:iagree:. That makes no sense what so ever from any point of view. Is there a big Christian Homeschool community where you live?

:party: :party: :party: congratulations. I hope you have a healthy, happy baby and share many happy years together!

I'm going to go back and look at MEP again, I think even if I can't use it NOW it will be worth a more thorough look-see and a probably even a place of honor on the "Things to Keep In Mind For Next Year" list... I'm not trying to get a whole new math curriculum at this point. A new curriculum wont exactly help with the particular mathematical problems were having. The problems: LilGuy want's to be involved but doesn't 'get' math on paper at all. ReaderBoy needs to be doing regular math work but regrouping across place value has him stomped. LilGal want's more interesting, newer math concepts, she is interested in Algebra but first she needs to solidify her basic math facts. (at least thats my story and I'm sticking to it!) LilGal gets math. I don't know why she just 'gets' things but she does. She can understand what a pictorial example is trying to communicate, even without reading the directions half the time. (Though I'm trying to make her stop going with just her 'hunches' and read the directions also, because some times the 'hunch' is wrong. :glare: ). I feel she's at the point where she needs to primarily drill, drill, drill. Preferably timed drills. She's gotta be quicker and accurate. Boosting her math facts will help Fractions go faster, IMO anyways. She understands the concept behind arithmetic. She needs to work on her division more, but she's expressed frustration with her math all year long and I'd like to go ahead and do something about it. Once she gets her basics to the point of firing off the answers both rapidly and accurately, we're going to move to Mental arithmetic and begin some algebraic concepts. For my 1st graders, I feel that I have a good idea of what they need to learn, but I just was a bit worried about how it might affect them in the long run if I 'cater' to their weaknesses by using an extreme measures. I don't want to let them NOT do math, because they dislike it, but I wan't to find a way to make math more palatable and accessible to them. I really just wanted ideas on how to present some concepts with manipulative etc to help them 'get' math and not just learn patterns for manipulating numbers randomly. I would love it if a lightbulb could go off for ReaderBoy so that he can understand his addition and subtraction. Lately, ReaderBoy is really frustrated when we work together on math (which we hardly ever do) because he doesn't know what to do, how to do it, or why he should (besides 'mom said so' of course...) As I understand it, He's been on a break from math for a while because the battle isn't one anyone had the energy or time for at the moment. The other day I asked him to count to 100 for me and he put up such a fight it was absurd. He kept whining about how he hated math now, and we finally settled at starting at 85 and counting to 100. (He actually refused, got mad and ran home, but he came to me later and counted 85-100 and demanded 'are you satisfied now?! Sheesh!'--so I'm assuming his mom made him do it. :tongue_smilie:) I remember my math books used to have punch-out place value manipulates in the back. Squares, strips and sheets to show ones, tens, and hundreds. I'm making some of those out of cardboard for them they helped quite a bit. ReaderBoy can study the picture and read the directions and all he can come up with is a more enlightened sounding "huh? :001_huh: What the heck is this stupid book talking about" (We're working on reading comprehension outside of story books.) LilGuy doesn't get math on paper at ALL. I have lost track of the times we've talked about what that nice + symbol means when its between '1' and '1'. With physical stuff (blocks. candies, etc), he gets it. With anything less than physical stuff (pictures, numerals), I get lead on such random tangents its hard to remember them all and we both walk away feeling confused. I'm not trying to screw up any bodies education or screw up any bodies kids. I know some of you may feel like that, but I am not. Its hardly my intention, I love my students more than some of my own kin and want to see them do well, which is one of the reasons I originally asked about how going 'mathbook-less' for a while affected students in the long run. I'm NOT trying to cause anyone to be remedial math students down the line. I'm not trying to lay unrealistic expectations on my students, or whatever. I'm not trying to reinvent the wheel, but I would like to try a different size wheel and just see how it runs. I just thought it might make for a smoother ride for everyone involved.

I think most of the people I know well are bi- or tri-literate to some degree and all of them learned to read one language at a time. When I was growing up, we all learned to read in English and Arabic, but we learned English first and once we were reading solidly on grade level, we started learning the Arabic alphabet and vocabulary to perfect pronunciation of the language. Personally, I learned English first via phonics (HOP) and when I was about 1/2 through HOP (but reading other books daily) I started learning to read the second language, which was also very phonetic. I've never been very strong in my Arabic reading though, I read like a 2nd grader. :lol: One of my sisters learned to read Arabic summer after 2nd grade, and she reads Arabic better than English, (I now pay her to help me keep up my reading on occassion.)

Can you wonderful ladies (and gents) help me compile a list of books that deal with education, learning, child care and above all, HomeSchooling? I'm not asking for books about, teaching [set subject here] (like Ordinary Parents Guide to Reading, 100EZ,) but on the art and style and method of teaching ...Or, if there is a master list around here, could you just link me? ( I searched 10 pages back in the forum and didn't see a thread like this, sorry if its a repeat) Here are some of the books I know of/have read. The Well Trained Mind (Homeschool) :tongue_smilie: How to Get Your Child off The Refrigerator and On to Learning (Homeschool, ADHD) Slow and Steady, Get Me Ready (Living, School prep) Why Johnny Can't Read (education, reading) (I forget the title, but the subtitle is:) Why American Children Feel Good About Themselves But Can't Read, Write, or Add. (education) I am having a lot of trouble thinking of any other titles...but I know there are dozens more. Got Any "Must Reads" that you care to share?

I'm so happy for you. There is always hope :). And Frog and Toad is greatly adored amongst my students too, so your boy has awesome taste! :).

Since I shared my 'minor success' I feel its only fair to share the first hiccup too. Yesterday, we had a really informal DST. I wanted to try playing a game in Spanish. Since we'd done body parts the day before and were doing clothing yesterday, I felt this would be a good opportunity to play a Command/Obey game. Simon Says would be perfect! But in the spirit of DST being conducted, always in As Much Spanish As Possible, I called it: Diego Dice I thought my plan was perfect. With Diego Dice, we'd review our recent vocabulary and hopefully pick up on tu/tus vs mi/mis...I really thought that it was clever. I thought she'd have lots of fun, and learn by osmisis and it would be all giggles and sunshine (the sun was shining after all.) Anyway, I told her we'd play a game and then, picking up The Book, proceeded in Spanish. "El juego se llama, "Diego Dice". Diego Dice es como 'Simon Says', pero en Espanol." She gave me a blank look, I waited for the light bulb to come on so I waited... and waited...then repeated with gestures and clearly saying Simon Says the english way. I wanted her to catch 'Simon Says' wasn't Spanish. She frowned. "Que es el problema...no entiendes?" I was beginning to sweat at this point, she was looking mad. Luckily, we'd covered angry already, so I could ask. "Por que estas enajada?" She quickly informed me, "No, I do NOT understand and I'm mad because you aren't making sense, thats the problem!!!" (Well, at least her comprehension is really picking up...) "Que..." "You're not making sense, you said 'Diedi, what Sim dog (perro)'?! That's not real Spanish" I sat there for about 20 seconds feeling confused, then my light bulb went off. We had a quick lesson, in English, about /r/ vs /rr/ in Spanish, and I told her that pero=but, while perro=dog. I also had to explain about 'como' Then I spoke part by part and translated the sentence for her so that she'd understand. After that, I sandwiched the introduction line, "Diego Dice es un juego como Simon Says, pero en espanol >Diego Dice is a game, like Simon Says, but in Spanish > Diego Dice es un juego como Simon Says, pero en espanol...Entiendes?" "Si, entiendes." <--should have been 'entiendo' I was worried that I'd soured the spanish mood, she seemed really ticked off but she's a trooper and fortunately, LilGal is ready to forgive my numerous goofs all the time. We had a lot of fun outside and she chased me around proclaiming: 'vas a comer tus pantalones negros.' <-- I think there is only one thing wrong in that sentence! She should have said 'voy', not 'vas'. She's picking up on pronouns and I'm hopeful that this could really work out after all. ********************** Does anyone know if its bad that I'm not correcting her verb conjugations. We're not 'scheduled' to cover Verb conjugations until the end of this month...she may self-correct before then, or she may 'cement the wrong knowledge' and we all know how hard unlearning is....??? help.

yeah, I've been wondering about where we're going to find 1000+ hours to practice and study and how I'm going to get her some native exposure. I'm trying not to think to far into the future, as it only makes me feel discouraged. For now, we're just going to make it through all the materials we have on hand and practice daily, hoping that the consistency + hard work will push odds into our favor. We're learning a lot of vocab and she's gaining a passive understanding of Spanish. I'm doing more self study all on my own, like Pimsluer and Grammar books and such. I'm trying to read more in Spanish daily, so that I can get ready to read to her, she'll be more than ready to listen to simple stories in Spanish soon. I'm scared that I'll ruin her with my pronunciation, (I have a hard time with the accented words) so I'm really working on that. But I've had people ask me several times which country my parents are from (because my pronunciation is good, but my grammar/vocabulary was limited) so I think as long as I don't backtrack, I'll be okay...for now...:001_unsure:

:grouphug: :001_smile: Thats amazing! Congrats to you and your dd! 2 grades a year, wow! :). Hope the good luck and work ethic holds strong in the coming year! :)

I updated the original thread. Hopefully it is a little clearer about what I'm asking. Maybe not, one thing I've learned on this forum is I'm pretty lousy at effective written communication in real time. (*Adding that to my self-education plan.*) I'm not saying that I'm going to throw all math curriculum to the wind. Hardly that, I dont even want to do that. But I want to make sure we're getting a solid grounding and understanding of arithmetic and fractions. I've looked at several curriculum (Saxon, MM, Singapore, LOF, MOTL, RightStart, CLE, etc..) but we simply can't afford any right now. It isn't an option. like, at all. I'm going to try and adapt what we have to work for the students. Mostly I've worked with this group of students on reading. (Last summer LilGal and I did Math and it was good, but we didn't do 'fact drills' because her mom said not to.) But I'm looking to add in more math instruction in the coming months. (not right away, we've gotta get a tight grip on reading + phonics and build reading fluency and 3rd grader is prepping for standardized tests with her mom using the school curriculum and methods. I'd forgotten that when I made my OP) But the one thing I've changed/added for 3rd graders math is that she's going to learn + drill her number bonds and times tables, everyday, come hell or high water, starting yesterday. I do want to start teaching math in a more concrete way for my first graders and need ideas on how to present it using manipulatives. Right now were using beans to explore number bonds and doing counting exercises daily. My goal for them is to understand place value and be able to do addition and subtraction on 4 digit numbers by the end of the summer and to understand fractions. We can't afford a math curriculum, but I've got tons of time on my hands (can you tell?) and am willing to painstakingly adapt their curriculum and workbooks to a more manipulative based approach or to build a simple arithmetic curriculum from a scope and sequence list from someone else. I feel up to the task of teaching elementary math, with or without a curriculum, using just some materials and lots of home made manipulatives and throwing in some other math books for fun. But I'd rather not go that route at this point. I have a growing list of books on Math Education that I wan't to read and study for myself, but my public library doesn't carry any of them. I'm reading some books from the college library and trying to find others through inter-library loan. What does IIRC mean? Thank you everyone for so much feedback and information.

Or maybe, I just triumphed...

I think since you have them for free, you should try each on for about 2-5 weeks and see which one you're really liking beyond the 'honeymoon phase.' We get PowerSpeak through Virtual school and I wasn't impressed with it. LilGal took Spanish K-2 with this program, even while she enjoyed the lessons, she constantly asked "Yeah, but can we learn realspanish now..." as she quickly realized she wasn't learning anything. This kid can't even count to 20 in Spanish, nor does she remember 90% of the vocabulary taught... The Elementary Spanish in our experience was pretty useless. She isn't taking it this year, because the schedules are so, so, hectic we could'nt fit an elective but she's learned more Spanish in 7 days with our Daily Spanish Time than she did in 3 years with Power Speak....however, she'll probably remain in Spanish 'class' so long as she's in VPS. PS might really click with your 5yo. you might really enjoy it to, but for us, it was an enjoyable, consistent let down....

Well, sometimes, it takes the life time experience of 'having sucked at and suffered through' and actually triumphed over something to understand how to teach it to those who are still sucking and suffering at where ever it is you just came from. I think that I could actually design a very good math curriculum and it is in the works ;). I was bad at Math. Was is past tense, ladies. I can now do pretty much any K-8 mathematics without a problem. I assure you I could teach a 5, 7 and 9yo all they needed to know without a printed curriculum if I had too...

They aren't MY kids, they are my students. I'm not only just now thinking about how to teach them arithmetic, (ReaderBoy and LilGuy are in 1st grade...I'm working to get LilGal into Algebra by the end of this year.) I wasn't good at math. I'm currently taking PreCalculus and Trig in College. Is it easy as Pie? No. Am I doing it? Yes. I meant to communicate that they dislike their TEXTBOOKS. And their current Textbooks are crap anyway. I'm hoping that next year the kids wont be in virtual public school and that I'll have more freedom to direct the curriculum around here as its hard for me to do anything with the current set up... I'm not talking unschooling, or any thing like that. I'm talking about doing lessons, revision and practice every.single day, just using manipulatives and worksheets everyday instead of a textbook... I've looked at Living Math several times before, thats more supplemental stuff. I wouldn't mind running something like Math On the Level in the background, but I sure as heck am not considering it as a primary program for these students. I don't feel that it'd work. If I had to get a curriculum, and I could afford any that I wanted, tomorrow I'd get Math Mammoth. But I'm wondering if anyone is doing this with out Math Mammoth or any other program...

I wouldn't rely on 'daily life' to teach my current students squat. I know them too well for that and I know it wouldn't have worked on ME either. I was one of those 'crisis' cases you mentioned, (think 14-15yo in 3rd grade math book) so I know how those children feel! But the problem is, with the current math program, I wouldn't be surprised if my students wound up in that boat anyway. I would still have them do daily math practice and such, but using carefully sequenced worksheets, not a textbook. (Don't ask me why this makes a difference, just know that it does. Many of our 'problems' are the kind that exist only in heads around here. :lol::lol::lol:!) I just want to find a way to balance the 'drill and kill' with actually knowing, recognizing, liking and using the skill in the first freakin place!!

Oddly enough, I have the exact same problem. After Statistics this summer, I plan to go and give myself a genuine education in math, I've been plotting and planning my curriculum for awhile now. The textbook was part of my problem, and my parents didn't (know how) to help me. I'm seeing some of myself in my students and I want to help them... Can you please tell me more? Math genes are pretty scarce in my neck of the woods and I have noticed that the math books my students use tend to drain the very life right out of their tolerance and/or love of math... Funnily enough, if I were to go and buy a math program tomorrow, it would be Math Mammoth. Math and math education is very important to me also, and I want my students to have a good math education. I plan to give my own children the best math education ever no 'ifs', 'ands' or 'buts' about that one. I have a huge beef with typical math education/texts in this country and don't plan to let the PS system as it is, teach them a single thing about math. I agree, math is a language that definitely deserves an early start! I'd have started them all at 3yos if they had the behavior and temperment for it. My ideal set up is this: Arithmetic for 3 years, Algebra for 5, Calculus for 3. I would like to move all of my students on to Algebra by the time we hit 4th/5th grade, as now that I've been down this rabbit hole, I see it is very doable....

We used The Reading Lesson (TRL) the summer before 1st grade. We did all 20 lessons (each lesson about 20 pgs long, so they are more like chapters) in 10 weeks. ReaderBoy went from a nonreader, not knowing all his letter sounds on any given day to reading Frog and Toad stories with fluency... We used: 101 Things a Kindergartner Should Know About Reading for letter sounds and beginning words Letter Factory DVD' for letter sounds (2 viewings and they were 100% mastered) Then we started to use TRL. We worked on 101 Things along with TRL until it was done, and we also read 1 story a day after we reached lesson 4 or 5 of TRL and ReaderBoy read beautifully when we were done. Of course, he barely read for about 2-3 months after learning to read so well, so now his skills decayed and we're working on reading again, (even he admits "This was so easy when I was doing my phonics!) Moral: What ever you use, be consistent. Stay consistent...

Emphasis on the word 'curriculum'. Do you? I don't mean a small workbook or daily worksheets for practice, I mean a step by step math curriculum? Do you know anyone who does'nt use a math curriculum and their children have done well in the later years with math? I want to start ReaderBoy and LilGuy on a Math program, but we haven't had success with most of the curriculum we've tried beyond basic addition and subtraction (under 10) and the attitude towards math is starting to sour for my 1st graders. Personally, I hit a massive road block with math in the 3rd grade at 7yos and stumbled and stagnated mathematically for a long, long, time. I worry that ReaderBoy is hitting his massive road block much earlier and LilGuy isn't getting math on paper at all. I'd like to find a way to nip this in the bud, and help them blossom mathematically. ReadeyBoy gets math outside the context of a mathbook. LilGuy say's he likes numbers alot, he's very good with patterns, he wants me to teach him math too. I want to help them both understand arithmetic via manipulatives and slowly ease them back into Texts/workbooks once the learnings done. We would use pen and paper resources and we'd use them a lot. But not for the teaching and early practicing bits of learning. For the first several days, we'd do problems (from the textbook) and just record the answers after solving with the manipulatives. I can't afford anything right now. Not even the paper and ink to print MEP. I repeat: I can not afford anything. We're going to have to get creative and actually use up everything we've got on hand (which is actually quite a bit, really. I shouldn't say it's all worthless. It isn't, I think it just needs to be adapted to our needs instead of trying to adapt the kids to it.) and then go from there starting next year. Which is why I'm asking around here. I can't afford anything. I just want to make sure that it is very clear right now, I can't afford anything. I'm laminating the home made flashcards with packing tape and using masking tape for spanish cards I'm making out of cereal boxes okay? I'm really, really broke. Money is so tight the budget is strangling us. I'm assessing my 3rd and 1st graders now and I wan't to focus on simply Arithmetic and basic fractions. (No geometry, time, measurement, etc) Just (+, -, * and /) and a strong understanding of fractions. We're learning to tell time and measure via real life and I have yet to find a reasonable way or reason to teach basic geometry to young children who know their shapes but couldn't care less about polygons, angles, what have you. For my 1st graders, we're going to work on counting, skip counting, place value, number bonds to 20, fact families to 15, basic fractions. The goal I'm thinking of is being able to do addition and subtraction on 4 digit numbers with high accuracy by the end of the year. For my 3rd grader, we're going to cement all those foundational bits that I feel should be on auto recall and continue to work on operations with fractions. When she can answer 100 arithmetic problems in 90 seconds with perfect accuracy, and 75 fraction operations in 3 minutes with perfect accuracy, I plan on helping her begin learning some basic algebra stuff because she wants to learn something new in math, but she doesn't enjoy the typical 'tangents' that most math books have. She's interested and I feel she's capable of learning about some basic things in Algebra. (negative numbers, PEMDAS, solving for X, using X to solve linear equations & inequalities and graphing her equations. Nothing major, very easy going, on her level. Just showing her how and helping her learn the material. You don't need to have mastered Long Division before beginning Algebra, and she can continue to do her primary math curriculum with Algebra practice on the side.) 3rd Grader wants to learn Algebra, (she thinks it looks 'kinda hard but really interesting and fun' (O_O)...) so naturally I wan't to help her. Thoughts???

I got an egg carton and some beans for LilGal just today. I'd been meaning to do this for a while....Anyway, she knows 1's and 2's mostly. But I got the egg carton so that we can be sure we're understanding what 3x4 means... Our routine is thus: we're practicing skip counting by which ever number we're on. Making a chart to 12 places, and practicing daily. Here is the routine we started today. Today we wrote out 1-40. I had her highlight all the multiples of 3 up to 36 (3*12). Then we skip counted to that number a few times for practice. Then we placed 3 beans on each highlighted square while saying the fact. (3*8=24--places 3 beans on 24--...3*9=27--place 3 beans on 27...) I had her do the 'routine' 5 times. Then later (maybe 2.5 hrs) while we passed the soccer ball, we said the 3 times tables. First forwards, then backwards, then only the odd facts, then the even facts...now the knowledge is marinating. We're doing the 12*12 table and I expect to have them all done in 14 days and then we'll begin doing timed drills with flash cards, then I'll have her do written drills because she is a slow writer. I've got a book around her called Marvelous Multiplication, it magically went missing earlier today...*hmm*...

I like to be corrected, but not in an obnoxious or jargon-spouting way...Just model the correct way its done a few times and tell me, in no uncertain terms, that what I said/did was wrong. I like to be corrected for a few reasons; 1) I want to be able to set a good example for my students on how to accept your own goofs. 2) I want to show that I am still learning and growing myself 3) I want to be fluent in several languages, I do not want to be a grammarian/linguist. I just want to speak, read and understand Spanish, Arabic, German, Japanese, Mandarin, ASL and other languages as they are actually spoken in real life, by real people participating in modern society. I don't like it when people are just nit-picking at me. I don't feel that I'm at the level in any language but English where nitpicking can actually serve me, so its counterproductive to nit-pick at me, but other than that...correct away, please.

If you want fun without education, go to Toys R Us and see what you like that catches your eye or that your child will enjoy. Then you can get a good idea of what the toy is like, and Toys R Us does have some educational toys also, so you might find something thats both. PS. Tetherball is A.W.E.S.O.M.E, in my humble opinion...

We don't study latin, but Spanish. I got a good running start on Spanish (3 semesters worth, made straight A's and can actually speak, understand and read some Spanish outside of academic work.) I'm forced to take a break from Spanish classes until I transfer to Uni and now I'm just teaching LilGal as I go through and patch up any and all holes I can identify in my own Spanish. I'm reworking all the grammar from Spanish 1 and 2, paying special attention to the bits I struggled with, (Those darn Noun+Adjective agreement, Double Object pronouns!) using Pimsleur and trying to watch more media in Spanish and read in Spanish everyday. (ha!) I say get a head start if you can, jump in and swim for the shore if you cant. The worst case scenario is you and your kids learn something...even if its that "Mom really sucks at Latin!" lol. (Its good for students to see the imperfections in their teachers sometimes too!)

I've been thinking about using that book at some point with LilGal I don't own it, but I know it from the Spanish learning circuit, lol. How are you using it with your student? I second the plea for the schedule. 55 weeks seems kinda slow....do you think its possible to do it faster? Maybe in 25-30 weeks? Right now, we've just started doing, and are doing Daily Spanish Time, (and we're doing pretty well with it.) And with all these workbooks/resources/programs and things that I've accumulated, I'm not sure if we'll need it or not, by the time were done with the schedule I've been building, but its at the top of my "Plan B" file. How is your sons Spanish, can you give me some tips? LilGal and I have had a pretty successful start to learning Spanish. She wont learn to read for a while, but the main goal is to lay a foundation of oral/aural skills and I think that the reading will come VERY easily for her once we get there. Right now we're doing commercial Spanish workbooks, and psuedo-immersion for several minutes a day. As well as lots of conversational bits throughout the day. I'm trying to stay a few (okay, okay several) paces ahead of LilGal with my own Spanish abilities. I've had 3 semesters of Spanish in CC, and I'm using the language with her alot and she's building comprehension rapidly. We're going to start some basic grammar towards the end of this month. I'm hoping to get her through all the grammar in my Spanish textbook with in the next several months, and by the end of next year hopefully she'll use something like Pimsleur, Learn Spanish Like Crazy or Assimil for 'language lab' as well as watch her way through Destinos, with lots of comprehension. I have a TON of books, both on childrens and adults level, so I'm going to be adapting several of my things down to her level, my aim is to give her the language, not a bunch of grammatical jargon. How were going to get from studying from "The Complete Book of Starter Spanish" to using "Learn Spanish Like Crazy + Destinos" for review/upkeep in less then several years is a very good question, but I have no intention of giving up!!! Our dream-goal is to have a 'secret language' to use around the rest of the family and friends circuit. (MWAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!, lol.)

I think I that I was taught that while durante is sufficient, durante de can (should) be used to when talking about something with specific parameters, like a set time. Durante de la clase de las matematicas... durante la clase de las matematicas... durante (de) la primavera durante (de) la lectura. I dont think (de) is required, but I think it can be used in some cases without being wrong. Either way, I'm glad we're having some success and I continue to study myself, so I should be getting better as she does. Thanks for prompting me to look further into that.

This is just a minor braf, but also meant as encouragement to those of us who are trying to make bilingualism a reality in our homeschools and families. So, its been about 6 days of doing Spanish time and Psuedo-Spanish immersion for 10-30 minutes day, yesterday, after working on reading with 2 of my students, LilGal and I were getting ready to have DST and ReaderBoy was waffling back and forth on whether he wanted to stay in the room, go to another room or go home. (He doesn't want to learn Spanish) I had pulled out The Book which meant DST had officially began, so I was bound by the unwritten commandment #3Thou Shalt Speaketh As Much Spanish As Possible During Daily Spanish Time, so I turned to LilGal and I said. "[LilGal], dile que durante de la hora del espanol, hablamos solo en espanol si podemos." LilGal said, "Oh yeah, [ReaderBoy] during spanish time you have to speak spanish." "No, no. [LilGal]. dile que durante de la hora del espanol, hablamos solo en espanol si podemos y el probablement quiere jugar en la otra sala" (with a few gestures thrown in) LilGal: "Oh yeah, [ReaderBoy] during spanish time, we speak as much Spanish as we can, so you probably want to play in the other room." ReaderBoy's eyes were huge, having heard me speaking in so much Spanish that LilGal understood and promptly got his toy and ran out the room. I just want to note that we haven't studied verb conjugations yet, I didn't teach her the words podemos, solo, durante de, jugar, otra, dile, si=if, or probablemente. But during Spanish time, we look at vocabulary in a book and I talk to her about in Spanish. I ask her to do things, and tell her stories in Spanglish using the vocabulary that we've learned and reviewed recently. So, for those of us who want to move toward spoken languages in the home. Its possible and it works!!! :).