Sorry I couldn't reply sooner - we do a LOT of CLE. For 1st grade (and 2nd grade), I've used the TM a couple of times. It has a lot of "teaching reference" content. For example, the 2nd grade TM has a big section on creative writing assignments. There were (lowering head in shame) a couple of instances where I didn't know the answer and had to look it up in the TM. However, if you are looking budget, you can definitely go without the TMs. Also, because of shipping, I buy the LU's in 5's. Like - you buy LU 100-105 and then when you're finished, you can buy LU 106-110. Then can zip through a LU in about 3-5 weeks (if you do that subject every day). Also, it is definitely workbook style learning, but the student has to do a lot of writing. There's a lot of fill-in-the-blank, some copywork, penmanship, answering questions, building sentences, etc (in the LA). I think it's a good, easy to implement program (and cheap).

We're halfway through CLE 100 Reading and I have to warn you that CLE Reading is very advanced. I bought it and it had to sit for 5 months in a box before the 1st grader could actually "read" it. We haven't made it to CLE 200 yet! The 100 Reader is very good though! I've seen so much progress since we've started.

;) Awesome replies, thanks... I did not realize that I could buy one workbook per grade (and on amazon). :auto:

Oh, thanks for your replies! The workbook itself is expensive (no offense, SWB). :D I have to buy it for multiple children. :tongue_smilie: Thanks again!

Can you just buy the workbooks? Or do you need the Instructor Text?

I know from what the teachers were telling us when my kids were in ps that your kid's spelling looks completely on target for his grade level. I also have a 1st grader and his spelling looks like that too. Even the 2nd grader still tries to write words the way she hears them (and she reads at a 4th grade level also). I think it's a developmental thing - the teachers were saying. On that note, we do BJU Spelling. :D

We just finished Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day with a 2nd grader and 1st grader. Due to popular demand, we are getting ready to order Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day. And after that, we'll probably get the Land Creatures (or whatever the heck that book is called). :D My kids loved it - very Charlotte Masony approach to science. It also is WAY above their heads. ;) We might redo them in middle school. My kids loved it - even the 4 year-old was wanting to sit in on the readings. And I even learned something about aphids. :D

We are finishing up Core 1 - it's really NOT that much reading if you have kids who like to be read to...and can combine kids into one core... However... If you have kids who need a lot of hands-on stuff, SL is not for you! I also got most of the books from the library and only bought some of the odd selections (Usborne and CHOW) and of course the Readers (the books that the kids read themselves). :D I gotta say, though...the Readers are awesome. My kids flat-out told me that they hate CLE and just want to do the SL Readers. :tongue_smilie: I also have no regrets from doing the Read-Alouds (which we check out at the library). Some of those books made lasting impressions on the kids (like Mountain Born and Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle). You can even get some of the audio books on CD and listen to them in the car (we did). It's not very academic or workbooky, but SL's literature selection has a lot of classic books (and some Newberry Medals) that kids probably should read anyway. But, you can see from my signature that we supplement - a LOT. Good luck in your decision!

What a sad thread. Good luck, Everybody. :angelsad2: One good thing, though - our kids appreciate everything and they're going to be tough people!

Yeah, we're using the Kumon workbook right now. It's really good. I think it was about 7 bucks.

We don't have a place to live, we lost a lot of our valuable stuff (wedding rings, baby jewelry) in a robbery and we're not having presents until we get into a home. We're staying in hotels and now an RV park. We feel your pain... We have a job now, but no home. Strange, eh? What a bad, bad, bad year... :bored: It'll all be better soon. 2010 is coming in a couple of weeks and it can't be NEARLY as bad as 2008-2009 were!!! :D Good luck!

We were unemployed for 7 months and I'll tell you how we finally got a job - we had my husband's resume professionally written, he posted his resume with several recruiting companies online and we NETWORKED like there was no tomorrow. He was shamelessly calling everybody he knew that had a job and asked if there were positions available at their company. Even our RELATIVES were "networking" for us. :001_smile: My husband even called the Vice President of a company and asked if he could have a job. He ended up getting two job offers (one from a recruiter who saw his resume online) and the big offer came from a company where one of his previous co-workers transferred to...they went to their boss and said, "You gotta hire this guy!" Good luck! Now we have a job, but are tackling our homeless situation. :confused: At least we have a job, though. If you end up getting a pro resume service, I think we paid about $200 - don't pay any more than that.

We use Sonlight Core 1+2 as social studies... Horizons 1 Math (1st grader) Singapore 2b Math (2nd grader), Kumon workbooks to review CLE LA (100 and 200 series) BJU Spelling (1st and 2nd grade) Map Skills (1st and 2nd grade) Sonlight 2 Intermediate Readers (2nd grader) CLE Reading 1st grade HWOT Printing Power (1st grader) HWOT Cursive (2nd grader) Apologia's Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day and now Swimming Creatures of the Fifth Day

We are using CLE LA 100's, the 1st Grade Reader and also LA 200 series. The 1st grade LA workbooks are sometimes very overwhelming to our 1st grader also. I still believe that they are a huge help...especially starting with Light Unit 105 (where they start explaining the phonics blends). My son's reading has improved a LOT. Here's my suggestions: I think they do get used to it... Sometimes I have split up the lesson over two days. We skip penmanship because we do HWOT. He doesn't do any of the light units on his own (the 2nd grader does, though). He knows (by light unit 105) that there is no "I can't do it" or complaining. I make him sit there until it's finished. Oh, yeah and some of the drills I read over with him - instead of him "circling stuff", etc...we just kind of talk it through and he answers me. I do think CLE is extremely overwhelming to some kids, but DARN is it thorough. I just can't justify getting rid of it. Like I said, his reading level has shot through the roof with it. Good Luck! I'm right there with ya'! :D

You know, we are FLYING through Sonlight Core 1 also. We started in July and we're pretty much finished. I'm going to start some stuff in Core 2 this spring, but I might have to view Sonlight as a "supplement" to something else. Not that I'm trying to academically kill my kids - but they are getting a LOT more than they were in ps. On another note, Core 3 kinda scares me and I don't think they could do it next year... I'm looking at Winterpromise (another Charlotte Mason-y approach) next year for History - the 2nd grade has a great collection of American History books (famous Presidents, American Revolution, etc)... There is also the themed stuff that would be interesting to boys (finally, something our boy possibly could maybe be slightly interested in - LOL!)... :lurk5:

:lurk5:

Yeah, not wanting to hijack a thread or anything...but they stole our wedding rings, the kids' baby jewelry (special for obvious reasons), all my car keys/house keys, the kids' social security cards and birth certificates, our 2 laptops and the titles to both our cars. :confused: It was very scary. We had to leave where we were staying that day 'cuz we were afraid they were coming back that night to take our cars.

This sounds weird, but maybe go out in the evening and look at some Christmas lights? I understand completely. We are living in a hotel right now, not putting up a tree, not buying Christmas presents until Jan (due to lack 'o funds), were just robbed last week horribly (they even took our wedding rings and my car keys) and we're 800 miles away from our church (where we always attend the Christmas Eve candlelight service/communion). When it rains it pours... Sorry I couldn't be more uplifting - but you're not alone!!! :grouphug:

We FLEW through Core 1 for some reason. The kids are 8 and 6. We had some big hits and misses, though.

We're closing on a house that's out in the middle of absolute nowhere (30 min to town). We're excited. Kids 200 years ago weren't constantly shuttled from playdate to gymnastics to cheerleading to soccer - and they were considered pretty normal... During WWII, they also attributed a LOT of the US/Canadian forces' military superiority to the fact that most of our soldiers were from rural areas.

I have used both HWOT 1st grade (Printing Power) and the 3rd grade cursive workbook. I haven't bought the TM for either and we are almost finished. It's REALLY self-explanatory.

We're almost finished with CLE LA 100 and 200. I think it's incredible as far as grammar and LA goes. We supplement spelling with BJU Spelling workbooks and we also did Handwriting without Tears (although probably wasn't necessary). The LA is pretty advanced and the 6 yro has cried a couple of times during a lesson. I felt like the LA was almost a year ahead of where it should be... We also have the CLE 1st grade reader and it took until late Nov for the 1st grader to be able to actually read it. I can't say enough good stuff about the LA (although some of the sentences are a little odd). But, it's a really solid grammar program.

We are going through the exact same thing. We were flying through Singapore 2A and suddenly we hit borrowing. I completely took the Singapore books away and bought the Kumon 3rd Grade addition and subtraction workbook. I'm making her do 2 pages a day thru this workbook until everything is completely cemented in her brain. The workbook is 60 pages of non-stop addition and subtraction drills (I think the problems go into the hundreds). When we finish this workbook, I'll move along in the Singapore textbook again. I think this is going to work. I hate to advance the kid when she hasn't mastered something already covered.

No. 30 days late is when it is reported to the credit agencies. We constantly monitor our credit and have brought our score from the mid-500's up to almost a 700 in the last year.

This recently happened to us with Singapore also. I made her stop and start one of the Kumon books - just to get a little more drill in there... I worry about going through material with her too quickly... Although she's 7 and almost finished with Singapore 2a, so we probably should slow down. :confused: