Not an app, but www.readingbear.org is worth checking out.

Have you looked into Logic of English?

Grr. It is fixed.

Make sure to check out 1+1+1=1. It is a blog and they offer free Printables that accompany the the Draw Write Now books. many kids balk at writing but my son loves working through these sheets.

I read the first book of those 1921 books Hunter posted. There is some amazing stuff in there! I love the simplicity of Kindergarten. There was a lot of play, but there was a lot of focus. Having a degree in ECE and working as a nanny for 12 years I still gleaned a lot from it. I actually sat down and wrote a list of simple things to do with my son. I am not a fan of busy work. I feel that preschools are inundated with a mandatory craft activity that serves no purpose other than to clutter a parents fridge. I love that the crafts were purposeful. The children were making their own toys. Dresses for their dolls, furniture for doll houses, clay fruit and vegetables for their grocery store. Jute Placemats for thanksgiving dinner, is something I think we will me making in the upcoming weeks. The grocery store concept introduced so much for the children and learning about the world around them. How they taught reading in K just made so much sense. It was all exposure at that age. Phonics came later. Other things that I though were interesting that was taught to an entire class was speech. Basically the teacher was incorporating group speech therapy. Usually things like that are outsourced to a SLP. breathing lessons were also included. There was a lot of simple executive function tasks that were lightly guided. I loved it. I can't wait to read the next volumes! I would really like to get a copy of them in print to keep in my home library for reference.

And I know that it is subscription based but sites like A Time For Learning are meant to be full curriculums.

If you are thinking portable, especially with iPads have you considered apps rather than textbooks? I don't know what is out there for older kids but there are some amazing resources for the K-3 crowd that are cheap, not always free, and chock full of information. Granted, I know it would be hard to find a single entire curriculum. But with the use of several quality apps you could do a lot. The TeachMe apps are good for the young ones. I have a few great informative science apps from Nth (something) Apps by Super Duper are pretty good also. Splash Math has a complete curriculum of worksheet style math for reinforcement. You can then couple that with YouTube videos if one does not desire to use direct teaching methods. There are also a plethora of language apps. I have a few great geography apps by Kids Maps and Nth (whatever it is... fusion maybe?) K-12 have some literary apps. I haven't explored too much. But I they do have one that measures fluency and comprehension. I also believe that major contemporary text book publishers Houghton and Mifflin, plus Pearson have apps also. I haven't looked too much into those. There is a lot that could be researched, and I do believe with a little digging around the App Store, YouTube access and some guidance one could cover a curriculum for more than a few grades.

Sounds exactly like a balance approach. The strategies listed are exactly what are used for Emergent K readers. It is a fluency and confidence building approach. It is very good for comprehension also. They can read earlier and faster. I would be surprised if the phonics instruction doesn't continue. Most children will continue to do phonics into 2nd or even 3rd grade. I don't for one second believe that he has learnt bad habits but if you wish to continue reading instruction by all means do so.

If plants are completely introductory for your children check out the plant section in the Language of Science series for vocabulary. It may be a dull show to older kids (my 3 year old loves it) but it gives them a chance to write down the definitions as there is a lot of repetition. My go to series for science are Real World Science and A First Look. I saw that both these series have plant episodes. I have not viewed them yet but I like all that I have seen from those series. There is also the Debbie Greenthumb series. And a series called The Science of Plants.

I seconds the recommendation of BFSU. Then go to the library and select books on each topic.

I did a search on pin for BFSU subjects that we were covering. There were a plethora of crafts, experiments, and some lap books. For me I like simple and less busy. But I know a lot of people like the hands on. And thank you. :)

I have those science curriculums. But frankly I like BFSU best. I pull each topic, borrow books and DVDs on that topic from the library. Watch YouTube clips and just have lots of on the go discussion. We don't really do experiments much. But my son loves to make little videos of himself explaining topics like the one below. It is a lot more involved than it looks. He had to script it, make an demonstration and then present it. Have you tried Pinterest to find activities that your children might like? Some kids like lapbooks a lot. I think essentially it depends on the interest of your children.

I would love to see those pics Keri. James just started doing the book last week. I will post his chicken and pig. Apparently I can't attach pictures because the file is too big.

My son who is also 4 in December just hit a "writing" phase. It is what he is focused on right now. And we are using the series Draw Write Now. He absolutely adores it. We were able to print sheets from the blog 1+1+1=1. To make the most of the drawing aspect you do need to have the books also. The writing is a bonus.

On thing to consider..... I have a friend who was a middle school English teacher. She is bright, enthusiastic, and very attentive with her students. When she started teaching she just got lost in the system. And she didn't know how to fix it. Each year she would inherit several children who were not literate at all. We are talking 6th-8th grade students. They couldn't read, or write. She would seek assistance. A reading coach. But the funding is stretched so thin that it just didn't always happen. Any student that did get a coach, and improved, even minimal improvement, would then lose assistance and filter back into regular classes. But it was too little too late. As a teacher she was lost. Her only option was to sit beside her struggling students during tests and read the tests with them, as part of an IEP. Her dilemma was that she didn't have the time or the resources to teach each child 6-8 years of language arts. She had to work with what she had. And though she would love to grade these children low, she couldn't keep doing it. It wasn't feasible to have a 16 year old in a class with 12 year olds.

I also agree that some schools are better than others. Even within our small school district there is a distinct difference. We have 5 elementary schools with about 200-300 students. Each year about 50 students from each school filter into a collective middle school. I am getting constant reports from 6th graders in my neighborhood about how a few schools, and 1 in particular, have learnt many things in a number of subjects that their elementary school never covered. I spent a lot of time at this particular lagging school (which has been awarded an excellence standard) fighting for assistance for students who are failing. They will start receiving Ds and Es. Then voila, they start being graded Cs and Bs. The work itself doesn't improve. Just the grades it seems.

I think they seem relatively high in K/1st grade. But I have seen a majority of kids (public school) excell and trounce these standards. I think the upper elementary standards are very poor. I was appalled while I was tutoring what was considered acceptable level work. Basically in Language Arts and Social Studies the upper average work of a 2nd grader is higher than the lower average work of a 5th grader. That is a lot of discrepancy there. I am not including above or below average work either.

For our "spine" I use Go Math! (It is quite Singaporean in approach, but it is a Saxon/Singapore combo program) it can get a little writing heavy for my 3 year old. So we supplement with Ray's Arithmetic for fun and we do that one verbally. I try to do these both every day. Ray's Arithmetic is a great warm up. Nice and short. Go Math! lessons are short 15-20 minutes at most. Once a week or so we use Spectrum Math. More so to check that my son is soaking up the concepts and being able to do them with traditional algorithms. He also use a GATE math book for enrichment. A page here and there. Mostly at his choosing. I also have him complete a daily math facts sheet. Only takes him 3 minutes for a dozen of so questions. I print those from math-aids.com. Each evening (while making dinner) my son gets math app time on my iPad. He has goals to meet (something like 20 questions) with 2 different splash math apps, dragon box, and another math app. I have a few other math apps that I let him play as free play whenever he wants. And he often wants them. My son loves these apps, and I like that I he works independently and the apps track his progress. If I see that he is struggling with anything I use games and the programs mentioned above to fill in the gaps. We also dabble in Miquon, RightStart and any math games that I make up on the fly. We also read living math books as part of reading time. His favourite shows currently are Math Monsters and Number Crew so he gets those as treats! We don't watch mainstream TV so he doesn't know any differently. And we do a lot of math stories in the car. A couple of weeks back he was sitting in the back of the car and he asked a question that goes some thing like this.... If a tree fell in the woods and it lost 3 branches and it had 3 branches left and there were 6 trees like this how many branches were there all together? And what are we going to do about all those falling trees?!? He worked his way through the answer mentally and was able to tell me... But oh my. He was awfully concerned about those trees. :) Writing all that out it seems like a lot! But it really isn't 20-30 minutes of instruction time and another 20 playing math apps later in the day. Not too bad. And my son is going at a steady pace. He will complete a grade in about a year. If we were to stick to just one program, Go Math! For example. He would have completed it in about 15 weeks. We are aiming for as much breadth and depth at this age as possible.

It is hard to recommend anything without knowing age group. But here are some that my son loves and some that are edutainment quality we have yet to review, but many others love, most are from the the k-2 section. Math Number Crew Math Monsters Discovering Math (goes all the way up to grade 12) ModuMath Math Mastery Cyber Chase Science Real World Science A first Look Junior (oceanographer, astronomer etc. there are a whole bunch) Magic School Bus Grammar and language Arta Discovering language Arts Pendomonium Harold Syntax Word Girl Social Studies Horrible Histories Time Warp Trio Liberty's Kids U.S Geography In general I love anything from Standard Deviants.

Would she be receptive to www.readingbear.org. I used the program for my sons speech delay. I also agree with following the advice of the therapist, but I have noticed an improvement in 2 boy with verbal apraxia after they started to read. And although my boy was just generically speech delayed reading improved his speech immensely.

As a few people have mentioned I think actively engaging the child in executive function activities is important. Sure your child is acting like a typical 4 year old. But as a mum of an almost 4 year old very active hypo sensory child it doesn't mean that we can't play many fun games that will help facilitate attentiveness. This can be done in many ways. Simon says is a popular physical game. As is red light, green light. Freeze, or dance freeze. Hide and seek. It is very hard to hide with my son right now as he likes to giggle. Not that I mind, it is funny. But he is learning that quiet and stillness is essential for victory. I also have a timer on my iPad that I out on for my son. The timer doesnf count down if he is wiggling and noisy. He likes to be as quiet answer still as possibly to have the timer end. Another thing that I think is good is helpful are audiobooks. I know I lose focus and my mind wanders. I have started to play short segments for my son to listen too attentively as he lays in the couch. Tools of the Mind is a learning ohilosophy used in pre-k classrooms that is having some amazing results with increasing a child's executive function. They employ a few strategies that I like. They do a talking and listening time between 2 children where the child that holds the picture of a mouth talks and the child that holds the ear listens without interruption. You can do this around the dinner table. Take turns letting everyone speak about their day, or something they like. Let your child know to be attentive and to really listen to what everyone has to say. Tools of the Mind also have children write play plans. They are to write down a plan of what they are to play. For example if a child desires to play trains they will write a plan about how they are going to play trains, the duration, and as much detail as possible. The child is to stick to their plan. You can have your child plan out several activities. 20 minutes of trains, 15 minutes of blocks and 20 minutes dancing.

As a few people have mentioned I think actively engaging the child in executive function activities is important. Sure your child is acting like a typical 4 year old. But as a mum of an almost 4 year old very active hypo sensory child it doesn't mean that we can't play many fun games that will help facilitate attentiveness. This can be done in many ways. Simon says is a popular physical game. As is red light, green light. Freeze, or dance freeze. Hide and seek. It is very hard to hide with my son right now as he likes to giggle. Not that I mind, it is funny. But he is learning that quiet and stillness is essential for victory. I also have a timer on my iPad that I out on for my son. The timer doesnf count down if he is wiggling and noisy. He likes to be as quiet answer still as possibly to have the timer end. Another thing that I think is good is helpful are audiobooks. I know I lose focus and my mind wanders. I have started to play short segments for my son to listen too attentively as he lays in the couch. Tools of the Mind is a learning ohilosophy used in pre-k classrooms that is having some amazing results with increasing a child's executive function. They employ a few strategies that I like. They do a talking and listening time between 2 children where the child that holds the picture of a mouth talks and the child that holds the ear listens without interruption. You can do this around the dinner table. Take turns letting everyone speak about their day, or something they like. Let your child know to be attentive and to really listen to what everyone has to say. Tools of the Mind also have children write play plans. They are to write down a plan of what they are to play. For example if a child desires to play trains they will write a plan about how they are going to play trains, the duration, and as much detail as possible. The child is to stick to their plan. You can have your child plan out several activities. 20 minutes of trains, 15 minutes of blocks and 20 minutes dancing.

Peter Weatherall hands down is our favourite. I also like Real Life Science and a variety if YouTube clips from Makemegenius and Kidsclassroom.

Thank you Amy. I am shocked at how much overalls cost! But I think they will make a nice birthday gift in December. :)

I just had to google and you are right! forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/473143-what-is-the-antonym-to-strawberries/