[ETC ....half books yea or nay]

We do them. Slow and steady.

[Did you K'er already know letters and sounds before starting K?]

One yes. One no. The third isn't there yet, but seems like she will.

[Workout gurus - another question about Shred]

Also, age has nothing to do with it!

[Workout gurus - another question about Shred]

I don't know the Shred at all, but I will be checking it out soon with interlibrary loan. Is the plan to do that one video 7 days a week? The idea from the personal trainer is not a bad one. Technically, your body needs rest from strength training activity for 48 hours before you repeat the same activity. The idea is that your muscles need to repair and grow in that period. By over-doing it too much, the muscles do not have time to repair and grow. So, the best strength training routines do legs, back and biceps one day and then chest, triceps and shoulders the next day and then repeat. If the Shred works the whole body then a day off in between would also be a good idea and then encorporating a high intensity cardio workout on the off days would be very good! Generally, cardio is good every day and strength training should be done in spits or whole body every other day. Hope that helps.

[January inspiration]

Thanks for the article - it was really good! It is one of those things I need to read every day!

[What are your favorite read aloud books?]

WWE 1 has The Happy Hollisters as a sample lesson for sentence copy work and narration. So, I'm assuming it is fine for a young audience. We haven't gotten to it yet to read, but have had the lesson in WWE. It must be good for K-3rd.

[What are your favorite read aloud books?]

So far my favorite is A Wrinkle in Time and the two that follow it, A Wind In the Door and A Swiftly Tilting Planet. All by Madeleine L'Engle. The 4th and last of the series is sitting on the shelf as we are reading The Saturday's and have The Happy Hollister's next in line. We also loved reading and listening to The Phantom Tollbooth, Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH, and The Cricket in Times Square. We have read a ton of Boxcar Children and they are a favorite for the kids to listen to on tape at night too.

[Exercising in "small bits"]

I think it is good for muscle strengthening/toning. I would not consider it to help with specific weight loss. It would help a little. For actual weight loss you would need to be doing a certain amount of cardio exercise and diet management. Keep doing what you can, when you can. You will see benefits.

[I love how they pronounce Peabody in MA...]

I voted today and I don't live in "Wister" (Worcester)!

[Teaching basic letter recognition??]

I've been going through this with my 5 year old too! It is frustrating. He just needs more, more and more. More repetition, more time, more patience. I've been doing the alphabet part of Progressive Phonics (free online!). It has been pretty successful. He picks up whole words quicker than single sounds. He is not ready for Phonics Pathways, which I did with my older ds. I plan to get through the alphabet portion of Progressive Phonics and then move on to Phonics Plaid and then do Phonics Pathways. Some kids just don't pick it up as quickly!

[Skipping problems with Saxon, hope my learned lesson helps someone.]

I am just in Saxon 2 right now and my husband and I have been bickering about what to do about it. We have hit the Saxon wall! Too much to cover! I have been very dedicated to it and following everything. My ds 7 is doing great with lesson and just cracking under all the "drill and kill". So, at this point and maybe before, I may have ditched it already! But, my husband is a physicist with emphasis in hard core math and totally understands the Saxon method and agrees with it to a "T". Seeing as I am not even close to his comprehension of math, I have no choice but to abide by his knowledge. So, we are taking the lesson into a 4 part, 2-day split. We well be doing Saxon 6 days a week at much smaller intervals, but be sure to cover everything. He has explicitely told me not to skip anything!

[what topics did you cover in 1st grade science?]

One thing that really has worked with us so far this year with WTM first grade science has been to simply have my sons let me know what animal or body part they would like to know more about and just read some books about it and look for info. or short videos on the web. Kids National Geographics online is an excellent source. We just began the human body and yesterday we talked about the skeleton and I found a cute kid friendly song on youtube about the names of the bones. Very simple and fun.

[Spelling by morphemes or phonograms?]

I wish I had some good ideas, but this is exactly what I was researching last night! I am not an expert at spelling and it just doesn't seem to flow for me since using Phonics Pathways and Spelling Workout. I think my son is catching on better than I am. I think I really need more break down in order to teach it to him. Thanks for some ideas and I hope more people respond with more!

[First Grade question]

We alternate. I follow TWTM structure of history 3x week and science 2x week.

[Is ETC considered LA, or just phonics??]

I've been under the impression that it is pretty comprehensive. It seems to have a good mix of reading comprehension, spelling, writing and sentence structure though out the series. We do the wholes and the halves and are just finishing up #3. Some books have more sentence structure than others.

[SOTW Volume 1]

I am doing this now, we are on India and Buddhism. I have really been enjoying it and so have my ds7 and ds5. I also have not been doing the crafts/building stuff. I will leave that to the next go around - my kids have got to be part of the process. I have been doing about 45 min. 3x week. Day 1, read the chapter, answer questions, color a page of their own or from the AG. Day 2 + 3 read extra book selections from the library. I try to be about 2 or 3 weeks ahead and request most books from the library online. I bought a separate ancient history map book and we look at that usually before each session. I also have all the history reference books and use them from time to time. Our longest time was spent on the Greek myths. I think we took an extra week for that. The AG has so many great books to choose from.

[I tried WWE again this week...Sigh]

That is tough! I don't have much to say. Good luck with MCT!

[Question 2 for the day - "ai" words?]

Is there a trick to know what words are spelled with long a "ai" sound and not a silent e?

 

How do you teach what makes no sense?

[Lefty handwriting issue]

Thanks for the replies! His writing comes out pretty good, but also can be very inconsistent. When he starts to cross his midline he gets sloppy. He won't move the page over or slant it to help him. He always puts it straight after I try to move it. Why can't things just be easy!!!!!!!!!!!

[Lefty handwriting issue]

I have my ds 7 doing Zaner-Bloser. He is at the end of 2M. I had him repeat 2/3 of K. He still forms his letter his way! He starts writing many of his letters backwards (some of the letters come out backwards but most look correct after writing) and he writes while crossing over his midline. It drives me nuts. Is this a big deal????

[Book suggestions for almost 8yo boy]

My son is 7 and is a history buff. I found a Davy Crocket book from the library and he really liked it and is on to Daniel Boone and will be doing Abe Lincoln next. They are books from a series by Aladdin Paperbacks, The Childhood of Famous Americans Series. They have a dark blue cover. It may be worth a try.

[Cannot remember book title ... help!]

The Railway Children?

[I need some ideas for "boy books"...]

My son, also 7, is a history buff. I found a Davy Crocket book from the library and he really liked it. It is the childhood of famous american series by Aladdin Paperbacks. My son is on to one about Daniel Boone and he's chosen his next one about Abe Lincoln. They are large print and just shy of 200 pages. They have chapters but are not numbered. It could be worth a try.

[Why does my ds7 let saliva accumulate in his mouth?]

My ds 7 was doing this recently - I think it was just for fun. He would drool frequently! It was driving me crazy. I haven't noticed it in a couple of months. Just some bizarre behavior for no good reason imo.

[Redshirting getting out of hand?]

We are doing it for our 2 boys. It is also one of the reasons homeschooling has come more easily for us. It is so confusing about who is in the K room. And, there are so many different interpretations of it. My first son is emotionally/socially behind and my second son is academically behind. I was told by my second sons preschool teacher last year that he would not make it in the local public kindergarten. We have each one of our boys a year behind on the town record. It gives them much more room to grow. I can understand how difficult it would be for a teacher. Love homeschooling!