I also agree that it's good to develop good work habits early and that since you know what he is capable of, it's not wrong for you to require him to meet your expectations. I think more hands on activities might accomplish the same goals as doing wkbk pages in the end, so it might be good to make those the main thing, but I also think requiring a page to be completed daily is good practice. I know 5's need play and experiences, but I also think they can take 5-10 min. to work on a page when they are told to, without any devastating results. Just my (inexperienced!) opinion!

I know EXACTLY what you mean! I read WTM when my dd was only 2, and now that she's 4.5 I'm eager to get started. I am trying to restrain myself to start SOTW and Apologia in 1st, and am doing some FIAR and GTG in a very relaxed style up until then, since I just have to do something :tongue_smilie: and she likes it all.

We need a way to get energy out when it's raining or we just can't get outside. Anyone have a favorite kids' exercise/ dance video you would recommend?

:iagree:I used Rosetta Stone to learn a tonal language myself, and then when I moved overseas, found out that I was completely mis-understandable! It actually wasn't even purely the tones that caused the problem, but also forming different phonetic sounds that I had never been trained to do. I would hear them, then try to make the sound but it would be the English pronunciation of it. I think that access to a native speaker is absolutely essential in learning a language that is far removed from your own!

We ran into the same issue, loved ETC books and Dd was ready for the reading part, but not the writing. One way I found to work around it was to give her letter manipulatives (like the wooden ones from HWT, but I just cut them from foam), and then had her form the correct letter using those and show me. I liked that it still gave her practice getting the shapes of the letters down, without forcing her to do too much pencil work before she was ready. Another idea would be to give her magnetic letters or something similar and have her pick the right ones. That might be easier since they're small enough to even fit in the spaces on the workbook pages.

Thanks, I really like Saxon from my research and it seems to be thorough and solid, but when I read about other programs, like RS, I wonder if that's the RIGHT way and I'm setting her up for failure forever:glare: ha ha, I know that's not the case. I'll stick with Saxon and re-evaluate later.

What are some exceptionally good educational toys/ activities/ manipulatives for young children (nonreaders or beginning readers)? I'm looking for things they can use on their own or at least without constant help.

GTG looks so fun! We already do some FIAR, but I'd really like more of a geography focus before we start SOTW later. My question is, is the actual GTG guide worth buying? I have the Around the World coloring book and Children Just Like Me, and was thinking of getting flag stickers and a passport from RR. Would the GTG guidebook itself add much to that?

Like others, I've lurked here quite awhile before registering, but finally decided it was too hard not to reply at times :001_smile:! I have a dd4.5 and I'm using ETC primers, FIAR, Saxon K and planning to start OPGTTR. I also have ds2 who joins in quite a bit. I bought Saxon K used for a good price, before seeing all these great threads about RS and Miquon. Now, I'm wondering whether it's better to start from the beginning with a program that teaches "group counting" rather than normal counting. Would it be ok to just use the ALabacus in addition to Saxon so that she learns both, or would that be confusing? I like that Saxon is all hands on a this point with no written exercises and I assume the others are too.