When (generally speaking) can I kid start Rosetta Stone?

I'd consider trying Math U See. It's an incredible program. Expensive, but worth it, in my opinion and from my experience. :001_smile:

:iagree:

Why do you need a room dedicated to school? ...I use my whole house! :D No seriously... If my kids did a DVD school, I'd probably put all their computers and books in one place... probably a spare bedroom or the large family room we have in the basement or something like that... But, because of our style, we can do much of our school day right on the couch (listening to read alouds, reading from real books for The Story of the World and science, listening to Bible stories, FLL, practicing spelling words on white boards, reviewing phonics) or we can just sit at the kitchen or dining room tables (Math U See, Zanier Bloser handwriting, drawing and arts and crafts, notebook pages, maps, etc.). I just have book shelves for books and a cabinet (or two) with drawers for supplies and that's all I need. I put everything away as we finish (or try to) and my house stays pretty neat most days. Here's some pics from our "school room." ;) http://www.veronicaboulden.com/2010/06/lot-of-people-ask-me-how-i-organize-my.html Good luck! If I were you, I'd just ask myself, "Where do I do school NOW?" And then ask "What storage do I need to make this room (where I do school most of the time already) look neat with all our school stuff in it?" I have seen friends waste weeks worth of time and hundreds of dollars in money organizing and decorating a room they never use because they really need to be in the kitchen... or doing laundry while they are also doing school... So, their kids end up at the kitchen table anyway. I'd keep everything central and use nice storage cabinets to make it look neat... and put it all away as you go. But, that's just me... and I am only schooling one kid with a toddler running around... :D so it works for us.

:iagree:

What resources can you recommend for a 2nd grade public school kid who needs to improve spelling and vocabulary? Any suggestions will help! Thanks. :D

My goals for teaching foreign language would be 1 -communication with the people who live around us. We have a lot of Spanish/ Portuguese speaking people in our area. It bugs me the we can't communicate with them. I'd like to start with the languages spoken close to home and then move out from there. At least, that's what I was thinking to begin with. More and more kids growing up in America today will have a second language because of time spent with kids and their families who have two languages. I do not want my daughter to be less likely to have a job one day because she doesn't have to same skills. People can get a job easily enough without two languages right now... but it twenty years, I think two languages will be highly sought after, if not essential. I'm thinking practically. :001_smile: And, did I mention how much it bugs me that I can't communicate with a third or more of them people I brush elbows with at the store???!!!

I also have a six year old who is also in the first grade. She knows all her addition facts by heart and we have NEVER, EVER, EVER drilled or used flashcards, etc. :confused: I have been really surprised and confused by this.. I was expecting to have to use flashcards because, well, how else would she learn her math facts??? But, we have been using Math U See (the Primer first and now we are in Alpha) and she has never needed to use flashcards, as incredible as that sounds... I don't know if this is typical. I don't know anything about Horizons verses Math U See... I've never seen Horizons. But I don't think my daughter is especially gifted in math (Is that wrong to say??? ;):D) but Math U See seems to have done such an excellent job of explaining addition that she can do it SO fast in her head she just always KNOWS the answer right away. I submit this humbly. I used Math U See on a tip from my sister in law who loved it first... and so far, I have loved the results. We don't ever hate doing math, we never drill the facts, but my daughter knows everything just as well as if we did. :001_huh:

I have used both Sonlight and Abeka... and I used them together. :D You can use both (even though that's not what you asked.) But, really, all you'd need to do is just do the Sonlight Core of your choice. (The Core will teach general knowledge for a given grade level.) Then you can pick the subjects that you want to use from Abeka and do those along WITH your Sonlight core. But, a full day of Abeka is VERY different than a full day of Sonlight with some Abeka mixed in... If you asking which is better or which one I'd choose... I'd choose Sonlight and add in the subject or subjects that you want to use Abeka's for. Abeka's phonics is a must, in my opinion. If you don't have a math, instead of going with whatever Sonlight suggests, you could use Abeka for that, too. Sonlight won't be complete without adding in some other curriculum or plan for the missing subjects to make it "whole." But, this is easily dealt with by adding in the Abeka subjects of your choice. You can have BOTH Abeka and Sonlight... your cake and eat it, too. :D

I usually do one chapter during the day and another at night (when I do it at all). I also don't get as much reading done as I want to/ plan to. I have considered setting a timer for thirty minutes each time I read out loud (once during the day and again at night). This would probably double my reading, making it two chapters at a time or even more... which would help me get through more books in a year. :grouphug:

:grouphug: I started teaching my daughter to read when she was three, so I totally get it. No judgment from me for starting so early. :D My daughter also went through stages where she was hesitant to do the "work" of reading, but she had less of an issue than some kids I know about because we used The Handbook for Reading. (They are a dime a dozen, so you should be able to get one easily.) I recommend this resource because my daughter had LESS of an issue with reading from books, formally, because she used this book from the beginning. To her, reading was always reading from a book... if that makes any sense. The Handbook added sentences little by little. Your kid doesn't even notice they are reading sentences. :D I find that kids who use phonics workbooks, flashcards, etc. generally learn, but then fight their parents more and end up having a harder time transitioning to reading out of books. This, at least, has been my experience with friends and family members I have talked to. Good luck! :grouphug:

I used Sonlight P4/5 with my daughter for Kindergarten (along with Math U See's Primer, Zanier Bloser's Manuscript K and Abeka's Handbook for Reading.) I liked most of the books in that core. The Big of Science and Nature, Milly Molly Mandy, Family Bible Reader, Year at Maple Hill Farm, People and the little paper back Usborne science books (can't think of their names right now) were some of my favorites. Some of them (like First Thousand Words) were way too juvenile for my six year old, in my opinion. I just didn't even use that book and NOW I use it with my two year old. :001_smile: I didn't like the book about the rabbit (Mr. Wiggly, I think his name was... anyway, I found it REALLY hard to read for some reason.) :confused: But all that said, what I really want you to know is that I thought I needed a schedule and it felt great to check off the boxes at first... it was very reassuring at first. But if I could go back in time and talk some sense into myself, I would tell myself to ditch the schedule Sonlight sends with their cores. I'd just buy all the same books used from Amazon or something so that I could avoid paying for the schedule at all. The reason I ended up hating the schedule: They tell you to read two pages in one book and two pages in another and one page in another... usually stopping in an awkward place where the author didn't mean for you to stop. Doing that every day started to feel very choppy and unnatural. I started to hate the schedule. So, in my opinion, I think you should use all the same books, just consider going through them leisurely, as if you picked them up from the library and as they were meant to be read in the first place. If you read out of Sonlight books for half a hour a day, I think you will work through all the books twice maybe even three times by the end of the year! If you follow the schedule, you waste so much time is closing and opening books. :tongue_smilie: Even if you only read The Big Book of Science and Nature one day and then read Year at Maple Hill Farm the next and then read the first chapter in Milly Molly Mandy the next... I think you will be better off than trying to follow their schedule. This is just my opinion, I submit it to you in humility, of course you can take it or leave it. ;) Oh, and you do have those four skill building workbooks with that core. I loved those workbooks! So did my daughter! The schedule simply said to do one page a day in each, starting with the first and going on through the forth. That's easy enough to do on your own, right? Good luck. I hope I was helpful. :D

I'm speaking from my own experience here... this may or may not help you... it may not even apply to you... But, if you are afraid to buy anything because you are afraid you won't use what you buy or it won't be the right fit or it will be a complete waste of money, etc. etc. then you may end up paralyzed and not doing much of anything... That's what happened to me, actually. :glare: I feel like we missed a whole year because of my indecision. I wanted to know about everything (EVERYTHING!) on the market before I made any decision about what to use... I was worried what I wanted to use would be second to something else I didn't know about.. so I waited and waited and rung my hands... But, I've been homeschooling for a few years now and I STILL find out about new (terrific) stuff everyday!!! :tongue_smilie: You should research and ask questions. Do due diligence. In this way, you will find some resources that are totally free or ways to save serious money. I did. I almost bought Saxon math... but I met up with a lady (who I barely knew at the time) who used it, looked through the book and just like that, I knew I'd hate it. I got Math U See instead and even though that program was pricey, I saved serious money because I didn't have to waste money on a program I wouldn't use (Saxon) to find one I did. But you have to spend money, eventually. Not everything you will want to use or need to use will be free, especially the stuff you will need to use on a daily basis (like Story of the World). Our library has this, but we need it daily. Doing research helped me avoid some bad purchases, but not all of them. (I hate our spelling program, for example. But, there was no way to know that till we bought it and tried it. I am planning to try something else next year but I am not sure the problem isn't just spelling. We might just hate spelling. I think we have to wait and see. :D) So, some of home school is trial and error and you just have to try stuff to know how your kids will do with what you picked.

Abeka's Spelling and Poetry 1. But I am still in denial about how much we hate it. :tongue_smilie:

I'm hoping to glean some new ideas from what you all say here... A lot of times I will hang out with a group of home school moms, get to talking with them and someone will say, 'You've never heard of _??!!" And they are shocked to find out I've never even heard of it. What is that one THING that you'd be shocked to find I don't know about. (Besides The Well Trained Mind, of course. That's kind of a "given," right?) So, what is it? ...What's the thing you couldn't live without? :lurk5:

"Nice shoes. I really like those orange bits. Very zesty. :glare:" :confused: ??? I wouldn't be surprised if I am missing something. It happens all the time. But, what am I missing? What's shoe spam?

When do I start foreign language instruction? What resources do you recommend? What languages have you and your children learned? Thanks.:D

I think you could safely buy all of them. ;):lol:

My daughter is "done" with phonics. And it sounds like she and your son are on the same level. :001_smile: But, we still review phonics. We practice special sounds with flashcards, audio cds, and go through a phonics workbook, etc. She has started doing spelling that goes with her phonics program, but she is not a natural speller (meaning she has no idea what-so-ever!!! how to spell the words she can very easily read.) Her spelling lists have a phonics sound and/ or rule at the top, but she still seems to struggle connecting the phonics sounds that she learned so she could read to words she is trying to spell. I think we may start All About Spelling next year, to review phonics in a different way and teach her to think about words differently... not with a focus on reading... but a bent toward building or spelling them. Some kids don't need both, but mine will. She can read like a savant, but she just doesn't get how phonics sounds and rules connect to spelling. :D

I don't use a reading program. The books designed with questions at the end of the stories are always really dull, in my opinion. And if you don't want to read it, why should your kids read it??? Why should your reading program teach them to dread reading??? You can check comprehension by asking your kids what the book was about (even if you didn't read the story yourself.) If they can't tell you the story, if they can't answer your questions and talk with you about the story, then they didn't get it and should read it again. But, this never really happens. If they are reading well once you "turn them loose" to read on their own then their comprehension is usually alright. I just have my daughter read for thirty minutes a day. I use the Sonlight readers lists and other great series (The Magic Tree House, Let's Read and Find Out) making sure I am stocking up on the best books for her reading level. I try and buy the Five in a Row books and read one everyday for a few days. I like this because these stories become part of my kid's hearts and souls. And, when I get to it, I am reading a novel out loud. We have been reading out of Hinds Feet in High Places for about a year. Sad... But true. We have Wind in the Willows and A Dog Called Kitty, etc. I plan to get to those. :D :grouphug: But, without fail, my daughter reads everyday for at least thirty minutes. Most of the time, she will continue reading for an hour past that. :001_smile:

:iagree: For the older kids, you could choose an appropriate Sonlight Core and they could guide themselves through the work... You'd have to pick a separate math, etc. At least, I think that's how it works with Sonlight. They may recommend one, but I don't think it comes with the Core. ??? The Cores come with schedules and the older kids could just work through the schedules at their own pace. For math: Math U See has dvd's that teach and many kids can watch them and do their math with little help from moms. I'd go with something like this so you are free to care for the baby. For the younger one/s, you could use a Sonlight Core and read the books with them. I wouldn't follow the schedule because (in my opinion), it just feels all over the place because you are reading a few pages here and another few pages there all day. I'd just take the list of books and read them one after another, discussing them, etc. For handwriting, you could do Zanier Bloser. Just do a page or two a day. With a new baby coming, I'd keep it simple and focus on time spent with your kids over good books. And, I'd just focus on the essentials: reading, writing, arithmetic and nothing else (because you probably won't have time to do much else.) To teach reading, I'd use The Handbook for Reading from Abeka. And, you don't really need all the other stuff Abeka provides, like flash cards, just as long as you review enough using the Handbook. That was my choice for phonics. I'd never taught a kid to read before, either. And, my daughter (now six) reads six books a day! Good luck! :grouphug:

I feel the same!!! I am surprised at how my style has "evolved" over the years. But, I am the opposite... I thought I'd be much, much more scripted, formal, strict, scheduled, etc. But, I have become more and more like those unschoolers that once ruffled my very pristine home school feathers with all their free time, unit studies and nature study. ;) I also thought I'd stick with one curriculum, but I have ended up being VERY eclectic. I don't even HAVE plans!!! (other than those that come WITH activity guides like The Story of the World) and I have NO schedule!!! Gasp! ;) And we start school all times of day!!! I wouldn't have believed you if you had told me this is how I'd end up. :D

I use Zanier Bloser with my oldest kid (six). She was born drawing, held a pencil early, etc. ;) If my youngest ends up hating handwriting, I know HWT is an option. But, I love Zanier Bloser workbooks. We did the Manuscript K book and are doing the Manuscript 1 now. When we finish that, we will start cursive. :001_smile: I just buy the workbooks. That's all I've ever needed.

I'd go with the Core 1. You don't want the oldest kid bored and the younger one will be fine either way. :D

Try Magic School Bus or Let's read and Find out books in the meantime. These aren't as advanced or mature as chapter books, but the content makes them worth the time.