Wow, this is so fascinating! Thank you all for your input. My daughter is 9 and she tested very well in reading comprehension and phonics when we tested last week. I guess my main concern is that this hinders her fluency. I am going to work with her on just paying attention to be sure she reads the words that are actually printed. Thank you, friends!

My daughter is great with phonics and decoding as she's reading. But the thing I have found that slows her down or trips her up is that she reads words that her brain assumes are going to be there, and doesn't see the actual word. For example, she was reading aloud to me and read "...bypassed the road to ride straight through the woods..." but instead of "woods" she read "forest." I gently stopped her and asked her to read the sentence again. She read it probably three times saying "forest" every time so I asked her to point to the word forest. She was surprised to discover it was not there. This doesn't seem like that big of a deal, except that she does it with he/she, said/asked type words also that sometimes change the context and cause her to stop and go back a lot. It's like her brain is trying to work ahead and fill in the words that it thinks will be there. Has anyone experienced this? Any suggestions for correcting? I would love to know the root cause of this issue and if it's even something to address at this point. I think it's definitely hindering her from being a fluent, fast reader. Thank you in advance!!

Thank you so much for the ideas. I never thought of using a Kindle Fire, but I think that's probably a good option for us. Plus my husband just found some online for a very good price, so we'll give it a try. :)

Can anyone recommend an inexpensive mp3 player that my 7 and 8 year olds can use to listen to audiobooks (mostly from overdrive) as well as some music? I don't really want to spend more than $50, but would love the ability to bookmark and switch to another book and/or music. Obviously, I don't need anything fancy or complicated with tons of features. Can anyone help?? Thanks!!

Also, don't leave the pens themselves in a really hot car for any length of time. We were on vacation in Florida and my entire set of pens just stopped working. I don't remember leaving them in the car, but I did have them outside in the sun with me frequently and for long periods. I threw them away and bought new ones. Now I'm wondering if I could have just put them in the freezer to get them working again. :)

Thanks for the eraser cap suggestions!!

My new favorite supply that I even let my kids use: Pilot Frixion Erasable pens in many colors (the "clickable" ones so I don't have to mess with caps) - I LOVE these things and don't know what I ever did without them. They are NOT like your standard PaperMate erasable pen. They erase with friction and erase completely! So I let my girls use them for a lot of their school work -- even math. (They erase better than most pencils even.) I can't say enough good things about these pens. :) Unfortunately, I have only ever seen the black, blue and red pens in stores -- the set of pretty multi-color pens I always have to order online. I would love to know, however, if there is a particular pencil cap eraser that holds up well because ours always fall apart so easily and won't stay on the pencil. "...I would send you a bouquet of newly sharpened pencils if I knew your name and address..." :)

I am searching for a Life Science program to use for my 1st and 3rd graders. I am looking for something that is Charlotte Mason style, with a Christian viewpoint. I love the Apologia stuff, but I want a basic year-long life science course that will lay the groundwork before focusing in on lengthy studies of just Birds, Anatomy, Sea Animals, etc. I really love science study that points directly to the Creator and how everything was so perfectly designed. Any suggestions that would fit this bill?? Thanks!

We love MM!! It explains concepts in several different ways and provides plenty of practice for those who need it. My dd even loves. :)

Yes, what a blessing! And if you're not familiar with it, check out readaloudrevival.com. It has some really fantastic podcast interviews with lots of great people. I'm always so excited about what I learn on those, so I pass it along whenever possible!

Thank you all so much for your input! Kate, your articles are so helpful. Thanks for sharing those links! I also want to see the "Taking the Mystery Out of Conceptual Math" seminar, but can't figure out how to get it. :) I clicked on the link and put it in "my cart" and checked out. Now what? Sorry, I'm sometimes technology challenged, but it looks like it would help a lot. All the best!!

I am trying to decide whether to go with Singapore or Math Mammoth. They both seem very similar in how they present material and the sequence. What am I missing? If there are no major differences, I am going to choose Math Mammoth because I like that the "teaching" is included in the workbook/worktext. I don't intend to just hand over a workbook to my children and be completely hands-off, BUT I am turned off by Singapore's method of 3 separate sources...Instructor's Guide, Textbook, and Workbook. I need things more streamlined than that. Thoughts or suggestions from those who have used or researched both? Thanks!!

We love SOTW, Horizon Math, and Phonics Road...in addition to our Classical Conversations, which we adore.

Thanks for all the input! This was very helpful. :)

We will be doing CC with a community...in fact, I'm a tutor. :)

How do you use Classical Conversations...the Foundations level? Do you treat it just as memory work and do all of your other curricula independent of it? Or do you try to match it up so that what you're doing in CC syncs with what you're learning throughout the week? In CC this coming year we will be covering American History for our history memory work and Anatomy for our science memory work. But the core curriculum I want to use outside of CC will cover World History/Ancients (for history) and Earth Science and Space (for science). Do you have experience with doing things this way and did you have any problems? Is it too confusing for the kids? Thanks in advance for any comments/input!

Haha! No, this person is JoAnna Garris and was "hsmom" on this forum. I finally escalated my paypal dispute to a "claim" on the 8th. I won't hear anything back until the 18th it sounds like. kandbp, I'm glad you got your money back!

When you click on the "Send Money" tab on Paypal, it asks you in the box that comes up if you are "paying for goods or services" or "sending money to friends or family." If you select "sending money to friends or family" there is no charge to either the buyer or the seller. If you select "paying for goods or services" there is a 2% fee to the seller. ALWAYS use this when buying anything! If the seller asks you to pay the fee, just include the extra 2% in your payment, but still use the "goods or services" option.

A nice FREE program is Progressive Phonics which is online, but has booklets you can print off, etc. Great for learning to read.

I am beginning to really believe we are dealing with a dairy sensitivity. She used to drink 2-3 glasses of mild every day. We took her off milk about 2 weeks ago and she only has soy milk now. The tummy aches slowly faded out and are now gone (fingers crossed, knock wood, etc.)! She still has some dairy, like cheese and yogurt - but no milk. If this continues, I will be thrilled!!

Just an update...I haven't received anything yet, but still hoping, in light of this new information. Hey, life happens and who knows what struggles she is facing right now, so I am not down on her or have any ill feelings. I would just love to receive the books I ordered...or get the refund. Glad to hear someone received theirs. Please continue to update if you get your shipment. Thanks!

This is what I ordered (6 items) totaling $25: Ancient Egyptians and their Neighbors DK First Animal Encyclopedia Usborne Essential Atlas of the World The Usborne Young Naturalist book The Ultimate Geography and Timeline Guide D'Aulaire's Book of Greek Myths So, it sounds like there are 4 people that we know of who ordered and did not receive materials yet? Hmmm.

kandbp, I still haven't heard from her or received my items. Let me know if you get yours and I'll do the same. Good luck! For the record, I have bought lots of items from this forum and another and I have always had good results in the past.

Thanks everyone! I had no idea media mail could take so long. I guess I've just been lucky each time I've had something shipped media mail in the past...I always have received it in less than a week. Maybe she's just out of town or something and that's why she hasn't responded to my email. I really want to believe that all is good and it's just slow mail. :)

hsmom had a classifieds ad on this forum at the beginning of the month. I purchased 5 items and paid for them with paypal on July 2. She said she mailed them on July 5, but now it's July 16 and I've never received them, cannot get her to respond to email and saw that her accound is "deactivated" from this forum. Anyone else have this problem? Did I get scammed? Will paypal reimburse my money? Thanks!