I think she has more difficulty with seeing the words in her mind then hearing the difference between the sounds. She had a really hard time learning letters but not sounds. She has a hard time with the silent reading stuff and ends up wispering them. I will look into the barton test to see though if she can benefit from LiPS and read more about it. I have been hearing about I See Sam readers on here. I been doing Bob books and she doing ok but really working on sounding out every word so I stopped for now. Are the Sam books that much better than Bob books? pitterpatter: I keep hearing about new programs or finding things online and I wonder if they will work. You should ask about it. I would be curious too I will look into horizons learning to read after she finishes 100 EL. That sounds like a good possibility.

http://www.hm4hb.net/ http://www.eatsonfeets.org/ Those are milk share organizations where I don't believe they charge.

I am a little less than halfway through 100 easy lessons with dd. She is doing good sounding out words but has to actively sound things out. I'm not sure where she will be when she finishes. Maybe she will worked out the kinks but I think she need more phonics work rather then giving her early readers. Right now she is doing good but has trouble with a word sometimes. She actively sounds out words and can do a sentence but most words are sounded out. She can blend. I think she will need more phonic instruction but I don't know what program to go with. I also haven't been doing the writing part of 100EL. I do HWT instead. She is good with blending and her "reading" but she can't do the reverse and spell so I want to do a spelling curriculum with her. I was thinking of doing AAS. It sounds like people like that. Can you describe it a little more for me. I like the idea of spelling and phonics being seperate because I feel like she needs more work on spelling than one section per lesson. For phonics I was thinking about doing AAR1 after 100EL but it is pretty expensive. I am also not sure if it would be appropiate for a kid that finshed a phonics program already. I don't want to start all over. I have funnix so I am also considering doing funnix 2. I don't like how they stetched out the words in the early lessons of funnix because it held dd back in blending but I think they would have stopped that by funnix 2 right? My computer is being repaired and I don't know if the hard drive will be saved so I might have to buy it. I got it during the free trial. What else is out there that would be a good continuation of 100EL? I know they listed stuff in the back but you guys are really knowledgeable about different curriculum.

My ds is 3 and I just realized he knows most of his letters and he is working on sounds and he may have those down soon. He can't pronounce some correctly but he tries. I know some kids know letters and sounds super early but my dd didn't learn that until recently and is now working on reading. Ds is not ready for reading. Is there I can do with him that is pre reading but not really a reading program once he learns his sounds?

I finally got my math and geography in the mail so I added them to the line up. I thought it would add so much time and be hard to fit in but I am actually not spending much time on any one subject. 1 lesson in 100 EL takes maybe 10-15 minutes. Math takes about that long and so does geography. I started doing one letter a day for writing with HWT and some days she flies through it and other letters she needs a lot of work but I am not spending much time on any subject. I am doing a few math and geography pages in one lesson that seem related. Do do you 1 page at a time or more than that? There are a lot of pages and each page doesn't cover much. I am using MCP K math and it is a lot easier than I expected. It seems so simple. Is it really enough for kindergarten math? I aso feel like I should be doing more review with handwriting and I am afraid she will forget how to make letters as we go along since it doesn't review much. I am also starting to do preschool stuff with ds. I only do about 10 minutes with him. Is that enough? Please bear with me. I am really new to this and I am sure I will be asking a lot of questions on every little thing.

They were on our states chip but we got kicked off ast month when we reapplied. We are just over the limit. Our state is 1 of 3 with levels under 200% of the poverty level. If it was 200% we woud qualify. It passed but the governor vetoed it. We don't have a siding scale thing here. You either qualify or you don't.

I have no health insurance right now not by choice and I absolutely panic when I read things like this so I won't read this thread. I get scared every time someone on facebook mentions going to a hospital, the er or a doctor. I am terrified because I know how much things cost. Private options are really exensive and have high deductables and right now we can't afford a private plan. I am literally depressed over not having health insurance and can't sleep at night.

So I guess it will be harder elsewhere and there are less options available. Sigh. I do have a college degree at least if they need college credits.

I painted to more neutral colors. I used eddie bauer's pecan a beigy color and behr castle path which is a grey beige. Grey beiges are getting more popular. I like both colors and would use them again.

She and your family is in my thoughts.

The US is a very extroverted country. I think I would get by much better in a country where extroversion was not valued and people were less extroverted.

I was very shy as a child and I have one defitinely shy child and one who isn't shy but still can get intimidated by people he doesn't know and loud situations. They both are senstive to noise. Forcing the issue right there does not work. It didn't work for me. It just made me more subconscious and it doesn't work for my kids. When people call my kids shy I say they just take time to warm up. I talk them about it afterwards and tell them it is ok to feel nervous but nervous is something we can overcome. My dd is noise sensitive and has emotional processing issues too. Forcing it would not go over well. I don't like it when really extroverted adults are really pushy and in their faces about it and keep going on about them being shy or not talking trying to force them to talk. That doesn't work. I do work on it but forcing it right in front of the adult they are nervous around does not work for my children. I don't like when people make a big deal about it or really interrogate dd. I really want to help dd so she has a better experience then I did. She didn't even open up during her first 2 years of preschool. She has sensory issues and is introverted. I really hope she doesn't get bullied. Before I ran out of health insurance I was considering having her seen by an OT. When I was seeing one for my youngest the OT said that she could maybe benefit from it since her issues were impacting her more then my ds's sensory seeking issues were affecting him. She is getting much better about it then when she was younger but she still does need some work on it.

Ok at least I wasn't going to be the only one to recommend videos. I like leap from or the preschool prep series. Preschool prep can get the job done fast and leap frog are good too. Once he has letters and sounds down you can do a simple phonics program and something like handwriting with out tears. There are lot of computer resources if he likes that.

Thanks. We are actually from NJ. Our family would love us to live there but the cost of living and other factors will probably keep us away but we love to be a reasonable drive away. NY is actually a definite possibility. As is PA. That stinks that NY is a difficult state. I was thinking about Texas for the low cost of living and good pay factor but I don't know that we would like Texas. I have seen jobs in Texas but there doesn't seem to be any right now but that can change. We may not get to be picky about location anyway but I don't want a high cost of living area. We originally were looking to go where the cost of living is better but now we are without health coverage and there are no jobs in the industry here never mind for a bigger company with benefits. There are a lot of homeschooling resources in Alaska, there are groups and coops and there is money from the state for homeschooling. (cant get it yet dd misses cut off) There are lots of classes you can take and it isn't highly regulated here. I love all the schooling options here. There is the large homeschooling group and lots of charter schools that actually score well and have good parental involvement including a German immersion program. The hardest part about leaving here is the school thing. (and some good friends) I'm trying to get excited about living somewhere else.

I'm in Alaska right now. We are trying to sell our place and if it sells we will probably end up elsewhere. We will be looking for jobs and there is nothing in dh's field here right now. We are hoping he can advance or at least work for a bigger company where the possibility exists. So anyway I have no idea where we will be living. We could end up staying here but there is a good chance we won't. We are even considering Canada and yes I know the difficulties involved in that process. I know you can't just go there and it is very involved and difficult. His field is one of the skilled worker trades. It driving me crazy having no idea where we will be so I was hoping to hear from people from many different places to hear what is available and what it is like in other places to homeschool. Are there coops available? Do you get money from the state? What do you use it for? Are there groups of other parents you can get together with? What are the standards like? What is required? Tell me anything useful about what it is like in others areas to homeschool.

He doesn't pronounce S, F, R, J, Z, Y or any blends correctly. I think he can hear the sounds but he can't say them. I guess he will learn some of them before we start phonics but some of the sounds may not be learned until 6-8 according to the charts. So he might be able to say rat in his head and read it but will it come out sounding like wat? Phonics may even help him learn the sounds when he is ready to start it? I will keep that program in mind if I am getting close to do a phonics program with him because he seems ready for it but he is still missing a bunch of sounds. I have a feeling my kids are going to be late bloomers when it comes to reading like they were with talking. They will not pick it up early but they will pick it up and eventually catch up so I don't think I will start until he is closer to 5. He took longer to talk then dd, does not sit still is sensory seeking and has a really short attention span so I have a feeling he won't be ready for a while which I am sure will worry me in the future.

I would definitely teach your kids Dutch and Italian if you and your husband speak them. Learning any language is useful and will open up many possibilities for them and the best way to learn is from someone who can speak the language to them.

In my area there is a German immersion charter school. I would love to homeschool but if they get into this school by lottery I might do that just so they can learn German. I don't know that we will be living here anyway or if we will get into this school if we do. If our place sells we may move where there is a better job. I would love for my kids to learn another language but I don't speak another language. I had Spanish in high school but I can't speak it. Even if I try to teach the kids a foreign langauge they won't really be able to speak it fluently like with an immersion program or with someone who speaks the language speaking to them. Is there any way to really learn another language. Not just kind of learning one and not becoming fluent in it but to learn a language and be fluent in it. I don't think I can learn one myself. Kids pick up on it easier but don't they need to be around a native speaker or immersed in it?

I am probably getting ahead of myself and maybe this won't be an issue. My ds is 3 and not ready to start phonics yet and probably won't be until closer to 5. He was speech delayed and was in speech therapy but he graduated at 2.5 age appropiate and I think he would of even without the therapy because of how fast his language explosion happen. Anyway his language and sentence structure is fine now but he has sounds he hasn't mastered yet. I looked at the sound charts and some sounds are not mastered until some kid gets older so ds is ok. How do you teach phonics if they can't pronounce all the sounds? DD was a late talker too but she didn't qualify for therapy and once she started talking she was very articulate. I am doing phonics with her and she can even do the th sound.

I am still deciding if I want to homeschool or not and I am just starting kindergarten with my 5 year old. If I do will depend on where we are living and what schools are available, how I do with kindergarten and other factors. I found this forum because all my google questions related to homeschooling brought me to discussions here. I have been reading here for a little while but I feel so unknowledgeable compared to everyone here. When I first thought of homeschooling i liked the idea of unschooling or a child led curriculum. I am finding that my dd and I both need a lot more sturcture and I am now finding I like what I hear about the classical method or something similar to that. I guess I should read the well trained mind but what other books are good to learn about all the methods and what they entail and different curriculum options. I been reading on here and other online sites and I am overwhelmed with all the options and only know the basics of each method. For kindergarten I am not too worried but I want to really know what I am doing if I go on to 1st grade. I really want my kids to have a well rounded education and to be really educated so they can do anything they want. I want them to have a solid foundation. Dd thrives on structure and I want something that is structured and where the lessons are mostly laid out. I am an an introvert so I do worry about providing adequate socialization. Dd is very shy and takes a long time to warm up. I worry about giving them a good education and lack some confidence but dd is learning more from me then she did from preschool. She did not do well in a montesorri preschool. I worry she will get missed in school since she is so shy and doesn't do something until she is confident in it. Her preschool teacher last year marked she wa speaking in 3-5 word sentences and not following 2 step directions even though she can spea in full sentences since 2 and follows multi step directions. She got missed and her teacher didn't see what she was really capable of due to shyness. She told me she was doing better and talking to kids more and I didn't realize she still had her guard up and wasn't even really conversing. This year she is doing better. She is in a preschool for the socialization not the academics. Anyway long story short I am very new to this and i am still deciding and I want to learn more.

I am very knew to this so I don't have any advice but I will be reading this because my dd is in this stage. She is 5 but we just started recently. She was stuck in knowing the sounds but having trouble blending it into a word. She is now over that hurdle and can sound out words but she has to actively sound out every word and struggles through sentences so sentences are hard. I was doing 100EL and bob books but I think I may go back to bob books at another time. She does better with the sentences in 100EL but she still is sounding everything out. She can get the words pretty good sometimes she messes up on a word but mostly she can now but she just isn't doing great with sentences because she is actively working on sounding things out. She is my first so I don't know whether to be happy with her progress which I think is great or a little concerned she is struggling so much when kids much younger fly through reading especially bob books. I think she is fine and she is doing so well blending words now. I think my kids are true late bloomers but I am a worrier and she is my first. All the talk about it being easier around 5-6 with a longer digital span is making me a little worried but thanks for this thread!

My dh is also older than me and very much done too. Sorry you are going through it too but it good to know I am not alone.

If either part of the couple doesn't want any more that is a valid reason. My husband is done so we are done even though I would love to have more when things settle down and I can get sad about it. Having a child he doesn't want will cause resentment and he will not be in it and he does some of the parenting too. There are many reasons to have or not have children and whatever a couple decides is valid. Reasons to not have another for some families would include emotional rerserves tapped out, environmental reasons, finances, space, time, attention, jobs, health, genetic conditions, rough pregnancies, not liking the baby stage, current children needing a lot of care due to special needs etc Some people can be against artificial birth control for themselves but if we were to prevent others from using it the abortion rate would skyrocket like it did in Eastern Europe when it was hard to access.

I'm very new to this but if dd forms the letter correctly and does the right move I don't worry if it looks perfect. I have her do it over again until she does it correctly. We are just starting and she was having a really hard time with diagonols and we kept at it for 2 days until she got it and then she struggled with them going in another direction. Some letters she is struggling with and others she does with no problems. If she is forming it the wrong way I correct her and she actually is starting to catch it herself before I say anything. I also try to have her use the lines to make them the right size but I am not as picky about that. It is very hard but I think it will pay off. One thing I don't like about HWOT is it starts with capitols. Dd actually does lower case just as easily as upper case and you use more lower case.

Thanks. I don't entertain the other kids but the problem is my 3 year old is used to having my 5 year old to play with and gets into a lot of trouble. He is sensory seeking and just gets into trouble. My youngest is 15 months and doesn't play with my son yet. She is actually almost younger because she isn't walking yet and going through major sepration anxiety. She is in EI right now for some delays. I think she will outgrow them and is just a late bloomer but for now she isn't making this easy. I was starting later in the day during dd's nap time but maybe doing some things in the morning will help. I like the peg idea. I will have to read up on that. I think that may work better for me than a strict schedule.