A lot of people do not realize that blending for reading involves multiple skills. When a child is having difficulty blending, it is because one or more of those skills are not yet strong enough to do them all at once. Blending for reading means that he has to see the first letter, associate that letter with its appropriate sound, remember that sound while he figures out what the next sound is, and then remembering both sounds while figuring out the next sound, all the while recognizing digraphs and knowing which of multiple possible sounds a letter(s) might make. That is a lot for a 4yo to think about all at once! You first need to back up and see if he can blend orally. If you give him the separate sounds of /k/ - /a/ - /t/, can he put them together as "cat?" I used to play a game with my ds at that age. I would fill a basket full of items whose names had only 2-3 sounds (e.g., pen, dog, bow, ball, book, etc.). I would say the sounds of one item, separated, and he would have to find it. It was hard for him at first, but he got better. And as he got better, he could separate the sounds himself and ask me to find the item. This is a prerequisite skill to blending for reading. Another important skill that is prerequisite to blending is associating the visual letter with the sound of the letter. Most of us taught our children the letter names before the letter sounds, and that causes the child to make an extra mental step when first reading. He sees the letter C, and first thinks "see," before he thinks of the sound /k/. If I had known better, I would have taught the letter sounds first, but alas, I didn't learn about this until both of my kids knew their letter names. To overcome this, we did a lot of flashcard drills and played games with the flashcards. It only takes about 1 minute to go through the sounds of the whole alphabet. My kids also loved the Phonogram Relay game, in which we put some phonogram cards up on the other side of the room, and I would tell them to perform some feat to get to a particular phonogram (like hop to the /t/, using the sound and not the letter name). We brought our cards whenever we had an appointment and would use time in the waiting room to review them or play games with them. You do not necessarily need a program with more bells and whistles, though I personally prefer a more explicit program. But you do need to make sure that the basic skills are in place before moving on.

I wish I had a good answer, because I am in the same boat. A friend and I want to combine our families. She has a 10yo and a 7yo. I have a 9yo and a 6yo. I did most of Vol. 1 with my dd, and my friend just pulled her kids out of school. Although it is recommended to go through Vol. 1 first, I don't really want to teach it again. Both of our families are very science-minded, so I am hoping that the daily casual science discussions we have will be enough. We don't have a solid plan just yet, but I am thinking that we will start with Vol. 2, let the youngers tag along, and fill in with information from Vol. 1 as needed.

Totally agree with Roadrunner. I chose BFSU because I didn't agree with the concept of the 4-year rotation. I mean, why would anyone want to wait until 4th grade to do physics? My 6yo is currently fascinated with the center of gravity. Can't beat that.

My 6yo goes to bed at 8pm, because he has problems with insomnia, which include waking up with the sun no matter what time he goes to bed. I have the same issue with insomnia, so I need to be in bed by 10am, because I cannot sleep when he is awake. (Just his footsteps are enough to wake me.) My 9yo goes to bed at 9:30. She could go later, but then she would be awake after I am in bed and would be sleeping in when everyone else is awake.

I am not Catholic, but I looked into CC as a Mormon and could not justify giving my time and money to an organization that would not allow me to fully participate because they would require me to sign a Statement of Faith that is designed to specifically exclude anyone not Protestant. I don't have any problem using materials from different religions, but I don't want to send the message to my kids that they are somehow second-class because of their beliefs.

Most things that I need printed out, I print over the summer. I also enter all assignments in my HST+ software during the summer break. I use fairly predictable curriculum, which I can then schedule in my HST+ software on a weekly basis. So if you take WWE, for example, I would enter the lessons over the summer. Then it is just a click away from scheduling when I need it during the year. As for the details-like what part of the math lesson I am going to skip-I do that on the fly. Anything that requires more preparation than that, I just do not use. The exception is TOG--since I get my books from the library, I can't always count on them being there for me, so I do a bit more weekly prep for that program than the others after I see what has arrived for me at the library.

I would only send them to family members who are not on FB. But then I no longer have any grandparents living. It is important to your grandmother, because in her day, that is what everyone did. Cousins knew each other and grew up together in the same neighborhood. Even if they didn't live close, they still probably lived close enough to visit regularly and to come to family gatherings. When I was a child, there seemed to be a family party every month or two. The whole family gathered together for every single birthday, anniversary, and holiday (including Easter and the 4th of July). But once my grandfather died and my parents and all of their siblings divorced, the family parties were whittled down to Thanksgiving and Christmas. Now I would be hard-pressed to even be able to locate an address to send an announcement to my cousins. All this to say that your grandmother either doesn't really understand, or she is desperately trying to maintain traditions that are already lost. I would just explain to her that you love her but that this is a lot of time and expense for something that isn't going to mean much to the recipients.

We recently enjoyed the watching The Amistad. I had to skip a couple of scenes, because they were too bloody. But the gore was pretty well limited to those two scenes.

I have whiteboards coming out of my ears. I have a big one for, well, . . . big things. I have a couple of boards with maps (USA and World). I have a couple of lined boards for learning to write. I have a table-sized board we use for math. I am going to need one for graphing soon. :tongue_smilie:

I thought I remembered someone here who would be interested. I am glad you saw the post. :)

For a while, I did Once-a-Month Cooking. My health no longer allows such marathon shopping and cooking, but it was absolutely lovely when I was able to do it. With only 4 in our family, most meals lasted 2 days. Throw in an occasional frozen pizza, and my stash lasted nearly 60 days. It makes cleanup easier, too, because you don't have the dishes from meal prep to wash. I am trying to train my family to help with cleanup. It takes so much less time when everyone pitches in. I started with just training my kids to take their own dishes to the sink. I had marbles and a jar with a candy bar in it, and they got to put a marble in the jar every time they took their dishes to the sink without being asked. They got to eat the candy bar when the jar got full. It took two rounds with the marble jar for it to become a habit. We are still working on clearing the whole table and loading the dishwasher, but we are making progress. It is so worth it, because it is these habits that make it possible to spend time together as a family (as opposed to children playing while mom does all the work).

Can you decipher Darwin's handwriting? Museum calls for help in deciphering handwritten labels on priceless collection http://www.dailymail.co.uk/sciencetech/article-2330424/Can-decipher-Darwins-handwriting-Museum-calls-help-deciphering-handwritten-labels-collection.html

Homeschooling my first year, I totally overdid it with my young dd. So you are totally on the right track in trying to avoid the busy work. My rising 1st grader will be doing Spell to Write and Read (covering spelling, reading, grammar and composition) and Miquon Math. That takes an hour a day, at most. I will also be reading some history to him. That is it. None of it is busy work, and we just get it done and move on to other fun stuff.

Learning spelling first is another philosophy to teaching reading. It is not at all wrong. But understand that spelling first is quite a different approach to spelling than what most people understand spelling to be. It is not worksheets that get you to write the word several times. It is an in-depth analysis of each word. By analyzing a word for the purposes of spelling, one also learns to read it. I started my ds6 in SWR when he was almost 4yo (2yo if you want to count learning phonograms with big sister). He was trying to read and write on his own, by just guessing, so I spent about 2 minutes per day on these skills at that age. At the time, he did not have the fine motor skills to use a pencil and paper, so we used sandpaper letters and then graduated to a saltbox within a couple of months. We continued with the saltbox and later a whiteboard until he was ready for a pencil and paper.

Secular math-CSMP

Let me just add that even with a simplified schedule, it still takes all day for my dd9 to get her work done, even when she tries (which is why we had to simplify in the first place).

My dh is a physics teacher, and he swears by Conceptual Physics by Paul Hewitt for the pre-algebra crowd. He says there is nothing that is remotely as interesting, effective, and thorough for that level of student.

A couple of years ago, I had to pare everything down to the nitty gritty basics, because I realized that my dd (then about 7yo) would never be able to do it all due to an LD. So here is what I did: SWR: covers handwriting, spelling, reading, and a smattering of grammar all at the same time - about 45 minutes WWE: covers composition and a smattering of grammar; I could have covered composition in SWR, but WWE was a better choice for her. If I had to do it over again, I would not start WWE1 until 2nd grade (even without the LD). - 10 minutes Math - 30-45 minutes History read-alouds while kids color or build something - 30 minutes Geography - nothing formal, just a map on the wall in our dining room; we talk about the map and play oral trivia games with it when we are eating. When I tried to do formal geography, I found that my kids didn't need it, because they already knew more than the curriculum taught. Scriptures: With Dad at bedtime Grammar: I decided that we just didn't need a separate, formal grammar program at that young age. There was a lot of grammar in SWR and WWE, and I felt that was more than enough. Last year (3rd grade), dd9 did Grammarland 1x/week for 18 weeks. She seems to have a better grasp of grammar than the average 9yo, so I am quite happy with the path we have taken.

I was totally that kid! And no one even tried to do anything about it. I felt left out when I wasn't allowed to participate in discussions that were being held in my presence. I am not sure that I can give you any advice. No one tried to do anything about it. The adults in my life neither acknowledged my difficulty nor tried to correct my behavior. So I grew up into a precocious snot who got fired from her job for her attitude. At that point, it took me many years to change some very bad habits. (And I am not sure I have been 100% successful.)

I used a combination of FIAR and literature-based geography books, which I have compiled into a list here.

If a child needs practice with social skills, you don't do it with another child who even more behind in social skills. You cannot base your assessment of your child's social skills on a single play date with a child on the spectrum. During the summer, we see friends generally 2x/week, once at the library and once at the park. During the school year, we continue meeting at the library weekly, but play dates are 2x/month. Years ago when my kids were little, I started a play group. I only invited people to play who have similar values. I don't mind so much if a child has poor social skills as long as the mom enforces reasonable boundaries (like we don't hit, we don't exclude others, no name-calling, etc.). New people who join us often remark at how well the children in our group play together.

Actually, I started the shiny new curriculum. We were 5 weeks from the end of WWE3. After almost 3 full years, there was nothing in the last 5 weeks that she was going to miss out on. I had already decided not to do WWE4 and had bought a bunch of new things to try out. So we just dug in and had some fun with writing.

Recently, SWB came out with amended recommendations for WWE, suggesting that WWE1 might be better started in 2nd grade. My dd9 just finished WWE3, and after seeing the program that far, I am skipping WWE4 for her, and waiting one more year for ds6 to start WWE1. I completely agree with the alternative recommendations, and I believe that it is a rare child who is ready for WWE in 1st grade. That said, I remember that 1st long dictation in WWE2. I let dd know about it a week before so it would not be a surprise. I told her it would be hard, that she would make mistakes, but that I would help her. We did struggle through it, but since we knew it would be a struggle, it wasn't so bad. No tears. No meltdowns. And dd felt awesome about it when she was done. Would she be missing something significant if we hadn't done it? Absolutely not. There continue to be occasional long passages in WWE3 that serve the same purpose to stretch the student.

Having a baby and a toddler and a preschooler are very hard on so many levels. You have gotten a lot of good advice about simplifying things to get you through this time. Let me just add a couple of suggestions. My kids got so much out of SOTW audio CD's (along with a wall map) that I would not hesitate to make that our complete history curriculum. Put it on in the car or when you are feeding the baby or when they are eating. We often talk about geography over meals since we have a map on our dining room wall. I see you are doing interest-led science. That is great. But don't feel like you have to be super-mom and do all those experiments. We talk about science and look stuff up on the internet. I get them books that they are interested in. But I gave up on formal science, and I do not think that they are any worse off for it. My ds6 read and entire series of astronomy books on his own this year (one book on each planet, plus a few other topics). Now that my oldest is 9yo, we are talking about doing some more formal stuff and getting together with a friend for experiments and games. Consider changing your school schedule. Since my dh is a public school teacher, we sort of have to school on his schedule. But if I had my druthers, I would do a year-round schedule. I would either do 3-4 days per week. Or I would do something like 4 weeks and 1 week off, taking longer breaks for Christmas and summer. I couldn't believe how much better I felt after only one week off from school. Lastly, it is so hard to be the only grown-up in the midst of littles. But remember that if you send your kids to school, you will still be your toddler's only playmate during the day, and your olders will come home exhausted from school, lugging homework that will need to be done (with you still being the responsible party). And you will lose all those hours that you could be working on character issues and life skills that in the long run they really need more. For example, my kids do their own laundry, and over the summer they are working on putting clean dishes away. Those two things are such a big help to me! Another example is that since we got done with school, and our routines have changed, I have had a hard time getting them to do basic things that they have been doing for a long time. Then I realized that I had forgotten about our Cheerful Jar! I put marbles in the Cheerful Jar when they do their work with a good attitude. When it is filled, they get something special. So this morning, they had a bunch of things to do (small, simple, easy things, but several of them). I didn't want to have to nag them, so I gave them their lists and told them they would each get a marble in the jar if they were done when I finished my shower. When they got their marbles, I asked why we get marbles in the Cheerful Jar for doing their chores? My 9yo promptly responded, "Because we did our jobs cheerfully, and it makes our household happier!" These are the sorts of things that you really need to focus on at this stage--things that will bless your family for years to come. P.S. I love your blog.

I wouldn't test just to find out IF she is gifted. Clearly she is. But many people find it helpful to discover just how gifted their dc is, because it helps them to better understand their academic needs.