One of my ds couldn't remember his sounds from one lesson to the next. He is reading well now, :001_smile: but we had a few frustrating years. Sometimes it seemed like learning to read was a constant series of 3 steps forward... 2 steps back. There are a few things I would do differently, if I could go back. The first is I would spend more time on each 100 EL lesson, cementing the sound in his head. We needed to spend extra time throughout the day practising, not much but a few minutes here and a few minutes there. Instead, I tried Phonics Pathways, OPGTR, ETC, WRTR, and Saxon Phonics. We would have been much better off if we'd stuck to 100 EL and spent a week on each lesson cementing the sounds in his head than trying to find a 'magic' curriculum that would solve our problems. It would have taken us 2 years to get through 100 EL but we spent 4 years struggling as it was. For my son, I never thought it was developmental because he could read... when he could remember those pesky sounds. Instead, I believe that for some children the sounds are nebulous and require lots, and lots, and lots of drill before the sound-letter combination is firm. :smash: So, my advice is to stay the course and take it slow and steady. :001_smile:

I've worked part-time for the last 4.5 years and homeschool 4 children. What works here is that I get up to work from 3:30 to around 6:30 or 7:00. (The first couple of years were hard, it's not so bad now.) The children do their chores and start math by 7:30. I fix breakfast and we sit down to eat when breakfast is finished. (They come to me as they need help with math. It's mostly self-study under my supervision.) I'll often ask my 5yo preschooler to help me cook since he's underfoot disrupting his siblings otherwise. After breakfast, I clean the kitchen while the children continue with their school day, and then I work on phonics with my 5yo. After that, we continue with our school day and if all is well, we'll be finishing the school day by 10:30 or 11:00. Afternoons are spent doing activities, relaxing, or housework. The whole family goes to bed early. Best of luck!

This is the system we're ending up with. :iagree:

We do math and Latin/Greek year around, 5-6 days a week. We do take 2 weeks of at Christmas. For all other subjects, we school year around but take time off as needed. There is no formal schedule. Actually, it's become harder to stop school from happening than it is to do it. The children start to grab their schoolbooks as soon as their chores are done so I have to stop the children from doing school BEFORE breakfast. It's lovely to have a habit working for me. :D

I had the opposite experience of your friend. I started my oldest with Singapore and ended up with Saxon. Singapore moves too fast for my children and it's almost guaranteed to reduce them to tears at times. After struggling for a year with Singapore, I threw up my hands and ordered Saxon. It was one of the best homeschooling decisions I've made. Both programs are excellent. Singapore moves faster, has less review, and makes large jumps in concepts. Saxon reviews constantly and babysteps its way through the concepts. Singapore's large jumps frustrated my children while Saxon's babysteps leaves them more confident. They are usually able to grasp the next step in moments and move on with the lesson. Best of luck! :001_smile:

We're using both Biblioplan and IEW Ancient History Theme. Personally, I love it even though I've never watched the videos of the seminars. Currently, we're using both a little scatteredly but I'm considering discussing our currently IEW writing assignment on Mondays, doing Biblioplan Tuesday through Thursday while the children work on their writing assignment during English, and spending Friday sharing the assignments. HTH! :001_smile:

My soon-to-be 5th grader will only be using Spelling Power with Aesop B. There is plenty of grammar and I prefer not to double up subjects if I can avoid it. :cool: It keeps our days short and sweet. If his spelling was wonderful, I'd drop that. His older brother is not doing spelling with Homer; he's currently using GWG 5 but we'll switch to Harvey's in a month. That's one reason I love Classical Writing. It's a full English program. :001_tt1:

No, I used FLL 3 with 3rd and 4th graders this year, neither of whom had used FLL 1 & 2. My 3rd grader did very well. My 4th grader thrived. I believe the official recommendation is for 3rd graders, or for older grades who have not previously studied grammar. HTH!

We used 'How the Earth Works' earlier this year but we did not outline. I had my ds read 4 pages from the book, complete an experiment, read for more information from Kingfisher Science Encyclopedia and write a 1 page report. It worked well. If I was going to have my son outline the book (we're currently outlining a science textbook) I would have him do a major topic and subtopics for each paragraph, rather like we do for outlining Kingfisher Encyclopedia. Best of luck!

I've always done a transition. My first step is have the child read the book and then discuss the questions at the end with the child. The second is to have the child read the book and write the answers at the end. We then discuss the answers together. My current 5th grader spends 2 days outlining each topic (We're using McGraw-Hill), then he answers the review questions (written) and does an experiment. I check to ensure the outline is done per my instructions and discuss his answers to the review questions with him. It's fairly painless. My up and coming 5th grader will begin outlining in a few months. We will sit down together for several weeks until he is comfortable outlining his science text. At that time he'll be relatively independent.

1. The schedule is most of the program; Biblioplan is now offering a seperate timeline, maps, and coloring pages. They are coming out between now and summer. 2. Yes, there are additional book options. 3 & 4. No, discussion questions or vocabulary words. 5. You might need quite a few. I purchase only the core books and use the library for all others or simply skip the book. The Ancient Israel section frustrated us because I could not find many of the books at the library. Without the books, Biblioplan lost much of its appeal. One major pro I've found is that the class time readings are reasonable. There are 3 scheduled a week and in a crunch, I'm able to complete the 3 readings in 2 days. The books are well chosen and are age appropriate. The children usually enjoy the books they are assigned to read. 3rd-5th graders usually read 50 pages a week, 5th and up read around 100 pages a week. The family read alouds are scheduled for 50 pages a week. It fits into the time I have available for history studies. The biggest negative I can foresee is that Biblioplan does not have discussion questions/ideas for the high school grades. Otherwise I plan on sticking with Biblioplan through high school. HTH! :001_smile:

No, I never learned the tricks either and I majored in math. I expect my children to do their division correctly but I'm not overly concerned which algorithm they use as long as it is a valid algorithm (works every time) and they understand it. Why make life complicated? :glare: HTH! :001_smile:

Here's my plan for my kindergartener Math: Developmental math + play with manipulatives Phonics: Phonics Pathways English: Language Lessons for the Very Young Volume 2 (maybe 3) History: Listen to Medieval Biblioplan with older siblings + projects from SOTW 2 activity guide Science: Outdoor play + read alouds on topics of interest Extras: Swimmng, karate, and lots of play :auto:

Here's my upcoming 5th in black and my current 5th grader in red: Math: Saxon 65 & 76 / Saxon 65 & 76 Latin & Greek: Latin's Not So Tough 3 & Hey Andrew 2 / Latin's Not So Tough 3 & Elementary Greek 1 (first 1/2) English: Aesop B & Spelling Power / Homer A & Growing with Grammar 5 History for both boys (Includes literature, art, & geography): Biblioplan with IEW Theme writing Science: McGraw-Hill 5 / We did misc. earth science this year before returing to McGraw-Hill Extras for both boys: Piano, Karate, Swimming Oh, I saw you're planning on using Spelling Power. My middle 2 children and I adore SP. :001_smile:

I like all three, but for different purposes. PP begins by teaching the short vowel sounds and then progresses to teaching the child to read most of the consonants with a short sound: ba, be, bi, bo, bu... once the child is comfortable reading this PP moves on to teach 3 letter words... ba..t bat, be..g beg, and so on. PP spends much more time drilling words but includes a few sentences. OPGTR spends a little time drilling words but spends much more time working on sentences. PP moves a bit slower than OPGTR. My preference is to start a child reading with 100 EL and then to move to PP. I've only used OPGTR with my middle 2 children who needed a review of phonics. Oh, I checked PP out of the library on a hunch, years ago. I worked my oldest through the first couple of pages working with 3 letter words and his reading began to skyrocket. That was enough to convince me to purchase the book. My next 2 hated PP and so I used ETC. Neither of them read as easily, as well, or learned as quickly as my oldest who used PP. My 4th WILL use PP if I have to bribe him with chocolate chips for the next 2 years. :smash: He's using 100 EL as his main text but we're transitioning into PP. :001_smile:

I had 3 Linus type children last month. :001_smile: My guideline for quitting thumb sucking is the child must be willing to make the effort to quit. My middle 2 were unwilling to consider it until last month when both willingly quit at ages 8 and 10. They've both informed me they also had to give up their beloved blanket or they will suck their thumb. My 5 yo is unwilling to consider quitting and considers his blankey one of the necessities of life. I'm not pushing him to quit at this time. Around age 9, it became embarrasing to ds#2 to be caught sucking his thumb in public. A few episodes (and comments) and he was more than happy to wear a bandaid on his thumb for a week. ;)

We start Latin in the 3rd or 4th grade (when they no longer need any phonics). It looks like all the children will be starting Greek in the 5th grade. My oldest started this year with Elementary Greek after 2 years of Latin, and my 2nd will begin Hey Andrew level 2 next year after 1 year of Latin.

I learned on Bastian as a child and enjoyed it. It was easy to understand and I enjoyed the pieces. My son is using Alfred's Piano course (with my help). We're finding it easy to understand and we both enjoy the pieces. My recommendation is for either Bastian or Alfred's. :thumbup:

:lol: :iagree: :lol:

My 5th grader: Math: Saxon 65 Latin: Latin's Not So Tough Level 3 Greek: Hey Andrew! Level 2 English: Classical Writing Aesop B, Growing with Grammar 5, and Spelling Power History & Literature: Biblioplan Medieval & Renaisance and IEW Medieval Theme Science: McGraw-Hill 5 Music: Begin to learn piano, concerts Art: Touched upon during history, along with field trips and projects

Hits: Biblioplan, FLL 3, Spelling Power, Growing with Grammar, Latin's Not So Tough, Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons, OPGTR Misses: Latin For Children, Writing Strands I love it!!! :D/I hate it!!! :eek: : Classical Writing. It's wonderfully indepth. It ties our LA into a whole. It challenges my LA gifted child. It strengthens my LA challenged child while giving him confidence. It drives me CRAZY! lol.

You have my sympathy! All 4 of mine were sick in a similar manner from Wednesday through Saturday. I am soo thankful they're not carrying this on for a full 2 weeks...and then stool sampling on top of that :eek:. I hope your children are better soon. :)

ETC is a full phonics program by itself and you can certainly use it along with Language Lessons for Little Ones. :) Your child will have plenty of phonics using both ETC and Queens english. HTH!

:p Exactly the same thing, lol.

My suggestion is to keep pushing gently. My youngest went through a stage of resisting phonics and I pulled out the m&m's! :eek: Everytime he said a sound correctly he got an m&m. You can use tea & cookies, little bits of cheese and apples, anything that makes it more pleasant for your dd. Also, a friend had a dd who did not want to read but was more than happy to learn to write. My friend slowly taught her dd to read by teaching her to write. She showed her how to write letters and put the letters together to form short vowel words. Eventually her dd showed an interest in reading, once she'd learned the basics. Another thought, my young dc become resistant and wiggly when school gets difficult. I've found backing up to the beginning and starting over, or backing up 10-20 lessons works wonders for our schooling. My dc remain willing workers and gain confidence recovering the material. Once we've reached the 'weak spot', the children are usually confident to keep moving forward for a time. I call it the 2 steps forward, one step back method of schooling. :p You might consider backing up and restarting phonics from the beginning. :rolleyes: Best of luck!