Ugh, I literally just printed out hundreds of pages and sat down to take a break at the computer. Printed in black and white, draft format but still using up a ton of ink. Might be time to invest in the laser printer. I had forgotten about that option. Totally understand the printed-out on paper kind of thing. I need to be able to write on it, highlight, put sticky notes on it.

I am considering using this curriculum in the fall but want more than just a text book. We like lots of hands-on activities, supplemental literature, videos, web sites, etc. Is there anything already out there that would be good to use with this text?

My 3 year old gets read to 1:1 because he goes to bed first. Then we do individual reading time with the other two either downstairs or in our bedroom. They don't share a room but it's just more comfortable to snuggle up on the couch or in our big bed. If they don't want to listen to the book their sibling chose, then can go play quietly until it's their turn. I do love the 1:1 time. My oldest has been enjoying the Harry Potter series and we've been reading that for several months at bedtime. I enjoy it, too, so it's a nice bonding time for us.

Thank you! My son loves these and can't get enough of them.

Ah, thank you! I wonder why the blog button wasn't working. Will try reloading it on my blog and see if that works. Thanks for finding this!

I was going to direct you to a blog that hosts a FIAR blog roll of a ton of great blogs out there full of FIAR activities but I see that it is gone! Such a shame. Does anyone know what happened to it? I can't think of the name of the blog or blogger that hosted it off the top of my head. I have some FIAR posts on my blog, too. A really great FIAR blogger is Rivka at Tinderbox. Angela at Satori Smiles has some awesome FIAR posts, too.

I think in the order that you do it is fine for the ages of your kids. Will you be going back through history again in a few years? I would focus more on chronological order then, when they are older, and more likely to retain that part of the info. For a first run-through of history at preschool/kindy/very early elementary ages, I just want them to have fun with it, become familiar with the concepts, and get excited about history (vs. thinking it is boring). Just my approach, though. We are pretty relaxed about it.

Volume 1 will keep you busy for a while. Lots of great selections. It's really all you need but if you want more choices, then take a look at Volume 2 as well. Both are appropriate for that age group. Have fun! We just love FIAR! :)

Do go and read Farrar's excellent overview of the program on her blog, as mentioned above. It really clarifies the components of the program.

Hahaha, "double foruming", that's funny, Farrar. And, hey, you were at the conference in Richmond? Wish I would've known. Would love to have met you in person after commenting on each others blogs for, what, almost 2 years now? :-)

We are super relaxed with kindergarten here. I used this year to get to know my daughter's learning style, so if she was really resisting something, I backed off and just took note that maybe she wasn't ready for that or maybe that wasn't the best way for her to learn it. Much of her day is spent playing. She participates in history and science, once a week for each, with her older brother. We read a few minutes in the morning and again at bedtime. We don't do calendar every day. Sometimes she is super focused on it, other times not, but it has worked fine. She knows months, days of the week in order and can fill in a blank calendar when I give it to her. We do a lot of different things for handwriting. Sometimes it's a workbook, but mostly it is making birthday cards for family members, writing to her pen pal, making a grocery list, that type of thing. If she is super engaged in a craft or some elaborate pretend play, then I don't worry about the schedule for the day, because I know she is learning a lot from what she is doing. But that is just us and what works in our family. Everyone is different. I say, try the schedule you've set up, you know your child best, but be very flexible and willing to adjust to her learning style, and even her mood for the day. This is the time to make learning fun for your child. One more comment: Five in a Row is so fun! It may take different times each day. And you may want to adjust the rest of your schedule, like when you are doing math with your FIAR book, skip your other math stuff that day. Go down the rabbit trails that you find with FIAR. For example, with Madeline, my daughter became fascinated with all things French so we got more books out of the library, some French language cd's, made some more French food, etc., etc.

I will say that I had to buy a different 3-hole-punch to be able to punch through the laminated copies but the first 3-hole-punch I had was kind of a cheap one, only one or two pages at a time. The new one is heavy duty, 20 regular pages at a time. It has no problem punching through a laminated sheet. Also, you can buy different thicknesses of laminated sheets so if you have trouble with one, try a thinner kind. Great idea with the comb binding, too. That is going to be my next fun purchase for myself. :D

I don't know the difference. I've read both but didn't notice anything that really stood out, but I read them about a year apart. You could probably call Peace Hill Press and ask them. They still sell the original version. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/store/originals

This is totally a difference between night people and morning people, I think. I sometimes wish I was a night person, because then I could get so much more done when my kids are asleep. My husband is a night person but I don't think it would ever occur to him to clean at that time of day. Or most other times of day. Oh well.

Hee hee, I just responded to your post on another forum about this but since I am also curious about what people have to say about this curriculum, I'm going to :bigear: here as well. Elfknitter, I'm not stalking you, I swear. :tongue_smilie:

Just started the 6th Harry Potter book with my almost-8-year old. Editing on the fly, as I have for the two previous HP books. Enjoying it so much myself that I read ahead after he goes to bed. :)

I have one. No agitator, so I can fit king size comforters/blankets in it. No idea how full it gets as the lid locks once it is started. I do sometimes feel it doesn't get the clothes as clean as a regular washer but that is usually on an extra dirty load so I try to run an extra rinse on those. When I washed diapers, I always ran a rinse cycle, then a regular cycle with an extra rinse and the diapers were very clean after that. I don't like that it gets musty smelling if I forget to leave the lid open when the washer is empty. You have to clean them every so often. We have a Maytag that recommends Afresh cleaning tablets but I find that a cycle of vinegar followed by a cycle of baking soda does the trick and is far less expensive.

Yes!

First, let me say, I didn't read through the original thread. Are you asking for your 4 year old or 6 year old? Either way, maybe read during snack/meal times. This has worked well for us. Also, clay or play dough. My oldest, with sensory issues, sits on a big exercise ball instead of a chair. Sometimes, it does fly out from under him but we move on. I've read some things about movement being necessary for some kids, either while learning or in between learning activities, that this actually increases their ability to learn, so I've been trying to be more open to his need to move constantly. I haven't tried this, but Kirk Martin, who has a program called Celebrate Calm, recommends putting a strip of something textured under the table so they can run their hands on it. I can't think of what it is. Maybe one side of velcro? The idea is to give them something for the sensory input they crave. Hope that helps.

Love, love, love my laminator. Not just for school stuff but I've used it for party favors (we made book marks), household chore sheets, and so many other things. I laminated some play money the kids frequently played with but it kept ripping and thoroughly frustrating my preschooler. I've laminated a favorite photo for another child who wanted to carry this photo around everywhere. Wish I would've purchased one years ago, even before homeschooling.

I seem to go in spurts. I have a day or two on a weekend of planning where I get most of my materials gathered and lessons planned for the upcoming several months. Then when I start getting to the end of that, I do it again. Each Sunday, i gather whatever I need for the week beyond that, make up a weekly schedule for my oldest, gather any extras I might need. I stop by the library if I need to or work that in to a library trip during the week with the kids. I try to keep supplies well stocked: paper, writing instruments, art supplies, etc. If I need something, I try hard to make do with whatever we have around the house to save time and money but if I need to make a run to the craft store or whatever, I try to do that on the weekend when I don't have to take all the kids.

Both kids that I've attempted this with thus far have had an aversion to reading out of the book. Lately, I've had my daughter create word cards for her word wall. She writes the word and decorates it with markers and stickers, then hangs it up on her word wall. We then read the words from there. I also tried copying the words for a lesson into a special notebook and having "tea time" while we did the lesson. This was not as popular with her as the words cards on the wall but maybe it will work for someone else. I like the idea mentioned above of writing in the different color markers of her choosing and then erasing the words as she reads them. I'll try that next. Thanks.

We definitely use the Activity Guide and do some of the projects. We also do some of our own, which you can see here, and we also like History Pockets. The Dover Coloring books are good, too, and very inexpensive. We also do a lot of Lego building for various history projects. @ The Evolving Homemaker, we mummified a rubber chicken. :D

I need to update my signature, but we are currently using FIAR, SOTW, and HWOT. We do our own math: calendars, counting coins/coin values, measuring for cooking, simple addition, counting to 100, writing numbers, etc. We also use Starfall, play our own phonics games and do tons of read-alouds and literature based learning. Lots of play, play, play, too. Good luck!

I forgot to mention Starfall. My daughter loves that website. It's free. She has learned a lot about reading from Starfall.