I also use reinforcers. I have a candy jar, lots of stickers, and big rewards when a math book is finished.

I plan history a year in advance. I pick curriculum over the summer and plan most a week in advance.

No.....and yes. I do look at the state standards before I pick my curriculum. I follow the math guidelines. I never need anything for LA cause my dd tests so far ahead that her overall scores have started to go down (because they only test up to a 10th grade level and so when there isn't any improvement her trajectory goes down. This is so stupid. She aces it and her test scores imply that she is losing skills. California in a nutshell). I do use the spectrum test practice for a couple of weeks before testing because dd likes to be prepared.

I don't know. My daughter read it independantly and had fun discussing it with her dad. They are planning on seeing the movie together. That's as far as we have gone.

Math is a complex subject. It needs to be taught and supported.

wwe2 singapore 2a lof fll2 sotw vol 2 earth science (doing it with her 6th grade sis writing without tears independant reading and aesop's fables rosetta stone spanish kistler art

BOb books are great because they focus on blends and the kids feel like they are reading a real book. My daughters were both so tickled when they got to put a star on a sticker chart after reading a simple Bob book. Very motivating.

No. THat is half of what I am teaching. I have a big jar of candy. It's amazing how well they pay attention when the jar comes out. lol!

We are in 2a and we are still learning this. My dd has it down, but it is reviewed and taught a little deaper each year.

I always hear homeschoolers complain about the community at large giving their kids pop quizzes to prove how ineffectual homeschooling is. Is this the same kind of thing?

bwahaha I said holst. That's my dr's name. I meant Holt.

Rosetta stone is an immersive language program. I learned Spanish by immersion and then studying the grammer later was a breeze. It really is affective. I have seen my daughter learning a lot of Spanish with RS.

wws is supposed to be independant work. If a kiddo is having a hard time gettting wws done independently they might not be ready for it. My daughter does the exercise and THEN I correct it by comparing her writing to the examples in the teacher's manual. She usually gets it done correctly and when she doesn't I go over it with her so she understands it, and then we move on.

Not liking any other science curriculum, we got a holst science book. I supplement with the science in a nutshell kits and other science stuff found on the web.

We kept having to replace our vacuum every 1.5 years so we bought a dyson. It is now 2 years old and still works like a champ. It gets a heavy workout around here. It cost more than 300 but it has a 5 year warranty. I am guartanteed a working vac for 5 years for less than I was spending in 5 years with the cheaper ones. Just my 2 cents.

You will love it! It is funny and we learned a ton!

We don't do spelling until after we are done learning phonics. Seems the natural progression.

Not a read aloud, but we love love love The Story of One by Terry Jones. It is a documentary on netflix. It talks about the history of numbers including the arabic/Indian numbers.

Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare from E Nesbit. Great intro to the bard.

scrub under the water for 20 seconds. Antibacterial gels like purell are great, but last for under 2 minutes. It is actually more effective to scrub under the water.

The principle behind rosetta stone is learning by immersion. I learned Spanish through immersion living in Spain. I also took 4 years of Spanish in high school. I learned so much more from immersion than a grammer program. I have seen, many times, success by learning a language through immersion before learning the language grammatically. jmo

I have been teaching my kids as things have come up from the time they are little. About 5 for my two daughters. I told my oldest the basics and my beliefs for the appropriate time and place for sex (in marriage is my belief). It has not been an issue and she is definately not into boys yet. It is all about biology and beliefs. I see no reason to make sex mysterious to my kids by holding back info. BTW, my mom is a nurse and would very technically explain things to me. I never found my motor started revving (ifkwim) because she told me. Quite the opposite in fact.

I was previewing Much Ado for my 12 year old last night. I totally forgot that there are about 20 naked bums through the opening scene. She would kill me! LOL!

Island of the Blue Dolphins, Sing Down the Moon, and Birchbark House are must reads!

I don't think creative writing in 4th grade is too important. We do wwe and then wws. My daughter loves to write and we use roris story cubes. It's a writing game and it's fun, too!