I think it would be useful to know how to count to 10 or 20, and have some idea that the numbers keep going from there, even if they can't count any higher. They should also be ready to make the conceptual leap of 1 to 1 correspondance- that five objects could be represented with five fingers or five tally sticks.

We are using RS A with ds 4. He, too, has always counted objects previously, and was quite good at it. In RS A, they do quite a few activities with looking and knowing 1-3 objects, only adding in four and five objects after 1-3 objects are mastered (identified on sight). My son knows 1-3 on sight, and knows that 4 objects has no "middle" and five objects has a "middle", which is how he distinguishes these two higher numbers that he can't "see" as easily as 1-3. Any numbers above five require grouping for him to see, plus the Yellow is the Sun song.

I've never heard of the pencil flip thing before, but this is how I taught my son- http://celebratingasimplelife.blogspot.com/search/label/writing

I am a new HSing mom too, and here's our experience- My 4yo ds started the Earlybird book and did 30 pages in two days. To me, that's a sign the program is not right for him. We switched to Rightstart and are now on lesson 10. He concentrates for each lesson and I can see the lightbulbs going off. He loves the abacus. Rightstart is really amazing. I find myself sitting down to read through the book and find out what we'll be doing next. :-)

I switched to Explode the Code after 100 Easy Lessons, as well as reading "I can read" books.

I'm researching these two programs, and am curious if anyone has had more success with one over the other for smaller children, and/or felt one was better because it grew so well with your children. THanks! Monica

I like reading them the way they were published in the US- LWW first, saving some of the "aha!" for the last books. Lewis himself preferred them chronologically, however.

I got my box in the mail yesterday, and my son and I did the first lesson today (< 10 minutes). This is so, so, so much better than Early Bird. Looking through the materials, I feel like *I* am learning about basic arithmatic and number relationships (and I have a degree in physics!) This program just looks fantastic, my son is EAGERLY looking forward to when he gets to use the abacus, and it's so simple to use! Monica

I had never heard of this before until recently when I went to look at Phonics Road and saw it on the website. It looks really interesting. If you use it, do you still use other grammar materials like FLL, WWE? I am not using Phonics Road, though it looks great. We've already got AAS and ETC, which I love, and probably don't want to switch from. Thanks!

There are lots of good resources for teaching word roots. Look at English form the Roots Up and Rummy Roots. Both are flashcard based and don't look too time consuming.

I see people mentioning listening to SWB's talks on various subjects, but am not sure where I can find them... I don't see a link on the site, but I must be missing it. Thanks!

These responses have been so helpful. I think I will go with RS A and B, and then try C out until it stops working for us. I'll throw some Miquon in for good measure. :-)

Thank you to everyone for all of your help. I think I will order RS! I don't like the price tag, but it just sounds so good. I am very mathy myself (physics major) and would love to learn some "new" basic math. :-)

Next question- if you go through RS A and B, what level of Singapore do you start with after?

I see a lot of people LOVE A and B, but switch to Singapore or MM or something else once these two are done. Just wondering why, or if anyone has stuck with RS through Algebra? Monica

Heather, if you were going to do just Right Start A or just EarlyBird for K, what would you recommend? RS just looks soooo interesting compared to my copy of EB, which my son is whipping through 10 pages at a time.

Thank you to all! I plan to use Singapore and Miquon, and just wanted to make sure they learn the traditional algorithm in addition to any other methods. Heather, RS also looks great!

Hi, I've seen recently on several math curriculum threads that some programs teach "traditional" adding (I assume this is the old "carry the one" thing) and some teach the Asian way of adding. What is this second way of doing it? Can someone give me a sample problem to illustrate the idea? Also, do the Asian math programs use other algorithms for subtraction, division, etc? And which category does Miquon fit into? Thanks!

3. First child, m/c, second child, 2 m/c, now trying for third. It's hard to deal with, espcially the two in a row. All were before 10 weeks.

This site looks amazing! Thank you.

Thank you for all the responses. I was just thinking last night that we'd be able to read more, and faster, with OPG, so I will go ahead and start it around lesson 40 or so, where 100EZ leaves off. And since my son LOVES ETC, we'll use that to reinforce at a slower speed.

I used 100 easy lessons for my ds4, which he did very well with. Only after finishing it did I learn about OPGTR. I have a copy and really like it, but am wondering if I can skip it and just use ETC which my son loves as well. I just don't know if ETC covers everything necessary from OPG. Is it really better for me to go through OPG with ds, or is ETC enough? Could I just pull out the sight words from OPG to supplement ETC? Thanks!

Hi Joan, Funny meeting you here! I'd love to come, let me know the date. Monica

Thank you for all the replies. Yes, we do live in the French speaking part of Switzerland, and I know if ds were in school, he could be completely fluent, but since he's HSed, he still gets more English than French. I just want to make sure I am promoting both languages sufficiently. :-)

Thank you everyone! I will think about what subjects I could switch to French.