My DD7 now halfway through 2nd grade: What is your 1st grader like? She is outgoing, sweet and caring, but also has quite a temper and some anxiety at times She does chores? Carries her plate to the sink, makes her bed, feeds the fish and sometimes the dogs, makes herself and her younger sister a drink in the morning (sometimes), cleans up her toys when asked to (whines occassionally), other chores with her Mom's help. Reads x number of books a week? I have required reading for her but she also reads independently when a book interests her. She was a very early reader and was reading fluently in 1st grade. Converses a certain way? She does talk a lot, tells stories and enters discussions.She does change the way she talks depending on who she is talking to. Pursues hobbies? She loves playing outside, building things, prefers gross motor activities to fine motor ones, collects things, likes those loom bracelets, likes large scale projects. Initiates certain activities? She is the eldest, so initiates most things between her and her sister. She also likes to get her parents involved. Naps? Not since 2, if she does nap then she is sick. Has or does not have behavioral problems requiring discipline/correction? Rudeness mostly. She does try being outright defiant every now and then though it has improved greatly with swift discipline. Enjoys non-fiction or things you had not anticipated? She does like non-fiction and likes to quote facts from these books, loves mud, mess and insects and things not usually associated with a blonde little princess - her looks can be deceiving. Hours per day of interaction with you or read alouds? Read alouds for at least an hour and a half. The amount of time she spends with me has decreased slowly over the last year - she was with me all day at the beginning of first grade and now prefers to play at friends without me around and plays alone or with her sister much more now. Does any form of art? Goes through stages of wanting to draw or paint. Can she sing and hold a tune? She can sing and likes to, but can sort of hold a tune.

I used all the lists I could find - I used the whole of Sonlight's P3/4 curriculum with both my girls but since we all read a lot I needed far more books. I used BFIAR, FIAR, Sonlight's P3/4 and 4/5 curricula moving into their K books too (don't do this if you plan to use the full curriculum later) I also used the 1000 good books list (http://www.classical-homeschooling.org/celoop/1000.html) as well as Ambleside Online's year 0 and then anything else that my children wanted and were available. When it comes to read alouds you only need to limit based on your own availability and your child's listening ability and of course the availability of the books themselves. You can also just do a google search for good children's books and you should come up with many that are not listed above.

We are in the middle of our school year and right now I am excited about winter ending which is still a couple of months away. It is good to read about others excitement though as I need to re-look at our year and plan where to from here. My 4.5 year old is joining us a lot more now and while she is not due to start kindergarten next year (here they start kindergarten the year they turn 6) I think I am going to call her kindergarten and also allow her to attend any outside activities where she would have been allowed if she was in kindergarten (depending how strict they are). As far as chapter books for young children: my 4 year old is listening to some - she likes many of the books by Johanna Hurwitz, Rainbow Fairies (sigh), some Dick King Smith and Magic Tree House. I also read her some of the level 4 reading books (Step into reading and so on) which have short chapters and easy vocabulary - the more difficult vocabulary she gets through well chosen picture books. I will try Pippi Longstocking at some point with her as my eldest liked that book at this age.

I use SOTW very similarly to what you are describing - I read the chapter to my DD (now just half a chapter since we are in SOTW3) and then if I think a book is worth reading I may add it in to our read aloud section that I read her or set it as a book she must read, but very seldom at the same stage as the chapter we are reading. If I want them to specifically link things then I am more likely to read a short picture book to them that can be done in a day or get a colouring sheet to do or a map to colour, but we do not do this for every chapter and it will depend on the time we have and how we feel. For me a curriculum must fit my life and since I am also working some of the time, our holidays and school days can change rapidly and at short notice. I do not want to feel like a slave to a curriculum - it is there to help me, not to leave me feeling trapped.

FilltheHeart I agree with you, and put learning in the same category - I do need my child to have a good attitude to learning too even when it is not great fun. So just like I would not expect my child to whine and moan when sent to brush her teeth, I expect her to have a good attitude towards doing her school work. If she is whining about brushing her teeth and I know in general she has a good attitude about it then I can look for a reason - is she overtired, is she sick, is there some emotion she needs to talk about. And when it comes to learning if her attitude is right then why is she moaning now - can I teach her to say she is struggling with something, or that she would rather do something else, or that she feels tired - if she can verbalise what is going wrong rather than just whining about it that teaching will give her much greater skills for life later and enable problem solving. And sometimes it is just a case of you have to do this fun or not - just like those other chores that are not exciting.

If all learning should be fun then surely all of life should also be fun: - like taking small children grocery shopping - how exhilarating! - how about doing the dishes - what fun! - stopping at a stop street - makes my heart tingle! - and I just cannot WAIT to brush my teeth tonight and turn out the lights in the house before bed - thrilling! or even teaching my children every day - some days it is just not so much fun especially when I could do with another cup of coffee. Some days even when they are bouncing up and down with excitement about something I may not be finding it fun. And obviously it works in reverse too - while I may be so excited about teaching them how to write beautifully , even my spark of excitement is not always catching. It is a world view that we must all be successful and have fun each day and feel happy permanently. That would be living in a castle in the sky.

I tried a number of the above and found that just regular flashcards for a few minutes a day worked better than any curriculum or fun game - I suspect because there were less distractions and because the time taken to learn them was so quick each day that it could be done every day and that regular repetition helped.

We were taught short division first at school and then long division for dividing by two digit and greater numbers. My DD7 has been taught long division first and I will have to go back and teach her short division later - short division involves many mental steps which can lead to errors unless both multiplication and subtraction facts are very well known which is perhaps why it is usually taught with dividing by the smallest numbers first.

At the moment I am using Math for a Living Education with my 4 year old along with a number of other things - we use multiple curricula for Math and always have with my eldest.

I would pick a book your child is going to be very interested in. I gave the book My Side of the Mountain to a friend of mine whose son (also 5th grade) had had a lot of issues with reading and was still struggling at the beginning chapter level. It was sent with a set of books that he could use as readers (mostly much easier books). I told her the book was more than likely too difficult for her son, but that he should enjoy it. On seeing the books he picked that one and slogged through it alone. Since then he has more confidence in reading, but he needed a book that suited his personality and what he enjoyed. At this level it is more about what will hold a boy's interest than whether he can sound out every word with ease. You could also try some of the readers from Sonlight Core D/E - some of them are shorter such as The Matchlock Gun and may also hold more interest. Like MerryatHope I also think you should look at their other selections of readers.

My two will be K and 3rd next year (we school Jan-Dec). What are your plans beyond K - would you have him home for first or would you keep him in school? I am not sure that first and fourth would be any different as far as the distractions go and it might be better then to keep him home this year so that you can sort out how to run a homeschool with both of them there. If however you are thinking of having him in school all the time then you should send him now. My youngest does school now and it does not take long (I think she wishes it would take longer) I have had to teach both children not to interrupt my teaching time with the other as it is not only the youngest in my family who likes to do that. I want both my children finished by lunch time and with a good routine and reasonable breaks it is possible. Then they can do gymnastics in the afternoons or go to friends or the homeschool groups we attend. I need a day though where I do not leave the house for my own sanity so we try to fit that in too.

My girls are still young so they use pencils still. I have far too many school supplies lying around: pencils sharpeners erasers rulers felt tip pens - jumbo and normal crayons pencil crayons (though my kids like felt tip pens better, they sometimes go through the workbooks we are using and then we can't see what is on the next page) tempera paint - now I just replace whatever has been used up exercise books - unruled, normal lines and Irish lines glue scissors punch (I file loose scraps of paper for anything printed) stapler printer cartridges maths kit - set square, protractor, compass etc whiteboard markers paper for the printer - lots! stickers - one day perhaps my kids will not need/want these, but they like pretty face stickers in their books now and then

Maybe you just need to see homeschooling a bit like that "falling in love feeling" that eventually disappears in every relationship, settling into a more mature kind of love - so maybe its ok not to be really excited to get started as long as you are still doing a good job and getting your child well educated. Maybe that is part of maturing in the job as home educator. Then again, maybe you need to have a proper holiday from homeschooling and also from the planning involved in the homeschooling - sometimes absence makes the heart grow fonder. Do you ever have a chance to NOT think about homeschooling at all? Finally it sounds like you have had a rough year of things and whatever you are dealing with may also be affecting how you feel about the homeschooling and perhaps just life in general. Perhaps give yourself some space to deal with the after effects of whatever has been happening this year and allow yourself not to be excited if something else is crowding out that excitement. I hope you can find something that will make the homeschooling more exciting for you, but otherwise see this as another phase of life.

I made sure my DD understood the concept of multiplication as repeated addition first, though I did not teach skip counting for all the numbers. Then we did them in this order: 0, 1, 2, 10 (and 100 and 1000), 5, 3, 4, 6, 7, 8, 9 and finally 11 and 12 and I taught the cheat method for 9 immediately since she did understand. She did 4 as double and double again for a long time. Then having introduced everything I added in flashcards - she still worked these out rather than knowing them off by heart and still for 6x7 she says 36 + 6 = 42. I would rather she be able to work them out quickly with what she knows now than just drilling them. The ones I want her to know off by heart are the prime number facts (x2, x3, x5, x7, x11) as the rest can be very quickly worked out using these facts if she understands multiplication properly. Obviously she is still young and will have to get them all down in the end.

I could tell what type of learners mine were when they were 3 - the first is kinaesthetic and the second is visual. However, despite this I think all children should be taught using all methods and as preschoolers kinaesthetically as much as possible. Like my second child I am very much visual. Number correspondence comes with practice - can he count objects moving them as he counts? Does he understand that a number always relates to a quantity (and therefore kinaesthetic is very important here)? Can he name the numerals in order and out of order just like letters of the alphabet? Can he match a numeral with the correct number of items using numbers less than 5? There are a lot of skills he needs to order dogs by their numerals - if he is auditory then when counting objects he should always say the numbers aloud or you can play songs to help him or use rhymes, but quite frankly he should be seeing it, feeling it and hearing it at this age.

Like others here I would expect the double R to give problems. I and E can also cause trouble in early spellers, but if she is pronouncing the word correctly then I would expect a 9 year to have got that. Children often think long words are harder to spell than shorter words and then they need to be taught to spell the parts they can hear one sound at a time. Nonetheless English spelling can be a nightmare - here is a poem that proves it: Dearest creature in creation, Study English pronunciation. I will teach you in my verse Sounds like corpse, corps, horse, and worse. I will keep you, Suzy, busy, Make your head with heat grow dizzy. Tear in eye, your dress will tear. So shall I! Oh hear my prayer. Just compare heart, beard, and heard, Dies and diet, lord and word, Sword and sward, retain and Britain. (Mind the latter, how it's written.) Now I surely will not plague you With such words as plaque and ague. But be careful how you speak: Say break and steak, but bleak and streak; Cloven, oven, how and low, Script, receipt, show, poem, and toe. Hear me say, devoid of trickery, Daughter, laughter, and Terpsichore, Typhoid, measles, topsails, aisles, Exiles, similes, and reviles; Scholar, vicar, and cigar, Solar, mica, war and far; One, anemone, Balmoral, Kitchen, lichen, laundry, laurel; Gertrude, German, wind and mind, Scene, Melpomene, mankind. Billet does not rhyme with ballet, Bouquet, wallet, mallet, chalet. Blood and flood are not like food, Nor is mould like should and would. Viscous, viscount, load and broad, Toward, to forward, to reward. And your pronunciation's OK When you correctly say croquet, Rounded, wounded, grieve and sieve, Friend and fiend, alive and live. Ivy, privy, famous; clamour And enamour rhyme with hammer. River, rival, tomb, bomb, comb, Doll and roll and some and home. Stranger does not rhyme with anger, Neither does devour with clangour. Souls but foul, haunt but aunt, Font, front, wont, want, grand, and grant, Shoes, goes, does. Now first say finger, And then singer, ginger, linger, Real, zeal, mauve, gauze, gouge and gauge, Marriage, foliage, mirage, and age. Query does not rhyme with very, Nor does fury sound like bury. Dost, lost, post and doth, cloth, loth. Job, nob, bosom, transom, oath. Though the differences seem little, We say actual but victual. Refer does not rhyme with deafer. Foeffer does, and zephyr, heifer. Mint, pint, senate and sedate; Dull, bull, and George ate late. Scenic, Arabic, Pacific, Science, conscience, scientific. Liberty, library, heave and heaven, Rachel, ache, moustache, eleven. We say hallowed, but allowed, People, leopard, towed, but vowed. Mark the differences, moreover, Between mover, cover, clover; Leeches, breeches, wise, precise, Chalice, but police and lice; Camel, constable, unstable, Principle, disciple, label. Petal, panel, and canal, Wait, surprise, plait, promise, pal. Worm and storm, chaise, chaos, chair, Senator, spectator, mayor. Tour, but our and succour, four. Gas, alas, and Arkansas. Sea, idea, Korea, area, Psalm, Maria, but malaria. Youth, south, southern, cleanse and clean. Doctrine, turpentine, marine. Compare alien with Italian, Dandelion and battalion. Sally with ally, yea, ye, Eye, I, ay, aye, whey, and key. Say aver, but ever, fever, Neither, leisure, skein, deceiver. Heron, granary, canary. Crevice and device and aerie. Face, but preface, not efface. Phlegm, phlegmatic, ass, glass, bass. Large, but target, gin, give, verging, Ought, out, joust and scour, scourging. Ear, but earn and wear and tear Do not rhyme with here but ere. Seven is right, but so is even, Hyphen, roughen, nephew Stephen, Monkey, donkey, Turk and jerk, Ask, grasp, wasp, and cork and work. Pronunciation -- think of Psyche! Is a paling stout and spikey? Won't it make you lose your wits, Writing groats and saying grits? It's a dark abyss or tunnel: Strewn with stones, stowed, solace, gunwale, Islington and Isle of Wight, Housewife, verdict and indict. Finally, which rhymes with enough -- Though, through, plough, or dough, or cough? Hiccough has the sound of cup. My advice is to give up!!!

There is no way to know whether to use the voiced or unvoiced sound of TH without knowing what the word is and having heard it before - and this also goes for the short and long sounds of OO. Basically you sound it out using both versions and use the word that makes sense and fits with the vocabulary you have heard. Reading is about getting sense from text - if it doesn't make sense then you have not read it correctly. I think what you are seeing is normal. Because reading should make sense there is a natural tendency for some guessing. I allow it in my children when they are reading out loud to me because they tend to correct themselves when they realise it does not sound right - if they do not correct themselves then I read the sentence back to them a bit faster than they have read it, but using the same words/pronunciations that they used and then usually they hear their mistake and correct it. If not I ask: does that make sense? By having to correct things that do not make sense they usually stop guessing or realise the mistake even before getting to the end of the sentence. You could also find some very early phonics readers and get your child to practice what he has already learnt - that is why when they are older they should be hearing books read aloud to them above their own reading level, should have instructional reading at their level and should have reading below their level that is just for pleasure which will reinforce what has been taught.

I am using www.starfall.com - the version you pay for that has more phonics on it with my youngest and she loves it and has learnt a lot - however it does teach some sight words which my child already knew before starting the starfall phonics which may have made it easier for her as then she only had to concentrate on the phonics for that lesson instead of sight words also. She has also done some of OPGTR, I see Sam readers, a sight word programme and just reading early readers - so to be honest I believe that if one thing is not working then try something else, drop everything for a while and try again later. I found all the options and things I tried did work for my child - I know many people say that one curriculum did not work, but it is unlikely to be totally true - they usually do learn something and then stall - you try something else and they pick up some more. Sometimes just pointing things out to a child that age works just as well as a set curriculum until they are ready for more formal lessons. Reading lessons do not have to be formal - you can teach a basic concept very quickly during read aloud time and accomplish the same thing as 20 minutes of formal instruction.

For my 2nd grader: Reading (own choice + selected books), good read alouds (including some poetry and short stories as well as chapter books and non-fiction), spelling, narration and dictation (WWE2), own creative writing/writing letters, grammar and basic language skills. We do not do everything at once however and sometimes weeks will go by with no grammar while we do something else.

My 4.5 year old has an older sibling which does seem to have simplified things for me, though my younger is a perfectionist - I saw her throwing a tantrum that she was "no good" at throwing a frisbee today when her older sister was trying to teach her. She is reading very well and asks to read to me daily. My eldest started with certain K curricula (Horizons K) and Sonlight Grade 1 readers as well as other readers at 4.5, she was also doing brief copywork though we left WWE til later (my younger started handwriting even earlier than the elder had) but because of their age the lessons were kept exceptionally short and were abandoned if they didn't feel like it. We started LOF shortly before 6 though I plan on starting it with my youngest child in a few months time. Most of their learning however came from an enormous amount of read alouds. Because the eldest is so kinaesthetic she would often be standing on her head, rolling around and building with legos while I read to her and she somehow remembered most of it. We also did experiments and talked about descriptive passages asking her to describe what she was seeing, hearing, touching, tasing etc. My younger child is not kinaesthetic at all and in fact hates to touch anything she thinks may be messy so she prefers workbooks and readers and playing with duplo/lego blocks. So basically at this age you have to adapt to your child's personality - introduce her to things and then follow her lead. You can't go wrong. You can use curricula if you are careful to read your child's reaction to it and are happy to start and stop as needed.

With a 3 year old I would start with treasure maps - of their bedroom or a specific room in your house and then later of other rooms in your house and how they connect. Then I would take them around the block and point out other people's houses and how they look different, street signs and then the greater neighbourhood - schools and shops and any other public areas or buildings nearby. If they want to go somewhere draw a map of things they might see along the way and let them look out for those things. At 3 you can show a child which country they live in on a world map and they will remember it though probably not understand the concept - nonetheless it may still give them a good grounding later in life when they have the ability to connect things better. Make an experiment to explain volcanoes, show them streams and rivers, climb a hill, take them into a valley, talk about biomes if you go to different areas. At 3 you can introduce whatever you want to teach - they do not have to understand it fully, they do not even have to remember it - they are hearing new vocabulary, being introduced to how the world works and sharing some time with people who are important to them. I know Montessori introduces children to the big picture - the universe, the galaxies and the solar system. I tend to do both with my children - tell them about the large huge expanse in which we live and how small we really are while at the same time showing them the space they live in in greater detail.

You say your child is bored - what type of response would you like and what type of response are you getting that shows you he is bored? Is it only with reading or is it with anything you request of him? What interests him? Could you perhaps teach reading by getting him to read instructions for building something he is excited about? Make a menu that he has to read to be able to order food at meal times. Make reading useful for him - it seems he just isn't interested yet. Teach him the phonics as you go with the words that mean something to him. Finally go back to phonics programme (maybe one of the ones you have already chosen), pick a time limit that you will work on it per day (even if you do not finish the lesson) and tell your child that is what you are doing and that even if he is bored it will come to an end. Pick this amount of time carefully and if you plan on extending it at some point then let him know that at the beginning too. You can also tell him he must learn to read, and does he have any ideas how it could be more interesting? Maybe he is the type of child who wants to feel in control and to have choices. Sometimes it works to say: we have to do phonics today - here are two curricula you can choose from - Which would you like to do today? (again with the time limit). By 7 this doesn't always work with only 2 choices, but it is worth trying. I do not think this is a curriculum problem - all the curricula you have used and any we suggest now will work if they are applied correctly for your own child.

With my younger child I am using Leading Little Ones to God and with my older child I am using The Bible Made Easy for Kids which links Old Testament stories to the New Testament. I do Bible Study with both my children, though my elder could quite easily read her book alone.

My 7 year old made popcorn on the stove in a pot when my husband was meant to be watching her - he thought I had taught her and so while she did a good job, she did burn the counter top a bit by putting the pot there instead of on the other plate. That same day my 4 year old cut her hair - she fortunately did not do too bad a job of it (it was relatively easy to fix) and now wants to be a hairdresser. My 4 year old does use steak knives (under supervision this time) and my eldest (7) knows how to use all the equipment in the kitchen though she has been told to ask before doing so. We have taught them in theory (they can help us) to drain the pool and refill it, how to test it and how to add chemicals - the acid and chlorine remain out of their reach however. My eldest was cutting open uteri of dogs in a veterinary clinic at age 2.5 (the uterus was not attached to the dog anymore) and helping to stain blood smears - under supervision of course. They have helped to cut down trees and smaller bushes. They know a great deal about treating minor emergencies too and some major ones though again all supervised by an adult.

My 4 year old is also reading and I let her read whatever she likes - I can't exactly stop her since there are books all over our house of every level. Today when I wanted to read to her she decided to read it to me instead (and I was reading Leading Little Ones to God which is not exactly a beginner reader) and she read it with much greater ease than I expected. We are still doing phonics with her, but somehow she seems to have picked up a lot of it by herself in the last couple of months - definitely put a love for reading before the other aspects of reading as this love can carry them through learning the rest of it.