I haven't combined, but we are using BFSU. I think it is totally worth the money, even if you want to supplement with other things. Where else can you find 3 years worth of lessons for less than $30?

:iagree:

I recommend the Read-Aloud Handbook and Some of My Best Friends Are Books: Guiding Gifted Readers from Pre-School to High School for book lists. I keep these types of books near my computer so I can request books online at the library.

I have seen a lot of advice to not do a timeline in the grammar stage. I think that is a good guideline. But if your grammar-aged child shows an interest or an aptitude for understanding the flow of time, then by all means, feed your child's brain! My 5yo asks questions all the time about when in history things happened, so we are going to do a timeline.

The time is in studying the lesson, because you have to understand what you are teaching. Dr. Nebel gives you a ton of information (6-8 single-spaced pages per lesson), and you have to wrap your brain around it. And it is not just "this is what you should teach." He tells you what the common misconceptions are, and he uses a Socratic approach to dispelling them. That means that you do not tell the child the right answer, but you guide him to coming to the right answer on his own. For example, we just did a lesson in the Life Science thread about where plants get their energy. A common misconception is that they get it from the ground. Instead of telling the child that this is wrong, you ask them leading questions, such as "If the plant were to get its food from the ground, then what would happen to the ground under the plant? Wouldn't there be holes in the ground wherever there was a plant?" Then you continue the discussion until you have helped the child figure out that plants get their energy from sunlight. IMO, this is the best way to teach anything, but it is teacher-intensive. The bulk of my planning involves reading the lesson and highlighting the questions to ask and the key points I want to touch on. There are often experiments, but they do not take a lot of time and usually use ordinary household items, though I have occasionally run into items that I don't have on hand, and then I have to go out to buy them or substitute something else. There are usually several optional activities suggested, which do not take a lot of time to prepare, but you have to take the time to read through them and decide if you want to do them. These are things like, "Make a book showing what things are living and what are not." Lastly, if you want to integrate reading into science, there are book lists at the end of each lesson that you will need to get from the library ahead of time. Most of the lessons have 2-3 parts to them. I stretch these out over 2-3 weeks. I spend 30-60 minutes the first week studying and highlighting the lesson. Then the next week or two there is very little for me to do.

:iagree: If she is reading, she needs to move on to phonics-based spelling.

We are just finishing K, and Grasshopper started K with about the same skills as your dd. Here is my blog that tells about what we did this year. The absolute best thing that we have done is FIAR. If I had known about CSMP math, I would have done that for K. I wouldn't recommend TOG for K. We will start TOG in the fall. I think that FIAR gave us a very good basis in geography, along with some unit studies thrown in. I would have to agree that without a library, SL is probably a pretty good choice. But if your dd is already reading, you will have to make some adjustments in the program to account for that. It sounds like your dd is advanced, so you will need to be very careful in ordering boxed curricula. Most advanced children are not equally advanced in all areas. You might want to get Cathy Duffy's book and check out her website in case you need to choose different curricula for different subjects, according to her varying abilities. You can check out this blog post for some additional resources. I wanted a boxed curriculum when I first started, and it quickly became clear that it would not be a good fit. It was very intimidating to research each separate curriculum. But we did it. Some of it we loved, and others we tweaked or changed entirely. And next year we are starting some new things that we are very excited about. Good luck!

:thumbup: Thanks, Tina!

14 Cows for America Get out the tissues before you read it!

:iagree: Thank you, Sharon! This is so important yet so easy to overlook.

I have always had a really hard time with memorization. In algebra, I would always just derive the quadratic formula, because I just couldn't memorize the thing. We are memorizing scriptures as a family, and I am always the last one to get it. Poetry is a little easier, because the rhythm and rhyme are helpful aids. With scriptures, what works best for me is to divide each verse into phrases. I need to be able to see how many phrases are in that scripture, and how many words are in each phrase. So for me, Psalm 100:1 (KJV)would look like this: Make a joyful noise (4) unto the Lord, (3) all ye lands. (3) And after I am a little familiar with it, I can look at just the beginning letters: MAJN UTL, AYL. I know that this sounds really complicated to other people, but it works for me, so I thought I would throw it out there in case it works for your ds.

My dd was 2 1/2yo when she started to learn phonics. She didn't actually ask me to teach her to read, but I knew she was ready, because she had known her letters for a year. It was just the next step. I didn't even think about using a program, though. We just talked about letters and sounds all the time. We had foam letters in the bathtub. We had a WordWhammer (best $30 I ever spent on an educational toy). We spent time on Starfall.com and watched SuperWhy. Learning phonics was just a part of her everyday life. When I could see that her interest was sustained over a few months, and she knew a lot of basic phonics, I got the easiest books I could find and had her read one to me everyday (Nora Gaydos series). Now my just-turned 2yo is on the same road. He isn't even speaking yet, but he can tell you what letter has what sound, and he can give examples of words that start with certain letters. (He signs.) Anyway, what I am trying to say is that with a young, precocious child, you don't necessarily need to make it a formal lesson. Children learn all day long. You can talk about phonics at mealtimes, bathtimes, bedtimes, playtimes. You can sound out simple words like C-A-T. And at some point, you will realize that your dc knows enough phonics to begin reading books.

I feel your pain! It is very hard to find something that is appropriate. For example, I am rather enamored with FLL. I know that dd5 was ready even a year ago but that by the time she is the right age to do grammar, it will be too easy for her. But I think if you check out gifted forums, you will find some curricula that are favorites among that group. We have found some for this year that have really allowed dd5 to soar. And I think we have made some good finds for next year, too.

Thanks, Tammy! :hurray: I will look for these.

I just bought TOG and have been preparing for next year. We are very excited about it. But I have to say that I am finding a whole lot of things like this. For example, I was considering doing the writing assignments, only to find out that I didn't understand them--and wouldn't without buying WritingAids. I was trying to figure out how to do vocabulary, and then I read in some forum somewhere that the definitions could be found in the Evaluations supplement. I wanted to do a timeline and found a reference to different dating systems without any explanation concerning those different systems or where to look to find that information. Now, I am still very excited about TOG, but I can see how these issues could put someone off of TOG. You pay a lot of money, and you have these wonderful, glorious lesson plans, but there are some holes.

Please do not use Horizons for a wiggly willy! It is a beautiful workbook, but that is all it is--workbook. TMs do nothing more than say "teach the child how to do X"--no suggestions for games, activities, etc. I am using Horizons right now for my perfect paula, and though she gets it done and is progressing, she still says she hates math. We are doing CSMP next year, hoping that the stories, games and manipulatives will liven things up and show her that math does not have to be boring.

Depending on where you live, there may be lots of community classes/activities that you can take advantage of, as well. Many libraries have free classes. I take my 2yo to gym class at our local park district not for the activity but for the structure. I find it hard to get him to participate in structured activities at home, because he doesn't understand why he gets to do what he wants most of the time but at seemingly random times, he as to sit and do X and Y. So he goes to library storytimes and to gym class to get this sort of structure.

I don't know if it is true or not, but I am hoping it is. Even though dd was doing well with her math program this year, I chose a new program for next year on the premise that it would help her to love math.

I do wish there were a master materials list. Most of what you need you will have right in your house. But I have occasionally encountered things that I didn't have on hand. I just haven't had time to go through each lesson yet. Some things that I have run across so far that I had to go out to buy: balloons, pocket magnifier, thermometer, a pipette. I have also found it worth it to have a small scale. Though it isn't required in any lessons we have done so far, dd5 really likes to measure things, and weighing things can easily be woven into the lessons.

I have not used it, but I recently saw someone recommend Countdown to Consistency for determining your educational philosophy.

I think this depends a lot on the age of the child. In the case of my 5yo, I have had to consciously turn away from curricula that I know she could do and even enjoy just to make sure her plate is not too full and so she has time to just be a kid. She is doing 1st and 2nd grade work in all areas, but she is only old enough to be going into K in the fall. I have decided not to do any writing until at least age 6 (but she does do copywork) or grammar until at least age 8. She could do it. She might enjoy it. But she will have many years to work on these things, and because she is gifted, she will pick them up easier than other kids her age. So right now she has time to do the things that she loves the most--reading, pretending, playing games (many of which are educational).

Never read it, but IMO, nothing could possibly be better than his autobiography.

:iagree: and :grouphug: This is really hard for me, too! I have come to the conclusion that while I have to challenge myself a bit, I have to stop feeling guilty for being who I am. So I have run into some curricula that help me to do more simple, less messy things that cause much less anxiety. Right now, for me those are FIAR, TOG and BFSU. My other strategy is to come up with an idea and tell DH that he is in charge of doing it. ;)

I am actually using CSMP, so I don't really know what to expect. But thanks for telling me about the 74-piece package. I didn't see it in the catalog, but I found it online, and it is even cheaper. :hurray:

I need to get some C-rods for our math curriculum for next year, but I am not sure which kind to get. I will only have 1 child using them, and the next child is 4 years behind this one. I have been looking at my Rainbow Resource catalog. Should I get the basic "no frills" C-rods? Or should I get the connecting C-rods, which are less money, but I only get half as many pieces? It is only a difference of $6, but I feel like $6 here and $6 there is adding up to SO MUCH $$$$$$$$$$$$$, kwim? And if I don't really need 155 pieces, why not spend less money and get 75 of something better? But are they really better? Wow, this is crazy. I am really overthinking this one, I'm sure. :tongue_smilie: