:iagree: Webster's is awesome!

:iagree:

How far along is he in reading? Can you get him easy books from the library? He could read his own books and draw a picture about what he read. If he's not far along enough in reading can you focus on that a bit more heavily until he gets to the point where he could read some books on his own? Also, when my DD was at a point where she wasn't quite ready for books but I knew she could read some things on her own, I made up stories I knew she could handle and had her draw pictures to illustrate them. Can he follow along with your eight year old for history and science? He could absorb some of that information even if it's advanced. Art is a wonderful thing to let him focus on at this age, and simple sciences. You could read him some "Let's Read and Find Out" books and have him come up with ideas to work on for school. I think there's a book on worms you could read him, and then he could go outside and hunt for worms to observe/draw... That sort of thing. Weather, flowers, etc. There's a good variety of basic science books at the library that would give him some opportunities for observation while you're doing something else, depending on how safe you feel your backyard is for a five year old alone. Also- Geography! Have him start identifying the equator, prime meridian, etc. and drawing the continent blobs on paper. That's very cheap and easy for him to do on his own after he gets the hang of it. If you could check out The Core from the library you could get information on how to start that. I think there is a free website explaining the blob technique, but I can't find it in my favorites so maybe someone else has a link?

I've been trying to get my daughter to say "Oh, bother" like Pooh bear because I think it sounds cute, but she still just says "Uuuuurgh!" I guess that's better than curse words! I'm not sure how we'd handle that if it ever happened... I'll be checking back to see what everyone else says. :lurk5:

You are correct. Thanks for the tip. I corrected the post and learned something new today!

We've had mixed results here. When Grace was in preschool we did a few on her favorite books and she loved them. Then we started doing them as sort of unit studies for science: gardening, birds, etc. We'd check out a TON of books from the library and read them all, then start the lapbook. Recently we got a tadpole on a frog life cycle field trip and she thought we might do another lapbook. I got on homeschool share, checked out books, etc. The thing is half finished upstairs. There weren't very many interesting books available at our library and she lost interest. Now she wants to do a Disney Princess Lapbook. I'll have to put that together myself because I don't know where to buy one and/or print it off. SOOOOO.... you're kid has to really want it or you'll end up putting it together yourself or leaving it in a corner for weeks, and you have to be crafty enough to make one up on the fly if that's what you want for your child. Maybe you could do one for a unit study here and there that's more extracurricular until you get the feel for whether they really help your child. I second the recommendation for Hands of A Child. The bird lapbook we got from them was stunning. Also, currclick gives out free lapbooks from Hands of A Child every once in a while as specials. We got a bee and butterfly one we haven't even done yet for free...

I used Webster's and Blend Phonics as a precursor to PR1 and it worked out perfectly. I followed along with ElizabethB's lessons for kindergarten thread, and then I just did Blend Phonics on the whiteboard until we finished it. Then we started PR1. So our year looked like this: August and September was mostly Webster's, then October-March was a blend of Webster's and Blend Phonics. Every once in a while I'd try to start Phonics Road but it would seem too stressful for Grace and we'd switch back. Around mid to late March we started Phonics Road 1 at a slow pace for good. I found it was a great progression for my DD.

Thanks! I know I can keep the dog away. The hard part is going to be keeping Grace away, LOL. I'll have to keep a sharp eye on her in the backyard for a while.

So you don't think it's a problem that we were standing around it? Also, our very old beagle/hound mix hangs out in the yard too. She may be able to sniff them out, but she wouldn't eat them or anything. We were wondering why the rabbit would have made a nest there, but then we remembered our neighbor saying she destroyed a rabbit nest in her garden last week. So maybe the rabbit had to make a nest in a hurry and our yard was just there? We've also got raccoons who ate the eggs from a bird nest on our back porch a month or so ago. Not that we could do anything about it, but do you think they'd disturb the rabbits?

We just found a nest of baby rabbits in our yard! Or burrow, I guess you would call it. What a learning opportunity! However, do you guys think the mother will come back? DH was mowing the lawn and I guess it scared her away. No one touched them, but DH did move some grass aside with his hand at first to find out what he'd run over (he didn't hurt any of them, luckily). Then he got a stick to brush some grass aside to find out if it was one lone lost rabbit or if it was a nest. Here are some pics: www.givingourbest.blogspot.com

I just posted about our Solids, Liquids and Gases lesson, but it was basically a remix of what you'd already done. www.givingourbest.blogspot.com

We must live in the same neighborhood, LOL. I don't care where people let their dogs go as long as they clean it up.

When I tried the link it said collection not found...

:grouphug::grouphug::grouphug: I just finished out our first year of homeschool (kindergarten). The first day of public school was the hardest. I had this sinking feeling in my gut that we were at a crossroad where things could go well- or not. I was terrified that I wouldn't be able to teach DD to read because my husband had such troubles and she has auditory processing issues. I worried she'd be behind... Today we went to the library and she picked out about ten books to read on her own. Yesterday we played school with the neighborhood kids and she was the only non-fifth grader who understood place value. I have noticed that the public school kids seem to have more science knowledge, but it's more vocabulary based and doesn't seem to hit the depth of comprehension that BFSU is giving to Grace. Seriously, I did the Air is a Substance lesson with the whole street last week and the fifth graders swore up and down that air is really just empty space. So, when the big yellow bus day comes around- repeat after me: "It's only kindergarten. You can't screw up your kid completely in one year. This is just an experiment." Then just do your thing and enjoy it. You'll be amazed.

What is the FF abbreviation? I know the other is Latin for Children, right?

I was just thinking of how scared I was when my car broke down once at night on a highway. I was a teenager, and I had to walk in the dark about 3 miles to the nearest store to find a phone while cars kept pulling over to offer me a ride (it was always just one male in the car so I certainly wasn't going to get in the car with any of them). I would NEVER have let my car run out of gas. Ever. But cell phones enable people to worry less about things like that...

We purchased it and my daughter never took a liking to it. She won't use it. Too bad I can't transfer my subscription because I'd give it to you, LOL.

I was taught a fancy, loopy cursive and I write much differently. I use print caps and do the rest in more of an HWT script on a regular day. HOWEVER, if I am writing an invititation, thank you note, etc. then I will go back to my roots and form the letters properly. My advice is to teach whatever font you believe you would like to see your children write on the invitation, and acknowledge that they will modify that for their daily usage.

I needed that laugh!!!! Thanks! Try rubbing alcohol if it didn't come off....

:grouphug::grouphug: This is terrible.

Does anyone have an opinion on which of these might be best for a first grader? Not to easy, not to hard? We already have the Flip Flap Body Book so something more technical than that... Usborne First Human Body Encyclopedia http://www.amazon.com/First-Encyclopedia-Human-Body-Encyclopedias/dp/0794530605/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1308406423&sr=8-1#_ DK First Human Body Encyclopedia: http://www.amazon.com/First-Human-Body-Encyclopedia-Reference/dp/0756609976/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1308407555&sr=8-2 Usborne Complete Book of the Human Body: http://www.amazon.com/Complete-Book-Human-Body-Books/dp/0794506283/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1308407655&sr=8-1 Kingfisher First Human Body Encyclopedia: http://www.amazon.com/Kingfisher-First-Human-Encyclopedia-Reference/dp/0753451778/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&qid=1308407555&sr=8-3 Thanks! Hailey

http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=157186&highlight=vintage+thread There's some excellent free options here. You have to go through the whole thread to find all the first grade stuff, but there are good resources available.

Have you checked the vintage thread? It has a lot of FLL like options that are free on the web... There's also some spelling options. I'll try to find a link.

Thanks for all the advice guys. It's really good to get tips on what I can cut out and still give a solid education this year. I'm feeling more confident in our choices now! Hailey

I read the Well Trained Mind and found these boards long before my daughter started her kindergarten homeschool year. This board was critical in building myself up with the assurance that this CAN be done and that it might be a better option even in a GOOD school district. I have found homeschoolers in my area but a lot of times they were so different than me in their reasons and desires to homeschool that we didn't fit in... There were few personal connections and no one that I would have felt comfortable calling on for support. I think for the "anxious, newbie, wondering if they are making a big mistake homeschooling families," this board could be critical. This board was my cheerleader when I had to tell all of my friends that Grace wasn't going to school for kindergarten and face their reactions (some good, some not so good, some pretty ugly). It was my reassurance when the special needs preK teachers at Grace's local school were pushing me to put her in kindergarten and warning me that "she would drive me crazy within the first year," LOL. And it was my therapy when the anxiety about whether I was making a mistake got too high. Without the board I would have felt like our home was an island of crazy people in a sea of public school families. This board normalized the thought and process of homeschooling for me, and I'm not sure I would have been brave enough to take that first year baby step on my own... Now that we've gotten through kindergarten I think I could continue to homeschool without the board, but I don't believe I would have been confident enough to begin without it.