My parents live in a huge old house and with cold winters they had a bill or two approaching $1000 in the past couple of years.

We use the AO anthology and the book that is listed for year one as an alternative to a. a. milne. The Douglas Florian books are cute-- we get these from the library. http://www.amazon.com/s/ref=nb_ss_b_0_7?url=search-alias%3Dstripbooks&field-keywords=insectopedia&sprefix=insecto

I think that is ambitious! And I only have a first grader right now. When I was thinking about this last year and considered Sonlight, I was advised that I might want to rethink doing SL with a new baby, or maybe stretching it out to more than one school year. I switched to SOTW and I'm so glad I did. We do plenty of read alouds, but since they are not "scheduled" I don't feel bad if all that we get to for the week is reading the SOTW chapter and narrating. That is just me, though; I'm not a total box checker but I do feel like I need to do most of what is on my weekly schedule. I also dropped the handwriting book and made WWE double for handwriting practice, since my son knew how to form the letters already.

We have a Cuisinart, like this: http://www.bedbathandbeyond.com/product.asp?order_num=-1&SKU=13234108 Looks just like it, though ours is several years old. LOVE it! We don't have ice cream very often, either purchased or homemade. We probably make it 6 or 8 times per year, one part cream (sometimes half and half) to 3 parts low fat milk; lower fat than the grocery store's but still so creamy. Yum!

We liked vol. 1 the best, but they were all liked. I think 2 might have the most titles. Three has fewer titles but has some goodies, but if there were one to skip buying it would be three.

It is super easy! We have the large white board with the letter magnets all set up and that really adds to the ease of use. I was so-so on this program at first, but the more I use it the more I get what it is doing, and like it. I have not used SWR, but I own it and built my own notebook and tried to figure it out. There is no comparison, for me, on ease of use.

I may have missed someone saying this, but is the school doing lots of other things to work on fine motor with her? You can try to work with playdoh and clay with her at home, string small beads, and there are lots of lists I found online of activities an OT would work on. I wish I still had the links for them but it has been a while; I was also concerned about my oldest when he was 5. I knew I'd be homeschooling so I didn't worry as much. He still doesn't have the best handwriting at almost 7 but it improves bit by bit. We used HWT for K and the early part of first. I still have to stop him and remind him to form certain letters with only one stroke, but I do think the program helped--or maybe it was just time.

with manipulatives first. Concrete ---> pictorial ----> abstract (problems with no pictures). So I teach a new concept with manipulatives, then we do the problems in the textbook together, plus sometimes other examples I make up, if necessary, and then the workbook and intensive practice exercises. My son is not always a fan of the manipulatives and likes to do everything in his head, but with counters I can see if he is truly getting it; otherwise it is hard to know his thought process sometimes. I haven't used MUS, only looked at it briefly. We have gone through 1B and we mainly use a base 10 set and linking cubes for Singapore. Number cards are nice but not necessary. I also borrowed the place value houses concept from the video on the MUS site when we did place value. I don't know if you were asking for your 4 yo also but I think a 4 yo definitely should have manipulatives (at 4 that is all we did with no workbooks except once in a while practicing witing the numbers or drawing shapes).

I think some of the BFIAR books are easier. I have owned or borrowed all of the SL books and there are several I don't care for at all, and a couple that are just so-so. I think overall the BFIAR selection is better and better for that age in general. But I agree that no curriculum is necessary for that age, and what those curriculums really boil down to is reading lots of books, which is plenty. You can do the activities in the curriculums, but to me with a toddler/preschooler it feels contrived to do so. OTOH, the BFIAR manual is not very expensive and is a good resource if you would like ideas for things to do when the mood strikes.

How much do you require in the way of notebooking and experiment pages? I got Flying Creatures of the Fifth Day to look at, thinking we might use it in a year or two. I didn't realize it was geared for K-6 and it's certainly well within his comprehension now. It has got us "covering" science more regularly which I see as a good thing, and is a good way to finish off our life science/habitat theme we've had this year. We've gone through 3 lessons so far. Am I slacking by not doing the notebooking and experiment pages with him, though. It seems like it might be too much and suck the joy out of it. I am trying to ramp up his writing before second grade, though, and want to make sure I'm doing enough. Right now he does WWE and writes spelling words (along with a couple of dictation sentences daily) for AAS, and that's about it. We do history notebooking but that is generally me writing down his dication and him drawing a picture. Any thoughts appreciated! :)

Piano lessons. I've decided to hire out, even though I can teach beginning piano myself. If we pay someone, it will get done. Art--less than I wanted. It seems silly to get upset about missing it at this age, though. We have AP and of the lessons we have done, I tell them what the project is and start doing it, and they take the same supplies and just do whatever they want with them. Note to self: spend money earmarked for lower elementary art to buy more art supplies instead.

My son is also 6 and is just not memorizing the facts. And we have been using Flashmaster, so it's not a cure all, lol. :) I know he gets it, he doesn't get them wrong, he just doesn't have them memorized. So he has to figure them out every single time. I had tried going back to manipulatives, but he tells me that is babyish and wants to do math in his head! He whizzed through Singapore 1B quickly but I'm not moving to 2A for a while. On the Flashmaster I catch him trying to do multiplication facts (Singapore briefly introduces multiplication in 1B) but I feel like we need to stop and solidify addition and subtraction for the rest of this school year. What is the rush, really?

My ds didn't like the Bob books, either. He did like some other little readers later on, but in the early stages, I wrote things myself for him to read. A few index cards with a sentence each. Or I'd make up a sily little story with words I knew he could sound out. Or I'd write him a note and leave it by his bed for him to find in the morning. Things like that.

I think this is a fantastic response. If it were me, I'd want to know (he's TWELVE! He should eat at least a little of what's put in front of him, then tell the hostess he enjoyed it and say thank you. That is not too hard for a twelve year old). I would be a little embarassed, but at least I would know to address it. I do address this with my children already, and I'd hope by twelve they could go to a friend's without a scene like that, but it's possible they'd forget and need to be reminded. I do agree with those that said to let guests serve themselves, even the soup. I would be right at home at your table with the chard and tofu (we have that probably once or twice a week-- the garden is full of chard this year), but even as an adult I like to choose how much is on my plate. My kids will eat just about anything, but someone else's cooking might still be different enough than mine that they might not want as much.

Three lessons of OPG is a lot for one day. We did the 2 review and one new (is that what you are doing?) but for the review I only had him read the words, and not the sentences/stories. Two to three sentences of copywork takes him 15 minutes at most, but I do sit next to him and have him correct things right away. When I didn't do that, it took much longer. I understand about making schedules and then having it not. It is only in the past month that I have got science happening twice per week, every week, rather than sporadically.

I had taught my son the SWR phonograms so level 1 was not a waste of time exactly, but all except a couple of the lessons were cvc and cvcc or ccvc words, perhaps a waste of $$ for a child who can already spell those via phonics. I think you would want the level 1 materials, though, even if you don't get the book. Better yet, I'd email the company and ask. :)

When I have a sick child, I skip playdates, classes, church and church nursery, and visits to others homes of any sort, ESPECIALLY the elderly and moms of newborns. ;) But for a kid with a drippy nose and no fever or vomiting, sorry, no, we can't stay in our home for two weeks (or more!) until no person in the house no longer has a slight cough or a drippy nose. We do have to get to the grocery store and run errands. I will use wipes, wash hands, carry tissues, and minimize the public exposure. But it is impossible to completely stay at home for every little cold. And I really don't believe that most people who have posted on this thread realistically do this, either. :confused:

So, what about the people who do successfully learn to read without being taught phonics and are fluent, high level readers? Before learning phonograms to teach my son, I could not have told you any rules other than basic letter sounds. I did not even know the rule for what letters make a c soft! Yet if I encounter a new word (not very often anymore), I get it right. I don't remember guessing words or having trouble spelling. And I know I'm not the only person like this. Learning phonics has been interesting, but it has not made me a more fluent reader or better speller. :confused: Are some people just intuitive with phonics and get the rules without being taught? Or are some just so visual that they can see all the words and have a very extensive visual memory for them?

My 6 yo likes WWE1. He always wants to do it first, along with Singapore Math--his favorite subjects. He tolerates AAS. I think he would duslike any spelling program, though, and he dislikes workbooks especially, so AAS seems the best because of the hands-on. He has come to dislike FLL. We are almost done with level 1 and already skip all the poetry in favor of other poems. I was still planning on using FLL2, though.

I somewhat agree with Shasta. I tried to read the Wind in the Willows with my 6.5 yo recently. It was too much. This is a kid who is reading The Jungle Book now, on his own. I remember reading The Incredible Journey in 5th grade and loving it. I also loved Wuthering Heights at that age, for reference. :P Not saying that you shouldn't read those books to a 5 year old, just that she may get much more out of a book that is a little closer to the intended age range. I started reading chapter books to my son when he was barely 3, and he sat and listened with rapt attention. But I have read him some things that, in retrospect, would have been best saved for him to read on his own, when he is a little older-- even though he could follow along with the story and comprehend most of it, there were themes that were not intended for a 4 or 5 year old, no matter how bright he was. So I am trying to do that more, now.

Maybe you were dehydrated. I get nauseated when exercising and slightly dehydrated. The other time I get really sick exercising is the first few weeks of pregnancy-- it has happend every time, even before I get a positive test. Just throwing that out as a possibility. :D I had a friend with fibromyalgia, the last place we lived. She did a lot of water aerobics and swimming and said her doctor recommended that. I know people with arthritis also swim for exercise to minimize strain on the joints.

Ditto here.

More, More, More Said the Baby Echoing Eric Carle and Sandra Boynton Going on a Bear Hunt --board book version Guess How Much I Love You Good Dog, Carl Chicka, Chicka Boom Boom (alphabet book) Jamberry plus others mentioned already :)

Google accelerated reader database. Some public schools use this in their reading programs. You can look up books your dc is reading and find out what year and month grade level they are.

This: http://www.amazon.com/Essential-EatingWell-Cookbook-Flavors-Eating/dp/0881506303 Based on the Eating Well magazine, which is great also.