Yes this too. Dh thinks I make too much of it.

Yes that is what bothers me too. And the buzzing.

Yes. Ds does too. And he sings everything all the time! His singing answers for school drives me a little crazy when I really just want to get it done. Dh doesn't and does not understand us at all. But he wasn't exposed to much music as a child, and doesn't play any instrument either.

I didn't even think of Luther's Catechism! Thanks for the reminder. I have the small one on my shelf.

She automatically gets a 2 month extension. She can file online. Is she calming the foreign earned income tax exemption? They are complicated with what can be claimed and what can't. We use a tax preparer because they are infinitely more complicated for us. I don't know for sure if you can mail taxes or not. But we have had troubles with that kind of thing with other things (banking, license, etc.)

Any studies out there focused on the 10 Commandments? This summer we want to do a family study and memorize them. Any good commentaries or studies? I want to take 10 weeks and go slowly through them.

Ds,9 yo, has listened to A Visit with Mrs. G every night before bed. He really knows the stories inside and out. These stories have done a great job of giving background into Hebrew culture and history. Anyways, he has listened to them for 9 years and is starting to want something different to listen to as he falls asleep. We have Jonathan Park, but that is too dramatic and has too much excitement for him to fall asleep. Any suggestions? Any good dramatized audio of Scripture? I want to keep it Christian in content. He listens to audiobooks during the afternoon already for about 20 to 30 minutes.

As a person with bad allergies and asthma this year has been soooo hard. The child could have allergies. Maybe the child has COVID. You might not ever know.

Congratulations! Moving overseas with children comes with amazing benefits, but also big downsides. I recommend read the book Third Culture Kid to give a good discussion of the positives and negatives.

RightStart has apps for some of their games. Go to the Dump and Corners are ones we have used. They also have a great game kit that goes through all of elementary mathematics topics.

Learning to read phase- we did a half hour tops together. This included the easy reader books. Beginning reader stage was half hour together reading books over and over. Independent reader started at a half hour and has moved up to an hour as stamina increased. Free reading I don't time. For this stage once or twice a week I have required reading aloud so I can catch things and improve the reading aloud skill. With independent reading I usually require one oral narration a week. And we discuss. I try to include a wide variety of subjects, and types of writing. The pandemic lockdowns really increased ds' stamina for free reading. So depending on the book he is currently reading during his free time, he spends a lot of his afternoon reading. I read aloud still for history, a novel, and some geography or science. These I require an oral narrations from. Next year for 4th grade I plan to have ds do more reading across the subjects. And then I plan to not time or give chapters for reading each day, but have ds do the planning of how long he thinks it will take him to read through a novel. And I plan to transition to written narrations of his reading.

Memoria Press has some great science narrative books. My ds is reading the Insects book right now and I really enjoy how it is written.

Elementary ages- Veritas Press incorporates Bible and church history. They also have Bible that is separate too. We have enjoyed it very much. Mystery of History

I require an oral narration from assigned readings. Then we just talk about it. We also did one workbook from Memoria Press this year. I really liked it a lot. Next year we are going to do 2 from MP.

It is very complete by itself. I added Gattegno because it was easier for me to see how to use the rods. In our home very little needed to be added to Miquon. But I added drill, more money work, word problems, calendar. However, keep in mind the program is written to be used as a math lab along side a traditional class. So you are encouraged to make your own sheets as well if your student needs more work in an area.

Goodness! It is sad how many people don't have basic math skills needed for daily life.

We will be doing it this Thursday. Ds is very excited for it this year.

Can you? Sure. We did a field trip/game day for k-3 each week. And then a short day each week with chores or errands. It has worked for us fine. But most field trip and chore days involved some school work for us. We did reading aloud, reading/phonics practice, math practice. Teaching independence takes time, and focus from the parent. You will want to work on independence. Know what is reasonable, and set small goals. Work towards having your third grader do 15 minutes of work indepently. If you could squeeze in 30 minutes phonics/reading and 30 minutes math on the other two days you will see better retention and growth. Focus on those areas first.

Does using a clock cause confusion? I looked into this years ago, but using a clock and going counter clockwise seemed as if it would make telling time more difficult.

I would try approaching math differently. Are you using a method your daughter connects with and understands? Cusienaire rods are my favorite math tool. Look on educationunboxed.com for different ideas on how to use them. Going back and working on place value is a great idea. That really is the foundation. Spend the summer playing games to help cement the idea. RightStart has a great math game book that covers lots of different topics.

Good ideas, I am sure his cousins would like a video call with him reading.

Good idea- I will try it tomorrow Mindfulness has been hard for him, but we have been working on it, and he is getting better.

Has anyone used anything from New England Dance Masters to learn American Folk Dance? They have dvds and books to purchase. I can't tell if they are easy to follow or not, or if you will need a large group of children. Will this only work with a school or co-op? Link: https://dancingmasters.com/

Yes, he has a lot of signs. And it runs in the family on both sides. 😂 Ds never stops talking all day long! He talks a mile a minute!

He has followed along with Harry Potter as he listened to the audio. That one got us through lockdowns last spring!