Anyone planning lapbooks to go along with their Classical Conversations class? I'd love to hear your thoughts!

My screamer gets put on the garage steps. I can still hear her, but the sound is muffled. My violent screamer gets strapped in her carseat in the van (van door open, in the garage with garage door down so she is perfectly safe). They are welcome to come back in when they are calm & quiet, and are ready to apologize to everyone for acting like a 2 year old. If it takes 1 minute for them to stop, great! If it takes 2 hours, so be it. Whatever they wanted when they started screaming, the answer is no, and there is always an additional something negative. "I was planning on us going out to dinner tonight, but after all listening to all that screaming, I am just too tired to go. I think we'll have <least favorite food> tonight instead."

It's a fine balance around here - don't move enough, and they quit paying attention. Move too much, and it's hard to keep them reined in. Our current system: During breakfast - - Religion (Leading Little Ones to God) - Memory work review After breakfast we move to the carpet in the family room - - Morning Meeting (pledge, Spanish vocab word, weather, calendar, counting) - kids do one exercise video (Wiggles, School House Hop, Tinkerbell dance, etc.) while I get anything else ready that I need to, as well as check my email - stretches & therapy exercises - phonics (OPGTR) on dry erase board propped up on fireplace Move back to kitchen table - kids play with playdoh to warm up hands during history (BF Early American) - Handwriting Without Tears (they tend to drag this out drawing in the margins and so on, so by the time they are done we have been at the table for half an hour or so) Move back to rug - math (RightStart) - science (currently random read-alouds - hopefully eventually Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding) Few minutes break - the Chef helps me prep a snack, the Laundry Supervisor is collecting laundry, the KP is emptying the dishwasher, and the Meteorologist is helping whoever wants help Back to kitchen table - snack and drawing This is where we seem to get stuck every day. I want to quit while they are still happy & engaged, and this seems like about the end of that stage. My plan shows the next item on the list to be "Rotations", where I work with one kid on the piano, one plays on the Starfall website on the computer, and one works on Miquon math. We've done that exactly once in the past 6 weeks. I am also hopeful that eventually we will be weaving Sonlight in during lunch, along with a related craft or experiment after lunch. I also have the Memoria Press K materials, HOD Little Hearts materials, Core Knowledge K stuff, etc. that in my fairytale world are going to get used...

Do you have the Core Knowledge kindergarten list? That helped me figure out what I really needed to do. Here's my list, in order of priorities: Religion Reading / Phonics Handwriting Math Literature / Readalouds - I have Sonlight P4/5, but haven't gotten that going - we are basically just reading off lists at this point (Ambleside Online Year O, Five In a Row, etc.) General Knowledge / Memory Work - includes calendar, weather, songs, pledge, manners, etc. History - we are using Beautiful Feet's Early American - I had high hopes of doing Geography by adding Galloping the Globe combined with Five in a Row, but that hasn't worked out timewise Science - we are just using random books right now - hoping to start Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding soon Drawing Piano

When I was making this decision, everyone said that PP & OPGTR were very similar, but PP was the "fun" version. I of course chose PP. I just could not figure out how in the world to do it. Maybe if I had taught a kid to read before, I would have understood, but I just did not get it. Finally gave up and got OPGTR which has "Instructor say this..." "Child should say this - if they don't, do this." It tells you EXACTLY what you need to do - you can't mess it up. It's not the most fun I've ever had, but it is effective, and I'm confident that I'm not screwing up this majorly important thing! How much hand-holding do you want? If none, go for PP. If you need more, get OPGTR.

It seems like the people on here who LOVE RightStart are, for the most part, those who started with A. I have my six year olds in A, and it is perfect! Somewhat easy, but that's OK - it's kindergarten! They are confident and love math b/c they know they can do it. And yet it is interesting to them b/c it is constantly changing. They love to "trick" me when I say I think something will be too hard for them! :)

Sometimes, you just have to do what is best for the family. Hence the reason my daughters take soccer and my son is in dance. (OK, his PT wants him in it anyway.) I am NOT going to an activity if all my kids can't do it b/c it is just too hard to try and do something different for everybody. And it's cost-effective - the more kids you enroll, the cheaper. Time-wise as well - if everybody did their own thing, we would spend SO much time doing extra-curriculars. We just don't have time to do that. So everybody has to do what is best for the family. Maybe I'll feel differently when they are a little older, but for now, it doesn't hurt them to try things that they might or might not have chosen.

I would probably ask her to do it until she passes her first belt test, and if she still dislikes it after that, let her quit. My mom made us join the swim team. I cried every day for the first two weeks, but she said we had to do it for at least one month. By the end of a month, we loved it, and ended up doing it every summer for YEARS! It's one of my best summer memories!

Just to be sure you understand, this is NOT a curriculum that you open and do. It's a LIST of other resources and ideas, so you do a fair amount of planning to use it. Great if you want to organize your FIAR studies or something like that.

just wanted to say thank you again - such great resources!!

She said it was because the timeline was so long, and if learned to a song, you had to start at the beginning and sing it to figure out where something fit in. Like having to sing your ABCs to know what letter comes after another. She felt it was better to know it without the song.

Does that mean a new Foundations Guide & new CDs are around the corner as well? Ugh - I JUST bought those!! Are they expected to be just the same? Or are kids who have already learned the VP timeline going to be expected to learn something different? Not that it would be dramatically different obviously, but still. That may impact how much effort we put into really learning the timeline cold this year. Might put our efforts into another area.

Our director doesn't believe in learning the timeline to a song, so we don't have that. It was my understanding that CC didn't have an official version, but some communities had come up with their own. Is that not right? ETA - Nevermind - just read the next response! :)

They are different. CC has detailed history sentences. Each year there is a different focus - this year is Columbus to present. Sample detailed History Sentence: "In 1492, Columbus made the first of four trips to the Caribbean on three spanish ships named the Nina, the Pinta, and the Santa Maria." In addition to the detailed history sentences, CC has students memorize a timeline from creation to present each year. This timeline is just bullet-point items - not details. Just a very high-level timeline of the whole history of the world. They use Veritas Press timeline cards & audio. The CC materials contain the detailed history sentences. If you want the timeline, that is NOT printed in the CC materials or sung on the CC discs - you buy the Veritas Press CDs & cards. To avoid copyright issues, the only timeline references you will see in the CC guide are "VP Blue card 1" and the like.

If she were going into public school, she would be labeled kindergarten (here anyway), so that's what I would label her. That label is used for extracurriculars, Sunday School placement, etc. Of course her skill work (reading, writing, math) should be appropriate to her abilities, regardless of the label. When you finish 100EZ, you could either pick up at the appropriate point in Ordinary Parent's Guide to Reading, or go straight to All About Spelling to further her reading skills. For math, a lot of people LOVE RightStart. I'm using Level A right now, and am very pleased with it. I keep trying to make time to add in Miquon Orange and MEP Reception as well, but it hasn't happened yet! We HATED Singapore EarlyBird - don't waste your money on that. It is my understanding that Singapore Essentials is better, and 1A is much better. For handwriting, we use Handwriting Without Tears. It's effective. Not exciting, but it works well. Other than that, the only thing you really need is a lot of good reading. You can find lists from Ambleside Online or somewhere like that. If you want something more structured, you could add Sonlight, Memoria Press, or Leading Little Ones to God. Or Five in a Row, maybe combined with Galloping the Globe. I would choose the kindergarten level for whichever of these you choose, just based on her age.

How many times a week is Miquon intended to be used? thanks!

Thank you thank you thank you!!!

We live in SC, which is pretty relaxed as far as requirements. But I have heard of several people who have had the state come checking on them. In every case, it was due to either neighbors or relatives who were concerned that the children weren't being educated. In those cases, having workbooks, portfolios, etc. would show that the kids were actually learning something!

I was told by my mentor to keep stuff that showed progress in each subject - about one page per month. Easy for things like handwriting. For subjects that don't have workbooks (like OPGTR phonics and RS math), she said to copy the table of contents, and check off lessons completed, and on the first schoolday of each month, note the date on the appropriate line of the TOC so progress is obvious. She also said to keep a running list of books that I read aloud, as well as books that the kids read.

Yeah, no luck.

What's In the Bible with Buck Denver DVDs Leading Little Ones to God

Where can I buy a HUMUNGOUS map of North America, that has all the American states, Canadian provinces, and Mexican states clearly colored and labeled? Something like this, except I need it printed. http://www.presentationmaps.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Product_Code=pm_ubs02nam01con_ppt&Category_Code=nappt

Ditto. But my DH is usually the enforcer. If you don't like it, don't eat, but don't talk about it. Kids who say anything negative about the food invariably affect the other kids who might have eaten/tried it otherwise. DH will eat whatever I cook, even if it is gross, just to respect me / my effort and to set a good example. If you don't want your kids doing it at someone else's house, you can't allow it at your own. What would DH do if you were at your grandma's house and she cooked something he didn't like? Smile, eat a little, etc, so as not to offend the cook. He owes you the same respect, as do your kids.

Can you just do one box, with high level work for the youngest, and more details for the olders? For example, I know that for the CC timeline, in our community, the youngers learn the timeline titles themselves, and the olders who have already learned the titles add a detail or two or three about each timeline title. Same for the states - the youngers just learn the states & capitals, the olders add locating on the map, major cities, fun facts, etc. We are starting in 2 weeks!