bumping up...anyone who can help? : )

Ok so with the recent wonderful conversations on Phonics, I have become quite interested in making certain dd gets a good start with this. I was considering using either McRuffy or WinterPromise LA for K next year, and wondering if anyone has any input on these programs and if they teach actual phonics and spelling, as far as decoding and encoding? Do they rely heavily on sight words or word families? THanks!

uh oh....on bedrest for pre-term labor here and having contractions today...hmmm I remember hearing something about full moon and women going into labor. Not good!

Well prior to today my biggest dilemna was which Math to choose... now I am overwhelmed by the idea of teaching phonics. I agree that any program used consistently can teach a child to read...but I am concerned about that spilling over to spelling, as well as impacting her enjoyment of reading down the road in her life. I am married to a man, who while highly intelligent in other areas is a horrible speller and reader, and it makes me wonder...how do I make sure my dd doesn't turn out that way? My dh HATES to read...

Hi, I am wondering if someone can tell me if manipulatives are necessary for the Earlybird math, and if so, what exactly? If needed, I'd love direction to somewhere I can buy a "package" that includes everything rather than piecing stuff together. THanks!

I'm curious as well. I have looked at this program a lot, and can't figure out what we will do for next years LA! Wondering if the phonics/reading portion of this program uses sight words at all?

I actually found a bunch of books on Amazon titles "If you..." and they have different AMerican History topics, like "If you Live in Colonial Times", "If you Were There When They Signed The Constitution". They look very age appropriate for her age, and seem to give enough info without it being too detailed or overwhelming. I may go the route of using these along with a couple of Usbourne history titles...

I'm unable to find any samples of this online...if anyone can help with that, I would love it! But I am wondering if this text would be ok as a "spine" for a year-long over view of history for my 6 year old? I want something that will help her to learn that there IS history and what history means...and something I can use along with other resources/read-alouds...is this a good pick for that age?

The way I learned it would be: Suddenly, a storm struck, causing the prince to fall overboard. But I couldn't tell you why!!!

So are the changes in regard to just the Science program?

McRuffy Phonics looks very good, and the teacher manual seems very thorough from what I have seen.

Well, I am new here (after lurking for the last month!!!) and I am currently doing MFW K with my dd who turned 5 in November. SHe also currently goes to Pre-K 2 days a week, but will be home for Kindergarten next year. I guess I consider the MFW K to be not an official K for us.... So, I started my research a couple of years ago into homeschooling...I initially thought we would definately go with Sonlight....then recently, I felt WinterPRomise would be superior for us...now after lurking here for awhile, I am starting to see that I can put together a program myself. I guess I am feeling like while an all-in-one program may make it easier in some aspects, I feel like it would somewhat limit as well. I feel like perhaps these programs do it well as a whole, but nothing in excellence? I guess I have also gotten away from feeling that Literature has to line up with the history, etc.... Any thoughts on this?

Oh, I was wondering too if anyone was familiar with the History For Little Pilgrims teacher manual.....does it add much to the program?

Hi, I am looking for a history curriculum to do for my dd's Kindergarten year. I plan to either use SOTW or WP after next year, but would like to find an American History curriculum that will kind of help her understand "What IS history?" for next year.... I was looking at "History for Little Pilgrims" but understand it can be gone through kind of quickly... would it suffice if you added a lot of read-alouds to it? Any other suggestions for what might meet our needs? THanks!!!