Only takes 6 more people to get to 20% off! And there are 20 conditionals, hopefully lots of those were at 20% and so I think it's probably reasonable to hope for 25%!

Your child is 3? I would definitely start with Handwriting Without Tears for now. It's about the only thing out there that is developmentally appropriate for preschoolers, and corresponds much more closely than curseive to the fonts he will be using in learning to read. Work on basic hand strengthening, counterclockwise circles, and basic printing for pencil control. Decide in kindergarten or first grade about moving to cursive.

You need a grip. Not the ones you get from an office supply store (which are just cushions), but one that truly makes you hold the pencil correctly. Try Stetro grips to start with. You need a bunch - put them on every pencil, pen, crayon, or marker the child uses. They are a pain to get on and off, so it really is worth just buying a lot. I got them from Amazon.com. Use those 100% of the time for a few months. If the grasp isn't fixed, come back. There are more extreme things to try, but start with Stetros.

I have identical twin girls, and they have a fraternal twin brother - so triplets altogether. They have some developmental delays. I have another child who is 17 months younger, and seems to me to be advanced, but possibly only seems that way due to skewed perspective. Managing competition is HUGE. - My son J is the most advanced as far as reading and math. - Daughter C is in the middle. - Daughter M struggles with reading & math. A lot. Thankfully she is artsy - colors beautifully, and has great handwriting. - Daughter E (the youngest) is probably somewhere between my son & C. Most schoolwork is geared toward the middle. I slow my son down by making him re-do sloppy work (common when he is vaguely bored), and when he does a neat job, I comment "did you color this? No! M must have done it - it's so beautiful!" Etc. etc. Even if the math itself or the reading itself is easy, he can work on writing his numbers more legibly, not scribbling, not tearing holes in the paper, etc. etc. It's all about making sure that they all know that they are good at some things, and others are good at other things, and they have to work harder at some things, and others have to work harder at other things. For now, my kids will proudly announce "J is the math wiz, but I have the most beautiful handwriting of all of us!" Hopefully that attitude will last. Also, I reward with compliments & so on based on "doing your best, with a smile!". The kid who gets all the work done but is grumpy throughout doesn't get rewarded, but the one who worked hard with a good attitude does, even if they only got half their work done. Another real challenge is controlling the cheating. Well, not really cheating, but I have worked really hard to encourage my kids to always help each other and that has backfired some on me. I don't mind them giving hints or starting points, but more than once one kid has done someone else's work thinking I wouldn't know. The sad thing is, I am *right there*, and it still happens. I get caught up helping one, and the other two are sharing papers. It is NICE only teaching one level. ONE group of readalouds. ONE math level. Etc etc. Honestly, I truly cannot imagine trying to do two levels of everything. Math especially. We use RightStart, and I truly could not do 2 different levels - I would have to choose a less teacher intensive program. I cannot imagine how moms with kids of different ages manage to homeschool! That would be SO much harder!!

Looking back, I have one child who could have made MM without too much additional effort. Thanks for sharing - I'll be implementing this next year!

When would you recommend encouraging a child to go for Memory Master? Is it a matter of age/grade? Number of years participation in CC? Child's interest?

I bought it too - hoping to get the price down!

Atelier DVD Art Curriculum is at The Homeschool Buyers Co-op through the end of the month! https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1588&c=1

I had written down in my notes - start AAS (spelling) after OPGTR L124 - start FLL (grammar) after OPGTR L142 - start WWE (writing) after OPGTR L142 IF min age 7 & handwriting is solid I have no idea where I got that though - just entered it in my spreadsheet at some point!!

I have 4 kiddos. Two probably would have figured it out without a program. The other two - no way! I think it just depends on the kid.

Miquon Orange - they "discover" how math works using Cuisenaire rods - it's funky, and really takes a leap of faith to attempt, but I am really glad we did! RightStart A - teaches math in a systematic way - almost entirely manipulatives, very few worksheets - the focus is a thorough understanding of place value, quantities as related to 5 and 10, intro to addition, a little basic geometry - great foundational material so you *know* they have no gaps MEP Reception - puzzley All very different, and all have been worth the time & effort. We also did Rod & Staff Counting with Numbers. The math itself has been just counting, number identification, more/less, before/after, etc. (very basic), but we really needed the extra practice writing the numerals. We actually might go through that again...

If Christian is OK, I like these. Not annoying at all. One Hundred Sheep: Skip Counting Songs from the Gospels CD By: Roger Nichols

I have a friend who put her 3 youngest in the bath tub every single morning, and sat beside the tub with her oldest doing school. That kept the youngers occupied!

My youngest is my drama child, and I finally decided to send her off to preschool a few mornings a week just to be sure I had a little time to focus on school with the others. Best decision I could have made!

No, she wanted to sign up and pay dues at the end of the meeting. Even after the treasurer explained that you aren't legally required to do anything for kids who are 6 or younger, she still wanted to sign up. So weird!!! But her children were "so advanced" and "insanely smart", etc. etc.

I would venture to say that the VAST majority of homeschoolers are only using one program! I intended to use several after reading on here about people seeing the benefits of their kids looking at problems from different angles due to using several programs. I thought I would create these little math wizards who didn't just "plug and chug" like I did in school. I have one little math wizard, 2 who are fine in math but not whizzes by any stretch, and one who needs exposure several different times several different ways to even begin to grasp the concept. :)

PS - I don't know about your kids, but if my kids took 3 months off from math in the summer, I would probably have to start over. Given that we plan to do at least reading, handwriting, and math through the summer, it is easy to finish more than one program in a year even if you only do one lesson a day. We even started over several months in (just b/c I felt like we were getting lost) and will still finish both in a year.

We are doing RightStart & Miquon. I began by trying to align them perfectly, and it was a complete nightmare. Now, if we are at home, we do a RightStart lesson, and if we are schooling in a therapy office, we do Miquon. (The C-rods are significantly easier to take along than all the RS manipulatives.) In my ideal world, we would see everything first in Miquon, then in RS, but that just hasn't worked out. At times we are further in RS, and at times further in Miquon, and I try not to worry about it. It's OK to learn something from a different angle! My kids LOVE it when they "trick me" and notice that I am "re-teaching" something that they already saw in the other program. One of my kids NEVER gets it on the first exposure. She is just NOT mathy. She has to marinate on it. Inevitably, she is totally confused by Miquon, then a repeat exposure a week later either via Miquon or RS will make sense. If she only did one program, she would be annoyed with the rework. This way, I can have her hit the material the number of times she needs, and several different ways so something will stick, without her recognizing that she is doing the same thing over and over.

Anyone else need a laugh? My giggle of the day: at a meeting tonight for new homeschoolers, we went around and introduced ourselves. One lady said, "I've been homeschooling for 4 years now. I have a 4 year old and a 1 year old. I'm going to homeschool for one more year before sending my child to public school for kindergarten, and of course I have 4 more years of homeschooling my youngest." To their credit, no one at the table laughed and let her know that's called PARENTING, not homeschooling!

Oh wow - that is SO helpful! My kids' handwriting stinks despite an unbelievably amount of work on my part, with occupational therapists, and at preschool. I was thinking I would start cursive just to have a clean start, but we are still having major problems with motor planning. I think knowing what you said above, I better hold off!

One other thing that we LOVED - The Learning Box Preschool. The arts & crafts portion alone is worth the cost! You open the guide to Day 1, find the baggie that says Day 1, and go. EVERYTHING you need is in there. Need 1 white cotton ball? It's included. 1 tsp hot chocolate? It's in there! It does cover all the basic preschool academics - letters, numbers, colors, calendar, etc. etc., but truly the crafts are the impressive part! We have a few of the craft baggies left, and my kids (at almost age 7) still love to grab them and do them. They can make anything about of paper now, and love nothing better to sit down with paper and scissors and glue! I attiribute their creativity and craftiness to The Learning Box. http://www.thelearningboxpreschool.com/ I think you can buy a sample old month kit to try it out.

I would do the readalouds from P4/5 for your son. Ditch their math, handwriting, and reading, and use your own. You DO NOT want to age up on the readalouds. They were over my kids' heads at 5.5, but perfect at 6.5. They have gotten so much more out of it this time around! For me, it was worth buying the instructor guide just to have a schedule. I just subbed out my own phonics, math, & handwriting. I would just let your youngest tag along. If you find you have the time, buy the books from P3/4, and add those in. Or better yet, go with Before Five in a Row. I also wish I had found Slow & Steady, Get Me Ready when mine were toddler/preschool age.

We tried P4/5 last year, and it was a disaster. Just before I gave it to a friend, I decided to give it one more try, and what a difference a year makes! My almost 7 year olds (who are finishing kindergarten, so about a year behind typical kids) have LOOOOVED the books this time around. They understand them, think about them, act them out in their free time, etc. They GET it this time. I thought it was that I hated Sonlight, but actually, we just weren't old enough. We are going to do Core A for their 1st grade year, and hopefully my 6 year old kindergartener will be able to do it. That being said, the LA is way off the mark. By the time my kids were old enough to really get something out of the readalouds, they were far past "this is a letter A".

I am going to do it with my 1st graders (who will be 7.5 when we start) as well as my kindergartener (who will be turning 6 when we start). I am ONLY starting then b/c we do Classical Conversations, and I want their CC memory work to coincide with what we are doing at home. If we weren't in CC, I would do another year of world cultures or world geography, and start SOTW when my youngest was going into 1st grade. I've bought it and read it, and I am afraid a lot of this is going to be over their heads. Another year of world cultures & geography, and SOTW would probably make a lot more sense and they would get a lot more out of it.

I introduce memory work at home, by reading a book or showing a diagram or whatever, but then all review work is done in the car. My kids each have a "smarty pants book" (notebook with memory work divided by topic). I just add a page to each section of the notebook as necessary. I either find a song or record my voice saying whatever it is they are memorizing, and then every month or so I burn a new CD. I have the new stuff on the CD and just skip over it if we haven't learned it yet. When the CD can play straight through, I know it's time to pull in some new material. Notebook sections: Bible (books of the Bible, AWANA verses, 10 Commandments, John 1:1-3) Math (skip counting, money, etc.) Timeline (from CC - 160 bullet point overview of world history) History Sentences (from CC) Science (from CC) Geography (planets, where we live (planet, continent, country, state, city, address), states & capitals Poetry (we only have a few poems, but hope to add to that this summer) General Knowledge (steps of scientific method, our phone number, Mom & Dad's names, etc.) For the past 8 months, most of what we added was from CC, but I try to keep the old stuff up as well.