We travel a lot. I don't know the longest flight(18 hours maybe?) It just depends on the airline. I love flying Turkish Air even in economy. They are amazing to kids too so makes it worth it. I will never fly Pegasus again even if only for an hour..... On long flights I just get everyone up to walk three or four times.

Snowed in so staying in pjs watching movies is the new plan . Glad I got groceries yesterday. So pizza for lunch and chilli for dinner.

Thanks! There is just so little online for reviews. I hate to buy something without hearing the good and the bad.

History of Art. Spelling error above ðŸ˜

Anyone else use VP history or art?

I just saw this curriculum. It looks great. But I haven't heard a thing about it. Anyone use this? What did you think? I am looking for a book to use a few times a week that leads into discussions. Which this looks good for. ETA: Looking at 1st grade

Wow! That article is so good. Now I just need to find the guts to be so counter cultural! 😃

Math has been my struggle to figure out. Ds will be in 1st next fall. My goal is to pick a program to use throughout elementary. I have to buy several years worth at a time unless I can get digital curriculum. This year we stuck with Miquon orange. I LOVE Miquon! We have RS games, and many other games that involve math. Ds has loved using games and has so many facts down through playing them. I also have Singapore CWP and IP for 1st that we are working through at a quick speed. I bought the addition lessons from Math Mammoth to try out the program. It is too easy for ds. I like the material, but I am not loving it. It is just so-so. Maybe because it is too easy? Anyways, I have felt like I need something to use with Miquon. Maybe because it is so different I don't feel it is enough. I don't know. I have looked at so many programs. As I look at the 1st grade levels it looks like he has covered and mastered most of the topics taught. So maybe Miquon and games is working better than I thought. Which leads me to my question, how do you decide if a program is enough by itself? How do you pick a program or decide to just cover early elementary on you own? Is a program really needed? For those that have used bits and pieces of programs what have you used and why? Has it worked out?

School with ds Clean house Groceries And some rest as it has been a hard week. We have all been ill for six weeks.

Look into food allergies. Do an elimination diet for several weeks. First ones I would look at corn, gluten, sugar, dairy. Growing an in-sync Child is another book to look at. And track sleep for a month and see if patterns show.

Thanks for the replies!

Anyone NOT like the MP enrichment? I am looking at the 1st grade. I have heard many good reviews, just wondering if there are negatives. I am also thinking of FIAR, but leaning towards MP as it includes music, art, and poetry appreciation.

Thanks Ellie!

Ellie- can you give more thoughts on R&S spelling for 2nd and 3rd grades please? I have to buy several years of curriculum next month as we will be stateside then, and my plan was R&S spelling.

Do you have the book Third Culture Kids? It has a long section on education. It really is a good book to have covering many areas of expat kid life. We are homeschooling where there are no other hs. I know what you are thinking through. Here are some other things to consider: Shipping of curriculum for many years. For us it is cheaper to visit the states every other year. Seriously a plane ticket is cheaper. So consider if you have that budget to be able to do it. Selling used curriculum. I can't sell a thing here so I had to send stuff back with family that visited and then donated it all. So that is a big cost too. Enrichment classes (art, music, pe etc) cost us money. Basically it comes down to our choice to hs is much much more expensive here than in the states. We have decided it is worth it as we are not comfortable with the local schools as religion is taught. We have to compensate to make a peer group and that isn't the easiest.

I will have to look at MP as it seems people like it a lot. I am planning to use 1st enrichment next year too so it might be nice to stick with them.

Did you use just R&S for phonics? And is the TM needed?

Ds loves workbooks and keeps asking for more. We also have a busy season ahead of us with several moves in a short period of time, so a workbook is easier for me to keep up with in all this transition. We are using Phonics Pathways, it working well and we will keep working through it. I want a workbook to supplement. I am looking at ETC- this looks nice and simple. I like the black and white and simple pictures. Ds would love the silly sentences. We would start at 1. R&S phonics (not the reading part)- this looks like it follows PP really well. It has the same sa, se, si, so, su stuff from what I can see. However, there looks like more on each page than ETC. My plan is to use R&S spelling in 2nd grade so maybe it will be best to stick with R&S, but then it might also be overkill from one publisher. I like how R&S teaches dictionary skills, does this show up in spelling later? Any other great workbooks? Basically I know ETC could be a great supplement. But R&S seems to follow PP better, but might be too much.

Thanks Ellie for the great review. It helps me see my real struggle is knowing what method I want to go. Traditional or Asian. So many choices!

I posted a while back about math, but I can't find it. Here is what we have done: MEP reception and some of 1, Miquon orange with Gattegno book 1 activities. I bought RightStart A but that was a no go jumped around too much and I don't like overly scripted. I need to see the big picture before I can teach something. I didn't like the lesson plans of MEP 1 just not clear enough for me and keeping everything printed off and together was too much for me to stay on top of. Although I loved reception. So I know I want to continue with Miquon ds and I both love it. But it isn't enough by itself for me. We also love RS games. Life is unpredictable in our house. We have to be flexible with school. So I know eventually I would like something somewhat independent in later elementary. But my ideal would be to do living math through games and rods and direct teaching from me. But I need to live in the here and now. This is what I am looking at give me your get it done advice. Rod and Staff- I like the simplicity and focus on basic skills. But I wonder if it may be too slow. And I don't know if memorizing is the most focus in R&S CLE- This looks like it eventually can be independent. Seems like a good balance between conceptual and traditional. Singapore- This seems to do a good job of conceptual learning and fit well with miquon. Kitchen Table Math- And just make my own curriculum off this I know whatever we use I can teach conceptually first with rods. So maybe I should stick with r&s to add fact practice and teach first with miquon. Would it be too much to use miquon to introduce material, r&s for fact practice, and singapore? For some reason singapore keeps pulling me, but I also want to get basic facts down. Or maybe I should just use games to focus on facts. Sorry for rambling, but I just have too many going through my head.

Yes library and public domains being free depend on country laws. Which means many of these are not available outside the US. Also things like netflix change also depending on laws.

Yes I love reading to ds. It just figuring out if I am crazy for wanting more books or just need to read the same things over and over and over.....

Ok I am feeling not so crazy for spending money on books for school. 😠We will be stateside soon and will be buying all our curriculum for a few years so it really adds up!

That did not cross my mind to look at first kid in a family. It makes sense the first/only would cost more.

If you have no English library around you how much do you spend a year on curriculum? I see all the time people say they spend $100 or so for early elementary. As I am planning for 1st there is no way it can be that cheap! So I am just wondering if I am spending too much, or if others without libraries spend a lot on books. Maybe I need to change my curriculum choices from those with lots of read alouds. But then we wouldn't have books to read.......