:hurray: Congratulations. You did great!

I think so. Kids can bloom later with certain skills and I think reading is one of them. Intectual development can be like size in that a kid can start later but end up really intelligent. Plus I think you can be advanced in some areas but not in others. I have always been really good in the areas you mentioned and average in others and had trouble with fine motor skills such as drawing and writing. I still am really good in those areas but have areas where I am not advanced in. I don't remember learning to read but I know I didn't until 1st grade. A kid who has a lot of knowledge and is not advanced in his reading but in an age appropiate place can be a really strong reader once they learn. My own kids can seem like they aren't getting something then al of a sudden they are doing it reay well. They have areas of strengths and areas where I think they might have trouble. I think there are multiple intellegences and strengths.

I would probably call if I saw a 16 year old with the mental capacity of a 2 year old riding his bike unsupervised late at night. I did see a 16 year old with mental handicaps wandering around with a blanket at night and we did call the police. The boy was a wanderer and his family was trying to figure that out. It wasn't something that was occuring all the time. It happened once before. I wouldn't want to call unless I thought it was warrented and this sounds like one of those situations. I can see that happening but not on a regular basis. He should not be unsupervised so much becuase of his mental age. If a 2 year old was riding his bike late at night with no supervision, reguarly wandering and getting into people's houses and left in charge of children it would warrent a call and this is the same because of his mental capacity. If it happen a handlful of times and the parent was worried and looking for the child it would be different. Just because one parent is a doctor and they have money doesn't mean that they are put in a good situation.

I got a chart with numbers to 100 and I think dd will be ok with some work and it won't be as hard as I thought. She really struggled with learning the numbers until 10. She wasn't getting higher numbers when they were not in chart form but hopefully it won't be as hard now. We were able to go through the whole chart and she was abe to name the numbers if I told her 20, 30, 40 etc. Since she can count to 20 she was able to point those out too. She made some mistakes which actually showed me she was recognizing a little how the tens and place value work and not just counting. Tens and place vaue isn't covered much in the curiculum and I don't like how they go over that so I want to try to find something that covers that better because I think that angle will work for her.

I am doing letters and numbers for me. I actually started doing the letters in her name and fixed the issues she had with writing her name first and then have been doing it in order. She does most letters pretty good but certain letters hold her up. I don't have the cd or the wooden letters. I can try forming them with something else. She has been going to preschool and they work on handwriting there so this isn't the first time she been doing stuff like this but this is my first time working on it with a program with her. She had no problem with the lower case letters in her name and the other letters we did. She is doing well once she figures it out but so far N, M and U were really hard for her. We got through N and M but U is currently holding her up. I got her some dry erase books and she loves taking it out and practicing in it. She really wants to learn how to write her letters and start writing but it going to take quite a while at this rate.

I am doing HWT with dd. I got a chalkboard recently and added wet dry try to the routine. Some letters dd does really good with but others she has a really hard time with and the chalkboard doesn't seem to help when that happens. So far N, M and U have been hard. She had a hard time with the diagnols then the bottom part of the U. As we go along she will probably come up to letters that she will struggle with. Is it normal to spend several days on a letter before it clicks? I am not crazy with HWT format but I am living with it for now.

Art and handwriting are my biggest weakness. I cannot draw. I can do a handwriting program with dd but I don't know how I will teach art. Right now dd is in a 3 day a week preschool even though I am doing kindergarten. It is for the socialization and for all the art projects they do with the kids. I hate doing messy projects. I am not creative with doing crafts and stuff with the kids and i can't draw. I been enjoying teaching dd phonics, math and handwriting isn't too bad. I am not worried about adding other subjects as she gets older but what will I do about art. Dd seems to be following in my footsteps because drawing and handwriting are not strong suits so she will need instruction. Anyone have this dilema? What do you do?

My dd is like that and that was my worry that her teachers would totally read her wrong because she doesn't try something until she is good at it. I have no advice since my dd is younger and I definitely haven't figured it out yet. Hopefully she will keep it up. Maybe you found what works. lol

I feel you. I wish they had something where it starts with tracing then has them try but not with the chalkboard which we just started doing. We do wet dry try but she needs to see the correct move for the handwriting for certain letters. DD gets pissed if I make tracing letters but she wouldn't if it was in the workbook. She really needs it because she just doesn't get certain moves. I like HWT but there are things I don't like including starting with capitals then getting to lower case since you use lower case more. I would love something similar to HWT but that doesn't start with capitals and has some tracing letters. I don't have a computer or know how to make worksheets with tracing letters. I did just buy some dry erase books so maybe I get those out and use it with the lesson.

I thought that since my pregnancy with my odd and ds were polar opposites. I figured the boy horones made me sicker since I had bad m/s with him and was so exhausted but fet great with dd. Then my last pregnancy was much closer to ds's pregnancy and she was a girl. :tongue_smilie:

I found out with my first two kids and had a suprise with my third. I didn't think I would like a suprise or that I would be able to follow through but I am so glad I did the suprise. I loved the suspense during my pregnancy. I loved thinking about the future with a baby and that it didn't matter what that baby was. I loved trying to imagine what I was having. Once I had the ultrasound the curiousity died down. The tech didn't even know what I was having. The suprise wasn't that much different at the ultrasound from the birth but it was pretty cool to meet the baby and find out what she was. My kids each had a personilty in utero and it was cool to see not only what that baby looked like but what it was. It is hard to explain but I really liked not knowing. It was kind of special. I didn't think I could stand it and that I had to plan etc but I am glad I didn't find out with my last. It is funny because I had intuition during my pregnancy before the ultrasound with my first two that was right but didn't have intuition with my last so she really was meant to be a suprise.

We live in Alaska and both our families are on the East Coast Can you share a bit about how you keep in touch and how often? Do you phone weekly? More or less often? Weekly Are your phone calls replaced by or supplemented by letters, emails, or facebook? We are facebook friends with family. My mom and brother and his brothers and sisters are on facebook. It doesn't replace phone calls but it allows us to communicate more often. I am not a big phone person. I put the kids pictures up on there. I like putting them on facebook better than in emails. How often do you get together? Once e year? More often? Do you visit them or do they come to visit you as well? My parents come at least once a year. His family comes but less often. We been averaging every two years going back east for 2 weeks. I wish we could go more often but it is a long trip and expensive to get out of Alaska. Do your parents have any meaningful contact with your kids? What have you done to encourage this? They talk on the phone with the kids. Our parents and other relatives send gifts and letters and the kids know it is from them them. We talk about them and show them the pictures of our trips. I love it here and I will miss it when and if we leave like we will probablyl do but it would be nice to be within driving distance of family to see them more often.

My laptop is being repaired. I hoping they don't have to wipe out the hard drive. I don't think they will. If they don't I should have the pdfs and I can send them if you don't get any other responses. It should be back in a week or two. Hopefully someone will respond and you can get it sooner but when I get it back I'll check if you still need it. How do you like the program? How far did you get into it? I also downloaded it during the free download too. I started it a few months later but dd wasn't enjoying it because she didn't have her numbers down. I think she will be ok with it now but I am not sure if it would be a good fit and what they cover.

I am not sure what state we will be moving to and it is driving me crazy. Our place needs to sell here. There are a lot of jobs in dh's field just not where we are but everytime I look it is different locations. I don't think she will be considered truent because she misses the cut off here and is only 5. I like to officially sign her up if the state has a cut off but not if she would be considered truent. I guess then there is no way of knowing until I know the state and can look into guidelines for it. It is good to hear you sign up anytime and I don't have to worry about it until she is older. I will do it as soon as I can just in case it doesn't work out it will be easier to transfer.

I could care less either way if a man wants to paint his toenails or not and I don't think it makes him feminine. I rarely paint my own nails and I am pretty indifferent to it. I don't wear makeup. My dh doesn't but it wouldn't bother me if he did. One of the male rock stars I had a crush on I was a teen had painted black fingernails and I liked them. I agree that women now wear pants and have tatoos and those used to be thought of as masculine but they are not now. I don't think it is feminine or masculine. Oops didn't realize this was an old thread.

I just started doing kindergarten with DD5 but in Alaska she misses the cut off. We will probably end up in a different state where she might make the cut off (September birthday) If we are in a state where she makes the cut off can you sign up officially in the middle of the year or will I have to wait for the next school year? I'm not sure where she will be skill wise at the start of the next school year but I think we will be almost through a kindergarten curriculum but not quite if I continue in the summer. I probably couldn't sign her up for 1st if she didn't do kindergarten right? It doesn't matter much if I keep homeschooling the officia grade but if it doesn't work out I don't know if she would be better of a grade lower or higher. Is it difficult to transfer to a pubic school after homeschooling if I felt that I wasn't providing her the education or sociaization?

I just got a used copy of OPGTR and I will be using it after I finish 100 EL. I like 100 EL so I am going to continue with it but I want to continue with phonics after I finish it and I think she will need more practice. I was thinking of quickly reviewing areas she is strong in and spending time of rules that don't come as easy. I like the format of 100 EL so I like the idea of continuing with something similar that has more lessons and goes a little farther. Do you think that would work even though it isn't a continuation of 100 EL? It isn't too expensive if it doesn't work and I could maybe resell it on here. Other programs will cost more so I thought I try this first but maybe it isn't the best for continuation after 100EL. I have my to younger kids who can use it down the road but costs are really adding up for things I am getting or need to get for dd for kindergarten.

I am looking for a spelling program for dd. I was going to go with AAS but I also heard Apples and Pears was also good. We are still working on handwriting so she isn't quite ready for Apples and Pears yet but I could probably start AAS. It looks like apples and pears will be a little more affordable since there is less to buy but I am not sure how shipping from the UK will play into that. Will it provide the content that AAS does? I'm not sure if she would do better with a workbook or the tiles or what I would have an easier time teaching her.

She is having more trouble with recognizing the numbers. She gets counting no problem and I think she will get the counting part of higher numbers no problem because counting came easy for her. She can count to 20 at least and I think she will get the higher numbers fine. She would able to do a rote speaking exercise. It is the recognizing of the numbers that was hard for her. I actually did have more starfall but the computer I had it on is being repaired. For some reason starfall does not work for her. I tried it with letters and numbers and it didn't sink in and I started making it an every day thing and did a few at a time over and over. She remembered everything that happen and what was coming up next but not the numbers. I also had put that youtube video on for the kids and that didn't work for recognizing numbers. I pretty sure if I made an every day habit of the video she would learn to count to 100 but not the numerals. I haven't worked on her on what 10s and place value mean yet. I want to do that but it is farther in the math curiculum I brought. I think I will go to that section with her. It only works on the numbers a few times in the curiculum so I don't think it will be enough to get her to recognize the number.

Dd had a hard time learning letters and numbers. She knows her numbers to 10 and can figure out math concepts easily so far but I want her to learn more numbers. She learned her numbers from watching videos. :o I tried other ways and it wasn't sinking in and she got it down easily from a video. How can I teach her more numbers without it getting frustating? She get frustrated when she doesn't get something and doesn't like to try.

Does anyone have any tips on what they do for socialization for your kids?

I know that homeschooling isn't bad for kids socially and public school isn't the best way to get it. I am trying out kindergarten and considering homeschooling but not sure yet. One thing that is a concern for me is the sociaization aspect. I am introverted. I don't mind getting out but I don't make friends easy and just have one or two good friends at a time usually and mostly aquantances. I don't have an active social ife and I am fine as long as I have a close friend. I like where I am now and it has a good homeschooling community but I don't know if I will find friends or not. We are selling our place and most likely will end up elsewhere if it sells because we are without health insurance. I don't know where we wil be and if I will fit in and find friends or activities. I don't know what the homeschooling community will be like and if I will make friends. I will be an oddball since I am very crunchy and green in someways and have some AP qualities but there is a lot that I don't do and follow. I don't quite fit in with the mainstream or the AP groups. I definetely won't be doing the unschooling, waldorf relaxed thing like most crunchy people probably do. I also am an atheist/securlar humanist or a unitarian. I usually get along well with Christians and have met a lot that I really like but sometimes they eventualy invite me to their church which is fine but then I worry if they knew they wouldn't want to be my friend or would just keep me as an aquantance. My dd is shy and introverted and takes a long time to warm up. DS is more outgoing and extroverted but he is sensitve to noise and crowds and hasn't made friends yet and he can be a little rough since he is sensory seeking. He is only 3 so I am sure he will get better as he gets older since not all kids have friends at that age and still parallel play. Anyway my point is that I am not a very outgoing person and the best socially and my kids are not naturally good at metting people and making friends. I just want to hear what people here do about the socialization thing. If we do the higher grades then we will spend a lot of time on school and peope metioned how there isn't time to do activities and groups.

Ok thanks. This is my first time doing this. She is young and just starting and it hard to gauge how she is doing. I worried about her not blending and that finally came when I went back in lessons for the transition from funnix to 100 EL. I see so many people dissing the book in that thread on hated curiculum but I really like it for a starting point. I like how it is set up and how they have them do the story part more then once to work on reading it, then focus on comprehension and then saying it fast. I know a lot of people didn't like that but I do. Dd used to not like to do it more than once but now she knows the format and doesn't mind. I think the comprehension questions are good for her to help understand that she isn't just reading words and say it fast to hep her realize that eventually that how we want to read. I like how they introduce sounds sowly. She has her sounds down but I think it good to do it slowy with the words she is working on so she has less to focus on. I like the funny symbols too for now because it helps her remember the rules better and I think they eventually do away with them. She did have trouble in the begining but I am glad I stuck it out because it is going well now. She likes doing it and brings me the book. I will go back and redo lessons if she gets stuck which I think she will looking ahead at the lessons. I was getting a litte worried reading al the negativity with it here that it wasn't a good method and something was wrong with it. I am going to see where she is at as we get farther but I do want to continue with phonics and start spelling and see what is out there. I also want to give myself time to see if I can find used copies.

Thank you Heather! That was very hepful I found the book but al ot of the comments were discussing getting all the manipulatives with it and i can't do that. It good to know you can do without. I actually had spell to write saved as a possibility because it was discussed on another thread and sounded like it would be very helpful. Let me see I got this straight. O/G is the method that is used in Seeing Stars and other programs from O/G like LiPs. Can you use the ful programs you listed in place of Seeing Stars and LiPs or do you need those books too? I was aso thinking about Spell to Write since I heard it taked about on another thread and looked into and it sounds like it would be a good one or dd but I am little worried I might not be able to do that one since you have to read the whole book and understand it before you start doing it. If I get any of those full programs can I just get that? Do any of them have a lesson plan structure or is it a lot of tips? I'm trying to pick something that will help her without overwheming her that I will be able to understand and implement that is proven to work.

I just looked into seeing stars more and I found it was a tutoring service. That would be too much and plus they don't have a center in Alaska anyway. Is the only way to do it tutoring or is there a way to do it from home? Thank you. So do you think if after going through all 100 lessons she is still having to work at sounding things out AAR might give her more fluency practice. I really want to work on spelling and reading seperatey even though spelling might help her reading I feel she could use practice in both.