I have 3 kids who could sit nicely and focus without a fidget toy. #4, though, not happening. She can either focus all her energy on sitting nicely, and do it, but not pay one bit of attention to me or the activity, or I can give her a fidget and let her wiggle some, and have her calling out answers. Granted, this child does have some issues, but I truly think that even for typical children, all little kids just can't be trained to both sit AND pay attention. I am a pretty strict mom, but this child could not be taught. (I tried diligently.) Her brain just can't focus on both things at once. I intentionally stick her on the end where her wiggling is less distracting to the others.

I read A LOT. My parents have been trying to convince me for years to get a Kindle, and I resisted. They ended up giving me one for Christmas last year. It just didn't have that book feel. Then they put the leather cover on, and wa-la!! It's fine! Now I LOVE IT!!! I truly don't know how I lived without this thing for so long. You NEVER have to wait for books to come from Amazon or the library - you just order, and there they are! You don't have to keep a stack of books in your "to read" list - they are all on the Kindle! Take the plunge! (I will tell you, though, that my book budget has been completely blown.) PS - it's worth paying extra for the little light that comes out of the cover for nighttime reading without disturbing your other half!!

Could you just load the pages in the machine upside down, so it binds on the right instead of the left?

Do your kids have "fidgets"? That is KEY in my house! Something that isn't interesting to play with, but keeps their hands out of trouble. Like stress balls, those stretchy bunnies you see at Easter, "porcupines", Tangle Therapy toys, etc. (Go on Amazon & search for "fidget toys" to see what I mean, then you can buy them in Michael's or Target's dollar bins.) The other thing that really helps is having a defined space to be in. My kids have "workmats" - beach towels folded in half. They are arranged in a semicircle around me so everyone can see. Here is a copy of my Morning Meeting sheet: Components: · Who are the helpers for the week? (currently Meteorologist / Calendar Helper; Laundry Supervisor; Chef (cooking, meal planning, nutrition); KP (dishes, tables, floors, etc.) · Pledge of Allegiance, Pledge to Bible · Good Morning Song * Greet your teacher/neighbor with handshake, eye contact, smile, using person’s name (can change to diff languages if good morning gets boring, or go to drjean website for silly handshakes) · Spanish vocabulary word/greeting · Weather observations (diff types – graph, tally marks, using thermometer, etc.) · Calendar Time with Patterning - pointing out today’s date, the day of week, month, year and what day was yesterday and will be tomorrow. Quiz: what date is the <3rd Wednesday>? Church calendar / liturgical year. Season / month spinner · Counting - counting to 100, backwards counting, by 10's, by 5's, odd and even counting, addition facts · Memory Work Review – get a hard one, “kiss your brain!” · Goals for the day, News & Announcements · Manners · Sharing time (show & tell?) My favorite thing about my neighbor? · Clapping rhythm patterns & singing – Music Together song with movements; Camp songs; Broadway tunes; Schoolhouse Rock; Dr. Jean; Wee Sing; Wiggles; Raffi; Stop and Go by Greg & Steve; Shake My Sillies Out; Going Bananas (Corn, Potatoes, etc.); Happy and You Know It; Tooty-Ta; The Bird; Bunny Hop; Bus Stop; Car Wash; Cha Cha Slide; Chicken Dance; C’mon Ride the Train; Conga / Hot Hot Hot; Cotton Eyed Joe; Crank That; Cupid Shuffle; Electric Slide / Hustle; Follow the Leader; Freeze Dance; Hand Dive; Hands Up; Hey Baby; Hoe Down Throw Down; Hokey Pokey; Jump On It; Ketchup Song; Limbo; Locomotion; Macarena; Mambo no 5; Motown Medley; Pizza Dance; Shamrock Shuffle; Soulja Boi; Time Warp; Twist; YMCA; etc. · Exercises (warmup stretching exercises from a gymnastics fundamentals book)

Change the rules. SIT at home, STAND in public restrooms.

We HATED the Singapore EarlyBird books. I have heard that Essentials is better. We didn't like MUS Primer either. RightStart A is PHENOMENAL!!! It does take me sitting down and doing every minute WITH them, but truly, I think at this age, any math that is worth much is going to require that. MEP Reception and Miquon Orange are the other two that get great reviews.

Oh, and Galloping the Globe along with an entire bookcase worth of geography books, other culture books, maps, a globe, videos on geography, etc. I had HUGE plans for that, coordinating it all with FIAR...

I didn't mention - "Morning Meeting" (calendar, weather, memory work, etc) - you can't imagine the quantity of STUFF I bought for this!!! - Draw Write Now - Spanish - Music for Little Mozarts AND Suzuki Piano - Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding - Lollipop Logic Oh, and about 14 books covering other stuff like manners and life skills like cooking & cleaning. That's just what I can think of off the top of my head. I need serious help. It's to the point that I actually hide the boxes, and then sneak them out on trash day so that my husband doesn't see. Some women collect shoes. I collect homeschool materials. Yes, I have a problem...

You can buy Ziplocs that have sliding closers instead of the press-closed kind. I have each type of manipulative in one of those bags, and then they are all in a milkcrate shaped basket from Target. They are in the corner of my living room, but you can't see in the basket until you are right on top of it, so it doesn't look too junky.

Glad it's not just me! I keep trying to find different ways to fit ALL of the following in: Leading Little Ones to God OPGTR Explode the Code Handwriting without Tears RightStart Math MEP Reception Miquon Orange Beautiful Feet Early American History PLUS: Sonlight P4/5 HOD Little Hearts for His Glory Memoria Press Kindergarten Five in a Row and everything in Core Knowledge that hasn't been covered by something else Oh, and Classical Conversations and ad hoc science stuff related to that. I know. It's ridiculous. I kept finding more things I just HAD to do with them, and now I have more than I could possibly ever do. I'm hoping it's a newbie mistake and I won't do this every year!!

Sheltered Cove Grammar School - the Sh Cv part came from the name of our street

Do you have "fun" things built in? My kids were sad about not going to "real school" as well, but the things they were sad about were things that I could address. - "We won't have a theme like Miss Katherine had frogs!" We now have a theme - "Mommy's Marvelous Mini Monsters" - I found a calendar and all the related stuff that was monster themed. - "We won't be able to be the line leader or helpers!" I now have a little monster dressed in a chef hat, a laundry monster, a meterologist monster, and a "KP" (kitchen patrol/cleanup) monster. - "But I want a lunchbox!" We have lunchboxes, and have Lunch Bunch with other kids every other week or so at the park. - "There isn't a goldfish/gerbil at home!" Well, I haven't addressed that. I told them we might get one, and am hoping they will forget! We also try to break up school as much as possible. We do readalouds while they are eating (at the kitchen table). Then we move to the rug for our "Morning Meeting". At the end of that, we have a "dance party". (I try to find a new dance on Youtube each week - currently it is the Tooty Ta. Totally annoying, but they think it is HILARIOUS!) We do stretches, then we have a 10 minute break for drink filling, going to the bathroom, etc. Then we sit back on the rug for OPGTR, then move back to the table for history readalouds while they do playdough (aka hand warmup). Then handwriting, then back to the rug for math. So I guess my LOOONG question for you is - are you expecting her to sit still in one spot for the whole time? If so, can you get up and move more?

Thanks! I do actually HAVE full plans, I just want to be free to change direction midstream based on how things are going, so I hate to give anymore info than necessary. Thank you so much for that wording - copying it word for word!!

I'm in SC. There are 3 options under the law. Almost everyone chooses Option 3. Most people in my area use one accountability association, and as part of registering, I have to send in "each child's curriculum plan for the year". I really don't want to get off to a bad start by not sending in exactly what I should, but I also know that these are kids who have already been held back for a year, and so are just now starting kindergarten, and have some other issues, so we may or may not finish what I hope to. So I sorta feel like the less I say, the better, as I then have to send in an end of year report and I don't want to show that we didn't do everything I had said I would. "You have three options to legally homeschoolin the state of South Carolina. You must register under one of them or you will be acting outside of the law and may be brought up on truancy charges. Option 1: Gaining approval of your local school district and following their directions. Some of which are to school a minimum of 4 ½ hours each day along with statewide testing. Section 59-65-40 of SC law. Virtual Public Schools fall under Option 1. Option 2: Membership in SCAIS- South Carolina Association of Independent Schools operates under Section 59-65-45 of SC law. This is a wonderful but expensive association. They do require some testing and more intense accountability to their organization than do associations operating under Option 3. Option 3: Membership in an accountability association, such as Faithful Scholars, which are patterned after SCAIHS but place greater trust and responsibility on the parent-teacher in the areas of teaching, testing and record keeping."

As part of joining the required homeschool accountability organization, I am supposed to submit "each child's curriculum plan for the year". How much detail should I be giving? Just name of curriculum? More? If so, what?

To be fully utilized as intended, your child needs to be able to write sentences and color more complicated pictures. My going-into-kindergarten- 6 year olds are NOT quite ready. I'm sure it is a great program as it gets great reviews, but just be ready to modify if necessary. The one other thing to be prepared for is that the book "America's Providential History" is, um, I don't know how to say it, so here's Amazon's description: "based on the assumption that all history is Providential (i.e., it reflects God's purposes) you'll learn how God's presence was evident at our nation's founding in the hearts and minds of the men who fought for independence and shaped the Constitution." That theme is woven throughout everything. Depending on your faith background, you may or may not be comfortable with that. I didn't really understand when someone told me that, but now I get it!

We had to deal with a bully situation in 3 year old preschool, believe it or not. My kids know that they are EXPECTED to stick together when someone is mean to a sibling - family is way more important than any other kid. Having them as a pack means that the bully is then dealing with a whole group saying "we aren't playing with you until you can be nice" rather than just one kid. What is interesting is that as soon as ONE kid stands up, and the siblings stand up to the bully, all the other kids will instantly go with the victims. They have all been victims in the past too, and see this as their chance! We saw it over and over. The kid that was bullying my kids had some rough issues at home, and I didn't want them to permanently write him off because of that. So it repeated daily. He would do something to one of them, all my kids would say "we aren't playing with you today b/c you aren't being nice", and then the whole class would ostracise this kid. In the beginning it happened every day. By the end of the year, it only happened maybe once every other week. (He was three years old - so it took a lot of repetition for him to get the point that the outcome would be the same every time!) Encourage your kids to become a pack/team that sticks together. When someone attacks one, they should ALL feel offended. Course, my kids are a lot younger, and that probably makes a difference, so maybe this advice is worthless!

WOOHOO!!! Love hearing that!!! We start VT with 2 kids next Tuesday!!

I must be a little older than most of you, b/c my friends don't post that stuff, but what irritates me is the pictures that look like a flip book. You know, the kind that show 1400 pictures of their child where they just held down the shutter to get continuous shots. And they posted E.V.E.R.Y single one!! I don't need to see 1400 almost-identical photos of your child! Post ONE or TWO from that moment!!!!

Ditto, except walking was a real challenge here as well. And we are nowhere close to getting rid of the training wheels. Thankfully, they are oblivious to the fact that other kids are moving on! I have to remind myself daily that God gave these particular children to ME, as I am a parent who cares enough to work on the therapy skills with them. (And yes, I think of everything as therapy too!) I have friends who would totally be irritated at having kids who were slower than typical.

Ditto. I have THREE 6 year olds who aren't reading! And there has been no lack of effort on anybody's part - they just aren't ready yet. I have tried it all - if they could be pushed, they would be reading by now. Pushing does nothing but frustrate us all.

Much better idea - we have the dot kind, and my kids tend to "connect the dots" instead of truly learning to write the numbers with smooth strokes.

I found a ton of interlocking navy milk crates on clearance. I'm in the process of sorting the books by topic. I have them stacked 4 high and 4 wide. Not going to say my wall of milk crates is the most beautiful, but it is sturdy and the holes allow me to wire in bookends, so the kids can manage to put books away without the bookends getting knocked over!

I was thinking we would do italic when the time came - why do you advise against it? Thanks!

What about Nebel's Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding? It gets great reviews, but is some work to pull together, which is why that is the one subject I passed off to DH. (Plus, I HATE science, and don't want to pass that hatred on to my kids!)