I started mine at 5 on Talking Fingers, at 6 he switched over to Typing Instructor for Kids and now at 7 he is using Typing Instructor Platinum. It was all driven by him as he was really interested in learning how to type since I type really fast. I type at about 95-100 wpm and he just thinks it's cool :) To him, it is a reward he gets at the end of the day to practice typing so it isn't really a "subject". He does do it daily and is typing at about 25 wpm at 7. He touch types which is exactly what I wanted. I didn't want him to ever get into the habit of pecking at the keyboard. ETA: He already knows his way around a computer, he does use it to play games and watch educational videos. When it comes time I'll teach him about Office software and computer stuff in general. His dad is a Software Engineer so he will teach the kids computer programming later when they are older. In our house, there are computers and technology everywhere so I'm not worried about them picking up the needed skills.

My son has used Saxon since Saxon K and he is in 5/4 now. I didn't use the regular Saxon 3, I switched to 3 Intermediate when that came out. We start every day with the timed practice drill sheet, then while I'm looking over that he starts on his lesson. I have made a lesson sheet to go with the lessons. It just has a space for his name, the date, the lesson, check boxes for all the different things he needs to do in the lesson (like fact practice, mental, math, lesson, lesson practice, then mixed practice), boxes for the mental math, boxes for lesson practice, and finally boxes for the mixed practice. He works on the mental math, then we both go over the lesson together and then I let him go on with the lesson practice. He completes ALL of the problems, I don't let him skip any. We do use the tests. We don't use flashcards as the timed drill and the xtra math thing he does every day is more than enough practice. I can't answer to how to handle a struggling student, as I haven't had one, sorry :/ I also don't supplement with anything else. Its been advised against for skipping problems and such in Saxon. I know some people do it but the problems are not always going over the same type of math. One of the things I have done is have my son do half of hte problems with me during math time and then he does the other half with his dad before/after dinner. Recently though he has been just finishing them up during math time because he has had enough time left over to do it.

My son and I read poetry every day during his K year. I read from When We Were Young and Now We are Six and he read Talking Like the Rain. For first grade and now 2nd grade, I've moved it to Fridays. He reads from The Random House Book of Poetry for Children and I read from Read-Aloud Poems for Young People. We just enjoy it and read to each other, we'll talk about them a little bit if something particular strikes us but its really just to enjoy reading it together. My soon to be 4 year old has joined us this week and reads from Surprises. Its just too dang cute :) Anyway, that's what we do :)

I just discovered the Arc system myself last week. I knew about the Levenger one but it was a lot more expensive. I bought the punch and I gotta say its incredible to put together my own planner with anything I want in it. I actually took planners I already had (the ones from Rod and Staff) and had the binding cut off of them and punched those and stuck them in there. I write notes down on index cards and well, anything at all really, and punch those and stick them in there with the week I needed the reminder or note for. There's always something missing from planners I buy and when I make my own, I was unhappy with 3-ring punching them and the one time that I went and had something coil bound at Staples, I ended up being unhappy with it too and couldn't rearrange things. I'll not have to worry about any of that any more. Also, theres a lot of other uses as well. Kids notebooks for school work, journals, etc. They can be any size or shape and you can punch the pages and make notebooks and stuff. I'm a office supply nerd so, this is the stuff that makes me happy lol

Amen! I can't stand that sausage doesn't have enough fat to make good gravy. It's changed a lot in the last 30 years. I make Sausage and Gravy with biscuits all the time (its my children's favorite thing) but it's just not the same nowadays. I didn't really think about WHY that is. I thought maybe I was just losing my marbles and it never really had a lot of fat like I remembered it having. Btw, on the roux. Anyone (except for my husband) that I've tried to teach/explain how to make roux has looked at me like I'm nuts. They think its too much trouble and won't bother. I don't think its really that difficult a concept, but whatever :) My husband though, he's learned and does it *almost* as good as I can LOL My 6 year old finds it a great compliment to tell me that he loves me more than Sausage and Gravy, that's saying a lot! :) Oh, and :bigear: about pork chop recipes! I only have a couple of old, boring ways to make it. Always looking for more.

Thanks for all the advice! :) That handwriting sample was from copywork, he produces nearly that well whether it is a model he is copying from or without a model. I will have him finish up with a bit more practice on the capital letters that GDI uses and then in July for 2nd grade, I'll give it a go without the handwriting book. If I notice that he needs more practice/work I'll just slip it back in. I am usually with him when he's doing copywork and such so I can help catch mistakes in formation, but right now his cursive is pretty much automatic. The only thing I might be concerned about and want to watch is letter height for capitals and spacing between letters/words. Thanks again for all the great advice.

I have been having my 6 year old son continue on in his handwriting program but now I am wondering, with the increase in writing that he has to do in his other subjects, if I couldn't just let him drop the handwriting as an official subject. His handwriting is really nice and I don't know that he he needs the "instruction" portion anymore and should just continue the practice of it during copywork and other things. In July, he starts 2nd grade and will be in PR 2 and CW Primer books. In both of these is a good amount of writing. My gut tells me that I should be able to drop it but I don't know if there is some other benefit to handwriting programs that I am not considering. So, is there a benefit to continuing on through the GDI books? (He is currently in Book D) or is it okay to just drop it? Here is an example of his handwriting, sorry it is a little bit blurry.

When I got all the Intermediate 3 stuff, I ordered the extra workbook and didnt even end up using it. For a lot of it there was not enough room to write anything. Its all small type and small spaces, it wasn't a worthwhile purchase, not for me anyway. I just have my son write his problems out, its good practice for him anyway and it's had the added benefit of making him pay a bit closer attention to detail (making sure he is copying the numbers correctly).

My son used Int 3 this year and is just about finished with it (on lesson 102). CanadianMumof4 described it pretty well. I have had just about the same experience as her (as far as time of lessons) with the exception of the attitude toward the warm-up and mental math section. My son doesn't mind this section at all, he dislikes having to do 20 problems but is better about it now than he was in the beginning. I solved this by just having him do 10 of them during math time and then he does the other 10 problems with his dad before or after dinner. Math takes about 30-45 minutes depending for us, not counting the 10 problems with dad later, that takes probably another 10 min in the evening. It is good practice for getting into 5/4, which he will start in July. I much preferred it to the saxon k-2 levels and all that scripting, which I am doing now again with his little sister. I can't wait to be done with those books for good LOL I don't know very much about the Math in Focus, it did pique my interest but I had to remain steadfast because Saxon works really well for my kids. My kids get math really easily but I like the incremental repetitive nature of Saxon. They might not NEED the repetitiveness but they KNOW their math.

As far as I know its just a colored sheet of construction paper. Thats what I used with my kids.

Wow I am surprised to see that the name Tristan is on that list. That is my son's name! lol I didn't think it was a very popular name at all? I don't know anyone or haven't even heard of anyone with that name, other than the Tristan from Arthurian Legend. I did laugh at the reasons though, "fakey"? hehe and "unlikeable"! I like my son very much :)

Yeah, I had actually heard of some people having trouble with shipping but I thought I ordered it enough time out to be able to wait a little while for it. That was why I didn't email / call them the first time until it had been about 4 weeks. I was told "We're sending it Priority Mail tomorrow, you'll have it before next week" and then "I'm so sorry there is no excuse for your having to wait so long, I will send you an email tomorrow morning with the tracking # and you will have it by Monday". After all that it still took another few weeks (9 total). Eventually, I got it and an email stating that they were giving me that $30 credit. That was back in February. I still can't get the items that I wanted to order along with that $30 credit. Someone there emailed me back once and I have sent numerous emails since and just...nothing. So frustrating.

I wanted to thank you for your suggestion of Hugo Cabret. My son LOVED this book and devoured it! I am shocked, I thought that when he saw the size of the book he might be intimidated and he was but it has that mixture of pictures and text and he thoroughly enjoyed it. Now I need to find something else lol He says that he is going to read Hugo again but wants to read more books about robots, moving machines, automatons, anything "mechanically alive", I guess. I am going to check out a couple of the other suggestions. Again, thanks. I don't think I would have come across this book otherwise :)

I ordered Journeys of Imagination and it took 9 weeks for me to get everything. NINE weeks. I emailed them (at about 4 weeks) and they gave me some excuse about it, fine. They said they'd send it RIGHT out, another few weeks and I emailed them again. I got more excuses and huge apologies and promises and still it took another couple weeks to get everything. After all that, I was given $30 in credit because of how long everything took and do you think I can get the items I ordered with the credit? I can't even get them to respond to my emails anymore about it. You'd have thought I might have learned my lesson the first time :p Its just about the worst customer service that I have dealt with.

I don't know if this picture will work but anyway, here is my 6 year old (almost 7, going into 2nd grade) boy's handwriting. This is his best handwriting, for copywork He used to write so messy and has improved a LOT in the last 6 months. He switched to using full time cursive about that time.