Did you consider providing enrichment material for your DD in addition to the piano curriculum you have? My son is very excited to learn a lot of his favorite tunes on his own time and this is on top of the daily practice. I go on amazon periodically and get him fun music sheets like Star Wars, Harry Potter and Disney movies. I also get him DVDs about composers to watch periodically. They seem to spark his interest a lot.

We left our previous school and enrolled in a school that meets my child's needs better this year for 1st grade. Last week I got 2 emails from the old school soliciting donations and volunteer time for organizing and running their Fall festival.

I am about to place an order for MCT Island level books. My son is 6 years old and he will start on this next year. I want to order MCT Island level right now because it gives me time to go through the books and prepare a lesson plan. I would love to keep the list of books to the minimum to keep costs low. From reading a multitude of posts on this forum and following advise from people on only using the TM for certain things, here is my tentative order list. I would like to know if I can get away with this list. Can I please get some advise on what I am missing from this list or if something is not really necessary? Grammar Island. Teacher Manual - 7992 Sentence Island Teacher Book - 6690 Practice Island, One Hundred Four-level Analysis Sentences: Student Workbook - 6805 Practice Island, One Hundred Four-level Analysis Sentences: Teacher Manual - 6812 Music Of the Hemispheres, Teacher Manual - 6570 Building Language: Teacher Manual - 585X Thank you!

You know what, I only use Black for my child to work with and Red for me to correct with - never use the colored ones. So, when I said Expo brand markers, I really mean the Balck and the Red ones. That could be the reason why my RR sheet protectors are clean when I use the alcohol spray to wipe them.

I hate play, pretend play and I loathe board games and jigsaw puzzles. And I detest any type of wrestling, roughhousing or horseplay. But, since I am the primary caretaker and the parent responsible for teaching my child, he gets a ton of personal attention from me. So, when I refuse, I let my child know that there is no need to feel rejected because I had already spent a ton of time on him. I usually offer to read or supervise an art project (I am not arty or crafty and I only supervise such things) or take my child out to the supermarket or park or farm stand if my child persists on asking me to play. But, my husband more than makes up for my lack of play - he plays with legos with my son, they have a chess game most nights and involves DS in physical play and pretend play every day. So, if you can find someone else to play with your child, that might be a win-win situation.

Thanks Korrale and Elizabeth! I did not know about these resources before - I am just used to the teachers at his school assigning an alphabetical level which did not make sense to me. I will use these links to determine the reading level of my son.

:iagree: I use those dry erase pockets from RR and a spray bottle of rubbing alcohol (isopropyl alcohol from pharmacy, Target etc) and Expo brand dry erase markers. This combination works like a charm every time for us. I would avoid using glass in a house full of little ones, if I can.

Thanks a lot. I always wondered how they both differed but have not gotten around to reading both their methods yet.

I would like to determine what the reading level of my child is. I am trying to do this because a certain level will get him into a program run locally by a group in my neighborhood and they will accept an informal assessment done by the parent. My child is reading the Droon series currently and he has read a lot of the Magic Tree House and the Geronimo Stilton books. He is 6 years old and likes mostly adventure series. Is there a website where one can enter the series/titles of the books to check what the reading level of those books are?

In my DS's school, they do this because the lunch hall can only accoomodate X number of kids at the same time. So, they schedule lunch for each grade for a particular timeslot and then rotate all the grades through the lunch hall from 11:00 AM - 12:30. Since DS is in a private school, they have "lunch monitoring staff" who walk around reminding the kids to eat their lunch quickly, talk less during lunch and take bigger bites of food so that they keep to the schedule. My DS loves this because he couldn't care less about eating and the earlier he finishes, the more time he gets for free play which he highly aniticpates every day! I can see how it is a big problem for others with kids who are slow eaters because I am a slow eater myslef and get really annoyed when people push me to eat fast. I am hearing that more and more PS are adopting this policy of fixing a certain time for certain grades to eat lunch.

BS in Electrical Engineering and have worked on designing computer systems for over 15 years. DH has a BS in Electrical Engineering and an MS in Instrumentation and Robotics Engineering. He works in the same field as me. We both afterschool our only child.

sissified??? OhElizabeth - that was uncalled for. My neice is a 5 year old girl whose handwriting is almost like an adult's. And here is someting for you to consider - she is physically very frail from the time of birth, hardly does any extracurriculars that are physical in nature (she was born a preemie with many health issues and all of them have not gone away), is very weak physically and is either reading a book, playing boardgames or watching TV (never went to playschool or preschool, so no active playtime), sits out PE in K. And her handwriting is better than mine and she can write pages in one go. She has tiny hands and no big muscle mass and her core, hands and arms are NOT strong. She just writes and is happy to do so. I bring this example so that you can understand that boys and girls have different attitudes to writing and core strength is not the foremost issue where writing is concerned. It is more about motor control and coordination and a "tendency" to do a task. And if being "sissified" stops boys from writing - what about the girls who write so well and have lesser muscle and core strength than the "so called sissified" boys??

My son HATES writing. He is 6 years old now. At 4, his preschool teacher told me that to get him to write his name was like pulling teeth. His fine motor skills are very advanced - he builds legos sets meant for 10-12 year olds and plays the piano for the 2nd year running at an intermediate level. Yet, writing, coloring and tying shoe laces are his nemesis. And, most little boys he knows and goes to school with hate writing (though a few love coloring). Heigh Ho has a good point - DS is really fast in doing everything and gets frustrated when things slow him down - he cannot write at lightning speed and hence does not want to try. But, to his credit, he is willing to try now and puts in an effort as opposed to refusing to hold a pencil 2 years ago.

I moved my 6 year old to private school from public school - what helped was taking a classroom tour with my child, a small conversation with the teachers about what the routines were like and the teacher showing us all the curriculum choices for the year. You might want to check with the school if it was possible to meet with her teacher before school opens. That might alleviate some of the anxiety. Good luck.

Just wanted to add that we have been doing Code Cracker with 6 yo DS for the past few days and it is really easy for him. He loves it and keeps asking to do one more chapter of it. We will finish it a lot sooner than I anticipated!

I use the "Reusable Dry Erase Pockets" from RR (also availbale on amazon, I think). These can hold a thin workbook easily. I would not laminate Miquon (multiple books) - takes too much time & effort. Dry erase pockets: https://www.rainbowresource.com/prodlist.php?subject=1&category=9055

Thanks for pointing that out, mommymilkies. Yes, we are interested in Ancient Greek and not Koine Greek and the more secular the program, the better it is for us. Which is why I am looking at GP Greek which is one of the very few Ancient Greek resources available for younger kids. For now, I will start on the Code Cracker and then see how easy the progression is.

Thanks for all the replies! I already ordered the Code Cracker. I will now proceed with it when it arrives. I will definitely look into the Hupogrammon book and Hey Andrew books - good to know that we need not start Hey Andrew at Level 1. I am not sure that I will do the Song School Greek curriculum as I want to try a different format of learning with Greek (we use SSL for latin already). Laura, thanks for sharing your child's experiences with GP Greek. I also note that there is a yahoo group for them from your signature, I will be checking that out too.I will definitely wait until 7-8 years old before starting GP Greek.

We are a family that is guilty of overscheduling and then driving ourselves nuts in order to keep up the crazy schedules. But, our situation is unique - my DS had ultra high energy and has great difficulty in falling asleep if he does not burn off his energy. Our pediatrician suggested that we enroll in him 2-3 sports in a week to burn off his energy. Since swimming is non-negotiable, he has been going swimming to a year around swim program since he was a baby (swims 2 evenings a week). We do TKD at his request (3 evenings a week, some of them are sparring classes). And funnily enough, this strategy of tiring him out works for him - his energy which is super high in the mornings is flagging by bedtime and he is able to sleep longer because of it. For the weekends, DS goes to piano and chess classes. Piano more so because music is non-negotiable for us. Chess because my DH wants him in chess and it is a fairly stressfree activity for us.

My 6 year old has finished SLL 1 and is starting SLL 2 for Latin. We plan to do Minimus after that. He asked me to get him a Greek curriculum so that he could do it once a week for fun because he "really" wants to learn it. I was thinking of getting him the Greek Alphabet Code Cracker so that he could finish it this year and then moving him on to Galore Park Ancient Greek when he is 7 or 8 years old (with me learning alongside him). Is this a good choice of curriculum for someone who wants the child to learn Ancient Greek eventually? I read several posts where the child is 9-13 years old when they started learning Greek. Is the age level of my child appropriate for starting off with Code Cracker? (he is an advanced reader and can handle chapter books and we plan to progress slowly, anyway). Or should I just shelve Greek for now and get back to it when DS is older?

I have a son similar to yours, just younger. DS has "Perfectionism" issues - which is what makes him melt down if he faces something that does not come easily - because he is used to things coming easily. These kids expect things to be easy because they are advanced and the concept of working hard to solve problems that are beyond their comfort zone frustrated them. I enrolled him in piano and martial arts which teach him the habit of "practicing" to get better incrementally when the difficulty level goes up. I posted on another forum here and was told to "bump up" the difficulty level of his academic work to keep him engaged and thereby reducing the "silly" mistakes. My child is also highly over-confident and makes careless mistakes every time we work on math - I try to preview and skim through very advanced material in his favorite subjects and teach him that the sky is the limit to what one can learn and knowing more than his peers at school does not make him an expert in any sense. I also tell him patiently to proof-read his answers every time and then point out how he missed big mistakes in his hurry to finish work and go off to play. This is a work in progress and I suspect that there is no quick fix for this. Good luck.

Thanks for the post. Never heard of it. But am intrigued enough to attend the "open house" and "public events" in 2014 even though my son is a little on the young side for Proof School! If I ever attend their open house event, I will be sure to post on this forum.

Thanks all for such thoughtful responses! Just to clarify, my DS will start SM level 3A for afterschooling and he will start 1st grade next week at a private school that uses Saxon. The reason I have so many math curicula is that I love math :) And my child's PS was not teaching much by way of math for the K year. And I feel that looking at something from different angles help form a better picture of the concept in the child's mind. Our pattern of afterschooling has been to spend 25 minutes in the evening on math (usually SM and the bunch of books published by SM for each level) and on Fridays we spend time on either MEP or Fred or Miquon just for fun. I even let my child verbally work through problems as it is a lot faster for him and I scribe for him if he had a long day at school. SM has become our main spine and the others are now being treated as "enrichment" curriculum just because of the lack of time. As some of you have pointed out, a lot of the math at elementary level is a step up from a similar thing learned in an earlier grade - e.g. 2 digit subtraction is similar to 3 digit subtraction etc. My child is learning math ahead of time because he can handle it and likes to work on it. But, because of my anxiety in not creating knowledge gaps, I have been plodding along slowly reinforcing concepts using many different approaches etc. I think that I need to just use SM workbook, CWP and save the IP book for ay topics that might need reinforcement. i like how some of you pre-test or watch if your child "gets" a concept before deciding to skip or stay on a topic. I might try that approach. Also I look forward to 3rd grade being the "magical crossover" year! I am unable to homeschool right now. But, might consider it for later years of homeschooling. Thanks for your thoughts!

My child was placed in a "mixed grade" class for K because he was very advanced (as per written reports from his preschool and daycare). Half the class was 1st graders and the other half were Kers. He was allowed to attend the instruction for 1st graders in LA and math - subjects he was well ahead in. But, it ended up in him still being terribly bored because there was no new content being taught. They put him in a reading group of 1 (he was testing above all the 1st graders) and his teacher sat with him in the reading group to read with him. My social boy was sad because he could not join the other kids during reading group time. We had tons of meetings and they do not allow skip until 2nd grade. The solution was for me to send in a workpacket from home comprising of the afterschool materials that I use. The teacher would "let" my son work on them when he was bored. This strategy only worked for a couple of days - all the kids crowded around my DS to watch what he was doing and then told him that it was unfair that he got to do "fun" work by himself and they did not get the same things. My social DS who wanted to blend in with his peers rather than look different refused to work on his workpacket after that. Long story short, he will be entering 1st grade next week - in a different school. Hopefully your child would react better to taking work packets from home if that is an option allowed by your school. I would think skipping K would work in your case because of the age of your child. If your child were younger, I would have suggested saving the skip for middle school. Please also check the 1st grade curriculum to see if your child is ahead of it already. But, whatever happens, keep the afterschooling going. In our case, that is the only thing that kept DS from stagnating.

How does one accelerate their student in a subject (let us take math) without gaps in knowledge? In other words, what does subject acceleration mean to you? Does acceleration mean that more advanced topics are simultaneously introduced while the student is still working out the kinks at a lower grade level? Or does it mean that the instruction and progression is very rapid? Or does it mean that you skip a grade or two and the student continues as if there was just a minor blip because they are so smart that they can "handle" it? Or does it mean that the instructor introduces a topic and moves on quickly because there is no need for a "gifted" person to do "drills" and "practices" because they "get it"? And how do brick and mortar schools accelerate? They have a limited number of school days, so they should be following some philosophy for acceleration. I am asking because I am trying to figure out the best method to accelerate my child in math. So far, we have worked a year or two ahead in math and have followed a curriculum with all its bells and whistles (SM with all the books they publish for each level with a few other "enrichment" math curriculum thrown in for lighter relief). I am wondering if I am just overdoing it by going at such a slow pace because of my fear of gaps in knowledge. My child is such a compliant child that he would never complain even if my approach was boring - he would just finish his math quicker so that he could go to play with his legos sooner. I get the feeling that he is ready for a higher level of math and I am nervous to just finish the current level quicker because it might create gaps in his understanding. Maybe I should try a different approach? How do you all accelerate?