I don't regret starting K at 5, as my daughter was more than ready for it. What I do regret a little though is going so fast and being so structured once we started. My DD did fine and is a bright, happy, inquisitive child at 9. However, we did hit a wall with math at one point due to my accelerating her so quickly, and it was an unhappy experience for her. That's all resolved now (by taking a long break until she was more developmentally ready), and I don't feel like there were any terrible things that came from that in the long run. However, I am now on K with my second child, and my approach is very different. We play more games and have more fun. Things aren't as structured and she's thriving as well. I plan to follow this path when my 3rd is this age as well.

Thanks for this thread! I have been putting off buying MCT as I couldn't decide between Island and Town, but this thread pushed me over the edge! I still don't know if I made the right choice in level, but I'm so excited because now I'll actually be able to hold the materials in my hands, see them, and experience them. :)

We've been using MM for a few months and love it. You can either download the program and print yourself, or you can buy them already printed at Lulu.com. There is a link on the MM website if you choose to do it that way (which is what we did). The downside is that I will need to buy new books for my other kids, but I chose it over printing on my own. Many people love to own it and print as needed though. The light blue series goes by grade level, like Singapore. The dark blue goes by topic instead (example: topic, time, covers grade 1-3). I've never used Singapore so I can't compare. Good luck with your decision!

Breathe. :001_smile: Sometimes our kids aren't developmentally ready for some of the math concepts we throw their way. My 9 year old 4th grader is just now hitting multiplication, so I get where you're coming from. My initial plan this year was to quickly go through 3rd grade math (thinking most would be easy/review) and into 4th grade math by December. Well, plans have changed. :lol: We're doing MM, and I like how thorough the concepts are. My DD is thriving, but we're going much slower than I had planned. I'm just plugging away at it and repeating to myself that it's more important that she gets the concepts down well instead of fast. I still plan to catch up over time to where I'd like her to be, but it may take me a few years. :tongue_smilie: My friend has a DD the same age, and while she thought she had learned all of her times tables last year, she has forgotten them and will now be relearning them. She is officially in 4th grade math, but she is relearning some concepts. I think this is very normal with anything new introduced to kids. I plan to try Timezattack (can google it) as I've heard that it's a fun (free) online game to learn multiplication. I'm also planning on pulling out my School House Rock stuff and listening to the multiplication songs with her. Try not to stress too much. My DH said he didn't learn his multiplication tables when he was young (had difficulties memorizing them for some reason), and now he knows them just fine, is a huge computer geek, and is strong in math and science. Good luck! Our DC will be fine and learn their tables eventually. :)

Science 1X/week (elemental intro. to science all in one day) History 1X/week (plus listening to SOTW 1 CD whenever she feels like it with sister throughout the week) Art very informally at this point. She does projects with history, colors, makes her own crafts, etc..... I don't have a set program. I don't remember how often we did these with my oldest.

I am using Elemental Science, Intro to Science with two 5 year olds, and they love it. It uses More Mudpies to Magnets as the main experiment book. It also includes notebook pages, recommendations for further reading at that age level, and more experiments to go along with the topic each week. It's also cheap! :tongue_smilie:

:grouphug: I'm sorry this is so frustrating for you. I asked my husband to help with a few things over the years which he seemed more than willing to do. However, it never happened unless I scheduled it (learned this over time). Nowadays, he does Chemistry every week, but it is a day/time that I scheduled in and remind him of it every week. Other than that, I stay out of it and let him deal with his own planning. He works 40+ hours every week and is very family oriented. He's great when teaching, but it wouldn't happen if I didn't schedule it. Good luck to you however you choose to handle this!

Ok, this is not "great" literature, but my daughter and her best friend LOVED the Fairy Realm books (can be found at bookcloseouts) around that age. There are 10 I think, and they're better than the Rainbow fairy books. For over a year after starting to read these, they played make believe games about the fairy realm, drew pictures illustrating the books, tried to figure out how to get there, etc..... There is one picture per chapter, 10 chapters per book I think. I am starting these as read-a-loud books with my 5 year old now (that's how we started them with my olderst, who then moved on to read them herself).

Honestly, at 7 years old, my advice is to just let her READ. I had a unique situation for my daughter when she was in 2nd grade. Due to some difficult circumstances, my daughter's language arts at that age just included reading, reading, and more reading. She was an advanced reader and just devoured books. After that year ended, we went back to a more formal LA study, and she continued to excell. Now at 9 years old (4th grade), she is still advanced and has a love of literature. She is in a Jr. Great Books group, and the teacher has spoken to me about her grasp of connections that other students just don't get yet. She was not hurt by our lack of formal study (and in fact, I believe she greatly benefited from the freedom she was given). My next child is 5, and I am seriously considering (meaning I probably will) throwing everything out when we hit 2nd grade (or whenever her reading really takes off) and doing the same thing. At 7 years old, the most important thing in my opinion is to develop a LOVE of reading. The comprehension and ability to make connections comes with time, experience, and maturity. Just because a child can read at an advanced level doesn't mean that he or she is developmentally ready to make some of the advanced connections that an older child can. Anyway, that's my advice, for what it's worth. Good luck with whatever you decide! Denise

-My 2 year old loves Animal Baby by National Wildlife Federation -We also get Ranger Rick and the third one from there (gifts from family members) and my kids enjoy them - My oldest used to love Highlights

I dropped spelling for this year (4th grade). If I ever notice that she starts to have difficulty with the same words over and over, I can always choose to adress those words. My daughter is a natural speller and I honestly see it as a waste of time and boring for her.

If your child knows how to write a capitol B, have him/her look at the lowercase letter and draw a hump on the top part (physically at first, or with his finger, or in his head......whichever seems to work). If adding the hump makes a capitol B, it's b. If it's a backwards B, the letter is d. Anyway, that's what I've been doing with my K'er. Some days it works well and other days she still has issues. My older daughter had the same trouble but eventually figured it all out. It's normal at this age. Good luck!

Things are going really well with my 4th grader, so no major changes there. However, my plans for my 5 year old have changed dramatically. I have dropped the curriculum I was going to use already (stuff I had used with my oldest) and am making this year more fun for her. We are doing reading and math, but she is doing well with both of those so we are just continuing with what we were doing before our "school year" started. She loves to "do lessons," but nothing is scripted and there are no boxes to check. I feel so much more confident with her than I did with my first (experience I guess). We go with the flow, play games, get messy, do projects, and have fun learning. We do some seat work, but she does enjoy that. I will also probably start MM1 with her sometime within the next couple of months, but no pushing. Anyway, I just feel really good about where we are right now. :001_smile:

:iagree::iagree::iagree:

How about a Magic Tree House Book club? You could focus on one book for 1-3 weeks. Have the kids read it at home beforehand (or have parents read to the children) and then do activities related to whatever topic was covered in that book (Ancient Egypt, dinosaurs, ninjas, etc...). -a Meet the Masters type art class -Brain Games (games that are fun but make you think) -any kind of hands on science

I personally wouldn't worry about spelling for awhile. We didn't do spelling until 3rd grade, and then this year (4th) we dropped it as my DD doesn't need it. I probably won't start spelling with my next one until 3rd as well (although I reserve the right to change my mind when I get caught up in buying something that I can't resist :tongue_smilie:). We like Growing with Grammar too, and they do have a spelling program as well on their website, but I've never seen it in person. I'm sorry you're going through so much right now and wish you luck. :grouphug:

We have been using MM for about 2 months and I absolutely love it!! It has been great for my 4th grader.

I've always been terrible about getting to science. This year, my husband does science on Saturdays with the kids. He likes science more than I do, and they are loving the time with him (as well as loving the science). They are doing RSO Chemistry. :001_smile:

I was taught to use the comma before "and." However, I was also taught that both ways are correct. I'm teaching my kids to use the comma.

I know that this won't be a popular opinion here, but we put away all math for over 6 months. My daughter found K math to be very easy, so we moved into 1st grade math quickly, and eventually during 1st grade at some point, she hit a wall. She COULD do the problems, but she was getting frustrated and decided that she hated math. The beauty of homeschooling is that you can do these kinds of things. We stopped doing any formal math at all to give her a chance to catch up developmentally. At the same time I searched for a new math curriculum. When we eventually returned to formally doing math, she was ready, and she no longer hates math. She's in 4th grade now and doing well. I think it was one of the best decisions I've made for her so far.

I have worked with another parent from kindergarten through the current year (4th). I have her child one day/week and she has mine for one day/week, then the rest of the week we are on our own. We have an agreed upon schedule, but we are very flexible with it. There are some subjects that we do not cover together due to our children having different needs (math, spelling). We do cover language arts, history, science, and this year she is taking art while I take a basic composer study (I feel like I'm forgetting something too). Our partnership has evolved over time. We originally met 3X/week together, but that became increasingly difficult over time due to growing families/activities/etc... We have very similar parenting styles and ideas about how we want to educate our children. We both bring different strengths to the table. Our children LOVE the set-up, and I really feel like it is good for them. Next year, we will be tweaking things once again as we add 2 more children to formal education. I'm not sure how that's going to look at this point, but we'll see. Anyway, it can work, but I think you have to have a great relationship to start with, and you have to be willing to be flexible. I'm not sure how easy it would be to start with so many children at once though! :tongue_smilie: Good luck with whatever you decide! (Oh, and I would definitely choose to have her drive to your house even with the added mess. Set up time at the end of the day where everyone helps to clean).

Yes, with that one I should have mentioned that it's not the program itself, just that it wasn't right for us. My daughter is an incredible speller and really doesn't need a program. It's still on the shelves though, so maybe one of my other kids will use it, who knows? :)

My understanding is that Biology 2 is in the works right now, with an expected release sometime in 2011. I'm hoping so as I want to use it next year.

My daughter has used Calvert Grammar and Usage (4th grade), and my thought is that it is very similar to Growing with Grammar. The child reads an explanation and then does a page or 2 of work covering what they just read (or what you just went over if you choose to do it that way). My daughter preferred Growing with Grammar. If GWG isn't working for your child, I don't really think Calvert's would be much different. HTH.

Rocket Phonics (saw at a HS convention and had to have it...didn't use once) Sequential Spelling Saxon Math (bought used, looked through it, immediately resold) Rightstart A and B (like the idea, could never follow through) History pockets (keep buying these as I like the IDEA, but the reality is always a letdown for me...have maybe 6 different ones on the shelves) BFSU Bought 2 used copies of HO1 Ancients (forgot that I had already purchased one), then decided that I really just want to go with SOTW 1-4 and HO2 with my oldest