We like this one very much too. I also have a big Oxford atlas, but I think the National Geographic is more suitable for kids.

I've given this a great deal of thought over the years, and I find that I disagree that judgement is not sometimes called for. I sometimes have conversations with my daughter like this: Me: Which letter do you like best [on a handwriting page]? Her: I like this one, because the lines are not wiggly. Me: I like that one, too. I also like this one, because it goes all the way from the bottom to the top of the line. Her: Yeah, that's a good one too. It's judgmental, and it's praise. I also think it's my job as a homeschooling parent to help her identify work that is well-done.

Well, I felt that my mother never valued anything I did well. I got a lot of constructive criticism about areas for improvement, but no approval for things that were well done. Her idea seems to have been that I was expected to do well in everything, so the areas where I did do well were areas where I simply met expectations, thus requiring no special comment. I will say that this environment did lead me to be very internally motivated, but it was unpleasant and I wouldn't recommend it as a way to encourage a happy childhood. It also caused me to decide that her opinion about everything was irrelevant, since I knew her opinion about me was divorced from reality. Not really what most parents hope to achieve with their kids. I imagine you probably manage to express enthusiasm about your children's accomplishments, even if you don't use praise specifically, so I doubt you have anything to worry about. :)

I enjoyed the article. Even though I'm familiar with Kohn's work, It's never really resonated with me. This article made more sense. I grew up in a praise-free environment, and I was sure I didn't want to do it that way. I tend to focus on specific praise instead - praise for things like focus, effort, attention to detail, etc. Generic praise like "good job" or "you're so smart" seems unhelpful and kind of insincere to me.

I feel your pain -- I spend 3 hours a day driving my 3 yo to and from preschool. It does make it much easier to do school with his sister, but it's a huge chunk of time. I take advantage of the time by having my daughter watch German-language videos, do math drills, memory work, and music appreciation in the car. Could your kids read in the car, or listen to relevant audiobooks? (The preschool in question is German-immersion. German skills are a major priority for us, so for our family this is time well-spent.) One thing you might look at -- is there a library or other suitable public building near the preschool? I sometimes do school with my daughter in a library or cafe over near my son's preschool. It saves some driving time, and also reduces distractions. Which of these things actually prevent you from doing school? Of course if kids are too sick to get out of bed, they're probably too sick to do schoolwork, but I wouldn't have thought chicken pox or strep throat fell into that category. Can you modify your school plans to get things done even when people are sick? Maybe you're watching nature videos on TV instead of doing a science experiment, but it's still science. OK, so are you really having trouble getting 180 days of school done between June 2010 and June 2011? Or are you just having trouble getting as much done as you think you should? It sounds to me from your description as though you DID do schoolwork on more than 25 days since the beginning of the school year, you just only got through what you'd planned to do in the first five weeks. Just because it took you two weeks to get through the work you'd planned for one week, doesn't mean you didn't do school for however many days you worked. I think it might help to sort out exactly WHAT you are stressed about, and sort these reasons in order of importance. By separating the genuinely important issues from the not-so-important issues, you may be able to find stress-reducing solutions more easily.

My report for Kindergarten Week 13 is up. Erika made a big leap in reading German, did a lot of math, and had a playdate that involved putting on a play.

I would recommend a globe with a full meridian instead of a semi-meridian, that can be rotated "up" and "down" to see each hemisphere in more detail. Something along these lines: http://www.amazon.com/Replogle-Globes-Inc-33801-Atlantis/dp/B0000945KW/ We have a Replogle 12" globe and have been entirely satisfied with it in the 15 or so years we've owned it.

I did this to a room once, and it actually worked out fine just to do it without guides. The reason this worked is because, when you look at the night sky, you're always "hopping" from one constellation to another by using their relationships to each other. Putting them on the ceiling was the same process in reverse. I used the ceiling fixture as the north star, and worked out from there.

I had an experience today that seems relevant to this discussion, so I thought I'd toss it in. We had a truly awful morning. It included, among other things, a thirty-minute kicking, hitting, stomping tantrum in the middle of an art museum. Yes, this is my school-age child, not my preschooler (he was terrific!) At 1:45, I was able to have a serious talk with my daughter about the rest of our plans for the day, and to my great surprise, she was able to hold it together long enough to have a real conversation instead of another fit. Because we were able to work together, I opted to continue with our plans for the day, which went beautifully. From that point on, the day was lovely. During the first 7 1/2 hours this kid was awake, she spent about 2 hours being miserable and in ways that made everyone around her miserable, too. In the last 5 1/2 hours, she was a joy to be around. If she'd been in school, I would have had much less time with her, and probably wouldn't have gotten to have the good experiences that helped make the bad ones seem less awful.

I think it depends on the child, the age of the child, and on your goals. I feel that there is an inherent value in my child spending a certain amount of time working on math every day, but I assign less work than I think will be needed to fill the time. If she dawdles, we just get the assigned work done. If she works effectively, she gets to pick from other math activities, or continue to another lesson.

I used to worry about the cool stuff my kids would miss in the public school, too. My local elementary school has a highly-regarded spanish immersion program, which you can only enter in K, and that added to my stress. A big problem I had was that school is the "normal" option, so when I would try to compare the pros and cons, the school "pros" seemed more significant than the "home" pros, and the school "cons" had an air of, "but everyone does it" to them. Tuesday, traffic kept us from going home to "do school," so we did some written work at a café, visited a nature center, and went on a nature hike. In the afternoon, my daughter put on a play with a friend, following written scripts and using props from around the house. All before they would even have been home from public school. Today at our little co-op, one of the moms, who spent 10 years in Africa, told west African folk tales and showed the kids how to wrap a skirt out of a rectangle of fabric. They also danced to African music and made beads. Later on, we went swimming. Again, while the public school kids were still in class. Grandma and Grandpa are in town, so tomorrow we're going to an art exhibit with Grandma. I have no regrets at all about homeschooling. She's doing a lot of great stuff!

Have you considered setting both a minimum time and an assigned amount of work, and then having them play math games, do logic puzzles, or some other fun thing if they finish before their time is up? It might inspire them to work efficiently, particularly if they were expected to correct yesterday's missed work at the beginning of each session. (I'm assuming you don't have time to correct it as soon as it's done.)

It would never occur to me not to have them share a room. I don't object to the example it would set for my children, either.

Is there a specific practice book you would suggest? I hadn't thought of practice books, as I don't want my KID to do practice work.

I'm planning to give my daughter the ITBS in the spring. She's in Kindergarten this year, but is doing a lot of first-grade work (defined as reading books like "Nate the Great" and doing the equivalent of Math Mammoth Light Blue 1, pieced together from the Blue series.) I'm not required to test, but my husband and I think it could be worthwhile to give annual standardized tests anyway. Since we have only two children, the cost is not prohibitive, and we want to our kids to be used to standardized tests and think they're fun. The information I'd like to get out of the test is: * I'd like to know how my child is doing compared with other children. * I'd like to be informed if there are things other kids her age are learning that we're not covering adequately. * I'd like to be able to track my child's performance from year to year. I was planning to give her the level 6 test in March, which is the first month when national norms would be available for her as a Kindergartner on that test level. I want the test to be on the easy side so she doesn't get frustrated, without being so easy that no possible useful information would come out of it. She's not the kind of child who would get bored with the test if it were too easy. If anyone has advice on any of what I've just said, I'd be interested to hear it. But that's not my real question. I have a friend who has a daughter the same age. He's interested in having our girls test together, since I'm authorized to give the test and I don't think he necessarily wants to go to the trouble to get authorized. I don't object to having them test together, but he wants his daughter to take a higher level of test, so he's trying to convince me to give my kid the level 7 test. He thinks of his child as a "first grader," while I think of mine as a "kindergartner." My general sense is that the two of them are on about the same level academically. My friend's objectives in testing are a bit different than mine. He's really hung up on grade level equivalents and on wanting his kid to be as "advanced" as possible. What do you think? Should I be giving my child the level 7 test, or should I stick with level 6?

I am not sure how much it matters, unless the school district in your area is really hard core about matching up the grade you registered him under as a homeschooler with his grade on school entry. I'd expect that generally, they'd take him either in his age-based grade or one year behind, based on your request and an evaluation they might do. It would probably get dicier if you wanted a child to be in a grade higher than their age-based grade. As long as you're always meeting him where he is academically (including letting him start kindergarten materials next year if he wants to), I don't see where his official grade makes much difference.

Is the problem that she can't remember what they look like, or that she can't remember how to write them? I think it's completely normal for a child this age to need a model in order to remember how to write a number or letter. I would be a little surprised if the child couldn't recognize an "f" or a "3" when they saw one, though.

I live in Washington, and would be happy to answer any questions you have. Based on what you've said of your son's interests, I'd suggest taking the subway to the Federal Triangle stop. Across the street is the Old Post Office. The entrance is on the right hand side of the building. Inside, through the food court on the left side is the entrance to the tower, staffed by park service rangers. Go to the top of the tower and take a look at the city. It's much less crowded, has way bigger windows, and takes less time than the Washington Monument. Next, I would walk a couple of blocks to the National Mall. You'll be near the Washington Monument, and will be able to see the Capitol at the far end of the mall. If you're more in the mood to look at monuments, check out the Lincoln Monument, Vietnam War Memorial, etc. If you'd rather go to a museum, visit the American History Museum, which is also right there. If for some reason the American History Museum turns out to be a bad fit, the Natural History Museum next door has tons of great stuff. I wouldn't personally plan any more than this in the time you have.

It's not a boy thing. My daughter did a similar exercise with a friend last week (it was a clown to color in, but same basic concept), and it was definitely too much. She could easily have done 50 math problems, but 50 math problems and all that coloring was just not reasonable. The reason she was doing it was to keep her friend company; the friend had the sheet for homework from school. Edited to add: There's no reason you can't skip the stuff you don't see the point in. This particular exercise looks like an arithmetic drill; you could easily substitute some other type of math drill, like a game.

I planned and expected to use two, but at the moment I'm actually only using one -- and it's not either of the two I'd most wanted to use. We're using Math Mammoth Blue, which suits my teaching style better than Light Blue at this age. If we stick with Math Mammoth as our main curriculum, I may eventually buy the Light Blue materials, but I don't have any need for cumulative reviews or tests right now. I'm hoping to include work from Miquon and/or MEP again in the future. So I'm a multiple math programs wannabe.

People eat pie for breakfast? You learn new things every day.

I haven't read your other threads, but is there any possibility that this work is too easy, or insufficiently interesting? Getting distracted and making careless mistakes can be a sign of boredom, in which case more challenging material might help. How is she at math that's not just arithmetic and procedures? How does she do on word problems? What about logic puzzles and strategy games?

It seems to me that a great many ordinary children's books contain situations where the characters need to decide between good and not-so-good options. We've had great discussions while reading all kinds of books, and I think it's less artificial than seeking out materials specifically intended for this purpose.

I have a six-year-old who reads quite well, and she's in Kindergarten. She misses our local cut-off, so this is the placement she would have in public school. There are plenty of kids like her in the PS Kindergarten classes, and she has no problem with being with kids almost a year younger for soccer and the like. She does take a very academic "first grade" class on Saturdays. I don't consider her official grade important in choosing what to teach - I meet her where she actually is academically.

I agree. My brother and I both grew up bilingual from the start, and I am doing the same with my children. They have no language delays, and even if they were a few months behind their peers, I would not consider it a problem. Since our environment is English an my husband speaks only a little German, we spend a lot of time and energy on German here. I agree that it would be easy to start speaking German with them, singing German songs, etc.