My K'er and I are about halfway through On the Banks of Plum Creek.

This series is very similar to the Usborne Art Treasury. I found it at our local library. We haven't tried any of the projects yet, but most of them seem to be pretty good. http://www.amazon.com/Get-Into-Art-People-Kingfisher/dp/0753470594/ref=cm_cr_pr_product_top

First, I'd give it a week or two of a break, for the sanity of both of you. Do a lot of read alouds and don't ask him to read anything during this time. Then pick a book that has words in it you know he will be successful with. Read a sentence and ask him to complete words. "The cat in the ____" Then pick another book and ask him to hunt for long vowel words with silent "e" or something. Once he is in a better place, maybe then go back to a lesson in OPGTR and have him hunt for words using those rules in books. Maybe then try have him doing some reading again.

Is Song School Spanish too basic for where she is?

I'm using MCP Phonics A with my K'er, who is an advanced reader but a novice speller. We like it a lot. It's a nice tie in with some of the things we've been doing in OPGTR. We're not doing any other spelling or writing (besides handwriting) curriculum right now so it's nice to have. On the days when it's particularly writing intense, we sometimes skip handwriting so he doesn't get tired out. Sometimes when it calls for filling in a letter and tracing the rest of the word, I tell him just to fill in the letter and not worry about the tracing. He enjoys the pictures, the varied activities, and he is a workbook-friendly kid. I have him read the directions and his answers out loud when he is done. I think we will also buy the next book for next year, if for no other reason that we live in a portfolio state and it's a great thing to have for that. I rip out some good work maybe every 20 pages and put it in the notebook for our twice annual review. It looks like the kind of regular school the reviewer is used to seeing and lets her see the real body of our work (FLL, OPGTR) which don't have many written examples as supplements. Whatever, as long as she signs the paper! ;)

M 6yo DS would totally go for math books. He's not getting any this year, but he would be happy to get one.

Give it time. It takes a long time for children to absorb and begin speaking. If you want to supplement at home, go with Salsa Spanish videos, Youtube Mickey Mouse Club in Spanish, etc. Get Songschool Spanish and use the CD in the car. We also love this CD.

I'm doing Miquon Orange with my K-er now. I would say it is enough, but we also have Singapore Math Essentials K and I think the two programs complement each other nicely. I don't think Essentials is enough on its own. A is super easy (but it was worth it for us for the confidence building) and B is right were we are in the Orange book. Essentials includes concepts that Miquon doesn't cover so much like more/less and number writing practice. So buying Essentials was worth it for us. I'm not sure if I'm going to continue on with it for first grade though. We're doing calendar skills in FLL and in our science (recording the weather on a calendar) so that is not an issue for us.

We have Elemental Science's Intro to Science. I can't decide if I like it or not. Part of me loves that it relies so heavily on library books. I like using living books anyway. But, my library doesn't have half of the suggestions. It's worked out fine, but it takes some time to gather everything and prep, not including the experiments and written work. Some of the activities and concepts seem either repetitive or needlessly time-consuming to me, so I ended up taking 4 related weeks' themes and combining them into a monthly unit. We get all the library books in the first week, and start reading, then do the experiments and written work throughout rest the month. So, I guess I'm not using it like it's intended. But I couldn't find another way to get it done. It irks me a little because what I'm paying for is the organization and structure and I don't love the organization! I could see it working for some but it doesn't fit with my teaching style. DS5, on the other hand, love it! At any rate, we've tabled it until next year because science wasn't a requirement for us this year. We'll complete Intro next year and go from there. I haven't decided yet whether we'll be buying more Elemental Science books after this.

I ordered sometime after Christmas and had my stuff by New Year's! It made the wait for our coop DVD's seem so much longer! :)

This might work: http://bible.cc/deuteronomy/11-19.htm I honestly don't think that verse mandates home schooling, but it does support it. Personally what comes to mind is the notion of leaving and cleaving, ie, her parents don't really have a say in what schooling choices she makes, as long as she treats them with honor as she does it. :)

I would try reading short sections to him, and asking him to narrate a summary back to you orally. If he's unable to do that, either read the same section again, or then assign for him to read until he can narrate. Then when it's time to do the questions, he might have better retention.

We love our DVD's too. DS5 finished his first project today and pestered me to photograph and upload it until I did it just now!

I also have a 5yo and an (almost) 3yo. We're using Salsa videos, usually introducing a new episode every 1-2 weeks. We also have a flashcard style language program through our library. I pick out specific vocab for the 5yo to work on when he gets computer time, maybe 1-2 times a week? I will have him work on one set of words for 2-3 sessions and then switch him to something else, knowing we'll cycle back around later. So far we've done colors, cardinal numbers 1-10, common foods, and animals. Our library also has an excellent children's Spanish section. Some of the books are more immersive than others. I will try to find 2-3 titles a month and read them several times a week. We especially like the translations of books they already know in English.Tren de Carga (Cargo Train) and La Aruga Muy Hambrienta (The Very Hungry Catterpilliar), and Oso Pardo (Brown Bear They also like the "baby" books with labeled pictures of everyday objects. Google translate is a fun way to add in new phrases. Sometimes we'll wonder "How can we say, 'let's go to the park" in Spanish" and type it in and listen. During the day we use the words as we can fit them in. "I need a rojo crayon." The Salsa videos are probably the most beneficial, especially because I'm not already a Spanish speaker. The kids pick up words and phrases from the puppets and use them in their play.

We love the Kumon titles--coloring, cutting & pasting, folding, letters, numbers, and number games (connect the dots and color by number).

We did something similar to writing our own little books. I wrote notes to my son every day with info about what we'd be doing that day. He loved reading my letters. After a few weeks off, we jumped into OPGTR around lesson 75 or so. It was helpful to review and felt like a snap after those long 100EL lessons. After about a month we started getting into new material and continue to do so now.

I didn't buy one of the kits that the email links to. I think they might have just set those up. I searched the teacher lists from the homepage and looked at the k and 1 lists. My DS is 5 and doing kindergartenish stuff so that is where we are starting. what did I get? *All of the RAS paints on the 1st grade list. (I figured just get them all now). They are nice paints. Less than $3 per bottle. *The palette, which is really nice--except warning--on the video Ms. Volin has a better one with multiple round divets for mixing. They don't carry that one. It's fine and DS hasn't noticed (or cared enough to say anything). I like the little sticky pads on the bottom. The package says that dried paint will peel off, but so far the tempera does not really peel. I don't think tempera will peel. * 2 packs of the oversized construction paper. (I have a toddler who might be doing some of these with us) *vellum & watercolor paper *sculpey When I type that out, it doesn't sound like much, but the total as over $70. But nothing on the list seemed overpriced. It would come to only $50-something with that coupon code. We already have a nice art kit, tubes of watercolor paints, and brushes. I went to my local AC Moore and they had the sculpey for about 30% more than the Jerry's price. So it's kind of a good deal but if I wanted to save a little I could have used their weekly 50% coupon and gotten a few of the things a little more cheaply. But, DS was anxious to get started!

We got ours yesterday. Got a 20% off + free shipping coupon for Jerry's Artarama in my email today. Sadness! that would have saved me $20+. :/

I also got the payment notification. My DS5 is impatient for them to arrive and asks me several times a day about them!

I ordered about half of what was recommended for K-1 and shipping came to $12.95 for a total of $70-something. A lot of money, but I'm hoping the tempera will last us several years. (Is that crazy?) I got tempera paint in every color (because I have only the small crayola paint pots and they will go fast), the large construction paper (2 packs), a palette, the vellum paper (a different brand because they were out of stock) and the sculpey. We already have an art set and brushes. I thought the construction papers was a good deal for $4 for the 11x14 size. $4 is about what I paid at Walmart for cheaper, smaller paper. The larger size was needed for the sample project and I had to make it by taping 2 papers together.

Part of me wants to cringe at cookie-cutter art projects. However, isn't most of what we're teaching in the grammar stage all about reproducing a model? "Copy this letter...Copy this sentence...Twinkle Twinkle Little star starts with two A's then 2 E's...1+1=2..." and so on. We're giving them skills so that later in life they can use them to be creative. Also, copying masters is a favorite exercise of college-level art students. The arts aren't 100% creativity; There's a lot of skill building that is requisite. I ordered all 6 from the co-op. My DS5 loved the video and has been asking for more since he made the sunflowers. I've also noted that there's quite a bit of subtle variation between each of the sunflower projects I see posted on the Home Art studio site. There's room in the project for a child to make choices.

We started with 100EZ and liked the first half or so of the book. After that, it became a chore and a dreaded part of the day. We plugged through, but I probably should have stopped. It did get my DS reading, though! Next we got OPGTR and started around lesson 50 or 60 and have been going from there--it is liked much better! The first 20 lessons of 100EZ are really great. My advice would be to get that from your library now, and go through as much as you can until it becomes a chore. Then, think a little more about what you want for next year.

I like the Bastien's Primer for younger beginners--it is the regular primer in 2 books. It teaches both middle-c and c-major positions, unlike the regular primer which teacher only c major. I like the theory book that goes along with it, along with the balance of note and rhythm reading. http://www.amazon.com/Piano-Young-Beginner-Primer-Bastien/dp/0849793173/ref=pd_sim_b_4

Hi, I'm a violin teacher and mom to a 5yo who started violin at age 3 1/2. Violin takes a parent dedication to be successful at so young an age. Really, there will need to be some at any age, but especially so in the beginning. I would do something Kindermusik-y or a general music appreciation curriculum until she is older. Even with my non-Suzuki students, I will often assign something that needs supervision (for them to make sure they are playing with a straight bow, etc) The more parental help, the better.

My 5yo just started tolerating writing over the last year. He's just now starting to like it. We found the Kumon "tracing" book to be helpful. It's not tracing as I thought of it (tracing paper, etc) but connecting lines and easy mazes. I would recommend that as a way to get the pencil moving. Limit it to 1 page a day and you may find he looks forward to it.