I predict: 1) Cursive will be gone. :( 2) The expected level of digital literacy will be much higher. Graduates will be expected to be comfortable with communicating via several and varied types of software including (the modern versions of): --powerpoint --excel --word --email communication --website communication (setting up/maintaining a website) --video software --animation and/or movie making 3 ) As the monolith of the high school experience changes due to: --homeschooling --magnet schools --charter schools --school vouchers --online schools --honors classes vs. alternative schools (for children who cannot participate in high school due to behavioral issues like truancy) a high school diploma will become suspect as the "all purpose indicator of earning acceptance as readiness for college." Instead, the standardized ACT and SAT will rise in value for college acceptance. 4) 2+ years of high school Spanish will become required of all students, with the expectation of a third language for those that are pre-college. ------------------------------------------------ The best thing we can teach our children is the confidence to say, "I can learn that!" and couple it with the ability (of the child) to have a plan for HOW to learn that. I believe that the ability to find resources (and to know whether to use a Google search, a thesaurus, an encyclopedia, or a Chilton Manual) will prove the true success of our children. History is littered with brilliant thinkers who were close to solving a problem; then they spoke to one. more. person....possibly not even in the given field....and they got the information or point-of-view to make a major breakthrough.

For what age kids are you looking? 1) We are also planning to do Real Science Odyssey: Earth and Space this year. Disclaimer: we have not done it yet. Review: The biology seemed light. The advantage is that you don't need a secondary text. Reading for kids is in 1-page segments. Activities are age-appropriate. 2) I've heard good things about The Happy Scientist. He has a unit on rocks and a unit on minerals. Disclaimer; we have not used it yet. It is on our short list for the future. 3) If I was to write my own Earth Science Curriculum, I'd rely heavily on Usborne Books. Whenever we use a curriculum with Usborne, I feel as though the material is very meaty. Usborne Geography Encyclopedia The Story of Planet Earth See Inside Planet Earth Earth and Space Read a couple of pages, then check out the Usborne Quicklinks for enrichment. Supplement with experiments found online by googling "earth science experiments." Feel free to add non-usborne books, too. Review of Usborne: Currently we're using a 10-week Usborne course on the Human Body. It's much meatier than Odyssey's Bio 1 was. Last year, we did a course on the Oceans. Dd learned a ton and did several recommended experiments from the quicklinks.

I've decided to get everyone their own set of markers. I'll put their name on it, so there is no fighting. I need pens. I'm tired of pens that don't write well. Last year a bought a box of Bics, and most of them wouldn't work right out of the box. The Bic company refused to acknowledge any problem, so no Bic pens for me. We've moved into the phase of using a lot of blue lined paper (2nd grade). That's all I have for now, although I'm sure that Staples' fancy school supply display will siren call to me within the next month.

Dead Men Do Tell Tales It's a little dated (1994?), and it's nonfiction, but it's a pretty fast and easy read by and actual forensic scientist. He talks about interesting cases he's covered, including studying the bones of the family of the last Tsar of Russia. Sorry for being off topic.

Welcome to homeschooling! Start whenever works well for you. There are homeschoolers who school year-round. If you start early (if you feel that is the right choice for your family), then you will have some flexibility later in the year if someone gets sick, if relatives visit, if there are extra field trip opportunities, or if you just need a lighter day. We usually start in early August, once the regular summer activities of Nature Camp and Swim Lessons and such are over. Our family doesn't do well with too much free time, so starting early gives us flexibility later, and cuts down on extra bickering/fighting and whining that they are not allowed to watch more than 11 hours of tv/day. You don't have to start everything the first day. Many families start the school year with just one or two subjects. They add an extra subject every few days. This allows them to 1) ease into the school year 2) not add more subjects than they can handle 3) still start even if some items are on hold due to budget or delivery delays 4) enjoy the summer weather by still having time for swimming and going to the park I skim most of the materials at the beginning of the school year. Example 1: I page through the Teacher's Manual and Student Workbook of Saxon Math. If anything jumps out at me as unclear, I try to resolve it then. I write notes in the margins and on post-it notes sticking up. I put bookmarks (small post-its or a paperclip) on pages that are summaries of the overview or a glossary or anything else that will be used a lot. Example 2: I make sure that I have coordinating resources ready. This may mean separating perforated flash cards for a curriculum (Saxon Phonics), ordering extra books used in the curriculum (History Odyssey 2 requires an activity book and a coloring book), or collecting all of the science supplies in one place. Some people organize several science experiments in a row by putting the resources into shoeboxes. Example 3: I skim the child's materials for appropriateness of reaching our goals. I read the preface or introduction, and I read select chapters that catch my eye. For us, this was questioning one of the suggested history books that was written in 1922 and has a worldview of 1922 (including racism, sexism, religious privilege, and some things that have just plain been proven historically wrong!) In another curriculum, I am supplementing by adding the pages (in the book, but not in the curriculum) on reproduction. Other families would choose to edit in a different direction. -------------------------------------------------- From week to week, I keep a running list of things to prep as the curriculum progresses. It might say, "Find a computer math facts game" or "Buy [these things for an upcoming science project]" or "Find youtube video on [science or history concept]."

Could it be that your child has a combination of being a perfectionist coupled with ambivalence of being with others (especially peers) and trying to master a new skill in front of others? If you want your child to take the next step in astronomy, he may need a safe place, plus some incentive to do so. I would: 1) Skip learning with peers. There are other venues for him to be social. 2) Use the Star Gazers show on PBS for things to see in the night sky. It's 5 minutes every week, and we tivo it. 3) Learn the constellations. Chet Raymo's book 365 Starry Nights is a good intro to this. It starts on January 1st, but you can start on the first of any month. 4) Buy a GREEN laser pointer. This is the best color for pointing out constellations in the night sky. 5) Make it clear that finding a certain number of things in the night sky is required for this year's schoolwork. Give a specific list/number. Make it a scavenger hunt that requires library research and a trip or two to the local astronomy club. For example, if your child needs to find the Horsehead Nebula, you may need to attend a star party and ask a local telescope owner to set it up for you to see on his/her telescope. 6) Offer a reward. Perhaps he earns the laser pointer for his own once he completes the list. Maybe he'd rather have a pizza party. Or money. Or the new Disney DVD. You know your child best. 7) Our local astronomy club usually has an hour-long astronomy topic; then a business meeting; THEN star gazing (if the weather allows). This is too much for young children. Email your local club beforehand to see tentative times for actual viewing. They should accommodate you because kids are the future of any hobby. Dress warmly, and if you take a flashlight, wrap the front in red cellophane. The hope of all of this is some practical amateur astronomy. Once you can find a few constellations, you don't suddenly "unknow" that. Whenever you see stars, you try to identify the ones you know. You learn a few more. They're like potato chips!

If you can pass the bean dip, that is best. However, if your mother's approval is important to you (and you think that resolution of this issue will bring peace, then I second taking her along to a homeschooling convention. As far as the high school and middle school questions, there was a lovely article in the Iowa homeschool magazine that came out last week. It's not online yet, or I'd link to it for you. It discussed the local homeschool graduation ceremony, and I guess the parents get to stand up with their student and talk about the homeschool journey and how their child has specialized and excelled during the previous 4 years. I don't know how other homeschool group graduations are handled, but there are worse things you could do than crash a graduation. :D You could also invite her along to explore and sort through all of your new homeschool supplies next month, once the magic UPS man arrives with his boxes of fun. Let her see what you are actually using, and let her dissect it on her own. You could also invite her on a "field trip" to spend a "typical day in the life of a homeschooler." Let her read the spelling words to one of the kids. Let one of the older kids read their history lesson aloud to her. Let her do fractions alongside your oldest.

Once upon a time, people would spend their entire lives living and working one one community. When I was a child, at one point, a teacher asked if any of us had never traveled outside of our homestate. *Apologies for the awkward sentence* 3 of us had not. (I was born in 1970). In generations before, it was fine for local communities to set the rules, but now we live in a global economy, and most of us want our kids to be able to compete and move to wherever the jobs are. Is it realistic for local school leaders to know what is needed/recommended on a global level? How do they handle an older generation (some are parents, some are Seniors who think education should be the same as when they graduated in 1938) that cannot see the wider picture? Life may not have changed for them, but it has changed for the rest of us. ----------------------------------------------- Consider Denmark: Denmark is a tiny country. They do not have much landmass. As a result, they do not have many natural resources (coal, oil, gold, etc). Several decades ago, Denmark decided that "their people were there greatest resource." So they started teaching English early in public school. If you turn on a tv, a lot of the programming is in English, but with Danish subtitles. :o I've been there. I've experienced this. As a result, Danish citizens can get jobs almost everywhere. They are not limited to Denmark. --------------------------------------------------- I feels as if our country is going through a Renaissance as we try to improve our educational system. NCLB, Race to the Top, and Common Core are only a few controversial attempts at change. Privatization of education, homeschooling, unschooling, Charter schools, Magnet schools, lotteries for private schools, computer schools, and vouchers are just a few things we are trying. Some things work; some things don't. We'll know more in a few decades.

1) And she's right. The book The Science of Parenting touches on this. For children that have had distress in their life (for whatever reason), playing the piano can help them to process. It helps the Corpus Callosum to facilitate the left and right sides of the brain talking to one another. Disclaimer: This is not the sole focus of the book The Science of Parenting, but it is mentioned at least twice. 2) Young children playing the piano increased brain activity: more than reading/being read to, more than exercise, more than creative free play. I suspect this is because playing the piano requires mastery via several senses: sight, hearing, touch. 3) A few years ago, there was a discussion within the hive of "What makes a well-rounded student?" A mother that is wiser than I said: a) academics b ) sports/athletics: This could be a team sport, but it could also be an activity that your child enjoys independently, like bike riding c) artistic: painting/sculpture or musical or theater or writing and the last one was: d) something your child can use as a second income. Lifeguarding/teaching swim lessons, teaching gymnastics, woodworking, jewelry making, beekeeping, or TEACHING PIANO LESSONS or working as a church pianist. This was a year or so after the crash of 2008, so it was very timely. If you lost your job, you would be able to fall back on a second, if lesser, job. In the meantime, your adult child could use this secondary set of skills to bring in extra income to save for a house before marriage/children. They could bring in extra income as a SAHM by working evenings or Saturday mornings.

Our library has free meeting rooms, but the catch is that it has to be a meeting "open to the public." The upside of this is that (if you were in our community), you would get your meeting listed on the Library Calendar as "Homeschool Books and Poems" and you may draw in a few more homeschoolers to the group. Our library also has a "homeschool liaison" (one of our children's librarians who has this as one of her MANY duties). SHE has hosted activities like this in the past. If your library has a homeschool liaison, he/she may be willing to coordinate this for the benefit of the wider homeschooling community.

1) I'd move heaven and earth to get my kid tested under those circumstances. Call the school system. Call DHS (they often refer kids "in the system" for testing). Call WIC (same deal). Call your pediatrician. Stalk the special ed teachers at your local school system. Catch them next month as they are getting their classrooms ready and ask for some general information or advice. You just need to find the one person who has the information you need and is kind enough to give it to you. In both my hometown, and in my current town (both in Iowa) we have local nonprofits that do free tested for referred children. In my hometown, they do a general test of all Kindergartners (hearing, eyes, colorblind, etc). In our current town, older dd was a late talker (fewer than 5 words after age 2), so we had her tested to rule out anything physical. All of these screenings are free, regardless of income. See what your town has. 2) What is your child's learning style? I seriously know NOTHING about learning styles, but I know that some kids learn just fine with reading and hearing lectures. Some do better with video or video games to learn concepts. Some need to make their own powerpoint presentation or movie. Some need to read aloud and repeat to a second party. Some need to draw and label diagrams to make it clear and memorable. There are a ton of books about learning styles. Tap into the hive specific resources. 3) We would redo the failed classes, but not redo the grade. For age-dependent activities, we would call him 4th grade, but for everything else, we would differentiate, "He is at 3rd for math; he is at 5th for piano; he is at 6th for science." The only reason the school system uses grades is to help manage large numbers of children, and that makes sense. However, you are just managing 5. We would use a different curriculum (possibly guided by learning style) the second time around. 4) Said gently: Is it possible he got forgotten this year? He IS the second child. (I deal with this, too). I see you have a 10yo listed. It's always easy to put a lot of time into the oldest. They have the most challenging material so far; and we had lots of time when they were little to give them really good reading and math skills. Then your 8yo (currently 9) listed. A 6yo and a 4yo: if I had them, I'd be working my butt off to teach them letters and numbers and to read. Learning to read is such a milestone; for early ed, it is THE milestone, and a lot easier to define than the needs of a 3rd grader. And a 2yo. Egads! We all know how many threads there are on this site about keeping 2yos out of trouble! And she/he needs to start identifying letters and shapes and colors and counting to ten! I'm not saying that you left your 8yo to his own devices, but it is possible that you gave him an hour, and he needed and hour and 10 minutes? Is it possible that he needed uninterrupted time, but you DO have 4 other bodies to educate, feed, and keep out of trouble? Is it possible that he is not a squeaky wheel? ("The squeaky wheel gets the oil.") I struggle with the same thing, and I only have two kids. I wonder how I can balance making sure that our younger daughter gets age/grade appropriate education while pushing a full schedule for older daughter.

This is a gift. This time to yourself in the middle of the night is a gift. If you are awake in bed for longer than an hour, then it is time to get up and use this gift. You can read. You can clean the house. You can watch movies on Netflix. This is time to yourself, and this is a gift. I have had insomnia my entire life, including longer than I can remember in childhood. (My mom tells of me being awake at 10pm or later as a small child. I stayed in bed. I was quiet. But I was awake.) My elementary years were filled with being awake in the middle of the night, but not being allowed to read or get out of bed. I have tried all the solutions offered here and more. Nothing has made enough of a difference. You might also try a sleep study through your local hospital. Talk to your general practitioner about it; he/she will refer you. I had one, and the results were inconclusive and unhelpful, but I know of others that have been helped immensely. My doctor has since recommended a "Pulse-Ox" test. This is less intrusive than the hospital sleep study. I don't have to spend a night away from my family (and the nursing little one). Loverboy doesn't have to take a morning off of work if I return late from the hospital. I just take home a medical device and put it on my finger as I sleep.

:confused1: Do you really think this is a recipe for happiness for him? Or anyone? Sure, it's been known to happen....but not often. Just an observation: Whenever I've seen someone divorce, it takes five years before they are ready for "the" serious relationship (which is either marriage or a LTR). Sure, they may date. Sure, they may THINK they are serious. But before 5 years, I've rarely seen and "in-between" relationship work. I'd look around at the divorced friends you have and see what the lag time is between divorce and their current LTR. Disclaimer: This doesn't mean that you shouldn't date. This doesn't mean that it couldn't happen. Dating will help you to re-learn who you are and re-learn the rules of healthy boundaries. And, as nice as it is to have someone special in your life, and as hard as it is to be alone, "I'd rather BE alone than WISH I was alone." You just got divorced. If the divorce was mutual, this should be your mantra. Take this time to find out who you are. Not the "you" who was 21 when she was last single. Not the "you" who was married for 20 years. Who are you now? Fill your life with joy. Finish your college degree. Get a job that makes you happy. Go hiking or quilt or take ballroom dance lessons. Duckens rules for dating: 1) Be safe. When you go out with someone, have a "safety call." This means that you check in with a trusted friend that has all of your date's info. For example, if you are going to the movies, have a pre-agreement that you will call your friend as soon as you get out of the movies AND again when the date is over and you are safe at home with the door locked. If you don't check in, your friend will call the police. Most people are kind and good and helpful, but Ted Bundy was handsome and charming and SCARY! A better definition of Safety Call. 2) Be too busy to date (which it sounds like you are already). This makes an attractive mate. It shows that you are independent and have your own interests. You have many things to know and share; you know many people. Take adult ed classes. Have weekly scheduled social events. Do volunteer work. This, of course, would be once you finish college. You won't be sitting by the phone. You won't be whiny if he leaves for the weekend to see his parents without calling to say he loves you. (I've seen this happen). He is one aspect of your very full life. 3) Don't let him into your life unless he contributes to it. You already have 4 children. You don't really need an extra one for whom to cook and clean and drain your finances. 4) Have good boundaries. Be unafraid to say, "It''s okay to date you; it's fun to spend time with you, but I could never be serious about you unless _________." For me, with two guys, this was smoking. When each quit smoking, I knew how serious he was about me. For a third, it was telling his family about me. (After a year, they didn't even know I existed.) His mother met me once, then got rid of me by the time I got off the airplane at home, so I dodged a bullet there. Heartbreaking at the time, but, in retrospect, I am soooooo better off not living in that family dynamic. 5) Be unafraid of online dating. It's a good way to meet a lot of people in a short period of time. Maybe you don't know if you want to spend the rest of your life with this person, but you know if you want to spend another 10 minutes getting to know that person. Dating is a numbers game. If you meet 100 people, you are much more likely to find "the love of your life" that if you only meet 5 people. With any sort of dating, you have to kiss a lot of frogs. With online dating, remember rule #1! 6) Women can do the asking. I can't believe how many women in 2014 still sit back and wait for the men. Why can't women ask men out? If I waited for the men to ask, I'd never get asked out anywhere! 7) An emotionally safe way to ask someone out is to make your own plans beforehand. Then say, "I'm planning to go to the Science Center this weekend to watch the Volcano movie they have. Would you like to go, too?" You're not specifically asking about a date. You're not specifically inviting romance. You're just asking for company or giving him the opportunity to see the volcano movie, too, which is something you were going to do anyway. And this is the important part: You go whether he goes or not. And you have a good time.

First pregnancy: Nausea/vomiting whenever I ate junkfood/fastfood. And I CRAVED greens. I felt like Rapunzel's mother. I went to the farmer's market and bought kale, spinach, collards, and swiss chard. I remember going to the local health food store, choosing some greens, and begging the produce worker, "This looks so good! What IS it? How do you prepare it????" I explained that I was pregnant, and the baby rejected all junk food, but made me crave greens. "That's a smart baby!" he told me. Second pregnancy: Within a week of getting pregnant, I was nauseous. I informed Loverboy that I was going to take a stick test that night. I threw up nearly every day of the pregnancy. This baby didn't like healthy food; she just liked junk. This worked great until I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes and had to cut the junk I ate. Loverboy was great; he research online bought me all sorts of different things to try: sea bands, ginger, ginger tea, etc. Gum worked the best for me. Every time I started to heave, I put more gum in my mouth. I think my record was 9 pieces, but I didn't throw up that time! :thumbup1: Even so, I threw up nearly EVERY day of that pregnancy. The doctor assured me that my nausea would be cured within the next 9 months or so. I almost threw up the anti-nausea medication while on the delivery table.

Does it matter who puts the underwear on? Does it matter that she wear underwear to bed at this age on any given night? And underwear is tricky! Especially when you're tired! Just yesterday, dd7 was having trouble with her swimsuit bottom. I noticed a tag sticking out of a leghole. She agreed that it felt much better once we had rearranged it. Is this a daily occurrence? No way. Just once in a great while. Admit it though: even as adults, we all have trouble with our underwear occasionally. Surely by the time she is 10yo, she will be dressing/undressing herself promptly and independently. This is a temporary phase. My older one has had phases of being buck naked all day, wearing clothes (instead of pajamas) to bed, and (currently) taking the "pajamas are the school uniform of homeschoolers" literally to wear pajamas outside the home. As long as they are clean, weather appropriate, and cover more of her body than her swimsuit, I don't really care. I read a parenting essay years ago about the author recalling how EVERY NIGHT, her parents would ask, "Do you want to walk up to bed, or do you want a piggy back ride?" Ya know what? Somehow they ended up in their bedroom every night for bedtime. How did that happen???? Sneaky parents!!! :lol:

Yes, let the dog sleep with you. They are a pack animal. They like to sleep in a pile. The last puppy my mom had cried at night when not in the bed and needed to be taken out to pee at 2am (in Iowa January weather). Once we put her in the bed with us, she slept all night. We don't currently have a dog, but I grew up with dogs sleeping in the bed with us. I repeatedly tell Loverboy and the girls that if we ever got a dog, that dog would a part of the family; and the dog would sleep in the bed with us. So far the 3 cats have outvoted the 4 of us on getting a dog. I think they are stuffing the ballot box...... As long as you take your pet for regular (annual) vet check-ups and follow your vet's recommendation for care, I can't think of any major health reasons why your pet shouldn't get to sleep with your family members. Exception: The dog gets banned from the bed...AND the house when it gets sprayed in the face by a skunk. That has happened at least once or twice to family dogs.

I have no experience with adoption. I have no experience with teaching Chinese. I DO have experience with teaching language to young children. 1) Play games as a family. Candy Land (for colors), Uno (for numbers/colors). Just looking at our games shelf, I see Alphabet Zoo, Add a Bug, Concentration, and Dominoes. 2) Do a search for "Learn English Video Games". I found this page right away. I know there are other vocabulary games available. Use them as a reward after doing regular phonics lesson. 3) tabinfl discussed skype resources. I have had good luck with this website. Technically it is for those who are trying to learn a language, but I'll bet that if you placed an ad explaining what you need, you would find someone to help ease the transition. It's easier to find a match if you "upgrade to a gold membership" for a nominal fee ($6/month through $24/year). Disclaimer: do not let children be unattended on the internet.

Our cats are toilet trained. When Loverboy met me, he thought I was crazy for doing this. Since then, he has helped other people move who had not cared for their litterbox. Now he's a believer. The good parts: --I simultaneously toilet trained 3 adult cats to use the toilet. --Our house is small (it's a trailer), and we don't have a basement to hide a litterbox. Our house doesn't smell at all from "litter box." --We save a ton of money on litter. How to do it: http://www.catsofaustralia.com/cat-toilet.htm Other details: --We have to empty the bowl as soon as the cats use it. This is easy since I am home all day; however the cats like to go 2 minutes after we turn out the lights and get into bed at night. --When we travel, we board the cats at the vet so they don't get confused about a litterbox in a certain location IN the house and the toilet. 3 cats x $7/day x 4 to 7 days = expensive! Your cat(s) may be fine moving back and forth from toilet to litterbox. Our cats do fine when we are gone all day for a day trip out of town. --I had trouble getting all of the cats through the last step, so we just stay at the silver bowl step. In retrospect, it may have been that one of our cats had constipation that would release poop at inopportune times and places. We're happy where we are now, so we probably won't attempt the last step of removing the bowl again. --My silver bowl was slightly too small to fit in the toilet seat. I went to my local hardware/lumber store (with the silver bowl). I explained what I was trying to do, and I asked them to cut (out of thin plywood) a "collar" for the silver bowl. They happily accommodated me. --Our cats have claws. The toilet seat is all scratched up from their claws, so if we ever move from here, we will have to replace the seat. --I recently learned that sea otters are dying of toxoplasmosis. If there is any chance of the toilet waste going to the sea, this may not be the best environmental choice. If your cats are indoor cats and you want to do this, make sure the cats have been tested/treated for toxoplasmosis before doing this.

Newton, Pascal, and Einstein were playing Hide-and-Seek. It was Einsteins turn to seek, so Einstein closed his eyes and counted to 10 while Pascal and Newton went to hide. Pascal hid behind a tree, but Newton just stood there and drew a 1 meter by 1 meter box around him on the ground. When Einstein was done counting, he opened his eyes and said, "Newton, I see you! You're out!" And Newton replied, "No, you're wrong, You see Pascal! Pascal is out!" Pa = N/m^2

How can you tell whether DNA is male or female? You pull down their genes.

Why are there never floods in France? Because the water is always l'eau (low).

Thank you for posting Deborah's article. If we are still homeschooling in high school, I am hoping that we can take a year and read through the bible. We will use Asimov's Guide to the Bible as our study guide.

We use ours daily when schooling. We have three lap-sized ones. We use them for learning/practicing math problems (before setting dd loose on her workbook). We use them for marking words while learning to read (dividing into syllables, marking vowels and special sounds). If there is a mistake, we discuss it on the whiteboard first, then dd replicates it (with or without the whiteboard as a prompter) in her workbook. We use the whiteboard to draw simple diagrams to explain science or history. We use the whiteboard for alphabetization. For memory work, we write the item out, and we erase one or two words at a time as dd memorizes things.

FlipFlop Spanish has a workbook for age 3-5 (level 1) and a workbook for age 6-9 (level 1). Due to my incompetence, we are using both. I had started the age 3-5 book in Kindergarten for dd, but there was more writing than what she could handle. So Spanish was put on the back burner for that year while her English writing/spelling skills solidified. This past year (1st grade, age 6-7), we reopened the age 3-5 book and the learning went well. Then I lost the book, so I pulled out the age 6-9 book. Then we found the age 3-5 book. So now, we are doing both books in tandem. This gives dd a little extra practice and review of topics because there is not a lot of writing on any one section. There have been a few pages that are identical in both books, but not a lot. There is a also a Level 2 book for age 3-5. I can't remember if I have bought this book yet (and it is in storage). If I have not, I am not sure if we will use FlipFlop Level 2, or if we will move on to the Complete Book of Spanish or another resource. Maybe at Rainbow Resource I can find a workbook system that has several years and levels. Eventually dd will be old enough/mature enough to use Visual Link Spanish (that I have been using to shore up my Spanish; they have good customer service) or Fluenz. ------------------------- To be clear, the games we play could be used with (or without) almost any beginning Spanish program for kids. One thing I don't like about the FlipFlop books is their reliance on polling others to answer and use the vocabulary. This is difficult for us, as we are a small family (2 kids), and we don't have friends or nearby extended family who know what we are talking about when we practice Spanish at this age. If you choose to go the FlipFlop route, be prepared to have a community (extended family or playgroup) as a resource for these activities in the book; or do as I do and invent imaginary friends for these purposes to ensure adequate practice of the vocabulary.

Another vote for DanceMat (linked at least twice already in this thread). It gave us success where we had had tears before. Since then, we have moved on to other typing programs with great enthusiasm and success. Here is the pathway of our typing this past year. Dd was in 1st grade, so I had NO expectations, and I would have been okay shelving typing until she was much older. 1) Mavis Beacon: tears 2) Dance Mat: joy and success, often working extra on her own 3) Mavis Beacon: success, but disillusioned when the computer/software ate her data and wanted her to start again from the beginning of lessons. 4) Dance Mat again: Wow! She really zoomed through the lessons this time! 5) Really old Disney typing program with Timon and Pumba: success. At this point, she types between 6-12 words/minute. *brag, brag, brag* Disclaimer: dd has had several years of piano lessons, so she has good finger coordination.