for handwriting, Letter School is FANTASTIC. It has upper case and lower case letters, plus numbers, and you can set it to ZB, HWT or D'nealian style. All 3 of my kids love it.

I'm planning to spend ~10-20min/day with my beginning reader when we start phonics in the fall.

We actually like several of them quite a lot. Curious George, Super Why, Dinosaur Train, and Word World are all adorable. I seriously dislike Barney, but I'm also not a fan of Arthur or Cat in the Hat.

I'd do a medal count (probably with tally marks) if we were going to be in town the whole time. But I don't want to drag it on vacation. Something like this would be fun. Medal Chart

Just started browsing crafts. I think we'll make torches (easy peasy craft) before the opening ceremonies, and then when we get back from vacation (we're gone the whole first week of the olympics, but will be able to watch some games from our beach condo), make some medals (these look fun!) and paint some rings (another easy peasy craft). Ideally one of our library books would be about the Greeks and Olympic history, but a quick browse doesn't show much that would be age appropriate. That might have to wait 2 years for the next games. LOL

Opening Ceremonies are Friday, July 27, and they run for 2ish weeks? I'm planning to check out some library books and read them in the week preceding the opening ceremonies. Then, we'll just watch lots of different sports while they're on. My kids are quite young, so it won't be super involved. I'm sure we'll do a craft to make medals at some point, though.:D Some books I thought had potential for my age group (4-5): http://www.amazon.com/Gold-Medal-Olympics-Alphabet-Sleeping/dp/1585364622/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1337089682&sr=8-1 http://www.amazon.com/How-Train-Rex-Gold-Medals/dp/1416986693/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1337089492&sr=1-1 and still browsing...

I voted 1-5, but we're just barely getting started. I'm confident that number will climb. :lol:

how about covering some of the FIAR books in storytime? You could read the book, chose a few topics to discuss and an activity to do. I think it'd be really fun!

I have not started yet, but have OPG and PP checked out from the library right now to preview my phonics options. The "two review and one new" that was suggested in OPG was brilliant, IMO, and I plan to use it, but probably with PP, which I preferred overall, but doesn't have any suggested review method.

this: http://lookwhaterinmade.blogspot.com/2011/09/weekend-crafting.html

I had a 12 month old when my twins were born. Packing everyone up to get an older child to school and home from school every day would have been a nightmare! I don't know that we would have gotten much school work done, either, though. Infant twins and young toddlers, in combination, are um, challenging. You'll need a plan that is very flexible with reasonable expectations. Congratulations! Be ready for a wild ride!

:iagree: If you have a Hobby Lobby, their store brand cotton (I Love this Cotton) is also quite nice.

Well, we're just getting started, so take my plans with a grain of salt, but here's what I'm thinking: next couple of years: whatever mish-mash of history we get with FIAR when we get tired of FIAR (maybe 1st grade? maybe 2nd?): a one year overview of early American history (I want them to know pilgrims, founding fathers, pioneers, etc) after that, start a 4 year cycle with the ancients.

We are almost 1/3 of the way through, and we have used the cards very little so far. There were a few games right at the beginning that used them, but they were more like memory or matching and didn't require too much handling, IMO. I did not go to the trouble of laminating them, and don't regret it.

We plan to start FIAR in the fall with my kids who will be K/PK and plan to use it for 2 years. I bought volumes 1-3, and my understanding is that they're all the same "level" and can be mixed and matched as you please. I checked out all of the books that my library system has and have been reading through them and making notes about which books we want to do in which year. Within each volume, there are titles that seem younger, titles that seem more mature, titles that I know will appeal to us now, and ones that I'd prefer to save for later. I've more or less decided on the ones I want to do next year. I plan to add phonics, handwriting, and math. I don't expect us to do much lapbooking along with it (my kids are not happy with those types of activities), but I understand that there are copious free lapbooking activities to go with all the FIAR books available online. You can find examples of what others have done with specific books by googling "title of the book FIAR blog". I'm really looking forward to it!

mine are preschoolers. the whole lot of them. :D

I think you'd like Austin, Texas!

I get them, and it started when we moved into this house about a year ago. The holes are right at countertop height, and I spend a LOT of time leaning against the kitchen counter. I blame my granite. I did not have granite in any previous house.

:iagree: exactly what I was going to say

:bigear:

Just getting started here, with a house full of preschoolers. I have a nearly-5yo who is adopted and a nearly-4yo b/g twins who are biological. They currently run on about the same "level" as my oldest is VERY busy and a little immature, and my twins are pretty mature and motivated. I expect that we'll be able to school most things together. We're working on PK level things right now, and having a blast with our little "class". :D

I taught at a Classical school in Austin for 4 years (pre-kids) and we used SOTW. We had the ancients in 3rd grade and used volume 1 of SOTW along with some of the activities in the AG, and a mish-mash of other books/curricula including some Veritas Press stuff. We didn't use any other PHP materials, though.

Another one on the fence. I've almost decided no, but I can't quite work up enough decision to email the director and tell her so (we're currently on the list for next year). The big pro for me is knowing other area homeschoolers--we literally know none with kids our kids' ages. I visited it and really liked it, but I also think it's too much, too soon for my age group. My oldest will be a young 5 and my twins young 4s in the fall. My oldest is ADHD and will really struggle to behave in a structured environment for 3 hours. I dread thinking about how much I'll have to focus on him and his behavior. I don't really want to give up a full day every week to it either. Not when we're still in MOPs and my DH is off every other Friday. Plus I really want PK to be fun and outing-full, not all school. Yeah, I'm pretty sure we aren't doing it. Probably in 1st or 2nd. But not yet.

my kids will all be working at PK level in the fall and we plan to have fun with FIAR, which will be new for us, and continue with AAR pre-1 and HWT PK, both of which we started this spring.

Pre-kids, I taught 3rd grade at a school that used Saxon a year ahead, so my class had 5/4. I found that roughly a quarter of my class struggled in January/February, when we started long division. The bulk of them pulled through in the end with some extra help.