Well, I agree with others that there's no need to be concerned, but I also think you can "introduce" early mathematical concepts to your DD in many different fun and relaxed ways without pushing her. Both of my DC quickly learned the numbers in English through watching Leapfrog DVDs (Number Ahoy, Math to the Moon, Math Circus, etc.) and playing with flash cards (0-25, 0-100), magnet pieces and iPad apps like Starfall Numbers and MonkeyMath. My DS loved the Kumon workbooks and learned how to count and write numbers up to 120 with those. Various colorful and cheap preschool workbooks we found at B&N were helpful, too. If you want a curriculum, you might want to take a look at Singapore Essential (or Early Bird) Kindergarten A since it is really the preschool level book. Regarding preschool, I'm currently sending my DS to a nearby pre-K class two mornings per week, but he has not learned anything academically there. Whatever he knows now, I've taught them all. This is the highly selective preschool I am talking about, which charges over $2,000 a month for full time enrollment. He is an extrovert who needs play time with friends and seems to have fun there so that's fine with me. So, if it is for academic reasons, your DD might be better off staying at home with you. I believe parents are the best teacher for their children. If you think she needs social time at school while you focus on taking care of the baby, that's totally up to you.

I've been having a great success for DS with Hooked on Phonics but since HOP does not teach the phonics "rules" (It's basically daily sounding-out-words and reading-a-short-story practices.) I don't know if it will be enough for reading after completing the 2nd grade set or bring a same success for my DD later. If I started all over, I would've given a serious consideration on using Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading since I heard it's very through and goes much deeper in phonics. Oh, I bought 100EZ before HOP but dropped it immediately. Hated the weird fonts and it was not a good fit for us at all.

Thank you for explaining me the difference between Foundations and Challenge programs in detail. Now I have a better and clearer understanding of how CC works. I think the classical model they follow and the opportunities the kids have to explore various fields of interest together are wonderful and that's why I've been interested in learning more about CC. Oh, I definitely believe parents (regardless of their education) are the best teacher for their children since they know their kids better than anybody else does and, with so many resources available nowadays, I see in this forum a number of homeschooling parents are doing such a great job. Having kids around 24/7 is NOT easy and I have a great respect for every homeschooling parent. I was just a bit afraid of the idea of letting someone else I don't know well teach my kids, but I guess I had some misunderstanding on how CC works.

I'm a newbie who hasn't started homeschooling officially yet, so my question is based on what I've read here. Please enlighten me if I'm wrong. I understand there are many different motives of homeschooling as you listed, but I still do not understand how relying on CC tutors with or without basic qualification could contribute to one's home education. Honestly, it sounds like taking a bigger risk than PS and it is not even free.

I don't mean to be rude or offend anybody here, but I can't help wondering this after reading this thread; many of you chose to homeschool your children because you do not trust public school teachers who have higher degrees, years of training and licence to teach in the subject area, but you pay those inexperienced, untrained CC tutors without any sort of degree to teach your kids? This doesn't make sense to me.

If you liked the HOP K format, I'd stick to it. I've used K and 1st Grade sets for my DS and been very satisfied with this program. There are 4 sets you can purchase on Amazon or Rainbow Resource Center: Pre-K, K, 1st Grade and 2nd Grade. Each set costs around $45-$55. You can also buy the second half of the K set (Level 2) on mardel.com. I don't know about the old version.

You're absolutely right. In a recent survey below, Korean students were voted as having the best test scores but being the most unhappy students in the world, LOL. http://www.buzzfeed.com/jakel11/where-in-the-world-you-can-find-the-best-schools-and-the-hap Yes, I wish I had more options during my high school instead of enduring the pressure to do well in every 12+ subject all my 50+ classmates and I had to take during each semester of high school.

I do not understand what kind of harm you are talking about that is caused by other countries expecting their students to reach a higher level of understanding in math and science than the U.S. does since IMO most average 17-18yo are totally capable of mastering the single variable calculus if they have diligently worked on math since elementary school and are willing to put effort and time into learning it. You'll be surprised if you see how much time and effort Korean students in general put into learning English and other subjects as well. But like I said earlier, I do agree with you that not everyone needs this much push for academics or does well in every subject. To clarify, calculus is mandatory for all high school students in Korea but the ones who choose the Science Track (not the Literary Track) in order to apply for STEM or medical majors are required to study math even deeper in calculus and discrete math during high school so that they can start from multi-variable calculus in the first semester of college. If I must guess the harm it does... well, many students in Korea who have not diligently worked on math from elementary school fall behind, do not perform well on monthly national standardized tests and, in worse cases, give up on math in high school. For my entire life, I have not met any single parent who does homeschooling in Korea because the school doesn't provide enough challenge; in most cases, it's the other way around that many parents seek private tutors or afterschool classes to help their children catch up with the academic requirements of the school.

creekland, like I said, the different academic expectations and standards. Math was not the only subject I was required to go deep in high school. I do not think every high school student should master caculus, either. But if you wonder why Asian students do better in STEM, the answer is the hard work. It's much more difficult to overcome the language barrier in other major fields.

I haven't read other replies but watched the whole video. I do not agree with him. I have an EE degree from the top university in South Korea. Yes, I went through a painful transition from being a big fish to a small fish, but the academically rigorous and competitive atmosphere at my univ also motivated me to push myself beyond the level I though I could do. I only managed to survive there with an average GPA but the STEM degree from the top school have brought me tremendous benefits including my early employment into Samsung Electronics (one year before my graduation) and acceptance into the top engineering grad school in the U.S., not to mention the network I've built and the opportunities I got to see the world. I ended up giving up my career due to my personal situation (DH's military job) but I greatly value all experiences I had in those "Big Ponds." I do not think I could have enjoyed those same benefits and opportunities if I chose to be a big fish in a local "no-name" univ. To me, the atmosphere and peer pressure are a motivation factor so there's even no guarantee that I could have graduated with a perfect GPA from this local univ and gotten a job at Samsung or accepted into the top Ph.D program. There are too many variables and the same kind of Gladwell's assertion can be made about any other majors. So, I do not regret a bit about my college decision. From a foreigner's perspective, I think the reason why the STEM is failing in the U.S. is, not because the students choose the top Ivies, but because the overall academic expectations and standards are simply much lower than the ones in other better-performing countries. For example, in Korea all high school students are expected to master the differential and integral calculus by 11th grade. No exceptions. (The school curriculum is nationally standardized and homeschooling is very rare.) We also learn statistics and probability theory in math and other science subjects in depth in high school and they all appear in the Korean version of SAT. To me, a higher rate of dropout in 2nd yr of STEM in the U.S. just means that a more number of students here are less prepared and trained to tackle the college level of STEM materials, which leads to tendency of switching to other easier majors. I'm currently teaching Singapore Primary 1A to my DS and he is breezing through it, but even with IP and CWP, while it is a good way to teach the concepts, I do not think this curriculum alone offers enough practice for arithmetic mastery, so I'm going to add the Korean-style daily math drills to it like every Korean student does, which is similar to the Kumon's repetitive method. I think the different expectation on workload is what resulted in the different overall status of STEM education between the U.S. and other countries.

Great! That gives us a plenty of time to try and read aloud Mr.Q Life Science until the rest goes on sale. :D Did you print it out or use it as an e-book?

My DS finished HWOT K workbook and is taking a break before starting HWOT 1G (My Printing Book). We are not a fan of this curriculum but will finish it anyway. Kumon "My Book of ~" series is what really helped him develop good fine motor skills in a fun way. Handwriting is his favorite subject now. :) After HWOT 1G, we'll start WWE1 and continue copywork.

Thanks for sharing your review! That's how I want to do science with my dc, mainly reading and discussing. Mr. Q looked interesting but its high price and pdf format turned me away. I wasn't even sure about its rigorousness as curriculum. I'd like to have my dc well-prepared for standardized tests but have been lost with science, so it's good to hear a success story like this.

It looks really good to me, too, much more appealing than Sonlight, MBP, MP or any other boxed curriculums. If I didnt already own many of the pieces (HWOT, literature, references, etc.) and set/accelerated on Singapore Math, I'd have probably given a serious consideration on this one.

I looked at MP website and the samples, and here is why I don't use it: 1. Too expensive 2. Too religious for a secular family 3. Too many pieces either I find too boring or don't need at all Last year I bought BFIAR and Sonlight 3/4 but didn't get the full use out of them for the same reasons. So I decided to go with separate programs for each subject that work better for us, allow us to go at our own pace in depth and are yet more cost-effective.

I agree it doesn't have to be Kumon. My DS also liked other random colorful pre-K workbooks from SchoolZone, FlashKids, etc. You can easily check these books out at Target or Barnes&Noble. Kumon is pricey IMO, but we chose it because of its more challenging mazes and handwriting practice.

How did I miss this comment? :hurray: Yes, this is why me and my American DH can watch Korean Drama around our little DC. And there're no guns, no drugs and nothing more than a few light kisses. Think we watch more Korean shows than American ones even after we moved back to the U.S. maybe because now we have kids. DH is a huge fan (not so much of romantic comedies :( but of action and historical dramas)! Some Korean Movies do involve more violence and sex but they are all R rated. Well, Closeacademy kindly listed only good things about Korean Dramas, but as a Korean who grew up watching them, I honestly think many of them have the same old love triangles, birth secrets, rich (chaebol) "flower boys," extreme good/evil characters, overacting and the same few background songs often played throughout a series. And those commercials on Hulu+ drive me batty... :cursing: So I can see they are not for everybody. But I'm glad to see a growing number of people around the world enjoy them. :) NOTE: I think there are so many great American shows, too. The Big Bang Theory, Modern Family and Parenthood are my favorites and I have greatly enjoyed other countless dramas & movies. I love to watch the documentaries and news on streaming, too. My dilemma is, too much to watch in too little time, rather than cutting TV out.

I'm currently using a picture dictionary to build vocabulary for my DS4. English is his second language, so he needs to study vocab separately. When he gets older, I'm going to teach him how to look up new words in a dictionary as he comes across them in reading, and have him write them down in a notebook. Speaking from my experience in learning English as a second language, vocabulary is best learned in context, so we won't use any vocab workbook.

My family loves to watch shows on Netflix, Hulu+ and Amazon Prime. We have an Apple TV, Fire TV and 2 iPads that are well used. We also have a cable+HBO but rarely turn it on except for PBS channel. I notice that sex & violence do appear more frequently and specifically in American TV than in my home country but on streaming I can go straight to the shows I want and simply ignore the rest. This is so much more convenient and also easier to avoid annoying ads and graphical scenes than flipping through channels. We're never going back to the old way! My little DC mostly watch educational programs such as leapfrog and PBS kids shows but I sometimes let them watch Disney, Dora & Diego, Umizumi and movies like Frozen. Just trying to avoid Sponge Bob or others that I think are "not appropriate" for kids under 5. My DC both learned all alphabets, letter sounds and numbers quickly through watching TV so I have no complaint. ;) And, for me to do cooking and other house chores, TV is the only thing that can calm 4yo and 2yo down. But we don't have time to abuse it with daily field trips and schoolwork. FWIW, I grew up watching TV everyday and turned out just fine. Think moderation is key in everything.

Wow, your ds got accepted into the Air Force HPSP? Congrats!! I don't know anything about the ceremony but I know the benefits of HPSP are HUGE. You must be really proud!

I third the Kumon "My Book of ~" series. My DS4 started with the first Tracing book when he was 3.5 yo and have gone through many books in this series (all tracing, all mazes and all writing practice books of letters, numbers and rhyming words). DS found them fun like a game and begged to do school with me everyday. It only took 10-20 mins a day. This series greatly helped his fine motor skills out and now his handwriting looks better than my DH's. ;)

Well, that's exactly what I'm trying to do with my dc - talking to them in my native language as much as possible and taking them to various group activities, classes and field trips. But yes, my non-native fluency in English is a valid concern for us to decide on homeschooling. I can't strictly stick to OPOL all the time because my dh does not speak/understand my native language and I teach my ds math and other subjects in English to avoid confusion. We actually have not ruled out the option of b&m schools yet, taking this pre-K year as a hs trial period. If we were not a military family who move from state to state every year and my ds were not advanced in academics, I definitely wouldn't even have considered homeschooling in the first place.

Thanks for the info! I'll look into those classes.

Thanks for sharing your experience! I like the idea of memorizing poems for family members. 4-H does look like a great program when my dc are teens.

That is exactly my thought and what I'd like to do for my dc. What you have done with finding your DD's interest and starting a local friends group to present about it sounds like a great idea! Thanks, dmmetler. :)