I hope it is helpful!

One of the best parenting books I have read is "Siblings Without Rivalry" by the same authors who wrote "How To Talk So Kids Will Listen and Listen So Kids Will Talk." Both are amazing books that I keep on my shelf and reread every year.

I took almost 3 weeks off with my DS and when we started again it was as if he had been practicing the entire time! He had a huge jump in his reading! A similar thing happened with DD when she was learning to read. My kids sometimes just need a break for a few weeks. YMMV of course. We used Hooked on Phonics. Give yourself a break and start again in January.

My kids are similar ages with similar personalities. They've enjoyed most things we've tried and for a while I felt like I was jumping from one activity to another trying to find something they really love. Since they didn't take a special interest in anything, I chose things that interested me the most. Packing up the van with hockey gear, driving to practices, and sitting with a squirmy baby in a cold arena sounded like no fun to me. Packing the kids in the van in general is no fun for me so I try to choose activities I am motivated to take my kids to. It is a bonus if my kids can participate together. We have done this with swimming and it has been a sanity saver for me.

How do you change it yourself? I'm not seeing where to do that.

This is probably really basic but I wasn't sure how to add the curriculum I am using to my profile. Does that go in the signature?

I've had success with piano by number with my 3 year olds.

Of course I couldn't resist the temptation. That looks interesting, too!

I am not familiar with Beast Academy. Resisting the urge to google it. All I need is one more amazing math program....

Thanks for the reviews! I think we'll give Apples a try.

I think this is what we'll do. We plan to do math year round so I think it will work to do both MEP and Saxon. I think we'll get LOF Apples and see if DD likes it as a fun independent thing. If she likes it we'll get the others, too. Thanks!

I'm trying to decide if the LOF elementary books would be worth buying. In the search I have done on the books I've only found positive reviews. Is anyone out there disappointed with these books? I'm looking to use them as a supplement to Saxon 3.

Hmmm... MEP does look interesting. I think it would be a better approach than Math Mammoth. Do you think Saxon + MEP = overkill? I do want to go deeper with math, I just don't want to over do it with my 5 year old. I guess it wouldn't hurt to try. I've looked at all of the sample lessons of Life of Fred and that looks really promising, too. I'm sure DD would love it. She is an advanced reader and could probably work through those on her own with me just over her shoulder. I wonder if these books would give me the depth I'm looking for....

Oh good! My computer showed that there were 0 replies and 0 views. It suddenly jumped to 24 views so there must be some delay. Thanks for the response!

This is my first time posting so I don't know if it is working. Anyone out there?

Long time lurker, first time poster. My DD is a young K-er (Sept birthday) and we have been using Saxon math. We will be finishing grade 2 this year and I plan to start her in grade 3 this fall. I have had to skip through much of the program because it is so easy for her, otherwise we have both loved it! Math is the highlight of our day. I feel she has learned so much and we should just stick with it. However, there is a little voice in my head that says I need to challenge her more and maybe a program like Singapore would be more appropriate. Would it be wise to switch programs? If I decide NOT to switch programs, I know I don't want to accelerate her anymore because we will be starting the third grade text when she is just turning 6. I realize that Saxon is a slower pace than other programs but I feel we are getting closer to her ability level with the 3rd grade text. I would rather go deeper and supplement with another program. I'm not looking for more practice (we skip half the work as it is) I'm mainly looking for a new approach. I think doing a full program (like singapore) in addition to Saxon would be too much, though. I would prefer something fun like the Life of Fred elementary books but I'm not sure how deep those go. I've also considered the Math Mammoth blue series because I've heard it is similar to singapore and I can just print out and use the parts of it that I want. I've also considered something like Dreambox but it seems a little pricey and something reusable would be preferred. I'm willing to pay money for a program that we love and is useful but I'm not willing to pay money to jump around trying to find that program. This is just a supplement. Any suggestions?

My 4 year old has had a lot of success learning Russian with Rosetta Stone. It has an option of doing just listening and speaking so you don't need to worry about teaching complicated grammar or phonetics. I do have to sit with her and help her through each lesson, but it is so nice to have everything laid out for me. I learned to speak Russian after college and spent a couple of years in Russia but I still did't feel comfortable teaching her the language. Rosetta Stone has been the answer for us.