I cannot recomend the MP3 audio download about middle school writing enough. It is the most useful resource on this topic I have found. I bought all three and just love them.

Both my kids started piano quite young. I think any child can benefit from starting early, not just those who show an early talent. We did start with a teacher. If you do start with a teacher, make sure it is a teacher who is comfortable teaching a child so young. Many don't start until the age of 5. One problem with a teacher is that most 3 and 4 year olds can't really tolerate a 'lesson' that lasts for more than a few mins. It can be hard for a teacher to know how much to charge and schedule. My younger child is almost 6 and didn't graduate to a full 30 min one on one lesson until he was 5 and a few month. Before that it was 5 and then 10 min before big brother's lesson. My older boy was ready for a full 30 min lesson at 4.5. Suzuki can be very nice at this young age. It can be mostly group lesson with a 5 min individual lesson before or after the group class. Both my kids started that way. I have seen the little mozart series. I think our piano teacher considered it for my younger boy but we didn't use it. Not for any reason I can remember. I am sure it is fine. And yes to getting the suzuki piano CD and listen, listen, listen and then listen some more!

One thing that I like about the TOPS programs is that they always work. At least that is my experience. So often a 'science' experiment just doesn't have the promised payoff. TOPS work. I have heard very good things about the corn project. I will be using the radish project in the spring as part of a botany unit. You can order directly from TOPS science. THere might be more info about specific experiments on their website. I know they have the entire table of contents and materials needed listed with each experiment. I bet they would be happy to answer questions as well. I personally tend to think most of their stuff works best with middle age and above. But I have used primary lentil science to great effect with grammar age kids.

Ok, I clearly need a nap. I just reread my previous post and it makes NO sense. Take one year off everthing I said. :lol: My 10 year old is using WWE FOUR not 5. There is no WWE5 available to the public. Level 5 would be 'writing with skill' if I HAD been lucky enough to score the beta. So just push everything back on year. What I meant to say is that they would be fine using WWE THREE together. aye, aye, aye I need to go to bed earlier.

No. Not at all. Like the above poster said, just don't do the narration exercises in FLL. I skipped a handful of things in FLL because we were doing something similar in WWE and vice versa. I could prob count the number on one hand. Once you have both workbooks (WWE and FLL) in hand you will see how they work together. It has been a total no-brainer for me. Honestly, one of the easiest parts of my day is language arts. I did FLL three times a week and WWE four times a week.

I think it would be fine. My 5th grader, 10 yrs, uses it. Honestly, I think WWE4 would also be just fine. The books are very similar. We are 10 weeks into WWE5 and the biggest change is that the dictations are getting challenging. Other than that, the routine (narration, dictation, narration, dictation) stays the same. Oh, at the end of WWE4 the student starts writing down the first couple sentences of their own narrations. It is dictated to them and then they write it out. In WWE5 they do that from the get go. The whole point of WWE is to have writing be sucessful. You want it to be a postive experience. Given that goal, it wouldn't hurt him to to WWE4 with his brother. They could move onto 5 together next year. If it were a tad easy, it's not the end of the world. It might also give him some confidence.

I am embarassed to admit how I picked my math curriculum. It is embarrassing because I spend SO MUCH time picking my other stuff and I sort of fell into SIngapore. My bestest friend is a homeschooler. SHe is much more experienced, having four kids all much older than mine. She has given my tons of stuff as she has finished. Well, when it came time to start kindergarten she just told me to use SIngapore. She gave me all the textbooks, year 1-6 and said "use this." So I did. She also gave me miquon materials and the lab sheets and a huge box of manipulatives and some things called "job cards" that use pattern blocks, geoboards, teddy bears and rabbits etc. She said that when she started homeschooling there was pretty much just saxon. She used it for her girls but found it too rote. When Singapore became available she switched. She used miquon for all her kids. I figured, I know her kids, they are good at math, so I never really questioned that choice. Singapore with some miquon and a bunch of manipulatives and games added in has worked really well for us. So, I lucked out.

I would request a meeting with the principal and the 'health and wellness' program person (who ever the heck that is!) and ask for more information. I would use phrases like "I am confused' a lot. "I am confused why my son is being questioned about his personal hygene" "I am confused about why my son is being monitored" Ask lots of questions and try to get as much information as possible. It could be a misunderstanding. I hope it is.

Has he done diagramming before? If not, I would go to first language lessons year 4. It would give him a solid review of the parts of speech and introduce diagramming.

BTDT :lol: I went with Growing with Grammar. However, I don't use it as a totally independant subject. I go over each lesson with him and talk about the assignment. I let him lose with the assignment and check it when he is done. It only takes me about 5 mins of teaching time. Oh, and I have FLL 4 on the shelf and every grammar lesson we review one of the chants (helping verbs, pronouns etc) or a definition. They are all listed in the back. We just found those so helpful, and I don't want them to be forgotten.

If your child is preschool aged, that is too young to be enrolled in kindergarten, then homeschooling should not come into play as to getting speech therapy. There are kids who get speech therapy at home who are not enrolled in school but it is covered by pre-school education. If you live in a state with mandetory pre-school enrollment then I guess it is different? In NY there is no universal preschool so they have to provide the therapy in the home to any preschooler. It didn't matter that I was going to homeschool because a four year old can't be 'schooled' by the state. There are pre-ks in my county but they are voluntary. The state can't force me to enroll my child to get services. Group therapy is a bit of a joke. However, it can be really, really hard to get individual. Keep track of any regressions over school breaks and tell the therapist. Say "you know, we didn't see you last week and by the weekend it was harder to understand him." Make sure they know about all the times people don't understand him. Keep asking for individual. When you have his IEP meetings you have to specifically request individual therapy. DOn't just go with what the therapist suggests. You might have to argue. When they give you the old "that is what the rules say' tell them that group therapy is not meeting his needs. If they tell you they don't have enough therapists..well.. that is NOT your problem. The federal law is very clear about that. If they use that as an excuse, that is a violation of the law. It's like dealing with an insurance company. They will do anything to save a buck and they do NOT have your best interests at heart. Ask the therapist for specific instructions on how to work with him. If you can, ask to sit in on a session. Tell her you want to hear what she says to him so you can help him at home. If you think he needs more you can ask for it. It is not that big a deal. It isn't about 'what the rules say'. It is about what is meeting his needs. THey aren't supposed to just have a formula. And IEP is a legal document that is supposed to be about meeting his needs. You can request in writing that his speech therapy sessions be increased to one individual session along with the group. They have to deal with you.

Do you live in a state that does not permit speech therapy for homeschooled kids in public schools? My son receives therapy through our public school. It is part of NY education law that the public schools have to offer special education services to homeschooled children. The size of vocabulary shouldn't be an issue when it comes to therapy. My son just had his three year reevaluation meeting today and according to the psych eval he scores off the charts with vocabulary, phonemic awareness, expressive languare, receptive language etc etc. He was in the 99.9 percentile. He still qualifies for therapy. If the speech issues are considered 'developmentally appropriate' then it can be an issue. For example, my son mispronounces 'r' but that isn't considered a speech delay because it is a later developing sound. However, he has issues with some vowel sounds so that qualifies him. I would look into your state's special education law, it should be available online, to make sure that the whole 'homeschool' issue isn't being used to deny services that should be available. Just the fact that you were told that would have me checking it the legality of the situation. There is also the possiblity of challenging the initial evaluation. You can poke around at wright's law online. In this time of real budget cuts in the schools, they are looking for any way possible to deny services.

Yeah.... that is so frustrating. My son is 10 and I can say that it IS getting better. I have tried almost everything. We had great luck with timez attack to increase the speed of his multiplication tables. That was a game changer. The careless errors were just making me crazy. I needed to create a culture of careful work. He would wonder off in the middle of a problem, skip problems, write HALF the answer, not follow instructions. OMG, it was killing me. Half his math problems were due to mentally walking away halfway through a problem. Of course he was making mistakes, he forgot where he was in the problem. He wasn't able to understand the reasoning behind the steps of a problem because he wasn't following it all the way through. We had a mess on our hands. I have made two changes: 1. I have him do a limited number of problems before I check the answers. I started with having him call me over after every. single. question. He is now up to three or four questions before I ask him to check in. That helps keep him on track, lets me know if he is woolgathering (or Ork fighting), prevents him from making the same mistake in all his problems etc. 2. I did something controversial, at least as far as my own parenting is concerned. I line up chocolate chips in front of him. One for each question. If he makes a careless error then I get one chocolate chip. If he gets the correct answer then he gets a chocolate chip. I was very clear about what a careless error is. It is not just making a mistake. We all make mistakes. Carelessness is not completing a question, not being able to figure out what the answer is because it is written so messily, not reducing a fraction, not following order of operations or not following directions. His moral has increased so much. He is feeling much more confident and competent in math. We are now having cheerful math lessons instead of sobbing and frustrations. I think the most important change was both the increased fluency in math facts and the frequent checking in. The chocolate chips are a nice reward and make him smile but they aren't what made the difference. Well, it did make a difference the first week. Boy did he WANT that reward. Now, I am pretty sure I could start phasing them out.

my fifth grader uses 4th grade WWE. He is a great reader etc but he didn't have the hand strength when he was younger. He was one of those kids crying because his hand hurt. I put him in WWE2 when he was in grade three and it has been wonderful.

I don't have the CDs but I do have lively latin. The kids make their own 'History of Rome" book. It is just narration with a picture. There is a place to draw a picture and some blank lines for the narration. You don't need the pages from LL. Just have them make a picture inspired from the story of Romulus and Remus and then have either write or dictate an explaination of their picture. Now that my son is three quarters through his own History of Rome, I kind of wish I had just used our own paper. My son really, really enjoys the histories and would love more space to make bigger, better pictures. If you do make your own, make sure to number them or put them in the notebook in some order. I admit that I get a little confused about what person came before another. I hope this helps. I wouldn't sweat not having those pages a bit.

I only get things like that done by loads of planning. For me, anything hands on, like a project or science, needs to be well planned. If I have the materials, if I know exactly when I want to do it then it happens. I don't do stuff like that all the time. I don't do a history project every week, but I do them regularly. I have a list of the projects I want to do and what is needed. I get the materials, all of them, and I put them together. That is the only way it happens. If I leave very little to chance I find I have the time. If I don't have a clear plan or all the materials then it doesn't happen. It also helps me to have a clear idea of how a project fits into our educational goals for the year. If it just seems like a fun thing, it becomes an extra that doesn't happen. If it has to happen because I know it is teaching them about XYZ then it happens.

We always finished in a year. I start school in september and am finished by early to mid june. We do a chapter a week. Some chapters have two parts and each part gets it own day, but we do them the same week. Some weeks have short chapter and those we combine with the following week, if possilbe. We always do narration and mapwork. So, I do history at least twice a week with my grammar stage kid. I don't do an activity every week, only if there is something that I know my kids would like. I don't always do the extra reading, again, only if I know my kids would like whatever is available and we have the time. Some weeks we do extra reading AND a project. It just depends on what is offered and available. Now, logic stage kid does history at least three times a week but that is because there is more reading and writing. He also joins in for any projects.

Now, if you get the book and there is special equipment..or any equipment really..you have to let us know, lol

My son had done quite a lot of brain gym and nothing was ever needed. He did it with his OT and it was just movement.

if you go to the TOPS science site, click on the lentil science k-3, then click on 'teacher tips', there is a comparison and contrast by the TOPS people.

I can do it perfectly with my left hand but not at all with my right.

No. But I watched my friend put together the entire program before TOPS sold a complete kit. I swore I would never do that. It was so much work for her, when her kids outgrew the program she gave it to me for free. She just wanted to know that someone else got good use out of so much work.

I have to recommend my favorite audio resource. We have the CDs called "time to sing'. It is commonly sung songs for children done in a very clear manner. The music is often regular speed and the singing is done half time. It made things so much easier for my son. He could sing along for the first time. I think there is also a christmas carol one. It used to be available on Amazon but it seems no longer. If you google 'time to sing' and apraxia you will get some hits to speech therapy sites. Your kid doesn't need to be apraxic to enjoy them.

I bought one for my then 8 year old. It was the BEST money I have ever spent. The two boys (10 and 5) use it almost every day. We use rechargable batteries. If you don't have one, you might want to get a charger. A tripod is also nice. They love the flip! They spend time almost every morning making 'adventure movies' and such things. My younger son spent hours with a house plant and plastic animals making a 'david attenbourough movie' He was in HEAVEN.

Mess hasn't been a problem. That said, we have always had one of those 'under bed storage' boxes filled with about 20 lbs of rice for the kids to play with. I do change the rice on occasion, lol, it's not 10 years old. From a very early age my kids learn to 'not splash the rice' or it goes away. That rule was easily transfered to the lentils. I have an old vinyl table cloth that goes on the floor when stuff like that comes out. Any little bits, and it is only a couple spoonfuls, can get picked up with the tablecloth and I shake it outside. I love that my 10 year old and my 5 year old can use it together. It is meant to be used independently. My friend had a 'lentil science station' for her boys. I am more of a 'today is lentil science' type person.