Don't forget the magic of Inter-Library Loan. Your actual library may only be so-so, but the books you have access to may be much better!

I know people dislike it, but we loved 100 EZ lessons for exactly this issue.

Calvert?

Heh. My sister-in-law is German, and she just jumps my case every time I mention homeschooling. "How is this working? Are only geniuses allowed to homeschool their kids? I can imagine elementary but anything higher? When I am thinking of everything I learned in school I would never dare think I could teach all that. My teachers went to 5years of classes at university and then were each only allowed to teach the two maximal 3 subjects they studied. I could never teach the math I had at school (I probably wouldn't even pass the final exams I had back then) or French, Latin, Englisch, even chemistry I would be doubtful (even though this was part of my PhD). Do they hire professionals? What about languages? It's illegal to homeschool here because nobody has the training to cover a full curriculum by themselves." Blah, blah, blah, every time I mentioned homeschooling! I got tired of it, so I eventually said: "1) In order to home school in West Virginia, you must file a notice of intent with the local educational organization, and then present the local educational organization with a report by a certified teacher saying that your child has made progress throughout the school year. It works all the way through high school. In my local county alone, about 7%, or 700 children are homeschooled. Most parents are quite particular how about much they teach, and in fact, often choose to homeschool because they can teach more, faster than their children would learn in a public school. 2) I would suggest that academics has nothing to do with it. According to the "Baden Wurttemberg Administrative Court in 2006, The State’s constitutional obligation to provide children with education was on an equal footing [with the rights of the parents]. The court stressed that the decisive point was not whether or not home education was equally effective as primary school education, but that compulsory school attendance require children from all backgrounds in society to gather together." "...interferences with the applicants’ fundamental rights were also proportionate given the general interest of society to avoid the emergence of parallel societies based on separate philosophical convictions." http://hudoc.echr.co...:["001-76925"]} Amazingly enough, she never replied.... On a different note, I doctor shop when I think health is an issue--e.g., when my daughter's dentist left her unattended, awake but under major general sedation, walking around in a room by herself at age three--she could have fallen and busted her skull! As a non-doctor, it's difficult to judge a doctor's expertise, but I often get second opinions about major items like surgery. There's no harm in double-checking that your doctor has a license, and isn't under disciplinary action through the state boards of medicine. If a doctor asked the same question 2x in a 5-min period, I'd definitely be less than happy, and yes, I'd probably assume that either they weren't paying attention the first time, or was assuming I was being dishonest. OTOH, I can understand some disbelief in home schooling. Most people I know are not "down" with it.

Finishing 100 EZ Lessons(yes, I'm aware people hate it, but she loves it--and hates the BOB books with the passion of 1,000 fiery suns, so, whatever ), concurrently doing a page a day in Phonics Pathways for reinforcement, and then picking up with the OPGTR. We'll be continuing Phonics Pathways alongside, for reinforcement.

I don't, but then again, I'm not doing much--just readin', writin', and 'rithmetic. ;) OTOH, I know of people that have and love the HS planning software. Uhh, I think this is it: http://www.homeschooltracker.com/

I find this slightly hilarious, because my child loves everything that is getting hated on, here. When she turned 5, I bought the BOB books to start her to read, and she hated them with the passion of 1,000 fiery suns! I was freaking out, and had just read TWTM, so I meticulously bought: Handwriting Without Tears: Letters and Numbers for Me. She draws like a fiend, so how hard could this be, right? Horrendous, as it turns out. We dropped handwriting altogether. Saxon Math K. She didn't count to 20 at that point (just turned 5)--and we both hated it because it was too easy! MCP Phonics Level K: borrrrring! Too slow, and monotonous. As it turns out, my daughter loves flashcards. I had been determined never to use them, because I was worried about superficial comprehension. Turns out they were the best thing ever for learning the alphabet sounds. I had naively assumed that her Very Expensive private preschool was teaching the alphabet sounds -- oops! 6 weeks of the alphabet flashcards, combined with beginning digraph flashcards, and with my mother's insistence on my daughter memorizing all the Dick & Jane books, led us right into 100 EZ Lessons. I was worried, because I'd read how boring it was, and how repetitive---but she loved it! She still loves it, at lesson 87! Yes, the 70s were a bit difficult, because they didn't explicitly teach all the sound combinations, but she thoroughly enjoyed it! So strange! Just goes to show that you never know! :laugh:

I wouldn't do graded readers because I think they're boring as all get-out. Plus, I think that they teach that it's OK to read "easy" stuff--it's like mental marshmallows. Yummy, but of no nutritive value whatsoever. What I'm doing with my DD (5.5) is finishing 100 EZ Lessons(yes, I'm aware people hate it, but she loves it--and hates the BOB books with the passion of 1,000 fiery suns, so, whatever :) ), concurrently doing a page a day in Phonics Pathways for reinforcement, and then picking up with the OPGTR. We'll be continuing Phonics Pathways alongside, for reinforcement. She does not like to read by herself, and flatly refuses to voluntarily read aloud on say, a billboard. So, we're just going to stick with the learning-to-read texts, which she weirdly loves. I have given her fair warning that when we finish 100EZ lessons, she must read a book a day aloud to me, instead. I think I'll probably start with Seuss or something similar. My goal is that when we finish OPGTR, she'll be able to read (sound out) pretty much any book she'll pick up, with a little assistance. Then, I'll focus on her reading the children's books by topic. For example, she's really into constellations this month, so we've checked out a half-dozen children's books on constellations from the library. Next year at this time, I'm planning on having her read those to me. OTOH, we read aloud to her every night before bed, and listen to Weiss stories (& similar) nearly every day in the car. Her speaking vocabulary is immensely larger than her reading vocabulary, so I'm not worried about her eventual comprehension levels. After the children's books go smoothly, we'll read together, silently, books that we both find interesting. Naturally I'll read faster, which will goad her to increase her reading speed, and because we'll pick the books together, they'll continually challenge her reading levels. I'm betting that in two or three years, she'll be able to read and at least superficially comprehend pretty much anything. This is how my grandmother taught my mother to read, and how my mother taught me to read--and we're all excellent readers.

This! Even when the other kids are mean to her, she forgives them because they're old (since before they could walk) friends. She makes new friends, but mostly one on one, and rarely. She only does stuff like gymnastics or dance because there are friends there, not for the activities themselves---but if the class is more than, say, 8 kids, she gets all tense and begs not to go. I worry about socialization at school, because I'm worried that if she gets in a class with 32 other 5-6 year olds, she'll just fade away in the background. I'm apparently the only parent who emphasizes paying attention to your teacher, and getting a good behavior report, so she's always well-behaved, to the point where the teacher literally doesn't notice her -- as happened in her private preschool with 11 kids in her class this year. I worry about socialization at home, because I'm afraid that a) she'll want to stay home and never go out again, and b ) she'll get immensely bored of her own company. I'm unable to have another child, and it kills me when when she's lonely.

I have one of each in the house. The top-loader is a teensy bit gentler on clothes, and we only have cold water hooked up to it, so we use that for delicates. The front-loader is AWESOME for lint, and for getting clothes much, much drier to start with--so they don't have to be hung up as long. Also, my front loader can get out stains that my top-loader can't. YMMV

I think there might be a couple things going on here. 1) addition is an innate ability (this study has been duplicated numerous times) 2) counting is more important than reciting numbers 3) she might be distractedby what she's counting I suspect that you're asking her to simply recite the numbers: "Count to 20 for me, please." Out loud, without manipulatives. Which is fine, but not nearly as important as her being able to count with manipulatives. Now, if she can't use beans or whatever to count, then there might be a number theory problem.