Ask your hubby... mine knows there's a baby on the way before I do. :blushing:

I would go with grade level. We just switched over this year and none of my children have had a problem adapting to their grade level. My strongest student found it relatively easy, but has been learning quite a bit. My weakest student found it challenging, but doable. It's been a perfect match for my average student. :D

My oldest is 6th grade this year. We're using Learning Language Arts Through Literature Tan this year and I've been extremly happy with it. DS is able to complete his work independently. I spend about 30 minutes a day reviewing/ discussing his school work with him. LLATL Tan would cover reading, writing, and vocabulary. It also covers grammar and spelling, as a bonus. ;) You could skip those, or double up. As far as geography, have you considered using the activity guide for SOTW 4? My oldest is able to read the instructions for the mapwork and complete it himself. If you marked the sections in the activity guide with post-it notes, there's no reason he can't open the book and go for it. As far as handwriting, if his writing is decent, there's no reason to keep working on handwriting. I require all written work to be neat and readable and that's as far as we go. HTH!

I liked it on a personal level. I picked it up when the children were little and read/worked through the first book. It was the first book in which grammar made sense. (Grammar was no longer taught by my public school when I went through K-12.) My children don't use Harvey's because it moves too fast and there's not enough review.

I draw the line at activity level. If the child is not interested in anything but lying on the sofa resting and sleeping, no school is required. On the other hand, if the child is up and playing, we run a light school day. If the child has enough energy to get into trouble, it's a full school day. :D

:iagree: My first 3 came in 2 1/2 years. I've found it's easiest to accomidate for individual differences by separating the children for math and language arts. We do history and science as a family, but as each child reaches logic state they complete the logic state recommendation in TWTM independently. Other families prefer to keep the children grouped as much as possible. Grouping complicates my life because I detest collecting the children en masse. Also, my oldest sits there and answers all the questions while his little sister looks wise and nods her head. :lol:

Better a good program worked on everyday, than an awesome program gathering dust on the shelf. :001_smile:

Changes... sometimes black, sometimes sweet with sugar, and sometimes with milk and sugar. Depends on how I feel! :001_smile:

:D

There are many good programs out there. For me, Phonics Pathways has given me my best readers. It's the one I will stick with from now on. :001_smile:

Yes, particularly with such small children, yes it's enough. :001_smile: It does get easier. My oldest 2, 11 and 12, can study their history and science on their own with some guidence from me. Also, as TWTM says, by middle school the children are usually able to spend an hour working independantly for every 10 minutes you spend working with the child. BUT, they need to be able to read well, write well, and know their math in order to be able to work independantly. Actually, getting outside to play is as important as the 3-R's. A lot of science or nature study is learning through exploration. You can also pick up interesting, easy, science books at the library to leave around the house. The same goes for history, I've found my children pick up a lot by browsing through books I've carelessly left on various tables. :D Also, I've found homeschooling goes in seasons. Sometimes we struggle to get school done each day, and don't seem to be accomplishing much. Other times everything flows together easily and we'll go for months or years at a steady pace. My goal is to make hay while the sun shines, and not worry too much when the sun doesn't.

Learning Language Arts Through Literature with old Calvert spelling cd-roms

Look into The Well-Trained Mind for suggestions. Your library might have it. As far as curriculum, you'll need math, language arts, possibly a foreign language (it can wait a year), history, and science. We're using Saxon Math, Learning Language Arts through Literature, Latin's Not So Tough, and TWTM suggestions for history and science.

I prefer to keep language arts and math leveled. My children's development in those areas are uneven, sometimes running behind then speeding up and moving ahead. Saxon math is my personal favorite, but some other good math programs are Singapore, CLE math, Horizons, and Rod and Staff. I attempted to use separate grammar, writing, spelling, and reading programs for each child but found it drove me crazy. There were too many curricula to keep track of. This year we're doing Learning Language Arts Through Literature for my older 3 and it's working well. I have a wonderful balance between the needs of all 4 children. My youngest is doing Queen's Language Arts for Little Ones. CLE also has a complete language arts curricula. There are some others, but I'm unable to recall them at this time. We're doing Story of the World and Christian Kids Explore Biology as a group with my logic stage sons also completing the recommendations for logic stage history and science in TWTM. I simply base the topic on what is being studied in SOTW and CKEB.

We're using Latin's Not So Tough in my family. My oldest son requested switching from Elementary Greek to Hey Andrew (same writer) because he liked the style. It's a slower program than many others and the flashcards are essential. The full answer key has information for the teacher at the beginning of the book, but the short answer key does not. I now ensure I have the full answer key for all workbooks level 3 and up. Each child starts Latin around 4th grade with LNST 2. It's a gentle introduction, memorizing around 50 words over the year. Level 3 picks up the pace and works with creating sentences using nouns and verbs. The endings are taught one at a time, and no chants are learned until level 4. I've found each level makes a serious jump in its complexity. The program does require some one-on-one time for my children to understand the grammar concepts being taught. I discovered, attempting other programs, that I prefer a program that moves slowly and doesn't intimidate us to a program the moves quickly and overwhelms me. Any program that overwhelms me tend to be avoided. HTH!

:iagree: The book is wonderful. My teachers used it in school, and I use it with my children. Although one of mine waits for "two" before he hops to it. lol.

:iagree: Same here! Although my K'er ds is rarely interested in joining us for science or history as he prefers worm hunting to book work.

7th grade plans for next year: Saxon Algebra 1/2 Latin's Not So Tough 5 with Lingua Latina Hey Andrew 3 Learning Language Arts Through Literature Green SOTW 3 with Kingfisher as per WTM Christian Kids Explore Chemistry or God's Design Chemistry with Science suggestions from WTM.

Thanks MyCrazyHouse! While Vista wouldn't let me disassociate the file type from the program, you gave me enough information to find an answer on google. (I hadn't realized that I needed to disassociate the file type.) Someone created a program to solve the problem. My computer is fixed and I accessed the files! Thank you. :party:

I downloaded a zipped file and had trouble extracting it. Somehow, in my desperation to open the file, I tried opening it with adobe (it's an adobe reader file). But it's still zipped, adobe can't read the incomplete file, and ALL my files ending with .zip are now to be automatically openned with adobe. I can't extract any of them. How do I convince the computer to remove adobe as the recommended program? Or how do I extract my files? It's no longer showing up as an option. My operating system is Vista. Thank you

One option is to use the WTM science recommendations for Logic stage science. That's what I'm doing, all the children do Christian Kids Explore together but my logic stage sons are also reading 'How Nature Works', picking a topic to explore in more detail, and writing a paper on the topic as per TWTM. Another alternative is http://msnucleus.org/curriculum/curriculum.html. They offer a science program for K-12. Best of luck!

Have you checked his eyesight? Because teaching one of my ds was very similar. He had trouble remembering sounds and letters, and we started phonics over and over and over for years. After fretting over various learning disabilities and wondering if we should test for dyslexia, it turns out... he's extremely farsighted. :banghead: He can see a page and focus on it, but it's really difficult and he can not do it for long. Now all those phonics lessons did work. He was able to read at a 7th grade level once he could see the page.:hurray: Another child we know sees double close-up. This child has also had trouble learning to read. So it might be worth taking your ds into an eye doctor and checking for vision problems. Many can be easily corrected with eye exercises or glasses. As far as remembering math problems, have you tried drilling him while playing ball or catch? Sometimes children will remember things better if they're jumping or moving while drilling. Best of luck!

Dh says, "The Ladies Knitting and Handgrenade society". He says it's a term from the 1800's. :D

My ds's (6 as of November) biggest problem is a large case of the wiggles so we keep schoolwork short and sweet. We do 1/2 lesson of Saxon 1 (either the drill sheet or worksheet), 2 lessons of Queen's Language Arts for Little Ones Vol. 2, and a page of Phonics Pathways every day. He receives a small snack afterwards as a 'good job'. It helps to keep him focused. Ds also has the option of joining us for SOTW and biology, but rarely does. We usually take around 20-30 minutes for formal schooling. Informally he enjoys reading picture books, searching for worms and ants in the yard, playing math games in the car, artwork, and other fun activities for a kindergardener.

I figure some gifts are hits, some are misses, and no gifts are returned unless there is a serious problem with the gift. Win some, lose some. :mellow: