It sounds like he's doing great for a 7 year old! Reading Little House books (4th and 5th grade reading level) is pretty remarkable, considering most kids are in 1st or 2nd grade when they are 7. When he's reading and stops to interject a statement or ask a question, remind yourself that he is making extra neural connections to what he is reading and this is a very good thing! Connections to prior knowledge, connections to the answer to his question, etc. Building up brain connections. Remind your self that this is a good thing. (My dd does it, too.) Making connections. (It's a mantra I repeat to myself when she tells me how what she just read reminds her of a Garfield or Family Circle cartoon and then proceeds to describe it in detail. Neural connections. Yes.) lol Math facts are rather torturous for many. Check out Memorize in Minutes. It has stories and pictures and is very consistent. Also, hang a chart up where he can see it. 7 is still pretty young to know his multiplication facts, so if he's got some down already, he's ahead of the game. I suggest Writing With Ease Level One Workbook for the writing. A little bit of copywork and dictation, enough to not warrant too much complaining, and some oral work. Excellent foundation curriculum. I agree with SWB (and the Charlotte Mason school of thought) about not requiring any original creative writing at this age. HTH! Almost forgot to mention... to keep child engaged and moving along... short lessons, alternate interesting subjects with less interesting subjects, a schedule or to-do list they can see.

I also enjoy the Songs We Enjoy CDs from Abeka. They have one for each grade level.

English Grammar/Literature/Composition - Language Smarts B & C / BJU Reading 5 / All Things Fun and Fascinating Copywork - excerpts from WWE 3 Handwriting - RFH E Math - Singapore Standards 3A, 3B, 4A Science - BJU Science 6 as spine. Max Axiom and Magic School Bus to supplement. History - Currently in Early Modern Times chronologically. Using BJU Heritage Studies 1, 2, 3 as spines. Geography - US History Map Activities. Map Skills for Today 5. Health - Abeka Health 5 as spine. Latin - Cambridge Latin 1. Greek - Biblical Greek 4 Kids Computer - Building Thinking Skills, Editor in Chief, Timez Attack, Cluefinders Spelling/Vocab - Vocabulary from Classical Roots 5 Extra Vocabulary - Core Curriculum Vocabulary Cards from Super Duper Inc. Art - Mark Kistler Art History - Art Game Renaissance plus Mike Venezia books Music Appreciation - Composer Study: Handel Piano - Cartoon Song Book, Kinderbach Recorder - Cartoon Song Book

I also wanted to mention... I don't know what curriculum you are using for various subjects, but full-color stuff is typically great for visual learners. Pictures, color, stories, and humor are the glue that makes things stick in their brains. Curriculum might include things like Grammar Tales by Scholastic and Fun Decks from Super Duper Inc. for various grammar concepts. Magic School Bus books and Max Axiom graphic novels and Science Wiz kits are great for science concepts. Graphic novels (Capstone Press), Usborne Beginner books, Story-telling format books (like those by CLP, SOTW, or CHOW), Horrible Histories, and You Wouldn't Want to Be... books are great for history. Anything with full-color images is great, generally speaking. You also might google Right brained learner or Visual spatial learner.

Dance Mat Typing. It's free on the internet. Yes, third grade is fine to teach typing, just don't worry about speed so much.

Is she very visual? My dd is. We use full-color pictures WITH the words (a color picture (maybe a related sticker or mini accent) with every two or three words (which you write in color) and then draw a box around the whole phrase and pic ("chunking" it). Then a different picture, color, and box for the next phrase, and so on. (I hope that's clear.) I believe I got the tips from Dianne Craft's website. Works great for us. Another technique I did with a girl who was more hands on was that we made motions for every word. Learning was a snap this way. I just realized that you may be talking about math facts... I like Memorize in Minutes. You could have your dd color them if she needs that. It's little stories and pictures that accompany each math fact, and it includes most of the math facts, and the ones it doesn't include are easy to create from the book. For instance, thirty-six is always Dirty Sticks, so if they don't have 3 x 12, for example, you can easily do Tree x Elf = Dirty Sticks using the same words and stuff as the book.

While I'm not discounting the possibility of ADD, I do have to say that I would have a hard time concentrating with a loud 3 year old on top of me, and I'm a grownup. So... maybe do math when the 3 year old is napping? Or plop the 3 year old in front of a quiet video in another room during math time? Or in front of starfall.com with headphones? Also, what is your dd's learning style and what curriculum are you using? If you know she understands it, maybe you could assign fewer problems. Maybe she's goofing off because she's not engaged in what she's doing/learning. If one of your goals is to create a love of learning (that's one of mine, but I know not everyone has this as a goal), then perhaps you need to look at a way to make school more fun. More hands on things/manipulatives? More living books? More colorful visual aids? More games? Just some thoughts...

Combine where you can. Your 9 and 11 year old would probably enjoy The Sentence Family by St. Michael School for Grammar. (They get to draw, and it's a really good, fun overview of parts of speech and subject predicate.) For history, you might look at Draw and Write Through History. Use that as your spine, and have the kids watch movies related to what you are studying. Do Science together. If they like hands on, Science Wiz kits can successfully be done together by the 9 and 11 year old. Throw in some Max Axiom comic books or some related movies or some Magic School Bus books. Or get some of the Draw Write Now books on more scientific topics. For writing, I would start with teaching your older kids to type. Dance Mat Typing is free on the internet. I used a Spongebob typing program myself. That may help the writing issues. All Things Fun and Fascinating by Lori Verstegen (IEW) might work well for your two olders, also. Best of luck!

Your choices look fine. Be aware that you may be doing some curriculum switching the first few years of homeschooling, as you figure out your ds's learning style in all its nuances. If you have a lot of problems with any of your choices or your ds is resistant, it may be that you are not presenting the information visually enough, so just be aware of that. If FLL, for instance, doesn't work well for you, you might try Grammar Tales by Scholastic. If Saxon Math doesn't work well for you, you might try Singapore Math Standards Edition. Mike Venezia "Getting to Know the World's Greatest Artist" books are really great for artist study. Mark Kistler's videos (youtube plus he has on Online art academy) are really fun for drawing instruction.

The Chronicles of Narnia books are at a fifth grade reading level. So are the Wrinkle in Time books and about half of The Borrowers books. Many of the Illustrated Classics are at a fifth grade reading level, also.

There are placement tests for Singapore Math on their website, singaporemath.com

Singapore Math is mastery. The Standards Edition is full color through all the levels (that's a big deal at my house).

I'm not sure which LA skills you are wanting to target? I haven't used LLATL. I will just throw out some visual/right brain resources that I have used successfully. Maybe you will find something that will work for your kids. Writing With Ease Level One Workbook Grammar Tales by Scholastic The Sentence Family by St. Michael School Language Smarts by Critical Thinking Company Fun Decks by Super Duper Inc. All Things Fun and Fascinating by Lori Verstegen (IEW) Mosdos Press Literature Personally, I have to hit all the LA subjects separately: grammar, spelling, composition, literature.

We like The Cartoon Songbook: Recorder Fun published by Hal Leonard. It has the Spongebob theme song. Plus it puts the letters of the notes on the actual notes. Some of the other theme songs are a little more babyish, but still enjoyable. It has Bob the Builder, Dora the Explorer, Dragon Tales, PB&J Otter, Rugrats, Spongebob, and Thomas. (It also has Mary had a little lamb, Aura Lee, Twinkle Twinkle Little Star, and This Old Man).

You might try some of the software from Critical Thinking Company. I recently bought Building Thinking Skills Level and Editor in Chief. I think standardized test taking is a skill in and of itself, and these should be helpful in developing that. I also noticed that, for my dd, vocabulary was an issue. If she didn't know a word on the test, it really threw her. So I got some Core Curriculum Vocabulary cards from Super Duper Inc. and am going to focus on those plus just more vocabulary generally.

I'm a lefty. My dd is a lefty. We used HWOT for printing and cursive. It was fine. Although we eventually did switch to RFH because I didn't like the connections between letters in cursive in HWOt. Really, I don't think there's a problem with any program used for a lefty, as long as you remain flexible. For instance, I have never been able to make a good-looking cursive capital J. Ever. My dd came up with a completely different way of forming it, and now our J's look great! But it's different from anything taught. It works for us. Also, I think you should be flexible about the slant, whatever program you are using. While I don't like the backslant that some lefty programs have (yuck!), I do think straight up and down is fine, or a very minor "normal slant" for a lefty. Lefties generally have to push their pencils to form cursive letters, rather than pull, making it a bit more challenging. Oh! I also think you should be flexible about what grip the lefty is using on the pencil. I say walk a mile in a lefty's shoes before you tell her she's holding her pencil wrong.

I use a binder for my lesson plans. I write them one day at a time on looseleaf paper and keep those papers in the front. Then I have about 10 dividers, one for each subject, and also one that says "Schedule" and one that says "Paper." I put general ideas about the schedule in the schedule section, and extra looseleaf in the paper section. In, say, the History section, I put my list of history lessons for the particular unit we are studying. For instance, one line will say "Read Child's Story of America p. x - xx." The next line might have "Read Heritage Studies p. y-yy." So I can schedule out the content and order of my history lessons in advance, but then have the flexibility on when to use them. If I have papers about specific subjects, worksheets or state requirements or what have you, those go in the subject sections. HTH

Yes. Excellent choice, as is American Pioneers and Patriots. Awesome!!!

I used Abeka Phonics 1 and 2 with ALL the whistles and bells and optional flashcards to teach my vsl how to read. I stuck really closely to the scripted lessons in the lesson plan. I know that initially, back in kinder before I started homeschooling, my dd had to memorize a list of sight words, so I paired each word with a picture and just drilled her on them. That made something click for her, so that we were able to do Abeka Phonics the following year and have much success. You might also look into Dianne Craft Right Brain Phonics. Right brain learners tend to be VSLs.

We did that, for allergy reasons also. There's some really nice-looking vinyl sticky-back tile. We got some that looks like Beige Slate. Everyone compliments it and doesn't realize it's not ceramic until we tell them. It was about $1 a tile. Easy peasy and nice looking.

Print that out and take it with you. I can tell you my husband has no problem returning anything any time at any store for any reasoning. He once returned a shirt that was a year old because it started fraying around the sleeve. (No individual experience with Bed, Bath, and Beyond, but you have that policy so they should honor it.)

LL Bean has an entire section called Women's Rain Gear.

Timberdoodle sells tons of graphic novel biographies. There are all interesting and fun to read.

I can tell you that for 5th grade, I got the BJU 6 Science curriculum, and plan on taking two years to cover it. I'm all about enjoying learning, and I don't want to fast-forward through stuff just to fit everything in.

Teach him to type. There's a free typing program on the internet called Dance Mat Typing. And always check his (typed) work and make him make corrections. If he doesn't know what the correction should be, show him. As far as capitalization and spacing... my dd had problems with this too. I had to point it out and make her correct it. We used WWE workbooks for Levels 1 and 2. For spacing, I had her use her finger as a measure of enough space between words. You really have to teach things to some kids that seem obvious to you (like when you say Copy, you mean Caps and spacing and punctuation and everything exactly the same). It's not obvious to them. I'm firmly in the CM camp that requires no original writing from kids this age. Even for thank you notes, I wrote them out and dd copied them. (We may have discussed what to say, but I then wrote it out for dd to copy.)