Please allow me to introduce myself and my family. My name is Amy and I'm a mom of 7 dc with the nicknames below.
DD#1, Benna, will be 13 in the fall. She's an excellent reader who is almost done with Core G(6) of Sonlight.
DD#2 Nea, will be 11. She's a good reader and is most of the way thru Sonlight D(3) paired with-
DD#3 Wheelie, age 9, an excellent reader with a sharp mind. She is also most of the way through Sonlight D(3).
DS#4 Baron, will be 7.5 yrs. old this fall, he is a good reader, too, but his writing skills do not yet match his reading abilities.
DD#5 Boo, will be 6 in the fall. She is part way through The Reading Lesson and can sound out some simple words.
DD#6 LL, will be 3.5 this fall. She's a smartie, but is neither reading nor writing. She probably knows all of 3 letters. I'm ok with her not having a program of her own at this point, even though she'd probably enjoy having a special little time of her own each day.
DD# 7, Ju, will be almost 2, and is good at running around, getting into things and being a cutie-pie. : )
I'm planning to have DD 2 and 3 work on cursive this summer to get them up to speed in that area.
So, how would you suggest I place all of these sweet children in HOD and still have time in our day to do our farm chores, play, and engage in the non-academic pursuits that we enjoy? I love the looks of the curriculum, and like the idea of them having more hands on activities and more writing,as well as the godly emphasis. We've used a variety of curricula in the past, including some Rod & Staff. I plan to continue with R&S math and spelling at this point. We are doing School Aid's Climbing to Good English this year, but I'm interested in going back to R&S English, which would line right up with HOD. We've done this year with Sonlight, and past years have included a bit of CLP, and some MFW, including K, 1st, a little Adventures, and ECC (which is the year that the kids do not remember fondly.) We've all liked SL for the most part, but I do think the kids could use more writing practice, and as I look ahead to the books in the future, I have concerns about the content of some of the books. I'd also like to have our Lord woven into our program in a better way. One thing we haven't had much trouble with is the amount of books scheduled. My children devour just about any reading material that is available in the house. We also have a 2 hour rest period after lunch each day, which is their time to read, catch up on any unfinished school work, do hand work, etc.
Thank you for any words of wisdom you can share with this mama who feels like her head is spinning!
