I used a Reason for Handwriting with all 3 and had them slant their paper. When my middle son had his assessment this year, the assessor asked hime to write some sentences for him. As he started, he didn't have the paper slanted, she stopped him and had him slant the paper. I'm pretty sure she gave a reason for it but I really can't remember what it was :001_huh:! I think if they start anywhere other than at the top, you end up with a habit that you will have to break later. Just my .02.

I used to have each child narrate beginning with the youngest. This worked fine but since I have three boys it sometimes turned into a competition...the youngest would go on and on and on, trying to say everything possible. Then the next boy would get frustrated because he couldn't think of anything new to add. I'd encourage him to say it in his own words but by that point he wasn't very engaged. After he'd gone, the oldest would just think the whole thing was dumb because everything had already been said....twice! Last year I decided only 1 boy would narrate but I would choose who it would be. They never knew who I was going to choose so that encouraged active listening. Sometimes I would choose one boy for 2 or even 3 days. That blew their whole theory of "Well, I went yesterday so she won't pick me today.":001_smile: Sometimes I would choose the one who didn't appear to be listening and was pleasantly surprised when he could give me a great summary of what we'd gone over. If something was more technical or complicated I might choose an older boy to narrate and that would help the younger by hearing it twice in different ways. I liked this approach better and we will continue it this year.

Math U See I love it when the kids watch him teach on the video and completely understand. The downside is that I get lulled into thinking that every lesson will be that way. It seems like out of the blue a lesson will come along, we'll watch, and then they'll look at me and say those 4 dreaded words...."I don't get it..." at that point I hate Math U See :001_huh:

Yay, we saw some!! I really enjoyed being outside under the stars with my oldest and talking. The younger two had fallen asleep and dh had to get up for work. Next time, I hope to plan it better and head out somewhere that is much darker that our subdivision. But I was amazed at what we could see.

Thanks so much for posting this! I thought we had to wait until after midnight. It will be great to head outside much earlier!

We used Wordly Wise 3000 last year. My son used book 3 for 3rd grade. It's my understanding that the program has been re-numbered so that the number of the book corresponds to the student's grade level. You can see samples here to help determine placement. http://www.epsbooks.com/dynamic/catalog/program.asp?seriesonly=2818M You may need a teacher's guide or answer key for the upper levels but I didn't use one for third grade. The workbook is very straightforward. Hope this helps!

:lurk5: Bumping this up since I'd like to hear comments on this too.

I read TWTM about 4 years ago. We were doing Sonlight at the time. The next year we switched and read SOTW along with the activity guide. It was o.k. but we didn't really enjoy many of the additional book suggestions in the activity guide. We tried some of the other WTM curriculum suggestions but it just wasn't a good fit for us at the time. Since then, I've learned that I lean more toward a CM philosophy which is not as rigorous in the early years but amps up quite a bit more during jr. and sr. high. I started coming to this forum about 2 months ago and I have learned about so many great curriculums that I didn't even know were out there. While I love WP and plan to stick with that for our history rotations, I'm gleaning great info on math and writing programs for my oldest who is entering jr. high as well as spelling ideas for my middle son who struggles with that quite a bit. There is a wealth of knowledge for anyone. I plan to re-read TWTM again this summer. Now, I realize that I don't have to follow it EXACTLY...that I can tweak it to make it fit for our family. The forums have also helped me see how and where I can be challenging my children a little bit more in certain areas. That's why I'm here :)

Love it....thanks for sharing! :001_smile:

In Washington state it varies based on your school district. Some districts start high school in 9th grade; for others it's 10th.

This is our first year with WP and it's been great for us. I have a 2nd grader, 4th grader, and 5th grader. We used Sonlight for 2 years. It was o.k. Some of the books we loved while there were others we barely made it through. I felt like we did soooo much reading but I wanted my kids to spend some time experiencing what we were learning. I did add in some hands on activities but I didn't like having to search out and order additional items. I also used their LA program and my kids didn't retain a lot of it. I stumbled upon WinterPromise last summer and it has been a blessing for us. We are using AS2 and really enjoying it. I added in the Middler Pack for the 5th grader. The read alouds have been hard to put down. I've only had complaints about one of the readers so far. I like that there are so many options for activities but I can pick and choose the ones that are a good fit for us. I also like the pace. I don't feel rushed if we get off on a tangent somewhere and I like that I can shuffle things around if I need to. We're in WWII so in our reading today for example, we learned all about the goods America produced for the war. We learned about how families and individuals were leaving rural areas for cities. We watched a video online about the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Then 2 of my boys played an online game finding "Top Secret Files" and answering the questions held inside in order to keep the Ninja Headquarters from re-writing history about WWII. The kids had a great time and got to experience the time period in a variety of forms. As for the bad, I'm not crazy about the LA. I prefer it to Sonlight but we will be doing other things for LA next year. Items are often backordered so you may receive your package in 2 or more shipments. And lastly, you should preview the IG a week or two in advance because things don't always line up. Last week we were supposed to listen to FDR's speech to Congress about the bombing of Pearl Harbor but we weren't actually reading about that until this week. I don't know if that helps you in any way but that's been our experience.

I'm interested in hearing about this as well.

We do kind of a mix. My kids have a list of assignments scheduled for each day that they are required to accomplish. But for math we do it strictly by time limit...so my 6th grader is required to spend 30 minutes (next year it will be 40) working on math while my 4th grader is required to spend 25. Math is the biggest struggle for us because some topics just click right away while others don't. It helps my kids to know that they only have to spend x amount of time on something that may be tough for them. When they reach one of the sections that seems easier to grasp, they tend to fly through it so they make up most of time where they were a bit bogged down. Kelli in WA

We love WinterPromise and plan to stick with it for the long haul. Kelli in WA