anyone?

Has anybody tried this? Can you tell me if it is intended for the adult vs. for the child to listen to? I am wondering if my "I will never to learn to read but will listen to and memorize every song in the history of man" child would benefit from it. Also, it says "Over 30 tracks cover the elementary sounds used for short-vowels, long-vowels, consonants, the schwa, digraphs, and more. Lyrics and a key to phonetic symbols enable you to read along with the tracks." But then the cover says "Audio Companion to Lessons 1 - 26". Those lessons are just the primary letter sounds.

There are a few words that are in EVERY song. I taught my kids some of those words by sight, and I use the bulletin to make a line for them follow along, and then use my finger to go across. So they sort of hum along, and then suddenly sing loudly "ALLELUIA!" or "GOD" or whatever. :) Also, for the refrains, I usually tell them just before we get there. "Get ready to sing "xxxx", then again the next time it comes up. So I am telling them the words 2 bars before we get there and then they sing along. Between getting 1/4 of the words in the non-refrain parts, plus the refrain, they feel like they are singing with everyone. I do have to sit/perch on the edge of the pew during songs, and I usually have one kid standing but cozied in tight to one side, and that hand holds the bulletin & hymnal, then a kid standing on the other side cozied in tight and that hand has the finger following along. So we are all snuggled in and it is easy to tell them the words coming up. I don't think you could do the same thing standing unless you have a really tall 7 year old - your face has to be close to theirs for it to work.

Thanks - she is the one who told me I didn't have to keep up with 4 different boxes of stuff, so I'm definitely listening to her! :)

I have one of these as well, and we are currently struggling with the exact same problems that you are describing with the reading, so it gives me hope that you have gotten past it! For drawing, we have had some luck with really breaking things down into small pieces. One day we worked on drawing Christmas tree lights (curvy wire, square base, oval bulb). We talked about what can make it look strange - bulbs not being evenly spaced, not having bulbs the same size, etc. (I demonstrate by drawing them wonky, and having the kids pick out why they look weird. Huge fun to laugh at Mommy's strange drawings!) The next day, we worked on drawing ornaments. Again, discussions before we started about what can make them look weird. The next day, we practiced drawing presents. Only after we had mastered each piece did we attempt to draw a Christmas tree, and we added the lights, ornaments, and presents underneath that had been previously practiced. Also, before every drawing lesson, we reiterate the rule: it takes TEN good-effort tries to learn to do something. You are EXPECTED to mess up the first NINE times. By the 10th time you have given it a good effort, you will have learned how to do it. Needless to say, it always fun to beat Momma by showing her that you can do it after "only" six tries!!! Somehow knowing that she isn't expected to get it right until she has really tried ten times takes the pressure off for my perfectionist. With drawing at least! If only it worked for reading....

I guess I figure that if it REALLY matters that I get to it daily, it isn't part of the loop. It's the extras that get looped. Your TOTAL school time doesn't change. It just means that you can give each subject a reasonable amount of time instead of rushing from one to the next. Sort of like in middle school - instead of doing 15 minutes of PE, 15 minutes of chorus, 15 minutes of home ec every day, you do 45 minutes of PE one day, then 45 minutes of chorus the next, then 45 minutes of home ec the next. The TOTAL time is the same, it's just that you aren't rushing from one to the next to the next.

Awesome - thank you!!!!

Thank you thank you thank you all!!!

It looks like the following materials are available for AAS: - letter tiles - magnets for letter tiles - phonogram CD - spelling divider cards ($5) - spelling review box ($10) - Level 1 teacher manual - Level 1 student packet ($15) - 3 phonics readers I hope to take 3 or 4 kids through the program simultaneously. So, what should I be buying? Do I really need separate boxes, dividers & student packets for each child? Honestly, that sounds like a huge hassle to keep up with! Is all that really necessary? Or is there a better way to make this work with a group? THANKS!

Not completely switching, but I have one child who is just not really catching on to the reading. At this point, to be honest, it seems like more of a confidence thing than anything. She LOVES to draw, and wants to label her drawings, so is eager to "encode", it's just the "decoding" part (reading) that she has a mental block about. I was thinking of starting AAS in hopes that by working on spelling, her reading would improve. Thoughts on that? Am I crazy for even thinking about this? I would go back to OPGTR later, this would be just be a temporary break and a new approach. (It's not OPGTR that she dislikes - it's reading in general.)

My kids do that due to lack of hand strength, which they are in OT for. Lots and lots of playdough work, tong/tweezer work, squeezing triggers on water guns or spray bottles, etc. We have large mouse pads under their papers, and when they press too hard, they go through. Just be aware that there will be a LOT of holes in paper for a while if you do that, and tears from little ones who are upset with the holes.

Totally agree with NOT getting any squishy grips - they are useless. The best 3 we have found (and we have tried everything on the market!) are the Stetro, the Grotto, and the Claw. We also use a Handiwriter to keep the pencil back in the web of the hand, and to keep the ring finger & pinky out of the action. I would start with the Stetro, and if you need something more intense, buy some of BOTH the Grottos & the Claws and see which they do better with. (We started with Stetros and used those until the kids figured out how to get around them, and now 2 of my kids are using Grottos and 2 are using Claws.) As far as the glass bead, it can be ANYTHING small - even a 1/2 a wadded up tissue would work. A small rock. A large bean. A teddy bear math manipulative. Any of those tiny plastic animals that are like 20 for a $1. The idea is just to give them something to hold to keep those fingers from being where they aren't supposed to be. You also want to assess WHY your child's grasp is wrong. Is it just a bad habit? If so, it's just a matter of re-training - using a grip 100% of the time for a few months then weaning off it should do it. In our case, there are some underlying issues related to hand strength and fine motor delays, and so this is an issue that I need to work in other ways to resolve other than just adding a grip.

If you will read through this thread, there is some info that may help. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=322452&highlight=claw+grotto+stetro

It really depends on what the problem is. What does the current grasp look like?

It looks like the following materials are available for WWE: - The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease Instructor Text (book or PDF) - The Complete Writer: Writing with Ease Workbook 1 (workbook or PDF) - Student Pages 1 for Writing with Ease (consumable or PDF) I hope to take 3 or 4 kids through the program simultaneously. I do NOT want to pick out my own copywork or narrative material - I want to use hers. I have listened to SWB's writing lecture (several times), and read about it in the WTM book, so I understand her philosophy. Do I need the instructor text? Is the Workbook a full self-contained program? Can I buy ONE workbook, and just have the kids use looseleaf handwriting paper? Or am I going to be wishing I had a copy for each child? The student pages are cheap enough that it might be worth just buying the paper versions rather than the PDF, but of course if I can just use regular paper that would be the cheapest yet! So, what should I be buying? My initial thought was 1 instructor book, 1 workbook, and 3 sets of student pages. Is all that necessary? THANKS! ETA - I have StartWrite, and we are using HWOT. Am I going to be wanted to re-type all her sentences to have it in the same format that we have been using? I'll definitely nix the student pages if so!

Meredith is just NOT moving along with the reading. I didn't think I was showing my impatience at all, but more and more often lately when I get out the reading she gets all nervous and teary. Today, Camille (same-age sister, who is reading) said "Mommy can I do reading with M today instead of you? You don't do it the fancy way." OK. Meredith is my girly-girl who loves all things fancy, so I was interested to see what C would do. "Meredith - LOOK!! There are FANCY words on this page! If you read all the little words, I'll teach you to read the FANCY words too!!!" Immediately the two of them cuddled up on the sofa and began poring over the book, and somehow M managed to read all the words for C that she can't read to me. The child who still sounds out CVC words was reading "sparkle", "glitter", "shimmer", etc. I'm feeling like quite the failure! How is it that my 6.5 year old can think of a way to motivate when I can't??? It was really sweet to see though - did my heart good!

You could put WWE/WWS in your "concrete" schedule 4x per week - your "concrete" schedule doesn't have to be the same every day. And your loop can have "repeaters" - we have science in our loop twice, but logic puzzles only once, b/c I want to hit science twice as often as logic.

I read somewhere that in general, girls like to draw nouns, and boys like to draw verbs. That has definitely been the case in our house. My girls draw the scenery stuff like you mentioned, but my son always wants to draw "running", "sliding", etc. If you are giving suggestions for things to draw, try suggesting verbs. Or maybe try "draw your favorite thing to do". My kids would immediately respond "I don't know how", and I would then have to go through the process of deciding what it looked like and how that could be transfered to paper. If you get a newspaper, pull out the comics and look at how they show movement - that helped my son a lot.

Can you tell me what is questionable about those? We are Episcopalian / Presbyterian - would we be OK with them? THANKS!

Are foreign languages a skill that needs to be daily? We loop, but only the stuff that I know doesn't matter if we only get to it once or twice a week. We do all the essentials first, and then go through the loop subjects until attention spans run out, so sometimes it can be a whole week before we get back to a subject.

By the way, you may want to assign each of your kids a color, so you can use one list for all your kids.

I have a list divided by skills (reading, math, handwriting) and content (social study type stuff, science, etc.). For the skill stuff, I try to look through it once every few months and note E for newly emerging skills, or M with the date for mastered. I leave it blank for skills that we haven't started yet. For the content stuff, I just check it off when/if we cover it. Honestly, I probably wouldn't bother with all that without a reason - I do it only b/c my kids have had some developmental issues and I don't want to miss something that may need to be addressed by a professional. To prove giftedness, I would probably just try to do that with standardized testing instead of my records. Love the previous poster's idea of providing a booklist. That would really give a good idea as to how your child compared to others.

RightStart, MEP, Miquon, Math Mammoth, or Singapore

One of the great things about homeschooling is having time to try out lots of different things! We are currently doing: - swimming (2x per week) - gymnastics (1x per week) - dance (1x per week) - one seasonal sport - soccer / basketball / teeball (1x per week) - homeschool PE (one focus sport per month, meets 1x per week) I do not expect to have the time or money to continue this many in the future. I just feel like these young years are the time to try everything - a time of exposure. I hope that by 2nd or 3rd grade they will have chosen one sport that meets a few times per week. For my sanity's sake, I don't register my kids for anything that doesn't allow all 4 to be on the same team/ in class at the same time. Yep, that means my son is in dance - won't kill him!

1st graders could definitely still get something out of Orange, but it is perfect for 4 & 5 year olds.