Thanks. I e-mailed them to ask about the discount. It is now taking the coupon code but then removes the sibling discount. I know most places won't allow you to combine discounts so that's why I was curious if they'd take the discount off the already reduced price. If I use the coupon code it is $398 (not even 40% of their full price). Using the regular sibling discount my total would be $397 so it's $1 more with the code. I think they don't have it in their system properly. If they are taking the 40% off of their regular prices I would be okay with it except that it increases additional children to $119 per course which is more than what they usually charge. If it is 40% off on top of the sibling discount my total should be around $240 and I'd definitely do it for that price.

I've been wanting to try these but I can't get the code to work. I'd like to get 3 but it appears in the cart as $597. The discount CHRISTMAS only takes off $199 which is the normal discount for multiple students and less than 40%. I am logged in. Is the 40% only off the full price of the course or does it include the multiple child discount? If I try to buy 2 the discount is $139.60 when 40% of $397 is $159.20.

We are in our 4th year of Classical Conversations. There are some things I really like about it and some things I don't like. Both of my teens started with Challenge A and never did any Foundations or Essentials but my 14 year old will likely go all the way through Challenge 4. My 16 yo is in Challenge 2 and it is probably her last year. She will be a senior next year and wants to take community college classes. She hasn't really had time with all of the CC work she has to do. My 14 yo is in 9th grade and she is in a larger class (11 kids) and most of them are long time members that plan to go all the way through. The kids in her class are really close and communicate a lot outside of class. I think a lot depends on the community. Ours has a lot of very dedicated tutors and families. We haven't run into the issue of students at Challenge not turning work in. Sometimes parents do cut certain assignments for kids but I think it is rarely done in our community. The tutors at our Challenge community check the kids work each week and both of mine are really good about getting everything done. I really don't need to check things over they are really good about it. My 16 yo daughter has set up a Latin study group and it is the third year that she has organized it. About half her class meets at the library on Friday afternoons to work on their Latin homework together. My 14 yo dd will frequently meet up with classmates during Foundations (our Foundations group and Challenge group meet on separate days- neither has a church large enough to accommodate the groups to meet together) I dislike that I have lost flexibility with what my kids study. What CC picks is not always what I would necessarily pick. We have been the most happy with the literature, debate, and Latin. I like that they can discuss literature and other topics with their peers. We do not use Saxon math. I also really don't like the science especially for A and B. If my younger children do Challenge we will opt out for the science. My 10 yo twins are on their third cycle of Foundations and while I do like it I'm not sure I can imagine going through the cycles again. I'm not sure if I will have them do Foundations next year or not. It gets expensive for multiple children and I'm not really sure the cost is worth it when much of the material is repeated. They can sing the timeline song in their sleep at this point but that is still done every year for example. The youngest child I have do Foundations was 7 when she started. I think it was a nice age to start. I wonder how much some of the 4-5 year olds get out of the program. I'm not sure it would be worth the money to me at that age. We have never done Essentials. I was considering it for my 10 yo son this year (my 10 yo dd is dyslexic and working around a 2nd grade level for writing) but we had a time conflict with another class we do. I may have him just do Essentials next year and not do Foundations but we'll see. Our group always has a few families come in for Essentials that do not do Foundations. I still don't know if I'll have my younger kids continue with Challenge or not. I am excited to see the Lost Tools of Writing in A and wish it had been there when my older girls were in A.

We are using Level 3 this year and my kids are similar ages. I have 10 year old twins (one with dyslexia) and a just turned 8 yo. My 8 yo is pretty strong academically and the level 3 seems to be working well for us. I'm not sure if we'll continue with it next year or not but even my 10 yo son seems to be learning a fair amount even thought the first half of the astronomy unit (the first one) he was so bored. We did Astronomy/Earth Science last year so for him it was pretty much exactly what we had just covered. He does most of the worksheets on his own where my girls usually need some help and sometimes I feel like he'd like a little more but overall I think he's learning new stuff and it is very easy for us to get done. I think we'll probably be done by February at our current rate and then I'll have time to add other things for him.

My son is in PROMPT although we haven't been at it for very long. I have known about it for awhile but hadn't been able to find anyone nearby that had more than the intro training. We are driving almost an hour each way to try it out. His therapist does think he has some potential to at least say short phrases someday. He does have some ability to echo others speech (mostly partial approximations of single words) but to come up with a word or sound on his own is extremely difficult. He can't give letter sounds even though he can identify the word that makes the sound. He has a dyspraxia diagnosis in addition to Autism. On Ethan's page there was a video of his progress and it was really neat to see. I went to their website and it talked about doing ABA in a visual manner which is how I have been trying to teach my son. He is highly visual and I think that is why we are starting to have some reading success. I had come across this video on You Tube awhile back of an 8 yo nonverbal boy with Autism reading and that's when I started working with my son on reading using his I-Pad. This child's mom used Edmark Reading program and Proloquo2go on the I-Pad which is the same communication app my son uses. Edmark is not the same program as the one my son's school uses though. I did know the name of it and I can't think of it now. Since he does go to school I'm not sure I want to purchase a full curriculum for at home just because they are so expensive. My son has suspected cognitive impairment so his ability to read is probably going to be pretty limited but he is showing some interest and he is so proud of himself when he matches words correctly I figure we'll get him as far as we can. It just seems like all of my reading stuff after 11 years of homeschooling doesn't really work for him. He isn't able to write (we are working on copying single strokes) so anything needs to be adapted to use without writing.

My 6.5 year old son with Autism is starting to read. He is pretty much nonverbal aside from maybe a dozen single words (partial approximations mostly) he can say so I'm not really sure exactly the best way to go about teaching him. Right now I have flashcards and he will press the correct picture on his I-Pad (he uses Proloquo2go). I removed the word below the pictures on his I-Pad. I'm not really sure how to take that to him reading even basic sentences. He knows most of his color words along with some of the dolch high frequency words. He can also read words like cat, dog, and pig. He also knows some words like Mario and Luigi (his favorite toys). He is mainly reading by sight but he does know most of his letter sounds. He cannot say the sound if I show him a letter but if asked to get the letter that makes a certain sound he knows most of them at this point. He doesn't have the speech skills to sound out words which makes it hard to figure out how to approach reading with him. They do use a reading program at school but they did the exact same words with him two years in a row. I am considering getting a program to use at home with him but most of the special needs programs are so expensive and many times they seem to be for children with more speech than my son. I was curious if anyone with a nonverbal child had success with any of the reading programs out there.

After 11 years of homeschooling I still love the planning part. It always changes during the year at least a little bit. I tend to overbuy. I bought 2 history programs and 3 science programs for next year because I just couldn't decide. I think this is what we are most likely using at this point. I think I have made my last purchase (MCT Town) aside from maybe needing some reading novels. 11th grader: CC Challenge 2 MUS Algebra 2 9th grader: CC Challenge 1 MUS Pre-Algebra 4th grade son: History Odyssey Medieval Level 2 (I may modify a little- he might not be ready for all the work in it but Level 1 this year was not enough for him) Singapore 5B, 6A, and maybe 6B Beast Academy 4A and 4B Life of Fred Intermediate Books Daily 5 Math for 5th grade Spelling You See D MCT Town A Reason for Handwriting- Cursive Young Writer's Class (local class taught by a fellow homeschool mom) 4th grade daughter (has dyslexia): History Odyssey Medieval Level 1 MUS Delta Life of Fred (A-D) Daily 5 Math for 3rd grade Orton Gillingham Tutoring (uses ETC, Spellwell, Megawords, and a few other things with her tutor) All About Reading Level 2 FLL 1-2 WWE 1-2 (finish 1 and start 2) A Reason for Handwriting-Cursive 2nd grade daughter: History Odyssey Medieval Level 1 MUS Beta Life of Fred (A-D) Daily 5 Math for 2nd grade WWE 2 FLL 1-2 Spelling You See B All About Reading Level 3 Explode the Code (5-7) Combined for 4th and 2nd graders: CC Foundations Nancy Larson Science 3 Song School Latin 2 Art (usually pull art projects from various places- my current favorite is Deep Space Sparkle) Lego Story Starter Lego WeDo Robotics

I purchased Nancy Larson Science 3 to use for the coming year. I haven't gotten to use it yet but I was wanting something different for this year and I really liked how it came with pretty much everything I needed. I haven't used it yet to see if the scripting is going to drive me nuts or not yet. I'm really hoping to like it because it was more than I've ever spent on an elementary science program. I bought two extra sets of student pages to use with 3 children so I'm pretty invested in it at this point. I'm going to use it with 4th grade twins and a 2nd grader. We have used Elemental Science the past 3 years and overall I like the program but I was ready for something different for next year. We did the Earth Science and Astronomy this year and mostly finished it (a few experiments didn't get done). There were a few experiments I really didn't care for like the one using toothpicks to simulate metamorphic rocks. My kids said it was the worst experiment ever but we've certainly had some duds of experiments here over the years. I probably should have done Chemistry with them this year instead of the Earth Science. My son found some of the book choices babyish and I think the kids were to the point where the Kingfisher Young Knowledge Series of books was just too easy for them. If you were using it with a younger child then it may be a better fit. My 9 yo dd has dyslexia and works 1-2 grade levels below where she should be and it was a better fit for her. I do think it is a nice program and I really like the narration pages. I have also used about half of the Physics program with my now 13 yo a few years ago and it seemed more in depth than the Earth Science did. I really didn't like the quizzes on any of the levels we have used and thought they could be more in depth than they were but they were quick and easy to do at least. I have tried several science programs at our house in 11 years of homeschooling and I found ES one of the easier ones to get done. The lessons were quick and for the most part I didn't have to pull together a ton of unusual supplies for experiments. I really thought the kids got a lot out of the experiment write ups for about half of the experiments. Some of the experiments were kind of duds but that seems to be pretty typical with many elementary science programs trying to stick with experiments with common household items. I like how the program is relatively inexpensive and easy to implement without a lot of planning on my part. I have only used the Grammar stage ES programs. The Logic Programs look much more in depth. I purchased the Logic Stage Biology but haven't used it. I don't think my kids are ready for it yet.

I use MUS with my 9 yo dd who has dyslexia and trouble with slower processing. She also did most of Singapore 1A and just didn't seem to be retaining anything. Also her twin brother was in 2B by that time and they can be competitive so I wanted to have them in different programs. My 16 yo also has very mild dyslexia and MUS has been the best fit we have found for her. She has done most of the MUS levels since Alpha. When she was younger she just didn't seem to get adding or subtracting. It wasn't until we got Alpha and did it that she really seemed to retain it. I think she built just about every problem in that book before she really got it but it did work. I really like the MUS DVD you can order that shows how the overall program works. It really helped me see where we were going when we were doing Alpha. One of our current biggest struggles is that we cannot take any breaks from math. My dh usually takes care of helping our girls with MUS but he was hurt at work in February and for a few weeks my 9 yo dd didn't do math. She forgot a lot of things and we had to spend about a month reviewing just to recover what was lost. We have decided she just can't take breaks from math at all. Also she still really has a hard time with memorizing math facts so we are always practicing them and I kind of wonder if they will ever stick. I do really like Rightstart too. I have the program but it is very teacher intensive and it is hard for me to keep up with it. My dd also really seems to need to see things in writing and while writing is difficult and slow for her she always writes out every little step for math problems. The MUS assignments are usually relatively short and aren't overwhelming for her. My son uses Singapore and I don't think MUS would fit him at all. It can really drive a person nuts trying to figure out the perfect program for each child.

My 9yo son does both and I don't follow a schedule. Some weeks we only do Singapore or BA. Sometimes we do both. If one is taking more time due to a particular concept I put the other aside. My son is almost done with 5A and in 3rd grade. I really don't want to do Pre-Algebra until 6th grade so we aren't in a big hurry. He also does Life of Fred and Daily Math so he spends at least an hour or more on math each day but it is his favorite subject. We do math in the summer too which helps with working 2 programs. I do treat BA more like a supplement just because I'm not trying to do 4 books a year. I think we'll run out of them next year since they are coming out so slowly and my son only has a couple left he hasn't done.

I don't think MUS and Singapore would match up well if you are trying to coordinate but you could work both programs and skip the parts of each that are overlap or extra review. I have 9 yo twins and one does Singapore and one does MUS. I notice a lot of difference in the order of concepts introduced between the programs. Dd is just about done with Gamma and hasn't really worked with fractions and I don't think it is really covered much until Epsilon. I know Singapore introduces it much earlier. My son is about done with 5A and I know he's done several books with fractions already. Personally I would not use MUS and Singapore together for the same child. My son has asked if he can do MUS too but really at Singapore 5A he has already been exposed to most everything through MUS Zeta. Most of what I see in MUS would just be busy work for him. My 9 yo dd has dyslexia and for her she really needs the way MUS introduces concepts and she needs lots of review to get mastery. She almost always does all of the sheets. If you are adding Singapore I can't imagine that you'd be using many of the MUS worksheets and it seems kind of expensive to me. My son does Singapore and Beast Academy (along with LOF thrown in). We tend to move back and forth between the programs. Some days we will do both of them but most of the time we work one or the other. I did that in part because I didn't want him in Algebra in 5th grade and I was trying to slow him down some. I don't worry about coordinating the programs and he is usually doing very different things between the two programs.

For math I usually have the kids finish the books but if the next book contained a lot of review I would be okay not finishing the book. Most other things if we don't finish I will just start with something new in the fall but math is one thing here I almost always make the kids completely finish the book. For something like Science I don't think we have ever finished every last thing in a program. This year for example we did all of the reading for the Earth Science program we used but haven't done about a dozen of the experiments. If they aren't done in a few weeks I will just let it go. They already do many more science experiments than they would ever do if they went to school anyway. The kids and I both are definitely ready to move onto something new in the fall I'm not going to start back up with the little science we didn't get to this year. Same with history. For my high school daughter she absolutely must finish her math book. She will likely be doing Geometry all summer because it isn't done yet. We claim credit on her transcript based on the completion of the textbook so she has no option other than completing the entire thing.

My two oldest girls do the Challenge program. I had my oldest dd do Challenge A at 13.5 (8th grade) and it worked out great for her. Initially she really wanted to start with B but they wound up not having enough for a class that year and she has mild dyslexia so it worked out that she was one of the older students in the class. She will do Challenge 2 next year as an 11th grader. Challenge 1 has been the most challenging year so far due to the amount of reading and projects involved. My second dd started A as a young 12 year old. She seemed a little old for Foundations that year and since her older sister really liked Challenge she was eager to do it too. The first year we did CC only my oldest did Challenge A. I didn't do Foundations with my younger children. My son with ASD was still home that year and they were going to require that he be registered for Foundations. He is low functioning and nonverbal and I didn't want to spend the money for him to attend the Foundations class so we didn't do it. I know now that my dd says she wishes she'd done a year of Foundations but had we waited a year I'm not sure if she would have liked it so much. She did B this year and her class has been filled to 12 both years so there are lots of kids to interact with. Had she done A this year it would have been 5 kids counting her (3 boys and 2 girls) and now the only girl is leaving so B next year only has 3 boys registered. She is signed up for Challenge I for fall and it has also filled to 12 already. Not that I'd pick a level based on class enrollment but I don't think my dd would enjoy it as much if she was the only girl in her class. The one girl that is in A this year is leaving for Challenge B in another community because that class has other girls in it. My 2nd dd is now in 8th grade and is still working on MUS Zeta. She does well in all subjects aside from math. Math is really difficult for her and we have tried a few different programs but she does the best with MUS. We do not use Saxon and it is not a problem with the Challenge program. Most of the kids are not at the same spot on math. Usually there is some kind of review with working problems together. The first year I bought the Saxon book but my oldest dd really never needed it so we no longer buy the Saxon books and just work on math at home. The review there is just good practice. If you have a math program that works I wouldn't switch it just for the Challenge program.

We have used TT for awhile and I think it can work well for the right child. My second oldest did not do well with it at all. She only did TT4 and did not seem to learn much that year. She has a very hard time with math in general though and I found that having her work alone on the computer simply didn't work. She would skip over the explanations if she missed a problem among other things. For the last half of the program I sat with her during the lessons which took more time for me than if I'd kept her in MUS. At the end of the year we wound up putting her back in MUS anyway. We had to put her into Delta level because TT4 has very little long division in it. My oldest has done TT5, TT6, attended school for 7th grade, and TT Pre-Algebra, then switched back to MUS for high school because she disliked TT. Her test scores are right at grade level. I thought TT Pre-Algebra prepared her well for high school Algebra.

Are there any homeschool Microbiology programs out there? My 15 yo really wants to do Microbiology this year but I'm not sure what to use for that. My dh was planning to do Microbiology with her and I thought he was going to pull the materials together himself but he told me this week he really doesn't have time to do that and asked if I could just buy a curriculum and he could help dd with it. Now I'm searching and I'm not finding much. She did Biology this year so this would be beyond General Biology. I want to try to make it a full 1.0 credit with lab. My dh knows microbiology well and is planning to work with dd on the course. Even finding a good textbook for them to work off of might be enough if anyone has any suggestions.

My Kindy dd attended Pre-K at our local elementary school last year and had a blast. I had planned to homeschool her for K like all my other kids but she was so insistent on trying school out I felt like we'd give it a try. I have also been very busy with my 8 yo with dyslexia this year so having my younger dd out of the house during the day turned out to be a good decision. My 6yo is advanced in reading and just assessed at 2nd grade level. She is ahead of her big sister which can create some issues. However my dd does not want to go to school for 1st grade. She says she misses the fun stuff at home and the school day is very long. I think she just wanted to go because they talked up Kindy so much last year. My oldest dd went to Pre-K too and was so sad when I didn't send her to Kindy. The first couple years of homeschooling are the hardest and getting into our groove took awhile. Not to mention we moved 4 times and added 4 new siblings between Kindy and 4th grade. She is 15 now and never wants to go to school (she did go for one year- 7th grade and hated it). She even plans to homeschool her own kids someday. In hindsight I wish I had really talked up homeschooling more before we started. My dd's first year we did very little outside the house and I think that was what she missed having done 2 years of preschool. When my kids were younger we used to throw a "not back to school" party and they always got excited about that. I find our best years are the ones that my kids feel like they get more social opportunities. It could just be my kids personalities but the hardest couple years were ones where we did very little outside and the kids felt like they didn't have friends. My younger kids are more content with just doing activities but my teens want to hang with their friends and that type of thing requires more planning than it did when they were younger.

Mostly hits this year luckily. Some years I've felt like most everything was a miss. These were some of our favorites this year. I'm homeschooling 9th, 7th, and 2nd this year. Math (MUS Algebra, Epsilon, and Alpha all were great for my girls that have a hard time with math, ds does Singapore and enjoying that) All About Spelling Elemental Science (this is the first elementary science program I've managed to be pretty consistent with and I've been homeschooling 10 years) Explode the Code (one of the few things I've used since I started homeschooling but they've been great for my dd with dyslexia this year) CC Challenge (my teens were so good about getting their work done for this- I was kind of lukewarm on some of the selections for the program but it gave my girls practice with deadlines plus they really enjoyed the social aspect) My favorite new thing I found this year was Daily 5 math sheets I got off Teachers Pay Teachers. They seem to be a nice compliment to our regular math programs and have a nice variety of problems. http://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Store/In-The-Math-Lab Not necessarily misses but thinking we may not do them next year. Growing with Grammar My Father's World (we've done it for 3 years and I just can't get excited to do ECC next year)

Two of my dds have done Challenge A and both really enjoyed it. However both have had really great tutors and a great group of kids. They were both a little bummed when it was over this year although they don't miss all the work they had to get done each week. I would go visit and ask lots of questions and see if it is a good fit before enrolling. My older dd did Challenge B for 9th grade but we did add a lab science to her school year. The Umbrella program we use figured she was at 7.5 credits for the year with everything we documented (we did supplement some). We added an outside lab based science class for my 9th grader to Challenge B. I don't think the science for A and B is high school level. My younger dd is in 7th grade this year so will do Challenge I as a 9th grader. As far as the science I do think it is light but I found my girls learned a good bit about researching and for Challenge A made a very nice notebook of what they did in Science. They have around 4 months off from when classes end to when they start back up again. That leaves a lot of time to supplement with Science or do units on things that may not be covered within CC. For example I want my 15 yo to do American History this summer so she's already working on that. We might do half this summer and half next summer. I have supplemented some during the year for A and B but we have heard Challenge I is very time intensive. My dd has dyslexia and there is a lot of reading for that level so I don't plan to supplement while she is in Challenge I. Neither of my girls use Saxon. They both participate in the math lessons at CC though. It gives them good practice. I don't think many of the kids are following along exactly with the math for Challenge.

This year- over $5000 easily. That includes 2 kids in CC Challenge (around $1500 or so each), 2 kids in Foundations (around $1000) so that was half of it. My 12 yo did a year long writing class ($200). My 8 yo twins did an awesome year long hands on science class ($500 each). Then add in Math curriculum for all 4 kids. My twins did MFW Adventures. Then add in other curriculum like AAS, Explode the Code books, Science materials, and numerous other things like art supplies and it does add up. I spent much less when they were all little.

I would just take it one year at a time. We are in our first year of doing Foundations and are enjoying it. I've run across several families that have done it 3-4 years and felt like they were done and didn't want to do it anymore. I know some will do the 3 year cycle and stop. It's hard to say if we'll want to do the whole cycle over or not. My 8 yo twins are doing it this year and next year I'm planning to add my 6 yo who hasn't done it at all and is attending school this year. We actually started at the Challenge level. Last year my oldest dd did Challenge A and had the best year. It's not really what I had planned on for high school but she really enjoys it and my 12 yo started this year and both want to continue next year. For them it really fulfills the social need and they enjoy one day a week in a classroom environment. I have no idea if my younger kids will do Challenge or not.

I used Reading Reflex with my now 15 yo that had a lot of trouble with reading. That combined with vision therapy made a big difference for her. Also for CVC words my 8 y o that has dyslexia just did Book 1 of Primary Phonics and it definitely helped and I think it would work well with RR. It's this one and is fairly inexpensive. You don't need the whole program. We are just using the workbooks and they have been really great for my struggling reader. We are also using an Orton-Gillingham tutor and ETC books right now. http://www.amazon.com/Primary-Phonics-Workbook-Barbara-Makar/dp/0838803601/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1358953187&sr=8-1&keywords=primary+phonics

I'm going to start with Explode the Code 1.5 and Primary Phonics Book 1 and then wait until she starts the tutoring to see if I should get more. I have some games we can play too. I'll look at the Barton test but I'll hold off ordering any of that yet. I've talking to a local mom who pulled her severely dyslexic son out of school in my county after he made no progress at all in 2 years. She uses Verticy and I did the first section of the placement test for that but I think dd is on the young side for it. It looks to be for Grades 3 and up and dd is Grade 2. She says the schools here use Wilson which she doesn't think is as good as OG.

My 8 yo dd was recently evaluated by a Reading Specialist and she told us that dd definitely has dyslexia. She should be in Grade 2 this year but tested at low 1st grade or kindergarten for everything tested. We are going to work with an Orton Gillingham tutor starting in January but I'm trying to figure out the route we want to go. The tutor has recommended Primary Phonics as well as Explode the Code. We are already using ETC but dd was having a heck of a time with Book 2. She seemed to do fine with Book 1 so moved her to Book 2 but we'll be backtracking and going into 1.5 since she missed numerous CVC words on the test. We have spent hours and hours working on them. She did Lessons 1-40 of IEW Primary Arts of Language- Reading and did very poorly on the word list at the end of the book. All were words she'd practiced many times. I'm no longer going to use that program for her since it doesn't seem to be working. My son wants to finish it even though it is too easy for him. We've been going really slow for dd but it's obviously not working for her. I see a lot of people here seem to like Barton but I'm wondering if I need to purchase all that if we are using a OG tutor. I'm not sure how long we'll use the tutor but I really need some outside help right now to get going with dd.

My son's school is having an unfundraiser. Basically it involves soliciting for money without being required to sell junk. I like it when the school's do this however the lowest amount listed on the form to give is $50. In the letter that came with the form it states that the PTA spends $25 on each student every year. I might send $25 but I probably won't send $50. My son is in a self contained Autism classroom and most of the programs the PTA pays for are things he wouldn't get anything out of. I'm sure they are enjoyed by the other kids but funds are kind of tight right now or I would maybe send more. They are also sending some sort of coupon book home next month that we are strongly encouraged to purchase. I think that is another $50 so I think they are already asking for plenty of money. I donated quite a bunch of supplies to ds's classroom already. They use a lot of things like wipes since many of the kids in his class are in diapers. My dd's school has already started with the fundraisers. Based on what we got last year they send something home a couple times a month they want people to sell. Her school is in the same district as ds's so it really seems to depend on the PTA at the school. They do some sort of frozen food buys all the time which seems to be the bulk of the fundraising efforts. I haven't bought for that but I have sent in on other fundraisers. They also have 2 book fairs and of course are always asking for boxtops. Dd is all excited that the class with the most gets a pizza party. I hate how they do that to the kids because her class isn't likely to get it. She's in kindy and they try to keep those classes smaller so her class is already at a disadvantage due to having fewer kids to bring in for the drive. Why not just say please bring in box tops because it helps our school. I'm going to cut them out and save them regardless because I know the school can get money for them. I hate them holding a prize over the kids they aren't likely to get.

My dh went with me to the open house and he thinks that the teacher cherry picked a top student's sample to show the parents. I tend to agree and I'm not sure how realistic what she showed is. There is a big word wall up with the high frequency words so that is probably why those are spelled correctly. The kids can look at them when they are doing their writing. I was just blown away by the expectations. I understand a lot better why parents red shirt. We are full day kindy here state wide so I'm not sure if that affects expectations or not. I did find a mom with 4 kids whose 2 older kids went to half day and she claims it is the same expectations except the kids get specials now. Most days my dd only gets one special which is 40 minutes long though. They spend over 2 hours on reading each day which doesn't seem like it would be possible for half day K. I felt like a huge slacker after the open house. I've homeschooled 4 kids for Kindy. My goal is generally to have them writing words with properly formed letters by the end of the year and to be able to fluently read CVC words and some high frequency words but I still have the kids sound most of those out. If dd had stayed at home we would have finished MFW K. She made it to lesson 12 before school started.