can count to 10, but can't tell people she is 3 years old... she just picks a number... (we've worked and worked on her saying "3" but she doesn't seem to comprehend that concept yet). We are also still working on potty skills... very much one step forward, two back... Any good ideas that might help her fill in some of the gaps she has? I have "Slow and Steady Get me Ready" and I have backed way up with that and I think I'll for sure have that continued...

Thanks for the great ideas. I am praying for a special person who would like to help me out. My issue is that we are very remote... but maybe there is someone out there... Thanks!

Next fall we will have a 3rd grader, 2 1st graders, a Kindergartener... learning. And a very active 3 year old, who functions at about 9-12 months younger than her chronological age... she is into everything! And a newborn (due in Sept). I am overwhelmed! How do I get school done? My 3 yo is really challenging. I will spend most of our current days keeping her out of trouble. I have thought of trying to do some sort of "school" with her... but honestly it isn't my focus. I need to get my other kids reading, and progressing. I am not much of a "preschool" minded person. She has some mild sensory issues, isn't potty trained (however we've tried for the last 6 months). Thoughts??? I am considering even hiring someone to take care of the 3 yo for me... I would consider preschool (outside our home) but there are none near enough to our home to make it worth my time/effort in getting her there. Plus I don't think they'd take her not being potty trained.

So happy for you all! We have two adopted in 2011 who were 5 and 1 at the time. It is a wild and beautiful ride!

We have children who've been adopted. I didn't like our son's name to begin with, it is very "1970" and not something I would EVER think of calling a child. He was adopted at age 5, but we made the name work because he very much felt connected to his name. We asked him what he would like to be called, his birth name, his other name we gave him or something else... he immediately chose his birth name. Some kids do not feel a connection to thier names. If you are going to adopt her I would straight up ask her, "Do you want to be called Serenity? Or mommy and daddy thought of another name... What do you want...You tell us what you'd like us to call you." I am not anti name changing, I think some kids need a fresh start and a new name can be a huge symbol of that for them.... others don't need it and really feel like they are who their name is. That said I do think name changing is over done in adoption and that it can be a really sad loss for some kids... I would err on not doing it, espeically if it is just because you aren't really sure about it. We renamed our daughter who was given an obnoxious name from a baby home... it was a donor's name and was just not "her". But, we felt it would have been really unkind to take our son's name. Could you call her Seri, or some other nickname that works for both of you? Additionally the name has a really sweet "promise" or hope for her, "peace" which is very meaningful!

Two of our children are black... while this could complicate our discussions I have found that this is a basic understanding of what needs to be told to a child staring in kindergarten depending upon their sensitivity levels: - Slavery has always exhisted. - Slavery isn't about skin color or ethnicity, it is about what ever people group is in power at the time inposing power over another people group.American slavery was defined by white land owners buying typically african slaves who they used as workers on their farms, but that isn't a world wide picture of slavery. Whites enslaved whites in fudel England/Ireland, Egyptians enslaved Israelites, Muslim blacks enslave Christian blacks in Africa today, Children are enslaved in Asian, etc... - Slavery looks different in different cultures and in different time periods, Greco/Roman slavery was very different than American/Modern Slavery. - Today slavery is as bad as it was in the past, we just don't know it because it isn't something people like to talk about because it would require us to change our practices (what we buy and eat). - Racism, "white privilege" and those kinds of concepts aren't too big for little children, we talk about them often, but I also think that it is probably wise to let a child have a ideal concept of themselves and others until they personally take note of it. When they do, as a parent I think the considerate thing to do is to talk to your child about race and adoption and trans-ethnic families and explain that "race" isn't a true thing, ethnicities are. There is only one human race, with multiple ethnic groups. In those groups people vary in color and types. We need to know that in the US stereotypically black men are feared or treated with some level of suspicion, but they are just men like other men. Additionally, we need to understand that white people automatically have a benefit for being white... people generally assume the best in them while that generally isn't done for people of other skin tones or ethnicities. Also please explain adoption and trans-ethnic families and that a white child can have a brown skinned mom or vise versa... and that is normal and a "real" family just like more typical families.

Wow, this is really great to see everyones experiences and a broader picture. Thank you thank you!

That is all super helpful! Honestly, I didn't know that it was a 3 year cycle... that could be the straw for me! Also, parents HAVE to be present??? I wouldn't want or be able to do that every week. Hum... Super duper helpful!!!

A local friend is wanting to start up a CC coop in our area... In theory it sounds right up our alley, and l love the thought of some support and accountability. But, I have read and reread the website and find it HORRIBLY undiscriptive or perhaps sort of ambiguous about what you actually get for the per child fee. Plus it seems really expensive. From what I can gather we'd spend nearly $1800 just on fees to participate, and that is not including our 5th child once she is the age to participate. I am just confused what I'd actually "get" from it since I'd also have to pay for all our other curriculum on top of that! I am fairly sure I don't spend $800 on all our curriculum at this point... just a tough pill to swallow! Basically my questions are... Is the fee per child? Do you have/need to purchase additional material on top of the listed cost? What does that usually add up to for your family or per child? What is actually covered as far as curriculum/subjects in a given day at CC? What do you like about CC? Do you feel it is "worth" it? What don't you like or find annoying? Other thoughts?

We decided on the Faber piano method. Few more questions... My 8 yo hasn't taken ANY music lessons before... where should I start her on Faber? (She is still not a strong reader, but can read.) I will have 3 starting on the most basic level, all that the same time... (2 six yo boys and a 5 yo girl)... should I get them each their own lesson and writing book or just get 1 lesson book/CD and each their own writing book? Thanks!!!

Thanks that is very helpful!

A friend who knows how to play the piano has offered to start teaching our kids to play, but she wants some form of curriculum to use to teach them because she hasn't ever taught piano before. Any great methods or curriculum to share? I'd like it to be semi-fun and enjoyable. Effective (obviously) Able to be used with various ages Not too pricey. Ideas???