Those are all great ideas, thank you! Walking-Iris, we do go through almost everything in Annotations, and she does pretty well with it. And she does know the numbers associated with each rod, but it almost seems like she doesn't understand that the brown 8 is the same as the quantity 8. She can also tell me that brown can be constructed with 8 whites, and red with 2 whites, and that the brown 8 and the red 2 will make an orange 10, but that somehow doesn't translate to answering the question, "What do you need to add to 8 to make 10?" There's a disconnect somewhere. But it's good to know they're not expecting kids to be learning the mental math so early...Like I said I'm not worried at all yet, just wanted to make sure if we continue primarily with Miquon that it's going to translate in the coming years as her understanding of numeracy develops.

My DD and I have been fooling around with Miquon for awhile now, mostly just Education Unboxed and the beginning of the Orange book. She's developing a decent conceptual understanding of Miquon-style numbers, for example knowing that red plus brown will make an orange, but at this point that's not translating into understanding sums. So for example, if I ask her what 2 + 8 is, she can't tell me. Even with manipulatives like an abacus, if I slide 2 red and 8 white beads, she can't tell me that they add to 10 without counting. It's like even though she associates the rods with numbers, knows that red is supposed to be 2 for example, she doesn't actually associate them with the values of the numbers, if that makes any sense. I'm fine with that now because she's still young, we're really just playing at this point. But so that I'm prepared for the future, those of you who've used Miquon, is this going to happen naturally through Miquon as her understanding of numbers increases? Or should I supplement at some time with another program and/or different manipulatives?

We loved this for a first reading, the pictures are just gorgeous. It's a little abridged, which I realize some people might have problems with, but since your DS is still young it might actually work better for him. http://www.amazon.com/The-Wind-Willows-Kenneth-Grahame/dp/0763622427/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1393516284&sr=8-1&keywords=wind+willows+inga

This all reminds me of a playdate we had a couple of months ago. Nobody, not even my family, knows that my DD3 has been decoding for awhile, there just hasn't been a reason to bring it up, and because most of her friends are with her in a non-academic preschool I assumed they would start disparaging me for helping her learn. At this playdate, the mother of my DD's friend (who's just 2 weeks older than her) out of the blue told her daughter to read the instructions to a game they were playing. I'd call that showing off, there was no reason for her to ask it and it's something I never would've dreamt of doing in front of another mom with a kid the same age. Her daughter struggled, tried to sound a couple of words out and after a minute gave up, and the mom acted all upset, said "But I know you can read this! Seriously, she reads things like this all the time!" This annoyed me, so I called my daughter over and she read the entire page flawlessly. Take that, lady. ;)

We have Hoot, and we also love Feed the Woozle! It has had us all doubled over laughing. :)

We love cooperative games here...Look up "Family Pasttimes" on Amazon and you'll see a ton of good ones, every one of their games we've played have been great. Blokus and Swish are fun as well, as is Katamino. (It's a bit pricey, though.)

We've actually used both! BFSU is definitely more complex and harder to implement, and will probably last longer, we'll be going over the same concepts as my DD gets older, digging deeper. But she's having fun glossing over the subjects at the more simple level that she's capable of processing now. Many of the experiments in SMS and BFSU cover similar concepts and reinforce each other. One of the strengths of BFSU is the way it interrelates different concepts, many of the subjects are linked to the others, which gives a deeper understanding, and it's the main reason we started working with it. And like you said SMS does a great job of teaching a scientific way of thinking/observing. Both have given her a love of science and really helped her observe her world. (And experiments are just plain fun, the more the better in my mind!)

I only mentioned her age because OPs son is also 3. It's probably a good method for learning, but it really isn't an engaging book for younger kids. We started because my DD was so excited and proud of herself when she started being able to sound out words, she's the type who would do workbooks all day if I let her, but we moved on to more natural methods of reading after ETC bombed, reading multitudes of books together, and doing Progressive Phonics which feels like a much cozier, more natural way of learning.

I think he'd probably be ready for it, but (and I'm sure others' opinions will differ) my DD3 was bored out of her mind by ETC 1. We did a handful of pages and never went further. We never used books A and B, but from the samples I've seen they look much more engaging. The pages in 1 are black and white and very crowded with text, nothing at all to engage my DD's interest even though she's the type to ask for workbooks. I'm sure it's a good program, but it just wasn't for us.

I'm looking to complete a RR order, and for months have been going back and forth on ordering Mathematical Reasoning (Level A.) It's gotten so many great reviews, but is it really ALL THAT? Is it different enough from the $10 and under workbooks to warrant the pricetag? My DD loves math and we've loved the other Critical Thinking books we've tried, but we've also had fun dabbling in Miquon and MEP 1, and I don't want to spend $40 if it's not really going to help her learn a different set of skills or way of thinking, or be just as fun for her. Opinions?

My daughter loves the Magic School Bus science kits, and I think 6 is a perfect age for them. We have many of the books and videos too (recognizing the characters has made her enjoy the kits even more), so that's helped her get a really good understanding of a lot of topics. We've bought the kits separately from Amazon, but there's also a monthly subscription we're looking forward to trying in the next year or so.

I should add that one of the other reasons I love Miquon (besides the fact it's very inexpensive) is that it's fun for me! Looking at numbers/operations in a completely different way...For the most part regular math worksheets are pretty tedious, but Miquon feels like play. (MEP is that way too.)

I'm using Miquon now with my daughter (4 in March) and she loves it. We started last year with the Education Unboxed videos and these worksheets: http://www.nurturedbylove.ca/resources/cuisenairebook.pdf. I'd recommend looking at them before you decide, because it's completely different from most math programs and they'll give you some idea how it might be used. We're now on Miquon Orange, going slowly and just having fun with it. I think it's really helped her with number sense, understanding what addition and number bonds really mean, for example, in a way I don't think regular worksheets do. On the other hand, I think it probably should be supplemented with another math program (we're using MEP 1 now) because there are some concepts either glossed over or not discussed at all, plus it's quite different from the math in PS and I think the transition might be a little harder without supplementation.

Completely agree with this. My daughter was also an early reader, and has a good innate understanding of math concepts, so I figured being taught letters/letter sounds and counting would be a complete waste of time and a little boring for her. So we chose a Reggio, completely play-based program with a ton of free play, which lets her explore and learn through play which is I think so much more important than academics at this age anyway. When she asks we'll do the academic stuff at home, fooling around with manipulatives or having her read simple books to me. Just MHO, but I don't know that a set program like AAR (although I've heard it's great) is all that important for kids this age or worth spending a ton of money on, since you can do as much just by sitting with them and teaching them with books and objects you already own.

Thank you all so much. So many fun looking choices! Looks like I have some work to do figuring out which to choose! (And now I'm excited...)

The Music for Little Mozarts looks fantastic! The samples look so fun...She's addicted to books, so combining story with learning would probably work really well. (Is it all taught off the staff, or do they eventually progress to reading music?) Thanks for the recommendation!

Have any of you started teaching an instrument to a child under five? I will be inheriting a piano this month, and as I played and performed throughout childhood I'm excited about the idea of teaching my DD (4 at the end of March) but realize it's probably much too early for her to learn to do more than bang on the keys. I know Suzuki does it, but I know nothing about the Suzuki method, and there are no schools in this area. Is there a method of teaching that really works for children this young, or should I just wait another couple of years? (I'm looking at John Thompson, which is how I first learned.)

Peg Plus Cat is a really sweet mathy show on PBS, my DD loves it! She also loved all the Leapfrog math videos. Math Circus is our favorite, does a good job instilling number sense and actually teaches beginning addition.

Definitely not too soon for Letter Factory! We didn't do any TV for my DD before she turned 2, but started with that video and Numbers Ahoy when she was 24 months. She already knew all her letters and numbers up to 10, but Letter Factory taught her the letter sounds (with my help, I didn't just sit her in front of the vids) by 25 months, and helped teach her what the numbers actually meant. I think a lot of the reason she was so drawn to them was that she'd had so little exposure to TV before that, it seemed like magic to her and she drank it all in.

Have any of you used FIAR for an early 4 year old? I'm so drawn to the program, but my daughter is now only 3y 10mo...She's pretty smart and adores books, and the books we read are at the FIAR level (which is why I'd rather not go with the simpler BFIAR books), but I wonder how much she'll understand of the discussion topics. I think she'd almost be able to handle the math skills and science concepts, but I don't think she's able at this point to really understand the idea of foreign countries and map skills, which seem to be a huge component of the program. I also know she won't be able to do most of the art components, she's still drawing stick figures. So is it worth buying the FIAR books this year, or should I wait a year or more?

Can I ask where you found it on sale? I've considered buying it, my dd (almost 4) gets very frustrated trying to write, her fine motor skills just aren't there yet. But she's known all her letters/letter sounds for a couple of years, reads some, and WANTS to be better at letter writing. I've already bought the K workbook and manual, but I wonder if that's pushing too fast and whether it's worth getting the PreK manual even though she's already reading.

My DD does simple addition and subtraction up to 20 using manipulatives, and counting on her fingers. We've fiddled around with Miquon, and she can also add with the rods. So she understands the basic idea, but doesn't have anything memorized, and can't do any of the sums without counting (other than the very basic sums up to 4, and adding 1 to any number up to 10.) We're working on counting on, and she's getting reasonably good at it, so once she has that mastered what would your next step in teaching be? Is there any real benefit in memorizing at a young age, or is it just as pointless as counting 1-20 by rote without really understanding what they mean?

Kids learn so much from writing, whether it's by hand or keyboard, not just writing/spelling but also creativity, and a love of books that will serve them a long time. (And by the time they're older, nobody's going to be writing by hand anymore anyway, right? ;) ) I'd let her have at it! And I wouldn't count it as screen time, we limit screen time because the excitement of moving images/games leads to attention span issues. Not so much of an issue when all you're looking at is a blinking cursor. Obviously the writing bug is in her genes... (Although I'm an author, and I'm going to tell my DD horror stories to make sure she ends up doing anything else but writing for a living, haha.)

Animalia is the most gorgeous alphabet book ever! http://www.amazon.com/Animalia-Graeme-Base/dp/0810919397/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1384197927&sr=8-1&keywords=animalia

This was one of my favorites. So important for raising healthy kids: http://www.amazon.com/Last-Child-Woods-Children-Nature-Deficit/dp/156512605X I love this one too...She also has a wonderful blog: http://www.amazon.com/Simplicity-Parenting-Extraordinary-Calmer-Happier/dp/0345507983/ref=pd_cp_b_3