What are your favorite curriculums for an early elementary “wiggley willy” and why?
I have a 7 yr old son who can’t sit still!! We love AAR and AAS. Although at first glance it didn’t appear geared for him, it’s working great! Just being able to have him get up, move the magnet letters around the board, and play the “games”, keeps him interested and engaged! Also, I lay the cards out in the floor and have him jump/army crawl/crab walk etc to find the card I call out:)
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All About Reading and Spelling saved our homeschool. I have an 8 year old son who has ADHD and struggles to sit still for anything. He loves his AAR and AAS lessons. We are using Right Start math this year and it is very hands on. If you like the math curriculum you have already, I would suggest ordering the Right start game book and playing cards. My kids ask to play the math card games all year long. They enjoy them so much. We use R.E.A.L. Science Odyssey for science. It is completely hands on. For literature and history we use Five In A Row.
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I have one of those!!
If you want to teach cursive first, try Logic of English–very much like AAS and AAR but writing is in cursive. Many games, hands on fun, very little workbook.
For math, Right Start Math is all about games and Hands on (we mix this with CLE math)
For history and Bible, we let him wiggle around, build Legos, color, etc., while I read Story of the World. We also always have SOTW on in the car. And we use SOTW and Biblioplan activities.
Science is Apologia, although I add advanced concepts fromBuilding Foundations of Scientific Understanding . There is so much hands on in both these books! I also add UTube videos for learning about many creatures.
God has always led us to the right curriculum each year-for over 9 years now!
Blessings!
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For Math, I really like using Miquon Math. Its approach is so different from anything else I have seen before. But it is what I always wanted to do for teaching my children. Kinda like scribbling on a paper the way to think about math, and the child just gets it. It’s hands on, and fun. Perfect for my wiggly little boy. Also, he really enjoys watching the free videos to Ray’s Arithmetic. Hope this helps 
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For reading/phonics, We use Logic of English Foundations. There is a lot of movement and games involved to reinforce various areas.
For math, we have been using RightStart. I have been adding in some Singapore Math for a couple areas where more practice was needed in a different way than RS for DD. I just got miquon in the mail this week and am excited about it. I wished I’d looked at it sooner. My plan is to do some of it this summer and then decide whether we switch or use it as a supplement.
For history, we currently listen to Story of the World CD’s while coloring or something similar.
I ditto all three! Also we have Math U See and Math on the Level to switch things up. We also use Life of Fred Math and even TimeLife Math is Fun books once a week. Trying to make math come alive and not just a worksheet…
My wiggly Won needs to have things mixed up! He is extremely bright and can bore easily! His mind goes at warp speed and only stops when his head hits the pillow!! And then he gets up early and we go again! Lol!
LOE has been great for us. We also use Biblioplan for History along with SOTW BC I wanted all my kids on same history and it goes more in depth than SOTW. He has worn out all the Usborne encyclopedias we own!
I would like to hear more about LOE, if you could be so kind. What is the age of your son? I haven’t decided on what to use for next year. I am between using AAR & AAS or LOE. My son will be 7 when we plan on using the phonics curriculum and he is reading, but not fluently yet. I want to use a curriculum that is teacher and child friendly. I don’t want it to be too overwhelming.
Thanks!
I am not sure how old your question is–and I am sorry if this is very delinquent! We like LOE for a few reasons: it has the option of cursive first, which I chose for my kiddos; it has nearly constant games, movement and hands-on activities; it is every bit as thorough as AAS --some say more so.
What I don’t like as much: it is written in a manner which would also work well in a classroom–sometimes that is good, sometimes it is a bit much for my two kids; the readers are not nearly as natural and fine quality as AAR/AAS.
Blessings on your decision!
Oh: and extremely teacher friendly–basically scripted, open and go. I prep everything (cutting, laminating) in the summer so I am ready to go for the year. My kids have so much fun with the silliness and fun games.
Actually my post was today. Thanks you for replying! I was curious about the age of your children b/c I wanted to know how old they were when you started LOE Essentials. I was curious if it would be too much as when I was reviewing the sample lessons it seemed a bit overwhelming for me and a bit fast. Do you span your lessons to a couple of days?