I will go ahead and chime in and say that my son and I really enjoy SSRW. We are about 2/3 of the way through level1. I DO NOT require him to do all the writing, it is a lot. We do a lot of the worksheets orally, and we do other things to practice the word lists. He reads them all, but sometimes he stamps them, or spells them with the tiles, or writes them big on another paper with smelly markers, etc. we really don't ever just write them in the work book. The songs and games have really helped him a lot as well and he enjoys them. I also, move a bit slower than the program suggests to make sure he has really understood the rule before we move on. He is only 5, so I figure we have lots of time to get through it. I really like the readers and so does my son. He is way more motivated to read those than the BOB books or any others we tried. Also, because we practice with the word lists so much first, then the readers are based on those words, he is successful at reading the book, which is very motivating. He also LOVES the race car track and moving his car along each time he finishes a step. We like it a lot and it is definately working.

My have a 5yo ds and an almost 3yo dd. As far as outside activities we do: Tuesday: homeschool kickball team and park play day for both, and Tball practice in the afternoon for ds Wednesday: mommy and me gymnastics for dd Thursday: Meet casually with a group of homeschool friends for art, science experiments, cooking, and play time, and Gymnastics for ds Friday: Tball practice for ds Satuday: Tball games (2 each Saturday) We also do both soccer seasons which prett much start right when tball ends and end when tball begins.

I was going to suggest ETC too.

Not a lot of advice here, but I have a 5 year old ds and there is no way he would do his chores on his own. However, he loves to help me with chores around the house, so we usually all take time to do chores together. I figure he is getting into the routine of it at least. He is also really adamant that I be with him to do everything and I know how hard that can be. He has totally resisted doing anything independently. That is just they way he is. He tends to do things in his own time and resist hard if I push it before then. Again, not sure how helpful that is, but that is my experience. It may just be where they are right now.

My 2 and a half year old often asked for her turn to read to me after her 5 year old brother reads aloud to me. I taught her to "read" the pictures to us. She is happy because she gets to sit there and tell us a story of her choosing. I think all she really wanted was to feel included and like she had a turn too. I have started working on some letter recognition stiff with her, but just when she asks for it.

This is what saved me with both of mine. I know it is not for everyone, but they slept so much better it was worth it for me. They both moved out of my bed into their own when they were about 2 years old.

I honestly think that the best thing to do is start with emersion at birth, or as early as possible. My husband is a native speaker, so he has only ever spoken to our kids in Spanish. I speak to them only in Spanish at the dinner table (so all meal times) and in English the rest of the time. We also only allow them to watch videos/tv of any kind in Spanish. I really think the earlier the better with language, and the best way to do it is some kind of emersion situation. When they are little really all you have to do is talk to them and they just pick it up. If you wait you will have to struggle through a curriculum and they most likely will end up translating in therather than just thinking and speaking in the language.

I am using them both now as well. I pretty much follow the order of concepts in Singapore Essentials, but I find the corresponding pages in Miquon and have him do those first to introduce the topic. We just finished up A and are a couple units into B and it has been going well so far.

We LOVE Sing Spell Read Write. It is a lot of fun. There are lots of songs and games to teach the rules. I skip all the writing parts. I thought the songs would be great if your dd is an auditory learner.

I have a 5 year old boy in K too. We want though a phase a little while back that sounds similar to what you have going on with your son. Not that things are perfect now, but I have made some changes that have helped. I dropped the Bob books and made a real effort to find "real" library books at he could read, and if he couldn't read the whole book I would just have him read e last sentence on the page, or random words here and there as we went read through. I also got SSRW which has lots of games and songs in it, which went over way better. So, I would recommend trying to get a little more fun in there. I think the OPGTR is pretty dull. I did the same thing for math. Lots of games allowed me to throw in the occasional worksheet without complaint. I know not all school work will always be fun, but I think that at 5 a lot of it should be. I also try to do the stuff I know will be a bigger challenge first thing in the morning. Another thing I did was make a little chart where I Velcro pictures of each thing I hope to get done for the day. I include school things like reading and math, but also chores and even fun things like baking cookies, or going to the park. He gets to take things off the chart when we finish them. I think it helps him to see that there is always something fun planned too. Lastly, we now start the school day the same way each day. I have this bulletin board with little activities about weather and the calendar and we always start with that. He loves that board and begs to go do it, so that is my way to get him into the school room without complaint. I hope some of those things help. Good luck.

I agree. I did the HSBC deal and have no regrets. It was way worth it.

There is not much writing at all, especially in A. It is mostly circling, crossing out and connecting a picture to a number with a line, that sort of thing. My son is a very reluctant writer, and he has never complained about the writing part of Singapore Essentials.

My son has one of these: http://www.amazon.com/Isokinetics-Brand-Exercise-Balance-Cushion/dp/B002Z9FV6C/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1356051586&sr=8-1&keywords=Wiggle+seat It works great to get him to sit for stuff like handwriting practice, where I want him sitting. The rest of the time I let him stand or walk around. I also t Give him periodic physical tasks, like go move this box from the office to my room for me, and he has to push it down the hall. Or go jump on the bed 10 times, what ever I can think of to get him to expend a little energy, then I can usually get another few minutes out of him.

I have the subscription now, and honestly I don't feel it is all that worth it. There are usually only a couple of the experiments each month that seem worth it to me, so I end up looking for my own additional experiments related to the topic. I think you could just as easily take their topic list, read the corresponding MSB books and other books on the topic from your library, then google a couple of experiments. That said, There have been a couple of experiments with random supplies that I wouldn't have had at home were included in the kit. I just feel it hasn't been worth the cost. I also agree that you would not be able to share between 4 kids unless they were all just watching you do the experiments.

I never could get my son to read BOB books. He thought they were boring and would whine whenever I pulled the out. As soon as he was able we started scouting the library for "real" books he could read. He is actually willing to read a lot more that way because the book actually is interesting for him. With the BOB books it was a struggle to get through one book, but he will read Hop on Pop or one of the Elephant and Piggie books in one sitting with no complaints.

I have prek, k, and am doing level 1 with my son now, and prek with my daughter who is 2. I LOVE the program. it is a lot of fun and my kids and i enjoy it. The prek version is cheaper. It goes through colors, shapes, seasons, opposites, sequencing, visual discrimination, categorizing, letters and numbers. The K one is much more expensive because as far as I know you have to get it as a combo with level 1. I don't believe they sell just k alone. The k level is pretty much letters and sounds. The level 1 has a review of letters and sounds and then jumps into blending and higher level phonics. As for writing, the prek doesn't really do much writing at all. The k and first grade levels do a lot of writing IMO. I do not have my ds do even half the writing in level 1. We use it for reading, so he just reads and tells me the answers orally. Also, SSRW doesn't really do writing instruction, as far as how to write the letters, but is more of practice. So, I use HWOT for that. I would say probably the preschool one would be a good fit. It is lots of fun and has lots of valuable things in it besides the letters. My 2 year old also has known her letters and sounds for a while, but she is getting a lot out of the other sections and has fun reviewing the letters with the games and songs. Also, my son knew his letters around this time too, but it was a LONG wait between learning letters and sounds and actually blending for him...like 2 years I think. So if you do K now, you will probably hit a developmental wall at some point and not be able to go on until she can blend. Hope that helps.

I have both. My son is 5 and we mostly use Jr, but even he is able to get something out of the regular site. I would think that you could just get Brainpop for an 8 and 11 year old. There is a lot more stuff on the BrainPop than on Jr.

I am really new to this, but so far the thing that has been most consistently wonderful for us is SSRW. My son loves it and it just works so well for us.

I put other. We are using SSRW and I LOVE it.

I am so glad to see this thread. My son, in k this year is not liking HWOT at all either and I have been thinking of switching but have been nervous about it as well.

Has anyone ever used this? http://www.greatbooks.org/ If so, how did you like it? Thanks!

Sorry, double post.

I would look up the benchmark maps for each quarter for my state (basically just the standards broken down into goals for each quarter). Then I would just list those off as goals. I have the ones for K my state saved as word docs if you want to see those. Let me know and I can send them to you. Not sure how much it differs by state though. I am in Hawaii.

This is what I was thinking. Every time I try to plan even a week out I just end up changing it anyway. I like the 'idea' of being this organized, but I just don't seem to be able to follow through I guess...I am hoping that it won't really matter in the long run.

I agree. I got through most RIght Start A with my son in prek and I didn't like it. I did end up getting the games book, since I already had all the cards and stuff from purchasing the level A kit, and I do like using the games to supplement, but the actual curriculum drove me nut and confused ds. The thing that drove me the most nuts was that you jump around so much even within one lesson. This was not a good approach for my son either. Also, I would say if you do decide to keep going with it, ignore the whole "one ten and two" way of saying numbers that they use. My son is still confused and can't remember the real names for the teen numbers because we did this. Again, I think the games are a great supplement, but I just couldn't use the curriculum anymore.