Thank you all for the advice. Quark, that is a good point. I don't think he's ready for that now, but maybe when he's closer to eight. Wendy, I am right with you on the DK and Usborne. And they have such cool information! I feel like I need to read them with a piece of paper to cover up the rest of the page while I read parts.

I could see a ten year old liking it.

Nature study. And I'd like to tag along. I don't know the names of things, and I'd like us to learn them from someone who does.

Okay, that makes perfect sense. So, option two. I like the whiteboard idea--less paper shuffling. Seems obvious, but sometimes I need someone to point out the obvious. :) Thanks.

My son has an enrichment tutor for math. Today I asked him if there was anything he'd like me to plan into my son's regular school math that would enhance the things they do. He said it would be nice if I incorporated lessons from my son's Dolciani algebra book because then they could use those algebra skills with the things they are doing. Earlier this year we were doing Dolciani algebra, and though my son could do it, he hated doing any work out of the book because he hated the look of the book. He's young and prefers bigger fonts, more white space, less text, etc. How would you go about adapting the material in this book to make it more inviting? These are the ideas I came up with: (1) Make enlarged copies of half pages of problems so that everything is bigger. (2) Make my own pages by writing down select problems, giving pages the look of Miquon pages. (Labor intensive. I'll do it though if it's the best option.) (3) Find some other algebra text that has problems for the same concepts but uses a page layout more to my son's liking. (Here, I would need suggestions. I'm not familiar with what's out there.) I'm sure there are lots of parents on this board who've needed to adapt advanced material for younger children, and I'm a newer homeschooler, so I'm looking for veteran advice. Right now I'm leaning to number two, but maybe someone else knows better.

I just got in some additional materials from them. I got What To Do? Level A (real life problem solving skills, looking great), Suppose the Wolf Were an Octopus K to 2 (a nice book discussion cheat sheet for me), Nature Study for the Whole Family (looking for inspiration in this area), Museums Muses and Me (to use at a local museum, looks great!, wish I'd gotten another copy for my younger), and Keepers of the Flame (for teaching poetry, looks simple and fun.) Unfortunately, like I said, I just got these, so I don't yet know how well any of them will work. Having them in hand, they do meet my expectations. They're so full of promise! (But then, isn't everything so full of promise when it's fresh from the mail?)

That made up much of our science too. There was a lot of what knick-knacks can you build out of garbage so that you don't have to throw it out. (It turned out that you only need one milk container pencil holder. Actually, one might be one more than you need.)

Lots of people saying handwriting. I sort of did that. We do Italic handwriting, and my son learned to do it by watching Penny Gardner's letter formation videos on YouTube. He writes extremely well. (I don't know how to do italic handwriting.)

No problem!

Yes, here are the history parts divided out: http://www.sonlight.com/history-geography.html

I recently had my son do the ADAM and the DORA because it was suggested by someone on this board. http://www.letsgolearn.com/lglsite/products/ The test is taken online, so you don't administer it. I thought it was great. The results were extremely detailed and helpful to me.

I second that about the shapes chapter. You might have much better luck with the others.

Thanks for posting this thread, OP. We are evangelical Christians and teach evolution as a basic fact of science but know there are many people who disagree with us. I think it's important to be conversant on contentious popular topics, so I've been looking for resources that would best explain the anti-evolution view. Very helpful!

Evolution was explained in detail as part of our science classes. I went to a public school in a small town in the south. There were a few people in school who held a YEC view, but I thought that was a far outlier position until I started homeschooling. Surprised by how many YEC folks I met, I looked up a poll about it and found out that that view is very common. I learn something new everyday!

I did it at five. I'd probably let mine do it at about eight.

Would you go with Spanish or Chinese? Edited: More interested in what others see as pros and cons, so I took out my own.

I forgot to specify. The Greek is New Testament Greek, so definitely not conversational.

Or maybe I don't need a plan. I guess I want a plan subject to change. I'd planned on Latin beginning in first grade, then Greek beginning in third, and while I knew I wanted four years of a single modern language in high school, I wasn't sure about whether/when/where/how to do one before then. However, my son took up Greek this year, his kindergarten year, so now my plan is off. I think adding Latin for first grade would cause us to have too much school time. Therefore, I was thinking of just switching them around: continue with Greek now and add Latin in third grade. Modern languages still up in the air. On the other hand, this particular son seems to have a gift for language decoding and phonemic awareness. (I don't know if that's the right terminology, but bear with me.) He can now read both Greek and English phonetically with fluency. Am I making him miss a good opportunity by not adding in a modern language now? There are good programs for Spanish and Chinese in our area. Or should I just keep informally exposing him to other languages while we continue on in Greek?

Skiing--how cool! There could be a lot of geography and history in that with all those mountains. Definitely a study on weather in there. (What makes for ideal powder?) Lots of physics and geometry. I don't know the history of skiing, but I bet it's interesting. I wonder what people first made skis out of. Technological advances in gear materials. Sounds like you guys are going to have a great time.

The Inglesina Trip. It's lightweight, handles easily, and has the features of a full-sized stroller.

Great ideas! I'm going to try them. Thanks.

Surely that's not the craziest thing you've ever read in an education article though. I've read adults who proposed it was perfectly acceptable for a student to spend two years doing nothing but playing videogames. I've read other adults say education should consist solely of math and memorizing the Qu'ran. Others have said the Bible need be the only book in the house. Others who write that one must always be pushing hard or a child will fail. And there are even those who've argued that children need no content knowledge at all. And even though I disagree with all those people, there is something in all of their ideas that isn't worthless. Enabling a student's passion for an interest, the value of memorization, the experience of going deep deep deep into a text, the importance of providing challenge, the urgency of critical thinking, those things are in those texts. I like teasing them out. I like seeing where I think they've gone wrong, what other good ideas are missing, what good and what bad comes out of what they've done. It's interesting. It's fun.

I really enjoy reading homeschool tips, methods, and philosophies, even (especially?) from people I completely disagree with. It's a hobby. I always find something to glean from those readings. I wish Robinson offered the instructional part separately from the ebook collection. I would love to read his extended explanation of his method, but I don't know that I want to pay $200 to read it.

That's good to know about the measurement because it explains the results I found puzzling. The scores were all topped out there except length, which was much lower. And yes, very interesting to find out that there are skills I wasn't aware of. This student knows all about percents? How? We've never talked about percents. Maybe we have, and I've forgotten. I think the main thing we need to go over in geometry is how problems are phrased and what they mean. I think he was confused by the idea of faces in three dimensional shapes and didn't understand what was being asked. Actually I wish he could do just that section again because after the faces questions, he wasn't tested, so I'm still not quite sure what he knows there and what he doesn't. This was also good because I was able to see why his enrichment tutor started him in algebra. (I stopped it and asked them to do something else because my son hated the homework. I want to keep things fun at this age, and I'd rather he went into an algebra course with more emotional maturity and interest in attacking hard problems.) I can't believe this test was only $15. Definitely a best purchase of the year.

Khan Academy might be an easy way to get math in on days when you're feeling overwhelmed.