I am purchasing a used copy of The Phonetic Zoo A to start with my second grader. The one I saw comes with the CDs, lesson cards, and zoo cards, but it doesn't have the teacher's notes. Is that worth buying separately or can I get by easily without it? Second question: I noticed the lesson cards are dated 2002, but the zoo cards are dated 2010. Does anyone know if there's been much change from the 2002 to 2010 editions?

My DD is a 7-year old rising second grader. She has said she wants to work on her cursive. I was going to get her cursive handwriting books and do our copywork in cursive this coming year, but I have also really noticed lately that she has a lot of problems with her manuscript writing. Her letters are not uniform in size, for example, and just could stand to be a lot neater overall. Would you work another year on perfecting manuscript before switching to cursive or just go with the cursive?

Math Mammoth is working well for us. I bought some manipulatives (abacus, base 10 rods and cubes) to make it more "tactile," and when my DD is being especially grumpy about doing math, we take a break from the worktext to play math games.

One of the greatest things about homeschooling is the flexiblity to teach your child at his individual pace. Take advantage of that :) My DD did half a year's worth 1st grade math in KG last year. I figure she may get ahead, but she may also need a break from her math curriculum periodically, and it will probably work out in the end. If she stays ahead, I don't necessarily see a problem in that.

Also, can I admit that I sometimes daydream about going back to work FT (I have a professional degree) and paying someone else to homeschool my kids full-time. Except that I would insist on calling that person a "governess" instead of a "nanny." Does this admission make me a bad homeschooling mom?

On the flip side, I can imagine a mom coming here to complain that the K program she put her child in is too academic and has unreasonable expectations on the kids. Schools are kind of in a "damned if you do, damned if you don't" position. When you aren't able to homeschool, all you can really do is look around at your schooling options, decide which works best for your family, and, in my opinion, accept it without expecting the school to cater to your own child a great deal. I also wanted to point out that my DD was reading The Burgess Bird Book and doing addition/subtraction up to 10 in Kindergarten, but her writing was pretty average. I wouldn't freak out about her spending time learning to write letters and numbers. If that's their academics, but they spend plenty of time doing other types of activities, I don't see it as a huge problem. If they spent the bulk of their time doing busy work like that, then I'd be unsatisfied. IMO, for little kids, academics takes a back seat to character development and experience when it comes to picking a schooling option. It seems to me that a gifted child with dedicated parents will learn quite well regardless of the school.

I'm sorry the OP and others are having issues in this arena, but can I just admit that this is all reassuring to read? When people talk about homeschooling, so often it's described as being all grand and rosy, and then you do it yourself with your own kids and wonder what the heck is wrong with you that your very smart, capable child acts like she has 0 desire to learn from you. I get especially frustrated b/c my DD actually likes school and asks me to do school work, and then complains about the things I ask her to do (she just wants to do the "fun" stuff, not "boring" things like copywork and math). And what makes it doubly-especially frustrating is knowing that if she was in a school setting with someone else as her teacher, she would do the work without complaining! For what it's worth, my usual way to handle it is to dangle a carrot and tell her she doesn't get to the "fun" stuff until the other things are done. In my weaker moments, I fall into emotional blackmail territory and threaten put her in school if she doesn't improve her attitude b/c she obviously doesn't like learning from me. (No, I'm not proud of these moments.)

We found this book from the library recently, and I have decided to make it the center of our first grade life sciences study: Backyard Biology: Investigate Habitats Outside Your Door (Donna Latham). The listed age range is 9-12 years old, so I may have to simplify some things for my 6 yr old, but I think it will work well for us. It includes a hands-on activity for most chaptesr, and covers a broad range of basic info about ecosystems, plants, animals, and other organisms. After going back and forth for weeks about what to do for science, from buying a textbook style curriculum to going full on WTM style to making up my own weekly themes with book lists and activities, I am happy to finally find something that seems like it will be fairly easy to implement while also catering to my DD's love of "activities" (some activiities may need to be substituted or simplified for us). It doesn't include human body stuff, so I will need to do something separate for that, and we will probably use the Kingfisher Animal Encyclopedia to read about specific large animals my DD wants to learn more about, but I think this will get us going. I am also excited because I was wanting to include more "nature studies" into our homeschool and thought I'd have to do it separate from our main science curriculum, but I think this book with cover both. I just wanted to share, because I think it's a good resource and I know many of us struggle with picking science materials.

I just wanted to add that a relative recently gave my six-year-old DD a monopoly game as a present. After a couple of 3-hour games, she is now remarkably good at adding numbers to the tens-place and hundreds-place. Similarly, my 3-year old couldn't seem to remember her colors until we started playing Uno, and now she also can recognize all her numbers 1-9. The games do help. They don't even have to be specific math games. I think if an older kid, in particular, sees practical applications for math, such as through the use of games, then she will not only start to pick it up, but she will WANT to learn it. If your daughter is showing more of an inclination to learn her math facts, you may also look into using Math Mammoth blue series as a supplement. You can focus on a particular topic, it is affordable, and I have found the light blue series that we are using to be particularly good in drilling facts and showing different ways to conceptualize them.

Pony beads

Thanks so much, pitterpatter! I will look into the Bill Nye videos. Or maybe I should just embrace my children's loves of Magic School Bus. And I've been checking out your blog life science entries. It looks like you had a fantastic program! I am going to look into those Evan Moor Scienceworks books. Do you feel like you could have used those by themselves, without the REAL Science Odyssey? I was just going to do things the WTM way (with a spine and living books), but honestly, knowing myself, I know that I will slack off and not plan fun activities to go along with it. And since my daughter has told me that she wants to be a scientist, I probably owe it to her to give her a fun science program. The videos will help make science fun because I very rarely show them videos or let them watch TV otherwise, but some hands-on stuff to add to the mix will be even better.

I was thinking of using videos as a regular component in the kids' science studies for the coming year. We are dividing science up per the WTM suggestion (life sciences for year 1). Originally, my plan was to use Magic School Bus, which my kids actually really like, but which I don't like very much. They are a bit too cartoonish and silly for me. I was wondering if there are other science video series that cover a wide variety of topics in different 30-minute episodes, but are less cartoonish. We have netflix and Amazon prime, and my husband is a teacher, so I think we have access to Discovery Education streaming.

I haven't started this program yet, but I just bought and received the combined leves 1&2 from Amazon. The size doesn't bother me. It'a a teacher's manual, not a book for the kids to really use or write in, so I don't see the thick book as an issue.

Have you looked at Reading Lessons Through Literature? It's a CM-style approach. For my own DD, I used a very bare bones approach to phonics. We used the Blend Phonics program, available for free http://blendphonics.org/. I just printed out the the unit word lists and printed out the storybooks found in the supplements section. For each lesson, I had my DD read a few of the words from the word list (I'd write them down on a white board), and we'd read the story that went with that lesson. We didn't do any writing, but you could easily add some, I think. In fact, I remember the storybook lessons end with instructions of words to have the child write. She also did ETC, and got a bit of writing practice from that.

I was just about to buy Reading Lessons Through Literature level 1 to use as my first grader's spelling curriculum, but I am hesitating now. She is a very good reader (e.g., can read Burgess Bird Book on her own) but hasn't had any spelling instruction. She did the first 3 EtC workbooks, and I went through Blend Phonics with her last fall, before she just took off reading on her own. I just tested out doing a little word dictation with her for the first time, and she did fairly well with the simple words. Does anyone use RLTL as just a spelling program? How does that work: do you still teach the phonograms and have them read the Elson Readers? Does anyone have any experience with level one and have any thoughts about whether it'd be too easy for my DD? I have thought of skipping to level 2, but I am afraid doing so would lead to some gaps with her. Any thoughts would be appreciated. Thanks!

I was going to recommend this one. We have it and like it. It may be a bit dense for upper elementary/middle school but you could probably pick out selections, or else just read it for yourself to assist you in teaching the kids.

My suggestions would be Roald Dahl (Fantastic Mr. Fox is a pretty easy and fun read as well as the better known ones); Mrs. Piggle Wiggle series, and Mouse and the Motorcycle books.

I feel your pain. I have a really hard time spending money, although DH doesn't usually mind. In fact, I just bought a $14 set of bird cards to use with our Burgess Bird Book-based birding unit study we are doing this summer, and I am feeling guilty over that, even though I know my kids will love them. DH has to constantly tell me that it's okay to spend some money! I definitely factor cost into our curriculum and will not even look at things with a big price tag and prefer not to buy all at one time.

I have a rising 1st grader. This past year we just ended up doing a generic manuscript handwriting book to make sure she knew how to properly form all her letters and get her some writing practice. She is familiar with all her letters, and her handwriting is pretty good for an almost-6 year old. Nothing fabulous, but not bad. I plan on teaching her cursive in 2nd grade. I was thinking of skipping any kind of formal handwriting instruction for 1st grade, but the LA program we will do will have lots of copywork. Is there any reason that I should have a separate handwriting book?

Confessions of a Homeschooler has Classica Literature Units. I've never used them, but it seems like what you are looking for. http://store.confessionsofahomeschooler.com/index.php?main_page=index&cPath=70_76_90

I have the first three volumes and pick and choose from them. My kids (including my just-turned 3 year old) have read and enjoyed: The Rag Coat; Down, Down the Mountain, The Giraffe that Walked to Paris, Madeline (which they already knew), The Red Clog, Make Way for Ducklings, and Katy & the Big Snow. Some of the books I like for the "lesson" and some I just like for the exposure to different things and opportunity to explore something new. We really enjoyed the Giraffe that Walked to Paris, and were able to talk about Egypt and France, do measuring and comparison activities, etc. Katy & the Big Snow was good to read in the middle of winter, and we explored topics related to cities and how cities function and what kinds of resources are needed for a city. When rowing that one and Make Way for Ducklings, we also explored cardinal directions and basic map making and map reading, which was valuable. The Rag Coat was nice for the values that it taught, and Down Down the Mountain was pretty silly but gave a neat view of appalachian life a long time ago and was a good intro to growing veggies. So I guess all this is to say that there's different things that recommend different books. I just read the brief description of the book and the lesson/activity ideas that ago along with it and decide if it seems worthwhile. (But I have been lazy and haven't done anything in at least 2 months!)

Lately, my DD's kindergarden homeschool has looked like this: A page of her math book (Math Mammoth), 1-2 pages of handwriting (some cheapo book we got from a store), and then I try to get some themed books from the library and let her read them or we read some together. We were doing Five in a Row, but I've been lazy and haven't been planning the activities so haven't done any "rowing" for the past two months. Eh, she's still learning.

I was planning to use ZB, but then I was feeling cheap and didn't feel like paying shipping for a single workbook, so I just got this generic one from the store (but it looks very similar to ZB style). I am, however, tempted by D'Nealian, because I like how it seems like an easier transition between manuscript and cursive, with the cursive still looking like traditional cursive. So...I guess I will start correcting her more, and having her do it more similarly to what is in the book. Partly, I let the M and N thing slide because she was writing them the way I tend to write them myself! Also, I remember reading in the WTM that a continuous stroke method was good for transitioning to cursive. I just wasn't sure if starting letters from the bottom, instead of the top, is problematic.

Is there a reason I shouldn't let my DD practice her letters in the way most comfortable for her, rather than following the order of strokes instructed in the book? In particular, should I discourage her from doing a continuous-stroke method that starts her writing some letters from bottom-to-top, instead of from top-to-bottom? My 5.5 yr old is doing some beginner handwriting practice in a generic workbook (looks like it is based off ZB print). She is already familiar with how to write all the letters, but we've just never done formal handwriting practice of all the letters, so I wanted to make sure she had the proper form. I am finding that she is preferring a continuous-stroke method. For example, she wants to start the M from the bottom and just keep going without lifting her pencil, and same for the N. Is there any reason I should insist on her not doing it this way? I have taught her to start from top-to-bottom on most of the other letters, but for some--like the M and N--it also makes sense to me to go from bottom to top. Thanks!

Well, we often take 2-3 weeks to "row" a book, so if I get all that I want in one day at the library, then I don't have to go back for another couple of weeks. (We don't exclusively do FIAR, but do it in addition to math, phonics, and religion/memory work.) Also, there have been times when I haven't really relied much on supplemental books. I only own a handful of the books and prefer to check those out at the library if I don't already own them. You can look online for a lot of activity ideas for most of the books, if you want something in addition to what is in the guides.