my first grader does the first levels of both. i like fll but to me it seems repetitive. for instance there were way too many lessons devoted to capitalization, imho.

the ordinary parents guide to teaching reading is working well for my almost 4 year old. she is about half way through it now. we do 2-3 pages a day, about 5 days a week, it takes about half an hour as we read things 2-3 times before moving on and also reread the previous day's lesson as a review before doing a new lesson. i use a yellow popsicle stick as a pointer. we skip all the activities, just read through everything. she seems to enjoy it. it is not a chore to her. but if your child does not seem ready, i would wait until she is, and just read to her a lot in the meantime. every child is ready at a different time.

We just read Pinocchio with my kids ds6 and dd4 and it is a great tool to illustrate positive and negative character traits and the benefits of school. (Nobody wants to turn into a donkey). I am having my son do a written narration of the entire book to make sure he remembers it all! I think he is paying attention because when we got to the part where Pinocchio and Lamp-Wick turn into donkeys, my son said "that is just what the talking cricket said would happen!". I had no recollection of the cricket's remarks but when we looked back in the book, it was there!

For my 3yo we do OPGTTR, HWOT, Building Thinking Skills, Mighty Minds and puzzles. She also hangs out with us during science labs, spelling tests etc for my 6yo. (It is interesting to see how she phonetically spells the words as best she can) We will add a math program once we get through Building Thinking Skills, either a workbook from Critical Thinking Press, Right Start A or else the Singapore preschool program.

depending on how many coupons you are going to be using, there are at least two options: 1. buy a 2 dollar plastic coupon wallet from one of the office supply stores and use the tabs in a way that makes most sense for you. keep the first tab empty so as you go through the store and match coupons to products, you can keep all those coupons together in that tab. 2. for people who have many many coupons and buy multiples to stockpile or give to charity and really love couponing, they can buy a three ring zipper binder and lots of plastic baseball card sleeves, and file them that way. the reason for the zipper binder is to contain the calculator, store weekly ads, etc. hope this helps

in the 70's and early 80's my dad went wild with hanging plants, we must have had 20-30 of them at least, in the living room over the sofa he had 10-15 alone, with the ones framing the sofa reaching the floor practically. most of them were wandering jews of every conceivable variety and a few were spider plants. but to keep these plants healthy he also installed a lot of flourescent tube lights. these plants and the tube lights coordinated wonderully with the bright yellow shag carpeting (hey, it was the 70's!) in other rooms he made wooden brackets to hang single plants, and attached clip-on plant lights to every one. he also had an enormous rubber plant sitting on top of the television. the tv was housed in an enormous wooden console and sat directly on the floor. this plant had a skylight above it, so no flourescent light was necessary there!

don quixote. never read it, always been curious. quite funny.

i believe in japanese restaurants they can be served plain cold with a dipping sauce. maybe you could have them as part of a japanese dinner, the other courses being maybe cooked spinach all water pressed out and shaped into little rounds (also with a dipping sauce), and some teriyaki grilled chicken, or tofu, or whatever is allowed on this program. slice some oranges for dessert. would that all be allowed?

definitely do not ever buy furniture before a move. can you imagine how upsetting it would be to find the movers had damaged it? plus you have to pay moving costs. PLUS it may not even look so great in the new house, i would really wait until you are settled into the new house and have a clear idea how to decorate it before making big purchases. i find every time we move i have to rearrange furniture and sometimes give some of it away to fit into the new house and look right. and most importantly, there will always be another sofa set out there.

my son started the program in 1B in january and just started 2B in july. he works through all the books in each level before going to the next. he does about an hour's worth of pages per day. occasional flash card review doesn't hurt, but if you do all the books there will cumulatively be quite a bit of review already. the one thing i am not crazy about so far is i don't think the books teach the concept of carrying when adding and subtracting as well as right start math. he did 2 levels of that before starting singapore so already understood the concept and i had learned how to review it, otherwise things might have been slightly difficult.

another vote here for stripping off an old finish to redo with poly. my table was bought by my parents 40 years ago, danish modern with an oil finish. ALWAYS getting rings and other damage on it.the oil seemed to attract and hold in dirt, the bottom of the legs were always very dark and dirty even though i would try to clean them with oil and 0000 steel wool. so i finally had the whole thing sanded off and refinished with poly, great decision. now i don't even need placemats, the table just wipes clean with a damp sponge. it is a bit shinier than it used to be, but i prefer that look. it looks brand new.

i just reloaded my ipod for working out and i love ricky martin/sound loaded and rem/some mix of old 80's stuff. also, don't forget heya from outkast. sometimes it is nice to listen to ray charles during cool down too. would love to hear other's suggestions.

toothpaste is abrasive too i would be careful using it to clean any marble or tile

zout laundry stain remover will clean it quite easily. get the shower walls wet, squeeze the zout all over the shower walls, rub it in well with a soft wet sponge, let it sit for about 5-10 minutes, rub it again well with the wet sponge until it feels clean (you can feel when the crud is gone), and rinse thorougly. you could just do this while you take a shower. get the walls all soaped up, let it set while you take your own shower, and then rinse it down when you are done. i would not use any magic eraser type sponges on your shower because they are abrasive and could damage the finish.

in our school room ( a converted bedroom) i keep all our supplies in bins in the closet shelves. the table the kids work at only has a few small cannisters on it for pencils and crayons. the kids get other supplies out of the closet as needed and put them away when they are done. i like to keep the table as clear as possible to minimize distraction and make it easier to wipe down when it gets drawn on!

how about starting off with a "toy" like a math shark? or a game like muggins?

on the flip side of things, it is more necessary for the older child (6) than for the actual preschooler that the preschooler do some kind of school. otherwise my 6yo feels it is unfair that he is the only one having to do school! things are much better now for my 6yo now that my preschooler in interested in doing reading, math and her beginning logic workbook. he is much more willing to do his own work now that he sees that his preschooler sibling has work to do as well (and she loves it)

william steig writes wonderfully. abel's island is a real treat. his others are waiting for us on the shelf so i can't comment on them yet. e.b. white's books are great. for a complete list get the read aloud handbook by jim trelease.

ordinary parents guide to teaching reading is working fine for my 3-1/2 yo. we just do about 1/2 hour 5 days a week. now that she is up to the silent e chapters, she can read well enough to read her dora the explorer phonics readers to herself and she loves that.

thxs

one student lab manual is more than enough. i found the questions a bit repetitious, instead i wrote down the main questions as an entry in his science notebook, and drew a grid for him to record all the parts of the experiment. i have to say although this is a fun set with useful basic info, there is way too little included to warrant the 60 dollars plus or minus the set of three books cost. we read through the entire textbook together in an hour ( with ds6) and will get through most of the experiments in a few days. i hope the chem level 1 has more material in it.

WTM and OPGTTR are the two most valuable books in my entire library of curricula. WTM defines and guides most of what we do with my 6yo, and OPGTTR is working wonderfully with my 3 yo who is currently working through the silent E chapters. Thank you both so much for writing these wonderful books. My children and I also love Singapore math, RS4K, SOTW, FLL, and anything from the Critical Thinking Press. (Well i can't really say he "loves" math but it is working well for him)

i keep a box of flushable wipes on top of the toilet for the kids to use but i also use the wipes to clean the toilet seat almost each time i use it. i just get in the habit of lifting the seat and checking for any stray drips. if you keep wiping it clean before the stains have time to set it is easier to keep clean. i wipe up the sides and floor whenever i see anything too. if the wipes are right there it becomes a non-issue to clean. i also do a deep clean with chlorox wipes, brush and toilet cleaner on a regular basis to disinfect. but if the seat is old and scratched i would definitely pitch it out. once the surface is scratched off the stains are indelible and i would imagine it is more difficult to sanitize too.