DD5 is reading Dick King Smith books - All because of Jackson was the latest. DD9 is reading The Encyclopedia of Cats (this daughter of mine devours non-fiction) I have been reading a long list of children's books trying to find which are and which are not suitable for my children, which should be read aloud and which handed to them to read - I know I could re-read to my youngest what I read to my eldest, but I myself need something new and only re-read the best of them. The age gap between them means that ones I read to both of them are usually too simple fr the 9 year old). I am also reading The Playdate.

I do reading and maths with my children (and spelling for the older). Read alouds to me are just part of life and would never count as afterschooling, same as devotions in the evening. So then in answer to your question I might say: current affairs - letting my child read some interesting news and discussing how it relates to history/geography/science, or discussing their thoughts on what is happening in the world or their own neighbourhood or even discussing ways to deal with various problems at school, but then perhaps that too is just a more formal way of coping with life...

My eldest child knew her letters by 18 months and was blending around 2.5. She learnt a lot of sight words from age 1 however and showed her day care teacher that she could read at 2.5. I covered all the phonics with her at age 4 just to make sure we didn't miss anything. She is now 8 years old. She can read anything but does show ADHD tendencies and can lose her place when reading even despite being able to skim. She still chooses shorter pieces to read though doesn't mind if the reading level is very high. Her comprehension and vocabulary are excellent, but I still think her strength is more mathematical. At the library she chooses non fiction books before novels and devours those far more easily than novels. My younger child knew her letters and many sight words at age 2. She was more interested in reading than her older sister and is a more visual learner than her sister who is kinaesthetic. This means that she possibly learns better by reading than her sister and may explain why she has been more keen. She likes fiction. She is now 5 and reading at about a grade 3 level. However she can read the Bible to me too without errors and I know certain sections she has read are well above a grade 3 level. Her comprehension and vocabulary are probably comparable to my eldest at the same age. She is more independent with her reading however and will read easy chapter books to herself in the car - something my eldest would never have done at that age. I know from just my two children that each child is an individual. That reading, like many other skills is complex and involves multiple processes that we don't fully understand. I think one can only expose and see what the child does and then adapt the exposure. I do come from a family of early readers. My sister was reading at 2 - we have a recording of her reading Beatrix Potter aged 3. I read my first full chapter book at 4. My Brother had dyslexia and yet even he learnt to read (with difficulty) at a fairly young age and by high school was an excellent reader despite the dyslexia - still not sure how he managed that. I believe that a lot more children could read early than do. Should they - I don't know. I do not believe that all children can either though. Mine did, and I will never be sorry, but then if they hadn't I don't think I would have been that sorry about that either.

Tanapui - I was basing my statement on what I feel is being said about mothers/parents - not my own views - in fact my post pointed out that I disagree with this and think the family is the best place for most children. If, however the people pushing for this DO believe that parents are incapable of educating their children and providing a better environment for the children, then maybe they should consider what I wrote above... (so it is not my personal feelings on the matter) I agree - many families do have both parents working - I added that at the bottom. I suppose then it becomes... if both parents are working then preschool becomes the best option - but this was not what w. as stated in the initial discussion. As for why it is just mothers I mentioned - the younger the child the more likely I am to refer to mothers rather than fathers. I do believe that genders are different and that children get different things from different gendered parents. Ideally children need both parents, can survive and even flourish with just one of either sex. And I'll never be a feminist - maybe in many ways I am a traditionalist or perhaps I just don't like labelling even myself - I just have opinions I like to express and questions I like to ask :) - they are my opinions just like everyone else has one on here :) I do not get easily offended either. Why does it bother you that I used the word mothers only? That is an interesting point about what parents are doing while their children are at preschool (if they are not working... if they are working) Should parents need a respite from their children? This is in and of itself an interesting question - I imagine again that it has to do with family dynamic changes since in the past I would imagine one would have had that "respite" by having family members step in to help and also providing the same services for families. I know that I have relied on friends to help and I have babysat for my own friends in order to create the community required, but most of the time my children were with me and there was very little respite and I miss them dreadfully now that my husband wants them in school. Again though - this is problem of relationships and of being able to meet each others needs and relying on government to meet everyone's needs when there is a big enough able-enough community to do this and possibly more successfully than government as it would be more local amongst people who cared more for each other. Idealistic... maybe... I'm a homeschooler at heart and I believe in individualisation which preschool cannot do in a way a mature parent with their child can. There is place for preschool but I wouldn't praise it as much as it seems to be praised in many countries. I think it is an option made to solve another problem - yes, its a solution, but couldn't we rather solve the initial problem.

My children have their own rooms and can go there to be alone or out into the backyard. My youngest loves being alone and spends hours in her room playing with her toys. My eldest hates being alone though she will happily walk to the shops alone - seems there needs to be a task involved. In general with my children though, I have found that they will either solve their own problems - as in find the space they need to be alone if that is what they need, or if a need is not being met and they cannot think how to meet it then their behaviour deteriorates, they may become withdrawn or more angry or irritable and then it is up to me to find out what it is and to fix it. I wouldn't make alone time a problem unless it genuinely is one.

I have a problem with universal preschool - it implies that all parents are not looking after their children properly. It goes against everything that homeschoolers homeschool for and it takes very small children away from the mothering they need (admittedly if the mothering is so poor that being with a teacher and 20+ other small children is better for the child, well then is it not the mothers we should be working with?) I find many governmental departments believe that agencies can do a better job than the family and unfortunately in this day and age the family has in many places fallen apart - instead of bashing family's and saying that children are better away from them, wouldn't it be better to try to build up the family unit - we all know that preschool and education itself is affected by the quality of the family that children come from (NOT the money in those families... NOT the education of those families... NOT the quality of the building they live in, but the relationships within that family) Is it not relationships that we should be working on? And if we take the children away we cannot work on the relationship - we know that social services does take children away to protect them - that means that the relationship has broken down so severely that it cannot be fixed... preschool cannot fix family relationship problems and therefore even kids in preschool who are affected by these bad relationships will not get the benefit of the programme. It would be wonderful if preschool could include the mothers and perhaps be used to teach the mothers how to provide and interact with their own children - that way the children would be being educated, looked after and the mothers/parents would be being trained and could be helped and the effect would be more far reaching. I do not know what to say about working mothers... this is another issue that is hard to address and is an individual family issue. Maybe they could have preschool classes on weekends even for these parents?

I could not use Saxon with my eldest child - it would drive us both crazy. If I had bought it I may try a few lessons further on, but in the end I know I would drop it and switch to something else. I imagine that my youngest child might like Saxon and do well with it, but if I used it with her I would have to stay out the way and let her do it alone because again, it would drive me crazy. But that is just me - I know it works really well for some families - teachers and children.

Mine are afterschooling at the moment and we still do Singapore Maths daily but now it is only for a brief period of time. When homeschooling we also did it daily, but I used a back-up curriculum too for more depth. I do not decide how much they will do but make sure they know the concepts - sometimes if we are stuck we do carry on (to something like time or geometry that is not related to what they were stuck on) and then I make sure I cycle back to what they did not understand or get another curriculum or method to teach it or a different set of manipulatives to try again. Sometimes I find just having had time for a new concept to sink in is enough and the work that was hard a few weeks earlier is suddenly done with ease. You are not stuck to a curriculum or to a certain lesson each day when homeschooling - you teach to your child and his/her needs. Good luck with the year and enjoy the homeschooling.

I agree that he needs to be sure what a complete sentence is and that he probably needs to go back to writing single sentences for a while. But, is he also reading back to you what he has written? My daughter, also 8.5 makes a lot of mistakes in her writing. Usually I make her leave it for a day and then the next day we go back to it - I get her to read the question or assignment again and then read her response out loud to me and circle any errors she finds and then edit it. I find she is able to see her own errors even though often she is unable to fix them without help (esp spelling errors), but she needs the gap between the effort of writing it all down and then having to be critical of the work that she found hard to do the day before. Sometimes we may take 3 days over it - fixing the errors the 2nd day by scribbling in the correction and rewriting on the third day where it is just copywork.

How many children do you have? It is exhausting and also boring to teach reading over and over again especially if using the same curriculum. How much phonics have you taught up to now - you say you have never taught from K but that does not mean you do not know how to do it. Why don't you just get some books for reading - maybe from a library where they are arranged from easy to more difficult readers or where you can ask for help. Pick a book and then teach it to your child and each day just work on reading - this is about as gentle as you can get, but it does mean that you need to know all the phonics yourself and be able to teach it (The Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading is great for teaching the parent even if you never use the book with the child). If you know what they should know and what comes next then you just point to the words your child is working on or should know and they read that and you read the rest - make sure the print size is big enough for a kindergartener and move from big to small print. You do need them to know the phonetic sounds of the alphabet before beginning books in this way though. If however you want a proper and just different curriculum there are numerous but we would need more details as justasque requested to advise properly. My younger daughter used a number of different things including Starfall, OPGTTR, Ladybird Keywords C books (the phonics books of a sight word reading series) and books I chose.

I know the Ladybird Sight Word Readers (Keywords Reading Scheme) is exactly that - it teaches the most common sight words used. The first book (book 1a) has only 16 words in it. They are British books so don't know about their availability in America. Jane Belk Moncure also writes a lot of books that can be used for very early reading using both sight and phonics. You can also try the Biscuit series of readers.

So he had the opportunity to make the right choice (and it seems there was a right choice - based on whose priorities?) and he made what the teacher considered the wrong choice. People manipulate each other all the time - advertising is made to manipulate people into making the choice wanted by the advertiser. The teacher needs to manipulate the situation better in order to get the children to make what he considers the "right choice." Then they can have an ethical discussion about which choice is the teachers priority and why the child's priorities are different. Its all part of a persuasive essay technique... except that when we put kids in the car we strap them into car seats - we do not argue, we do not have persuasive discussions with them, we do not even discuss that it is the law. We just tell them: this is what is best, this is what you must do. It is ok to have that attitude about many more things in life too. I think adults these days are often lazy. They do not want to take charge and be good leaders. It is good leaders that people follow... good leaders that lead people to make good decisions and sometimes by limiting other decisions. Quite frankly, maybe that teacher wants chaos and then he deserves it when it happens.

My girls aged 5 and 8 are at school til 15:00 every day and then spend 2 days a week at gymnastics for 2 hours. Afterschooling is difficult. I stopped my eldest doing any mathematics homework that was coming from the school and made her do Singapore 4a/b instead. I read SOTW4 to them both in the mornings before school while they eat breakfast - but even that only happens 2-3x a week. I read to them while they bath at night from a novel. I leave books in the car that they read to themselves on the way to gymnastics or on the way to school (even though it is a very short drive). My 5 year old does a page of Singapore 1 on top of homework scheduled by her school and the school has stopped scheduling reading for her so I pick books for her to read to me that will advance her reading level (she is reading chapter books, but still needs some help with books that are print-heavy or with smaller text. I choose the books I read to my children carefully and make sure they contain historical or scientific references or expand their vocabulary and then we also use google to look up any words we are unfamiliar with (usually cultural or historically influenced words). They joined our adult Bible Study the other night and listened very well and had advanced ideas on what they heard, so I was pleased with that too. I read a lot of news articles and let my eldest read ones that may interest her and that are not too scary and we discuss these issues. Afterschooling I guess is just making learning part of our now not homeschooling life... its not easy though. I heard someone once say we should wake in the morning and say: There is enough time... it doesn't always feel like it and it sure isn't the type of thing people are heard to say, but, when I remember to say it, it does make things easier somewhat...

Hope it all goes well. There is so much about school and children that is hard to predict. Just like with homeschooling where we have to constantly adjust, I think the same is true for schooling. My DD8 is now struggling more at school than she was initially - the first term it was new and fun, she was making new friends, finding her way around, adapting to class and lessons - but she learns fast and now school is boring and dull and she says she wastes too much time there and does not get to make the type of friendships she could as a homeschooler. My DD5 who started school when everyone else did is loving school even despite having no challenges - she is learning to give the teachers what they want and get ticks all over her pages without any effort. The teachers are expecting me to teach her at home, but why send her to school for hours and waste her best learning time and then have to actually school her in the afternoon? I have tried to keep an open mind, tried to look for the good in it, but this week have seen a teacher correct my child's work incorrectly (hospitle - really that is what the correction said), send home a comprehension about science that is scientifically inaccurate, not mark a large percentage of work which did contain errors (why are they doing it if no one ever hears what is correct?) and keep my child doing endless pages of the 3x table which she has known for a few years already... so now I am fed up and so is my child. I am hoping to find a way to persuade my husband to bring them home again but we might need to sit it out til the end of the year.

We emigrated to Australia in April this year and my husband requested that the children, who had been homeschooled up until then, start school in Australia in order to fit into the new society, obtain an accent and I am betting he wanted to know how they were doing since he has not had much involvement in their schooling. I think he also wanted me to start working and was worried about finances in a new country and with the huge expenses involved in migration. He is now in a good job, though I think it feels a bit lonely for him and the adaptation to a new country has been less easy for him than for me. I am working Fridays and some Saturdays only, but the children require day care on the Fridays as no one is available to pick them up when school closes and we have no close friends or family in this country. My children have not been IQ tested. My 5 year old started kindergarten (called pre-primary here) this year and was the most advanced in reading. She is now doing her eldest sister's year 3 (grade 3) mathematics homework as I do not see the point in letting my eldest do it and the younger one likes to. My 5 year old is happy at school - she likes doing show and tell, she tells me she wants "perfect" and her written reports contain simple sentences that are all correctly spelled and punctuated with no red pen on them but are not very exciting. When she wrote her cousin a letter at home and posted it to her we saw that she is capable of more. She, however likes having friends at school (she had only this year started to make friends in the homeschool groups we were attending, possibly based on her age and shyness), likes playing outside, likes moving to the computer lab and doing music with the grade 8s (they teach her class songs). My eldest enjoyed her first term when things were new and she was making friends. She liked the system they used for rewards and the fact that she could earn money by doing school jobs and spend it at the end of term. She liked going to more birthday parties than she did as a homeschooled child. This term, however, she is complaining. She has been moved up a class for mathematics but says it is still very boring. She says school is not teaching her anything. She hates the early rising time and that school takes so much of her day and that she cannot just sit and play with friends like she did for hours in the afternoons when we homeschooled. She wants more free time and she wants to waste her time learning nothing less frequently. I have tried talking to the teachers - multiple times in fact. The youngest comes home with no reading homework now and they expect I will fill in - and I do. But this leads to an even longer day for my tired 5 year old. I am also teaching her Maths though she still has to do maths homework from school which is beneath her ability and again this is eating into our short time. When I wrote two words she wanted to write in her weekend news on a piece of paper for her because I knew she would not be able to spell them but wanted to write them and spell them correctly, the teacher took the piece of paper away. I feel like I need to speak to the teachers daily to advocate for her since she is also having some adjustment issues with the stress of a new school and parents in new jobs etc The eldest is even worse - I looked at her books and her work is not even being corrected properly or often even looked at. The kids often mark their own work or it does not get marked or corrected. Her writing has improved since being at school and she knows how to write paragraphs (something I had not yet focused on in homeschooling). I would like to return to homeschooling and have been researching how to do so (since we are now in a new country with new laws), however my husband is less keen. He has not been involved at the school nor spoken to the teachers and I have asked that he come, but wondered if anyone had any ideas on ways to discuss what is genuinely in my children's and our family's best interests or steps that I could take before seeing teachers - would you recommend IQ testing at this point - would it help at all? Should I show the teachers the curriculum my children have been following at home? Any other ideas. Feeling very frustrated at this point. I suspect also that I would have to give up a job I have just begun to homeschool and I know my husband says that he thinks me working is good for me - I am not career driven. My days at work are fine, but not my priority. Earning money is always nice, but to be honest it is not essential in my eyes for our family right now - we are coping on one income for which I am very grateful. If you got through this, thank you :)

My DD, 8, started school in April following homeschooling - she started in grade 3 which was age-appropriate. Her Math is well ahead of where the school is teaching as is her reading and she did exceptionally well with an oral presentation she had to do last term. However, her spelling is behind and her writing well behind expectations. I warned the teacher that she may show ADHD tendencies - she is highly kinaesthetic and cannot sit still and appears not to be concentrating because of all the movement, however she is taking things in if she is moving - they allowed her to have blue tack/prestick/whatever it is called where you live with her at school and to play with it whenever she wants and I know she does not keep her feet still but is able to cope somewhat in class (there is a fair amount of movement in their school day). I was told today that she will be moved to grade 4 for mathematics and they will see how she copes - the math will probably still be too easy, but emotionally it will be an adjustment just to be with a different class and teacher so I will wait and see. I am afterschooling for history and geography and may bring in some science if she is not too tired. I have also adjusted our read-alouds to teach more. I am also still homeschooling math and until she reaches a challenge level at school I will continue to do so. My daughter was calling to return to homeschool recently although she enjoys school too and has made friends easily. Allow for adjustments when starting school and try to work with the school and get them to work with your child - I feel like my job has changed from homeschooler to advocate for my children and to be honest I prefer the role of teacher, but do appreciate that the school is trying.

*This post is more like a journal for me - to see where I am going which is why it is long - giving up homeschooling has been hard for me and not what I would have chosen and this post explores that from different angles - I am not asking for advice, though would love to hear others stories* Just an update: we have now finished their first term at school. Both did well, have settled and are happy. My eldest's teacher is giving her grade 4 math to work on after she has finished the grade 3 math and has suggested moving her to grade 4 for Math - this may not be enough, but it is better than nothing and I have been continuing at home. She is learning a new language as well which has needed some adapting to and having missed the first term at school her marks are fairly average in most content subjects since she was tested on work she had missed. My eldest herself is confused though - she does not know what she wants. She likes school and her friends, but misses homeschooling. She complains about too little time with her mother and missing friends back home and then gets excited by the fun activities at school. My youngest is performing very well in her class, but is starting to mess up her homework on purpose - with lots of giggles she purposely drew lines to incorrect pictures and even when the teacher told her: "If you do that, Mom won't let you fix it and then I will put big crosses on your work, do you want that?" My child who has always been a little well-behaved angel looked at her teacher, laughed and said: "Yes, that would be funny!" She is reading chapter books independently now though in class must read early phonics readers and read to children who cannot read. I am still able to work with her at home though so am less worried about her. Again she wants to be with her mother and hates leaving for school and yet is perfectly happy when I pick her up. My own heart aches over this. I miss homeschooling and I miss my children. I actually do not know what is best for them on any level - there are pros and cons to both and at least there is no bullying and the children are happy enough. Academically I think the school will help my eldest with her writing more than I might be able to, but will stunt her mathematics and reading enjoyment, she will learn a new language, but will learn less about science and history and probably geography but she will learn more than I can teach her about the country we are now in and its customs and holidays. They also get rewarded at school more than they would in my house which they both enjoy. I have chronic diseases and I while this was never a consideration when putting them back in school, the break it has given me has in some ways been good for me. Having some time to myself to read a book (and not about homeschooling, work or some such subject) and be by myself was something I had forgotten could happen. The house sure is cleaner... and I don't often boil the kettle anymore and forget to make the tea or coffee because I got interrupted... I start work next week part time though so maybe things will feel different again. I do however want my children challenged academically. I want them to enjoy learning and I want them to be able to struggle with problems. I want them to have some time to themselves - time to make their own decisions and learn to be by themselves - not having every action ordered for them time to manage their own time which I do not feel they get in school. Mostly though I miss the relationships - they have not disappeared, they are just more distant with less time and more uncertainty - I do not know what my kids are doing all the time, I do not always hear what upset them, I don't even know always what they did during the day and sometimes when they get home they don't want to tell me - they need some time to turn on the TV or just be (I guess like my husband does after being at work) and by the time they are ready to talk it is nearly bedtime. I don't know... if I could choose now, I would go back to homeschooling, but it will probably be wise to commit to finish the year before even considering that. My husband still wants them in school even though he knows even less about what they do there and didn't really know what they were doing in homeschooling either.

We emigrated and my husband decided that he no longer wanted me to homeschool our children so that they could integrate into the new country. My children have been homeschooled from the beginning and are now in grades 3 and kindergarten. They have settled into school well and made friends, but I am worried about a number of things and have even been advised to continue homeschooling math by my eldest daughter's teacher who says she will not be able to teach her at her level - they are doing double digit addition while mine was doing fractions. School is however a long day for both of them, we are still adapting to the emigration and everything new here including school and homework and even sleep patterns. I have left them for three weeks to adapt but feel that it is now time to start afterschooling - how do I fit this into an already tight schedule (my eldest is also doing gymnastics til quite late in the evening). I would love to do it all since that is what I was doing, but need to be realistic in my expectations.

With my elder daughter, we started LOF when she had gone through Horizons K and Singapore 1a. She had a good understanding of Math and we did 4-5 chapters of LOF a week in the beginning. By Honey and Ice Cream we slowed down a little and now in the Intermediate Books I have had to stop for months and then press on very slowly. It all depends on your child. My youngest has started LOF Apples, but does not yet have the background that the eldest had when she started so we are taking it much slower.

For creative writing I have my child write a piece that she wants to write. I use it to teach different styles of writing - at the beginning I told her to write anything she liked and then gradually moved to let her write what she wanted but as a friendly letter, or to "make up" a newspaper article, or to write an instructional piece. What I found was that the style of writing where she would lengthen the amount she wrote was usually poetry (maybe being able to start a new line after only a few words/syllables spurred her on. She still prefers to write short pieces though. At the same time I am trying to teach her how to do persuasive speeches. Again at a very basic level starting with: "Persuade your mother why you need a sweet straight after doing this speech. Give at least 3 reasons, have an introduction and an ending." The reward (if she persuades me) seems to spur her on to do a good job. The speeches must be longer than what she is writing in the pieces above. We also get her to lie on the floor and imagine a scene (I usually start these for her) and then describe it to me in as much detail as she can even if I ask specific questions during the exercise to help her adds to her descriptive vocabulary and ability to see/hear/feel and later write down these scenes. And then for handwriting stamina she is doing longer grammar worksheets as well as writing out full sentences for Math word problem answers, being taught how to write paragraphs in some of the critical thinking exercises she is doing which literally teach which sentences to write and give an adjustable example in the teaching. None of these get done everyday though, but she is probably penning at least 2-3 paragraphs a day (minimum) in the combined exercises above. The variety works for my child - she needs constant change and always has. I guess you have to decide what you want your child to accomplish and then find a way to do it that works for both of you.

Glad to hear it is working - I also moved my daughter to reading poetry aloud to me as it forced her to concentrate to get the rhythm correct which meant she automatically slowed down and read with better diction. Singing can also help with reading aloud because of the emphasis on pronunciation and correct diction as well as projecting one's voice so the listener can hear. My daughter still races through any silent reading she does.

My younger DD is in K5 this year. We continue to focus on reading - more advanced phonics, fluency and a gradual move to longer chapter books. Horizons K Handwriting Early spelling Early geography (joins her sister) Read alouds for literature, science and social sciences

I find SOTW4 has long passages with less of a story element than is typical of the books in the series. There is also a large amount of discussion around various forms of government and politics which a young child would be unlikely to have had any experience of - even if they understand the type of government their own country has it is very hard when faced with all these different large words to sort out exactly what is meant by it or its impact on specifically children in those countries (I say children because at their age this is what means something to them.) My DD8 does not appear bothered by the violent scenes unless they involve children or animals. I just read SOTW4 to her and then find other more exciting things to link the history to - for example we read about the Atacama Desert and the war between Chile, Bolivia and Peru and there was a recent article about NASA wanting to plant potatoes in the Atacama desert to simulate growing them on Mars - neither held huge interest for my daughter, but she can at least link the geography and the history with present issues and is therefore more likely to remember it. I do not have her summarize the passages - she shows enough interest in certain chapters to not worry if she forgets the rest for now.

I am using WWE3 with my elder child now and have also used the Most wonderful writings lessons ever. My DD likes to be creative and she also complains when being made to write. I wanted her to learn multiple forms of writing this year so told her she could write anything in a journal she uses twice a week and then I give her options of different styles of writing. When she chooses I teach the formatting and style and then she writes whatever she wants to. Her writing has improved with this practice and she is happier. I use what she produces to guide my own teaching. I will probably not use this method for a long time though - it is just what is working for us now.

My 3rd grader is doing SOTW4 now. My 5 year old is not listening along to it - I will start her with history next year on the next cycle through. I find despite the content that there are also longer chapters with much more politics in them and ways that governments run which would not hold my 5 year olds interest at all. My eldest has not enjoyed the sections in SOTW3 about child labourers so I will be sensitive when dealing with issues about either children or animals which concerns her more than adults fighting or killing each other right now. Since SOTW3 we have been linking with current history as there are many similarities between what people are doing today and bad or good decisions made in the past by various countries and governments. I do try to keep a distance between what is happening now in our own country and the world and what is happening in our own home and suburb to prevent fear.