Can anyone recommend a good way to give my kids placement tests? Do you get them online or go through the school district? This is my first year homeschooling and want to make sure we are on target. Well I know my daughter is, in fact I think she might have jumped up a grade and want to be sure we covered everything she needed for second grade before officially calling her a third grader. I am pretty sure my son is on point for grade 1 but he hates math and possibly has ADHD so I want to make sure!

We have done lighter days this whole week. Some PS kids around our area had the whole week off so I decided we could take it easy too. We did do some Thanksgiving unit study this week and science and math yesterday but today I decided some puzzles, dragonbox algebra on the tablets and outside playtime was good enough :)

I have a question. I just bought the first algebra app, dragon box 5+ and my 8 year old made it through all the chapters in 2 hours. She wants to play more so I was wondering what dragon box 2 was like. Can kids younger then 12 get it without too much frustration if they have done well with the first lessons? I would just go ahead and buy it but for 8$ I thought a little research first would be a good idea :) Thanks for any input

I haven't read any of these yet but saw this series at my local book shop and thought it looked good. I'll probably give it a try when we get to that point in our history. http://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/i-survived-the-battle-of-gettysburg-1863-lauren-tarshis/1113942446?cm_mmc=google+product+search-_-q000000633-_-9780545459365pla-_-book_under5-_-q000000633-_-9780545459365&ean=9780545459365&isbn=9780545459365&kpid=9780545459365&r=1

My son is 6 1/2 yo and doing 1st right now but is still working out addition and subtraction within 1-10 and the things we find most helpful are- these c-rods http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000F8R5N2/ref=oh_aui_detailpage_o01_s00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 -some 1 and 10 blocks that click together -a basic abacus from Melissa and Doug -playing cards -dominoes, you can play a game where you match up addition sentences printed on paper to the domino with the same number groups on them (2+3=5 would match with the domino that has 2 dots on one side and 3 on the other)

Thank you for all the suggestions, I will look into them. I actually had searched out art books on Amazon and found that Art Lab book and thought it looked like a good bet!

My daughter (just turned 8yo) has become really interested in art lately. She got an art kit for her b-day with watercolors, pencils and oil pastels and loves using them all. I don't have any art skills but really want to teach her some techniques and help guide her on some projects. I thought maybe a good instruction/project book would be a good start but there are lots out there so thought maybe someone might have some suggestions I could try?

I have a copy of MUS Alpha that a friend gave me to see what it was about, it is mostly written in but maybe we can get some ideas from it. I also printed off a couple MEP so we will try that today as well, thank you for the suggestions :)

I'm thinking I need some supplements for my son to help get his understanding of basic addition and subtracting wrapped up. He is currently using MM 1A and I like the program its just my son seems to forget basic math concepts everyday that we come back to it. I can see he IS making progress but I have been thinking that maybe a break from MM and a good review of adding and take away would be good for him. I know I could just write problems for him but I would like to find a supplement that will be fun-ish and might help him practice in a way that will click for him. He likes using c-rods but I come up short when i try to do a search on addition worksheets using c-rods and am not sure I want to get into Miquon Math since it looks fairly different from MM? Anyone able to share any suggestions or insight? Much appreciate any responses :)

My kids (6yo boy and 8 yo girl) are each probably getting one of those Spooner boards- b/c I really think they look cool and want to try them! :) and then each a new puzzle, lego, gymnastic rings to hang in the doorway for my son, probably something related to horseback riding for my daughter and some art supplies, books and whatever else looks cool at the local toy/book shop to put in their stockings.

I thought of that too after I posted this, I love the books so far and wouldn't mind supporting the publisher anyway :) Thank you for the replies!

I just got 3 of these workbooks for my kids- age 8 and 6 1/2. I want to reuse the levels that my older is using with my younger but it's a really hard book to copy from because the pages aren't perforated and easy to rip out and the book is hard to get flat on the copy machine! I'm just wondering if anyone else bothered fighting with this to be able to reuse the books or if the general thought with these are they are cheap anyway so just let the kids write in the book and buy more? Just curious what others decided :)

Thank you all! These replies have been super helpful! I really am not against or for meds at this point- just trying to see what other people do and their experiences. I have heard about diet change for ADHD kids and might try looking into that more and will read up on Omega 3. if my son can have a better quality of life and socialize better on meds I would not deny him that-I will need to talk to his psych more about this next week when we see her. Thank you again this has helped!

We are working with a counselor who we see once every 2 weeks. She has mentioned meds but agrees that it would be OK for now to try other options and continue homeschooling. At first his other doctors thought it wrong for me to homeschool him and said "it's OK for now but you can't homeschool him forever". Oh really? The reasoning behind this is his previous diagnose of anxiety and that it would be bad to "isolate" him and keep him from facing his problem. I really disagree with this reasoning as his anxiety in school and his inability to sit still for so long keeps him from learning properly and he is NOT isolated while homeschooling. I make an effort to get both my kids involved in activities and really love homeschooling for the reason they get to socialize with so many different people and not just kids their own age. My son does gymnastics and it really is a great fit for him. He loves it and he does have to practice paying attention to an instructor for an hour a week but also gets to jump, flip, do handstands, and gets to hang out with other boys of various ages with a similar interest. I got a little of track there but what I was trying to get to was that we do see a specialist to help us out and he does get out in a organized activity weekly that helps him release energy and work on socializing :) I will try the idea of having him build legos during read aloud time and try out the exercise ball and other ways to keep his body busy while doing school work.

Thank you for the reply. We do short spurts mixed with exercise and lego play right now. Amazingly he can focus and sit still for long periods of time when legos are involved but anything else is hard for him. He uses a lot of noise (randomly shouts or makes clucky sounds with his tongue) to "get his energy out" so that's hard to deal with when I have another child to homeschool and he can be disruptive to her when I need to focus on her and not him-he likes attention a lot! positive or negative he doesn't care. I'm trying to find discipline methods that can work well for him as well for day-to-day living and not just school time. I feel like lately he has hit a new level and I'm worried I am losing control of him a bit. I wonder how you discipline a child that can't control the energy of their bodies and the way they act because of it? I'd take tips on that too if anyone has ideas! Timeouts are starting to just not cut it

I'm sure there are some people out here that do this too and can offer advice and support! A little background- My son who is 6 1/2 was first diagnosed with anxiety when he was in pre-K two years ago, on to PS kindergarten and towards the end of the year I got lots of emails and calls from his teacher about him being disruptive and not calming down in class. Now the counselor he sees is observing more ADHD signs and I am too! He is so full of energy and can't focus on much except Legos :/ I do get bits and pieces of his attention in 10-20 minutes spurts and he is able to learn and doing really well as a first grade homeschooler but I worry when the work load has to increase in the years to come and wonder when I need to seriously consider meds, if at all? What is the experience of others? Do you skip medicine since they aren't in a public school building for 7 hour stretches? Is it possible to homeschool ADHD without medicating? I'm not totally against medicating but want to explore other options before jumping right into it. Thanks!

I'm sure there are some people out here that do this too and can offer advice and support! A little background- My son who is 6 1/2 was first diagnosed with anxiety when he was in pre-K two years ago, on to PS kindergarten and towards the end of the year I got lots of emails and calls from his teacher about him being disruptive and not calming down in class. Now the counselor he sees is observing more ADHD signs and I am too! He is so full of energy and can't focus on much except Legos :/ I do get bits and pieces of his attention in 10-20 minutes spurts and he is able to learn and doing really well as a first grade homeschooler but I worry when the work load has to increase in the years to come and wonder when I need to seriously consider meds, if at all? What is the experience of others? Do you skip medicine since they aren't in a public school building for 7 hour stretches? Is it possible to homeschool ADHD without medicating? I'm not totally against medicating but want to explore other options before jumping right into it. Thanks!

I have a daughter with good math sense as well and she is currently working in MM year 2. She did 1st grade PS last year so this year when we started in MM2A I could see that the way MM teaches was a bit different and had a lot of good ideas about learning mental math that I didn't want her to miss even when the addition and subtraction was easy for her. I shortened the lessons by doing every other problem or skipping a page here and there that I didn't really think she had to do. If she seems to be having more trouble understanding something I have her do more problems and spend more time on a section.

I ordered WWE level 2 and got it today. After going though both books heavily I think it looks like we can skip some things in level 1 and move ahead to book 2 in a few weeks and she will be comfortable with that. I also looked through the FLL samples for about an hour and decided level 3 would be appropriate for my daughter but am still not sure we really NEED to have it. She is doing great with KISS and Wordly Wise so I feel like I might just be getting a little ahead of myself and buying all the workbooks that look half decent just 'cause :) Thanks for all the input and help in this thread!

If I start on level 3 in FLL should I move ahead to level 3 in WWE? or would it work if we did WWE level 2 and FLL 3? I have noticed level 1 in WWE is a bit easy for her but looking at level 3 and 2 I would be tempted to start her on level 2 for that program.

She is almost 8 and doing very well understanding KISS. I just had heard a lot of good things about FLL and saw it wasn't too expensive so maybe worth looking at but wanted to get the right level if I did order it. She is doing level 1 of WWE just because it seemed like a program that would be best used in order even if age-wise and grade level speaking she could handle level 2. That's why I wanted to check on FLL and make sure we wouldn't miss too much if we skipped to 2 or 3.

I'm thinking I want to give this a try and am wondering where to start. It would be for my 8 yo who is currently using WWE level 1 and doing some KISS grammar (first level) and doing well with both those. She also does Spelling Workout level C and Wordly Wise 2. I know, doesn't seem like she needs anything else! I am happy with what we have now but am wondering if including FLL might just help her even more? She loves doing language arts so I don't think she would mind another lesson in that subject!

Update: So I got the A and the AA books but after looking through them I decided they were below my almost 8yo so I am sticking with spelling workout C for her for now. I am however using the A book and plan to use AA for my 6yo first grader who is currently using the Explode the Code book 2. These two books match up great and the SpellWell gives him extra practice with the phonics rules he is learning and that focus on spelling without too much extra pressure. I had thought he would go without spelling this year but this book is a good way to give him a little practice and reinforce the phonics he is learning.

I am using Elemental History with my 1st grader but I also have a second grader who is using it so the younger just kind of follows along and I don't ask as much from him. We also don't do everything the program suggests and I am OK with both of them just getting introduced to American History at this point and I don't expect them to remember everything the program covers. I really just wanted to make sure they started out learning about America and from there we will study world history. I like having this program b/c it gives me an idea of how to go about American history and something to follow.

Looking for ideas of what makes good copywork for a first grader? I will be using WWE 1 for him eventually (maybe start after Christmas) but want to ease in with some simple copywork that helps him get started with basic sentence structure. He's a good little reader (somewhere close to beginner 2nd grade level) so he would have no issues reading a little passage, poem, etc. and then copying it. He does get restless with longer stuff so I'm looking for something short or something that can be broken up into a couple days worth. Anyone have any good poems, passages or similar that they use and could recommend for this age range? Thanks :)