Then we are seriously comparing apples and bananas here. The "best" schools around here, the ones parents are trying to get their kids into, send kids home with a packet for summer, and homework every night. My sister finally pulled her kids from one of those sorry excuses when my niece failed a grade (first, I think) NOT because she couldn't read, but because she didn't read fast enough according to their timed tests. In the less desirable schools, kids are more likely to come home with a packet of weed than a packet of homework. :glare: I definitely agree that once one gets rid of crap TV and video games, or at the very least, severely restricts their use, it's amazing how much can be done in a day. Re: the actual amount of time for school, I'm never sure what people mean. So much of our homeschooling is just reading books, talking about them some, writing about them some. And part is lifestyle. We either homeschool for a few hours a day, or all waking hours, depending on how one looks at it.

Kindle Fires are not completely locked down. You can't get apps from Google Play, but you can download and install apps from other places. It depends on who is offering the app, whether they offer a direct download for it. We have two Kindle Fires, the 7" ones. I like mine, though I am sometimes frustrated with Amazon as a company. The speaker on it is actually a little better than the one on my laptop, and We watch videos with no trouble on it. I have an iVisor anti-glare screen protector, and it works great. Without it, I could barely use my Fire during the day.

That's what I'm (vaguely) curious about, because it is so far away from any real life experiences I've ever had with public education. Of course public schools eliminate opportunities for creative play. How could they not? Between going to school, homework, extracurricular activities (when applicable), and the work that more and more schools--especially "good" schools--are expecting children to complete over the summer, children are often left with little free time for creative play and exploring their own interests. And what we don't use, we lose. When the majority of a child's time is spent doing adult directed study, play, activities, and games, I do believe children are at risk of losing the ability to play creatively, to entertain themselves, and to explore subjects just because they're interesting. We're all going to err; that probably goes without saying. When I err, I'd rather it be on the side of giving my kids too much free time to play and explore their own interests.

Namaste products meet that criteria, and the ones we tried were expensive but tasty.

I mean no offense here. I do understand that learning disabilities exist. But, many kids DO outgrow these issues. Some of these issues DO go away. It's possible to minimize the expectations and relieve the child's stress, let her move at her own pace for a while, in order for her parents to evaluate whether she actually needs testing or just a little growing up time. She's only in second grade. My oldest had these exact issues in second grade, and he has no learning disabilities. Maybe she does, maybe she doesn't. But since the process of evaluation can be hard both emotionally and financially, I personally cannot see the point in jumping straight to evaluations when it could be a simple developmental issue. And I second Ellie on using Spalding or another Orton phonogram program.

Second grade is so young. I personally would not be concerned yet. My youngest son, same age, is using a lot of first grade stuff. If he follows the pattern his brothers did, he'll go through it faster and be "caught up" in no time. And this is a main reason that I follow the "better late than early" philosophy. A slightly older child can go through the material at a surprisingly fast pace without any issues and is, in my opinion, far better off than a child who is using the same material earlier but struggling. Here are some thoughts based on how we do things, so it may or may not be helpful to you. Have you tried doing actual narrations (orally) rather than summaries? Narrations can help train the memory, and unlike summaries, they don't require children to figure out which were the important bits. We do this by starting with extremely short Aesop's fables, and we build up from there. We don't do a spelling program. Instead, we do PREPARED dictation, and we don't start that until at least third grade. To me, this is a much more natural way to address spelling. At your daughter's age, I don't believe that anything more than copywork is needful to cover spelling, punctuation, mechanics. Let her write just one short sentence at a time, 3-5 days a week. She'll improve over time. My oldest still had difficulty with fine motor control at that age. The key is consistent practice, to build the muscles, NOT lots of writing every day. When my oldest was in second grade, I quite literally threw the Singapore book across the room, and then walked over and stomped on it. (FTR, the kids were in the other room before I had my tantrum.) I made the mistake of going in the opposite direction for a time with a completely different style of program, then we switched back to Singapore about halfway through the school year. If I had it to do over again, I would just do some fun math with manipulatives like Miquon rods while waiting for that developmental milestone. ((Hugs)) Hope y'all figure it out quickly.

I believe that the main difference is that they updated curricula suggestions. Many programs have come out since the original version, including programs that they themselves wrote. The methodology is the same, though. If you just want to read about the methodology, an older version would work fine for you. If you want curricula recommendations that you're likely to actually find, you probably want to go with a newer edition.

What Karen said. Substitutions are the key to unhappiness. The food is more expensive and less satisfying. We eat a mostly primal diet. We have meat and veggies for dinner most nights. We occasionally order some Sami's sourdough bread, and we occasionally have Tinkyada pasta. Mostly, though, we just skip the grains completely.

I understood from the title of the post that the child is second grade. ?? I agree, if she's 10, I don't think Singapore 2 is pushing it. If she's a 7 or 8 year old second grader, I think it might be.

I've been thinking about this. I believe that each person must decide for himself whether or not it's okay for HIM to drink. However, no minister has a right to preach that drinking is not Biblical because, hello, Christ drank wine, and since the book of Acts clearly indicates that people could get drunk from "new wine," there goes the grape juice argument. Christ was without sin, therefore, drinking wine cannot be considered sinful. Period. Any minister who argues otherwise is clearly NOT arguing from a Biblical viewpoint. If one wants to argue at which point it becomes a problem--sinful--I think that can vary from person to person, which is why each person has to make his own determination, possibly with the help and correction of loving brothers and sisters in Christ. Arguing that drinking alcohol is 100% wrong BIBLICALLY, when it demonstrably isn't, is bearing false witness against those who choose to have a drink. And bearing false witness IS a sin. When anyone argues that a behavior is sinful, I believe the onus is on him to prove it Biblically, and if he can't without prooftexting and/or making extra Biblical arguments, then he has no right to call it sinful to others.

IME, Singapore is a developmentally advanced program. Some 2nd graders are simply not ready for Singapore 2, even if they completed Singapore 1 with no issues. My oldest had problems with Singapore at that age. We put it aside for a while, and six months later, he completed it without difficulty. I think that sometimes, we can be too ready to assume learning disabilities when really, we're just expecting way more from a child than he's developmentally ready for. Sure, some kids do fine, but that doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with the ones who aren't there yet. It's like the difference between having a child who walks at 11 months and one who doesn't walk until he's 14 months; give them a year, and you won't be able to tell which was which.

We don't use paper ones anymore. I started using cloth ones because I was constantly leaving them in my pockets and washing them anyway, and the cloth ones make less of a mess when this happens. :001_rolleyes: We cut up holey t-shirts for tissues. If you're interested, Puffs really are much stronger than Kleenex brand, at least they were years ago. A Puffs tissue usually stays in one piece when it goes through the wash, but the Kleenex tissue shreds into tiny pieces.

My mama hadn't heard of them. When she wanted the TV changed, she said, "Kathy Jo, go turn it to channel 10."

Which would make Acts 2:13-15 rather weird. :-) 13 But others were mocking and saying, “They are full of sweet wine.†14 But Peter, taking his stand with the eleven, raised his voice and declared to them: “Men of Judea and all you who live in Jerusalem, let this be known to you and give heed to my words. 15 For these men are not drunk, as you suppose, for it is only the third hour of the day.

I honestly don't get this. We've made some very deliberate decisions about how much technology we want, but we try to make informed decisions. We live off-grid. We watch shows on Netflix and Amazon. I love my laptop and my Kindle. But there's not a single light bulb in my house, and I have a fan instead of an air-conditioner. So I get weird. But, I can't imagine choosing a date and saying, "Nothing before that." And I especially wouldn't decide the year of my birth! For crying out loud, I was born in the early 70s. I wouldn't even get a stinkin' remote control.

*sigh* I'm with you, very literally. ((hugs)) My daughter can go from adorable to insane in roughly 2 seconds.

:seeya: Howdy, Gail! I shouldn't be now, but my mind is fried and I'm in "stare at the screen and drool" mode.

I also wanted to add that it looks amateurish. Obviously, that's not an issue for just sending out emails to friends, and it may not be an issue for college, but it will be an issue for any future business endeavors. When someone chooses to go against industry standards, the reasoning behind the decision doesn't matter, only the results. I'm a graphic artist. Two spaces after a period is as big a sin to me as using a sans-serif font for the body text, and for the same reason: It inhibits ease of reading instead of facilitating it.

Agree with both Spy Car and Ellie. Even in your short posts here, I find the white space caused by the double spaces distracting. A period is plenty of indication for a pause.

When evaluating food, don't forget about sugar, including "sugar-free" high-carbohydrate foods. My 2yod seems to have issues with sugar. I've known others who had children who couldn't handle the dyes in many foods.

No, not hardly. I get to decide what my children read, and knowing that a book contains a graphic description of a child being raped is enough for me. I will not put the filth of that description into my own head; my children can decide whether or not to when they're adults. It's absolutely absurd to think that I can't make a decision simply based on the subject matter and graphic nature of a book without reading it first. My reason for not wanting my children to read this book is so that they will not have these images put into their heads. Why would I choose to put the images into my own? I don't care about which decision other people make for their own children, though I do believe it would be wrong to force anyone to read books that are both graphic and violent. But again, it is absolutely not a requirement of "responsible education" to read a book before banning it because it contains a graphic and violent sex act. Others can choose books based on their own criteria.

Some of you may have misunderstood. I came up with a list of literature for our study of world geography. I thought it might be helpful to others, so I posted it. It is a work in progress. We will certainly be making changes, and hopefully finding books for areas which are currently not represented. However, since it is a 60 page work in progress, I offer no apologies for anything it lacks, nor am I attempting to turn this into some sort of curriculum. I would love suggestions for family read-alouds for places not currently represented. Please feel free to PM me if you have one.

As I mentioned before, I could not find books for all countries. I'm happy for suggestions. I'm pretty sure that there's one book for Australia, but none for New Zealand.

I made some significant additions to the list; it's more than 60 pages now. I added lots of Heritage History public domain books, and I added a bunch of picture books that I found. Plus a few others. The boys will be continuing their scheduled history while we do this as (mostly) read alouds. So far, I'm having a blast with this. I understand, and agree, with the SOTW way of studying history as a whole. However, it's still nice to focus on just one culture for a while before moving on to another.

I wouldn't worry about how much she understands. Yes, read her picture books at her level. If she enjoys you reading more advanced books, there's nothing wrong with that, either. However, I cannot understand the point in checking her comprehension at this age. I'd advise you to just read and enjoy good stories with her. Let her develop a love and appreciation for quality literature without it becoming work. The work will come, much later. Now's the time for fostering the love that makes the work less like work.