I still don't understand why you'd take the other's different experience/opinion on curriculum so personally. 8FillTheHeart simply stated it didn't help her kids and suggested to "try different approaches." She didn't push for a certain method or call it "a failure over-all."

Whoa. Ellie, not everyone on this forum knows you are a Spalding geek. It could really sound like it's the best one for everyone. FWIW, I have seen you criticizing others who use the "sight word method." And I'm personally more interested in hearing why people did NOT like the curriculums as it often gives me better insight into why I shouldn't waste my money on them. OP, you may want to look into All About Spelling as its multisensory method is known to work well for struggling spellers. If you're worried about the budget, you can use the Teacher's Manual alone and have your student write down on white board or paper like we have done. I've heard many others ditched the tiles, too.

Many students in East and Southeast Asia also struggle with math, especially in upper grades as math is incremental in nature. Their math curriculum itself might be superior to the traditional math texts in the U.S. but, according to my experience, their math instruction in the K-12 classroom is carried out in a very structured and unilateral way. There were over 60 students in my classroom alone when I went to school. (I think it's decreased to 40 per classroom recently since my home country has recorded the lowest birth rate in the world.) A lot of the actual study time was/is invested in practicing math drills and preparing for frequent standardized tests, and there's very little room for creativity or critical thinking on those test sheets. So, the average math standardized test scores of the Asian students might be higher than the ones in other countries, but it's hard to find those at the genius level. The difference is that we were not allow to use a calculator in any K-12 setting, including all school tests and college entrance exams, even for differential and integral calculus, statistics and probability parts of the high school math courses. I used a calculator for the first time when I took multivariable calculus and other engineering classes in my freshman year of college.

No, you're not alone. I have the same urge to read every single book in the recommended lists. (My kids love reading and I'm not forcing them, either.) We've read through the ones listed in Sonlight/Bookshark, B4FIAR, FIAR, BYL, Honey for a Child's Heart, Elemental History, Elemental Science and so on. And we're always looking for more lists, shopping used books online and checking them out from library. ;) ETA: My urge is so but in reality if some of the books on the lists are hard to find, too expensive or not a good fit for us, I just let go of and don't worry about them. So we don't actually read every.single.book. Should've said in a way Hunter did.

While I also agree with many others who said school would benefit your son, I completely agree with what hornblower said above. It is my experience, too. I grew up in East Asia and first came to America at the age of 28. Now I'm 34 and this is my 3rd year in the U.S. so my English is not that good, either. The difference in our situation is that my husband is an American, so we're a dual-language family who mostly speak English at home (because my husband can't speak my native language at all). My son who turns 5 next month came to America at 3 not knowing any English. He was fluent in my native language but had forgotten most of it and picked up English quickly to a fluent level like in 6 months. Attending preschool and watching TV definitely helped his English immensely. I pulled him out of our local private preschool in the mid-year and have been homeschooling him for pre-K only because he was not learning anything new academically in that outrageously expensive school and there's no public pre-K option in this area. There were times when I was seriously considering continuing to homeschool for K and up as well, but we're most likely to send him to a PS K in our next destination this fall, for social time and English immersion. I will afterschool him and have him tested for a GT IEP. My son is fairly advanced academically across the board for his age and we're a military family who move frequently so we do have many reasons to consider homeschooling, but I simply can't create the language rich immersion environment at home by myself that he will need in order to pursue selective higher education and career goals in the States. Using a variety of solid and handholding homeschool materials and participating in local homeschool co-ops and extracurricular activities would not be enough for this. I do have that unnatural feeling of speaking foreign language to my own kids all the time when I speak English to them, but it's even harder for me to speak my native language and keep consistency because my husband would feel left out every time. My son has already resisted to learn my native language saying "Mommy, you're the only person who speaks this language. No one else does. Why don't you just speak English to me like you do to daddy?" *sigh* I still speak it to him now and then, teach him how to read and write in it and read books in that language aloud to him every night. However, I don't think he will ever become "fluent" in it unless we move back to my home country and spend at least a few years there. Raising children to be "true" bilinguals is no simple task, even though both parents are native speakers of the second language. Learning a second language to a fluent level, not just a conversational level, and maintaining both languages academically and socially takes a major investment in time and life-long endeavor. Not many Americans seem to understand this. If you really want to achieve this goal, in your situation (where both parents are non-native English speakers with no experience of attending K-12 schools in the U.S.), I think it'd be a good idea to take an advantage of creating your own "immersion island" at home by speaking your native language exclusively and doing extracurricular activities and supplementary academic works at home while sending him to American public school full-time so that he can have enough exposure and build the strong foundation in English. If he's too "baby-ish" for his grade, there is a redshirt option; if he is advanced in certain subjects, there are gifted education programs. Look into those options in your district. Good luck! :grouphug:

We've been doing Evan-Moor Daily Geography Grade 1 and it's fun, engaging and gentle. We plan to do Beginning Geography (This book is for K to 2nd grade) this summer, and move on to Daily Geography 2nd grade. Check out the sample pages of these books at evan-moor.com. We're also using Elemental History-Adventures in America, and enjoying the State Studies part of this curriculum. The sample pages are at elementalscience.com.

Look into Right Start Math. I regret I didn't. Singapore K level has two versions: Earlybird and Essential. Earlybird is colorful but designed for a classroom setting. Essential is b&w and workbooky. And the book A (for the first semester of K) of both editions is very basic and way too easy for K'ers IMO. We finished A & B in a few months and moved on to Primary Math Grade 1.

We're using both, but for this reason, my DS much prefers Singapore. We're using parts of MM only for review.

My kids loved this Leapfrog Letter Factory Phonics toy based on the same song with Letter Factory DVD. http://amzn.com/B00804BCO6 ETA: There is also an audio CD (http://amzn.com/B003UXDNQ2 ) that has most Leapfrog songs but the letter factory song. Below is the track listings: 1. The Learning Path 2. ABC 3. Days Of The Week 4. Counting To 20! 5. Animal Families 6. The Sorting Game 7. Math Is Everywhere 8. Skip Counting 9. Tell Me The Number 10. The Shark Tooth Song 11. Crab Counting 12. Let's Rhyme! 13. Big And Little Letters

I've been using Singapore Common Core edition (1A WB, 1B WB and 2A TB + WB) and haven't had any issue so far. I did buy 1A and 1B textbooks in Standards edition based on recommendations but regretted it because the Standards textbooks matched well with the CC workbooks (which means the Standards textbooks have the same contents with the CC textbooks) but the Standards' price was higher. I have a background in engineering so didn't need/use HIG anyway.

Welcome! You've got great advice above. My DS will be in K this fall, too, so I'm still trying to figure things out for us but just wanted to recommend a few references that were very helpful for me to sort things out when I first came here with no knowledge of homeschooling whatsoever. The Well-Train Mind, of course. Cathy Duffy's 101 Top Picks SecularHomeschool.com - if you're looking for secular curricula Rebecca Rupp's Homeschool Year by Year What Your Kindergartener Needs to Know Sonlight catalog, Five In A Row website, Honey For Child's Heart - for book lists Pre-K/K Board on this forum BTW, you really came to the right place for your journey. When you have a rough idea on what you want to do for the first year and more specific questions, the Hive will help you tons. Enjoy and good luck! :)

It may be a dumb question, but what happens to all the data when you unsubscribe to Homeschool Planet? Can you still keep them?

I agree with this. We are currently on 2A, and haven't skipped any problems in TB, WB, IP and CWP so far. We do TB and WB first (which usually takes about four months for the grade) and devote the rest of the time to IP and CWP along with fact drills. We school year round and use the Common Core edition. ETA: But not everyone works at the same pace, nor do we all need the most challenging curriculum. If my kids were struggling and I were running out of time, I'd drop CWP (and even IP) or look into other less challenging but solid math curriculum options.

Agree with what RKWAcademy said. I'm currently using it with my almost 5 yo who reads and writes well for his age, and we both love it. The activities including coloring pages and copywork are targeted at K to 2nd grade. The Complete Book of United States History might be a better fit for older kids.

Another vote for EH Adventures in America! We LOVE this curriculum.

Start with just workbooks and see how it goes. HWOT workbooks are pretty gentle and you can find them at rainbowresource.com.

1. We have a soon-to-be 5yo early reader, too. He did all HOP and a bit of OPGTR but we quickly dropped the latter because he found it too dry and didn't really need more phonics lessons at that point. Instead, he read aloud 2~3 easy readers a day and ended up reading the whole section of leveled readers in the branch of our city library. He's now readying early chapter books and easy nonfiction books on his own. 2. If he has a good phonics base, I think All About Spelling 1 is gentle and good for that age. 3. My son liked handwriting lessons most and has a pretty good penmanship for his age. We started with Kumon books (tracing, mazes, letters, numbers...) and did Handwriting Without Tears from pre-K to 2nd grade workbooks. He needed more challenge and liked the copywork in Evan-Moor Daily Handwriting Practice.

DS will turn 5 in May and try the local public kindergarten for social time. Below is our afterschooling plan for 2015-2016. Reading: Reading has been the core of our home education and DS has read extensively through the local branch of our city library. He mostly reads on his own. - This year we've read lots of picture books, all FIAR and Sonlight 4/5 & Core A read-alouds, most easy nonfiction books and some early chapter books available in the library. - Next year we'll continue to read from Core B & C and other suggested reading lists, explore higher level nonfiction books and more early chapter book series. Writing: WWE 2 Spelling: Finish AAS 2 by May and might switch to Spelling Power for next year Grammar: FLL 2 Math: Singapore 2B, 3A and 3B (with IP and CWP) as spine, MM and drills for independent review, LoF E and up, and Mathstart level 3 for fun reading History: Doing and loving ES Adventures in America and listening to SOTW 1 audio CDs this year. Will move on to History Odyssey Ancients 1 next year. Science: We've enjoyed doing simple and easy experiments in ES Intro to Science and other resources. Will do mix and match from RSO Life, ES Biology, Mr. Q Life Science and BFSU along with library books and documentaries. Also, Sassafras series for fun reading. Korean: I read aloud the story books in Korean to DS at bed time. He's reading through leveled readers, practicing handwriting in Hangul and watching kids shows in Korean. Workbooks: We've made a good use out of my Evan-Moor Teacher File Box membership this year since my DS likes to work on them independently while I'm busy with his younger sister or house chores. He has been doing Daily Reading Comprehension, Daily Handwriting Practice, Daily 6-Trait Writing, Language Fundamentals, A Word a Day, Daily Geography, Beginning Geography and Daily Science so far. We'll continue to do 2nd grade books next year. Art: This is a weak point for both of us. DS has enjoyed doing Kumon Cutting, Pasting and Easy Crafts books. Still researching but Home Art Studio looks good for next year. P.E.: Swimming, Baseball, Soccer and Golf Music: Need to find a good piano teacher in our new area after we move from East Coast to Midwest this summer.

I don't think science experiments are a must for every student, but I do believe the experiments and hands-on activities definitely enrich science learning and are as important as, or more so than, the field trips to science museum, zoo or aquarium at young ages. I still vividly and pleasantly remember some of the projects we did in the science class at elementary & middle school in my home country, such as making a sun clock, dissecting a frog and building electric circuits. We also did a lot of reading and writing reports on science topics, watched documentaries, visited science institutes and attended science fairs regularly. Although we did more reading and test prep with few experiments in high school, I believe those early laboratory experiences are what fostered a love of science for me and motivated me to major in electric & electronic engineering at college and become an engineer. But I don't know yet how difficult it is to carry it out and make it happen at home as my kids are still little.

I love, love, love the public library in the U.S. Almost feel guilty when I don't use it. I visit the branch of our city library that is located a few blocks away from home a few times a month and make sure we always have about 40 library books (the limit per account) at home. It took some effort to bring, return and renew the books on time, but I've saved a fortune this way and my kids, 4 and 3, both love reading. We're moving from East Coast to Midwest soon, and I'm very excited that the check-out limit is 200 items per account at a newly built large library in our new town! We plan to live next door to this one. :)

Thank you for answering my question in detail, Keri! The way you did AAS sounds very interesting and I admire your effort into making it fun for your DD! I guess my son's learning style is different; he quickly loses his focus with all the extra stuff like tiles and cards and can't care less about the "cute" parts, lol. Think AAS may not be a good fit for us and I'll give it a try to other rule-based spelling problems based on a simple dictation method. Anyway, it's good to hear what an amazing job you and Alex have been doing together! :)

Thank you for your suggestion, Suzan! SWR sounds like what we're looking for and I'll look into it. :)

I have a question for you. I assume you didn't use the tiles and cards much? We took a few months of break and my DS is still doing AAS 2 but he also rarely makes mistakes. We just use the Teacher's Manual only with no tiles or cards because he likes writing. I dictate and DS writes down the words and phrases on his notebook. I was actually thinking of switching to Spelling Power because I thought AAS was pricey just as a word list if you end up buying all seven books. Do you think AAS was worth the purchase even though you didn't use it as it was intended to be?

We just finished Evan-Moor Daily Handwriting Practice and loved it. HWOT was way too gentle for my DS who has pretty good stamina for writing.

This thread is very encouraging! It's long and varied but I like all your responses. I haven't homeschooled officially yet. I've been sending my 4yo DS to a supposedly prestigious private school in a major city on East Coast, paying over $1K/month for just 4 mornings per week, and afterschooling him. He has not simply learned anything academically at all there. Their activities were mediocre and pretending. It was obvious that the school is run as a business for wealthy and busy parents. I was soon extremely disappointed with the quality of private education but continued to send him there anyway for a few hours of his social time and my alone time with younger DD on the autism spectrum disorder. But I've realized I've paid too much for too little and finally pulled him out of school this month. I've lost tuition for two months even with a two-month notice of withdrawal. Ridiculous, I know. I'll keep both kids at home until we move to Midwest this summer--we're a military family. Still, I can't stop thinking of sending my gifted DS to a full time public K in Missouri this fall for social aspects as I'm too scared to homeschool in many ways. Although I've taught him to read fluently at 3 and his reading, writing and math are currently a few years above his grade level, I have zero experience with K-12 schools in the U.S.--I first came to America at 28.-- and I'm not a native English speaker. And my DS is an extrovert and social butterfly. Teaching him only takes about 30 mins to an hour a day, and for the rest of day he has spent more time on iPad and TV than I liked him to while I was busy dealing with my demanding younger DD with ASD. So, I guess I will try afterschooling him for K and reassess our situation later. But I envy you all who could make homeschooling the best choice for your family!