We used LTR with two kiddos this year: Kiddo #1, 7yo, 1st grade, reading, but not at all fluent. We began at the beginning of LTR, and went fast, combining two or three lessons each day until the book "caught up" to his reading level. At that point we slowed down to a normal pace, one lesson per day. He just finished the program before Christmas, and I tested his reading level this week - reading almost at 5th grade level! For him it was perfect to back up & move through the whole program from the beginning. Kiddo #2, 5.5yo, K, beginning to blend three letter words. I thought perhaps this little fellow could work through LTR, but move slower than his big brother. It quickly became clear that this moves much too quickly for him. He didn't have enough practice at the new concepts to become fluent with them before they moved on to something else. We're currently using Phonics Pathways instead, along with easy readers, and a little ETC 1. I plan to have him go through LTR in 1st grade, and I think he'll really benefit from it then.

Group #3 has room for 3-6 more participants. We already have 17, and I'll close it down once we get to about 23. Here is a link to the original thread, which details how to jump in to the group buy: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=336313

This group is officially open for a few more participants. :)

Here's our group so far: diaperjoys (2 slots) delaney (2 slots) zippymom (1 slot) CMama (1 slot) ThelmaLou (2 slots) Hollowell (1 slot) Rezentes (2 slots) JessicaB (1 slot) stm4him (1 slot) Bluecarneal (1 slot) coastal academy (1 slot)

Hi! Here's a link to the new group: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3472146#post3472146 To send a PM, click on the persons user name - mine is diaperjoys, a drop down menu will appear, and select "send a private message". That's all there is to it!

Group #3 has officially begun! Here's a link! http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?p=3472146#post3472146

Momto5Girls has finished group #2, so it is time to start another group! We need a group of at least 10 to get group pricing. If you'd like to hop on to group #3, please send me a PM with: The group is now closed. Thanks to all who participated! 1) Your full name 2) Child's full name 3) Child's DOB (VP uses this to set-up a password for the child's account) 4) Full address 5) What course to enroll 6) Your chosen start date (must be no later than Aug 31, 2012) 7) also please include an email address so I can contact you via email I'd like to have payment by Tuesday, January 24th, at the latest. Payment will work best via check or money order. I can accept a few Paypal payments (please mark them as "gift"), but I can't do all 20+ participants due to PP limits on transfering funds. If you PM me I can get you my address or PP account info. Here is a link to the VP Self Paced Course Info: http://resource2.veritaspress.com/Resources/Scholars_Online/Scholars_Online_New_Self-Paced.html Here is a link to the special pricing info: http://resource2.veritaspress.com/Resources/Scholars_Online/Scholars_Online_Self-Paced_Group_Special.html Once I have 10-15 in this group I'll close it down & let someone else organize the next one. Cheers! Cynthia

Hi! I'm needing two slots, and my friend will want 2-4 more.... Should I start another group? I'm happy to start one, and equally happy to jump in to this one! Let me know! I sent you a PM...

My son completed CLE's Learning to Read program this week, and I just tested his reading level - he scores nearly 5th grade level. What's next?? Lots of good books, and what else??

Can these two programs work together? We're considering CC for next year, but my son is really, really enjoying his current VP self-paced history, so I'd like to continue that. Will the two programs conflict with each other, or would the timeline differences be minimal??? Thanks!

My first grader is reading well, and is just finishing the CLE Learning to Read series. Is that enough?? CLE continues phonics instruction in their Reading curricula, even throughout second grade. Is higher phonics really necessary???? For example, is it necessary to have down cold the four spellings of schwa + r?? i.e. "er", "ir", "or", "ur"? Will I hamper his reading development if I stop our formal phonics training now? I'd like to free up some time to do extra work on math concepts. I'm sure there are a variety of opinions on the topic, and I'd love to hear them all!

We just purchased MUS Alpha for my 8yo son, who has some gaps in his math understanding. His main math program is CLE 200. I'd like him to move quickly through Alpha, filling in the gaps, but I'm not sure exactly how to go about that. I don't want to skip too much & defeat the purpose of the program, but neither do I want to turn it into a bunch of busywork. Chapter by chapter, how do I assess mastery? Maybe if he gets 100% on ____ then we can skip _____? Can anyone give me some suggestions??

My son was totally stuck on numbers 6, 7, 8 & 9. Couldn't identify them at all. I took some time off his math program, and focused on that. And honestly, I'm not sure I made any progress! We'd do a coloring sheet of a 6, personify it (give it little arms & legs, etc.), then we taped a sign to my son saying "Mr. 6", and he'd spend the day being a six. We did all sorts of dorky things like that. Finally I decided we were getting behind in math & I wasn't going to hold off any more. So I made a number line for him & kept it handy. He could refer to it any time he needed to - he knew it started at 1, and could count along it to find the number he needed. He also had to write down the numbers 1-10, in order, every day while his brothers were doing their timed tests. He was never done when they were - it just gave him a fixed time to do that little task. Now he can usually recognize his numbers, and asks less and less what a particular number looks like. So, he's progressing, and doing fine conceptually in all his math assignments. For us the solution has been time & having the numbers available for easy reference.

We are trying out an alternative schedule this year. Three weeks on, one week off, year round. Two weeks off at Christmas.

Please share! I'm looking for something to reinforce the skip counting work we're doing - my 8yo is having a very hard time mastering skip counting, and I'm thinking putting it to music might help him. What are your favorites??

This is for a kiddo really struggling with upper math facts (9+4, 13-5, 12-6, etc). I've heard MUS is good to get kids past the need to rely on fingers, but I don't know about MM. Which would you prefer, and why??

My 8yo is halfway through CLE 200, and is getting badly bogged down. He's really having a terrible time learning his upper math facts. (He's okay with +2's, and other easy facts, but today, for example, he was totally stumped by 11-5=6). He's also having a hard time skip counting, and counting backwards is difficult as well. In particular, I'm seeing him increasingly dependent on his fingers to calculate the answers to the problems. Despite his good scores on tests and quizzes up to this point it is pretty clear that he does not have mastery over the early material, and is rapidly getting bogged down as he tries to handle the harder data. He was scoring perfectly on his time tests a couple months ago, but now, with the harder facts, it isn't unusual for him to only get 9 or 10 problems correct in two minutes. I think he's benefited from the continual review of CLE, and I don't want to ditch the program. So, I'm thinking of getting MUS Alpha, and supplementing - I'm hoping he'd whiz through & fill in some gaps. Maybe drop another subject and do double duty in math for awhile. Does this sound like a good plan????

I like BJU K5. After that I switch to CLE for first grade. BJU covers numbers and counting to 100, addition, subtraction, and a bit of clocks, measuring & such. A nice variety, gets the kiddo familiar with math concepts, but stays low key.

I don't get it. My 8yo has been using CLE Math 2 this year, and doing (I thought), very well with it. Then we took a break. One week break, plus one week of patchy school because I was sick. Now, he's gone from completing his time tests in 2 minutes, to only getting 4 or 5 problems done in two minutes. Just to see, I had him finish the time test yesterday, and he spent another 45 minutes, and that was with the abacus. Sounds like a first class example of loitering, (which we do have an issue with), but in this instance his bottom was in the chair, and he (most of the time) seemed to be working. I don't get it. He took the test for LU 205 yesterday, and scored 98%, seems to grasp the material, but it took him at least an hour to do the test, maybe more. Anyone else have this issue? What's the solution? I took some time and re-organized his flash cards yesterday, grouped them by +1, +2, etc, rather than fact family, and pulled out my time tests that are also grouped the same way, and we did some serious drilling with the first group. But this child should be almost ready to learn multiplication, and we're almost back to ground zero with addition and subtraction. What to do???????

Which subjects does CC Foundations actually replace?? Can someone help me with this? I've read lots of threads and browsed their website, but I'm having trouble seeing which parts of CC are supplements, and which parts are complete. For example, this is what my 2nd grader is doing this year - which of these subjects would CC Foundations replace? Or would I need to keep these & CC just reinforces?? Math (CLE 2) Spelling (R&S 3) History (Veritas Self-Paced) Writing - (WWE 3) Latin - (Prima Latina) Greek - (Alphabet) English - (R&S 3) Bible - CLE 3 Art - Mark Kistler Science - Real Science Odyssey Thank you!

My son is half way through CLE Math 2, and I think he's doing very well. Most tests and quizzes he scores 90-100%, and seems to understand the material well. However, I'm noticing that he is using his fingers some when doing addition. Should I be concerned about that? We used MUS for Kindergarten, and found the lack of review was an issue for him. Any concept not perpetually reviewed is quickly deleted from his brain! So I feel like CLE is a good fit, but I'm a little troubled by the fingers.

Is the publisher the only place this can be purchased? I was looking at this for my 1st grader who wants to learn cursive - book 2C for him?? And my 2nd/3rd grader, who spent 2 weeks learning the cursive alphabet but hasn't used it much yet - should he start in book 3 (reviews manuscript and then does intro to cursive) or book 4 (mastery of cursive)? Thank you!

I'd say begin with 206. We faced a similar quandry when placing my son in CLE last year. He passed the placement test, but barely. I backed him up half a year, and let him whiz through. That was very important for him. He built confidence, got a chance to become acquainted with the way CLE lessons are presented, and filled in all the little gaps, all without feeling overwhelmed about the material.

My 7yo would like to learn cursive. He's officially 1st grade, and can print beautifully. He prints CLE/ETC-style, no slant, so not sure if I can get away with using Classically Cursive with him, which is what I've always used in the classroom & with my oldest. Here are the options I'm seeing.... New American Cursive - Nice line size for a 1st grader, fun presentation. But it goes in alphabetical order! What's up with that?? Seems like doing the easy letters first makes more sense... Also, this method would take the entire year to get introduced to all the letters, and he wouldn't be using cursive in his other work until 2nd grade at least. Not sure if this is good or bad. Might be good - might satisfy his desire to work with cursive a bit, without overwhelming e Zaner Bloser - Seems okay. I guess. Starts with easy letters. Classically Cursive - This is what I'm most familiar with. I've taught from these materials in the 2nd grade classroom, and we take on two letters a day, finish the alphabet in 13 days, and require all work in cursive from that point forward. It's based of D'Nealian/Modern Manuscript font, though, which my son hasn't learned. The font is a little smallish for my first grader. Not sure this is a good fit for him.

My 8yo is learning cursive, and we're getting ready to begin Prima Latina with him (together with the 1st grader). The PL Copybook is cursive, which is nifty, but, I'm concerned the line width might not be appropriate for him. Any input??