Julianna - That's a great tip! I have a first grader, too so maybe I will do it together with them! Down the Rabbit Hole - Great tip for my 3rd grader! momsuz123 - I will check out HWOT!

My son is halfway through 3rd grade, so I thought it was time to introduce cursive. Any helpful tips on curriculum that has worked for you would be great!!! Joelle

Last year I did CC and the full Sonlight curriculum. It was crazy and I felt like we didn't do well at either. This year we are using CC and supplimenting with reading from: Everything you need to know about World History homework .................................................Science..................... Kingfisher Encyclopedia Story of the World Mystery of History That, plus the Science Snippits and History Highlights is so great! If I hadn't purchased those books, I would never have time to go to the library weekly to find information on each of the weeks' topics. Plus, for their presentations, sometimes they will get some books out on one of the topics they are learning in order to find out more about it. I also get out Sonlight's readers and read alouds from the library and work that in with our 1st Language Lessons and All About Spelling for Language Arts. We do AWANA review and a daily devotional for Bible. I use Math U See. I feel like this is a very comprehensive program and a lot cheaper and more manageable than buying another complete curriculum. Hope that helps! Joelle

I actually think it would be perfect for her. My son was 5 this past September. I did MFW K with him and ended up having to supplement it with math and Sonlight's Core in order to give him everything I wanted for kindergarten. I do think it's a very good program for a 4 year old. It's lots of easy crafts, talking about simple science ideas, etc... However, I do agree with the others that you probably would want to do a more agressive K program with her before doing the 1st grade. My 3 year old did most of the crafts and projects and storybook reading right along with us. Of course, she was too young for some parts, but I just did what she could and let her do puzzles and activities when she wasn't interested. Luckily, it's inexpensive enough that you would easily be able to set it aside if it didn't work for you.

Wow. I had no idea charts like that existed! I will definitely be ordering my activity sheets before April, then!

Thanks for clearing that up! I feel like such a dunce!

Thank you so much! It is so helpful to have advice from people who have used both curriculums!

So if mine says Copyright 2007, is that last year's or the year before? Wouldn't April's new one be 2009?

Sorry. I'm kind of new to the homeschooling forums, so I need a little decoding. :) What is SWR? My son is learning to read this year with My Father's World K program. I'm supplementing with Hooked on Phonics K program, which I think goes more in depth. So, does it totally depend on his personality as to whether or not ETC will be a good fit for him? Is it mostly workbook pages that just review what he's learning in the LA? I guess I just don't want to spend the money on them if I don't really need them.

I bought a gently used version of the SL Core 1 Science from 2007. The bad part is that the seller didn't have the activity sheets. Seeing the posts recently on the brand new SL catalog kind of freaked me out and made me think that I can't order the Activity Sheets under the consumable items and have it work with my used version. Anyone able to help on this?

I was actually wondering, too, if Explode the Code is a nice addition to the LA for Sonlight Core 1 or if it's unnecessary.

Isn't it sad that we even care? I was SOOOOO excited when I bumped up to the Worker Bee level. I even told my dh!!!

I did it! That's awesome!!! Thanks!

I'm trying to test this too. Want to check out Well Trained Mind Forums?

Thank you Laura! That subject line editing was killing me and I'm so glad I know how to do it now!!

I used Sonlight's K core & Bible this year, along with My Father's World. I absolutely LOVE it! I really appreciate the type of readers SL chooses. I think my ds has such an expanded vocabulary because of it. I'm reading books to him that I never would have chosen from the library, so I'm learning along the way too. I appreciate the comprehension questions to help me try to think outside the box and discuss the literature with him. I think the timeline is great and is giving him an understanding of past and present. I also think the map has been a huge draw for him. He loves seeing where all these stories take place and it's just being integrated into his reading. It's not even like we are trying to make "geography" happen. I am using the Core 1 exclusively next year (well, except math) because I loved it so much this year! Hope it helps!

I know how you feel! I have a kindergardener and a dd who is 3 1/2. I was letting her watch TV and then revolted against the idea of just turning her into a blob so I could have time with ds to do school. The last few weeks have been AMAZING and I feel like it's all in my preparation. I just have to make sure she is involved in what we are doing. Sometimes she listens to our readings for Sonlight, she takes part in any art projects we do, and we use MFW for his main curriculum so I try to copy his workbook pages for her to do too. She loves to color, cut (especially the Kumon book), use a hole punch (big hit), cut yarn, count/sort buttons or different scrapbooking embellishments like clips, brads, etc. She is 3 1/2 and in the last 2 weeks she has gone from 24 piece puzzles to being able to do 63 piece puzzles on her own! She sits right at the table with us and I tell her she has school work, too. She also loves stringing Cheerios or buttons or beads, looking through picture books, doing play doh... Today I used toothpicks and drew lines on a paper that correlated with the size of the toothpicks. I did some lines and some shapes and that kept her busy for a while. That one just needs to be supervised :) I think the biggest problems are that the older one can't really do work on his own. It's very interactive, so he needs my time. The only other thing is that he thinks what she's doing is more fun. It really has been a work in progress, but I've seen great results recently. Good luck to you!

I was talking to a really seasoned homeschool mom who told me that even in the schools, they NEVER finish their books in the course of a year. I started to think back about my public school experience and realized how true that was! It really helped me to see that I don't have to kill myself and my ds in the process. I think I'll try to do a little throughout the summer so we don't have to review so much in the fall, but I'm so excited for summer to come. I told my son that we are going to enjoy the break by going to the zoo and science center and children's museum and doing all the stuff we don't have time to cram in during the school year! We are all looking forward to it - and we'll still be learning! Shhh....don't tell him! :)

That's amazing. Thanks for sharing!

Thank you! Wow, I can't believe you can put it in your cart and still not get it! That's one I'll have to do next year!

I think by the middle of next year, my ds will be a fluent enough reader to be able to read to his sister. What a good idea!

Thank you!!! Do you know if that sale is still going on?

I am looking to edit a post in order to update the contents of the thread. Does anyone know how to do that? I also have to delete a post and don't know how! Help!!! LOOK AT ME...I'M EDITING!

Thank you so much for the ideas! It really is helping me to see next year take shape -- and even what I can be doing with her right now!

I love the bead/clay activity! I can't wait to try it. I know they will both love that. I think that's the hard part, too, is that my dd gets to do "fun school" according to my ds and his is more boring. :)