Thanks guys, off to google some of these suggestions. Any more ideas?

I have decided we will introduce a board game night here in addition to playing games during school times. The theory at the moment is that I will play a game with one child and hubby will play with the other (while the baby hopefully SLEEPS) thus giving them both one-on-one time and dedicated educational games geared towards their current level. We have an advanced 5yo and we have plenty of games at her level and a little beyond ready to move onto but I am stuck for ideas for the gifted 3yo. Intellectually she is operating at about a 1st/2nd grade level in most areas however on the other hand she is still 3, it needs to be age and maturity appropriate (especially attention span wise). Any suggestions or advice? She loves games but at the minute all our age appropriate games are too easy and the next level are too long/not appealing to a 3yo. TIA

We are 3/4 through our K year (school year = calendar year) with a young ker. I started MUS primer 1 term into the year as I could not get my act together to start any earlier, she whizzed through it and finished the whole thing in about 10 weeks. I did not really want her to move that fast but I feel it is best to moe at the pace the kid sets however i did slow her down quite a bit by insisting on complete mastery of all concepts before moving on. we started alpha half way through the year, she is still moving fast through it but has slowed down a little, looks like it will take less than 2 terms to finish though so we will most likely be starting beta later on this year, sigh. In addition to MUS we do lots of math games and manipulative work and will be starting MM soon. Personally in your situation I would address his weak areas through games and fun manipulative activities but continue on with the MUS at the pace he sets. You never know, he may slow down further into the program or he may not but I feel that primer was a good solid basis for beginning alpha, if he whizzes through primer he should be ready for alpha once it is completed, however if at that time you decide he is not quite there yet just continue with the games and manipulative work until he is ready.

A friend's daughter is Lydia Louise (occasionally shortened to LuLu)

We generally do about 2 pages per day. She could easily do more except for all the writing.

A recent conversation with my 3.5yo DD DD: (sitting on floor in front of huge world map): mummy, where "souni da wabia"? (Saudi Arabia) Me: in the middle of the map DD: oh that's right, my found it now (points directly to Saudi Arabia on the map)! Now, where Madagascar... oh, my know that one (points straight to it)...

We are doing a year of world geography for our K year before starting on SOTW for first. My main inspiration is from galloping the globe which i find a great starting point for determining topic areas to examine for each country in addition to food and culture, famous people, science topics etc. Basically we pick a new country every 2 weeks, I look up GtG for ideas, check out a few HS blogs who have done world geography in the past, visit the local library and we dive right in. We are also using evan moore's beginning geography for more formal map work etc.

Recess! You cannot forget recess/break/whatever you want to call it. We start school at 9ish, do reading, math, phonics then i kick all the kids outside for a half hour active break. They are not permitted back in the house if they are still wiggly so sometimes break takes an hour just to get all the wiggles out. Secondly I have found that having a rough weekly outline is a complete sanity saver, something along the lines of monday do science , tuesday = geography etc. this is for the block after recess. I am usually not organised enough to have the work lined up ahead of time but I have recess time to get it sorted while the kids are outside. Thirdly, throwing in an informal game randomly somewhere in the day really helps with moods, keeps everyone guessing, and really helps cement their learning (I try to make it relevant to a recent lesson).

Personally i would not, we are all in love with the blocks, honestly they are wonderful, my kids are obsessed! My 5yo can do any math problem given to her with the blocks (she prefers not to use them for her MUS work but likes to make her own harder problems) and my 3yo will play with them for hours, she has known all her addition and subtraction facts within 10 since before she was 3 just from playing with those blocks. They are great, I have recommended friends who are not using MUS to get just the blocks as we all love them so much!

MUS seems to fit your criteria. We are in our K year and are using MUS, DD5 is loving it. She loves watching the DVD, loves the blocks (as does DD3) and I love that she can mostly work independently as this is her style (and the baby keeps me very busy). Our maths lessons look something like this: Watch DVD together on my computer All head to school room and get required blocks (and spares for the 3yo) Me (usually while feeding baby): go through first question to make sure she knows what it is asking. dd5: completes pages (we do between 1 and 3 per day depending on how quick/easy she finds them), all that is required of me is to suggest using the blocks when she gets stuck or nod whenever she writes down the correct answer. Simple

We have been galloping the globe. I planned formal math and reading and pretty much everything else is associated with our GtG, most of it interest led, lots of crafts and cooking. We are also using beginning geography.

We are starting next year, I am not going to plan it and am hoping that it will be fine to wing it, looks set up fine to get away with this. As with this year (galloping the globe) I will have a rough outline of what we will do each day so that I know in which direction roughly to wing each day lol, plan will look something like: monday read chapter and do narration questions, tuesday do mapping work, thursday do additional readings and research, friday do 1 fun activity.

We are GtG for K and just winging it. I have a 2 week rotating outline of what I want to cover GtG wise which is roughly : Week 1 M: intro to country and short read aloud (informative), find on map, related science topic (generally an animal or animal classification, habitat... something animal related) Tu: look up any new terms (continent, archipelago...), a fun activity generally from GtG, worksheet/lapbook component - I just decide what would be a good topic and google free sheets or lapbooks (homeschool share is great for these) Th: Read related story from children just like me and fill out a worksheet on the story (see homeschool creations for worksheet), another lapbook component F: Read aloud story/folk tale etc from that country (arounf the world in 80 tales or other books i find). Drawing lesson from Draw Write Now using relevant animal (we have volumes 7 and 8) Week 2 M: Short non-fiction reading (read aloud) about country, learn flag (and color in etc) and an interesting fact or 2. Science topic (my pick) Tu: story from or about country, lap book components, fun activities (games, short craft etc from that country) Th start assembling lapbook, mapping worksheet F craft related to country, finish assembly of lapbook Weekend (end of study): cooking food from country or go out for a meal... Basically I use this schedule roughly, I look at it the night before (or first thing in the morning, pre-planning is not my strong point) and throw together an activity covering that day's task/topic. At this level it is not hard, find a printable activity sheet, small amount of info and go for it, I just found I needed the structure of the plan to make sure i covered all aspects, we do not stick to it religiously but it is a good starting point to make sure we cover culture, mapping, terms, science, fun stuff, art and lapbooks... (she loves lapbooks as she can show her friends her finished project and her daddy). We are also doing ETC, OPGTR, MUS, beginning geography and lollipop logic to cover all our basic skills.

Lol, need a "like" button for that! So true though, I am just hoping I can stay one step ahead.

Oh I know, addition and subtraction is just way too easy to bother with too, sigh. She can work out any addition or subtraction problem in her head up to 2 digits and most 3 digit ones too (faster than most people could use a calculator), don't really know why we are bothering covering math at all at this stage except I want to make sure there are no gaps in her knowledge, guess I should have know better than to ask her hey :lol:

you ask your just turned 5yo to count the blocks by 2's and in a fit of rebellion she decides to count them in 4's instead (perfectly I might add) and then when asked again she counts them by 3's lol! I am thinking that whenever our math program teaches skip counting by 3's and 4's that will be a couple of easy lessons :lol: so far we have only covered 2's and 10's. BTW, after I asked her a few more times she finally (with eye roll and a good serving of attitude at getting her to do such a baby question) did count them perfectly by 2's, apparently that is just too easy to bother with.

We are using mind benders and LL1. I prefer LL as there is more variety, mind benders is the same type of activity, only slightly increasing in difficulty throughout the entire book. It is ok but just so repetitive.

We do not color the blocks, think we have done so for one lesson only and maybe even thin only one page? I would make her color them if she did not know what color each number was but she had those memorised before we even started using the program just through playing with the blocks for a few weeks before starting with the books. We also skip quite a few problems. If she still needs a bit more solidifying on a concept obviously I make her do all the review in that area but if she has it mastered completely we only do review questions in that area sporadically and skip the rest. I love that MUS has a lot of review but if you have the concept completley mastered there really is no need to review it all the time.

I am afraid I am on my way out the door so don't have time to check if there is a similar thread on here atm, please send me in the right direction if there is. I am wondering what people use for studying ancients in HS. I am starting SOTW with my littlies soon and was hoping to study ancient history alongside them but obviously in a little more depth. Is there a good ancinet history course for high school or adult self education anyone can recommend??? Idealy I would like it to line up with SOTW but no doubt that is asking way too much. Any suggestions? TIA

Thanks!!! Definitely :party: I love this place, it is wonderful to hear from other mothers with similar experiences. Sounds like this might be a perfectionist thing, she was not going to read until she was absolutely certain she had it mastered.

Typical! Absolutely typical! I have been sitting on this concern for a couple of months wondering if it was normal and if I should be worried, finally decided yesterday to to bite the bullet and ask for advice and opinions and what happens, TODAY SHE CAN READ!!! I kid you not, yesterday she could essentially not read a thing and today she can read any CVC word she is presented with (did not try anything else). Seriously, sometimes I am sure kids do these things just to worry us. I am guessing that it did just finally all click into place, been expecting it to happen for a while now but woohoo it finally happened, I have a reader!!!

No, I am just assuming that seeing as she can read equations etc in math and do mapping work with no issues than her vision is fine otherwise she would also have trouble with this too right? 5 Hikers, that is exactly what she is doing. She can sound out a word and write it correctly but cannot read back that same word later on. I have been wondering about dyslexia, especially seeing I am dyslexic. I think we will wait and see a little longer as she is still young but maybe consider getting her checked for dyslexia if the problems persist. Yes she really knows her letters well but does still mix up b and d frequently on paper, she always gets the letter right when writing it but may read a b as a d - however having said most of her friends also still mix up b and d and they are all reading to some extent. My friends have been told (by local teachers) that mixing up b and d at 5-6 years is common and they should grow out of it soon so I was assuming this was still ok?

Thanks guys. I will try not to worry and just keep waiting for it to finally click for her. As to spelling, she can spell with letter tiles and write words (and whole sentences), will come and show me what she has done and tell me what she has written/spelt from memory but if I ask her again a little later to read her words she can't. Her memory is fine, actually when we did a comprehension exercise the other day she whizzed through it and I had to look up the answers to check :blush: (sounds like I need to work on MY memory lol although maybe the baby and 3yo distracted me...). I am actually wondering if maybe she can read more than she lets on, she is an extremely bright kid and is not used to not knowing answers perfectly, maybe she is pretending to not know the answer just in case she is wrong? I have been doing a lot of work with her on blending sounds, I am sure it will happen. I do believe she is going really well with phonics and I am happy with what we are using (OPGTR and ETC for reading and phonics), I think it is just still having trouble blending the sounds. Strange that she has learned spelling and writing before reading though.

After some advice on the progress of my 5yo in regards to reading, well actually LA in general. She is only just 5 but based on her birthday she is officially in her first year of formal school in our area (just), school year is feb-december. I am not concerned that she is still a non-reader, she is only 3 months into "school" and is progressing well with phonics. She knows all her single sounds and most letter blends however she is just having trouble blending sounds, she can sound out individual components in a word but cannot yet blend them together to make sense of that word and read. Again, not really concerned about this yet, she is making good progress and I am sure she will be reading soon (at least I really hope so). However what strikes me as unusual is her spelling, she can spell. I mean seriously this kid can spell!!! You give her a word and she will spell it, she is really seriously good at spelling. Write down that same word or even ask her to read it back once she has spelt it and she has no idea, cannot read it AT ALL but spelt it perfectly. This strikes me as very unusual, how can you spell words you have no idea how to read? I can see what is happening, she is phonetically breaking down words into their sounds and then spelling each sound but somehow she cannot translate those individual sounds back into a complete word. Should I be concerned about this? I have been just waiting it out all year expecting something to finally click and for her to be able to read back her words but nope not yet. BTW, we have done NO work on spelling at all, she has just naturally picked it up herself although I do occasionally try teaching her reading through spelling, the theory being to teach through her strength but this doesn't seem to help either. She is also quite good at writing, she can compose a sentence well and can write it down, just not read it back, strange! I am beginning to wonder if maybe I should be concerned, not because she is getting behind or anything but because her reading ability is so far behind all her other skills. I would estimate her writing ability to be 1st-2nd level, spelling about the same, math 2nd grade level yet reading is non-existant; she can read maybe 10 words total two of which are "I" and "a" so not even really words at all lol. (yes she is very math minded, LOVES math and is very good at it!!!) Advice? Tips? Anyone else had a kid similar? Seriously, should I be concerned or is this just a strange quirk about her and nothing to worry about? TIA

Rather than skipping levels (I would be concerned that they would miss a few concepts that might hold them up in the next level) we are going through our programs faster than normal and skipping most the review. We are doing MUS and do 1 review page in most topics if I feel she has mastered the topics covered well or all if I feel she needs more work in an area. So far this calendar year we are working through MUS and a spiral curricula concurrently however MUS is our major focus, in 10 weeks we have covered the first 19 MUS lessons (2 sometimes 3 days per week on MUS) with almost complete mastery, only 1 topic covered so far that I feel she still needs review on. At this rate we will be completing an entire year of MUS in 15ish weeks start to finish so about 2 levels per year until she slows down and needs more work and review on concepts.