I definitely don't agree with the list, however, thanks for posting it. I downloaded from our library two of the beginner Berenstain bear books, and ds read them this morning. He was able to read both (Inside, Outside, Upside down and Bears in the Night), and he was excited to use the ipad for reading.

There are so really great thoughts already here, but I wanted to add what works for us in addition to what other posters have mentioned. I think for us, the biggest factor is my enthusiasm. I'm really excited about American history. I love it. I'm having so much fun learning about it all over again and teaching it. My two kids are just lapping it up. They can't get enough. Most days we do math, spelling, and reading "just to get it done" so that we can spend more time on history. A few months ago it was science. I'm a nurse, and I had a blast teaching the kids about the human body. I need to let DS lead the way when it comes to the stuff he doesn't enjoy as much. Reading, writing, and spelling are hard for him. So he does spelling on the trapeze, reading on the ipad, writing- last week he painted his words and phrases on the easel instead of writing them with pencil and paper. That makes it...not fun but tolerable for him! I sometimes need to act a little silly to get DS in the mood to cooperate. I'm ok with that. When he does well with his handwriting (as in, I can actually read the letters), I pretend to faint. He loves it and tries even harder. I think the lighthearted, playfulness helps make the learning more enjoyable. I also try to follow their leads. DS is excited about flight lately, so we learned about the Wright Brothers, Ameila Earhart, and others. He was thrilled. DD loves the American girl stories, so that's what she does for reading right now. They also are both super into legos, so last week we did math with legos. I have found success with a daily walk. The kids and I really benefit from the outdoor exercise each day before school. Often we will review math facts along the way or chat about other things of interest. Hope that helps a little. I definitely don't expect them to enjoy everything. It's ok if they don't. I try to help make the things they don't love more tolerable though and try to find other things that they are excited about.

wow, thanks for all the ideas. It sounds like there is plenty to do. I'm not sure who will be going. I'd love for the whole family to go (DH, DD-8, DS-6, and me), but I doubt we can afford the airfare. So it's more likely to be DD and me and possibly my dad. He needs to go to Texas for something else, and is hoping to coordinate. The math park sounds so cool! My kids love petting zoos of any size. It's all about the baby goats for them. And the splash river would be a huge hit. very helpful, thanks!

No. I went to a private Montessori school until I was 7. Then I went to a private Catholic school for 3rd grade. I skipped second. Then I went to public for 4th, and I did 4th twice. ;) I was ok with the work, but I was quite young and immature compared to the other kids, being born in Oct and having skipped second grade. Silliness. Anyawys, I stayed in public through high school. My school experience overall was actually great. I loved the work and was happy socially once I was in my own age group. My husband went to private Catholic his whole life and wants our kids to do the same. But the kids and I are very, very happy with our first year of home schooling and hope to continue.

Hi, My daughter may be going to the Judo Junior Olympics in Irving, Texas this June. I don't know the area at all (I've never been to Texas, and it's such a huge state anyways), so I'm hoping someone here might give me an idea if there is anything to see or do in the area. I doubt we will have a car. Thanks, Chelsea.

We use a base ten set, and that's pretty much it. We have the Right Start abacus, but we don't really use it. We have teddy bear counters, but we don't use them. We have a cheap teaching clock that the kids use at times. We used real coins for money practice. We don't have a scale, but we do weigh things at the grocery store all the time ;) Oh, and a white board and markers. Those we use all the time. And games. The kids like Monopoly Jr, Sum Swamp, and Uno.

My kids and I love All About Spelling. It's so easy to teach, and we can adapt it to how they are feeling that day. Ds has a lot of trouble writing, so we do a lesson each week spread over three days. Dd is flying through a lesson a day at this point. It is nice that we can use the letter tiles, the iPad with a moveable alphabet app, paper, a white board- whatever the kids want. Yesterday we did it outside with chalk. The kids are learning the rules very easily, and their spelling has improved quickly. So has ds's reading. The only downfall is the cost.

We only listen to family audiobooks in the car. If a child is listening to their own story, they listen on an iPod with headphones. But if I want to hear it, it's a car story.

We have an indoor swing and trapeze. Trampoline. Theraputty. Hand fidgets. Gum. Lots of movement breaks. Not much is done at the table these days. Yogibo pillow. He does reading in the trapeze or on the yogibo. He reviews math facts on the trampoline. We also have some obstacle course pieces- like cones, a balance beam, stepping stones. He loves his theraband. It can be hard. I'm sensory avoiding and my son is seeking.

There's a short picture book called "the girl who loved trees" that we really enjoyed. You might check out the mighty girls website. The book List is fantastic and by subject.

I didn't see Math Curse mentioned under books. We read it today and did the problems "for fun", and the kids loved it. Also for fun geometry- magnatiles can not be beat. My ds loves them.

We do math, reading, spelling, and history daily. We like history. We do writing and science when it happens. We do grammar informally throughout our lives. Spring has make us relax a bit with school. :) We do recess and physical education daily.

I didn't read all the replies yet, but we live north if Boston. There are tons of homeschoolers in MA, and there are some great, active groups. I love living here. :)

Montessori math Montessori crosswords (we use for the moveable alphabet) Dragon box Phonogram sounds from AAS Brainpop and brainpop jr Netflix

Can you get SOTW audiobook at your library? Ours didn't have it, but they got it for me from another nearby network. Also, I'd hold off on buying books and see what the library has. If you really want a book, you can always get it later. We don't use our atlas much. We do use a large wall map of the US and the World. And we use our globe. Our subscription to Brainpop gets a lot of use. If you wanted to save some money, I bet fraction manipulatives would be easy to make. We have some from when my mom was a teacher, and while they are nice, home made ones would be fine for the amount of use that they get. You could probably buy foam circles from a craft store and cut them and label them. We use our base ten set for math every day. We also have interlocking unifix cubes, but the base ten set is so much more useful. Do you have magnatiles? I'd save money from not buying the books and audiobooks and fractions set and get some magnatiles. My kids love them and use them daily. We have had them for three years and they are still used daily. We have 300 now because my kids have asked for Them for Christmas for three years in a row now!

Also, does the child enjoy making lap books? My son would hate a class like that. He hates anything involving cutting, coloring, glueing, writing. He probably wouldn't pay attention well either because he wouldn't enjoy the class. Could that be part of the problem?

That seems pretty normal for a 6 year old boy. Personally, unless I had some really, really big concerns, I wouldn't mention it. I'm sure your friend knows her son's strengths and weaknesses, and I don't think it would be helpful to mention something like this. Of course, since you already did, I would probably say something or email her and say "hey, I hope you didn't take offense to my mention of ds's cutting at class. I just figured I'd mention it"

Thanks. I'll look at those videos. I have let up a ton for this week. We have done no formal math. He has offered to do 50 flash cards online (addition) each day though. And today he asked to do multiplication, so he did some practice with the 4 tables (his choice). He also counted all of his money. I was amazed that he got it right because when he counts the manipulative cubes he is careless and gets it wrong a lot. He counted out $27.68 in change and got it right! So I think we will be ok. I'm going to go easy for the rest of this year and see how things go in the fall. Thanks for all of the suggestions. I will keep them for the fall.

My dd, 8, is doing this as well. She read two American girl books yesterday on top of her regular school work. I have been letting her read after she does math and spelling. I think it's so great that she wants to spend her free time reading.

1st grade this year- ds is 6. OPGTR on and off. He hates it. I have dropped it now that we are doing AAS because he is doing very well with reading at this point and just needs to enjoy it and practice it. AAS1 Jot it down. New to us but we are enjoing it so far. Sentence family for grammar. We are just starting this and will continue as he gets older. HWOT We started the year using starfall for reading. He loved that. We also did a little of progressive phonics. Lots and lots of read alouds. Like hours a day of me reading or audio books. He can't get enough.

Thanks for all the replies. I am goin to back off. That shouldn't be hard because the weather is finally nice. I am interested in c rods. I think ds could benefit from them. He gets complicated ideas and can do harder math, but he is weak with simple facts. I will think about a vision test with a specialist. He is a big time auditory learner, but that could certainly be because he is weak with vision. He doesn't seem to have trouble reading though. Any thoughts on that? Graph paper is a great idea. I currently do all of the math writing. There's no way he could line up the numbers properly at this point. But I'll try graph paper in the future. If I decided to use c rods, how do I know what to do? Is minqon the program that uses them?

Ok. I need to back off a bit. Ds was flying along so well that maybe I got over excited and pushed too hard.

It could be hormones from mom if she's nursing. That is not uncommon.

It could be hormones from mom if she's nursing. That is not uncommon.

That sounds scary. I'll keep you in my thoughts.