My dh requested a repeat of last year's gift - a personalized calendar with our pics. You can make them at fedex/kinko's for about $20. He even asked me to repeat some pictures!

Welcome from another inveterate planner... I'm so glad to know that I'm not the only one who wakes up with curriculum plans dancing in her head.

I found this through a thread here - Visualize World Geography. I emailed them regarding the age appropriateness of their product, here is their reply: Hope this helps.

Could anyone please help me and my dh to find a resource that lists the typical behaviors that children exhibit at different ages, especially the undesirable ones. Our ds is almost five and basically for his entire life we've never known if the stuff he does that we dislike is just normal or particularly bad. We seem to always find out about a year too late when a behavior was typical. I know we would be better parents if we could just get a heads-up and either relax or get more help. Thank you for any help!!

OK, who came up with the yarn on sandpaper idea? That's brilliant! :thumbup1:

Cool find... my external hard driving is filling up because of all of you!

I've been following this thread for future ideas. Thank you the list, I'm keeping it!

Thanks OhElizabeth and all others for your help. This is an area I've tried and failed at for years. I really feel comfortable with and motivated by what you've suggested. That is me to a T and I think I can adapt to what you are encouraging, not changing it but recognizing when I need to move on. I LOVE THIS IDEA! I can't believe I never thought of it nor read about that way of planning... and I've read a lot about planning. I have always hated looking at the clock (or avoiding it) to just find myself feeling further behind. I made a sequence schedule with just meals and bedtime set according to the clock. I'm just going to adapt to it one thing at a time as you and another poster suggested. Thank you all for your help. You can bill me... :D BTW, congrats on your baby. Sylvia

Just as another thought for the art. Artistic Pursuits starts at K and has you pre-assemble different groups of art supplies so you just open the book and grab the "bag" that you need and just get going. Each lesson also has an element of art appreciation to it. Sylvia

This sounds very workable to me. I think previously I have tried schedules in perhaps the wrong way, all at once changing to a complete scheduling as well as scheduling start times pretty rigidly. The free time might make me feel less guilty. I never thought about it that way, but yes, I do have a morning routine and I think I should practice "turning off" and transitioning to something else. I would really love to find a way not to be hyper-focused (- great description BTW) or at least a way to adapt it a little. Thanks for your ideas. It's amazing how different I can view things when I read if from another's perspective.

I am an organized person but I can't ever seem to work with a schedule. This concerns me because my ds is about to start K and I've read time and again that children work best with structure and I am so bad at this. I use a daytimer for tasks, I plan out my menu, paperwork-wise I have an organized home, I am organized - I just can't ever seem to do anything at the same time each day or in any sort of order. e.g. mealtimes, bedtimes, playtimes I believe part of my problem is that my brain works on a task until it is complete. I will work on something (sometimes all day or all week) until it is done because, if I don't, I find that in the meantime my brain stews over it, trying to "solve" it, or to envision the work required to complete the task. The results are that, within a single day, I often don't get much else done besides the basics and, that I am unable to pay attention to whatever is in front of me, like playing with my ds, because I am so distracted. For now, I've sort of given up breaking things down into daily tasks because mentally I feel so scrambled. I have tried to plan out days in the past and maybe I overplan because I find that immediately I feel behind and stressed. I tell you all these things not as excuses to not get scheduled but, rather, so that you can help me trouble shoot and solve this. I am not married to any of my bad habits so please feel free to critique, be as straight-forward as you like. I think it would benefit us so much if I start to make scheduling a real habit before his schooling starts. Thanks for any ideas, Sylvia

Follow-up question then. It appears that many of you with experience with this are saying that you basically disagree with the Swann GOAL (implicit in their design) of finishing masters by that age, or have I misunderstood? Great stories BTW, what a fascinating read. :lurk5: It sounds like those of you who have children who are accomplishing an accelerated education are experiencing so much of what I am hoping for for my ds.

I had the same reaction. I have the same attitude toward homeschooling as you do, I am excited to see how far I can take my ds. I would love to get a front and center view of his college learning, that sounded exciting but I wonder, especially about the age at which she gets them through, what are the consequences? Here are some questions that I think should be asked: How much whole-person or experiential subjects does one wish to cover in their school and with the Swann system are those included? e.g. sensory manipulatives for exploration for the young child, art, foreign language experimentation (These all come from what I happen to be exploring right now so I hope they make sense to others.) Are important topics or skills getting short-shrift? The trivium and its acknowledgment of age-specific abilities comes to mind - does the child get to explore history etc., during their rhetoric stage? Are the students concrete on items that need repetition at various ages, again, history comes to mind? Can a child, or even their parent, know what a child of that age should pursue in college? (or is it implied that the children keep attending higher education?) Do they have any fun? I would love to hear other people's takes on this topic as well. I will be watching this thread.

Here is my plan for my ds who is starting K in the fall, much of it follows WTM recommendations that seemed to jive with me. Core: WTM MathUSee Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading along with Bob Books Using fantastic manipulatives from the original Froebel Kindergarten, basically creating a new curriculum with the help of some other 'Hivers' Lots of read alouds Once or Twice a week: Artistic Pursuits Mudpies to Magnets I see all of this as play so, although it may be ambitious, I think that since it will keep me 'playing' with ds that he'll love it.

I don't know if you've already seen this web page regarding the movie, but perhaps it might help you. Sylvia

Thank you - you gave me some good places for research. Sylvia

I love dance & am considering this for getting in some exercise that I enjoy. I love tennis but where I live, WY, summer is quite short so I've decided to accept the reality that tennis will not be my major source of exercise and entertainment through the majority of the year. I just wondered if anyone has used this and their opinions. I am athletic and I cannot stand exercise for exercise sake. I also can't stand cheesy moves or hip-hop anything! My four year-old ds is actually showing quite the aptitude for dance and even sounded interested in it! I hope this won't freak his father out - I keep reminding him that Barishnikov was cool! :001_cool: Thanks for any help. Sylvia

I have been searching for the same and, so far, this is all I have been able to find. Utility Wood Pieces For Capital Letters $14.95 + $5.75 shipping This set is made for economy. Some pieces may have small defects. They do not effect the strength or use of the piece. There may be a small hollow on the edge of the piece that doesn't show until after it has been cut. All pieces are smoothly sanded. Use these with the Handwriting Without Tears program. This set includes 26 pieces to form and teach the upper case letters of the alphabet. Six little lines, 6 small curves, 6 large curves, and eight big lines. The size of the pieces are the same as HWT. They charge $19.95 for the 'non-utility' wood pieces which I assume are exactly the same as sold on the HWT site. It's not a huge savings but I hope this helps. If you find any other savings for HWT please post. Sylvia

I agree with all the posts about saying no. I'm sure from your posts that you will be more than polite but, reading what you wrote about her, I believe you need to prepare yourself. She will not like it when you do it. She is probably not very good in the people skills department but finds it easier to blame others. (Has anyone else found everyone in your area to be unfriendly?) Please don't let this dissuade you though because, having dealt with people like this many times, the only way you can possibly make her happy is to keep making yourself unhappy and uncomfortable. Just say no and get it done with. Sylvia

:iagree: You are one cool lady! Sylvia

What a fabulous resource. Thank you so much for posting it. Ditto on the noticing his request for donations. Sylvia

As others have written it is best to start teaching your child foreign languages early because they are wired to learn it now. The window of learning languages actually begins to close at four and is basically closed at twelve. If you are wondering about some more personal experiences. Since we love to travel, my husband and I have foreign languages as a high priority. I have a degree in French and have been speaking to him in both languages since he was a toddler. Don't let that fool you though because my language skills aren't great and my vocabulary is pitifully small. I supplemented with Muzzy which I think is wonderful. (I believe one of the keys to Muzzy is the parent watching it with the child, whether or not the parent can speak the second language. It tells the child that this is truly important.) Some of the fears I have seen most often with people who are trying this is their lack of a foreign language themselves or if they do speak it they think their skills are not good enough. I have read enough and now experienced enough to know that those things are not as important as we'd like to think. If your skills aren't that great, your child can overcome it. It is important in that case, of course, to add instruction beyond just you speaking with your child. (Sometimes I spend about 30 seconds fixing the sentence I just spoke. The child can learn all through that. If you think about it you also do that in English, fixing me versus I, and others.) Also, if your skills aren't great often you will stay within the boundaries of what you know and that is fine because in all languages the most used set of vocabulary is actually not that large. As far as my experience, I have been amazed at my son's attitude toward language. Because of my limited French vocab he is used to me reaching for the dictionary to find a word, so much so that he expects it, will bring the dictionary to me and will also just ask me extra words. If you don't speak a foreign language at all, learning with your child is such a great example. (I assume as a homeschooler that you are planning to learn some as well, if not, my guess is that you will keep dc in outside lessons anyway.) As a side note, I highly recommend Michel Thomas for adult learners. I have lots of great foreign language teaching tools and his method is by the far the best. I am now learning German with him and I can tell that he sees it as a matter of course that a dictionary is part of life, part of any language. We play with our new German at breakfast and I can tell that he is trying to work within the boundaries of language that he has, talking with his small vocab base. He knows it is practice. To sum up, I am agreeing so much with what has already been written. It is best to start as soon as you think of it. No matter what level or amount of exposure you can provide it is all worth it, there is no detriment that I can see, only benefits. Sorry if I rambled and I hope I have added a bit to the wisdom already shared by the others. BTW, pmegan we must stop meeting like this.

If I were your child, I would love stuff like that to do over the summer. Can I join your school?

I am getting everything together to start K with my 4 1/2 year old. Just so you know where I am coming from: I have been looking forward to homeschooling since before my child was born. I am giddy! I am looking to add a dimension his K that will be reminiscent of my own, which was great. I was looking into Froebel (the man who introduced Kindergarten) and I loved his ideas of the manipulatives and letting the child explore with minimal instruction. (Because of my enthusiasm I am trying to reign myself in from overdoing everything.) I remember K being very much a tactile experience, to this day I love the feel of that wonderfoam stuff. Anyway, I have looked into getting the pattern blocks but am just wondering if anyone has more information, ideas about good manipulatives, anything! Thanks, Sylvia

I was just looking around and found some posters from both states and am wondering if it would be valuable to start one. I grew up in Northern CO (Ft. Collins, Loveland, Arvada & Wheatridge) and now live in Cheyenne. Having lived in both states I know that I will probably have to make use of at least Denver, Ft. Collins, & Cheyenne for homeschooling and would love to read about what's available. Now does anyone know how to start a sub-forum?... Sylvia