I was looking for Ancient History for youngers and was strongly considering SCM. In the meantime I found Science in the Beginning by Jay Wile. Does anyone use these together? Then I saw that MFW CtG also uses Science in the Beginning, but do they schedule the whole book or just parts? Pam

I've posted on here before and finally decided to try Bigger with my just turned 8 yr old (2nd grade) and LHFHG with my K'er. Much of Little Hearts is too easy for my 5 yr old ... so, I've been using the right side of Beyond and the left side of LHFHG for her and Bigger straight through for my 8 yr old. My 8 yr old is struggling with the amount of writing involved in all the notebooking. He has just learned to read (1st grade level) and is still slower to write ... he doesn't enjoy writing, either. He prefers oral narrations and read-alouds. He learns with this method ... he also loves math and science. I'm stressed, though. I'm having to do a lot of hand holding through the Bigger guide because of the amount of writing. I was thinking it would help him but it is burning us both out. Also, my almost 6 yr old really wants to do more and more school and using the 2 different guides is wearing me out (I have a special needs son and a toddler and a baby, as well ... I'm pulling out my hair). I'm about 5 weeks into our new school year and feeling a lot of pressure to fix this mess. If my 5 yr old were different or not as advanced I would just be low-key with her school ...but she begs to do school every day and she is very bright. I'm contemplating dropping everything for now and switching to SCM History 4, (keeping) CLE Math 100 (for 5 yr old) and 200 (for 2nd grader), A Reason For Handwriting for both kids, and a lot of phonics/grammar review that we did last year, we also have a science that it is CM style earth science that both kids like (I just started reading it to them). I will also keep doing the read-alouds that I bought from HOD. The other choices I've come up with is to drop Bigger (we just finished week 4) and move to Beyond which seems like less writing. Combine both kids in that and do spelling and LA as written (keep DS in CLE math). Both kids are in the emergent reader category and spelling list 1. The other choice is to keep going in Bigger but drop most of the notebooking (We love the Eggleston book that we've started reading and what I love is that DS is retaining tons of history this year - which has never worked in the past). I REALLY want the to both being doing the same Bible memory - I'm not liking the separate stuff. I think at this point maybe only math should be separate - they are similar ages with LA. We read the same biography to both kids already for the first 4 units (Helen Keller) and both kids learned a lot. They both do the same spelling list and emergent reader books. My 5 yr old has a short attention span for history reading, however... I feel like more needs to be combined. WWYD?

Hi ladies, Anybody here doing MFW Ancients or MFW for the the later high school years or have prior experience with that? (Crystal, you don't need to answer~don't worry!) We are all set on doing SCM Mods 1-3 with the 1st-7th graders, but I'm torn about whether to put oldest daughter (starting 9th), in MFW for the ancients or have her stay with the younger ones doing the SCM Ancient mods.... My thought was that if she did MFW Ancients we would all still be on the same time period and there would still be good family discussions. She is very bright and loves to write. I don’t want to overload her and stress her out, yet want to make sure she is doing college prep study in case she ends up going that route. We supplement SCM with AO as well. Please share your thoughts and wisdom! Thank you and blessings, JFG

I have been trying to glean from some of the other CM resources out there, having used mostly A/O and SCM up until this point. I didn't realize there were others out there like HUFI and more. Is there a resource like SCM that has the children studying the same period of history whithin a four year rotation like TWTM? We have 7 kids, 14, 12, 9, 6, 5, 5, and 4. Many thanks!:)

My head is spinning! I'm very new to homeschooling with young dc (ds4 & dd 16 mo). We're part of a preschool co-op now that's working great, but I'm a planner & like to look ahead. I'm comparing MFW, TOG, SCM, Biblioplan, & TQ. I'm not sure TOG is really for us, but I keep reading a couple of great things about it that I'm not specifically seeing about other programs. 1. Parents are learning along with their dc. I had no idea that this was a goal for our family until after I'd made the decision to hs. 2. The teacher's notes give direction & lead to great discussions. I guess I'm hoping somebody will have insight into these other programs, especially with regard to the family learning (including mom). I thought I had settled on MFW, but as I get a tiny bit more experience, I'm wondering if I'll want more flexibility. TIA!

Anyone, use SCM? (or even Ambleside) Do you feel like it is a lot (too much) of bookwork? How do you do at making things interactive and fun? Does this method help you think of and plan fun activities and find ideas? Do you follow there guide exactly, moderately, minimally? What do you think is the best about this method/currc.? Do you use their planner? What do you think of it?

Good morning! For those moms who use AO or SCM (either alone or in combo with WTM), how did you choose which one to use? I have read some of the posts at SCM about the differences between the two and searched the archives here as well, but would love to hear more. I have thought for some time that a more CM approach would be of great benefit to my daughters, especially the oldest. I have always been drawn to it, but just never able or willing to take enough time to really learn all about it and plan our weeks in a more CM-friendly way. Part of the reason is because my oldest DD has ADD (not medicated at this point) and there is no way I can see that she could come close to finishing a lesson in 20 min. or so. At any rate, I am at a place where I now have the time and energy to really focus on changing our homeschool for the better. I want to move towards CM while still keeping with the WTM language arts - DD loves R&S for grammar and I do not want to change that! Both AO and SCM appeal to me. I think AO has so much more in the way of help with their Yahoo! forums and such, but I am not sure how "do-able" it would be to have a DD in Y2 or Y3 and another in Y0. They would always be on different things. But I have also read on AO why they advise not to combine children for the sake of combining. SCM has children combined in history, for instance, which appeals to me more. Each has it's own merits! So, what did you choose for your family, and why? I am very interested to hear!