My son has been taught at home this year via a virtual public school. He's gotten quite used to his afternoon "quiet time." Even before this school year, we have almost always had regular quiet time on the weekends and during summer (thank you, Jessie Wise, for teaching me about quiet time!). Next year, he will return to bricks and mortar school. I already know it is going to be a transition for him to go from learning at home with one day out for enrichment classes and afternoons with quiet time to all day in a classroom. He's 10 by the way. She may be tired out just from being out all day in school. I would respect her wishes but require some form of physical activity. Walking to and from school, an after dinner walk around the neighborhood with a parent or whatever. I'd say send her out to play with friends but as I said on another thread, there's often no one outside to play with!

I've been perusing the boards. Does anyone have a typing program to recommend for the 8-9 year old? I have seen recs for Type/Learn/Read (something like that) and it looks like a great program but is it more geared to a young reader? I need my older two to learn how to touch type. Homeschool Buyer's Coop has a deal this week on Type to Learn 4. Is that any good? We have tried Typer Island bought through Amazon and it's not really working out for us. Not sure why it's not working, but I don't sit down with them for typing like I do with other things. I need something they can do on their own and that's fun and motivating and can be completed in a summer.

I wonder if this is pretty common with some children. My second son was reading simple books in August after his K year and a month later he was reading Hardy Boys. For a few days, I thought he just wanted to be like big brother and then I figured I should actually check in with him and see how much he could read. He was actually reading the book! With my 3rd child, I have been afterschooling her this year with Foundations A and B (by Logic of English). She has done well for a Kindergartener and was light years ahead all year as far as understanding basic phonograms and could easily read CVC words and beginning and ending blends but we just seemed to stay there for a long time. Then she started reading Dr. Seuss type books for two weeks in April and next thing I know she is reading (slowly but accurately) Boxcar Children books. That happened in the space of 1 to 1 1/2 months. It's like she was taught part of the code and figured out the rest. My oldest was different and took much longer to become a fluent reader but then I used different methods with him ("balanced reading" as is done in public schools). I have had to go back in and reteach him parts of reading from the spelling side.

Essentials is all in one reading, spelling, grammar and vocabulary for ages 7/8 up to adult. You can pace Essentials how you like and they give pacing suggestions in the book and probably on their website too. Some people work an accelerated pace for students who need to learn to read now not over the course of years. I personally have used only the spelling and parts of the vocabulary of Essentials for over a year with my older two sons. Some people do everything, some people do just parts. I teach one lesson per week and we are almost done (we have taken some breaks too). My main issue was that my oldest was a good reader but abysmal speller (currently 4th grade). So I was remediating his spelling. My 2nd son was just along for the ride, I figured it couldn't hurt (he's currently 2nd grade) I have also used Foundations A and B with my Kindergarten daughter.

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/117807-k-12-online-public-school-satisfied/?hl=%2Btexas+%2Bvirtual+%2Bacademy&do=findComment&comment=5082754 This thread seems a lot longer that it was when I read it, but I must have read Pamela's #12 reply over and over because I remember that one. I really weighed my options heavily before choosing our virtual academy. In the end, I actually did decide to homeschool but they sent the K12 materials early and that just sucked me in. I decided to try it for a quarter and then we had a good experience so we stayed. I don't regret the choice but our situation is probably different from many. My son wasn't challenged at his old school and we just wanted to work with him at home and build up his basic skills and enrich him too. He is going to transition back into a full time advanced program in public school next school year. So, he's been able to keep up with state standards in the meantime too.

My son is using K12 through a virtual academy this year. I was all set to homeschool him for 4th grade after him being in public school K-3 but I was drawn in by the K12 curriculum. I found this thread very useful to me last summer as I made my decision to homeschool versus virtual public school. The conversation does get heated midway but I have to tell you both viewpoints really helped me in making my decision and knowing what I was getting into. http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/479776-k12-history-and-sotw-complimentary-schedule/ We have really enjoyed our virtual academy this year but it is a lot of work and I don't know that I could do it with more than one child (my middle two are in bricks and mortar school and my youngest is 3). I have been mostly an afterschooler but I do homeschool in the summer. The virtual academy was a lot of work for me but my son has learned a lot this year. The teachers were great to work with but I can see how this can vary state to state. I also spoke to someone recently who is more familiar with Pennsylvania's virtual/charter schools and she had a negative view of those schools (having taught there) as far as how they are run and the workload for teachers and how that workload affects the students (lots of students to one teacher). The best advice I got last year was find some people in your state to tell you about your virtual academy. Somewhere on this forum someone posted about Texas and she wrote a really detailed description that also helped me in making my decision. Texas sounds like it has a lot of add on requirements for public virtual schools. I will see if I can find it.

I have used Logic of English's Foundations A and B with my daughter as an afterschooler. This program does require the teacher to sit down with the child for the whole lesson. Lots of games though, kids love it. Your son will learn phonograms, how to write the letters, reading, spelling. I have also been using Diane McGuinness's Sound Steps to Reading for the past month instead of Foundations. Not really sure why, except my professional focus is early reading instruction and I like to try out new to me things so I can better help my students when I return to the classroom. It's great too. But not all the fun games and active movement of Foundations. Plus Foundations laid the groundwork of phonemic awareness for my daughter and awareness of how we make sounds physically. She can tell you why a vowel is a vowel (the sounds we sing, we make with our mouth open) and a consonant a consonant (sounds made that get blocked by some part of the mouth). Diane McG teaches the code opposite from Orton Gillingham (the method on which Foundations is based) -- she teaches a basic code (ie simple phonics), then sound to spelling. So she will teach all the spellings for one sound at a time. She is the mother of one of the authors of Reading Reflex. I think her son and his wife were grad students of hers so their approaches are very similar. But I have also been trying to find on the other boards a program I can recommend to parents who don't want to "afterschool" -- just want to work a little bit with their children and have some independent work too. I think Explode the Code might fit the bill but I haven't been able to get my hands on a copy. It looks like it teaches phonograms and spelling patterns too.

I have taught public school 1st and 2nd grades and talked to many teachers older than me who have taught since the 70's and 80's. Many say that the curriculum standards have been pushed down. So what you see now as K standards used to be 1st etc. When I have talked about this with older teachers, it is mainly discussion to do with preschool, kindergarten and 1st to 2nd grade and how reading is taught. I think the lack of physical skills is due to kids not being allowed to run around and play outside in the neighborhoods. My husband grew up in the 60's/early 70's and has all kinds of sports skills etc. Some were taught by grandparents but most he learned by playing outside every day with neighborhood kids in pick up games. We live in a safe neighborhood and I let my older two boys out to ride bikes etc but they rarely (never) run into any other friends out and about. Have you read Free Range Kids or the book by Richard Louv, Last Child in the Woods? I grew up in the late 70's, 80's and regularly rode my bike in the neighborhood and went to friends' houses without my parents' supervision a la today's playdates. I'm afraid I never did learn to do a cartwheel but I am terribly uncoordinated. I did try.

Have you looked at The Critical Thinking Co Mathematical Reasoning books? They can be a core curriculum for math or a supplemental resource. I bought some recently and the lady selling them said she used to use Singapore Math but loves this program. It says it is a spiral curriculum in the introduction and the lady described it as Singapore on steroids (I think because it is really colorful). I haven't used mine yet (saving them for summer) but what I already love is it is all in one. There is no separate teacher text like with Singapore. Just one book per level. We have also used Math Mammoth before which I do like.

I couldn't figure out what MM was because all this printing and pro-clicking confused me... I thought it couldn't be Math Mammoth. Is it Math Mammoth? I buy the printed workbooks too. When I use Math Mammoth, my child just works through a certain number of pages that cover the same topic for one math session. They usually seem to be in 2 to 3 to 4 page groupings for the subtopics. Can you tell me what BA and CWP are? Sometimes I am able to figure these acronyms out but sometimes I am just at a loss. Thanks.

When I used Essentials, I did not do the grammar and vocabulary, it was too much. I did a lot of the phonemic awareness work in the Introduction and taught my older two the sounds of the letters A-Z and then I started into Lesson 1, just doing the first half of the lessons and usually stopping at the spelling lists. Now LOE has created a reader that goes along with Essentials' order of teaching the phonograms (it's digital). That would have been a nice addition when I taught my older two Essentials. Essentials does seem to require a lot of direct teaching... I should probably have done more of the games with my boys to break that up. Foundations might be fun for your 9 year old but generally I think the company recommends it for younger children. I will say Foundations has lots of games and my daughter loves them (age 6) and my older two generally look on with interest. I am curious about Explode the Code and I may have to buy it so I can look at it for myself. Have you considered that one? I have posted this question elsewhere. Alas, no replies. I personally love Essentials and Foundations but I am looking for a program I can recommend to parents who want a reading/spelling program that is less teacher intensive (but with teaching of phonograms and rules like LOE). I am thinking of parents I know whose kids are in public school and the parents want to supplement at home in the evenings. But they are not ready to do a program like Essentials or Foundations.

I actually use Zaner Bloser style with my daughter with Foundations. Neither the LOE cursive nor manuscript fits our needs (the manuscript is slanted and we need straight up and down letters). What I did is I found tactile handwriting cards in the Zaner Bloser style and I use those instead. You just sub out the handwriting. When Foundations says to teach writing a letter a certain way, you just teach it the way you want (using the terminology you prefer to describe the strokes you want your child to make, just be sure to know how you plan to describe the strokes and always use the same terms or nearly the same). The only tiny problem you will run into and it is easily fixed is on the handwriting pages, you may not see the style you want your child to learn. I just simply write the letter right on the workbook page the way I want my daughter to write it and I explain that the other versions of the letter are the way some people write them.

When there is not exact alignment between Singapore and what my son needs to learn according to K12, we do go in and do the K12 lessons. For example, right now he is doing lessons on Algebra Thinking. Singapore must combine these lesson into other units throughout their year but K12 has a unit focused specifically on Algebra Thinking. It is easier to go in and just do the K12 lessons for those few lessons than to figuratively cut and paste Singapore.

What I mean is Math Mammoth (a curriculum I love and used as an afterschooler) does not exactly match the standards/objectives of the K12 4th grade math program. So I personally could not use it easily to match what K12 wanted my son to learn. Singapore Primary Math Standards Ed. has almost exactly the same math objectives as my son's K12 math program. Math Mammoth is now Common Core Aligned and while I *think* K12 is supposed to be Common Core aligned too, K12 does the alignment with a supplement to their main program.

Logic of English has a help me choose page if you are trying to decide between their Essentials program (generally age 7/8 to adult) or Foundations. Essentials is an all in one textbook for reading, spelling, grammar and vocabulary. You can choose which parts you do. I used Essentials for my oldest son who was a good reader but abysmal speller (I did not do grammar or most of the vocabulary). But this program can be used for the just beginning to read level too. You will need a workbook as well and can decide on any other extras (I have phonogram cards, game cards, etc). The Foundations program has 3 levels so far, A-C, and D will be published in the fall. I use that with my Kindergarten aged daughter. A reader has just been published that goes along with the Essentials program. So now your student can read text that has been created to go along with the sequence of phonograms taught in Essentials. Right now, it is only available in a digital version. There are also free teacher training videos available on the website too. I have worked through about 75% of those and they were really helpful to me in understanding the approach of Logic of English. If you need help choosing between Essentials and Foundations, here is the webpage for that: http://www.logicofenglish.com/products/help-me-choose Lastly, I have to say what I have learned about phonemic awareness and how we make speech sounds as I have taught my older children with these programs, has really helped me with my youngest who was a late talker. He needed to be specifically taught how to make certain speech sounds physically (and still does) and LOE gave me that knowledge to help him.

For a reading, spelling, writing and grammar program, you could try Logic of English's Essentials program. It is designed for ages 7/8 to adult. www.logicofenglish.com

Logic Of English LOE

Is Explode the Code like the How to Spell Workbooks?

I have been looking for something to teach phonograms and spelling rules workbook style versus 100% teacher led. This thread has given me a lot of food for thought. For anyone reading this thread in the future who is interested in checking out Monica Foltzer's work, I found this free pdf of her book A Sound Track to Reading on Don Potter's website. http://www.donpotter.net/pdf/a-sound-track-to-reading.pdf If anyone else has ideas for workbooks similar to the How to Spell workbooks, I'd love to hear them. I am looking for something like the way Logic of English teaches the phonograms and rules but easier to implement for parents who are not homeschoolers or afterschoolers. Something with a bit of direct teaching but then independent work in a workbook format.

I have used Logic of English Essentials with my two older children and Foundations A and B so far with my 3rd child. I know someone whose son is in public school 2nd grade, a good reader but poor spelling skills (much like my oldest used to be before Essentials). Does anyone have recommendations for programs to use that are less instructor-intensive than Essentials or Foundations? I am looking for something that this parent could use to help her child learn phonograms from the spelling point of view but this is a parent who is neither a homeschooler nor afterschooler. I have a hard time recommending Essentials to her because I know those lessons are just going to be too much for her. Is there anything out there that is more open and go, one workbook/manual? I am thinking of something that teaches along the lines of Orton-Gillingham methods but is set up like Math Mammoth or the Critical Thinking Skills math books, where everything is all in one book. You just sit down together and work through it. I do not know much about AAS, it looks good but it does look like it requires the parent/teacher to be right there the whole time. Plus you have to fiddle with cards and magnets etc. I think that might be too much for a parent who just wants to help out their kid at home after school. Is this a pipe dream that such a program exists somewhere? Is there anyone out there who tutors? What do you use for good readers/poor spellers? People who just need the code explicitly taught to them and not necessarily as thoroughly as someone who has struggled in learning to read.

I don't know if my experience will be of use to you, but my 4th grade son is using K12 math for the first time after being in a bricks and mortar public school K-3. Previously, we used Developmental Math and then Math Mammoth for afterschooling. The format of the K12 math lessons was driving me nuts, there is no rhyme or reason to when the computer direct instructs, when I direct instruct, etc. I figured out late winter that at least for the 4th grade K12 math, much of it seems to be aligned to the California Standards (I don't know if these are old standards or not, you can still find them online). Therefore much of K12 4th grade math aligns to Singapore Primary Math STANDARDS edition (NOT U. S. edition). We started using the Singapore Math as our main curriculum and then just go in and take the checkpoints and tests on K12. It doesn't match up perfectly but it is pretty close, at least for 4th grade. I couldn't get the Math Mammoth to match up as well.

Yes, I wasn't sure if my son would like SFR based on the Amazon reviews I'd read; wasn't sure if it'd be too different from My Side. Some reviews stressed all the hunting and killing in the book and then they complained about abridged versions too and which events were left out. In fact, I posted about a week ago to see what versions of SFR other people recommended. Our K12 unit uses a Dover edition of the book which I have since found out is an unabridged version of an English translation of the original. So my son wasn't even reading an abridged version last week. I'm surprised he hung with that vocabulary. I have only read 30 pages of it so far but I think I am starting to see why he loves this book. This family is discovering a new creature or creating inventions for survival not just every chapter. Not just every page, but almost every paragraph! If the rest of the book is like this, I can see how the author (who was a preacher) crafted this story for his four sons all those years ago based on their love for Robinson Crusoe. There's lots of moralizing too by the father in the story. But it seems to me, the original version's intended audience was young people. So maybe that is why my son enjoyed the unabridged Dover edition. I checked out all the different editions at our public library plus the Jim Weiss cd. The Jim Weiss cd is a big hit. My son says there's even more detail on the cd.

Warning: If your child reads Swiss Family Robinson, be prepared for lots of hunting games in the house. My son has been stalking prey with his little brother all week.

My 4th grade son fell in love with Sam's adventures last summer. He is using the K12 curriculum through a virtual academy this year and has since been introduced to adaptations of Robinson Crusoe and now Swiss Family Robinson (whose author wrote the book because his sons loved RC a couple hundred years ago). He LOVES these books. I guess Robinson Crusoe is the classic survival story. Missed that in my education (or don't remember it). Also, Jean C. George wrote a nature study guide with her daughter Twig and my son loves this book too. My son just read the SFR book this week for school and couldn't put the book down. He came down glowing and raving, I love this book. Jim Weiss has recorded Swiss Family Robinson and we checked the cd out from the library this week. About 12 hours of material? Maybe that one is unabridged.

I am one who sets limits on screen time etc. Just so you know my perspective FWIW. And I do think my oldest would get addicted to computer/video games to the exclusion of other activities that are more enriching for him and more relaxing. He comes off of computer game time pretty hyped up and has a hard time relaxing afterwards (games not school). We are doing a virtual academy this year (4th grade) and some of the work is online. We had a real problem at the beginning of the year with him sneaking off to Boy's Life or Amazon (to check on Legoes) when he should be doing online work. We got a new Dell last summer in prep for the virtual academy but I am sure older computers have this feature too. It took me an afternoon to figure out how to work this but what I did was set myself up as administrator on our computer and I set up a separate school log in for him, I guess it's the Windows log in you get when you turn on your computer. On his log in, I have restricted the websites he can visit. All school related. You can do this as an administrator. You can also limit the time they can spend on the login. I have not used that feature yet since I want him to have access to his online school all day. But you can set up a separate login that only goes to certain websites and logs off after a set time (I think 15m increments). I researched buying a program that does this for you, I guess you can call it electronic babysitting, and then I found out this feature is free with your Microsoft software (whatever came installed on my Dell). Just by limiting the websites he could visit during the school day, amazingly it helped his self control in other computer related areas. We have had very few issues with him visiting non-school related websites during the day even now when I forget and leave my login up. Oh and you can set that up to time out too. That was really important in the beginning because my husband checks email in the morning and forgets to log off. I set it up to log off automatically within a certain amount of time and my son only has the password to the school login.