Thank you both. :) I had never seen the language site before, and spent awhile last night clicking all the links and exploring. What a neat program. Thanks for linking it. Thanks again for responding.

Hmmm... perhaps the photos didn't show up for you in the link? There are quite a few photos on the materials post. I didn't post them here, only out of respect for SWB's bandwidth.

Short story: global delay, FTT, OT aged him at life skills of 2 yo (an almost 3 yr delay), , gross motor good, doesn't yet assign meaning to anything written (letters, numbers etc), no pre-reading skills, scribbles (no identifiable pictures), nuero-psych scored him at 30% (on exactly what scale, I'm not sure, but I think she meant his age?). He also has a mild SID, mostly with wet, slimy things on his hands or face, brushing his teeth, no playdoh, pudding, etc. He will be 5, but looks/acts/behaves about 2-3 years. What I've gotten for him is here: http://www.lifewithmy3boybarians.com/2008/03/troubles-prek-learning-tools.html Could moms with experience with global delay, SID, and such things take a look and see if they see any gaps? Anything I'm grossly missing? Not pictured, but also a major part, is the book list from FIAR, Caldecott, all those read alouds that he LOVES and we will be doing daily. Thanks! I feel like I'm starting from scratch and hs'ing for the first time all over again. :) He sure like to keep me on my toes. Thank you.

I love all these ideas! Thank you all so much! I can't picture how to do it with base ten blocks, but I totally get the kitchen and boat analogies. He loves Narnia and Star Wars, so I'm thinking we might form armies or planets, and maybe pull in another love of his - Legos. I also think explaining it as repeat subtraction is brilliant. I never thought of it that way (I am NOT math-minded, naturally, but like I can follow a recipe, I can follow an logarithm). But I can't wait to show him that. Brilliant! Thank you. Lastly, when it's time to finally put pencil to paper - I love the idea of short division. Why don't we all do it that way? After reading that, I know I'll never do long division again. Is there a reason why kids have to write it all out the long way? The answer is the same regardless. Thank you all. I feel... well... a glimmer of hope. Like we can do this and come out still feeling smart and whole. ;)

*waves* Hi Urban Mom! If I could do it all over again (oh wait I DO get to do it all over again!): K read alouds (FIAR, Sonlight, Caldecott list, etc) counting aloud basic letter writing, letter sounds - Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading 1 Singapore PM 1a and 1b more read alouds, lots of couch time start copywork, slowly, working up to entire sentence. finish/continue OPGTR Explode the Code

I'm not sure why this is so woeful. Well, perhaps it's because my bright son is 7.5, and despite the fact I have paced him, he has done: Singapore 1a, 1b, CWP 1, 2a, 2b, IP 2b Horizons Grade 1 book 2, Grade 2 books 1 and 2 several pages of Zaccaro in about 1.5 years. Not to mention dozens of skip counting pages, fill-in-the-blanks 12x12 grids. has his multi and factor facts down cold... I have really tried to slow him down as he has *flown* through all this material. He has reached long division in 3a. About 5 weeks ago he hit a wall. It pulled the rug out from under him. The child who never saw a math problem he couldn't solve was saying things like "This is too hard. I'm not smart" (where do they get stuff like that? it breaks my heart!) I stopped. I spent a month telling him how smart, clever and wonderful he is. Reassuring him that new things can be hard, reviewing factors, playing math games, having fun while cementing math facts. He "rules" at Timez Attack. I'm geared up to try (something) again. What made long division successful in your house? Is 5 weeks a fair break? He will be 8 at the end of May. I will not damage this child's ego, he is a sensitive type A perfectionist. He takes failure very seriously. I don't know whether to proceed or just call it all off until August (The start of 3rd grade). If I don't proceed what do I do with him until then? Thank you for any hand holding you may provide. -Darcy

Hits: *Singapore Math *SOTW 2 (and audio CDs) *ETC *Timez Attack *Chronicles of Narnia (again!) *the FIAR read alouds *actually all our read alouds! *OPGTR Misses: *Anna Comstock's Handbook of Nature - just blech. sucks the life out of nature *Long division - no program, just long division in general. *Letter of the Week - may be my child, not the program. ? *FLL 2 * We miss Barbara Alan Johnson on SOTW audio CDs. Does that count as a miss??? Depends on Who You Ask: *copywork *narration

Yes! Such a delightful childhood memory that my children have enjoyed, too. We love hunting for eggs and the thrill of what's inside - usually coins, jelly beans or chocolate. They also get one basket which usually has a book or two, sidewalk chalk, bubbles, candy, etc. My children look forward to this very much.

Rubber! We chose rubber. It's easy to clean, doesn't nick, spills are no big deal. :) HTH!

I think it's actually a violation of copywrite to list and post all the recommended books from the AG somewhere. I know there must be people who have taken suggestions from v3, as well as other sources, combined them and created their OWN version of materials for v3. I did this for v2, and like you spent countless hours researching books from SL, VP, SOTW2, Roman Catholic History, art history, architecture, etc. If someone has already weeded through all of that for v3, I'd like to see it, too. But the truth is that list will vary depending on your kids ages, interests, reading levels, etc. So we might be stuck doing this all over again. ;)

We will be using this, as recommended by our OT for preschool. I don't know anything about the actual pencil on paper part, but we will be using the wood blocks and the dough letters for both OT and letter practice. :)

While these may not all be the most quality, they have been encouraging here: Early 7 yr old: Nate the Great (series) Dragon Slayer Academy (series - not quality lit, but decent vocab) Hank the Cowdog (there are about 50 of these) Mouse & the Motorcyle, Ralph S. Mouse, etc. Level 4 readers - I choose science and history topics My Father's Dragon (3 books) Later 7 yr old: Hardy Boys (we bought the first boxed set 1-6) Chronicles of Narnia Mr. Popper's Penguins Little House on the Prarie (we will use this along with westward expansion in american history) Charlotte's Web Trumpet of the Swan (beautiful story with a good boy character) I know this is a short list, but it might get you started. I'll be checking this thread for more ideas, too. :)

I like *real* blogs. I appreciate when people talk about life and all its imperfections. I can see right through the 'my life is a bowl of cherries'. I tend to shy away from preachy ones, too - also in all its meanings. I love funny moms. Give me a blogger with a sense of humor and I will show you a dedicated reader. I also tend to read blogs that are about preemies, since I work in NICU Family Support. It is my hobby, so to speak. As for two or three columns - I design blogs, so I am opinionated about this. Having 2 columns is easier on the eyes, but no one likes a long, trailing, mile-long sidebar. In that case, having 3 provides balance. OTOH, empty sidebars are just not aesthetically pleasing. If you don't have enough to fill two sidebars, gracious... just have one. I have two blogs. One has 3 columns (http://3boybarians.blogspot.com/) and one has 2 (http://graphicallydesigning.blogspot.com/). I have found that Bloggers tend to be happier with their blog when they like how it looks. When you take the time to personalize your space, invest your time and effort into your blog, it shows your readers you care about your blog. And when your blog has personality, your readership increases. Not that readership means everything, but it sure can be encouraging. SO the short version: personality, real, funny, # of sidebars is arbitrary.

I've seen both of those, and in case anyone else is looking for such a list... The first link does have good activities, but not listed in order by time period. The second, although not complete, is a good start! It appears be through the Renaissance but doesn't include the most recently published books. Hmmm... see a need, fill a need, maybe?

Google produced nothing, even after many pages back. I know that some of you use the Research Guides and/or the stories to supplement history with some light/fun historical fiction. Can someone guide me to such a list before I reinvent the wheel? Thank you!

I am very eager to be outside. It's hard not to be envious of those of you in warm climates right about now. We have had several inches of snow on the ground since right after Thanksgiving. It's been a snowy, totally white, wet and very, very cold world for 3 months now. I am sooo eager for green! Gosh, even patchy grass sounds nice. Know what my weatherman said this week? -45 degrees outside. That's not a typo. Our actual temperature the day before was -6. With the wild chill it was -45. There was a pet/small child weather advisory. Playing in the snow is only novel for about 2-3 times. We used those up by mid-December. Now we're just dealing with cabin fever and watching the deer play from our big picture window. While I do like many of the CM philosphies, that green hour is something that we haven't seen in months!

We do copywork 3x a week, but mine aren't doing dictation yet. They also aren't doing a formal grammar program... so I suppose we have more eggs in that basket, so to speak. We do ETC daily. My 8 yr old will start Writing Tales 1 and Spelling Wisdom this summer, and hopefully Lively Latin soon thereafter. I want him to finish Explode the Code first. I also have sentences from the Wise Guide (SWR) that I plan to use even though I'm not using the SWR program in its entirety. Once I am doing all that, I can't see that we'll continue to do copywork 3 times a week, but perhaps once a week.

Must be that time of the year, too. I decided not to fight it. We put it away for the rest of February. We'll revisit it in March. While I don't want him to learn he can avoid difficult things, this is the one time where my math confident, math-loving boy was losing self esteem. Where he was once very confident in his understanding he was starting to name-call himself. It was heartbreaking to see. I told him sometimes we all just need a time out to collect ourselves. We've spent the last two weeks playing math games, doing factors, skip counting, kitchen math, yahtzee, monopoly, etc. Lots of life exposure to math, but no paper version of long division. In March, I'm going to get out the RighStart place value cards and start slowly. if it takes us 3 months, so be it. He's 7. I'm not in a hurry. (although if it does take us 3 months, he'll be 8 before we're done!) Oh well I remember being confused about this at first, too. Only I was in 4th grade at my school when we did long division. I wasn't 7. Thank goodness for homeschool.

For the first time in about 8 weeks I finally did something resembling a Weekly Report. :)

I'd like to hear how you've incorporated this into your school day - with or without using the text. Thank you!

I also recommend Living History Farms. Wear your walking shoes. If you're accustomed to Brookfield Zoo, Blank Park will not impress your children. ;) Just speaking from a former Chitown girl and now a transplant to Iowa. Blank Park is cute, but underwhelming in comparison. Science Center downtown is good for the ages you listed. There is unique shopping at Valley Junction, if you're into art, vintage, antique, mom n pop type shops. Jordan Creek Town Center is fine as far as malls go, but if I were coming from near Chicago, it wouldn't be high on my priority list. You'd do better on Mich Ave or Woodfield. Of course, Jordan Creek now has an Apple Store, which is tops in my book. Depending on how early you come in October and the weather, Jester Park at Saylorville Lake has horseback riding, hiking, camping, water sports, buffalo, elk, pelicans, etc. It's a little known treasure worth the drive... about 30-40 min north of DSM. Enjoy your trip!

I use OPGTR as my teach kids to read & to teach basic phonics. But when that's done there seems to be a feeling of "what now?". I think ETC fills in the "what now?" very nicely.

Elizabeth, I'm so happy for you and your family! What great news! Congratulations. Wishing you a happy & healthy pregnancy.

Doesn't sound like it's the program, it sounds like she's not ready for that level of independence yet. From my (very limited) experience, it's personality, personality, personality. My oldest, 8 in May, likes a brief lesson then silence and solitude. He sometimes leaves and comes back and hands it in. In over two years of lessons, I can count on one hand the number of problems he's gotten wrong. I need to add a catagory to CD's labels: Donnie DawdlerNdaydream. :rolleyes: My 6 yo needs constant 'get back on task cues' or he's done. The minute I walk away from the table, be it to refill my coffee or whatever... I can guarantee not a single problem will be done in my absence. Not one. He needs me to say, "Good job, Picasso. Read number 4 to me." "Okay, what does it want you to do?" "Right, difference means subtract." "Keep going." "Nice. Let's look at number 5. Read it aloud." And so on. If I give him 10 minutes to work on something and ignore him, he's sure to make careless mistakes, stop in the middle of the problem and go on to the next, etc. Sometimes I feel like I should record my voice saying "focus" every 1.5 minutes. :o He lacks the maturity and capacity to think too many steps ahead. In his defense, if he were in public school he would be a kinder, because of a late Sept birthday. And he is doing Singapore 1b and Horizons 2 book 1. So despite his dawdling, he does get a fair amount done. But I hold his hand and offer lots of prompts. I don't see how he'll make that huge of a leap in another year (C's age). Whereas if I even say, "How's it going?" to my 8 oldest he glares at me with pleas for silence, or says, "Mom... I'm trying to think." Personality, personality, personalty. ;)

I would agree with Heather's comment. While I would consider my oldest ahead of grade, not necesarily "gifted", I would consider my middle son lumped right in the middle. Do the level 1s, if those go smoothly, do the level 2s. They get progressively harder within each topic. So it's easy to make this resource last over several grade levels. You can keep coming back and doing the higher levels. That said, my 6 yo didn't understand anything beyond level 1, while my 7 yo was able to figure out level 3s, and only a couple of the Einstein levels. This book is good for about 2nd - 4th grades, maybe 5th grade for the higher levels. Then, there is Challenge Math. From my understanding, that book picks uup where PCM leaves off. :) HTH!