Well, homeschooling will officially begin again here in a few weeks and I have yet to choose what we are doing exactly - which is fine because, you know, I do not do high-level planning with this sort of stuff anyway. Flying by the seat of our pants seems to fit best with the "quantum learning" that goes on here anyway. But since DS5 needs to learn some of those "executive function" skills I have heard about on here
- I suppose we ought to implement some sort of quasi-structured plan. Hoping that you can once again help me out!
So far we have got the complete grade 4 Singapore Math books (the real ones and not the Amazon fakes that say Singapore Math on them). DS has tired of doing ixl online and wanted to move to a workbook, and now his writing is up to it! Though I am making him finish 3rd grade on there before he starts - only long division and fractions to go. We also have a history book that we are going to read from (we like the series
If You Lived... and the
Kingfisher History of the World). We have been using
Handwriting Without Tears, which hasn't brought tears, but sometimes tantrums. But his handwriting has improved, although he is super stubborn and doesn't like to do things like they ask. At least we are working on it!
Then I am looking at a LA program. Just found the Michael Clay Thompson series, and am thinking of getting it. Found a few good reviews on the old threads here, and am leaning towards it. I think grade three would be fine for him, but his handwriting skills are still weak, so I am not sure if this would be a good fit or not. Is there a lot of writing in this series?
Looking at getting back into working on Spanish. Does anyone have a great kids program? When he was really young and super obsessed with language, we got him the Muzzy videos. They were super expensive, but he loved them. I don't want to shell out that much again for the next level. We also tried the Costco brand-Rosetta Stone. It is pretty bland for a five year old, but he liked listening to the CD in the car. I can't stand it though. He also did a highly-recommended apple app called
Mindsnacks a few years ago. My problem here is that I don't speak Spanish. My husband does, but I have a harder time helping out. I could switch him to French (which I know well enough to at least speak on a basic level) but it doesn't seem to be as useful. I'd like something colorful and interactive, directed towards kids, yet gets them speaking and not just memorizing words with no real idea how to string them together...any good suggestions?
DS would love a great science program - something with tons of hands-on experiments. An amazing upper grade-school level chemistry book would be awesome if there is one out there? Much of his reading has been in the sciences already, (like he read the entire Horrible Science collection last month) so I don't think I want most grade school level science books. Are there any basic, yet not too basic chemistry or physics books out there? You know the kind I dream about publishing, just so my child will have the perfect book?
