Definately get TWJ, that will give you a good idea of how it will work for you. I use The Wand and Jot it Down with ds who is finishing Iup K but mostly already doing 1st grade work. I agree with Farrar that The Wand by itself is not enough phonics. We use ETC along with it and also additional readers to the ones that go along with the lessons in The Wand. I think if you were contineing on woth the phonis from MFW and doing ETC that definately be enough with The Wand. Another thing is that it really does move way too fast if you start young. We started level 1 in the middle of K and it was perfect for ds....maybe just a little below where hi his reading level was when we started. Now, we are toward the end of level 2 and he is getting really frustrated with it. It is just getting too advanced for him. So, I have actually not done it for a bit and have been just continuing on with our routine from TWJ on my own...basically doing my regular phonics stuff and using but my own selections for copywork and dictation. The Wand is a nice guide of all the things that TWJ tells you to do all laid out for you. For me, it was very helpful in getting me into the routine of the Brave Writer lifestyle because it was all planned out for me. Now that we have been doing it a while, it feels less overwhelming to pick it up on my own and continue without a guide. If anything, i reccomend getting it for that. it felt like someone holding my hand and helping me incorporate all the great ideas from TWJ into our school day. That said, I definately plan to come back to the convinience of The Wand when I feel ds is ready for the rest of the lessons. We just started Jot it Down a couple months ago as well and I love it. It is has some really great ideas for writing projects and lays out the proces for completing them. My son is loving it. I feel the Jot it Down is very easily adapted to many levels because you are writing the story for them as they narrate to you. For a reluctant writer I think the whole Brave Writer lifestyle is especially great. It is very gentle, fun, and not overwhelming.

I just got this! Thanks for the heads up on the deal! Also, I ordered $25 worth of stuff, and yes, they are shipping the rest now and the Liberty kids DVD later for the free super saver shipping! Yahoo!

Thanks for the tips on how to use one set of tiles. I just have space for the one white board for now, so I was wondering how would work this out. These ideas will be helpful. Thanks!

Yes! I have 2 large wall mounted ones and 2 small ones we can hold in our laps. I am big on not waiting paper, so I like the lap ones for writing out things that we don't need to keep. One of the big ones I use for AAS. The other one I use for a variety of things. Somedays I put our schedule there. Some days I write copy work on the board, or the date, or demonstrate a math problem....pretty much anything you can think of.

Thanks ladies! Trying to save a little money where I can ;-)

I have AAS that I have been using for ds. I have the interactive kit components that we use with AAS (letter tiles, cd, etc). I have been doing AAR prelevel 1 with dd and will probably purchase AAR level 1 for her in the next few months. I am wondering it I need to get the whole interactive kit for her, or if I could use the same letter tiles as AAS and just get the review box and divider cards? Thanks!

Yes, I think we will likely finish The Wand by the end of first grade, and I wouldn't feel comfortable not using a more structured phonics program along with it, maybe if I had a really natural/early reader, but not for my ds. I do have my son practice reading the readers that go along with The Wand program, but I just also feel like he needs to read more than just those few books to really work on fluency, which is his main issue right now. I do think using Jot it Down with all those other things might be a bit much for k, i didn't really plan on adding it in until first grade, but i am impatient like that so i decided to "try out" one project to see how we liked it. There is basically one writing project to complete each month. Within each project there is one task to complete each week. It is fairly simple, and we just did it one day a week for this first one and it worked out well. So, it isn't a ton of time, and my son does like it. The first week is just reading a few books and talkng about what you might write about, and the 4th week seems like it is usually publishing, so that is usually some fun thing like at art project to make a cover for their story or something. The things I think The Wand has been great for are: getting ds in the habit of doing copy work and beginning to do dictation in a relaxed and fun way, playing with words to experiment with word choice, rhyming words, etc, and understanding how to put a sentence together (capitalization and basic punctuation). At the start of kindergarten he definately was not ready for these things as we were still working on forming letters and basic blending, but now I feel he is ready to start practicing these pre writing skills. Hope that helps.

We have been using The Wand for the second half of K. we are about a third of the way through it (just finished up level 1 of the 3 levels) and will continue to use it for first grade. I don't think you could use it as your only phonics component. There is some phonics in there, but not enough for a kid that is not already reading. The phonics lessons focus on a something from the book the lesson uses, like rhyming for Hop on Pop, of the ck sound for Fox in Socks, and doubling letters at the end of words for A Kiss for Little Bear, etc. But it doesnt seem like a complete phonics program to me. it doesnt cover all the rules, and there is not enough built in practice for fluency. It also moves very fast, at least for my son. For example, the phonics part of the first Hop on Pop lesson was super easy for him, and the lessons in for A Kiss for Little Bear were just right, but after that it quickly became a bit too advanced phonics wise. So, I right now I am using ETC and the readers from SSRW as well as other library books for phonics. I use The Wand for the writing component. We also do the phonics and spelling stuff in there, but I don't worry about it too much if ds doesn't get it. I just like that it is at least exposure, and I like that everything is related to one book, which I feel makes it more relevant. I have Jot it Down as well and we just completed our first writing project from there. The Wand is more the machanics of writing, and Jot it Down is ideas for longer writing assignments to put those things into practice. The ideas in Jot it Down look so fun and I am really excited to do them. The two are definately meant to go together though. I hope that helps. Let me know if you have any other specific questions and I will do my best to answer.

I asked myself this question a lot a couple of years ago when dh and I were discussing the possibility of homeschooling. I was having a lot of guilt because at the time, I was still in the beginning phases of processing the whole idea of homeschooling, and my main reason for wanting to homeschool was because I just didn't want to be apart from my kids. At the time, I felt like this wasn't a good enough reason to homeschool. Then, I was discussing this with dh's aunt who homeschooled her three kids through high school, and I reluctantly admitted this to her. Her immediate and cheerful response was "Wanting to be with your kids is a great reason to homeschool!" It totally shifted my perspective. Since then I have thought up a lot of other good reasons why I homeschool, and they are all true. The schools where I live are not the type of academic or social environment I want to have my kids in, I want them to have more and better opportunities in life than what they would get in public school, I want their time spent in a more efficient way, etc, etc. But, my main reason, if I am honest, is still that I just want to be with my kids more, and I think that is ok. So, I guess it is for me, but I wouldn't do t if I didn't also think it was the better option for them.

When I was growing up we had one with no net and somehow we all survived. My brother, sister and I had hours of fun on that thing. That said, I can't bring myself to let my kids jump on one with no net. It is makes me a nervous wreck. With a net I am fine with it though.

If you get Brave Writer's The Wand, there is copy work and narration included in there. Just another option if you really like the Brave Writer lifestyle and want that part laid out for you.

We are about a third of the way through it. DS5 and I love it. It is so much fun. I still do extra stuff for phonics, i use ETC and additional easy readers. I don't think it would be enough for phonics on its own unless your kid was a really natural reader and didn't need much of a push. I also think that it is helpful to have them practice reading more than just the readers that The Wand lessons are based on. I also use HWOT for handwriting. Next year for first grade we will continue to work through The Wand and I am going to add in Jot it Down (also part of Brave Writer).

P.E. and music. I would just rather have them in sports classes/teams, and I know nothing about music. When they get older i will rely a lot on dh the scientist for higher level math and science.

We do AYSO and the way it works here is games are always on Saturdays and the time rotates, either 9am, 10am, 11 am, or 12 noon depending on the weekend. My dh has coached 3 seasons now and we never get the game schedule until the week before. Last season we had a player that hardly made any of the games and showed up for about half the practices. I felt if really stunk for the other kids on the team. It was odd to have this random kid show up every now and then to play and have him suddenly be part of the team. My dh does a lot of team building stuff with the kids and they really bond over the season, so this kid really missed out on that and it was odd for him when he came because the other kids became so close. I also feel like when you commit to a team sport like soccer, it is important to send the message to your kids that it is a commitment and that their team is counting on them. Of course sometimes you miss something for illness or an unexpected commitment, but for the most part you need to commit to it. That said...As far as I know, officially, AYSO rules will allow it, the coach can't do anything and should allow your child to play when he is there.

That is the way it is where I live. I know several parents who have requested tour of a couple different elementary schools and were told they were not allowed to do that. I thought it was nuts.

My son is 5, but over the past year his favorites have been: Charlotte's Web Charlie and the Chocolate Factory The Box Car Childen Peter Pan

This is my son 100% It takes us forever to get through anything, he is happier doing things that way than if I make him power through it.

I have a laminated calendar. Each month my son writes the name of the new month on the top. Then each day, the first thing we do is fill in the days date. We also talk about what day of the week it is, and point out where it says that on the calendar. Then I left a space at the bottom for him to write the date in numbers. We do that each morning, it takes less than 5 minutes, and it has helped a lot.

I have a laminated calendar. Each month my son writes the name of the new month on the top. Then each day, the first thing we do is fill in the days date. We also talk about what day of the week it is, and point out where it says that on the calendar. Then I left a space at the bottom for him to write the date in numbers. We do that each morning, it takes less than 5 minutes, and it has helped a lot.

Didn't work for rural Hawaii, they only have Honolulu :-( we are weird too because the whole state is one district, so I want sure what to put for that. I am sure it would not have been good though.

I just have the Lab Sheet Annotations and that has worked fine for me as far as figuring out what to do. We love love love Miquon here. It has been so cool watching my son really get these big ideas. Whenever he seems to be struggling with something in Math it is my go to thing. i pull out the rods and some Miquon sheets and it just clicks for him. I use it to supplement Singapore 1A right now, but we also go through periods where we just do Miquon for a couple of weeks on its own.

My just turned 3 year old has to be included in school or its a nightmare. She sits at the table with us, plays with the c-rods, colors a "worksheet", listens to brother read a story, etc. I have started giving her one "special" school assignment each day and she LIVES for this. It's things like cut the lines on the paper, make a picture with stamps, sort the buttons by color, etc. she gets so excited and asks almost every morning at breakfast what her work is for the day. Trying to send her off to do her own thing didn't work here at all.

I think it is fine to switch. I have switched programs so many times with my ds and he seems to be picking it all up just fine. He tends to get bored with one thing, so when it seems he isn't excited for his reading lesson anymore, we switch programs. We also cycle back to old ones now and again and it is like they are brand new and fun again. My theory is that as long as he is progressing, it is more important to me that he is enjoying learning to read than than for us to grind it out just to get through a program.

I totally did. Between my 2 kids I spent over 4 years pregnant and/or nursing and eating whatever I wanted and not exercising at all. Finally, a year after weaning my dd, she was about to turn 3 and I realized that I couldn't really call that extra 20 lbs baby weight Anymore....It was really just weight now :-( So, I decided to really make a change. I went on weight watchers with a friend of mine and I cannot say enought great things about it. I loved that I could eat whatever I wanted as long as I tracked it. Also, it inadvertently encourages you to be healthy through the points system. For example, fruits and veggies cost you no points at all, so you can eat those all day long if you want. And when you run out of points for the day that is what you eat. Also, you earn extra points that can accumulate and be used for treats anytime during the week for exercising, so I was always motivated to work out so I could go out to that birthday party on the weekend and have cake, or whatever little treat I wanted. Weight watchers combined with training my kids to play on their own for an hour on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays so I could do a work out video at home has made a huge difference. I had to realize that I needed to find a way to work out without relying on dh for child care...his schedule is just too unpredictable. Anyway, since January I have lost over 20 pounds and made my goal weight ( which is the weight I was my first pregnancy). Now I just have to stay committed to keeping it off, which seems more daunting than it was to loose it...I am motivated though. As for hair and makeup and clothes...um...I am the queen of frumpy. I guess that will have to be next year's New Year's resolution.

We are Ina similar boat. I tried to start SOTW with my son who is in K the beginning of this school year and a couple months n I realized he was totally not ready for it. So I put it aside and we are going to do it next year for 1st. I am planning to start from the beginning again. I doubt he remembers much and even if he does a little review never hurt anyone.