This is my first year using Saxon Math, and I like its thoroughness. I started with Singapore Primary math earlybird-2a and was finding that I would forget to go over time, money etc. regularly enough for my ds to remember them. (in SM, they're covered well for a unit but then you don't revisit it until the next book, it seemed.) I only did the entire Saxon 2 lesson as written once, and it did take an hour. Ds and I would both go nuts if I kept that up, so I adapt Saxon for my ds by doing the parts of the "meeting" ds needs to practice once a week, combining lessons when I know he already understands something, and he only does one workbook page. We're playing catch-up learning math facts, so I'm going through the math fact pages at a different rate, using sticky tabs to keep my place. We spend 20-30 min a day on a lesson. He has said that the story problems so far are boring, so we're doing a few Singapore CWP 1 problems together each day as well, and that has perked up his interest more. If he goes to a part-time Classical Christian school in August he'll be using Saxon. I will probably keep using it with the CWP books if he stays home as well.

9-10 hours a week. I'd say it averages out to 1.5-2 hours 4 days a week, with maybe an hour on day 5, the day we go to vision therapy, but sometimes less that day. And two Fridays a month we go to a homeschool music class, so we do less on those days as well. When we started last summer it was an hour a day, tops, all in the morning. I've added more in the afternoon lately, and he has gotten faster overall (less dawdling + faster writing).

I asked about this not long ago here. :) And here's another recent thread about the same question. HTH :D

You should also get one of the interactive kits that has the tiles etc. I didn't want the deluxe kit myself because I didn't want to store it all in a bag. I did buy the storage box as well. Oops, typing too slowly ;-)

Yes, they are scheduled into the grid, but there are no additional notes about them. :)

Thanks MyLittleBears and JanOH, that's what I needed to know :)

Hi! I'm looking at CLE math 100 for my dd later this year and was wondering if the CLE flash cards are preferable, or if my ds' saxon math 2 flash cards will suffice. They're color-coded by group of facts (+0, +1, +2, sum of 10, +9, sum of 11, sum of 12, multiplication x0, x1, x2, x3, x4, , x5, x10, with addition on one side and subtraction on the back or multiplication on one side and division on the other.) I'm all for making it open-and-go, so if the facts are organized differently for practice in CLE, I'll just get their set. Thanks :)

I would agree that instruction in narration is not explicit as it is laid out in Bigger, but indeed folded into the questions for Storytime selections. Each day has a different type of focus. Day 1 usually instructs about listening for an aspect of the genre (listen for funny parts in today's humor story.) Day 2 gives structured practice retelling part of the selection. Day 3 asks a question about a story component, such as cause-effect or point of view. Day 4 asks a question about a Godly character trait, such as brotherly love or joy. Day 5 has the student practice retelling part of the selection in response to prompts. As I am switching mid-year from Beyond to Adventures, I was concerned about losing that structured practice and have added WWE 1 in place of the storytime questions. I just wanted a bit more hand-holding for narration practice.

Great to know, thank you both :) I think I'll go with FLL 1 for the rest of the year and just skip the narrations & copywork (we just started WWE 1 anyhow). :001_smile:

Hi, My ds7 will likely be attending a part-time classical Christian university-model school for 2nd grade this fall. He'll be using Shurley English there. Thus far, we've done a very light intro to grammar using parts of Language Smarts B and HOD's Beyond guide. I want to increase the exposure this semester to prepare him a bit more, but it needs to be done orally as he's at his writing limit with the rest of his work. Would FLL 1 be adequate, or should I look into Shurley English 1 or 2? Shurley definitely looks more teacher intensive, and I'm unsure if that will happen right now. Thoughts? Thanks :)

I am 15 days into AAR PL1 with my dd who 'll be 5 in Feb and she loves it. I didn't order the puppet originally, and ended up buying her a zebra puppet for Christmas from Amazon because she was so excited. She has known her letters and their sounds for a year now, but has had no rhyming or blending skills, and each time I started phonics with her, she got frustrated. This program has been the right fit for her right now. And she loves adding something special to the coloring page. There is no writing included, just pre-writing activities, which we do not always do. I usually have her trace the day's letter and a word on the whiteboard, which she thinks is fun. We also started ARFH K. HTH :)

:iagree: I also found The Art Book for Children at our library and the kids enjoy that as well. There's also a 2nd volume.

LOL the link goes to a music group's website, the Mar Dels :lol:

:iagree: Have fun! We loved Little Hearts for ds, as well as Little Hands for my dd. This year Beyond is not working, but I'm still hoping that Bigger Hearts (history & Bible, at least) will work next year. :D

I'm taking a break from HOD's Beyond Little Hearts program, and I thought I'd share why, as I'd say it's a reason not to use it ;-). We're 1/3 of the way through, having had to move slowly for various reasons, and I am *very* tired of reading about Pilgrims. We sped up and left out activities so that we would reach the first Thanksgiving by Thanksgiving, and neither ds or I are interested in continuing. The slower pace was the one thing I was concerned about before starting, and it is getting to me. Also, dh and I are both realizing that we want him to hear about a wider variety of topics this year. It's really too bad, because the activities are just the right level for ds. So I'm looking at starting after the pilgrims with either MFW Adventures (which I have) or Beautiful Feet Early American History primary level, which should be here in a week or so. I still hope to use Bigger Hearts, but I guess we'll just have to see where ds is next fall. Oh, and I will continue with the story time suggestions and questions, we do love those :).

If anyone is looking :)

I'm officially slowing our HOD history pace down to allow for the toddler's interruptions, ds' vision therapy exercises, and other necessary appointments that have been happening of late. Bible, history and science were rarely getting done, but I think they will this way. Ds is pausing Singapore 2A to practice his math facts with a chunk of the Complete Book of Math Gr. 1-2. He has done a different workbook all through December and it is definitely helping his speed :). He's also going to add A Reason for Handwriting A and I will scribe for his grammar and reading workbook. He started cursive first, and his copywork is coming along nicely, but he prefers to use his self-taught printing, so I guess I'd better work on that. Though it may not be necessary - he got Mad Libs Jr. for Christmas and has copied more on his own for the past 2 days than I could have ever imagined, lol.

This was me 2 years ago, and I am now in an "altering to fit" stage of using HOD. Using it as-is worked for awhile, and now I feel more comfortable using it as a history & Bible core, but feeling free to add and subtract as needed to suit my ds' different levels in different areas. I like planning far ahead, but I will just have to take each year as it comes, and decide then whether it is better for us to adjust the program or choose something else entirely, as the pp said.

The newer Rod & Staff G-H-I books are appropriate for later K work - they're very nice. My ds really liked them. I only let him do 2 pages a day, or he would have blasted through them too :). I just keep a separate sticky tab for where we are in math in the hands-on activities. I'm in a different guide for math right now, but it isn't a bother, nor was it when we were in a different place in the same guide. There's a great book we got from our library for more science fun: Janice VanCleave's Let's Play and Find Out Science. I think there are a few of them. HTH :)

When ds was in K, he did 5-10 min of phonics, 5-10 min of math, 5 min of handwriting, Listened to read-alouds (which included history or science as well) for about 30 min, one 10-15 min hands-on activity of science, art, etc, and practiced a Bible verse while doing something active. The rest of the time he played. He learned to read fluently and started writing. He still remembers the Bible verses :). Trying to get him to draw was painful for both of us, but now he's starting to draw things on his own. I think you're doing great!

At this point, we don't generally take more than 2 days completely off in a row. We did this through the summer as well. All of us, ds in particular, need some structure during the day. So we're doing a very light school schedule, (maybe 30 min?) just enough to practice math facts and keep him writing a little every day. He reads on his own for fun. Oh, and vision exercises are done daily. We have plenty of time for enjoying Christmas activities, visit with friends, wrapping presents, making gifts, reading through our box of Christmas books. We'll resume our fuller schedule in January. As a pp said, I'm sure we'll have more deliberate breaks when the dc get older. :D

We have paused spelling, history and science until January. Ds is doing Christmas copywork and a Christmas story Bible puzzle sheet each day. He's doing a special math drill workbook to practice facts all month long. He's continuing BJU reading 2-3 days a week and a page a day in his grammar book. Reading lots of Christmas books, making gifts for friends, just enjoying the season :D

Thanks, I followed your suggestion and found a couple of threads on the MP forum, the most recent saying that they're hoping it may be ready late Dec/ early Jan, and to just keep checking the website. :)

I don't mean to hijack, but is there somewhere I can find out more about this? I can't find anything on the MP site.

Math 4x (1 page),~15m each Reading 5x (BJU 2-3x, chapter from assigned book everyday) ~20m each Copywork 5x ~5m each Grammar 5x (1 page) ~5m each Spelling (SWR) 3-4x, ~15m each HOD Beyond: History, Bible, Read-aloud, related activities 3x ~45m each day Apologia Astronomy 1-2x ~15m each Art 1-2x, depends on the activity I've finally found the right fit for right now in each area - I'm enjoying everything, ds is not complaining about anything ;). No extra activities right now, vision therapy and the 2 dds keep us busy enough :D