I happened across my first WTM book when our sons were babies, although we already knew we wanted to homeschool. I can't remember now where I found my first WTM book but it was the first homeschooling related book I owned and read. I had no idea what this book was to the homeschooling world at that time. But after I read it, I knew I wanted to use it as our road map for our homeschooling journey. My two sons just started 2nd grade in January and we have followed it fairly closely so far. I still love it refer to it often. I also really like FLL, WWE and SOTW. I plan to use it in our homeschool to the end.

We just started 2nd grade in January. My two sons are both doing: FLL 2 WWE 2 AAS 2 Literature - I read aloud to them for 30 to 60 minutes. We are currently reading Anne of Green Gables. I also read aloud lit books from SOTW lit recommendations. Reading - They each read to themselves for 45 minutes. One just finished reading Charlotte's Web and the other just finished reading The Secret of the Indian (from The Indian in the Cupboard books). We will also be starting Prima Latina sometime in the next 6 months or so.

If it is hurting down the side of your foot, as you indicated above, I would go have it check out by a doctor. If you broke a bone in your foot (not just your toe), you will likely need to have it at least immobilized. If it feels a bit "off" or "crooked" as you indicated above, it could that the broken bones in your foot are not quite lined up correctly. You definitely would not want it to heal that way. I would have it XRayed just to make sure. I broke a bone in my foot a couple of years ago and it was quite painful. I was not allowed to put any weight on it for 6 weeks so I was in a cast. After that, I was in the black velcro boot thing for another couple of weeks and I could put weight on it then. Even two years later, it still hurts a bit if I step on it a certain way. Feet are so important to your overall body alignment and health, I would definitely have it checked out.

I agree with this. This is definitely what I would do. My two sons both finished MM 1st grade. I knew they did not have their add and subtract facts memorized and I also saw them struggle with some of the concepts in MM so we are doing CLE 1st grade now. We are doing two lessons per day so we are already more than half way through and they are really get their math facts down solid now. They are really understanding it all so much better now. CLE covers things in a different order also so they are learning things they had not learned in MM 1st, such as adding and subtracting double digit numbers. Sorry, I'm getting a bit off topic here but it is nice to see them finally really memorizing the math facts well. Good luck. I hope you find a solution that will work for your daughter.

My two sons loved it in 1st grade. They love to color though so they enjoy coloring while I read the chapter or library books. Then we answer the questions in the Activity Guide, do narrations and map work. My two love history days.

If you can sit in the first row by the bulkhead, it is great because there won't be anyone in front of you to recline their chair onto your lap. Bring snacks and screens:).

I start the year by looking through the book and dividing the 42 chapters into 36 weeks. I combine shorter chapters and give an entire week to longer chapters, where possible. We school 4 days a week, covering history on Mondays and Wednesdays and science on Tuesdays and Thursdays. On Monday I read the entire chapter for that week while my sons work on the coloring page (they love the coloring pages!). I stop after certain sections so that each of them can do one narration. After we finish reading the chapter and narrating, I ask the questions from the Activity Guide and they take turns answering. Next we do the map work. On Wednesday, if we are covering the same chapter, we read books from the library suggested in the Activity Guide and we may also take time for narrations. If we are moving on to the next chapter, we basically do the same things we did on Monday. In this case, we find other time for reading the books from the library. I look them over and see if there are any the boys can read to themselves. If so, I will use them for assigned reading time. If not, I find the ones we don't want to miss and we read them at bedtime or first thing in the morning when the boys are still waking up or some other time. That's pretty much it. When we started SOTW 1 last January, I picked out projects to do with the boys that went along with the lessons and we found time to do them. It didn't take me long to see that they lost interest in the projects fairly quickly and I was left to complete them. I stopped including them and the boys never said anything about it so, at least for now, we are not doing the projects. It would not surprise me if they wanted to start again later this year or next year but we will see. Right now, they would rather play with Legos, or some other toy, they spend time working on a project.

Wow!! Absolutely amazing! Thanks so much for your detailed posts and all of the pictures. What a trip of a lifetime! I am jealous but I think I would be to scared to go to that part of the world these days. That is an awesome trip though and one I would love to take. Where did you fly into?

All of my siblings and their children have gotten roll numbers (Cherokee) because we had the roll number of our grandmother. Here in Oklahoma, we can receive free healthcare through the Cherokee. I have one brother who has used it because he is disabled and unable to work. All of the others have had insurance through jobs so they have not needed it. I am the youngest and I never filed my papers to get my roll number. My children are adopted from Russia but I have been told they would still be eligible, just as if they were bio children. We do not have to live on a reservation here in order to receive health benefits. I am fair haired, blue eyes and fair skinned:). I must say though that their healthcare system is pretty bad, although I suppose it beats nothing. It would definitely be last choice though.

OP, you have done nothing wrong and I would be livid if that had happened to my child. You are not expecting too much and you should definitely have a serious conversation with the manager.

We are using CLE Math now (recently switched from Math Mammoth) and we do timed drills and flash cards every day. Before we starting CLE Math, I doubt that my two sons could have done 20 problems in 1 minute. Now, they do it every day with no problem. One son usually has 20 seconds left over, on average. The other usually has 12 or so seconds left over. We had finished MM 1st grade but I knew my sons had struggled with some things and they definitely were not quick on their math facts. So I switched them to CLE Math and we are redoing 1st grade math again, although CLE covers things that MM had not yet covered so they are learning some new things too. It has definitely helped with memorization of the math facts though because we are doing timed drills and flash cards every day and they only take a couple of minutes so it doesn't add much time.

I was just about to open a similar thread myself. We have just started 2nd grade and we are sure having a hard time fitting it all in. My two 7YO sons are ready to rebel. It has been hard for them to adjust. This is what we are doing: Monday-Thursday Bible & Memory Work SOTW / God's Design for Science (we do each of them 2 days a week) CLE Math AAS FLL ( I think this is suppose to be 3 days a week so we will likely skip one day) WWE Read Aloud - I read to them about 30 to 45 min Read to Self - They read to themselves 45 min Prima Latina - This is the only thing new since 1st grade. I'm thinking we may have to put this off one year, with hopes they will be writing faster/easier by then and will have mastered the summarization/dictation of WWE2, as it is taking quite a bit longer now. Music Practice Friday - co-op 9-12 P.E. Spanish Art Extra They both take swimming lessons weekly. One takes Piano lessons; the other takes violin lessons. They are both in Cub Scouts and AWANA.

This is very funny. Thanks for the laugh:).

We just started 2nd grade. This is what we are doing: Mon - Thursday SOTW / God's Design for Science (each 2 days a week) Bible & Memory Work CLE Math AAS FLL (I think this is suppose to be 3 days a week so we will likely skip one day) WWE Read Aloud - I read to them for 30-45 min Read to Self - They read to themselves for 45 min Prima Latina - This is the only thing we have changed between 1st and 2nd grades. It doesn't take that long but it sure seems like our days have gotten a lot longer. I'm still trying to figure this out and try to shorten it up a bit. We may have to wait for this until 3rd grade, when they will hopefully be a bit faster at their work and WWE might not take quite as long. Friday - homeschool co-op 9-12 P.E. Spanish Art Extras: They both take swimming lessons, one takes piano lessons and the other takes violin lessons. They are both in boy scouts and AWANA.

Same for me also. My degree is in Computer Science and I worked in that field for many years. I often have to write things to remember them and I am and always have been a "picture" person. I always needed to draw pictures of things when thinking through a work project. When one of my sons is reading a book and runs into a word he doesn't know, he spells it aloud to me. I have to picture it in my mind. Sometime I just can't do it so I have to actually see it to tell him what it is. My guys are still pretty young (we just started 2nd grade) but we have not used electronic learning for anything really. The boys like to play games so I signed them up for a math type game online but they quickly grew bored with it so we are back to doing flash cards for memorization of math facts. For second grade we have just added Latin and I was not confident about teaching it so I bought the DVD to go with Prima Latina so we are watching it once a week now. That is pretty much it for us on electronic learning and we will keep it that way until I decide it is time to teach the boys to type. It will be a while yet though.

We started back on 1/1/13 and did four school days this week, one of those being a co-op day (today). It has been a tough week though. The first day of school went quite well but the other days have been a struggle with behavior. Next week will be a normal week, with swimming, violin and piano starting back up. <big deep breath> I feel like I need another break already! This is going to be a rough school semester, as my husband is working full time an hour and a half away from here, plus he is also starting his own practice here. So he goes away for two or three days at a time and then is back for two or three days at a time but while he is here, he is working also, unless it happens to be a weekend day. Lots of praying is/will be going on here. But, we just started second grade. We're pretty much doing everything we did last year but we added Prima Latina. We are liking Latin so far.

We are starting second grade tomorrow and I am putting together a reading list for our 2nd grade year. I was checking out the books MP has for 2nd and they are: Little House in the Big Woods Mr. Popper's Penguins The Courage of Sarah Noble Tales from Beatrix Potter (Peter Rabbit, Benjamin Bunny, Tom Kitten, Johnny Town-Mouse) Are these books you would read aloud or have your 2nd grader read to themselves? Since we have already read all of these aloud a couple of years ago, i think they would probably make good read-to-self books. And I think they would enjoy them because they have probably forgotten some of them, to some degree anyway. Do you think that is OK?

I ordered Plants Grown Up a while back and am amazed by it. It was definitely worth the money. I was going to order the parenting essentials package but the shipping alone was going to be over $17. I found all of the pieces individually on Amazon and, even with extra shipping, it was less expensive. I am excited about using their products for setting spiritual goals for me and my sons (Plants Grown Up definitely helps with this) and using some of the other items for Bible study material. I am excited and looking forward to receiving this latest order.

never mind. I found every item except one on Amazon. Even with the extra shipping for each item, it was still less expensive than going through the Doorpost site. I really don't understand why their shipping costs are so high.

The shipping cost on the Doorposts website seem so high. Has anyone else noticed this? I want to order a package deal that comes with a couple of small books and some small, laminated items and the shipping cost is over $17. I wish I could find these items somewhere else. Does anyone know if their items are sold anywhere else? I have seen a couple of their books on Amazon but not the posters.

dh got me an electric knife sharpener. I have never sharpened a knife in my life, nor will I. This was the only gift he got me, although we had already discussed that I was going to order a new netbook for Christmas. After opening the knife sharpener, I promptly ordered my new little laptop that day. It was delivered yesterday and I am using it now:). It is awesome and I should have ordered it long ago. The knife sharpener is still in it's unopened box, in the back of the cabinet. We had also discussed that he is going to find a used off-road bicycle on Craig's list for Christmas. I still got him a new, very nice gym bag (he works out religiously and his bag was about 100 years old), a medical bloopers day-by-day calendar (he's a dr.) and a really good Nerf gun that can shoot 25 nerf bullets without reloading. Our two 7-year-olds also got the same Nerf guns so they can all have a Nerf battle. He loved all of the gifts I got him.

We are getting ready to start 2nd grade. For most things we are just moving up a level. Our biggest change is that we are adding Prima Latina. Since I have never had Latin (although I have had Spanish and French), nor have I taught a language to children, I purchased the DVD which makes me feel less anxious about it. My biggest concern/challenge is going to be just fitting it all in. I think I am going to have to start using a timer so we can get everything done in a decent amount of time.

I believe this was probably the case with the baby home my two sons came from. The children seemed to be pretty well cared for and the workers seemed to care about the children but certainly did not have enough time in the day to sit and hold them and love on them like all children need. That being said, our two sons were not even on the growth charts for their ages (14 and 15.5 months). They were so little and so hungry. On the advice of a U.S. doctor who specialized in adoptions from Russia, we immediately put them back on bottles/formula. They would drink it so fast and would cry when the bottle was empty. They grew and gained weight so fast in their first year home, it was incredible. They quickly grew to be in the 80th and 85th percentile for height. They are now seven years old and very healthy, normal boys with no issues from having been in the baby home. If you met them, you would never know they were not our biological children. I have a good friend who adopted her two daughters from the same region in Russia where our sons are from. She had the exact same experience we did (described above). Her two daughters are quite 'normal' children also. During the timeframe we were adopting, it was well known that Russians did not adopt children very often. It was more like it was here way back when, when adoption was something to be ashamed of. I am not sure what the situation is like now because I have not followed it closely over the years. I think we often hear of the Russian adoption stories that turned out bad, such as those with RAD, because it is often such a tragic outcome for everyone involved. However, I think there are many, many stories of Russian adoptions with great outcomes. We just don't hear of them as often because they are not as interesting to discuss.

We have a Kindle Fire and allow limited games on it and on the computer. We also limit T.V. time and computer time. We allow more time on weekends and holidays or non-school days than we do on school days. I am suffering from a bad cold right now. I felt really miserable a couple of days ago and dh was working out of town. I decided to allow the boys to watch/play as much tv or games or whatever they wanted for the entire day. It was interesting that one son spent the majority of his time playing games and the other spent the majority of his time watching kid's tv shows (we normally only allow DVD/VHS movies). There were times during the day when each would switch for a little while and play the other one and they even stopped and played outside for a while. I found it interesting that they were each drawn to something different. I expected them to both be playing games most of the day. If my sons go to a friend's house to play, I don't make restrictions on games/tv/movies. I figure if I allow them to go to someone else's house then they are under that persons' house rules. They don't do this very often though yet.

That's good to know, thanks. I hadn't seen that issue yet in the reviews. From everything I am reading, it sounds like the extended warranty might be a good idea regardless of which one I end up choosing.