The K level of Elemental Science, Intro to Science, has a kit you can buy with everything you need for the year. I haven't used it, so I'm not much more help than that :-)

Here is ours! If you have young kids, we made the coolest contraption for outdoor fun. I found it in Family Fun Magazine...it's called a Kid Wash. Too cute, and the kids had a BLAST!

Have you checked out the BFIAR section at Homeschoolshare? TONS of ideas for each of the books in BFIAR and it's all free! That's all we've used, along with the actual BFIAR book, and It's been plenty for the toddler stage.

:iagree:We've had a LOT of fun with BFIAR combined with free printables from HomeSchoolShare. I think age three is perfect for BFIAR!

Thank you for this! No, no preference. I was raised Lutheran until about age 9 (don't even know which synod) and I'm finding a lot of Bible curric's out there don't really sit well with me. So I thought I may try and "go back to my roots" and see what may be available. I found this tonight and I agree, it looks good! I haven't looked through all of it yet. I'm not familiar with the Church of Lutheran Confession though....Not sure where exactly they fit in Lutheran theology.

Does anyone know of any Bible Curric that has a Lutheran influence? Or anything like Confirmation that can be done at home?

I just asked my DH and he says we live about 500 feet from the tracks. So pretty close ;-) Our train route is pretty busy too...upwards of 60 trains a day sometimes. The first few weeks we lived here were an adjustment! But you truly do get used to it. If I have windows open, I can't hear the TV while a train goes by...and sometimes you have to pause during a conversation. Every once in awhile an engineer gets a little crazy with the horn in the middle of the night and wakes me (but DH and kids sleep through it!). And sometimes I have to walk around and push knickknacks further back on their shelves. Our house does shake when an especially heavy train goes by, but it's really no big deal (and kind of amusing when we have a visitor and the oven rack starts clanging around in the oven!). Our house is about fifty years old and the shaking hasn't done any damage. Overall, I'd move here again. We're actually trying to sell our house and I know I'll miss these silly trains!

We love the wooden letter pieces and letter cards. They're a lot of fun and really help with pre-writing letter exploration. The workbooks are consumable, so each child will need their own. Everything else you get should be able to be shared.

I am so not consistent with weekly reviews, but....I posted one this week! Tada!

We were using RS level A and hitting major walls, so I took a break for awhile. Then I brought out Saxon K and wow! It is SO MUCH FUN! My son loves his math lessons now. Much of it he already knew (especially in the beginning) but it's been a lot of fun. I'm skipping a lot of lessons because of this, and will probably finish it in half the time. Then we'll go back to RS and see how we fare.

Found it! It's linked to in post #3 in this thread.

I also really want the Calvert program but yeah....pricey. Awhile back someone posted a super cute and affordable music curric for this age group. It was Christian in nature. I can't remember what it was called but maybe a quick forum search would turn it up...

This has been on my mind, because my son can't STAND repetition. I love the idea of FLL, and I think he could handle FLL1 now. But I really don't want to start so early. Yet if I wait until 1st I'm afraid it will be waaaay too slooow for him. I'm constantly mulling over grammar choices...

That's what we're doing too. We finished phonics a few weeks ago, and I'm letting things marinate for a few months. We'll probably start AAS in late Summer.

I asked a similar question awhile back about starting at the top vs bottom. Seems the general consensus is to correct these now to avoid problems later. I found that letting my son use a dry erase board magically solved that issue. I don't know why...but once he started using the dry erase he wrote all his letters from the top. Now we're using pencils, and so far so good! (crossing fingers)

I agree with the suggestion to do fine motor activities. What really helped my son were the Kumon first steps books. Especially the coloring one. Then we started HWT PreK and that REALLY helped. He's 4.5 now and can write all the capitals....but he still doesn't color well (he basically scribbles). My daughter (who just turned 2) is making pretty circles and colors about as well as my son.....so I think there really is something to the gender difference in handwriting!

I'm a bit late here....but wanted to chime in as I have a BS in CJ and a MS in Criminology. Totally agree with others that a CJ degree won't necessarily lead to a law program. Most CJ majors require some law courses at the undergrad level (I had to take Const Law and Criminal Law), but that's about it. Most of the undergrads I knew who were pre-law were PoliSci majors. I hope this doesn't sound crass, but if he wants to do actual hands on CJ work, it really doesn't matter too much where he gets his BS. I've worked at every level, local to Fed, and I can't really say that it mattered where anyone got their degree. In teaching/research positions it does matter, but then you're talking about Graduate programs and whatnot. The CJ field is one where everyone is at some point in their education, it seems. So many people are going back to school part time...so it's very common to see people with transcripts form multiple colleges and universities. Now, Law School is an entirely different beast. If he thinks he wants to go in that direction, I'd advise him to check out a few Law Schools and their admission requirements. Then tailor his undergrad years to meet those requirements. Best of luck to him!!

:iagree:We have a set of magnetic ones. They came with their own pattern cards and box to store them. Excellent! We have another set of non-magnetic ones that don't get near as much use!

YES! But I plan to anyway :tongue_smilie: I discovered TOG a few years ago and FELL IN LOVE. I still get all giggly and excited when I pull up the site and click through samples. I think it looks AMAZING and can NOT wait to get started when my son starts 1st grade. I don't plan on being a slave to it for the first few years though....but if I'm going to buy it anyway, why wait? I figure I might as well buy it and get familiar with it in the early years, so I'll have my TOG-stride by the time History studies are more important. I also plan to use SOTW along with TOG in LG/UG (because SOTW is supposed to be so awesome :thumbup: and because I won't have to worry so much about library trips to pick up books all the time!)

Thanks for all the links everyone! I'll look for some of those books at my library.

If you look inside the cover of the TM there's an online code for their teacher's website. They have a worksheet maker...I haven't actually pulled it up to see what it does...but I know it's there.

Have you looked through the entire Level A book? I'm just glancing here....but Lesson 14 has a counting activity using the abacus to show that whether we count or just enter a number on the abacus we get the same thing. Then Lesson 15 has a counting activity using tiles and tally sticks. I agree that the Yellow is the Sun song is pretty much rote memorization. But I can see where that will come in handy down the road. If they memorize 5 and 3 is 8, that lays a nice foundation on which to build...and the WHY of 5+3=8 will come later. I could be wrong....I haven't seen Level B or higher yet...but it seems a lot of Level A is just basic exposure and I'm assuming (hoping) the WHY will come in later levels.

This is my understanding as well. I think I remember some lessons in Level A actually asking the child to count. So I don't think all counting is discouraged.

Evan Moor Early Childhood Thematic Series has been on my wish list for awhile. I imagine it's geared more for classrooms, but I bet it could easily be used at home. They have a bunch of different topics too.

Unifix cubes are great for patterns. Just build an AB pattern and have your child copy it. Then move onto ABBA, ABC, ABBC patterns and more. You can also use Unifix to "measure" things. And color sorting. My son loves pattern blocks. We have pattern cards that came with them, and my son really enjoys fitting the shapes into the pictures. Tangrams are fun in this way too. Don't forget classic Teddy Bear counters! They can be used for patterns, sorting, counting...lots of fun! Our math manips are very often used as toys ;-)