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jar2542

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Everything posted by jar2542

  1. We used Torchlight Level K last year and we loved it. It has an expanded section for older kids with more challenging picture book recommendations. You focus on a new country every week. There is a chapter book that sometimes relates to the country and sometimes does not. I think your older one would enjoy some of the country specific ones but the other ones will be too young. Then you read from an Atlas, Adventure Atlas series, Homes around the world, Stories around the world, people who changed the world, etc. There are also video recommendations mostly from "Are We There Yet" and my kid loved these. Finally, I recipe for each country. There is also an art, science and character section but they typically do not relate to the country. The art uses the Art Lab book which my son enjoyed but he isn;t really into crafts so the process art was right up his alley. Build Your Own library level 0 has more country specific art projects. I purchased both TL and BYL last year and we enjoyed Torchlight more. BYL was mostly shelved but they do use the Children Just Like Me book which is great and we used it too. You don't have to buy a curriculum but TL is pretty cheap and I enjoyed having it all together in one place. I wanted to edited this to add: although the curriculum itself is cheap, purchasing all the book recommendation is pretty expensive. You will need to buy all the spine books but we love them and they will be great references for years to come. Also, alot of the other books are hard to find at the library and I had to utilize thriftbooks quite a bit.
  2. It's more because of my teaching style that I don't feel like it could be our main program. I am a first time homeschooling mom and I just feel like I need more structure in Math as the teacher. I feel a little lost right now but maybe that's because we just started dabbling in it a few weeks ago?
  3. I really like her programs alot. I would suggest buying her physically product though. It cost a fortune for me to print everything and it took a whole day to organize it all. It looks like she uses quality material in her physical products and I think it would have been cheaper overall. There is also a bit of a learning curve to using the program but if you get organized, use a memory board and/or a morning menu, it just takes a few minutes each week to change everything out and then you are ready for the next week. As far as if it is too much, we don't use it in it's entirety. We basically use this program while we are eating breakfast. I put what I want to use from both primer and nature in a morning menu and we read the bible story, the poem, nursery rhyme, fable/fairy tale and look over the artist/composer for the week. Then we are off to do our morning chores and play before we start our school day which mostly just consist of phonic and math for about an hour. We tried using the morning binder stuff but he was too tired of writing by the time we made it to our phonics and math programs so I stopped using that part. I read over the manner of the week but we don't typically read from everyday graces because my son did not enjoy it. We also don't read the fairy tale/fable everyday, probably just 2-3 times a week. On Fridays, I cut out everything from our storyboard and we act out the story., my son really enjoys this. On Tuesdays, we do the art project that she recommends which is usually very simple. She has a math suggestion but I really just use that as a reference throughout the week. If it is "count to 50" then I just try to make a conscious effort to count to 50 for some reason or another throughout the week. I could probably put something together myself that has the components I use from the program but I like having it all laid out for me each week. I also like having the artist works printed and her story boards. We also use her nature program which I really like a lot. Again, we don't use every component of it. I don't make him do the copywork but we do the unit projects, use her suggested readings, read the nature nuggets/creature corners and use the memory statements/spanish vocab cards. The nature readings are usually bedtime stories for us just a couple days a week. Nature nuggets and memory statements/spanish vocab are part of breakfast and then we do the outside exploration in the afternoons a couple days a week. This part doesn't feel like school to him at all. It seems like a lot but it really doesn't take much time because we spread it out throughout the day. He is my only child though so I realize I have more time than alot of other moms.
  4. My son is turning 5 late this summer and could technically go into Kindergarten. A lot of his work will be K level but we will be calling it PK5. We are currently working through All About Pre-Reading, finished Explode the Code A-C, HWT PK, Singapore KA and went through Torchlight K this year. Morning Time - Gentle+Classical Primer. We started this about a month ago and basically just use this for our nursery rhyme, fairy tale/fable, poetry, and artist/composer study. Math - Probably stay with Singapore KB/1A but I am completely undecided on this. I have also purchased Miquon, MM and printed some MEP. He really like Miquon so who knows what we will end up doing. Probably stay with Singapore mostly and use Miquon/MEP occasionally to mix things up. But, who knows, I might scrap it all and go with RightStart. We are having trouble finding our footing with math. Phonics/Handwriting - AAR 1, HWT, I already have explode the code 1-3 so we will work through those if extra practice is needed and we do Draw Write Now a couple times a month History/Literature/Geography - I really want to do American history this year. He is interested and I think he will love it. I have already purchased playful pioneers and plan on going through this lightly. Mostly just the literature, narration, copywork and related activities/recipes. He really loves being read to so I am also looking into the new Sonlight K Heroes and Happenings or Notgrass Our Star Spangled Story. I would love feedback if anybody has experience with either program. Nature - We are working through Gentle+Classical Nature. I really love this program. We will probably just go back through it using the level 2 books/memory statements once we have completed it the first time. I also enjoy Our Journey Westward: 100 Creative nature walks Science - He gets a lot of science from our nature study and the books we have already. I will probably just get an Usborne science experiment book and work through that and I am thinking about getting LEGO BricQ Motion Essential. He loves building LEGOs. We also have a subscription to Kiwi Crate. Art - We really enjoyed Art Lab for little kids this year. I will probably just buy another one of the lab books and pick an activity to do each week. PE - He plays soccer, t-ball and takes swim lessons We homeschool year-round so we take our time going through things, stringing things out for a couple weeks at a time, choosing the things that interest us and skipping the rest. We read a lot but I don't make him do all the handwriting from everything we use.
  5. This sounds a lot like me. We are using singapore K now and we mostly enjoy it but I also like the idea of more drill that R&S provides. We are also almost done with All About Pre-Reading and Ziggy is a huge hit in our house and I have loved the program but I am also interested in FSR and their philosophy. I have thought about going all in with Memoria Press K but I can't seem to let go of Singapore and AAR. Do you plan to combine the programs in the entirety or use one as a spine and supplement with the other?
  6. Oh, sorry, I didn't understand. He can easily do that for 1-6 and again 9-11 but 6-9 is tricky. I haven't really thought about that until now. This is something I can start working on more consciously. Thank you!
  7. Thank you everybody for such great feedback. It is the Singapore Dimensions program so it does use some manipulatives. I just bought a set of cuisenaire rods that I thought he might enjoying playing with but don't have any plans for them. I use a lot of counters on the 10 frame (he does excellent if I use something like skittles instead). We play games like roll the dice and build blocks/linking cubes and the first one to 30 wins, the memory game with a numeral and a 10 frame card and card games like war and goldfish. These are what he excels at and I would keep using these but it is my first time homeschooling and I need ideas. I can't think of new games to play on my own and I spend too much time googling it. That is why I needed a curriculum. I talked to my husband about it and he thinks I need to just play games with him for a few months and put the workbooks aside. He wants to ensure that I am building a love of learning in our son and he is afraid that I may be hindering that. I agree with him but I am fearful that I am setting a bad precedent at the beginning of our homeschool journey. I don't want our son to think that he can just have a bad attitude and I will ditch the lessons but I think Xahm is correct and I shouldn't expect him to be at his best all the time either. I know I'm not 🙂 We also do All About Pre-Reading which he has no problem sitting down to do. We went through all of Explode the Code A-C and he enjoyed that. He will ask me to write words down on a paper and copies them for fun or he will open a book up and copy a sentence. I have never asked him to do this. He basically taught himself how to write letters although we have had to work on correcting a few. He will sit and build legos while I read books for hours. He is not a bounce off the wall type of kid. He loves to just talk and listen. The struggle has just been trying to find the right math program for him. At this point, I have been talking to my husband about taking the plunge into RightStart. My husband is totally onboard with it but I am still unsure.
  8. Yes, he can count to 50 consistently. I haven't taught him past that, although we sometimes try to count to 100, but he definitely doesn't grasp the concept of "50."
  9. Hi. Thank you very much for your response. He can reliably count things to 20, can recognize and write numbers 1-10 and can easily subitize numbers 1-5. We have really gotten hung up on 6-10. We did Math Lessons for a Living Education K and half of 1 which he flew through before I realized I wanted a more conceptual math program but it definitely seems he is getting hung up on the conceptual part. The thing is, if we play a game that he likes and he is trying to win, he gets it correct 90% of the time so I actually feel like he knows it but just doesn't want to put forth the effort during table time to focus and think about it. He really liked doing his math when we were doing Math Lessons for a Living Education and now he protest math everyday. He is not even 5 yet so maybe he is just not ready to think that way. I don't want to start off his math career with a negative perception so maybe I should just shelf it for a few more months and try again. I appreciate you taking the time to respond and providing some feedback!
  10. We are in the middle of Singapore KA with my almost 5 year old. I like it but I am not sure if I am using it correctly. So my question is, if we get to a lesson that he has not mastered, are we suppose to just park there until he gets it or move on? Does it revisit concepts later? For example, we are on the number 8. If he cannot recognize that 5 dots on top and 3 dots on bottom of the 10-frame is 8, should we just keep playing games and activities until he has mastered it? Thank you!
  11. Hi, can you tell me what is included. None of the pictures are coming up at all.
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