We've been loving it. Its a tiny little pamphlet, but it contains 27 lessons with a total of 222 exercises in it. We split it up and have restarted it a few times and will have spent a couple of years working through it all. The book is the first in a series from the 1950s created by a Disney Animator named Bruce McIntyre. A "newer version" of The Drawing Lesson was published by Mark Kistler (he was a student of the original author) and you can purchase TDT or one of Kistlers books on Amazon quite cheaply. I've found it very easy to "teach" drawing even though I have no real drawing talent and minimal skills. I loved the simple, step by step approach and the written instructions. I combined TDT with the New Augsburg Drawing series (free on Google Books) and have been very pleased by the development in Jrs drawing. I'm not sure what we will move on to afterwards, but I think we're going to complete New Augsburg 4 and will re-evaluate. Jr. loves to draw and his confidence in what he can draw is just so gratifying.

We'll be changing things up a bit for the 2nd half of 2nd grade. Music: continuing ukulele and recorder daily. Physical Education: Health + nutrition as well as daily athletics (soccer, tennis, baseball, basketball) Drawing: New Augsburg Year 4. Finishing The Drawing Textbook Geography: Living books + Atlas Study + Map Drills Science: Living books + Hands on Demonstrations and Explorations Writing: Reasoning and Writing D + Journaling and short essays. Math: home made with mom Starting summer 2021, we'll begin Spencerian Penmanship, French and resume regular math. 3rd Grade: Music - Starting Piano. Not sure what to use. Penmanship - Spencerian Math - Homemade exploration of upper level mathematics Literature - Reading by a timer each day whatever he chooses. We will be discussing the books more intentionally with him Writing - Reasoning and Writing E Language - French but not sure what program or approach yet Painting - now that he has a foundation in drawing, Hubby wants him to begin learning how to paint. All Content Subjects Note taking and revision activities History - something systematic -- not sure what yet. Science - Interest led reading + hands on demonstrations and exploration Geography - Reading about cultures and peoples around the world

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How do you schedule it? Is 1 set of the practice books enough, or should I get 2 sets so that we have more practice pages available? How long does it take to complete the books? Is it meant to take a full school year?

We use Duck Duck Go and have never had adult material offered to us in our search results. I would suspect that you may have a computer virus.

I'm not going to begin allowing reading in the bathroom, but thanks for the suggestion. If it ever looks like reading is in danger of becoming something that Jr doesn't enjoy, I'll reassess.

I've realized that "The Problem" isn't his leisure reading, it's that we don't have a good "Required Reading" program/routine/rhythm in place. He was always reading and so we never required reading as a separate thing until this month. I guess the next question becomes "how to set a productive reading program" should it be by time? Or by volume? Hmmm...Off to start a new thread! Thanks ladies.

Yes, he see's me and Hubby read at home constantly. I like to think that we have a "Bookish" household. We're usually reading for work or with a sibling, but both Hubby and I have been reading "for me" every day in front of the kids for a few years now. Hubby reads for leisure more than I do though. Thank you for your ideas and wisdom. Yep--Jr. is doing all the "other" activities for leisure--running, playing, building, etc. Just not reading as much. I've printed the Reading Challenge that @Junie shared for everyone in the family and already it's breathing "new life" into the activity of reading for the kids and parents. Almost every-screen free activity that you can think of--drawing, juggling, magic tricks, running around, building with blocks, 'science experiments', playing pretend, running around like a maniac, climbing on stuff, climbing under stuff, making snacks, tormenting a sibling, playing with a sibling, puppet show, playing board games, card game, etc. We are a NO-Screens household for elementary. We're early risers and tend to start the day with exercise out of doors, then back indoors for family time before Hubby and/or I get off to work. We have the established routine of evening being quiet time in our rooms, and he tends to draw or build during this time (he used to read). Maybe I need to find a time of day that lends itself well to a binary choice of "You can Read or ____" where ____ is a less appealing choice. 2) We use meal times as a chance to discuss things or listen to audiobooks or podcasts. Personally, I hate the idea of eating over books, but Hubby likes the idea of maybe having a "Reading Supper" once or twice a week for everyone to bring a good book and read through though so we might try this one in a modified form. Our kids are "handsy" with their food so I'm not too optimistic but I want to keep the Leisure Reading alive so Thanks! 3) Our kids only digital options are using their digits (fingers) to do stuff. The kids are screen-free so far. 4) Books with characters like Calvin are banned in our house and the kids don't even know it. Personally, I wouldn't want my kids spending time with "Calvin" and learning his traits. . Ooooh! I love this idea! I've subscribed to a couple and I've also bought bulk magazines 2nd hand to dole out once a week. We don't read in the bathroom. Yep, that's what I'm noticing. There are soooo many options available to him, that reading just doesn't seem to rate very high as a past-time. Thank you! I've printed one for every member of the family it's created a reading buzz. I do read in front him, but not as much as I would like to. I work FT, and he's often out and about playing so he's missing a lot of the reading that I'm doing. There are certain types of characters that aren't allowed in our house--Calvin and Hobbes, Diary of a Wimpy Kid,--if I know that the main character is a celebrated jerk, it's a pass. If I don't know the main character is awful in advance, then they might wind up reading the books before I can filter. Thank you all so much for your wisdom and insight! So many good ideas. Hubby and I have been discussing this week and I think we have a game plan.

My fix for this has been to require that they check their work before they turn it in to me. For a couple of weeks, I would half the number of problems that I'm assigning daily and require that she compute each problem twice in order to neatly check her work. So, if a 6th grader has computed 34.15 - 17.08 = 17.07, then the they must also compute 17.08 + 17.07 = 34.15 in order to verify their own answer. During this phase, require all math steps to be written out logically and neatly, so if they just hand in a math paper and no "regrouping" is shown, hand it back. They need to actually verify their work. Not just write each number "where it should go". After a couple of weeks, go back up to 3/4 of their normal daily exercise set with them checking each problem. After a month or so, you should be able to go back to doing a complete lesson and they need to actually check any problem that they have doubt about as they are going. When they pass in a math lesson to you for verification, any problems that are wrong must be re-worked and verified by them.

How do you scaffold or support Required Reading for your 2nd-3rd grader? What about leisure-reading? Jr. will read when there is a cause but he seems to have "outgrown" leisure reading. It's not among his preferred forms of entertainment anymore and that makes me sad (and a little nervous). He's a very good reader--he can read almost anything but most of his reading is done for school. He leisure reads only a few times a week--he used to willingly read for fun all the time. He's been doing a lot less "leisure reading" and I'd like to encourage him back towards reading as a past-time. Or should I accept that his leisure reading is down and up his Required Reading in school?

As a writing resource for my home-school. Thank you for all the additional thoughts and sharing your wisdom. I am trying to both learn as much as I possible can about helping guide and direct my children to become strong writers, and am also looking to purchase resources that'll help me teach more effectively. If there is a book of outlines with subject content already in them, then that would be wonderful. However, if such a resource doesn't exist (to the collective knowledge of the Hive) then that's alright too. I'll continue to hunt around or may even write my own series of outlines.

Unfortunately I missed the special. 😞 What was the product that was that you recommended? The link just goes to a blank page. I've looked in the store but they have hundreds of items and their product filtering is lousy. They have over 100 items for the 3-5 range alone.

I would love to buy a book(let) of premade outlines that can be used for writing lessons. As a secondary choice, I would be willing to buy a book of model essays. Occassionaly I can find one or two premade outlines but I would like to purchase a compilation of pre-made outlines and/or a book or essays. Does this exist? What is it called and where can I find it? Thank you.

Using the sticks/bundles, make the regrouping a seperate step from the operations. If you're doing 301 - 257, then analyze the problem first and do all the regrouping necessary. We don't have enough 10s, and we don't have enough 1s. So take 1-hundred and regroup it to ten 10s, then grab a 10 and regroup it to 1s. Now we have enough 100s, 10s and 1s. So now we can subtract.

Op, get 1,000 craft sticks a bag of tiny hair bands a bag of rubber bands. and make 1s, 10s and 100s. Teach your kiddo to count 1s, 10s, and 100s. Each day do several related addition and subtraction problems that require regrouping. Spend a couple of weeks where you model and solve problems with the manipulatives only, talking through each step. Then once he's comfortable with that step, go ahead and write down the problem and solve it as you go. Continue to do this every day for a few months. The Regrouping Concept is vital. It is used not just in base-ten (whole numbers and decimals) but also is used in fraction arithmetic and converting measurements. It's worth investing time and energy to get that concept down gradually to the point of automaticity.

We haven't gotten there yet, but I remember reading on WTM forums that whatever program you go with, get a roll of electric tape and cover up the keys after the kids have been through the lesson a couple of times. This will help with touch-typing as looking at the keyboard is less useful and kids develop muscle memory faster and are trained against looking at the keyboard.

My oldest.

Thank you all so much for your individual perspective and wisdom. However, I need to teach a short unit on basic Opinion Writing on the 3rd-5th grade spectrum, so I am in need of resources and guidance (thanks Lori D and Wendy) more than anecdotes and (no pun intended) personal opinions on whether or not Opinion Writing can/should be taught at this grade range. The guidance offered was especially helpful and I am selfishly asking for any more that The Hive may have.

What do you like for a short unit on teaching Opinion Writing at a 3rd-5th grade student?

This can be tricky in a financially insecure world and mid-pandemic, but allowing my children to experience money and guiding them on financial habits and decisions is the way that we've chosen to educate on finances during the elementary years. We're focusing just on the idea of budget, saving vs spending. We encourage our kids to give, but don't require it of them. The children are required to save $35 of their pocket money in order to open a savings account. Once the child is old enough, let them sit in on a part of you and your spouses budget meetings every week/month so that they can see that it's normal and even mom and dad make decisions about where to put money. As far as life-hacks, I think it's important to model such things in the home. Buy DIY books and use them. Actually work on DIY projects, announce when you have an annoying problem and ask your spouse and kids for ideas on clever solutions--brainstorm the ideas together and try one of your ideas **before** looking one up online. Hubby and I don't really require the kids to **enjoy** school, but we love it when they do. I think that is one thing that can be a slippery slope. I want the kids to be engaged/challenged and benefiting (long term) from their schooling, even if they aren't loving every minute of it. We want to build the expectation and understanding that even when it's hard we do it. Even when it's uncomfortable, we push through that part and keep working because it is going to pay off in the long-run. In our home, we've chosen to prioritize an education where the dominant electronic device is the lighting we use. Hubby, who is a CS profess and writes software, insists that coding/Comp. Science in elementary years is mostly a massive distraction and huge time-waster. Hubby is a CS expert yet insists that the kids master K-5 without screens of any kind. A child who can reason, think, break down problems systematically, read (and reread) closely to find specific information, express themselves coherently in writing and visually, as well as express creativity in writing or in visual form will transition to coding just fine. While the child who can psuedo-code can't be expected to transition to from coding to being able to express themselves coherently/creatively, reason, think, breakdown problems, read critically etc. Build a learning culture in the home. Kids shouldn't groan or think why do I have to learn outside of school? For us, we strive hard to be a learning house. It's as much about the example that you set for the kids as it is the culture that you build for them in the home. Enjoy the journey.

I think knowledge of geography is very important, but also feel that it's going to be best mastered gradually over a few years. We make time to look over and discuss maps of the world/US most days. We trace or draw the maps by hand. We discuss the regions and mountain ranges and talk about the environment as well. We try and be clear about which major cities are in which states.

What grade or subjects are you needing to teach differently?

You can order a book of decodable booklets from most big name school publishers. They typically go K-2 and seem to offer the widest range of phonic based reading for early grades. You can get readers that feature shorts vowels, digraphs, consonant blends, long vowels, 2 syllable words etc which will go further in scope with OPG than a lot of other readers that I know of. You can get them on Amazon or Ebay for pretty cheap.

For our purposes, drawings are an included part of our note taking strategy and we seem to prefer to write without lines than to draw through the ruled lines. I may dabble with this a bit. I think that we'll keep using lined paper for as long as we have a composition program but I want to experiment a little and see if he will become comfortable with writing on unlined paper too. Notes can be much neater and better structured when you have better control of the layout. Maybe we'll just experiment a bit for the next year and see what happens. Since we've just finished 1st grade it will be a while until he takes an outsourced or college class. Currently so few college teachers will see the notes that there students make. I can only imagine what that percentage will look like by the time Jr, is college-ready. You're right that unlined notebooks are ridiculously expensive! It's insane! I wonder how practical it would be for us to bind our own notebooks from stacks of unlined printer paper if the time comes?....

That's my point.