Thanks for the thoughts and ideas! We do have the magnetic Melissa and Doug pattern blocks and he enjoys them with activity cards. I guess I actually have never given them to him to just experiment with. I will try that. I don't think he would understand an actual discussion of tessellations, being only 2.5, but I could show him what they are and tell him the word. And open-ended pattern building would be fun :) Also, thanks for the opinion about starting with Mighty Mind. I might have gotten Mini Mighty Mind if I had found it on my own, and it sounds like that would be a waste of money with him. So, thanks again!

Thanks! So, it would be pattern blocks, tangrams, mighty mind, then super mind in order of increasing difficulty?

Another great idea! Thanks! Using dry erase sounds great!

Thanks! I am putting tangrams on our list. We do have puzzle blocks and he enjoys them! Any idea where to find ones more challenging than a duck or a boat? He does them so fast. Plain old tangrams or tangoes? Thank you! That is a fabulous thread! A lot of the ideas are for older kids, but it gives me a starting point! I might post there and ask what they did with their kids when they were younger. That's a great idea! We do have a couple map ones that I had forgotten about. Even though they are fewer pieces, they are more challenging because of the shapes. Thanks! What is the difference between the Mighty Mind/Super Mind sets and tangrams and pattern blocks? Or are they variations of the same thing? Thanks for the ideas! It is hard to tell from the links. Are they puzzles in books? Thanks for the ideas! I am wondering if that is going to happen. He knows most of his letters, but has not memorized the alphabet song yet, which I find strange because my older 2 already knew it by this age, and I am just starting letter sounds with him. Thanks for the suggestion! Thanks! We love Legos here, but I don't know if we have any of the Bionicle sets. Maybe one. I am sure my husband would love an excuse to get new Legos :)

My son is 2.5 and he is doing 100 piece puzzles. I am NOT a mathy person at all, so I am wondering what people with experience would suggest, besides puzzles, to continue to engage this part of his brain. Besides the fact that he will work at a 100 piece puzzle until it's done, he also surprised us by completing a 12 piece puzzle upside-down at a restaurant the other day. It was the only size I was willing to bring and possibly lose pieces from. He looked at it, and I guess he decided it was too easy, because he turned all the pieces over, and put it together in just a few minutes. Partly, when he has done a puzzle more than once, I think he memorizes it. All 3 of my boys have fantastic memories. But I think there is more to it then that since he is doing larger puzzles as well. I am very concerned that my boys are going to be beyond my abilities in math much sooner than anticipated! Thanks for your thoughts!

Such a helpful thread! Thanks!

Thank you! I didn't know that about the numbers. Interesting! Thank you, C! They do enjoy the fables that come up in First Language Lessons. I want to be you! I hope my boys will be 24 and still asking me to read to them! My grandfather read to us on vacation every year until I was an adult. Even though he died several years ago now, the sound of his voice is so clear in my memories, always reading Mother West Wind :) My boys started reading on Bob Jones K5 before we switched to OPG. I was looking at the 2nd grade reading program last night after reading your post. They don't have a good look at the teacher's guide so I couldn't tell if it was something that would get us through a year or if a lot of the week is used on reading comprehension and things like that. Is the 2 or 3 pages a day a whole story? I am assuming there are not 180. I haven't looked at those yet. Thanks! Thanks! It's a good idea. I have no idea what reading level he is on. I feel like OPG goes through several levels. He can decode words with several syllables and spells well enough that it doesn't work to spell things in front of him with my husband or mother anymore. We sometimes use the Pathway readers and he generally enjoys them. We have used some ABEKA. I will look at CLE, thanks!

Finishing 1st grade this spring. Bible- Grape Vine Stick Figuring Through the Bible, Old Testament Overview Part 2, We Choose Virtues, Old Story New/Long Story Short Reading- finish Ordinary Parent's Guide Writing- finish Writing with Ease 1 Grammar- finish First Language Lessons level 1 Spelling- We have a couple more weeks of Evan Moor Building Spelling Skills Daily Practice Grade 1 then we will start grade 2. Cursive- My DS is very interested, so we do it when we have time, but I am not pushing. We just use the printables on http://www.kidzone.ws/cursive/ Math- finish Math Mammoth 1B. We are playing math games daily as well at this point with my 4.5 yo. We all are really enjoying this. History- finish reading Story of the World volume 1 Science- we have been doing a very casual version of the biology outlined in Well Trained Mind. We have also used Mr.Q's Life Science. We will just continue to read and narrate different things this year. We tried to do art study and music study this year but just weren't consistent. This Summer No idea! I want to keep it light. Science, I would like to do more nature study. Maybe get something from SCM. Outdoor Secrets and the guide maybe. I think we should do some Bible, reading, writing and math daily. Just not sure what at this point. Math, Maybe just continue with the math games to keep up math facts. For reading, if we don't finish OPG, we will keep at that in the summer. Afterwards, we might go through any 1st readers we didn't read during the school year to keep him practicing reading out loud. Maybe a paragraph or page a day. For writing, some kind of daily copywork. Maybe Bible verses or poems we memorized during the year. I think just a sentence a day in the summer. Bible, I think we will just reinforce what they are doing in Sunday school without anything extra. 2nd grade, starting September 2016 Bible- Grape Vine Stick Figuring Through the Bible, OT overview Part 3 and 4. We will see how long that takes. I think we will probably keep using We Choose Virtues. Might look into something more in depth. Love Long Story Short and Old Story New. Reading- Have him read out loud to me daily. Just not sure what yet. Might be a paragraph from a kid science encyclopedia on our topic of the week. Might be on-level readers. Still working this out. Writing- Writing with Ease 2 Grammar- First Language Lessons level 2 Spelling- Wherever we leave off with Evan Moor Building Spelling Skills Daily Practice Grade 2 this year, then move on to grade 3 Cursive- probably just free worksheets to get through the uppercase and lowercase letters. Probably just a couple days a week and then once he has all the letters, incorporate it into his weekly spelling tests and copywork. Math- I think we will probably use Math Mammoth 2A and 2B and math games. I am not thrilled with it but I don't hate it and neither does he. We don't love it either. I think Beast Academy will be a good fit so we are just kind of treading water until 3rd grade. History- Story of the World volume 2 Science- Astronomy/earth science...but no idea what we are using. Maybe just follow Well Trained Mind's suggestion of an encyclopedia and library books and narrations and experiments. Didn't work this year but I think earth and space is easier to break into chunks then all the plants and animals of the world. I am kind of leaning towards using this free curriculum as a framework. https://wateronthefloor.wordpress.com/free-curriculum/earth-scienceastronomy/ Art/Music- No idea. It just didn't really get done this year. I would like to do it. I have the World's Greatest Composers curriculum from Confessions of a Homeschooler. We just didn't have time to do more than listen to music here and there. I am very much an open-and-go girl, and didn't find something that was a good fit for both me and my boys. I also have an accelerated 4.5 year old who does most subjects alongside my 6 year old, and a 2.5 year old who will be doing some form of tot school/preschool next year.

I want to include some memory work in our science curriculum next year for astronomy and earth science. What kinds of things would you include? Would you do sentences like the big ideas in RSO? Or facts like the memory work listed in the curriculum linked below? https://wateronthefloor.wordpress.com/free-curriculum/earth-scienceastronomy/ Or would you make up something on your own? Thanks!

I was about to write almost this exact post. I am piggy-backing on yours instead, if that's okay :) We have a 6yo, 4.5yo (doing k/1 work this year), 2.5 yo, and we could be matched any day with our first DD from China. Very similar situation and age range. My current thought is to do Apologia for astronomy (14 chapters), Sassafras for earth science (18 chapters), and wing it for 4 weeks of geology based on what Sassafras doesn't cover (volcanoes/earthquakes, rocks and minerals and gems). I think I would just buy the texts of each one and then do narration pages each week. It is pretty easy to print off a coloring page from those topics and leave room at the bottom for writing. For experiments, I am thinking about getting the VanCleave books and using the experiments outlined in this free earth science/astronomy plan, which might be what you're looking for in general. https://wateronthefloor.files.wordpress.com/2013/05/earthscienceastronomy.pdf I love it but want to buy fewer books next year. Hope that helps! And if anyone has any thoughts about my tentative plan I would love to hear them.

This is amazing! Thank you so much for all the hard work you put into this and for sharing it!

I'll look at it! Thanks!

Thanks so much! I will do that when the kids have their quiet time. I appreciate the offer!

I don't know the rules to Sum Swamp, but I appreciate the idea for extending it! Your daughter sounds hilarious! Thanks for the ideas! I think we might actually have that somewhere. I've never played it, though. I will look for it. Thanks!

We are following WTM for science studies. We did biology very loosely this year, and are planning on doing astronomy and earth science next year. Any thoughts?

Education Unboxed is great! Thanks! I have 3 boys, aged 2.5, 4.5 and 6. Jelly Beans would be great for the older 2! I wish it was an ebook so I could put it on my kindle! I have been looking at that one for awhile. Thanks! I wish Life of Fred was less expensive! I would love to do that with my 4.5 year old! I have been wishing we could get it since I first saw it. It is expensive for one year, even used. We are doing Math Mammoth, which was 30 for the whole thing, so pretty much everything is more expensive!

That looks fun! Kind of like Rack-o, right? That's several votes for Sum Swamp! I will have to ask around my local homeschooling friends to see if we can borrow it from anyone. Thanks!

I have such snuggly boys that if we could do it on the couch that would be lovely. I agree that math and writing work best at the table though :) I did just get the Verbal Math book on my kindle. It doesn't look like it is whole year, but I guess that depends on how much you do in a day. Also, how can you be the doctor's next companion when I am pretty sure I am :p I do keep looking at Right Start, or at least the game pack, but I am hoping for something that will use tools I already have. I am pricing the game guide used. Yeah...that is something I am considering. Buying the pack used and using my own supplies. I would really love something that plans it out for me with supplies I already have. ETA: We have cuisinaire rods and I see that you use them. Is it just for your curriculum or do you play with them? Any games you love?

I know that you could do this with any curriculum, but I am wondering if there is a curriculum out there that specifically lays out 180 days/36 weeks of learning where the learning is mostly done orally. Where I could sit on the couch with my kids and talk to them about the topic of the day, or sit at the table and do it while they are eating snack. We can use the white board or manipulatives to talk through it. Then, built into the curriculum, to reinforce the topic of the day, there is a game built in that can be played with dice, cards, dominoes, paper, pencils, and counters. In other words, no special supplies. I know this is something that I could make looking at the scope and sequence of other curriculums and then searching Pinterest for games, but I am wondering if it is already put together. I love the games and books and sites I have been finding through my other thread, but I am wondering if there is a full-year curriculum that is built around simple games.

Ohhh my goodness! Snugglenumber looks wonderful! Putting that on my list! Thanks! Any other place value games you love? I haven't found many through Pinterest or Google. I desperately want the Rightstart guide! Thanks! Who doesn't love swamp creatures?! :)

Thanks for the suggestions! Thanks so much! I really enjoy your site and am considering getting the kindle combo on amazon for younger kids. We have been playing games for a couple days (place value war with uno cards, the place value game from an Aussie blog, magic number) and the boys looooove them. They are begging for math games all the time now. And I can see my older DS grasping place value better after only this week! Keep the suggestions coming!

Looking at it right now! Thanks!

Thanks! I am going to see if I can find this one used because I hear it recommended over and over. Thanks! Thanks! Your site is great! I was already thinking about getting the preschool book for my youngest :) Thanks! Thanks! Thanks for all the thoughts! Thank you! Thank you! Free is very good :) I covet the Right Start Math card games book, not gonna lie :) Thanks for the other suggestions! I am looking for that book used. Thanks!

We need a break or a supplement or both for Math Mammoth. I don't want apps or computer games, I want games that the 3 of us can play together. Any resources you can recommend would be great! Our library doesn't have a huge selection, and I don't have a huge budget, so bonus points for free resources, links, or for typing up the directions to your favorite game in the comments :) Thanks!

Thanks for the responses last time! Sorry that I never said that. Thinking about this again. Is there anything like Jot it Down but free/less expensive?