Any ideas on how to keep her busy? I've printed off a few tot packs from 1+1, but she finished what I had planned for the week in about 15 minutes last Monday :001_huh:. I felt frazzled all week trying to find activities for her while also allowing plenty of playtime and outside time (the weather is finally bearable in TX). I like the ideas of tot trays, but they only seem to keep her interest for a few minutes and then it is back to "Mommy, now what can I do?" I've even allowed extra tv time and iPad time this past week and it is still "Mommy, I want "school" work":lol: P.S. We already have the Kumon workbooks for beginning skills, but she is not quite ready for printing although she is trying her best to master it.

I am so glad I read this thread! I have been feeling bogged down with school with my DS. He loves math, but balks at any mommy instruction. I keep forgetting how much he learned in our everyday life before workbooks! I just went through his workboxes and pulled everything out and only put back AAR/AAS (I am going to rotate these as he loves spelling, but struggles with reading), Horizons K (a workbook he loves!), LOF for fridays only, and FIAR work. He has been asking to learn to draw so I may look into Draw Write Now to give him some fine motor practice when it relates to our FIAR book. However, my DD is always asking for more school so I'm sure her K year will be very full :lol: and all the books I bought this year will pass on down :001_smile:

Mine is up. We love the month of October :001_smile: http://joysoftwo.wordpress.com/2012/10/05/another-week-gone-101105/

Thank you! We will try taking the instructions away for lego time. I heard that Math Mammoth has a lot of problems on each page, but I never though to just teach out of it instead of showing it to him :001_smile:

I thought about RightStart as the abacus is the only math manipulative we don't own, but it also focuses on addition for multiple lessons and even if the difficulty varied, he would tire of it. I am not currently using Miquon or C-rods with him and have passed that down to DD. He loves Horizons and Life of Fred. I might try Singapore on the whiteboard. He doesn't seem to mind as much when we work out problems on there.

We currently have almost every math manipulative available on our our shelf. I am somewhat of a math geek and love to work with math concepts through play time. DS only likes them on occasion and is very particular about making the exact picture on the lego box only. To him, legos are not a toy, but rather only follows the instructions that come in the box :glare:

Ok so we might continue with Horizons :tongue_smilie: and supplement with something that makes Mom happy as well. I like spiral for him because he can work on new topics that may be hard and older topics he knows. For some kids that may be boring, but he takes great pride in knowing the answer to a question. The Singapore textbook is colorful, but there aren't enough practice problems to build his confidence. I never thought I would say it, but I am leaning toward Saxon for him :001_huh: It isn't colorful, but it has a gentle introduction of topics and a great teacher manual. I may spend my nights coloring worksheets.

We tried Singapore Essentials and he couldn't stand the black and white pages so we worked through it orally mostly. Then we moved on to 1A, but he still hated the black and white workbook. He likes the textbook, but wants to write in it and talk about more than addition all week. I don't like that he doesn't seem to be learning any mental math strategies in Horizons. He can mostly fill-in-the blank by what he is given on the page. Take the workbook away and he struggles :glare:. The teacher guide is also useless. I love the look of Miquon.... just wish it was in color.

DS is zooming through Horizons K. As I do not like teaching Horizons, I am trying to find an alternative to switch to when he is done. Anything else colorful, worksheet based or at least not dependent on manipulatives (he does not like to use manipulatives much), and spiral?

My ds loves Horizons K, but is flying through it. I'm trying to find what he will go into when he has finished. He loves the colorful pictures and he likes worksheets. The spiral method also works better for him than mastery. He doesn't like to use manipulatives very much unless it's absolutely necessary. I love Miquon and Singapore, but they were both bombs for him :leaving: (thankfully dd is more like mommy and is already loving working with c-rods ;)) I am not a fan of Horizons.... any ideas???

We've just started AAS, but I don't think the Deluxe Interactive Kit is necessary at all. I do like the Spelling Review Box to keep everything neat and organized, but I'm sure you could find a cheaper option. I have the bag and the stickers and haven't used either :glare:. My son decided he wanted to use the stickers we already had and I keep the box and manual on top of our workboxes. If I could go back I would have just purchased the basic kit and added on the review box.

Here is mine. I didn't post last week so I just did 2 weeks in one. http://joysoftwo.wordpress.com/2012/09/28/2-week-update-2/

Mine is up! Not a huge academic week, but still a good one :001_smile: http://joysoftwo.wordpress.com/2012/09/15/910-914-rowing-madeline-and-visiting-the-zoo/

Where do you recommend getting books spiral bound? I have several manuals that would work sooo much better as a spiral bound, but I don't have the equipment to do it myself.

We are in south DFW!

Oh please do!! I am sure someone here would love to have it ;) The price is the only thing holding us back because I won't have a younger to pass it on to. Even at a small discount I would jump at it :lol:

I can't say too much as we are only on Lesson 7 of AAR 1, but my son was reading CVC words and knew all the sounds before we started. However, in my opinion there is so much more to AAR. The sight words "the" and "a" have already been covered in the first few lessons. The fluency sheets are challenging though. Even if he knows all the words, these sheets help him build fluency in his daily reading. At lesson 16 you will start consonant teams, so it does go beyond CVC. So far this program is a hit here for us. I'm even considering AAR Pre-1 for my DD!:001_smile:

I just started a new blog and posted our first weekly review!! http://joysoftwo.wordpress.com/2012/09/10/week-in-review-93-97/

:iagree: My son's birthday was two weeks before the Sept. 1st cut-off here in Texas and we decided to "red-shirt" (I don't like this term very much either) him. He went through a pre-k program last year, but even the three-day, activity packed week was hard for him. He came home exhausted every day. I knew he needed another year to mature enough to handle a full five-day week of school. Red-shirting is also very prominent in Texas and we knew several boys that were almost a year older than my son that were starting Kindergarten this year. After spending time in the Kindergarten classes at the local public school it is obvious that the lessons are geared toward the older kids. However, I think schools should be more accepting of kids that are ready, yet have birthdays after the cut-off. Oh how I wish I could just homeschool for more than preschool! :lol:

I have decided to red-shirt my son this year. If I could I would simply homeschool him until middle-school, but that is not an option at this time. My son is advanced in some areas, but behind in others. However, I am not holding him back for academic reasons. My son turned 5 in early August, but still needs a daily nap. We tried pre-kindergarten last year as an introduction to school. He only went three days and those three days were miserable for the afternoon and evening at home. If my son doesn't have his nap he becomes very whiny, disrespectful, and even acts out towards his younger sister :glare:. I decided to give him an extra year to work out his need for extra sleep. We will work on academics at home, but in a casual way and mostly on a pre-kindergarten level. I also live in Texas where Kindergarten is very rigorous and in our area most children already know how to read and write before entering. They also teach sight word reading in our area :001_huh: and I wanted to give him a phonics base :lol:

DS starts Kindergarten this fall. He will be using: AAR 1 & 2 ETC AAS 1 Singapore 1A & 1B Life of Fred Parts of Sonlight P4/5 with FIAR mixed in

After Singapore K Essentials bombed (he couldn't stand the black and white pages) and c-rods fell flat (he is not my hands-on child), I was discouraged that my child who loved math was starting to hate it. Enter LOF! We flew through three chapters today in Apples and he loved every minute of it. He didn't even mind bringing out c-rods to work on addition!! This was just a one day sample, but we are loving math time again :001_smile:

I tried Handwriting without Tears (the whole kit!), but he cried when the worksheets came out (I even cut the book and put them in dry erase sheets to start) and would sing how to form a letter while he was starting at the bottom :glare: Handwriting has become the biggest battle if I make him start at the top, but he is happy if I leave him to write everything from the bottom and backwards :lol: When I showed him some cursive sandpaper letters he actually got excited about learning it. He even said, "I like this because it all starts at the bottom." We have a whole year to work on cursive so I am going to take the plunge and hope its at least legible and his kindergarten teacher is willing to let him continue writing in it as long as I continue teaching it at home.

My son has difficulty with fine motor skills (possibly dyslexic/ADHD, but still waiting on diagnosis). It was recommended to start cursive with him this year instead of hitting a wall with print (he wants to start every letter at the bottom), but he will be attending public school next year for kindergarten. Do you think this would cause a problem in school next year? Have you had any experience with teachers allowing exceptions in print vs cursive?

Thank you so much for all the suggestions. I am off to add to my RR order :lol: I would work with my son and let him start cursive this year, but his father is adamant about sending him to school next year :glare: (we share custody) and I'm not sure he will be able to continue with cursive at school. :001_unsure: