We are in the midst of 1st right now(week 23 tomorrow) and I am finding it difficult to challenge my son. He is reading at like a 5th grade level. I am really focusing on him learning to narrate back to me the stories I read him and he reads. I am also focusing on getting him to get a short narratio...

Just looking for advice... my 1st grader is on the advanced side... she is already reading "Level 1" readers pretty independently. She complains every time I bring out the MFW Workbook and student sheets. She feels they are boring and repetitive. I accelerated things a little bit in the beginning, ...

How are people using the Four Square Cards for advanced readers? Should I use them as copy work? Do they build up into something bigger? What are others doing? There is one card for each of the short vowels in weeks 3 and 4. Then in weeks 6 and 7 there is one card for each of the long vowels. So wh...

Both my kids were in public school prior to this year, and both are advanced academically. Actually I started my son late in public school for social reasons, but academically he is at 3rd grade or higher for all subjects. Anyways, I keep worrying that I am not doing "enough" with them. By the end ...

They start off as review of what is in K(short vowels and cvc words) then they move to adding in new phonics sounds in the middle of week 4. There are some notes in regard to children already reading in the TM as well. My son is reading at a 3rd grade level so we are using the phonics lessons each d...

We just finished Farmer Boy and got On the Banks of Plum Creek from the library. My kids are really interested in them now and I will just reread them again when we get to Adventures. I read books over and over for my own enjoyment so I sort of feel it is the same thing with them and these books. I ...

We started out without a dedicated school space. We used our kitchen table and did all the school work there. All the supplies were stored in a 9 cube organizer by the table. This worked and worked well to start with, but our son has some issues that have come to light this year and we decided a ded...

We will be going to Saxon Math 2 after 1st grade. It just seems like a better fit for our family.

I got 27 hanging file folders(actually 36 so I had them for future years). I labeled each one for each unit and put the student sheets into the corresponding file folder. I remove the week at the start and keep it in my binder that I have the TM in. As my son finishes each sheet in the unit, I put i...

We use the pencil grips from Target for DS and it has helped him tremendously to hold is pencil properly. They have also helped him to have neater handwriting. My 2 yr old DD can hold a pencil or crayon fine without the grip and has never been shown the proper way to hold them.

I would fly to DC or the surrounding area and then take mini trips to all the wonderful historical places around here. We live in MD and I can't wait for Adventures so we can take all kinds of field trips.