I know very little about ereaders except that my sister got a Kindle for Christmas and she LOVES it. Then I was looking at how many FREE books I could get that I could use for school. An ereader has now become a very tempting purchase. I have an ipad touch though and I know you can use those to read books. Can you read kindle and epub books on them? I was talking to dh and he was wondering if a tablet computer would be a better purchase decision. Can you read kindle and EPub books on them or just epub? What ereader do you have? Are you happy with it? So, what advice do you have? What do you wish you had known before you bought?

My mom is Ganna, a combo of Grandma and Nana. It's very easy for a little one to say. My mil is Grandma. My grandmother was Nonie to my children, it was made up by a much younger cousin and my grandma loved it. I think Avia is pretty neat.

Thank you so much! Your review was really helpfull. I will be getting the workbooks. :D

My plan at the moment is: Mr. Q Earth Science SOTW Vol. 2 Math Mammoth 1 AAS with readers FLL WWE La Classe Divertida (or other Spanish program, more research needed) Artistic Persuits Read alouds, preferably that go with SOTW Still lots of planning to do...

Forgot to say, one of the BEST things about LHFHG imho, is that you CAN add a little more here and there and not feel overwhelmed or that it is too much for a kindergartener (or their teacher).

Definently add science. We add extra science experiments throughout the week, but not with a specific program. It's working just fine, but if I started over again I would add a true science program. You also *might* want to add art. There are very fun art/craft activities every week that really help my dd remember the lessons, but it is not art instruction, nor art appreciation. I've decided to put that off till 1st grade right now, but I origionally thought it was part of the program.

Explode the code online, what did you like/ dislike? Was it better than the workbooks if you used those? How long each day did you have your child work on it? Did you have to sit with them as they worked or were they able to do it independently? Dd loves computer games so I know having a program on the computer will be motivational, but is it really worth the cost compared to the workbooks?

I even use it as a prize, if you finish ____ (whatever dd is procrastinating doing), then we can do a science experiment. Dd loves experiments.

We will start Spanish next year for 1st and continue till she is fluent. Dh and his parents speak it so she will hopefully get lots of chances to practice (dh, doesn't speak it well, but he understands it). I plan on starting Latin in 3rd or 4th and a third language (of her choice) in highschool.

Wow, this really is interesting. Starting last summer we set a budget for me of $1000 to school my dd in K. This was less (far less depending on the school) than half the cost of sending her to a private K so we thought it was a decent budget. I recorded everything I spent including school supplies, furniture and art supplies. After making several bad curriculum decisions I had used it all up by November. Now the furniture and art supplies should last for several years and some of the school supplies too (over bought some things, under bought other), but I ended up spending $150 more for HOD and feeling like that was cheap. I do plan on reselling the curriculum I didn't use and using that money for next year. It was a very costly year, BUT I did learn a lot about homeschooling, my teaching style and dd's learning style. I don't think I will make many costly mistakes in the future, at least I hope I won't. We are joining a co-op next year and it is pricey, $500 a year for supplies and building fees for a 1st grader and preschooler and that does not include books. The $500 is spread out over the school year though. I really worried about that price, but I know this is what we (me and the children) need for next year. Looking at the price of curriculum and books, I'm not planning on spending more than $500 for everything. Essentially I am trying to keep the same budget as last year without the mistakes. We also do not include extracurriculars in our budget, dd plays soccer and she will be doing swim lessons in a few months. We also have two museum memberships. We would spend on those things whether we were hsing or not.

This will be our second year doing it with two years off between. We moved after making two boxes with our first growing season and are planning on building two boxes this year at our new house. We live in the DFW area and the soil here is generally terrible, tons of clay and bermuda grass that won't die, not ever, SO we do boxes with bottoms and I love mel's mix since something that isn't weeds will actually grow through it. We do 6-8" of mel's mix and with watering every day didn't have a problem with the depth. I was very happy with the results and look forward to this new growing season. The only place I was able to find coarse vermiculite was Marshal Grain, very local, they have one store in Ft. Worth and one in Grapevine (for those that live in the area). To find 5 different types of compost, I got some from two different places. Box hardware stores will usually have about 2 types and then I can usually find 3 more at a local garden center. I think square foot gardening is the only way to go for places that have bad soil. HTH

We live in Frisco, but I wanted to share. There is a co-op in Denton that follows TWM, http://dentonclassical.org/index.html . They are in the middle of registration for next year and only have a few spaces left. It certainly wouldn't be for everyone, but thought someone might be interested. I'd be intersted in finding out about other homeschooling groups in the area, expecially in the Frisco/plano area. :bigear:

:bigear:

I did a lot of short vowel phonemic awareness games before I started direct reading instruction. I got the book, Phonemic Awareness in Young Children and while I didn't follow the program exactly I used a whole lot of the games. Then, we used phonics pathways too and I printed out and laminated the vowel word strip. EVERY day before we did our reading page dd would "read" the short vowel sounds to me. It started out hard, but got easier with practice. HTH

Thank you everyone for your replies. I really like the other two programs I listed more than Mr. Q, but I think you are right. I should just use Mr. Q and then add AFTER we start if I don't think it is enough and we have time in our day add more science. Thank you for helping me think things through on here. WTM is such an awsome place!

My dd is just about the same age as your dd and I could have pretty much written your post. I keep seeing posts about children "taking off" in reading, but it hasn't happened for dd yet. She too sounds out every word. "The" and other th, sh, ch words always give her trouble because she sounds out each letter unless I remind her of the rule. One thing I have found that has helped is rereading the same book several days in a row. You might say she is memorizing, and she is to a point, but she is also learning how to read a sentence fluidly, with emotion. It has also helped her recognize all thoes short words, is, in, at, and. Occasionally she doesn't sound them out when she reads a new book, but most of the time she still does. I think (hope) it is just a matter of pracitice, practice, practice. But wanted to give you :grouphug:, you are not alone and I think this is pretty normal. One thing that helped me is I had dd take the Sonlight reading placement test last week. She was only able to read the first page BUT that put her at a beginning 1st grade reading level. She is only 5.5, we are doing K work so beginning first grade reading sounds pretty good to me.

Ok, so next year I am joining a once a week classical homeschooling co-op. This is not a co-op that just teaches enrichment, but is supossed to be an integral part of your curriculum. I assume it is like classical conversations (never having experienced CC first hand), but this co-op bases most things on TWM. I really like everything about it except for their science choice. They are using Mr. Q science where all we are doing durring the week is reading the chapter and then they do, or at least start, all experiments on co-op day. Dd loves hands on science, something I want to encourage, and I don't feel that is enough science for our week. She is still really young so I don't want to overwhelm her, but I also know that I work best with a scheduled program. Should I buy another science program to do concurrently, should I just try to add in experiments with the chapters where they fit (even though I'm afraid that wouldn't get done) or should I just stick with the co-op choice? If I buy another science program, do you think it would be too confusing to do a different area? We will be doing Mr. Q earth science. I've been looking at Nancy Larson Science 1 or RSO Life (since we haven't covered that this year). So, what would you do? Just let the co-op be enough or add?

I have 4 audible.com credits and was wondering if anyone had any suggetions for homeschool related downloads. I'd love to get some kid audiobooks. I have a 5 year old who has become interested in listening to longer stories, especially in the car. But I don't want to use my credits on books less than $15 since that is what I paid for them. I'm looking at SWB's History of the Midieval World for me. I wish the SOTW volumes were offerend on audible, I know exactly what I would get. ;) Are there any other books you would suggest? Thank you!

Do you think it is having to constantly face that working hard is not enough to make life "fair" that makes you uncomfortable? Where you are born and who you are born to makes more of a difference in your level of affluence than just about anything else. There are lots of exceptions, but they are exceptions and not the norm. I don't have any answers except that life is not fair, not in any way. I have faith that God will make things right, if not in this life, in the next. It is what keeps me going.

Jennifer, thank you so much for sharing. My dd is the same age as your dd. We are only doing informal narration, "what happened in that chapter?" and "can you tell me the story of...?" But I am definently realizing how important it is. Dd originally couldn't tell me much of anything without prompting, now she can at least tell me a few (sometimes a lot) of things even if they are usually out of order. I'm planning on starting formal narration in August (start of our school year) using WWE. The funny thing is that she can make up stories really well, often based on a book and the only thing I have to ask is, "What happens next?". Narration seems to be totally different for her. It IS fun to see what she fixated on in our readings though, often totally irrelevant to the meaning/ storyline of the book. :tongue_smilie:

My parents were given an old set when I was a kid. We would look up computers sometimes and laugh at the entry, we sometimes used them for information on animals, but that was about it.

Narration: What does it look like when you start? How do you help it progress? Starting this with my dd has made me realize what an important skill it is. Please share how you help your children with narration.

Thank you so much! Your review is just what I was looking for.

:iagree: Sometimes I read the lit discussion questions straight from the book, but rather than that I read the little box that goes with each subject and do it as suggested, but never read from the page. With that said you *might* be disapointed. The arts/crafts are fun, but very simple. Don't expect a true art program. The activities with the math are very hands on, helpful and fun for my dd, but they aren't usually games. I can only speak for the first half of LHFHG though, it might be different in the other programs. It IS open and go and very simple to use. Even if it isn't your favorite, you might find it is worth it just because it's so easy to do, you will actually do it.

This sounds exactly like my dd back in August. She wanted to read, she knew her letters and their basic sounds. This did NOT translate for her to blending those sounds together. I got the book Phonics Pathways. I drilled her on her short vowel sounds and we played the train game (in the book) every day for a month and then she could blend. I'd love to say that reading has "clicked" for her and her reading has just "taken off" like I hear so many people talk about on here, but it hasn't. It is still a difficult process for her, BUT she can do it. She is learning her phonics rules and progressing slowly. Did I start her too early? Should I have waited (or still be waiting)? I don't know. She WANTED to learn, was and still is willing to sit for the lessons so we keep going, keep practicing. I don't think reading always just clicks, direct instruction can be really important to some kids. Do you feel your ds, except for his reading, has advanced beyond the K program you are using? I'd just move him up to a 1st grade program then, preferably one that did not include reading/phonics instruction so you can keep those at his level, but have him learning the other stuff at his level too. Most first grade stuff assumes that YOU will be reading the program directions and books to him anyway.