Homeschooling...a rework in progress

I think that in the 4 weeks that we've been schooling, I've made 3 or 4 changes already. It is amazing how quickly I see how things don't work right for us and how we need to adjust or press on until next year.

Spelling: We started out with 25 words a week. This was doable, but was taxing on Allyssa. She doesn't write well, so she does them all verbally. It wasn't impossible, but it is hard to do a verbal test on 25 words for a 5 year old. I tried splitting the lessons in thirds. Now it is too short of a lesson and doesn't challenge her. I think I'll try 1/2 of a lesson.

Handwriting: Handwriting was fine, but was going too slowly. The lessons are divided up greatly, so it was taking 2 days to make it through one letter. Allyssa can write every letter, but not correctly. It looks pretty good, but the form is wrong (starting at the bottom instead of the the top, etc.). I've added more practice sheets for her and am starting to go through the letters a little quicker. Each day she reviews what she's already learned and adds a new letter. I'm hoping that the increase in practice will start showing. When she writes on her own, she is still using the wrong form.

Math: The Math has been too easy. She has known everything that we've done thus far. She doesn't know time or money, which is covered later in the book. I've heard that the same company's (Saxon) does cover it in the next level up, but it has a worksheet daily. Because of our work in handwriting, I'd like to wait a bit to start that so that she has time to learn how to write numbers, letter correctly, etc.

Humanities: We currently use Tapestry of Grace. I really like this program, but I don't like that I have to figure out what to teach. See, it is a curriculum for K-12. Each week's lesson is broken up into parts (lower grammar, upper grammar, dialectic, rhetoric). Some of the things in the lower grammar section, to me, seem to be above Kindergarten level. Lower grammar covers K-3. I have a tough time with this, so I'm thinking that I'll switch to a different program next year. We will continue with Tapestry of Grace for this year though. She is learning lots of good things from TOG, and it is a good program, just not a good fit for me.