We have been using Rosetta Stone Spanish (the Spain version) with our 7-year-old and 4-year-old for over a year. They both like it. They don't do it independently, though. They sit on Daddy's lap (he is fluent in Castellano), and occasionally he helps them, especially with the pronunciation (one needs to speak very clearly into the microphone, with particular speed and intonation, otherwise the program will make you repeat the word/phrase/sentence over and over until frustration takes over...) This may or may not be a problem for your 4-year-old, depending on his or her articulation ability. I am especially annoyed by the lack of cultural context -- you may see a photo of men in traditional African garments representing "hombres", women in saris representing "mujeres", and a newspaper in Arabic as "un periodico." If Rosetta Stone weren't so grossly overpriced, I would say, go for it. If you put a lot of energy into it, it will work. I wish I would have an alternative to recommend. We are still looking.

We are doing HWT and ETC series already, and are planning to add more formal math once we finalize the transition from Pre-K to K, so we have the three R's covered. I am looking for an open-and-go, secular, hands-on resource that would incorporate "general enrichment" activities in language, history, geography, math, science, art, music... I should add that she hates to color (unless it is her own picture :-), so a resource relying on coloring pages will not work. Thanks again!

My daughter loves Core Knowledge Preschool Activity Books, but we are about finished with them. Do you have a PK/K-level recommendation that is similar in style? Perhaps Five in a Row? Many thanks in advance.

I had one child who learnt to read from OPGTR -- started at ~4.5, finished at ~5.5 and could read independently anything he wanted ever since. I tried OPGTR with my daughter at 4.5 -- it didn't work for her at all. But she just loves Explode the Code! So we shelved OPGTR for ETC. I think you should try OPGTR, but keep your options open.

We switched from Singapore to MM as well. We design our own math curriculum using MM Blue Series, which is organized by topics. In earlier stages, we used to do a lot of Math Mammoth problems orally. To minimize page density anxiety, I would use a blank piece of paper to cover the problems below the set worked on.

I am using ETC primers for Pre-K with my daughter who loves to write. There is a lot of writing involved. I did not use them at all with my son, who did not like to write at that age.

You might consider adding Zaccaro's Primary Grade Challenge Math as a supplement. The problems vary from simple to somewhat challenging, and all of them are very engaging. My son loves his "funny math."

Regarding HWOT Pre-K -- it depends on your child's fine motor skills (I had one in each camp.) If your son has good control of a crayon, just the Pre-K book will be enough. If he could use some extra help, then you can buy some of the bells and whistles that HWOT offers for Pre-K (we got the small chalkboard slate, my son loved it, and it was enough to bring him up to speed.)

We are about 3/4 through FLL4. My son started with FLL1 in K. I would not skip FLL3 either. While it is true that the content of FLL3 and FLL4 overlaps, the depth of the discussion and the complexity of the diagrams grows dramatically in FLL4, and it is comforting to know the basics already. Also, FLL offers a variety of beautiful poems for memorization, where the vocabulary and the grammatical structures gradually increase in complexity. My son might not have been able to enjoy Ozymandias in FLL4 as much as he did without having built up the stamina with the poems in FLL3.

Does Hake Grammar include diagramming sentences? If so, at which grade level? Thanks.

A couple of recommendations to add to the list of terrific suggestions -- For 6-9 year-olds, especially boys: Judy Blume's Fudge series Beverly Cleary's Henry Huggins series

HWT has a nice (and free) worksheet maker on their website http://www.hwtears.com/hwt/online-tools/APLUS You can choose line spacing appropriate for K. My son also liked HWT Draw and Write notebook at that age. http://shopping.hwtears.com/product/DAW/handwriting

We use RS games along with MM to review and re-inforce mental math concepts. For example, while studying multi-digit multiplication, we play RS-inspired factoring games (like Ring Around the Products.)

A question to the Star Wars fans: is Path to Truth meant to be read before or after the numbered books in the series (1-10)?

A lot of books we want to listen to are not available in our local library system. Where do you find your audiobooks? I am tempted to sign up with Simply Audiobooks, but even there I cannot find children's classics, such as Tove Jansson, Astrid Lindgren (beyond Pippi), Saint-Exupery... Any advice?

"In two 1/2 days I will go to a farm, and the best part is that I get to go in an underground passege." This is a journal entry, which qualifies as writing for fun in our household, so I did not make any corrections. But I felt tempted to talk about the choice of words, although SWB recommends waiting for a child to develop his own individual style. What would you do? Thanks very much in advance.

In my experience, MM presents many different ways to solve one problem. My son usually has a preferred method, but I ask him to use the recommended approach in at least several problems. Occasionally, the new method becomes his favorite, but if it does not, we move on, as long as he CAN solve the problems correctly and efficiently using his preferred way. (For full disclosure, we use MM Blue, not Light Blue, series.)

We used both, and I let my son choose whichever aid was more helpful / relevant to him in solving a particular problem. Presently he rarely resorts to them, as he likes to do computations in his head, because, according to him, it is faster.

We really like Nature Study for the Whole Family By Laurel Dodge from Royal Fireworks Press http://www.rfwp.com/series/nature-study-by-laurel-dodge#book-nature-study-for-the-whole-family For social studies, we do Cub/Boy Scouting for the boys (proud momma of an Eagle Scout here :-)) Girl Scouts start at 5 yrs old, I believe.

Europe is quite diverse -- the climate in Scandinavia is very different from that of the Mediterranean region. I would look for guides focusing on specific regions / countries. (To give you an example, I happen to own a 158-page guide called "Medicinal Plants of Lithuania.") Good luck!

Would Junior Analytical Grammar be an option after FLL4? Could anyone comment how JAG stacks up against Rod and Staff 5?

My children are younger, so your needs may be a bit different. For us, it was all about a good story. We read aloud a beautifully illustrated edition, found at our local library, http://www.amazon.com/Annotated-Hobbit-J-R-R-Tolkien/dp/0618134700/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1345806964&sr=1-1&keywords=The+annotated+hobbit stopping to explore the illustrations or interesting footnotes. My son chose sentences from The Hobbit for WWE dictation. He built a custom version of Lego Smaug. Thorin and company entered his fantasy life to join Luke Skywalker et al...

We do most of MM orally. No printing! From Division 1 book, I printed ~10 pages (out of about 90.)

We used Zaner-Bloser: http://www.zaner-bloser.com/media/zb/zaner-bloser/FontsOnline_Sampler/FontsOnline_Sampler/index.html (The free sampler was sufficient for us to create cursive copywork sentences.)

I am looking for a reading game recommendation (a "real", not a computer game) for an early beginner -- something involving CVC, sight words... Extra bonus if the game is exciting enough that a competent reader might want to join in just for the fun of it. Many thanks in advance!