It seems like word problems are his only shortfall in math, so I would start just having him take the tests in Alpha. When he can't ace one, work on that section. Then move on to Beta and do the same thing. Gamma is the 3rd book, so that's what you would do after Beta. It's all multiplication. First Language Lessons has a LOT of review. I would start skipping some of the review of things he's got down pat. I would recommend doing all the poetry memorization. For Writing With Ease I would recommend probably sticking with where he is now. It's a little slow, but he will get valuable skills. I would hesitate moving him up to Book 3, because its quite a bit harder. Most 3rd graders who haven't worked up to it through 1&2 would have a hard time just jumping in. Book 4 is much, much harder. Most of the curriculum you've chosen really isn't based on grade level, its based on ability. You know your child best, so go according to that and don't worry about the numbers on the books, especially for Story of the World. I wouldn't want to skip the first 3 books and jump into Modern Times, partially because its a dark book and a violent time. Its nice to have a little bit of age before getting into it. If he's bored with the Egyptians, skip those chapters or read them and don't do any extra work on them. All of this is a really long way of saying, don't make any changes just yet. Accelerate, sure, but you really want to hold off on making too many changes too soon.

All of my kids did better if they colored while listening. So, we used the coloring pages from the Activity Guide quite a bit. I taught a group of 12 year old boys in a co-op setting and they used playdough to keep focused. It really helped.

Finally found it. I had searched, but didn't realized gmail wouldn't search the spam folder unless I told it to. Downloading now!

I didn't get mine yet and ordered before they extended the sale.

Well, others may disagree, but I would just go with books at or just slightly above their reading level.

Is your child not reading yet? That would help me make a better recommendation.

Glad you found something he likes. Even if he doesn't start reading with it right away, don't feel like a failure. Even using the right program for your child it can just take a while for it to click. My daughter knew all her sounds for 3 years before she started to read. When she was 7 she became a reader overnight. She went from not reading, to devouring a 900 page book in less than a week. Once I saw she wasn't ready to read but knew her letter sounds, I backed off. It was becoming a battle to do a reading lesson every day, so we just switched to working on other things. Much later, just before she really started reading, I noticed her starting to sound out signs. I didn't push her though, just let it develop. My second child didn't really start reading until he was 9. That was nerve wracking! He could read CVC words, but even those were painfully hard for him to read. When he was 9 he wanted a new bike. His grandfather told him if he would read 10 chapter books he would buy him a new one. It took about 2 weeks before he got them read. So, he just needed the right motivation and the right books. (Magic School Bus Chapter books for him) My next two started to read at 4 fluently with no problems. I don't know if it was just that they learn differently or switching to OPGTTR. My current K'er is 5 and has just started OPGTTR. We'll see how it goes!

Sorry, I don't have time to look them up. I was just answering the logic side of the argument you made, hoping to clarify that part. I'm perfectly willing to change my argument if you have time to find the statistics. As an interesting aside, public school in New York State averages $19,000 per student. Looking at that figure, $40,000 doesn't seem like much really for a private school. Is it in my budget? Certainly not, but its not as insane as it looks at first glance.

Is she reading yet? Here's my standard first grade line-up that I don't think would cause problems when returning next year. Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading (if she's not reading yet) First Language Lessons 1 Writing With Ease 1 Writing Fundamentals Math Mammoth 1 Spelling Workout A & B That would be my core to start with. She could always add in science and history, but she won't miss out on much of that in first grade. Or she could just do something like this to start out with and see how it goes.

It's a matter of percentages. Yes, more abductions happen to "ordinary children", but there are many, many more "ordinary children" than wealthy. If you are a wealthy child, you are more likely to be abducted because a higher percentage of wealthy children are abducted. It's similar to Down's Syndrome. More babies with Down's Syndrome are born to young mothers than to mothers over 35. However, if you're over 35 you're more likely to have a baby with Down's Syndrome. If a family is wealthy, this has to be a priority. To say otherwise is to ignore statistics.

The Starfall app is pretty easy to work too. My toddler can work touchscreens really well.

Have you read Nurture by Nature? It's a great book to learn why your kids do the things they do, and how to parent them individually. It has really helped me deal with my kids different needs and work with their "little quirks." I don't know that you'll find the magic answer in there, but if you have time for an easy read, its well worth it. I have one that resists everything I say as well, and that book helped me tremendously.

You don't have to wait until 7. You can just follow their cues, and when it gets too difficult (they start resisting lessons) back off and review and make it easy for a while. Then when they have that down, move on in the lessons. On your original post, 30 minutes is a long time for a 6 year old to read aloud. I would probably choose to let her read to herself or aloud whatever she chooses, even if it seems to easy for you, anad you read her everything else. My 7 year old reads on a 6th grade or higher level, and I wouldn't have her read aloud for 30 minutes. FWIW, I haven't pushed her at all with reading. It's been at her pace the whole way. Same thing with my next oldest. The oldest two I pushed with not stellar results and I'm still dealing with the fall out of pushing them, over 10 years later. They're great readers, but they both deal with self-esteem issues over learning and don't think they can learn things. It's difficult to fight something like that.

I noticed that when I ran ours on Windows7 that it asked every time for permission to change my computer. I finally just made my security setting s lower and it stopped doing that, but that could be what's causing the problem for you. My kids are also loving it. Everyone from the 7 to 12 year old is doing it.

Singapore is colorful and I believe it would be called spiral.

Would the audio version of the book help? Did you also get the companion cd-rom? It has much more visual input.

My math hater liked Aleks. You can try it online for free. I wouldn't use it from here on out, but its nice to get them over that hump of hating it. She really liked seeing the pie graph filled in of concepts mastered.

It may be that her brain has absorbed as much reading as she can at the moment and needs a little while to process that. So, instead of doing a reading lesson, you could just have her read phonetic readers or review what you've already gone over in a fun way. That's what I've done when they start to resist reading lessons. They still have to read, we just don't work in the book (OPGTTR) for a few days. They love Explode the Code workbooks, so they keep doing those.

You can print it with Startwrite. Other than that though, I don't know.

I haven't seen this addressed about your reading aloud to him, but I may have missed it. Many boys (and girls) have a hard time "just" listening to a story. They need to be doing something else at the same time. I would always let my boys play with legos or playdough quietly while I read or we listened to a cd. Sometimes they would color instead, but any of those things allowed them to enjoy the story. We listen to a lot of audiobooks in the car. Its really enjoyable family time then, instead of a hassle to go somewhere. We are in the car at least an hour a day, so we get a lot of listening done.

I haven't priced it myself, but our local high school has a print shop. They do printing and binding, etc. It may be fairly cheap.

Here's a little guide I wrote for myself a few kids ago LOL. http://www.lulu.com/shop/victoria-gabhart/classical-k4/ebook/product-883144.html

I just looked at the Young Cam Jansens on Amazon, and they do have pictures on every page. http://www.amazon.com/Young-Cam-Jansen-Dinosaur-Game/dp/0140377794

Look at the Little House Chapter books. They have a lot of pictures, though not one on every page. Also, maybe the Young Cam Jansen books? I haven't looked at those in a while though to know how many pictures they have.

I think it would be awesome to use, because it makes it very real that Alaska and Hawaii became states really not too long ago.