Bubble Test Form Generator I used this with Spectrum Test Prep. I don't think that its silly at all. Good, bad, or otherwise, our children DO live in a world where they WILL be graded by computer, and this WILL be one measure to compare them to the other 50.1 million students in our country. Test taking is a skill, like learning how to do long division or use a computer. Even though we will not be state tested for two more years, I want my daughters to be competent in the skill of test-taking. I'd hate for them to lose valuable points for procedural errors on their part. My first grader learned (from experience) to avoid TWO procedural errors this year: 1) Read ALL of the answers. 2) Read the question carefully. What is it asking? If the testing was in French, rather than by computer, we'd all be teaching our Kindergarteners, "Je m'appelle Little Duckens."

Yes, we have 529s for our girls. If you have control of the money for non-designated uses, will you make wise choices with it? (You don't have to answer here; it's none of our business). Our 529s are doing MUCH better (in yield and amount) than the money my grandmother earmarked for our girls for college. She put my father in charge of it, and he got spooked after the crash of 2008. He pulled it out of the market at it's lowest point. *facepalm* I BEGGED him to reinvest, but he cannot be moved. Now it makes 2% interest sitting in a savings account. College expenses rise 8-14% each year. Did you know that the Dow Jones had 52 record high days in 2014? Just because I'm poor doesn't mean that I'm ignorant about money. The only saving grace is that the money from grandma is for "any educational expenses." This includes piano books, swim lessons....and homeschooling supplies. I save receipts because Documentation is my friend. This money is reinvested for our girls in alternative financial vehicles. It may pay for college, or it may be a nice little nestegg for our girls after college.

Birdflyer Lyric -- We have one, and it gets used! You can even buy cartridges for identifying frogs! Warning: DO NOT play this outside. If a (male) bird of the same species hears the call, he may freak out over not being able to find the other male in his territory. He may leave. For indoor use only. All About Birds (Cornell Labs of Ornithology) -- I've had good luck with this website. Look up the specific bird and listen to the "sound" tab. (Also recommended by 8Fill the Heart). Not asked for, but: Beginning Birdwatcher's Book with 48 Stickers -- the best resource for the beginning bird nerd in your household! Send the following to your local nature center. Maybe they will start this program: Breakfast with the Birds (a program at our local nature center) -- This program is held during migration time in the Spring and Fall. We did a short hike around the nature reserve to the bird blind and back, led by our favorite bird nerd Naturalist. (Our bird blind was built years ago as an Eagle Scout project). Binoculars were provided for anyone who didn't have them. The Naturalist enlisted the help of two other experienced bird watchers. We returned to the nature center to eat breakfast (scrambled eggs, bagels, fruit) with the Nature Center's bird feeders right outside the windows! 32 different species were identified that morning. Warning: Dress WARMLY for that hour of the morning!

We are not very far. We have just finished 1st Grade, but I am obsessed with good reading skills. Children who read well do better in ALL subjects. My plan is multifaceted for all the aspects of reading, writing, spelling, comprehension, grammar, etc. Some were listed in my original post. Consider if a 4th Grader is reading at a 2nd Grade level. Yes, they will get a poor grade in 4th Grade Reading Class, but also, their Science and History (Social Studies) reading will also be on a 4th Grade level. And is it possible to write at a higher level than you read (write at a 4th Grade level if you only read at a 2nd Grade level)? ---------------------------------------------------------- A reading specialist was once asked, "What is the best reading program for teaching kids to read?" Answer: "The third one." Learning to read is complicated. Yes, there are kids that learn to read at age two, but for most of us, it is years of daily study, review, and practice to learn to read well. When children are learning, it is the rare child that can learn things after being told it only once (unless it is disseminated by the Kratt Brothers :) ) ---------------------------------------------- Our plan since 100 Easy Lessons: 1) Saxon Phonics K, 1, & 2 -- A lot of K was skipped because dd was already comfortable with letters & sounds and some basic reading. I've also used Abeka (with other peoples' kids), and they have an excellent program. However, there are many good Phonics programs out there. Find the best fit for you as the mom/teacher and your kids. 2) Logic of English Essentials -- I have not purchased this yet, but it is what I like the best so far. 3) Also, check out lewelma's posts about training kids to read college textbooks (over several years). Post #1 is an overview; post #7 is a sample sequence. The thread is "Developing Advanced Reading Skills." I can only hope to be as wise as she someday. ETA: to fix embarrassing bad grammar

I don't know what my friend used. I do know that my friend has either worked at or owned a small private bookstore for most of the time that I have known her, which makes it very unnerving. However, there may be an issue with dyslexia going on. The good news is that the school approved intervention with the reading specialist. The bad news is that this was assigned for during the child's math class. So at the semester break, the teacher shared with my friend that her formerly "strong in math" daughter was falling behind in math. *needing a facepalm smiley*

We used 100 Easy Lessons. It is adequate, but was tough to push ahead at times. Don't feel as if you have to follow the script. Do what works for you. Once we got past 50 or 60 lessons, we restarted the book. We also use/used: --PAL Phonics (NOT from IEW, but an old book a schoolteacher friend gave to me years ago) before 100 Easy Lessons --Saxon Phonics K and 1 after 100 Easy Lessons. We will do Saxon Phonics 2 next year. --ETC series, and even the 1/2 books for extra practice. --Bob Books and Sight Word Readers: I would put a post-it in the back with this list: 1) Mom 2) Dad 3) Baby Sister 4) Cat 5) Other (friend, grandpa, etc) She would read the book to a different person each day, and I would check it off. She earned 25c for each book she completed. By the time she read the same book 5X on 5 different days to 5 different people, she knew the vocabulary well. Dd is now 7, and she reads graphic novels voraciously. Anything we read together as shared reading, she does quite well IMO, and I am curious what "Reading Level" (the alphabet system) she is. However, a friend's daughter returned to public school this year, and she is waaaaaaaaaay behind in reading. :( I don't want to be blind if my daughter is behind in a key skill like reading.

For whatever reason, she needs you. I remember this period with older dd. 1) I offered "alphabet breastmilk" (nursing through alphabet song) or "counting breastmilk" (nursing to the count of 100). The child chooses. I think that she also had to tell me what else she was going to do after the breastmilk, too, but your little one may be too young to verbalize that. (dd was 2.5 or 3) 2) For dd, she mostly needed to know that I loved her. Alphabet breastmilk would only go to letter G before she got down to play again. For whatever reason, she needed that reassurance. 3) Is your dd hungry? At that age, I just left food out nearly all the time on the little table. Pretzel stick and hummus or goldfish crackers or thin apple slices. Whatever we had in the house. 4) Allergies? Some essays I have read about nursing and allergies talk about kids naturally avoiding food that they are allergic to, and filling up on breastmilk. Every month they avoid the specific food gives them a better chance to outgrow the allergy. 5) Hypoglycemia? One LLL leader talked about one of her kids nursing and nursing and nursing and nursing. When her dd was 15, she was diagnosed as "hypoglycemic," and the doctor told her that she should have a little something to eat every few hours.

When older dd was an infant, I remember attending a LLL meeting. A friend of mine was nursing her 4yo. I remember thinking that I would NEVER do that! Well....I guess now I need to say, "I WIN!!!" Older dd is 7, and she still sometimes nurses when she is upset. Tonight she didn't though. Younger dd is 3.5, and nurses 4+X/day. 1) I can't think of any books that haven't already been recommended. Adventures in Tandem Nursing, but I don't remember it being very meaty. See if your library has a copy. 2) Your son may be just nursing on his own nursing pattern and needing a little more from you. 3) For me, my nipples were sore, but Week 28 will forever live in infamy (for me) as the worst week. I warned older dd that we WOULD wean if there was any biting or excessive sucking. She complied. Apparently, (for me) Week 28 was when my milk "came in." This was also reflected in older dd (age 3.5 and potty trained but using the little potty) having softer bowel movements with an increase of breastmilk in her diet. It is nice to take a little nap while the older one is breastfeeding. 4) Older dd picked one side to nurse on. The baby can nurse on both sides. Even now, younger dd will "scoop" her sister and demand to nurse on both sides just before older sister gets a turn. Good for her! 5) Older dd had no interest in weaning. Loverboy and I joke that it is her "morning coffee," as she is a bear without it. I've been giving her the choice of tv in the morning, and she has finally started choosing tv over morning nursing. We tell others that we plan to wean her the summer before she leaves for college. -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am so glad that we tandem nursed, and that I nursed through pregnancy. Younger dd did not gain weight in the hospital. (This cannot be blamed on older sister because I didn't nurse older sister while we were in the hospital). My nipples were flattened, and I needed a breast shield to help nurse, but we didn't know that at the time. It took a few weeks to figure that out. Little baby was on formula to supplement nursing and pumped bottles for those few weeks. Once the lactation consultant learned that I was continuing to nurse older sister, she reassured us that we had all the time in the world to solve this problem. Even if it took 6 months, because I was tandem nursing, we could give little sister all the time in the world she needed to learn to nurse.

Here are the rules for meeting people you met on the internet: 1) Meet somewhere public, preferably with a lot of cameras. I'm not a gambler, but the casinos a half-an-hour away are a GREAT place to meet people. There are cameras EVERYWHERE. Plus, you can get a gauge on whether the person may have gambling or drinking issues. Okay...we may be too late for that in the OP's case. 2) Have a regular "safety call." Whether you are meeting someone for a date or flying to Texas for a weekend (I've done both), set up a "safety call" with a friend/trusted family member. On date nights, I would call my pre-arranged friend at 10pm, and when I was home with the door locked for the night. "Hi, I'm just calling to check in because it's 10pm." If I don't call, then the friend knows to call 911. They have all of the contact info for the guy. I'd rather be embarrassed than dead. Whenever I traveled to meet people, or had people come to stay with me, I would call twice a day: 9am and 9pm. If we had plans that would interfere with this time of call (like going to the movies), then I would call my safety person before and after, or arrange earlier in the day for a later check in. 3) Have a PANIC WORD for your safety call. This is something that you wouldn't usually say, but that will tell your Safety Person to call 911 immediately. For example, if you Panic Word is "Dynamic," then if you say, "Hi, I'm calling to check in. We had a great day; it was really dynamic!" then your Safety Person will call 911 immediately. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Meeting someone often takes the bloom off the rose. If he has the time to call and talk to her 5X/day, what else is he doing with his time? I don't have time to talk to someone 5X/day. Can he be charming 24/7? The reality of long distance relationships is that there can be a lot of deception through omission. For example, if I got my 3rd drunk driving conviction, and I live out of state: 1) "No, I have no trouble with alcohol at all. I've never had a ticket." --outright lying 2) not saying anything about it --lying by omission 3 ) "I'm trying to be more green by taking the bus." --putting a bloom on the rose 4) "I got a ticket. That's never happened to me before." --more honest, but not very honest 5) "I got my third drunk driving ticket, and I lost my license." --honest. A flawed person... but at least honest. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- A little premature, but...... If she marries this guy: 1) You kids get to walk through the house and take WHATEVER you want to remember your dad by before he moves in. My grandfather remarried less than a year after my grandma moved in. My mom and my aunt cleaned out the cabinets of the heirloom family china and grandma's tablecloths and hid them in my aunt's trunk in her old room. They figured that the new wife would have dishes and tablecloths of her own. My mother has declared that if she goes before my dad, we can walk through the house and take whatever we want to remember her if my dad remarries. If we want to take jewelry from her jewelry box, pictures from the walls, pieces of furniture, dishes from the cupboard, whatever. The new addition to the family will have her own stuff to add to the household. 2) Prenup Prenup Prenup This separates assets and security earned over a lifetime with a former partner from someone that you may or may not live happily ever after. 3) A well written will. Or, consider this completely innocent scenario: Grandpa dies. New wife lives in the house for another ten years before dying. Who cleans out the house? Do you bustle over there to claim the family heirlooms? That would be tacky. So, her family goes to clean out the house. Not knowing the sentimental value of some items for your family, they claim items for themselves, and send the rest to the antique dealer for a profit for them. After all, their mother had lived in that house for 20 years. How are they to know what was hers, and what was your family's? There is no way they would know. A well written will establishes what goes to whom at the parent's death, and at the new spouse's death. It is not hard for a sentient parent to ask each adult child, "What do you want?"

I have been following this topic since the mid-80s. In high school, I would speak on this topic occasionally through our local extemporaneous (news-oriented topic) speaking for Speech Club. As an adult, much of my life has been enrolled in working with and educating others (as a nanny, school volunteer, babysitter, school employee, college tutor, parent, etc). Things I know: 1) We are living in a renaissance of school choice, and that is a good thing. Whatever else you read that follows, know that I believe that experimentation in the school system is a GOOD thing if done statistically, and not for an ideological or greed model. How do we know that the current model is the best if we don't try new things to confirm or challenge it? In the three decades that I have followed this topic, I have gone back and forth and back and forth and back and forth on school vouchers. I don't want to tell a parent of a student at a failing school that their children are doomed to stay there. I am in favor of vouchers/charter/magnet schools IF a) Vouchers may only be used at accredited schools. b ) Vouchers may only be used at nonprofit schools; for-profit schools are addressed below. c) Any school accepting public dollars CAN and WILL be audited. If we are giving you PUBLIC dollars to educate our community and our country's children, then, yes, you need to let us make sure you are doing that acceptably well. =========================================================== 2) It is not profitable to me personally to educate someone else's kids. This is why we do this as a society. It profits society greatly! We see the for-profit model in higher education with the explosion of "for profit" colleges with shareholders. a) Locally (Iowa), twice as expensive as community college. b ) Not a single class is transferable to another college. c) "Professors" do not have much more education than their students. d) After graduation, if you want to take a new class from this school to update your skills, you must start again from the beginning of their program. e) Job placement program is horrible compared to what they sell them as. Private companies started out teaching "low income" children, but now they have started excluding as many poor children as they can. Where do you think this trend will end? Do we really want to go to this model for public school children? ======================================================= 3) Private entities running public school charters have not been found to be much more effective than their public school counterparts. Example: Rocket Schools. They are doing some very exciting things at Rocket Schools! I am sincerely excited!!! but they have not yet broken the barrier of significantly doing better at assessments than public schools. Ultimately, "There is no substitute for a having a quality educator spend time with your children." ========================================================== 4) Teacher education/certification Education for teachers (college classes) is necessary, but it is just the first step of training a teacher. Good teachers speak of their time as student teacher or of principals who mentored them in their first years. Consider a physician. They receive college and medical school training, but their ultimate training is "on-the-job" in the years of internment and residency. Would you contract a carpenter that had only a classroom degree and some class projects to build your house? Or do you want the person that has been working at his Uncle's construction company since he was 14? Perhaps you prefer the one who has been a carpenter for 30 years. One pilot program puts young teachers through a two-year "internship." They are responsible for a classroom, but their rooms are wired for sound and video. The principal/mentor can check in on them at any time, and if something needs to be addressed, the principal telephones or visits the room IMMEDIATELY. Not everyone is meant to be a teacher. I could be the smartest person in the class. I could have straight A's in my subject matter and in my education classes, but I may not have "IT." IT is the ability to keep the attention of 30 Third Graders AND to keep them on task AND to teach them something. Supposedly, some people have "IT," and some people don't. Can IT be taught? I don't know. Example: A schoolteacher friend of mine spoke of her student teacher. He was near the end of his time with her. He had taught a lesson the day before, and he taught on stuff that wasn't even the lesson. :glare: He may be smart. He may be well intentioned. He is NOT ready to be a teacher, and her evaluation of him reflected that. ========================================================= 5) For teachers, experience matters. I had an EXCELLENT public school education in Iowa in the 70s and 80s, exceeding what some post-graduation Boston-area friends had covered and mastered in Massachusetts private ("Harvard comes to my school to recruit") schools. Consider my elementary teachers: K: in her 50s. 1st: retired at the end of the year 2nd: retired at the end of the year 3rd: early 30s, but had a math teacher that retired at the end of the year 4th: retired at the end of the year 5th: in her 50s I am humbled at the privilege of these very experienced teachers who each devoted a year of their lives and their skills to give me such a good start in life. Right now, you are wondering, "What is so destructive about Duckens that 3 of her 6 homeroom teachers had to retire once they had her as a student???" Experience matters. Most inner city (failing) schools have a turnover of new teachers every 2-5 years. If we eliminate tenure, what will happen to experienced teachers that are also more expensive? We know what happens, from the time before tenure. Expensive employees are let go. =============================================================== 6) Why are our schools failing? It's not just schools that are failing; it's society. The number one indicator of student success in school is parental income. We can fix the schools, and we certainly should do what we can, but it will be hard to make progress until we fix the rest of society, too. Consider a house. I have a hole in the roof, so I get it fixed. I hire the best contractor, and the best materials are used. And yet my house still has water flowing in. What is the problem??? The problem is the broken windows and the door ripped off the hinges. I don't really have to fix those, do I? I fixed the roof. I don't understand why everything isn't happy happy joy joy now. *blank look* 25% of American children now grow up in poverty. Until our society chooses to work on the problems related to poverty, the schools will not get better. Sources: College, Inc (documentary), Bill Moyer's interview of Diane Ravitch, PBS Newshour, Newsweek, etc. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- 7) Is Homeschooling the ultimate privatization? No, because I am certainly NOT making a profit doing this. Is anyone else making a profit homeschooling? Am I doing this wrong? And, as a flaming liberal, I don't feel bad for not sending my kids to good or bad schools. My job is to ensure that my children can be functional adults when they grow up: socially, emotionally, and, yes, intellectually/educationally. My job is to make sure that they are ready for "the next step."

Dd is 7, and she has been taking piano lessons for ~3 years (summers off). 1) Is practice time too long? When dd started, we only practiced 10 minutes/day. I am present for practice. Now she practices for 30 minutes, but this has been a gradual increase over those three years. 2)Pay your child. His/her time is valuable, and this is a skill that is important to YOU. We started out with 25c/10 minute practice session. Since she now practices 30 minutes/day, she earns 30c/session. If one is paying $12+ for each weekly lesson, paying an extra $1.75/week is a small price to pay to get the most out of that time with the teacher. Dd also gets paid a bonus for "number of days in a row practiced." She colors in a calendar square each day she practices for easy record keeping. When she practices for 10 days in a row, she gets a $1 bonus. 20 days in a row earns $2. 30 days in a row earns $3...... The most that dd7 has earned under this bonus is for 40 days. Her piano abilities skyrocketed in this time period! She mentioned recently that she earned $4 for those 40 days, but I clarified that she earned $1 + $2 + $3 + $4 = $10. Is $10 (over more than a month) a fair price for huge advances in musical skill plus reduced nagging? And if dd doesn't have enough money for something she wants to buy...well, that's not my problem. Go practice! Disclaimer: If you choose to go this route, warn your children that this will be a TRIAL BASIS, and rates or payments may not be continued indefinitely, dependent upon whether this policy fits for your family. 3) Be present for daily practice. Play games. During practice time, we don't just play current songs, but we play past songs. The more songs dd learns, I arrange them in a grid for which old songs to play today. We do a column of all of her old songs each day if time allows. They make a good warm-up, expand her repertoire, and allow for deeper teaching of musical theory. For new songs, we learn one section at a time by playing it the same number of times as dd's age. Then dd plays it as well as she can (possibly, the next day). Then we play Dice of Doom. This must be said in a doom-like voice: Dice. Of. Doooooooooom! Supplies: 1 die and a little cup to roll it in. Theory: most beginner songs can be broken down into 4 parts/staves. If you roll: 1: play the first section 2: play the second section 3: play the third section 4: play the fourth section 5: play the whole song 6: You are done practicing this song for the day. The student has "escaped" from the Dice of Doom. Move on to the next song to practice. We usually do 5 rounds in practice, with 5 opportunities to "escape" this song. I also take a minute to play the next song or two in the book before dd gets to it. It is helpful to her to play it if she has the tune in her head already. 4) Should your child do something different artistically? Dance? Ballroom, ballet, jazz? Painting, drawing, sculpture? Not everyone is meant to be a musician.

Typing: DanceMat advantages: free, kids love it, animation or songs at the end of each goal disadvantages: you have to keep track of where you are from one day to the next; there is no sign in. review: After Mavis Beacon left her in tears, our child thrived with this program. Dd7 has now graduated to Mavis, and she can type faster than 12wpm! Geography: Top Secret Adventures advantages: dd7's favorite subject. I think that we purchased it through Homeschool Buyer's Coop, so we got a deal on it. disadvantages: I do a lot of the reading (or share the reading) with dd for this curriculum. The reference book doesn't always have good pictures to display what is in the text, so we supplement with books from our library or photos from the internet. You would need to buy one kit for each child, as resources are not shared well. review: Any subject your child begs to do is a good subject. Dd is gaining a world perspective as she solves puzzles and learns how to reason deductively. The curriculum is self-contained modules, so whenever we complete a country, i send dd over to the box to pick out another envelope that interests her. This would be a very easy curriculum to do episodically (half this summer, half next summer. Geography supplement: Map of the Whole World ebooks by Siddhartha Sinha advantages: Even I can draw these! Ridiculously affordable disadvantages: It takes time to learn to draw review: Drawing something from memory means that you know it REALLY well. It is a thrill to see my dd7 draw a map of Australia, and add (and identify) Papua New Guinea, Tasmania, the Tasman Sea, New Zealand, and Stewart Island! We are also inspired by Blob Geography. Geography supplement: Sheppard Software Geography advantage: free, effective disadvantage: takes time review: The last 10 minutes of every geography lesson are spent on Sheppard Software Geography. We do whichever continent our current country is on. However, this software only teaches facts (country location, capitals). For long-term memory, dd will need to specifically recall something about that country (like "the Wall" in Berlin, or flightless Kakapo parrots in New Zealand) that our primary Geography program teaches.

1) As others have said, it's okay to change curriculum. 2) It's okay to start (and pay for) just a few subjects (math, reading/phonics, writing...or science, science, and science if you are in our household), and add subjects one at a time every month or so until you feel your schedule is where you want to be. As a wise, experienced homeschooler told me, "We're homeschoolers. We're always adding and removing stuff!"

It's probably too late for this class, but the next round of class(es), the parents/children may need to sign a contract. Last year (when dd was 6), she needed to sign a contract to be able to attend Engineering Camp. (The contract came in all of the standard release papers that parents sign for the activity). If any piece of paperwork was missing at the beginning of class the first day, she would not be allowed to participate. The contract included things like not interrupting, not being disruptive of others, not running off, and helping to clean up. Being specific is key here: no food, respect for others, helping to clean up AT LEAST one's own mess. If there is a sign-up sheet for parents to help, that needs to be available to catch parents the first day of class. Have parents sign their name and phone number, so if someone needs to switch days later, they can reach people to trade. Make copies of the sign-up sheet for everyone to have a copy by the beginning of the second class.

When Marion Sang The Hallelujah Flight Molly Bannaky Amos Fortune, Free Man Sounder

Math: Saxon 3 Phonics: Saxon 2 Writing: Finish IEW PAL Writing, begin the next step in IEW History: History Odyssey Middle Ages Science: Real Science Odyssey (Earth & Space), Constellations Activity Book, and possibly an Usborne-based curriculum centered on Space, and playing rock bingo Geography: Top Secret Adventures supplemented by the library, Map of the Whole World (to draw the world) Spanish: Flip-Flop Spanish (book 2), supplemented with games French: Flip-Flop French (book 1) Chinese: through local Chinese school, or Better Chinese on our own Latin: Song School Latin, Minimus Music: Piano Art Appreciation: art cards from Usborne; supplemented by public library Art: Home Art Studio, Usborne What Shall I Draw? Gym: Swim & Gym at the local university Computer: Windows 8 for Dummies; Microsoft Office for Dummies

1) Math-U-See: Steve Demme's demonstration of Place Value is the most brilliant I've ever seen. It's even better on the DVD. 2) I've had good luck using: whiteboard whiteboard markers of several colors 10-sided dice of colors similar to the markers I draw space of each marker. Start with just hundreds (H), tens (T), and Units/Ones (U). If you have to, put an H, T, and U under each line. We roll the three dice, and put the number into the slot of the corresponding slot. Say the number together. 3 Hundred 6T 4. (6T = 60)

bubbles binoculars (dd7 is a bird nerd), Loverboy says we can get two sets for ~$50 from Walmart. I'm putting him in charge of this. small aquariums (1 gallon) to collect summer specimens of praying mantises, frogs, etc bugs and fish for pets (goldfish, and these blue death beetles)

There are many basic beginner Spanish programs. We have used Flip Flop Spanish this year. It has been a good fit for us. However, whatever curriculum/workbook you choose to go with, I recommend some game suggestions. Sometimes the 3yo joins us for the games. 1) Colors: Make flashcards to match with the colors. One set will be black, and the other will be written in the specific color. Lay them all out face up and have your child match them. Example: rojo, azul, amarillo, verde, rojo, azul, amarillo, verde. 2) How are you? Make faces on index cards to represent different moods. Tape them to popsicle sticks to make puppets. We have fine, sad, happy, bored, angry, okay, tired, and sad. My daughter goes first. She asks me, "Como estas?" I answer, "Estoy _______." I ask her to think in her head what the answer is before I answer. Then I go through the cards with her. We adjust the words because we are female (feminine form). 3) Opposites Cards with opposites: big, small, tall, short, young, old, fat, thin. Easy matching game. Sometimes we play charades with these. 4) Other adjectives Use a different color to make these cards. They can be mixed with the cards from #3 for other activities. intelligent, pretty, handsome, blond, brunette, serious, funny, fun, silly, etc. Used with "Soy." 5) Little bag of animals. Put 6-10 little plastic animals in a bag or hat. Take turns picking them out. Learn the word, "Tengo" (I have). If you don't know the Spanish word for these animals, you have two choices: a) Just count them as masculine, and use the English word. Tengo un giraffe. Tengo un crocodile. or b ) Look it up. We use the Usborne Children's Spanish Dictionary, but I have also used the internet. Search, "Spanish for giraffe." Tengo una jirafa. Tengo un cocodrilo. Variation: Use the colors and/or the adjective words to describe your animals. Tengo una jirafa rosa. (I have a pink giraffe). Tengo un cocodrilo viejo y anaranjado. (I have an old, orange crocodile.) 6) Dice We use multi-sided dice to reinforce numbers. I started with a 10-sided die. We have moved up to a 12-sided die. Eventually we will use a 20-sided die. Simply roll the die and say the number. You will learn quickly that being able to count to 10 is not the same thing as identifying 8 as ocho. This is a good game for when there are just 1-2 minutes left of Spanish time. 7) Raid the food from the play kitchen. Put all the food in a pillowcase. Take turns picking a piece of food out and offering it to one another. "Te gusta unas manzanas?" (Do you like apples?) The other player answers: "Si, me gusta unas manzanas!" or "No, no me gusta unas manzanas!" As with the animal game, if you don't know the Spanish word, either look it up or just use the English word. 8) Family Names Make flashcards to represent the family names. You could use: --photos from your own family --a favorite tv show that has all of the main family members We used Phineas and Ferb. We have cards for brother, sister, mother, father, grandfather, grandmother, aunt, uncle, cousin (female), cousin (male), friend (male), friend (female). Wordgirl would also have been a good tv choice for making these flashcards. 9) We also watch "Salsa" (from Georgia Public Broadcasting) online. There is also "Oh, Noah" that is free on PBS. 10) Scavenger Hunt We have not done this for Spanish yet; just for French. Use words/flashcards for household items. Either say the word or give the child the flashcard to find it in the house. la cama (bed) la mesa (table) el gato (hopefully the cat won't be hiding!) 11) Simon Says/Body Parts Another game we have not done yet, but we will do it soon. Simon says, "Close your ojos." (Close your eyes.) Simon says, "Point to your oreja." (Point to your ear). Simon says, "Wiggle your foot." (Wiggle your pie). ****REMEMBER TO HAVE YOUR CHILD SPEAK ALL WORDS ALOUD, when writing or when receiving instructions from you. The part of the brain that hears/recognizes words is separate from the part of the brain that speaks words. We want to link those two; otherwise your child could put in five years of Spanish, and not be able to speak a word.*****

Disclaimer: I haven't actually done this yet. We're at the same place. Dd will complete Saxon Phonics 2 next year. After that, I am considering: 1) For Grammar and stuff: Logic of English (Essentials) -- I haven't dropped money on this yet, but I am leaning this way. I expect it will take us more than a year to explore. I'm not crazy about the spelling lists in the book, so we may go with All About Spelling or Sequential Spelling to teach this. 2) For Writing: IEW (Institute of Excellence in Writing) -- We are working on the PAL Writing program, and it is a good fit for us. Whenever PAL Writing is completed (possibly next autumn), we will move on to the next level of the IEW writing programs. 3) For Reading (and discussion): Caldecott winners (and other award winning books, such as Zolotow or Iowa's Goldfinch nominees). We will continue to read, discuss, and dissect the parts of a story according to IEW's PAL curriculum. --main characters --setting --problem or surprise --resolution (climax) --what happened after? As dd approaches 5th/6th grade, we will transition to Newbery Award books.

I want a "Magic Finder Thingy." Today I found dd's old Spanish workbook (lost since Christmas) and the Science book for "support reading." Now if I could only find the Harry Learns French book. It was on the brown table......

Get a TIVO. I love ours so much, I almost named our second child Tivo! You don't need cable or satellite tv for it. We save all of the PBS shows for the kids so they can watch them as they earn them (by doing schoolwork). They know the tv can be turned off at any time if something else needs to be done. Cost: ~$200 + $15/month. Worth. Every. Penny.

We like Dragon Slayer's Academy. Dd is 7.

--If you want admittance to a selective college or program, the best thing you can do is academics. Most scholarships are for academics, and they are scholarships that encourage your student to STUDY in college, rather than invest hours of their daily college time on a playing field (for example, a sports scholarship) or practicing and traveling for a musical scholarship. Unless your child is genuinely interested in Robotics, I've found that "skill-selective" scholarships to be quite competitive. --Loverboy's father was RELIEVED when Loverboy's brother (ranked 2nd in the state for soccer) DID NOT get a Soccer scholarship to the college of his choice. This is a family where nearly everyone has a graduate degree. --However, if my child had a special talent in a specific skill (gymnastics, chess, robotics, whatever), I would move heaven and earth to give her the opportunity to take her skill as far as it can go. A scholarship would be a nice side-effect, but not the primary

You do not need to answer these here. Just questions for thought. 1) How big is your house? Do you have room to store 6+ years of homeschool stuff? 2) How big is your homeschool stash? A box full? A room full? 4 bins in the garage? What amount of "stash" sounds reasonable? 3) If I sold/gave away {this curriculum} could I find it again if I needed it? Small companies go under. Or you forget the name, and no one on the Hive knows what you are talking about. However, I would always expect to find Saxon, Abeka, Sonlight, My Father's World....unless they discontinued the program I liked. 4) If I stored it for 6 years, could I find it again if I needed it? This question is related to "How big is your homeschooling stash?" 5) If older sibling liked this curriculum, how sure am I that younger sibling will like it? (or does the parent make the decision based on what she likes and feels teaches what is necessary?) If older sibling hated this curriculum, how sure are you that younger sibling won't hate it? You really don't know. For example, I gave away all of my MUS stuff. For a number of reasons, I have decided to go with Saxon. It has worked for older sister, and it should work for younger sister adequately. This is a parental decision in our household.