This was our first year of homeschooling (2011-2012). I pulled out DD6 after Kinder, and DD9 after 3rd. They were up for the challenge, but the beginning was VERY hard. Neither one had bad experiences...they loved their teachers, had great friends, DH was PTO president, but I was sick of the test prep at such a young age. I would encourage anyone in the area to go to the school...but for us, I pulled them out based on principle, not past experience. I refuse to let them go to middle school...it is a waste of time not to mention the awkward teen years. It is their choice if they want to go back (in high school).

no...the stylus is to replace your finger. The tip is a special material that acts like a current from your finger. The surface of the iPad is designed to ignore "stray points" and a pointed stylus would just look like a stray point. Your finger on the other hand has multiple points which it needs for the screen to recognize it. The Boxwave stylus seems to work the best (IMHO). I like that the tip is more rubber...the cheap ones use foam. If you notice, Apple does not manufacturer a stylus. :)

Yes...Right now we are just using it for spelling and handwriting, but I would love to put all the history and science text/info on there. I LOVE Spelling Board. I type in spelling words from Wordly Wise and then record the word and a sentence. Then my girls can practice during the week and then take a "test" on Friday and the program records it all. Here is a list of apps for the ipad divided by subject area. https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AoTP3iQ0tGMldEFNU0ctU2x0TGxBQWJ4eGJmeWlpLVE&hl=en_US#gid=0

Thanks for this! I found this very useful for my 1st grader for this year. I have been pretty disappointed with the science curriculums (being a former science teacher). :)

Absolutely. My DDs are 6 and 9. They love Mark Kistler! I like him because he uses the correct terminology in his drawings. Yes, the things are very "cartoony" but he does a good job of building up how to draw. The videos for the most part are laid out in order that start simple and get more difficult. I look through them each week, and then assign the particular drawing lessons for my girls. (again, we pretty much go in order of the videos) Just an fyi, the human form and animals are VERY difficult for children to draw. They do not have an understanding of form and space well enough to draw them until about middle school. I never had my students draw (for an assignment) a life-like animal or human. They could do that in their free time if they wanted. :001_smile: I agree about the books a few other pp have mentioned...(they are in my never ending collection!)...The Art of Teaching Children is wonderful because it is written by an art teacher for parents who want to do art at home. And Teaching Art Through Books Kids Love is also great! That was a staple in my art room...most of my lessons started forming from that book.

I am a former art teacher. The first thing you need to do is look up Lowenfeld's stages of development. It sounds like your DD is right on track! ;) I posted this in another thread...here are some good links for sites. http://www.universalleonardo.org/ This is a little more structured and probably a little to old for your DD. http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/explore.cfm Learn the elements and principles of art. http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/ This site is LOADED with tons of lesson plans and projects. http://www.artsonia.com/ I used this site to get ideas for lessons. (Again I am a former art teacher, so I would see something on here, then pull info about the artist, ect...and then do it in class) http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/ http://www.picassohead.com/create.html http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/ http://jacksonpollock.org/ http://www.kerpoof.com/ These are just some random links that are good to play on. I also have a subscription to Mark Kistlers draw squad. (I am a child of the 80's and grew up watching him on Secret City!) My girls LOVE his drawing videos. We throw it up on the projector in our school room and they practice drawing while watching him. Hope that helps!

I bought it as well and am not as happy with it...but then I am a former art teacher. (note: I am working full time while hs and needed something more independent) I just pulled up some of my links that I used: http://www.disney.co.uk/disney-junior/art-attack/ I am sad this site has changed so much! It used to just be a site of videos of this guy creating a ton of cool stuff. My boy students LOVED the projects from this site. (One year they brought in old shoes and they used paper-mache to make giant feet of some sort. It was a blast!) But it looks like Disney bought it.... :glare: http://www.universalleonardo.org/ This is a little more structured and no so "boyish" but it is a neat site. http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/explore.cfm Learn the elements and principles of art. http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/ This site is LOADED with tons of lesson plans and projects. http://www.artsonia.com/ I used this site to get ideas for lessons. (Again I am a former art teacher, so I would see something on here, then pull info about the artist, ect...and then do it in class) http://www.nga.gov/kids/zone/ http://www.picassohead.com/create.html http://artpad.art.com/artpad/painter/ http://jacksonpollock.org/ http://www.kerpoof.com/ These are just some random links that are good to play on. I also have a subscription to Mark Kistlers draw squad. (I am a child of the 80's and grew up watching him on Secret City!) My girls LOVE his drawing videos. We throw it up on the projector in our school room and they practice drawing while watching him. Hope that helps!

Yep...I am totally with all of you. It has been a huge change since both of my dds were in public school and their friends are still all there. (I posted this same thing earlier this week: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304049) I laid off this week and have let them do a lot of "playing." We have done calendar each morning and a couple small things, but they have spent most of the time in their rooms playing dolls...and even {gulp} playing school! At one point I went in and they had taken the mattress off of the top bunk and were sitting up their with their stuffed animals all lined up, my old blue record player, playing records of Disney "books on records" and pointing to the words with their pointers as the record played. :D I know we will feel better in a week or 2 when all of their friends start coming home with a ridiculous amount of homework!

Coming from a former 5th grade teacher...NO DON"T GIVE UP HANDWRITING!!!!! But YES! Start him on typing. Even if it is just a free online program. In this day and age, yes, most things have to be typed. As an adjunct professor, ALL papers must be sent to me electronically. And when I took the GRE, it was done on a computer (as most tests are). The sooner he can CORRECTLY learn to type, the better off he will be. Again, I am a huge advocate of handwriting, but typing is necessary if you plan on going to college. :)

:bigear: subbing... this was certainly helpful for me! thanks!

I used this teaching 5th grade and HS biology in a ps. I love how you can do it online or print it off. You can always modify it a little to bring it down if you need to. http://labwrite.ncsu.edu/

:lurk5: I am with you...we just started homeschooling and I have been very disappointed with the science stuff. I bought (then sold) Apologia, Sonlight and a few others. I finally broke down and got the state textbook with the workbook and was pulling other stuff into that. (I have a biology degree and taught ES and HS science.) I can't wait to hear what you find out!

I asked the same thing on Sunday in this thread: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=304049 Ditto what you said about your daughter...mine is also like that. Very outgoing and loves being part of a group.

This is fabulous!!!! I used these as a teacher in ps and could not figure out how I was going to do this at home! This just made my day!!!!

Thank you all for the suggestions! I had to turn my computer off last night because I had tears in my eyes just thinking about how my girls must be feeling right now. Like "what is in the world are my parents doing to me???" I do work full time at home for a company. As much as I would love to take them someplace like the children's museum...I can't. At least not today. I did put a packet of fun back to school puzzles on their desk this morning with a note about how happy I am that we get to be together and made them blueberry pancakes. (And I reminded them during breakfast that got to sleep in!!!) I think we are going to go out for lunch as well. Next year we will be better prepared for these kinda days! :) I know we are doing the right thing.

I need a little pick-me-up...and well, so do my girls. We have been doing a light curriculum all summer, but started our first year of homeschooling last week. It was a struggle, but we did ok. I am not stressed about it, the first year is finding what works and what doesn't. But tomorrow...tomorrow is the first day of public school. My girls talked with their bff's today (BIG mistake on my part) and were all excited about their teachers. Some past teachers rotated up with the kids so most likely they would have had the same teachers as last year (as their friends do). When tucking them in to bed tonight I asked if they were excited that they did not have to be up at 6:30am. My oldest told me no, she is sad she is going to miss all the fun of the first day of school. :( Being a former teacher, the fist day is crazy, but there is nothing like it...there is a little magic to it all. Any suggestions for making it special for MY girls tomorrow???

We did. Our first year homeschooling. 9yo DD took over 3 hours to do one handwriting sheet. :( It is now 6:45 and she still has 2 things left to do. 6yo DD (has practically the same work) was done just after lunch. Both are identified gifted from ps. DH and I had a long talk tonight to try and figure out what to do with 9yo DD. She made straight A's in ps through last year in 3rd grade. Rebelling that she has to homeschool? She was so excited when I mentioned it to her, but now...not so sure. Both of my girls are very social. I work full time at home (for a company...with set hours, 8:30-5:30). The girls work at a desk right next to mine, so I made it a point today to go over everything with them very carefully. [[[sigh]]] Maybe tomorrow will be better? Or should I just wait until after this year? I hear that the first year is always difficult.

Having just left ps after 11 years, I will say this: If you have a history and science curriculum that you follow, you will be fine. The standards are just that, BASIC standards that any child should be able to meet. I have never met a hs that had a curriculum that was "behind" going back to ps (unless they were unschooled--not saying anything bad, but with the lack of curriculum, they are often not on grade level with all subject areas). In fact, I opened a new school and that always brings out the hs wanting to come back to ps to try again...all of them qualified for the gifted and talented program. :) But as the pp mentioned, you can look on your state education site and find the standards for each subject/grade level. You can probably find the older state tests as well so you can see how they would fair if forced to take them.

I have a DD going into 4th grade. This will be our first year homeschooling. I have a beef with PS about the lack of teaching handwriting. Dying art or not...I want my children to learn how to write neatly!!! My 9yo DD has H.O.R.R.I.B.L.E handwriting. I actually pulled out some of my 3rd grade work and it was beautiful compared to hers. I actually think her handwriting is worse now than Kinder. I went and bought her a fountain pen. $13 is A LOT of money for a pen...but she is forced to hold it correctly to write. From there, we are doing a lot of handwriting practice. (not to mention she has never learned cursive...handwriting is not taught anywhere, any grade) I make her do a handwriting book (3rd grade) with her "special" pen. She has to write at least one letter a week to a relative and make it neat handwriting. There is a least 1 assignment per day that has to be done in neat handwriting or I make her do it again. I used to make her redo all of her work, but that was taking TOO long. But I am also listening for more suggestions...

This is also my first year homeschooling. I too have struggled with history and science (mainly science). After looking at all the history options (and samples) we decided on Tapestry of Grace. I LOVE IT!!!! I just bought the digital version and I love how I can use what I want from it. Since my DDs are 1st and 4th...with not a lot of history...we started with year 4 which is 1900-current. Plus I can easily see how to supplement other history in it. Science was the biggest struggle. I poured over everything and could not find ANYTHING I liked. (I even bought Apologia after looking at it at a hs conference, and after 3 weeks, could not get into it.) I am a former 5th grade science teacher so I have a good idea of what I want. Of everything I have looked at, Sonlight is probably the most impressive when it comes to general science. I bought that for 6yo DD so I could really look at it this year. As for my 9yo DD, I bought the state science textbook for 4th grade and the accompanying workbook. I will create my own curriculum from this. I am going to have my 4th grader "teach" using the 1st grade SL material...then she will have her own to do as well. That will get my 4th grader caught up. Good luck!

This is a very interesting thread for me... (yes, this is only my 3rd post on this forum). I just left public education after 11 years. I have taught everything from Kinder through high school and most recently the teachers. Curriculum is handed over to the teachers and it is up to us to put the Blooms spin on it. (BTW...there is a great visual of it... http://ilearntechnology.com/?p=2973 ) I will be working full time at home and have decided to homeschool starting in the fall. It ought to be interesting since I will be relying on a lot of self-exploration and independent learning. Just from everything I have read [absorbed] on these boards, most of you are excellent teachers. :) :bigear:

I was obsessed with MK when I was a kid. I came home everyday to watch him on PBS. He came to visit a school in my neighborhood and I went to get his autographed book. (Just slightly obsessed...) I too have the 3 year subscription. I pulled out my "Draw Squad" book and glanced through it. There are very defined lessons in that, so I use that along with the videos with my girls (6 and 9). On their schedule I put what lesson I want them to watch and then they sketch in their sketch books. It is suggested to watch the videos in order on the screen...so you start with a cube, then sphere, etc... We sketch every 2-3 days depending on the week. The good thing about the videos (yes they are flash and do not work on an ipand :( ) is that they SHOW you how you should be sketching. My girls pause the video as they sketch and watch. Even though the mini-marshmallows are for younger students...they still have basic drawing skills that are covered.

Wow! I am so glad to have seen this thread! This is my first post, but so happy to have found this forum. Right now my girls are in ps, but it has been a dream of mine to homeschool. I just left public education after 11 years...I had a couple job offers...I took the one that paid the least (a 25K difference!) with the hopes of homeschooling. We HAVE to have both of our incomes... It looks like homeschooling will happen in the fall!!! So...I work FT at home (8:30-5:50) for a training company. I am on the computer all day working. But after a few weeks I talked with DH about it and I think I might be able to make school work. Right now I am overwhelmed with finding a curriculum. Being a teacher, I have an idea of what I want to do, and I had NO idea how much homeschool stuff was out there! My girls are excited but I don't think it has sunk in that they will not be going back to school. They will miss their friends. :( Thanks for this thread!:lurk5: