One thing that helped my son learn his sounds was to make it all about movement. I put all the vowels on the floor using 3x5 cards. And then I said the sound and he had to jump onto the letter. And then we reversed it; I would point to a letter, and he had to jump on it and say the sound. You can also do this outside with chalk. I've made him write the letters really big with chalk while saying the sound the whole time. We've done a ton of stuff like that; basically anything I could think of to cement it in his brain. I don't know if that would help your boy, but if he tends to learn through movement (and so many boys do) then it might help.

I recently saw a suggestion somewhere (a blog maybe?) to have the winner of the game be responsible for cleaning up the game. It takes a little of the sting out of losing. Other than that, I have a son who did the exact same thing for a long time but he really did grow out of it. I don't remember any specific things we did other than just putting the games away.

Well I think that if A's mom is one of your daughter's teachers and she is nursing a grudge against your daughter, that is concerning. Way more concerning than the stuff between the girls. I would be more inclined to talk to the mom and make sure your child is being treated fairly.

My husband has an older half-brother and a younger sister, as well as several step-siblings. His dad didn't remarry their mom till they were all adults, so the steps are not particularly close. He has an okay relationship with his brother; a friendly relationship I guess you'd say. They aren't super close but they don't hate each other and they talk via facebook fairly often. He is very close with his sister. Part of it is some of the horrific stuff they went through together after their parents divorced. They talk nearly daily either via instant message or on the phone.

have you looked on pinterest? just search for "craft projects for boys" or something like that. I am forever finding more ideas than I could ever use. :)

Hey no worries. It's Friday. :) Thank you!

Do you have a link to the article? I was discussing this topic on facebook just this morning. :)

This could totally be my son. He's 7 1/2. I found an ear of indian corn in the back seat of my minivan last week. Apparently he had saved it from a trip to the farm we made last October. My husband actually went in his room last week with a trash bag and just threw a TON of papers away. He doesn't seem to be able to do it for himself. I understand because I have hoarding tendencies. But I'm going to be watching this thread for more ideas about how to help him (and me!) stay organized.

I have rheumatoid arthritis. It does sound like one of my flares, although my flares never were that bad when I first started showing symptoms. For your sake, I hope that's not what it is. But I agree that it might be worth your time to contact a rheumatologist and see how long it would take you to get in. I often have to wait a month or longer to get in with mine.

At that age my son really liked the Get Ready, Get Set, and Go for the Code books. He could do them pretty much by himself, at least once I had introduced the sound the letter made (which lots of kids would already know). Could she play computer games? Use Starfall's website or pbs kids' site? My son enjoyed those a lot. Our dollar store sells preschool workbooks. Something like that at least wouldn't be a huge investment if she hates it. Could she sit in on some of your lessons with the older kids? Even if she's not learning much, she might pick some stuff up. Maybe with a notebook to "take notes"-- my 3-year-old adores notebooks. Especially if I give her a pen too. ;)

I am just finishing off my second year, so my first wasn't very long ago. It changed everything for me. Homeschooling has changed so much about my life and our family dynamic. I am SO grateful for the changes it has brought to our family. We have had frustrations and challenges but it's been really good. :)

For my younger son, who is really just beginning to read well, yes. For my older son, who reads constantly, not usually. He has to log what he reads so I have a record of it. Sometimes I make him do a report of some kind, although we have gotten away from that recently and I need to be doing more. Occasionally I have handed him a book and told him to read it, but mostly I just try to make sure that the kids' bookshelf is stocked with good stuff. :)

Well I don't know the answers for your specific child, and I'm not overly familiar with Calvert, but I am a huge fan of living books and of basing a literature and reading program off really good literature. I have used graded readers a bit in our homeschool, especially for my younger son who has struggled with reading, but we do as many read-alouds as I can handle and I encourage my boys to read good stuff. I would have a very hard time switching to a textbook-based curriculum for reading and literature at this point. I think it's awesome that your daughter has come to such a great relationship with words. I'm a word nerd myself. :) I am sure you'll be able to find something that will work perfectly to cultivate that love! :)

I have only sort of even started thinking about it. Some things I know-- because if it's not broke, I don't think I need to fix it. Other things I THINK I know what I want to do. Still others I have no idea whatsoever. We have nearly 4 months of summer break so I have time to figure it out. I'm trying right now to focus on finishing this term nice and strong, and on what I want to do this summer to keep them learning without overdoing it. I'm sure it will all come together eventually . . .

My husband is very smart. I used to be smart too but then I had kids. :tongue_smilie: I appreciate all the input. :) I am totally new to this so I need all the help I can get!

This is my very first post here! How very exciting! LOL I am finishing up my second year of homeschooling my sons, ages 9 and 7. My 9-year-old will be in 4th grade next fall and I am planning to have him start learning Latin. No one in my family currently knows Latin, but my husband knows biblical Greek, ancient Hebrew, Egyptian hieroglyphics, Aramaic, and at least one other ancient language no one has ever heard of. ;) So he is my obvious choice to be the Adjunct Latin Professor and has agreed to do so (yay!), but he would like to study over the summer before he starts teaching in the fall. So. I know nothing about Latin curricula. I need to choose something for my son, but then I wondered if it would be smarter to get something different for my husband, who obviously is really amazing with languages and who learns very quickly. I thought maybe we should look into something college-level for him? Or would it be better to just buy one curriculum and have dh study the teacher's guide and call it good? Thoughts? Other alternatives I haven't thought of? Thanks in advance for your help! I've been perusing your boards all weekend and am so excited about the vast amounts of experience here! :)