The best advice I've heard for accelerated kids is to keep the amount of time you spend on mama-directed work to the normal amount, even if the content is accelerated. (That's pretty short in 1st grade.) Short lessons so everyone feels successful and "wanting more" at the end! For myself, I also watch the balance between how much what we do is requiring of me versus how much my daughter is putting into it. I'm willing to be the more invested one on core things, but with extras, she should be more invested. With the right materials, even on the core stuff, she's pretty engaged, and I don't feel overwhelmed or like I have to be pushy.

I've done just one month with Arrow. For us, it's more of a monthly plan. Pre week one, reading the first chunk of the book and knowing what literary elements to focus on discussing as we read throughout the month (I jotted them on an index card I used as a bookmark). In subsequent weeks, I started the week with discussing the passage and noticing grammatical elements, making a list of spelling words, doing copywork. (I use k12reader.com for more spelling words if we need them.) We kept studying the spelling words midweek, and also supplemented with Easy Grammar and Handwriting (a week's worth of each every two weeks). All through the week we read ahead for the next week, and I knew where I needed to get to page wise. By Thursday we're were ready for dictation of the passage. Friday is for Freewriting, maybe engaging the literary elements we've been noticing. We capped the month off with watching the movie version of Despereaux, which was really fun. We haven't incorporated Poetry tea times yet... ETA: besides the Arrow guide, I googled lesson plans for the book, and got some other ideas for noticing themes, literary elements, good discussion questions and connections to make. It didn't take long, but helped me feel ready for discussing as we read.

Best sources? When do you play them? How do you help your younger children not to be disruptive? I'm thinking about how to work some more read-aloud time in, but I don't think I personally have more time! I thought maybe over lunch prep and eating, so it's still a shared experience with me and the kids.

Sounds like a great plan! Have fun!

We use CHOW, along with an Usborne world history book for more images. We read 4-5 chapters at the beginning of a month, do narrations for each chapter, along with Usborne browsing, then decide what most interests her from that chunk. We get library resources to dive deeper in those areas for the next few weeks.

I second, third, whatever, a fun routine full of books, art, outside time, activities... Get a list of great books going, and do one a week... Google and you'll find lots of ideas for each one. We dabbled in this very creative, free math program in those early years, when DD seemed ready - all done with stories, manipulatives, songs and whiteboard! 15 minutes a few times a week... http://ceure.buffalostate.edu/~csmp/CSMPProgram/Primary%20Disk/KINDERGARDEN/kStand.pdf With my son I imagine starting to play with Miquon and Education Unboxed games when he seems ready, too. He already likes to build a staircase with c-rods and see the "mouse" climb it and sing the steps' numbers!

When your kid is loving BA 3A and totally gets it... But is young enough to need acute, right, and obtuse angles explained in terms of Goldilocks and "baby bear mouth," "momma bear mouth" and "papa bear mouth"... That, I'm thinking, is asynchronous.

Someone recently suggested that I think of math like I do reading - some should be really challenging (require a lot of involvement with me, like read alouds), some should be moderately challenging but in their zone, and some should be relatively easy and confidence building. That made sense to me, and we do have BA that we do together in one chunk of math (like 20 minutes), Miquon that I get her started with, then let her go (another 20 minutes or so, after she's had a break from math in the day), and an easy, fun practice book she does on her own whenever and lots of math game possibilities, tangible and electronic. She likes all of these things well enough, but I've also pulled back on particular programs at times and shifted to more games, living math books, etc., just to keep interest high. I don't want to wear her out on math...

I can never decide if my DD is extroverted or not. When she's at home too long, she longs for people. When she goes to an all-week, 9-3ish church day camp, she's exhausted and so done with people. So we've hit a balance with activities MWF afternoons (karate, PE, art, once a week church supervised play group) that aren't a huge drain on this introverted mama, and a "relief pitcher" (aka babysitter who's been with us several years) who comes each T/Th afternoon while I work and just has lots of fun, fresh energy to interact, play and do crafty projects. I don't know what's right for your family, but the solution should work for both of you!

ETA: sorry, your boys are older, my replies may be a bit off-topic. I often let DD choose how she expresses her learning after we finish a unit (chunk of history, big read aloud, etc.), and she almost always decides to make her own games. She enjoys the process and inviting people to play them with her! Go Pyramids (Go Fish with Egyptian stuff), Pantheon Memory (matching Gods and Goddeses by Greek and Roman names), The Great Ikkinasti Jungle Ride... She also sometimes chooses to write mini-plays or record little video interviews where she's responding as a particular character... Like Deborah Read, Benjamin Franklin's wife. We've really enjoyed the Magic School Bus science kits. Field trips, obviously. A game jar - she draws a slip to see what game we'll start the day off with, many she loves, a few that aren't quite as much her favorite but I value what they teach :). The element of surprise keeps it fresh!

Lincoln logs! Any kind of free form building sets, from train tracks to plain blocks to bristle blocks to plastic gears... We also got some bigger play dough tools that require cranking and other manipulations for our very handy toddler :). Beading with chunky pieces... A plastic hammer, golf tees, and a big foam block for hammering practice.

She is, Sarah- that's good perspective. Yes, those acute angle mazes right off the bat!!

I like that, that makes sense. So BA is her stretch, Miquon is about on level... I may need to add in more of the math for fun... Or do you think games count for that, things like Add Subract Uno and Battleship? I'm getting better at protecting our game playing time :). Zaccarro kind of spans the 3 levels, too, since it's a range of problems...

Thanks, everyone! That's all really reassuring. I was planning to keep up with Miquon while adding BA in, so I probably will just keep BA to the amount of time I have energy for in a day :). I do give her the large graph paper for her scratch work, an excellent tip I probably picked up from this forum - she still just forgot to line things up in the excitement of the testing!

If there's a thread I missed on basically the same thing, please let me know! DD, almost 7, is just finishing the 4th Miquon book, and we've just started with BA 3A. She's not a math prodigy, but she's mathy :). I started out the year scribing for her, and now more often with Miquon can do every other problem on a page with her, then leave her to complete the rest on her own, with me close by for a little support if needed. I know she gets the concepts, but she'll definitely make sloppy errors, so I'm constantly encouraging her to slow down, read more carefully, etc. Sometimes she has tolerance and patience for challenge, sometimes less... I've thought of this as pretty age appropriate. (Or normal asynchronicity? Not sure how to phrase it.) Two things have me wondering if I'm doing too much for her, if I should slow down to a level she can do more independently. I don't really think so in my gut, but I'd love feedback... First, BA - she's enjoying it, but it's like being back to square one with handholding to get through the practice book because she's just not mature enough to really slow down and think through the problems. When I help her slow down, she enjoys it though. Second, her year end Scantron test with the charter we homeschool through. She tested high back in the fall, the adaptive test remembered that score and started her way high for this spring test. But we haven't covered decimals, she forgot to line up her columns correctly for the large 3 and 4 digit addition problems, yada yada. Basically the same score in spring as 7 months prior. I think it was a combination of the test and her maturity, I know she's made progress and retained a lot... But it was discouraging to see anyway.

A little CSMP, then Miquon (first 4 books) and Zaccaro, just starting to add in a little BA.

It sounds like you need some small wins. What do you already do consistently, even if it's just meal times? Are there a couple key things you could do during, right before or right after those "anchors" in your schedule? Nothing too long, maybe 20 minute chunks. Do that for a few weeks, tweaking as needed to make it work. Then see if you can expand from there, adding a few more chunks a day... I work part time, too. With your schedule, what if you planned for 4 days a week? Some weeks that would fit in M-F, some weeks you'd need to do day #4 on the weekend. Or you could make day 4 stuff they could do more easily with their other caretaker. Or it could be an esp. Fun day, so not a hardship to do on a Saturday...

Though we've had a great Miquon experience feeling free to tweak some, particularly in the early books, I agree that the program really builds on itself. I had to check pages carefully for sneaky, fun challenging problems we wouldn't want to miss! Like woah, they just threw a negative numbers problem in here! I love that stuff where they quickly introduce more advanced topics "early" compared to other programs.

I had a hard time with Miquon at first, until we caught our rhythm. For us that sometimes meant (means!) skipping pages that were too much review, or doing every other problem. It definitely meant working in a couple places in the book at once for interest's sake, like doing one page in the A thread, then something totally non-math, then something in the B or C thread's... I also found looking at some of the videos on Education Unboxed really helped me get the methodology, and offered some more fun game-approaches to bring alongside the workbooks. We sometimes take a break now from the workbook and just play the games until the concept clicks. Or we take a break from that thread for a few weeks... We love Miquon now - love it. I started out scribing for her, and kept number writing practice as part of handwriting. Then I started finding excuses for being busy for a minute and asking her to write a few answers while I did it. Then I started switching to I scribe every other problem, then she comes back to do the second half on her own. It's still a work in progress, but she writes a lot more math now :)

I agree I don't think it's sufficient as a standalone. DD is motivated to practice typing, so she has one day she copies words onto flash cards that we study from, another day that she types words into Spelling City. By the next day when she plays 3-4 games, it's mostly fun review. We just started getting 50-75% of the words for the week from a copy work/dictation passage, so now the day after Spelling City will be dictation.

There's a Spelling City app that has some drag and drop - not sure if some of it has to be typed, though... I think not?

I do overall planning, picking spines, etc., and make course adjustments a few times a year. We've developed an overall monthly rhythm, so I have basic weekly plans in Excel, for weeks 1-4. Like week one is more history heavy, week two heavier on science, etc. We start from spines and expand into interest areas. By week 4, we're wrapping up learning responses/projects and basically closing mini-"units" in lit, history and science. Besides by days, the spreadsheet groups tasks into "With Mom," "On my Own" and "Out and About" categories. I print them off to be check off lists, and then add in by hand whatever specific info is really needed for the week - we're pretty do-the-next-thing. Things that don't get done (rarely too much) roll to the weekend... Because we're part of a charter, I also keep a monthly log of things learned in six broad categories.

We've used Magic School Bus science kits (one a month) plus additional books and videos on the topic (like Let's Read and Find Out Science), and I love it. It's fun, easy on mom, experiential, and still leaves lots of room to explore anything else DD is interested in. When we finish them, I'm going to keep going with the other Young Scientist Club kits - why mess with something that's working?

Much of the content is available on the website and through her Yahoo group. That said, you can get Bravewriter at Homeschool Buyer's Coop for 50% off. I love the philosophy of The Writer's Jungle, and its many tips, description of stages of growth... Having that in the back of my head really helps me be realistic with what I expect from my daughter. But it's more a suggested routine with gentle elements than a "plan," if you're looking for a plan. We're just trying the Arrow for the first time, and I feel like it could be a little more fleshed out to be more complete since it uses great books, some good discussion questions, etc. But what it does - copy work/narration help, literary devices, writing ideas - it does well. I supplement with Google for more discussion ideas, etc :) I do think it's helping us get into a good routine. I'm sure, though, you could DIY with ideas from TWJ.... Hopefully someone with more experience will chime in for you, or perhaps there are other similar threads :)

ETA: Sorry, my file is too big! Not sure how to shrink it... :( My daughter turns 7 in a few months, and I've been amazed by not only how her writing has improved over the last year, but also how willing she is to write spontaneous notes like this now. (She asked her dad for help with some spelling.). She still has reversals, but she notices them herself now. My sense is that she's probably a bit behind compared to girls her age, but I decided a few years ago just to focus on progress, not comparisons with others.