I'm sad. My little boy starts 1st grade next week. I find myself doubting the benefit of all day in school for him, feeling he's not ready for such a long day with not enough play time, and thinking about the school's ability to really leverage the time they have with him to maximize his learning. I find myself regretting the things I didn't do with him this summer, and thinking about the acceptability of taking days off to do field trips just the two of us. I am already mentally rebelling against the homework he hasn't even received yet.

We got rid of cable/satellite a long time ago; I don't even know how many years. We have Netflix and Amazon Prime, along with a Roku stick, a smart TV, and an indoor antenna (like http://www.amazon.com/Mohu-Leaf-Paper-Connectors-Materials/dp/B004QK7HI8/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1438777892&sr=8-1&keywords=inside+antenna)that gets us about 10 channels. We did Hulu Plus for a while but didn't find it worth it (annoyed that you paid and still had commercials). Occasionally we will pick up a redbox. We don't miss satellite - these days it seems like the standard cable channels are mostly crap, we have the network channels, and we never were willing to pay for the premium ones. There's plenty of kids programming streaming and my husband seems to like the binge-watching season after season of a show mode of media consumption. Also, now Netflix has particular genres - like Food Network shows - that used to be missing from streaming. And I am optimistic (like with Sling and HBO) that more and more things will become available. One thing that you sometimes lose is sports coverage. Our family's sport of choice is soccer - and we've been pleased to find online streaming packages popping up for that (we now pay $10/mo for a soccer package through Sling (formerly through dishworld) and are considering a package from Fox Sports too). I have read some critiques of Sling - and I guess we've had some issues with playback on the soccer too - but I'm still so thrilled to get European soccer games regularly and cheaply that I can overlook occasional technical difficulties.

Does anyone have any tips on getting a child (in my case a 3 year old) to try the one bite? I would be so much happier if he would try the bite - then I could at least have the hopes that after trying it 15 times or whatever, he would like it. Mine refuses it and I can't get him to reconsider. Mine basically started refusing meat at 1. It's been two years, and it's still essentially no meat. He will eat (frequently but not every time) bologna and chicken nuggets. Ugh. Once in a blue moon (once every other month), he will eat other kinds of meat and I'll think 'yay' but then he'll refuse them the next time - this happened with a spiral ham, with a beef stew, with a salmon patty, etc. He loves sweets - and often the first thing out of his mouth in the morning is 'can I have a treat?' Oddly, he turns down many carbs - including potatoes, sweet potatoes, some kinds of rice, some bread and bagels. He likes oatmeal, popcorn, pasta and bread when it's a PB&J. He does eat a range of raw fruits and vegetables and some cooked vegetables. But if it's been too long since he's had them - he refuses them again. He has been refusing mango and kiwi, for example, though he's eaten and liked them in the past and I wish I could get him to try just one bite. I am glad that mine eats what he does in terms of fruits and veggies, along with plain yogurt, cheese, nuts, and olives although he's been turning down eggs lately too. My rule in order to encourage the kids to eat enough at dinner is that afterwards when they whine at bedtime that they are hungry, they are allowed cheese sticks (which I buy in bulk from Costco) and water. I like this rule because I don't feel guilty that they don't go to bed starving if they are really hungry, the cheese sticks provide more fat and protein and not sugars or white carbs, and the monotony and not-great-taste of the cheese sticks means they are not rewarded for not eating (enough) dinner. On the other hand, some nights my kids might eat 3-4 cheese sticks at bedtime each, and most nights it is at least 1-2.

Here are my thoughts after approximately a week using the free Summer TenMarks math program. I have found it frustrating, and thought that at least there might be someone here who might find my feedback useful. My son completed Saxon Math 1 along with supplementary materials and we selected going into second grade. * I am not sure how they chose what assignments to give him (6 are offered at a time), can't figure out a way to change them and haven't figured out whether the assignments are on a 1st grade (review) or 2nd grade (accelerate) level. Some of the topics are quite difficult (more on that later). He got a 87.5% on the 1st grade assessment (one careless error, one mistake, one "partially" correct - didn't check all the answers and understand the 'select all that apply'). All of the 6 options for topics they gave him are either geometry or measurement. [For comparison, I did the same assessment under a second account, got 100% and they didn't give me the same topics - I got plenty of addition/subtraction ones.] * Many of the questions are poorly worded. Many of them use the 'select all that apply' method which is really annoying to me pedagogically. One problem which was so terribly worded I wasn't clear what answer they were looking for was along these lines. "Mary was eating a half a sandwich. Her piece of sandwich had 3 sides and 3 angles. What was the shape of the sandwich?" Here, do they mean her half or the whole sandwich? The way it was worded I would think the whole sandwich, but triangle was an option, a square wasn't although there was a parallelogram included. I have the feeling from the program's word problems that they like to trick students. * Many of the measurement questions were not what I consider great math for a 1st/2nd grader. There was a whole section on, given an item (for example, a pencil, a couch, and a kitchen) should you use a ruler, a yardstick, or a tape measure. They also asked them to estimate the length of many objects by name (in other words, with no picture or tangible, either of the ruler or the object, only their recollection and understanding of lengths). I mis-estimated a marker to be 9 inches. * Along those lines, one of the questions really bothered me. It read something like this (from memory). Dave and Mary are measuring a crayon with a ruler. Dave places the crayon at the 1 inch mark, measures 5 inches, and subtracts 1 to get 4 inches. Mary places the crayon at 0, measures the crayon to be 4 inches. There were four answers and it was a 'select all that apply.' One was Mary was correct, one was Mary was incorrect, one was Dave was correct because he subtracted out the one to get the number and one was Dave was incorrect because you have to start at 0. Obviously, Mary measured the crayon correctly. The issue was that they said Dave was incorrect because you HAVE to start at 0 as the only "right" way. The traditional way of doing it, yes. The preferred way, yes. The only way? NO. As far as I can tell, Dave wasn't incorrect. This seems indicative of the problem of teaching math problems have only one means of solution. And maybe I was the only one with a plastic ruler in my childhood that wore off at the corners, so for an accurate measurement it was best to start at 1? I feel like this is teaching something to young kids that has to be untaught later on. * Today my son did a topic called understanding rectangles. After the second question, he threw a fit and wouldn't work on it anymore. They keep talking about "partitioning" rectangles. They are clearly using this as a way to introduce area, but it's a big word and completely unfamiliar to him in its meaning. In the first question, they partitioned a rectangle into 20 boxes, and asked him how many rows and columns (also words he doesn't know yet) were in it. I walked him through it, talking about horizontal and vertical and rows and columns and partitions. In the second question, they presented a rectangle partitioned into 3 rows and 14 columns. The question was, find the rectangle that is the same size, followed by images of other partitioned rectangles. There was the tricky answer, that my boy initially assumed was correct, of a rectangle that was 3 rows and 13 columns. I explained to him this was about area, and he was going to have to count up all the boxes and see what other rectangle had the same number of boxes. He was done, frustration-wise. They needed to introduce area by starting on a problem with area 42!?! Not 6 or 8 or even 10? Do these questions really seem like first grade review to others, because they don't to me. * It was at this point that I first clicked on one of their videos, to see how they explained the concept. I admit, I didn't get very far into the video. This is because my overall impression is that this lecture is not designed for a 6-7 year old. (The same is true for the Khan Academy videos I saw). First they defined a rectangle - with a very cursory explanation of a right angle (something else new to my son) and then a discussion that the opposite sides were parallel. What did parallel mean? That the lines would never intersect (not only was there no discussion of the concept of extending the sides of the rectangle out forever, there was no definition of intersection). From there they started in on the partitioning. I will have to go back and finish it later. If I can't figure out a way to change the topics they have given my son, I might give up on this program. I previewed 10 topics relating to addition/subtraction/place value on my "fake" child account and thought they would be useful practice for him - now I just have to figure out how to give him these instead of geometry/measurement, which I don't feel are on grade level (my best understanding of this is based on looking at how skills are demonstrated on IXL which seem more appropriate). My son is understandably frustrated with some of the questions - and I consider him to be strong at math. Is anyone else trying this out? I would love to know if others agree or if I'm overreacting (I'm admittedly grumpy lately).

I was just looking at the Scholastic Dollar Days - Mental Math Kids Can't Resist might be worth a try for $2 (pdf). http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/mental-math-kids-can-t-resist You can preview the whole book - I am thinking about getting it. Too bad the deals these days seem to be 2-3 dollars instead of 1. I've been looking for the Algebra Readiness ones to be less than $5 for a year now. ETA: there is also Fast & Fun Mental Math for $1. Looks less kid-friendly, however.

Wow, you all have such responsible kids. My parents never were involved in my homework either - and so I often just didn't do it, from first grade right through high school. I don't think mine will either - I am hoping to help them develop the habit. Right now, my just turned 6 son won't sit down and do it unless I physically help him get it out, sit down in front of it, etc. He needs zero assistance with the academic portion, just starting it, maintaining focus, and getting over the monstrous 'i hate homework' temper tantrum. So at what age did your kids sit down and start their homework by themselves?

If you are selecting the people first, as described above by MAShomeschooler, you then have to assign them to jobs in various combinations, right? So for each selection of three students there are 6 combinations of job titles they could have. What I was thinking is that if you didn't have the gender situation, the answer would simply be 8P3. But then, what if you took that 8P3 and subtracted all of the scenarios where all three were the same gender? So that would be 4P3 of all boys and 4P3 of all girls. So I would assert that the answer is 336-48=288. If we did it the other way, I had trouble figuring out how to select the students correctly. What I think is that rather than choose a boy, choose a girl, choose one of the rest, what you have is choosing 2 from one gender and 1 from the other gender, and then there are two ways of doing that (2 girls, 1 boy) or (2 boys, 1 girl). so 2 x 4C2 x 4C1, which is 48. Then, since there are 6 ways to allocate them to jobs you have 48x6 which is 288. Edit to add: The problem with doing as MAS described is that you would have overlap. Say you chose Amy as the girl, and Matt as the boy, and then chose James as the one out of remaining six. Well that is the same combination as if you chose Amy as the girl, James as the boy and then chose Matt as the one of the remaining six. So you have to take into consideration that overlap in considering it that way.

There was a period in my life, probably around when I was 11-13 where I said like a lot. I had grandparents - who I virtually never saw - that I was visiting and they spent the entire afternoon correcting me every time I said the word like. It was a miserable afternoon and I couldn't wait to leave. I certainly had no desire to speak with them for a long, long time. I don't know when or even why it went away - but it did. I am not sure you should do anything if you have already made them aware that they say it. They are learning and growing - consider it a phase as they develop their abilities to verbally express themselves. I don't think it's so easy to just "stop" and it may be more negative than anything else.

I spent some time this spring observing in a 10th grade algebra 2 class. The teacher told me that a fairly accurate way to predict who would do well in the class was determining who knew their times tables (and therefore didn't need to use their calculators for basic multiplication) at the beginning of the year. The other major predicting factor seems to be students' ability with fractions, particularly finding a common denominator. Scary.

So interested in this topic, I just took a 2 hour detour checking out websites linked off that Pinterest. My son has not demonstrated particular talent but often loves to draw. He turned 6 this month and his current focus is police cars. He usually works with a loose ream of paper, but his scads of drawings are scattered everywhere, stomped on, lost and tossed, etc. so I'd like to try a book I don't want to hijack the thread, but can anyone recommend a relatively inexpensive book (he doesn't have the best track record of caring for things) for this purpose that is suitable for his age and will stand up to marker/pen/pencil/crayon?

I am hitting the double posts tonight.

Sorry, I wasn't trying to say I was disappointed or anything. I'm really happy with how he's doing. All I was trying to say is that MTH is the right reading level for him in terms of decoding/comprehension, but he's nowhere near being able to read the book in an hour, much less 30 minutes as a bunch of previous posters have indicated. I'm pretty sure I saw some other posts saying 5-6 year olds were doing it in an hour or so.

Double post, not sure how I did that. Sorry.

Lovely list. I wanted to contribute something, but you have pretty much covered everything I could think of. Reaching for something to add, I noticed you didn't have snowmobiling. Finally, regionally dependent and perhaps a little odd, something we do as a family in winter, late at night, is drive around the mountain benches neighborhoods looking for deer, who are pushed down the mountain to look for food. We just enjoy looking for them. We often seen 20+. Once we saw an elk, too. There also can be actual nature spots that are good for seeing wildlife.

This thread has gone off on a little tangent, but we might be the slowest readers to post. My son is 5.5, we alternate chapters in MTH and read 4 chapters a night aloud (2 for him, 2 for me) and it takes us an hour for that. So about 3 hours per book. Earlier in the year, he struggled with stamina even more and could barely finish one chapter, so we are seeing progress. But he's not yet making the transition to reading in his head very much.

I have never been to BYU and know nothing about their language program except that it is extremely well thought of. So, that's a plus and take my comments with a grain of salt. But, I am not LDS and live in the area. I think it would be difficult. 98% LDS, 1/3 from Utah who tend to be fairly insular. Realize you will be paying essentially double ticket price for tuition (compared to LDS students) which might annoy you over time. Required religion classes specifically on the LDS religion as part of core requirements. Self reported 20-25% of undergraduates married, statistic of 50% married by graduation. LDS boys will in all likelihood not even date your daughter, which may or may not be to your liking. But it is extremely unlikely she might find a future spouse there. Lots of rules as outlined in the honor code. Read it in full before you even think about applying. For me, while I actually pretty much adhere to all standards, they still annoy me. A lot. Including no shorts that end above your knees and no coffee or non-herbal tea. You cannot get a cup of coffee on campus. No glass of wine, ever. You say you are ok with the conservative standards. I will take you at your word, but please do read them and know what you are agreeing to ahead of time. Here is an article from the BYU newspaper on Catholics at BYU. It has information on the local area Catholic congregation and maybe some contacts if you want to pursue it. http://universe.byu.edu/2013/07/30/catholics-at-home-on-byu-campus/ Here is a thread on lds.net about Catholics and Mormons that might be worth reading. http://lds.net/forums/topic/8300-what-do-mormons-think-of-catholics/ Also wikipedia says that BYU's foreign language apartment complex houses 25 apartments of 6 students each - so 150 students - across all of the languages they ofter in this program. Her social circle with regard to this program is going to be small and very much make it or break it, I would imagine. Oh and my husband (the Utah native) says, when she graduates and goes to work in any state but Utah, anyone who knows of BYU will assume your daughter is LDS and apply whatever negative preconceived notions they have of "the church". Carefully consider your daughter's personality here and how she will deal with being a member of a religious minority in a highly religious community. Who knows, the quality of the program may be worth it. Maize's suggestion of trying it out as a summer thing has merit to me. Just my 2 cents.

Wow, I think this is the first time I've seen a negative comment about DreamBox. We did the trial and I liked a lot of it in theory, except there was still too much timed stuff, let me flash this thing at you for two seconds and have my five (then four?) year old try to figure it out in this tiny amount of time. I felt like that worked against developing conceptual comfort, which was supposed to be the reason to choose DreamBox. The other problem, as mentioned above, was my son just went to the fun stuff or whatever - he did NOT want to do the lessons. Admittedly the different presentation might have been out of his comfort zone. That said, he also didn't love Xtra math. Dull and timed. IXL is dull but not timed, or not obviously time-is-running-out timed, so I am still considering it. Even though it was timed, for math facts, the one my son liked best was Reflex Math. While we had it he often whined about the timed aspect, but he still sometimes asks for that. I know nothing about beestar, but I notice no one has sounded excited about it. I am still looking for an online math supplement that is fun without timed pressure, so if anyone has any other recommendations...

Not super special or anything... I like easy. But here are the ideas off the top of my head: corn tortilla chips with guacamole and/or tomato salsa, crudites(raw vegetables) with a mayo-based dip (non-dairy) or a hummus (chick pea) or tapenade (olive based) kind of dip would work. I think you could do like mini corn dogs. Fancy olives (like marinated), fancy nuts (like spiced). Something like prosciutto wrapped cantaloupe or honeydew, or bacon wrapped anything (meat or water chestnut for example). Cocktail shrimp. Meat on skewers. Serve things in little endive leaves.

One thing Amazon Prime has streaming is these educational videos by New Dimension Media. Lots of these. Some of them are kind of cool, but they are drier/more strictly educational. Depending on what you like, they also have classic Mr. Rogers, Electric Company and Reading Rainbow that Netflix definitely doesn't have. I can't keep up with what is on Amazon vs. Netflix sometimes, but Amazon tends to have more of some of the other PBS shows. Not guaranteeing that these have more, but (I think) CyberChase, Fetch with Ruff Ruffman, Curious George. Check any of the PBS shows you like. Also, we don't watch these, but Amazon has the nickelodeon shows. So if you are a fan of Dora, Diego, Phineas and Ferb, Backyardigans (these all might be too young for yours). The only ones I like are Blue's Clues, but again I think too young for yours, except maybe the 5yo. Amazon has a couple of their "own" shows and the one that gets mentioned a lot as being not awful / promoting stem is Annedroids. My 5 yo has also watched their "Creative Galaxy" but that is on the verge of being too young for him. I know there is some overlap with documentaries, but Amazon does have some Netflix doesn't. The thing about Amazon Prime (imo) is that their interface for searching is way worse on the TV itself compared to Netflix. I recommend looking for things on your desktop.

Went crazy. Bought 6 books today. Toying with the idea of getting Scrambled States, too. Mid-November I apparently turn into a lightning deal fanatic. It's insanity.

We did our first scholar-led conference this October. My son is 5, in Kindergarten. It seems very odd to me. I don't know how they expect him to lead it. And he said to me something like, well if I'm in charge, I decide we shouldn't go to it. Anyway, he read a picture book while I talked to the teacher. I know he is at the top of his class academically. I didn't need to see his first math test, because I sit there while he does his math homework every night and I know what he's doing isn't remotely challenging for him. I wanted to talk to the teacher about how he is doing socially. And that's what I will want to talk about for the next several years. And it will get more and more awkward with him there. I guess I will have to broach these topics through email going forward. The other odd thing to me was the goal-setting - one in class and one out of class for the semester. And he chooses the goals with no input from anyone else. Ownership, I suppose. Maybe if he were struggling in an area they would encourage him to work on that. He chose to try to talk out of turn less in class (his mom still hasn't managed that one) and to improve his drawing skills outside of class. And I signed a paper saying I'd support his goal.

I am planning the same thing, but for grades 1-3. My first time teaching at a co op. So I'm following and when I get a chance I'll make a longer post.

I think it is likely this teacher isn't very good at math. What I wanted to add, though, was the idea that everybody makes mistakes in math. In fact, I would wager that elementary and secondary teachers better in math make more errors than teachers poor at math. Why? Because teachers better at math will do more solving of questions spontaneously/off the cuff, whereas those poor in math will have pre-written every problem and step they will be presenting. I've been taking some math/physics classes at the local university this past year. My math and physics teachers with PhD's have been pretty impressive, but all of them have made errors. In particular the differential equation class I just finished, there were many simple algebraic errors pointed out by students. None of these professors got upset when the students questioned the numbers. One amusingly would say, oh, shoot! when he made a mistake. I think it's a strong signal that those good at math don't get upset when questioned about the accuracy of an answer - they all know they will make mistakes and it doesn't undermine their feeling of competency about the subject. On the other hand, were the reaction of a teacher to be defensive, I would be much more concerned about his/her competency. I try reinforce for my son the "everybody makes mistakes" lesson. Then, if a teacher makes a mistake, it's not a shock or an indication of incompetency. It's normal. And he can handle his own mistakes much better as well. Then he is also more willing to question the teacher, but hopefully not in an antagonistic fashion.

I hope it goes well for your son. We're in the same boat with my 5 yo starting at a charter on Thursday. Definitely also hoping for a geeky friend. At least I know they've prescreened reading and numbers and put him in the top class of 4 achievement sorted classes. Now wondering where he falls in the class and if they will give me a reading level. Although I wish mine was concerned about the lack of routine - that's a family wide weakness. I was planning on doing some after schooling but have signed him up for a bunch of art and music and "building" and nature study extracurricular classes at a hs coop that I hope will be fun and enriching in the afternoons along with soccer and gymnastics so I need to scale back my expectations. Will aim to squeeze a little math in and that's it. Good luck to all the other nervous families out there too...

Janson's History of Art is what I used in high school for AP Art History back in 92-93. I thought well enough of it that I purchased a copy to keep for myself as a reference afterwards. Now I will have to check out Gardner's, too.