http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/grade?cat=174&limit=64&subject=272 :001_smile:

Ended up getting these. I'm excited. :D

You probably just need to get back into the groove. I'd review for a while. Start with counting and go from there. Look for worksheets that practice the same concepts as you were working on in SM. Combine them with hands-on practice. Use her toys (I use Squinkies a ton), game pieces, stickers, lego/Duplo blocks, etc. as manipulatives. We started SM Earlybird B at the very end of last year. We studied tens and ones today. We will be starting addition very soon. I'm curious to see how it goes, as my DD is younger than yours. One day at a time. Children have bad days too. Is she getting enough sleep? That's makes a huge difference in my DD's performance.

Not sure. I got the e-book mentioned above when it was $1 last time and it is $1 this time too. This is only the second time that I've caught their $1 sales. Wish I could be more helpful.

Good thru 1/18/02. Click on the banner. http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/ By the way, for anyone looking for social studies for the kindergarten/first grade level, this book is awesome! I don't typically care for too many Scholastic teacher resource books for us, but I'm loving this one. You can view the entire contents online. I'm not really into most of the first half, but the second half covers American symbols, holidays, famous Americans, and some early American history. The paper-based activities are right up DD's alley. http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/nonfiction-literacy-building-booklets-activities Just $1!!

Besides being able to read cursive, I don't think it's all that important. As soon as I could, I switched back to print. Or, a modified print, that is. My first name starts with an S, which I cannot stand to look at in cursive. LOL! My middle name starts with an L. Can't stand to look at that letter in cursive either. I plan on teaching DD cursive, but if she doesn't like writing that way, I could care less whether she continues to use it. Our society is computer-driven now. Just my two cents, of course.

That's a lot of money for not getting any kind of credit whatsoever. I guess you wouldn't even get a high school credit out of it? I graduated from Mizzou, so I had to take a peek. ;) Glad to see their distance learning program is coming along. Totally bookmarking. I gather you're just looking for middle school classes right now, but wanted to mention that I personally have taken two online classes through Ozark Technical Community College. (Pre-recs for nursing.) I think their online program is pretty good. Just a nugget of info for the future. http://www.otc.edu/online/online.php

Wow! How fun...enjoy OP.

What age are you looking for? There's these... http://www.carsondellosa.com/cd2/SearchCatalog.aspx?k=Skill-Building+Science&CM_VC=10001 Ignore the first two items in the link.

Thanks for all of the responses! I think maybe DD was ready sooner than some due to a number of factors. While I don't necessarily think she is gifted, I do think she enjoys formal education and excels with it. We do 2 to 3 hours of schooling a day and then she plays the rest of the time. (Of course, we read aloud to her as well.) I think she would be crushed if we quit. I do like the idea of the WTM's every four years method and in-depth unit studies. Even though DD is clearly ready and desires formal education, I don't think we're ready to start anything like SOTW and the suggested binders. So, it's difficult to know what to teach her aside from reading, writing and math. Those are our core subjects and then we rotate a fourth subject (currently, science, social studies, Bible and art). I think we're going to continue what we're doing for another year or so and then proceed with the WTM method. Wish there were more specific suggestions for the in-between.

As I read the responses, I wonder whether formal education means different things to different people.

Right. And, DD does that. She's a toy junky for sure. Our "formal" schooling seems a lot like playing, IMO. I seek out curriculum that is very hands-on and fun. The other day DD told me she liked school better than playing. I was taken back a bit. I knew she enjoyed it, but she REALLY likes her toys too. LOL! I'm just trying to figure it all out. She's our first and only and I have no true basis for comparison. I was hoping for more guidance from the WTM.

Right, DD has been holding a pencil, crayon, whatever correctly and using it to scribble, draw, color since she was one year and so many months. Don't remember exactly. So, I cringe when curriculum calls for coloring a picture. Not sure what that really teaches. I understand that some children are sorely under-prepared for public kindergarten, but the parents of those children probably aren't spending $30 on the WTM. Overall, I feel as though the WTM encourages a more advanced method of schooling, so the 4-and-5-year-old section really disappoints me.

Right, but haven't most children this age played with Play-Doh and colored enough that they would be ready to start formal handwriting lessons? I understand play-based learning, but why not just use curriculum that is more fun and play-like in nature?

I don't necessarily think my DD is gifted, just that our local public school is behind. We originally started homeschooling to give DD a leg-up in public school, but it's proceeded to the point where I don't feel we would be able to enroll her into kindergarten this fall without feeling extremely guilty. My sister is a public school teacher, so I have a little inside knowledge of our school. They have cut all gifted programs and increased funding for Title programs (what remedial programs are called in our state). We could probably have DD enter first grade instead of kindergarten, but I really don't think that's best for her. So, we've set course for continued homeschooling.

It may help to post her skills. How well does she speak, write or even read? Can she circle, X and color? Would she on command? Can she speak in clear, fairly complete sentences? If so, she may be able to use some kindergarten resources books. There are some that do not require true handwriting skills, but she would need to be able to circle, X and/or color...stuff like that.

I'm reading the WTM for the first time and the 4-and-5-year old section has me scratching my head. Yeah, my DD is wiggling, but she's totally capable of formal studies. I don't feel as though DD is really an accelerated learner, so I'm confused. Isn't the WTM simply shortchanging the capabilities of this age set? :001_huh:

Can she trace the diagonals with Wet, Dry, Try ok on the slate? If it's diagonals she's having problems with, I'd probably work on that stroke as many other letters use them as well. Did you buy any gray block paper? (If not, maybe you can copy a page out out of the student book.) I've used a light gray marker to make letters for DD to trace. Maybe just make several / and \ for her to trace. Then, maybe place dots in each corner and ask her to connect the dots. When DD has problems with her spacing with M and W, I will make little dots for each point and have her connect the dots. On the slate, maybe get out a ruler and have her feel that diagonal by writing/tracing along the edge of the ruler for the N. U just takes practice. I'd have her trace some more.

I want a meaty k-1 science program that includes engaging text and photos, plus age-appropriate hands-on activities as well as paper-based activities that keep writing to a bare minimum (because the skills aren't there yet). Plus, I want it pretty and tied up nicely with a bow. In other words, I want the text in an easy-to-read font, line spacing that's easy on the eyes and plenty of white space on every page. I want to like looking at it. I want every lesson to read like simple recipe. :001_smile:

We're getting ready to start a unit on weather. One exercise is to watch a weather forecast for five days, right down the weather forecast nightly and then compare it with the actual weather the following day. Anyone know a Web site that provides very short kid-friendly video forecasts for the major cities? (St. Louis would be closest for us.) I don't want to try to catch the local news every evening (no Tivo for us). I wouldn't consider it all that kid-friendly anyway. I'm looking for short and to the point. Our local stations are too long and drawn out. They talk about the week more than the day. What I'm actually hoping to find is a site where children "forecast" the weather, but that might be a stretch. Worst case scenario, I guess we'll watch a local forecast once, then check a written/pictorial forecast the rest of the days.

Wow! I've never seen these before. Thanks!! :001_smile:

We're finishing up HWT, Kindergarten next week, I think. We've loved it! Their Wet, Dry, Try on slate method was very effective for us. Take a peek at their Web site and see what you think. They have videos of actual children demonstrating the method. DD started HWT at age 4 year, 4 months. I wanted her to get going with it because you are so limited in terms of other curriculum, if your child doesn't know how to write. There are some cut and paste, circle this, x that curriculum out there, but it is so minimal and most of the time, very basic. Also, math is tremendously difficult without being able to write numbers.

I forgot to mention that. So does dedicatedteacher.com. :001_smile:

Oops, sorry, no. I meant would I absolutely need to teach a unit on properties of materials (matter, etc.) before position and motion (force, etc.)? Or, even matter (specially, gases) before something like weather? Maybe I don't. I just looked in the textbook we were using as a spine. It's in a different order than the resource book I'm going to be using soon. And, it doesn't have weather after matter. I'm probably over-thinking it.

Just wondering how important it is to teach in a specific order. For science, we're switching to something more along the lines of unit studies. Right now, I'm thinking about starting with whatever subject is the easiest to round up materials for. Plus, I would want to skip things for now that we previously covered with our other science curriculum. Ok plan? DD is studying on about the first grade level, but this will be her first introduction to many subjects.