:iagree: I have a really hard time trying not to compare my kids... either to siblings or to some generic idea of a 'standard' first grader or whatever. But the wonderful part of homeschooling is that we can tailor-make our curriculum to fit our own children and their pace.

For my 2nd grader... Grammar? - We're working from a combination of some old teaching materials I have but will be switching to MCT soon. Currently we work 2x/week on grammar Spelling? We're currently using a supplementary book called "Spelling Works" and another text that focuses on spelling rules. We do it 4x/week Vocabulary? (Wordly Wise): We don't do vocabulary as a separate subject... but will start in with MCT I suppose. Writing? (Writing Strands): My daughter has a writing class she attends once/week. When she's older, we'll focus more on this. Cursive? (Handwriting w/o Tears): We use HWOT 5x/week.

:iagree: All you need to do is provide the accessible input and your kids will learn. You'll want lots of repetitive board books and nursery rhymes and songs. Have realistic expectations... the first month, they'll be about as able to communicate as an infant... then a toddler... then they'll start gaining more and more vocabulary. In your shoes, I wouldn't bother with any formal academics for quite a while... They'll be needing to do enough catching up with language and culture and emotional attachments without them (or you) worrying about whether or not they're doing kindergarten or first grade or second grade level work. They'll get there in the end!

I don't think you're crazy to start history, but if your kids are like mine, you'll find it's not very effective. I think few kids at four have an understanding of time or place... If I were you, I might go with a focus on culturally relevant stories rather than history... I started with things like nursery rhymes and poems that most people know and then moved onto fables and then some illustrated versions of stories from the old and new testament, Greek myths, and finally children's versions of epics (Beowulf, Odyssey, Canterbury Tales,...). I just used the local library as my source for everything. Another option that my kids liked was the DK books about "Children just like me"... I think there's one on schools and life and celebrations. It was enough to introduce the idea that there are communities and countries and cultures outside our own. When you do start a more formal history program, you'll be able to refer back to countries or stories or people that your child has learned about and ideally tie it together.

The only manipulatives we use are some cuisenaire rods... I guess also I use money and an old clock that we move around the hands on for telling time. They aren't really specific to MM, I just find them useful to teach concepts. My kindergartner is using Addition 1 and is fine with it. I started her on it in November and she'll finish it in about a week or two. We do one page/day and it takes her about 10-15 minutes. I would have gone with the 1a complete math, but she really wanted *only* addition. She's a very persistent child and I figured if she had the motivation, then I would let her take the lead and give her *only* addition. I'm not sure yet whether we'll be moving to Subtraction 1 or Addition 2a or the complete 1a book...

It's so cool the way reading sometimes just 'clicks' all of a sudden! My older daughter was the same way (still waiting on the younger!)

Isn't a disjoint set just a set theory term? I don't think the LOF author made it up.

I like the National Library of Virtual Manipulatives - http://nlvm.usu.edu/en/nav/vlibrary.html

I know it might seem odd, but I've taught my older daughter how to use the actual IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet) which is used in most dictionaries. She thinks it's cool to know all of the possible sounds of all the languages. I didn't do it as a tool to learning to read though, more just because it's fun... Here's a clickable IPA chart. http://www.phonetics.ucla.edu/course/chapter1/chapter1.html

We used RS4K level 1 with a second grader and it was fine... not super interesting, but we added some Brainpop and Bill Nye. I'd go with level 1 for both of them and then reassess to decide whether you want to do level 2 or not.

I think Math Mammoth does a very good job of mental math techniques from the very start. You might e-mail Maria Miller, the author, and see what she suggests. http://www.mathmammoth.com/add_subtract_3.php

We are Episcopalians and my girls gets some religious education at Sunday school using the awesome "Godly play" program. It's probably not appropriate for home use because of the cost of the materials, but if you ever find a local church using it (usually Episcopalian or Lutheran), take advantage of it! It's really cool. Also, at home, we use the Teacher Created Resources book on World Religions. It's neutral in tone and offers a great overview of the most common religions of the world. It does tell some of the stories and holidays and histories and texts and liturgies and different denominations. It's been a learning experience for me too! http://www.buyteachercreated.com/estore/files/samples/TCR_estore/BTC/0624s.pdf

How is Mathblaster working for you? My daughter had used an ancient version of it once and liked it, so I bought the new one. It was totally different... neither of us were able to effectively get the guy to jump and move around and it ended up being frustrating and more an exercise in video game playing than in math. BUT... we never got past the initial first level. Is there something better once you get past that?

I think 'reading' as a subject isn't necessary once a child knows how to read fluently. There's nothing magical or special about basal readers. All that a reader provides is level appropriate texts and questions to assess (or incite) comprehension and vocabulary. A child who struggles with reading may benefit from a reading program that offers specific strategies for comprehension, but most kids I know are just wasting time with readers.

A lot of public school curriculum have a 2 year world history program in place for 6th and 7th grade. You might want to look at the major publishing houses for ideas - Glencoe, Houghton Mifflin, Holt, etc...

I think fingers are a valid math manipulative... but there comes a time when manipulatives should be set aside because they are cumbersome and inefficient. By 3rd grade level, he should be able to handle addition without finger counting.

My daughter liked timez attack but found it anxiety-inducing. She seemed to forget everything when the clock was on. For her, a combination of Times Tales (from amazon) and "math models" game from multiplication.com was a winner. No stress...

Before this year, I had assumed that all kids who had literate parents or had attended preschool or been exposed to books or programs like Sesame Street or Between the lions or even just Noggin would know their numbers and colors and letters. But... I was totally wrong. In my daughter's public kindergarten class, only about half of the kids could identify letters and numbers (up to 20). It's a relatively wealthy community, though to be fair, the popular pre-school in town is Waldorf, so they were discouraged from watching TV or learning any (pre-) reading skills. Still, it is apparently absolutely possible to have a bright child from an educated family who either isn't ready to learn letters or who was never introduced to the idea.

Uncle! Uncle! I give in. I will order MCT Island level for next school year (or maybe next summer...). I thought I would be happier putting together my own materials. I thought since I'm a linguist by training and an English teacher by profession, I could just pull together my own stuff and it'd be great. But really, MCT just sounds more fun.

I would start the idea of summarizing by choosing a very, very simple story to summarize -- it could even just be a TV program or movie that she recently saw. You might come up with a template to start with... so all your daughter has to do is fill in the blanks. Something like this: In <author>'s <novel/article/story/movie> "___________", [write one sentence about the main character.] [Write one sentence about the biggest problem that the main character faces.] [Write one sentence how the problem was solved.] If you wanted her to summarize an academic text, I would have her read a short passage of a few paragraphs and write one sentence for each paragraph. All she'll need is put a sentence at the beginning and add a few transition phrases.

Among other things, by the end of 2nd grade, my daughter: -knows addition and subtraction facts to 20 -can confidently add and subtract larger numbers -knows multiplication tables through 12 -knows the parts of speech -can write legibly in cursive -can spell the majority of common words -can use subordinating and coordinating conjunctions to make sentences -can pick up and read any text she comes across -knows many of the elements on the periodic table -knows the Greek gods and the stories from the Odyssey -knows about the earliest civilizations, Greece and Rome Of course, she's done a lot more... but these things are all discrete skills and knowledge that I think a good second grade education should particularly include. At this point, we're still working on cursive and multiplication facts and we haven't yet hit Rome, but we're well on our way and I'm positive that she'll be successful.

I really like http://www.buyteachercreated.com/estore/product/0624 for late elementary or middle school aged kids. It's got so many interesting topics and really goes into depth... not just offering a view of different holidays, but about religious texts and history and culture. It even has some primary source material too.

I second Timez Attack! Also try http://www.multiplication.com/interactive_games.htm

Yes and Yes

I've seen a lot of great shows. Most recently, I loved taking my daughter to see Oliver with Rowan Atkinson in London last summer... it was a great show!