I've used SWR from the beginning with my dc and it hasn't been too intense even with littles running around (see siggy for ages :D). SWR is designed to be flexible so it is great for starting with young dc. I start working on learning the phonograms with preschoolers; SWR has a section on beginning with little ones. We focus our writing efforts on gross motor skills at first and fine motor skills using a salt box. Once they turn 5, we start cursive in earnest (though you could definitely start earlier if your dd is ready), the reference pages, and spelling lists. I start slow with K'ers only doing 10 words a week. Most of the enrichments we do involve activity since my boys tend toward the wiggly side. The phonogram fun packet is one of my favorites. My boys love the games and my preschoolers pick up the phonograms and even some of the rules in no time. I hope that helps. I'd be happy to answer any other questions you have about it.

Moving Comfort brand bras work great for me. They even provided plenty of support when I during the new nursing days after ds1 was born. That's sayin something. They are designed around band and cup size instead of just s, m, and l and offer a lot of support for those of us that need it. I buy them on sale so they run me around $35. Fiona is my favorite style and the colors are very pretty. I agree with the PP that it sounds good in theory. Unfortunately, my ddad's heart surgery is evidence to the contrary. He is a very thin guy who used to walk 10 miles a day at work until he retired. Retirement led to a sedentary life and 7 yrs later he had emergency heart surgery (He never gained weight due to an incredible metabolism). Now my retired mill-worker of a father owns a treadmill on orders from his doc. I don't think you have to workout to be healthy, but I do think our bodies need a certain amount of activity. :iagree: You don't have to spend a lot either. HEB had tops for $5 the other day. We actually had a morbidly obese woman in my yoga class this week and she looked good in her workout clothes. They fit but weren't too tight. I always feel more athletic in good workout clothes. I do not like jiggling:001_huh:.

:iagree: This is what worked for ds6. He must have a photographic and perfect auditory memory. It is really scary what he recalls. He taught himself to read very young but I started him with SWR phonograms at 4 and the full program at 5. That memory sure comes in handy when memorizing phonograms and spelling rules. No need for readers...Spalding-type programs get them reading real books without leveled readers.

I'd definitely start with a free program until you have a better idea of what you'll need. I dabbled with the free version of HST when my ds8 was a K'er. It was enough to show me that I didn't need a full program. My state doesn't require anything from me and most of my curriculum is do-the-next-thing. I do like to hyper-research and plan, but I've found that Donna Young's free printables plus the Pages and Numbers apps on my iPad do what I need. I'm still eyeing new programs but they are all just too involved for my use.

This is exactly what we do. My boys are all over the place as far as leveled curriculum. We love SL cores (history, geography, lit, readers, and Bible) and piece together the rest. I really don't tweak anything, we just finish things like readers and math programs faster; writing programs go slower. Having a spreadsheet with curriculum separated by subject helps me stay organized.

:iagree: SWR just doesn't take us very long. It might take 25-30 mins on new word days (Mon &Tues) but 15 mins the rest of the week. As your dc get better with the phonograms and spelling rules, sessions speed up. Even adding WWE and FLL, LA with my 3rd grader is not long at all. The key for my ds and retention is writing. He needs to be writing those words several times a week to make the connections to the phonograms and rules. I know this is connected with his learning style so dc can be different. I love the idea of the enrichment jar! I'm going to start working on that today. :iagree::iagree:

:iagree: Some people are looking for ways to discredit your homeschooling so I wouldn't discuss it with them. I also do not use a lot of technology during school because my boys get plenty of technology time outside of school. I do limit screen time but they don't live in a bubble. Even my baby recognizes the iPhone swipe and we don't own an iPhone. I will teach them to use a graphic calculator and appropriate computer programs (or will we just skip those and work with apps) in time. They love playing with my graphic calculator right now but it usually involves trying to see how a number they can get on the screen.

Ds8 (rising 3rd) could easily spell nothing but not cousin. He missed the u. He answered the other three easily also. He's known those since 1st grade and quite possibly K. My rising 1st grader knows 2 and 4. However, those depend on exposure and we love geography around here. Having maps on the wall goes along way. That's a pretty easy mental math question IMHO.

Be aware that this one only tests decoding so the results can be artificially high. My ds6 tests about 4 grade levels higher than his actual reading level. He can read the individual words but wouldn't be able to read and comprehend books at that level.

:hurray: It is such a fun program!

I mean the Singapore version of mental math, but that's what we use. It's more than making tens. That is just one of the methods taught in the program. I read that thread too and had the same realization you did. I never thought of drilling or recalling memorized facts as mental math.

I also enjoyed the video. I was US ps educated and never learned the butterfly method but my math education was a little different because I was in GT classes starting in 4th grade and had amazing teachers from 7th grade up. My dFIL is a college physics professor and is continually amazed at his students' lack of mathemathical knowledge. I like how the video highlighted how the problem gets magnified as the student progresses.

I don't preread for my ds anymore, either. He reads too much for me to keep up. Like others, I only let him read books or series from respected sources or books I read growing up. We do have some great discussions based on what he reads and I do read books he recommends. It's a fun, bonding activity for us. I'll probably start prereading heavily when he gets into young adult books. I'm totally out of my element there except for classics.

I'm doing the same thing with I Can So All Things and it is really fun! I don't stay ahead of him, though; we do it together. When I bought it, I thought ds and I would enjoy doing a fun subject together, and he likes having Mom in his art class. I've always wanted to learn some real techniques.

We keep ours jumbled in a bin. My boys don't have any trouble finding the rods due to the colors...even my colorblind one (the colors are bright enough for him to distinguish). I wouldn't have the patience to sort them when we're finished.

Hurray!! A lot of the 5 day books you can finish over the weekends. We've followed the schedule for Medicine News but the others we've finished quickly. I think I'll just read Pippi, A Little Princess, and Kildee House (last 2 were removed this year) when we get ahead of the regular read alouds. We tend to read a bit faster than IG speed. I'm so glad you like it. I'm also not a huge fan of the new 5 day changes but the rest of the changes more than make up for that.

It took me about half of this year to figure out the most efficient way for us. It worked out best for me to flip flop subjects. I would do SWR with my K'er while my 2nd grader did math. I would just stop to answer any of his questions. Then, I'd get the K'er going on math and would get all of my 2nd grader's LA subjects done since he works much faster. I don't combine History and Lit, but we had fun doing Latin and science together. I think the 1st/3rd combo will be easier since they both came improved so much in work ethic and independence this year. I don't think it would have been tough at all if I hadn't had an infant and toddler around. It was difficult to balance their needs with school this year.

:iagree: My boys love Roman numerals too and I think it's worthwhile to do them for the reasons PPs have pointed out. Studying them also demonstrated why we use Arabic numbers to my oldest. He was converting his addition problems to Roman numerals for awhile until it got pretty hard. Zero really is his hero now. :lol:

For me, Kindy is all about getting them reading and writing. Then, we throw in some fun stuff to keep it interesting...mostly great read alouds, art, and science experiments. They do math too, but it isn't my focus that year. Whatever gets done, gets done. We use SWR so the reading and writing is pretty intense but my boys have handled it really well and the program allows me flexibility to customize it. For instance, we often do a lot of moving during enrichments like jumping up stairs while quizzing phonograms and acting out action verbs. I don't really have a concrete place where I want them at the end of the year because the two I've taught were so different. Forming all of the lowercase letters and knowing all 70 phonograms are probably the most important to me.

I would say we're literature-based because that's what ties our components together, but I have a little different focus for each dc. My oldest is STEM focused because he is gifted in that area, likes it, and plows through material. My 2nd is Language Arts/Latin-focused just because he loves it so much. I anticipate he'll move onto fine arts at some point. I think boscopup brings up a good point that we don't know where these kiddos will end up (at least those of us with young ones) so I try to maintain some kind of balance. I just told a friend of mine that I will try to prepare my kids for an military academy/Ivy League type education just so I won't be limiting their options in the future.

I guess my point is that I prefer not to use formal reading curriculum with early readers, but use a Spalding-type program when they start K (at 5yo). SWR has been great for filling in gaps and building fluency. Any Spalding-type program would work similarly. We use SL reader packages alongside it. Before that, we work harder on writing prep (gross/fine motor skills) and lots of reading aloud. SWR has a section on starting with preschoolers which is helpful. I do make sure they have access to good books to read. My early reader started Dr. Seuss after he finished Bob Books. I'm not sure if that's a typical progression so YMMV.

My ds will finish both Fractins and Decimals while doing 4B. I was planning on doing Fractions with 4B and Decimals with 5A, but he blazed through Fractions. We'll do Elementary Physics next before heading into LOF PreAlgebra.

Yes, only answers not solutions. It's hard for me to wrap my head around how to solve them the Singapore way instead of using algebra sometimes too.

I have the old version and the answers are in the back.

I had a similar epiphany with WWE this year. I was sticking with it because I am not confident in my ability to teach writing and trust SWB. I still wasn't sure at the end of last year, but I knew I didn't want anything similar to how I learned or what my local ps does so I dug in my heels and started WWE 2. I have seen so much progress in the last few months with ds8 and I finally get it. Yahoo!! My original plan was to head over to Writing Tales after WWE 2 or 3 but now that WWS is out, I'll probably camp here trusting SWB.