We do k, but I don't think there is one right way. A lot is dependent on the family dynamics, location, and what the child would otherwise be doing. Around here about half the kids attend 3 yo preschool, and nearly all attend public k4. My oldest is also advanced, so that all added up to having no intellectual peers (not to mention kids slightly ahead) left during daytime hours by the time he was 3 yo. It is all well and good to learn through child directed play if that play can happen. When it can't, I prefer to have have something to help the child advance. The curriculum helps me do that, though I'm sure I could get by without it. It seems to me that much disdain for kindy curriculum comes from people who had their oldest in ps before deciding to homeschool. As such, many of them never experienced a lack of intellectual peers. The problem is exacerbated for kids that are advanced and/or gifted.

I love math mammoth. It is so easy to use, rigorous, streamlined, efficient, flexible, inexpensive. But there are others I'm sure I could be happy with, especially if I didn't have littles that might eat manipulatives or if I had a charter buying the books for me...particularly right start and Mif.

There is supposed to be an online version coming where you could print just the lessons you needed. I was able to view the entire new lesson on Amazon look inside. I decided I was fine with the old edition.

I generally make them wear shoes because we have a large section of our yard paved with concrete. Without shoes, there is always one that will end up with a toe full of blood. When we are in a grassy area on private property (my mom's house for instance) I let them be barefoot if it is nice out. If it's damp I have them wear shoes so that they can take them off when they come into her house and onto her carpet.

We're using the la next year. I am going to continue using our current spelling in place of the mbtp spelling. Since we aren't using it yet, idk if I might end up supplementing something else, but the spelling stands out to me already. It is just word lists, and the child I'm using it for has already mastered most of the words on the list for the level we'll be using. If it helps at all, I was happily surprised by the amount of grammar. I expected it to be less after reading reviews on here, but it appears to be complete coverage (for the level we'll be using). There is definitely less drill than the wtm recs though. For us, I'm sure that will be a good thing.

Elemental is a guide for the teacher. The actual books are written by other people. They are published by major companies. I vote for bfsu though. It might be more work in that it requires you to read through the lesson beforehand, but it is a lot more appropriate for k IMO. It is discussion and activity based. Elemental is read this encyclopedia and fill in a notebook page. The demonstrations seem to me to be less elegant than bfsu. For a k student, you will probably be doing the writing with elemental. Bfsu demonstrations are very well done to illustrate the point. Sometimes you don't even need to set up equipment, but just draw the student's attention to something that surrounds them already.

Classically catholic memory, making music praying twice, and sound beginnings (spell to read) are well-loved here. I have not used, but have heard great things about the phonics from chc and the Catholic Mosaic book. We use a lot of the same books in cwh as what is used in catholic mosaic. You could look at their book lists if you just wanted book ideas. http://www.hillsideeducation.com/mosaicbooklist.pdf We made the peg dolls from the download at catholic icing. Those are awesome to play with when you learn about the various saints. http://www.catholicicing.com/printable-peg-dolls-just-paint-the-head-and-decoupage-the-rest/ I also like the dvd's from cc of America https://www.cccofamerica.com/?page_id=1889

It sounds like she would be ready for 1st grade in mm, sm, or rs. Those are generally considered fairly rigorous. I would just try cle 100 and see what happens. If it moves too fast, slow down. I can't think of any k level program that would give her much she doesn't already have.

Yes, absolutely. This is why we use ccm instead of a DIY.

We spend 5-10 minutes per day on ccm with my 6 yo. He does religion, history, science, geography, and great words for mastery. We do the skip counting for math but I don't require mastery or review previous weeks when we move on. We don't do the Latin this time through. I require timeline to mastery, but we only do 1 card per week so it is spread over 4 years. Most of our 5-10 minutes of practice is in the car with the audio cd.

I followed along with the spell to read, but when introducing the phonogram, I did it in the gd italic style. He would then write a line of the phonogram in italic, saying the sound(s) each time he wrote it. For phonogram and/or spelling dictation, I would review any letters that gave him problems before we started. Then during dictation, I would sit directly next to him with eraser in hand to catch anything subpar. For the most part, knowing it would be erased inspired him to put the effort in the first time. I don't know a lot about Eltl, but iirc it covers spelling, handwriting, and simple punctuation via dictation at that level. I see no reason to do that along with swr.

I see a lot of overlap in your la plans. Doesn't swr include handwriting? I use sound beginnings, a spalding spinoff, and I would call that complete language arts. There is spelling, phonics, handwriting, simple grammar, and dictation. Just add in reading time or incorporate reading practice in your other subjects. I actually used gd italic as the style I incorporated into sound beginnings. If you are partial to that style over the swr version, just teach that with your swr, insisting on proper letter formation during phonogram dictation and spelling.

We have really liked all of the read and find out books, which were already mentioned, but also check out the Gail gibbons books. Those are fantastic too. I had good luck going through my library's biography section for picture books of great names in science and technology. The science biographies are really nice to give science the proper feel of a living, changing being. It is constantly being added to and refined, with much toil, frustration, and elation in its wake.

I find the teaching portion in mm to be clearly set off. It is boxed in bold. In the early years, the parent can simply do what's in the box on the whiteboard or with manipulatives. Then you might move on to reading through the box together, eventually graduating to being fairly independent with the teaching box. With mm though, you kind of go without a clear day by day plan. You might roughly plan to average a page and a half or 20 minutes, or whatever you decide. That means the teaching box will not always come up at the beginning of your daily math time. Your student might work independently for 10 minutes, then be ready for the next teaching box. I'm a very happy mm user. It is easy to take at your own pace, but I agree with previous posters that it is more difficult to customize the level of difficulty aside from accelerating/decelerating. I chose it over sm primarily for the issues you describe of juggling books. Our living area is small. I can store plenty of stuff in other areas, but I don't want a lot of books "in play" at the same time. If there's just the one book out, it's less likely to be thrown onto the floor by the toddler or devoured by the puppy. The customer service is great. Maria has provided free updates. It's also loads cheaper than sm, especially if you end up using for multiple children.

I don't think any of those things are inappropriate if covered in a way takes the age into consideration. If you're using books to expose them, I'm sure it will be just fine. My 4 yo can do most of those things. My k-er could check them all off, except "the sun is the center of the universe" because that's incorrect. The sun is the center of the solar system.😉

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Maybe mr. Q? http://www.eequalsmcq.com/CSEarthChapterDwnld.htm There is no experiment kit, but the books is everything you need (like sotw) and living books can be added. The middle school level is currently being written. I'm sure he could tell you if it will be finished by fall if you send him an email.

I bet he has a better grasp on it than you think. Asking a child to give a definition of a word is a lot more demanding than asking them to use it context. When you run into a word you've already defined for him, try asking him something like, "is a wig something you would eat for dessert or something you would wear on your head?" Then the next time, ask him, "what would you do with a wig?"

Many homeschoolers have more than one child, so being forced to switch to the new edition (even if it's great) will require that they purchase all new materials instead of simply replacing the workbook. Furthermore, many people seem to feel that the standards hig is superior to the U.S. hig. If you'd like to view everyone as alarmist, feel free, but I think you misunderstand the concern for most homeschoolers.

My perception of the "problem" is that the fuss isn't over cc per se, but the fact that the new version has no hig, and the timetable for any possibility of hig is unknow. That is compounded by singapore's reputation of discontinuing previous versions with little notice. I would go with mm (which I use) or right start (which I also use, but only at the a level).

The rs abacus app is only around $2 iirc, and you could also diy pretty easily with 2 colors of beads, a few skewers, and a couple craft sticks. There is a pic on the math mammoth site somewhere of a simple diy. We use a free geo board app as well. I made my own cards from the appendix. I used bright card stock and laminated them. In place of the tiles we use colored eraser caps, black and white beans, or a bunch of small multi-colored unicorns that came from the $1 bin at Taget. I thought the folded rs hundred flats were really lame. I already had a nice base ten set, so no loss there, but you might consider that instead of paying for folded up paper.

Yes, it is complicated with babies and toddlers. I would say toddlers are more difficult, but my youngest was a high needs baby with some nicu and feeding issues so I didn't get a reprieve anywhere. Since your oldest is still young you will need to do most of the schoolwork with your child. However, total daily time isn't that long. I use nap time mostly, but I also like to break the subjects up to allow for attention span and fine motor maxes. That means something still needs to be done in the morning. For my oldest, it is math mammoth and memory. For my middle it is phonics (she still naps but I stagger it by about 20 minutes so I can do math with her). A baby can be worn, but toddlers are mobile maniacs, lol. Open and go is good. I also like audio books (I can fold laundry while listening) and ebooks (allows me to be mostly hands-free). Don't forget outsourcing. My kids go to grandma's for art. She can set up before they get there and clean up after they leave, and the toddler never even sees all that paint and glitter!

I basically made my own kit by throwing everything that isn't a normal household item for us into a box. I also went through the books list to see which were available at my library. For lessons where my library didn't have many of the recommended books, I looked for others and noted them by lesson. Now I jus see what lessons will be covered over the next 4 weeks and add those books to my regular book reservation routine, picking them up once per week.

http://www.amazon.com/What-Would-You-Linda-Schwartz/dp/0881601969/ref=pd_sim_b_1?ie=UTF8&refRID=1C1EP2MYYX0F5DN3F0HE We use this book. We just read it together. I have ds come up with his own idea before we see what the book says to do. It covers a lot of things that I never even thought of, and it includes typical first aid things.

My toddler will be 2 next month. He has speech therapy and was recently evaluated with expressive language at 6-9 months (receptive above average though), so I will be doing some more routine, targeted activities with him. We currently do weekly story time at the library and daily signing time at home with all of us. Once we start summer break, I plan to begin some sort of interactive story time with him at home. My library has little themed kits for books with puppet plays or books with dress up activities, etc, IDK what else to do to help him, but the plan will probably morph frequently into whatever is most needed.