Yes! My DS said the same after reading Mouse and the Motorcycle series, Stewart Little, Mrs. Frisby, I think there were others too.. I can't recall. But it really made me wonder why mice/rats are the most common character for a certain age range of kid's books.

Okay, I will take your words for it. I just don't get how you can have what is effectively one preA book in three books and be perfectly fine starting at any one point. But fair enough, we will just do it. Thanks. And thanks for the tip on the Economics book. Ayn Randian sounds right up my ally, so I might love it!

It was in one of the math threads this week that made me question the LOF sequence. Is Pre-Algebra in LOF done 1-physics, 2-biology, 3-economics? I know physics was the last book written, but how did they start pre-a without staring at the beginning? I am just questioning this order now as I saw someone state they started Pre-A on biology. Do you need the physics book to go on to biology?

I think MCT (Michael Clay Thompson) would be perfect for you. I hated grammar-- and doing that with my son made me enjoy it as well as him. You just sit back, relax, read a story together and by the end... You get it. No workbook involved. You can do one simple sentence a day ( out of a easy WB but not in the trad WB style) to cement it all. It's fun, simple, engaging and perfect for any kid who hides when you say grammar. Even though they recommend it for 3rd grade up.. If he is reading at the 4th grade level you will be fine.

We just finished listening to it while driving, and though I don't have great listening and driving skills-- my mind wanders a lot-- I didn't hear anything too slanted to the parts I did hear. I meann all history is slanted but this didn't appear to be heavily slanted. But I will have to sit down and readthe book because I'm just can't ever catch the whole thing without listening ten times.

Jousting Armadillios is a easy pre-a program that many use before Aops. Or CWP books from Singapore. Or continue on with LOF pre-a if you have done through decimals. Zaccarro books?

We just finished LOF decimals and for us we are going to go finish all the Singapore CWP then do some Beast Chapters that are extra topics not covered in other curriculums, then hitting Jousting Armadillios before we go on to Aops. That's the plan for us, though I can't speak as to if it will turn out or not or if it's the best way to go:) Good luck!

Take this with a grain of salt as we never considered preschool- ever. But having a social kid, and an only, when we need to feed the social aspect-- we get together with friends to work on play and life skills, and just having fun. Unless you have to do pre-k for personal reasons, why bother? Your kid can learn much better social skills playing with carefully vetted friends. That way you control the influences they get at this young age. So many friends end up having their kids learn biting or hitting, or foul language when they send them to these places. Or behavior just disintegrates. If she doesn't need the academics, and it sounds like there is no way they will be able to even closely meet her needs, then enjoy the time with you and her playing with a couple of best friends-- maybe even kids that are closer to her level. That's just what I'd do.. And what I did... Because there is no way that any preschool is really ready for PG kids, or even would get it. There are so many more ways to find social time than just at a pre-school. My two cents.

Best game ever for us was Timez Attack-- a computer game (free) that had DS solid on facts in less than a month.

I'm looking for a US history, that is similar to SOTW. Maybe someday SWB will write one. But in the meantime can someone direct me to a good book that is similar to SOTW that covers US history in greater detail.

Whoops. Very sorry to suggest the wrong song. Johnathon Coulton has two presidents songs and I assumed the wrong name of the one that is actually good for children to learn. The one my six year old child actually learned the lyrics to is called Washy and Jeffy. My DH listens to JCoulton so I have heard both songs and just got the titles mixed. Yeah, I don't want my six year old singing about Clinton giving an intern a cigar, even if he has no idea what it really means. Sorry about that. But the lyrics to Washy and Jeffy are clean and catchy and have helped me get the names in order.

Thanks for all these great suggestions. I know that I can't tolerate Charolette's Web while driving! We'd both be crying and we'd end up in a crash in all likelyhood:). DS absolutely hated that book as it made him cry (he was enraptured till the end). SWB history of the world? I'm excited to hear that. Would it be good without Jim Weiss reading it? I can't imagine after SOTW! We ended up picking out Wind in the Willows read by Jim Weiss because we knew we could not go wrong with his reading of it. I'm excited to listen! And now I have a list of books to choose from for next month from all your great suggestions. Thanks.

Jonathon Coulton- Washy and Jeffy

Oh and I'm looking for books read for the 6-12 yr old audience. Thanks.

I just got an Audible membership and am looking for good suggestions. What are your favorite books-- selected especially for the reading and performance? I already have a list a mile long of great books I want to read, but I want great listens. Which audiobook versions have that irresistible voice? What other great voices are there out there that are like Jim Weiss?

A piano and lessons Tons of books Audiobooks Legos and building toys-- snap circuits

I don't think anyone mentioned Starfall yet. It was free years ago and DS loved it.

We rotate between Singapore, LOF and Beast Academy. In Singapore I hate switching between three books and the problems in the IP books do not have enough space around them to be able to write in the workbook. In LOF I think the author is terrible at explaining the how and why the math works. I think the teaching is left to the parent. And for a book that depends upon narrative-- I think that is odd. The narrative is all wasted on a mostly irrelevant story. Beast Academy could use a few more easy problems just to get child's confidence up before giving harder problems. But of all three books we use it is the best. We use the other books to get confidence up!

Why just five? Just to consternate us all for the day;) ? Little Britches Phantom Tollbooth Charlotte's Web Caddie Woodland Hobbit

I'll chime in with a--probably not enough. We are three chapters from finishing the Decimals book. I think they are good second exposure books. Fractions worked well for us because DS already had covered most topics. So it was a good review, and a great set of problems-- I really like the almost complete usage of word problems Decimals was a little harder because Percents, ratios, and some other topics were mostly compley new and I think Fred does a really bad job of explaining why and how math works. I find that the stories have very little to do with the subject supposedly being presented, usually. So I wish I'd had finished Singapore before we jumped to LOF Decimals, but we are going back to finish it as soon as we are done. I can't imagine using it as the only program, and I don't like using it first. If one supplements with it, I think it should be used after the topics have already been more conceptually introduced. But, all in all I really like the problem sets and think they are valuable. Not in the sense of being particularly challenging-- but I love how they are a coherent set that shows math being used in real-world situations and the whole set relates to that situation.

Carcasonne and Qwirkle are two favorites at the moment.

I think it is great to just do the audio. There is nothing that says that education only happens while sitting at a desk with a book open. We have done only audio and it has worked great for my DS. For me on the other hand-- I have a really hard time listening while I am driving, my brain gets thinking and talking to itself and distracted by all the other drivers and wanting to curse them out for texting and diving and such. I can listen better on the open road on long trips-- but I just don't do great with auditory learning. I need to read and see it. DS is fine with any mode of learning. So as long as your kids can do auditory--go for it!

Good luck! I hope it goes smoothly for you and that you will get to do things somewhat as you want. After one year, I'm already pessimistic that anything thing I plan will get re-melded into the shape of things as DS wants. So I plan loosely! But I always get excited at the start of the year to see where we will and up, because with kids like this, you never know. And I always jump for joy when I get to buy new books. Happy new year to you!

Thank you both. Okay, I think we will hold off until we have done the khan java. He is working on Scratch right now, but is so excited about making mods. Maybe that will encourage him to do khan academy. Thanks.

There is a book called "Help Your Child with Language Arts" published by DK that is pretty good. I have also learned grammar along with DS as I never had a good grammar class in school. We used MCT Grammar Island which helped me learn along with him and review diagramming sentences.