I'm almost done buying for items to get us through next Dec. My list included: My Pals are Here 4a/b items Ruth Heller Grammar books D'Aulaire Biographies Holling C. Holling geography books A World Full of Homes by Burns Singapore Math 3a/b & Earlybird 2a/b (I bought these last summer) The Golden Children's Bible (bought a few years ago) I am now in the planning and how to pull it all together stage and it looks like we will have a fun and interesting year.:)

My dd loves the activity guides the best. The text is excellent and the workbooks are great but the AG is her favorite part. :)

We are taking a free week from our regular workload and will do a lapbook on snow by HOAC and one on opposites that I found stuff for on my own. Should be fun.

Finished The Tales of Tiptoes Lightly by Reg Down and The Courage of Sarah Noble. Reading American Girl: Felicity Bindup off all the books in order. Coming up is Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling and Franklin by D'Aulaire after that. We're taking our time and having fun enjoying our read alouds.:)

Language Arts for us K--SWR phonograms 1st--SWR phonograms and Fairy Tales to reinforce letter sounds, the Waldorf Alphabet book, copywork (letters, sentences that reinforce phonogram sounds and fairy tales) 2nd--SWR phonograms and spelling rules, Fables, rewriting fables (5 w's, precis, expanded), Copywork (sentences that reinforce phonogram sounds), McCall-Harby Test Lessons in Reading, Minimus Latin 3rd-6th WISE Guide spelling lists, Test Lessons in Reading, Latin, KISS Grammar 3rd--Old Testament and Native American stories, narrative writing, outlining, parts of speech 4th--Folk Tales, descriptive writing 5th--Ancient Myths, ordering discriptive writing 6th--Writing Fable and Proverb 7th--Writing anecdote and refutation/confirmation 8th--writing refutation/confirmation and commonplace 9th--writing encomium/invective and comparison 10th--writing comparison and speech in character 11th--writing speech in character and thesis 12th--writing thesis

Ours is up, just click on the link in my signature line. We had a good week.;)

We school year round taking 2 weeks off in May and 3 weeks off in December. We do 4 day weeks and throw in a fun week to break up things up and give our brains a rest about every 3 to 6 weeks.:)

I am almost ready to go with 3rd grade. Language Arts: WISE Guide Spelling lists (up to 2 lists per week) Reading Old Testament Bible stories (1 story a week/month) Outlining and rewriting those OT stories a la Progymnasmata (1 paper a week/month) Ruth Heller Grammar Books KISS Grammar for practice (3 pages a week) Mathematics: Singapore Math 3b and 4a ideas from Teaching Mathematics in Rudolf Steiner Schools by Ron Jarmon Form Drawing for Beginners by Donna Simmons (1 form a week) History/Science: A World Full of Homes by William Burns (1 time a week) My Pals are Here Science 4b by Singapore Math (2-3 times a week) D'Aulaire Biographies (at bedtime) Holling C. Holling books (at bedtime) Latin: Minimus for Fall Probably Lively Latin for spring semester Other: Watercolor, drawing, felting, knitting, recorder, sewing, gardening. (alternated not everyday but 1 topic for a week.) We are trying to keep our schedule fun and interesting. I try to take a break and do fun weeks every so often to rest our brains. And we do Charlotte Mason short intense lessons. Good Luck on your 3rd grade year.:)

Thanks. I have my cart ready to go with the Higher Order Thinking Skills, Activity book, Workbook and Texts. :) We just love Singapore!

My dd is begging to go on to My Pals are Here Science 4a/b. Do I need the TG for these? We didn't need them for 3a/b. Thanks.

We're reading books about Groundhog day at our Friday Enrichment group. We are also going to act out the experience of groundhog day and do the hokey pokey too. Does that count?:)

Thanks, this looks like a cool site. We can't wait to buy the butterflies here.

We are in 3a after taking a years break to do Rightstart B & C. What I have found helpful: 1a/b--a balance scale, small objects, the Rightstart Abacus, 100's chart Things that are helpful further down the road starting in 2a: Base 10 set, Place value cards from Rightstart, Magnetic Fraction bars, Cuisinaire Rods, a regular scale, ruler with centimeters, a meter stick, and liquid measuring container with liters and mililiters. I have had the HIG and they do have lots of ideas and mental math pages but I didn't think that they were worth the price. And you really don't need them for 1a/b. Have fun this year. Don't rush through--be sure to stop and memorize your facts along the way, take your time and do some stopping if you encounter something that is hard, and have fun with the easy stuff. Hope this helps.:)

We are going to the Children's Museum and the Curious George exhibit will be there! Also, we will dig for dinosaurs. Yeah! We are also starting a Friday Enrichment group and our first day is Friday. The topic this week is Groundhod Day which should be a lot of fun. We are even going to do the Hokey Pokey as groundhogs.:)

Thanks, we have a garden and always have butterflies and moths but we haven't been able to find any eggs, caterpillars or anything like that. We want to release the butterfly so I will hold my horses and I have bookmarked the links so we can order when it is time. Thanks.

This is an idea I pulled from the Singapore Math books. Cut some paper in half lengthwise and tape it together on the short ends. Draw squares on it so that it looks like a sidewalk. Write the numbers on the squares from 1 to however many you want to go up to. Then you can take a small toy and have it go for a walk on the number line. Hope this helps.

We do 4-day weeks and go year round. We take time off in December and May. I schedule things so that Mon to Thurs we do 4 days of work in Math, language arts (phonics, grammar, composition, Latin) and creative expression (science, history or art). On Fridays, we have an enrichment group and a play group that we attend. Actually, I co-run both groups. And we go to the library so it really counts as another school day but we are doing fun things. But I am also doing 2nd and K. I think once my children are older they will be doing a lot more on their own and pacing it throughout the week.

We just threw out our year old turkeys. There were two of them and they are gone now. Everyone does this.

We want to watch a butterfly hatch this year. When do we need to buy one? And where would you recommend we buy it from? I know you all have done this since I see the posts every year and this year it is our turn. We've done tadpoles (they died), venus flytraps, goldfish and we have cats. Now we want to do the whole cycle of the Butterfly hands-on style. Thanks.

Oh yeah, there was a whole big long discussion on one of the yahoo-groups I am on. I know for a fact that my 2nd dd is not ready to read. She knows all her letter sounds but she hasn't lost a tooth (4 wigglies though), has chubby cheeks, dimpled hands, and can't touch her ear when she puts her hand over the top of her head (but she is getting close). I was trying the Rod and Staff readers on her earlier but she wasn't tracking yet so I knew she wasn't ready and backed off. If you wait it will come easier. I wish I would have waited and just reviewed phonics in a fun way with my oldest. Steiner can really be weird sometimes but a lot that he has to say and recommend on child development really rings true. Good Luck and I hope reading becomes fun rather than a challenge.

For PreK: Free Play--blocks, open-ended, story, imaginative Small motor skills--painting with watercolors, scissors, glue, coloring Math manipulative exploration--counting bears, balance scale, patterns blocks(let them explore on their own) Good books--Jan Brett, Laura Numeroff, Dr. Suess, Alan Baker, etc Large Motor skills--riding a bike, tumbling, jumping rope, skipping Following mom and being included--Baking, cleaning, folding clothes, etc. Circle time--stories, singing together and Finger-Rhymes (open them shut them or others) Workbooks only if they want them and totally at their own pace as they request it. I have a binder for my ker that I put together. In it is workbooks I have torn apart, worksheets off the internet, mazes, dot-to-dots and coloring pages. She works on it whenever she wants and I go through it about once a week pulling out finished pages and putting new ones in. Mainly, have fun during this time and don't push academics too much. It is one thing if a child is begging to do worksheets but quite another to make them do them at this age when they are not ready for them. Let them set the pace and enjoy this time. They are only this little once and as my dh observed today about my little ones "the sticky fingers are gone." Hope this helps.

First, I look at where my child is, what their ability is and where I expect them to go in the next year. I also look at what subject we might want to introduce and what topics we want to study. Then, I look at our curriculum that doesn't change (SWR and Singapore). These are two things that have a good solid base that you can really adapt to different learning styles if you want to put in the effort. I mix both up with Waldorf and the math up with Montessori methods. Then, I look for my other curriculum. I found no writing that really met my standards or abilities of my children so I wrote my own using the book Composition in the Classical Tradition as my guide. Some curriculum is just so expensive and not much is directed to the VSL. When I look for curriculum, I come to these boards and yahoo-groups and ask lots of questions, I print out samples and even try them out on my children to see if they like them. I have found that at least my older child is a pretty good judge of what is going to work for her. I try to come at it from all angles so we find something we really like and can learn from. Although at times I do get distracted by the curriculum frenzy just like everyone else and make a bad choice that just doesn't work for us.

There is a bunch of lapbook and making books for within the lapbook links on my blog.

It can take as long as 4 years for phonics to sink in and translate to fluent reading. We tried a variety of programs including 100EL, Sonlight K LA, Hooked on Phonics, Bob Books, Sight Reading activities, Reading Pathways but I think just working on basic phonics over and over until it sticks is the only thing that really works. We had leaps and stops. In PreK she knew her alphabet & basic sounds, in K she had around 100 site words and could read simple CVC words. 1st grade was CVC and silent e words. Now in 2nd she can read pretty much anything she wants to but needs help with larger words sometimes. We are continuing with phonics though because it is supposed to be good for spelling. I love Spell to Write and Read but the Phonogram and spelling rules list from The Writing Road to Reading works just as well. What I am finding works is to teach them the sounds for the letters and letter combinations, give them fun worksheets to do on their own and once in a while "test" out reading but to not push reading. When you push you end up with a reluctant reader(we had a hard time with this). You should know when they are ready and it may not be until he is in second grade. When that time comes, stick him in a corner once a day with books that are too easy for him to read and have him read to stuffed animals or pets for 20 or 30 minutes a day. You get to just go off and do something "important" nearby and only allow interuptions for words he doesn't know. Give him rewards for reading these books--make a chart and once he has read 100 give him something really big like a $25.00 prize of his choice. A friend and I both got our children excited about reading this way. Don't worry he is on the right time and it will just come when he is ready. Just keep with the phonics. Good Luck!:)

We are in 3a and they start teaching the bar diagrams in that book. I don't have the HIG but have had them in the past. They really didn't fit my style of teaching and kind of stressed me out. Mainly we use the workbook and refer to the text if it is new material and do the problems in the text if it is something that we need to spend time learning. I am also using ideas from Teaching Mathematics in Rudolf Steiner Schools by Ron Jarmon. He is a British Waldorf teacher of mathematics and his scope and sequence lines up very well with Singapore but he has really neat ideas on review and drill work and making it fun. I thought the stuff in the HIG was sort of dull. Good Luck.