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Interesting. Here in California our cut-off date used to be like that when my daughter started Kindergarten 7 years ago, but they have gradually moved the date to September to align with other states. But I looked it up and I guess not all states are the same, and in NY it seems local authorities de...

I agree with StephanieU. I always do math full speed with daily reading practice and when my daughter went half speed she did Rod & Staff full speed too. My kids do quite a bit of standardized testing (usually 3 tests a year each in language arts and math), and so far have almost always tested on le...

My 3 kids are all 2 grades apart and have done HOD all the way. I have done both combining (putting one in a guide a level off from where they placed) and separating at various places in Little Hearts,Beyond, and Bigger. I have also run Bigger and Preparing simultaneously. I will say that even thoug...

My oldest is a natural speller, and dictation has been great for her. It is quick and easy and she makes good progress with it, rarely making any mistakes. My third born is a natural speller like my oldest, but he can be careless with his schoolwork, rushing through things. He has only just started ...

Thank you, everyone! Yes, Lynn - I think the Lifepac is just too challenging for her at this age. I guess Getting Started in Spanish was such a hit, I thought we could just keep going with Carrie's suggestions. Oh well, live and learn... I'll save it for high school. Tidbits - I have thought about u...

I think the verbs were the biggest problem for her. The program seemed to assume that after going through the exercises you will pick up on the different forms of the verbs and how to use them correctly. After doing Rosetta Stone for about a year she didn't understand that "soy, eres, es" and so on ...

We live in California and personally know many Spanish speakers, including quite a few who don't speak English (our house cleaner and lots of our employees on the farm). Because of this it was a priority of mine to get my kids speaking Spanish at a somewhat younger age than Carrie suggested in the g...

I agree. I read the words one at a time and since some are homophones I give a sentence for each (my son likes to see if he can write the word before I am finished saying my sentence). In my mind, dictation is not about memorization. The passage itself can be read one short phrase at a time, waiting...

How exciting to plan a trip! My oldest is in Res to Ref right now and reading that same Mr. Pipes book. It would be a wonderful trip to visit the places where the Reformation was born in Germany! We are actually going to England (and France) next summer for a family trip. We chose England for family...

I would suggest you don't worry about making it last two years. Start at half speed and then keep going like that until she seems ready for full speed. This is what I did with my second daughter. She finished Bigger around the time she turned 8 (June 2014) because she was combined with an older sist...

Thank you. This is just what I needed to know! I expect the MTMM guide is the same as WG.

I am planning on starting Videotext algebra with my daughter next year in 7th grade. She will be doing Rev to Rev. Looking in the back of Rev to Rev, I saw the nice schedule that Carrie has planned out for Discovering Mathematics. I started wondering: is it worth buying the guide for MTMM a year ear...

Just wanted to chime in that when I had my two girls combined, I think it was not a boost to my younger one's confidence: in fact the opposite was true. She continually saw her sister's notebook pages looked nicer and that her sister was able to write faster than she was. I was constantly having to ...

My daughter did the experiment in RTR Unit 11 Day 4 today, and I have to say that we both didn't understand it. At first she shined the flashlight directly on the ball of brown paper so that it made a shadow of the "asteroid" on the white paper on the wall. She drew it like that in her notebook. But...

I have put two perfectionists through Bigger, and I would agree that some of the early notebooking assignments are some of the hardest you will see for a long time. Drawing is hard for perfectionists for sure - over the years we have seen far more tears in drawing than any other school subject! The ...