We're here in the Big Tomato.... samba in sac

I have avoided the issue by buying the same white socks each year. Each kids gets the same socks and since they are all about the same show size. This way they all match. Not exciting...but it works... samba

Daddy-O...not sure why but it stuck and even the older yahoos now call him that.... samba

Greetings, I am new to the forum and WTM website. I did not know what I was doing had a name or a place to share with others...BUT I am soooo happy to have stumbled on to this forum. I just thought I was a wacko mom who was crazed in her idea of supplementing her kids education. I am a work at home mom and have six yahoos (two off the payroll, three at home and one on the way - via adoption) I have 8 year old B/G twins that are in second grade. And two preschoolers olds "virutal twins" that will be starting kindergarten in September. Our daughter was adopted two years ago from China when she was three and we will be picking up this summer our five year old son who is living in China. This is our first year of public school---it has been a tough transistion for MOM --- not so much for my yahoos. I have two second graders that were in private school for K and 1st. It was a one size fits all kind of school and my son is an out of the box kinda boy. We knew a couple months in to first grade at the private school that it was not going to cut the mustard so to speak with our next set of kids and with our older son, We had to pull him before we lost him to the concept of school (he has some visual spacital processing issues that make fine motor skills very hard for him). We had thought about leaving his twin sister at the school but she decided to jump to ps along with him. I hated their private school as I was lead to believe I was paying for a better education than the PS in our hood. Boy was I wrong. That emporer was REALLY NOT wearing any clothes. I learned that the private school was doing the exact same thing as the public school and since my son and the two youngest needed extra services, we made the move. I will confess and say it scared me beyond words. I started doing some research and came across WTM and loved the book and its approach to building a foundation for life long education. I started supplemental learning in september with the kids. I did not know there was a name for it, so that is what I called it. My friends who are mostly in the waldorf camp of learning (which for me is a salad not an education---and I have two waldork teachers in my family) think I am nuts and wacko about exposing my kids to "books and context way over their heads" It is so wonderful to read about other parents who share similar educational goals for their children. I feel a sense of peace in knowing I am not alone. I love to know what others are doing in their afterschooling programs. I am trying to structure things that support the basics of math and reading and feed my sons interest in learning which is more geared towards history and science (which ones does not get in PS at 2nd grade). SOTW is exactly what I was looking for. We started "traveling the world back in time" this past December. The yahoos cannot get enough. They love my nightly readings of history rotating with period story books. I just bought the Sonlight 1/2 core and am hopeful that we can use the program for the next year to two. I have no idea really what I am doing as it is developing each week. For math and reading we are doing Kumon. Our youngest just started and is loving being a big girl with homework. The older two are not thrilled about it, but are seeing the results interms of ease of work at school. So enough rambling...I'm happy to be here and look foward to learning and reading others insight and wisdom. Samba in Sac www.talesfromthebigtomato.blogspot.com