Hebrew (right now) and French (soon IYH). Because we're Jewish and Canadian. I suppose you'd say we're teaching liturgical rather than modern Hebrew though. Very literature-focused.

Infomom, oh boy, do I know the place you're at right now. My mother spends a lot of time telling me, "children are works in progress." It's hardest with the oldest, I think. I've seen tantrums before, but everything my oldest does, I'm seeing for the first time. I still remember the first time she had a throw-down, knock out tantrum 14 months or so. I thought there was something hideously wrong with her. It _could not be normal_ to be that upset over (iirc) how her apple had been cut. Trying difficult things and thinking hard about them did not come easily for my first. We got her there. A lot of it was managing her anxiety. Small steps, holding her in my lap, starting with work that was easier than what she could manage and working up after she'd built up a little confidence. Also, since she is only four, you might want to consider whether this is a dynamic you're ready for right now. Sometimes people trade introducing more difficult work for more peace in the house and hold off a bit (other people hold off for philosophical reasons).

IYH dd is supposed to finish Saxon Phonics K by the end of the moth, and Saxon Math 1 a few weeks in to January. I'm hoping to replace Saxon Phonics K with 1 but at a somewhat slower pace, and use the extra time for HWT and the Elson Primer.

I only have a kindergartener, and she isn't a natural learner at this stage, so we're spending a lot of time doing direct instruction. I use Google Calendar for scheduling though. Very easy. I start by making a schedule of what we actually do, attempting to forecast what we're going to do, and tweaking it so it becomes more realistic as time passes. It also helps me keep track of what we've been doing. We don't have to keep records here, but it comforts me to have some kind of achievement written down.

Cultural norms dictate we should have begun formal Hebrew this year, but I'm holding off introducing another alphabet until she stops struggling with this one.

Wow, the senior school I went to used this system. I didn't know it had a name.

FWIW, my mother and grandmother both taught piano (both ARCT), and both said it wasn't a good form of income. There are so many people selling piano lessons. If you get joy from it, that's wonderful, but as a source of income, there are lots of easier skills to pick up.

That seems completely sufficient for K. We do Saxon Phonics K from 10:30-12 (she does four lessons a day, which seems like a lot but it is working better this way), Kumon 20 min., and math 1 from 12:30-1:45 (2-3 lessons). My kindergartener seems really Done by the time we've done math, and I can't imagine stuffing any more in there. IYH we'll add HWT. If it ever comes. Oh, Canada Post. If you're looking for a way to keep him busy, then play dough :D

My dd5 is on-track to finish Saxon Phonics K, and so I'm flipping through Saxon Phonics 1. The first chunk of Phonics 1 looks like review of the letters, etc. Should I start from the beginning of Saxon Phonics 1 if she already has these concepts solidly? We're not taking a break between them.

My instinct is to go backwards and pick up from the last place my daughter was having at least 80% success, kwim? Pushing her further when she doesn't have the previous work down solid leads to both of us getting tearful and frustrated. I think going back through OPGTR sounds like a good idea. A good phonics program would cover k/c, wouldn't it? I know dd did the rule on k/c recently and she's still weak on it. Solid phonics is the first step to good spelling.

We're Jewish, so we have our crazy seasons during October and during April. I try to hold the line during December, because heaven knows they've got enough lost days with our religious stuff, and I really don't need any more.

Oh, and I didn't like Earlybird or find it useful at all.

I am not doing any formal science and don't intend to until she's got a lot more math. I do get decent children's books and answer questions and that sort of thing, but we're spending all our formal schooling time on math and reading.

Mine has also been slow learning letters, and starfall.com was . . . well, none of it stuck. My middle one likes it though. I am using Saxon Phonics K. It's a heavy time investment and very scripted, with a lot of little doo-dads to manage. It can be tough to keep the other ones amused and out of the way (HA). But she's on track to finish it by the New Year, she does well on the assessments, and she is reading words without the anxiety and upset she was starting to show before. So I'm pretty happy. IYH we will begin Phonics 1 in January, which would be January of her K year. I don't know if I'd use it again if I had a child who was able to move along with something lower key. Before we were doing Saxon we were using Phonics Pathways. PP seems like a great program, but it just didn't stick for her. She never got past CVC words in the first section after they learn consonant-vowel blends, and she was having a lot of anxiety and a miserable time the last few times we tried it.

Mine just run around in circles. We're not really an athletic family.

My daughter also took a long time to learn her numbers. Not quick off the mark there. We're doing Saxon Math 1 and supplementing with Singapore Math 1A. I didn't use Saxon Math K; Once she knew her numbers she was able to jump into Math 1.