Thanks for the thoughts! We actually started off OPOL, but switched to this about two years in. He found that (despite his best effort) he was just tuning out while we were speaking German, and he works two jobs and really wanted to stay "present" when he was home with us. He is picking a little up very slowly, but... it's very very slow. I keep trying to get him to at least listen to a "learn German" CD on his commute, but that hasn't succeeded yet. :)

Two questions: If we're not strictly OPOL now because we speak English when hubby is around (he felt he was missing too much but can't learn it right now with working two jobs and such), would traveling to Germany with our kids negate the intention of getting them "immersed" in the language? Would it even work? Also, how does anyone afford it? Even just starting to do research on such a trip is about enough to kill me... We don't have family over there and only one friend in the area (who'd be willing to put us up if our family weren't quite so... big). Six of us don't fit well in an already inhabited living quarters, you know? How do you all make it work?

Thanks all! I was honestly wondering if we'd ever enjoy reading. We still have a ways to go, of course, before he can read fluently and well, but I think this is a great start!

My son said this to me last week: "I love reading! It's my favorite thing to do!" And I have to say that reflecting on that has left me floored. Is this my same boy who cried every time I tried to get him to do a five minute phonics lesson? I cajoled, I persuaded (or tried to!), I even bribed! I tried multiple programs (HOP, BOB books, 100 ez lessons, Alphaphonics, Funnix)! He was miserable, which in turn made me miserable. So three months ago (just 3 months! and I even had a baby during that time!) we started Spalding. He's been reading simple books for the last month (Ten apples up on top, Cat in the Hat, Put me in the zoo, etc. and most recently he read almost 20 of the Elephant and Piggie books by Mo Willems) and I've been so excited, but also nervous that it was too good to be true. And then he said this to me. It's possible he was just suddenly "ready" and he wasn't before. Possible, but unlikely, I think. He loves the structure and the simplicity. He's extremely logical and loves the rules and that there are so very, very few "exceptions." And I love that he is actually enjoying reading and doing it because he *wants* to. It's been some happy days at our house. :)

Ok. I figured it was a long shot, since history and such isn't even covered with young'ens there. :) Thanks!

I was inspired by a post about memory work songs, primarily because it listed a bunch of things their kids have learned that I don't think I've ever actually memorized... :) And it made me wonder if there are similar resources in other languages - German in particular! Do other languages have anything like schoolhouse rock, bible memory songs, a timeline song, etc.?

Bumping this to see if anyone else has anything to add? I'd really love to add a bunch of memory work songs to our car trips, because right now we're almost exclusively doing audiobooks. I'm particularly looking for things elementary age and younger.

This is so hard for me! My oldest is about to turn 6 and I have three younger ones (almost 4, almost 2, and 3 months), and I'm totally happy with my plans (which are pretty basic reading/writing and math and take only half an hour most days) UNTIL I get to chatting with my homeschooling friends whose 4 year old is doing three hours of table work a day and reading fluently even though she has two younger kids as well... And then I feel like I MUST. DO. MORE. But it does nothing but stress me out and frustrate my poor 6 yo. And I KNOW that. But it's still the first place my brain goes when talking with friends. I have to avoid talking about it too much and coming on these boards too much because the tendency to compare is just so strong! :P So these kind of posts are always encouraging to me. :)

Yeah, so far we've explained to him the "practical" side (less fun, less playing, more sitting, waiting, can't practice German at school since we're teaching bilingually, etc.) and we've also explained that, while he's free to ask more questions, he's not free to complain or argue. We're the parents, and we are going to do what we believe is best. I really think he just doesn't understand yet (like wanting a dog, but not wanting the commitment of a dog once it's here), and that will probably only come with time. :) Thanks for all your thoughts!

In Nebraska, the compulsory education cut-off is Jan 1, but different school districts can make different grade cut-offs. Our district has the grade cut-off in July, so my guy who will be 6 in August is in Kindergarten next year.

Is this per week, or month, or year, or something else? It seems like an awful lot for one week, but not necessarily for a year (at least, you wouldn't seem to get through very many of the catechism questions at one per year).

I have what may be a "newbie" question that's unrelated to the initial question about memory work... I see you're planning several years in advance on your spreadsheet. In my mind, that makes sense with stuff like memory work, but doesn't necessarily for some areas like math. Do you have to redo ALL the work you've done on future years if the child struggles in one area or zooms ahead in another? Is there any room for variability in doing it this way, without having a lot of that work be wasted? If so, how? I guess I just wonder because we plodded through phonics lessons very faithfully for two years before it started really "clicking" for my son. We have a minimum of things he has to do (10 spelling words a day, 1 math lesson, etc. ) but some days he wants to do 24 spelling words or 2 math lessons, so I let him. But that means I have NO idea where he'll be in a year, let alone two or three!

S we've tried to explain to him the time thing - many times! And we've tried to put it in terms that he could understand (from breakfast until after the girls nap when daddy gets home). I still don't think he gets it. Could something like this be implemented if I have three younger children (including a 2 month old) and he's not reading independently yet (so couldn't actually DO that much school work without me)?

Yeah, we've tried to explain it to him, but... well... he's six. :)

So what do you do when your child is younger and asks to go to school? My 6 yo has asked to go to school. He says it's because he wants to learn a LOT, but I suspect it's more about his friends all going to school and he's curious. I don't think he's ready to do more work than we currently do (he's very active and has a hard time sitting, so we do very limited table work and just a lot of being outside and being a kid - this is one of the main reasons I *want* to homeschool him), and I don't think I could give him more table time even if I thought he *could* do it, seeing that I have three younger kids running around and needing attention as well.

My 6 yo has a fair bit of distortions in his speech, and sees a speech therapist for it regularly. How can I help him learn to spell when he can't even say a word correctly to sound it out? FWIW, we're doing Spalding to teach him reading, and it's working beautifully (and we'd tried at least three other popular phonics programs before that and suffice it to say it was misery), so I really don't want to switch programs. But Spalding is all about spelling... His "r"s and ending "l"s are the worst (he tried spelling "girl" as "girlelr" and that's pretty close to how he says it, except the r is completely distorted and sounds at best like a muddled "w"), so he's constantly trying to write "r" for "er" and "er" for "r" and that sort of thing. Is this something I need to wait for speech to develop on and just get by as best I can in the mean time?

Yes! This is exactly the sort of thing I was hoping to find! Thanks! As an aside.. you are so organized and ahead of the game! Does anyone else have records like this?

I'm curious if anyone has compiled (in, say, a blog somewhere) a list of the memory work they've done in order from young to old, or what age/level they were when they did it. I know grades don't match ages or levels all the time (or even most of the time), but I'd just like to see how different people have done it, and what they've included at different points in a student's education. E.g., Continents and Oceans were learned in Kindy, States in 1st grade, Countries in the Americas in ___, etc. In particular, did you learn multiple timelines, as they got older and were able to fill in more of the gaps, or did you start them on the "final" timeline at the beginning so they'd have all those "pegs" to hang things on as they came up? Also, are there good resources online (maybe even free?) that list timeline points that would be good for memorizing? I know CC has them and I don't know if I just need to buy theirs, even if we're not CCers, or if we should just make our own, or if there are other resources. Thanks in advance. We're not there yet, but I'm always thinking ahead about the grand scheme of things, and I like to have time to really chew on things before making decisions. :)

My boy finished spelling and writing the words in section I a few weeks ago, and is plodding through J right now. In the meantime, he's read and re-read all 5 of the recommended books for after section I. I was amazed, honestly, because he'd never read anything on his own before (I was pretty skeptical he'd be able to, even as I was checking the first book out of the library...), and certainly never re-read things for enjoyment. Well, things have completely turned around since he started reading "real" books (his words), but I'm not sure what to do know. I don't want to go on to the next list of books and perhaps mar the little confidence he's built up now by giving him something too advanced. But I also don't want to limit him to those first five books when he's bored with them and wants more. I feel like I need a very delicate balance between challenging him and not shutting him down in frustration again (we'd been fighting over reading and writing for a long time before finding Spalding). What should I do? Can anyone recommend other books for this stage of things?

No, you really do need two steps for this problem.

I also just found the current and previous week's here www.wdrmaus.de/aktuelle-sendung/index.php5 They look like they're the entire episodes.

Thanks!

Thanks! That's great! I can't access it on this computer (everything's outdated), so I have to wait and use my husbands. I noticed on youtube that everything is separated instead of having the Lachgeschichten and Sachgeschichten together in a complete episode. Is that how everything on the internet is, or can you find it all together? In particular, I think my kids might have more interest if we had the little mouse transitions and Blaubär at the end. :) The think the shorts with the mause are hilarious!

Do you just search the old ones on youtube? The channel I found hasn't had any new ones updated in a year. Is there a place that uploads new ones more regularly?

There's a math ninja android app for the kindle that presents families like that. I actually didn't like it precisely because it presented things altogether (all +2, for example, instead of mixed up), but that might be perfect for you!