I don't want to sound like I'm the authority on LoE, since I haven't actually used it yet, haha. I just glanced through...I did write to someone from LoE because we have exactly the same issue, and LoE is pretty writing intensive. She suggested using phonogram cards to spell out words (blah) or starting in A where they teach writing lowercase, but I thought that would be a complete waste of time and money, since A starts at the very beginning (and you'd be in the same place you are now with PAL.) It looks like handwriting is a pretty integral part of the program, but it would probably be easy enough to teach as you go, or maybe have him tell you the letters to write and then trace over your letters with a pen...They introduce writing of each letter separately as well, only capitals in B (and I don't think they spend much time on it), lowercase are covered in A, but you could certainly teach lowercase as well, at the same time as the capitals.

I'm pretty sure it actually does include sight words as well...I saw a sample where the kids were asked to read high frequency words while they were timed, and add blocks to a tower when they sounded them out correctly, as well as a Tic-Tac-Toe type game where they needed to read high frequency words in order to mark a square. It's O-G though, so covers more than just reading.

Sorry, meant to add but was interrupted...I haven't used the program, but I've looked through the samples and many reviews, and it's been calling my name ever since. My DD is at about the level of your DS, and I'd start her in B.

Have you looked at LoE Foundations?

I was just typing exactly what sbgrace said when her comment popped up. :) My DD is young so we're only on A, but we're both LOVING everything about the program, the games, the manipulatives, the way it teaches how to think about number manipulation...It's giving her such a wonderful full understanding of concepts, every lesson is so different it never gets boring, it really is a fun program to work through. She asks me for "math time" every day. I want to add also that they're very receptive to questions...I shot RS an email wondering which level to start on, and heard back within a couple of hours with suggestions and all the information I needed to decide.

Ah, makes sense. Gah, what a pain!!

Thanks, I did check there but it looks like that link is only for entering URLs to see whether they're still infected?

Wow...I wasn't aware of this. Thanks for posting! You may not know, but is there a way to find out if you've been infected? It looks like most of the sites I use were infected at one time.

Love all the above suggestions! More ideas: Stuart Little; A Cricket in Times Square; Mr. Popper's Penguins; Paddington; My Father's Dragon; Wind in the Willows...Oh my goodness, I could go on and on. I love this stage of reading! :)

Many level 1 easy reader books only have 1-3 sentences on a page, with large font. The pictures are more engaging than typical readers, so it might be an issue if he gets distracted easily. But on the other hand the stories are for the most part enjoyable, with (simple) plots he might get engaged with, and there are so many possibilities you'd be able to find books on topics he's interested in. It also would feel like he's reading "real" books, rather than readers. I See Sam books are also pretty good, and (at least in the beginning levels) only have one sentence per page. They're available for free from Gutenberg. My DD is currently hooked on Progressive Phonics, which is also free. There are more words per page, but it's joint reading so you let him read the highlighted words as well as other words you know he'd be able to figure out, and the rest are for you to read. The joint reading is fun, and it makes it easier for them to keep track of the (very short) story while figuring out words.

I have no experience with Supercharged Science, but I have to disagree with the idea that kids can learn as well from watching videos of experiments as they can from actually doing the experiments. I think they can learn the concepts, but the understanding is probably much less likely to stick with them long term, you know? If you think back on the things you learned at that age, the concepts you remember are probably based on activities you did, not movies you watched. I think learning scientific method is also invaluable, in the long run probably the most important thing you can take out of science education. It really is a ton more work, I'm a huge fan of BFSU but I don't find myself spending anywhere near as much time as I (and my DD) would like on science just because there's so much prep involved. (And I DO have a science background!) But it's not necessarily the program I love, so much as the amazing, diverse but deep understanding of the world I think she's getting from experimenting on her own, making things happen and trying to understand what she's seeing. Maybe you could do a mix of the two? Find one simple experiment to go with and reinforce each video topic?

Ah, they JUST came. Yay! (Now watch, DD will hate Fred and I'll add it to the bottomless stack of curricula in her closet, wishing I'd just asked for a refund.)

We use Splash Math K, and they have it for older kids as well. Dreambox is also fun for awhile, they have a free trial that's worth checking out.

Ah, okay. I guess that explains it! Thanks, that makes me feel a bit better. I just wish they could have told me that and given me an estimate on when they might ship. I'm good at being patient as long as I get some idea whether I'll need to be patient for two weeks or two months...

Oy...I never got a shipping notice, which is why I contacted them a few weeks ago. Guess I'll wait a little longer before getting REALLY worried, but yeah...It seems like they don't have it all together. :/

I ordered LOF from Educents at the end of February, and never received the order. Contacted them on March 25 and they said they'd send the books, but I still haven't received them. This was my first time ordering with Educents, and now I'm worried...Did any of you order LOF during the same sale? Have you who've ordered from them ever had problems receiving an order?

We've been loving BFSU...It's teacher-intensive (and I come from a science background, so it might be even more so for those who don't), but it's a great resource, has wonderful ideas for experiments and does a great job tying things together. With the experiments and book suggestions we spend 2-3 weeks per topic...My DD has learned so much. I've also bought a number of the Magic School Bus stand-alone kits, we read the corresponding books and watch the vids, and I think together it's all given her a really deep understanding of the topics we've studied.

He might be a little young for Miquon yet, but I'd start by watching Education Unboxed vids: http://www.educationunboxed.com/resources_and_product_links.html They're wonderful! This is a lot of fun as well: http://nurturedbylove.blogspot.com/2008/12/cuisenaire-discovery-book.html After you see how he does with those, and how well you like them yourself, you could move onto Miquon Orange (workbook and Lab Annotations) in the next year or so.

He sounds a lot like my daughter at that age...She was just starting to love the Kumon cutting/folding/maze/tracing/craft books...Have you tried those? You could also get books to learn lower case letters, if he doesn't know those yet. 1+1+1 has some great printouts with letters for little ones to color and trace. I think that was also the age my DD was starting to get into doing dot-to-dots, both letter and number based. Little Pim videos (free through Amazon Prime) are good for language at that age, if you want to be able to occupy him while you're with your older kids. For math, at 3 we bought a set of Cuisenaire rods, and played games with them. They're a fun, concrete way to develop number sense, and we moved right in to doing Miquon Orange a couple of months before her 4th birthday.

So many great suggestions here! I didn't see anyone mentioning Jan Brett...She's been one of our favorites for awhile, we've loved almost everything she's written. Beautiful language, interesting storylines and gorgeous illustrations...

Probably a dumb question, but I've worked on MEP with my iPad as well and would love to be able to sketch notes. Can you tell me what app you use to do this?

This is all very helpful, thanks. DD is only 4, which is another reason I didn't want to do anything formal. (And before anyone flames me, haha, she started sounding out words at 2.5, but I had never done anything at all to push reading, just read to her a ton, and she loved books so much she was driven to figure out how it all worked.) She's been so proud of being able to finish simple books, it's that pride and love of story that seem to be driving her, which is why I don't want to do anything that would make it feel like work and take that away. 5-10 minutes sounds do-able though, maybe just writing out the words she's struggled with, like you suggested Tanikit and Walking-Iris. When I said I have to remind her of rules, she does remember what a silent e means, for example, but I have to actually point to the e for her to notice it. So she'll read a word using the short vowel, then I'll point to the e and she'll reread the word correctly. Just at this point isn't able to look ahead to notice the e is there. She's learned a number of digraphs just by being exposed to words containing them. Which I guess is one of the questions I'd asked myself, whether exposure to rules naturally would be enough. When the time comes to teach spelling, I'll probably end up using an O-G type program rather than relying on memorization (although I love her awful spelling too much to fix it now, lol) and I guess that will help formalize phonics rules as well. I see that as a couple of years away, though.

Is it possible (for non-gifted children), and what is the best way to go about it? I've never really gone through phonics lessons with my DD, other than teaching letter sounds, and a handful of digraphs. She picked up blending on her own, and now can sound out longer words, but English is such a complex language and if there are phonics exceptions, she struggles. I've taught her basic rules (like silent e, for example), but still need to point it out to her every time. Do you think this is just because she's not developmentally ready? Or should I be focusing on each rule till it's engrained? I should also say she's also nowhere near fluent...She can read many words quickly, but because she still often needs to sound out some of the CVC and CVCC words, I'm now wondering whether the words she reads fluently are all sight words to her. Which would suggest to me again that she's not developmentally ready to decode fluently. She loves sitting with me and going through simple phonics readers/ER Level 1 books, asks to read every day. But now I'm wondering whether this is enough, and whether continuing like this will help her eventually be able to read fluently, or if we should start a formal program. (I've been avoiding it because she loves books so much, and I'm scared of turning reading into drudgery for her.)

Oh my gosh, Colleen, haha! I didn't like Ferdinand for almost the opposite reason...I liked that he was so gentle, and that gentleness was so respected by the end, it gave us lots to talk about. I disliked it because it showed men so gung ho about fighting, only valuing toughness. But then I hate the idea of bullfighting in general, it seems so barbaric and unfair to the bulls.

I agree that while there are a few gems, some of the books are somewhat inappropriate for today's sensibilities. (Although we ended up liking Ping, I changed the swat to "consequences" lol...But we don't spank, and I sure wasn't going to read about swatting an animal.) Also some of the stories are just plain dull. They're not all classics, and I do wonder why some of them were chosen when there are SO many great, heartwarming children's books out there. I finally stopped after pre-reading The Rag Coat, which may be a lovely story, but the girl's father gets sick and dies within the first few pages, and that just wasn't something my young DD was ready to digest. But using FIAR also taught me how to expand any interesting topics in all the books we read, a certain mindset you develop while working through a few in that way. I just discovered the "Teaching with Favorite xxx books" series during the Scholastic Dollar Days. They had a number of favorite authors: Jan Brett, Tomie dePaola, Leo Lionni, Mem Fox, Cynthia Rylant, Arnold Lobel, a Ezra Jack Keats, "Teaching Science with Favorite Picture Books," even Magic Tree House...The activities and discussion questions are every bit as good as FIAR, the books I think are far more enjoyable for both of us, and I got the complete set (covering probably 70 books) for under $10. I'm strongly considering implementing a Circe-like literature based curriculum throughout schooling, and I feel like the discussion topics I've found in the Scholastic books are a GREAT early start to that.