[Experience with twins?]

Wow, I never even really considered doing math and phonics individually... I'll have to think about that.

[Experience with twins?]

I have boy/girl twins that I am going to start homeschool with next year. They will turn 5 in July and be doing kindergarten with me.

 

Can anyone offer any insight on homeschooling twins? I'm especially concerned about starting handwriting and reading with my son. He isn't as interested or able to do handwriting - his fine motor skills haven't developed as well as his sister's. My daughter is totally ready and able to do this, but I'm concerned about giving her what she needs without making her brother feel like he isn't doing enough. If I modify a curriculum to let him do less writing, is it going to create problems? Anyone have twins with different abilities and interests, and how did you handle that while homeschooling?

[Book Shark]

Thanks for the recommendations.

[Book Shark]

I haven't seen a lot of people on here recommending or using Book Shark (or Sonlight). Anyone want to post a review or some helpful information about those programs? I'm considering using their History through Literature program for Kindergarten next year. If you wouldn't recommend the program, do you have a suggestion for another similar program (I'm aware of Build Your Library)?

[nature study recommendations]

I'm also looking for nature study recs, especially because I live in Florida, the land of no seasons. Most of the nature study materials I've seen are very seasons based and I'm just not sure how to tweak them.

[Alternatives to Rosetta Stone for German and Japanese]

Try http://web-japan.org/kidsweb/language/

 

As a starting point for japanese. Also,

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0486413365/ref=mp_s_a_1_4?qid=1454516897&sr=8-4&pi=AC_SX220_SY330_QL65&keywords=japanese+for+children&dpPl=1&dpID=51XgPJdGT4L&ref=plSrch

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/0071408274/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_2?ie=UTF8&dpID=6128cP91LyL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_AC_UL100_SR100%2C100_&refRID=1W1Z35H15P6SBS2NDEHE

 

Maybe...

 

http://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/4805310790/ref=pd_aw_sim_14_of_8?ie=UTF8&dpID=51nqajIaerL&dpSrc=sims&preST=_SL500_SR100%2C100_&refRID=027PVVSCP567C6DYGF9V

 

 

but I also second the recommendation to look for a tutor in your area. I learned japanese with a tutor starting at age 12, and went on to take 3 years in college. The tutoring was more helpful than all the books, flash cards, and computer programs (not Rosetta stone, some very basic vocabulary type program) I had available at the time.

[Kindergarten plans!!]

First time homeschooling - we're doing a trial year with kindergarten to kind of decide if we want to continue with it or put the kids in school. I have boy/girl twins who will turn 5 in July.

 

Handwriting/Phonics: Memoria Press's First Start Reading and Printing With Letter Stories. Also, How to build an A with the HWOT wooden letter pieces and upper and lower case number playdough mats from lakeshore learning. Also, delightful handwriting from simply charlotte mason for additional copywork if needed.

Math: Miquon, Education Unboxed, Singapore Math Readers, tabletop academy press playful math books, critical thinking company's thinking skills and key concepts. Inchimals.

Science: finish guesthollow's little otter's anatomy, simply charlotte mason's outdoor secrets, additional nature study resources, and a once a month homeschool class at our zoo.

History: Veritas Press's Bede's History of Me. Possibly a state study of Florida.

Geography: Confessions of a Homeschooler's Expedition Earth + Guest Hollow's Geography curriculum

Religion (Catholic): Catholic Heritage Curricula's Who Am I, Catholic Saints for Children, reading from a children's bible with scheduling from materamabilis.org, and working on virtues / good habits from simply charlotte mason's laying down the rails

+ Memoria Press Kindergarten Enrichment, Oak Meadow's Healthy Living from the Start, and reading lots of good books.

After school activities to include karate for my son, gymnastics for my daughter, and swimming lessons for both.

 

Yeah...when I write it out, that's a lot of stuff. :D

 

 

[Let's talk K math...]

Thanks for all the responses. :) I'm trying to let go a little bit but I'm a planner and checking off a list of objectives is what makes me happy. ;)

 

When I look at my own list I'm like "Girl, it's KINDERGARTEN, lighten up." ;) I'm a first time homeschooling mom, can't you tell? But my kids enjoy math, and I think if I can keep it mostly play based they'll really thrive... so I'm going to order miquon and some kumon workbooks and see where that takes us. I may end up adding in the singapore stuff and some rightstart games, but I think I'll wait and see how this goes first.

[Let's talk K math...]

I'm putting together my kindergarten plans for my twins for this coming fall. Right now, I'm considering:

 

Singapore Earlybird Math A/B

Math U See Primer or Alpha

Rightstart 2nd Edition Level A

Miquon Orange Book

 

I feel like I'm losing my mind looking at these different curriculum... which one to pick?!  :huh: I'd like to just order them all then sort it out, but that's not particularly cost effective. 

How are you choosing your math curriculum? Anyone feeling this persistent dread of choosing the wrong one and starting your children down the wrong path for math?!  :laugh: Advice, commiseration, etc. is appreciated.

[Finished Super Scratch Programming Adventure--what now?]

Hey ! :) I teach computer science at the high school level and I wanted to point you a few more places...

 

Alice, like Scratch, is popular for teaching smaller children the beginning of programming concepts:

http://www.alice.org/index.php

 

Small Basic is a subset of basic with a friendly IDE. Though the FAQ recommends ages 10+ your 8 year old might be able to use this, or you might keep it in mind for the future - it's a move forward from Scratch/Alice in that you are writing actual code:

http://smallbasic.com/

 

A board game that I do with my 4 year olds is Robot Turtles:

 

http://www.robotturtles.com/

 

It can be modified to be more or less difficult depending on the abilities of the child and really does teach thinking programmatically.

 

If you're interested in computer science as a broader field (not just programming), then computer science unplugged is a great resource for teaching computer science concepts without using a computer at all :

http://csunplugged.org/

 

Kibo is a robotics kit meant specifically for early elementary age children:

 

http://kinderlabrobotics.com/kibo/

 

And I assume you've seen Anna and Elsa from Frozen teach coding on code.org? :

 

https://studio.code.org/s/frozen/stage/1/puzzle/1