I hadn't heard of some of those. The Learner.org site also has French (French in Action) and German (Fokus Deutsch). I don't know if I've said this before, but I love Destinos. I remember learning Spanish with that program :). Here's a few more: http://www.japanese-online.com/ http://www.dw-world.de/dw/0,1595,2548,00.html (German) http://conjuguemos.com/ (quizzes for Spanish, German, French, etc.) http://www.learner.org/resources/series104.html?pop=yes&vodid=112932&pid=1186# (German on Learner.org) These I found long ago and are listed in my yahoo group, but haven't checked them lately to see if they still work. http://learnspanish.itgo.com/ http://www.fastq.com/~jbpratt/education/mypages/myfreeworksheets.html http://www.literacycenter.org (Spanish, English, French, German) http://www.hubbardscupboard.org/printable_booklets#SightWordBooklets (little booklets in English and Spanish) http://www.primeraescuela.com http://members.tripod.com/spanishflashcards/ http://homeschooling.gomilpitas.com/explore/spanish.htm http://www.storyplace.org/sp/storyplace.asp (interactive storytelling- this is the Spanish site) Hope some of these are found useful. Renai

Cleo! Long time no see :). Yes, I forgot to mention that reading skills transfer readily from language to another.

Hello Miriam, That's what we did. We live in a bilingual household (dh native Spanish-speaker, I'm fluent, dd is bilingual). I taught dd to read in Spanish first, starting when she was about 4.5. In first grade, I started to teach her English reading, but she wasn't ready. We didn't start English phonics until the middle of 2nd grade, and it went much smoother after that! (That was just this past January.) If she's completely bilingual, it really doesn't matter what you start with. I started with Spanish because 1) it's the "minority" language, 2) I was more comfortable teaching it, as I had just finished working in bilingual first grade classrooms doing the same thing, 3) and because we weren't planning on homeschooling and wanted to make sure she had a foundation in Spanish before going to school, LOL! If you are in the US, I'd say go for Portuguese first, simply because it is the minority language, and it seems you are more comfortable with that. When she is reading Portuguese fluently, with ease, then start English phonics. If you start with the majority language first (English), you may have a hard time later convincing her the need to read her other language. I hear that happening a lot. I know you asked native speakers how they taught phonics, but I do want to share how I taught my daughter. I wrote about it in my blog here: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/creativeplay/285282/ Also, I uploaded a couple of pages of what I used to introduce phonics: http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/creativeplay/555728/ http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/creativeplay/566394/ Of course, this is about teaching Spanish phonics, but I hope it's helpful. With the first page, and some index cards, that's basically what I used to teach her to read.

I couldn't imagine that either...until today. I was visiting a church as I'm interested in putting my dd(8) in their AWANA on Wednesdays. I was told at the door she couldn't go into the sanctuary. She's 8 years old. YEARS. This church has it's own separate worship service and everything for the kids, and those under 11 aren't allowed in the sanctuary! I did let them know we worship together as a family, but after being beat down with words about me having to be under the authority of the church and not wanting to be under their authority (and my dh is what??), we just left. It was quite offensive, the whole matter. It's one thing to have something like that available, quite another to make it mandatory for every family to utilize it. editing to add: and this was not a denomination church (ie, Baptist, etc.)

I did one, I did one! (today). Here it is ... http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/creativeplay/571829/

I'm planning on purchasing closer to time, so that will be 20. I know when it first came out (the group buy) there were over 100 for June. That was cool.

The problem with this scenario is the cycles are different for each program, and geared toward different levels.

Just a heads up: They need 26 orders for this purchase to go through. Right now, they are at 17.

I'm very sorry to hear about your loss.

Yeah, what those two said. Maybe I'll read ENTIRE threads before posting :tongue_smilie:.

Hello Brenda, I think you and I both started looking at MFW and WP, coming from SL, at about the same time a couple of years ago. Our kids are the same age and going into the same grade. I was reading your post outloud, dd overheard me, and said, "man that kid must be confused." Ok, she said it, not me. I don't know what you should use next. Using curriculum just because it's on your shelf is not a viable decision. If you plan on using either MFW or WP as your base, then choose one and follow it. If you want to combine curricula, make a plan for it. ie, MFW ECC with WP?, then CTG with WP?, etc. But really, they are complete curricula on their own. I'll be doing ECC this school year, and when I looked at WP AW (or was it CatW), I realized it would take way too much work to combine as the focus and structure is completely different. There are different parts of it I like, but we don't have enough trees that money grows on. I have a ready-made curriculum that I can tweak to make my life easier (I have to write and plan other facets of dd's education), not complicate it more trying to combine more than I have to. How about asking your ds what he would like? Or dh? Sometimes when I'm all in a tizzy about something, I get dd's opinion (with the caveat that I may or may not use the suggestion). She can be clear about what she wants or likes. My dh is not very wordy and leaves ALL curriculum decisions to me, but sometimes I talk outloud "to myself" in his presence, and periodically get insight. Like what I wrote about here http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/creativeplay/563797/. Just throwing this in: Keep in mind with ECC and SL5, they are totally different with different focus. ECC is world geography and SL5 is Eastern Hemisphere- that's it. So, you'd only be using a small part of one or the other. Just my .02.

:iagree: Don't forget: playing in the mud a lot! (remember Paula's post on the old board? I have a copy if I'm allowed to post it :))

Thanks all!

There's been a couple of changes: one being about Latin, which I wrote about here http://www.homeschoolblogger.com/creativeplay/563797/. We're going to go ahead and finish MFW Adventures (US History). There's 12 weeks left of it, but we'll get it done in half the time before starting ECC. The rest looks like this: Adventures (US History, states study), then Exploring Countries and Cultures (geography, missionary biographies, countries, etc), done mostly in English except where noted :D English language arts: Complete MFW1 phonics Complete Hooked on Phonics through level 5 (Then start) Spelling by Sound and Structure- by R&S and maybe PLL- 2nd grade section Whatever is included within the MFW curriculum (narrations, copywork, etc. once phonics work is complete) Phonics Pathways Bible -will be done in English this year with MFW. I'm so used to these scriptures, it's been a difficult switch for me to do it in Spanish. She reads her Bible in Spanish though. Spanish Language arts: Classical Writing with Spanish models (using a 3rd grade Spanish grammar and adapting to CW and PLL below) PLL, 3rd grade section- adapted in Spanish, still writing this up Vocabulary- from ECC, will do the same words in English Spelling- Practica Ortografica, in the style of Spelling Power Reading- still figuring this out. Also want to purchase a grip of books from R&S that caught my eye :tongue_smilie:. They would go along with ECC and can be placed in book basket Math- Mundo Matematico 3 Science- ECC, habitats. May add more depending on interest and time. Done in both languages Foreign language- Japanese. I'm taking a college course and she's in for the ride :). We also have Pimsleur, Tell Me and Tell Me More Japanese. I have a kana workbook for me that I've copies for her to practice too. I have software I'm remembering: Rosetta demo, Passport to language (35 languages on it), Instant Immersion Japanese, Exotic Japan, Before You Know It (free download), and Free Light Japanese. We also want to do German, but I don't think we'll have time :001_huh:. She'll have dance starting in September, and we're considering karate, piano, and 4H. She obviously won't be doing it all, or doing 3 dance styles like last year either. I'll be staggering the start dates for the subjects some kind of way. It should be fun. Well, gotta finish writing curriculum!

Hi Holly, I just wanted to answer this question of how to find these types of jobs. This is a general email I send to people who ask me the same thing. Hope it helps you and others: ----------------------------- Hello all, There are three places I look when I'm in the market for work. After all, I do have student loans to pay off, lol. http://www.workplacelikehome.com/forum is the one I visit most, probably because it is the first legitimate place I found. Members often post about jobs- new jobs opening up, or places they work for that are currently hiring. They also post companies that have been found to be scams (hint: never pay to work). There is a sticky post labeled "Legitimate work at home jobs"that has a list of companies grouped by category- call center,tutoring, writing, etc. There are subforums for the most popular of the wah jobs people are working at, where people chat- the good, the bad, and the ugly for working at each of these places. http://www.wahm.com This website members actually post more job leads on this site (under Telecommuting Moms on the forums). There are also subforums here, but also for those with home businesses, writing, etc. There is a yahoo group called RealJobs_FromHome. It is awesome. The moderators there really look after the members and there are guides in the files for how to look for a job, what to watch out for as far as determining scams, how to write a good resume, etc. In their database are over 500 companies you can work for from home- a goldmine! Most jobs have you working as an independent contractor so you take out your own taxes. I personally work for different companies for different reasons. 1) Always have more eggs in your basket and 2) they're seasonal. I work for Educational Testing Services, http://www.ets.org, scoring standardized tests online. The two I score are an ESL test (K-12) and a high school essay test. This is not steady work, but jobs come through as the schools turn in the tests- the ESL is the end of the year, the high school one is the beginning of the year with other testing sessions throughout the year for those who don't pass. I am an employee with this company. Other companies I have worked for are: Educate Online, 1800Flowers, and Liveops. I'm currently training for Westat, with whom I'm an employee and the income is steady. There are also outlets for getting paid to write, and not the pay-to-blog stuff. I hope this info is helpful, and feel to ask any questions you have. I'm a member on both of the message boards I've listed above with my user name Renai. ---------------------------------- I agree with the others in breaking up your time. I only have one child, but when I have weeks of full-time shifts (doesn't happen all the time), I break it up in split shifts. I have things prepared that she can do during that time so she isn't interrupting me every 5 minutes saying she doesn't know what to do :tongue_smilie:. Some of the work can be drill (math facts for example), reading, art, or just free play, really anything she can do in the same room with me. She is 8. I used to do a lot of phone work (call center) and it was very important she was quiet while I was on the phone, so that is the system we set up.

Thank you! This was certainly one of them!:D

I believe it was on the old board (yes, I know- loooong time ago!), but there was a website or a few posted with which we could create our own copywork pages. I can't seem to find them. I wanted to create several pages to make a little workbook with them, passage at the top of the page, appropriate lines at the bottom. Preferably with the option of not having the headers (webpage, date) printed on each page. Anyone know what I'm talking about? TIA!

:iagree:

Dd spends her school year in dance (2-3 times a week), then does soccer in the summer. She always has her own little world going in her free time and creates puppets to go along with it. This week, she's in Camp Invention, which I hope re-sparks the mechanical imagination that burned out a couple of years ago because she had no one to share it with :sad:. She's thoroughly enjoying herself this week!

Alfaguara is a sub-house of Santillana. You can purchase curriculum (math, science, language arts, social studies) here in the US http://www.santillanaUSA.com. Most teacher editions are no longer available unless buying classroom packages, however, the last I checked they are available for language arts. Not a curriculum house, but has all of Alma Flor Ada and Isabel Campoy's books: http://www.delsolbooks.com. Santillana also has a lot of these books, but they're cheaper here. I know I have a printout somewhere in this house about publishing houses, etc., I'll find it sometime in this lifetime and post my findings :D. Renai

Hey Cheryl, The number of required days is now 181 :D, not including teacher workdays. :tongue_smilie:

Here are math books that can be downloaded free: http://www.sectormatematica.cl/libros.htm

:D I found many Aesop's tales in Spanish on the web and will also be pulling from the Bible, Spanish novels, excerpts from our curriculum that I find in Spanish, and myths (like from the book De Oro y Esmeraldas: Mitos, leyendas, y cuentos populares de Latinoamerica). I haven't narrowed down the models I will use yet, my main step was finding them. I have a lot of material to work with. I also have a 3rd grade Spanish grammar workbook (Fernandez Editores someone gave me a couple of years ago) and wrote down the grammer topics to work on for the year. I'll be writing it all up in August (along with, or somehow integrated with, my adaptation of PLL). Fun stuff, eh? Just can't shake that curriculum writer out of me :001_huh:.

I think once you get into the hang of it, it becomes easy. I'm currently adapting CW for Spanish, using Spanish models as well as translations. It gets easier the more you do it. (Also, that's a reason I purchase a very adaptable preplanned curriculum- I have more time to write out the Spanish, so yes I cheat :D.)

I haven't been up on Apple software lately. I'm going to have to look at iWork (I have both a Mac and a PC). Sometimes using Appleworks doesn't translate all the graphics, but I have an older version Word (that boots on classic, but won't print on my network now!). Thanks for posting this!