We've been using Telling God's Story by SWB and it seems great. My kindy loves it. She actually ASKS for it if we skip a week.

My daughter will only wear Lands End jeans. I spent so much money trying to find a cheaper brand that she would wear and I should have just bought Lands End instead of wasting $$$$. I can usually find good quality used on Ebay and not spend much more than I would at Walmart. But yes, I could not find any jeans in local stores that did not slide down.

Super cute post!

Susan, I saw that website you linked and so I went up and tried some different things. I cleaned the whole board again with windex to try to get the wax off it, then I used a dry erase again. The dry erase pens "ghost" really bad so I had to use a magic eraser to get it off. The WET erase works perfectly and comes off with a wet rag. Dry erase crayons also came off easy. I wonder if I just got a board that doesn't handle actual DRY erase pens well. Is it bad to use a magic eraser all the time? I hate to let the dry erase markers go to waste but I'd rather make it a crayon/wet erase only board than ruin the board with magic erasers. So Michelle, can you leave your dry erase crayons on the board overnight without them ghosting or do you need to erase them that day? Just wondering about any future creations that Grace might want to leave up for a day or two... Thanks for all your help!

Hey guys, I loved this idea but I think I may have made a mistake.... I read the thing about turtle wax so I got some and waxed our board. I tried to write on it with dry erase expo markers right after I waxed it and it was really hard to get off what I wrote, so I came back to make sure I did it right. I did not use LIQUID turtle wax. I used the beige kind that looks like butter in a tub. Did I ruin the board? Can I fix it? Maybe it just needs to soak in?

do you mean grammar land?

We got a globe at Target for 15.00. The back to school sales usually have them. For the fossils with rocks and skeleton model: is that something you can just take a trip to the local science museum and use there or do you actually need to have these in your home? Can we print out a paper skeleton to laminate and play with like a puzzle, then go see the real one at the Science Museum? Do you think there's educational value in having the skeleton model in your home? If it would be helpful I can see it, but I'm not sure I want to spend 40.00 on a bird skull that's just going to sit there on a shelf (probably in a box because I can't stand clutter)... I'm torn between the idealistic picture I have in my head of my daughter finding the skeleton to be so fascinating that she plays with it every day until she knows every bone in the human body, and my realistic picture of her playing with it for a week and then forgetting about it, LOL.

The review card system is from someone on here. I didn't make it up. Someone was talking about it this past winter and I eventually realized it was a perfect system for my wiggler, LOL. I don't remember who the mama was so I could only write that it was another mom from this board... Anyway, to whoever it was- thank you! You saved my sanity!

:blush: I did my very first curriculum type post on my blog. Well, besides general gushing about Rightstart. Anyway, I'm linking it in case anyone is interested... It's nothing new, just a synopsis of how we do it based on one of the mom's suggestions on this board. I actually feel silly posting this, but I figure there's no reason to do a curriculum post if I'm not going to share it. http://www.givingourbest.blogspot.com

We've used PR for K this year. At first I did a bunch of Webster's and Blend Phonics with her for a foundation. I just wrote the words on the whiteboard myself and we read through them. When she finished enough of those we moved on to Phonics Road. She has not enjoyed the amount of words per week so we cut it to ten instead of twenty. We do ten words per day, without paying any attention to week. I have all the words written out on little index cards ala AAS. I put important notes from the video on the back of the cards (if there's a rule tune, if there's a building code to fill in, etc). Then I file them under "New Cards," "Review Periodically" cards, and "Completed" cards. We don't tie the cards to weeks, so I constantly evaluate which cards she knows and file them under completed, then just take out the next new one in the list. This also helps me to not feel like we have to do everything in ONE week if there's a field trip or something. Now, my DD is also highly distracted rather than JUST wiggly, so she can't do ten words at once without it taking up to TWO hours. Seriously, I tested it a few weeks back and if I don't constantly remind her to stay on task and think it will take two hours to do ten words. SOOOOO... Now we do two to three words in between subjects. So we start with two words in the morning, then do reading and two more words, math and two more words, etc. It works PERFECTLY. She doesn't get distracted and I don't want to pull my hair out. BTW- when we first started she had a hard time writing so we used tiles to spell. There are a bunch that come in the PR package you can use, but I had a set of AAS tiles she used on the whiteboard. Now she just writes on the whiteboard. She is not developmentally ready to write on the papers yet so we have no paper record, but the card file system works really well. Someone on here came up with the system- it wasn't me, but it is great for the younger kids and very helpful to keep organized.

That is what SWR recommends as well.

Thank you all so much for your tips and advice. I think I'll try to stick with it through the summer and make a decision about it after I'm more familiar with the method... In the meantime I'll keep checking the blog posts you have shared.

Well, I think it might just be my perception of it, because when she came in from playing outside tonight I asked her how she felt about the lesson and she said she liked it. She says she had fun and thought about things a different way. So- I'll try a few more lessons and see how it goes... I might modify it so that there's more observation prior to any discussion.

Hey guys, We just did the second lesson of BFSU and DD had some trouble. The lesson is on solids, liquids and gases- pretty basic stuff. I took notes, reviewed them to myself, and figured it would be a piece of cake because Grace has already done this lesson many-a-time in different books, science curriculums, etc. Well, with BFSU it says to lead the child into finding certain answers through a socratic method of question and answer. For example, if they tell you something is a liquid they are supposed to tell you why they think that is so... Then you lead them to discover that temperature can change state of matter through asking the right questions. I'm not sure exactly what I did wrong, but the whole "how do you know that's a solid," etc. just seemed to confuse her. By the end of the lesson today she seemed to actually trust herself a bit less. She seemed unnerved by it all. Do you think it could be that I was asking her wrong? Or perhaps she is just a "classical" child as described by SWB and it's difficult to "lead or question" her to learn rather than allowing her to observe to learn? Maybe she got confused because she thought since I was asking her why she thought something it meant she was wrong? It was fun to see that it got her thinking, but I'm not sure it ended up being a positive experience for her. She came up with all kinds of theories that I had to disprove about what makes things solid, liquid or gas- for example: she swore that she could sweep water so water must be a solid. In fact you can SOMEWHAT sweep a small pool of water into a dustpan (we discovered today), so there was a lot of discussion about what makes water different from solids. We ended up with- if you can sink in it or swim in it then it's probably a liquid. If you can fill a pool with it and still walk across it then it's probably a solid. *Note I said "probably" because now I'm a little unsure of MYSELF too with an elementary concept, LOL! Maybe this is just what it looks like when they start to think? It seemed really off track, but maybe that's just what it looks like.... Do they really learn more this way? I definitely think we learned to question what we believe!

There's a art museum too, but I think the best thing about Richmond is Maymont Park. www.maymont.org That's fun for ANY age- and free! Perfect way to spend an afternoon.

How long does it usually take to do SOTW1? I've heard some people say it takes two years, and I think it's supposed to take one year. But on average, how long would you say it usually takes if you try to do it well? I'm still trying to figure out what to do about Classical Conversations next year. Their three year cycle doesn't match up to SOTW anyway, so I'm not sure if I want to bother with trying to stick to their cycle or perhaps just do ancients for two years so we'd do it one year on their American history cycle, but the next year we'd be in step with them, or if I should just do American history next year and worry about the rest later. I just don't like not having a good, solid American history text to use for a first grader. If I'm just going to do extra books from the library, why not do Ancients and throw in a few American history books during the appropriate weeks? Ancients is really important so I can see doing it for two years and really getting into the details. Every time I think I've made a firm decision I falter...

I know- it just annoys me. Uuuurgh! I bet if Amazon or Barnes and Noble said it was a condition of carrying the book they would choose to do it. It's not like they'll lose many sales if you can only loan it ONE time anyway. However, I know NOTHING about the business and it's not my place to pretend otherwise, but it is definitely annoying. :glare:

Oh my goodness! I am so glad you wrote that! I can share with my mom that way b/c I just got her a kindle for Mother's Day. We'll just have the same account! Great idea!!!

:lol: Now I know what to say next time DH asks where all his clean pants are- "Don't worry! I'm just saving up the laundry to practice tie dying, sweetie." :lol::lol:

But what about the books Amazon said you can lend to each other through their lending feature? The publishers don't seem to ever allow people to lend to each other. Just a little bummed out b/c I want to loan with my family and I can't unless I hand over my whole kindle.

I've been through this... Just drop it off as a donation somewhere and think of it as a hard lesson to avoid collecting so much stuff in the future.

:confused::confused::confused: Haven't seen one yet! :glare: That's all I had to say... Hailey

No Rightstart users? We're doing: Math: Rightstart Level B with Math Mammoth and Miquon for supplement and "need something different" days Phonics: Phonics Road Level 1 History: Adaptation of Guest Hollow as it fits to Classical Conversations timeline Literature: Ambleside/Sonlight Either Song School Latin or Salsa Spanish, I can't decide Science: Not exactly sure yet... we have BFSU but we might keep it for second grade Handwriting: copywork Grammar: FLL or just stick with Phonics Road 1- We have FLL just sitting around so there's no point in not using it... Classical Conversations

My DD (turned 6 in March) just finished her first year of CC. Not every CC is the same, but I can tell you in our CC there was no discussion of the scripture passages in class other than to review them. You can see every single thing they will teach in advance by reviewing the Foundations guide. We are Catholic, and we haven't had any problem in our group as far as religious issues. I did see some offensive material within the text of the Veritas Press cards but I got over it. I don't know that I would have purchased those cards had I seen the text in advance, because I was really upset by one of them, but I got out my black magic marker and made it all better, LOL. I didn't want the cards to get in the way of a good experience. Anyway, I hear that CC is coming out with their own text cards in a few years and I will be glad when that happens. As far as your daughter's personality, there is a great deal of repetition within the CC curriculum. It's a memory work co op, so you repeat things in (hopefully) fun ways until you memorize them. The kids in our co op were all pretty academic, but I guess that could vary depending on where you go. I don't think there is enough substantive discussion of the material for any kids to end up seeming like a "know it all," and the pace is too fast for anyone to really act out. There's a lot of material to review in one day so it goes by quickly. I think most of the grades are studying the same things, but the different age classes might approach it in various ways. I think it would be fine for your daughter to be in a same age class, but you could always discuss it with the director and request that she try to ensure the best fit for you child when assigning her teacher. My director is particularly adept at placing the kids in the right classes for the best fit. My daughter was placed in a class with children who were older than her this year. At first I was worried, since most of them could read and she was just starting kindergarten, but it all worked out. After a few weeks of seeing how the personalities in her class fit together I realized that our director knew exactly what she was doing when she placed my shy child in that particular class. It was a perfect fit for her between the kind, nurturing teacher and the more mature, caring classmates. We had a great first year. However, all that being said each CC is different and you'll have to feel out the policies in the one you are interested in...

I can get to the Georgia Public Broadcasting archives, where you need to search for your lesson, but when I try to use the search engine it says it is not working right now. Could it just be broken?