if you are doing enough school with your kids? I used to be a classroom teacher and sometimes that background is very helpful and other times...not so much...and I wonder if this is one of those times. My kids do math, spelling, grammar, phonics, handwriting each day..we try to do either science or history each day, I try have each kid read to me each day...and although we are busy all day long, I just sometimes wonder if I am doing enough. For example, I still want to fit in Latin some place, I want to do more reading with the kids (especially read to them)..I wonder if I need to be doing MORE math or MORE phonics...I know the school in our town has a reading program chunk up 1 1/2 hours of everyday...that is too much, I think...but is 15-20 minutes enough?? I just don't know...am I crazy...am I not? Oh, my kids are 9,8 and 5. Thanks.

so, I am still getting the message that if I can't seem to find a way to fit in the meeting stuff, that a different program would be better....if so, what would that be?? I didn't like MUS becasue it seemed like too much wasted paper becasue my kids didn't need all of the practice...6 sheets per lesson was too much and I couldn't get over the fact that if my kids didn't use it, then it was wasted...can't afford to buy and not use. So what do you guys suggest??

this sounds like what I am aiming to do...my problem is my kids think they need all 1:1 time and can do very little if any independently. My oldest is much more idependant than my other two. My youngest can't really read, so we do everything together, my middle can read, but refuses to do stuff on his own. It is partly a confindence thing...so I am trying to build that...but it is also laziness and having a hard time staying on task. But I guess I just need to keep working towards the goal, huh?? THANKS!!!!

What are DIVE Cd's??

Again, I have 3 kids...ages and grades 5 (K), age 8 (grade 2) and age 9 (grade 3)....and I was wondering what others with that many kids of similar ages do as far as teaching time...I mean, this: in the morning my 3 have what we call Binder work...which is phonics, math, spelling, and handwriting. I intended to sit with each child (one at a time) and help them work through their binder work...hoping that it would take about 30-45 minutes a day, per child...but it seems to take more, most days. So then, I started having the kids all sit around the diningroom table and try to do it all at the same time...but then there was so much crabbing about the noise the others were making when asking questions, reading a loud something etc. I was before having the kids each sit in different rooms, but then I was runnning around like a chicken with it's head cut off...always telling one (and sometimes two) kids to wait...this wasn't much fun either. So I was wondering how everyone else does it.

I have 3 kids...and we are using Saxon 1,2, and 3. If I did everything in each teacher's book, each day, we wouldn't have much time for anything else in our day. So, I don't do anything more than the drill sheet and the worksheet...and any teaching of the new concepts. I have read here time and time again that if you don't do everything that Saxon offfers, then you are doing the kids a disservice...BUT, my question is, how is NOT doing all of the "extras" in Saxon any different than other programs that don't offer it at all. I like the spiral of Saxon and wasn't planning on switching...but I was just wondering.

thanks...I am glad to know that this is not a request that is too "out there"...I will speak with the kid's piano teacher and see what she says. Kathy

next year all 3 of our kids will be taking piano lessons and our daughter just started accordian lessons and so next fall we will be paying $128 a month for music lessons (which is a lot for us)....so I was wondering if anybody here who gives lessons ever had a parent request lessons every other week with the teacher giving twice as many pieces to practice? or if you are a parent in our situation, ever ask to have your children take lessons every other week. I was just wondering if that is a reasonable request. What do you think?? Kathy

thanks so much. My middle child (son) is SOOOOO hard on the cheap crocs-like shoes and I was debating whether the real thing would be better...but didn't want to pay the price...now I get to find out without paying the real price....so this is the best. Luckily I was able to find acceptable colors for all 3 kids...although the choices were slim...at 9.99...how can you go wrong.

I would like to know more about this movie...can yo tell me what the basic premise is??

this is what we do: day 1 my oldest and youngest color the coloring sheet, my middle child (who hates to color) follows along in the book while we listen to the audio (which the kids love). I use the AG for questions and narration. Then my middle child does the map while the other two look on. The next day we review. Often we do one of the projects...not for every chapter, but we do at least one extra thing. I am putting together a scrapbook/binder of the coloring pages, maps and any pictures taken during the activities. The kids love to look at it and it is a great way to review what we have done so far. The AG is invaluable to me and I can't imagine doing SOTW without it.

excellent idea...but with the speed that my daughter reads we would be doing a new lapbook every couple hours...:001_smile:...so I guess that is where picking and choosing come into play, huh??? Do you know, has anyone made free or super cheap lapbooks on the American Girls?

I took my two older kids OUT of PS and have never put my 5 year old in, but I was so wanting to make our days different that what they were getting at PS...and lapbooking just seems like a fun way to learn and also show family members (grandparents etc) what we are doing in school. Thanks for your input.

ok..it sounds like I am NOT doing something wrong with my day as I feared...I thought maybe I was not using my time wisely as I should, thus not having extra time for other things...what I don't understand is how do those who have more kids than us get it all done...I am just thankful for getting accomplished what we do...but wishing I could do more. But I guess it is ok to substitute a lapbook for something else once in a while...balance is the key I guess...now I am just rambling. thanks ladies

anybody????

one things we did here was I had my child color paper plates (one red, one blue, one green etc). Then I laid them out on the floor all over the place. Gave my child a clean fly swatter and then I called out a color and he had to find that color and swat it. It was great fun...something an older child can do with the younger one too. You can change it up by having the child skip to the color, walk backwards etc. Lots of variety.

I have 3 kids ages 9,8 and 5. I want to lapbook once in a while with my kids...my plan is to do only one of each kind of lapbook (not 3), but even then, I have a hard time figuring out when during the day when to add this to our schedule...the topics may or may not go along with curriculum...like for example, I found a super neat one on Currclick on the Olympics that I want to do...but finding the time is so hard. So what I wanted to know is how do you find time for extra things...suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

I would guess that the brown would have red food coloring...but that is just a guess....

Oh thanks for the titles...now my amazon cart will be full again....but that's a good thing. Any other titles I should add???

oh, if I could find the old version of Battleship, I would love that too!! It seems like all of the games that have made a comeback from when we were kids are just not the same and it is so sad!!

I am wanting to add classic musicals to my DVD collection..I want ones that my young children can watch too...so far I have Music Man, Sound of Music, Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, Cinderella and Fiddler on the Roof. What other ones would you recommend? Thanks.

thanks for your response...I am looking at Times Tales now...I did the download, thought it didn't work...then later, my daughter asked if we would do some more of those number stories...and she recalled the characters from the download...so I guess, something clicked...now I am just trying to figure out exactly what I need to buy and what I can leave behind...any suggestions?? Kathy

A friend of mine said she recently saw a thread on activites you all recommended for the various books in SOTW, but I can't seem to find it and either can she...can someone help me? I am using SOTW 1 and would love to see what the thread said. THANKS!! Kathy

which one did you use??

This morning I heated up water on my stove. When I turned off the burner (gas, not electric), I forgot that the burner was hot and I placed a plastic ice cream bucket (with dry oatmeal in it) on top...needless to say, it melted...and now I have plastic (and dry oatmeal) on my metal burner...does anybody here know how to get it off....PLEASE help!!!