I am using FLL3 and find it easy to use and straight to the point. I haven't use R & S for comparison. There is still a lot of repetition of the definitions for the parts of speech. It is very similar to FLL 1 & 2 but with more written work and the diagramming. My daughter finds it easy but also enjoys the diagramming on the neat lines. Also, FWIW, you might look at both level 3 and 4 because based on research I did before we started either level will cover all the grammar basics. If you feel his current curriculum is a little to easy it might not hurt to bump him a level. I skipped FLL 2 and went straight to 3 and we're not having any issues.

I looked in the app store yesterday for istart Spanish by mirai yesterday because someone posted on here about how great it is. I noticed when I searched that they have a Chinese app. It has really good reviews and sounds like it might be a good introduction for $4.99. I didn't download either Spanish or Chinese yet because I'm just collecting a list of future apps for when dd gets her own ipad but they seems to be highly rated. I can't remember who posted about the Spanish yesterday but they said they liked it better than Rosetta Stone.

We really like it but it is pretty meaty. It's not a problem for us because she's a really strong reader (in the last week she's read most of Black Beauty, The Hobbit, The Girl Who Could Fly & is half way through Anne of Green Gables). She reads the text on her own and we discuss the narration questions. I really like the notebook too. We have both the regular one and the jr version. The jr version has a lot of coloring pages she likes but we mostly use the regular one. The books and illustrations are beautiful.

Those of you who already subscribe to BrainPop and BrainPop Jr. I'm hoping you can answer a few questions. I understand you need flash to view the videos in a browser. It is also my understanding that if you have a subscription and the free ipad app you can view all the videos on there. Is this correct? Also, can you view the other content on the site without flash. In other words could I view pdf's or supplemental materials on the ipad or will I have to access that from my computer? Is the BrainPop Jr content also available on the ipad?

Each book is 19 chapters. The author recommends reading a chapter a day. I believe that would be the recommendation if you are using it as a stand alone. As a supplement it would vary depending on the child and what level of math you are in before you start. I see a pp mentioned they are on alpha and plan to do 3 books in one year. That sounds about right. We were already on Delta when we started. I knew dd would enjoy the narrative format and that she would not like starting in the middle so we started with Apples. The math is well beneath her level so she went through the book very quickly. Apples one day and Butterflies the next. She is now working on Cats. In the interest of full disclosure dd loves to read and will do so for hours on her own.

I think it's good. He seems to summarize well and even though it's a little longer than what you asked for there don't seem to be a lot of unneccesary details. This looks better than the writing of some high school students.

If dh wants to buy you one you definately want an ipad. I wasn't sure I wanted one until I got it. Now I love it. ETA: I want an idad for dd for Christmas so we don't have to share anymore.

I've never heard of kidvantave but I need to check it out immediately. I don't have boys either. Just a 6 yo daughter who never has a pair of pants to wear without holes in the knee.

I have only been to other part of New Mexico (Albuquerque, Gallup, etc) but never felt unsafe traveling with just my daughter and an older aunt. I also know quite a few people from El Paso who really like it there. I wanted to chime in specifically about homeschooling law in Texas because I'm near Houston. It takes 12 hours to drive to El Paso from here but we are still in Texas.:) Texas is a very homeschool friendly state. You should be able to find co-ops and support groups most everywhere. You can google setsa or southeast Texas homeschool to get links to the regulations but they are pretty minimal. They mostly deal with pulling kids out who've been in ps before. I do know El Paso isn't in southeast texas...they just have good links on the site.

I didn't remember the part about the slower load times. That woud bug me too. The iPad runs my work software faster & more efficienty than my laptop. I'm finding myself becoming more and more impatient with load times on my laptop. A full conversion to Mac may be in our future plans.

:iagree: this is a great video. If you aren't already doing explode the code you might try it. Since your daughter loves her HWOT workbook she will probably like explode the code. It will give her a sense of accomplishment during reading lessons. Start with the first book and let her move as quickly as she wants.

Have you checked with your district. I'm also near Houston & most people I know who use boxed secular curriculum go through their local school and do some sort of online program. If you aren't against the idea of doing online school you might check it out. I know for sure HISD has that option. It might be the easiest and most affordable option if you plan to put him in ps next year. ETA: the online school would probably only cover basics. You would need to do art & music on your own for sure. Geography probably isn't covered either.

I ordered the first 4 books and knew she would go through them quickly. She probably would have finished all 4 the first week but she got distracted reading some other things. So far the math has been easy for her and she's in the middle of Cats. I'm planning to order the next 4 soon.

I'm sure there will be varied answers but here's what I did. I used the wtm outline for subjects to cover but just moved at our own pace and added some subjects early for extra challenge. When dd was your son's age we did bible, explode the code, math (we used horizons but have since switched to mathusee because I find it much easier to accelerate), song school Latin and handwriting without tears. I also added some stuff from critical thinking company. We didn't do everything everyday and didn't spend more than an hour and a half on school stuff. Dd moved through everthing quickly so as her reading improved we started adding additional subjects. She was probably 4 when we started the sotw history cycle but we took a little longer than a year to go through it and read lots of supplemental library books since we weren't in hurry. We added FLL and WWE around 5. Later that year we added apologia science. I've had to skip levels in FLL & wwe to keep her from being bored and we move through math at a much faster pace than the curriculum schedule. Everyone's child is different but you'll get a feel for what needs to be done as you start working on more subjects together. Here's what our current curriculum plans look like at age 6 Kay Arthur inductive bible study for kids ETC bok 8 FLL3 WWE3 MCT sentence island & practice island MUS Delta (we finished Gamma already this year and will finish Delta & probably a good portion of Epsilon) Life of Fred elementary books at her own pace Singapore challenging word problems HWOT cursive (at her request..I was postponing it waiting for her to improve printing but she started teaching herself cursive so I got the book so I could teach her properly) spelling - we recently ditched the curriculum because I moved up multiple levels and she still spelled everything right on the pre-tests. Now we do a weekly list from the 1st-3rd grade homeschool spelling bee study guide. Apologia elementary anatomy & physiology Sotw year 2 Latin for Children A Song school Greek Geography songs Mind benders That looks like a lot but but we still don't do everything everyday. We spend about 2 hours a day on school. She normally spends at least another hour reading independently.

After reading the reviews I'm stilling leaning towards a second iPad instead of the fire. It looks like it's going to be a great device for non-iPad owners but I'm not sure we can live with the limitations after using the iPad. Based on the reviews, I can away with a list of limitations that would be an issue for us. 1) screen size - I was already concerned about this and one of the reviews mentioned that magazines and other content looked small. We played with the galaxy tab before deciding in the iPad and it just seemed a bit small for us. We do a lot of math & Latin PDF worksheets on the iPad and it works well because it's almost actual size. 2) limit on types of books you can load - if I understood one of the reviews correctly you can only load kindle/amazon formatted books. We have lots of books in lots of different formats so I would want more flexibility. 3) limited access to android market - I currently have a phone with limited android market access and it seems like anytime I hear about a cool android app and try to get it I'm not allowed to on my phone. I wonder how much the limitation will affect some of the educational apps listed here. 4) battery life- we travel a lot so the longer a battery lasts the better. None of these are huge issues but the combination is probably enough to make me spend the extra $200 for the refurbished iPad for dd.

I ordered them a few weeks ago and so far they are a big bit here. We are almost through mus delta but I decided to start with the elementary series so it wouldn't be too challenging and so dd would enjoy the books. She loves them. Even though the math is easy for her so far she loves the story and is learning some things in each book. She did apples in one day and butterflies in two and is working through cats now. I plan to use the whole series. She told me that LOF and the other library books we've been getting recently about math are making it more interesting for her.

Sounds just like my dd.

I think for me this is what I got out of your original post. By the time she was 3 one of the primary things I noticed was "different" about dd was her ability to focus on tasks for a really long time compared to peers. This isn't necessarily a bad thing and she's the same way today at 6. I think the desire to help him relate to peers is a legitimate one and something to work on eventually but I wouldn't worry about it much for a few more years. As a pp mentioned at 3 most kids play in the same room but not together. Those skills will start to develop eventually. It's doubtful that he won't continue to be confused by the lack of common interests in peers though because he's probably going to continue to be somewhat ahead.

The new split keyboard in ios5 is a little better for typing on the iPad than the old one but still not preferred method. I was using noterize/paper port for writing notes which worked fine but I downloaded notability Friday when it was on sale for 99cents. I love it. I used it to take notes with my stylus in church this morning & it works great. The writing is smooth and you write in a zoomed mode which is Isaac to use and actually turns out looking better than when I write on paper. You can export several different ways so I'm pretty sure you could get it in to a word processor if you needed to.

Thanks for taking the time to list the resources. It sounds like our positions are the same on these issues and this will save me a lot of time when I start working on where to go after Apologia elementary books.

Just precious!

It's on my list to check out. I feel better after seeing pp say that most elementary curricula repeat so I should be okay as long as I start with a 5th grade or below. After reading the pp about not needing to rush grammar until we get to a level of writing that demands it I'm wondering if mct might be enough.

I think finishing Island and moving on to the next level is an option for me too. I considered just doing that and Easy Grammar Daily Grams or whatever it's called. We did the Grade 2 book already so I thought about checking out the next level just for the daily guided student sheets. I just like the FLL format and DD enjoys it so I'm checking in to all my options.

Are programs like Hake and R & S similar to FLL in that they review basics every year. One reason I was comfortable skipping way ahead in FLL was that others here mentioned that we wouldn't miss anything because anything covered in level 2 or 3 would be repeated in level 4, etc. Is this true of most grammar programs? I hate to buy something to accelerate her and then realize I have to go back and teach a bunch of things we skipped in order for the curriculum to work.

I haven't seen it so I will check it out.