We are starting 1st Grade with Singapore PM 2A and 2B. I have the text, workbook and intensive practice. It looked like that would be plenty of repetition....is there another book that I should get for repetition? I love math and am pretty good at it, DS5 has picked it up amazingly well! I am comfortable making up problems to do on the board, I had intended to do that when we needed more practice or find some online drill sheets. What do you all think? I really love the way the program is set up and was excited for my son to work through it, he loves math and thinks VERY mathematically!! Thanks!

We had Mortensen Math manipulatives from when DH was young. We use those a lot. We have also used dry beans, blocks, dice, cars, my little ponies...anything you can count works! Whatever she is most interested in!

Here are two links to what I used with my son. I bought the workbook with the CDrom (second link) when my son was 4. He was doing addition and subtraction with regrouping before he was 5! He played the games for about a year, it took us a year and a half to do all of the workbook pages. After we finished that, he scored 96% on Singapores placement test 1A and 90% on the 1B test. So at 6 we are starting the level 2A (and he already knows a lot of those concepts, he just needs the drill). I bought the workbook at Target or Walmart for $8-10 dollars with the CDrom. I would not buy off the site in the link, it was just the first place I found it. http://www.amazon.com/School-Zone-9057-Math-Deluxe/dp/B002TZSLXM http://www.schoolzone.com/workbooks/big-math-1-2-software-workbook ETA: We also have the game Sum Swamp, it is a board game with 3 dice: 2 numbered 1-6 and one with + and - signs. You roll and add/subtract to know how far to move. There are some places where you get "stuck" until you roll an even number, some for odd, others with a number and you roll just the +/- sign to see if you go forward or backward. My son loves it! He also loves Yahtzee. This is great for math! you need to add and multiply plus it takes a little strategy :) We play Scrabble as well - it works spelling and math because we make him add his own points.

It took me most of the year to get over my fear of messing up; but I just thought that if I messed it up, we hadn't really lost any time. He would be starting Kindergarten in PS this year and we are on to 1st grade in everything but math (singapore 2a and b) and reading (3rd-4th grade level) - so I guess our haphazard experiment of a year went well :)

This is a link to the Scholastic Book Wizard. You can put almost any book in and get the grade level or Lexile Level. They have a couple of other systems. You can also search by level and area of interest to create a book list. http://bookwizard.scholastic.com/tbw/homePage.do I use this a lot to judge where my son is reading and find more challenging books for him. This site explains about Lexile Measures and has a book search feature as well. http://www.lexile.com/ For grade levels: 1.1 means the first month of first grade, 1.9 is the ninth month of first grade, 8.5 is the fifth month of eighth grade. If you use these measures you can slowly step up your child's reading level. I prefer the grade to lexile measure; it has been a more accurate way for me to find appropriate books.

Our state cut off is 5 by Sept 1st. My son's birthday is Sept 23rd. We started Kindergarten when he was 4, he turned 5 in the first month. He was more than ready for everything we did. I did not use a set curriculum, however. I just pulled a bunch of workbooks together and worked at his pace. That turned out to be much faster than an kindergarten curriculum would have been. I am so glad I was more free with everything last year. I was really able to evaluate his level in each subject (reading, math, spelling, comprehension, etc) and pick the best fit curriculum for each area for first grade. I felt like last year was an experiment to see if I could homeschool, if I messed up and we learned nothing, he would just to kindergarten at PS the next year. Just get some cheap workbooks from the store and get a reading program like 100 Easy Lessons and go from there. I used the science, history, and lit from What Your Kindergartner Needs to Know and supplemented from the library. Once you start working on a workbook you can judge if it is too easy or too hard, then go get the next level up or down. It is a lot cheaper to do that with $1-5 workbooks than a $100+ worth of curriculum materials.

If he really hates it and has a tough time getting through the drawing amd writing, just do o.e a day. Take the recommended book for diagraming only and do one sentence a day. If you do one a day for 180 days of school for 6 years you will do 1080 sentences in a less painful manner. Someone suggested this at the local homeschool convention. She was advocating starting in lower elementary grades where you would end up with over 2000 sentences diagramed. If he gets comfortable with, you can always add a second sentence later.

Around 1995...a girl started at my high school who had Homeschool through 8th grade. She was smart, but had no social skills! She was a friend, but I found her very odd. The same year I met my dh's family, also homeschooled, not nearly as weird :) They were pretty normal! I also said I would never homeschool!

No! That is not how the.ha should be run! As a dance studio owner this is how I communicate with parents: Notes sent home, really important notes(recital packets) must be signed for, we than call if a packet was not picked up. We email everything! It is all on our website. E-news matters sent regularly. Our tuition and costume fees are online in policies that must be accepted by parents when enrolling. If someone hits accept without reading they may be a little lost. That being said, when parents don't read the notes that are sent home things get frustrating for everyone. I would look into other studios if you want better communication and prices. Every studio has problems. We experienced MAJOR growing pains this year with recital. We went from 25 preachers to 75+ backstage was crazy. So many new parents and my staff not staying put before the show was frustrating. But, once we started all went smoothly. If this studio has been around this may not be the case, but they could have had unforeseen growth. If it is an older studio the SO may just be set in her ways and not adapt well to new technology. I have seen many sites for atudioa with good teaching reps, but no grasp of tech. They don't use email or a website well for communication. Look at the websites of a few studios. Find one that updates regularly with important Info. That however will not guarantee quality dance training. A well trained teacher is the most important thing. Sorry to ramble. Let me know if I can help you with any info on checking qualifications. Let me know where you are and I can see if any of my SO friends are near by. Cheryl

Every deposit we have paid, and what we charge on our rental, is equal to one month's rent. It is refundable, less damages. We also charge a pet deposit on approved pets. It OS enough to cover new carpet and a little more. Also refundable.

Where did you find the report? I would love to check out the schools in my state!

I am in the mid-west. Our rates are the same for all ages. Group piano, 1 hour once a week, beg to int level, 42.00 per month. Private lessons are 75.00 per month for 30 minutes once a week. Instructor has a bachelor's and is an amazing teacher!

Hi! I have been looking around at the forums for a while and just joined a few days ago, but I never introduced myself; so I will do that now. My name is Cheryl, I have been married to my DH for nearly 11 years. We have two children - DS will be 6 in September, he is in the "first grade" and loves learning! DD is 3 and is working on her letters and numbers. Last year we used What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know as a guide in our studies along with 100 Easy Lessons and a variety of basic math, phonics, and reading comprehension workbooks. We are going to be more formal for 1st grade, he tested into Singapore 2A and 2B! We are using Classical Conversations Foundations at home, Shurley English for some introductory grammar (starting Rod and Staff for 2nd grade), and we will be doing Real Science for Kids PreLevel 1 Chemestry and Biology if we finish Chemistry. We read and play board games a lot. He also LOVES puzzles! DD has a few preschool workbooks, mainly because she wants to be like "Bubby." My husband runs a window cleaning business and we are co-owners of a performing arts academy where I teach dance and musical theatre. Show times and Christmas (DH does Christmas lighting for houses) get absolutely crazy at our house, but most of the time we are pretty laid back. Homeschooling works well with our schedule and allows us lots of family time at home. We love it! So far I have found some great information on the boards! I am so glad I finally found homeschool forums where people actually post!

I personally love Excel spreadsheets and use then for everything I do, except record keeping. I waned something that integrated my schedule, lessons, grades, transcripts, etc. I have been using EduTrack and love it. You can set your holidays, what days you do school on, and then bump lessons forward and back fairly easily. It comes with printable graph paper, tablet paper of various sizes, a printable periodic table and more that I can't remember. It also prints report cards and award certificates. Everytime I het into the program I find something new :)

We used the kitchen last year. Half way through the year I brought in a little school desk for Aidan to use. He sat at his desk and me at the table. This kept a little of the mess down, but mainly it meant we could start school before I cleared the breakfast dishes (sometimes dinner from the night before) and while Lilly was still eating. For next year, I moved my desk to the front room and put his desk next to mine. I have a book shelf and a dresser in the room in which to store supplies. I also have little baskets that I picked up at Wal-Mart that perfectly hold all of the curriculum for the year. I can take the basket from the dresser to the desk, do our school work and put it back. We shall see how this set up works for us!

My youngest only slept well if she slept with me until she was 18 months. We put her to bed in her bed, but when she woke up 4 hours later I put her in bed with me and let her nurse back to sleep. She would sleep for another 8 hours. It kept us all sane and she always felt safe and secure. Around 18 months we put her pack n play by our older son's bed (they are 2.5 years apart) she went to sleep when he did and slept for 14 hours. I guess my advice would be to let him nurse when he wants/needs; it might not work if you or your husband are not okay with co-sleeping.

The Story of US is written in story form, I checked a few out from the library to see what I thought. I liked them for when we are ready for US history. The whole set (11 books I think) is around $150, but you can probably get them from the library.

There is also an abbreviations thread. I just type abbreviations in the search box and that thread pops up first. I have found it VERY helpful in the last few days! There are a few things that are not on the list, but a quick Google search of the abbreviation followed by "curriculum" and I can find it. :)

I don't know about unschoolers and other religions. I do know that they will not defend you if you use an online public school program like K-12. They are pretty upfront about that.

I am the oldest of 2, my husband is the 4th of 7.

CurrClick.com has some downloadable Bible lessons. I just got one for 21 days of memory verses for kids. It was free! I thought It would be a good starting guide. We also listen to the Bible read aloud on my iPod. I got a free app with hundreds of versions of the Bible. You can do read aloud or pick from hundreds of study/plans. It's the YouVersion Bible App. I thried a couple free apps and like that one the best. My son also has a kids story Bible. He is almost 6. He prefers to listen now. We listen to a few chapters and then we play some classical music for a bit and it makes for a nice afternoon or morning. If he has questions I pull up info on the computer, or pull out my Bible or concordance. This low pressure method has led to some good conversations.

I personally don't have the time to run two businesses, a home, teach my kids and monitor everything the government is doing. I take everything I read with a grain of salt. You have to. Everything is written or spoken from one point of view. I use HSLDA and our state Christian Homeschool Association to keep me informed on legal matters affecting me. If I am alerted to somethimg, I can search it out and read up on it. I am blessed to live in a state with no Homeschool requirements. No reporting, testing, and no letter of intent since my kids have never been in school. If my extremely nosey neighbor reports me for having truant children (she turned us in for having a fence panel on the side of the house) I am happy to know that I can call someone to take care of it. And if I don't need it, I am happy to support an organization that will use that money to help a family having trouble in a less than friendly state or school district.

In the first sentence "couple" is a singular noun. In the other sentences "couple" is a modifier telling how many. It describes the noun as being plural.

Start when you normally do, work on Saturdays until the mission trip. Plan for reading material to be covered on the trip. I assume their is a drive or flight, some travel time. Or do a report/presentation including visual is on the trip. Most VBS programs here are about 3 hours a day. You could still do your school work around that. It may make for a crazy July, but better that than the rest of the year being off. Another option is to start in August, extend the end of the school year and throw in some Saturday, or shorten holidays. The's the beauty of homeschooling....you can make the schedule work around what you want to do.

If it is not a caffeine headache, try cutting back. Caffeine can cause tension in your jaw and next muscles. A good massage will help as well. You don't need a pro just a willing friend, child or hobby. I had a horrible migraine last week (3 days ling with imitrex!) And a nice neck massage finally helped get rid of it.