We are only 16 chapters in but I think you could do a chapter over two days if you really wanted to. The first day you can read the chapter, do the review questions and narration orally and do the mapwork and coloring page. The second day you could read one or two of the supplemental reading books and do one or two of the projects or activities. If you decide to add on a third day here and there to do more reading or projects, you can always do that as needed. ETA: or did you mean getting through two chapters every week, a chapter a day? If so, I would not want to do that.

We start on Labor Day, jumping in with both feet. I have everything I need to start. We usually give the kids small back to school gifts, make some sort of first day of school poster, etc on the first day.

I do all the researching, planning/decision making, and purchasing- which he funds, as he runs a business while I raise/educate the kids. I do the vast majority of the implementing/teaching, although when there is some sort of project I feel his skills would be better suited to than mine, we will ask for his help and he will give it. I like it this way. :D

I think what you are doing is fine and it sounds like you are making an effort to get her to outside activities. If she were in public school, she still wouldn't get a whole lot of play/socialization time anyway, going by my daughter's experience. My daughter went to public school from K through most of third grade. They had to sit at their desks doing seatwork pretty much all day, they only got a 15 minute recess and my daughter frequently lost all or some of it as a punishment for talking too much in class (even in Kindergarten), and they had "silent lunches" where they weren't even allowed to talk in the lunchroom. A 5 and 6 year old spending most of their time with mom (but also going out to join you on errands etc) and doing one or two outside activities a week is fine! As she gets a bit older (or maybe even now) she may make friends at some of those activities, and maybe you can see if she would like for you to start arranging a few playdates for her with some of the kids she seems to like well at her outside activities/homeschool group. You don't have anything to feel guilty about. :)

If it's taking most of the day, it's too much. Regardless of whether it's because your daughter is slow or you're doing too much or whatever the case may be. I haven't read all the replies, but some of the changes I might make are: Grammar- Do one chapter per day instead of two. Math: 4-5 pages per day is a LOT. At second grade I wouldn't do more than 1-2 pages per day. Map Skills/Geography: Seems unnecessary to me at that age. Can you drop it til third or fourth grade? Or do it on the ONE day that you aren't doing science/social studies (since you are doing each of those two days a week). Journal/Copywork- can you alternate days on these instead of doing both in one day, especially if she is a slow writer? (the journal sentence and the copying letters so she learns to not write them backwards thing). Vocab: I don't think you need to do "vocabulary" formally in second grade. When things come up in your reading that she doesn't know what it means, briefly tell her, but I don't know that you need a list and to formally go over a word each day.

I agree. It IS expensive. But so are a lot of other curriculum packages. At least as noted above OM includes all subjects in one curriculum. But even so, I was glad that I was able (with some patience and dedication) to find it used!

Until I opened this thread and looked at your "location," I thought: "She's from New Hampshire." LOL. I have (well, had) a friend from New Hampshire and she always said "wicked awesome." hehe. (That's all I wanted to say. I don't actually play Angry Birds myself). :P

Thanks for the checking out the review and your comment here. :) It's funny, I guess Montessori and Waldorf are two such different things but I like both of them lol. My kids just went to a Montessori summer day camp for two weeks recently (and will be going for one more week in August) and I thought that was great. I also think Oak Meadow (which is NOT true Waldorf, but Waldorf-inspired, particularly in the early years) is great. I think the main thing is just that it's not like public school, either way you go- it's a lot more creative, interesting, and fun. I'm a fan of creative, interesting and fun. :)

OMK teaches all the uppercase letters and so on. If your daughter already knows all of them and was bored with a different program where she already knew all of them, maybe you should consider maybe OM1 instead (which I haven't seen firsthand/used yet myself). If you only plan to use OM for your K year anyway, then whatever other "regular" curriculum you move on to in 1st grade will prob be more advanced than OM1 (since OM is more gentle especially in K-2) so it will be like progressing on anyway. You could always call OM and explain your situation and see what they say, they've got great customer service!

I think so. We do a lot of fun outings and field trips, I chose a hands on curriculum that has a lot of fun activities and projects, we do lots of things together, the kids get to do lots of extra curricular activities, etc.

The what?! I never heard of it. What's it about?

Well, I had read the first two book in the Game of Thrones series and really loved them. When I went to order the third at my library, I saw that someone had it out, so I had to wait for it. In the meanwhile, I read "Hit List" by Laurel K. Hamilton- the latest in the Anita Blake Vampire Hunter series. And I'd hoped that by the time I finished it, my other book would be in at the library. Since it wasn't, I started "Blessings" by Anna Quindlen. But yesterday the book came in at the library! So I put Blessings aside and I'm reading that one now instead. :D I pretty much only have time to read in bed at night these days. I'll be bringing it along with me on the camping trip we are going on shortly, too (we'll be going Monday-Thursday).

If you want to see more of what OMK is like, I have a post on my blog here showing what a sample week was like, with some pics, etc: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/125979.html I also have a detailed review of Oak Meadow: http://nancextoo.livejournal.com/124071.html Hope this helps! :)

Well, this past year, we read an assigned book every 3-4 weeks throughout the school year- we read those together, and how much we'd read per day would be divided by how many days we had in those 3-4 weeks before it was time to be finished and doing a writing assignment on it. That was for 5th grade but I expect about the same this year for 6th. We also do lots of extra reading, both independently and together, just for fun, as we really like to read. Whether the free reading is assigned just depends. Sometimes I let it happen naturally. Sometimes it's some sort of supplemental book to something we're studying and I'll encourage her to "go have some silent reading time" while I'm doing something else because I need her busy with something and/or want her to get moving on the book.

Enchanted Learning (dot com) is a great one!

I've always pronounced it "sherbert" growing up (I grew up in NY and always heard it said that way). I can actually remember being quite surprised as an adult when I saw it spelled and realized there WAS no second "r" and then wondered if I'd been pronouncing it wrong my whole life heh.

Do you mean here or on your blog?

Someone once gave me a huge list of all sorts of links to all different educational sites, and it had a pretty big section on "Art." I can't swear all the links work etc, but figured I may as well pass them on! :D ARTS ACTIVITIES/CRAFTS TO DO http://cp.c-ij.com/english/3D-papercraft/index.html free paper craft and downloads http://eclectichomeschool.org/department/crafts/february_craft.asp easy crafts to do http://edweb.sdsu.edu/courses/edtec670/Cardboard/BoardTOC.html can create your own board games http://homeparents.about.com/cs/familycrafts/ht/Slime.htm home made slime http://members.tripod.com/~Patricia_F/crafts.html has lots of craft recipes http://paperforest.blogspot.com/2006/10/spooky-stuff-and-long-time-no-post.html spooky papercrafts http://papertoys.com/ all kinds of toys/items/crafts to make out of paper http://pbskids.org/sesame/ Sesame Street’s website http://www.123child.com/ activities for early childhood http://www.activitiesforkids.com/ http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Classroom/Arts/Arts_and_Craft/Arts_and_Crafts.html craft activities http://www.dltk-kids.com/ Printable Crafts for kids http://www.folds.net/tutorial/index.html origami designs on-line http://www.janbrett.com/'>http://www.janbrett.com/'>http://www.janbrett.com/'>http://www.janbrett.com/ lots of free activities and coloring pages http://www.kidsdomain.com/holiday/ stuff for holidays http://www.knowledgehound.com/topics/hobbiesc.htm links http://www.quilt.com/ quilting http://www.vat19.com/free/free-video-tips-category.cfm?categoryID=29 step by step instructions on how to do some projects k-8 http://www.wannalearn.com/Crafts_and_Hobbies/ links www.childfun.com has tons of coloring pages, activities, crafts & lessons, for practically everything ART LESSONS/PROJECTS http://artsedge.kennedy-center.org/content/2367/ painting lesson plan http://www.artsconnected.org/toolkit/ explore tools artists use http://www.childrensmuseum.org/artsworkshop/sculpture/index.html sculpture lesson plans http://www.dorodango.com/create.html art out of a ball of mud http://www.drawspace.com/ lots of drawing lessons for free http://www.homeschoolarts.com/main.htm have fun little art project lessons http://www.howgreatthouart.com/ has free sample pages http://www.kidsdraw.com/lesson1.html step-by-step drawing for all kinds of things **** http://www.kinderart.com/ fun art lesson plans http://www.lessonplanspage.com/Art.htm Lessons http://www.mrpicassohead.com/create.html create a picasso head http://www.nga.gov/education/classroom/loanfinder/ free art loaning stuff… games… teaching material http://www.pacificnet.net/~mandel/TheArts.html couple of lessons by teachers http://www.princetonol.com/groups/iad/lessons/early/early12.html early childhood art lessons http://www.sanford-artedventures.com/ tons of lesson, activities, resources ***** http://www.tammyyee.com/origami.html Origami http://www.wikkistix.com/ Wikkistix web site www.creativespotlite.com links to sites on free art lessons www.mylilpicasso.com interesting art kits to buy ART APPRECIATION / HISTORY / MISC http://gardenofpraise.com/ good art appreciation printables/lessons http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/art_design.html'>http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/art_design.html'>http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/art_design.html'>http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/art_design.html lesson plans from the Smithsonian http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Classroom/Arts/Arts.html links http://www.ed.gov/pubs/StateArt/Arts/index.html ideas for teaching & learning http://www.eduweb.com/insideart/ an adventure in art history http://www.eduweb.com/pintura/ art detective (an adventure) http://www.kn.pacbell.com/wired/art2/ lesson http://www.knowledgehound.com/topics/art.htm links http://www.louvre.fr/llv/commun/home_flash.jsp?bmLocale=en Louvre Museum http://www.metafilter.com/mefi/56809 50 works of art you should see list http://www.pbs.org/teachersource/recommended/rec_links_art&lit.shtm#8 links from PBS http://www.wildlifeart.org/ArtTales/ telling stories w/art http://www.wwar.com/ find your local arts COLORING http://coloringbookfun.com/ free printables http://www.afunk.com/ free printables http://www.biblecoloringpages.org/ free printable coloring pages http://www.coloring.com/ color on line http://www.coloring.ws/coloring.html biblical stuff also http://www.coloring-page.com/ free coloring pages http://www.comicbookcloset.com/Coloring%20Pages.htm superhero coloring pages http://www.evergreen.edu/library/govdocs/coloringbooks.html gov. agencies for coloring http://www.first-school.ws/theme/coloring-pages/flowers-plants.htm coloring pages http://www.ivyjoy.com/coloring/search.html sends you to sites with FREE coloring pages http://www.janbrett.com/ lots of free activities and coloring pages http://www.keasoftware.com/coloring/index.php computer coloring http://www.nationalgeographic.com/coloringbook/dolphins.html Nat. Geo coloring book http://www.niteowl.org/kids/hpdcolor.html Mother Goose & Nursery Rhymes http://www.notebooking.org/build/ can make a coloring book AWESOME! http://www.thecrayonhouse.com/ http://www.tuxpaint.org/ freeware, for painting on computer www.childfun.com has tons of coloring pages, and activities, and crafts for practically everything www.colormountain.com coloring pages www.crayola.com www.highlightskids.com can print out hidden pictures DESIGN http://www.baddesigns.com/ bad designs http://www.ebuildingconnections.com/ architecture for kids http://evolutionoftruth.com/goldensection/ Fibonacci Sequence (pleasing proportions) DRAWING http://home.att.net/~tisone/lessonpg1.htm basic drawing lessons (plus some history) http://www.education-world.com/a_lesson/lesson106.shtml some lessons http://www.howtodrawit.com/ has a rhyme to go with it. http://www.radicalman.com/ illustrated examples http://www.saumag.edu/academics/liberal_and_performing_arts/art_and_design/ theory of drawing http://www.talentteacher.com/ lessons www.homeschoolarts.com lessons PAINTING http://smithsonianeducation.org/educators/lesson_plans/art_design.html lessons from the Smithsonian http://www.1art.com/ free on-line lesson http://www.angelfire.com/ar/rogerart/ lessons http://www.artchive.com/ art & commentary on famous artists http://www.fingerpainter.com/ another look at fingerpainting PHOTOGRAPHY http://www.apogeephoto.com/ photography http://www.kodak.com/eknec/PageQuerier.jhtml?pq-path=38&pq-locale=en_US&_requestid=4529 tips www.nyip.com New York Institute http://photonotes.org/ dictionary http://www.lightningphotography.com/ tips on photographing lightning http://www.dg28.com/technique.html photo tips/how to’s SCULPTURE & CERAMICS http://www.awesomelibrary.org/Classroom/Arts/Sculpture/Sculpture.html links http://www.graficaobscura.com/? Paper sculpturing http://www.in-motion.net/~cgareri/ links to ceramic sites http://www.origami.as/home.html elaborate origami http://www.popsicle.com/activities/index.cfm Popsicle Art ETA: Blah and I just realized my title says "inks" when it should have said "links" lol. I hate that we can't edit our titles!

Why wouldn't you? Reading is educational and a standard school subject. Here in PA we're supposed to "count" days OR hours. I don't technically "count" either- I trust that my kids are learning something and/or doing something educational 365 days a year, so I figure we've got it covered no matter what. But if I were going to "count hours" I absolutely would count independent reading time, among other things.

We've never carried or bought field guides. Usually we will take pics and then go home and look up (for example) trees of northeastern Pennsylvania and try to find a website that shows pics, and then see if we can match what we found to one. Same with birds- or we might google "small brown bird with white on head" or some such if we have trouble identifying it the other way- there have def. been times where it's been a time consuming pain in the butt to try to identify something though lol- and in the end, we sometimes weren't even positive we identified something correctly! But we did our best. As for follow up ideas, we identify things, we draw pictures of those things, we might do a little writeup describing what a particular thing was doing or what it sounded like or what it felt like or what it smelled like etc (depending on what it was). Sometimes my daughter liked to make and paint clay models of some things we saw. You could get library books, of course. Once we collected pine needles from a white pine and tried to make pine needle tea (fun to try but not very tasty- then again, we're not tea drinkers to begin with).

Thanks for these links. :) I'm printing a bunch of stuff to accompany the Meet The Masters stuff I've already printed- these will make good supplements since I want each of those lessons/artists to last like 3 weeks each (doing art 1X a week).

:lol: Those are great!

So here I am at the pool again- no see thru tops yet lol-but there was a girl standing at the edge of the pool wearing a teeshirt that had a saying on the back that included the "F" word in large letters. I was like, are you kidding me? I went and told the nearest lifeguard. Who DOES that in a place tons of kids frequent?!? And Cyndi, LOL at nippular!

At first I thought you meant contribute financially and I was going to say no. Then I saw you meant chores and as such- yes! ETA I checked everything except family laundry and the last three boxes. But in the case of cleaning other rooms, I meant help out some and clean up after themselves, and in the case of watching younger siblings unpaid, that would be an occasional, not a regular, thing.

I can't French braid at all, but when my daughter's hair was really long, just plain braiding it at night made a big difference as to how tangled it would be in the morning. Using conditioner during showers and a detangling spray as needed did help too. But I did eventually convince her to cut it to like shoulder blade length instead of lower back length and it helped a lot (and looked nicer and healthier too, I thought. And fortunately she loved it)!