I am new to homeschooling as well. We have only been in the game this school year, but I think the first year you have the steepest learning curve! Its been really challenging and really fun, all at the same time. First off, I think your goals are pretty lofty. For kindergarten, we are using AAR (not AAS until after the first year of reading...reading is decoding and spelling is encoding, and its pretty obvious why you don't do spelling until first grade, now that I have taught the Kindergartner for a year). She is wanting to spell a LOT now, so we just do it for fun, in the car and stuff. She will start AAS next year. I really like the All About programs. I have a diagnosed dyslexic (2nd grade), and we didn't want to take any chances with the kiddo in K so we started her in a dyslexic program just in case, but honestly, we LOVE the way it teaches reading! I think any kindergarten math program is a good program, its mostly just counting and learning ordinal rules, shapes, etc. Its all stuff you could almost teach without an actual program anyway. We also started off with Handwriting Without Tears, because my son is also dysgraphic and there isn't a lot of work on each page, so he isn't overwhelmed. However, my K kiddo really wanted to learn cursive and I don't like the cursive of HWT either, so I bought New American Cursive for her and she is loving it. She already writes manuscript really well, so I figured what do I have to lose? And just for information, we use Right Start Math and love it! I won't give any direct advice on 1st or 3rd grade...my second grader is in 1st grade reading and 3rd grade math and we struggle with him across the board for various reasons, so its been a really rough year for both of us. I have a 4th grader who is gifted in Language Arts. We bought Easy Grammar and its okay...its pretty boring. She does it without complaint but I"m really wanting her to love grammar and its just a lot of problems on every page and pretty repetitive. It does seem to be helping her writing to improve. I also bought a writing curriculum for all the kids and really don't use it. I'm pretty disappointed but they just would rather write on stuff they love, and I work to adapt it. I bought the Reading Detective book for 5-6 grade and its REALLY FUN and she often pulls it out and does it just because she 1.) loves to read, and 2.) loves the challenge of thinking it provides. Its a reading comprehension book, and I like that it provides the answers and I don't have to read the book she's reading. She reads SO fast, and I would struggle to keep up with her! She does need help with slowing down and comprehending so I think its okay to use reading comprehension, and in fact, we like it a lot. I will buy the next step up for next year! We also purchased Root Words from the Critical Thinking Company for her and its a good fit as well. I bought the first level even though she is advanced because I didn't want her overwhelmed and wanted to start at the basics, and I'm glad I did. She is using A Reason for Handwriting, because the public school where they were going totally screwed up all 3 of my kids pencil grips, and even though her handwriting was great, I wanted to change the grip so she could be more efficient, and she needed the extra practice with the grip. They also screwed up the way they position papers for writing. :confused1: There are so many more things I am running into with regards to public school screw ups that I wish I had followed my instinct and homeschooled from the start!!! Anyway, as for scheduling, I wouldn't plan out the year in advance, and here's why: I have found that some lessons move more quickly and some more slowing. There are weeks when we get thrown off kilter completely. I can't imagine having to shuffle already made up lesson plans when things go awry. We always have a short day on Friday, and I sit down and review their schedules, and then bump out what we didn't complete to the following week, and add what we need to complete the week. It takes about 45 minutes. Then, on Sunday, I type it out, given no one is sick and the schedule hasn't changed by Sunday. :lol: Its worked out really well. You have to have an idea of what you want to accomplish, but since I believe the benefit of homeschooling is working as they finish, I think planning out ahead too far is unrealistic. For instance, my 2nd grader is in Right Start Level C and up until this lesson he has been doing a lesson a day. This lesson is going to take 3 days. There is a lot more work on the worksheet than he can do in a sitting, and he's already half way through it, and his 4th grade sister is in Level D so I feel there is no rush. Anyway, good luck! Its been a ride, that's for sure!

I will have a 5th grader this coming year. It will only be our second year of homeschooling, though, and I have no idea what we will do! We did RS math this year, level d. I think she will be finished but level E 2nd edition isn't out yet, so we will wait and see if it comes out before we start the school year. I didn't buy a language arts curriculum, but we used a combination of many things. I don't know that I like it. We did Root Words and Reading Detective, and Easy Grammar. I tried to teach writing but nothing in the curriculum was interesting and maybe I just didn't put it forth like I needed to. I may try that again. We used WriteShop. I liked the program although its a little scripted, and maybe that's why we didn't use it. She reads at a 7th grade level, and I really want a whole curriculum, with a good teacher's manual that has answers for everything. I have a dyslexic 8 year old and a 5 year old, so we have a full plate, and I've found myself skipping things so I don't have to grade them. :crying: I would love suggestions for an english curriculum for a very advanced 5th grader...

To be honest, its not the ADHD or the dyslexia, its the constant negative attitude about anything. Its not at all just school related, even. I don't know, maybe I do need to make seeing a counselor a priority right now. Its just SOOO much for the entire family to have to participate in, I don't have a sitter for counseling time, etc. ETA: What else is out there that is good for education for him? He is excellent at math, and retains information extremely well, when he's not mad because its school related. We are all done with school today and we did all subjects (he doesn't have tutoring on Tuesdays, so we have AAS/AAR and it took 2 hours total. He was in a decent mood, obviously and even had fun during math.

What is ETC?

That's not happening.

AAR and AAS actually are very complimentary to Barton and use the exact same rules and exact method, as far as I've seen so far. They actually track really similarly as well. They are both OG based and I haven't seen anything that is actually any different. the problem isn't the amount of work, or even the kind of work, its any work at all. His dad coaches wrestling and he goes with his dad 3 times a week to practice. There is no extra time in his day as his dad already takes 2 hours off work to make it happen for him. We do have friends, but there isn't much "hang-out" time for any of us, and I'm not driving any more than we already do to make that happen.

I am considering teaching textbooks, for him, when we finish this right start level.

This is a good sight, thank you!

Thank you all for the responses! They are so well thought out and caring and I really appreciate that. I'm not sure I can cover each thing brought up, but one of the issues is we live very remotely, and we have long drives to do anything "extra". He is currently wrestling and doing really great, but its 65 miles one way for practice, 3 times per week. We are not medicating and don't plan to at this point. I have watched so many kids who failed on medication later in life and really want to avoid medication until we have exhausted all other options, and I don't feel like we are there yet. My concern with just letting Barton be his reading is my mom lives 45 minutes away and can't come more than 3 times a week. I don't feel like an hour of reading instruction for a kid who is already 2 grades behind is going to catch him up. His lesson with her is short (20 minutes), and I never spend more than 20-30 minutes total in a day working on spelling/reading. We do all of his spelling in color on a dry erase board, sitting on the floor, and he still hates it. We use Right start math and when he's focused, it does seem like he's in the right level. Again, those lessons are short and never longer than 30 minutes. But literally, I suggest playing a game (rummy, go fish, etc) and he says he hates games and doesn't want to play. I am not kidding you, there is no making him happy. And if I try and just let him be, he is disruptive intentionally because he wants attention. We already don't do science or history, not to speak of. I have a smithsonian book that he got for Valentine's Day that he loves, and he will actually even attempt to read it and that's what we've been counting as both history and science. Literally, if we sat down from start to finish, he could be done with all subjects, including tutoring in 1.5 hours. Instead, he spends so much time fighting that we end up spending 4-5, just getting through it. He hates art. I did a cuneiform project with the girls and he refused to even join us. The girls and I had a blast without him. Then we painted it. He just sulked.

This is my first post. I have only been homeschooling since October of this year. I pulled my kids out of school because my son was diagnosed with dyslexia and the school essentially refused to help him. There is a lot more to the story, but suffice it to say, its been a challenge. I have 3 kids, age 10, 8, and 5. My 10 year old does very well in all subjects and is self-motivated for the most part, and she works independently in everything except math (we chose right start math, so it requires teaching for every lesson). My youngest is also self motivated but obviously she doesn't read yet and requires a lot of interaction every day for every subject. I have tried having my oldest teach her math and reading but it never works and ends up in them fighting. My son is 8 and has adhd and possibly odd, as well as dyslexia. He is technically in the second grade but reads at a K/1 level and is soooooo challenging. We are using the Barton Reading and Spelling program as a tutoring program, and my mom tutors him 3 days a week. I use AAR 5 days a week. I read everything to him, from his science books to history, and everything in between. He can't even look at a page of work without freaking out in math and he tells me he hates everything all day long. All. Day. Long. I have no time to myself and no time for my girls because he sucks all of it up. He is the most negative person I have been around ever. I have thought about counseling, but its 70 miles one way, so its not all that feasible long term. All he wants to do all day is zone out on his iPod, doing whatever strikes his fancy. I have no idea how to fix the problem. I have taken the iPod away and he just refuses to even understand the consequence. He literally told me, the last time, "That's just more time for me to torture you." I feel tapped out. HELP!!!

We are using level d and are somewhere around lesson 55. There are some challenging algebraic thinking lessons that kind of caught my dd off guard, so working through those lessons was challenging. She was right on the line, I thought, for level D/E, but because there was no 2nd edition level E, we started her in D and I'm glad we did. My son is in level C, and that's challenging as well (he's in second grade) so we are going pretty slow but he's not struggling per se. I really like it, but I honestly wish there were more worksheet problems, especially for dd. The only way to reinforce is through games and with 3 kids in 3 different RS levels, its time consuming. DS is dyslexic, too, so he requires a lot of one-on-one.

Do you do both every day?

I am new to homeschooling but we are using right start math and all about reading. My son (8) is dyslexic so I was pointed to AAR for him but started my youngest (5) in it as well. It is an excellent and fun reading program! RS math is very teacher intensive (so is AAR), but so worth the extra time!