Two of mine for glasses before they turned 1. Older had a bit of patching, we got a cute patch that fit over his glasses. Those two both have bifocals. As people age (7-12ish), they tend to get more near-sighted, and we've seen prescription strength step down along with that. Glasses have turned out to be no big deal. Definitely good to catch it early! ETA: our ophthalmologist said it runs strongly in siblings, so he would occasionally do a quick check of ds's twin, and sure enough, at 4 she needed glasses. Not as strong a prescription.

I love all your 5th graders! My kids all read or play together when they have free time.

I didn't see an option for "Eh??"

Bedtime Math used to have, and may still have, a free daily email that was nice. I think the book is a compendium of those problems. MEP is free and online, so with a bit of work on your part you could use that as a free resource for picking problems to work with your dd. The program is found at the "Centre for Innovation in Mathematics Teaching" Click on Reception or Year 1 and then open the Lesson Plans and skim through those until you find something of interest. The top of each lesson will indicate R for the topics being reviewed, C for the topics focused on in this lesson, and E for extension problems - harder or upcoming topics.

I started one with my kids at that age. It is a big, long, laminated sheet and we stick on colorful cards with a picture on them. We do this every five chapters or so. It is great for review that way! I love it. However, having done this with my olders and now starting with my younger, I don't think the timeline itself gives any specific long term benefit. If I hung it on the wall it might, but I don't have a good place for that, so it gets put away in between sessions. We will continue to do it because 1) I like the review prompts, 2) I have all the things we need having done this previously, 3) it slows us down a bit which keeps from becoming a headlong rush, 4) my olders join in on the discussion and so there is more review.

Rebel Yell has a great list! If you want to make the gathering more exciting you could include: Always returns shopping cart to the cat corral Or Is always mentally correcting your grammar mistakes Or Believes the container is part of the gift But obviously I hang out on the board a lot.

we try to spend 15 minutes a day, 5 days a week. One thing that helps here is doing different things most days. Salsa one day, Tin Man Press worksheets another day (highly recommend these), she does a phonics lesson and then I read to her, we study a page of the picture dictionary and discuss it, etc. It doesn't have to be high quality every day, exposure is good! Find something easy to add on the harder days - videos, or passive read aloud. When I'm really gung-ho we can modify a game like Who Is It? or Headbandz (shudder) and do it in Spanish. I haven't been that gung-ho this semester!

I have twins, it's all good. We would just go back and forth on comprehension questions and alternate turns narrating. They've done those programs all the way through. At some point we switched and did the narrations alternating with the other person's piano practice. For the record, we never used the lined paper provided, we just use our own paper. I picked the reading selections for WWE year 1, and quickly decided that was not a good use of my time! FLL is so scripted, I wonder if you could have the olders take turns teaching the youngers...

It is my understanding that Sr. Gamache's class is not secular. Is that your experience? I like the price better, but the last description I read about the religious content was over my comfort level. Curious to hear your thoughts.

It sounds logical to me to point those things out. I have to remind people of things like that so many times I would assume they forgot, or weren't paying attention. It isn't controlling, it is logic. I would expect Person A to be annoyed, though, because nobody likes to feel "corrected", but they should get over it after a few minutes of being left alone. Separately, Person B should be annoyed that Person A thinks of loading the dishwasher as "doing someone a favor". I bet Person A buys or will buy people small appliances for their birthday. As a favor.

Mondays have this potential for me, but it will still be a few hours before we (possibly) get to the love stage. I have to clean off the counters of weekend evidence before I really feel the love.

I made a rotating list of chores in excel so there is some variety in chores over a six week rotation. The part that is pertinent to you, though, is really that before screen-time, they come tell me what they have done (school, chores, piano) and their plan for any outstanding responsibilities. Also, I have very little patience for complaints. First I get on my soap box about how I don't want to do chores either, then I talk about how little time the chores should take, then I have them help me think of ideas to avoid my having to hear whining in the future. These ideas usually include appealing options like doing different work for a while so I have time to do their chore or they can preemptively do a week's worth of chores on the weekend, or some such. Essentially, if you want a change quit whining and present me with a plan. Ooh, just the thought of whining on a Monday morning, grrrrr.

I am no expert, and we are struggling with some of those issues here, also. That said, I feel like addressing 1) will also address 2), with a bit of a lag. Can you focus on just a few aspects of his handwriting? For instance, I would start with making "l" the correct height, and leaving space between words. I would have him write something everyday and re-read it, then the next day re-read it again. You may need to offer specific guidance on what to look for when he re-reads, e.g. capitalization rules. For handwriting remediation I am planning to start my ds on Getty-Dubay book D. For self-editing you might look at the Editor-in-Chief books from Critical Thinking Press.

Is there a show you can see live? What has worked for us (slightly younger students) is this: I find a live show, either high school or university production in our neighborhood. The first thing we do is go through the shortest version I can find so everyone is familiar with the general story. Sometimes they make popsicle stick puppets which get a surprising amount of casual use. About two weeks before the live production they start reading selections of the Lamb book and writing summaries. On alternate days they look up vocabulary words and copy and discuss famous sayings from the play. I have a copy of Asimov's Guide to Shakespeare which I read through for interesting bits to share/discuss/explain while they are working. The weekend before the live production which watch a video version that we can discuss or pause as needed. We have done the of the comedies this way over the last 9 months. My long term goal at this point is just general familiarity with the plotlines.

The beta version of the now indefinitely suspended ALL (Peace Hill Press) has that in week 13 or so, if you just want to fill that gap. I got a hold of it by emailing a request. So free, but beta.

I've used those wire hooks with much success. There is a small hole, but very small. They say you can push it through drywall, but I usually drill a small hole first to cut down on the anger and cursing. I've had decent luck with command strips except I have trouble getting the adhesive off the wall successfully. It takes a patient touch and you should read the directions, and I don't excel at either of those.

She was wrong, and I bet the person you had to deal with at the post office was wrong, too!

Dave Barry? You might try Mary Roach's books. They are funny non-fiction books. David Sedaris is funny, but you may want to preview first. He tells his story about being a department store Christmas Elf on one of the old This American Life podcasts.

I shouted at kagi in the last few weeks, so far no issues. My sympathies, though, that is annoying and awkward to deal with.

Thank you and congratulations!

I'm glad to read your well-written vent because I have such a tendency to do this to myself! "I dislike the bowl Mary gave me, but it was a gift, so I guess I need to keep it and display it forever." Mary doesn't care, why do I attach all this baggage? I don't expect the same in return! Argh.

Glad you arrived safely. Take care.

Susan Wise Bauer recommends not starting WWS until your student can comfortably write a paragraph. If you all have not done WWE before, I recommend doing WWE3 and also working on writing paragraphs comfortably. If that goes well, skip WWE4 and move into WWS.

BFSU doors not meet all your requirements, it is not open and go. However, you could conceivably use the same base lessons for everyone for most of next year. If you are planning to spend some of the simmer doing prep *and you are interested*, you could probably get it together. I would buy at least the first two books ($20 each). Then I would come up with a list of which lessons you want to do in which order (or use one of the lists from their website). I would aim the lessons for lower elementary. Your youngest could participate in demonstrations and many of the lessons. Your older students could pre-test demos and do additional reading, and perhaps do some of the later lessons on topics you've already covered. It requires more up front work on your part, but everybody is more-or-less together and you decide input and output.

I've seen that occasionally other times of the year. The mailman mentioned to me that sometimes packages need to be signed for, so he does an early round before people go to work, and circles back later if needed. Sadly, none of those packages were for me.