DS has been doing WeDo at co-op since age 5, but he needs lots of help. Mindstorms are meant for high schoolers (at least as far as I remember). I agree with the above, WeDos!

My kids are addicted too (and if I have to hear about the oxpecker one more time...) :bigear:

My 6yo is just now writing legibly by printing. It never occured to me that that might be a reason to start cursive earlier! Those that started earlier, did you do a test of some sort to see if it would work before going forward? My son seems to be in a similar situation to a few here but I'm a little wary of starting him on something new which might be frustrating to him. The reasons citied in the article about not teaching cursive that I read are that cursive is largely irrelevent in today's typing/texting society. But I have a couple of friends who teach at U of Michigan and Yale and there are classes there that do not allow laptops in the lecture hall because they have had problems with students not paying attention (Facebook) or cheating. Isn't cursive a much faster way to take notes? Strange to think that our children might be in the minority simply by knowing how to write in cursive.

:bigear: There was an article in a local parenting circular recently about how some school don't even teach cursive. It prompted me to ask all friends and neighbors about their experience (all non-HSers) so I am v. curious to hear the answer here!

At the Natural History Museum, DS overheard my sister tell her son about a Dimetrodon, calling it a dinosaur. Naturally DS had to correct her...you should have seen his exasperation when she called a pterosaur a dinosaur :lol:. We do not take dinosaur classification lightly 'round here!

DS started at age 5.5 and it was WAY.TOO.SLOW. Maybe it was my fault, maybe it was presented in a format that didn't work for him, maybe I should have started with B... If you are sold on RS, then there is certainly no harm in buying it now and doing some trial lessons!

What a great Grandmother you are!!! My oldest is in K so I can't recommend anything from personal experience but I have several friends who use http://motherofdivinegrace.org/curriculum and love it. It is solidly Catholic and classical. The link above is to the book lists. HTH!

:banghead::banghead: So the math and science books that I just got today won't be my "final answer" for next year???? :banghead::banghead: Thank you for posting this. I have experienced anti-Catholicism in the most unexpected places (once in a birthing book!). It is something that I was worried about but didn't know how to guard against it other than bullitin boards such as this. "If one does not agree with their religious content ( or does not want to put up with it ) they should not buy it in the first place ." But how does one know the religious content to begin with if not posts such as this?

I have the Ma book on order! This discussion has really made me realize where the holes were in my own math education! More later...I now have 2 kids climbing on me...

I just ordered the Ma book too. I am really hoping that it helps me recover from my own death spiral in the choosing of math curriculum. Probably because I am least comfortable with math as a subject, I just can't seem to get a handle on the right path. We own RS A, but my K'ner finds it to be too slow. And I don't like th almount of prep. I ordered a couple of CLE wkbks just to get us through the end of the year. The only upside I can see at this point is that my oldest is in K so we haven't gone far down any path yet.

We're using the same. I wish I could complain that it doesn't have enough lines per page, that would mean he was doing a lot of writing...

Completely overwhelmed! We've done Rod & Staff (came in our K in a box curriculum) and RS A, which required too much prep on my part and went too slowly for my son's taste. Math is the ONLY subject I just can't get a handle on (curriculum-wise, I am comfortable with kindergarten math :D). I am also not yet good enough to figure out if a curriculum will work for us before I buy. So this could get expensive. :bigear: Somone point out the correct path!

We did it for two weeks and gave up. My son had little interest in the books (he was heavy into dinosaurs) and, therefore, did not want to hear them over and over! I do think I benefited from the concept though. My oldest was 4 when I tried it so I was starting at the very beginning of HS and the book allowed me to see other story books in a new light as to their teaching possibilities. My daughter is almost 4 now and I should pull FIAR off the shelf to see how she likes it. I bet she will. I got mine used for around $5.

Thank you all, I am now resolved to do more planning which will (hopefully) result in more organized schooling!

:bigear: We've been doing Right Start and Rod & Staff and I don't like either one! :lurk5:

:hurray: Hi! I'm pretty new too and I just LOVE that I can find so much info all in one place! Now if I could just get the abbreviations/akronyms down...

I'm doing the stuff listed below, but I like thinking that I'm not "officially" starting HS until next year. I just read something about how Finland doesn't have K and they do great on tests...IDK, I'm trying to keep it light and fun (before the heaviness of first grade :D).

Just curious, how much work do you do to prepare for school? Can you do most of it during school time or do you do it before/after? I'm currently not doing much, but my oldest is in Kindergarten. I log maybe an hour each weekend to print out stuff (art, coloring sheets, etc.). I'd love to get a sense of how much prep others have. Thanks!

We're currently reading Journey to the Center of the Earth. I've never read it before and I have to say that it's kind of dumb (sorry, Mr. Verne) but my kids love it. The Hobbit and a children's version of the Odyssey are some other good ones.

Thanks, those art cards are exactly what i was looking for although i was hoping for something a little less expensive. Oh well. Maybe I will just make my own.

Meghan - I'm right there with you! A close friend of mine was trying to convince me that she learned valuable lessons from having really bad teachers (like how to get along with difficult people). Um, yeah...I'm not sending my kids to PS for that! I think I need to have DS write his name more often. In reading this it occurred to me that kids in school have to write their names on papers and such and I don't make him do that enough at home. Thanks for posting this!

:bigear: I don't think I'll ever be able to decipher these acronyms. :)

We've been doing just fine with internet printouts on paper so far this school year but they are getting kind of ragged after several months. I would like to find a set of cards of famous paintings to discuss and then I could leave the new work out on a tabletop or something for the kids to look at through the week. I can't find a pack online that covers a wide range of paintings; there are Impressionist packs, packs that focus on certain colors, etc. Anyone ever heard of something like that?

How to Use a Map? That's more workbooklet I guess. :confused:

Thanks! I think we will indeed start slow, one isolated letter at a time. I just don't want to make it any harder for him than it already is!