I'm looking at doing some after school curriculum for my dd4 when she starts K in Sept.

Any experience in doing so and different methods?

I'm leaning towards on-line courses, I haven't fully researched it but I did come across one that compresses a couple grades together per subject. My daughter loves working on computers so I think this may catch her interest more so.

I don't think correspondance is an option - I think she will get very bored.

I have also been told to just enrol her in Kumon instead.

Any feedback is greatly appreciated.

Thanks!

Google and search the term 'Afterschool' or 'Afterschooling.' I would encourage you to consider yourself a variety of homeschooler and look into resources that homeschooler's use.

You might look into www.aleks.com/ it has a free trial.

Reading varies widely at this age - where is your dd at right now?

My stock answer for History and Science is to buy a few used Middle school textbooks - they are great overviews for the 2 of you to go over together.

I don't recommend Kumon for a child who needs intellectual stimulation - great for ice cold drill though.

Smiles,
Grinity

My daughter is in a similar situation - she was in a good pre-k program when she was 3. But my husband's job moved him to a place where there are NO decent pre-k programs, so we had to take it upon ourselves. I chose to forego the online and formal curricula and teach her what I thought she needed to know. We started with Dr Seuss's ABC book (this was actually before she ever started pre-k, but I'm not sure where your dd is, so I'll start from the beginning.) When she could identify letters, we started working on sounds. Then (this was the slow, excruciating part) sounding out words. She read "Hop on Pop" by herself when she had just turned 4. I spend about ten minutes a day having her read to me - at her age, I don't think she has the attention span for more than that. Then I let her choose a book at I read to her as a reward.
I started teaching her basic math concepts as well - first counting, then writing numbers, adding and subtracting, just a little at a time (maybe 4-5 problems a day until she started to enjoy it, then increased it a bit.) I got math workbooks from Target, but you can also google "addition worksheets" or something similar and find a ton of free stuff to print out.
Over the past couple of months, I've started her on a journal. She writes stories in it - mostly simple ones, but it takes a while for her to do it because at this point I have to spell almost every word for her and she often has to erase the letters and rewrite them. This helps with her handwriting and lets her start getting the basics of grammar and punctuation.
Then as a bonus, I add things that are not necessarily fundamental, but that interest her. I bought a couple of books about animals, and we read a few pages of that every day and we talk about it. I wasn't sure if she was getting anything out of it, but she occasionally pops up with odd facts that show me she is. (Like when we saw a deer in the road, and she said, "That's a FEMALE deer - it's a girl. Because it doesn't have antlers.") I also printed out a US Map, and she's learning one state at a time. When she can identify the state if I point to it, she gets to color it. She knows 38 states now, and is working on the rest.
This might not work for everyone - but it has worked pretty well for my DD. It's a lot of work, but she enjoys it and is learning a lot. Hope I helped!

I have my kindy son do one page every day from the Middle Curriculum Phonics book and one page from Singapore Math. It doesn't take alot of time. I also have him do 10 sight words and 10 spelling words each week that I show him and have him write out. He likes doing IXL math on the computer and he reads 20 minutes a day.
Kumon seems like such a snoozer and killer of creativity in children. I haven't had the heart to force my kids to do that.

There are two great online Maths programs:

IXL is the one, and I got really excited when I found it. BUT this next one is one that gets us all excited about Maths (Even DS2 loves to watch Aiden "playing Maths").

www.mathletics.com

it is very interactive, full of funny sounds and images, and is lovely for kids learning maths and having fun. PLUS you can change the curriculum as you move through it. AND there is live online maths against kids from all over the world for mental maths practice.

We do quite a bit of extra stuff in the afternoons when Aiden gets home (he is now 4) from pre school but I try and do more active things - we do science, we garden, we go for walks to find things, we do hands on geography etc. He responds a lot better to these, although I must say that we get phases where he just wants to sit and do book work too, although I try keep that for when he wakes at 5:30am on a saturday rather! haha

Is mathletics speed-timed?
My little one loves IXL, although I get bored after awhile since it tends to be repetitious. My older one uses Singapore math books, which have been great.

We Afterschooled my son all last year when he was in Kindergarten. I really like Right Start for math:

http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.com/2011/06/14/review-right-start-level-c/

This summer he is working on Right Start Level D, and we are doing Guided Reading with a Classical Education reading list I created based on my year in Stanford's SLE program. Here's that:

http://teachingmybabytoread.blog.co...gram-a-reading-list-for-children-part-1/

My son starts first grade in our school district's gifted program this fall, so hopefully Aftesrchooling will become a necessity of the past.

My dd just finished a gifted grade 1 class and I still did afterschooling.

Our option for math is CTY. I like that they have the accelerated grade level math and elementary problem solving that allowed her to review but have a different take on it. So we did grade 2 math and then the elementary problem solving instead of starting grade 3 until Sept. She is on break now. The EPS had multiplication, division but applied, which was great for her not having straight math problems.

Her teacher was great for reading so that wasn't necessary. We are lucky that we able to travel and do history that way. We did Egypt in April. It works for this age group. Science we are lucky that there is a weekly class at the museum, but that seems to be unusual. And although they take Spanish in school, she does Chinese at Columbia on Sat.

Each kid is different. My kid is highly talented in piano, though doesn't love it. So we do piano but I don't push beyond the traditional piano -- though her pieces are quite complicated and practices have to be a certain amount of time. She needs her math accelerated, and I see it going highly accelerated. And her reading is starting to take leaps, and her comprehension. But I wouldn't know what she needed until she showed me. So don't expect any gifted school to give you all that you need. Watch and figure it out and ask here.

Ren

I think it really depends on what you feel your school offers and what you feel your child needs.
My older son had been in a Montessori. There was no formal art class, so we did saturday art classes at the local art center. There was no music class, so we started piano lessons. No gym class, so we started the swim team. No real science, so I bought an online thing where every month, we did little science experiments. No spelling, so I made spelling words each week.
After awhile, I realized, why are we paying tuition for this and moved to the (free) public school! We still do some of these activities b/c they are fun, but we started all of them to fill gaps in his education that we thought he needed.

We used Singapore math for math, and for everything else we do unschooling-inspired things.

I afterschoooled last year all year. We did Aleks and Khan Academy, did a lot of reading together of higher level books and messed around on a lot of websites. Anytime we'd go to a museum or any sort of "field trip" like event, I'd look at their website to see if they had a teacher's packet or a recommended activities at the museum. We also go to the library a lot and get science project books, cookbooks, movies and whatever else looks interesting.

When my daughter was little, we worked through the Girl Scout programs. She was (and is) a Girl Scout, but we were always working on badges. You can make them at a higher level than they are - and they get a badge or patch.

We are working on her Gold Award together now and are studying food production (her choice). This type worked well for us. It is not quite a course and is flexible, but it is also not just my ideas.

So many happy memories of our badges.

I just wanted to add that we have recently started All About Spelling Level 1, and LOVE it! Maybe now, I can finally learn how to spell. We are going to do one step a week from Level 2 this fall.

Wren,
Are you happy with CTY? I am going to enroll for problem solving and enrichmetn for my DD6. Also has anyone tried thier foriegn lang(spanish) program ? my DD6 will be doing this as supplimental program afterschool.

I am really happy with CTY, though I have not tried others. I like the set up, the recognition so you can use the progress.

DD did grade 2 math until Feb but our schedule was so hectic and she hardly had any time, we opted for Elementary Problem solving for the rest of the school year, postponing grade 3 math until Sept. DD loved the EPS. It was applied math and she enjoyed it a lot more than the regular math that was an overlay on Epgy, I believe. That was just rote problems.

DD does a Mandarin class at Columbia so I am eyeing their foreign language classes but have not started anything yet. Would like to hear from anyone how they like it. DD's homework is online so she is used to working with the computer for Mandarin. When we make our move to toronto in 2 years I expect her to continue the Mandarin and her school Spanish online.

Ren

Sorry for the late reply - I haven't been online with time to spare for ages

The learning based sections are not speed-timed at all, neither are the support/learning bits. It's just the live mathletics, and its really a great and fun section of the program.

Thanks will try out the program