Same here. My K'er uses C-Rods almost every day but the Base 10 set is vital when we do need it. I also have the blue starter set that comes with a cube and flats.

I can't address your main question but I can discuss the SL readers part. Are you doing B now and C next year. If so, you can change the order of the readers in cores below D. The order doesn't matter at all. I let me ds pick which book he wants to read next. Once you get to Core D, it gets trickier but many SL'ers have the better reader doing the advanced readers. The advanced readers are interspersed among the regular readers so they shouldn't reading the same book most of the time. If they need to be reading the same book, you could just pick different times of the day for each to read it. I would not buy another set. As for your main question... :bigear: I just added my second student this year and it took me 3/4 of it to get into the scheduling groove especially with a 3yo and baby running around. I don't know how it's going to work when my current 3yo starts Kindy and I have a different 3yo left to his own devices. I'm already looking for some writing and vocab that my oldest can work on independently while I work one-on-one with my 6yo next year.

I use the US Ed. I would recommend the Textbook, Workbook, HIG, and CWP. I am mathy and find the HIG useful and the mental math exercises necessary. The answers to the exercises and mental math sheets are in the HIG but I haven't needed them for the workbook through 4A. I do use the answer keys for the mental math sheets. Ds' mental math is better than mine. I also think CWP is a key component to the program. I also use the IPs and like them a lot but I don't think they are necessary. If your ds likes math and would enjoy some enrichment, I'd recommend it.

:iagree: Miquon could be too if you can contain the rods. We keep ours in a container with a lid (think baby proof) and would have no problem taking it to Grandma's. Singapore comes with us to Bible study every week, the park, and has even been to the pool.

I'm interested in opinions on this... I haven't found a reason to add anything formal. My boys take golf and swimming lessons and play on basketball and soccer teams at different times throughout the year. We will probably start Crossfit Kids (Dh is a Crossfit coach) and/or tennis this summer since ds8 has been begging to do both. Overall, we're a VERY active family. Dh and I are very interested in nutritional eating and teach the dc about it too. Ds8 is pretty picky so he gets daily lessons in nutrition :D. I can't remember anything important I learned in PE class that is missing from our lifestyle. I have looked at Homeschool Fitness and nothing jumped out at me, but I'd like to know if there's something I'm missing.

They are not necessary. Both of my olders learned to read just fine without them. Their value would probably depend on the method and program used. We didn't use basal readers either.

Yes! I saw it this morning in my e-mail. My 6yo will be so excited about this. He loves SSL and SSL2 will be perfect for him. Ds8 is moving on to PL but I'm sure he'll do this right along with his brother.

My oldest will be going the AOPS route starting with PreAlgebra. My others may not do that (way too soon to tell). Russian Math 6 might be an option for them or NEM.

I use the HIGs for 2A and up. I'm a very mathy mom and they are quite useful to me. I usually glance over the info for each lesson to make sure I've got it covered. Sometimes it explains concepts in a way I haven't thought of or presents review material that isn't in the text. We also do all of the mental math exercises.

Yep, that's exactly what I did except I tend not to set problems like that up in algebraic form. It looks like a Singapore IP problem and the kiddo would be expected to solve it without algebra. Same thing but without the x. After 3 years of CWP, my brain is starting to catch on. I'm an algebra/calculus tutor so that's a big thing for me.

You're welcome. It looks like a Sngapore IP problem :D

I think this is just one of those preference things. I don't have to report anything or keep track of hours or days so it doesn't matter what I count as school. My 2nd grader has a habit of reading our read-alouds to himself at bedtime because he can't wait to find out what happens and has to have something to read at all times. I don't count any of that reading as school even though they are "schoolbooks" because it's what he does in his free time. He also does snap circuits, watches birds, and devours Penrose in his free time which isn't counted as school here, either. If I had to report, that would probably change, but for now, those are just things he does for fun.

The difference of 2/3 and 1/4 some number needs to equal 20. 2/3-1/4=5/12 So 5/12 of the number is 20 20 is 5/12 of 48 Checking work: 2/3 of 48 is 32, 1/4 of 48 is 12. 32-12=20 so 48 is correct. Hope that helps.

Oooh, I would be interested in this as well. Where have you found scattered ones?

Looks good to me. Ours was a little heavier last year but it looks like you've got everything covered. Here's the plan for next year with my 1st grader: 1 lesson Singapore PM 1 lesson Horizons SWR McCall Harby (2x/week) Read SL Readers Grade 3 Listen to Mom read SL A Do Noeo Physics 1 with Mom and ds8 1 lesson FLL (2-3x/week) 1 lesson WWE (3x/ week) 1 elective (rotates through art, logic, geography, and Latin) This is basically what we I did last year with my 1st grader. It wasn't too much. BTW, I'm definitely buying that Lego calendar for next year. Love it!

I wonder if the "universities," "colleges," and "academies" are more academic oriented. Here we have a lot of Mother's Day Out programs which a lot consider preschool but are very play-based. We send our 4yos to a "Kid's Day Out" program because they have awesome in-house field trips and it is a fun year bore starting Kinder at home. We actually attend the activities every year because the director is big on supporting homeschooling families and welcomes all of my kids whether we have one enrolled or not.

You mean Tinker Toys are for more than building weapons?? :lol: My boys will probably like this. Thanks!

I would definitely drop a lot of extras (at least formally) and add handwriting. My only goals for K is to get them reading and forming letters correctly. I didn't even use a formal handwriting program for manuscript my first time around. I taught proper formation and then we practiced. Now that I switched to cursive in K, I use Cursive First. I do add in lot of extras K year but keep them in informal. Geography sounds like a great focus to keep things fun and a great set up for starting history in 1st.

I agree with you and there is a much different vibe here in Tx. I'm wondering if community expectations are a factor contributing to the heated preschoolers forum thread. I'm sure there are many more, though. It was strange to me how unacceptable my choice was among my circle of moms.

:iagree: I don't have any problem with calling my pre-school-aged child a preschooler. I don't really understand the controversy with the term. I will say that when I lived in the Bay Area, I was often questioned because I was the only one not sending my 2 yr old to preschool. They couldn't understand my decision to keep him home (which didn't have anything to do with homeschooling). Here, in TX, we know many families who keep their preschoolers at home and send them off to PS or private K. A lot send their 4 yos but not all, and it is uncommon for 2yos to attend unless it is daycare.

:iagree: I used EB with my oldest and I didn't like it at all. I felt there was a big gap between EB and PM 1A and several activities that weren't useful. I used EM with my 2nd ds and liked it a lot. It prepared him for 1A and he enjoyed it.

BTW, I'm an Oregonian living in Tx, too! Welcome to the state. It's very different than the PNW but I've learned to appreciate it.

There isn't any good citizenship curriculum. That is just one of the subjects you are required to teach. How you teach it is entirely up to you; no one will ask. In Tx, hs'ers are considered a private school and are unregulated by the state.

We do a lesson each of Singapore PM and Horizons plus mental math and IP each day, Mon-Thurs. Fridays, we do Miquon, LOF, and Challenge math. Once we finish a whole PM level (A&B), we work through CWP for about a month while finishing Horizons and IP. I don't try to line anything up. Horizons is just for review and the concepts tend to lag behind Singapore. I allow the boys to pick whatever they want to do in Miquon each week.

This is timely for me :) I just wrote a blog post about this just today. I really like WWE but was always planning on using WT afterwards. In fact, I only started WWE to pass the time until D-Man was ready for WT. Now that WWS is out, it changes everything. The problem is that I'm having trouble letting go of WT. If all 4 levels of WT were out, that would be one thing but WWS just makes too much sense. I'm off to look at the samples again (which I really liked the first time through). I did this last year using Core A/B read alouds for WWE1. It worked well as SWB is pretty detailed in the text. It did take a lot of time trying to find passages that lined up with her focus for each week. This year, I decided to just buy the WWE2 PDF and be done with it. I also bought the WWE1 PDF for Sweet-C since he'll be ready for it soon. The funny thing about the WWE2 passages is that we've read a lot of them through our SL cores over the last 3 years. We'll probably be able to fit in the others sometime this year.