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outdoorgirls

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  1. When my two were that young I tried to include the youngest in on the chapter books but realized that she was not getting as much out of it. I finally separated my reading time. I read to each of them separately for about 15-30 minutes each night. Now that the oldest is 12 this is also a good chance for the 2 of us to talk about "things" without her younger sister interrupting. For the youngest you could read pictures type books that have a math, letter recognition, simple science picture books (see Sonlight list for ideas). Other Pre-K teaching can take place at random times. For your older with math I would set aside time in the evening to work with her on math. The younger can unwind and play by himself for the short time or have your husband do something with him. I do SM with my youngest, now 7; but, we have been doing it since summer before K so a routine for her. We do up to 30 minutes 4 times a week but usually less. One of these days is Saturday morning. Once you develop a routine things will become easier. One thing I keep in mind is being flexible and realizing that the time is getting late, she has been in school all day and they need some time on their own each day as well. Carolyn
  2. I looked into it last year for my daughter. I never did talk to anyone who had gone there (never progressed that far). I did read several reviews found by googling. We ended up at a summer boarding school academic camp as my daughter wanted to see what boarding school was like. Carolyn
  3. Your daughter is quite busy. Sound like the curriculum covers most of what you like and what you would be doing if you were to continue homeschooling. So really that leaves foreign language. With her schedule I would be hesitate to do any foreign language program that was too intensive. You might find something that could be done in 15 minutes or so a day maybe 3-4 days a week with at least one day on the weekend but frankly that may even be a bit much with her schedule. You may really only have summers but as someone else suggested you could listen to books on tape on the commute. I know there are some audio beginner spanish books that she could follow along with as she sits in the car. I have a second grader at a private school who takes violin, plays sports (currently lacrosse 1 1/2 hours twice a week with a 40 minute commute). We are only doing Singapore math. We have stopped SOTW for now but still do a read aloud most nights. That is the most we can manage with school and activities. We do SM 4 days a week for maximum 30 minutes. At this age I feel they need some downtime and I do not want to overwhelm her with additional work. Good luck in your decision. Carolyn
  4. Thank you for the suggestion of Getting Started with Latin. I read the reviews on Amazon and this may be a good choice and an inexpensive one too for a start. I may try to also do with my 7 year old as the lessons are short and who knows this may spark my interest as well. Carolyn
  5. I have not heard of this one, Getting started with Latin. Does it include grammar? Is it more of an introductory program or a complete first year. What ages? Have you or anyone used this who could provide a little more information? Thank you. Carolyn
  6. Thank you. I read some reviews of Lively Latin. I saw a suggested schedule from the site that had 2-3 days per week this may work better than LofC as not as time consuming on per day basis. For history we are doing SOTW and are back on Ancients and finishing up Greece by end of year. We do lots of the extra suggested reading. So Lively Latin may line up nicely for our history. I want her to start latin in January and go through the summer. Still hoping that I can somehow find a tutor. Thank you for your response. Carolyn
  7. My 11dd who loves to write but struggles with grammar would like to learn latin. Actually was also a suggestion from her ps teacher as a method that may help her improve her grammar skills. I have been researching latin programs (big thanks to these boards) and think that latin for children would be best. Neither I nor my husband have had latin and to be honest I have no interest in learning. I already afterschool her math and history and also my youngest. I am not sure I have the energy to afterschool latin. I have looked for a latin tutor to work with her but so far no such luck. Is there a latin program that she can do with minimal help from me. I do not mind overseeing but I just cannot imagine another curriculum. At what point do I give myself permission to just stop. Ok maybe that is another post. Anyway is there a latin program that while not completely self-teaching for a middle schooler, could be done with a "less involved" parent (with no latin knowledge). For additional info if we were using a tutor we were going to ask a friend of hers to join her. Also this is the dd who does not respond well to my teaching her. Carolyn
  8. I have one child in public school (sixth grade) and one in private. We are avid afterschoolers which began as a desire to share my love of reading with my girls. Both started at Montessori school and the oldest has been in ps since fourth grade. It is a small 1-8 school with less than 200 students. The teachers are caring and very responsive to parents concerns. My oldest has struggled in grammar and math. While I am not thrilled with the math program (and we do afterschool math) they have gone out of their way to provide free extra help and suggestions for outside help. Her teachers are actually encouraging her to learn latin with the thought that this may be beneficial to her grammar skills as she does not seem to be responding to the way they teach grammar. Of course now I have to either afterschool latin or outsource it but I do appreciate their insight and their ability to recognize that all children will not learn best from the materials taught in the classroom. While I would love to homeschool my youngest; I could not imagine homeschooling my oldest without constant frustration on both our parts. And add into the fact that I work full-time. For now ps works for her and is something that we re-evaluate on a yearly basis (with the other option being private school). Her ps has an active band that she loves playing in. I (and she) love the science lab. She has a few close friends that she socializes with outside of school. The girls are nice and respectful. The school is outside of a medium size city and does not have some of the concerns that larger and city schools may have. Overall I am happy with the school. I realize that as my child is in public school there are some things that I cannot change such as curriculum choices and class offerings. However, knowing that her current and previous teachers are responsive to our views and are open to outside options has helped. Carolyn
  9. I am currently using core 3/4 (history, readers and read aloud) with my 10 dd. It helps that she is an avid reader. The read alouds we do at bedtime. I am not reading Landmark nor are we doing the Bible. We have just started week 7 of the IG but week 9 for us. This is very time consuming; but as she is studying US history in school I thought it would be a nice tie in with reading the historical fiction. We love history and the readers are not a problem for her. We expect to go through the summer though. I notice that you have 2 cores. I have a 6 yo dd that we are finishing up the readers 2 reg and reading assorted books from core K (no IG). I wanted to do core 1 starting in January. I now realize that this would be impossible. I hope to start back with the audio from SOTW 1 and add in activities/crafts. But am really not sure I can even manage that with her as my voice is giving out just from doing the separate read alouds each evening with both of them. Core 3/4 has a lot of reading even with spreading it out. As far as schedule we stick to the reader/read aloud schedule and have been catching up with the poetry and history part in a separate week (so sort of every 3 weeks IG and 1 week catch up). We also try to do the map work but do not do a timeline. All is done in the evening about 30 minutes prior to bed. We do this 5 days a week (skip Friday and read on Sunday night). She reads the readers at other times. Carolyn 10dd - Sonlight Core3/4, Apologia Astromomy 6dd - SM 2a, Apologia Astomomy, Kumon
  10. Thanks to both of you. We are adding Bible. But not language arts. We are finishing up FLL 1st grade portion and have decided not to do the 2nd grade. I may start back next summer. I will have to talk to her 1 st grade teacher and see what they do in language arts. Science is done lightly and interest led. We are about to start a second part of a mini unit study on astromomy. There is so much I would like to do with them but alas with school not nearly enough time. Since I love history and we have always read to the kids Sonlight appeals to us. Thanks Carolyn
  11. I was planning to spread it out at least for 18 months and am okay if it goes to 2 years. What I really want to know is the time committment for doing the history portion. I know you are doing Core K but about how much time per day on average does the history portion take. I suspect for the read alouds the time would be about 15-20 minutes and the readers are dependent on her. Thank you for responding. Carolyn
  12. How much time would it take to do Sonlight core 1 history, readers and read a louds. 6 yo dd is also doing SM 2a this fall. And does anyone afterschool using Sonlight? I am seriously considering using core 1 this year along with SOTW with the correlation on Paula's site. My youngest is 6 and entering first grade in a private school. Oldest is 10 (5th grade-ps). We have done both SOTW 1 and 2 the past 2 years on audio tape with a few extra readings from the activity guide and rare mapwork. I thought I would start over with ancients since we could now do the cycle a la WTM with a first/fifth grader. 6 year old is finishing 2 regular readers now and will do 2 intermediate readers in the fall. Carolyn
  13. I have read that others supplement SM with Key to books which is one reason I thought to focus on the Key to series. However as she does need more review and continuous review I am reconsidering. I read through the SM math site and forum there this weekend. Looks like 3B really covers a lot of the areas that she needs extra help in. I think I will get the 3B and start there. After 3B we will either continue or take the placement test for 4A to re-evaluate. Currently I have the US editions through 2B but I think I will buy the standards as I like the addition of probability/ ratios and negative number being added while maintaining the rest of content. Thank both of you for your help. outdoorgirls
  14. Hello I am afterschooling 2 children. My oldest is in fourth grade (ps) and I am currently wondering if I made a mistake in my math program for her. We had previously done Singapore 1A and 1B then stopped (she was at a Montessori school and during well. Our math sessions were done with resistance on her part). Anyway this year I realized that she needed more help in math. She was struggling with fractions and math facts. The math facts we solved with a flashmaster. I then made the decision in January to get the key to series versus going back to Singapore. She has done 2 books of the key to fractions and is in the second book of the key to decimals. One reason I chose key to is it is more self-paced. I just review if she needs help and I check over her work (this reduces some of the resistance on her part of having me tutor her). But I am wondering if we are missing some things by not doing a complete math program. She does multi digit multiplication and long division fine but I know she is the type that needs a lot of review. If we did do Singapore she would most likely place into 3B because of the measurement section. I have also thought of just getting the CWP book but we can only do so much. Her school does everyday math. So should I stick with Key to (we have the whole series percent, geometry, measurement and algebra), buy CWP 3 as well or just change to SM and start with 3B going over what she lacks and go quickly through other areas in 3B and 4A as review to get where she needs to be for her level. We plan to work on math and writing this summer so more time available. outdoorgirls dd10- Key to, as yet undecided writing program (was doing RS3), SOTW1 dd5-SM 1B, FLL, SOTW1
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