I'd love to find some more things for my 3yo DS to do while I'm working on school with my 3rd grade DS and caring for my twin infants. He is such a busy loud child and I have a hard time keeping him occupied so he isn't too distracting to my son that is working on school work. We have lots of jigsaw puzzles that he enjoys and he colors/draws and likes to do lace-up's every once in a while. He loves watching TV, but I don't typically let him watch any until after his nap because I like to limit the amount of media time. Unlike my older DS, he really doesn't play with "toys" too much other than balls. Any good suggestions? Maybe some good Christmas present ideas for the grandparents?

Hi, I just wanted to give some kudos to phonetic zoo. I will admit, I was skeptical. I had seen mixed reviews, but decided to try it because of my time limits this year. I have twin newborns and an almost 3 year old that keep me hopping, so I knew I needed to streamline school as much as possible for my young 3rd grader. He is very bright and advanced in reading and math, but has had a very hard time with spelling and writing. We've been gradually easing our way into schoolwork and this week we added spelling to our schedule. The first day he got 9/15 correct (which I thought was fantastic) and today (day 4) he got all 15 words correct! And for some reason, he now says he LIKES spelling. Not sure how that happened or even if it will last, but I'll take the excitement over spelling for as long as I can. He has even been ASKING to study his spelling words (crazy). If you were considering trying Phonetic Zoo, I'd encourage you to go for it! I know it isn't for everyone and there have been really mixed reviews on here... but our first week with it has gone WAY better than I ever expected it would.

We use covenant eyes. It has internet accountability and filtering. Great company and great customer service.

Any other suggestions? Maybe an intro to cellular biology curriculum? Not feeling like I've been able to find anything quite right for a semester long class...

Thanks for the suggestions! I'll be sure to check them out.

I've been asked to teach a semester long science class for our homeschool enrichment classes. The first semester they have a classical astronomy class lined up and are looking for another science class for second semester. I've been a bit stumped at figuring out something for just a semester. Until tonight, I thought why not do a intro to genetics class? My undergrad degree was in Biology with an emphasis on genetics, so I certainly have a good grasp of the material myself and would be comfortable teaching on it. I just don't have the time to develop a whole curriculum just for the class, especially this year since I just gave birth to twin boys. Anyhow, any recommendations on some sort of guide or curriculum that covers introductory genetics that would be appropriate for 9th-12th graders? Thanks!

I started teaching my son cursive last year (he was a young 2nd grader) and am so glad I did! I really only did it because he REALLY wanted to learn to write in cursive. His printing was so sloppy and he occasionally had some reversals. He has very nice cursive handwriting and no reversals. He doesn't know it yet, but I'm planning to require all work to be done in cursive this year so I don't have to struggle to figure out what his handwriting says!

Good question! I'll be watching this thread. DS#2 will be turning 3 in September, and DS#3 & 4 were born in May. I have no idea how I'm going to juggle the kids this year :confused: ... but at least I'm not miserable and pregnant! :D

I switched doctors at around 25 weeks because my doctor said she would only deliver the babies vaginally if they were both head down. My second doctor said she would deliver them both vaginally as long as baby a was head down. She would do a breech extraction of baby b if need be. Unfortunately, both of my babies got themselves into a transverse position. Baby A had his back flat against my cervix, so there was no coming out other than via a c-section. Also, I decided when I found out it was a twin pregnancy that I wanted to be at a hosptial with a NICU. I have a history of pre-term babies. All 4 of my kids have been born at 35 weeks. Glad I had them at that hospital, but thankful that we didn't need the NICU.

We used their phonics material for K/1 and were really happy with it. For 2nd grade we used their history, bible, and literature and again loved the material. This year my son is doing the online history program... a bit pricey, but since I just had twins I'm trying to simplify school as much as possible. My son just started the history program a few weeks ago and he would do multiple lessons a day! He also goes back and reviews old lessons because he's enjoyed them so much. We love their materials!

I decided to start gradually this year... so we started one subject a couple of weeks ago and are up to 2 subjects now. We'll add another subject either next week or the week after. I plan on being "full speed ahead" by the day after Labor Day. I've never done it this way, but am hoping it will help me to feel like we have more flexibility during the school year since we got a head start on a few subjects!

I purchased mine on ebay for a great price... can't exactly what I paid right now, but worth checking out if you're looking for a bargain.

Not sure if this helps, but I was homeschooled with the hardcover saxon math books. I skipped 87, did Algebra 1/2, Algebra 1, Algebra 2, Advanced Math... and then I breezed through several semesters of college calculus. Saxon was awesome prep for college calc! Also, regarding geometry... if you go through their entire series (at least of the older hardcover books) Algebra 1,2 and Advanced Math you will have covered geometry. They integrate their geometry.

From what I've seen of the song school latin I really think my DS would be bored considering the latin he learned last year from Prima Latina and also the latin he had through enrichment classes. He has surprised me with how much he has retained. We are planning on doing Latin every day. I have it scheduled into our day, but would really like to keep it to about 30 minutes a day. We have a 4 day school week due to enrichment classes on Mondays.

:lurk5:

My DS(3rd grade) and I are both excited to start working on Latin. Last school year we worked through part of Prima Latina, but we got way laid mainly because I was having a very difficult twin pregnancy and it was a subject that got dropped. This year, I was originally planning on going with latin for children but the more I look at their stuff online the more overwhelmed I get looking at it. I did some investigation into Visual Latin and have looked at their sample stuff online and I like that it looks like it's divided up into very manageable chunks. I also like that it doesn't look like TONS of time must go into it. Any thoughts/opinions on the use of these curriculums? Also, my DS is a young 3rd grader though very bright. I know the Visual Latin says it's for use with 9+, but it doesn't look any more challenging than the LfC. I think I'll also be using "I Speak Latin" as a secondary source to help with vocab. I think that curriculum has some really cool techniques for beefing up vocab.

I have a DS who is going into 3rd grade. We're using Phonetic Zoo (by IEW). Hoping it goes well. If it does, I won't have to put much time at all into teaching it which is what I need with my 2 year old and 2 month old twins!

We did Saxon K the year my son was 3 and Saxon 1 the year he was 4. I wouldn't personally skip K unless my kids were starting school around 5 though. But you certainly know what your daughter can handle better than anyone else!

My DS will be in 3rd grade this year and handwriting has never been his strong suit... his hands seem to get tired quickly and fine motor skills developed late. Anyhow, I know his print handwriting has gotten worse over the course of the last couple of years. The end of this past school year, I often had a difficult time figuring out what he had written because he was trying to rush through the writing. He learned cursive this past year. He had very pretty cursive handwriting. I was contemplating making him use that this year for everything... what do you think?

This is so good to hear! I have a son that will be beginning 3rd grade next month and he also HATES writing. Any subjects that require writing he always grumbles about and it takes him forever to complete. I've been wondering whether this was a good time to start him with IEW's SWI-A. I think I'm going to. I may write the rough drafts for him and let him write the final drafts. His fine motor skills developed late and his hands get tired quickly when writing. I'm just afraid he'll be overwhelmed with the writing.

I must say I'm pretty impressed with the helpful folks at TT. We've just switched to using it and I got my Math 4 on ebay recently. When I got it, it wouldn't work on my mac though (argh!) So, I emailed them and it turns out I got an old copy from before they were mac compatible. Anyhow, despite the fact that I bought it off ebay they told me to send it in and they'd send me a replacement that would work on my computer, free of charge!

I'd also love to hear more about this program. I was planning to start Latin for Children with my son this year, but I'm feeling pretty intimidated by it as I look at the sample lessons online. This doesn't look so intimidating to me.

It's one big song. We used both VP's Bible and History curriculum last year and will be doing it again this year. The song is reallllly long, so we just listened to the first half of it for part of the year and then added the second half after my son knew the first half.

Thanks for posting all of these ideas! I've gotten a lot out of reading what others are doing. I got through all of Shurley 1 with my son year before last. Last year we started Shurley 2, but because of a very difficult twin pregnancy it was a subject that got dropped about half way through. I was really bummed that we were behind. I have been trying to figure out what to do, and have don't want to overwhelm my son with too much this year. I think I'll plan on skipping every other book from here on out. I'll probably spread a lesson over 2 weeks and finish the last half of Shurley 2 this year. Yay, glad this gave me a plan! :hurray:

We used saxon math 1 in K. Saxon K was too basic for us and my son was easily able to handle math 1 at that age. It was very nice because it was scripted and my son LOVED the use of manipulatives in the lessons.