I think part of it is having "special" toys that are taken out only when you need some one-on-one time with your older child. And rotating what the special toys are. Maybe on Monday, you set up an easel with paint or chalk or dry erase markers. And Tuesday you do playdough. Something that my dd enjoyed when she was that age was sitting in a kiddie pool (brough indoors) filled with about 2 inches of dried beans. It cost about $20 for all those beans, but we still use them today as math manipulatives. It can get a little messy if your child is on the active side, but if you set the rule that the beans must stay in the pool, it can be a lot of fun. We have very long winters here and it was a lifesaver when my dd was about 2. You could also have little cooking jobs set up, such as mixing some flour and water. I would sometimes go through my pantry and put a few teaspoons of a whole bunch of stuff that had expired (spices, lentils, etc.) and let dd "cook." I'd give her a hand mixer (the non-electric kind, of course) and she loved it. My dd enjoyed little dropper bottles of water with some food coloring to do color mixing. Depends on where your child is at with fine motor skills, but some simple tracing activities might work. Or the Kumon books for preschoolers, the cutting and pasting and coloring ones. Would it be possible to work with your older child in or near the bathroom, and you could put your younger child in the bath (I know they need constant supervision at that age, but if you sat in the doorway maybe you could keep an eye on the little one in the bath while still being able to talk with your older one). On long days, a bath kills at least an hour around here. Hope that helps.

My dd started kindergarten in public school this year. I am still working on dh to let me give homeschooling a try. But in the meantime I am afterschooling. She is doing Math Mammoth and we do a lot of reading together and she reads quite a bit on her own. I see so many threads about spelling curriculum, phonics curriculum, handwriting practice, science curriculum, literature, history, and more. I just don't have time to do a separate curriculum for each of these things. So I want to know what is most essential. She pretty much "gets" the whole phonics thing and is very good at language arts in general, so I feel like intensive spelling and phonics practice is probably not necessary. I often wonder how you all do it, fitting all these things into your homeschool day. I tried to do it over the summer and was just really overwhelmed (I have a toddler, too). So I'd like to know what you'd recommend as a core afterschooling curriculum, as well as how you manage to squeeze everything in as a full-time homeschooler. Thank you!

I have an Usborne book of abridged Dickens stories that my 5 y.o. enjoys. I would say it is about as abridged as Dickens stories can get. But even in that book, they have a picture of a guillotine in the Tale of Two Cities. My dd is not too sensitivie about those things and it didn't seem to bother her, but I did feel like I should have pre-read that because I'm not sure introducing those things (i.e., people getting their heads cut off) is appropriate for a 5 y.o. Or a 7 y.o, for that matter.

I have come to the conclusion that most schools will not differentiate too much in kindergarten. I think that teachers see kindergarten as a way to get everyone "up to speed." They have to assume that some kids are going to come in knowing nothing, so they have to start at the very beginning. When you have a wide range of knowledge and abilities, it is hard to differentiate. I think kindergarten is more about learning the basics (letters, numbers, colors), learning routines, and learning how to behave in school and most teachers will not be able to differentiate for advanced learners. I view it as an opportunity for dd to socialize, and I take care of her academic needs at home. I'm torn about what to do for first grade because I feel like our time together will be very limited. Must convince dh to let me homeschool!

I think you could probably just sit with her and show her the process. I would start by writing three words on three different pieces of paper to make sure she has the alphabetical order thing down. Then try increasingly difficult words to alphabetize (words that all start with "sta" for example). Once she has the hang of that, help her start to find words in the dictionary. My dd also has enjoyed looking through a baby name book, which also gives good practice at finding words that are in alphabetical order.

I go to art.com or allposters.com and print them off on a color printer. I have printed doubles of some and laminated them to make a memory game.

I have also read of a method where you give them 2 "tickets" to come out of their room each night. They could be actual tickets or small stuffed animals or whatever. They know that is how many times they can come out and once they have no more tickets it is time to sleep. Might work depending on age and personality.

Mine was very willful and switched to a big bed early (18 months). I basically sat in her room and read until she fell asleep for a few weeks. Then I would read until she was *almost* asleep then go out. I stayed for less and less time until she was used to it. It took a long time (several months), and I don't know if you have the time or stamina for it, but it did establish good sleep habits with her. She is now 5 and is an great sleeper.

I didn't read through all the replies, so sorry if some of these ideas have already been mentioned- lots of things with canned tuna or chicken, frozen veggies, pasta, eggs. I try to do one or two cheap dinners a week, such as grilled cheese with tomato soup, scrambled eggs, cereal, baked potatoes with whatever toppings I have on hand, or soup. Frozen chicken breasts on sale are a good deal and you can do a lot with them. Have you thought about a garden next summer? Also, have you thought about reducing or getting rid of cell phones and cable? I have a Virgin Mobile pay-as-you go and it ends up costing about $8/month, as long as I don't use it except when really necessary. Instead of the pull-ups, you could do a cloth diaper (prefolds, the chepest) with plastic cover. They are not so comfy so maybe that will speed potty training, too! Weather proofing your house can save on heating and cooling bills, too. Use that plastic you put over the windows in winter and go around the exterior of the house and see if there are any cracks that need some caulk. Put rolled up towels by drafty windows and doors. Cover up vents in rooms that are not used. You may want to look at your insurance policies and see if there are any ways they can be reduced. Those are the ways we try to save $. Hope it helps.

I used to be afraid to reprimand other people's children, but after a few instances similar to the one you described I go for it now. Even if their parents are around. If the parents were not supervising, I would have told them (in a nice voice), "This is work for a grownup and kids are not allowed to help and you may either sit in that chair over there or stay with your mother." And flat out said, "the rule is that we do not save pieces." I think that if you are nice but firm that most kids will listen. Even if their parents are around I think it is ok to say something like that. Maybe it will clue the parents in that they should supervise their kids more closely. I, too, am fed up with parents who do not supervise their children. They seem to have this mentality that "kids need to learn to figure things out and work things out among each other." And I just cringe when I hear that because little kids need GUIDANCE to learn to work things out properly. Their silly philosophy creates bullies and rulebreakers. I feel for you- that is so frustrating!

You might want to check out Elizabeth Pantley's No Cry Sleep Solution (I think she has a book by the same title geared towards toddlers, too). It is the most "gentle" of the infant sleep books. My first dd (now 5) was probably one of the worst sleepers ever. She did not sleep through the night even once until after the age of two. My second (now 16 months) is a better sleeper but is still up at least once and sometimes three times if she is teething or sick. For my first, I would go in and nurse or soothe her every time she woke. She learned to climb out of her crib at 18 months so we had her in a twin bed after that and sometimes I would just sleep in there with her. Have you tried co-sleeping? With my younger dd, I put a twin mattress on the floor of my room and when she wakes I can quickly scoot down and lie down with her for a bit (or the rest of the night). Or you could put her on a mattress and lie next to the mattress, so that way you're not disturbing her but you can easily reach up and pat her back or whatever to soothe her. I found it is much less stressful on me to reach over than to have to get out of bed, walk to the other room, soothe, then try to fall back to sleep. Sleeping on the floor stinks but if it gets me through the tough sleep times it is worth it for a few weeks or months. Still follow safety precautions for co-sleeping if you decide to do something like that, even though your baby is older at this point. I know how horrible sleep deprivation can be. With my second I tried to be calmer about it and just accept that I was going to be up a lot and I did not constantly try to "solve" her nightwaking and accepting it did make it more bearable. You will get through it!

Thank you both for your responses! It sounds like something I would be very interested in. I am currently just afterschooling but would like to make the jump to homeschooling when (if?) I can get dh on board. I was intrigued by the cc group and was just curious how they worked. So thank you!

Summer- thank you for explaining the time requirements. I am still not sure which core I would choose (that's probably a whole other thread!).

Ali, that is a good suggestion. I feel like I already expose dd to quite a wide variety of good literature. Which is why I am wondering if I even need SL. But I hear people raving about it so much. I hope this doesn't come off as sounding superior, but is SL for people who maybe aren't very good at choosing books for their children? Or is the selection really that good? If it weren't so expensive I wouldn't be deliberating so much, but $300 seems like a lot of money unless I'm really sure about it. (I know they have the guarantee but I am one of those who would feel constant guilt for returning something even if I wasn't 100% happy with it!)

Thanks for your post. I read somewhere (maybe in the SL catalog?) that it takes somthing like 2 or 3 hours a day. Obviously I would have to scale back because I would have one hour a day during the weekdays. But then I'm wondering the the pace would be so painfully slow or working in such small snippets that dd would lose interest. Do you think it's doable to divide it into hour-long chunks (or even shorter)?

I was reading the other thread on the book The Core (Leigh Bortins). I read that book and liked it a lot. It got me wondering what Classical Conversations communities are like. Anyone belong to one and care to share?

If so, how did it work out? How much time did you spend on it each day? Did it overwhelm your child? Were you doing any other afterschooling activities simultaneously? Thanks!

I like them as a supplement.

They have several at Lakeshore Learning (plastic ones for younger children). I would say a pan might be better because then you are not restricted by the size of object you are weighing. But the buckets are nice if you are thinking of doing things with liquids.

Is it basically a literature-based curriculum? Does it come with a teacher's guide? If so, what kind of lessons/activities are in the teacher's guide? Is it something you would use in addition to another language arts curriculum? It seems kind of like a supplementary curriculum to me and for the price I'm just not sure it's worth it for that. But I hear many people raving about it, so maybe I'm missing something. I see that it comes with packages of books, and while my dd loves reading and being read to, she is somewhat particular about what she reads and I'd hate to get a big lot of books only to have her only be interested in half of them. I would love to hear your thoughts and experiences with Sonlight. I am currently just afterschooling, but may move to homeschooling in the future. Thank you!

Get the book Games for Math, by Peggy Kaye. It has tons of great ideas for simple games you can make from household items.

I tried using it right when my dd turned 5. It was too frustrating for her, because even on the easiest recognition setting, it still wasn't accepting her pronunciation for certain words. I think like many 5 year-olds, her speech is still not perfect in terms of being able to pronounce things. I plan to try again in a year or so, because it does seem like a good program. If you go to one of the Rosetta Stone kiosks in the mall, they will let you try it out, so that might be worth it to take your child there to see if it is a good fit.

My oldest is only 5, but I have noticed than any time I am experience behavior problems with her (tantrums, uncooperativeness, whatever), it is much more effective to find and treat the source. In general, it is because of her not getting enough sleep, or not getting to bed early enough. Some of the time it has been caused by too little structure or too much time "on the go," with not enough down time. Other times it has been too much time with grandparents spoiling her. I am no expert in parenting, but I frequently see parents whose kids are acting out and as I talk to them I realize they are letting their kids stay up until 10 pm and eating pop tarts for breakfast (or something along those lines). Or they drag their kids around all day, to the gym, the library, out to lunch, to grandma's house, etc. Which might be fine for some kids but for a child who is introverted, this would take a toll. I think many kids need more structure, routine, and predictability than we parents give them these days. So my point is take a look at what is going on in your life and see if there is something there that could be a trigger and go from there.

I also like Montessori Services and For Small Hands. But those two don't have a lot of language or math materials. I have found that Alison's Montessori has a good selection and good prices. Montessori materials are very expensive so you have to be selective about which you will buy. My daughter enjoyed the movable alphabet and I think it helped her a lot with phonics and learning to read and spell. So that was one of my better Montessori purchases. You could probably make quite a few of the materials if you are at all handy or crafty, or know someone who is. I think the problem with the Montessori materials is that children will use them for a few weeks and then move on (for many of them, like the Pink Tower, for example). That's why I think a Montessori classroom is nice because all the materials are there and your child can pick and choose. I guess what I'm saying is that a large assortment of materials is nice but that is impossible to do unless you have an unlimited budget. I think a set of metal insets would be nice and children will not tire of them easily. And maybe some bead chains (which you could make at home). Three part matching cards would be very easy to make. I have made quite a few Montessori-type materials at home. If you live near a Micheals, a Hope Depot, and have a laminating machine, you are good to go! I am not sure I agree with the pp that Waldorf and Montessori are similar in their methods. I think they are totally opposite in a lot of their methods (Waldorf emphasizing play and not introducing phonics or reading until later). But that's just my opinion-- I'm not all that familiar w/ Waldorf.

My dd really enjoys "cool" activities and a lot of times when I find something fun and educational, it leads to a lot of exploration and learnings. For example, we recently found some monarch caterpillars in our yard and brought them inside and got to see the whole process of them becoming butterflies. So I'm looking for suggestions along those lines. Perhaps things like getting old electronics/machines at a garage sale and taking them apart. Or getting a compass and learning how to use it. Any suggestions would be appreciated!