Hi, My 5th grader will be doing a mix of Sonlight 4 and SOTW 4 and I'm wanting to include my 2nd grader by focusing more on the cultural/inventions side of history during this period. Does anyone have a simple schedule they have pulled together for this age? Or does anyone know of a curriculum that does this? I like Beautiful Feet, but it is for an earlier period. We're hoping to start at the beginning of the 1800s or thereabouts. Thanks!

My 4th grader took several years to pick-up his reading skills. This year he finally went from reading 2nd grader easy chapter books (A to Z Mysteries, Jigsaw Jones) to The Great Brain series (5th grade). So, please don't get dismayed if your child seems slower. I'm realizing through my own 3 boys that everyone progresses at different speeds!

I had the same issue with my son. He was reading but I was concerned that he might miss something. I just had him breeze through Alphaphonics (the main text) to cover it all. Alphaphonics is mostly just a list of words.

We used it this year. Two thumbs up! How awesome for someone to put such a high quality schedule together and post it for free!

My son was 6 when we used 100 ez lessons. He did great for about half of it and then it got difficult for him. The sentences were just too long. We switched to Alphaphonics (which is basically just a list of words) and supplemented with Bob Books and Nora Gaydos. It worked much better. I also supplemented with the online program Headsprout which is wonderful. I think there is another called Click n Read now. My younger son is using Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading and is doing very well. He seems to pick up reading faster than my older did though. Sometimes waiting a few months can help too. It may be a developmental thing. Good luck!

We used Nora Gaydos readers.

Oh, I forgot about Biblioplan. Thanks!

We are using Los Banos for the Early Amer. History and love it (and its free!). We are moving on to Modern History (1830s-present, Amer. and World) next year. I'm weighing all the options and have found SL, WP and TOG. Am I missing any others? Thanks!

We're doing WWE 3 and I'm incorporating short stories from The Book of Virtues and The Moral Compass by William Bennett. I've been pleasantly surprised to do character training and writing at the same time!

I love WWE also. My first grader did WWE1 this year. I thought the passages were challenging for him (which was good since listening to stories is hard for him), but the copywork a little too easy. But that was fine with me since we just beefed up other areas of our curriculum (spelling dictation, grammar, science/history narration/copywork) to make up for it. It was actually nice to have it not too difficult. I like the program because it is easy to implement and my son never feels overwhelmed. He actually doesn't mind it because it is doable! And I like it because it gets the job done.

My kids are pretty auditory, and I would like to include my 2nd grader in the mix. My oldest has just jumped from reading Jigsaw Jones to the Great Brain just recently, so I'm interested in getting a program with scheduled reading. I want him to have his own schedule to follow (so I won't be the "bad" guy coming up with my own schedule!). I'm wondering if WP Amer Story (or Cultures) may have easier readers than SL4? We are finishing up on my own Early American curriculum (w/Los Banos help), so I'm interested in a Modern History curriculum. Thanks!

I was wondering if anyone had opinions about these. I thought about SL4 but heard that some of the books were a bit difficult for a 4th/5th grader. I like the looks of the books with WP, but was wondering if the schedule jumped around a lot? Any thoughts? thanks!

I love Math Mammoth. I've used Singapore, Horizons, Moving with Math and Saxon. MM is my favorite. MM is straight forward and comprehensive. I like Singapore but my older son needed more review. With my younger son I tried Singapore with Horizons, but I'm going to switch him to MM next year. The mastery approach works well for us. I also like how she shows several ways to figure things out. Everything is in the binder, no teacher guide needed. I pull out 5 (or more) pages for the week and I don't need anything else. I bought the full year curriculums from the Winterpromise site. Its a great deal. I can use the CDs to reprint the curriculum for my younger boys. I guess I can't say enough. Her website is great too.

ourlosbanos.com (click on Education link) She has put together a wonderful schedule for American History and Science (Human Body). She also has some printables. Great resource.

We've done Moving with Math, Singapore, Horizons and Math Mammoth. Math Mammoth is my favorite.

You might like Math Mammoth. Its similar to Singapore but has more problems. You can see samples on her website (and download portions). I love the program. There is no teacher guide. Everything is on the worksheet page. I got the entire 3rd grade curriculum through the Winterpromise site.

Ordinary Parent's Guide has been our favorite. Short, sweet and to the point. You can add to it if needed (we supplemented with Nora Gaydos readers and ETC), but it really isn't necessary. I tried Sonlight K and Alphaphonics, but like OPGTR the best.

My almost 10yo son is finishing up the schoolyear with WWE. I really like it, but am also looking to switch to IEW for 5th grade. For some reason writing stresses me out, and I would like to find something that is solid and gets the job done. For those of you using IEW, where do you start. Did you purchase IEW TWSS or just get one of the theme books? I'm hoping to use this program for a while (with two more boys behind my oldest). Thanks for the input! Wendy

Have you heard of ourlosbanos.com? Follow the Education link and she has some wonderful schedules for History and Science. She has links to a lot of helpful websites. We are using Otter's Science for a study of the human body. It fits us perfectly and it's free! She does a wonderful job.

I am using Math Mammoth with my 4th grader (he is in MM3). I really like the program. I bought the entire year curriculum through WP, but you can download chunks of it on the MM website. It is quite inexpensive, so you could try a portion of it and see what you think. My 4th grader struggled with Singapore, but has really done well with MM. My 1st grader is doing Horizons and Singapore, but I think I will switch him to MM next year. It is so easy to pick up and go and I love the way Maria teaches the mastery approach.

I'm reading it right now with my almost 10yo son. We both are enjoying it. I think it is well written. It does have some dark aspects, but I think my son is old enough to handle it. My 6yo son on the other hand would probably have a hard time with the darkness. We are only about 1/3 of the way through it, however.

It sounds like your son is where my 4th grade son is too. He really doesn't like to write and is also a minimalist. He whines a lot about writing. I used Just Write last year and then switched to WWE this year. He reads the stories and then we alternate with narration and dictation. He is just getting to the point of writing down his narrations himself. I've felt like a failure with his writing, but now I feel like we are following a solid program and we just keep plugging away on it. He went to the PS for a short while this year and all they did for writing was comprehension questions and worksheets. I like WWE because I feel like he is seeing how a paragraph develops and he is reading good material. We are using Writing With Ease and he reads one page stories/fables from The Moral Compass by William Bennett. Good luck!

We've used it for 2nd and 3rd grade. It really has worked well for my oldest son. I think it is similar to Singapore but with more problems and more detail. It is not really colorful (so we are using Singapore and Horizons for my 1st grader), but I think it is a wonderful program. I'm planning to switch my younger son to it when he is in 2nd grade. Please email me if you want any more info.

One more to add to the pot: Math Mammoth. We used it for 2nd and 3rd grade. For my first grader we are using Singapore and Horizons. I really like Math Mammoth. We got it through Winterpromise.

We ran into that same thing recently. My husband came up with an incentive chart. They receive 5 points if they get their work done by 2pm. They can also get a bonus point for getting their work done early, asking "what's next?", or being helpful to each other (among other things). We set up a rewards chart based on these points. They both just accumulated 100 points and earned toy electric guitars. We sat down together to come up with the rewards. They could have gotten smaller rewards at lower points (like baseball cards), but they decided to hold out for the guitars! The tricky thing is to not let them accumulate points too quickly (then we'll be broke!). We set a maximum of 7 points per day. This may sound pretty goofy, but it actually has worked and made a huge difference in our days. Now I don't feel like I'm nagging them all day long. I just tell them it is up to them and if they don't get done by 2pm they still have to do the work, but just won't earn any points. They also can't watch TV or have friends over until it is done. Now we've gotten into a routine of getting things done earlier and it doesn't seem to take as much effort. Hope this gives you some ideas! :001_smile: