Lunch was baked potato. I am waiting on Shakespeare scripts for my co-op class!!

How are you doing it? I read aloud to my first grader, I stop a few times and ask questions during the reading. Then I either have him tell me what he remembers or I guide his with questions. I use some from the activity guide and some of my own. We discuss it, we look at maps of the areas discussed. We look at pictures on the internet and in the Kingfisher Encyclopedia. We read a section Monday, a section Wednesday; and then on Friday, we do the test as a worksheet and we do a lapbook piece from this blog. I have some fun books we look at and read as they match up with the topics as well. The whole thing takes no more than 30 minutes in a day. Some days, as little as 10. He is actually remembering a lot more than I expected! Don't expect total recall. Go for a little bit of a timeline (what order things happened in, not dates) and a few important names. Make flashcards or use the cards in the Activity Guide and review weekly. The key is to review the material. The more you talk about it spread over a few days, the more she will remember.

Sound like something my 5 year old would say! Too funny!

This week my some decided to read his picture Bible instead of the book I picked. Fine, as long as he reads. Today, I asked what he read in his Bible....his response.... "A big lie." I had to stop and look....it's the name of the story. It is when Abraham tells Sarah to lie and say she is his sister. :lol:

We usually eat at the table. Sometimes, especially of my back hurts, I will eat in the living room chair. The kitchen table is right behind behind chair. We try for one or two meals a day with all of us at the table.

Oh, that stinks! I enjoyed reading your blog. It makes we want to go and back up what little there is on mine to my computer, just in case. I hope the host blog.com can help you fix it.

I can't stand the show. I don't let the kids watch it. DH is adamant that they don't watch it. There is just something about them living in Bikini Bottom....

Hmmm...we had a kid "corndog" another kid at the theatre one time. It was not a knee that was used...it included a pelvic thrust...needless to say, some parents were called. Either way, it is unacceptable!

I will try to earn that one in the month of October! I have failed this month so far. I discovered that I have earned this badge....:blush:, I am not proud of my actions.... I sleep post...I post from my phone a lot. I look in the mornings when I wake up. I made to HORRIBLE posts this morning before I was fully awake. When I got to my computer later, I found the offending posts and quickly edited them. They were awful!

One year ago today, in my Facebook status! I am so embarrassed:leaving:! At least I have learned the error of my ways.

My son uses the numbers in word problems as part of his equation to avoid writing as well. I just call it creative problem solving! ;) I male him write some problems out, some I let him short cut. If I give him a little freedom for some of those things, he follows directions on others. It took me most of last year to start to loosen up! I still have to work on it. Stick to your schedule and let them get used to it. After 6 weeks my ds knows that schoolwork comes before Wii or tv time and he is motivated to get it done. He knows it must be done well or we do it again. It did take at least a month to hit that point. Give it some time and take a break when you feel the frustration coming.

We are doing RS4K biology prelevel 1 and I love it! So does my son. The pictures and descriptions are great. We did not do chemistry first because I wanted to do biology to line up with the WTM recs. It also lines up with our CC memory work quite nicely this year. I am making it last the year. We spend 2-3 weeks on a chapter. By doing it slowly, he is really remembering it. I add in my own labs and worksheets from the internet. It takes very little effort to expand. I am glad that it does not include evolution. I have not seen anything on the authors plan to undermine children's belief systems. I read up on her before we started the program and what I read, she was pretty upfront about her beliefs, why she believes that way, and why she leaves it out of the curriculum. She also has a blog/discussion board linked from the curriculum site. You can read up on her beliefs there. I feel the curriculum is very neutral.

This.

:iagree:I voted that I tolerate it, but it did not really bother me. DS loved it, DD never got into it. It was a short lived phase in our house. Although i do prefer it to Dora any day!

Most boys, ADD or not, learn better if they are not sitting in a chair. My son lays on the floor woth hos grammar book, rolls around during SOTW, and prefers spelling on a white board or with magnets on the fridge. I know he knows the information, because I can ask him days later and he recalls details I forgot! Let your son lay under the cushions. For hos narration, would he do better of he could draw a picture for it? Have him draw a picture and describe it to you. He will start to get the narration. My son does better with guided questions, he recalls more. But if I let him go in his own, I get tiny details that I would not expect, but he misses the big picture. Maybe your son just needs a different way to share.his knowledge. For your daughter, give her a worksheet or coloring sheet that goes with the reading, sit her at the table or on the floor with it and tell her to work while you read with your son. She will hear it, and may start to like read alouds. Do something fun. Do your kids like to cut and glue things? Find an easy lapbook on a topic you are atudying amd do it. They need to see that school can be fun, then they will be motivated to do other things. Our history lapbook is the last thing we do all week. It motivates dS to complete his other work. He loves cutting and gluing! I hope things get better. Just remember, what you like may not work for the kids....that is a hard thing to deal with sometimes ;)

I did not read TERM until my kids were 3&5. I never did any activities in Slow and Steady with him, he was way ahead of the book before I got it. He has been packing his own overnight bag, one of the last activities, since he was 3. My 3 year old is way ahead of the book as well, without ever using it. I would say you could pick and choose. As long as you are reading to them, playing and building with them, and making sure they have time for gross motor development; they will be fine. If you are worried about missing something, do all the exercises. But I don't think you have to do them all.

We are on Classical Conversations Cycle 1 (we do it at home, so we are not with all of the campuses) week 2. We are up to 16 items in our history time line. We will also be memorizing some extra work from our science chapter...to be determined tomorrow;)

This is part of why we don't do school for long. We follow the Charlotte Mason approach of short lessons. Unless we really get into something, we don't really do anything longer than 20 minutes a day. For more spaced repetition, we use Classical Conversations Foundations. It is our memory work, but we started it in week 6 of school, so we have already studied a lot of the time line items in SOTW. We are getting daily review by reciting the time line. I will ask him to tell me one thing about each time line item. It is the same for science and geography. For history, we also listen to the SOTW on CD when we are in the car. Between car rides, and reading out loud at school time, we have listened to chapters 1-4 three times each. And please forgive my previous post, it was done on my phone and I was apparently still asleep!! I have since corrected the many amazing errors! :tongue_smilie:

We already do a lot of that. It is one of the benefits of homeschooling. We do constant review. I may go back and ask my son questions on what we learned in the first week of history. We discuss it as we move forward. I feel like we do the spaced repetition pretty well. I knew that would help with his recall. I feel like we also cover the "testing" with narration. He is in first grade, but we do tests in science and history. We do them together so we can look up and review the answers he does not know. But most of it is his recall. We also test spelling and grammar through dictation. I think it would be great if schools could send home less busy work and more homework that actually enhances learning.

We are doing R&S 2 for first grade, but we are doing it orally. I occasionally write an exercise on the board for my son to do, but so far it all works orally. The first unit is on sentences and we do practice on capitalization and punctuation in dictation. I did not see a need to write 10 sentences out. I have been told that each year the basics are reviewed. I figure that by 3rd grade we will he writing everything out. My son's stamina for handwriting is low right now, but he is young. I actually love all of the Bible stories in the text. We discuss and learn stories we have not done before :001_smile: I don't like scripted books, this one, we open and go. It is so easy for me. ETA: Wow...I typed that response on my phone and I was half asleep still apparently! So sorry to anyone who had to read that mess! I did attempt to proofread, but that auto-correct gets me every time. I should really stop posting from my phone. It aggravates me s to much.

My son loved the School Zone workbooks. We used a couple as our kindergarten curriculum along with What Kindergartener Needs to Know. The Big Math 1-2 book comes with a maty cd game. It had my son doing 2nd grade math at 4, and he understood it because of the visuals. The bean game was great! The other books had lots of fun phonics exercises, preschool math and thinking skills.

Cook. Specifically bake. Pick a cookie recipie and double it, half it, etc. Make pie crust and filling. Take a break from math and do some home economics. He will see real life application of fractions, that may help make it click.

My mom tied it to a piece of loss so she could pull it back if she dropped it....that did not make me feel better. :001_huh:

I had a palate expander, it fell out ALL the time. Mine was one piece with loops that were glued onto my teeth. The first time the glue just wore out and o.e side came loose. I played with it with my tongue (sticking my tongue between the roof of my mouth and the palate expanded). I would pop it in and out like a retainer. The dentist glued it back in and them I was bad....I had a weakness for caramels and loved gum...it never stayed glued on. Honestly, mine dis not need ro be glued in. My teeth were fine. I did not wear it longer than planned. I don't know how your son's is made, but I would not worry to much. I was more scared that my mom would drop the key down my throat than I was about the whole thing falling out.

I finally had time to get mine up...