My 6 yo is driving me insane. She has so much natural potential but keeps having intense melt downs if presented with something she doesn't know. She appears at this stage to have a photographic memory. She actually scored 99.9x% for verbal and visual memory. She is very much a perfectionist and very anxious. She is nearly finished MUS alpha and half way through RS. Maths is not her thing. Language is. She remembers vocab quickly and easily, and is learning French and Latin. She reads fluently. She is spelling at a third grade level using SWR and megawords. When she is calm outside of school time she understands the theory on how to calm herself down, and what to do when she is upset. She understands that I don't expect her to know everything and it is challenging. But at the time she just melts down. I am going to scream!!! WHat can I do save make everything ridiculously easy for her to make her realize that she is placing unrealistic expectations on herself? How do I help her bring the intellectual understanding of calming herself down to the reality phase?

I give my 6yo 1 revision sheet each day. She gets two new maths sheets from MUS, and a RS lesson. My 7yo gets 2 or 3 revision sheets each day. He gets 2 or 3 new MUS lesson sheets each day (when he gets 2 new he gets 3 revision and vice versa). He also gets an RS lesson each day.

Its SIX days! You may get short term side effects for those SIX days. Weight gain in SIX days is highly unlikely. Long term side effects are so highly unlikely in six days. What are you doing for your back now? What are the consequences of doing nothing, or doing what you're doing now compared the short term side effects of taking a medication for six days? FWIW, I am a pharmacist and naturopath

Yes. But... baby 4 is the easiest baby I've had so far. The oldest two help out so much, and dd6 actually *wants* to change nappies. I'm just feeling really torn and stressed about being able to give each kid the attention and time they need, particularly with dd3 needing 30 minutes a day of speech therapy practice, and OT.

I am trying to work out where I will go with my very mathy son. He has all + - * and / facts down cold. We are currently working through RS D and MUS delta. They will both be completed in May, I believe, looking at current progress. We will logically move on to RS E on Mondays - Fridays and MUS epsilon Monday - Thursday while using LoF Fractions on Fridays. The plan of progression after that will be RS geometry Monday - Friday, with MUS zeta Monday - THursday and LoF decimals and percents on Fridays. I believe with the current rate of progression, and looking at the scope and sequence of which he has already covered much of the topics still to be covered in the outlined progression, is that we should finish these planned topics by the end of this year. If some major hiccup occurs, it may be stretched out, but not by much. I am trying to work out where to go after this. I had heard that the upper levels of MUS or TT 'coach' the kids through and were gentler than some other programs. I was thinking of approaching algebra using one of these curriculums, then returning to it later with a very challenging curriculum. Things are always so much easier the second time round that perhaps this would be the best way with one so young? Hoping to hear from someone who's BTDT. What curriculum have you used with pre-teens for algebra and geometry?

We are non-religious and have low tolerance for religious content. We have not been bothered by religious content in song school latin

We'd make books in MS publisher or word with photos of themselves and a story. To start off with it was just a basic sentence on each page. It built up till now we do a big elaborate re-tell of where we have been. Also, fairy stories for dd and captain underpants for ds :(

Thank you. And I really needed to hear that others have had to teach upside down children! The perpetual motion leaves me feeling dizzy!

Not a problem. The kids appreciate knowing exactly what's coming, and ticking it off as they can see how far they've got to go and how much they've done. The quick ativities (eg drill the 70 SWR phonograms, math fact review) are great to list b/c they are a quick 'tick' too make them feel their getting through their work.

My kid who tested gifted is 'only' working 2 grade levels ahead. This kid scored multiple standard deviations above the mean for verbal and visual memory. My other kid who tested in the average range is working 5 grade levels ahead. My opinion? It depends more on drive and personality, and I'm talking about on the test day as well as school days. I find there is poor correlation between aptitude and achievement tests at our house.

My 7 yo son took it. I knew he was good at maths, but was rather shocked at how well he did. We didn't go ahead, but I'm pleased he did it. There was a lot of logic stuff in it. If x and y happens, does that mean z? etc etc That was about a third of the test. If they understand that process, they'll ace it.

SHe sounds a lot like my eldest. I've finally worked out that the more tired he gets, the more active he gets. I spent ages misinterpreting it as a low need for sleep and kept feeding him more and more attention as he demanded it. Ooopppss....if only I had instead tried relaxation techniques with him such as massage etc and calmed him to sleep instead of continuing to stimulate him. FWIW, he still does that now at 7.:grouphug:

I really liked reading this thread b/c I've felt so guilty lately over how much I don't like playing imaginitive games. And board games usually frustrate me b/c they cheat so much and are all sticklers for the rules. Thank you ladies for making me realize I'm not the only one out there who finds it really hard to do this.

I have a binder for each child. I have two sets of dividers, one for the month and one numbered 1 - 30 for the days of the month. This month, they open to March and then the appropriate date. When they open up to March 2 for example, they see the date, followed by everything that is scheduled for that day. I organize the folders a month in advance, but I plan on getting a month or two in advance. The children like knowing exactly what is set for the day. They tick off each topic as they go. They have all the necessary photocopied pages of worksheets and blank paper in their folder behind the 'schedule' sheet for the day. If they want to work ahead, they can. I won't set extra. The reward for being motivated and working ahead is time off. To set extra would take away the incentive to be motivated and enthusiastic. That said, if they were consistently finishing the work 'too quickly' I'd figure I'd need to up the requirements. Monday 2 March ENGLISH SQUIRT Memorize a poem Latin Dictation Phonics Read to Mum Spelling – Megawords Spelling – Wise Guide Reading comprehension MATHS Do MUS worksheets RightStart with Mum Drill facts Mum read aloud An Island Story Fairy Tale – Hans Christian Anderson Viking Tales Science Mum read aloud – What’s smaller than a Pigmy Shrew? Drama – 5pm Art – Grandma Library

We've been having trouble getting back into the swing of things after the Christmas holidays. It's been hard getting the kids to focus, pay attention etc etc. Has anyone else experienced teaching to someone who is hanging upside down over the edge of a chair or doing a headstand? Anyway, we've had an occupational therapist working with my kids for one morning a week. She's implemented some changes and they are working well. For my perfectionist DD6 who is highly anxious about ever making a mistake she's written little stories and made a 'goal of the week' chart and working on how to calm herself down when she doesn't know something. For my wriggly DS7 she has actually got him sitting up straight and still to do handwriting by improving the 'ergonomics' of his desk. She is getting (and making improvements!) at teaching my kids how to focus and concentrate and self motivate. There is now a chart she made with the kids hanging on the wall reminding them to eat their nuts, drink their water or take an exercise break if they are having trouble concentrating. They have an exercise break after every 20 minutes. Sorry this post got longer than I intended. I wanted other people to comment on what they find does / doesn't work to get kids to remain upright and focussed.

I plan a month in advance. The children have a binder each with dividers for each day. I have what they need to do in each subject at the front of their folder. This is an example of what the kids see each day when they open their folder. I do this a month in advance, and photocopy off the relevant pages of the workbooks and put in the appropriate number of lined paper. I tend to list everything that they need to get done and they get to tick each thing off as they go. Monday 2 March ENGLISH SQUIRT (silent quiet un-interrupted reading time) Memorize a poem Latin Dictation Phonics Read to Mum Spelling – Megawords Spelling – Wise Guide Reading comprehension MATHS Do MUS worksheets RightStart with Mum Drill facts Mum read aloud An Island Story Fairy Tale – Hans Christian Anderson Viking Tales Science Mum read aloud – What’s smaller than a Pigmy Shrew? Drama – 5pm Art – Grandma Library

The speech therapists we have accessed used cued articulation for my children's dyspraxia. The full version of cued articulation includes colour coding underlines under the letters etc... Even though my children could potentially have been weaker phonemically due to this disability, the two with dyspraxia have started recognizing phonograms (including diaphongs) by the age of three due to the intensive speech therapy combined with cued articulation. In other words, I'd strongly recommend looking at the hand gestures and color coding that cued articulation uses.

Thanks for all the replies. I'm happy to wait for next year to implement it, we've got more pressing things to work on at the moment and something has to give. But it is a nagging feeling in the back of my mind that we will have to get to soon. I'll have a look at that website. I have three ambleside or noeo readings each day, and at the end I randomly pick a child to summarize it to me. To be honest, even though I have read WTM I'm not clear on the difference between what I call a summary and a narration, or if there even is a difference. We don't take these to the next step though and write them down. I dictate one sentence each day that they each have to write down. Could someone guide me in what the next step between a formal writing curriculum is and our current state of play of this small dictation and short aural summary is?

Don't drop the strong subjects - she needs them to know that she has strengths. I read a quote today that a lot of 'gifted' children with 'disabilities' wonder why everyone only focuses on what they can't do. Praise her for what she can do. If she has a diagnosis, can you get OT? My three children have an OT come every Tuesday morning (thank you, government) to work with them each for an hour. She is amazing at working with them on anxieties, concentration, fine motor etc etc. She's working with DD6 on her anxieties, and on DS7 with handwriting. Work with her just on the 3R. History, science etc can come in a fun way later etc etc. Take it from someone who has to spend an hour each day doing speech therapy exercises ... you just don't have time to do everything if there are other issues involved. Doesn't help the guilt though.

Thanks for the help, I'll have a look at those, Amy

Wow, that was quick. We'll need the next program by about July or August. I thought Minimus Secondus was aimed at 10+ which was why I hadn't looked at that.

I still haven't done any writing with my kids. OK, I tried Writing Strands for about 3 weeks and we all hated so I dumped it in the too-hard, too-young basket to come back to. I think next year I will have to bite this bullet and start teaching writing. What should I use? I keep looking at CW, but keep hearing WWE mentioned too. I think they'll both be reluctant. I'd like something more immitative and structured rather than 'creative', something that teaches style and structure. The kids'll be grade 2 and 4 next year.

I'm wondering what to do next for Latin. Both kids read well in English. They went through about 1/3 of Shurley English before I dumped it (I think they were getting really good at plotting in the answers to the Shurley proformer rather than understanding what they were doing). So, once we've finished Song School and Minimus, what should we move on to? I don't want to use Prima Latina because of the strong religious content. We were thinking of using Latin for Children next (and have a copy of A). It occured to me though that maybe we'll use Lively Latin first, then do LfC afterwards rather than continuing forwards. WDYT? Any other (secular-ish) options for the very young? DD is 6 and in grade 1, DS is 7 and in grade 3

I think MUS is great. *I* love the blocks, but to be honest my kids, particularly my non-mathy DD6 prefers the abacus from RightStart. I really like both MUS and RightStart for offering lots of different strategies of how to approach a problem. My DD just does not get the way MUS is explained, but really gets it with RightStart. DS just gets everything so quickly with the way MUS explains it that it all just clicks into place for him, Mr Demme's explanations really hit the right chord for him. We use RightStart with DS to cover geometry and broader topics that he won't hit in MUS yet but that he can do with the challenge in. My greatest criticism of MUS is that while you are waiting for mastery to come can be very boring for the kids and the parent. We have the issue that facts seem to make sense very quickly, but take longer to be memorized. Again, this is more for DD than DS. While we are waiting for the new group of facts to be mastered, MUS feels like a daily drill. I don't know if I'm not doing it properly but it is just a boring mindless drill and is NOT hands on because the kids won't use the manipulatives for drill (they refuse). RightStart is so much better for this because it changes daily and they keep practicing facts while moving on to the next lesson. THe facts are drilled with games (I'd recommend them as an add-on to any curriculum). They are not dry and boring, but the kids get to do other things at the same time. It is the only subject that I run sort of on time, because we often do several lessons in a day if it runs to about 30 minutes. The kids really love RightStart. There are so many toys, I mean manipulatives, with it that they think its fun. And did I mention that they explain place value in so many different ways that it has finally really cemented itself in DD's head? And DS who is very strong at maths is being challenged in his weakest area - spatial - and loving it? I really do like the combination - MUS for mastery (particularly facts) and because DS 'clicks' with it. I think RS gives a stronger grounding though for kids and makes them more well rounded. Their toys are better. All said though, we use both.

Just to offer a different opinion: ds is 7 and at a similar level to your dd. He is doing SWR and MegaWords. MegaWords is fairly repetitive, but you can skip some of the worksheets if she gets the concept.