Congratulations! I remember how good it felt to get to the end with my oldest! And now I'm back in the OPGTR trenches with my youngest...

This is a helpful, timely thread for me. DS just started school. I'd like to continue to have him practice his math facts at home, but he's so tired and crabby at the end of the day there's just no way I'm going to try to make him do a fact sheet or flash cards. These Right Start games sound perfect! Thanks!

Perhaps I should clarify. I'm not suggesting that pattern recognition is not important. But there are better ways to practice it than creating one pattern each month, adding one shape day by day. My sons always figured out the pattern in the first week of the month - and then the rest of the time it was just busy work. There are lots of good logic games type books (like Lollipop Logic) that let your DC practice recognizing and completing patterns and are much more efficient and fun.

I think it's just a pattern recognition thing. They use colors in Saxon K and shapes in Saxon 1. It seemed like a silly waste of time to me - so we skipped it.

This is DS's first year of PS. One page of his registration packet was a form we were to sign committing to volunteer at least two hours each month. When I asked at Back to School Night about volunteering in the classroom, DS's teacher told me she doesn't like parent volunteers in the classroom and we should stick to fundraising. I am NOT going to fundraise. I tore the form out of the registration packet and threw it away. I haven't heard anything about it yet, but we'll see if it comes up during parent teacher conferences. DH and I spend most of our free time exploring and learning with our kids. We read to them every night. We check their homework, and practice spelling words nightly. We do daily music practice. We read for pleasure as a family and make weekly trips to the library. I find it preposterous that anyone would suggest we are failing to participate in our sons' educations just because we don't organize teacher appreciation breakfasts or sell raffle tickets.

We also supplement (Alfred's Basic) with Suzuki. The pieces are beautiful, well-arranged, and my son loves showing them off.

My kids really struggled with frustration doing traditional tangrams because the pieces slipped and slid all over the place while they were working. We finally ended up using Tangoes Jr. The designs aren't especially difficult, but they're nice because they are magnetized. I can't speak to its sturdiness, though, because I keep it hidden in a cupboard and only have it available as a reward at the end of our math lesson. :laugh: http://www.amazon.com/Tangoes-JRT001-Junior/dp/B000F6RWW8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369337559&sr=8-1&keywords=tangoes+jr I recommend buying an expansion set right away because there aren't that many puzzles in the original.

I'm a big believer in good, old-fashioned flash cards. If you start with a small deck (slowly adding more facts as she masters some), keep the emotion out of it, and do it for a few minutes every day, it's a relatively painless way to master math facts. This assumes your daughter understands the processes behind the math facts and just needs to work on memorization/speed. I second the recommendation for www.xtramath.com. You can change the settings to allow your daughter 6 seconds (instead the of the default 3) to answer. It's stressful for kids who don't like to be timed, but getting her used to thinking quickly is important.

I'm no expert (I have one reading pretty well and one reading at about your daughter's stage), but I would keep moving forward with the phonics lessons. It sounds like what your daughter needs more than anything else is practice - she clearly understands all the concepts introduced so far. I would do lots and lots of review, but continue slowly adding new concepts. That way neither she nor you feel "stuck" and you open up additional, more interesting reading materials for her to practice on.

Our primary curriculum choices worked just fine. The big hit/miss events happened in our supplements. Hits: Lollipop Logic Tangoes Jr. (tangram puzzles) Magic School Bus DVDs Misses: ETC (I like this, but DS(6) finds it excruciating) Miquon (DS(6) already knows most of his math facts and so refuses to use the C-rods to build anything. He's just not an exploration-y guy when it comes to math. I'm hoping it will be more of a hit with DS(4) when he's a little older.)

We haven't gotten to this point in Saxon yet, but I think you'd probably be fine using it a year ahead. Of course, I'd have your child take the placement test to be sure. We use Saxon at least a year ahead. The first 1/4 to 1/3 of each book is review - so your child will get a chance to catch up on any small areas she might not have covered yet.

My kids aren't this age yet, but your post sounds exactly like ME in high school. I loved to read, and retained/understood what I read. I hated doing science experiments, worksheets, projects, and other activities that I considered a waste of valuable reading time. I honestly think I learned nothing from all the "extras" I was made to do in the interest of helping me learn. I got high scores on my college and graduate school entrance exams, attended college and law school on full merit-based scholarships - so I don't think my preference for learning material through reading hurt me. If my kids end up like yours, I'll just let them read, read, read in the content areas!

This might not be the sort of thing you're looking for, but my kids really benefit from using a 100 Chart. Ours is laminated so they can write on it with dry-erase markers. It really helps them see the patterns in numbers.

I second the tangram recommendation! We use a set called Tangoes Jr. because the pieces are magnetized - so they hold still a little better while my kids are trying to solve the puzzle. Here's the link: http://www.amazon.com/Tangoes-JRT001-Junior/dp/B000F6RWW8/ref=sr_1_3?s=toys-and-games&ie=UTF8&qid=1368553882&sr=1-3&keywords=tangoes

We started AAS in K. I hadn't really planned to start that early, but DS was frustrated at not being able to communicate in writing. AAS is very gentle for young kids because they can spell with the letter tiles instead of writing (if they prefer that), and you can spend as much time as needed on each "Step" without running out of workbook pages (from other spelling curricula I looked at).

DS (just turned 6) has all but finished OPGTR. He reads Level 2 and 3 books from the library to me every day for about 30 minutes. He's not terribly fluent/fast, and occasionally needs help with a word, but he can read and understand them. Does this sound like the time to start including silent reading in our day? I'm a little unsure if he even CAN read silently - I hear him reading books out loud to himself sometimes. And I remember my mom's frustration when she tried to do silent reading with my younger brothers (who refused to read books without pictures, but then spent the entire reading time just looking at the pictures). What cues alert you to the fact that your child is ready for that step? Any guidance? ETA: I don't plan to stop having DS read aloud to me any time soon. I'm asking the Hive's opinion because I sometimes get carried away and push my son to do more than is reasonable developmentally. Is this a reasonable time/stage to try silent reading? What would be the signs that it's beyond him right now? Should I try to have him narrate back to me what he's read silently, or do you think that would put too much pressure on the situation?

I like the idea of the timer! Some days DS can do a whole step in 15 minutes. Other days, he can barely spell five words with tiles in that time. On the slow days, I find myself getting frustrated (Why can't he be effortlessly brilliant ALL THE TIME?), snippy with him, and force him to keep working way too long.

I don't think you'd have a problem using AAR. I think the advice about teaching a child to read quickly has more to do with not delaying reading instruction. Reading is the base of everything in education - so you don't want to procrastinate or do it in a haphazard way. Any systematic reading instruction program that you choose and use daily would probably do the job.

I agree! Saxon Math is always asking DS to write a "number sentence." He was totally confused about it for a while, wondering why English sentences have to begin with a capital letter and end with a period while "number sentences" don't. Now I just say "equation."

I think you and I should form a support group. I just finished dictating six sentences from AAS to DS. Before each sentence, I said, "How do you begin and end a sentence?" and he said, "Begin with a capital letter and end with a period." And then he proceeded to write ALL SIX SENTENCES with no capital letters and no punctuation marks. It's enough to make me want to start day drinking.

I've had to accept that, if I were to keep DS home another year, it would be for my own selfish reasons. I love teaching him at home. I'd love to do it long term. I think I can provide a superior education, more free time, and more focused attention to what DS needs on any given day. But DS has other ideas. He's ridiculously excited to be starting 1st at the local PS next year. I hope he's happy/healthy there, but if he's not I'll cheerfully bring him home!

Reasons we HSd for K: 1. DS was young and squirmy 2. DS was small for his age due to medical issues 3. DS was already doing 1st Grade work - so I thought K would be a waste of time 4. I enjoyed teaching him at home 5. The PS principal said she prefers young K boys wait until they're 6 ("redshirting") 6. I wasn't quite ready to have him away from me :blushing: Reasons DS will attend PS for 1st Grade: 1. He wants to I feel a little sad about this, but I think it's fair to let him give it a try. I'll afterschool him for now, and bring him home if/when he wants.

My K'er loves Lollipop Logic! I rip out ONE page per school day for him to do (otherwise he'd do the whole book in one sitting). Usually, it's easy for him, but some days it poses a bit of a challenge. I've also purchased, but not yet gotten to: http://www.amazon.com/Visual-Discrimination-Grades-2-8/dp/1583240039/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1367852592&sr=1-1&keywords=visual+discrimination http://www.amazon.com/Analogies-Beginners-Dianne-Draze/dp/1593630468/ref=pd_bxgy_b_img_y Good luck!

I love these kinds of posts because it assures me that my kid isn't the only one! My 4.5 year old will answer my husband's, "What did you do today?" with "We went to the zoo" or something similar - even if we haven't been to the zoo in months. I've found that he can tell me what happened in a book I just read him, though. We're working on narration, and I think that will help. He also can't draw or write much of anything. He just recently started making stick figures with HUGE heads and eyes. That's the first non-scribbled drawing I've ever seen from him. :laugh:

My youngest is almost exactly the same age and has the same issue! It drives me CRAZY. I've discovered that he loves doing mazes (with me watching closely and making a buzzer sound every time he goes off the path, seriously...) and tracing words that I've written in dotted letters on handwriting paper. He still can't/won't write on his own, but I figure all this pencil-control practice will help eventually.