[1st Grade/6yo: How much time each day?]

Our academic stuff is about 45 minutes to maybe an hour for each child--that's math, phonogram review, handwriting, reading aloud, chapter book w/narrations.

 

I do bible and unit study topics (history, science, art/music, literature) daily too though and those take longer. It's all hands on so fun for us and really varies based on what I have planned. Maybe an hour?

 

We are 4-5 days a week but go year round so I don't worry if a week is short.

[Cover World Wars with younger kids?]

Has anyone covered WWI or WWII with a younger child (say second or third grade)? If so, how did you approach the topics? I'm not sure how to cover these time periods in an age appropriate way essentially.

[Theoretical Allergy Question]

My son is nut anaphylactic. We don't know how sensitive as his anaphylaxis was with ingestion but the food only contained trace of his nut allergens.

 

I don't leave him anywhere without me or a person who knows anaphylaxis and how to use an epi pen. Family and close friends don't serve nuts when we are present and wash hands. Outside of that we avoid food related events which does limit us. Our coop didn't have food and I was glad for that. Food is more of an issue in churches it seems. I've had teachers pick nuts out of food and try to feed it to my son because all the other kids were eating. He's old enough now to know not to eat anything offered.

 

So the child in question is contact reactive to dairy and wheat? That would be scary. Still, unless she's going to remain in her home 100% of the time every single place she goes has the potential to harm her. That's a stress for her parent I'm sure but the alternative is complete isolation and that's just not healthy. I certainly don't think it's unreasonable to ask people to wash their hands and eat in a certain area? Is that what is being asked? That's pretty simple. To avoid bringing gluten and dairy things would be harder but certainly not impossible for that single (weekly) time I'd think. It would be most difficult for people like us who have different severe allergies (nut, sesame, and egg among others) so the alternatives are limited but I would still do it willingly. I feel for the family.

[Free curriculum plan?]

OP, are you talking about typical courses of study for each area or classical or ? I wanted to say that your state will have standards for the public school available online. I like the core knowledge curriculum. It is far more than is typically taught at each grade level at least for elementary school. The vast majority of states are adopting these common core standards for math and english areas. I don't know what texts would cover those well and I think I'd try to find it if I were planning to possibly send my children to school. In our case, though, I want to give them the best background I can in all areas. So I selected the curriculum I feel will do this best regardless of the way it does or does not correspond to what the typical child is learning at each age--homeschooled or public schooled. I use thehomeschoolreviews website and this board to research curriculum. An example: I learned about Liping Ma and conceptual math via this site, did reading and research, and then looked only at curriculum that were conceptual in nature. I read about my narrowed "choices" here and on the homeschool reviews site and made my math selection based on that research and what might fit our family. I don't care if other children are learning something different at a particular age because I feel our path is best for my kids.

 

I've dropped my long-term teaching plans this month and we're going through the Core Knowledge scope and sequence. It's a free download on their website. You can get a breakdown of each subject and grade level. I'm actually combining all of my kids together on this. It's starting to become too much juggling to divide them up. We're using library books and a ton of hands-on stuff. Library books are free (relatively-lol). Their curriculum download is free. I'm coming up with my own unit studies based on the CK sequence - which is free. This is a ton of teacher prep for the week, but my kids were F L Y I N G through everything and this is getting ridiculous. I'm glad they like to learn, but I haven't won the lottery yet. I also have 2 kids who need constant hands-on activities. I can tailor CK to this.

 

Enough of my problems...:glare: Do you have a good library? You could follow the WTM sequence and keep the cost at a minimum, too. I've only read the 3rd edition, but it has a good breakdown by grade.

 

I'm basing unit studies on the core knowledge plan too. It's been a lot of work because mine also need lots of hands on but we are having a wonderful time. I'm not a ton of help as we're just doing 1st grade but I'm posting my lesson plans on my blog in case they can save another person the work. This may be useful even for older kids as the links I use may work for subjects in history for older children as the topics will cycle back around in multiple grades. In many cases I will be linking things I find that would be useful for kids older than mine. I'm posting as I go and my last history post was the Wampanoag (I'm doing Plymouth colony this week) but I've planned through westward expansion in history and all the 1st grade core knowledge science, geography, literature, art, and music so if you need an idea for something I'm happy to share.

[Those with dc who have food allergies and/or intolerances . . .]

Would you please share whether or not they also have other "qwirks"?

 

My boys all have food allergies (anaphylactic) and mutliple food intolerances. They also all have hypotonia, Dyslexia, one has ADD, two have Dysgraphia, and one is also suspected with Aspergers.

 

Could the immune system just be immature or not fully developed in these kids?

 

These kids are often hypersensitive to noise, textures, temperature, etc. does that hypersensitivity carry over to the way their body responds to food?

 

Those I know IRL with food allergies/intolerances also have qwirks.

 

Is there a connection?

 

No, my anaphylactic food allergy child is typical in other ways. His twin doesn't have allergies but does have hypotonia, learning issues galore, and a PDD-NOS dx. which in his case is atypical autism spectrum--fits but doesn't fit kind of kid so quirky is a good word.

 

Our geneticist told me that he believes hypotonia is always indicative of an underlying metabolic condition if there is not a clear chromosomal type cause (which would have physical characteristics as well). He's well respected and I agree with his thoughts. That said, the medical knowledge in that field is still advancing so sometimes the conditions aren't yet identified. Sometimes it doesn't matter if a child is otherwise healthy. Mine wasn't. His condition affects mitochondrial function and in that area of metabolics the hallmark is at least three different body systems affected. In his case it was muscle (hypotonia), brain (the pdd-nos and learning junk), fatigue/energy (a hallmark of mitochondrial stuff), and GI system. He's developed (or perhaps always had and things have progressed) immune deficiency issues. But any organ or body system can be affected except I think red blood cells so the range of presentation is wide. I know in the mitochondrial area there appears to some propensity toward certain severe allergic things like EOS disease in some forms but the connection is anecdotal at this time. My son was just tested for a newly discovered specific condition that has mitochondrial, muscle, and an immune deficiency component to see if it was his specific condition (it wasn't). So I guess I'm saying if something metabolic is underlying your children's hypotonia the "whatever" might carry an allergy component as well. Of course allergies are pretty common even in the general population so it may be unrelated.

[My baby's eye color won't stay grey, right?]

Eyes can certainly change late. But two brown eyed parents certainly doesn't determine eye color. My husband and I have brown eyes. I have a mother with blue eyes but both my husband's parents have brown eyes. I never dreamed I'd have a blue eyed child! Our little bright blue eyed six year old is a result of a blue eyed grandma on one side and great grandma on the other. When you get into color variations like greens and greys the genetics gets more complicated to boot.

 

I think grey eyes are pretty!

[Visual and Auditory Skills Tests Needed]

I'm not sure what her concerns are/why she wants this but I got this book from our library (interlibrary) when someone here suggested it for my son who does have visual processing issues. It was very helpful and has an auditory section as well. http://www.amazon.com/Helping-Children-Overcome-Learning-Difficulties/dp/143923180X

 

Critical Thinking Company has a series of visual perceptual skill building workbooks that I used for my son. Visual processing is way beyond what she's mentioning though. The typical testing does include look at this figure and then which was it. Is that what she wants or is she more looking for remembering detail about a painting? I'm a little confused based on the description about what her concerns might be.

 

Similarly, I'm not sure what she's trying to test with the auditory skills. If it's auditory stuff at a base level I'd recommend looking at the above book as it has as section for testing on that as well and the visual was so helpful here that I'm sure the auditory is good as well. If she's suspecting a learning disability in auditory processing she would want formal testing I think. If she's concerned about reading or listening comprehension it seems you'd just know if that's an issue without a formal test of any sort and, if so, address it? If they aren't comprehending I'd be looking at their ability to visualize what they read or hear and look into a program like MindPrime or Visualizing and Verbalizing I think.

[HOD--can this work for us?]

Heart of Dakota uses many old texts for history as do many other quality history based programs. I own Little Hearts. I purchased all the Beyond texts and I previewed what I could online and via the library from the texts for the next two levels. It seemed that sometimes the viewpoint from the time period of the writer colors the presentation in a way that makes me uncomfortable (say the portrayal of Native Americans either directly or indirectly in terms of the choices of what stories to highlight). I know that many of the books HOD uses are also used in other very strong programs and I'm well aware that the choices are limited so this is not a criticism of HOD specifically. I imagine based on lots of looking I would have similar issues with most curriculum.

 

Her style fits my kids wonderfully as my kids need the CM type pacing and hands on/active stuff. I would love to continue using her programs except I'm just plain uncomfortable with some of the content of the spines or perspective. Further, we're Christian but more from an Armenian perspective and, at least in the case of Little Hearts, I felt there was a Reformed type bent in the church history portion specifically. I know this isn't popular in some churches and circles but I'm a Christian and believe God created the earth but I'm not young earth and I know HOD (and it seems every Christian curriculum out there at least in the history area) is young earth.

 

I really want to use HOD. I'm planning my own history right now and I don't want to do that type of work load indefinitely. I love her literature and her structure and planning fits us wonderfully. I would like this to work for me.

 

Does anyone who has used HOD have similar reservations about some older texts or anything and you've figured out a way to either be ok with it or make it work?

 

Is there a way to make this work or am I making assumptions that aren't true/these won't be issues anyway? Is the more reformed perspective (right?) or young earth going to be a major issue in any of the curriculum? I'm more than willing to purchase some supplementary material or do some tweaking if it will help this work for us because putting it all together from scratch is taking so much of my time. I enjoy it but I'll burn out well before we get to third grade at this rate.

 

Help? Thoughts?

[Children's Books with Cursing......]

I've never come across cursing we read tons of books. Maybe my MIL pre-screens or something before she purchases? I'm wondering what books you're reading? Maybe you could post and ask for suggestions that fit your standards.

[what are you doing in grade 1?]

I linked details in the siggy under First Grade Plans.

 

Even our K students in the public school system are constantly asked to compose and write. So my kids are behind their peers and it does bug me a little but I'm trying to keep a long term perspective. I think the school's push for academics younger and younger is detrimental for those kids not yet ready.

 

We're doing:

Reading fluency work and phonogram review for now. When I think we're solid in terms of fluency we'll start Phonics Road to Reading and Spelling.

 

Copywork for handwriting and narrations with chapter books.

 

MEP and RightStart Math

 

Literature, Science, History, Art, and Music lessons I based on the Core Knowledge Sequence primarily for topic choices.

 

Lots of reading and listening to audio stories. I think this is going to serve us well in terms of composition/writing later. When my boys "dictate" stories for me to write they speak from their exposure and the structure is there in their minds. I've got faith that will transfer to their writing in the future.

 

Karyn Henley Bible materials.

 

Spanish though it's getting pushed lately.

 

I linked details in my sig line I think.

[History--Overwhelmed Planning--Advice?]

Thank you all! I'll check out TruthQuest right now thowell. That list of topics will really help me a lot sailormom. I think I need that type of direction most of all.

What exactly won't work about HOD spines? This will help in deciding which direction to take you.

You know, I feel a little hesitant to give detail because I appreciate Carrie and her work and love so many aspects of HOD. I also know it's a good fit for many families and maybe it's me/I'm over-sensitive or something. But I would appreciate your thoughts so I'll try.

 

Most of my issues have to do with either topics selected in the texts and how those selections influence the picture painted of a certain topic or actual presentation of, for example, Native Americans. I think in most cases my issues are a natural result of the time period in which the book was written. In some cases though I had issues in almost all the texts I viewed including many of the newer books. I get why she uses the books she does and why people appreciate it. I just think sometimes the perspective of time and history helps present topics in a more even handed way perhaps and that's missing with those older books particularly for me. I had hoped to pick up with her world history in 3rd grade but I looked at reviews on amazon of one of the "old book" spines (Hillyer) and I'm afraid it's not going to work for me either.

 

Do you have thoughts on how I might be able to use them anyway or use other books with her guide or thoughts on the books that I'm missing? I really like her style, the ease of use, and love her literature. I wish the books could fit me.

[History--Overwhelmed Planning--Advice?]

I"m getting overwhelmed and would love some advice.

 

My kids seem to really need a hands on element but they aren't color or illustrate the story type kids and one is not a cut and paste type. What works better are play the games the Wampanoag did or make butter like the colonists type of activities. They like stories and books and have long attention spans and interest in all sorts of read alouds. Still, I feel we need the hands on components to solidify the concepts and they've come to expect and enjoy those things as well.

 

Heart of Dakota style fits well but the majority of the history spines just aren't going to work for me for various reasons unfortunately.

 

I struck off on my own to make a history curriculum that had a "presentation of information and finish with an activity" style and it's going well. I'm planned through Lewis and Clark and then I've planned Westward expansion. I've got a few blanks to fill in between those two which should be relatively easy. I'm happy with the plans but two things are happening:

 

1. I'm not sure what is important to cover in a US history curriculum and what I should attempt to cover especially past the Civil War. We're spending two years (maybe into three if it takes us that long) on US history and then going to ancients. I don't know if I should try to cover to present day with select topics (which ones..) or just stop a specific point.

 

 

2. I'm getting overwhelmed with the planning. I enjoy it but the idea of trying now to cover from this point forward is overwhelming me. I feel I just finished the French and Indian War and the Revolutionary War and now I've got War of 1812 and the Civil War staring me in the face and there are a slew of wars after that. Some of the topics I'm a little intimidated to cover with what will be 2nd grade kids as well like the Holocaust. I'm just not sure I'm up for this but I don't know of any alternatives.

 

My questions:

 

1. If you were designing an elementary US history course for younger students what topics would be covered post Civil War?

 

2. Is there a reasonably priced curriculum that might fit us for 2nd grade US history/post civil war or a master text type book I could use? I have American Pioneers and Patriots and just that book as a spine saved me hours and hours of planning for westward expansion particularly.

 

3. Maybe I should do Heart of Dakota and try to come up with alternative spines. That probably won't work though.

[What readers do you recommend for a 6 year old boy?]

We've done (and one child still in the process) I See Sam, free Progressive Phonics, and Nora Gaydos.

[Bad headache does not = migraine]

I have migraines relatively frequently (hormonal for me) and for me there are degrees. I know a migraine from a headache. I have those migraines that you'd do anything to escape, incapacitating, light sensitive, vommitting type. I've also had migraines that were that same stabbing through the eye migraine pain and yet I wasn't terribly nauseous and I could manage to some degree at least. I don't know why they vary but for me they do.

[PS question - where does all the money go?]

Well, I'm a former public school teacher and my husband audits schools (among other govt entities) and I asked him though I had my suspicions.

 

On the athletics in our state now by law none of the athletic money (except coach salaries or building programs) comes through the school budget/taxpayer money. It's all through the athletic fund which is extracurricular. So here that is donations, fund raisers, ticket sales, and student fees. If a school has a "great" team ticket sales and donations will take a lot of that cost. If not a lot will come through fees and other student funded/student driven means. Even in those schools that used to be well funded via tickets and donations those things have dropped in this economy.

 

The largest bulk of the budget in every school system my husband has audited is salaries, benefits, and funding pensions through the state or providing retirement incentives. He said it's generally 70 to 80% of the total school budget. The only thing that he said might compare is a building program but even then they are usually borrowing the bulk.

 

He said a special ed student spending per child is going to higher simply because it's a smaller student pool to spread teacher and para salaries among generally. More staff per student is going to mean more average spending per child obviously. Outside of considering salary he didn't feel special ed had a particularly big chunk in the budgets he sees compared to other programs and costs. At any rate, it's absolutely nothing compared to the salaries component of the budget.

 

The PP asked:

get the budgets, I get that teachers, admin, utilities, ins. and such all cost money...but we had all that in the 1980's too...why did I manage to get through high school without seeing band/music/art cutbacks, extra fees for every little thing, and so on...what has changed?

I don't think it's a mystery. The economy has changed drastically in most areas. There is less money coming in via taxes essentially and states drastically cutting all budgets including school funding. Our state for example cut every single department and program by 10% last year and another 15% this year across the board. This is easier for things like road programs where you just don't do as much as you might have otherwise. For departments like my husband's it meant steep pay cuts (as in less take home pay than contracted by a significant amount) and lay offs as employees are the primary expense for auditing. Schools are similar in that their budgets are primarily people heavy so cuts are going to be hard and hurt. As I mentioned above if an athletic department was getting a lot of money via donations and ticket sales those have very likely dropped in this economy as well.

[Good Bible Curriculum?]

I'm loving Karyn Henley materials.

 

This year we're doing the Day by Day Hope for kids through the week. You could look at samples to see if it might fit both kids. I think it might though I don't have a nine year old to say for sure. It does use bible passages or stories each day but it's not chronological but rather theme oriented around a verse concept. You could look at the samples and see if they might fit your needs. http://karynhenley.com/site_pages/home_ed_new.htm#anchor_Hope If you look at the first week of the Day by Day Hope I use the key verse as our memory verse for the week and then all the devotions that week tie into that biblical principal. I really like her stuff and these are good on a daily basis here as they aren't time consuming but are meaningful. That said, they don't go through the bible chronologically.

 

Her first and second grade curriculum materials do go through chronologically. First grade is the Old Testament and second grade is the New Testament. http://karynhenley.com/site_pages/curriculum_new.htm I mention because both have suggestions for adapting for older students. I don't know if they would fit both but they might. I use the first grade on the week-ends here (over two days/I would have to cut out material to fit it on one day I think) and these are structured in a weekly schedule. That said, the first grade lessons have a story (sometimes two) and then four activities to go with the story or stories. So they could be adapted for daily if you wanted chronological I think. I like the "hands on" nature of these plans and, like all her materials I've used, I find them meaningful and developmentally appropriate. We've got an old testament timeline from the books building around our kitchen.

 

I like everything I've ever seen from her.

 

Another idea might be Grapevine studies. I tried them and I think they would be really good for some kids especially at older ages. They are better used weekly as well at least in my experience and they weren't active enough for us--you tell the story as you draw it in stick figures while the children draw the story in stick figures as well. If a child were really into drawing and didn't need activity they might be a perfect fit. I had originally intended to do them along with the Karyn Henley but they just didn't fit for one of mine particularly right now.

[Parents of twins and more - a question?]

Warning: I'm not going to be positive but I think we had a more complicated start in many ways including a baby with health and growth problems.

 

 

If you had twins (or other multiples) what are some of the challenges you face daily? Could you breastfeed? Is it twice as much work as one newborn or more or less?

 

Newborn twins (at least those not on a schedule from being preemies in the hospital which you certainly don't want) are really tough. It was hard for me to have to listen to a baby cry because there was one of me and two of them. Actually, hard doesn't describe it. Ideally a young baby has a responsive mommy tuned in to that baby and I couldn't help both of them simultaneously so it seemed someone was always crying.

 

I breastfed (the easiest way to feed twins bar none) and then one was hospitalized and the other was small and the weaker nurser and with a series of bad luck and bad choices we ended up pumping and feeding breastmilk. That's the hardest way to feed twins bar none!

 

For newborns and young babies here it was twice as much and worse really because at least in our case one baby was a horrible night sleeper but slept in the day and the other was a pretty good night sleeper (baby sleep with waking to eat but otherwise decent) but never napped in the day unless I was holding and patting and humming in his ear. One was colicky as well. That means I rarely slept. We were pumping and feeding so I would feed them, change diapers, get them to sleep, pump again, fall into bed and all the sudden someone was awake to be fed. If breastfeeding had kept going that part would have been easier but they still wouldn't have slept long enough for me to get what I needed. Our pediatrician was a mom of twins and kept telling us to take shifts so that we each got 5 hours of sleep per 24 hour period because we needed that to survive. Well, my husband was traveling for work and I felt he needed more sleep than that to avoid a crash. So I did all night stuff during the week and tried to catch up on the week-end when he was home. Of course, I was pumping so even then my sleep was interrupted and was with breastfeeding as well though to a lesser degree because of the logistics of pumping. I was beyond exhausted (as in falling asleep while bathing a baby type of exhausted) and my husband was overloaded trying to do everything at home so I could rest while he was home and working. We were tense and snappy at each other. It was very difficult.

 

Post six months though at times the work was harder and other times I think it was less. I mean feeding two and napping two and etc. took more time but in many cases not twice the time and it as they got older it was more enjoyable in every way. It's so fun to have two babies cracking up while daddy makes funny faces for example. They laughed together a lot.

 

If you could do it again and have your twins as seperates a year or two apart would you choose to do that instead? That's hard. I think my boys would have been better off in many ways if we did one at a time. They would have had an easier pregnancy with less complications. We went into preterm labor at 24 weeks and I was on bedrest with meds that we now know weren't good for them. They were born at 37 weeks but one was very small because of positioning (he dropped to a +2 at 24 weeks and was malpositioned) and, well, sharing me. Individually and as a marriage would have been less stressed. My health took a huge hit because of the lack of sleep. The newborn period (up to six months) would have been much more manageable and I could have been a better mommy. Breastfeeding wouldn't have had the complications. I could learn from one child and not repeat the new parent mistakes with the second rather than making them all double!

 

Any and all information is helpful to us in making this decision. We do want more than one child so that part isn't scaring us off the part where we hear stories of people not leaving thier houses for a year after their twins are born is what's scaring us.

 

Thanks.

 

I think twin pregnancy especially as a first pregnancy is hard for mom and the babies. It's not the way it was meant to be essentially and with good reason. The newborn period as I stressed was really difficult here and not just for us but less than ideal for the babies as well. It makes me sad honestly to think of that time period. We were just surviving and I remember almost nothing except how hard the crying was and how exhausted I was. I don't remember anything positive for the early months except the first night home--we sat and stared at them amazed and then they woke up and we never slept again it felt like.

 

That said, twins were exciting for us. We had a very hard time getting pregnant and these weren't IVF babies so I felt very blessed as I didn't at all know if we would be able to have another child (answer has turned out to be no). I didn't have to worry about an older child leaving smaller toys for a baby to find or waking a sleeping baby or anything. We had baby routines and toys, then toddler routines and toys, and so on. So as they got older I felt it was easier in many ways. And in fact it was fun to have twins as they got older. It still amazes me that they have always known having a built in person experiencing everything for the first time with them--sharing life with them. I think that is so neat. One of my kids has special needs and having a twin is serving him well in that respect and will in life I think. But an older brother might have been just as good. They are very different (opposites in about every way) and not particularly compatible in personality so it's not all lollipops here but still they have each other. So do close in age siblings though. At this point I don't think the work load or dynamics are really much different than any two children in a family.

 

If I felt I could chose I would have babies one at a time. I think it's best for everyone.

[Agony. I can't drink this stuff. Colonoscopy.]

The prep (specifically the drinking the stuff) is the hard part and you're going to be done with that before long. :grouphug:

I've got a really sensitive gag reflex and I finally got it down. You will too. :grouphug:

[If your oldest dc is about 7 or 8...]

Just another reassurance--one of my closest friends has a child my son's age and also college and high school age kids. It didn't give me a moment's pause.

[Flu Shot-should we get them tomorrow?]

I've got one child who can't get the flu shot but for whom flu would potentially be very dangerous. For that reason the other child and my husband and myself do get the flu vaccine. Child without the vaccine doesn't do social stuff in flu season. If we didn't have the medically complicated child I don't think I'd do a flu vax with my other kid because studies haven't convinced me they are very effective with kids and most kids handle typical flu without complications.

[How to discern left- or right-handedness?]

I've got a lefty. He showed clear preference much younger than his right handed twin but I can't remember when we knew for sure. My left handed hubby was thrilled to have a another lefty in the family. It will be clear with time and until it is I would not try to steer him in either direction.

 

I didn't do anything special to teach him to write. Left handed kids will make their cross strokes (for a capital J or a t for example) right to left. But a lefty will just naturally do that. Left handed kids can tend to have a hook wrist position and if that happens you'd want to work on paper positioning and grip to correct it. My lefty didn't struggle with that but my right handed child did/does. It's fixable or at least addressable either way. My lefty grips the pencil higher than the right handed child. I can't think of any other differences. It's really not a big deal.

 

Cutting though was as struggle for him until I was informed that "universal" scissors are not. The blade is wrong for use in the left hand no matter what the package says. I think the child is better either learning to cut right handed (I was uncomfortable with that though now I'm not sure how I feel) or cutting with actual left handed scissors. Fiskars sells child left handed scissors but online rather than at Walmart and the like.

[Choking back the frustration...(need to vent before I explode)...]

Julie,

We've lived in three different areas and bank with two different banks currently. We've never had an occasion of bank fraud. We have had some incidences of credit card fraud connected to online use of credit cards. Are your debit cards used online?

 

I think it's highly unusual to have that many random occasions of compromise of bank accounts. I think you've got an issue with either the bank or a regular company (least likely in my mind) or someone you know with regular contact with you or your home--someone who has information about your accounts each time essentially.

 

Fraud with a teller withdrawal is really unusual. For good reason. They should be able to figure out who stole that money. First, they should have a time on the withdrawal. Can the bank view security cameras at the time? Beyond that, there should be a paper trail for a teller withdrawal at least around here. I wouldn't think a bank employee would be foolish enough to do a teller withdraw unless they somehow wanted to get caught. Other than that I would really be wondering about bank employees. But at any rate the teller withdrawal should be able to answer what's going on in my mind. If for some reason that's a dead end I'd be asking that bank if this is happening to anyone besides you.

[Rightstart A or Mcruffy K?]

I want to say I also don't "get" the teacher intensive label for RightStart at least not at A level.

 

Rightstart A is 15 minutes or less per day on math. I was there with them, yes, but I think you would be right there with the child for any effective K math program. I do no RightStart prep other than looking over the lesson right before we started and pulling out any materials I need. This has been the easiest thing I've taught in that respect.

 

I love the way RightStart teaches math. One of my kids loves math and Rightstart as does my mathy almost five year old nephew using RightStart A. The other child is not at all math oriented and in fact I believe has some learning issues in that area. I don't think he would like any math. But the way RightStart is structured in terms of short lessons with lots of variety in manipulatives and activities makes it tolerable. I don't think he would enjoy any math I could select but, honestly, even if he would love McRuffy I feel committed to using Asian math for him because I am so convinced by Liping Ma's book that it would take a lot (complete failure for him) for me to switch gears.

[Analyze this day (1st grade)]

Actually, my DD sounds exactly like that. Her problem isn't that she really dislikes what we're doing. It's that she doesn't want to do anything unless it's her idea. That makes it incredibly difficult to decide whether we're doing too much, because I don't know whether I'm asking for too much/the wrong things or whether she'd be this way if I asked her to do anything at all. How would your days be different if you only had this son to teach?

 

I wondered if she might be like my son in that respect.

 

Honestly, if he were my only I would be thinking about the minimum academics I felt we needed at this age and it would come through extremely short lessons spread through day. I wouldn't worry about how far I got in math or anything else--we'd just do a very short lesson of (hopefully) his best work. I would schedule them spread through the day I think with some type of motivator to follow the math and handwriting portions such as reading a book together afterward. Otherwise we'd be reading together. I think I'd be following a pretty much pure Charlotte Mason type of schooling with him though I'd still be doing my bible program.

 

Background:

I didn't start formal phonics at all until my kids turned six intentionally because I felt the child in question just wasn't ready. And what we began at six (March) didn't work at all for one of mine and so we stopped while I regrouped and essentially got no where. Then in late April/Early May I started I See Sam and we finally got going. Then in June I believe I began teaching them the phonograms using a multi-sensory phonics program I had found free online. We also used free Progressive Phonics books to practice reading with whatever phonogram I was teaching. My kids were really motivated by reading books and the way we did phonograms was multi-sensory and fun so this was entirely painless for all of us and in fact they were so excited to read it was actually a joy.

 

I went at their pace but by August (I'm not sure exactly when) we were working on fluency and reviewing phonograms. So in a matter of months we went from nothing to what I believe is pretty solid reading. I think they were just ready and I found the right program but if it were slower that would have been fine with me. My point is this--I don't think our pace matters. If you move slowly through RightStart B to make sure she's solid but it's not cumbersome she'll still end up in the same place academically in the end. It might just be that you get there with a better experience. I feel that at the young ages the experience matters as much or more than the content and pace. Because I too have a child that needs reinforcement and I'm using RightStart I want to add that I assume if he needs it I can always go back and speed through something like Math Mammoth levels when he's a bit older. I do school year round so we'll have extra time if needed for that type of thing. I think I mentioned we do a lot of online games with some concepts as well particularly the foundational ones like number bonds with 10's. He's moving slowly through RightStart and that's ok with me. I want him solid and hopefully without absolutely hating math.

[Rightstart A or Mcruffy K?]

Liping Ma's book and narrowed my choices down to a few that were Asian based math and of those RightStart was the most logical choice. It's pretty active--games based, lots of manipulatives, quick lessons with several topics, etc. McRuffy does look fun too though!