Last year, we had a defined school time (after dropping her brother off at preschool), but I did give her a choice about the order of subjects. I also had good success with grouping the subjects into must do subjects and extras. For several months, I wrote a list on the whiteboard of what needed to get done, with a line marked 11:00 and several "fun" choices. If she finished the core subjects by 11, she got to pick something from the other list. Both lists changed every day, depending on what we needed to do. This worked pretty well. This year, I'm experimenting (as in, we've started doing it this summer) with starting with a circle time, where we sing some German songs and I read aloud for 10 minutes. They're not that enthused about read-alouds during the daytime, so this is my solution for making sure they actually happen.

This thread caused me to get around to buying the eBook, putting it on my iPad, printing out the first few workbook pages, and generally getting organized for the new school year. I still need to do some organizing (cleaning the school room, finding a cheap/free table for my son to do his "schoolwork" at, etc.), but we now have everything I've planned for the year.

Um, it's the summer before Kindergarten. You can do whatever you want. That said, if I were in your shoes, my primary concern at this point would be what my kids are expecting and enjoying. If they like what you're doing now, I'd find a way to incorporate the FIAR studies into it. My daughter would have been upset if I'd gotten her all revved up about exploring countries around the world, and then changed gears on her.

There's one thing I don't have yet, but it's an ebook, so I can really buy it anytime. I didn't really need to make many decisions for this year, since there's a lot of "keep going with what we did last year" in my curriculum plan for this year.

There are several compact cameras that have substantially better image quality than most because they have a larger sensor. Even though they have about the same number of pixels as other cameras, each pixel on the sensor is larger, and therefore more capable. (This is, incidentally, one of the reasons why big digital SLR's take better pictures than compact cameras. Aside from having better lenses, they have much bigger sensors.) This makes an especially noticeable difference in low-light photographs, such as photos taken indoors without flash. Digital Photo Review published a comparative review of this category of camera: http://dpreview.com/reviews/q42010highendcompactgroup/ There is a fourth camera that falls into this category, the Canon Powershot G12, which is reviewed separately on their site. The Canon Powershot S95 is an excellent choice and is the most compact of the group. If you're looking for a longer zoom range, check out this comparative review of the "compact travel zoom" category of cameras: http://www.dpreview.com/reviews/q311travelzoomgrouptest/ The image quality on these won't be quite as good as the previous category because the sensors are necessarily smaller in order to achieve the long zoom range in a compact camera. Good luck picking a new camera!

If you should happen to want to cover some US history, which I find generally valuable, I can recommend the following resources: What Your First Grader Needs to Know, by E.D. Hirsch - Contains short, age-appropriate readings. Betsy Maestro's series of US History books. These go into much more depth, and could be read gradually over the course of a year. Liberty's Kids, an animated treatment of the Revolutionary War period. This is about 15 hours worth of content, but my kids really like it and have learned a lot from watching it. Available on Netflix streaming. We've been doing some US history this summer. Oh, and for geography, we love "Stack the States," an iPod/iPhone/iPad game.

What does your gut instinct tell you about what they need? Are they the kind of kids who are perfectly happy to learn things from context, or do they like to know rules? The vast majority of people, including a great many excellent readers, have absolutely no conscious clue about phonics rules. You know your children best. If they would feel more confident about reading if they knew more rules, by all means have them study rules. But they don't need to know rules to be good readers. Incidentally, the SAM books are available online and constitute a phonics program, so you might look at the more advanced sets they haven't already done.

I don't know anything about the WP program, but I have used Progressive Phonics. Progressive Phonics was a helpful bridge for my daughter between learning to sound out simple words, and reading sentences. Because of the format where the adult reads most of the text and the kid reads only some words, it helped her grasp the cadence of reading. She eventually started accidentally reading words she wasn't "supposed" to read. Why not give it a shot? You would need to start with the Alphabetti books in your situation.

Everyone in our family who can read uses Anki software for memory work. It schedules the stuff for you, so the only work involved is putting the items to be memorized in there to begin with. We're very happy with it.

My husband and I both have college degrees, as do almost all of the people we know. I'm not sure I know any homeschooling parents in my area who don't have degrees.

I am pretty sure she meant that they're studying different continents, not that they are actually going there. :) We did this kind of thing last year for Kindergarten, and it was great! I had my daughter look at a map and tell me what part of the world she wanted to learn about. As the year went on, I guided her to choose a country from each continent. So during the year, we studied: Antarctica Australia and New Zealand China Canada Cameroon (and other parts of Africa) Brazil Germany We watched nature documentaries, read books, did art projects, etc. It was a lot of fun.

As the original poster, I'm very interested in your point of view here. I'm not sure I really understand WHY it's a good personal habit. I mean, some people think they have to be wearing makeup in order to be properly groomed, others think their hair needs to be "done," eyebrows waxed, legs shaved, etc. The definition of what is slovenly varies a lot. I get dressed first thing, but my husband doesn't get dressed until he needs to leave the house. I'm sure this doesn't mean I have higher standards of personal grooming. I definitely don't want my kids to be focused on their appearance -- I never tell them they can't wear a particular combination of colors/patterns, for example. I do insist that they brush their hair once a day, but I don't mind if their hairstyle is messy. I'm still trying to figure out where pajamas during the daytime fall.

Since I just finished Kindergarten with my daughter, who turned 6 in November of last year -- I do not think it is too early for structured academics. However, I think it's important to bear your goals in mind. Your GOAL is not (at least, I hope it's not) for her to complete a structured phonics program this year. Your GOAL is for her to learn how to read. The same is true for math and handwriting. My goals for last year were something like this: 1) Help my daughter continue to improve her reading. 2) Move forward in math, at minimum achieving a solid knowledge of addition and subtraction within 10. 3) Learn to form letters properly and reach a stage where the physical act of writing didn't get in the way of putting ideas on paper. 4) Learn to read and write at a first grade level in German. We accomplished these goals by: 1) Having her read aloud and/or silently from a library book for at least an hour a week; she read more as the year progressed. 2) Spending about 2 hours per week on math. For the most part, we used Math Mammoth's first grade materials, but I did not stress about how far we got in it. 3 and 4) Completing a German first-grade workbook series. I would have used Getty-Dubay Italic for (3) if the German workbooks hadn't involved so very much writing. She spent about 2 hours a week on this, also. Note that while we did do work with time and money during the year, I view these topics as pretty much incidental. We did do a LOT of other learning, but my major goals were really pretty straightforward.

Yeah, when I wrote the poll, I considered adding language about the age our mothers are or would have been, but there wasn't space. I hoped what I meant would be self-evident.

When I wrote the poll, I was pretty surprised to realize that I needed to include an option for the respondent's mom being under 50. But obviously, the poll needed that option! One of the things I like about this board is the range of ages we represent.

This is a spinoff of my thread about pajamas; poll coming. I suspect that how old your own mother is has a lot to do with how you were raised, and hence, whether you think pajamas all day are acceptable wear for your kids. What do you think? Edited to add: I voted that my mother is 70+, and that I don't let my kids wear pajamas all day, because that's been the state of things so far.

See, this is where I'm coming from, too. But I wonder if it's generational -- I've noticed that schools seem to have pajama days now, and that many younger people seem to wear pajamas until they actually need to leave the house. It would never occur to me not to get dressed first thing in the morning, right after brushing my teeth. I just think this might be one of those traditional ideas that doesn't have that much actual merit. Obviously, I will continue to model getting dressed in the morning, since that's what I do anyway. My husband and I are mulling it over...

This same child insists on wearing underwear with her pajamas. Go figure.

My six-year-old has recently asserted that since she is home schooled, she shouldn't have to change out of her pajamas unless we're actually leaving the house. My gut reaction is that people should get dressed when they get up in the morning, but I don't really have a good reason, and wonder if this is one of those areas where I should just let her do her own thing. Wearing pajamas doesn't seem to negatively impact her ability to do schoolwork, and she does get dressed quickly when we actually need to leave the house. It is easier for ME if everyone is dressed when we start the day, because I don't need to allow time for getting dressed and combing hair in my mental countdown for leaving the house. But maybe I should just get over it? Opinions from all points of view welcome.

I believe colleges typically still require foreign language study in high school for admission, so he will need to study a language eventually if he plans to go to college. :) I think foreign languages are very important, but I don't think everyone needs to study several languages. One language learned as well as possible is often more useful than three learned less well.

For my first grader: English -- Reading books from the library; copywork/dictation/narration from our other work; Evan-Moor's Daily 6-Trait Writing, 2nd Grade Math -- Math Mammoth Blue Series, beginning with Add & Subtract 2b and seeing where that takes us. Science -- Whatever strikes our fancy. Lots of time at the natural history museum, the zoo, and doing nature study. Documentaries via Netflix. History -- Ancient History, using a variety of resources including SOTW. Music -- Piano lessons with dad, recorder Art -- Drawing, art museums, misc. projects German -- Saturday school, Duden's Einfach Klasse in Deutsch 2, reading, copywork, dictation, daily children's news podcast, other podcasts, history read-alouds Typing -- Probably Typing Instructor for Kids PE -- Swimming, Karate, Yoga, playgrounds

I don't think you need this book if you're familiar with the basics of drawing yourself. I read it thoroughly twice, but didn't feel that I got much out of it. I take my daughter to places where we can draw together, and point things out to her gradually over time.

You don't need $231 worth of stuff from Peace Hill Press. Of course, if you have the money, buying these materials may well save you time, but it's not necessary. If you look at your copy of The Well-Trained Mind, you will notice that there are instructions in the book for doing copywork, narration and dictation using your content materials. You do not need Writing With Ease unless you don't want to find appropriate sentences and passages yourself. It does not take long, and I honestly would rather have my child copying my handwriting anyway. You probably do need a copy of whichever volume of Story of the World you plan to use. If money is an issue, buy used. You don't actually need an activity guide; with a modicum of creativity and a library card you can figure out your own activities and supplemental books. Whether either of your children actually need to study grammar or spelling at this age is something you could consider. Some children learn spelling and usage well simply through reading, dictation and copywork. You could easily put off the study of grammar until third or fourth grade. You get the idea. There are many ways to meet your educational goals within whatever budget you have.

It costs 14 Euros to ship any amount of stuff from Amazon.de to the US. Since you don't pay sales tax or import duties, this can be a good deal if you buy enough stuff at once. I usually spend at least 100 Euros at a time. Things take about two weeks to arrive.

I have a 4.5 year old who may wind up doing what most would consider "Kindergarten" in spite of me. He rejected another year of outside-the-home play-based preschool for this coming year, and is eagerly anticipating reading lessons. Sigh. He's not official until next year. I have no intention of requiring anything at all from him, though.