I enjoy WTM/CM style homeschooling, and have had great sucess with Intermediate Language Lessons. It's a great little book (very reasonably priced) that provides lessons in narration, dictation, writing, outlining, picture study and gentle grammar. It's designed to be used in 4th through 6th grades, and my son will be using the last section this year for 6th. It may be a reasonable option for you to consider if you decide to go with something different. There are opportunities to make up stories based on paintings or poems and I sometimes have a child illustrate it as well. I haven't seem FLL3 so I can't comment there, but I thought I'd mention what works for us. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

I was just like that! I ended up majoring in English, writing for newspapers and now read all day to my kids, so it was good preparation. :) My now 16-year-old daughter was like this, and it helped when we got our Sonlight packages early, and she would read her way through the summer. I didn't mind giving her a head start, she loved the books and it kept her from reading "junk." My 11-year-old son is like this now, and disappears for hours at a time with big, thick books. I require chores, and have insisted on swimming lessons for him, and he has to walk the dog a few times a day - getting him out of the house helps! One thing I am doing is capitalizing on his love of reading. I leave interesting books I know he'd enjoy (Bible facts, suduko, mind benders, etc) in the bathroom where he is apt to disappear (LOL), and I'll find him an hour later reading them. This helps him vary his genre (He's been into the Lord of the Rings books the past few months) and he absorbs and remembers whatever he reads. I also bought Life of Fred for summer math work, and as I thought, his love of reading is helping him get a kick out of that. If your daughter has well rounded reading material, some exercise and a few other interests (cooking, pets, etc), I wouldn't worry. One thought - does she journal? I loved that as a kid. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

We have used it for the past two years as a supplement to Biblioplan, alongside SOTW and other resources and literature. I liked the information in it a lot - loved adding the Biblical perspective to everything, but I thought that as a stand-alone, particularly the first volume, it was light - at least for how we like to do history. I think if I had used it as a stand-alone, and had taken the time to find the resources I'd like to go alongside it, it would have made a lovely study, and I may do just that in future years. We didn't do their timeline or activities because our days were so full with Biblioplan. Don't know if that helps any, but that was our experience. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

I would call again, both for the $5 and the principle of the matter. They sent me the wrong TG for Wordly Wise one time, and sent out a new one and told me to just keep the old one. So it may be the person you spoke to - I'd ask to speak to a manager. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

:grouphug: Hugs to you, you must be exhausted trying to do it all with a new baby. I know you didn't ask for suggestions, but may I make suggestions anyway? (Assuming you said yes), please be gentle with yourself. Take a little break now so YOU don't break later! You could still do some school, but consider a few different items in your order - gentle school products like Queen's Language Lessons that your resistant daughter might really enjoy; or review things like BJU Vacation Stations that would give them a little of everything every day, without intense mommy-dependent schooling. Snuggle up and read and listen to books on tape together - that is school! Spend time outside and have them write a few sentences in journals, or write a letter to a friend - that can be school. Perhaps some consistant scholarly but not intense activity would satisfy DH and give you a little rest right now. Just thinking. In any case, congratulations and you will hit your groove again. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

:grouphug: Everyone's situation is different, this I know. But for us, this is what happened. We had three biological children and I was happily pregnant with our fourth, feeling baby kick, looking forward. Then at 20 weeks, he stopped moving. Dr. visit confirmed, he had died. We were left with enormous grief and a baby-shaped hole in our hearts. People told us we would get pregnant again soon and I knew - somehow we both just knew - we would not. We had discussed adoption and now we felt we had a child somewhere in the world, we just had to find him. What we didn't know is that eventually we would bring home three children (one at a time) who were waiting for us due to medical needs. Our lives have been incredibly, richly blessed because of these sons and we are so thankful. I would still love to parent more children and even now I have to remind myself to be thankful for whatever God has planned for us - that I am where I am meant to be right now. Easier now that I don't have that baby shaped hole...and I am thankful to the little one we lost, who opened the door for our others to join our family. Not everyone feels called to adoption, but that is how we passed through the pain and found the children meant to be ours. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

Thank you, it's good to hear from more of you that the lessons don't take that long. I appreciate the information about the 01 books - that will likely be extremely helpful. I'm getting closer to ordering, finally! Much thanks, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 1, 3 and 6

I have used Sonlight LA, K, 5 and 6. It does use dictation but the language is really not taught in a CM sort of way - more of Ruth Beechick's style. While I do like her teaching a lot, Sonlight LA wasn't a good fit for us. There is a lot of writing required, but not a lot of instruction IMO. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

Thank you, that is good to hear. 45 minutes seemed like a long time for a first grader, at least in my experience. I appreciate the input. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

I was preparing to order three levels of CLE math for my dss when I read that the first grade level will start at 30 minutes per day and work up to 45 minutes per day. That sounded like a lot compared to the programs we've previously used for first grade. Has anyone used CLE 1st grade math, does it really take that long, and is it overwhelming to the student? I have heard that it is advanced, but it looks as if it starts out gently and appropriate, judging from the samples. A second question: ds8.5 tested into 2nd grade, but I suspect at least half will be a repeat of what he's learned in this year's 2nd grade course. I could buy the whole thing and have him take the tests and advance as needed, or order light units partway through the course, making a guess based on the scope and sequence chart online. I'd love any input if anyone's had a similar quandry. Thanks, folks here are always so helpful! Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 1, 3 and 6

Both Primary Language Lessons and English for the Thoughtful Child (we've used book 2) are CM friendly and include narration, dictation and copywork exercises as well as introductory grammar. Gentle and sweet but no real writing instruction. Intermediate Language Lessons (grades 4-6) does walk a child through writing an outline, and writing from an outline. There aren't a lot of instructions but I could see what it was striving for, and it worked for my son. I think Lost Classics has produced a teacher's guide that would give more instruction. The book itself didn't give clues like "topic sentence," etc, but I don't think you'd find that in a CM style resource (though maybe in the guide, I don't know). I second the dictation idea (Writing With Ease looks like a wonderful product for this!). Another thing we've tried with great success is to have the child give me their narration orally, and I write it down. Then they use that as copywork/handwriting over the course of the week, and eventually their handwriting skills catch up to their thoughts and they can write it out themselves around age 10. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

One of my ds, also a bright boy who is very verbal, enjoyed English for the Thoughtful Child 2 in 3rd grade. It was gentle grammar and writing. We followed it with ILL for 4th and 5th and will finish ILL in 6th this year. PLL is also lovely for a gentle grammar approach, though it includes less teaching on the names of the parts of speech, etc. I believe the teacher's manual would remedy that. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

Those are so great! What a lot of fun, and what an inviting center! Thanks for sharing. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

Can you share what you put in your center? Other books you incorporated? I'm intrigued! Blessings, Aimee Mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

We tried Singapore also with one ds and while it helped him understand concepts in first grade, it jumped too quickly into concepts he wasn't ready for, in second grade. We too went back to MCP for him, along with Developmental Math when he hit a roadblock with place value. So you aren't the only one! Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

One of my ds hit a wall with place value this past year, and nothing I read, demonstrated (with beans or money) or told him seemed to help. Finally I ordered Developmental Math at the level that deals with place value, and HE GOT IT! Phew. Since doing that book he's returned to his regular math and feels like he's good at it, which was a nice change. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

I have a similar age spread and am using MFW Exploration to 1850 this coming year. I like the idea that Bible, art and music are integrated. I've heard that ECC is a great program, and you could supplement for your oldest with Book Basket choices you assign as independent reading, or with books chosen from great lists, like Sonlight Core 5 or WP. I have done one Sonlight core program and while we enjoyed it, I can't imagine doing three, though some people do it successfully. We've also used WP (AS2) and while it had lots of great books, it wasn't my favorite year. Bible wasn't integrated and it was a tad disjointed. I've not done TOG - looking at it at a convention made my head spin, LOL, that was as far as I got. :001_smile: Good luck! Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

Mine have homeschooled lots on the run too - waiting room at the orthodontist, at Shriners Hospital while ds8 is fitted for prosthetics, on the sidelines during PT, at the park. We listen to lots of books on tape while we're on the run as well, and have enjoyed so many classics that way. I love that we can do our work anywhere, and one year, watching a then 9-year-old ds stand on his head in the living room while quietly reading "Call of the Wild," I thought, "this is why we homeschool." :) Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling 1, 3, 3, and 6

I think EFTTC has fewer dictation exercises than PLL - similar approach but actually has more grammar lessons, defining the terms and using the parts of speech, and a bit less poetry, copywork, dictation. Sort of a cross between PLL and R&S. At least that's how it's appearing to me now as I'm thumbing through it. I'm not sure if there are samples online - maybe Rainbow Resources or Amazon? I believe both carry it. I picked it up at a conference. I think madlibs alongside PLL would be great. I've found myself playing grammar games as we drive along - "Can you give me a sentence with an adjective about all the rain we're having?" "Can you give me a verb that you will do at the birthday party today?" They love it and I'm throwing some math problems in there too and they think it's a game and I'm thinking, "yay, we're doing school and it's summer and they don't know it!" :) Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

It is grammar as well, but the practice is more focused on composition than on drill work. Some items in the table of contents include (this is a small sampling): Kinds of Sentences Practice in Writing Paragraphs Homonyms Practice using commas in a series Fourteen plural nouns ending in -ves Irregular plural nouns Making irregular plural nouns possessive etc...there are also poems, letter writing, nature study... I also used an Evan Moore grammar workbook alongside to make sure I covered 3rd grade grammar (I was afraid to go totally CM and not do heavy grammar) and found some of it redundant, so EFTTC contained more grammar than I'd realized. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

You know what? I totally botched abbreviations. EFTL is nothing I know of, LOL, I was trying to write EFTTC, which is English for the Thoughtful Child, no wonder you were confused! It was recommended for second and/or third grade in the old WTM book. I used English For the Thoughtful Child 2 for one ds when he was in 3rd grade, as a follow-up to FLL he'd done in 1st and 2nd. It is similar to PLL/ILL in many ways and is a very sweet book. My book was produced by Greenleaf Press, and the back reads: "...this second volume concentrates on the development of composition skills. It contains picture lessons, oral and written narration exercises, memory work, and copywork. In addition to these lessons, which help to build narrative and descriptive skills, this book includes nature lessons which help build expository writing skills." Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

I don't think you're crazy, and I would imagine you'd be prepared to change gears if something isn't working down the road. I am not capable (LOL) of planning that far in advance in so much detail but I am close, with the knowledge that things are subject to change. I also plan to re-use and repeat materials as we go along. In the past few years I have switched gears several times, mostly for my math phobic child, and have tried different LA (switched to R&S from PLL/EFTL), and you know what? I like what we were using, particularly for LA. I like the results I see in my ds11 who's used ETFL2/ILL for the past three years. I'm going back to what I loved because it worked. Having used R&S and PLL, I don't find PLL teacher intensive at all, though I've never tried to do the book in one year. I find spreading the lessons out to three a week, sometimes taking longer on a lesson that requires lots of writing, has worked for us, so PLL lasts two years. EFTL2 we've used for third. I find them gentle, interesting, quality books that don't require any more teacher participation than R&S (though very different in presentation). Certainly more than workbooks, but I'm ok with the small bit of involvement a daily lesson requires of me. And the kids love that time. We love the poetry and picture study and dictation, and it's a good way to get some CM into our homeschool without intensive planning on my part. It works for us. Sounds like you are well on your way to knowing what works for you. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

:iagree:Actually, that is true, we used BJU history one year for my dd (then 10)and it was fun. She actually loved the workbook as well. You could even do just the level of history that would suit your oldest, and use it as a read-aloud for all. That year I ordered books that corresponded to the time period for her as readers, and it was a fun year. We also really like Abeka science (colorful, interesting - we've used 4th-6th grade) and my book and science-loving ds always looks forward to reading his text and learns a lot from it. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

I have used WP American Story 2 during a year that was particularly hectic; fairly new adoption, two 1st graders and a 3rd grader homeschooling. It was very nice in that it was open and go (at least for the history studies, that was all I used). The books were colorful and held the attention of my young ones, and I appreciated having them all on my shelf. BUT the schedule was fairly heavy and I remember feeling that our lives were history dominated - we were drowning in history LOL. I also missed having a Biblical focus - we didn't like the devotional that came with the program and that was the only Biblical element included in the program. In the end I loosely followed the schedule and used the books as my personal library as I chose what we'd read each day. I know this wasn't mentioned as a choice, but the previous year we did Beautiful Feet Early American History and that was a lovely, relaxed way to do history with my ds. I don't know what time period you're looking for but it was such a gentle approach and easy to implement even on busy days - and didn't need to be done every day. I looked into HOD for this year but am not comfortable with doing three separate programs - it works best in our house if everyone is on the same page for history (I'm not trying to start a new debate, this is what works for us). We've made the decision to go with MFW this year for Exploration to 1850. It sounds balanced, will give me the core books at my fingertips, includes music and will allow me to supplement as much or as little as I want. Something I work hard to remind myself is that you don't have to do EVERYTHING all the time. It's ok for some years to be lighter - if the 3 Rs are there and you read to them lots, they will still absorb so much! And yes, I do think school should be fun. Sometimes that might mean changing one element - leaving some of the textbooks that work and choosing one element to make it more fun. Tanglewood online curriculum has some nice lit choices if you'd like to have some good reading on your shelf. Blessings to you, and I hope the 1st trimester yucks pass soon! Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6

I would see if you can take a look at the table of contents, to see if things would be redundant. But I think PLL is pretty rich and challenging, and with the teacher's guide's available from Lost Classics, you could add extension activities if you felt the need. At 8, I think it would be a nice placement, and if she's not much of a writer yet, it would give her some good exercises. We also did many of the poems as copywork/dictation, and that was good writing practice too. I'm looking at PLL right now and it seems to me that it has a lot of writing; for example, lesson 115 (the third grade half of the book) has a composition of four short paragraphs that the student discusses with you, then writes from memory. On the other hand, if you really think she's ready (you know her best), go ahead and go for ILL. My ds 16 flew through everything so I know placement is very individual. Blessings, Aimee mom to 6 great kids ages 6-18, schooling grades 1, 3, 3 and 6