Well, stink, I was determined to not feel guilty over my comment, but now it keeps pricking at my conscience. I apologize for being rude.

Well, *I* think it was freakin' hilarious. I may not be a perfect mother, but I'm thankful that we have a witty, sarcastic, dramatic sense of humor in my house. :) I can see how those of you who lack that might miss the humor, but at least you have your personal awesomeness to make up for it. ;)

My daughter cannot skip problems. If anything, she needs more practice than MM offers. We work on two chapters at once. For example, she will do one page of multiplication and one page of time. She is able to keep going that way, without being totally overwhelmed by too much of the same thing.

I work two days a week at a local school supplies store - Thurs and Sat. Kids are with their dad on Saturday and their grandmother on Thursday. I also do computer work for a local business whenever they have projects going. I won't sugar-coat it: it's a pain on the arse. But you do whatcha gotta do, right?:) Oh, and I previously babysat a little boy 3-5 days a week. He came here for 2 1/2, up until he went off to kindergarten. It was a really good option for us.

I am Orthodox and use Apologia. This year we're doing Zoo 1. A couple years ago (before becoming Orthodox), we did Astronomy. My biggest annoyance with Astronomy was her occasional comments that have that "those silly evolutionists" theme. You can skip over them, as I did, but you should be aware that it's there (my issue isn't even with the belief, but the presentation - there's no need to made the "other side" look foolish). The other thing I found obnoxious was the frequent "Isn't is amazing that God did such-and-such?" Well, yes, it IS amazing! It just felt forced and I think that a child who is raised knowing God should have the opportunity to discover that awe in their own. Other than that, I don't *think* there would be concerns as far as theology. The references to God tend to be that "God made this birds wing so it can...." I haven't seen anything about "how to be saved" or other comments of that nature.

I agree that Apologia's Zoology 1: Flying Creatures is good if you don't mind a Christian perspective. Lots of facts! There is an entire chapter about flight, so you'd have your sneaky-physics part covered. :) My kids and I also loved the Burgess Bird Book, which you can find free online (though I ended up buying an inexpensive Kindle version from amazon). We've had a lot of fun studying birds this year!

Thanks! I really just want them to hang in there till tomorrow afternoon. Maybe I can lure some ants into the house... Where are all the fruit flies when you actually NEED them, right? :)

My daughter found two praying mantis egg cases about a month ago, so we put them in our butterfly garden to await their arrival. One of them hatched tonight! As far as I can tell, it was only one case that hatched. Tons of tiny praying mantises! But OF COURSE my daughter is not home! I've heard that if you don't set them free pretty quickly, they will start to eat each other. Do you think they'll be okay to leave in there until tomorrow afternoon? Is there something I should feed them? It's really very cool! I am wishing my kids were home right now! :D

Some ideas: *Make a simple number chart and count together every day. *Give her little cards or pieces of paper with numbers on them and have her put them in order (always left to right, of course). Start small until she understands what you're doing, then add one number at a time as she gets comfortable with the last one (i.e. don't give 1-20, start with 1-5, then maybe 1-10 if she knows those well, then just add 11, then later add 12, etc). *Easy dot-to-dots. For this age, they are so simple that it's pretty obvious what comes next. You can count together as she goes. I recently bought this one for my DS (who was 5 in Feb). It has a nice progression, starting easy at the beginning of the book and getting progressively more challenging throughout. *Use numbers WITH the cuisenaire rods. There are little number papers I have from *somewhere*... maybe printed from MEP, I'm not sure. Anyway, you could make them easily. You just have all the ones and the tens - 1, 2, 3, etc., and 10, 20, 30, etc. You would only need a "10" for now and the numbers below it. *When you make "11" with the rods, lay out the "10" paper with the orange rod. Then add the "1" rod and get the "1" paper. Then put them together by laying the "1" paper on top of the 0 of the "10". Clear as mud? Sorry, that's a terrible explanation for something very simple. :) Just a visual for 10 and 1 more making the numeral "11".

Thanks for that! I am lazy and like to click directly there. Type stuff in?? What?! :)

I teach it, but I don't emphasize it. I tell them that it's technically the second sound of "y" and teach them the rule, but sometimes point it out when we are spelling. I don't usually ask them to mark it that way (Ha, how's that for consistency? Point is that they know there's a reason behind it, but it's a bit foreign to the way WE speak in our home).

I found it too difficult to do two math programs (tried with Horizons and Math Mammoth). I KNOW what you mean about how hard it is to just pick one! For what it's worth, if it's mostly the number lines in Horizons that annoy you, you can ignore them. Have your daughter pull out her MUS rods to find answers she doesn't know (I did this with cuisenaire rods). Horizons 1 covers quite a variety: time, money, adding two digit numbers, subtraction, skip counting, etc. It's a pain to decide. I've agonized for quite some time!! :)

Okay, I think it's goofy. That said, here's my thought. Perhaps it's meant to have children notice the ENDING sounds of words, and the teacher did not have the instructions that belong with the page. It makes sense if you can picture them starting their finger under the picture of the glasses and moving across the arrow saying "frame" slowly. As in, "What is this? That's right, do you know another word for 'glasses'? The plastic part is called a 'frame'. Can we say that slowly? Do you hear what it ends with? That's right, an 'm'! Let's say it again and this time we'll write the 'm' that we hear." In the next picture, "bells" is a possibility, but there's only one bell. Maybe it should be "rings". "What does a bell do? That's right, it 'riinngs'. Do you hear the sound at the end? That's right, an 's'! Let's say it again and write the sound."

The Avon Skin So Soft bug repellents have always worked great for us. My DS gets HUGE mosquito bites that end up with scabs that last for a month, so I really try to keep those bugs off of him! I can't speak to how well it really works on ticks. We have plenty of them around here, but we don't have bites often enough for me to know if the repellent works well against them.

That's awesome!!! :D

Does your library have a summer reading program? That could be a fun way to encourage daily reading. If not, you could make up your own chart and designate a reward of some sort when it's filled. After however many times of reading, you could get an ice cream cone or something. You definitely will want to keep reading. Kids have surprisingly short-lived memories when it comes to school stuff they've learned! :)

Did you use the teacher's manual? There is SO MUCH drill, imo! Daily skip counting, flashcards out your ears, plus daily drill pages that are included in the TM for copying (or you can buy the pages separately).

While we've done fine with the spiral aspect of Horizons, I did switch my daughter to Math Mammoth in January (after she finished Horizons grade 2 math). Since you've already signed up for the group buy, give it a try! My son is doing fine with his Horizons gr 1, but he'll be switching to MM when he starts 2nd grade in the fall (just cause I like MM!).

Once last fall and once last spring, we went to the playground when the weather was beautiful. I plan to go again soon-ish. It was a really nice change of pace. We went with their cousins (who live next door and also homeschool) and they got to take playground breaks between subjects. I wouldn't do it all the time, but it was fun!

This is basically what I was thinking. My 1st grade expectations have been different for my two children so far, and will be different again, I'm sure, for my youngest. My goals/expectations for my current 1st grader have been: Read as fluently as he is able; continually reach for greater skills. Learn how to spell/read new words every week (about 10/wk for him). Have addition and subtraction facts memorized and begin skip counting memorization. Begin learning basic grammar - period, question mark, beginning capitalization, using lowercase letters at the right times, and basic concepts of nouns and verbs. Use neat, legible handwriting; properly form letters; hold pencil correctly. Answer simple questions about history/science/literature passages that have been read. The year is not over, and we are still working on these. My expectations were slightly different when my daughter was a first grader. For example, she was a more skilled reader, but needed more time using math manipulatives before memorizing facts. We've done 2-3 hours of work each day in 1st grade, including science and history.

LOL! No pity! Older is better! :D

I have been pondering the exact same question. Thanks for asking it! :)

This remains one of my favorite preschool articles. I go back and read it once or twice a year. :) http://www.magicalchildhood.com/articles/4yo.htm

I do agree with the negatives. I've tried using it several times, with all three kids. I want to like it, but I just really hate it. I don't know why I don't just sell the book already, except that I keep going back wanting to like it. Some do very well with it, and you'll only know if you try. You should be able to find a copy second-hand for a reasonable price. A Beka also starts with beginning blends (ba, be, bi, bo, bu), btw.

Folks, this is a long thread; I'm not going to read all of it. But I saw the topic at hand and I just HAD to share this link below! I hate cooking and we're particular about the flavor/texture of our foods (i.e. we're all really picky eaters), and we fall well below the line of people who definitely do NOT eat only or mostly or half healthy foods. If I can throw it in the oven for 15 minutes with zero prep on my part, I'm happy. So anyway, I read this last night and LAUGHED SO HARD. Gasping for breath, tears, the whole shebang. :D http://theoatmeal.com/comics/cook_home (warning: there is one not-child-friendly word in it)