Could some of you experienced CLE moms give me some advice on this? I have two recently turned 9YO sons and we have not used a reading curriculum before. They do a lot of reading and we talk about some of it but I have not made them write any book reports or anything else about what they are reading. I require them to read 45 minutes and they read from books that I have preselected. So I am wondering if we can go straight into CLE Reading for 4th grade or if we should do 3rd grade first. Any advice?

I also started teaching my two sons to read when they were 4. It didn't take long that they would moan and groan when I brought out the OPGTR book. I knew they could do it but I had to be creative and make it a little more fun and very short to begin with. I put the individual words on index cars and I also put sentences on the cards. If I needed a reminder to me about the lesson so I would not forget something, I would put a little note to me on the card. So there was no 'school book'. It was just a fun game. This made all the difference to my sons. They felt like it was a game. If they could sound out the word or read the sentence, they kept the card in their pile. If not, I kept it in my pile (they always got to keep them though;) but they didn't notice that). They loved this and, even though it was a bit more work for me, it was worth it to me because they were reading in no time at all. Then they were so happy to be able to read, it didn't take too long before we didn't need the cards anymore. I never covered up the letters though. They always saw the entire word or sentence and I just moved my finger under the letter or word they were working on. What does she do if you are not covering up the letters of the word? If you are really wanting to teach her to read and you feel she is ready, think of ways to make it a game. Children love to play games with their parents. Just keep it short and sweet and stop when she is still having fun. She won't even think of it as "school"...and, if it were me, I would not really call it school. Save that label for when she really has to do mandatory schooling and you have no choice but to impose consequences to make sure it happens, although by then you probably won't need to anyway:). Good luck with whatever you decide.

Thanks for all of the suggestions, they are very helpful and give me much to think about. I don't really consider this 'free' reading. They have free reading before bedtime or anytime during the non-school hours during the day and they pick what they want to read then. But you all raise some good points and I am going to have to put some thought into it and decide how to handle it. Thanks for your help!

I have two 9YO sons (younger turned 9 in early November and oldest turned 9 end of September). They both read well. I have not tested them recently however they were tested last January and both tested at 7th grade level at that time. Younger loves to read pretty much anything but especially history and fiction. Oldest does not love to read but will read tons if it is related to something he is interested in (Lego magazines, Star Wars, Mine Craft, Pokemon...). When I read aloud to them, youngest will always ask for more and oldest will beg to be done. For school, they each read silently for 45 minutes. The book is their choice but it comes from shelves of books preselected by me. It is a fairly large selection with quite a range of books and I help them pick one if they are having trouble deciding. If they don't like the book they have picked, they can put it back and pick another. Oldest has read many books during our school reading time that he has really enjoyed. I have heard him laughing, he comes out excitedly to tell me about what he read and/or he continues reading after his 45 minutes is up because he wants to finish the chapter or see what happens, etc. My concern is that I also know that there are times when he skims and also skips complete pages/sections. He has admitted it a couple of times and there was a time or two when we were all three reading the same book so I knew based on how quickly he was moving ahead and also, of course, when he didn't know what we are talking about but had already passed that point in the book. And he has been pretty honest about it, albeit after the fact. Sometimes it was as if he couldn't help it. The book was so exciting that he could not wait to find out what happened so he skipped some paragraphs/pages. Now that I know he has done this, I have no trust that he is actually reading all of the book he picks. I am not sure how to proceed at this point but I feel I need to change up something so that I will know that he is actually reading and comprehending the books he reads. This is the kid who wants to do EVERYTHING as quickly as he possibly can and does not always concern himself much with the quality of his work. I am thinking we should all be reading the same book so that we can all discuss the book and that would solve the problem. I have also thought about using CLE Reading along with reading books together. Anyone else ever had to deal with this kind of situation?

One of my sons did not enjoy doing school work in K. The other really liked learning to write his letters and was trying to learn on his own. I kept lessons very very short (my two are both the same age). One of mine was very anti-writing but loved to color so I made sure we spent a lot of time coloring together and playing with playdough to strengthen his hands and fingers. I drew the line at learning to read though. I kept the lessons short and modified them to make it as fun as I could but I insisted they sit with me each day for 15 minutes or so and do a lesson in OPGTR. Once they started getting the hang of it, they became more excited about it. We ended up only really having to do one half year of K, because of all this time spent learning to read and all of this type of play mentioned above, in the years leading up to K. I don't regret this at all. It was one of the best things I have done with homeschooling and very fun to watch them take off with reading and start reading on their own and enjoying it. One loves to read anything and everything. The other loves to read everything about Star Wars, Pokemon, Legos, etc. He is never very excited to read other books or even to be read to that much, although when he was little he loved to be read to and would sit forever and listen, asking "again?" over and over or picking a new book. The one who loves to read everything now was too busy to read or be read to much when he was little. Funny how they have flipped flopped on that. My two sons have recently turned 9YO and they would still rather play all day than do school. Every day they ask "are we doing school today" or "do we have to do a full day of school today" or "can't we leave something out today". I see more of this during the holidays and sick time than normal because we frequently have to adjust our daily schedule during this time. But really, consistently is the key. Determine what you can make yourself do every day, such as 15 minutes of learning to read, and then stick with it and call that 'school'. Everything else you can be "do you want to play xxxx with me?" and that could be playdough, counting things, alphabet and number puzzles. We had a lot of learning toys and puzzles that my sons really enjoyed doing together. We also had the Leap Frog DVD that teaches letter sounds and the Leap Frog education toy that you can stick to the fridge with a magnet, along with the letters, and they learn letter sounds and sounding out/spelling 3 letter words. My two sons loved playing with these and learned a lot from them. They learned most of their letters sounds very quickly with the DVD. We were able to skip the beginning of OPGTR where they teach the letter sounds. The learning to write thing is interesting because if a child is just not developmentally ready, you will probably get better results with coloring, doing mazes, dot to dot books (my boys loved dot to dot books) and playing with playdough a lot than you will trying to force the learning how to write a letter a day thing. If they are ready to learn to write developmentally but not emotionally, they will probably learn it very quickly if you wait another 6 months and try it again. I know exactly how you feel though. I was so excited to start with my two sons and I knew they were very bright but doing school with them has always been a bit of a battle. There are lots of children who would rather play all day than sit down and do school work. I hope you are able to figure out something that works for you during this difficult time in your pregnancy. That certainly makes it much harder. I would definitely plan something that you can do pretty consistently though because that really sets their expectations, they know exactly how long (set a timer the can see) or what has to get done before they are 'free' again. I think this is one of the most important things to working with a child who would rather play all day.

Thanks for the feedback. That is good to know. I have looked at the on-line samples but maybe I need to look at them again with these tips in mind.

If anyone has successfully made this transition I would love to hear how you did it. My just-turned-9YO-lefty son is a slow writer and writing has always been a challenge for him, even though he had occupational therapy that was suppose to help. We are just finishing up FLL3 and I was thinking of moving on to FLL4 and then to R&S after FLL4. Knowing how the amount of writing increases as they move up, I am wondering if I should try to make the move to R&S 4 rather than FLL4. Either way, I know the transition to R&S will be very difficult for him with the amount of writing that is required (specifically, how they have to copy/write the sentences/answers on to their own paper). We are using IEW for writing so I am only talking about the grammar portion of R&S. I have thought of moving to CLE's grammar instead but everything I have read seems to indicate that it is better for them to actually be writing the sentences rather than just marking workbook sentences. Any words of wisdom for those with experience with this would be greatly appreciated.

I have two just turned 9YO sons and they read whatever they want in their free time. For school, they have to read for 45 minutes (will be 1 hour in January) during our school time and it has to be a book from the shelves that I stock with hand picked classics. Some are a bit easier and some are a bit harder. I also have a read aloud going that is above their level a bit. Actually, I am currently reading Tom Sawyer aloud to them and I am really surprised at some of the big words and complexity of it at times. I had never read the original unabridged version myself so this is really a surprise to me. My sons tested at 7th grade reading level in 2nd grade. I think the vast majority of that progress was from me reading aloud books that are a little beyond their ability and having them read books that are at their ability level or just a little bit above for assigned read-to-self and then letting them read lots and lots of stuff below their ability in their free time. At night before bed, they still read lots of books that I used to read aloud to them years ago and they enjoy them.

It starts in level 4. We are finishing up 3 now and it is still narration. We are getting ready to start it in January so I am curious about this also.

While looking at pictures of me when I was around 6 years old, ds8 said, "Wow mommy, you were a thumb head when you were little." (he meant toe-head, as I had very blond hair when I was little:).

I remember reading a thread on this forum a couple of weeks ago or so about it. It looks like it will be really good. I am looking forward to seeing it.

This was one of my favorite talks of his also. He really does get boys and you really see it also with some of the poems he picks in his poetry CD. We got a big kick out of them. I just wanted to add that I spent a good deal of time reviewing the on-line samples of Writing With Skill Level 1. I would really like to use this when my sons are ready for it so I wanted to see what it was all about so I would know ahead of time where we are headed, what we need to learn to be ready for it, etc.. After reviewing it on-line I even went ahead and ordered it so I could look at it more closely and just have it to look at every now and then over the next couple of years. My sons are at around the second half of third grade on most subjects, give or take a couple of months here and there. So they won't be ready for it for a while yet. But, having looked at it and knowing what we have been learning with IEW Bible Heroes, I feel really good about where we are and where we are heading with IEW. I know lots of people don't care for IEW's methods of getting there but there are also plenty of people who really think it is very solid (I am one of them) and it just 'fits' their kids. For me, it fits my kids and it also fits me, which is so helpful because I was not taught how to write well when I was in school. So, just a bit of encouragement for those who are using IEW.

My guys both loved Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of Nimh and also The Tale of Despereaux. ETA: They also loved all of the Roald Dahl books.

Loving this thread! Here it was when I gave in and allowed my two sons to try the local elementary school (which actually is a very good school). It only took one week and both sons and their parents found a new appreciation for homeschooling. They are so glad they got to see what it was like but they are now so glad they are homeschooled and they have so much more appreciation for what I do. They are also happier and more cooperative about doing their school work.

I have SCI-A but began by using the Bible Heroes book with my two sons first. They were a little too young to start SCI-A at the time but I am planning to start that with them probably in January, when we finish Bible Heroes. I felt a little confused by it at first too but I went ahead and watched the TWSS DVD's and it has really cleared up my confusion well. I have been to some of his talks in person though and have a high regard for him so I like his teaching. I think he gives a lot of good tips on the DVDs that you won't get through the individual books such as Bible Heros. I was looking at various options for when we finish up Bible Heroes and my previously writing-phobic son exclaimed, "What?! I really like the writing curriculum we are using now!" so I decided we will continue on with SCI-A next for sure.

Thanks 8, that makes a lot of sense. At what age do you switch them to diagramming?

Winston Grammar teaches the student each part of speech, one at a time, and they have to mark sentences, identifying every part of speech they have learned so far. I learned how to diagram sentences when I was in school but I am wondering what the pros and cons of each are. Is the Winston Grammar approach just as good as diagramming sentences or not? Why?

We are doing Latin so maybe I don't need to worry about it. Thanks for the feedback.

Thanks, I will look into these.

We have liked many of TWTM recommendations but I am not sure whether or not I would like their recommendation for vocabulary and root words, as I have not looked at them yet. I was hoping someone else had already BTDT and could share their opinion but, so far, it doesn't seem anyone has gone all the way through AAS and then looked in to switching to TWTM recommendations after. I guess I will check out their recommendations and see what I think. Thanks!

bump for the morning crowd

I am planning for 4th grade so I have been reviewing recommendations from TWTM. The recommendation for spelling is to use Spelling Work Out up through 6th grade, when they should be finishing up level H. Then they start the Vocabulary from Classical Roots series in 7th grade. We are using AAS and have just start level 4. I am wondering what others who are using or have used AAS have done after level 7. Have you done the Vocabulary from Classical Roots series starting in 7th grade? I have no idea if the student would be adequately prepared after AAS or if there would be too much overlap or what. Has anyone dealt with this yet? Thanks! Lea in OK

Us too! This is definitely one of my favorites this year and my two sons are liking it too.

What app do you use that allows you to speed it up? I have never heard of this but it sounds very useful.

This is what I am doing with my two sons. We are doing Getting Started With Latin and it is going well. I tried PL with them 6 months earlier, with the DVD, and we didn't like it as well because of the amount of writing. They are doing well with GSWL but we are doing it all orally.