Have you looked into doing the Whole 30 diet with her? Its basically a paleo diet for 30 days. It's amazing how many people I've heard say that one of the biggest improvements in their 30 days on the diet was much improved sleep. It's worth looking into at least, I would think. Eta: Also, magnesium supplementation. Most people are chronically deficient in mag and it affects sleep.

Mostly Christian stuff. Catechism songs, Seeds Family Worship, worship songs. And classical music of whatever artist we are studying at the time.

I think it really depends on the school. A friend of ours has a child in public school and in K they were obit going over a letter every week and towards the end, just a little blending.

I've flipped through Mathematical Reasoning at a homeschool store and I was really impressed. I think I'll be using it with my Ker this year.

Ok so just wanted to update, she's doing much better! Switched to MM1 and we've really focused on adding and subtraction and she gets it, yay! She's not rock solid, but is much better and we're both much happier with MM. I think a mastery approach will work best for both of us instead of spiral, I'm glad I took time to figure that out.

Thanks again for the advice. Also wanted to say I don't really expect my 3 yr old and baby to sit still quietly, but the problem is that I can't read to my older girls when they are awake. My younger boys aren't napping at the same time, either, so it just makes it hard to get a few minutes with just my bigger girls just to do school, much less read aloud. I guess bedtime is going to have to do for now, that's when we usually read. But by that time I'm so exhausted I just want to sleep, too lol.

Wow, I just wanted to say thank you so much to everyone who commented on my post. I really appreciate all the advice. I guess I should have added that I also have 4 kids total, with a 5 year old in there, too. Right now I do try to have an audio book going when we are in the car, and I try to carve out time with my oldest during the afternoon when my 3 year old is taking a nap, but the baby isn't always napping at the same time, so it makes it hard. And yes, I do try to read to the two bigger ones at bedtime. My three year old loves books, and that nap time we'll sit and listen to me read to him for a long time, so that's good. He's my first st that age to do that. My 7 year old has never really been interested in books at all, ever, so while she's getting better at listening and I try to read fun books to pique her interest, she doesn't like to just listen to an audio book at nap time or anything and she fights listening a lot. She also isn't rainy her own books yet, either, so I feel like I have to read everything. It's just exhausting. But thanks guys, definitely going to be putting some of this advice to use!

I'll have an 8, 6, 4, and 2 year old! Lol. Yes I know it will get easier as they get older but it's just getting to that point that's hard and trying to be intentional with my oldest!

That last part made me LOL. And yes, I've tried many times to read during lunch but that same thingoes happens. By the time I get their food sorted out, someone is already done eating and off again, or they just pick at their food.

I'm always amazed when I see people in here say they read for hours every day to their kids. I don't get it. How? Now, yeah, mine are still young but I swear it's like herding cats when I'm trying to get them in the same room to listen. My 3 year old is just into everything all the time and my 9 month old is very distracting and loud. They will all interrupt constantly even though I've corrected them ad nauseum, won't sit still, and it just gets me angry, which defeats the purpose of having a read aloud time. :( I've tried having them color or do play doh but that lasts maybe 5 minutes until they're up leaving the room or something. My 7 year old is good at listening but, poor thing, she gets so distracted by the others. I really wanted to read a lot to her this year, and we've gotten through several chapter books so I guess that's good.... But I want to have a set, fun, read aloud time, even if it's just 15 minutes. I'm just frustrated. How do yall get this done?

A ten frame (you can't Google and print one) and counters have been the most helpful for us. Also the AL abacus, c rods, and XtraMath.org.

My 5 year old and I love to play those wooden peg games. Lots of math involved. I picked up a kit like this at the thrift store and they're so simple but so fun. Plus the instructions are on the wooden games so that makes it easy. http://www.amazon.com/Wooden-Peg-Game-Assortment-Child/dp/B0035RNJ4O/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1459664645&sr=8-1&keywords=Wood+peg+games

I'm trying to figure out where to go from here with my 7 year old's math. Next year she'll be doing 2nd grade but I feel this year has been a bust. We started out with CLE, then spent awhile with Miquon and c-rods, then Singapore 1A. I had MM downloaded from last year so I printed some of it. I'm just not sure where to go from here. My dd seems to be very slow catching on to math concepts. We've been going over adding and subtracting to 10 for months and I think she's finally getting it (thank you, XtraMath) but now I don't know how to go forward. I know Singapore is a strong program but I like how MM seems to hit math concepts from every angle you can think of. I think this might be what my dd needs, but I'm not sure. Anyone here have experience with both these programs? I'm not very strong in math myself and I don't want to short change my kids. ðŸ˜

Finishing up first grade with my daughter now and we've been doing exactly what ktgrok said. Math, 10 minute reading lesson from OPGTR, and she copies a couple sentences of copywork. In the afternoon during quiet time she reads to me from her reader (we use Pathways readers) and then I read to her from a read aloud or history type book. We listen to audio books in the car and I read to her at bedtime. If she's interested in something, I look it up on YouTube and we learn about it. She's always outside looking for bugs and lizards and loves gymnastics. It's been a good year.

My 7 year old is also not fluent with her reading yet. I'm just waiting for it all to click for her, hopefully it will soon.

My daughter is 7 and was like this when she was younger. I had people tell me over and over to cut dairy from her diet but I didn't want to because, well, that's hard! But I did two months ago (along with gluten and eggs because her eczema was bad, too) and she has reeeeally chilled out. She still has trouble paying attention, and I'm starting to supplement with magnesium to help with that, but overall she's so much better.

Pretty sure that's how Charlotte Mason taught spelling. Copywork for the first several years and then dictation. Correct immediately when words are misspelled. Look into it.

My daughter is 7 and we've been doing 1st grade work this year. We are only a couple lessons away from finishing OPGTR and I feel I've been teaching her to read in some form or another for two years now, but she is still slow as molasses. Every day I have her read from a Pathways reader (she finished the 1st grade books and now is in the 2nd grade books) and she does ok with that, but when it comes to reading any kind of chapter book or really any book at the "level 3" or above, she just won't do it. And she's super slow. All of her friends (homeschool and not) are already reading lots of chapter books on their own and have been for awhile now. I often read on here of kids at age 5 reading all these books or catching onto reading super fast..... Am I missing something? What am I doing wrong? It's normal for her to be a little slow on this, right? I don't "push" her at all. We do lots of read alouds (me reading), chapter and picture books, and we have TONS of children's books in the house.... But she either just doesn't want to read them, has no interest, or gets frustrated because she's so slow still. How can I help her with fluency and speed? I know she's still a bit young for this so I'm not too concerned but it's still disheartening to see other kids doing so much better at something like this.....

This will be my second Kindergartener! I was a little gung ho with my first and it kind of backfired so I'm planning on being a bit more relaxed this time. Math - Maybe Horizons K, not sure yet. Handwriting - HWT or Pentime Reading - I have both OPGTR and Phonics Pathways so I'll use either of those, adding in Bob books and easy readers Bible - Morning Time (includes Bible stories, hymn, catechism, Bible verse memory) as a family, church, Long Story Short devotional at night Science - Mostly through fun read alouds or nature study. We pretty much unschool for science. Art - Artistic Pursuits book 1 (and maybe 2) with big sister Pretty much everything else she is going to tag along with big sister who is doing 2nd grade and with whom I'll be doing MFW Adventures. But also lots of read alouds, outside time, and she'll be on the gymnastics preteam. We've also already started a lot of this because she really wants to "do school" with her big sister and insists on learning how to read. ;)

Kids that young really don't need formal science. Some don't do any formation science until high school and their kids are fine, they learn so much by reading or expiring nature, documentaries, etc. As for art, I really love Artistic Pursuits! It's so easy to teach, the lessons are fun, and you really feel you are making real art, not just a bunch of crafts. It's a little pricey but I'd highly recommend it.

I am doing 1st grade with my oldest now, who just turned 7 a couple months ago. We started off using Ambleside Online and I loved it, but it was very obvious that most of the assigned books were way over her level of comprehension and she was starting to not enjoy books. So I dropped most of that in terms of the "core" book curriculum. In the morning we have Morning Time together where we sing our hymn of the month, work on our Bible memory passages, poetry, catechism, maybe a picture book. After that we work on math every day (we were using CLE but then she started having with the math facts part so I've stopped doing that and am going through Singapore 1A Practice Workbook until she gets a bit better... not sure if we'll stay with Singapore or not) and play with the ten frame and cuisenaire rods. I have her copy a few sentences from a book we are reading into her composition journal, and we do a lesson in OPGTR for her reading lesson. In the afternoon when little brothers are napping we read from History Stories For Children and other books we are working through. Some are the AO books, others are just good chapter books or picture books. And then I have her read to me from the Pathway readers book we are on. I really recommend them for 1st grade (the blue and green ones) for reading practice. We are still incorporating the AO artist and composer study so we go over that. But other than what's in our chapter or picture books I haven't really done history (like I said, the AO history was way over her head so I dont count that), though I have talked about it and introduced the concept. We have the Bede's History of Me that is an inexpensive little book from VP that is good at introducing history. There's also a Bede's History of Us but I don't have that one. Anyways, hope this helps! :)

ETA: Oops, I meant this for that other post, I guess. lol Anyways, I was memorizing the WSC with my 1st grader and we got up to question 15 or so until the answers just started to get really archaic and she didn't understand it anymore so I think I might hold off on it for a couple years and then go through the Starr Meade book mentioned above. Right now we are doing the Children's First Catechism that was mentioned above and we use the Ask Me Whooo songs that go along with it. (They are free with Prime on Amazon or they are also on Spotify) We've already learned 15 question and answers in 2 weeks. The Westminster Shorter Catechism workbooks on Amazon are also very helpful.

This was me about this time last year! So sorry you're sick, I know exactly how it is. That little stinker is 7 months old now. He was also my 4th! My oldest was doing K last year so honestly, I just did the bare minimum. Since it's been a year, I honestly don't even remember what we did, it's all a blur! And she's fine this year for 1st so I guess everything went ok. We watched a lot of tv, I tried to get through math every day (we did Horizons, the lessons are short and to the point), and I tried to read to them but I had an extra annoying problem of pregnancy ptyalism (excess saliva), so that mixed with nausea made reading aloud really hard. But yeah, on those really bad days... They just played and watched tv. They were and are perfectly fine and don't even remember it now. :) Hang in there!

My older girls are 7 and 5. We've recently read or listened to on audio.... Charlotte's Web, The Trumpet of the Swan, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, several fairy tales from The Blue Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, Milly Molly Mandy, Little House in the Big Woods, Lion Witch and the Wardrobe, Mrs. Piggle Wiggle, James Heriot's Treasury for Children, My Father's Dragon. Currently listening to Matilda on audio book (read by Kate Winslet, highly recommended!!) ... Tried to get through Stuart Little and Mr. Popper's Penguins, but they were both a bust. Oh, also tried Peter Pan but I think they just aren't old enough yet, though I was enjoying it on audiobook. :)

Im not Catholic but we morning Morning Time here. :) We learn one hymn a month so we sing that every day. Then we read out of our Bible story book and after that we work on our Children's Catechism. We have an album we listen to that goes along with it (Ask Me Whooo if anyone is interested, it's on Spotify). Then we go over our Scripture memory verses. Right now we are learning the books of the Bible, several passages, and a few for church. We try to learn a poem per month, too, so we'll read that together. After that we might do a picture book or chapter book read aloud, depending on how fidgety they are. Only takes us about 20 mins but it packs a powerful punch. Before bed at night we go over Long Story Short.