I have a 6-year old turning 7 in April, and I also wondered some things about him! I think he's a hard worker, and even so, he's distractible, reverses "b" and "d" or "p" and "q." I can leave him alone for some things, and he will scribe for himself with math, etc., but some of that I chalk up to using ABeka for K which was excessive in the handwriting department in both writing and math, and him being a pleaser and compliant. I can tell already with ds2, a young K-er turning 5 in April, that things will not be the same with him. My ds1 turning 7 in April is sloppy with reading. If he concentrates and works hard, he does very well. But he tires quickly, and starts guessing or skipping/adding words. I'm not sure how to correct that. I know it's not "try a different phonics program" issue. We're using Abeka phonics and AAS for spelling; but I did wonder whether some of his issues were normal or not. He also does not get the concept yet of holding an entire word in his head for dictation or copywork. He does it sometimes, but often makes mistakes.

Anyone got some nice pictures? Here's a nice snail for you. :)

I also think of The Scarlet Pimpernel's poem, ending with, "...that demmed elusive pimpernel!"

Here's mine: Lip Stitches on Valentine's day

We went on vacation 2 weeks ago to a friend's farm right before starting our new school year, and we went on nature walks often. Here are some colorful grasshoppers my kids enjoyed.

I don't know what's the best program. But I've used 100 EZ for my almost-5 year old, just for relaxed K4 for a few months, and he did great. We also used Confessions of a Homeschooler games and Letter Factory DVD to learn letter sounds, so 100 EZ went great until about lesson 30-something, when it started introducing long sounds, and he had no idea about that. In K and 1st, we are using ABeka phonics, and my just started 2nd grader reads well, except for some lazy issues, like wanting to read faster and so guessing or skipping some words. We also use AAS for spelling, so I guess we're getting all sorts of phonics methods in our menagerie of curriculum.

Thank you for your input! I have the Krull book and A Story of Painting by Sister Wendy __, plus some resources on individual artists, just not all the ones HFA would cover. Do you think that would be adequate? Dover art cards and Childhood masterpieces art cards--any idea if these an be bought in e-book format?

I would prefer some artist info included, as well as the pictures, since I don't have a library (in Africa) and must use what I have on my shelves or on online. That's why I was wondering if Harmony's included the photos, or just links to them, and then whether they can be downloaded to print? I like the idea of putting them on the wall for a week or two for the kids to see consistently.

I have the next few years. I bought a few years at a time to save on shipping overseas. :)

I have been using Come Look with Me, but I am not as pleased with the unorganized nature of it. I like the short clip of artist history included, but many of the artists I've never heard of, and we only study one picture by him before moving on. I'd like to stick with an artist for 6 weeks. I'm not as interested in HFA's composer study or art instruction, as I have another curriculum I can use for those. But it's still cheaper to get HFA over SCM's picture portfolios. But does HFA include artist info, and does it include the pictures, or do you have to go online to view them? And then if you do have to go online, is there a way to print them, or are they copyrighted? I'm interested in comparisons between the e-book versions. Which should I get? Or is there another picture study option that studies well-known artists for 6 weeks, including conversational helps for discussing the picture with children and a little artist bio?

We just started 2nd grade last week. :) I haven't done MFW ADV yet, but have it on the shelf. I was planning to start 2nd grade with ADV. But instead we're doing SOTW 2, and ADV next year. We did SOTW 1 last year. I just wanted to suggest that you consider doing SOTW 2 instead of 1, since MFW 1 supposedly covers a lot of the Bible, and maybe that would be enough ancient history for you. Then you could do SOTW 2 and then maybe go into ADV. Just a thought. The rest of our curriculum for 2nd grade is on my blog, here: 2014 curriculum. ABeka phonics, AAS2-3, SOTW2, WWE2, FLL2, MUS Beta, Apologia Swimming Creatures, piano, music and art appreciation, and I Can Do All Things. And some other fun extras as we have time are listed on the blog page.

You may want to look at the samples for WWE 2. If she's done MFW 1, perhaps she could go straight into WWE 2 then.

With my 6 year old last year, it took about 10 minutes each to read 3x a week, then 2 extra minutes to do the map, and somewhere around 15 minutes per week to do an activity.

The Book of Virtues. We just started doing a poetry tea on Wednesdays this year. I read poetry from a couple of books then, Shel Silverstein, or Volland's Mother Goose edition. Then we read Beautiful Stories from Shakespeare by Nesbit aloud to finish up our tea. It's been so fun! :)

Our first week of our new school year!

This is exactly what I do! Here is our family's philosophy of education. My additional goals beyond education include what is listed under #8 on that philosophy, "Practical Living." I think about what chores and life skills they should be learning that year. For two examples, this year, I am going to work towards getting my oldest washing dishes more, and the dd3 learning to fold clothes. I think about character or manners that need to be worked on for each as well.

Do you know if Dragonbox ever goes on sale?

Little House on the Prairie, Farmer Boy and Long Winter tie for 2nd, and then On the Banks 3rd. I agree with a prior post that I didn't care for Silver Lake.

I think you should give her the correct rule before she meets them in AAS. I think there is an article on the AALP site about why they recommend to teach reading and spelling separately, and the reason corresponds with what you're experiencing, and that is that spelling by its nature must go much more slowly than the phonics for reading approach. So I would go faster with the reading, and introduce spelling later not-so-worried about going quickly with that, if that makes sense.

Yes to the above list, as well as Timberdoodle.

I think that would be pretty hard for my 6 year old. I like how Singapore explains with the circles around the numbers, putting them into a kind of H2O model, with the answer in a circle on one side, and the 2 parts in circles attached to lines coming off of it. So you could show that you have the answer and are looking for a missing part. But I'm still not sure how helpful that is at helping him to realize that he has to go up to find the answer.

We started our new school year on Monday. Have a laugh with me at our really bad picture attempts! And yesterday, I blogged about a new tradition we started to try to make the first day of school fun for homeschoolers. I'd love to hear of any ways you make going "back to school" special in your home.

We have a copier/printer, so I just copied the student pages in both. Good job scoring those in a sale!

Never mind! The lady at Xtra math wrote back with this explanation: There is no option that has the operations mixed. When more than one operation is listed, it means the second operation follows the first after the first is mastered at 100 mastery. The creator of XtraMath has tried it himself and found it too difficult even for an adult at the speed needed for mastery. The student’s next option would be the advanced 2 second program. It starts over with addition, but leaves a smaller window for mastery.

We also love Torchlighters, but I didn't know they had guides for them. We have the YWAM series of bios with some guides that you can get for them as well. They also have more picture book versions for the younger set. That's what I recommend, unless you'd like to read the bios for middle grades aloud.