Well Trained Mind (support only)

[Mary-Beth]

Anyone else inspired by/following The Well Trained Mind?
I have some questions with our schedule.

I have a 5yo and a 7yo so they would be entering K and 2nd in a public school situation. (plus a 14 month old baby who keeps me busy!)

I'm excited by this approach and want to follow it but I'm also a bit intimidated by it all.
Will you look at my general plans and give me suggestions/feedback?

My plan is to begin Story of the World and I have the activity book to get ideas from. Hopefully we'll get to this 2x/week. One day I'll read the chapter and the next time we'll do the activity. ??
We'll get library books that relate to the topic of study (plus other library books that the kids choose)

I have First Language lessons and I plan to begin with 7yo and probably the 5yo too??

We are already working on Handwriting Without Tears and they love it. We may finish our current book before summer ends...not sure if we'll continue or not yet. My 5yo has beautiful writing. The 7yo is really improving and thriving on this program.

I plan on ordering the Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading to do with my 5yo. We've been using BOB books and she's worked through the first set of them. But she is not taking to reading at all like her older sister so I'm still learning her individual learning style/approach. I am hoping this book will help.
Reading is my biggest focus for her. (and she wants to read as well but gets frustrated sometimes. She knows all the letter sounds, even vowels but it's still not quite come together for her yet.)

I'm not sure about The Complete Writer. I just don't know if I should order -- or what level(s). It feels like we have enough workbook already!

Math- we like Singapore and will stick with it. Plus we do a lot of math games.

Science-- well we'll continue our nature walks, nature collections, garden work (the kids have a vegetable garden) and we'll study the human body, animal life and plants.

Music- the girls study violin and attend lesson 2x/week. One is private lesson and one is a group class lesson. They practice 6 days a week for anywhere from 15 min- 40 min or so.

Art- My 5yo loves to draw and paint and would love an art class. I'll probably get the Drawing With Children book-- but honestly I don't know if I'll have the time to do this with her consistently.

Plus, the kids are going to participate in a co-op small group class 2x/week. They will focus on science and humanities and have a chorus class.

So this feels like a lot!!! How am I going to fit this all in?
M and Wed will be hard to do very much because we are out of the house a good portion of the day, especially Wed. It would be easier not to schedule too much on those days but then how could I cover all this on the other days?

[mimom22]

I use WTM and really enjoy it as well. I found it helpful to go on donnayoung.com for FREE printable schedules. WTM gives some type of schedule, but I wrote everything out. (I have ds 6, ds 3.5 and dd 10mo). I also do some things once a week (like art and music). Plus, you won't be taking 8 hours to do everything like ps. Your dc might only take 15min to do math, etc.

Yay to a fellow WTM hser!!! I can't wait to see other posts. Sorry this one is so short. I am sleepy.

[janerose]

We're also following the WTM model. At least to start. With a little Charlotte Mason thrown in for good measure. The way WTM & CM discuss the process of education really appealed to me on pretty much every level. I imagine "unit studies" will also become part of our education as we come across topics of interest & pursue them.

I have an almost 5 yo DD who I'm doing K phonics with now. I'm looking to start K handwriting (something she really needs to work on...especially lower case letters) in the next couple weeks. We're doing the K level of Hooked on Phonics now & enjoying it. I may borrow HOP for 1st from a friend, but I'm seriously leaning towards getting The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading because it's text based. HOP is great, but I'm finding DD gets distracted by the cute pictures or tries to "read" the story based on the pictures rather than paying attention to the words.

This fall I'm looking at:

PHONICS: Either HOP 1st or Ordinary Parents. Probably Ordinary Parents.
GRAMMAR: First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind -- once we're about 1/2 way through Ordinary Parents.
WRITING: The Complete Writer Level 1
PENMANSHIP: Not sure about this. Will probably be either Handwriting without Tears or Zaner-Bloser.
SPELLING: Spelling Workout Level A workbook

MATH: I'm checking out Miquon. If that doesn't do it for me I will probably order Modern Curriculum Press K & 1st workbooks.

HISTORY: Story of the World Vol 1 & Activity Book

SCIENCE: Study animals, human body & plants. May or may not use books specifically recommended in WTM. I'm seriously considering using the internet & the library instead. Plus the few reference books we already own. We live in the woods, raise rabbits, garden a little & frequently go to the park and biking to nature observation is kind of a given.

ART: A book I got at Borders that teaches kids how to make basic animals, people, buildings, etc. I checked out Drawing with Children and it was SOOOO dry looking. I could hardly bring myself to read it in the store! Also, checking out books on artists, color, etc from the library.

MUSIC: Not sure what we're specifically doing for this. The girls do listen to classical music every evening when they're going to bed. For K/1st I will probably just focus on making more of an effort to point out various artists & instruments to her. Take her to a concert at our local college so she can see all the instruments being used.

Also, I'm going to try to establish a 30-60 min chunk of free reading time each afternoon. Neither of my girls nap anymore, so this seems like the perfect activity for their "quiet time" each day. These will not necessarily be books related to what we're studying (although they may be), but "living books" a la Charlotte Mason

I agree, it feels like a lot to be doing with a 5 year old. Not to mention that I have her 2.5 yo little sister to be teaching & keeping busy too. But my plan is to NOT have a rigid schedule set up for lesson plans. Rather I'm going to map out a rough idea of how I'd like school to go, and go with the flow. I want our DDs to be able to learn at their pace, with the time to truly master the skills, not just complete a checklist.

[caelia]

Your situation sounds similar to ours. I have an almost 7 year old and a 5 year old. We are just starting out, so I'm learning too! Here's what we're doing...

For History, we are doing Story of the World. Each chapter seems to have more than one section, so we've been doing one section and then an activity. We've been aiming for 3x/week. We've also supplemented with books from the library and a children's video about Ancient Egypt so far.

I must admit, Science is not my thing, so my husband has agreed to take that on. We have several science experiment books and my kids are obsessed with weather right now, so we've been focused on that for a while.

For Math, we are using Math-U-See and they both seem to really enjoy it.

For Language, we are doing Spelling Workout and Plaid Phonics (I would have done Explode the Code, but I got Plaid Phonics for free through the local co-op). I'm still trying to figure out how to work with both of them at the same time at different levels. Then, while I do Reading lessons with my younger one (Ordinary Parent's Guide), I have my older one sit in his cozy chair with his book box and read to himself. Then we switch and my daughter "reads" from her book box while I do First Language Lessons with my son.

We are also doing the Complete Writer, and it is very quick and easy - just what my son needs, because he hates the physical act of writing! The good thing about Level 1 is that is has two different options for the copywork, a short sentence and a long one. So, I have my son do the long one and my daughter do the short one. Writing With Ease is more of an overwiew of the program, so you could easily get by with just getting the Complete Writer Workbook.

My 5 yr old is like yours - she LOVES art! I am going to look for a technique class for her in the fall. Through our co-op, we got the Atelier Homeschool Art program, so I will be doing that with them - we haven't started that yet. We also got Rosetta Stone Spanish, so I'm hoping to attempt that as well. Then there's swim lessons and Tae Kwon Do, and Dance and Girl Scouts...

On paper, it does seem overwhelming, but it really does not take much time at all. When you add it up, it's really only about 3 hours of instruction per day, four days a week. That leaves plenty of time for other activities, down time, as well as time to explore in depth the topics they find really interesting. I think the Well Trained Mind seems like a good way to start out. It's really laid out for you and it gives me a plan to follow, which is comforting as a newbie. I feel like I'm using the classical approach until about noon, and then we unschool the rest of the day - we learn about what the kids are interested in, at their own pace.

[MyLittleWonders]

We are relaxed WTM people here. I have an 8 year old and almost 6 year old (technically we'd be starting him in K if he were going to school, but with our mandatory age of attendance, I will probably consider him 1st on our affidavit - that's neither here nor there though ). I also have a 3 year old underfoot, who loves to "do school". That said, here is what we do:

1. HOP for reading; All About Spelling for, well, spelling

2. First Language Lessons - we are on level/year 1 right now. Usually we do the lessons during dinner time with everyone. My 3 year old has begun to memorize one of the poems because we do it together. We also do the exercises only orally, unless dh or I write something on the chalk board (like when they were learning our address).

3. Writing w/Ease/Complete Writer - I didn't want too much repitition between this and FLL, so I went through year 1 and wrote down all the writing/grammar elements Susan Bauer recommends teaching, and ds#1 does copywork sentences based on those elements. He does 2-3 copywork sentences a week and 2-3 dictation sentences a week (the dictation sentences come from the spelling program). Ds#2 is still working on printing; he'll start doing very small dictation and copywork sentences sometime in the fall, both based on the spelling program and the recommended writing/grammar elements in WWE/CW.

4. Handwriting - we use Handwriting without Tears. Ds#1 is working through the 3rd grade cursive book (we started on cursive in the middle of "2nd" grade, once he was pretty strong with printing). He'll move on to the 5th grade cursive book when he is done. Ds#2 is almost done with the K book and will start the 1st grade book soon. He'll move on to the cursive book when he finishes the 1st grade book.

5. Math - we love Miquon, so that is what we use. Once they boys are individually done with the 6 books, we'll probably move to Singapore.

6. History - we use Story of the World though the History Odyssey program. I try to do history 2x a week - usually like you said - one day of reading and one day of map work, activity, copywork/narration (one of those - not all three). We are currently still making our way through Medieval Times as we didn't do much history during the school year (we had a large "unschooling" period). We hs year round, so we've picked up where we basically left off and are making our way through.

7. Science - we are loosely using NOEO but only for book recommendations. This year we are doing physics (I didn't go with the science order recommended by WTM, but I might when we start our second rotation through). We are looking to get some Lego Education kits on simple machines and motarized machines. The goal is to read something science-related during the week and then use the weekends for any experiments. It happens less frequently than history. :

8. Art & Music - these are my big weak spots. One of my good friends homeschools her kids, so we are going to get together 1x a month for art and musci appreciation - she has Meet the Masters, so we'll go through that and hopefully also find time to at least listen to one major composser each month.

In all, we probably sit down and do school for about 1 1/2 - 2 hours a day. Spelling, dictation/copywork, math, handwriting is done at the dining room table. Reading is often done at the couch, as is any read aloud from history, science, literature, etc. Grammar is done at the table, but during family times. During the school year when we are doing PE class, it might bump up to about 2 1/2 hours a day; plus I'm trying to fit in Latin (we have Minimus - Starting out in Latin), probably sitting on the couch together. I also want to start Rosetta Stone Spanish sometime this year. But, overall, I'm happy when we can get through our "core" - reading, spelling, grammar, handwriting, writing, math, and history with as much consistency during the week as possible.

[dotnetdiva]

Count us in! I love the WTM book!

We're starting with kindergarten this year, and here's what we'll be doing this fall. It's extremely similar to your plans.

History
History Odyssey/Story of the World with Activity Guide
2-3x week
1) Read the "text". 2) Read extra go-along books. 3) Do activity.

Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading
We're on lesson 46, this is going super fast now, I should do 2-3 lessons a day instead of 1.5. When we first started this, she was just starting to figure out blending the sounds to make words, now she sounds them out very fast.

First Language Lessons
My dd4.75 has already started this, though according to WTM, we should've waited until we got to OPG's Lesson 150 or so. But it is easy and simple and fun, and she's ecstatic that she memorized her first poem! We'll just do 1 lesson a week until we get caught up with OPG, which should be near her birthday when she turns 5.

Handwriting Without Tears
We're just wrapping up "Get Set for School" and starting "Letters and Numbers for Me". It thrills her to be able to write in her capital letters. She is starting to copy my lowercase letters, so I know she is ready to learn her lowercase.

The Complete Writer: Writing With Ease
We won't start this until perhaps spring or summer of 2010, but I have it lined up ready to go.

Math
Math is very important to me and DH, we were both very good at it. So I geeked out and got like 4-5 curriculums, although I want to just stick to one primary curriculum, hehe.
Math-U-See (wrap up Primer and start Alpha this fall)
Singapore (Earlybird B this fall, but just lightly, as MUS is our main)
RightStart (just to use their games and other manipulatives for some variety)

Science
We're surrounded by nature (bears and fox walk up on our deck often), so it is easy to study our surroundings. Not sure if I will follow WTM's suggestion to start with plants, animals, human body for the first year... I haven't quite decided on what to use for science, but have lots of science activity books lined up and have purchased this:
Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding: A Science Curriculum for K-2

Spelling
All About Spelling

Art
Using Artistic Pursuits, Meet the Masters and lots of books. Just 1-2x a week.

She is always drawing. We study the illustrations of award-winning books, and she LOVES trying to emulate the artist's illustrations. (Five in a Row is a big influence on this.)

Music
Not sure yet, we have a Julliard-trained friend offering free classes. I will probably get her introduced to the piano. We also listen to classical music a lot.

Spanish
We took a class this spring, not sure what I will do to continue to teach her, I can't afford classes anymore. I majored in Spanish in college, so I'm not too worried, and we are heading to Mexico probably a few times this summer/fall as DH has a client there.

Read-Alouds
We read TONS and TONS! During the day we calm down with our current read-aloud chapter book, as well as at night. We do Five in a Row and also do lots of related go-along picture books for anything we do (FIAR, history, art, science, etc...)

I aim to do short lessons to start, as we already are, definitely under 2-3 hours a day, if you don't count all the read-alouds and drawings.

[Bird Girl]

I combine WTM with Sonlight. (HuH? you may ask? Isn't one of those enough for anyone?) Well, I'm not sold on the idea that I should assign my children endless childrens-versions of the classics, or read biographies or some such in order to tie literature in with history. So I rely on Sonlight's core literature selections in order to flesh out my reading program. Core 1 lines up pretty well with the Ancient year, and I'm going to do Core 2 with the Medieval year. I use Story of the World (sans activity book) instead of Sonlight's recommended history spine, A Child's History of the World. We welcome, however, Sonlight's other history spine, the Usborne Book of World History.

I also use Singapore math, instead of Saxon, and Modern Curriculum Press's Phonics book instead of their spelling program. For language arts, I use Michael Clay Thompson's excellent work, Grammar Island, available through Royal Fireworks Press: http://www.rfwp.com/

Sound confusing? Well, it is, I guess, and it sort of evolved organically over the first year that I homeschooled. But I'm pretty happy with how it's shaken out, and I recommend the Sonlight catalog to anyone who's looking for reading material and comes from a classical viewpoint. Happy reading!

[pageta]

We are using WTM and love it. I really struggled with scheduling but here is how I've come to do it.

We begin our day with me reading a chapter book, right now Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. Then we focus on our core - Language Arts, Writing and Math.

For Language Arts, we're doing Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (we're about lesson 80), we just started First Language Lessons (about 75 lessons into OPGTR), then we do oral reading. We started with the BOB books, but now that he's actually reading, we're doing BOB books and books from the library such as Dick and Jane. No spelling right now as I want to get a little further with OPGTR first (about lesson 100, probably).

Handwriting - we are working through Handwriting without Tears. He knows how to write all of his capital letters, and we are 2/3 of the way through the lower case letters.

Math - we started with Singapore, switched to Right Start, but I've now ordered the HIG for Singapore and I think we'll be going back to that.

So that is our core, and it takes about an hour or so to complete, depending on how much ds dawdles when reading aloud (he likes to look at the pictures and ask lots of questions).

Once we finish that, we move on to our secondary subjects. History, Science, and Bible, as well as Music and Art.

For History, we are doing Story of the World. We read the text and all of the library books we can get our hands on, mainly. We also look at the maps and have the history encyclopedia. I'll read one thing to him a day - either the text or one of the library books. Usually that takes all week, but isn't for an hour at a time or anything - more like fifteen minutes a day.

For Science, we have a set of Childcraft Encyclopedias and I'm using the About Animals volume for my core and supplementing with library books about different animals along with other activities such as visiting nature centers or the zoo. Again, it takes us about fifteen minutes.

For Bible, I'm teaching the basic Bible stories chronologically. We have the Children's Illustrated Bible and then I have a couple other sources I'm using to repeat the stories in different formats. This also is composed of my reading aloud to him, so about fifteen minutes on this as well.

For art, I am using Artistic Pursuits. We haven't officially started it yet as I want to do ith with both boys (6 and 3) and they're spending so much time outside this summer, I hate to drag them inside just to do art. We will have plenty of time for art once the weather is cold and we're cooped up inside.

For Music, there is a podcast Classics for Kids that is six minutes long every week and focuses on one composer every month. I try to listen to that every week. I also have selected various works, such as Carnival of the Animals, to listen to with ds that are fun to learn.

My goal is four days a week of formal school where we cover our core. Most days we get through our core as well as history, science and Bible. Occasionally we do just our core. Generally we do our school while the 3-year-old naps. Not getting through everything is usually due to his getting up early or Daddy coming home early. And the history, science and Bible can easily be done while the 3-year-old is awake if we want. I just know what I want to accomplish every week and do as I need to get through it. Days where we're really on a role is when we get to music and maybe even some coloring.

Partitioning things into our core and secondary subjects and keeping a specific order that we do them has really helped me with scheduling. We do about two hours or so of work when we do everything. But we do things in little bites instead of big chunks. Fitting it all in was a challenge, but I started out simple and have added one thing at a time and it seems to be going quite well. Hope that helps.

[jplain]

Don't miss the Well Trained Mind forums: link. They're very active.
We're not exactly WTM hs'ers, but those forums are the most helpful I've found.

[theretohere]

We follow the WTM pretty closely. I think that your plan looks pretty good- and I would suggest getting the Complete Writer. All you need is the workbook.

This fall for 1st grade we're using:

Phonics Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading

Spelling Spelling Workout A

Writing The Complete Writer

Grammar First Language Lessons

Math Singapore and Miquon

History SOTW and the AG

Science We're using Usborne and Kingfisher to study the human body, animals, and Rod and Staff's 2nd grade science to study plants

Art Artistic Pursuits

Latin Prima Latina

[Mary-Beth]

Thank you! I'm reading through all of these posts...
I only have a second now but I'll be back with follow up questions soon!!

[littlewigglebutts]

We're actually only loose followers, but for 1st this year we did

Phonics - ETC 2-4
Spelling - All About Spelling 1
Grammar - FLL 1
Writing - Writing w/ Ease 1
Reading - history/science stuff we pull out and whatever else he picks out

Math - Singapore, MUS Gamma, & Miquon (yes he does all 3, but only because he loves math and wants to)

History - SOTW Ancients w/ AG (we do this for ~15min, 4X/wk, DS retains more when we do things more times)

Science - plants, animals, & human body (all books we pulled out of the library)

HTH

[Mary-Beth]

These suggestions have been great-- from printable schedules, asking dh to take on a subject like science, to focusing on core subjects first and then secondary subjects. Looks like there is a mix of people spending from 1.5 hours to 3 or so hours about 4x/week. I still don't know how I will get to all these subjects. My kids seem to move slower and want a lot of breaks...I suppose we will find our way as we go. You've all helped so much though.

Here are a few follow up questions:

Since I have a 7yo who is reading and definitely ready to start First Language Lessons, I'd like to begin that and I'd like to include my 5yo. So my question is, do you think I really should wait on this work until 5yo has worked through Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading?
To me it looks ok...learning about nouns and proper nouns and reading poems and memory work, etc. But anyone who has experience actually working through this book may have a better sense for this.

History Odyssey?? I've seen the website and it looks like a fun program. How is it different than SOTW activity guide? What makes you choose one over the other? I'm tempted to buy it even though I already have the activity guide!

[theretohere]

You'd be OK to start FLL, there's a ton of review in it.

Originally Posted by Mary-Beth

These suggestions have been great-- from printable schedules, asking dh to take on a subject like science, to focusing on core subjects first and then secondary subjects. Looks like there is a mix of people spending from 1.5 hours to 3 or so hours about 4x/week. I still don't know how I will get to all these subjects. My kids seem to move slower and want a lot of breaks...I suppose we will find our way as we go. You've all helped so much though.

Here are a few follow up questions:

Since I have a 7yo who is reading and definitely ready to start First Language Lessons, I'd like to begin that and I'd like to include my 5yo. So my question is, do you think I really should wait on this work until 5yo has worked through Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading?
To me it looks ok...learning about nouns and proper nouns and reading poems and memory work, etc. But anyone who has experience actually working through this book may have a better sense for this.

History Odyssey?? I've seen the website and it looks like a fun program. How is it different than SOTW activity guide? What makes you choose one over the other? I'm tempted to buy it even though I already have the activity guide!

[MyLittleWonders]

Originally Posted by Mary-Beth

These suggestions have been great-- from printable schedules, asking dh to take on a subject like science, to focusing on core subjects first and then secondary subjects. Looks like there is a mix of people spending from 1.5 hours to 3 or so hours about 4x/week. I still don't know how I will get to all these subjects. My kids seem to move slower and want a lot of breaks...I suppose we will find our way as we go. You've all helped so much though.

Here are a few follow up questions:

Since I have a 7yo who is reading and definitely ready to start First Language Lessons, I'd like to begin that and I'd like to include my 5yo. So my question is, do you think I really should wait on this work until 5yo has worked through Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading?
To me it looks ok...learning about nouns and proper nouns and reading poems and memory work, etc. But anyone who has experience actually working through this book may have a better sense for this.

History Odyssey?? I've seen the website and it looks like a fun program. How is it different than SOTW activity guide? What makes you choose one over the other? I'm tempted to buy it even though I already have the activity guide!

I say start FLL with your 5 y.o. too. It's a very gentle program with a lot of built-in review. My 5 1/2 year old is doing great with it (and as I've said above, even my 3 year old is starting to memorize poems).

History Odyssey uses Story of the World as part of the program. The main spine is the Usborne Internet-Linked Encyclopedia of World History. Each lesson usually has a page or two from the Usborne Encyclopedia, a chapter or part of a chapter from SOTW, a chapter from A Child's History of the World (we don't have that spine - I just use the Usborne and SOTW books). Then there's some activity that is recommended (for each level they list other resources - for Ancient Times one was "History Pockets - Ancient Civilizations" IIRC), and usually a suggestion for copywork (typically looking up a word that pertains to the lesson in a children's dictionary and copying the definition and/or a map activity. Here is the History Odyssey website. On the right is a link for a free sample (I think about 8-10 lessons - it gives you a good feel for the whole program). I like it better than the SOTW activity guide (we had both for Ancient Times), though I'm not sure if I could fully articulate why. Just personal preference I think for the lay-out, overall content, and the use of the Usborne Encyclopedia as the "organizing" spine. (History Odyssey will jump around in Story of the World as it follows more the chronology in the Usborne Encyclopedia.)

[Radish4ever]

How fun! A fellow WTMer
I hang out on the forums there a lot and have learned so much about how I want to educate my children!

My DD is only 4 (DS is 2 1/2 and baby 3 due in September), so we're being pretty loose with it.... but right now we're doing OPGTR and ETC (Get Ready for the Code will be completed today, then we'll breeze through the other 2 primers before starting on ETC 1.... I like for her to build confidence before moving on to more challenging material!).
Once we're several more weeks into OPGTR, we'll start FLL1 to see how she does...
I also might do some of the games suggested in Writing Strands 1 and eventually we'll use the Writing With Ease program when she's older.

I plan to wait to start history until the kids are older and will probably do SOTW. I'm not sure on science or art and I highly doubt we'll do Latin as is recommended in the WTM model, though I haven't compeltely ruled it out.


Our core curriculum is Home Education Curriculum: Kindergarten this year, so DD is getting experience and practice in math, science, social studies, language arts, handwriting, and music/art through that. I want her first year of school to mostly just be fun! However, I do think a strong foundation in math and reading is important, so we're supplementing

[dotnetdiva]

Yes, I think you can start FLL with a 4 year old, we did, and we love it! We are going very slowly though, even though it's extremely easy.

I am still debating Latin and looking for an appropriate program for a kindergartner.

Our priorities are in order: reading, math, handwriting. The more we master those 3, the easier it will be to tackle other subjects. The rest we will just do 1-2 times a week, keeping it around the 1-1.5 hours a day until spring. We'll see how it goes.

[ohiomommy1122]

WE USE WTM WITH a little charlotte mason as well, I really like most of the books WTM reccommends except for WWE we never used that so I dont know how that one is welcome to the joys of HSing

It helps to at least write out what you do each day in some simple weekly chart in word or excel that way you can clearly see if you are spending to little or to much time on one subject thats what helps me stay on task!

[janerose]

Mary-Beth, if I'm remembering correctly WTM recommends starting FLL when you're about 1/2 way through Ordinary Parents. I will probably start DD1 around the time she turns 5 in September, which is when we will be done with K Hooked on Phonics. Looking at Ordinary Parents we won't be quite 1/2 way through, but she won't have trouble with most of the early concepts in FLL anyway. We've already talked casually about things like nouns & verbs, periods, commas, contractions, etc.

I agree it looks like a very gentle book and if I was in your situation with a 7 & 5 yo I would definitely start them at the same time.

FWIW, my DD1 also does better working in shorter stretches (15-30 min) with active breaks between. So that's what we do. She learns better that way anyway, so it's counter productive to fight it. I'm also s-l-o-w-l-y trying to add a few minutes to each session. Kind of phasing into longer periods, but I think that will also happen naturally as she matures. It's hard sometimes because she's very bright & verbal, so it's easy to forget that although she talks like a 6 or 7 year old she is still in fact only 4 and therefore has the attention span to go along with it. LOL

Also, read up on learning styles. I'll try to post some links later on...there are some excellent online pod type casts about learning styles. Your kids may be kinesthetic learners, so finding something for them to physically do while doing school may help. Read standing at the table rather than sitting, squeezing a small squishy ball that fits easily into the palm of their hand while reading, legos during read-a-louds, active hands-on math with manipulatives when possible rather than worksheets, etc.

I'm really trying to NOT stress about feeling like we have to do a certain amount each day. My plan is to progressively work our way through each of the spines at our own speed. Like I think I said before my goal is mastery not speed.

We are also going to homeschool year round, 4 days a week, with breaks whenever we need them for trips, vacations, etc. Deciding to do year round really helped with my feeling like I had to "fit it all in" during the official school year. It should also help with them forgetting stuff over summer vacation & then my needing to spend the first few weeks we'd be back in school mode reviewing stuff.

Great answers from everyone! I need to go check out the WTM forums...thanks for posting the link.

[AngelBee]

More of CMers but interested in WTM.