Mine's Up Here.

Here's what we use... Math - Math U See Primer and Alpha Singapore Math Early Bird series and 1A Handwriting - Italics Handwriting Spelling - Phonics Pathways Vocabulary - Waterford Institute put out a series of "readers" that I got for $5 at Good Will (300 books) which has pattern words, sight words and the like we use for vocabulary. That and he asks when he doesn't know a word so we'll look it up. Language Arts - First Language Lessons 1 & 2 (Though I could teach it using just the accompanying CD). Phonics Pathways and Reading Pathways. And we read lots and lots....This List from AO and Beginning/Easy Readers from WTM pgs. 42-46 Logical thinking - Mind Benders Beginning Book 1 Visual Perception Skills Book 1 Music - Music for Little Mozarts Art - Child-sized Masterpieces

ha we both posted a thread. :lol:

At first when a deep question came up I'd give a simple answer. Well because God made it that way... and of course he was never satisfied, so we'd go a little deeper and deeper until he was satisfied. I try to be careful with the sensitive stuff, but he does make it difficult. For instance even though he was very interested in what happened on 9/11 he only saw the initial news footage because we stopped at grandma's house and saw it being covered on the news. He was not allowed to watch it again but we did discuss what happened and why. And we worked really hard at alleviating his worries that it would happen again. I guess we could have said it was all pretend or something, but I'm not inclined to lie to my children. So we try to just go at it in as careful a way as possible. Sometimes that means for some drama and rough patches in their emotions. But they don't make a manual to go with them when their born and even if they did, it probably wouldn't fit my little men, and princess anyway.

Quote: Originally Posted by nitascool View Post "Why does gravity pull us to Earth but doesn't pull the sun?" "Does God have to follow the law of gravity?", "Why did God make gravity if he knew that people would be stuck in tall burning buildings?"

Sure that would be fine if you want to split it off as not to encumber the thread :001_smile:

DS 9 Is amazing at cooking (he's got some awesome recipies), cleaning,anything language oriented, art (the real stuff he's really good w/o any real instruction) and reads faster and better then most adults I know. He's just fast and good at almost everything he does.:auto: DS 8 Is amazing at showing compassion, has a likable spirit, has a sense of humor that most adults find quite funny, has a deep interest in anything science related, observation skills over the top in relation to details (he'll notice the veins on a butterfly's wings), has enough energy to fuel a rocket ship.:willy_nilly: DS 5 Is amazing at grasping concepts, writing, reading, has a sense of humor that's satirical (just like mommy), he is still coming out of his shell though. :blushing: DD 2 Is amazing at building things, curiosity, desire to learn, and potty training... she's almost there woo hoo!:smash: And that's the whole gang. :grouphug:

I too think that my boys started thinking in the logic stage around age 1 1/2. Of course one of my oldest's first words was why. He asked me questions like, "Why does gravity pull us to Earth but doesn't pull the sun?" "Does God have to follow the law of gravity?", "Why did God make gravity if he knew that people would be stuck in tall burning buildings?" He was 1.5 when he saw us all crying on 9/11 and the prompt to all these gravity questions. When we started WTM at age 5 we did all the Grammar Stage stuff for the year in about 2 months SOTW I and WTM suggestions for 1st and spent the next 4 months with all the Logic Stage stuff for year 5. And he did all the reading himself. This year ds is in 4th grade and has done the suggestions in WTM for years 4 and 8 and AO year 4. He will do the last book in SOTW IV for the rest of the year, which we finally got on Tuesday. The only thing he's not doing logic stage wise is writing, which is closer to his age grade level. But orally he is up there in the logic stage and inching his way to rhetoric every day.

This is what we do too!

I have dyslexia myself and this is the process I was taught in Special Education classes in college. I could hardly do 1st letter organization at 13 but after learning this method I can alphabetize just about anything. Here's what I use for my boys to practice and this one also this is good for my middle visual boy.

Here's ours

Mine's up here.

Learning Planet simple with the order at the bottom and three kegs to put in order. Play Kids Games 9 fun alphabet games some simple but can get more challenging ABC Order Worksheets ABC Ya Click and drag

Here is a site with several methods that might help... just overviews of each

Mine is up here

I have Minimus and the TM... I think it is important to have the TM as we use the handouts and it has a lot of other helpful stuff in it for a non-Latin learned teacher.

Star Fall has a section with downloadable books. There are 15 beginning readers. Though I'd go through the 1st series of Bob books before attempting them.

Yes, you can still purchase the old version but not through their website. You will have to call your local distributor. The format from the first to the second is different and the problems are different.

Mine is up here.

First we use Phonics Pathways as a spelling book in K once they've finished learning to read with it. I do all the words orally with them. Having them write any words that they consistently miss. When they finish with this about 1/2 through 1st grade we begin Sequential Spelling. With a 1st grader I would cut the list in half and do book 1 in two years unless she is exceptionally good at spelling and extremely patient (I've got wiggle bug boys). It starts our easy and gets more difficult fairly quickly. With my reluctant writer we did the words orally (with Scrabble letters to help, did you know you can get the letters in lowercase?). If you are one of those fill in the blank, don't leave anything blank kind of teachers, you could act as scribe for your dd. So I would say the list words from say list 9: up, cup, pup, sup, good, wood, stood, could, would, food, mood, brood, out, shout, bout, lout, clout, flout, pout, spout, rout, grout, route, should, eye. And he would spell each word orally. List 9-16 are all the same words with variations such as, ups, upper, pups, puppy, puppy's, puppies, etc. I then have him do list 16 the last list of the sequence written. If he misses any we go back and do just those missed words and their variations. It takes about 5 min. to do each lesson and I like that my children can spell words orally (I have to write words down to "see" if they look right). Every once in a while we'll come across a word that he doesn't know and that is a perfect time to work on our dictionary skills. We do this together in 1st, but by 3rd they are on their own. I don't have them write it down because it can become frustrating... besides I don't find myself doing this when I look up a word. Some time later in the week we'll discuss the word and use it in our sentence game. We build silly sentences using new words we know. Our most recent: "A dripping diaper is the method whereby we learn to correctly channel our urine". :lol: That's a direct quote from my 5yo. Hope this helps.

Here's our schedule ~Bible~ His first read through using "Read and Learn Bible" and Answers Book for Kids Volume 1-4. ~Language Arts ~ Penmanship Italics A & B First Language Lessons 2 (finish up) A Child's Garden of Verse Phonics Pathway Reader (finish up) Reading Pathways (finish up) We use PP as an oral spelling text for 1st ~Math~ Math U See Alpha Singapore Math 1A & 1B Text, workbook 1 Extra Practice & 1 Challenging Word Problems ~History~ SOTW I including additional history and corresponding history found in the AG Trial and Triumph by Richard Hannula An Island Story by H.E. Marshall Fifty Famous Stories Retold by James Baldwin Viking Tales by Jennie Hall ~Geography~ Paddle to the Sea by Holling C. Holling Carmen Sandiego CDRom ~Science~ Apologetics Press Early Reader Series Marvels of Creation Series Journey Into the Human Body Magic School Bus series Sea Creatures series by Ann Herriges (there are 10) The Burgess Bird Book for Children by Thornton Burgess The Burgess Animal Book for Children by Thornton Burgess Life Before Birth God Made our Bodies Kids Answers ~Foreign Language~ Nellenart L'Art de Dire French Program (his bro.s are doing the upper level) ~Music~ Piano Lessons Music for Little Mozart's ~Art & Handiwork~ We tried using "Drawing With Children" which was a flop w/ my older boys... so we'll be doing a hodgepodge. Sculpey Origami Sand Art Beading Sewing Woodworking How to draw... series Pencil Drawing Acrylic Painting Oil Painting Watercolor Days of Creation (watercolor) ~Calender & Weather~ Charts and Calender with a Weather component Seasons and Weather series Ann Herriges (there are 10) ~Nature Study~ He has a Nature Journal and we take nature walks Bird of Ohio

I read or should say am still reading "The Travels of Marco Polo" revised from Marsden's translation and edited by Manuel Komroff. It is actually very interesting. I hope to have finished it by tomorrow evening. I'm also reading aloud "Poor Richard" by James Daugherty, "This Country of Ours" by HE Marshall, "Trial and Triumph" by Richard Hannula and "Charlotte's Web" by E.B. White... none of which will be finished this week.

Just saw this today, but have been doing my own reading Challenge. On the first week of January I read though "Around the World in 80 Days" and "Treasure Island".

I guess I missed the point of this post because I was going to say... I can't believe someone pays that much for shoes, school clothes, backpacks & school fees. My school budget $1500 for 3 children seems high to me, which is less then my Sister-in-law's school budget for her one son who will be in 7th grade PS.

Cost for the complete (grammar, vocabulary, poetry, writing and practice) HS packages are: $190 (Island) 3,4 gr. $170 (Town) 4,5 gr. $170 (Voyage) 5,6 gr. $170 (Magic Lens I) 6,7,8,9 gr. $170 (Magic Lens II) 8,9,10 gr. $170 (Magic Lens III) 8,9,10,11 gr. Cost for the basic (Teacher Manuals + Practice Only) HS packages are: $120 (Island) $105 (Town) $105 (Voyage) $135 (Magic Lens I) $135 (Magic Lens II) $135 (Magic Lens III)