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We started and it went really well. I love it when school starts because we finally have a schedule! When my kids have too much free time....well....that just leads to listlessness and bad attitudes. My oldest jumped right in with no problem as she already well familiar with this guide. My younger two actually rose to the occasion and both commented on how much they liked their science notebooking activities. We started the grammar book and have had no problem in the level 3 book. My oldest struggled a bit with diagraming today as she hasn't seen it for a few months. But all in all, she did well. The one thing I opened the week up with was the final review activity at the end of Singapore 4B. Well....that may have been a mistake . She is not the best at math and she struggled with a few things more than I anticipated. Luckily, no tears! That is a win. But some stuff took a REALLY long time and part of that is because she spends too much time looking out the window. And - the only major blow up we had was over dictation. She was very peeved when she missed 3 words. I was reviewing the passage after she reviewed it and I pointed out a couple of things. She actually chucked her notebook at me! Then she proceed to stomp around and up the steps slamming her door a few times to make sure I heard her. She is only 10 and quite a firecracker! After she calmed down we had a conversation about that! But wow - it was a major melt down. That was yesterday. Today she had regrouped and dictation when fine

We had our first full day today (Mon-Tue were half days due to appointments/meetings). My impression thus far is that my younger one (age 7) can't sit an listen to the longer stories yet.....he also can't write very well and has forgotten all the phonics he learned last year (except maybe 3/4 of the letters)....sigh. Should I give it another few days in Beyond or should I just switch him back to LHFHG? We had done about 2 weeks of it this summer and he did fairly well with it (the things he did not like the first week, he was fine with the second week). His attention span is much shorter than a normal 7 year old....some of that is due to the fact that we adopted him from Haiti a year ago. Last year we focused on language learning, doing a little bit of phonics and numbers (kinder instead of 1st grade).

If it were me, then yes. I would probably use Little Hearts with him. Sounds like that would be a really good fit for him. It is a lot less reading and the activities are very geared toward an active child.

Thanks Daneale, they were so much happier today when I did separate things with them (especially the older one). It takes longer to do both books, but happier boys makes for a happier mama!

I had put Steven (age 9) into BLHFHG because of wanting to work with them together. Now that I switched the younger one down to LHFHG I have to decide if I want to keep Steven in Beyond or if I should switch him up to Bigger. I will give it at least 2 weeks and see how he is doing. If I think this is a good fit for him (without adding on anything but the grammar) I will keep him there until I feel he is ready to do more (maybe all year or until the end of 2015?). It might just give him the confidence he needs to stay at this level for a while.

This was such an inspiration to read! We are not starting until mid-September, and we are going to be schooling 5 days a week this year. Last year, we tried 4 days a week taking 1 day off, and we loved it... until May rolled around. We are used to starting in Sept., schooling 5 days a week, and being done at the beginning of May. So, we decided to go back to schooling 5 days a week instead. It just seems to fit better with my dh's work schedule, with his fishing he wants to do with the boys, and with our schedule at HOD.

I haven't mapped out our schedule yet - I'm so impressed by you ladies who are started and/or who have that all together! Great job! (Renee - I LOVED reading about your 3 day planning period, and I'm so happy for you that you had some much deserved time to do that!!!)

A few things I have done in prep for the school year is use the summer to try out some new recipes, make a new menu, and make a new chore chart system. Just to try to change things up, I do this each year. The chores are often very similar to the year before, though some are moved around as dc age and need to learn new things, but the manner by which I keep track of them changes just to keep it fresh. This year, each of the dc has his own chart, and each day he moves his magnets from DO to DONE. They like the little colorful magnets! I can also easily see what is done and what is not. We'll keep weekly, monthly, and quarterly chores the same, which I have posted before. We moved to having them spend 30 minutes on Sat. and 30 minutes on Sunday on these chores. It seems to work well!

We will keep the weekly allowances for the boys for their much needed help with chores ($3 for oldest, $2 for middle, $1 for youngest). They may spend this money on anything they want (much has been learned from this!). We also have worked with our oldest ds on babysitting, so my dh and I can have a weekly date. We pay him $20 to babysit each time, and this he may spend as he wishes (though he just really seems to be saving it all).

As some of these topics came up in this thread, and as I have nothing to share with my school schedule yet, I thought I'd post a few pics of our menu and our chore chart...


Our breakfast and lunch menus are the same each week. Our evening meals change. I just put a little 'x' in the bottom corner of the meals I added items for on the grocery list, and after we make them. I cross off the entire box. This works better for me, as it gives more flexibility. I can choose a fast meal if I need to, or a crock pot meal if I need to, or a meal based on what meat is defrosted, etc.

Anyway, I hope you are all off to a wonderful start to your year, or off to a terrific planning for your year! Thanks for sharing here in this thread!

In Christ,
Julie

I love the magnet chore chart!