I don't think my kids are affected by that stereotype. They have probably never heard of it. I'm stronger in math than Dh and it never led my kids to conclude that math is for girls. If I suggested that a particular intellectual achievement was amazing because it had been accomplished by a woman, they would probably look at me like I had two heads and wonder why in the world I would think that was amazing. Like someone upthread, that is one of the many reasons we homeschool. The same could be applied to race or religion. It would just never occur to them that someone couldn't do something because of those things. I think the public school making such a big deal about it leads to greater stereotype. I also don't think girls are pushed out of math/science. (And lest you wonder if I have no idea, my majors were science and I worked in r&d with mostly men for a long time.) There are some things about being in a male dominated field that add challenges, but none of them have to do with the actual subject matter. At this point I think women probably have great opportunity than men because of the overzealous recruiting. Sometimes differences in outcome aren't because society is unfair/biased/sexist/whatever-ist. There simply aren't as many women interested in those fields as there are men. I'm not inclined to pour billions of dollars (as a society) into trying to right a perceived but non-existent wrong. I would never-ever let my daughter participate in a girls-only math/science that was intended to be such an equalizer.

Thunderbolt kids. http://www.thunderboltkids.co.za/teachers-parents.html

The good times travel agency books are good for history. There was a comic book science curriculum posted here awhile back. I can't remember the name, but it was from South Africa and aimed at roughly grades 3-6 iirc. Hopefully someone else can recall what it was.

I think it's great that you're having him checked, and you should continue with that, but it's also possible that there is nothing wrong and he's just a late talker. My 2 yo had similar scores at that age. Actually, I think expressive was the 1st percentile. He even did the thing like yours with repeating the proper number of syllables but only with one or two sounds. Teaching him to sign was incredibly helpful. He will turn 3 next month and is up to normal in expressive, though his articulation is still a little below normal. Our pediatrician checked for the anotomical issues mentioned above with the tongue and ruled that out for us. Maybe there are subtler cases that would only be able to be detected by specialists though. Your evaluation probably already ruled out autism, and you already ruled out hearing problems. If you are able to get a second opinion from a different SLP, that might help too, either to confirm there at no other issues or to suggest that there may be. Try to relax a little for the next 6 months. The book, "late talking children," helped me put things in perspective while I was waiting, worrying, learning Asl, and scheduling therapies. If he is 2 and 1/2 and hasn't started making progress, you might begin looking far and wide for other issues. Your Ds is getting therapy in the meanwhile so you're already doing something to help. I would hate to miss an opportunity to help in early intervention, but I wish I hadn't spent so much of that precious toddler time researching and worrying. Somewhere there is a balance, I'm sure.

I use sound beginnings, which is Catholic. It is pretty open and go. From what I understand reading lessons through literature is pretty open and go too, but I haven't used that one. Sound beginnings is available from our father's house. Afaik, I'm the only one on twtm boards that uses it, but you might find a used copy on cathswap if you are interested. It is written to the teacher, not the student, so I think it would be ok for most Trinitarian Christians. The only part I can think of that a Protestant might not like is where they teach the kid to write jmj on the paper.

I like the idea of IEW bible heroes plus essentials for the 2nd grader who reads well. I use bible heroes with a different spell-to-read for my voracious reader. It was a good combo for us, though I can't speak to the specifics of essentials vs other spell-to-reads. For the younger kids I would go with aar. It is the sort of thing that is likely to work for many different types of students. IMO it is also an easier way to begin reading/gaining fluency than the vertical method of loe and rltl. I'm speaking of the method here, not those specific programs. With aar you get the readers and the cards to customize practice. It's all done for you. If you are doing essentials with the older, you can move the youngers into that later for the spelling/grammar. I personally found after aar2 to be a good time to switch to the spell to read. For us, it corresponded with good fluency in easy readers and with writing readiness. For others, those correlations might be after level 1 or 3. Since the sight word approach was failing your DD in school, I wouldn't waste my time or money with PAL reading. You can use pal writing with aar if you want. Pal writing includes aas. I think the little letter stories are cute, but I'm sure you could do your own thing successfully too.

Kids health. https://classroom.kidshealth.org They can do the grades 3-5 together. I would let them answer the questions for those they know and skip those lessons.

Kindergarten to first grade math ability would be prime time. Preschool math ability would sort of grow into it. By second grade math ability, I'd say it is moving toward being primarily a fun distraction with a little bit of fact reinforcement on the side. Thanks to those who mentioned slice fractions. I'd never heard of it until this thread. I downloaded it yesterday, and Ds loves it!

Oh and also, you are using the cumulative reviews for math mammoth right? Just checking because they are in a different folder and some people overlook them.

One lesson per day in mm is moving at a break-neck pace. MM was not meant to be done that way. There is a pacing chart for mm on this page. She should aim for 9 pages per week if you are looking to complete it in a typical year. http://www.mathmammoth.com/faq-lightblue.php I have ods do most of the problems, but I eliminate some that are clearly drill for operations. We use math apps at a separate time for those. It is more fun, and having those facts down makes the regular math go quicker even if you aren't crossing out problems.

You might be able to combine the older two in IEW Bible Heroes. I haven't used it with multiple kids at a time but it is written with coop in mind so the first day of each week is direct teaching. The other days the kids have some things they can do independently. There are also games for review that they could play together, giving it a more social/fun feel. I personally think the grammar in it is sufficient for the grade level, but most people on these boards want more grammar earlier than I do. If you are in that camp, I would think fll2 could be done with them together.

MA has the once upon time saints listed by location so you can coordinate them with bookshark and/or put stickers on a map for those you've done if you want. http://materamabilis.org/ma/level-1a/map-location-key/

I started with Spanish for my oldest since it is most common in our area and easiest to come by resources/native speakers. It seemed like the obvious choice. That was short lived. The cost and time investment compared to payoff just didn't pass muster in my book. We had dipped our toes into asl since yds had speech issues, so we decided to go with that. It is so incredibly useful to be able to say something non-verbally. Spanish is of questionable utility for us in our metro area. In my generation, and certainly that of my children, most people who speak Spanish also speak English, making it kind of unnecessary (but possibly interesting) to converse with them in Spanish. We might add something else later, possibly French or Russian, but I don't see us doing Spanish without some sort of need to go live in a foreign country. So my vote is for asl or French, depending on your children's interests. It will certainly make it easier if they are wanting to learn it.

https://www.tanbooks.com/index.php/the-story-of-civilization-vol-1-the-ancient-world.html The tests are listed for grades 5-8, and the activity guide is listed for grades 1-4. I listened to the samples, and I think it would be a little much for the average first grader. It is definitely more complex than sotw 1. I would guess a more realistic range to be grades 3-5, but obviously that could be beefed up with outside readings for an older kid.

Sounds like a great plan!

You could use How Our Nation Began. http://www.olvs.org/ShopCart/InvDtl.aspx?InvId=10420&GrdId=&InvCatId= It is the spine for Connecting with History volumes 3&4 beginner levels. OLVS has a workbook and answer key for it. I use it with CWH so I can't comment on the workbook part. OLVS lists it for mid elementary, but my 5 yo is fine with it as a read aloud. You could add in some of the billions of early elementary picture books and have a pretty decent course. I really like the looks of the bookshark kindy history program. I might try that with my youngest when he's ready. If you did that as written, you could supplement the first portion with the Lovasik picture Bible http://www.setonbooks.com/viewone.php?ToView=P-RLPK-17. Adding in the Once Upon a Time Saints books to the second half would round it out http://www.setonbooks.com/viewone.php?ToView=P-RD01-30 . The Nest Bible story dvd's are a nice supplement too if your library happens to have them. http://www.nestlearning.com/animated-bible-story-dvds_c2314.aspx

If writing on a single sheet, I put it on a clip board.

My oldest listened to it at not quite five. I didn't do all the ag stuff or require narrating. It was just something he did for enjoyment. He definitely understood it, and it was a fave for awhile. At the time I think he was reading around a 3rd grade level and could easily follow the plot line in chapter books like charlotte's web and Charlie and the chocolate Factory. I'd say go for it. Worst case scenario, you just shelve it for a few months and try again later. No long term damage will be done.

Go back through the aar readers, starting at the first story, and have them practice unto they can read it fluently. Do that with each story. Keep practicing the word cards and phonogram cards. You can use bob books and I see Sam readers for extra fluency practice. Reading is more fun when it's fluent. It sounds like that is the main problem they are having. Once they are fluently reading the practice stories, move on, but proceed more slowly. Take time to master the stories, fluency sheets, and word cards before going to the next lesson.

In addition to the Tm and cd's, I would get the timeline cards. If you can swing it, maps would be next. I have never purchased a student book. We just share when necessary, which is infrequently. My first year I didn't order the maps, thinking I'd just download freebies and print. After I actually tried to find nice, unlabeled maps and print them I decided to place a separate order to have the maps from CCMemory. The time investments was really not worth the cost savings to diy the maps.

Ds has read several of those during this school year: Adventures in Ancient Greece, Story of Exploration, and Family Under the Bridge. I think he read Beezus and Ramona last year. Based on how much he liked those books, he says he would go with the Bookshark list over the Sonlight list. That is saying a lot considering the fact that he asked me to buy the Adventures in Ancient Greece book after reading the others. He read family under the bridge for mbtp. He liked that one a lot too. He was always begging to read ahead. I guess that boils down to both being lists of really awesome books ;). I don't have experience with the guides though, so not sure how that would change things.

I use it and like it. I don't feel that the current vision is disorganized, but you do need to put in some planning time to make it open and go. There are lesson plans available now. I bought the plans for volume 2, but ended up doing my own planning anyway. The lesson plans put all the reading in the first part of the unit, and the second half of the unit is used for writing, further exploration, and projects. I found that I like to have things dispersed more evenly in terms of input/output. My basic routine is to present the overview section to the kids, work with the vocab words, and talk about the discussion prompts. Then we do the core reading and map work for the first topic followed by supplemental nonfiction and literature selections. Then we move to the next topic, doing core reading/map then supplemental non fiction and literature. Before I begin each Unit I look through for any projects or crafts I want to do and just slot them in after the core reading/map work for that topic. I also tweak a lot. I have a great library system so we find lots of cool stuff to add in. In volume 2 we added in most of the nest dvd bible stories. We are in volume 3 right now, and I plan to buy what's available for 4 next year. Now that I found my groove I probably won't use the lesson plans, but it was helpful at first. If you purchase the lesson plans for volume 2, be aware that it is not a full 36 weeks. I think it was around 26-28 iirc. We used the extra time for a prehistory study. There is not really a good spine for kids on the young side of beginner for volumes 1-3. I used sotw 1 and parts of 2 for that. As you can see, I am putting in the planning time with this program, but I am happy with what we are getting out of it. It's also pretty inexpensive if you are just buying the guide. I get most of the secular books from the library, so my book cost is really only the religious books.

My oldest also loves mbtp lit studies. It is moving beyond the page.

We are using the la this year, and I plan to use it again next year. I don't really agree with the whole pedagogical philosophy of mbtp, but in a skill subject it doesn't make any practical difference. For a content subject it makes a huge difference. Most homeschoolers treat science and history as content subjects. Because mbtp is aligned to various state and national standards, its focus for science and history is process-driven. It is exactly this issue (well, this and scattershot vs systematic) that I see as the big split between neo-classical methods and ps methods. I think the process approach is responsible for the busy work feel because (as I'm sure you have noticed) the process is only mildly helpful in mastering the content. Have you read twtm? If not, do it right now! It's usually available in the library, but is worth owning for reference. A new edition will be available in August.

We went out for ice cream too. Guess that was popular. I'm not working out the answers right now because I did it while I was eating my ice cream, lol.