I start at that age, moving a bit slowly. If we hit a wall, we drop it for awhile and do something else.

We dove right into the Orange book with my first (very mathy) and he picked up the meanings of the rods almost immediately. Now all my younger kids know about the rods from the eldest so I never spend any formal time just on the meaning of the rods before starting with the Orange book. Likely, your child will pick up the relations of the rods within a few pages of Miquon. We do love the education unboxed videos. They are a great fit with Miquon. Eta: I do heavily guide my kids through certain sections of Miquon. My eldest, after guiding him through a few pages, starting to catch on quickly and can dive in by himself - at least in grasping concepts. (Keeping the kid on task is another problem.) My next one needs more explicit instruction. I still prefer to use Miquon sheets and the rods and then provide more explicit explanations myself than switch to a program that is naturally more explicit. Miquon gives me, as the teacher, so much flexibility and creative inspiration.

We tear each page out as we want it so it lays flat on the table and we can do with it what we will! We usually stay in one workbook the majority of the time, but I always have the next level up readily available. When we are finished, I hole punch the page and put it in their schoolwork binder.

That is horrible. Definitely get everyone tested. I used to get it non-stop in middle school, and I think someone in the house was a non-symptomatic carrier. I hadn't heard about dogs carrying it. Maybe that was the problem! :grouphug: I hope everyone gets well soon!

:grouphug: :grouphug:

We've been doing it this year. I second the recommendation to watch the video. I found the most difficult part to be putting the file folders together! Most of the mini-books become self-explanatory afte you've done a few, though they always have directions. I printed up all of the templates at the begining of the year so we can just take out the next template after reading a chapter. My kids have enjoyed doing it, and it is nice to have a pre-planned form of output to go along with our history reading.

We have been involved in two different one, but they aren't true "co-ops" but paid teacher/mentor type arrangements. One is $450 per family a year plus $40 materials fee per child. It runs from 9 to noon, meets 20 times, and includes 6 paid field trips. I have to volunteer 3 times a year. The other is $700 a child, meets 28 times, and runs from 8:30 to 2:45. It is pretty much designed to be a full-day of private school. I have to volunteer for 12 4-hour shifts a year.

Well, whatever you do stay off the "SSPX vs. Diocesan vs. Norvus Ordo Discussion" sub-forum! It is like watching a train wreck; you want to look away but you just can't.

I figured you didn't know about them!

I would talk with your pastor or religious education director. It will probably vary from parish to parish how they handle it. Some parishes have seperate preparation classes for those who are onlypreparing for confirmation.

I would strongly suggest staying off the fisheaters forums. The main site isn't too bad, that Chucki was pointing to, but the forums have some posters who say things about the NO Mass that are downright offensive to Our Lord. Also, many, if not most of their posters, outright reject the teachings of Vatican II. They routinely abuse Blessed Pope John Paul the II. (And I support a more widespread use of the TLM!)

I liked the entry on the Sign in the Cross in the Catholic Encyclopedia:http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/13785a.htm

I keep card games and regular decks in a basket on our main home schooling bookshelf. Once the basket is full, something has to go before we add anything new. I keep a mason jar of dice here as well. We use cards and dice on a frequent enough basis that I like to keep those items very available. I have a wooden storage box for easy wooden puzzles for toddlers. Again if I want to add anything new, something old has to go. For bigger puzzles, I cut off the front of the box and stick it in a Ziploc bag with the pieces to cut down on storage space. With board games, I also put them in the Ziploc bags, if possible, and again I have a dedicated space that can't overflow. I enjoyed Simplicity Parenting as well, and I think the key to keeping things simple and uncluttered is to have a defined storage space for categories and to not overflow it. Besides limiting clutter and making it easier for the kids to actually accss their good and games, I also think it helps you make more thoughtfudecisions about what to purchase since you have to give something up to make room for new items.

I don't think anyone was unkind. I think folks are trying to share their own experiences AND the Church's teaching on these difficult issues. In this case, someone came and ASKED for advice; no one brought it up. I think sharing some links with further information on Church teaching is appropriate. We all have difficulties - cradle Catholics, reverts, or converts - in trying to live out the Truth in a fallen world. We all fail. That is why the Church isa hospital for sinners. But sharing the Truth is never the problem. I really hope, elisheba, that your situation is resolved peaceful. Lots of prayers for you!

Personally, I would not receive communion until my marriage was convalidated, unless my husband and I decided to abstain until then, as difficult as that is. I would also talk with your priest as soon as possible to get some counsel on the issue. Maybe they can move up the Convalidation? My prayers will be with you during this difficult time.

Thanks for sharing the Kreeft quote, mouse. Love it.

Thanks for sharing! My bil moved into our school room this fall, and I lost access to our big whiteboard. We've been doing the program without the tiles, but I know the kids will love this!

If he is good with voices, I think the riddles with Gollum would be awesome!

No advice, but know you have my good thoughts and prayers. That sounds very hard.

Certainly not throwing out all historical fiction/biographies here. There is no Circe "curriculum" so the practical details of folks involved in the Circe thread or the Institute itself would vary wildly, I am certain. My kids are not old enough to have been reading that much of anything yet so the literature vs. historical fiction part of the thread wasn't as much interest to me. I don't think it becomes much of a issue if your child is a good, fast, happy reader. You can make it through quite a bit good literature and good biographies, often without even assigning them for "school". When you have more reluctant or just slower readers, decisions have to be made about how to prioritize their reading. It sounded like many families felt they had prioritized historical fiction/biographies to the exclusion of literary classics. I would agree a course correction is necessary in that case. Some biographies are are actually part of what I would consider quality literature (The Diary of Anne Frank and Augustine's Confessions both pop to mind immediately, though obviously for different audiences!), but many biographies and works of historical fiction, while often an enjoyable way to learn history, are not really high caliber literature. I think several participants in the thread just realized their reading assignments were a bit unbalanced.

I always just assumed they were identical, Farrar. I think they look exactly the same, besides the haircut!

V.C. Andrews. Really popular when I was in middle school. I agree - UGH! There was no redeeming literary value from the sexual perversion either, like you would get from, say, East of Eden.

I really like programs that have several classes going on at once for different age groups (a 3-5 year class, a 6-9 class, a 10-13 class) because my "class" has a wide range of ages. Lumping preschoolers and pre-teens together is generally horrible because no one learns much or enjoys it, but at the same time, I don't want to take all of us somewhere just so one or two kids can participate.

We do a few a year. I mainly use them to practice cutting and pasting because all my lefties NEED the fine motor skill practice. Seriously, I feel like one of my biggest failure as a homeschooling mom to date is struggling to get my kids to use scissors properly. Wasn't expecting that one!

You know, it may just be a difference of temperments in how we read something like the Circe thread. I absolutely need to have a very strong philosophical grasp of the end of actions I take, especially the big decisions that will involve a lot of blood, sweat, and tears. I'm actually pretty good at the daily grind....once I have truly bought into it intellectually, emotionally, spiritually. If I haven't, forget about it. I just will not put in the hard, demanding, daily-grind kind of work into something if I don't undertand and agree with where I am hoping it takes me. Reading the Circe thread helped crystalize my philosophical aquiecse to what I hoped for my kids' education...so it actually led to a more regular, dedicated formal school time for skills and a more intentionally rich home enviroment for content.