Question #1:Christy in Texas wrote: 1. Looking at the scope and sequence my girls would be in Little Hearts. What would I need to purchase? I'm not really understanding how the packages work. And since I have 2 in Little, I don't want to buy 2 of the exact same thing. So what would I need to buy 2 of? Any consumables?
2. My son will fit in Preparing all except for the cursive writing. What would you do there? He has just done some very basic tracing of cursive letters and short words.
3. MATH!! I used Horizon's first grade and second grade. Brycen didn't like it at all. This year we used Alpha Omega Lifepacs. He hasn't complained as much this year as much. It's a spiral approach and I don't know if that's the best for him. I have to remind him how to do things that we've been doing since the beginning of the year. The same things come up every few lessons, but they don't stick. So I'm looking for a mastery approach. I did look at singapore, but he doesn't do to great at the mental math thing and I think that I would have to start him way back to get those concepts. Would it really matter much? I would start him at 2B I think. He only knows thru 3's in multiplication. Any suggestions would be appreciated. I've been looking at Developmental Math, Modern Curriculum Press and Scott Foresman. There are so many!!
4. Phonics. My 9 year old learned this at public school, so I'm a little nervous about teaching the girls to read. What is your favorite phonics program. Or do you even do phonics? Some people don't..........
5. THE LAST question. What if you are buying a package and you already have a book or two. Can you take them out of the package?
Thanks in advance for all of your wonderful input.
I think the other ladies answered this, but in regard to your last post, the Thinking Skills book is consumable, so you'd want 2 of those.
Question #2:
I'd have him do Cheerful Cursive. We're doing it this year with Bigger... and finding it VERY easy to do - plus it is very... well, "Cheerful"! I believe Preparing... has children doing their copywork of poetry in cursive, so you could just have him copy as many lines in cursive as you want, and work up to copying the whole poem whenever he's ready.
Question #3:
We have loved Singapore. The placement test Carrie linked you too would help you place him accurately - and it's a short test to do, so it's well worth the time. Wherever he places, just use that for his math. HOD's flexible.
Question #4:
Definitely teach phonics - and either of the 2 choices given are great! The Reading Lesson is a bit easier to implement and has an optional CD game with it, but The Reading Lesson has been around awhile and is very well-respected in the homeschooling community. You can't go wrong with either one!
Question #5:
Anything can be ordered separately, though ordering packages will save you money for the most part, unless you've got more than 1 of the books in the package already.
So, hope that helps you out! So glad you are here, and you're going to love HOD and this board! It's just full of positive moms - no down-trodden depressing stuff here. Just encouragement and joy - hope to "chat" with you more here!
In Christ,
Julie
