Thanks - Kingdom Builder looks great, & we love our other Queen games!

We gave a LOT of games last Christmas, and also stocked up on our annual trip back to the US, so we aren’t buying many this year. On our Christmas list are Azul (purchased), Photosynthesis, & Sagrada. On my Amazon list for next school year are Xtronaut, Tiny Epic Galaxies, either Dragon Times or Mythematical Battles, and either Tri-Fact-A or 24. I’d love more suggestions for Medieval history!

Ds would be 6 or 7 by the time we came over. He is highly social and very active - enjoys playing soccer, tennis, and liked gymnastics as well when he was doing that. We homeschool secularly, but may seek out a church eventually. We are fortunate to be part of one currently that is very diverse and puts kindness, inclusion, and compassion above all else. We love board games, sightseeing, festivals, and visiting museums / aquariums / zoos. We like a variety of foods from around the world & I enjoy cooking. None of us have ever lived anywhere with snow, but are open to it.

We have been living overseas for a number of years, and have recently been presented with the possibility of returning to the US. None of the possible cities are where we lived previously, and none are any nearer to family than the others so we really don’t have a lot to go on! I’ll be doing my own research, of course, but I’d love to hear what you have to say about the following cities - homeschooling community, climate, overall “vibe”, best areas / suburbs (& those to avoid). Salt Lake City, UT Cincinnati, OH Atlanta, GA

DS (6 in Feb) participates in soccer 2hrs/wk & tennis 1.5hrs a week. It’s his 3rd year of soccer, 1st of tennis. He also participated in gymnastics for a year. In the spring he’ll begin private tutoring for Mandarin (we live in Asia). I’d love for him to learn an instrument as well, but he’s a bit impulsive still & I don’t want to add things too quickly. Perhaps late next year, after we’re back from our family trip in the autumn.

Is there any reason to hesitate if a child asks to write on smaller-ruled paper - switching from penmanship paper to notebook paper, for example? DS has recently become enamoured with small handwriting - he thinks it looks nicer. He started writing only from the midline of his penmanship paper to the baseline about a month ago. A short while later, he asked for smaller-ruled paper. I picked up a wide-ruled notebook for him to try and he seems to prefer it. Short of reminding him to ensure spaces are wide enough to tell his words apart, his writing is just as legible as it was before. His pencil grip is correct. Some letters aren’t formed exactly the way he originally learned (he starts with the line for “d” rather than the curve, for example) but they are consistent and don’t seem to slow him down or hurt his hand. I see no reason to keep him in penmanship paper, but want to be sure there isn’t something I’m overlooking. I’ve included a series of writing samples showing his natural transition from full-sized letters on penmanship paper to the new notebook.

I’ve all but given up keeping track, and we’re only beginning. We live overseas, in a diverse city with several different school tracks (which begin at different points in the year and have different age cutoffs) and DS is an AL... so depending on who is asking & what information I need he is in Kindergarten / K3 / Reception / Primary 1 / 2nd grade (or maybe 3rd?) ??‍♀️ I dunno. I’ll figure it out when he gets closer to graduating...

My son also completed LOE Foundations young, and I contacted Denise Eide with the same concern regarding maturity. She conceded that Essentials is rather dry in comparison to Foundations and would likely not be a good fit for his age. We moved to Michael Clay Thompson (Royal Fireworks Press) for language arts, and have both thoroughly enjoyed it! It isn’t all-in-one to the extent that LOE is, with preplanned lessons each day, but a single level contains all of the elements needed for complete language arts. If you only buy the Teacher’s Manuals (which I recommend, at least for Island level) it involves five books which are worked through either one at a time or alternately, and you simply proceed from wherever you left off before. You are also recommended to read aloud ~10 chapter books of your choosing over the course of the year, and to have your child continue to practice reading as well with books of their choosing.

Yes, sorry. He’s a bit shy of 6, but generally an accelerated learner. He was claiming he “couldn’t remember anything” from previous days in history & science, but objectively his comprehension seems fine so I thought narration would help him see how much he is learning. I did prompt him to answer in complete sentences before he began. ETA: I’m hoping to use Killgallon Sentence Composing and W&R Fable with him next year (‘19-‘20), which will ask for both original work and written narrations. His penmanship is strong and his endurance is improving, but I want him in the habit of thinking in a way that is well-organised and coherent so all of the skills can come together smoothly.

I know it’s been a while since you posted, but I saw you had no replies & thought I’d chime in. For 5th grade, I’d expect to see written work of various styles across the curriculum. This should include nonfiction (informational) writing, persuasive (opinion) writing, and narrative (creative) writing. I would want to see clear, descriptive sentences grouped into cohesive paragraphs. For a larger project, such as a research report, several independent paragraphs - but not necessarily an essay. On these larger projects I would also want my student to practice using the writing process: brainstorm, revise, edit, produce a final draft. Writing should take place in some form daily, with larger projects once a month or so.

Are oral narrations welcome here? They are new to DS, and I’d like some feedback. The following prompts are reviewing information covered the previous day to check for comprehension and clear up any misunderstandings before we move forward. He’s Primary 1. Prompt 1: “Why is reproduction (making babies) important?” Making babies is important. If nothing makes babies, that species will go extinct! You have to make babies to keep the life cycle going. Once the babies are born, the mommy or the daddy takes care of them until they are able to get food themselves. Once they are adults, they can make babies and the life cycle restarts. Prompt 2: “Why is camouflage important?” Camouflage helps keep animals safe. Some animals blend in with their background. Camouflage is important because it keeps species alive. Some animals use camouflage to hunt, and some use camouflage to hide from predators.

Yes, I’m mostly pre-planning for December. All I’m doing right now is reading it aloud to him and asking occasional questions for missing plot items. We’ll discuss tense agreement & repetition that he doesn’t catch during oral readings in December. I’ll take another look at the revision lessons - I had forgotten about them!

First, as Farrar mentioned, her wording is stilted. The repeated use of “some” in particular jumped out at me. Second, her writing assumes that the reader is familiar with the characters she is referencing and will understand the importance of the plot points she highlights. Having last read Animal Farm over a decade ago, I had no idea what type of animal Molly was and was unsure why the things she mentioned were significant. Whenever I receive this sort of narration from my son, I encourage him to expand upon his thoughts by asking wh- questions: Why is Mollie allowing herself to be petted a significant and, presumably, shameful thing? Who found the hidden items in her bedding, and why were they looking through her things? How long had she been missing before the pigeons found her?

DS is participating in NaNoWriMo for the second time this year (for those who aren’t familiar, NaNoWriMo is a month-long book writing challenge that occurs annually in November). He’s young, so I have him dictate his story while I scribe. Then, after November has passed and the challenge is over, he uses his own story as copywork until he has the entire book in his own handwriting. At that point we also create a cover, add illustrations, etc. What I want to know is how much editing should I encourage him to do? I want him to get used to the idea of written work not being “done” the first time through - that it needs polishing - but definitely do not want to frustrate or discourage him! Since he’s copying my writing for the final draft, I don’t need to worry about having him edit for spelling or punctuation. During the writing process so far, we’ve discussed: 1. Making sure all of the relevant details are present (introducing characters and setting, not leaving out bits of plot) 2. Avoiding too much repetition by using pronouns and finding more specific synonyms for “said” 3. Ensuring that tense is consistent (not switching from present to past). Is there anything else you would include, or are these three items plenty?

How are you breaking up that 10-10:45 window? It seems like mathematics & language arts will be quite rushed. I can’t imagine learning, then applying, a new mathematics topic in 15min. We generally spend that long just on warmup or a game! Also, what degree of writing are you assigning your 6yr old & 9yr old? If you’re wanting more than short copywork from the 6yr old or more than a paragraph from the 9yr old I think 15min (45min block split into 3 subjects) is pretty rushed. I’d say if you must keep that block for those subjects, it might be better to alternate length - a 30min lesson in mathematics one day with shorter writing (or brainstorming for writing) then the next day a quick 15min review / game / other application of the mathematics topic and a longer writing assignment. You could also slate reading during your evening housework time, assuming they don’t need instruction there. They can read aloud as you clean, to themselves, or to one another.

This is how I felt about Level 1, which was disappointing because I was eager to dive in. The first few read-alouds were so strongly disliked that my DS (who has always loved stories) began resisting being read to at all! Needless to say we took a break from the literature. After some time (and a few successful non-TL read-alouds) we circled back to try a few again. He enjoyed the Madame Pamplemousse series, though I think it would have been a better fit if he were older, and Heartwood Hotel. After that we got onto a Roald Dahl kick so we haven’t tried any others. I like the history books and am optimistic about the science supplements, but wasn’t interested in curiosity chronicles. The Poetry of Science is great! I’m thinking in the future I’ll just gather ideas from the book lists...

Have any of you done notebooking for upper-elementary math? If so, how often did you use it & how was it organised? At the K-2 level the topics were so basic and flew by so quickly that it didn’t seem worthwhile. Now we are approaching more complex topics, and I’m wondering if it would be useful. I’m thinking a section each for anchor charts and worked examples, vocabulary, and reinforcement games “as needed” - I suspect primarily for topics related to geometry & measurement.

We enjoyed RightStart at ages 3 & 4, then transitioned to Singapore’s Intensive Practice. As PPs have mentioned, we also incorporate lots of other math books & games just for fun. At that age DS liked the Stuart Murphy books best. So far this year (age 5) he’s enjoyed Secret Life of Math, Number Stories from Long Ago, From Zero to Ten, & The History of Counting. I’m hoping to pick up Penrose & Number Devil soon, then go through the Sir Cumference series with him next year a series a fun addition to medieval history (he’ll be 6). Semi-Ot: We own Murderous Maths, but I was planning to save it for when DS can read it independently. Any particularly questionable content for a 5yr old?

He does not yet work independently - at best, he can work at my elbow. He’s very active & has a short attention span. We do have all of Singapore & BA through 5th grade. We’ve been doing work through that with area / capacity / volume & the books do continue to expand on that in each “B” book.

This is becoming more & more true. At first everything with him was fairly typical in progression, just early & fast-paced. As he gets older, despite my attempts to proactively build up fine motor skills & such, his abilities are getting more “uneven”.

DS has just wrapped up Singapore 2B (w/ Intensive Practice). My original plan was to complete Singapore 3, then begin BA3. However, Singapore 3 will assume mastery of multiplication facts through 5 (expanding to all facts in 3A) & he does not have them memorized. He understands multiplication & division conceptually, but saw no reason to learn them by rote because he can skip-count. *sigh* He is beginning to get frustrated by how slow skip-counting & repeated addition / subtraction are for multi-step problems, so I think we are working toward the inevitable conclusion that memorization is worth his effort, but as of now he does not have them down & I really don’t feel comfortable moving on in Singapore until he does. While flipping through BA I happened to see that they address the “skip counting vs memorization” argument. I feel the topic is covered well & would appeal to DS’ logic in a way that isn’t mom saying “I told ya so.” ? That said, I’m nervous about trying BA too soon & potentially spoiling a good resource because he wasn’t ready for it. I could simply stop & insist he memorize the facts before we move on... but I’d really prefer to avoid that approach. He loves mathematics; I don’t want to screw that up! What say you, AL Hive?

I’m not entirely sure what my goals are, to be honest... I suppose mainly it’s to give him some time to mature before MCT Town, while still exercising his grammar / mechanics muscles in the meantime. We’ve already incorporated dictionary skills into history, but I’m fine with doubling that up. LOE had him editing some sentences at the end of Foundations & he really enjoyed finding the errors. I’m thinking maybe a sentence a day from each Fix It & Practice Island... perhaps paired with a weekly writing assignment focused on creating quality sentences? I don’t want to jump to paragraphs too soon.

Would you recommend Fix It 1 between Island & Town, then? Is it fairly comprehensive? DS has loved Island, but it looks like we’ll complete it this year (original plan was to stretch it into 2yrs). I doubt he’d be ready for Town next autumn; I’ve heard it’s a significant jump. I’d have to supplement Poetics & Latin, of course, but that’d be fairly straightforward at this level.

We started in June, so we’re a bit further along than many. We had lots of awesome hands-on activities early on, which have tapered off a bit as life has gotten busier... extra-curriculars started back up, new neighbors arrived from overseas, there was a typhoon... but we are still making good progress & DS is enjoying school. Scheduling our year in 4wk units has been splendid! Right about the time I start feeling run down it’s time for a break. As for curricula, most things have gone as planned: DS absolutely adores MCT Island, Singapore continues to be a good fit with the Intensive Practice books, Words Their Way is as “short & sweet” as I’d hoped, History Odyssey is just enough of a framework for my energies to be spent on adding in fun stuff. My hodge-podge life science is going alright, though I still wish I’d found something already put together that I was happy with. We’ve dropped most of TorchLight. The history supplements are great, but the literature was a poor fit. I’m gathering read-alouds on my own now & he’s enjoyed those far more. All in all, it’s been a good start. We have NaNoWriMo coming up (always nice to have something special to look forward to) & are chugging right along everywhere else.

Never will he “snuggle up” for a story - he’s always moving, climbing, bouncing, spinning in circles. I don’t care, as long as he enjoys the story. I read to him several times throughout the day, both picture and short chapter books, but he listens best at bedtime when his body is tired. We’ve tried longer books & he didn’t care for them, so I shelved them. A big part of his resistance with reading himself is that I did “back off”... and now it’s harder for him than it was when he was in the habit of reading a little bit each day. He read happily before our break, then we went overseas & he didn’t read much for about 6-8wks. Now books he remembers enjoying reading are challenging & he’s frustrated.