I am ready for a break too.

I don't have anything to add, except that I've considered all of these curricula and appreciate everybody's thoughts! Bumping and bookmarking this thread!

Krissi, thank you! Would you tell me what "unifix cutes" are? I'm not familiar with that...

I posted this in the "afterschooling" forum and was advised to post here to solicit your advice...happy reading! :D I'm an educator very interested in afterschooling my DD4, as she is actually in a K3/4 class, rather than a K4/5 class, and is ready agewise for K in 2011-2012. She is a student at the Christian school at which I teach. I think she is proficient in the tasks listed in several kindergarten readiness brochures I have found, as well. She knows her numbers, colors, shapes, letters, and is now writing her letters, both uppercase and lowercase, as well as spelling CVC words. She knows 24 sight words, and can comprehend fairly lengthy stories. The reason she was put into this class rather into the K4/5 is because, two months ago when school started, she was not reading or writing. Her teacher came to me today and told me she spelled, "cat," "dog," and "duck." I know she also knows how to spell "frog," as well as others. She said she was going to be looking for reading readiness activities for her, and I asked her to let me know if I can help her look for activities for her to do. I then thought, "I am planning to HS at some point, so I should really take charge and offer some ideas of things I want her to participate in." This is a small school, and her teacher is a colleague of mine, and she has said in the past she would welcome a partnership between the two of us in educating my daughter. I'm not interested in pushing her, but I do want to strike while the iron's hot. What kinds of ideas do y'all have to enrich her reading readiness? Ideas a friend gave me are: * Pull out already-read Dr. Seuss and P.D. Eastman books, as well as others, and re-read with the emphasis on reading the words in the books * Tangrams - with the emphasis on putting together differently-shaped and -colored pieces to make the desired shape * Sequencing, focusing on higher-level patterns * Puzzles, with the emphasis on alphabet and words, or mixing two puzzles together and having DD separate puzzle pieces, then assembling each puzzle I thought, too, that I would pull out the Five in a Row curriculum guide (a literature-based unit study approach) and offer the books as well as activity ideas designed to pull out art, social studies, applied math, science, and language arts from each book. We've done these before, and I'm just thinking, read, read, read to her! I do read to her, but not as much as I'd like since I'm working now. I don't think this is forever; we are military and we'll move, so I will have to give up my job sometime. I think we'll be homeschooling by 1st grade, whether that's two or three years from now. I think it should be two years away, myself! Her birthday is 22 July 2006.

Thanks, everybody! MBM, thanks especially for the book/author lists. I'll give those to the teacher and between her and me we'll make sure we keep up the library box. :) One question. I got OPG a while back and DD has not been interested in the least. I think it's because she picked up info along the way, and found the rhymes tedious. We have tons of manipulatives and we taught her the phonetic alphabet. Should I just find the lesson she wouldn't know, like blends or long sounds, and make that our starting point? She won't sit still for longer than 3 minutes with the lessons.

I'm an educator very interested in afterschooling my DD4, as she is actually in a K3/4 class, rather than a K4/5 class, and is ready agewise for K in 2011-2012. She is a student at the Christian school at which I teach. I think she is proficient in the tasks listed in several kindergarten readiness brochures I have found, as well. She knows her numbers, colors, shapes, letters, and is now writing her letters, both uppercase and lowercase, as well as spelling CVC words. She knows 24 sight words, and can comprehend fairly lengthy stories. The reason she was put into this class rather into the K4/5 is because, two months ago when school started, she was not reading or writing. Her teacher came to me today and told me she spelled, "cat," "dog," and "duck." I know she also knows how to spell "frog," as well as others. She said she was going to be looking for reading readiness activities for her, and I asked her to let me know if I can help her look for activities for her to do. I then thought, "I am planning to HS at some point, so I should really take charge and offer some ideas of things I want her to participate in." This is a small school, and her teacher is a colleague of mine, and she has said in the past she would welcome a partnership between the two of us in educating my daughter. I'm not interested in pushing her, but I do want to strike while the iron's hot. What kinds of ideas do y'all have to enrich her reading readiness? Ideas a friend gave me are: * Pull out already-read Dr. Seuss and P.D. Eastman books, as well as others, and re-read with the emphasis on reading the words in the books * Tangrams - with the emphasis on putting together differently-shaped and -colored pieces to make the desired shape * Sequencing, focusing on higher-level patterns * Puzzles, with the emphasis on alphabet and words, or mixing two puzzles together and having DD separate puzzle pieces, then assembling each puzzle I thought, too, that I would pull out the Five in a Row curriculum guide (a literature-based unit study approach) and offer the books as well as activity ideas designed to pull out art, social studies, applied math, science, and language arts from each book. We've done these before, and I'm just thinking, read, read, read to her! I do read to her, but not as much as I'd like since I'm working now. I don't think this is forever; we are military and we'll move, so I will have to give up my job sometime. I think we'll be homeschooling by 1st grade, whether that's two or three years from now. I think it should be two years away.

StephanieZ, I'm taking your advice to the bank! I love it! We are CSing now with plans to HS. Both kids are 4 and under. So, no school till 6! Plenty of breaks, and no longer than 3 hrs a day!!! I know that SWB said in her last revision of WTM that there are MANY ways to skin the scheduling cat, but I really LOVE your thoughts!!! 2squared, praying!!!

IMHO, I think what Shay suggested is worth checking into. I recently had a friend tell me that of her 4 kids, she's never HS'd all of them. She's always had a mix of HS, PS, CS, etc. It just depends on what your situation is. Might be worth a try. DD is only 4, and I was going to start HSing this fall, until I got a job at the local CS. Now that I'm in it, I think it's to show me that I can JOYFULLY HS. I think if I had started the way I was, I would've wondered what it was like to have a life outside of HS. Now, I know! I think I might be much more equipped to HS when the time comes, and I won't wonder. I know it will be easier to HS my 2, than to school 60 that aren't my own! Take a break, for a day, and maybe even don't think about school for that day. Then, pray and consider. (((HUGS)))!!!

Ok, I am a little confused. I think I'm going to have to work quickly through the book to see where DD rightfully needs to start. She knows all of her phonetic alphabet, and knows the letters too. HW is a different story; she's getting warmer to actually start writing letters out. So, recognition's there, and I think we're ready to sound out words. She was pretty put out by going through the vowel poem yesterday, lol! We have a Magnadoodle and a white board. Where does HW fit into phonetic recognition?

I'm not worthy; I'm not worthy! DD is 4 and we did lesson 1 and she YAWNED through it and asked to stop! So, thanks for the tip; I like the white-board idea. My friend's DD did it out of the book, but she is a different kid! :grouphug: :iagree:

Thank you, Tracy! I'll go back and look at the book. I have a relatively old edition, but I'm trusting it will come in handy...

Thanks, Lauren! I appreciate that. I wanted to add we had gotten the Ordinary Parents' Guide to Teaching Reading a while back and have done one lesson out of it. :) I figure we have a while before she has to be really interested!

I was turned on to WTM and SWB a couple of years ago by a friend HSing with CE. DD was 2 at the time! :) I went ahead and bought WTM and WEM by JW and SWB, and thoroughly enjoyed them. I was on board with doing just 30 mins a day and focusing on reading. DD is now 4 (dob 7/22/06), and is attending the Christian school where I got a job in the meantime. Before that happened, I stumbled on Five in a Row and had just received the curriculum when I was offered the job. I still want to HS. I think I will work while we live here in AK (we're military), and when we PCS, we'll start the HSing process. I like the idea of FIAR, doing the unit study idea with the basis of literature, reviewing a subject a day. You do math, phonics, and HW every day as well, and we'll add Bible. What else would I need for a CE? I'm thinking the Trivium is where I start. Is there a thread here to walk you through how to start with a K? FWIW, I also have a 18 month old who will only be 2-1/2 when DD starts K. I know this will make a CE at home interesting! Also, what do I do now (if anything, teaching is BUSY!!!) to afterschool? Again, links are ok. I'm a bit overwhelmed by the afterschooling forum, although thankful for it.