We officially begin homeschooling in the fall for kindergarten. Public school registration was last week, so of course everyone (meaning well) is asking my kids if they went to registration, are they excited, etc. etc. My kiddos are feeling a little left out despite my assurances that they ARE going to kindergarten, we will be having some school with friends (CC), etc. "But Mommy, I really want to ride the school bus!" is one major disappointment, and of course I can't do anything about that. Frankly, they wouldn't be riding the bus even if they WERE going to PS, but that's beside the point. The other big disappointment is that each class has a theme, class mascot, etc. Miss Green's Frogs. Mrs. Brown's Bears. Etc. etc. I was planning on doing the calendar / weather thing again next year anyway, so I found a calendar that had a monster theme (cute monsters, not scary monsters). Mommy's Monsters! Thoughts for ways to incorporate the monster theme past just the calendar? I know in our PS classrooms, the frog class has "Hoppy Helpers", but I don't know what else they do with it.

If you go with MM, get it through Homeschool Buyer's Coop before March 31st - major sale!

You aren't, by any wild chance, in Charlotte, NC are you? If so, I have not one but FOUR kiddos she can teach! :)

My kiddos are younger, so it may be different. Playdough is definitely helpful for my two sensory kids (both the seeker and the avoider). But the REAL winner is Theraputty. I swear they can sit for ages and play with the stuff! They LOVE to hide things in it - coins, marbles, etc. and then dig it back out. We use the orange, but my kids have some hand strength issue - you may want to go one level stiffer if you get it. The only downside to Theraputty is that it is a pain to get off clothing, so it is an at-the-table only item at our house, and my kiddos are strictly prohibited from stretching it into wispy strings (it stretches like gum). Other things that help with the fidgets at our house - weighted vests, and we have these bumpy wedge things they sit on.

If I were you, I would try to grab a local kid who has just finished public school kindergarten and has an agreeable mom, and ask your daughter to "tutor" him for the summer by teaching him RightStart A. It could be a great summer job! :) Then maybe in the fall she could whip through B and C in preparation for next summer, alongside her own "real" math.

I am a terrible memorizer, so figuring out math tricks was the way I got through school. It is MUCH easier to round the LOWER number. Instead of 78 + 8, I would say 78 + 10 - 2. I know that doesn't help in general, but for this kind of problem, try explaining to her how to change the LOWER number instead of the upper.

I rarely literally laugh out loud, but that did it!

We had a situation with a bully in the 3s at our small church preschool. I knew my kids didn't like this kid, but their verbal skills were very limited at that age and I didn't realize the extent of the problems. One day, I was the guest reader, and the kid tried to push a bookshelf over on another child. A TALL bookshelf. Instinctively, I thrust my hand out to steady the bookshelf, and the kid dropped to a crouch, arms protectively covering his head. (He didn't realize I was reaching for the shelf - he thought I was going to punch him.) That reflex should NOT be the instinct at that age, and it broke my heart. Here I was so angry at this kid for being such a pain, and then that happened. Of course I went straight to the director's office, and explained what had happened. Apparently all the parents were complaining about this kid being a bully, but they didn't want to kick him out until social services had stepped in, and that was taking forever as it was only suspicions as opposed to proof of abuse so it wasn't "high priority". School was the only wholesome, positive, loving place that kid had. The school finally decided to provide more teacher support. There was already a teacher and an assistant in the classroom (12 kids), but they ended up trying to have another adult in the room at all times. Either the director, a parent volunteer, etc.

You are a GREAT Momma, and a inspiring example for the rest of us!! Thanks for sharing!

I may be remembering this totally incorrectly, but doesn't the new SAT essay require cursive?

I too visited a CC community recently, and asked some of these same types of questions. One comment that really stuck in my brain was a mom talking about memorizing Latin. She said 3 years ago she thought it was just a stupid waste of time for a kindergartener to memorize the Latin, but her child was one of those who really wanted to know EVERYTHING before they went to class, so she worked on it with him faithfully. Now, 3 years later, they are actually studying Latin, and she says she really sees the value of that prior work. He already has some of it in his head, so the lessons aren't nearly as difficult as they would be otherwise. Another mom was saying that she agrees with the philosophy of memorizing without context, but her kids enjoy the memorization a lot more when they have some background, so she fleshes it out at home. She said some weeks she has indepth studies and activities and books, and other weeks they watch a Magic School Bus about the science fact and call it done. She said she tries to do at least ONE thing to make each piece of material more relevant to the kids, and apparently it makes the memorization much easier! I am planning on following that advice - I can totally see my kids feeling the same way!

I talked to the OT today about this thread. She completely agreed that for any kid who has writing challenges, coloring is important. The only difference she had was in the writing instrument. She felt that CRAYONS were more appropriate than colored pencils until good control is gained. The reason was something about the crayon having more resistance against the paper and proving more input back to the hand. That's kind of the jist of it - it was a LOOOOOONG speech about sensory stuff and the relationship to fine motor skills, and I was trying to control 4 kids in the waiting room while she was talking about it, so I may have missed some of the finer points! :) She said there is NO REASON to worry if a kid doesn't have perfect handwriting before age 7, as long as there aren't any other concerns. And she gave me her favorite line that she repeats weekly: "every preschool and lower elementary child should be working with Playdoh every single day for hand-strengthening!".

Thank you - very helpful!

Check out Draw Write Now Books 2, 3, & 5.

Does the "Draw Write Now" series need to be used sequentially, or can they be used in any order? THANKS!

I cannot believe how many of you have ANY memories that far back! My earliest memories are from 3rd grade, and even those are few and far between and are almost all related to pictures in photo albums!

I have 4 kiddos that are close to each other developmentally. (The big kids are delayed, the youngest is advanced.) I began doing the big kids separately, but of course the baby wanted a turn as well, and it just took SOOO LONG. I hated it, and started putting it off. You don't know misery until you have done the same OPGTR lesson 4 times in a row, trying to act as enthusiastic the 4th time as the first. I finally decided to just do one lesson with everybody in a group daily. It gets done MUCH more regularly. I figure the review won't hurt the ones who are a little ahead. In fact, I do ALL subjects this way! The only time I do one-on-one teaching is when one kid doesn't get something and the other 3 do. Then I work with that one child to catch them up. If 2 don't get it, we pause there and stay there, repeating until they get it. This keeps everyone pretty close to the same level, and keeps me sane. (Lest everyone gasp in horror, I have one-on-one time with each kid, it just isn't during schooltime!)

Have you read Love & Logic? Your comment above reminds me so strongly of their Energy Drain philosophy. Perhaps that would be helpful?

My kids are younger, so take my thoughts with a grain of salt! If her issues with her schoolwork are that she CAN'T do it, you need to make adjustments. If the issues are that she WON'T do it, that's a whole nother issue. 1 - DO NOT LET HER SEE YOU SWEAT!!! If she sees that you are upset / angry / frustrated, you know it is going to get immediately worse. 2 - If you can't make her do it, don't bother. "You can either do this now with a good attitude, or you can _______ until you are ready to do it with a good attitude." I don't know what _____ is in your house. In mine, it might mean sitting on the garage steps (hard, cold, & uncomfortable, with nothing to do!), standing in the corner on one foot with nose touching wall, etc. Growing up, my mom had a pile of bricks on one side of the yard. If we were truly terrible, she would make us move them, one brick at a time, to the other side of the yard. If the new stack wasn't neat, you better believe we had to move them back and stack them neatly. One brick at a time. It was seriously the worst punishment ever. Working at a steady pace, it could take the two of us over an hour to move the pile. Dragging our feet, it could the whole day. And unfortunately, there were no meals, no bathroom breaks, etc. until we had finished. Today it might be called abusive. Back then it was called learning your lesson! And it worked.

Thank you!

I thought these were discontinued?

In less than 12 hours, I have gone from wanting a $75 chart rack, to a $15 garment rack, to some PVC pipe! Who says the Hive always encourages more spending?? :)

We have both. CC has weekly memory work including: - history timeline - history sentence - Latin - English grammar - science - math - geography The history timeline is pulled from Veritas Press' flashcards. The VP song CDs have their timeline in their order. There are a very few changes between VP's order and CC's order. No details - just a quick title for each event. The history sentences are much more detailed. "In 1492, Columbus made the first of four trips to the Caribbean on 3 Spanish ships named the Nina, Pinta, & Santa Maria. CC's songs include everything EXCEPT the timeline.

You are a GENIUS!!! So I guess your white board is permanently mounted, and then how do you handle the rest? Are they on rings that you rotate forward as needed? Or are you using magnets to hold them on your white board?