5-10 minute phonics/reading lesson 10 read aloud in which I would begin to ask what her favorite part of the story was/beginning narrations 10 minute fun math-counting, shapes, skip counting, basic math addition facts, basic math subtraction facts, or math games This is very doable with a little one. You could also alternate between the phonics lessons and read alouds. HTH, Dee

It is spiral in a workbook format. Many are switching up to CLE and are raving about it. I'm really considering it. You can see pics if you join the yahoo group. HTH, Dee

A Word Roots program sounds like something I'm looking for. I just am not sure which one to use that he could do independently while still really getting something out of it. :) I will start looking into some of the more word root based ones. Blessings, Dee

And what I did was focus one whole year on improving his spelling. We used Megawords, which mixes vocabulary, spelling, and reading in one workbook, and we also continued our other program from AVKO, Sequential Spelling (presently on book 3, but we think it may be our last one). In one year we worked through Megawords 1-5, and this year we will be completing 6-8, hopefully we'll make it to 8 as we have only 10 more weeks left of school. By doing this, my son has improved in his spelling so dramatically. He will never be a great speller, but at least every other word in his papers now is not a misspelled one. Also, I just recently purchased, Spelling Demons, Week by Week, and this looks like a great last course for my son. I think we will lightly go through this next year and then we are done and I will just correct misspelled words in his writing. This is a 40 week course targeting the most mispelled words in the english language. At this point, I figure if anyone comments about his spelling when he is an adult, I'll just take all the completed Megawords books and the completed Sequential Spelling workbooks and throw it at them and say, "There!" :tongue_smilie: HTH, Dee

All suggestions welcome! :001_smile: If he were an avid reader, I wouldn't even consider one, but he's not. thanks, Dee

My third grader will be using: math-Rod and Staff math 3 with a manipulative kit that I purchased for extra fun! (I know, I know, I've been asking math questions like a crazy person, but I still can't find something that I truly think fits my son, so I'll just adjust this one to fit his needs...I think...don't hold me to that:tongue_smilie: ) School of Tomorrow 3rd gr. English Paces Rod and Staff Spelling 3rd grade book WWE bok 2 (almost done with book 1) extra dictation only if needed from Spelling Plus Dictation book Pathway Readers -third grade and lots of library trade books as time allows Science History Health ---these are all from Abeka. (starting in the 4rth grade we'll begin SOTW with the A.G. and a book or two per lesson, nothing overwhelming) Bible-so far we are enjoying the student sheets from Bible Study Guide. I think we'll continue with that. Art-I buy art supplies and drawing books and my son has at them. :lol: We also work on a map skills book. This seems like a lot in comparison to some and not enough in comparison to others. We definitely do not do everything here every day and the Abeka courses are only a semester each. We rarely work formally more than 3 hours per day...but my son goes off to draw, paint, and create for hours on his own. Dee

She's only 10 and public school crams a lot of things into those little minds, but that doesn't mean they actually remember any of it a few weeks later. :) You said, she loves reading and she spells well, well that's half the battle right there. If she is contantly reading, she is picking up new vocabulary words all time. So don't worry about starting up a vocabulary program or a spelling program this school year. If her reading skills are up to par, then the only real issue here was her math skills being weak. Work on those and start fresh next year with your plan. SOTW is a wonderful way to do world history on a chronlogical level without being overwhelmed. You can keep it simple, or add extra books and make it even more interesting. Don't worry about grade levels. My now 8th grader started the SOTW series last year and is now actually interested in history. We all have a year or so that we feel like this. For me it was my daughter's seventh grade year. We were moving and barely did school and I thought I ruined her for life...:) Not so, she bounced back fine the following year as if her one bad year never happened. Good Luck, Dee

It is rule based. It has exercises, but they are not busywork, they really make the children think about their answers. We are on week 24 of 2nd grade and I am about to order the 3rd grade one. We are really impressed with it. My son has done very well with it and I would like to continue with it for as long as my son could handle it. :) You can view samples at rodandstaffbooks.com I think you will not be disappointed. Blessings, Dee

probably start your 4rth grader in level 3. I have purchased it a few times, but just can't seem to pull it off, I can't tell you exactly why, but I think it's because I may need a higher level than what I'm getting. My original likes were that it is fairly self instructional as it talks to the child and that it goes all the way up through highschool writing. Also, the lessons are broken up into very short pieces that most children can handle. If you are interested, I have a like new copy of Writing Strands 3 with Evaluating Writing also like new and I will sell it to you both copies for 12 ppd. Let me know...Either way, I know it's a good program because many have used it successfully. You can also do a search right here and read older posts on how others have used it. HTH, Dee in Sunny FL! rebel4jesus25@hotmail.com

Okay Sue, the only thing that scares me were the words "learning curve" in your post. :) Can you explain just how much of a learning curve there is? Thank you, Dee

Okay, after researching sooooo many writing programs, this is one that is also interesting me. I like the fact that it seems mostly scripted and that it seems to be geared to parents that don't really know how to teach writing and that would most definitely be me. I'm intersted in your opinions about this. This would be for my 9th and 10th grader and he's only just begun to write now. We need something that goes from paragraphs to essays for our first two highschool years and then we can work on research papers and so on for our last two. I would love to hear your advice... So far we are doing Abeka literature Winston Grammar Advanced Something for spelling/vocabulary and I need something for writing/composition...:( Thank you in advance, Dee ps My son is mildly dyslexic and the only thing we've done for writing thus far is history narrations, some Wordsmith, and some Writing Trails for outline learning.

I am so confused about how IEW works? I would be interested in this for a ninth grader. Can you tell me what you buy and then how you go about watching the videos and teaching this? Is it time consuming? We have been using some Wordsmith, some Writing Trails Men of Science, and lots of written narrations for history so far. This child likes independent work, so I need to make sure that I choose something geared to his learning style. If it didn't work for you, please share exactly why and what you used instead. Thank you, Dee

I went with Rod and Staff and I have not regretted it. My son is on lesson 123 of the 2nd grade math and going strong. It's not his favorite thing, but I don't think any math would be his favorite thing. He started having tears once we got to about lesson 100, but that was only because I needed to back down and I didn't realize that I could cut the amount of problems down and he'd still understand it. Once I cut the amount of problems down, he continued to thrive. We never skip our fact pages, just cut down the amount of problems in our new lesson/concepts pages. For instance, if there are 20 problems, I cut them down to ten. What I can say about Rod and Staff is that you must do the class time. This is where the "understanding math" happens. This is where all the other math that you won't see on the student pages, happens. Here you will learn and practice time, money, measurement, skip counting, math facts, greater than/less than, and much more. If you were just to look at the pages, it seems like a very boring math program, but the action happens in the teacher's manual, and let's face it, no matter what math program you use in the second grade, you are still going to have to do some teaching. The oral class time is my son's favorite part and I had started to cut it out or do it every couple of days. It is very important to follow it just as it says. I use a white board for this and my son loves it! My son knows his math facts cold, and at a fast speed. I have the MUS in my hands, but something just tells me that we would still be supplementing. HTH, Dee in Sunny FL!

go searching in my curriculum closet and yes, not only would I have enough to homeschool next year without purchasing a thing, I would probably have enough to homeschool for a few years. I have Mastering Mathematics I have Life of Fred Fractions, Decimals, and Algebra I have Lial's Basic College Math I have Math Relief Algebra 1 So I think I have math covered up until Algebra and even introductory geometry... I have a few old english texts and lots of english writing and reading materials. I have lots of older texts that I've downloaded on english, grammar, and spelling. I have a few american history texts... I have geography curriculum (highschool), Powerglide Spanish, and an extra biology program that someone passed down to me. So this, the internet and the library would have me covered for some time. But I don't want to! :) Blessings! Dee ps this was fun! and the hunting made me find a few things I didn't even know I had.

Please share what your thougths were on this math program? It seems a bit advanced to me. Am I right in assuming so? Thanks, Dee

For my 2nd grader... School of Tomorrow 2nd gr. English paces WWE 1 Rod and Staff spelling 2 (yup, we are really digging this!) and last but certainly not least, Bible Study Guide student pages(beginner level) we didn't like the intermediate level... For my junior highschooler Winston Basic (who knew this could be fun, we do it together) SOTW 2 and 3 (yup, this has given him a new love of history) Life of Fred Fractions Life of Fred Decimals and he's started LOF algebra and so far, so good! :) Love reading about everyone's favorites...

I do use it with Sequential spelling on the side but this is because my son is mildly dyslexic. He has improved dramatically with both programs. We are still trying to figure out which should get the most credit for the improvements... He has just finished book 6 and has two more to go in the Megaword series. He's in the 8th grade. Dee

You can backtrack and start up from week one. http://smallworldathome.blogspot.com...ful-words.html HTH, Dee sorry that it didn't work...try http://www.smallworldathome.blogspot.com

You can backtrack and start up from week one. :) http://smallworldathome.blogspot.com/2009/01/smallworlds-wordsmithery-powerful-words.html oops, this was supposed to go under the writing thread. Sorry. :)

I've been interested in using this for some time, but I haven't read of that many people using it so I was worried. I may end up trying this, maybe I could even find some of it used. :) Blessings!! Dee

Thank you for responding. Did you feel you needed to supplement when you used it, or was it enough. I ask because I own several components of the first/second grade program and in comparison to other programs, it seems like a lot less work. I'm assuming this is because there is so much actual manipulative work...but I could be wrong. Thank you, Dee ps anyone else???

I would love to hear if this worked for you. If it didn't, I'd like to know what you used instead. I'm having a lot of math curiosity here lately. :) Blessings!!! Dee

Thank you, Jonnia. I will check these sites out right away. Blessings, Dee

My daughter is 20 years old and in her first year of college. She is interested in doing some freelance writing, even if it's free at first for the experience. Can someone direct me in what I should do, or whom to contact to get her started? Thank you and Blessings, Dee

(I'm wondering a few months, or a whole year?) I would be interested in knowing this...also, how do you schedule your Math u see day? Do you watch the video together, then the lesson? Do you only do one page of a lesson, or more? Please share as I am fumbling around trying to make a decision. blessings, Dee