It sounds like what you are doing is working for you! You have all the major areas covered. We spend a little longer on school, maybe 3-3.5 hours. Talk about lack of focus, it often takes us more than an hour to do an MEP lesson (I won't go longer than 90 minutes). We may spend more time on writing also. In math my dd has trouble with focus, in writing my ds struggles, how stereotypical of us, eh? In addition to what you have listed we also spend 20-45 minutes a day on Spanish and an hour a week on American History. Neither are things that you must/should be doing now, so hey! you're good!

Here is a post from KristenR about binding her own books - I am hoping to give it a try one of these days...

There have been similar threads to this in the past, you might want to try some searches to see if you can find them. The best way is to use Google search and type something like "well trained mind spanish" Here are some of my random thoughts from reading previous responses here. Check out the way Maria Miller has set up Math Mammoth. She has full curriculum available, or you can buy topics of interest. This might be a nice way for people to customize their program - some folks are starting at the beginning, some of us will poke out our eyes out if we have to even skim past uno a diez again. :) This is just a suggestion since you are just getting started - I don't know how it would fly from a business point of view. Reading Spanish at the elementary level seems to be accomplished with a syllabary, like the one published by Rod & Staff. Many of us are working with children who already know how to read, but the syllabary is a nice, easy way to practice proper Spanish pronunciation and it is giving us a nice base in short vocabulary words. Perhaps this could be an optional part since not everyone would be ready for it at the same time. You could make it more workbook-y in order for it to stand alone. One thing I have borrowed from our English work is to read a short selection and then ask comprehension questions. It would be great if something like that could be incorporated in the curriculum. It forces them to listen, think and speak. The reading, questions and answers can be of appropriate difficulty for what ever "level", or maybe there could be two or three options. I like to do this orally since my dc have enough trouble coming up with the answer (often in English), then casting about for appropriate vocabulary, I would get nothing if they also had to write it down.

Miquon is nicely organized in a way that you can do the multiplication-focused pages in a book without having to do the WHOLE book. I have a younger dc coming along so I bought all 6 workbooks and the Annotations book which has additional instruction ideas, comments and instructions for the pages that aren't self-explanatory. For my olders I would sometimes pick out a series of pages in a particular theme, other times I would have them work through parts of a book, depending on what made sense. The Annotations book has a table with all the topics and what pages in which books cover it. I didn't buy the Diary book, especially since I was using Miquon as a supplement.

We use BFSU and I taught an afterschool science class for a couple of weeks last fall using the physics strand from that book. We talked about gravity, friction, inertia and momentum, heavy on the experiments. There isn't a chemistry-specific thread, though. I used (and you might find useful) a different edition of this science experiment book to supplement with quickie demonstrations, including some that everybody could do. Another woman did a class using owl pellets. Those were nice because (of course) every one has a skeleton (or two), but there would be a number of ways to make that part of an 8 week thing - food chains, skeletons and their adaptations, etc. Have fun!

If you know some Spanish you are in a GREAT position to teach Spanish! I agree with PP that it is good to consider what your expectations are. It took me a while to sit down and do that, but then I became less frustrated because I realized that Spanish was not one of the subjects I consider most important, and I really wanted them to get a base of vocabulary words and an "ear" for it. Anything over that is icing. We need to do it piecemeal to keep it interesting. Once a week(ish) I pay a woman to come spend an hour with them playing games, working on a Spanish Syllabary, and reading them a story or two. We watch a Salsa episode once a week, read a story from the library once a week and twice we do a lesson from R&S. The R&S Spanish is an exception to our secular homeschool (and it is a big exception). It is really an elementary program for native speakers. I like the extensive, basic vocabulary and the incorporated reading instruction. Since my dc already read in English we can easily hit the high points of a lesson (and 4 worksheets) in about 1/2 an hour. The catch is that the teacher text is all in Spanish, but it is formulaic, so if you know some Spanish it is not too much work to figure out the instructions. I bought a teacher's guide, the reading book, and the exercise workbook only - all for year 1. You might also check out Español para Chicos y Grandes. I'm thinking about this as a follow-on.

We will finish FLL2 this week and I plan to use Sentence Family for a few weeks before starting FLL3. I read through it, and I'm hoping it will help solidify the nine parts of grammar that it covers and be a nice introduction to sentence diagramming. This was the happy, cheery way it turned out for a friend of mine, so.... I also have Grammarland (someone here made worksheets for it if you are interested). Apparently it starts out pretty engaging and then quickly ramps up in complexity. I've heard complaints about the last story not making sense and somebody mentioned they skipped that one altogether. So, I've tabled that for now. If I get some spare time (and a little more enthusiasm) I might look into whether to hold off, perhaps until after FLL3 or rather present a few chapters now, and then come back to more of it later. HTH!

Not at ISeeSam.com, but here. Take a deep breath and use cheap paper the first time you print it. I had to fuss with it to get it how it was supposed to be.

I can't even think of a devil's advocate way *not* to count it. Will you be using a map to get there and away? Will you be using public transportation? Will they be spending and making change? Will they be picking up a feel for the culture of the city? etc., etc. Plus, if you have them read a sign or two at the museum, that is just icing! (tongue in cheek here)

I've been giving the Wynken, Blynken, and Nod board book illustrated by David McPhail - classic poem, great illustrator, unlikely they will receive 4 copies (unlike my personal experience with Goodnight Moon)

My ped. at the time mentioned (in a separate appt.) that the year prior to the vaccine's release they had needed to hospitalize something like 22 patients, and the year after they had hospitalized 1. Consider your risk of exposure, the age of your baby in the height of the season (obviously the older they are the easier to bounce back), get whatever facts you need (as opposed to anecdotes like the lovely one I presented) to feel comfortable getting it (actual probability of serious side-effects) or not getting it (mortality rate for kids this age).

Lapbooking for BFSU might be tricky. I love the SOTW1 lapbooks we did, and the kids often pull them out to show guests or just flip through them. For BFSU we do a "notebook" page for each lesson - we talk about summary points for the bottom of the page and then they draw a picture to illustrate the lesson (very open to interpretation). These go into a 3-ring binder. They go through this sometimes just for interest. However, the topics are sometimes so big and diverse.... I'm sure you could do it if you wanted to spend the time.... Hmmmm, interesting thought, though! Keep us informed about what you decide to do!

I bet she was referring to Hannah's Helps. I don't remember notebooking pages, but, then, I wasn't looking for them...

Don't feel constrained by the calendar-thing in Saxon! We started with K but it was so, so basic I started skimming through for interesting lessons and we finished with the book by the New Year and moved into 1. It was easy to read along and see what the intent of the meeting time was and I just made sure we covered those things until they got it - like reviewing days of the week or months of the year. There is nothing wrong with review, but don't let the curriculum drive you (to boredom, tears, distraction, etc.) If you like Saxon, go ahead and get book 2 and then you can keep everybody moving at what ever speed makes sense. If you are open to changing curriculum, you will find plenty of suggestions on this board - beware all ye curriculum browsers who enter here!

Our last house had a LOT of iron in the water (even after softening) so we started squeegeeing the fiberglass surround and the vinyl curtain once a day. Made a lot of difference. We still do it in our new house with ceramic tiles and glass door. I'm wondering if a daily spray would make for less grout cleaning, so I'm off to check out your recipes!

The Song Dynasty (according to Wikipedia) lasted from 960 to 1279, so you probably have four choices. 1) Add it after the Tang Dynasty in Chapter 8 as if it were another chapter, 2) Add it as a stand alone "chapter" whenever it is convenient for you over the next 13 chapters, 3) add it as a prequel to Chapter 21 which talks about Genghis Khan and Kublai Khan, or 4) Do a little "Meanwhile in China..." study alongside events in the rest of the world. It might be easier to answer if you included more details about why you want to add it - familial ties, just got a good deal on books at a book sale, really like all the engineering and science that came out of that time, trying to counter euro-centric history, etc. I mean, the curriculum belongs to *you* so you can really do with it as you please...

Here are two I found via One Pretty Thing A Beautiful Mess (more grown-up styles and models) Hairstyles for Girls

Bump.

The Carrot Seed, by Ruth Krauss has a great lesson for early gardeners. You can hear it read at Kiddie Records Weekly. The Gardener by Sarah Stewart is correspondence between a flower-growing girl and her gardener-grandmother during the Depression. The illustrations are great and the text always makes me (almost) cry. I want to second "Growing Vegetable Soup" by Linda Ehlert. There is a great, over-size boardbook and I've even seen it in Spanish if you really want to multi-task.

A friend just passed me this link from her dd's kindergarten teacher. With my olders we used Dance Mat and they liked it, but for them 6/7 was (almost?) too early. It took about 1/2 hour to do each level, and it was a chore to get to the end. But both are FREE, so you aren't out anything if it doesn't work out. Also, despite any reinforcement or further training, ds and dd use correct hand positions on the keyboard - although they still have to look at the keyboard often.

You are teaching her grit and perseverance and that is the latest trend in education. Congratulations, you are ahead of the curve! Maybe as a reward you can choose a softer wall for headbanging. :tongue_smilie:

If you sell the house you will set up a new escrow account for the new mortgage and then existing escrow will be paid to you once the current lender gets paid off. So, you can't roll the old escrow into the new account, you have to cover the amount and then get refunded. I don't know what happens if you walk away from the loan, but I can only assume you wouldn't get anything back.

I agree with this, and they will both acknowledge that while he is quicker at math, she is more comfortable writing. Dd *gets* the material, it just isn't so quick for her, I often have to walk her through it. We ran into this long ago with reading and it worked to repeat the previous 30 lessons. I think I'll try to add more manipulatives and also some basic-level math fact games. I'm thinking if those facts are rock-solid it can only help whatever is slowing her here. Then maybe we'll keep on for a few weeks and see where we are. I think my struggle is that he is relatively fast and she is relatively slow and I don't want to hold him back, but I don't want her to fall irretrievably behind, and the hand-wringing has been keeping me up. Just getting input from thoughtful, third-parties like yourselves is helpful. No one else is panicking, just looking rationally at where we are and what our options are. Whew. Thanks!

Yes, I'm concerned that this not become an issue, we already skirt it on some mornings. She gets the material just slowly, I don't see issues with the spiral approach (unlike a PP's dd). I'll do some looking at other possibilities, I guess I haven't come across a clue (yet) of what will work better for her... Thanks.

Thank you for your replies. I will try to be much more pro-active with manipulatives. I'm also glad to hear that it can be done! Persevere! :D Off to find some cardstock to make 100s blocks...