From what I can tell, 700 & 800 are both very important, but you can accelerate them and do both in a year. (That's what we're doing with Yacko.) 700 is pre-Alg/ Geometry and 800 is Consumer Math. I wouldn't skip either one.

We really haven't needed much of anything in the way of manipulatives. (Dot is in 208.)

Dot tends to try to do the lesson without reading the instructions (we use CLE). What I do is have her read them aloud to me.

CLE runs quite a bit ahead of public school standards of learning. A child who is absolutely on level, will often place a year "behind" in the CLE materials. They also introduce things in a slightly different order, so if you skip ahead your child may struggle with concepts introduced. On the plus side, it's very easy to skip anything that you feel is extra review, and the books are very inexpensive, so if you skip a lot you don't feel like you've wasted money in buying the LightUnit. When we first started formal schooling with Dot, we started her in the 100 level (they don't have kindergarten) and 98% of what was covered in the first 5 or 6 LUs was review for her. She blew through the first LU in a week.

We started Dot with LU 101 for her kindergarten year. It wasn't until 107 that she hit anything she didn't already know. She was well into the 200 level before she hit anything that challenged her, but the material is very advanced for 2nd grade, much of it actually corresponds with the VA Standards of Learning for 3rd grade. Anyway, what we did was just skip anything that was obvious review. Once I knew she knew it, we skipped that part of the review. If she showed she needed the review, then we did it. They use what I call the "Mary Poppins" approach - small, sweet bites that all of a sudden have them doing fairly advanced skills.

I've used ABEKA, CLE, ACE and a mish-mash of others. We ONLY use CLE now. I really have a strong dislike for ABEKA. I feel the material is overpriced, over-complicated and academically inferior to just about everything else available. CLE is the best math program we've used. It's simple, inexpensive, easy to use, easy to administer, makes record-keeping VERY easy, and is academically top-shelf. It's very challenging (it runs a year ahead of our state's standards of learning, which are among the highest in the US), yet it presents the material in bite-size segments. I call it the "Mary Poppins Approach." ;) I love the fact that I can buy three levels of CLE for the price of ONE level of any of several alternate options. (Important since Dot blows through two levels a year and Yacko has to finish two levels before next September!) My only complaint about CLE math is that the Sunrise editions do not go all the way through. They end after the 800 level, so we have to decide what we're going to use for Algebra (my kids go back to public school for high school.)

As much as I love CLE, I do NOT like the way they handle writing. What I use instead is "The Write Stuff Adventure" by Dean Rea. Mr. Rea was a college prof who's daughter was homeschooling her children. He started out teaching his grandkids writing, then began offering lessons for other hsers. His lessons are well laid out, and the book is very inexpensive. It's recommend for grades 5 and up, but if your child can form coherent thoughts and write them down, you can use it younger. Dot is 7, and I've used it with her very successfully. I also use it with Wacko (turning 13 in April), so having one book for both makes it much easier. For Yacko (8th grade) we use Barron's "How to Write Successfully in High School and College".

You can always just skip questions. I do this for things we don't need the extra review on anyway.

We've gone through levels 100, 500, 600, are most of the way through 200 (we'll start 300 soon) and are almost halfway through 700. I use it with my (possible gifted) daughter, and both of my 2e sons (gifted with LDs, both are on the autism spectrum.) The ONLY thing I dislike about CLE is that the Sunrise edition stop at the 800 level, so we have to find something else for algebra. :p

the HEAV convention in Richmond is useful, we've been twice, but is definitely Christian-centric. A little more than I'd like, actually, since we homeschool for academic reasons more than anything else. The assumption seems to be that if you're a Christian using mostly Christian curricula then you're hsing for faith-based reasons. We're not. :p We use CLE because I believe it to be the most rigorous product available in our price range, not because it's a Christian publisher, and in some cases the POV is a little heavier than I'd like. If money were no object, we'd be using Oak Meadow for science and the humanities. ;)

DH and I are approaching our 15h anniversary. We were married at 18/19. If it weren't for the kids, I'm not sure we'd still be together, but at this point the lack of formal education (no degree= no job) dictates that we stay together whether it's the best thing for our family or not. For all intents and purposes, I am a single parent. DH often sleeps at the office, sometimes not coming home for two or three days in a row. It's not unusual for the kids to not see him for days at a time. If I had the financial means to support another household, and continue educating the kids, I'd probably be gone. DH is a nice man, but not a good husband, and a mostly absentee father.

IMO, it really only is accurate when comparing average children. A bright child who is motivated to do so can certainly learn to read at an early age, but by 8 or 10 that child may not necessarily be any more advanced than the child who didn't learn to read until 7. Dot taught herself how to read at 3. I didn't read until I was nearly 8. Within a year, I was reading on an college level. Dot will be 7 in October, she reads on a high middle-school level (possibly higher, I haven't bothered testing her.) I believe that the original basis for this whole "they all average out" thing is comparing kids who attended academic preschools (not necessarily "baby university", but just your average basic preschool that places an emphasis on children learning K skills before K) with children who did not do so. Exposure can certainly lead to an accelerated start, but not necessarily one that continues. I also believe that in some cases very gifted children can have issues that cause their giftedness to not be exhibited academically. My eldest neice, C., is this way. She learned a roundoff/back handspring/tuck combination in less than two months. But she reads on a first grade level. She's 13. When she was 2, I took her ice skating for the first time. She had never been on skates of any kind, much less figure skates. Within 30 minutes, she was skating on one foot both forward and backward. I know kids and adults who still can't do it after months of lessons. Yacko is 14, at 15 mos old he taught himself the alphabet using his wooden blocks. He had NO interest in reading, and didn't learn until kindy. He is not the least bit academically accelerated, but he is mildly gifted, as are Wacko and Dot. Of the three of them, Yacko is actually almost 2 years BEHIND, Wacko in about on level, and Dot is a year accelerated (two if you use our state's cutoff for starting school, since she would have been in kindy last year.)

Her current favorite is a series about ponies, I think it's called "Pony Pals", there is another princess series in which each princess has the name of a gemstone. Look for "The Diamond Princess", "The Emerald Princess" and so on. :001_smile: