I would not expect a child to figure this out on his own. My DD is much younger but I have insisted on correct spacing - sometimes she thinks I am pedantic - I make sure she writes the number of the problem in the margin with a dot next to it. If she uses the middle of the page she must rule a line down the middle of the page to act as this margin as numbers with dots that give the number of the problem can be confused with decimals later. She must keep all her numbers lined up (ones, tens, hundreds etc - it has taken a while but she now automatically self corrects). She must leave a full line between any problem she does. If answering a word problem she must now (I didn't used to expect this) write out a full sentence with the answer to show that she has answered the question. After a problem which required a lot of working out or diagrams or a word problem she should draw a line to show that the problem is finished. I will be honest - I went to a school that was totally pedantic about this and only now when I have seen errors in my child's work from setting things out incorrectly do I realise why they insisted on this from so early on. Teach him how to do it neatly - don't do it for him but explain why it should be done and be specific with instructions. By high school we were not being told how to set out our work, but the habit had been taught and we had few problems.

I have used both and then also include drawing boxes to teach how to do mental multiplication with larger numbers - to show that 12x4 is the same as 6x4x2 or 3x4x4. Skip counting helps with understanding multiplication and is also used later when dividing by larger numbers - we used to draw a table down the side of long division which was essentially skip counting in a much larger number (very often we just used multiple addition for this) to be able to work out how many times the dividend went into each section of the divisor. ___324_ _____|__47___ 47 | 15228 1 | 47 2 | 94 3 | 141 4 | 188 (usually continued til 9 x 47) In many ways multiplication is really just finding out how to play with the numbers in order to get the answer in the fastest and most accurate way. Learning multiplication facts does speed multiplication, but if one is proficient at playing with numbers then even without knowing all facts off by heart one should be able to get the answer for the facts very fast (my DD7 appears to know the facts, but if you watch her closely you will see that often she is using some method known only to her to work it out).

My children did OPGTR at 3 and 4 years of age which required some adjustments - I basically taught the lesson with only the word lists (which I wrote out in much bigger print) and then since they had some sight reading (which is why the phonics was added as I didn't want them to miss phonics totally) I would just point to words in picture books I was reading them or other early readers that fitted the sounds they had just learned and get them to sound them out. It was a very natural progression to fluent reading. I like that OPGTR is a single book that covers the phonics needed so is cost effective. I also like that the phonics is taught in a sensible order. I am not keen on pure phonics sentences myself (I know many people disagree here) but I find the sentences do not sound natural and that the sentence is created to fit the phonics instead of a meaningful sentence that can then have all its phonics taught - since the definition of reading is to derive meaning from text, I find it simpler for the author to have meant something when she/he wrote it and this is why I did not use the sentences in the book for reading practice.

Hunter, I am aware of severe pain - I know that many people have gone through it and appreciate hearing about it - isolation and loneliness is a form of poverty that I myself have been through. Financial poverty some of you here describe is also something our family went through (my DH was without a job for 20 months and I also had to pick up for the family). I do undertstand the pain. I also understand the pain when one's spouse is withdrawn and highly neglectful of his family and I know people who have been abused by their husbands physically. I also know that it is grace that got us through, grace that gets anyone in difficult circumstances through them and I know that as human beings it is our job to help those in need - either by helping financially, or by giving company or even just a smile to someone in the street. You are right - however there are dictionary definitions of poverty: the state or condition of having little or no money, goods, or means of support; condition of being poor. and this is not the first time this word has been used on here. I guess what poverty of any form (not just the dictionary definition of it) teaches us - it teaches us that we have need of community, it teaches us that we need relationships and that we are not a law unto ourselves and it also teaches us to be grateful and to make a plan and to ask for help. It teaches us that we can survive on very little and it teaches us that grace abounds. It is good that the question has been asked about what can be done when in poverty to educate your children - it shows a good sense of priorities. It is just that in the various forms of poverty you described the priorities will differ. I hope you do find a way to educate those children in the way you know works with limited resources. Without understanding what resources you have access to (because I do not live there) it is very hard to make suggestions.

I live in Africa (I know it is not a country - I live there :)) and these posts about poverty always make me wonder what posters consider poverty to be. For many people here poverty means you cannot get food on the table, you have no electricity at all ever (and certainly no access to the internet), water supply can be difficult and you go to town to find a job and land up with asthma from sleeping too close to a fire (because you used loaned money to get to town and cannot afford to get a trip home so you had to sleep outside in the cold) and then getting smoke inhalation from the fire and then you cannot get transport to a hospital and you have to hope you stop at the right place where someone can give you an asthma pump and a mug of water or else you may genuinely die. (Yes, I have seen this happen - luckily he did not die and got some help at least that day.) So if this was the definition of poverty then TWTM would be very very far from my thoughts. I would hope to learn how to get help, I would rely on people to teach me how to survive. I know they did an experiment with people who were well off - they told them they had to survive on food using only $2.30 for 3 days. The people who were wealthy did not understand how to do this - the things they bought would not have allowed them to survive and they also could not eat 3 meals a day which is how people in poverty live here anyway. People in poverty would not even have access to the library for loans that requires that you prove where you live and that you have a job so that you can pay fines if you take out books though you might be able to enter it and read there. If you look at Maslow's triangle then physiological needs (food, water, shelter) are what counts when in poverty, then safety, then love and belonging, then esteem (where eduction can play some role) and finally self actualisation. Are there ways to do TWTM more cheaply - yes of course there are. Is there a way to do it in true poverty - no because other needs will be too great and must be seen to first.

I am not sure those types of decisions can be made before you have seen how your child does in the school and the expectations of the school regarding homework and extra curricular activities. Schooling can be tiring for young children especially initially and homework can take up a large amount of time - I have seen some children at school in our country who are in grade 1 dealing with an hour and a half of homework in the evenings after their parents pick them up following extra curricular activities - often being picked up as late as 17:30. This is shocking but it does happen. I know a friend of mine with children in school would refuse to have her children do homework over the weekend as the child needed down time and a chance to play and rest (this was obviously when he was young). If there is time and your child is not tired and has had enough time to play then certainly add in what is necessary or what she wants to do, but plan it a couple of weeks after you see how the school runs.

I have stopped phonics now with my second grader who can read at a grade 12 level (although most of what she chooses to read is at a 4th or 5th grade level). I found she knows the phonics for the spelling too although we are still discussing things like -tion and -sion and French endings which means that most of the spelling where she gets it wrong has a sight component - what she writes is not phonetically incorrect and when she chooses the wrong spelling of a phonetic component she can be asked what other options for the same sound there are and she will get it correct then. I did spend some time teaching her the rules for doubling consonants and helping her split her words into syllables when spelling longer words. Basically what I would do at your child's level is listen to her read aloud regularly offering material that is easier and more difficult and keep an eye on her spelling, correcting any that have an incorrect phonetic aspect (where she has not heard the sounds correctly or has written a phoneme that does not make the sound of the word) and that should be enough.

I was 12 when I was diagnosed with type 1 diabetes - I had been extremely sick and was almost comatose by the time I entered hospital. I would not have survived much longer had they not picked it up then as I was in diabetic ketoacidosis and had been for some time. My mother dealt with what came, but I know later in my adult life she told me that she had felt desperate - that she had wondered about whether anyone would ever want to marry a type 1 diabetic and she felt I would never have grandchildren for her. I guess much of a parents concerns are about their child - those are the ones that get addressed and spoken about - I am worried about my child, how will he/she cope, what will this mean for her/his future, what should I be doing now to care for my child and give him/her the best life going forward. I think parents need to deal with these issues, many as they crop up and others with more thinking. However, what probably affects the parents is the loss of their own dreams, their own hopes. A limiting of their own freedom and an increase in responsibility. This is actually similar to what many children with the diagnoses must go through - learning to accept the limitations they have, to accept what they cannot change and the wisdom to change what they can. With children at some point you have to let go even if there is a serious diagnosis, but when the diagnosis comes is not the time to let go - that will probably take a lifetime. Many diagnoses need to be dealt with on a day by day basis - this is what I have today... this is what I can do about it, this I need to just accept. When it comes to one's partner - they are also dealing with the same things in their own way - my father handed it over to my mother. He never did quite understand the medication I was on or what could happen if things went wrong. I think his job was more to support my mother who was actually dealing with it and support her decisions (and mine as I got older). I don't think anyone in our family could answer whether my Dad was unfazed by my diagnosis or not - he didn't talk much and unless it was handed to him as his problem (if he needed to step in and help when I was low or whatever) then maybe it didn't faze him because he couldn't do anything. Denial is a protective mechanism, but he may also just be more accepting of things he cannot change. Try asking a man what he thinks can and should be done rather than how he feels about it - and then just listen and you may be able to see how he feels through actions, moods and changes in his behaviour - just don't read into it what isn't there - learn to let him go too - his own feelings are his responsibility, not yours - if he chooses to share them or not to is entirely up to him.

Mine appears to have had no need for downtime as a tot (no naps, no quiet play alone, just constantly wanting attention and a space to air her views and thoughts) and this is the first year (she is nearly 8 now) that she has needed some space and time to herself - she has spent the last while writing everything down in a journal and hides in her room to accomplish this. Even reading she did with people around - while driving in the car or standing on her head with someone else in the room. I think her personality dictates the need to be with people almost constantly, and I suspect as she grows older that, like I did as a child, she will bring her journal or books into the same room as someone else where there is company, but she can still have downtime and be busy with her own ideas. I am an introvert and need quiet time and time to read, but I still prefer to do so in the company of others who are also quiet or just getting on with their own things.

So far I have only liked BFSU and like others mentioned I do wish that it involved less prep time. BFSU2 is easier and more straight forward to use than the first book which is also a pity as many people have ditched it by then because of having to flip through the book so much, however the information is presented in a sequence that has made sure that she does not just have to believe what I tell her - she builds on her previous knowledge and experiments and makes conclusions. I do however wish that there was a separate book that could show some output of what she had learnt - I know many ask for no worksheets, but I have found it hard to have meaningful diagrams or sentences which my child can write down more to prove what we have learnt and also because when we did do it this was the one book she wanted to keep looking at and paging through - her Math work and language arts books did not excite her as much. I have found there are a large number of easy science books to read to my child, but wish they were more easily available and that the cost was less - we do not have a good library. Maybe a science curricula with reading passages in the style of some of these books would also be nice.

Any of the James Herriot books - this is almost a history now of veterinary science, but they are well written. David Taylor's wildlife vet books Pets, vets and Marty Howard (I have not read this book so no guarantees) A friend of the flock - tales of a country veterinarian by John McCormack (and others by the same author) Animal Doctors by Patricia Curtis The dolphin doctor by Sam H. Ridgway Boxer Rebellion and other Tales by Joel Goldman A snowflake in my hand by Samantha Mooney (fairly emotional content) Dr Nightingale books by Lydia Adamson Virginia Vail's Animal Inn Series Horseshoes, cowsocks and duckfeet by Baxter Black - very short stories, however aimed at an adult audience

1. On Call Back Mountain by Eve Bunting - My Side of the Mountain I prefer, but it is much longer and not a picture book 2. The little Island by Golden MacDonald - Jock's Island by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth is also worth looking at (longer) The island of the Skog by Steven Kellogg 3. Sing down the rain by Judi Morellon - Desert Dan by Elizabeth Jane Coatsworth is longer Underwear! by Mary Elise Monsell (yes, seriously this is a picture book about grasslands - and it is fun) Bringing the rain to Kapiti Plain by Verna Aardema 4. Brighty of the Grand Canyon The search for the Great Valley by Jim Razzi - yes this is a dinosaur book, but it discusses canyons and valleys and their differences Tiger Territory - A story of the Chitwan Valley by Ann Whitehead Nagda 5. Where the river begins by Thomas Locker

I think it might help if he understood that dividing leaves you with a smaller number and multiplying leaves you with a larger number - then he needs to know that you will have more cups than you would gallons and so on. This is definitely where manipulatives need to be used first though - has he poured and measured and wet the kitchen floor enough or is he just playing with figures in a book? You could try metric measurements first too - the concepts are exactly the same, but using 10/100/1000 is much easier to explain the concepts without him stressing about the dividing and multiplying which is a relatively new concept for a third grader. Hot lava Mama - you have 32 cups and want to change that to gallons - now you would need to divide by 16 cups/gallon 32 cups 16 cups 32 cups 1 gallon -------- divide by --------- which then gets changed to --------- x ---------- = 2 gallons 1 gallon 1 16 cups But if you know gallons hold more water than cups then you know you will have fewer gallon jars than you would need cups so you must divide and not multiply.

We were taught about abstract nouns at school - I'm 36 now. Also putting a "the" or "a/an" in front of it as a single concept helps. The patience required to... The love that... The honesty in that statement... You can also add adjectives to these words. I have eternal patience. His brutal honesty was evident - then it is clearer that they are nouns.

My eldest started gymnastics at 5 but only began competing this year at 7 years of age. My youngest started gymnastics at 3 years of age at the same gym where they have very age appropriate shorter classes and where it is kept fun with the preschoolers.

My DD struggled with some of the earlier dictations when she first started WWE2. I think part of it is learning how your child responds and what she needs from you - I now repeat the dictations as many times as needed. I will correct while she is writing if she makes a mistake since the idea is to hold a thought in your head to be able to write it down when the thought is your own and quite frankly who is to know if the person who wrote what I am dictating did not change their mind as they wrote? Because it is dictation she must write it down exactly as dictated, but I do not think one or two small errors (where the meaning remains the same) that I must correct will prevent her later from holding and writing down her own thoughts.

I read to my children during breakfast right before doing other subjects. Then if we are home for the day and not racing to other activities I will read a chapter at lunch time. In the evenings I read to both children separately as part of the bedtime routine.

My 4 year old also uses Starfall independently. When my eldest was young I used to give her reading instruction in passing - so make a card of a phonics sound I wanted her to learn, stick it on the wall and tell her what it said everytime we passed it together. If she told me what it said I knew she knew it, if she didn't then that was fine too. Then when reading aloud to her from picture books I would point to the sound in any word and say - oh there is our sound and sound out the word as though talking to myself. At this point my child was already reading fairly fluently but I wanted to be sure of the phonics. As far as independent activities go - looking at books, arts and crafts (at 4 my children still needed a lot of practice with cutting and sticking), building obstacle courses, my youngest is doing basic addition and subtraction independently now as she likes to write numbers, you could try a balance scale and just sit and play with her for a bit before leaving her to independence with it, listening to stories in a foreign language, get her making sandwiches alone perhaps - as you can see by this list, I prefer to keep the academics as a teaching exercise otherwise I have to hand my child over to technology and then other things get neglected. Both my children do get screen time and do watch plenty of educational things, but I try to balance this with other skills they need apart from the screen.

I got Singapore which is what we are using and are happy with.

I would let him do first grade curriculum at a kindergarten pace - I know my DD was reading at a 2nd grade level in K, doing Math on a 1st grade level and was doing basic copywork, however no activity at school took more than about 5-10 minutes unless she was enjoying a science experiment or if we happened to build a map in the mud outside then that could lead to play that lasted a long time. Despite the reading level, my DD could not read long pieces (she was too busy bouncing around) and I know we spent kindergarten using easier books to increase her stamina so she could read chapters - what happened was that she just started reading faster so that the same amount of time resulted in more words read til she was reading chapters and then after that she did increase her focus and read for a bit longer. My 4.5 year old will be moving into K next year and we will do a very similar thing as she is in many ways more advanced academically than her sister was, but will be starting K 6 months earlier than her sister did which will even things up, but needs lots of play and gross motor activities and some more speech therapy.

I liked the books: Let's go rock collecting and also The Magic school Bus inside the earth. Field trips to collect rocks are also fun. We have had various rocks and stones lying all over our house since we first touched this topic. Breaking rocks also always has appeal and working out which were easiest to break and why. Where I live we have what are known as Scratch Patches where children can go to collect precious stones and they do a quick tour too. Linking rock and soil studies can also lead to more experiments and you can look at sedimentation, erosion etc. Take them to the mouth of a river if you can too.

What is the value of toothpaste? Values, virtues...

It was tongue in cheek (do not take that seriously) - burny toothpaste just doesn't work for my 4.5 year old - my 7 year old is getting old enough now to start coping with it.

"But seriously, habit training is about cooercing a person to practice a virtue, right?" That is interesting - training my children to brush their teeth - I am cooercing them to be obedient, to be honest about it, to have acceptance of my reasoning, to be accountable, to have the virtue of hopefully beauty (beautiful teeth?), to be brave (especially if the toothpaste is burny), to be generally clean, to be committed (to brushing their teeth), to have confidence in being able to, to be courteous to the needs of others (by not having rotten teeth), to be diligent (and do the job properly), to have faith (in me as their mother), to be humble (to realise that they are not capable of having clean teeth without brushing them), to be moderate (neither over brush nor under brush their teeth), to be orderly (put the toothpaste and toothbrush where they belong, do things in the right order), to have punctuality (brush their teeth at the appointed time), to be reliable, to have restraint (not whining, not throwing or squeezing all the toothpaste out the tube), to trust, to be tolerant, to be wise and understanding.... Mmmm, maybe character training is simpler than it seems :) and habit training seems to be about way more than one virtue at a time.

We have been doing SOTW3 this year. Here are some of the books I remember: The gate in the wall The prince and the pauper A lion to guard us Fire in the Town My Place (about Australia through the ages) A picture book of Louis Braille Going to school in 1776 If you lived in colonial times Diary of an Early American Boy The great elephant chase Thanksgiving on Thursday Revolutionary War on Wednesday Louis XVI, Marie Antoinette and the French Revolution