I would do some more dictation practice & go ahead & order Level 3. However, considering how your son reacted to the dictation, I'd consider doing your practice dictation from your studies as part of that subject. Either you or he summarize with one or two sentences something from history or science. Have him repeat it over & over again until he has it straight in his head, then write it himself. Do it at least twice a week until your WWE3 arrives. I have no advice on the spelling front. I have my own issues with that with my dc. Mine ask for help on simple words they already know but are too lazy to think about. :001_huh:

Could there be a problem? Sure. Is your child in the normal range of not remembering sounds just said 15 seconds before? Yes. If you think something is wrong, by all means get her tested. I will tell you that my oldest at age 5 would work hard to sound out a word and not know it one line down. She could also not repeat the word 15 seconds later after sounding it out (and lots of angst) with no words in between. Her visual memory got better, but was still not great at the age of not-quite-7 when we had her tested for possible vision therapy. (They flagged her for below-normal "trouble" vision memory.) Within two months of the testing (but no therapy), she was reading on grade level. I had a tough time keeping up with the level of books she was capable & wanted to read from that point on. She still reads at least a grade level above what I have her doing and two grade levels above her PS peers who are her age. My second child still struggles in reading at a young 7 and is working through ETC book 3 right now as a supplement to our normal curriculum. I was just going over number recognition with my (almost 5 yr old) preschooler and she has the same issues you have with your 5 year old. I would continue doing gentle work - one sound at a time. Good luck. :grouphug:

Mine needed me "at elbow" constantly at that age spread. I do not have independent workers. I cheered in my head when my 3rd grader last year spent a few minutes doing GWG3 by herself after I went over things and before I checked her work. It was the first time she would do anything without me within a few inches of her, even if she didn't need me for anything specific. Things are much better this year - with both kids. However, I think you need to work up to more independence. Something I did at that age was do one kid's work first, then sent them off to play for the rest of the morning & concentrated on the second child. (I could do the K work while the 2nd grader was finishing her chores or eating a late breakfast since she's my late riser. Or, let the K play and call her in when the 2nd grader was done.) If you don't want to do that, I'd have several activities for the 2nd grader to do while you work with the Ker. For example, a book of mazes or dot-to-dots would be one choice. Some play-doh, stamps, markers/coloring books, light craft stuff would be another couple options. A puzzle or game that the older could play by herself would be a third: perhaps some not-too-difficult jigsaws or a memory game. These are all things I have available for my preschooler & older sibs to work on -- but they only get access to these specific things DURING SCHOOL TIME. I'm trying to get my older kid to be independent enough that I'll have time to fit in a few things with #3 next year. It is an incremental approach. Listening to SWB's "Teaching Kids to Be Independent" audio lecture helped give me confidence that I'm on the right track age-wise & some more ideas to implement. If your kids are like mine were at that age, you might not get much independence out of them yet. But have some hope - it'll come. :grouphug:

I would say time-wise, you could spend as little as 30 minutes 4x per week and cover what your dc needed to know to enter first grade. I try to make K fun. (My kids always complain when they get to first grade and have to "buckle down" (their word). They beg to go back to K. :tongue_smilie:) I start the whole learn-to-read thing four times a week for about 15 minutes a sitting. We do some hand-writing in the second "semester" for another 5-10 minutes each day. We do numbers, colors, patterns, money, etc. informally. They get to pick something "fun" to do for 15-20 minutes three times per week. Here are some examples of things my olders chose: dress-up class, cooking, building, crafts, drawing, etc. Total time is less than an hour per day. My goal was being able to sit still for 30 minutes. Honestly, my kids will do that while I read aloud to them. Sitting still while doing "seat work" is another story. :lol: My not-quite-K'er is currently doing crafts from Shirley's Prepackaged Crafts & working on some K-level workbooks (patterns, mazes, counting & coloring objects, matching, etc.) from Walmart that I picked up to keep her happy while I'm "doing school" with the older two. I'm hoping to carve out some time to do more with her (interest-led) next semester.

A Beka is a spiral program but moves pretty quickly, especially in 3rd grade. I didn't find much "review" at the beginning. (There is quite a bit of review at the beginning of Arithmetic 2.) Some people find A Beka 3 too challenging for their dcs because of the quick pace (which slows down IMO at the end of the year quite a bit). My oldest is using CLE this year and I end up crossing off some of each day's work because it is just too much busywork for her. (Some people double-up on lessons - doing the new stuff from two lessons with the review from just one of them.)

Our big push right now is on the states & capitals of the US. We've taken some time off of new poems as we are reviewing all the poems we memorized the last four years. We have memory work in each of our subjects, but not just for the sake of memorizing. (Math facts, latin vocab words, science terms related to what we are studying, etc.)

Okay, this is coming from a non-Singapore-user, so this might not be the best answer. Draw two bars - one slightly longer than the other. Pick the longer bar & put a line on it equal to the length of the shorter bar. ----------- ----------|----| Kinda-like the above. Now, label the short section on the end of the longer bar "50." The kid knows the two bars together make 300, which means the two sections of bars (the shorter bar and the short section of the longer bar) together are 300-50 and are also equal to each other (because they visually see this with the bar graph). Thus, they know (300-50)/2 = the length of the shorter bar. The shorter bar + 50 = the bigger group. Does that make sense?

My preschooler likes to play with the rods. She sits & does some of the things (totally on her own right now) that Spy Car talked about -- stacking different colors of rods to make the same length "train." She loves to point out which colors together make another rod color (3 of one color = 1 of another color, 2 of one color = 1 of another color), for example. She's made the stair-step thing going "up" and "down." She also builds different shapes with them. Whenever she wants, she pulls them out. So, when we start doing Miquon "officially," she'll already know some of these concepts from her previous exposure. I plan to go through the younger rod book that someone posted on here before (I have it saved under "cuisinairebook") we start Miquon. Someone also posted a video on their website on "one day with Miquon" that was interesting. Those are posts to look for. The First Grade Diary contains lots of "one week with Miquon" ideas. Another thing to note is that they didn't just use the rods & sheets. There were other manipulatives - some you can make on your own. Good luck!

If you haven't already ordered SWR, you might take a look at AAS or Phonics Road. AAS is much more expensive than SWR, but some people think it is easier for the teacher to teach. It isn't the same, but there are some of the same ideas. The Phonics Road to Spelling and Reading and All About Spelling are two programs that are highly touted on this board. I use SWR but it is not easy at the beginning (for the teacher) and I think the others are "similar" (not going to debate how similar) but easier to teach from the get-go. If you have the time to read the SWR guide, make your own Learning Log, and figure the program out, it is worth it. With the exception of the masterful The Writing Road to Reading by Spaulding, SWR is an extremely inexpensive phonics/spelling/reading/grammar program for K-2. (I add outside grammar starting in 3rd.) If you want to read more people's opinions on AAS / Phonics Road, search for them on this board. There are quite a few posts. Good luck!:001_smile:

*cough* I'm so glad so many people have been helpful to the OP. I & several of my friends have had kids who for all intents & purposes have been "fully" potty trained for a week to a couple of months and then regress to pre-potty training level. Usually, there is an outside stimuli/stimulus - baby, moving, parent gone that normally takes care of them, big change in schedule for someone who needs/relies on schedules & dislikes change. Sometimes, there didn't seem to be an outside stimulus. (We couldn't identify one.) Everyone handled it differently. I started all over as if I hadn't just done this and ignored that I wanted to scream every time the pee hit the floor. I admit that the second time through, I tried to add incentives. For me, it seemed to take longer the second time to fully train than the first time. I had a friend who said she didn't change anything, just had a "talk" with him about how proud she was that he had potty trained and how much that helped with everything. I don't know what all was in the discussion, but apparently, the talk did the trick. Every one of my kids has not potty trained until they really want to and each a slightly different way. None of mine trained until right around 3, with some even older. I have friends whose kids are trained at 18 months. Good luck!

My oldest dd was evaluated (at our request) for visual tracking issues. One of the key things they noted was that she used her finger to track while reading. I explained that the method I used to teach her to read (100 EL) taught her to do it that way. They continued to insist that she obviously had issues because she used her finger to track under the words she was reading. Since I didn't stand over her and insist she continue to do it, she dropped the practice. It didn't stand in the way of her reading fluently, but it was a "red flag" to the vision therapy people. As long as you don't plan to put your son in front of vision therapy people where they will insist your child has tracking issues because he's following his teacher's instructions, I think you should try very hard to not see your son's finger on the page while he's reading aloud for you. Imagine it is invisible...

IMO, I wouldn't add yet another thing to the mix. TT is not what you are looking for if you are catering to the conceptual math crowd. (I have some IRL acquaintances who have gone down the TT road and their dc didn't get out of it what they hoped they would. If anything, it was a "wasted" year, even at the proper level.) I will echo other posters. If CLE was working, go back to it and stick with it. The most important thing is to find something that works & STICK TO IT. I found that CLE has as much conceptual stuff as it needs to have at this level. It really does explain the "why" - just maybe not in the same way as the mastery-type asian programs do. (I've read Liping Ma's book.) You will short-change your kid if you keep skipping around math programs and confusing her. I'm ACT-prepping a high school senior in math who did this very thing. She loves math. She's behind in math. She doesn't understand the why behind the stuff at her level. Her "facts" are not cemented. Her mother & her wish she had another 4-5 years to relearn & catch up in math.

If you just want grammar, I'd go with GWG or EG. If you want a more comprehensive LA, you'll want CLE. My oldest did GWG3 last year & my next will do GWG3 next year. I liked that eventually, she could do it mostly without my sitting next to her at every moment. There is no "writing" component. It is VERY pick-up-and-go. She had a decent amount of retention -- as much as she normally has with any curriculum she has to write in.

:iagree: I purchased & read Ma's book. To be honest, I don't get the "it is going to change your life, you must read this book" sentiment. I am doing some ACT math-prep work with an older student. She likes math, but she doesn't "get" math. She's working through Saxon Advanced Math and is very frustrated with the lack of explanation for the algebraic & geometric topics introduced. She pointed out that she wanted to know how sine/cosine/tangent worked, not just how to use the formula. I replied that Saxon is probably not a good program for learning the "why"s. Her mom just wants her to learn the material (quickly) without understanding. She replied that she will understand better if you explain why. (Ma's point being China's teachers understand the whys and therefore are better teachers for just this sort of thing, yes?) I think it is important for teachers to understand the whys so they can better explain the how tos. I'm not sure the little kids need to understand the whys at every corner unless they aren't getting it, ask the question, or learn best that way. Sorry for the hijack!

My girls have read all the Pony Pal books at our library (only maybe 10? at our small town place). I would say they are slightly longer & with less pictures per chapter than what you are looking for. My horse-crazy girls like them (oldest as an easy-read & youngers as a read-aloud). Reading level about the same as the Magic Treehouse, I would say (roughly).

Next year I'm planning a unit-study-type approach to US history using (among other things) the Portraits of American Girlhood Unit Study book. I'm unsure what to do for science next year, as we'll be restarting our rotation and will be back on life/bio etc. In a 'light-bulb' moment, I wondered if I could integrate science in with our history theme by studying something like the journal that Lewis kept on the journey and branching off of it. Perhaps adding things like the North American Wildlife Guide and/or the Handbook of Nature Study. Does anyone know if there is something like this already out there (for Lewis & Clark or other American History topics) or would I be on my own? I saw there was something like this integrated in the Trail Guides .... but I don't want to buy that on top of what I'm already buying just for the science. :bigear:

I think you should do what you think is best with your kids. You know them best. I will share something from my own experience just to give you some ideas. We use SWR as our spelling/LA program in the early years to learn spelling & phonics & reading (after at least some but not all 100EL). We had our oldest tested when she was just under 7 by a vision therapy doctor. She tested near the top of the chart for phonics awareness for her age-group. She tested just under 50% for sight (whole-word) reading. SWR doesn't have sight words, although they teach the top-frequency (Ayres List) words. They thought that her results meant she couldn't read well (which she couldn't at the time). Their approach was to "take away" the phonics and replace it with sight reading. Without their intervention, her reading level went up two grades in two-three months time and has continued to grow. I realized I needed to do more work helping her recognize her spelling list words without sounding them out each time. I already had them on flashcards (for spelling practice), so we just started going through them more often. Good luck! :grouphug:

If I had natural spellers, I would not do a separate spelling program at this age. I would see how it goes in later years, and if necessary, whip through MegaWords in later grades (possibly finishing all of them in two years or less). For yourself, I would use the rules in something like WRTR, which is inexpensive to purchase. When questions come up, you can refer to the spelling rule or explain the exception. Unfortunately, my kids spell like I do - horribly. I would so much rather not use a spelling program at this age.

SWR teaches it as "often" and adds "Occasionally other letters are doubled in this way (ebb, odd, egg, inn, err, watt, jazz)." My dd#2 was going back through her spelling test making sure all her words followed the spelling rules she knows so far and almost changed "you" to something else because it ended with a "u" (English words do not end in I, U, V, or J.") I had to go back later & say it was ok at her question because it was the "ou" phonogram. Rule-breakers chap my hide. :glare:

My first two reversed a ton at that age. My #2 child still sometimes reverses numbers (at 7 yrs old) and has the gift of being able to write backwards IN CURSIVE without realizing it. (We never formally taught her manuscript.) She almost always reverses manuscript S & J. This is a problem as she uses her initials (manuscript) for lots of things & people think her middle name starts with a C instead of a J. When she writes in cursive now, she doesn't reverse very much (unless it is complete mirror writing as referred to by others). My #3 at 4 is showing signs of heading down the same path. Good luck!:grouphug:

In the HS group I am a part of, there are only a few of us who really "tweak" our curriculum. I would say that definitely the majority get their stuff & just do it almost exactly as it is written (within the bounds of life which can throw you a curve when you are trying to do things on a schedule).

My four year old is allowed to play with whatever we have on hand. I have coloring sheets, blocks, etc. (Most people suggest things they can only play with during school, but we haven't gotten to that point yet. I don't have the energy to segment play items.) We live in a small town on a cul-de-sac, so she's also allowed to play in our yard outside while I "do school." When the weather is good, that is frequently where you find her.

Ditto the above. This is the first year I've had this space in our basement. In years past, we've either done it on the kitchen table or on the extra table in our living room. It is harder on me because my "chores" are upstairs and I can't as easily get laundry/cleaning the kitchen done as I could when we were upstairs, but the kids know when we head downstairs it is "school time." It is easier to keep everyone in one place, but I wouldn't say it helps with concentration with my kids. I have "wiggly willys" so they bounce all over the place and wander from room to room in between things. Even when I'm teaching something, they could be drawing on the white board something completely unrelated to what I'm reading. As long as they can still answer my questions, I allow this. So, for us, we have it but it doesn't necessarily make things "all better."

:iagree: My oldest takes math placement tests for me "for fun" whenever she finishes her math year curriculum. She's done Horizons, CLE, TT, Saxon, etc. Each curriculum provider gauges the (grade) level they are going to put as a recommendation and decides what to include in their scope & sequence. If you don't have the foundation, the later stuff is so much more difficult! You want your kid's educational "house" to be made of brick, not straw or sticks. :tongue_smilie:

I won't be much help, but I'm *bumping* for you. The only ones on your list that we read were: Bitter Dumplings, Jeanne Lee El Cid by Geraldine McCaughrean We enjoyed both, but I wouldn't purchase either of them. My kids like the old movie of El Cid that we picked up at the library (with the same actor who played Moses in the 10 Commandments). I'd read them if they were available from the library (as obviously they were for us), but I wouldn't buy them. Good luck.