((Hugs)) Kids are all different. My DD6 has just now started to *click* with reading where it was a very slow go at first. We would review and review and do the little AAR activities... And then... She started to get it, and we had stopped doing the AAR activities and focused on phonics and fluency and are working through the Usborne My Very First Reading set. I gave her a DORA assessment this past weekend and she scored mid to high K on most areas, and will be at 1st grade level once she fixes her issue with vowels (where she looks at the word and guesses instead of paying attention to the vowel). The DORA helped solidify what we specifically need to work on to bring her up where I would like her to be, rather than wasting time on things that don't need the focus during the summer. I recommend it. But I just recommend to keep trying in a gentle way - daily - because they can go from really struggling to really getting it very quickly.

My two cents as a mom who hasn't had to teach cursive yet. My daughter is six and her handwriting is quite nice. I make her work on it. I myself write almost exclusively in cursive. I find it easier on my hands and just feel it is the proper way to write. My husband, who has a lot of influence on how and what we teach the kids considers not teaching children to write cursive an disgrace to written language, which he prizes greatly as a man who spent 10 years in school studying it. I think not teaching because it may not be used very often as adults, is like saying our children shouldn't read Shakespeare. From a practicality standpoint - when I was in college and graduate school; I took notes by hand rather than typing. I did it in cursive because it was neater, easier, and faster than manuscript. I took notes by hand because rather than my laptop (which I often did bring to class), because I feel like when you handwrite, you retain much more than typing. I learned to write cursive in the late 2nd grade and mostly 3rd grade in the mid nineties Florida public school system. So, I don't agree that we necessarily revert back to manuscript if taught a little late.

There are different levels of essential oils - no, you shouldn't drink fragrance grade; for example. I use EOs a lot in my home and for my children. High quality and pure - there Is a website that does third party testing - http://www.learningabouteos.com/index.php/2013/10/13/3rd-party-test-results-for-peppermint-essential-oil/ I don't sell the essential oils and I have a few brands I buy from. I'm not a doctor or specialist in alternative medicines; but my son went from chronic sinus infections and snoring to a very healthy boy who now gets good sleep by diffusing a blend each night. I also have multiple autoimmune diseases and have seen wonders with EOS. I don't sell them, recommend that you are not brand loyal; great oils from different company. I use an ultrasonic diffuser. I don't rub on the soles of feet, but we do put them on booboos and bruises.

There are different levels of essential oils - no, you shouldn't drink fragrance grade; for example. I use EOs a lot in my home and for my children. High quality and pure - there Is a website that does third party testing - http://www.learningabouteos.com/index.php/2013/10/13/3rd-party-test-results-for-peppermint-essential-oil/ I don't sell the essential oils and I have a few brands I buy from. I'm not a doctor or specialist in alternative medicines; but my son went from chronic sinus infections and snoring to a very healthy boy who now gets good sleep by diffusing a blend each night. I also have multiple autoimmune diseases and have seen wonders with EOS. I don't sell them, recommend that you are not brand loyal; great oils from different company. I use an ultrasonic diffuser. I don't rub on the soles of feet, but we do put them on booboos and bruises.

My older two are similar aged. We are doing CLE bible, Spanish, Art, Music, History, and Science together. The younger one will just be doing more coloring pages and activities, and the older will have added copywork, and more challenging additional activities. Math will be RS A for the younger and RS B for the older, much slower pace for the younger. My DD will do reading pathways and younger Phonics Pathways whichever older will help "teach" - we already do some of this now. Grammar and Writing is strictly for the older. So, essentially - I try not to use different curriculums for the different kids, just adjust the levels and amount of work.

We need to have a portfolio on hand in case it is requested as well. For this year, I kept handwriting, review/math assessments, reading list, printouts of online assessment, my lesson plan, some art, and a log of field trips and when we have additional lessons. For this coming year, I will probably keep more than then transfer it to a big binder... And keep a separate "portfolio" at front just in case the state ever wants to see it. I'm also doing something new this coming year. I'm going to start making weekly picture/video recaps. For example, when my daughter gives her book report. We want to share it with family, but also I want to remember what they looked and sounded like. I saw something online where a man recorded his daughter every week from birth to 14 years... It was breathtaking and inspired me. That will be our "visual" of everything we are doing.

Agreed. My mom is a veteran science educator and she highly recommends buying the prepared slides. She mentioned calling local colleges or research facilities if you have any nearby bc sometimes they will give you deal/give you for free.. Or give you a really cool field trip opportunity.

What is Dollar Deals?? ☺ï¸

Since MM is all worksheet intensive, I'd agree w some others to maybe try something online. My DD6 (starting 2nd grade math) loves SplashMath. We also use IXL

As several others have mentioned, RightStart. Go with the 2nd edition. It's an investment; but the manipulatives last through all the levels. I, am also letting my daughter (who is math advanced - starting level B, turned 6 in February), along with SplashMath, and also some worksheets as needed from MM. I actually had recently listed that I have no interest whatsoever in MM, but then I realized the problem set up was a lot like those in SplashMath which my daughter grasps and flies through really well. It wouldn't work as a core curriculum for us, but it works for supplements. Rightstart is a combination of spiral and mastery; leaning more towards spiral. MM is also a combination, but certainly leans far towards mastery. So, MM is a good supplement for RS. RS is very hands on and has a whole book dedicated to math games. It has few worksheets, but they are effective. They also have added more assessments in their 2nd edition, and made the layout easier to follow.

Awesome!!! I'm going to order the big daddy download and use it in conjunction with the previous poster's comment about subject m, then topic. I have some plastic comic book dividers that I could turn horizontal to make place keepers! Yay for organization!

I searched but couldn't find this topic addressed, so if you have a link to where it has been addressed; please, point me in the direction. We have a rapidly expanding home library... Somewhere in the range of 500 or so books, with about 300 being children's or homeschool related. I've logged about 275 of the kids in HSTonline. I currently have things semi organized with books grouped together by topic then have a huge rubber band around them and an index card with a list of titles. It isn't pretty, but it does work for books we will be using within the next few months. However, Id like to move to a system with labels by topic. Kids will know exactly where things go without finding the right stack. I've looked online and only found a couple examples of labels. Anyone else organize this way? How did you make your labels or where did you buy them? What are your categories?

My husband is a big fan of comics (we would probably be in the collector category) our kids are now getting into them. I defered this question to him and he says: "batman: brave and the bold, scribblenauts unmasked, tiny titans and maybe scooby doo team up." :-)

I've been swooning for the timeline. Yippee!!

We just started using splash math and my daughter loves it. Www.splashmath.com We also play a matching game called Monster Math - my kids play that independently together and it has different sets of cards for different skill levels. They have it on amazon. Monopoly Jr is fun. And Last but not Least - Pass the Pigs! I've been playing this game since I was a kid and it is tons of fun, great for mental math and skip counting skills and takes about 10 seconds to set up and put away. We play this game a lot!

I live in Miami and an married to a quad-lingual Spaniard so I have more natural exposure to the language than most. For the kids, we like BJU Spanish (it's DVD plus workbook). For your husband, if he's conversational, he should just work on building his vocabulary. If he doesn't know a native speaker - watching shows in Spanish is the easiest way to do it. Now, for the writing - if he didn't learn writing when he learned Spanish initially - he should get an AP Spanish literature textbook... This will give him what he needs to pass the test. MOST exams in the uS are based on Latin-American Spanish, so just make sure if you but a curriculum you get one for Latin-American Spanish.

We are using RIghtstart A for my Pk5er and Rightstart B for my first grader; we planned on starting in the fall, but my daughter - who loves math and HAtes MUS - saw the books and manipulatives and wanted to start right away. We are diving in and we just started but she is begging to do math. So, I can't give a real review except to say that it at least makes my little peanut.want to do math, instead of dread it.

Pinterest!!!! Blogs with good printables (including lots of freebies): In All YOu Do Confessions of a Homeschooler 1+1+1=1 I can't do the links on my phone, but google will pop them right up for you.

We are moving this summer and I'm hoping to find a church with an active AWANA with children my kids ages. It does always seem to be offered on Wednesday night; many churches have adult bible study then so that's probably why they coordinate the times that way. My kids are generally all asleep before 830.. Maybe start school later on Thursday morning to make up for the later time. I like the idea of another poster that someone gets all the littles ready for bed before they head home. I think the benefits of AWANA will outweigh going to bed a little later than usual.

We are doing SOTW 1 with modified lessons from CHOLL and Sassafras as a spine with my own thing mixed in. We will be doing SOTW 3 days per week and Science 2 days with a longer period on Friday. A lot of the dictation, copywork and narration my daughter does will play double duty for history and literature with our WWE lessons (I'm using the teacher guide; not the workbooks), to keep things integrated and free time for activities. We wil listen to SOTW on audiobook on our way to outside activities, so we can focus on the activities at home and other read Alouds. My husband will be reading the Sassafras assigned reading to the kids 2 nights per week, so that reading time won't eat into the kids science time during the day and give us more time for activities and exploring additional books of interest. We've started implementing these types of scheduling ideas this year and it has been working so I think it will really help keep our school days efficient and fun next year.

I agree with most others.. move on in terms of the "curriculum" part of it, but integrate it to real life. I started to give my DD6 change from my transactions or purse IF she could tell me what each coin was called (nickel, dime, etc) - then, if she could tell me how much each was worth and what they were called (Dime = 10 cents, etc.), and now if she can tell me how much each is worth; we've just started this part now that she has her skip counting down. I found that counting money clicked once she was skip counting without struggle by 2,5,10, and by 25. We also play money related games and they have a grocery set up with a fancy Learning Resources cash register with digital display (its reasonable priced on Amazon). AS for the time, again, the skip counting has made it easier; though this is a much slower go. She can do "o'clock," and then anything at a 5 minute interval; but 2:13 is still not happening. It will though, I'm sure.

I'm a rep for Usborne and you can go to my link in my signature which takes you to an Usborne site where you can buy any of their titles or the titles of their sister company, Kane Miller. You can purchase the World History Encyclopedia, Science Encyclopedia and more. I have both of those as well as well as the Ancient Encyclopedia, to name a few, even though information overlaps between the more specific titles and the consolidated volumes. You can ask me pretty much anything about Usborne encyclopedias. We are obsessed with them. :)

I am using CLE bible 100 series for my rising pk5-er and 1st grader next year. Each "lesson" has a bible story in simple but accurate telling, and then a page next to it with a coloring or simple activity. We will do one lesson a day and I will read my children the corresponding bible passage from my NIV bible during lunch. My husband does short devotionals with the kids 5/7 nights before bed. I think CLE is simple and attractive to kids. It is also very cheap. You can find it on their website in the Bible section. :-)

I prefer the pathway to r&s, BUT my DD loves and has shown great progression with the Usborne reading sets (I have a link in my sig). The very first reading set has 15 books and a parent guide and each book gets more challenging. Also, each book has larger text which is phonics based, and also smaller more challenging text that you can read to them while they read the larger text... Called "dual readers" - eventually they read large and small text individually. Can't recommend enough.

Yay! Thanks!