I second the water play. No bubbles required in our house. It will keep our two littles busy for long stretches of time.

This was an issue for us as well. Dd is writing-resistant, and is not interested in doing a whole lot of it. I also don't think it's reasonable for a K'er to create a mini-book without a lot of hand holding. At any rate, what we have hit on this year is a science notebook (just a plain spiral notebook) with an interactive aspect to it. I try to find free lapbooks or worksheets online, and cut out bits and pieces from them and have dd fill out what needs to be filled out and glue them into her notebook, or make drawings of our demos and observations. Sometimes she is even inspired to write without those prompts.

Dd adores SOTW. Vol. 1 with the AG is a great fit for that age. Two years later, dd is still all over any book on ancient Egypt she can get her hands on, as well as any mythologies she runs across. I would say it has served its purpose.

Dd just turned 8 a few days ago. This year, I have introduced an assignment book for her -- I just write down the things she is expected to do on her own in a spiral notebook, and draw little boxes for her to check off. Daily tasks Practice Tae Kwon Do. Practice recorder (when I give her lessons, I tell her how many times to practice each song). Read her assigned book for 10 minutes, or a chapter. Once or twice a week, cursive practice is included. Sometimes she needs to continue work on an art project, and that gets put on the list, too.

For dd, my single goal for Kindregarten was getting her to read. Everything else was gravy. Half of the reason for that was to prove to myself and others that I could do this homeschooling thing. That year, I picked out a fairy tale for the week, and I read a different version of it each day. I tried to do activities that related to them. We did MUS Primer. Social studies and science fell by the wayside because I had a baby in the middle of the year. Now that I have a K'er coming up next year, I will do things a little differently. I will pursue reading as ds shows readiness/interest. I will probably keep the fairy tales, and add MP's K Enrichment, so that if I want to do activities, it is planned out for me, and if not, oh well. We will do MEP's Reception year and focus on his number sense. I don't care if he learns a single addition fact, as long as he really knows his numbers. If he picks things up from his sister's history lessons, great. As for science, I plan on loosely following WTM. My objectives have loosened up a bit, now that I have been through it once, plus the fact that I will also have to focus on teaching his older sister as well.

We have just started it, too. It has been a hit, even though we are speeding through the obligatory "Noun" chapter. Because, you know, we have been through 3 different LA curriculum, so dd is pretty clear that a noun is a person, place, or thing. *However* - Beowulf's Grammar thoroughly demonstrates nouns-as-ideas. When I was a kid, they always and only used "democracy" as the example of an "idea noun", leading me to think that only ideologies could be that kind of noun. BG uses examples that kids are able to relate much better to. So far, it is an excellent program and I have nothing but good things to say about it.

The tiles. We have toddlers in the house, so we can't just leave them on the whiteboard, because they will quickly disappear. So if we used the tiles, that means 10 minutes of setting them up before the lesson, and if dd does it, that means more like 15 minutes, and by that time, she has pretty much had enough of dealing with them and the spelling lesson is over. It works much better just using the whiteboard. Some smart person on here has mentioned she used red and blue markers to make the distinctions that the tiles do.

Hmmmm...I have been thinking about dedicating 5th grade to U.S. history. It would make sense to cover NYS history at that point, instead of 4th, which is when public schools here have always done it. I love this forum. There are so many helpful people and good ideas to play with.

I suppose that would explain why there have been few responses. NY just says its history has to be covered at some point before 9th grade.

I looked at CAP grammar at a conference a year or two ago, and it looked very good, but very intense. I am pretty sure that would not be a good fit for your child at this point in time. As for us, this is my first time around doing the hs thing, and I am learning to trust the WTM approach to writing at this point - narration, copywork, and dictation. If dd is getting tense, I will scribe narrations for her, and let her copy just part of it.

The scope and sequence look to be pretty thorough. It is unfortunate that their preview widget does not seem to be working. :-/

So, I'm already anticipating state history for 4th grade next year. :-) I've done some looking this morning, and haven't found anything I am crazy about. I was wondering what folks on the forum use. We are in NY.

I don't know anything about TT, but Math-U-See is DVD-based.

Speaking of British mystery writers and BBC shows, the Father Brown series by Chesterton is entertaining. They're all short stories.

We take July off, and start in August. We'll try to finish things by the end of June - especially history. With most other subjects, we just move on to the next thing. Since dd is not a natural speller, I make more of a big deal when she finishes a spelling book - it is usually accompanied by the gift of some small spelling or word-based game.

I feel for you. We are in the same boat. Dd rereads Geronimo Stilton I couldn't tell you how many times. I've gotten her started on Encyclopedia Brown, which does have pictures, but black and white. She enjoys those. I also assign her books to read for about 10 minutes/ day. We've used some of the books Lori D. has suggested above. I let her read whatever she wants in her spare time, but will also order things I'd like her to look at, just to have them lying around. If she gets bored enough, she'll read anything. :-)

Our dd is not a natural speller, but has significantly improved with AAS. We go over the cards that she's had trouble with and we don't move on to the next lesson until she can spell everything correctly two days in a row. Sometimes that means we finish a step in 3-4 days, sometimes it is 10 days. If she spells something wrong, I remind her of the rule, and she can see her mistake. Or I ask her to sound out what she wrote, and she corrects it from there. Sometimes, she just has a mental block. I think we have spent 4 or 5 months on the word "April." I did continue on with the lessons because that was the only word that was tripping her up, but I kept it in her spelling list until she could spell it correctly on a regular basis.

Sigh. We started math bright and early this morning. I started with a BA problem she was having difficulty with yesterday and she totally aced it. She did her drill sheet in record time and correctly. So those two things took all of 7 minutes, maybe. Then we went on to a few MEP problems which were formatted in ways she has seen numerous times before, and we had frustration and tears. Which goes to show that I will never, ever have it all figured out.

Curriculum reviews that actually describe the curriculum, what it proposes to accomplish and does it succeed, what a typical lesson looks like, perhaps comparing it to something else, what are the downsides, etc. I have read reviews that just gushed about something and I walk away still not really understanding what it's about.

One of the unfortunate things about this forum is I read this thread and think - oh, maybe I should check out Cottage Press - but I will not do that because dd likes ELTL, and even asks for it. Even though it includes copywork, which is weird, because she often eschews writing. At any rate, to answer your question, we had gone through Shurley English 1 and WWE 1 and dropped FFL 1 faster than a hot potato. Last year, we started dd in ELTL 2, and it has been just fine. I do chose only one piece of copywork for her to do each session. We read The Wizard of Oz in 1st grade and I did not feel the need to read it again, so we have skipped the reading the book thus far. I think you could get away without reading the book if you wanted to. Thus far, it mostly gives some context to the examples used in the text.

BFSU is great because each lesson builds on previous lessons. I think it truly lives up to its title. It is an excellent choice. We have used Mystery Science to supplement one of our lessons this year, and that was a fun enhancement that really underscored one of the main points of the lesson.

If we do math before 10:30am, she is competent and can do the problems quickly. Anytime after that, any math becomes extraordinarily difficult and takes forever. It doesn't seem to matter if said late math session is preceded by a snack. Just wondering if any other kids operate similarly, or if there is something else I am missing.

BFSU can be intimidating to start, but it is soooooo worth it! We need to finish up Vol. 1 (only a few more lessons to go) and then we will get to have fun using a microscope. Dd was a better understanding of how some really basic things work than do many adults because of this curriculum. Two years ago, when we started, our ds was in public high school. We asked him at dinner what they were doing in physics class. He said they were talking about atoms and states of matter. That was exactly what his little sister in 1st grade was learning in homeschool! :lol: I am confident she will have a stellar science base with this curriculum.

Having gone through SSL with one child, I would do it again, but do the workbook portion orally. There's no need for them to write all that out. The point of it all is to practice Latin, not writing.

We do something very similar, except with dd, she is all about Geronimo Stilton. She will read the same one over and over. She has been doing this for pretty much two years now. I read aloud to her, she listens to audiobooks on her travels to her extracurriculars, I assign her books to read independently, (which she does without complaint), and I have her read out loud to me something I think will stretch her a little bit for ten minutes, about 2-3x per week. I just trust she will grow out of it at some point.