The original poster's experience is pretty much the exact same as my own.

I am soooo tired of my 3 year old saying "poopyhead." I can effectively ignore him (and not give him the "reward" of seeing me ignite), but it is his 6 year old sister that encourages him to keep saying it. He winds up modeling HER behavior. Lately I've been taking away her privileges when she models the undesirable behavior. It's working a bit. Time will tell. This too will pass...

Quesadillas with refried beans. Two tortillas, one of the bottom with refried beans spread on it, sprinkle mexican cheese blend on top, tortilla on top of that, warm up on a skillet until cheese is melted, flipping once. Take a pizza roller and slice up like a pizza. Yummy warm or cold. Kids love it! We take this dinner on the road all the time.

To avoid commercialism. Not just from the schools, but from the other kids. A neighbor just told me that she won a contest at school, and the prize was to have a McDonalds lunch with the teachers in the teacher's lounge. I can't deal with that. That's just not my world. But of course, there are SOOOOO many other reasons.

Real life has become the circus. Too weird.

About a half an hour 3 or 4 times a week (over 7 days) for my kindergartener. That is for "formal" teaching (language arts/math). Everything else is just LIFE!

It's an interesting question... makes ya think. I like most kids, but certainly not nearly as much as I like my own. There are a few kids I am especially fond of, who I see often.

And another. :lol:

And another.

I may just try and make a lot of posts. Kind of silly, but I guess it can be done. This counts as one.

Any suggestions where to sell used curriculum? I don't have the 50 posts needed to sell here, and don't have the time to make a career out of posting on WTM just to reach my quota. We are moving out of state in six weeks and I need to lighten my load. Thanks!

Thanks Texasmama! Anyone else?

My daughter is in Kindergarten right now, and we are at lesson 51 of 100 Easy Lessons for Teaching Your Child to Read. She is getting a little bored of that format, so to add some variety we started doing Explode the Code Book 1. We also did the first half of HeadSprout online. She is still an emerging reader, but I can see that things are really starting to gel for her. I am starting to look ahead to next year. I plan on continuing 100 EZ Lessons and Explode the Code through the summer (in a relaxed way). I'd love to hear what others have done post 100 EZ Lessons for first grade to make a well rounded Language Arts program. I plan on checking out Growing With Grammer, First Language Lessons, and Spelling Workout. I'm not sure where these programs are complimentary versus being redundant. So... if you used 100 EZ Lessons -- what did you do next? Also, please note that we are secular homeschoolers. Thanks!

I still have the RightStart materials, and I will look up again to see the language they use to describe the ten's. Thanks for the input there! So... this is where I really wonder about homeschooling. How am I supposed to be an expert in all the different subjects? I have no perspective as to where kids should be at different stages and I don't have a handle on different teaching and learning styles. For kids that learn easily it is probably not a big deal. My son is only 3 and he really "gets" things fast. He is already on the cusp of reading and can sit and stare at letters for hours on end. My daughter, on the other hand, is fighting learning anything that feels hard. I don't want her to be some grand experiment of mine, while I'm missing any giant red flags about her abilities. So depressed over this. Stressing me out! There are MANY reasons why I want to homeschool -- but is this what is best for her academically?

Actually, just today we discussed that we are going to start saying one-teen, two-teen, three-teen, four-teen... I'm a little uncertain that that will help, but we will give it a whirl. The hard part about that is that she already knows how to count out loud -- I think this approach could either help or add to the confusion. And yes, that is one of the things I liked about Right Start. Wy-Kid-Wrangler: my daughter has some sensory issues too. I wonder if there is a connection?

Sigh. My 6 y.o. daughter is in K. In our state we have a late cut-off, but in other states she would have been in 1st grade this year. So she is an older kindergartener. At the beginning of the year we started with RightStart Math, but it just wasn't working out for us. I was really excited by it at first, but we both found the curriculum to be awkward. So around December we switched to Horizons, which we both love. Very straightforward. DD has no problem counting objects, and can count easily to 40 outloud and even to 100 with just a few mistakes. She can do simple addition adding two numbers between 0 - 9. She knows shapes, colors, and can circle groups of objects. But she is really struggling with recognizing numbers from 11 onward. She kind of gets it, but she is mostly just guessing correctly. If she sees the numbers in order she will read them correctly. But if I show her a group of 14 items, she might write 14 or 41 or 40. She also is having a hard time grasping money concepts beyond pennies. We have base-10 manipulatives, a hundred's board (which she has no interest in using), cuisinairre rods, and all kinds of other aids (like Kumon books, dot-to-dot)... nothing seems to be helping her grasp these concepts. I know a lot of people would say to drop it all together and come back to it in a month or two, but I am worried that it is nearing the end of kindergarten and she "should" be able to easily recognize numbers greater than 10. Especially since she is an older kindergartener. Anyway, I am sorry for the long post, but I really need support right now so I don't feel like I am a failure or my daughter is a failure or that I am doing my kid a huge disservice by not having sent her to Kindergarten. My daughter is a pretty bright kid -- so why can't she recognize the number 12!?!? Feeling down and frustrated. Advice? Support?

I started my 6 year old daughter on RightStart in the fall. I was soooo excited by the program, but it wound up just not being a good fit for us at all. I always dreaded trying to figure out how I was supposed to teach each lesson, and my daughter just thought it was boring and contrived (so did I). Anyway, we switched to Horizons K in late fall, and we were both thrilled. It is so straight forward and easy to use, and I supplement with manipulatives (hundreds board, base 10 manipulatives) to help explain concepts. But since we got a late start, and since my daughter can be a reluctant learner, we are only on lesson 42 out of 160! There is no way we are going to make it through both books this year. And... I am finding that she is struggling with some of the concepts. She is not understanding how to count with dimes and pennies, so I am going to use a Kumon book on money to supplement, which I think will really help. I've seen some people write that Horizons is above grade level. What are the thoughts on this? If I only get through the first book (lessons 1 - 80), will we be "behind" for first grade? I know one of the benefits of homeschooling is to go at your child's pace, but I really worry about not keeping up with what is being taught in public school math. I appreciate all responses!

I needed that!!! Thanks!

Sorry in advance that this is so long... We bought the Accountable Kids program at a homeschool conference, thinking it was the right time to implement something more methodological for household chores and responsibilities. I was getting tired of being ordered around to "get me this" or "get me that" and tired of nagging my daughter to get simple household chores done. We held on to the program for months, because I was having a very hard time wrapping my head around the concept of tickets and what they would be "worth." It seemed like the only thing I could redeem them for would be TV or computer time, and I didn't want everything to revolve around the screen. I would never want to use tickets for something like reading or arts and crafts, which we encourage our kids to do freely. When my DD turned six last week we decided to finally implement the program, and we would figure out the tickets as we go, more or less. Well, the first week of the program was less than stellar. It has been difficult for DD to incorporate the chore board into her daily life. She can pass it a million times in the hall and not think to look at it. When she eats breakfast she is not running to the board to turn over the tag. Rather, it is becoming one more thing I am nagging her about: "Did you turn over your chore tag?" "Did you look at your chores for the morning?" Or, sometimes she will (innocently) turn over a group of tags even if she hasn't done the chore. Sometimes I find that the program is backfiring: I tell DD that we can't go to park unless she finishes her morning chores. She decides that she doesn't actually want to go to the park, so she doesn't do her chores and yells, "great!" I thought the chores I was picking were fairly simple, but I'm not sure. Some are basic things she is of course always expected to do: brush teeth, eat meals, take a bath. Others are things about which I've been laid back, but it is time we got more serious: making bed, clearing your own dish from the table. And then I added a few chores that I felt were age appropriate: folding cloth napkins when I'm folding the laundry, setting the table (I put everything on the table, she spreads it out to the right spot). And what about nights where she falls asleep on the couch, before she brushed her teeth or put her clothes in the hamper? She may have dilligently done all her earlier tasks, but now she won't get a third ticket and a star because she fell asleep. So now I'm finding that not only is she not really responsive to the board (although she does want a mommy date and rewards for best behavior, and she does want to "help" dust and clean), but I feel I'm becoming a slave to the board. In a week she has only gotten one star for all tasks done that day. The program will never work if she cannot achieve the goals at least half of the time. And do I really care if her bed is made every single day? So it feels like to her the program is more like a game, that she can choose to participate in at will. I have to admit that it also seems unnatural to me; I prefer to have normal conversations about things in the house and not need an excel spreadsheet to organize things. Yet... at the early age of six I feel like she is already feeling "entitled" to having her parents at her beck and call, and that just doesn't work for me. I want to instill the value of working together as the family to make the household run smoothly and that we must all do what we are able. Since I am not aware of any board anywhere where people discuss this program, other than a few posts I've seen about this program on The Well Trained Mind Forums, I figured that I'd give it my best shot here to see how other people have faired. I'd love any advice that anyone can offer! Thanks!

Wow... I have googled online and not found a single discussion about Accountable Kids anywhere! I didn't think anyone really knew about it! I am so glad to hear that people are using it with success! My husband and I were looking to implement some kind of chore system, and although it was pricey, we decided to go with AK. But we have yet to start it because we ran into a problem that we didn't know how to resolve. I would LOVE feedback! Here is our problem. We don't know how to assign ticket values. The first five suggestions for ticketed activities in the book are all screen related (TV, video games, computer, etc.). The next items on the list are things we would not really want to limit, i.e. arts and crafts or playing in the park. I can't imagine not letting my kids do art projects or go to the library if they didn't have any tickets left! So... we kind of feel that screen time is really the best thing to earn or limit, but yet I don't want the whole program to be about TV and computer! To me, that places way too much importance on screen time -- almost glorifying it and making it the oh-so-attractive forbidden fruit. Am I making any sense here? I am quite curious to see how other people assigned tickets and how it has worked. Has anyone considered the issues I raised? Or am I just making too big a deal over it? Please share how you assign your tickets! Thanks!

Yeah! Tapping... no more! Thanks everyone! The reason I posted this originally, was that I can see in Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons that some of the slightly inane exercise actually do build into more important tasks in future lessons. I just wanted to make sure that the taps weren't a building block for something else. But no, they're just annoying.

We're up to lesson 10 in the "A" level, and for a few days we've been doing the clapping and tapping exercise, where you emphasize the number five when you tap out numbers. I have to say, I find this to be an annoying exercise, and my daughter doesn't resonate with it at all. Can anyone tell me if it leads into anything important later on, or if I could possibly just drop this exercise? She gets everything else (fingers, tally sticks, abacus) - so is this necessary? Thanks!

The kids woke me up at 7:45 this morning (we all sleep in the same room) and they jumped out of bed ready to put on a play, including elaborate plans to develop scenery, curtains, a stage, props, costumes (keeping in mind this is a 5 year old and a 2 year old). I'm half awake and I blurt out, "come on kids! Let me sleep just a wee bit more! Do something 'normal!' What would normal kids be doing right now?" And my 5 year old daughter blurts out, "normal kids would be in school!" [FYI, I would really never ever dare call or label my kids as not normal, I was just saying it in sleepy jest. I immediately regretted saying it, but when my daughter retorted it was just so funny!]

OP here. First let me say that I am not at all offended by anything that has been said on this thread. I am both amused and excited; I relish the feedback from those that have been there before me. The suggestions have been fantastic and I look forward to exploring them all. I am reminded of how, growing up, my mom was always pointing out that I was just going through "a phase" and my passion of the moment would change over time. That may have been true (or not), but still... everyone needs to go through the process for themself. I wish I could start this journey with complete confidence, completely relaxed, and with a crystal ball... but that's just not the way it is. Even after reading WTM, Holt, and oodles of blogs and websites, I still worry that my children will somehow miss something important along the way. I see what other homeschool kids are doing in our area and can't help but compare. As much as I know this is fully the right path for us (homeschooling), it also scares the crap out of me sometimes. But I do know that even if I have the grandest of plans, my precocious daughter has plans of her own. Somehow we will strike a balance, I am sure, and it will be a learning adventure for us both. My goal for K was to do 15 minutes of learning to read daily, 15 minutes of math, and 20+ minutes of read aloud time, and 10 minutes of "something else" (history, science, handwriting, etc.). An hour of "school" daily. (We do tons of art and music, so I don't even count that in homeschool stuff). Today was a perfect day in that DH took our two year old to a doctor's appointment this morning, and I had uninterupted time with my daughter. We did a lot of work, but she was already burned out by the time we got to math. So I let it slide. If I think there is an opportunity maybe we will do it later, but I highly doubt it. So maybe we'll move to Language Arts 3 days a week and Math 3 days a week and fit other stuff in where we can. I'm flexible. Really. Trully. I do know, though, that she LOVES worksheets (I could care less) and she seems to be interested in history. I think she is old enough to understand the history behind Thanksgiving... and I'd like to share that with her. And I'd like better ideas as to how to do it than I could think up myself. But everyone is probably right -- I'm overthinking it and can just read a whole bunch of books. But I will check out the resources mentioned and see what fits for us. All I know is that it would be easier if it were all in one place, rather than taking out 5 books from the library and realizing that 4 of them are over her head. Keep the great info coming and THANKS THANKS THANKS! PS - I cannot wait until my heart stops racing and I'm a bit more on "auto pilot!"