I listened to this podcast yesterday from Freakonomics titled Who needs Handwriting? This controversy is not new and, as many of you, I was already aware of some of the information presented on their program. I found the podcast very enjoyable so I thought I would share for any of you who enjoy podcasts and like this topic.

I read that a while back. I enjoyed the article. There was a link to this article: Why Kindergarten Is The New First Grade which is also enlightening. You are all right, this is not new information. But I still like reading about it :)

We've been using MM1 with my DS very successfully with only a few hiccups due to space availability (got him a notebook for math) and how many problems are crammed in a page (again, we do those in his notebook). Reading random forum posts I came across Prodigy math and I thought my son would enjoy it. The game started exposing him to topics that we haven't practiced. He really wanted to solve them for his "battles" so I have been explaining problems and looking for the pages in MM1 that match that for him to practice. Once he understands, he does the problems mostly correctly. There are a few exceptions - and we are working on those skills (usually numbers larger than 100 and it's ok with me). I was thinking that adding 23 + 34 would practice 2+ 3 and 4+3 so if he understands place value, why not move on? He understands addition and subtraction. He has not memorized all the facts to 10 - but can solve the problems either by counting on/back or with fingers. So here's my question. How do you know it is ok to skip? We already do 3 or 4 problems of one kind and move on to the next page. MM appears redundant but I am not a math teacher. Maybe he needs all this practice. How do you know your child has achieved the needed "mastery"? I don't want to stay on a topic too long - but I also don't want to gloss over things. What do you do?

The Kumon cutting books have a lot of easy crafts. But I don't know if any of them are reproducible. They could give you ideas of things you could plan with construction paper. They have a lot of things like hats, crowns, paper rings and coiled snakes...

I'll give you a quick rundown of the programs I've used and what has worked for us and why and what hasn't and why :) I got 100EZ out of the library a while back before I bought OPGTTR and I didn't like it. I have OPGTTR and while it's alright and I have used it, it is incredibly boring. I found it was difficult to find a good reader that matched the lessons for practice. I have seen various forum posts about readers that would match OPG now that I spend a lot of time reading posts and so on but I haven't really researched the matter recently. On the other hand, that program is very thorough and if you are on a budget its a good solution as it is very complete and should last for several years of phonics instruction. Bob books are alright, but are ultimately boring and expensive. I have two sets. And I will use them with my DD if she is interested. They are helpful but not a comprehensive solution. I think you can get these at the library. This last semester my K child did the level A1 and A2 of Abecedarian. It's alright. It is scripted, integrates some writing and spelling. I didn't like the level B. I came to the forums looking for something else - as I didn't want to go back to OPGTTR. Found AAR1 and started around mid way. I really like it. It feels complete. It has some games and sufficient practice is included in the form of fluency pages and readers that reinforce what the lessons are teaching. The fluency pages ARE boring. But for my son, they have been key. We do not skip them. I would rather do them slowly over a few days than not at all. Our experience with sight words: We went a bit crazy with them because my son memorized them quickly. We did all the Dolch words. We used the Dick and Jane readers. Yes, his fluency increased. When reading a regular library TNMT reader he either knew the sight words or would guess based on the pictures and sounding out the start of the word. He guessed right a lot and appeared to be a good reader, which is a little confusing. When we got AAR1 and we did a fluency page and he had a meltdown. He was so used to sight words that he found sounding out a word without picture clues or the context of a story tedious. He knew how to sound words out, but was out of practice. At first we were on the same lesson for almost a whole week. I asked for help here, and someone directed me to a helpful link on the AAR blog on how to teach children who guess or are used to sight words. Now we are flying through the lessons. He is getting better and better, as I would expect with a program that works for him. He still doesn't like fluency pages, but he does them. He knows he will have playtime when we are done with one page. And the other day he did two in a row! He did them fluently and didn't seem at all bothered. Also, it was the last of that day's homeschool and he told me he wanted to be all done. lol So that's what I would recommend: All about reading. I have seen so many great posts and reviews of other programs! I am sure others are as good and perhaps cheaper. I got my AAR from my charter school so I didn't have to pay for it. I bought the letter tiles. Let us know what you choose!

This made me smile.

I love that sensory bin actually! I'll think about it. (Flower painting tub one) I live in SoCal but I live in an apartment so the kids can't dig outside. Well, I suppose they could, but shouldn't :) For some reason I wasn't counting sand play at the sand playground or the beach as sensory play! We do those. Although the beach not as often as we could. And because we live in CA we never fill the tub. However, I have a large plastic tub where I give DD her baths (she hates showers). She loves shaving cream and she normally plays with it during bath time. Ok - I must be providing sensory play for her, but I'm just not noticing because it's become part of our routine I suppose. When DS was her age we owned our house in a much cheaper and wetter state. We did a lot of the messy stuff outside. We didn't have the beach nearby, but we spent hours by the creek throwing stones, drawing with chalk In our driveway... I miss TN. Lol Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Any ideas on how to make what is inevitably messy less messy? My DD loves to sit down to color, scribble, play with stickers or playdough for an hour at a time. It's wonderful actually. I will cut out parts to make butterflies, flowers, random shapes and I will give her a glue stick and she will make little characters and when she is done she will play with them. Excellent use of ten minutes of me cutting shapes to have a toddler who entertains herself safely for an hour, right? But she hasn't really finger painted as much as her brother precisely because she will sit for an hour (with my son it was 10 minutes max). With her that means that I have to stop what I am doing to constantly provide more paint, more paper. It also means I need to have a bath ready. Guess how often we do that? Right. I've never made her a sensory bin for her like I did with my son. I feel guilty actually. But, unlike my son, I know she will end up throwing the macaroni or rice all over the floor. I see it as not setting her up for success. lol I was wondering if you wise moms (especially the moms of many) have ideas of alternative -less messy- activities for little ones? Especially activities that will engage the senses like a sensory bin?

My oldest son is doing K... Things will have to change as he gets older and DD starts homeschooling. Right now we have no homeschooling room. We homeschool at our kitchen/dining table, he sits in a booster seat to write (he doesn't like that particularly, but it's better for his posture). I have a shelf we found by the trash a few years ago that is perfectly fine but doesn't fit our decor (I only care about my decor sometimes). That shelf has all the books, curriculum, math manipulatives, games and various playdough/puzzles... And we have the magnetic calendar by the homeschool things. I have a couple of small chalk tablets. But again as he gets older I may need to get a larger white board or maybe actually make space and use chalk paint on the wall or a door for demonstrations :) For now our set up works well. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I bought B4FIAR a while back. I used it for a couple of weeks and now it sits forgotten on the shelf. I did buy a number of the books at a used book store and for the most part they are very nice books. To me, B4FIAR seemed like a collection of ideas on what I could do with the kids based on the book we were reading. It just didn't work/clicked for us (me, mostly). Because of my experience with B4FIAR I did not buy FIAR. I still think their book selections are really nice and I know it works for a lot of people... I always like to hear why a product doesn't work for someone so, I decided to contribute :)

I've been using AAR1 with my K son and I really like the program. I like it enough that I got the pre-reading one to use with my DD. The improvement I've seen on my K child in only a month is amazing. Are you looking for something that is open and go and doesn't need a lot of prep to integrate a playful atmosphere? The curriculum integrates games. The little flipper books are like a manipulative and my son likes the novelty. There are lessons where you just read to your child or the child reads a story or two. My son even likes the letter tiles, that I know aren't always popular. But AAR1 has a lot of fluency pages. In my opinion those are drill and they feel like drill. They are one of the reasons the program has been so successful for us so far. This probably varies from child to child as well (the need for fluency pages I mean). These pages are lists of words. You would have to come up with ways to make them more appealing. I'm saying this because during our sit-down school time I like my curriculum to be open and go with little prep. I would have to prep to make reading all those words into a game. The AAR website has a blog that is very useful. I've seen posts with ideas and so on. But that's the thing - you have to research or come up with your own system on how to do that. I was not sure from your post if you wanted something that is play based most of the time. If you are ok with having to come up with a few activities then yes - this would be close to what you are looking for. I am not sure which level you need. So I'll add another note. I haven't done the pre-reading AAR yet. But I've looked through it. That program is a lot more playful than AAR1 or AAR2.

:) Yes - my son manages to love certain shows that I think should be upsetting (like some super-hero type things) yet for some reason I never understood he is afraid of Peg + Cat from PBS. I'm sure he'll grow out of it. When I was a kid my youngest uncle (who is 8 years older than me) scared me about the movie Goonies. I've never watched it. To this day. I am otherwise a reasonable adult ;) I think.

Here's something that's been in my mind for a while. Since around age 4 my son has been terrified of Peter Rabbit because Peter's dad gets put in a pie. When he first understood what that meant, he covered his ears and started crying and telling me to stop reading. Mind you, I didn't explain what that meant. Since then, he will not listen to Peter Rabbit. I read it to his sister but I make sure he isn't aware or he gets nervous. This happened with the Three Little Pigs too (early on I read a more classic version) which I used to like as a kid and was startled to find he was afraid of it. So I haven't even tried Hansel and Gretel or other books with obvious scary parts. We listened to an audio version of Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory. We were in the car and I was thinking about something else when my son yelled: "Turn it off!" - there was something about a witch's brew or cauldron or something like that. Same thing with the series Stink - in one book Stink had a newt that ended up in the garbage disposal. I'm like really? This was our third Stink book and he was terrified and horrified about the newt. I am sure it will get better with age. Right now if he gets scared about something I reassure him and move on to a different book or story. Anyone else have an overly sensitive child? Any tips on how to overcome this?

I know this isn't literature, but it is non-fiction and at least my son likes it when he is into a thing or another. The vocabulary and structure of the books is different and it may be nice to add some variety: You could get picture books about famous robots (Mars rovers?) and maybe you could find a kid oriented book with lots of pictures on how to build robots sort of book at the library?

Just an idea because I've done this and its fun. I tend to get all excited about this too which helps. I tell my little one that we will go to the library -just us- and she will get to pick from the (animals? dinosaurs? science? history?) book section and then we will go home and have lots of fun with it. I guide her to a section or I am stuck with Barbie books that she just has to have. We usually read one or two books right there at the library. Then we make a big deal of checking it out and such (DD is 3 and I need to keep her from running all over). We are lucky to have a playground and a food court right outside of the library so we typically do that for a little bit before going home. Then we read and (depending on time) we will do a craft or activity. Which you can tailor as needed. I don't know if this is helpful - but its what came to mind :)

My son is in K right now and I'm still confused about the best fit for math. We live in CA and we are homeschooling through a charter. They have a curriculum warehouse so I can go and look at some teacher manuals... We started out with Saxon math 1 because I had it. It's so parent intensive and repetitive. Then we changed to MM1 - it's been fine. But I don't like how they approach the clock/money and it isn't cute. So now I'm thinking of moving him to Singapore... Yup. He's fine. I'm the one who's confused. I can say that just by looking at the parent manual for MUS it wasn't for us. I could see how it could work for some people. Same with Saxon. I can see how it would work wonders for some kids and not others. Do you have a curriculum fair near by you can attend? When I lived in TN I went to one. It was fun. That way you can look through some of the books. Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

DD will turn 4 soon! She is excited to do school like her brother :) but I don't know if she will actually want to do it. In any case, this is what I am planning AAR-Pre reading Saxon math K Kumon tracing Kumon cutting book Writing letters if she is interested with Starfall print-outs Starfall letters and sounds Ballet

When my son was three (June birthday) I read a few library books about the Montessori approach and sort-of used their ideas about organizing educational toys at toddler eye level. We got lots of wood toys (I found a lot of Melissa and Doug over time at goodwill), jigsaw puzzles and of course books. We started going to library story time regularly. I made a playlist of educational songs for the car that we still listen to sometimes (my baby is now 3) that includes dinosaur train songs, preschool type songs, classics (take me out to the ball game) and nursery rhymes. I also came up with a list of educational things to do from books, blogs and forums. Then I made up a schedule to rotate activities throughout the week. I included one-on-one time with my son when the baby was sleeping. For example, Monday mornings I would ask him if he wanted playdough, scissors and paper or finger paint. He would do the activity until he was done. Or another day we would choose between songs and dancing, kid yoga (lol), go for a walk or playground. I wasn't super strict about this at all. The schedule was stuck to the refrigerator and when I was like - what do I do? I would read through it and pick something both me and my son were ok with at that time. Other times, on good days, we followed the schedule a bit more. He also played with abcmouse.com but eventually he got tired of it and we moved on to starfall which I think is better. Abcmouse is good and I suscribed for a couple of months once in a while to change things up a bit. If your child is interested in letters and sounds, I see no trouble on sitting with him and going over the sounds using the Bob books. It is quality time as long as all are enjoying it. I have not been as organized about preschool with my second child but she is still exposed to the same toys and activities as my son was (is) and I do certain things as part of the routine like story time and so on. In fact, she told the librarian that mommy reads aloud too much lol. Here on the pre-K/K forums someone posted a link to a webinar on teaching numeracy in early childhood that I found useful. They talk about how to teach numbers starting around age 2 or 3. They cover the normal stages of learning, the types of errors you can expect and strategies/games you can use to teach the numbers. It is meant for preschool teachers but I think I learned something. I recommend it. :)

I see what you mean. So far my outline is original. I have linked to a few locations where I found ideas for lessons but are meant for groups so I would have to modify (that's about 6 lessons out of like 66 outlined). I would call those "based on.." If I find an experiment kit (like for magnets) that is pre-made I will use that. Later today I will try my hand at writing a whole original lesson. Just to get a feel on what I want and would need. I would have to test them out on my child to make sure they work and are not too technical or that the work is really around 10-15 minutes. Feels like a huge undertaking. But also its fun to use my degree for something after enjoying mothering and cooking for 5 and a half years. So is this for my child or an outlet for a long dormant geek? Does it matter?

We switched to AAR1 at the start of this year - I've only been using it 4 weeks. We started sort of in the middle of AAR1. The fluency pages are met with annoyance by my son. Freak outs too - depending on his mood. But the first week we only did one lesson. I do exactly what ExcitedMama says here - I am the get it done type too :) The irritation over doing fluency pages is less as he "gets" it. As we continue with the program the progress I have seen is amazing. I am planning to start preAAR with DD soon. I checked and fluency pages start in lesson 3. Its only one page (later on it is several) and I imagine you can break that up into small chunks over several days. If you child is ready to blend this program should work well. PS I don't know if this is helpful at all. But when I was switching programs I thought AAR2 would be a better fit for my son. He could do most of the placement test for AAR2. I had the luxury to get this free from our homeschool charter so I could test it out. The dreaded fluency pages told me that my son was a sight reader who could sound things out but he didn't feel like it. The fluency pages force him to read phonetically. In my opinion this is what he needs. And thus, AAR1 was a better fit. It offers a lot of practice and I am pleased with the results so far.

It was interesting. Thank you for the link. I just finished watching the recording (with many interruptions of mommy I'm hungry, I want lemonade, I'm tired...) I am sure you all know. You can pause it. lol

I made the outline based on what I want to teach my son. So far I've gathered some links with activities from various places. But I plan to make some worksheets myself, write out some diagrams and pictures for microbes for example. I don't know if they are introduced in first grade - I assume they are? My son was complaining to me that I talk a lot about cells but he didn't know what a cell was. I laughed, and said its the smallest unit of life. And he said, oh ok. LOL but then I mentioned that there's some controversy about viruses. But I'm not sure he heard me. Anyway, I assume a general introduction to things like that would be good for him. That's probably because of the way I talk without thinking about random science things. Formal resources? I am going to look for books that can help throughout or I will write it myself. I still have a shelf-full of college texts sitting there unused. I can try to translate it into kid? ------- Thank you for the encouragement - I don't know why I doubt myself so much at times. This is sort of fun.

Sure :) it's very much a first draft right now. With what I imagine is 28 weeks of potential stuff Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

Yes :) I'm writing an outline, linking resources and marking books we would need. But I know I would go off topic if my son decided he wanted to explore something else. Magnets are fun! I need to add magnets... Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

I'm just curious about how many here have managed to come up with your own curriculum? And use it successfully? As I post this I am taking a break from outlining my son's first grade science curriculum. I used to be a scientist, and I know what my son likes - so I have a good idea of what I would want to include. But I am not a teacher even though I've taught adults before. I have no background in curriculum development. In any case, as I write my outline I know I can do this. But I also am asking myself why? Anyone else here does this? Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk