My DS was similar, though not quite as verbally precocious. At that age he really enjoyed open-ended sensory bins with various tool for grabbing, scooping, pouring, sifting, weighing & sorting. I created weekly "themes" & we did all sorts of painting, sorting, counting, phonemic awareness games, patterning, etc around that theme then he had free access to the materials afterwards. Often he would repeat activities we had done together or would use the materials in novel ways. Wooden trains & Hotwheels were a big hit then, as well & are still sanity savers for me!

Our year runs May-March so '17-'18 is coming up waaaay too fast for me! I'm considering this year Kindy for DS4: Math: RightStart B (finish), RightStart C, Prodigy, Beast Academy 2 (as released) Reading: LOE C (finish), LOE D Writing: LOE C (finish), LOE D SS/Science/Art/Music: Continents & Cultures Either at the end of this year or the beginning of next year we'll do a unit study on prehistory & evolution from Big Bang-Early Humans

I haven't used these YET, but parts of them are in our lineup for next year for Continents & Cultures study. They appear to be very good quality.

Our year runs May-March, so the '17-'18 school year is right around the corner for us! My K'er will be doing... Math: RightStart B, RightStart C, Prodigy Reading: LOE D & Levelled Readers Handwriting: LOE D & Copywork Social Studies: Continents & Cultures (custom) Science: Continents & Cultures (custom) Art: Continents & Cultures (custom) PE: Soccer & Forest School Plus lots of games, chapter book read-alouds & park days! ☺ï¸

This is lovely!!

I don't think my DS is as independent in his work as your daughter. Any reading he does is 1:1 on the couch with me - he won't read to himself. RightStart was taking us 20-30min for shorter lessons, then 30- but I don't think we were ever done in 10-15min. If I don't count Evening read-aloud, school this year has taken us 2hrs (breaks included) for RightStart, LOE (reading / handwriting) & other topics very occasionally thrown in. That amount of time has worked well for him.

Thanks! We have an old iPad Mini. I tried it & it kind of worked at first, but then kept crashing. 😕

Next year we are doing a Continents & Cultures focus for Kindergarten, using a curriculum I'm in the midst of putting together. Each week would consist of reading aloud from our encyclopedia / atlas or picture books (daily), an independent reader (3x/wk), a mapping activity (1x/wk), copy work / narration (1x/wk), science extension (2x/wk), & art extension (3x/wk) In addition to this we'll have RightStart Math & read-aloud chapter books. He is reading decently, so we'all be using the aforementioned readers in lieu of a reading curriculum. If I had to guess, I would say the Language Arts portion of our WorldGeo study will take 30min, then another 30min for that day's extension activity. Math takes us 30-45min a day & read-aloud is 30min a day. With breaks we are likely looking at 2.5-3hrs total. Does this sound reasonable?

It is a lazy schwa - the sound is similar to a short /u/.

Following. I am looking for the same, only iPad compatible (not Prodigy - the iPad can't handle it).

Continuing RightStart & Logic of English. An emergency overseas trip means we'll only be home 2mo before taking our scheduled month of vacation in March. I'll probably end up bringing RS B along with us, but will save LOE D for summer / fall. Next semester I need to work on adding our science / culture / art rotation back in again. The 3 R'S started taking longer & I was stubborn about breaking up lessons, so that's all we were doing for a while. Also, DS will be starting Forest School once a week, which I am super excited about!! He'll spend 2hrs out mucking around with a bunch of other kids, rain or shine, while I have time to myself!

UGGHHH... don't tell me that! 😣 I haven't tried having him read to a stuffed animal. We'll try that. If nothing else, maybe we can just make it a part of the daily routine so it's expected, if not particularly enjoyed.

This semester we had school M-Fri. No outside activities M-W. Nature study field trips every other Thursday. Gymnastics on Friday. Soccer on Saturday. Church on Sunday. Next semester 2hrs of Forest School will replace gymnastics on Friday afternoons, but otherwise it will remain the same. If we could, I would love to have an activity every day after school. DS has sooooo much energy! Unfortunately extra-curriculars are really expensive here so we are already maxed out!

My son is working his way through Logic of English Foundations. We began in May & are currently halfway through Book C. He has all of the phonograms down pat & is able to read the material, but he does not have much confidence. Getting him to reading to me, either from the LOE Readers & MyFirst! style, is like pulling teeth: "I caaaaan't!!" or "It's too many pages / words / letters!" He is perfectly capable. Once he quits whining & tries, he reads beautifully. I praise, praise, praise when he does. I just can't seem to convince him that he is able to! Even after the fact, if we buddy-read for example, he will say "Well, I couldn't have done it all by myself. I can't read the whole book." Any tips? Should I go back to something SUPER easy to show him how easy they are now? Is this a normal part of the learning to read process?

DS3 - Quadrilla Marble Run - Smartgames Vikings or RoadBlock - Operation Game - Playskool Transformers - Playskool Star Wars - Picture Books about Hong Kong - Shoes In his stocking he'll get a book of mazes, a Rory's Story Dice expansion, Rat-a-Tat Cat, Mille Bornes, Barrel of Monkeys, Hotwheels, a tin music box & an ornament.

Following. My DS finished his math book today & I'm waffling btwn starting the next level next week vs holding off until January.

Agree w/ ReadingMama - the Nora Gaydos readers are great! Similar decoding level to Bob books, but longer sentences & better / funnier stories. After that, we switched to "My First" Scholastic readers like Biscuit, Mittens, & Pete the Cat

We have established a natural rhythm rotating science, culture & art weekly. On science weeks, we loosely follow Exploring Nature With Children. We've studied insects, seeds, leaves, & are now performing an experiment about the impact amount of light has on a plant's growth. Next year we are doing a year-long Continents & Cultures study, so science will be Geography & Animal Science (animals from each continent, habitats, etc)

Has anyone used the Aesop's Fables: Books About Reading, Writing & Thinking series produced by Royal Fireworks Press? My son will likely complete the learning-to-read stage this year, but I don't feel he is ready to jump into MCT & this was recommended as an alternative to fill a "gap year" in-between. My initial thought is that I love the Fables & think they are spot-on for my son. I like some of the ideas behind the activities, but a lot of them seem cheesy & the coloring pages would never get used. The whole set (40 fables w/ questions & activities) is only $30, though so I'm on the fence...

Those are AWESOME! I really love the History samples, too... I wonder if those would be overkill alongside History Odyssey??

Same concern here. I purchased RS A for my mathy PKer this year & we are moving into B next month. One level a year is pricey enough; two is painful! Anxiously awaiting BeastAcademy 2!

My son has an app on his iPad (Little Writer?) that has you trace letters & numbers but will ONLY accept it if you start at the first little icon, so you are tracing correctly.

This is exactly what I had in mind for a tutor. Of course language tutoring would look vastly different for a 3.5 or 4yr old than for an older child, but I don't want "just a babysitter" either. I have no need of a sitter; I need a language-learning partner for my son. The lack of ANY standard romanization for Cantonese (like pinyin for Mandarin) means it is nearly impossible for me to teach him the language, not knowing it myself. I would likely do far more harm than good, butchering tones & forgetting vocabulary.

Preschool does not exist here. Kindergarten begins at age 3, so they are in school. International schools cost tens of thousands a year, while local schools are 8hr days of seatwork & drill. While I have no doubt the language immersion would help him learn Cantonese, my bright, active, social son would be positively miserable in that environment.

At what age or grade did you decided to introduce a second language? It is a popularly held belief that language acquisition is strongest between the ages of 3-7yrs; however there is conflicting evidence regarding why (or even if) that is true. While accents are in fact developed more naturally at a young age, some research suggests that overall language acquisition is actually more efficient in early adolescence, provided development is given ample support & practice. We are living overseas in a region where most families are bi-, tri-, or multi-lingual. My son is currently 3.5yrs old. I feel a lot of pressure to begin teaching him another language, however I don't speak the local tongue (Cantonese) myself. The complexity of a tonal language means we would require a tutor. We are also in a bit of a unique situation in that he is working on a K/1st level in the "3 R's". I am concerned about adding more while he is learning to read & write in English. He knows that other kids speak Cantonese & he cannot, but as of yet he doesn't seem to care. Should I try to add in another language now, or wait a year or two until he is solidly reading / writing & might have more motivation to learn for communication with peers? ETA: The vast majority of people he comes across (adults & children alike) DO speak English, so he is in no way socially impeded or isolated by his lack of understanding Cantonese or being able to read Standard Chinese. He just knows that many other kids *also* speak another language, called Cantonese, & that sometimes that is the only language they know: maybe 10% of the time.