Thanks! I want something like those in the pics. I don't need the tubs nor the double side. Don't need the casters either. I found some presentation type easel but those are raised too high for my dd. Thanks again :001_smile:

I am trying to find a teaching easel with dry erase magnetic board. There are some that I like but it costs $200 - $300. I just don't understand why it's so expensive! Do you all know of any store that sell this at a more reasonable price? Thanks!

If she does that, who will buy the book? ;) I have only glanced through the WTM on google books. (limited preview) Personally, I find the recommendations and reviews on this forum by other homeschool moms far more useful during my research on curriculum.

I haven't used it but I have done some research on it. Check out amazon and read the reviews there. From what I gathered, it's basically flash card on TV (I think they also give you the actual flash card). They show an image like an apple in the video, then the word "apple" will appear. The constant drilling makes the baby remember the shape & sound of the word I guess. To me it's not worth the time & money.

I haven't read the other repsonse. But are you just fishing for compliment?

Thanks Michelle! :001_smile:

What's the difference between SWI and theme based workbook? What's the earliest recommended age to start IEW? Thanks!

Thanks everyone. I think it will be a very long emotional journey for me lol. I'm already stressed when she's in pre K. We do not plan on staying next year for K. We plan on enrolling her in public K. I feel quite strongly about this because the letter formation they're teaching is really strange. For example, the Capital W is taught using 4 strokes. Each stroke starting from the top. The letter M is the same, 4 strokes. V is 2 strokes. I grew up in Asia and so did my husband, neither of us learn it this way. HWOT does not teach this way. I simply think it's a very odd way to form these letters. How can the students transition to cursive easily if they form their letters like this? :confused: I think my daughter will be fine doing things differently though. I was quite upset and I talked to my daughter about this. I also asked her to write A-Z in Capital to make sure she still remembers what we learned. She does! What's funny is my daughter said she will talk to the teacher :lol: I can only imagine the battle once she has to start Everyday Maths in 1st grade LOL. Thanks everyone for your kind words :001_smile:

My daughter is in preschool and we have been using Handwriting without tears at home. She finished the pre K book and is using the Kindergarten book. She already knows the Capital letter formation pretty well. Today, I got a note from the teacher with a letter formation chart, asking us to use that as a guide when we practice letter formation at home. I really like the HWOT way better. My daughter is kind of confused and told me the teachers do not let her use the HWOT way in school. I know the only way to avoid this is to homeschool her, but it's not an option for us. My husband said I should just let it go and tell our daughter to do the teacher's way in school only. I am really not liking this, but I also know I have to pick my battle. I am wondering if this is a battle I should fight? I am kind of upset because we spent time at home teaching her letter formation. I do not feel the need to re-teach her when I feel this new way is really inferior! Thanks for listening. I appreciate any advice you guys can give me. :bigear:

We're also using Letters and Numbers for me. I skipped all the Capital work in this book and started with lower case.

Well the step into reading books are more for bed time stories. You are right, for SIR books I think she memorize it mostly. But I know she can read decodable words because the phonics program has practice sentences. For example: "I saw a lot of sail boats this morning. They were all floating on the lake." I typed that in Word and have her read to me. She is able to do that. I think decodable readers will boost her confidence in reading. For instance, she is kind of confused by the word "Island" in "Island Princess". She tried to decode it and it becomes is + land. The problem is I grew up in Asia and never learn phonics myself. I am actually learning the phonics rules with her, so I am not able to explain it to her except telling her we haven't covered that yet LOL. Thanks Tabrett and Stephanie! I will check out iseesame site :D

My daughter is 4 and We're working on phonics and for reading, I got her step into reading books plus a bunch of other books that she likes. She's very into Disney princesses and other movie characters so we read those daily. We have other books that are not about princesses but she almost never asks to reread those. I tried to do more read-aloud with her to improve her fluency. I am wondering if I should get her some decodable readers or just continuing what I am doing. The problem is when she read-aloud and she encounters several words on a page that's not decodable, she will stop reading aloud to me and ask me to read to her. My concern with decodable readers is that they look kind of boring. I don't want reading to become another "lesson" but I can't think of another way to do read-aloud with her. I checked out progressive phonics and while the books they have are more interesting, I don't think that reading style (have the kid read only the red words) will work with my daughter. Do you guys think decodable readers will help?

Thanks Zee. I checked it out but I'm looking for K/1st grade level.

I posted a couple days ago about looking for a secular reading curriculum and researched all of the suggestions. I haven't been able to find one that I like yet. I really like Christian Light reading's scope and pickup and go style. Is there something similar out there that's secular?

Thanks ladies! I will look into all of the suggestions. :001_smile:

I am a long time lurker and this is my first post. I finally summed up my courage to post because I have spent the last week trying to find a secular reading curriculum and to no avail. English is not my first language. I grew up in Asia and moved here 11 years ago. My husband was born in Asia too and moved here when he was 14. Our 4 year old daughter was born here and she has been in school since she's 2 because we both work. I afterschool her in phonics/reading and Math. She can read quite well and is the only one reading in her preschool class. (Please excuse my bragging :D) I am starting to research a good reading curriculum for her to use when she's in K/1st grade. She's reading above level right now and I expect her to do so in K/1st grade too. I feel that I do need a structured curriculum because English is my second language. I won't be able to browse through literature and pick out different genre for her. I know some will say that I don't need a curriculum and just let her read. I do agree to a certain extent, however, I don't know how I can teach her things like antonym and synonym without a curriculum. Math we can do, language we really are at a lost. Does a secular and fun reading curium exist? :bigear: