[How do your children address non related adults]

Kids here seem to go with Mr/Mrs/Miss Last Name, unless the adult is introduced to them by first name or asks to be called by it. My kids are usually in the situation where they can just go along with whatever the other kids are calling people, so they've picked up on the fact that Johnny's parents are Dr. Johnson and Dr. Johnson, while our next-door neighbours are Dr. Smith and Mrs. Smith.

 

I noticed recently that sports coaches who don't have a kid playing (whether they're 16 or 60) are called by their first name, while fathers who volunteer to coach are Mr Last Name. When I was a kid, they were all Mr Last Name.

[Spelling program best suited for a Kindergartener?]

FWIW, any spelling book a kindergarten DC can do independently won't teach spelling very effectively. That age needs directly taught.

 

I have to agree with this. I started my Ds5 in Spelling Workout A, then switched to All About Spelling, which has been a much better fit.

[Prettiest Writing Program]

We used Handwriting Without Tears for printing, but I really don't like how the cursive looks. After some research, I decided to go with A Beka, because it's pretty and very close to how I learned cursive. Ds6 only started it a few weeks ago, but so far, so good!

[who has 2nd grade planned for the fall? Care to share]

The basics:

Math: Beast Academy, Math Mammoth, Life of Fred

Language Arts: MCT Island Level, Writing With Ease, A Beka cursive handwriting

Science: Mr. Q Chemistry, Ellen McHenry The Elements, maybe The Brain

History: Story of the World 2, Famous Men of the Middle Ages

 

We'll try to do a little math, science and geography in French, as well as continuing lots of reading and some WWE-style writing.

[Multiplication tables - what you learned, what your dc learn]

I learned up to 15x15, but my kids will learn up to 12x12.

[Books, Books, Books!!! - Do You Buy or Borrow?]

We mostly buy. Our library is tiny and looks like something out of the 70s. The only books we've borrowed have been a few old children's series, like the Boxcar Children and the Hardy Boys. Our local university has a fantastic library, so we should be able to make good use of it in a few years.

[Scheduling First Language Lessons 1 and 2]

With older kids, I would skip level 1 and just use level 2. Everything from level 1 is reviewed in level 2 at a faster pace. I went through level 1 with my 6yo in about 4 months (1-2 lessons per day, he didn't mind the repetition), then skipped ahead to level 3 without any issues.

[My son doesn't seem to get Beast Academy problems. I'm so frustrated!]

ETA: I also suggest moving ahead to the next chapter for a bit and then coming back. The skip counting chapter is not dependent on successful completion of the first chapter.

I'll second this. My son got stuck near the end of the first chapter, but got through it pretty easily when we came back a few weeks later.

[s/o s/o locker rooms and family locker room issues]

Our pool has a special needs changeroom, not a family changeroom. I have seen a few women take their older boys in there, but it's mostly used by disabled adults and their families/caregivers. I'd ask the management if they'd consider switching the name and directing same-gender families to the appropriate changerooms.

[S/O Boys and the Women's restroom]

Next to a food court, I probably would have found him a table to sit at to wait. I wouldn't think anything of a 10-year-old sitting alone for a few minutes.

 

I think a lot of this depends on where you live. In our city, I wouldn't have any trouble sitting my boys at a table and asking someone nearby to keep an eye on them. When we were in Ireland last year, a woman put her 7-year-old granddaughter on the train in Waterford and asked us to watch out for her until her mom picked her up at the station in Cork. But, when we stopped in New York on the way home, I tried to convince Dh that our kids were young enough for leashes. :p

[Boys using public restrooms- when to allow them in the men's room alone]

My 5 and 6-year-olds go in together, and I've sent my older guy in alone a few times. The swimming pool we go to has a sign that says boys ages 6 and up must use the men's change room, so I assumed 6 about average.

[Please...Can I Ask For Some Support? Prayers/Positive Vibes]

:grouphug: Sending good thoughts!

 

Does this league have a fair play rule? If it does, I'd bring along a copy of the rulebook to back yourself up.

[Is your school doing anything for Mother's Day?]

I got a cute craft - a flower made out of construction paper and two Hershey kisses. :)

 

I have a feeling that a "Mother's Day Tea" at our school would have been made up of mostly nannies and grandmothers, but it's a cute idea.

[Asterix-are we the only ones?]

My boys are both big Asterix fans, in French and English. :)

[Are early readers really THAT unusual outside the homeschool realm?]

Early readers are very unusual in our area. My younger son is currently the only fluent reader in his kindergarten class, and the teachers I've spoken with say that only a handful of 1st graders are reading chapter books.

[Shoes or no shoes on a scooter?]

I cringed just reading the title. Shoes, definitely.

[How do YOU do Life of Fred?]

Dh does LOF with both boys when he gets home from work, while I'm making dinner. He reads it to them, or they alternate. They then split into "teams" (Dh and Ds5 vs. Ds6) to do the problems. Both boys like to go back and read the books for fun, but I think Ds5 would skip all the problems and Ds6 would skip the hard ones if Dh wasn't doing it with them the first time through.

[Here's something I didn't know about public school]

Wow, really? My DH ate lunch with my DS14 once a week during 1st grade...the three weeks DS was there..that was in FL.

 

Where we live now, different state, again, I am at a elementary school for my DS7's speech therapy during lunch time, and see a handful of parents coming in to eat lunch with their child each week.

 

I assumed this was the norm.

 

Hmm. I'm sure it's allowed here, I've just never heard of anyone doing it! I think I would prefer to just bring my kid home for lunch, or to a restaurant, but I can see how it would be more convenient for some parents to just drop in to the school. I'll have to ask around about this!

[Here's something I didn't know about public school]

This. There was no such thing as hot lunch in elementary or middle school. It was brown bag lunches, or you went home for lunch.

This was my experience as well. At my son's school, there's a kitchen that cooks hot lunches, but one student from each class has to go down and pick up the box of lunches for the class.

 

This thread is the first time I've ever heard of parents eating lunch in school with their kids. :confused1:

[Here's something I didn't know about public school]

I volunteer at my son's school, and they have to sit in their desks for 20 minutes while they eat their lunch. Older kids are allowed to move to sit by their friends, but younger kids have to sit in their own desk. They're allowed to chat, and I've never seen any kids punished for being too loud. They then get 40 minutes to play, so I think it evens out.

[Math for 5yo, how far to go in LoF?]

My 5yo is just finishing up MM 1B, but he's been doing LOF with his older brother and is still tagging along at Ice Cream. He still enjoys the stories and gets bits and pieces of the math. He also goes back and reads Apples-Dogs (the ones he really understands) for fun. When my older son moves on to Fractions, I'll have my younger guy start back at the beginning.

 

I would keep going as long as its fun for him, then start back at Apples.

[Is this a normal public school experience?]

My son is only in kindergarten, but from what I've heard from parents of older kids at his school, that would be fairly typical here. The schools here are very relaxed until 7th grade. We plan to afterschool through elementary school anyway, so it might end up working in our favour.

[Need advice from left-handers]

 

 

Now I'm curious, how many lefties use their left hand for the mouse? I always assumed everyone used the mouse on the right regardless of hand dominance.

 

My lefty uses his left hand for the mouse, but we have an Apple Magic Mouse, so it's not an issue at all. Before that, he used a trackpad with his left hand.

[Need advice from left-handers]

Handwriting Without Tears has good, clear instructions for teaching penmanship to a lefty. Ds had basically taught himself to write already, but HWT fixed a few awkward things he was doing.

 

We have left-handed scissors, just to make it easier on him. He can use right-handed scissors, but his hand gets tired from having to hold them a certain way.

[Do your kids have friends?]

We only moved here in December, so we're still working on it. :)

 

Ds5 is in school, so he has 15 "friends", but only two I would consider real friends (as in, they've been to our house and he's been to theirs). Ds6 gets along with these two boys and one of their older brothers, but only has one good friend of his own, who also happens to be homeschooled. They met on a tour of the university's chemistry department and are adorably dorky together.