I have a 4 year old daughter who has a harder time entertaining herself unlike her twin brother who is happy as a clam building blocks or Lego for an hour at a time so I understand. Here are a couple of things I have done. 1. More outside time. She used to get bored after 10 minutes, but now she is starting to "go on adventures". I use that. I bought an ant farm and a ladybug kit which they love. I then equipped them with magnifying glasses, butterfly nets, bug book, etc and off they go out back. Even when my son is playing in a dirt pile (stereotypical boy), she is getting better at entertaining herself. Our back yard is pretty big and we have mountains behind us so bugs and wildlife are abundant. 2. Montessori practical activities. I bought a Montessori homeschool curriculum guide for the art and practical activities. My daughter now loves to dust and polish things! Sounds weird, but so true. She loves being helpful, especially if it is something "fun" to her. You don't necessarily need to buy Montessori supplies, just use what you have around the house. My kids are younger so we are doing more basic things. http://www.newchildmontessori.com/ 3. Is your daughter into dress up? Mine is and she is just as happy being a knight as she is a princess. Playscarves are wonderful too. My husband found these weird animal hats for $1 each and they wear those and become superhero giraffe or princess tiger. Bizarre and funny! Love that imagination coming out! How about getting cheap pair of shoes that she can decorate herself with glue and sequins or fabric markers? I'm just throwing things out there. :001_smile: I'm guessing she is still adjusting to the change. You do more outside activities than we do, but I know we need to start doing more soon. Brenda

If you do a search on Napster for "relaxing", ther is an album called "the Ultimate Most Relaxing Classical Music in the Universe". It has 24 songs, many that you mentioned. I use this for myself on those days when I need to unwind. :). Thanks for the list! Brenda

Thank you Elizabeth!

I will be starting tomorrow and went through the audio file on the Don Potter site. He pronounced BU as boo, but why doesn't the U make a ewe sound? I was trying to think of different words as examples like burnt and butane. So should it be boo or bewe? Thanks! Brenda

I don't have any experience with this yet, but have heard great things about Khan Academy. The videos are all free too!

I'm just now reading the book. I have already bought Rightstart for when I start teaching my kids math. I wish I would have learned this way!! By the time I got to 6th grade, math didn't make sense to me. I was still in advanced math, but I spent hours on homework and finally burned out in 7th grade. My husband was put in a gifted program when he was in 2nd grade and learned this way. It wasn't until a couple of months ago that I realized just how differently we approach math. I always assumed it was because he was just plain smarter (hehe), but even if that is the case, I feel cheated that I wasn't taught in a way that made sense. I am however, excited and a little nervous about learning math all over again!

There is also Peak With Books. They have a Homeschooling guide that comes with it if you buy from their site. I emailed and got one for free even though I bought the book on amazon. The guide is very basic, but the books to use are great so far and easily available.

I'm in CA and went through PS here back in the day. :). I was in an advanced math class in 6th grade (1982) but was getting lots of one on one instruction as there were 4 of us with our teacher while the student teacher taught the regular math. We were just over in a corner of the room. I got placed in pre-algebra in 7th grade. I got sick for a week and could never get caught up even with some after school tutoring. I was always 2 weeks behind in "getting it". That started my math anxiety issues. Honestly, I think the whole transition from elementary school to junior high was just a bit much in general. I felt disconnected after feeling like part of a family at my small elementary school. I was also getting burned out on a lot of extra homework, but apparently things have gotten a lot worse here in that dept as well. Anyone else remember having notes for parents being pinned to your shirt before you left in Kindergarten? I can't imagine having homework at that age. Currently, very few of my friends are happy about their kids ps and that covers many different areas throughout CA. All of the kids are younger though so who knows about the higher grades. I don't know what the standards are now. I'm going to be Homeschooling my kids from the get go so I advent checked into it. The idea that I can take more time if my kids need it rings so true to me. One of my friends had her sons' 1st grade teacher tell her that even though he was testing gifted, she wanted to hold him back a year because he wasn't following her directions enough. I think young boys have it especially rough now with the whole maturity thing. I'm curious how much the standards have changed here as well, especially in math and LA.

I have 3 1/2 yr old twins. I looked at FIAR and BFIAR as well. I thought FIAR activities would be too advanced for my kids right now. I heard about Peak With Books which is by the same company as Moving Beyond the Page I believe. It was written for preschool classrooms, but they have a Homeschooling guide that goes with it so you can tailor it for home use. The guide is only 4 pages. I bought the book off of amazon because it was cheaper, but it didn't include the guide. I emailed the company and they were nice enough to email me the guide in PDF format for free. It is a lot of reading, but that is what I wanted for my kids right now and so far the books have been wonderful. I have been able to find all of the books so far including the optional supplemental reading. I love the book selections! My kids are really enjoying this as well. I just thought I'd let you know about yet another option. :)