Yes I think you can just get the guide and the science kits and use the library for the rest. The science kits are very simple, but if you are shorter on time than money then they are worth it. I get school funding so it is worth it. If I didn't get school funding I would probably buy a few science experiment books and choose experiments from there for each section and gather the materials together over one week of intense prep. The guide is also just a time saver. They have printed out what to read and when over a 36 week plan. You could design your own in a week as well. But I know I would get bogged down on choosing the perfect book and all that so in the end it is worth it to just rely on someone else's work/

Could it be that having pre-organized curriculum is the key?

OKay please tell me how you can fit in all the subjects in 3 hours with ten kids? How did the Swanns do it? I am not even asking about diapers and potty training and housecleaning. I want to know how she did all that school. I can see almost 100% independent work starting grade 4 or so. Then I would have bi-weekly (or so ) meetings with each independent student. But then there are still kids in grades k,1,2,3 and then the toddler and the baby?

Sort of like baking bread right? Find a reputable recipe and stick to it till your bread turns out. It doesn't help to keeop jumping from recipe to recipe because you have to get a feel for the dough and the shaping method. M.

OKay, sorry Valerie. Your son's voice is not funny. :) I love, LOVE, boys choirs. I love the sound of boy sopranos and I love seeing them sing even more. There is something heart breakingly gorgeous about it. I hope my sons will want to sing.

CherylCo! Thank you for your post. I see what you are saying about music not being a subject per say. One does have to be taught an instrument and, then later, theory. But the rest should be done out of joy. The reason I do sight singing is that I do it for our Chant choir. I found it was also very good for my brain to do it and the ability goes away if I stop practicing. I use exercises that were copied out of a Ward book. So I might as well get the kids to sing along. I don't expect them to do it well. Surprisingly they are catching on faster than I thought they would. They often can sing the next note in a sequence. It was just mystifying to me why my 6 yo would sometimes not be able to sing a scale at all. But I will just continue having them sing along and let them develop on their own. I did look at Orff and KOdaly books a long time ago and now that you mention it I was discouraged by not knowing how to implement those things in a home setting. CherylCO: If you think of a book that can help me understand what you have come to understand about music please let me know.

Thankyou ever so much for the help and the extensive list of books. I will check a few of them out and try and inspire myself into patience in this area as well. Oh my. SO much patience is needed everywhere. So if it is normal for scale singing to be difficult at 6 or 7 then how come there are boys choirs that sing beautifully? The boys must be young to sing so high. They only have from age 6 to 10 to sing before their voice starts going funny.

Okay so since you are a qualified person, can you suggest a book that might help me grow some patience? Just as I was writing this I remembered that Suzuki had some books. Have you read those? Is there anything else that I can immerse my brain in and help me? I have read books like that in other subject areas that have really helped me be more patient.

I agree that phonics are key. I use Writing Road to Reading, which basically goes through a list of 1000 words and analyses how they are all spelled over the course of a few years. I can see that it would work perfectly well to have phonics/spelling lessons and then Narnia reading time. Don't worry about the simple readers, he doesn't need them if he doesn't want them. What a dear heart your son is for trying so hard!!! Don't stifle him by any means. I know it can be painful, but could you knit to make it bearable?

Thank you. Do you have a music background? I was thinking maybe I was expecting visible results when I should just do what you said: make sure it is enjoyable.

I use Writing road to Reading (WRTR) for spelling and The ABCs book is just a reference book for me. I like to look up words that don't follow the rules of WRTR. I have to re-read the articles in the front and backnow that I have been teaching WRTR for over a year, I think it is a great resource.

If you like Saxon and intend to stick with it then do not use all of Singapore. You will spend too much time duplicating things. It is easy though to just buy the Intensive problems and the Challenging Word problems books and then use those as you cover each topic in Saxon.

You could think of the "classical education" as what you teach and Charlotte Mason as your guide in how to teach it. For example you could have a classical curriculum that you teach using text books, work books and tests. You could also do the same using a Charlotte Mason approach.

I have been teaching solfa and recorder for a while now. With solfa I began to see some signs of progress, but I find that my younger student (age 6) often can't sing a scale. She can with some coaxing get her "ear" in gear and sing a scale properly and both her and her sister (7 yo) can now sing through some Gregorian chant notation sight singing exercises in solfa. It is easier to just sing the chant notation as the do is movable and we don't have to battle sharps and flats. With recorder the going is also very slow. They can now play a few notes mostly without squealing. My older child has some inkling of timing. SO she can play quarter notes and eighth notes somewhat at a constant tempo. But I am struggling to find ways to teach this. I do it by demonstrating and explaining. I ask them to clap. I clap for them and ask them to read out the ta and ti ti notes.... What I need is some help in how to be a music teacher. Can you please tell me why it takes to long to grasp these things? I have been doing solfa for about 3 years. I have been making them clap rhythms for almost two years. They have heard me sing solfa at least weekly all their lives. Is there a wonderful book out there that can give me some of these insights so I can be more patient and be a better teacher? I am looking for something thoughtful that will inspire me. Sort of like the Charlotte Mason materials that I have been reading.

My kids are too young yet to pursue an intensive writing course. At least I am choosing to use mainly oral narration, copy work etc. to prepare a foundation for writing. In the mean time I could use some guidance on what teaching writing is all about. From what I have seen the IEW dvds have a lot of good solid points and I think they be just what I need for now. Do you think so too? Is there something else you would recommend?

What is an articiculation issue? I have a 7 yo who speaks "funny" mostly because she doesn't take the time to say things properly If I ask her to stop and say it properly, she will most often know how to express herself. A few tomes though shedoesn't know how to word what she is thinking Is that what you are calling articulation issues?

Yepp I agree 5 can be young. Also, don't make them copy it twice and mae sure they are copying something they know how to read. At least that is what I do.

It can help you teach things in a different way if the student is just not progressing. I liked it a lot till I found Singapore and now that is my favorite program, but I still use Miquon and will probably use it till the end just to have even more variety.

Thank you!!! M

So far I have reviewed books 1A,1B and 2A. I love the intensive practice workbooks and the extra practice ones are useful for more practice. I will get the kids to start using notebooks to solve the problems in from the intensive and extra practice books so I don't ave to buy them again year after year (I have 5 kids so far). I also want to get the Challenging word problems. With all this we won't need extra mind benders ect. I think with all of the extra books Singapore must be good enough. I can't imagine wanting to do more.

I think MCP is good if you are a gifted teacher and like to play other games and pose problems that help a child to understand concepts thoroughly. I used MCP with Miquon for my oldest for grade one and K and found that she understood everything that SIngapore wanted her to understand when we reviewed the grade one SIngapore books together. Then when it came to my second child who used MCP and some Miquon, she got bogged down with subtracting with renaming (regrouping) and I found out that she wasn't clear on which number is to be subtracted from which one and that we needed to switch to Singapore and review all of grade one to get her to the point where she can really subtract and understand what is happening. So perhaps I am not such a good math teacher or my second child is particularly dense, but we did need the Singapore style to drive just the basics home well. Singapore poses IQ test type problems in its intensive math problem books which I find are very good. If you use MCP you will have to do a lot more inventing of problems and playing of games to supplement. It teaches 2+2 =4, but doesn't dwell a lot on x+2=4. There are problems of that nature, but not given in a way that really challenges. My second daughter just gave the right answer without understanding why it was right.

Which book is this, the one by Herodotus? I am going to start reading Herodotus, but it has a different title and it is not geared for children.

tHANKYOU!!

Thank you, I do forget that it all takes time, but it is almost unbelievable how much time the little things take. M.

I have no idea how it happens, but time seems to flow out of muy fingers like water. I just looked at someone else's blog on how their 8 yo spends her school day and it seems that it goes as it should even with interruptions. For example this lady wrote she got up at 7:20 and then her older kids were done breakfast and starting school at 8:30. Her younger child started school at 10 and was done at 1. Now I know she has 4 kids from 13 to 3 and I have 5 kids from 7 to 0, but really what is wrong with me? Can anybody suggest how I can trouble shoot my day to see why time just seems to flee? I have two kids who are in school. They do the same thing in all subjects except for math. We just started doing spelling and phonics review together. They do the following: prayer singing poetry math reading in English reading in our second language copywork spelling/phonics review This sometimes takes us till 1 or 2 then we still have Science or history.