I thought I was going to go with Ambleside Online, but my two 10-year-old upcoming 5th graders were so excited about the books in CTC that now I'm not sure if I should go with that! My concerns: - the guide. Ick, I hate being told what to do all the time, LOL. And we are used to doing history together, will I still know what they are doing, and will we be able to enjoy the time learning together? - the LA; we love Intermediate Language Lessons, and I don't know if I want to part with it. I know nothing about the writing program mentioned and whether we'd like it. Could I skip it all and keep using ILL and use the history and science portions of CTC? Or would we miss a lot of vital stuff? - the writing; does it tell kids what to write all the time, or is it true narration? Or could I adjust it? But the things that keep pulling me back to the idea of CTC: - The books. Lovely. - The schedule (you know, the one I hate). I think the boys would really like to be able to see what they have to do, independently, and get it done. - The hands-on things. One of my boys has a hearing loss, and we recently learned the "good" ear now needs an aid. He has apparently been missing a lot, poor boy. We've found that he learns best from hands-on and reading things himself. So I'm muddling through it too, and would love to hear from others how these pros and cons may work out in daily life with HOD.

I have never used this course, but do have a copy a friend passed on to me, after she found it was not what she was looking for. It wasn't quite what I was looking for either; I liked the picture study and gentle grammar approach, but I didn't love the way copywork was broken up or that some lessons seemed way too light for me. We have used similar texts that I like much better. Our all-time favorites are Primary Language Lessons, for grades 2-3, and Intermediate Language Lessons, for grades 4-6. I love these preprints of old textbooks. They are gentle, yet not condescending in their tone toward children; they use proper, sometimes old fashioned language, and include classic poems and paintings. The paintings are printed in black and white, and we can sometimes find them online in color, to discuss on those lesson days. I add some simple, supplemental grammar in grades 5 and 6, because the texts teach grammar usage, but not the terms the kids will need for testing here. I have also used English for the Thoughtful Child volume 2, which I also liked better than the book you mentioned. It is similar to PLL but in workbook format and not reusable. We used it for 3rd grade with some of the kids here. Many people do love the Language Lessons books, but this is our experience - don't know if that helps any!

Time together reading good literature, discussing what we've read, and doing Bible study with lots of discussion are things that have helped with that here. I almost ordered one of those "fostering independence" curriculums, and stopped when I realized how much our time reading together means to us all. We have used many curriculums, but I have found that lit-based curriculums, particularly Sonlight or a mix of Sonlight materials, foster this best in our house. The book choices are wonderful, and give lots of opportunities for discussion; many beautiful, character building stories. True, it isn't magic, and if you look at it as a checklist and try to race through all the boxes and check them off, Sonlight can exhaust you (it did me). I look at it more as a menu now, and freely tweak. I read some of the material to the kids during the day, often over lunch, and we have our Bible time together every day. We save a read-aloud for bedtime, and we all gather around while my husband reads. It's a very special time for our family, and it's exposing my husband to literature he never would have picked up as a kid. I think he looks forward to it as much as they do. Another thing you might want to check out is Our 24 Family Ways by the Clarksons. This is a great book, and got us thinking a lot about how we interact as a family and how we live out what we believe every day. We used it regularly during our Bible times last year. We still work on independence in other areas - they do their reading, LA and math with minimal instruction, and my ds13 does a great deal of reading and research beyond the history readings we share. I know they will all eventually move ahead and need less and less interaction, but for now, I appreciate the way we are able to learn and grow together.

Melinda, great ideas, especially if they work with your kids! My ds10 is sitting at my side, saying he wishes he got $1 to go to bed, LOL, perhaps he should not read over my shoulder.:001_smile: I just wanted to mention that for my ds8, the rewards need to be fairly immediate to be very effective with him; too much time going by before he earns a promised something, and he loses focus. I tried longer-term reward systems like you describe, and he wasn't as successful as he has been when he can earn small rewards throughout the day. Kids are all so different, and I'm so thankful for this forum, where we can learn from each other!

Boy do I hear you! I have had several learners like your Jared, the youngest of which is by far the most distractable and liable to take hours to do his work. You have received some great advice, but I will share the biggest things that have helped here. 1 - Habit formation. This the THE BIGGEST thing we have had to work on in our homeschool, and I believe, the most important thing for us to work on before anything else (good) can happen. The habits we help our children develop, or the ones they develop on their own, are the things that will help our homeschool run smoothly, or drag on and be fraught with tension. (Simply Charlotte Mason sells a book called Laying Down the Rails that details this - a worthwhile purchase.) For example, when ds#5 was 7, that he moaned, threw himself down and carried on whenever it was time to do his schoolwork. He dawdled and got distracted, and I allowed it because we had a younger child I was distracted by, not to mention email and the two older children I was schooling. Looking back, I realized he'd been doing this since K, and I had allowed this habit. Yes, by nature he doesn't like to work hard and is easily discouraged and some subjects are more challenging for him, BUT, he still needed to learn the habit of doing his work quietly (if not cheerfully) when asked, we like to say, "everything as unto the Lord." I needed to learn the habit of following through whenever I asked him to do anything, to make sure he was doing what he was supposed to. Littest ds7 is the most distractable child I have ever had, and I have had to work extra hard on teaching him to stay put and carry through with his work. I realized that when he took an hour to do a math lesson, he was perfecting the habit of dawdling. When he began to dawdle, I gave him a warning that he could finish the lesson now, or we would put it away and take out another subject - BUT - we would come back to this lesson today and he would need to finish it. If he still dawdled, we'd take out a lesson as different from the first as possible - say it was math, we'd switch to him reading to me. It has been extra work for me to stay with him or nearby to make sure he carries through (so I feel for you!), but I am seeing fruit, hooray! Perhaps you can think of a habit or two that might help Jared stay on track, and give you more time for the others. Other things that have helped these guys are, 2. Short lessons and curriculum geared to their learning styles. Littlest was taking hours to do math, and nothing was sticking. Finally, we found Math U See, and it is clicking with his learning style and need for visual and kinesthetic learning materials. Lessons are now 15-20 minutes long and he is retaining, phew, finally! For other subjects, I have had to change curriculum at times or be creative to make sure our goals are met, whether or not it looks like I thought it would. Child can't sit through long stories? What other classic lit would work, maybe back a level? LA lessons too "boring"? Would doing copywork from a reader and illustrating it, then pointing out and discussing the noun/verb, whatever, serve the same purpose? I also need to make sure my wigglers have time to move around between lessons, even if it is something like taking out the dog or carrying a basket of laundry upstairs - wake up those muscles and use some energy! Making these types of changes has actually shortened our schoolday and allowed me more time with each child. With littlest, we are now reading through several pieces of classic literature and Aesop's Fables, and I'm requiring narrations to make sure he is attending. Our little English book (Primary Language Lessons) seems to appeal to his sensibilities, and the copywork and dictation we are doing requires short lessons and I allow him to illustrate each lesson. With an older son who was once like this, I had capitalized on his interest in wildlife and wrapped many of our lessons around this. If he could study about turtles, draw them and write several sentences about them, I considered that several subjects accomplished. Lastly, 3. Bribery. :001_smile: I know it was mentioned before, for good reason, LOL. It works. Our bribery is small, but effective. After ds 7 has accomplished three of his subjects, he is allowed a "yummy earth" pop I bought in bulk from Amazon - all natural, no preservatives, artificial things, etc. I also might allow him an "educational turn" on the computer for 20 minutes, or some time to play with playdough. If he has dawdled and required a lot of correction, I will let him know he hasn't earned these things today. It seems to work with this little one. I know this is a busy season, and you are doing a great job of working with everyone. Remember that they are still young, and being together, being outside and playing by noon, and doing life together counts for much.

I hear you! I am looking at the same sort of dilemma here. I will have: an 8th grader who is a very independent, accelerated learner, but likes to listen in at read-aloud time and still needs guidance and consults; two 5th graders, one of whom needs a bit more pushing to achieve what he's capable of, and a 3rd grader who has ADD and processing issues, and who needs lots of hands-on and guidance to get through his schoolwork. We have always done history together, but I really found last year that it isn't going to work anymore with my particular learners and age spread. So I did something like what you are considering, and am continuing to "tweak" as the year winds down. I thought a little about what each child really loves - ds13 loves calligraphy, so a calligraphy set and book went into the homeschool order. He used Apologia Physical Science, and the younger boys used something appropriate for them. He chose a literature program, and for heaven's sake, if a 13-year-old boy chooses a lit program and loves it (Lightning Lit), who cares if it's not what the rest of the family is doing, LOL! He's doing the same history time period, but on his own with a text and computer research, and he listens in to our read-alouds. I finally realized that one of my ds10 can't retain anything unless he writes or draws about it; I'm now requiring both fourth graders to do notebooking pages or written narrations/drawings after lessons - amazing the change in both! It's tapping into the creative side I'd been ignoring in one guy, and the studious side of the other, who just wanted more to do! At the same time, I'm assigning some of their history work to be read independently, and they are loving that and it's making our school-days shorter, because they don't have to wait for me to do everything with them. We still do the bulk of their history together, and we do Bible and poetry with all four boys. Littlest needs his own curriculum, paced slowly with lots of room for narrations so I can check his comprehension, so I am having to let go of the idea of folding him in with the others, and choose what is right for him. It is lovely to see progress, and even the bigger kids love to sit in on his read-alouds, like Pinoccio and Charlotte's Web. I am working hard to add color (more library books, drawing) and activity (science experiments, activity pages), to the work for the three youngest. It's stuff I used to do all the time when I just had a few kids my homeschool, but had gotten away from as I tried to streamline. For some reason, doing all this is not making my life harder - it is making it easier, because I have interested students, who are remembering things, and like school these days, wow! I am hoping I can plan these elements into next year's curriculum; I don't know if I helped you any, but you helped me think things through more, thank you!

We've never made it all the way through that book, or Phonics Pathways or any of the other books of that sort I've used to teach my youngest four to read. When the lessons started to drive us both crazy, but they had reached a degree of proficiency, we moved into Bob books, and then into the Pathway reading series, starting with the pre-primer, which has a page for you to read, then a page for the child. I get bored with the series after a while, but the kids love the stories of farm life and animals, and my littlest is happily reading through the second grade texts now.

You've received very good suggestions to check out your dd's learning style/issues, and that could help greatly. My ds7 was having very similar struggles, and actually told me, "Mom, it's like there's a light on in my brain, and when I try to do math, the light just goes out." Poor kid! Testing by a neuropsychologist showed that he struggles with nonverbal reasoning, which includes the sort of abstract thinking needed for math. Because we also learned that visual learning is a strength of his, we decided to try MUS. Finally, starting with Alpha and moving as quickly as we need to, the light is going on for him! Math is taking 20 minutes or so per day rather than the hour it took last semester. Yes, he was doing harder work then, but he was getting routine addition problems wrong. Now the work is simpler and incremental, and he is getting it mostly right. I have much more confidence with him moving forward with this. You mentioned your daughter getting bored with MUS; for what it's worth, ds loves it. There is a different short video we watch before each lesson, and each lesson has a slightly different topic. It appeals to his learning style and sensibilities. Good luck, I know you will find what works best for your dd!

I am realizing that there is some wisdom in spending a little more time on American history with the younger kiddos, and then doing world history, then heading back for American history in more depth. Some of my kids have been able to handle more abstract, around the world, way back in time concepts. Some, not so much until later. That's why for littlest, I'm considering the Living History of Our World book. I like daily schedules too - and I hate them, LOL. I'm thinking that if I use the Living History book like SOTW or another "do the next thing" resource, as a spine with other American History resources, it might give us structure along with the freedom to go on a few rabbit trails...perhaps something like that would work for you? And yes, as per a pp, A City on a Hill and many of the Ex-1850 books were kind of much for a 3rd grade or younger child.

I love Ann's writing, and have enjoyed her Jesse Tree devotional and her blog for several years now. I am thinking we'd really enjoy her "A Child's..." books too. I see the first is now scheduled in AO, and the second is scheduled in HOD's Creation to Christ package, so others are noticing them too. Thanks!

We have used this book and really enjoyed it. We have never made it all the way through the 24 ways (a discipline problem on MY part). We did make it through most, and pull the book out from time to time when a particular discipline issue rears its head. We have used it with an age range of 5-12 and found that all ages could participate in some way. Working through it is a very worthwhile endeavor, in my opinion.

I would start by having him narrate shorter passages, you can use lit, history, fiction, etc. You may have to start one paragraph at a time. Guide his narration as folks have suggested, encouraging him to use complete sentences. If he starts to give you a detail without telling you who or what he is talking about, ask a question that forces him to go back and fill in that information. Write the narrations down for him, and then go over them together - do they make sense? What is missing? It does take lots of guidance for some kids, but they will get in the habit of speaking in complete sentences, and will start to understand what type of information to look for. Many kids have trouble thinking while they are writing, so I always wrote out my boys' narrations for them as they were learning, and they copied them into their notebooks over the course of several days, for handwriting. My dd had a very hard time identifying the important pieces of information in a story - her narrations were very creative, LOL. So we started with short news articles, doing what I described above and then transferring it into writing. Right now I am working with littlest, almost 8, who has a dreadful time narrating. It is hard work but a really important part of his school day, because it is the skill that will allow him to understand all of his learning materials, and become a successful writer. Like pulling teeth some days, but so necessary!

It does move fast, and last year, only my 6th grader retained any of it. My two ds9 said they enjoyed it, but could not remember it or keep the stories straight - too much at once, happening all over the world. Given a do-over, I'd consider Queen's Living History of Our World, using Sonlight Core 3 books to supplement (I'd do Core 3 but don't care for the Landmark History it uses as a spine). HOD's Bigger also covers the same time period (I think) and could be used with extensions for your older child.

BJU The American Republic is very dry, very textbookish. Which, I suppose, makes sense, since it is a textbook, but it is a departure from the younger BJU history texts which are more narrative in tone. My older dd used and hated it; we quickly switched out for a borrowed copy of the History of US, which was terribly biased but more fun to read. However, my ds13 really enjoys the BJU text; he is a serious guy who wants serious information and spends time further researching things online so he can be sure he really understands what happened. We also paired it with select chapters of SOTW4, because I wanted him to have more understanding of world events that led to the important happenings of the last century. I haven't seen America the Beautiful in person, but the samples I've read look much more conversational and lighter in content. I suppose it would depend very much on what type of learner you have, and how deeply you want them to delve into the subject. For some learners (like my daughter and me), not much from a text like BJU would stick, so it wouldn't matter how indepth it was. Others, like my son, would be left wanting more than something like Notgrass would offer. KWIM?

Thank you, I didn't realize it was more like an earth science book, I pictured it being a geography book that could be paired with the different countries we study. I think maybe the second book is more of a geography book? I see it paired with several curriculums during the Ancients. Thank you for the input - maybe I can somehow get ahold of a copy to peruse...

Has anyone ever paired Sonlight Core 5 (Eastern Hemisphere) with A Child's Geography? I have Core 5 packed away upstairs, having used it years ago with dd, now 18, and I wonder how it might work with A Child's Geography, which I don't own but am hankering to use. Might they pair well together? Would it be too much?

Reading some of these thoughts, I realized that I've recently begun to think that implementing a CM education today, in my homeschool, does not mean that: - I have to use only AO book choices, or AO books at the level suggested, - it needs to look the way it does in Karen Andereola's home or anyone else's, - it cannot be adapted to the special needs of my particular children. Realizing this is giving me freedom to choose books written in narrative form, but with more modern language, that my processing challenged kiddo can understand. I have come to learn that even those must be started in very small doses, and only increased when littlest can narrate a small bit - we started with just a paragraph. If a paragraph was truly too hard, we moved to a different book. Trying to use AO as written, even a grade level behind, nearly did kill the love of learning for this ds. With adaptations, we are enjoying school together again. One of the most helpful CM books I have found is Laying Down the Rails, which I bought at Simply Charlotte Mason. It uses Mason's own writings on habits, laid out with application and some modern interpretation, to show how important habit formation is, and how vital it is that we as parents attend to it. That, IMO, is the primary thing we have to understand before we implement any curriculum. The child who throws himself on the ground when it's time to work (yup, I had one of those) - he needs to learn the habit of cheerful obedience. The child who runs off whenever asked to do something (I had one of those too) - he needs to learn to obey the first time. The one who does his work carelessly? Another habit. The mom who loses track of all of this because she is on the WTM message board? LOL, well, I need some help with habits too.

Hugs to you, I know how overwhelming this can be, and I am tossing around many of the same curriculum options as you. I will tell you what worked here for years, with a range of young elementary students, and through multiple adoptions and surgeries. Most of what we have used can be picked up or put down depending on the day, or life situation (vacations, illnesses, etc). I too have felt very overwhelmed when we are tied to a daily schedule for everything. LA - we like "do the next thing" materials, and have changed them based on learning styles, but these have included FLL, PLL, and ILL - I have loved them all. We currently do PLL (for littlest, 7) and ILL (for two ds 10) three days per week. I love that they include dictation, picture study, poetry and the other lovely CM elements I want to incorporate but have trouble organizing on my own. We have also used Explode the Code with the youngers, with great results, and am regularly doing dictation with ds 10, using a passage I choose from their literature book each Monday. Reading - we start with the earliest Pathway Readers and move on up through the series, just sitting down and reading a bit every day. I have them read to me through second grade, so I am sure they have "got it." Later, when they are reading fluently, I choose books from Sonlight or Ambleside Online as readers. History - SOTW is great, with read alouds chosen from Sonlight, and mapwork from the IG. We have used Biblioplan also, and found that to be a great way to organize history. Science - we keep science very simple up until about 4th grade, when we begin using Abeka's texts (lovely and colorful). Until that time, they read the Christian Liberty Nature Readers, go for nature walks, read lots of books about animals and their habitats, etc. It is relaxed and often driven by what we find. A turtle? We will research and identify him, find out what he eats, draw him, and put him back where we found him. Fun stuff. All that said, I think you have some HOD materials, yes? Can you choose some of the materials to make use of with the kiddos, loosely following the reading order and some of the fun things to do, and forget about the daily schedule for everything? Remember, curriculum makes a great servant, and a terrible master. Perhaps write out the history readings in a daily planner just for you, and use that to teach everyone? Could you even use a Truthquest guide to introduce things, and then use the materials you own to teach? I recognize your turmoil as similar to my own, as I study waaaayyy too many websites and catalogs these past few weeks, so please know that I am not talking down when I say, take a deep breath, move slowly away from the catalogs and computer, and go out and play for a little while! :grouphug: You will figure it out!

I've been thinking about this a lot lately, as I am currently teaching two who just hunger for information and research anything that interests them, one who could care less about school but is a sweet, happy-go-lucky guy with a big heart, and one with attention/processing issues who just wants to go play. I've decided that some things you have to learn whether or not you are inspired, like math, reading and writing. BUT, I realized I need to change my approach for my different learners, and making small changes is helping A LOT around here with motivation and interest. Here are some things I've found. - Consider the learning style. I have always read history to the kids, and we discuss it together. My two motivated, auditory learners always get it and ask for more. I've finally realized the other two will not "get it" unless they draw or write about what we've learned. SO, I now require a drawn or written narration after our history or science work. My visual, kinesthetic learners are actually loving this and looking forward to it, after an initial week of gnashing teeth and wailing, LOL. - With that in mind, we're changing up how the lessons are taught. Ds10 told me last night, "I learn better when I read it myself than when you read it to me." Duh, why didn't I think of that? - Shorten the lessons. My non-auditory learners simply can't take as long a lesson as I might like. We've shortened things to 15-20 minutes tops and they are left wanting more. - Leave interesting materials out. Before going to bed at night, I prop interesting library books up against the hearth or on the couch, for my early risers to discover. I put reading material I know they'd like in the bathroom, of all places, and ds13 will come out with a book half read. - Keep the school day shorter, but eliminate TV and other screen time. I am thrilled to see the carpentry, game play and reading going on during before and after school hours, and I think their enthusiasm for learning increases with more of this sort of activity. - Go to the library regularly and require each child to choose at least 3 non-series or twaddle type books. They can be nature, science, lit, etc. Then require some reading time at home, or read with them. Littlest really likes grasshoppers, insects, sharks, etc. I trust that as I read these with him, he is learning something important, whether it was on my list or not... - Lastly, I can't be afraid to use materials/curriculums/styles that I wouldn't choose for myself. Ds13 is loving Lightning Lit and Analytical Grammar, begging for more of the same next year. He loved using a BJU textbook for history that I hated. But he wants that sort of info, and the curriculum that gets used is a good one! Littlest, 7, can't take anything with abstract language, it makes him turn into a pile of glazed over mush. But if I bring out the colorful DK and Usborne books I don't love, he perks up, learns, and remembers.

My 7th grade son LOVES Hewitt's Lightning Literature program. We bought the 8th grade program this year simply because he's a voracious reader and had read most of the 7th grade material already. The program is a nice mix of lit. analysis and writing, and he is begging to do it again next year (can you even believe it?). We use Applications of Grammar alongside - this is not a fun intro to grammar but he does it fairly painlessly. I hear some people really like Easy Grammar Plus for a jump-in grammar program at that age. We use very Charlotte Mason approach materials with the younger kids - my two fourth graders are using a sweet little book called Intermediate Language Lessons. Very different from public school, but we enjoy it. For spelling, we do copywork and dictation from the reading books I've assigned them. Many people like Christian Light Education as an easy LA program to implement and yet challenge your child, but it is fairly advanced, so you should check out the placement tests. Good luck and have fun!

You've received lots of great input, and I do agree that your dd is on the youngish side, and that a slower, more gentle approach to beginning her education would benefit you both in the long run. I have held each of my kiddos back from starting school until they were a full 6 years old, and even then, several of them were 7 before they began to read. When they'd start to buck, lose focus, etc, I'd finish the day's lesson so it wouldn't seem as if their bucking caused me to back off, but I'd put that reading lesson away for a few weeks and shift my attention to something else for a while. We read a lot about nature, explored the outdoors, baked together, took walks, drew, you get the picture. My ds13 was a terribly wiggly, fidgety guy who had no interest in learning his letters at age 5, which distressed me because he was so very bright. However, with the approach I described above, he flourished, and was reading way beyond grade level by second grade, and continues to blow me away with his motivation and love of learning. Ambleside Online has a lovely list of suggestions for what they call Year 0, which is a pre-first or even first grade sort of year. http://www.amblesideonline.org/00.shtml On that page, scroll down, and you will find "A Formidable List of Attainments for a Child of Six." These might be some nice things to focus on as the school year draws to a close and into the next school year as well. I also second the suggestion of Get Ready, Get Set, Go for the Code, as well as the Rod and Staff workbook set, we loved those and used them several times over. Enjoy your time with your sweetie, I know it sounds so cliche, but it goes so fast!

Wonderful suggestions, thank you. All Through the Ages has had my eye for some time, I will go look at it again. And TOG - truly, I don't know where to begin to even think about it. I looked at it at a homeschool convention, and have several times gone to the website, but truthfully, I find it so intimidating I have to walk away. Is there a TOG Made Simple website anywhere for folks like me who can't seem to figure out just how it works??? I have heard stories of intense amounts of planning with TOG, as in hours every weekend, which I would like to avoid - and I have worried that this is what TOG requires. Yes? No? Perhaps I should get brave and check it out again! Thanks!

I haven't watched that, I think that may be just what I'm looking for! It might give me the confidence and skills I need to put together all the materials I'm looking at for next year in an orderly fashion, thank you. I have basically taken whatever curriculum we've used, and adapted it to be more CM, adding in AO selections and my own LA; but I always feel I'm "winging it," and our days can get very long (which is not CM at all). The children are moving along steadily and thriving, particularly ds13 and one ds10, but my two very visual, dreamy, ADD learners need things constantly tweaked to keep them engaged! I recently learned that written and drawn narrations/notebooking pages do wonders for them; I think that's what drew me to HOD, with its notebooking. Thanks so much for your suggestion, I will go check that out!

I am spending WAAAYYY too many hours looking at the websites for HOD, AO, Queen Homeschool supplies, Milestones Academy and Higher Up and Further in, in addition to looking through the plethora of WTM, Biblioplan and language arts resources I already own. My head is spinning. I am trying to choose curriculum for a whole bunch of sons, first, two ds who will be 11 and in 5th grade in the fall, and a ds who will be 14 and in 8th grade. They are all finishing up the modern history cycle this year, and I think we'll start back at the beginning. HOD's Creation to Christ looks fabulous, but I keep wondering if I can create something using Truthquest and all the books I already own...or use Higher up and Further in, but the weekly lists just make my head spin! And I wonder, will I go nuts with all the boxes to check with HOD, or would that be lovely? Could we still read history together? Would it be a great thing for my memory-challenged 5th grader, and a bonus for the one who is type-A and loves little activities and boxes to check? The older one would read more challenging things on his own. I am also trying to choose something for my ds(almost)8, who has auditory processing issues, and the HOD Bigger Hearts curriculum I ordered for him, I now realize, is likely too complex in its language for him at this point. And yet the level below (Beyond Little Hearts) will really be too simple, I fear. He is plugging along merrily in Serle's Primary Language Lessons, and loves it, loves the poetry we do with "When We Were Very Young" and "A Child's Garden of Verses." I hate to give those up as parts of our curriculum at this point. Now thinking of doing Queen's Living History of Our World with him, and leaving the parts we like alone. I think my main issue with a complete boxed curriculum at this point is that I ALWAYS buck the daily schedule, particularly when holidays, illness or just really lovely rabbit trails come our way. I have used, loved, hated, and changed MFW, Sonlight and Biblioplan. Each has had a place, I loved being told what to do each day, and I hated it, LOL! AO has the most freedom I think, and worry that HOD will be too constricting. It is nice to be able to choose to use things like Serle's Language Lessons and to supplement as we like in other subjects, and yet it is exhausting to worry about whether I'm covering everything. I really don't know what I expect anyone to say, if they've even managed to read this far, but I suppose I am just venting and trying to think "out loud." Thanks for listening!

Please? :bigear: I know I've heard several mentions on this board of CTC, some loving it, at least one saying it took way too long. Tell me more? Thank you!