Very true! And of course, right after I mention my OC tendencies regarding teaching subjects in a linear fashion: last night I was reading the sample month of A Year of Playing Skillfully, and under an introduction to math it mentioned that preschoolers do not actually learn math in a linear fashion. HA! They wrote that part just for me!

Oh! I just saw that you said to supplement with Wee Folk Art, not use it alone! Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk

I've looked at Wee folk art, but he's too young. He'll be barely 3 at that time. I don't know why, buy I feel like it's so bare. Maybe I'm not looking at the right things? For example, when I look at the harvest time, it mentions a letter of the week, but I can't seem to find that letter in any of the activities? I can't do the simpler one anymore! I'm too in love. I've made some changes to next years plans to allow me room for purchasing the monthly supplies. Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk

Interesting point. I wasn't really looking for all the bases to be covered for every subject as I know my kindergarten curriculums will do that. For example, my math curriculum does cover 0! Hehe But I hear you. It's funny though, because my main problem (and the reason I never bought or carried out preschool with my first DS) is that I NEED curriculum that is systematic and incremental. So when things aren't linear and scaffolded I can't stand it. Which is why I couldn't do FIAR. But now I just want something that is fun to do with my little guy. He doesn't get a lot of mommy time right now. So I've gotten over it knowing that K will be different! Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk

I had planned to use Learn and Grow: Hands-on Lessons for active preschoolers for my soon to be 3 year old. I liked the schedule and how everything was laid out for me. No thinking required. I also liked how the activities and crafts were easily gathered from things in the home, or were relatively inexpensive. These were all activities that I could find easily online/on pinterest. But the time it would take...it just wouldn't get done. I saw someone mention A Year of Playing Skillfully by The Homegrown Preschooler on another post. I looked through the sample It looks amazing. I would love to use this curriculum. I'm just afraid. The supplies listed for the first month alone looks expensive! Has anyone used this curriculum that can attest to the cost of supplies? Was it substantial every month?

http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/index.php?/topic/585312-Konmari-and-so-on-related:How-to-store-books?-Damp-conditions? Is this your thread? Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk

Looking at purchasing Year One for next year. I was hoping to purchase the lapbook kits, but worried the cost of shipping could be crazy (was not able to estimate, button wasn't working). They mentioned that the 11 x 17 cardstock they use may be difficult to find. Can anyone speak to this? Can anyone provide a picture of what I should be looking for? I don't want to bother buying the templates if I can 't find the cardstock I'll need.

Oh, this one looks perfect. Definitely reasonably! Where would one find limestone?

For those of you who use BFSU, did you purchase a rocks and minerals set, and if so, which one did you buy? I am just planning for next year, and saw that I would need some rocks and minerals. What set would I need? I saw one set with 50. Is this over they top? It was definitely over my budget and more than I wanted to spend. Tell me what you used. Thanks in advance!

No Facebook so I'll answer here: As a Canadian I'd probably stick with strictly Canadian content and Canadian made resource. On a side note, I'd wish I would have searched here for advice as I have never even heard of The Story of Canada. I just spent $$ on another curriculum (Donnaward.com, which is great but unneccesary for my ds5. The Story of Canada would have been perfect.) Sigh. Only $20 bucks, so I'll still have to add it to our bookshelf. Wahhh. Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk

Ya, doing the long and short vowel sounds got tricky. We already had some experience with it with one of the leap frog videos with scout (I think it's phonics farm?) They have a great song that explains both sounds. As long as you drill it home constantly that what you are doing now is the SHORT vowel sound, and later say this is the LONG vowel sound. I always get nervous introducing terms to him. Don't want him to get bogged down in the details, but know its helpful. If it were me, I would just do every lesson for fluency AND comprehension. While I agree with LMCme, that comprehension is not terribly important, it is extra practice. I'll always remember the day he read a silly sentence in OPGTR turned to me and said "That's so funny!" Up to that point I hadn't been aware or focused on his level of comprehension, just his fluency in decoding. It was a pleasant surprise! Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk

http://www.amazon.ca/Gravity-Jason-Chin/dp/1596437170 This book was great for my son when he was 3, nearly 4. With the globe, we also talked about why its warmer at the equator, then I lead to why its warmer when the earth tilts. As for why or how the earth tilts, I'm embarrassed to say I don't even know why that happens (yet), but luckily he never asked why. "Me on the map" is a great book, too for explaining geography. Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk

In terms of the pages being cluttered... I felt the same way about OPGTR. I ended up just writing out the days words/sentences until DS was no longer distracted by all the words on the page. It honestly didn't take that long, a few months. Now we just pull out the book and go. I mentioned this to another poster on a different thread, and she said this helped her as well.

Yes, you are probably right. Around here they do full day kindergarten at 4, so the pressure to see improvements is REAL. We are nearly halfway through OPGTR. He is well on his way with reading. I do need to better at incorporating oral narrations and oral composition with our story reading and history lessons. (We are doing TOG Primer). I tried to a couple times, but I think where I went wrong was making it like a PS school journal where he had to draw a picture along with it. My DS has never been one to enjoy drawing or coloring on his own for fun, so this fell apart rather quickly. Instead, I think I will print a few related photos from the internet and let him choose one to cut and paste and have him narrate a sentence from that. ETA: We don't have any requirements around here (Ontario, Canada), for portfolios or yearly assessments. But for penmenship I have started keeping his papers.

Thanks for your input!

Exactly. I find myself reading and re-reading SWB short essay from WWE to remind myself of this point. Thank you!

Hey everyone, hoping you can help. My DS is 5 and we have been doing 'school' since last September (2014). We work penmanship almost everyday. Somewhat recently, he began to get worked up about doing a whole line of letters, and after looking up some previous threads I moved on to having him just do one perfect upper and lower case letter per day. When he got a handle on doing that, I added one CVC word, and recently one sight word. My husband has expressed concern about his writing and his conversations with others (who have teachers in the family), made him wonder if we are doing enough for writing. I've read the WTM and have plans to step up narration with notebook pages when we begin grade 1 work next year, along with WWE and FLL. I agree with SWB with not expecting creative writing (unless they enjoy it and pursue it on their own), but get concerned when I look up what other K5 students do at public school (ie. journal entries and math journals, etc). I have no doubt that my DS is capable of this type of work, but I know it isn't necessary. Sometimes I still feel like what we do isn't enough or he'll end up being behind. I suppose I am also a little confused on the process of how they go from non-writers to writers. This is in both the public school vs. WTM methods. I mean I find it staggering the journal entries I see from 5 YO at public schools! Writing 2-3 sentences on their own by the end of the year. I guess I am just looking for others experience with doing the recommended narrations in the WTM, FLL, and WWE, and how their child's writing developed over the course of the K-3rd grade years. TIA!

My little guy is only 5, but I signed up, too Looking forward to learning how to approach this in the future! Thanks! Sent from my U9200 using Tapatalk

Supercharged science If you sign up for the email you get emails with lots of free videos and experiments, etc.

Jump math might be useful. I think it would be described as scaffolding and it slowly builds numeracy skills before even getting to addition. It has a free teachers manual when you do a free sign up. (jumpmath.org) I'm using jump math 1 and I find the workbooks unnecessary at this point. The neat of the program is in the lessons. It can be VERY remedial (ie, the very first lesson is teaching you that when you count you can only count each object once.) I'm at the end of jump math 1.1 (there is two sections per level) for numeracy and number sense and we are just arriving at addition. They covered a lot of skills before teaching addition. I don't have any experience with other math programs, so I don't know whether that's different than other programs you've tried. Anyways its free, and just thought I'd put it out as an option. Good luck. I hope someone has something helpful for you. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

Here it is!

It may help to have all the LA stuff out, opened up on the correct page, ready to go. Our morning Calendar time consists of multiple sheets and or workbook pages for calendar, weather, handwriting, phonics, etc. I have it all out and opened sometimes stacked on top of each other. Done filling marking off his calendar? He moves it to the done pile, what's next in the 'To Do' pile? A Handwriting page. Once he is finished that, 'Done' pile, move on to the next. This way there is no transition and it goes much faster. :)

Jump math Free teachers guide after you sign up to website. Math books are $11 (2 per year) Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

There are many TOG users who choose to use SOTW as their spine for the reason you mention above. It makes it easier to involve multiple age s in a single reading. No need to switch from TOG completely! :) Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk

What about the Classical Conversations songs for history? I don't have them myself, but heard they are great. Plan to get them in the future. Sent from my Galaxy Nexus using Tapatalk