We have currently hit a wall here too. I am continuing to use the Base 10 blocks and every few practice sessions try a problem without them.

I started with my DD 5.5 and am on SOTW Ch. 9. The first few chapters were choppy. She enjoyed it but didn't get the narration. So I bought the audiobook and now she listens to the chapter 4-5x before I ask the narration questions and she gets them all. She also enjoys the map and coloring pages. But repetition was the most important part, and for us having it be Jim Weiss instead of me reading it repeatedly throughout the week.

We have just started Prima Latina with DD5.5 who is finishing K. I have been doing L'Art de Lire French with her for ~ a year (once upon a time I was fluent so we just started with what I remembered, then moved to the curriculum). She enjoys languages. I think reading ability and English background is going to be more important than age. She is reading at a 3rd grade level and is finishing FLL1.

This is where we got stuck, for weeks and weeks. We took a break over Christmas, then kept reviewing. Then I moved on. We started 1B while continuing to review the addition facts. Then I went to the end of 1B and we did the telling time and non addition sections, still continuing to review. Now she is getting it, though we are still going slower through 1B than 1A.

We followed OPGTR for the order of lessons, and word lists. For reading fluency I would write relevant sentences about what we do at home, etc. and use the Bob Books. We used OPGTR sentences about 1/4 of the time.

My DD is almost 6. We have been casually doing French with L'Art de Dire for the last 6 months or so (once upon a time I was fluent). I am teaching myself Latin with Henle and she showed interest so I ordered Prima Latina and we'll see how it goes. She's picked up a little Spanish along the way too, and has been able to keep Spanish and French straight.

At 4.5 my DD was 1/2 through OPGTR. I'd planned to wait until nearly finishing but then she started writing a lot - notes, lists, stories. She was trying to spell phonetically and I didn't want to wait and have her get in the habit of incorrect spelling. It ended up working well and I will try my younger children at about the same time.

We were finishing OPGTR when we started AAS. Now we are continuing AAS with FLL1, WWE1 and Level 4/5 Readers or chapter books like Stuart Little. They seem to be reinforcing each other.

I go every quarter for a facial and full body massage. I was asking my Esthetician what could be done with my feet (I'm in my mid-30's) and she said the best thing is just putting on lotion and socks at night. There are still a few rough spots & I'll try some that previous posters recommend but I've been amazed what socks and lotion does in a week.

My husband has been trying new recipes from a book called The Happy Herbivore. Some have been disappointing (they look great but taste like cardboard) and some surprisingly good.

Not since having kids... It began with the 3 week whirlwind tour of Europe after college graduation, which covered 8+ countries. Work brought me to Germany, England, and France several times. I had two trips to Africa - Morocco then Kenya & Tanzania. I had grand fantasies of doing Grand Tours with the kids, but haven't needed to renew my passport yet...

We flew through AAS1 with a step a day, then nearly that in AAS2. We continued to review throughout. Things slowed down with AAS3 to about 50/50 New & Review. Now on AAS4 it is 1 new step per week with review the other days. We need to review the Rule Breakers frequently but DD is constantly writing stories, songs, etc. and we want to keep moving forward with AAS before her creative spelling becomes a habit.

We have many of his CD's and recordings of other books on tape. My kids like Tales from Egypt, the Celtic stories one, and also Mystery Mystery. I read and watch a lot of mysteries and they were excited to hear a Sherlock Holmes.

I enjoyed it but it isn't a favorite. I liked Horatio Hornblower and he was in it.

We are halfway through FLL1 and I am glad we did the poems. They were relatively easy to remember and have been fun to review. It's something we do while taking walks, etc. Even though we had read most of them in nursery rhyme and poetry books, my daughter really enjoyed memorizing them and now reciting them.

I did a Mommy & Me gymnastics when my twins were 24-30 months. It was fun as far as Mommy & Me goes, but they didn't pick up any skills either with gymnastics or classroom skills (e.g. following directions, taking turns, etc.) At 3 I signed them up at a regular gymnastics school that starts at preschool and goes on to training for the Olympics. For my DS3, not running around and being a "good listener" has been the big thing. And he is heavily influenced by the behavior of the other kids. Given that experience, I would rather put my son with older, perhaps more experienced kids whose behavior I'd like him to model. He also pretty quickly took to the gymnastics skills - they do bars, balance beams, tumbling and a kind of tumbling circuit. While it was hard to be the mom with the kid constantly running off to the trampoline the first weeks, it worked well to put him in the older class where that was not the norm. Teachers were firm, but nice.

I wouldn't push, but I would consider the timing of a lesson and length of a lesson. I started DD5.5 when she was just turned 4. She never asked, but I would regularly but casually just do it (some bit of OPGTR). It was always very short. 3-5 minutes. Sometimes we would do it several times a day, sometimes not for a week if she was really not into it. She finished OPGTR by age 5 and could read complex sentences but her stamina was low. We never made it through more than 1 or 2 of the sentence examples in any OPGTR lesson. Now I'm at it again with 3.5 YO twins. DS3 is very eager to read, but still has little stamina for it. Several short, short lessons are better than anything over 5 minutes.

I was a chemical engineer. My approach to these choices is to look at the alternatives to picking up the info or skill in a given class. e.g., if it is a programming class that can be picked up just as easily at a jr. college or self-taught, etc. I de-prioritize it. If it is unique in some way, or I'm unlikely to pick up the info elsewhere, I pursue it. My other consideration would be to prioritize anything that will lead to an internship, especially in engineering. Professors told us a lot of what we studied wouldn't be used in our jobs. They were right. The mental training was great and some actual content carried over. But I wouldn't use classes to evaluate a career. Liking or disliking Thermodynamics or Process Control Lab had no bearing on later enjoying making Olay Body Wash at Procter & Gamble. Internships were a much better way to evaluate career matches.

If she can peel the stickers off, the Orb Factory sticky mosaics are great. The Alex brand also makes it. I also got actual workbooks for my younger kids. I had to ask them the questions and write in the answers - then they scribbled/colored the pictures. But they liked having A Workbook for their own.

I'm using the Bob Books 1st collection with my 3YO twins. It is working very well. They love to read an Actual Book and I usually end up copying OPGTR on a white board b/c they aren't thrilled with that actual, physical book. I taught my 5YO DD to read using OPGTR and the entire Bob series. Initially I got them from the library but I couldn't always get the ones I wanted when I needed them. For only 1 child though, I'd recommend relying on the library. Buying made sense for us with 3 kids.

I've been using a combination of Excel and just Notes Lists (for To Buy, or the #'s in a series of books we own). But I am going to check out Bookcrawler now!

We did the trial and then signed up. It is great to get things quickly, but the easy returns are a big plus.

I grew up eating at the kitchen table. As an adult going back home, we eat at the dining room table. Before kids, my husband & I sometimes ate at the dining room table, sometimes in front of the tv. Once my oldest got into a high chair, we ate together at the kitchen table. After Christmas this year, with my youngest just over 3, we eat dinner in the dining room together. They like it and behave better there too.

Ours moves in and out of the family room to garage storage. I do use it for painting outside in summer. But mostly I stick it against the wall with the chalkboard facing outward and they like to color with chalk. DD5 first started scribbling letters on it at age 3 while watching Leap Frog (it stands near the tv). They do seem to like to color standing up.

I've been thrilled with DD5's Kindergarten experience. But I'd planned to after school all along so I am not judging much on just academics. I volunteer in the classroom and have been very impressed with the behavior, attitude toward learning (and differentiation), and what the terrific teacher can accomplish with 26 kids (likely going to 30 for my next 2 kids). It is almost the inverse of the traditional idea of public school with active/involved parents. The PS reinforces what we do at home, supplements subjects that are lower priority for AS, and is nurturing independence, social skills, study skills and love of learning.