Actually now I'm thinking that the tangrams came with the book, since the book is designed for the pieces to go directly on the paper so it would only work with a specific size tangram. I'll check my book and get back to you....I can't tell from the amazon description. ETA:Ok, yes the rainbow resource description makes it clear: http://www.rainbowresource.com/proddtl.php?id=012840 This book does come with an indestructible set of pieces. I highly recommend it even though the first chunk of the book will be obsolete because it will be too easy. The puzzles go in increasing order of difficulty, so its easy for a kid to pick an appropriate puzzle.

This book has very easy puzzles in the beginning (where it basically shows you where to put the pieces) and the progresses to medium puzzles, and then to hard puzzles. I tore out all the pieces and hole punched them so that my kids can go through and pick the ones they want to do. http://www.amazon.com/Tangramables-Tangram-Activity-Book-Ler318/dp/1569119813/ref=sr_1_22?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369342421&sr=1-22&keywords=tangrams I use plastic indestructible tangrams similar to these:http://www.amazon.com/Learning-Advantage-CTU7712-Tangrams-Set/dp/B001UFWJLW/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1369342557&sr=8-1&keywords=plastic+tangrams

OK, thanks...so it sounds like there's some way for it to work with kids who are too young to write very much? I was going to go with WWE for next year because it seemed very kid friendly (in that they don't have to physically write much.) But would you say BW is just as little-kid friendly? And would there even be a benefit to starting at this age, or am I just as well starting in third grade? i'm not a big fan in general of starting things earlier if they'd be easier and more productive to start later. Maybe I should put off BW the same way I've decided to put off MCT at least until December? (I guess I could get a better sense of this if I'd just bite the bullet and buy it and read it!) Also I've read all the posts about it being a 'lifestyle' more than a series of 'assignments'. Does that mean I wouldn't actually schedule a writing time in our day, but try to incorporate it into other subjects? One more question...can you combine grade levels, or is it better to work 1 on 1? I'm sure all of you BW fans are getting tired of answering those of us who are trying to 'get it' but I really appreciate it!

I am really sorry to answer with the annoying 'other' but I buy most of the books we read used at library book sales or thrift stores. I've got most of the sonlight and Jim Trelease books, but rarely pay over $1.50 so it didn't seem right to answer 'buy.'

I did Barton because I was at a point (and my son was at a point) where we just wanted to 'fix it' and were exhausted with the struggle. It does have a high resale value at least...

If you have any universities near you you can probably ask a professor to audit a class. That's what I did and it was fantastic...$25 plus the cost of the textbook (which you can often find on amazon used)!! As far as learning multiple languages at once, I don't think its any problem at all for your brain...its just a matter of how much time you have to put in. I think you can make good progress if you are consistent, doing a little every day.

So I think i am about to buy Bravewriter through HSBC. But I am a little confused at what age it is best to start. I know it says it is for younger ages all the way up, but a lot of the things I hear about it (such as freewriting) seem like they are geared toward older kids. Would it be beneficial to start with kids who are not fluent readers or spellers yet, or is it really designed to be started after they have those skills pretty much down? Thanks, and sorry for flooding the boards today...I'm going through a planning/purchasing phase :)

Definitely seems worth it if it gets used....And the used ones seem to be around $60. I'm mainly worried i won't use it, and then it will be a waste of $. Right now our day is pretty fully scheduled, so we'd have to cut out a lot to add it in unless I do it like Ellie suggested. The old ones from the 80's are about $20, so there's a pretty big price difference. :glare:

Wow, thank you SO MUCH! This is exactly the kind of hand holding I needed :) :) Yes the ones I saw had a yellow cover. I think I can find some newer ones for not that much more if I look around, so maybe I'll try to do that.

Ive always wanted to do Konos but just can't commit to it, or see how I could bump everything else out of my schedule to make room for it. I've seen some old (1984) copies for cheap online....would that even be worth it, or would all the references be out of date? Anyone have older versions....have they changed much?

Ok, I'm committed to doing this curriculum before my son ages out of Miquon. He did some in first grade but we never stuck with it, so I am setting aside 20 minutes next year and both kids will do Miquon together. But I need an easy way to make this happen. I read on another thread a suggestion that sounds totally doable. For my older, have him go through the topics in order, and follow them through all the colors, and for my younger to go through the books in order, finishing each book before moving on. Does that sound right? I know it is supposed to be more flexible than that, but Id rather have some kind of system to make sure I'm getting it all done in some kind of logical way.

PAL Writing (from IEW) Hooked on Phonics Spanish Piano Wizard

I agree, I'm having so much fun reading the responses and looking up the ones I haven't heard of! Although it pains me every time someone says Konos because I've always really wanted to try it but think I probably never will :( Also I find it interesting that two people mentioned Lyra colored pencils....how could I not go out and buy them now?

I agree with the others that its time to start thinking about dyslexia. My son was at a similar stage at that age...I just thought he was a slow reader and it would eventually click until a friend of mine (who is a reading specialist) said it sounded like mild dyslexia. When he turned 8 and we saw that his frustrations were really not going away, we decided to bite the bullet and do Barton. I was at a point where I just wanted to remediate it no matter what it took--I was tired of trying other programs. We did 100 EZ, AAS, Phonics Pathways, some Abecedarian....he made progress with all of them, but never enough. Barton has been fantastic. He is now starting to pick up books on his own and read what he can, and reading lessons are no long the PAINFUL events they once were. He looks forward to them because it is never too much for him. Barton is absurdly expensive, but the resale value is high. Even if you don't go with her program, her website still offers a lot of information: http://www.bartonreading.com/ Good luck!

I have a small house and we have at times used the kitchen, a nook in the kids bedroom, part of my husbands office, the sofa, etc.... I find it very annoying!! I spend many, many hours dreaming of a house with a dedicated school room. I mean its doable, its just really annoying. There's no wall space, as you mentioned, and storage becomes a problem too. So personally, I would say yes, you will regret it :) Unless you are getting some other amazing thing in the floor plan that makes it worth it...

Wow, you have struck gold that many times?!! :)

This is sort of a spin-off, but I was wondering what have been the 2 or 3 curricula that you just wouldn't even want to homeschool without? We all have things we like and love, but what are the few things you've found that have just been essential for you? I've only been doing this 3 years, but so far for me: MEP-after trying some other programs, ive come to the conclusion that I wouldn't even want to teach math without it! Visual Link Spanish- after years of buying books and discarding them, and just winging it, we finally have something that is painless and WORKS! I used to put so much energy into Spanish and now i feel like a huge burden is lifted from me....VL is his main learning, and anything I do is just supplementing, so I feel a lot less pressure. I would have never thought a computer program could be so effective for learning a FL.

These are not a ton of problems, but on their website they do pull out the puzzle type problems (its listed under 'exercises.') http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/y1exercises.pdf I also find that if you look at the 'copymasters' there are often a lot of the puzzles, so it might work for you to look through them instead of the entire practice book. I think it would work out great to work for a month out of the year on just the more interesting problems, but then again I'm a huge fan of MEP :)

Visual Link has been a huge success which is a big relief after searching for a good Spanish curric for so long. Beast Academy was a miss for us, and we are happily back with MEP which continues to be a hit. Barton has been fantastic for my son. We started after thanksgiving and he is on level 4 now and gained a lot of skill and confidence with his reading..

I'm not sure if you're looking for videos or an online course, but if you're looking for the later, Visual Link is fantastic!!

We do luckily have two indoor pools at universities. Unfortunately they're competition pools, and freezing. If you are swimming laps it is comfortable, but it is not the kind of environment that encourages kids to want to swim. When I was little I lived in the pool...I was at swim practice all morning, and then playing thre the rest of the day. I'm hoping to get my kids swimming laps in the next year (but I think I've said that every year since they were five!)

This thread is making me realize I never thought about the benefits of swimming much, but I always felt growing up that my life kind of fell apart when I stopped swimming competitively. I never knew if it was coincidence or not (I was entering adolescence, etc.) but I definitely felt it was a great part of my childhood (even though I was not a gifted swimmer and almost never won). And I always assumed it would be part of my children's childhood. ( I guess I didn't foresee moving to the frozen north where they only swim a handful of times a year... :glare: )

Thanks for the encouragement. My 8 year old is the same way, and has recently said he wants to devote more time to figure skating so we are running with that. He can't really swim well yet (we live in an area where kids can usually skate before they can swim.) :) I feel at a bit of a loss because my son is especially uncoordinated, but at the same time extremely physical. I feel he needs some kind of outlet but he doesn't really excel at anything physically. I'm hoping pouring his energy into skating will be good since its an individual sport to some extent so he can just improve at his own pace. We might try Martial Arts too, although my son has said what he really wants is a street fighting class where the kids fight eachother and then 'learn from their mistakes' rather than learning from a teacher. LOL, I told him that didn't exist. :lol:

Totally agree with all of this. We did AAS before doing Barton, and it was just way too much too fast. I would say if Barton were painfully slow and easy for a student, then to try AAS/AAR. But if Barton is painful because its too hard, then AAS is not going to work. AAS presents things in a less organized manner and at a quicker pace. I can't see it working for a dyslexic student who is having a hard time with Barton. I would also suggest you go to the Barton forums on her site and post your problems there...lots of experienced tutors--maybe someone has advice? She is also supposed to be very approachable if you are having problems or have questions. It might be that your child is not ready for Barton, or that you need to work at a different pace.

I agree. My dyslexic finds it frustrating. But everyone is different, so who knows. My son does fine with vocab, but he never enjoyed GSWL--he wanted more explicit instruction.