I'm not sure but that sounds just like dd so I will be watching this. She struggled learning letters, then struggled with blending. 100 easy lesson got her blending but she forgets words she just read and reads slowly and sound sounds out everything. She got stuck halfway through 100 easy lessons. I'm not sure where to go from here. I know it could just be her age but because she really struggled with learning letters and forgets things she just saw I want to stay proactive in case it is something. I really wish more AAR levles were out because I think that would help but level one just seems too simple to just use that not knowing when the levels beyond level 2 will be out.

I don't think of not being overly affectionate as being cold. Cold has a negative connotation to me. I'm not an overly affectionate person. I give my kids affection but I'm not that touchy. I love my kids but I am not a touchy feely and I am not bubbly and smiley. I am definitely not cold and uncaring though. I agree with this.

I didn't introduce solids in any particular order. I didn't use baby food I just steamed veggies soft but not soft enough to mush up in their hands and let them feed themselves with their hands right from the beginning. I did mostly veggies and fruits for the first foods and just gave them something I was making anyway for my older kids.

I bring everything I can to the thrift store and if it needs to be thrown away I throw it away. I don't love throwing lots of stuff away but it does me no good for it to be cluttering my environment. If something won't be used it does no good to keep it in the house. I am conscious of what I buy and buy used whenever possibly but I don't keep things around because of guilt anymore.

I do sometimes. Frozen is good because it is picked at the peak of freshness.

I make different smoothies every time but I use carrots, kale spinach and pumpkin as the main veggies and then use frozen tropical fruit, berries, strawberries, cherries mangoes or peaches or sometimes banana or avocado. I use coconut, rice, soy, orange juice or hemp milk as the liquid and throw in some protein powder, flax and pumpkin seeds. They all taste good to me and the kids like them too. That worked for a friend of mine. She added beets and her kids loved it because of the nice color. I tried with my kids today and they were like this is yucky. I have been trying to find more veggies to add but guess that is a no go. I didn't like it either. I only used one to start with but it overpowered everything else. If they really notice the color though it works.

It doesn't work for every kid and my dd is one of them. She went to 2 montessori preschools and it didn't work for her. It didn't encourage independence or a love a learning. She just clammed up and didn't even learn anything at her preschools. She never fully opened up and her teachers thought she was only speaking in short sentences and not able to do two step directions things she was doing years earlier. She felt put on the spot a lot with the method. DD does much better with routine and she does not do good when she directs things even with engaging teachers and an environment set up for learning. She is doing much better in her class this year also does really well with homeschooling. Her teachers say she isn't a chatter box but she is holding full conversations and the kids like her. She does well with me too and I think she would do well with homeschooling and if I did send her to school with a school with a lot of structure and discipline. We have montessori charter schools and open optional charters which is similar to montesorri in how they are set up and they are child directed. They score well and parents really like them but I don't think it would be a good fit for dd who needs structure and routine in a different way than montessori. She also more of an audio learner. I wish classical education was more popular here than the child directed stuff like montessori and open optional. DS would probably have done better with montessori than dd because he is a different kid and more kinestetic. He needs routine too but in a different way than dd. I know it was just preschool but I know the elementary schools are not the best fit for her either. If I sent my kids to school they almost might be better off in different schools.

I am considering this too. I am using MCP for kindergarten but I want something else for 1st. It sounds like I might like this but I am not sure if dd would do better with spiral or mastery. l think review would be good but maybe skipping around would be confusing. Does anyone know how it compares to MCP? I wish they went over certain topics more than they do like coins and unit counting in MCP so I am doing my own thing with those topics but I want a math where I won't have to do that. I want a program that does a good job explaining how to teach it and has enough practice to really get concepts. I don't want something that is really behind other programs. I know it is Christian and a lot of the word problems are religious but is it easy to switch around the wording a little if you are not a Christian.

.

I just started this with dd and we are just on the first step. She knows all her sounds but she just has to work on the extra sounds letters say. I also realized she can't pronounce X. Her articulation is pretty good but she just can't pronounce this sound. I will eventually do this with my ds who is much less articuate then dd. He is missing a lot of sounds and there are letter sounds he can't pronounce at all. I can see him still having issues with s and z for instance even when he is ready to read. So what do you do if they can't say a phonogram?

I had two new laptops die recently. I had a HP that was just under a year old that was working fine and just one day wouldn't power on. It was under warrenty so they sent it out to be repaired. It had to go in twice because it didn't get fixed the first time. They ended up replacing it since they couldn't fix it with a Dell. I had it for only 2 weeks and dowoaded funnix two nights ago. The next night it would not boot and it had an error message that indicated it was the hard drive. They replaced it for me. I am really scared now. Nothing happen to cause it to crash. I don't go on weird websites. The only thing I downoaded was funnix. My old laptop had funnix too. It was downloaded a year ago but I started using it right before it happen. I want to use the software with dd. I read the teachers guide and what it said to do it the child isn't reading the passages fluently and I wanted to give that a try since we got stuck in 100 easy lessons. Could it have possblly been from dowloading it? I want to download it again but I can't crash another computer. Has anyone else who downloaded the free software had issues with their computer afterward? I had microsoft security essentials so it was protected.

I was touring charter schools in my area and asking about how they teach reading. It is common to do all the steps but to do step 5 then step 4. The do phonics but they do more sight words in kindergarten and phonics in 1st grade. One school mentioned teaching reading through whole words. I didn't realize at the time that was a way of saying sight words. They said that the reasearch says that is the best way to teach. Some of the charters says that the regular schools use mcgrall hill or mcruffy or something like that. I am not sure what method that is. We do have one charter that is a back to basics school and they do phonics. It is one of the few half day schools and they use saxon phonics. I still not 100% sure how I want to school but I still want to teach dd because it seems like they really push the sight words then get to phonics in first grade. She will be 7 by then. Now that I know more about curriculums I am not crazy with what even the good schools are doing. We hopefully won't live here by the time she in in kindergarten officially and I am leaning more and more towards homeschooling.

I am guessing this is a 2 or 3 day a week class and so there isn't a lot of days available and it sounds like your family is taking a lot of these slots. They should of had a limit how many times a family could participate in a month but I can see how other familes would want slots but they go and see them all taken up by one family. They could of said it more tactfully but I would not take it personally.

I really think an O/G method will be really good for dd. The thought of buying a book reading the whole thing, having to remember all the cocnepts and then come up with my own way of implementing it all while still needing to do subjects with her is overwhelming. I don't like the cost associated with buying lots of levels and the kit but I want to have my hand tneld during the process. Level 2 is not even out yet and there is supposed to 8 levels so I am guessing it won't be ready any time soon. Maybe I can use it with my younger kids if they need it but I really wish I could use it with dd. Vent over.

I think most people are grossed out by that. It wouldn't bother me personally but I would try to steer them from doing it in front of others. My kids don't really do it though. I heard it was good for the immune system because it like getting a little bit of a germ and the body starts building immunity to it. It pretty natural to want to pick it out. If my kids did it I let them know it isn't socially acceptable to do it in front of other people but kids take a while to learn that stuff. My kids are good about putting their arms over their noses when they are sneezing and then wanting to wipe their noses right away.

DD is 5 with a September birthday. I am doing 100 EL with her. She finally picked up blending words recently and is pretty decent at cvc words. She has to sound out most words except for a few sight words and does not remember words even that come up frequently when she comes to them again. Now that we are farther in the book she mixing up rules more especially long and short vowels and digraphs. I think it was too many rule too in too little time for her with no real sequence. She had a hard time with learning letters but not sounds so I wonder if she has issues with keeping the visual picture in her head or if it is because she is still young. If she were in school she would be doing fine for a kindergartner but I want to make sure I keep working with her in case she does have an issue that will make it harder for her. I also know that sometimes things just click all of a sudden like blending did for her. She could do a bob book but made some mistakes and had to sound out everything and paused a lot so I stopped those for now.

I have no problem with polygamy/polyandry or dofferent types of marriages from my own between consenting adults. The only time I think it is harmful is in the insular communities where there is no true choice and when it is an attempt to save a bad marriage. I have no problem with the situation from the other post. If I was the spouse that was brain injured and was left at a child level developmentally but happy I would want my husband to find someone else. We have small children now and I think it better for them and him to have another adult who can pitch in. I want to still be a part of their lives and to spend time with them but if I was at a child level I would not care if dh married and found a mother figure for my children. He better pick someone who is good for them and has similar values. ; ) To me morals are about hurting and harming other people. I do not want polygamy or an open marriage for myself but if someone else is happy in that situation then I don't see that as immoral. I thought the story that this on s/o was a great story and I do not think that situation is disgusting at all. Not everyone has the same morals and belief system. Not everyone makes the same vows. No one is being harmed from the situation even if it is different then what (g)you are comfortable with and would do yourself. I am a secular humanist or an atheist whatever you want to call it though. I am not an immoral person and I do not like when people assume that about people who do not believe in a God.

This is an incredibly simple view on the topic. It isnt about how many people fit per square mile.

It not about fitting people. It is about resources. I think there are too many people for the resources that are available on our planet. We need to be more efficient with them but even being more efficient there only so far that can get you. We are really inefficiant with resources in the US especially. There is so much we can do to be sutainable but we don't and instead we just do things to make sure we keep our disproportionate share at the expense of others. This is my field.

I have been doing 100 easy lessons with dd. I do like the program and it has progressed dd's skills and got her blending. We are coming up on lesson 60 and I feel we are getting a little stuck. She is still needing to really sound things out so her sentences are choppy which is fine and I am not too worried about that. She is really starting to mix things up more now. She especially has trouble with whether to use the long or short vowel sound and just guesses. I go over the rules with her but I think she needs more help with distinguishing between when to use them. She makes other mistakes too like saying ch instead of th in words. If she sees just the th then she usually knows the sound. In earlier lessons she didn't make those mistakes because ch and sh wasn't introduced yet. It just seems like now that there are more sounds and rules she getting mixed up more if that makes sense. I just got the OPGTR. I was wondering if I should just stop 100 EL and do that instead. I like to complete programs rather than switching all the time but I am wondering if the lay out of the book and the order it introduces things may be a little better for her. 100 EL starts right away with long vowels and introduces sound slowly but not really in any particular order. OPGTR starts simple and then gets more complex. It does short vowels and then goes onto a lot of different sounds before introducing long vowels. It seems to have more explanations too. I don't like that we will be going back to the beginning and starting out much simpler than what we were working on if I do switch but maybe that would be helpful? I thought of working just on long vowels and short vowels with her. Does anyone have suggestions for that? I also thought I could go back maybe 10 lessons in 100 EL and review a little so maybe she be able to get concepts she might of missed. I don't want to keep switching around and not completing programs but I don't want to keep going and get stuck. I was thinking of doing the 2 together since a OPGTR lesson takes a few minutes right now and by the time we got through 100EL she be at a good place in OPGTR to keep going with just that. I am thinking of just switching to OPGTR now though since she seems to be getting stuck.

I thinking of getting draw write now for dd. I know that isn't the only aspect of art but I think she can benefit from some drawing help since it is an area of weakness for her. She doing great with working on her handwriting. Is there anything else out there that is similar to draw write now? I don't need the handwriting portion since we do handwriting but maybe she wouldn't mind.

I use baby carriers and my 1 year old is still breastfeeding but I do not want to teach with a toddler strapped to my back or while they are breastfeeding. I also find holding a wiggly toddler too distracting. I have done it a few times but neither me or dd like it. I can see doing teaching with a small non mobile baby one on my front but not a toddler on the back. The only thing I could do while holding her is when I do reading bear with them because she likes sitting and pointing at the pictures. I like to sit and teach.

I try to work around nap time but as she gets older I don't think I can get everything done during nap time. When she doesn't nap I usually feed her a snack because that will keep her happy for a bit. I work in the living room so she and the 3 year old are in the room. She does interupt but I have been able to get stuff done when she is awake.

My passion is sutainability and smart growth planning. I am always thinking of the best use of resources so that we don't need to use a lot so that everyone on this planet can live with at least the basics. I really want to have an urban homestead where I grow a lot of our food and whtever I don't grow I will try to get locally or forage for. I enjoy reading and hiking. For a short while sewing was a hobby. I also enjoy learning about topics related to health and medicine.

I'm using it with dd right now and I like it. I started with funnix but my computer crashed and I found a copy of 100 EL at a thrift store. I started at the lesson where they started with words. The way they teach them to blend helped the switch go off for dd and she was able to finally sound out words. I am a little more than halfway through it. I don't know where dd will be when we end. She makes mistakes sometimes and needs to sound out most words but she is doing good overall and she doesn't mind doing it and the lesson don't take long at all. She is doing much better then before we started it. I like the scripted lessons. I also leave out the writing part and do handwriting during handwriting time not phonics instruction.