YES! I actually consider ours OT as well. My dd is a sensory seeker, which means she has a high need for sensory input, particularly vestibular in her case. The Little Gym is very purposeful about giving them that input from an early age (which is good for kids with leanings in either direction of sensory integration issues). My sister is a pediatric OT and has been very impressed by the Little Gym's program. Many times OT's do similar things in therapy. Not to say a kid with debilitating sensory integration issues could just have his/her needs met at the LG. But, I have been very impressed with their knowledge of kid's developmental needs.

I just wanted to say our experience has been the opposite. The "actual gym" we tried had high schoolers for teachers (who were pretty clueless), and the kids sat around waiting their turn for literally 1/2 of the class. The teachers at our Little Gym (and I'm sure the quality varies gym to gym) are super professional, very knowledgeable about child development, keep the kids moving and challenged the entire time. My dd happens to be very atheletic and they always work hard to challenge her... she's always learning new things. The gym has high and low beams, uneven bars, parallel bars, rings, springboards and mats that make a good enough vault, etc. My dd has had two teachers who were elite gymnasts. I would also guess that the OP's son had such a great experience because of these teachers and the unique environment they provide. We actually go to the original LG, and the founder still teaches there. He's great, and I think he's developed an excellent, purposeful program, that is also great fun and developmentally appropriate. I wouldn't lump Little Gym in with Gymboree. Very different programs, IMO. Anyway, just wanted to offer a different perspective. It wouldn't hurt looking at other gyms, but in our experience, The Little Gym is super high quality, especially for the younger set. We've had grandparents help with tuition too.

You may be already doing this, but my mom mentioned to my dd that you shape your mouth like the shape of the 'e' - big and round, and narrow for 'i'. That seemed to help her distinguish the difference and connect what she saw to what she said.

I am certified in the early childhood years for Musikgarten. Also, my mom used to be a lower school director of a classical school, and she had a Musikgarten instructor adapt their materials for K-4 maybe? She used Cycle of Seasons, the 3-4 year old curr for Kindergarten, then on up. At about age 6-8, though, it becomes a group piano class (3 years worth). It's great if you can get the funding for keyboards, but that seems unlikely. You might look into the teacher training for the Music Makers/Music Makers at the Keyboard that would give you a good idea of their approach. I think Musikgarten is really excellent for teaching the "grammar" of music in a really fun and developmentally appropriate way. It is very "twaddle"-free as well. The recordings are very well done. Kids who have done the Musikgarten sequence come out sight-singing (with their *voice*, not using an instrument as a translator).

For Earlybird (Standards Ed), all you need is the texts.

They're ridiculously cheap. Get plastic gutters, know ahead of time how long you want them so you can have them cut down to size if you need to. Tell the guys at the hardware store what you're using them for, and ask them how they would recommend mounting them. It's very easy.

IMHO, teach Singapore, and use it thoroughly (which you will be doing if you use the HIG, the Textbook, and the IP books), and you will be fine. I think people often don't use the whole Singapore program when they use it as a supplement, or combine it with another program (they only use the textbook). I don't think Singapore is deficient in and of itself. I think (although I'm not very well aquainted with MUS), you'll find it more thorough than MUS.

I haven't read all of the replies, and this doesn't directly answer the question, but... I was a math major and went back to school after a few years working in computer engineering to get my secondary teaching certification in math/science education in a fairly progressive teacher training program. We took classes on the concepts beneath elementary math and algebra... the stuff that most teachers don't even understand. We learned about the history of math... how different concepts were developed. We learned about different theories of learning, and we were encouraged to challenge the way things have been done traditionally. I believe that many many more people could succeed in math if they were properly taught. It's interesting that studies have been done that have shown that kids in the US think that they're either innately good at math or their not. Kids in other countries belive if they work hard at math, they'll be good at it. Something about the way math has been taught in the US has obviously left a lot of kids out. Only those for whom it comes very naturally succeed, which means there's very little actual *teaching* going on. Math did not necessarily come naturally to me. I'm sure I'm smarter than average, but I did have to work to understand math. I happen to have a very tenacious questioning nature. I always asked "why". Many teachers didn't have answers for me, and would get quite annoyed with me. However, I was blessed to have a few teachers, and a couple in particular, who loved helping me wrestle through. I haven't read the Liping Ma book, but it sounds like she (he?)'s getting at the issue. I do think math concepts must be taught, and many times in different ways for it to click in a kid's brain. That requires a certain amount of ease with the material as a teacher. I don't think that means you handicap them with having to make dot drawings every time they do an arithmetic problem, or whatever else the "new math" curricula are faulted with. Another anecdote: My mom was the lower school head of a classical/CM school in Dallas. They used Saxon, and the kids consistently did badly on problem solving on whatever standardized test they took. The summer my mom left, she got them switched to Singapore. So, they're using it for the entire school (K-4), and this is not a super selective school either. The teachers were trained in the Singapore method. They use the teacher guides. They do extra practice and drill. It's been 1.5 years now, and I don't know if they've seen better results. But, if schools are able to be successful with Singapore, I'm guessing it should work for most kids. I'm new to my homeschooling journey, and I've just recently received Singapore Earlybird. Upon first glance, it looks like any K workbook you could find at Walmart. But, there's a lot of very deliberate work in there that is building conceptual understanding. Even though I'm very mathy, yes I will use the HIG! You can't compare Singapore to another program unless you use *the program*, and just assigning problems out of their book isn't going to work much magic (I'm not addressing this to anyone in particular... like I said I haven't even read this thread, I've just seen people ask about this a lot). I haven't looked too closely at other math curricula. I'm not saying Singapore is the only way. I think it is very good, and if used as intended, can probably teach most kids math. Learning math does require practice. I don't buy into the "only do 5 problems a day" mentality. Maybe a handful of kids can get by with that until they come across something they actually have to *learn*. I just think it would be helpful if we could get away from the mentality that some people "do" math and others don't. *Most* adults, when I tell them I was a math major, say, "Oh, I was terrible at math". That's ridiculous. Math needs to be taught, just like any other subject, and most kids can learn it.

The headmaster of this school in Georgia is on the board for Childlight USA. You might try contacting them.

There are other schools that use a lot of CM's ideas. I don't know about your area, but I know of The Covenant School and The City School in Texas. I'm not sure how you would go about finding one near you, though. Maybe contact the nearest school that you know about and ask if they have any ideas in your area. My mom used to be the Lower School Director at Covenant, and I know she was involved in training/conferences with people from The City School and the original Ambleside school. You also might look at local classical schools. Many of them incorporate CM ideas, especially in the lower schools. Childlight is another organization (originally founded by Susan Schaeffer Macauley and her husband Ranald), where you might get a lead. I, personally, would be wary of a Waldorf school, especially if you are a Christian. While they incorporate ideas that sound similar to CM, they have a definite spiritual undercurrent that is not Christian.

I started feeling a few taps last week... at 13 weeks. I thought I must be imagining it, but did some research, and most sites seem to say that 13 weeks is the earliest. I seem to feel it when I'm wearing pants with a tighter waistband down low.

Could you please provide a link for the the timeline figures resource?

But breastmilk is *much* higher in calories and fat than the grains, fruits and vegetables that are generally in those tablespoons of baby food. It just does not make sense to wean a child (who is not gaining enough) to give them applesauce, peas, and rice flakes. Also, how did you know you weren't producing enough milk? If that was the case, then your son would have been accepting food, IMO. I can see cutting back the nursing a bit to get them interested in other foods, but weaning is counter-intuitive to me. My 2nd dd didn't hit 20 lb until she was 2 years old. Her curve looks similar to the OP's dc's. I weaned her at 20 months. She is fine. She also slowed her weight gain when she got active. I think that's totally normal. I can't imagine that 4 nursings a day would keep her from eating other things. If you were still nursing her all night and all day, I think it would be reasonable to cut back. But 4x a day is appropriate for a 15 month old IMO.

Ok, this sounds like a really stupid question, but my mom never did "Christmas baking". What in the world do you do with all those cookies? Eat them all? Give them to friends?

I've never been able to find them. Maybe they don't publish them anymore. :confused:

My sister is a pediatric OT trained to train HWT workshops. I asked her about this because until recently my 4yo did not have the patience to color. She said the most important thing for the pre-k/k age is wiggling their fingers correctly to move the crayon (basically). So, the pages in the HWT book where they color on top of the little stars or the bugs or whatever. In other words, it's ok if they don't have the patience to color in a big picture. She said Crayola has some books for thier stamping markers with similar pictures that can be used for little scribbles that can be good practice (not with the stamping markers, though). I don't think I've ever found them though. I think this would be consistent with what SpyCar is saying, except pencils and Dover color books would probably work better with slightly older children (or maybe it would just bother *me* to see one of those beautiful Dover coloring books scribbled in by my 4 year old LOL).

I thought the same thing, and that I would be less likely to be annoyed when kids make the first wrinkles if it's already been broken in. LOL

One more bump before I give up. LOL

Oh, great! What an awesome deal! Thanks for your responses.

I'm just noticing that RR has some damaged but new books available. But, they are non-returnable. Has anyone bought these? Were you happy with your purchase?

I know there were some people who were using this...

I know this is pretty new, but I saw some previous threads with people who said they had recently bought it or had just begun using it. I'm wondering what people's experience has been with it. Which ages do you think it is most appropriate for? How is it laid out? How did you use it? How do you schedule it into your week? What resources did you supplement with? I was thinking of using it with a 5 year old kindergartener next year. Do you think it is flexible enough to be used that young?

Thanks! I have heard that site mentioned a lot, but never really looked at it. Lots of great resources there. I guess I could just print one of the blank top handwriting pages and copy it with the unneeded lines blanked out. I knew people must have somewhere they get this sort of stuff.

I'm currently using HWT K with my 4 year old. I'm trying to plan for next year. I would like to have some paper for her to do simple copywork, or to do a picture narration with a handwritten label on the bottom or top of the page (like a drawing of a fairy tale with the title of the tale hand copied on the page). I'm looking at the HWT wide lined paper for K/1st, and I'm not sure any of it quite fits what I'm looking for. The lined paper is actually oriented like a landscape instead of a portrait. I'd like to put these papers in a notebook. I guess (as I'm typing this, I realize) I could put them in and just turn the notebook to read them (duh). The draw/write paper, though, is half lines and half blank space for drawing. I'd really like more draw space and just a couple of lines for writing. Should I just get blank paper and write in the lines myself when she needs them? If anyone has the Draw and Write Notebook with double wide lines, how many pages are in it?

I like this idea. This is our first year to do Christmas as just our family at our own house. We've always been at either my parents' or my dh's parents' house for Christmas. I'm also thinking about how we want to do things. We do advent readings/singing throughout December. I'm actually excited about cooking what I want this year.