We're currently doing AAS3, at a pace of one lesson per day, five days a week. Neither DS nor myself have found it any more complicated than the previous two levels.

The summary given in the book is only five sentences long. No dialogue, no descriptors. We started out one sentence at a time - I would read just one sentence from the summary given, and DS would embellish it and type it out. It was a bit stilted at first, but then he got on a roll with the dialogue and there was no stopping him! He wanted the doves to exhaust their options before finally arriving at a solution. It doesn't really amplify the moral of the story, but I think he was trying to build tension? He had fun picking dialogue tags. Aside from the one sentence at a time thing, another support I provided was to ask, "How are the doves feeling now? How can you show that in their actions or their words?" And then when it was time to show how the hunter was feeling, he didn't need the same prompt.

I've gone ahead and purchased these. Bonus that I saved money by using iTunes cards which were gifted to DS by relatives who do not approve of our weirdo homeschooling ways. Muahaha. Anyway. The books look good. We got Grammar Town, Paragraph Town, and Practice Town. Skipping Caesar's English because we already have a couple of Latin programs on the go, and giving the poetry book a miss because we read a lot of poetry anyway and I'm trying to save money for other curricula!

Her Starry Night string piece makes me wonder whether she'd like to embroider great works of art. I bet the people of Etsy would *love* that. I know I would.

Amplification: Once there was a flock of doves who flew over a hot windy desert and saw some seeds on the ground. They went to eat the seeds but a hunter in a bush threw a net over them and they got caught. The doves were tense and nervous. "Aaargh! We're caught!" wailed a dove. "You're right! We're caught!" exclaimed another dove. "Even though we're caught, we should think of something to do," the King Dove sang out. "Like what?" demanded another dove. "Well. We could try biting through the net," replied the King Dove. "That would never work! The ropes are too tough, and our beaks are too thin," snorted one of the doves. "Then what if we try digging?" suggested the King Dove. "Okay, let's try that. It may not work, since we're not meant for digging. But we'll give it a go," the doves agreed. They tried digging, but it did not work, no matter how hard they dug. The King Dove said, "Well that did not work, but maybe we can try squawking as loud as we can to annoy whoever threw this net on us." A different dove said, "How would that work?" The King Dove sat and thought. Then he paced up and down. Finally he said, "That wouldn't work, you're right. But what if we try lifting the net?" "Yes! Yes!" shouted all of the doves. They tried lifting the net, all together, and it worked! They flew away into the distance, while the hunter cursed. He felt rather annoyed and muttered, "Curse those little feathery creatures. Now I can't sell their lovely feathers!"

I have a double bed because I share a bedroom with DS, so we don't have room for anything larger. He starts out the night in his loft bed then usually joins me for snuggles some time in the night.

Summary: Three Young Bulls and a Lion A lion tried several times to attack three young bulls, but they stayed together and drove him back. One day the bulls quarrelled about who should eat a sweet patch of clover. The hungry lion saw them standing far apart from each other. That made it easy for him to eat them one by one.

That's great! Enjoy your morning time and your new office. :)

I studied using alcumus and then started a math degree without having completed high school. I think it prepared me very well. I still play on my breaks. :)

My DS has midline jumps (saccadic intrusions?) which affect his tracking. Both the vision therapist and the chiropractor have told me it's related to retained primitive reflexes. It's improved a lot with vision therapy, and his stamina for reading has improved phenomenally.

I couldn't finish reading that.

Sure! I'll give it a go. It's been a very gradual process, and I'm a little fuzzy on some details (I'm not great at recalling timelines), but I'll try to outline it for you. Early 2016: DS was at the beginning of first grade. Most of our schoolwork was made up of "stories and games time," with a little copywork thrown in. We occasionally did a little written math work as well, so that DS could see his own reasoning in symbolic form. We added Khan Academy at some point to see questions presented in different ways. Apart from his copywork (one sentence at a time), I scribed everything else. We read a lot, went on nature walks, and watched videos together, and I wrote down his narrations. Later in 2016: Still in first grade, now doing copywork daily, seated at his desk. DS also finished Khan Academy's "early math mission" (K-2) and started Beast Academy 3A. Sometimes he'd write his own answers and sometimes I'd scribe for him. We started MCT's Island level and did it mostly orally, snuggled up on the couch. We continued learning through games and stories. Early 2017: Beginning of second grade. DS spent a few hours with a paid carer a couple of days a week while I was studying. I made SOTW open and go for them and they did this together, as well as playing some Prodigy game. On the days when he was with me, we'd do four subjects together. I'd pick two, and DS would pick two. I'd almost always pick copywork and reading, and he'd almost always pick science and grammar. I had to get a bit creative about fitting maths in. Sometimes I'd veto science if we'd already done it a few days in a row. We did most of Beast Academy 3B, but he lost enthusiasm for it, so we returned to just playing lots of games together and he played Prodigy at home sometimes too. Later in 2017: I laid claim to the pick of the four daily subjects, as I was sick of negotiating over them. I did some planning/scheduling on my own to make sure we were hitting particular subjects sufficiently each week, and just wrote up our four subjects in list form on the whiteboard every day. We'd tick them off as we completed them. We started AAS and dropped daily copywork. DS spent time with his paid carer just one day a week, and they continued to do history and maths together. I also added morning time - a picture (draw or observe), a poem (read or recite), a story (readaloud), a song (we'd sing together while I played guitar). Because I packaged it as one event - "morning time" - DS didn't notice that I'd effectively added four additional tasks to his school day. Win. Our time was structured thus: morning time, break, subjects 1 and 2, break, subjects 3 and 4. Early 2018 (now!): We'd been doing morning time plus four subjects each day for some time, so I started slotting additional tasks into the existing structure, for an easy transition to a slightly heavier load. We now alternate writing weeks with grammar weeks, and we've also added daily violin practice, a writing program (CAP W&R), and Latin lessons. We do science on M/T/F and history on Tu/Th. For maths DS does 30 minutes of BA, and then 30 minutes of Prodigy. The timer is our friend. Here's our daily schedule: Morning time block: morning time, vision therapy homework, violin practice, history or science. Break Academics block 1: free reading, Latin, writing or grammar. Break Academics block 2: maths, spelling. Let me know if you have any questions! Our physical set-up is not at all fancy. DS works at his desk, which is in our lounge room; cuddled up on the couch; seated at the coffee table; by the AAS whiteboard which rests on the floor; or standing up at the disposable static whiteboards which can be found in various locations around the house (http://www.magicwhiteboard.com.au/). I'm happy to send you photos if you'd like to PM me your email address.

Thanks for the link.

We have a few of the Putamayo CDs, which we listen to in the car. https://www.putumayo.com/putumayo-kids/

Has anyone used these? Could you give me a quick review, please? How well do the special features work? Do they require an internet connection (we don't have WiFi at home)? DS is burning through his curricula at present, so I'm looking to provide more of it on the cheap. I'd also very much like to save on shipping costs, as we're in Australia. In case it matters, we're about to start the Town level.

That's great! I'm a big fan of AAS. Things are going well here too. We have a pretty hefty daily schedule going on, and it's all getting done. I've been slowly working on building up DS' stamina for seatwork over the last year or so, and it's really paid off. We had a great conversation yesterday about how he'd like more freedom during his free time (this mostly related to use of electronics), and I'd like less stalling and moaning and groaning when I require him to engage with me and get his schoolwork done. We came to an agreement. :)

Could you set up parental controls such that there is no access to the shop or the cloud? That's what I do with DS' kindle, so that he can't access my whole collection.

Happy birthing day to you!

I'll be thinking of you! I only have good things to say about the professionals who diagnosed my DS8. I wish you and your DD a positive experience as well.

This is going really well! We've had a couple of lessons with maize, who has given us some great advice about getting set up and comfortable. DS is practicing for about five minutes every day for now. I'm hoping that his stamina improves with time. The new chin rest and shoulder rest should help, too. They're in the post right now.

DS8 started Fable during the blackout, and I've been itching to get online and share his first story here. We'll probably alternate weeks with grammar for now, as I feel he's on the young side for this program and don't wish to rush him through it. I thought we might spend some time on varied ways for writing dialogue before the next lesson, so it will be interesting to see if that carries over to his fables. Here's his first story, which he typed himself: The Mouse and the Ant A mouse was walking through the forest and nearly stepped on a fire ant nest. Then a fire ant guard said, "Spare the nest and one day we will repay you." The mouse said, "Well if you will be able to one day help me then yes." The ant said, "We can." The next week the mouse was cornered by a snake. But the fire ants came to help and went into the lungs of the snake to kill it. The end!

My kid was away for Easter with his noncustodial parent and I was SO BORED. It's great to be back!

Welcome back, friends!

We finished up our first round of four weekly sessions a few weeks ago, and we're keeping up the daily homework until we go back for another round. And guess what?! DS is reading!!! Like, really reading. We're waiting on a new Audible credit to get the last How to Train Your Dragon book for him. I bought the ebook for him on his kindle, just to see what would happen. Well he's been on the couch with his kindle for a good 40 minutes already, reading silently to himself. Every now and then he reads a funny part aloud to me, to share the joy.

AOPS' Intro to Number Theory is a perfectly good standalone text. :) I haven't used Counting and Probability, so can't comment on that one in particular.