Usually nonfiction is divided into topical segments. When we're reading together, I just stop at the end of each segment and say, "What did you learn here?" If they struggle to tell me, I ask more specific questions: "What did you learn about how sound is produced? How is it that we actually hear sounds?" and then circle back to asking them for a summary. If what we're reading is not broken into short topical segments, I stop after a page or so and ask for their thoughts. I try to gauge how much they can reasonably process at a time; taking a break to summarize seems to allow them to think it through and save it in a bite-size way so they can turn their minds to the next portion of information. (This technique works for projects and experiments, too. If you do an experiment or demonstration--without explaining in advance--you can ask the kids to interpret what they're seeing. They get all excited to make the discoveries on their own.)

Gary Paulsen books (more outdoorsy-independent type protagonists) Gary Schmidt books (variety of topics/settings, typically sprinkled liberally with humor) Nancy Farmer books (more sci-fi type) Orson Scott Card books (sci-fi, futuristic space setting) Terry Brooks books (fantasy, along the lines of Tolkien but lighter and not as tedious with all the long songs) When I taught 8th grade, a lot of the boys loved the Alex Rider series.

My perspective may be a little different because I know your daughter isn't a typical kindergartener...BUT I also haven't gone out and purchased TWSS yet, so take this with a grain of salt. The good folks at IEW told me that if I have a child who is reading and writing solidly, there is no reason I couldn't start their material. They recommended that I do Bible Heroes, but if that option didn't appeal they also suggested All Things Fun and Fascinating OR watching the TWSS and implementing the program slowly on my own. (Saying your child is in kindergarten will automatically evoke a stop sign in most people's minds, but when your kid's abilities are several years ahead of their age, obviously you're not going to limit them to kindy material.) There are some things that I love about IEW. The Key Word Outline does help them to keep sentences from rambling on and on, as they are wont to do, and the story sequence chart is a great tool for planning a story that makes sense and is interesting to read. Practicing dress-ups, I find, really does help them to internalize them and add interest to their writing. Those dress-ups are explained in grammatical terms (clause, strong adverb), which I also like. In general, IEW does a good job of teaching the basics of how to structure your writing and also make it sound nice. Some elements of IEW I don't love. Parts of it--like the story-writing section--seem to drag on eternally. (I think we were supposed to spend something like 12 weeks working on four stories, doing a paragraph a week. My oldest kept saying, "Are we doing the same story AGAIN?" So I sped it up a bit.) As far as the theme books go, if the writing selection doesn't grab your child, they are WAY unmotivated. DD enjoyed the first couple Bible stories, but then she really wanted to choose her own topic. She asked if she could work on Cinderella instead, so she worked on retelling small parts of Cinderella using KWOs and dress-ups while DS did Bible stories. Perhaps if I spent the money to get the TWSS, I would be head-over-heels. (I really hesitate to pay for the new, but I don't dare buy used because who knows whether the DVDs will be all scratched up, and I may not find out until six months later when I finally finish watching them all.) While I'm not generally a fan of rigidity, I do see value in copying a solid technique and practicing it until you are strong enough to make it your own. (It works for writing, art, cooking...) I plan to do more IEW programs in the future (maybe I should really buy TWSS...), but I don't plan to use IEW as my only writing program. I'd vote that you watch the DVDs and take what you find useful to use in your own writing lessons (introduced more informally). Or watch a few of Andrew Pudewa's videos online and see if you think it's worth seeing more.

Both my kids got hooked on A to Z Mysteries by Ron Roy after their cousin recommended them. They're written at roughly 3rd grade level. There's also the Calendar Mysteries, also by Ron Roy, that are slightly shorter and written at roughly 2nd grade level. Both are about groups of friends who solve mysteries. I like them because the content is clean (even the ghost was someone dressed up to try to scare people away from a hotel they wanted to buy) and the protagonists are polite and generally well-behaved.

We read a Bible story every night after dinner as our family devotion time. After reading the story, we talk about it, and we practice our family memory work. This year I joined a Community Bible Study--a multi-denominational, international organization. They have classes for each year of preschool, and mine also offers K-2 and 3-5 homeschool classes. The little ones hear a Bible story, sing songs, do a craft, etc; the older kids work through a simplified version of the adult study, complete with 5 nights a week of Bible reading and reflection questions. Then of course there's Sunday School, where they get another good dose of the Bible stories in addition to memorizing verses, creeds, books of the Bible, etc. Between those three venues, I feel like we're gaining lots of exposure/familiarity with the content of the Bible, and starting with K they get to delve into it more deeply through formal Bible study. For Pre-K through 1 or 2, I'm content with that.

My third grade niece got my kids started on A to Z Mysteries. Most are written at roughly third grade level, and I feel like they're decently written. The one nice thing is that there are so many of them; my kids seem to be using them to build fluency, since I've seen their comprehension gradually getting stronger the more they read. Now to find a "next-size-up" series... (Others I'm planning to grab from the library are the Flat Stanley books, Boxcar Children, and some American Girl books. We loved My Father's Dragon as a read-aloud, but the font was small so I couldn't convince them to try the other books on their own.)

I have a K-er and a PK4 this year. Both kids have been working through RS-B, but as the year goes on I'm realizing more and more that it's the perfect pace for DD (PK4) but DS (K) could be moving through it a lot faster. For example, while DD did exactly as the text expected on all those lessons leading up to adding large numbers on paper (relying on the abacus to develop understanding), DS looked at the first written problem on his whiteboard, solved it in his head, wrote down the answer and his trades, and finally moved beads on the abacus to match his numbers. I'm thinking of separating them for math after we finish B in another month. I think for DD-newly-5 I will just continue on to RS-C exactly as written, perhaps with a sprinkling of Miquon, which she finds exciting. (She's very visual.) What would you recommend for DS6 (headed for 1st grade)? Would you recommend just moving him through RS-C at a bit faster pace, adding something to create challenge, or doing something entirely separate? For reference, he loves learning and will do almost any task gladly but his ADHD makes everything take longer--partly I love RS for the interaction and light worksheet load. He's also an intuitive learner. He's always been annoyed by the abacus and he actively hates the Miquon C-rods except for making patterns and building. He enjoys the RS card games, but they take him forever because he goes running around the room after each turn or spends 20 minutes explaining each move he makes. He loves Mind Benders and logic puzzles and spends all his free time building (train tracks indoors, bricks and wood scraps out back) and drawing road maps of imaginary towns. He's not a mathematical genius or anything, but he seems to pick up the concepts with ease.

This is what I get for starting a reply and then walking away from the computer. Thanks for all your thoughts, Kerileanne99! I think you're reinforcing my leaning to wait juuuust a little longer (if nothing else, to wade through the material and decide how to pace it--though I've seen a couple schedules on here that might be handy).

Incognito, thanks for the comparison. Since I'm so passionate about writing, I'm hoping to use multiple different methods to help refine and stretch what my kids are capable of as they grow. (This feels specially vital since I feel like strong writing skills make such a positive impression in arenas like higher ed and the workforce.) I just can't imagine utilizing only one way of teaching writing--but maybe that's just because I've turned into a curriculum junkie. :tongue_smilie: Monique, thanks for letting me know what your plans are. After looking through W&R again, I think I will definitely stave that one off a while longer, probably after MCT like you and Lynnita suggested. Now to decide whether to use a filler like WWE for a while or continue with another IEW theme book or jump into MCT very slowly when we finish Bible Heroes. Leaning toward waiting until they are 6 & 7 for MCT, but I'm still debating. Sometimes I think I go hunting for new curricula just to provide myself more opportunity to agonize...

While I have super limited experience, I was impressed by the reviews and the price (around $50) on this Celestron telescope, so we got it for DS6's birthday. It has its own tabletop stand, which means you don't have to have a tripod for it, and we've found the spotterscope useful. (You aim a red laser light at what you'd like to focus on, then look through the actual lens--much simpler than trying to scan the skies and find what you want.) ...Now excuse me while I look up some of the resources duckens listed...

8FillTheHeart--While I am completely capable of teaching writing sans curriculum, I'm noticing that things don't get done consistently around here unless they're open-and-go. I had high aspirations for utilizing BFSU and making my own social studies material, but those died a short way into our school year. :-/ I'm still hoping to resurrect those for the future (we're officially only Kindy, so it's okay, right? And I'd dearly love not to shell out for EVERY subject), but I think it's going to take a lot of pre-planning and effort to get those ready to go, so I don't think I dare add another create-your-own type subject. I also don't just want to drop writing because a) it's a subject they like and b) I hate to lose what they've learned so far by just dropping the subject. Lynnita, thanks so much for detailing WWE for me. I'll have to give WWE2 a close look and see if it'll fit. Perhaps it will work well for us to strengthen the skills we've been learning this year in preparation for something more challenging another year down the line. Kerileanne99, how long do you think it will take your daughter to get through MCT's Island level? Is there any portion of it you are putting off until later, or one you wish you'd waited on? I have no problem adjusting programs to meet our needs--either adjusting pacing or substituting activities--but I don't want to get most of the way through and think, "I sure wish I'd waited--they'd have gotten far more out of this in a year or two!" (Especially at that price...)

Thanks for the responses! Guess I need to go do more digging. So far everything I've looked at either seems too basic/repetitive/boring-as-all-get-out or too advanced. Lynnita, what aspect of WWE did you think was particularly helpful? And what level would you recommend? I had written off WWE because a) lots of folks have mentioned that it's rather repetitive/boring and b) I had the impression it was simply narration, dictation, and copywork in the early levels. We've been doing narrations informally for a few years now, did dictation as part of AAS1 and moreso AAS2 (taking a break this spring), and used the first half of Bible Heroes as narration/copywork (while they were developing their spelling, I had them narrate the stories as I wrote, and they copied my writing). Would WWE have something new to offer?

I have a DS6 (officially K) who is passionate about writing and a DD5 who is determined to do everything her brother does. This year we're working through IEW's Bible Heroes. I loved it for the first half of the year--the vocabulary, the gentle introduction to grammar, the scaffolded approach to writing, the occasional games--but right now it's feeling stale. Perhaps it's because we're in the midst of the 12 weeks on story sequence, where we do the same story for three weeks at a time (first beginning, then middle, then end). After the first six weeks even DS was complaining. Even the games are feeling a little stale and repetitive right now, though. I had purchased ATFF to use once we finish BH, but at the moment I'm thinking we could use a break and a new perspective before doing more IEW. I've looked at both MCT and CAP W&R and figured they were for older kids, but then I realized that the program we're currently using is supposed to be for 2nd-3rd grade and the kids are having no trouble with any aspect of it, so maybe the other programs wouldn't be such a stretch. Both DS6 and DD5 are reading solidly (probably late 3rd/early 4th grade level?) and both have the stamina to write at least a paragraph at a time (did two books of Getty-Dubay last spring and are working on generic cursive now at their request). I love the extent of what's offered in MCT, but I get mixed reviews on whether kids this age could handle it. It sounds like maybe the grammar and vocab would be fine but perhaps the writing and poetry would not? And W&R looks like it has a similar concept to IEW--summaries, focus on various strategies to amplify/dress up writing--with a slightly different approach that might be refreshing. Any thoughts on which would be a better fit at this point? Or other recommendations?