Looking back at that, I'm sure you can see there *is* a medium step between HER reading aloud on her own, and YOU reading aloud with her. :001_smile: How about if you sit down and say "OK, let's look at it together. Read me the problem. What's the first thing we do? OK, what do we do next?" So you really aren't doing ANYTHING except sitting there.

You have to talk to her some about cost/benefits. I was a CPA/auditor in my pre-mom life, and what you are talking about above was a real struggle in my work life. Companies are only willing to pay so much for an audit, no matter how many hours you put in making the workpapers perfect. I was one who was always taught "anything worth doing is worth doing right", and took it to the extreme. If the permanent file cover was torn, I made a new one. If the debt schedule was a mess, I redid it. Etc. I saw it as taking pride in my work and having high standards. My bosses (at two different firms, so it wasn't just one unreasonable guy) saw it as time wasting and expensive. I watched others getting promoted faster, and always had comments written about time-management on my reviews. I never understood. Other people wasted hours on the internet & email, and I worked hard the whole workday! Looking back, I totally get it. I really wish I had been able to step back and say "is this really adding value?" about those major time-using projects that I always managed to get going. This is something you really need to teach your DD to get a handle on NOW. As a kid, I was just like her. I was the one who used a ruler to graph on my math homework, and plotted 9 points when 3 were asked for. The teacher always praised my efforts, and it fed that desire for perfectionism. But it doesn't always pay in the long run. I wish that someone had sat down then and talked to me about cost-benefits. My homework was way too easy, and yet even though it should have taken me 10 minutes, I was spending an hour with a ruler and colored pencils and an art eraser. What COULD I have used that extra 50 minutes for? Who knows now, but I'm sure I could have come up with some things then had I thought about it! But I never even thought about it.

Dr. Bugaiski at The Developmental Vision Center in Charlotte, NC has evaluated two of my triplets, and the third is scheduled soon. He put one in glasses, and we are to check back in 3 months. He thought it was a 50/50 shot that she might need vision therapy. He put my son in glasses, and we are to start VT with him in January. And the third is coming up, and shows similar signs, so I wouldn't be surprised if she ends up in VT as well. I feel like we are caught between a rock & a hard place. My kids NEED this therapy, but they also need a house and food! We have enough income to live comfortably, but not enough to easily spend thousands extra per month on VT. Has anyone had any success getting insurance to cover this? We have Blue Cross Blue Shield. Also, I know it's a long shot, but has anyone else here used Dr. B or anyone else in Charlotte?

I loved TWTM, and I loved LCC. The Core was NOT my favorite, but was worth the price for the geography section.

I did NOT buy the whole thing. I have been tempted several times, but we aren't at the stage where we are learning all the country names (my kiddos are still preschool/kinder). I just adopted his approach with the simplified lines for the continents and used it with the Core's "blob" method as described above.

If you were only going to homeschool 5-7 years or so of your children's school years, which years would you do? Early elementary? Middle school? Why?

Those who know my story, forgive me for going over it again. I have 5 1/2 year old triplets who would be completely typical if they were a year younger - their motor skills, cognitive skills, social skills, etc. are all about a year behind and have been about a year behind for most of their lives. We have done everything there is to do (remedial programs, therapies, etc.) in an attempt to catch them up to their same-age peers, but it just isn't happening. Because of that, we sent them back this year to a 4 year old preschool program even though technically they were kindergarten age. I have been gently working on preschool/kindergarten things with them at home - the few hours a week they are at preschool is really just to give them some other kids to play with and so on. For next year, my plan was/is to homeschool them, officially declaring them as kindergarteners. But now I am really doubting myself. It seems like everyone else's kids are getting so much out of public school kindergarten. Things that I just would never get around to. Dressing up as their favorite nursery rhyme character. Units on all kinds of neat things that I don't think I would even think of. Show & tell. I am completely freaking about this. I had thought that as long as I covered phonics, handwriting, and math, everything else was gravy. But now I am wondering if my kids are going to be culturally inept. Not classical culture - I mean current culture. Of course, that's part of the reason we are homeschooling - we don't want them exposed to a lot of what is going on in the schools. But it just seems like everyone else's kids are learning so many neat things! Of course my other big worry is that my kids will turn into a pack again. A group that is exclusive and won't play with anyone else and so on. They will be 80 years old and still living together and dressing the same. Agh!!! Help!!!

It is SO common here (or at least it was until a few years ago when they started cracking down). It was wreaking havoc in classrooms, where kindergarten teachers would sometimes have kids who were almost 7 in the same class as kids who had just turned 5. And since it was more common than not, the teachers were teaching at a higher level, and the those who started as young 5s were failing at crazy rates. Total disaster.

My triplets were 5 1/2 at the beginning of this school year, and legally here they have to be enrolled in kindergarten or you have to sign paperwork with the school system exempting them. My kiddos all develop at a normal rate, but never have caught up from being born prematurely and losing some ground the first year. They are the size of kids a year smaller. Their social, emotional, cognitive and gross/fine motor skills are right on par with kids a year younger, and have been for years despite tons and tons of therapies and interventions. Their preschool teachers last year were really on the fence about whether or not they were ready for kindergarten. So obviously we decided not to send them. I went up to the school district office to sign their exemption paperwork, and it was TOUGH. Apparently a LOT of people try to redshirt solely to give their kid an advantage over other kids, either academically or in sports. It is common enough that I had to provide proof of therapies, teacher rec, etc. to get the exemption.

My kiddos are younger, so we are going very gently. We used Audio Memory's Geography Songs to learn the names of the continents & oceans. We use world map placemats, and learned the location of the continents & oceans. I used different color Sharpie markers to outline each continent to make the borders easier to find. I also used Sharpies to trace the Prime Meridian and 5 Great Circles (equator, tropic of cancer/capr., arctic & antarctic circles). Then we spent a week or so answering "Is Australia above or below the Equator" and so on. Now we are on to taking sheets of paper and folding horizontally & vertically, then using those folds to draw the PM & Equator. Add the other Great Circles, then add blobs to represent the continents, focusing on getting them crossing the correct Great Circles, somewhat correct proximity to each other (like Europe & Asia touching, and Africa under Europe), and working on somewhat correct size and shape. (Got a long way to go on this!) If you do trace your continents, you may want to draw simplified lines to represent the borders to make it easier for kids to replicate. I tried to limit it to 5 or 6 dots, then connect those dots to make the border. Like Africa is a triangle below the equator, and a rectangle on top with a corner cut off. South America is pictured in this blog if you scroll down. http://memorize-maps.blogspot.com/

Can you title them a little differently? Elise's Interpretation of Ancient Art Third Grade Project - Egyptian Wall Painting

I had hoped to do CC next year, but it looks like there may not be space for us. I am now considering doing CC at home, and was reading past threads about that. I had thought I would order the Foundations Guide, audio CD, and Veritas Press cards, but when I went to the CC website, now I am a little unsure about what I need. Are they still using the Veritas Press cards for the history timeline? All I see on their website is "Cycle # Memory Master Cards". Do the Memory Master Cards include what the VP cards had in the past? Or do you order the VP cards from the VP website in addition to the Memory Master Cards? If they don't use the VP cards, and all the timeline cards are now included in the MM Cards, has the Foundations Guide been updated to reflect that? Or am I going to be reading "look at VP card blue 7" and not have a coordianting card? Am I making this harder than it is? :)

I can't recommend "The Well-Trained Mind" and "Latin-Centered Curriculum" enough! Both of these books discuss a classical education and how to do it at home. Preschool age is the time to get them ready. - Read read read to them. Consider "Before Five in a Row" (aka BFIAR). - We have also been using "Handwriting Without Tears" - the preschool course. - If you aren't video-opposed, get Leapfrog's "The Letter Factory". It's the easiest way to teach letters & their related sounds. - We use Montessori-inspired activities as well. I learned a lot from Folds' book "Tray Tasking", as well as this website: http://www.infomontessori.com/index.htm Also, I copy a LOT from here: http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/my_montessori_journey/ Kindergarten is for phonics/reading, handwriting, and very basic, hands-on math. Here's what we are using: - "Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading" - "Phonics Pathways" is a good alternative if you don't want something scripted. - Explode the Code workbooks - Handwriting without Tears (this program continues through cursive) - MEP Reception math http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm - RightStart Mathematics Level A (we plan to continue to Level B, then move to Math Mammoth) You may also want to get Hirsh's "What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know" if you need a checklist to mark off. :)

That was me. I am SOOOO grateful now! My handwriting is legible and acceptable when I make an effort, but not great. But more importantly, I can use both hands! It seems so awful to me that most people can only use one hand in a coordinated manner - I can't imagine being so handicapped. (I'm not talking about handwriting - I'm talking about everything else you use your hands for.) Down the road, your son will be happy with the kindergarten teacher's decision!

We are still in RS A, and I do not have any older kids, so take this with a grain of salt! After reading many many many many many math threads here, my plan is do do RS A & B, then switch to MM and start at Level 1 and work our way all the way through that. We supplement with MEP & Miquon.

You gotta catch 'em while you have a captive audience. - during mealtime, when their mouths are full - at bedtime - kiddos can either sit up quietly and listen to the story, or go to bed :)

We have a binder as described by previous posters. In addition, each kid has a notebook in their car seat. This notebook has everything they have previously memorized and are supposed to be retaining. We spend the first 5 minutes of each car ride in silence, and the kids review whatever they want, then we play "I'll trick you!", where I call out something and they raise hands if they know the answer. (I quiz by asking "something tricky" that I pretend I'm sure they won't know the answer to, then act all shocked that they know it. Huge fun for preschoolers!) My kids aren't reading much yet, so all the info in the notebooks is a picture and word combo like this: http://homeschoolcreations.com/files/Cubbies_Jumper_Bear_Hug_1.pdf sign language picture chart, chart of planets with names color-coded to planet color on the side, number chart, etc. I also try to find songs for memory work that we play in the car, and they "read" along with the music. (Most of our review time is in the car.)

Try this one: http://www.singnlearn.org/khxc/ccp0-prodshow/210.html

Sorry - didn't mean to offend. I am a little frustrated by the school experience here, and we haven't even gotten there yet! One of my good friends was told this week that she needed to teach her child handwriting at home b/c they didn't have time for that at school. This is the school my kids may be attending next year. When I asked about handwriting a while back, I was told it was obsolete and not being taught anymore. At all. My friend's feeling is that all they learn at school is things that should be taught at home - cultural stuff.

When we were growing up, we were in public school but my mom always had us do extra math workbooks "for enrichment" as she called it. We were given an assignment to do all the odd numbered problems. If we got them all right, we were done. If we missed even one, we had to correct the mistakes, plus complete all the even numbered problems. It seemed "fair" to us as kids. Maybe that would help?

Here's my favorite idea-jogger for stuff like this: http://mymontessorijourney.typepad.com/my_montessori_journey/

Lightbulb moment for me as well - THANKS!!

That is BRILLIANT!!!! THANKS!!!!

I have NOT used either program personally, so my response is based solely on reading others' opinions. Math Mammoth is a program that is very very similar to Singapore Math ideologically, but is written for homeschoolers. The writer designed it based on Singapore and she follows them very closely. Everything is in ONE PLACE (rather than having a workbook, an instructor's guide, a separate book for practice problems, etc.). Apparently the only difference other than having all instructions right there on the workpage is that she takes smaller leaps intuitively. She goes in the same direction and lands in the same place at the same time, but explains each thing incrementally rather than making some intuitive leaps. It is my understanding that Singapore is great for "mathy" kids, but sometimes the leaps can be a little much for those who don't naturally think mathematically. Here are a few prior threads that may be helpful: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=164345&highlight=math+mammoth+singapore http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=177719&highlight=math+mammoth+singapore http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=180052&highlight=math+mammoth+singapore

Thank you so much to everyone who replied - this helped a lot! I guess I thought I *HAD* to be moving them, just because, well I don't know where I got that idea. I'm going to try tomorrow stretching it out at least a little. Maybe TWO subjects at the table before moving. I cannot believe I never thought about paperclipping the pages - BRILLIANT! Practicing moving back and forth quickly is a great idea too. How in the world did people manage to homeschool before they had internet friends to help them???