oh I sure hope I'm wrong!

So friday night I got a used Sonlight LA 1 and their I Can Read It! books (the expensive part of the readers lol) to do with Melissa this fall. Well, I was looking through it last night and today, getting familiar with it before we start in 3 weeks, and I think I may have gotten her the wrong level. As in, too easy. At the beginning of January, she wasn't able to sound out "cat" and she struggled like heck in LA K and later in public K class with her reading and writing. Well, she took off like mad this last couple months since we bought P3/4, in both reading and writing. I am at the point where I'm thinking right now that LA 1 may be too easy for her, although I haven't looked past the first few weeks yet in the schedule. I'm going to do that here in a few minutes, and then I'll be deciding if I want to try and get my hands on a used LA 2 and readers or not. This is definitely a change from how it was for her just a few short months ago, its amazing what happens when a little time passes sometimes!

And to think I was worried that she would struggle for a few more years with reading................. lol Guess I was wrong!

For everyone at Sonlight!

I have to dedicate a post just to the Sonlight crew, they are this wonderful.

Luke, your comments on my blog this past month or two have been inspiring and encouraging for my dh and me. When I started this blog originally, neither of us ever imagined that someone at Sonlight would find it and comment. You've seen my recent indecision, and have been so kind in your comments when I'm sure that others are thinking "just make up your mind already woman!" You have given little insights here and there that have helped me to better understand my oldest daughter, particularly in the reading area. Your blog has also helped me, it has given me things to chew on a regular basis, turning them over in my head and thinking about them until I have gotten everything I can from them. I thank you for this.

Sarita, your blog is simply wonderful and inspirational for me. I don't read it as much as I want to sometimes, but your wisdom and experience really shines through in all your blog posts. Whenever I don't know what to think about something that comes up here in my home, I know that I can probably get some ideas from your blog.

Amy and the others who work on the Beam. I always look forward to my issue showing up in my e-mail inbox, to see what great discussions have come up since the last Beam in the forums that I may want or need to read. There is almost always at least one discussion linked in the Beam that has an answer to a problem that we are working out, an answer that I may not have found. Thank you for taking the time to put together each issue so that I don't live on the forums LOL

For the catalog crew. I have always enjoyed my catalog when it arrives at our home, especially the articles. I also wanted to personally thank you for quoting me in an article (mine is the quote with the crazy kids that wanted their Sonlight before Christmas presents lol) Thank you for taking the time to put together such a wonderful catalog that my entire family enjoys. My girls love to look at all the pictures of families with their Sonlight materials, and seeing what cores are in store for them. DH loves to read the little quotes sprinkled through the catalog, seeing how much other families love their materials. And I love the whole thing, although I'd love to see one of the pictures I submitted in a future catalog.

Thank you all for the wonderful jobs you all do to provide us with a wonderful curriculum, a wonderful online community, and all the other great things we get. I wish all companies thought about their customers as much as you all obviously do, taking the time to ask our opinions on the forums and taking our comments and suggestions into consideration. I am so happy that I found Sonlight first when we began researching materials when Melissa was just 4 months old. I can't imagine going with any other company for materials, and I can't imagine a different style of curriculum being truly as well thought out and complete as your program is. Thank you all so much for everything you do!

Ahhhh the used curriculum sale!!!!!

I went to my first-ever used curriculum sale last night. I have been doing my homework for a few weeks now, as Scott and I have been getting a nagging feeling that ohva just isn't the right fit for our family even with all the benefits it has for us (free materials, computer, partial reimbursement for internet costs, no reporting, and just about anyone could pick up and teach if I'm sick and unable to) Well, I sent in my notification yesterday to the district, and on Monday I'm calling ohva to withdraw our enrollment. So, last night I went with a friend of mine to the sale to see if I could score a few things I knew I wanted to get for this upcoming school year. Well, I spent $36 there, and this is what I managed to pull off:

Sonlight language arts 1 (2007 edition)
Sonlight I Can Read It! set (2007 also, was packaged with the LA for a total of $10)
Miquon math lab annotations book
full set cuisinaire rods (for the math we'll use)
Explode The Code 2, 3, and 4
a book for our president unit study (its about the White House)
a magnetic picture/ word board

Now, our plan originally was for us to use Miquon math and ETC for LA, I wanted to do SL's LA with Melissa but I can't afford it new and didn't think I'd get an awesome deal on it used like this. Well, I was holding out for the PERFECT deal on a used set of LA 1 and ICRI books, and I got my deal. That's almost a $90 set, those two together, and I paid $10 for it. I was hoping to find ANYTHING for ETC that we could use (we were planning on workbooks 1, 2, and 3 this fall with Melissa) and I only have to buy book 1 now. Same with my math books, I was hoping I could get at least the lab annotations used so that I could save a little and I did. There were a few people there selling sets, but none of the sets had the workbooks I need this fall so I only got the lab book and the manipulatives.

My friend that I went with, she spent $20 and walked out with sooooo much more than I did, but she got a lot of workbooks and freebies. She also haggled a few deals for stuff, unlike me (I felt the prices were good enough without having to haggle)

ohva

You probably know by now that I'm one of the most INDECISIVE people on the planet lol I felt really good at first about our choice to go with ohva for the girls so that we could have the transition and all that for Melissa, and because its free (big plus when your on a budget!) Well, yesterday I came unglued to 3 people: my wonderful husband and 2 friends of mine. One friend took me to the homeschool group's curriculum share on Monday night (she drove and I made supper for her and her kids, then Scott watched all 6 kids by himself so we could go, he deserves sainted for that! lol) and she discovered a program that she LOVED from the moment she first started leafing through the books. She discovered Konos, and talked to the lady who brought it to share and fell even more in love with it as she talked more to her about it. She finally found something that fits her I hope. Me, on the other hand, I wasn't excited by Konos at all, it just looked like it would require way too much tweaking to make it work for my family with our beliefs and what we want to teach. Soooo, I started looking at other things there. Nothing even came close to comparing to my Sonlight, but that's ok. I still enjoyed looking. Then I found it. Someone brought a copy of Story of the World vol. 3. I had purchased vols. 1 and 2 on clearance from the WTM site (its the old edition, that's why it was clearanced) and they are sitting on my shelf, just waiting on me to get them out and do them with the girls. Then, I saw Explode the Code books over at the lang. arts table, and I knew instantly that Melissa would LOVE it just from leafing through it. Mth table, I found someone had brought her child's Miquon math workbook and the lab annotations book. Again, I had that ah-HA moment when I leafed through it. (if you don't know already, I have a fond history with Miquon. I went to a private school for pre-k and K and at 3yo had already finished all their K materials so they got me started with Miquon math and some LA workbooks that I can't remember, I did all 6 Miquon books during my time at that school and I'm a total math geek, I love math)

So since Monday night, I have been praying about it, thinking, and discussing it with Scott. I came totally unglued on my other friend in an e-mail yesterday and she sent me a reply with the most useful thing of all: a breakdown of the pros and cons of going with ohva and not going with ohva. So I thought more about it all day, prayed a few more times yesterday (as well as a couple times overnight and this morning) and Scott told me this morning to get my intent ready. So, I e-mailed my friend again, and she helped me with my notification letter this morning after I took Melissa to school. It felt so good to get it done, I just have to type up my list of materials and brief outline of what we're covering this school year (she helped me write them out for me to type up at home after helping me with her little standardized *form letter* for notification) I am officially NOT going with ohva now after how things have worked with me and Scott the last few days. I think it has been a process though, I started doubting myself a few days after I got the approval notice from ohva. And apparently its been weighing on Scott too, as he seemed a bit relieved when I first brought it up with him.

So instead of ohva, we'll be doing Story of the World vol. 1, Explode the Code, Sonlight LA K (for Lydia), miquon math, Horizons math K, HWT print and cursive, and Sonlight science K (and we'll add in a bit of astronomy for Melissa since she asked to study the solar system) I still don't know exactly how I'll pull it off with a 3yo and 2yo in the mix as well, but I'll figure it out later LOL