hi y'all!

i've been a member a while but never posted. my husband and i have FINALLY made the decision to homeschool our son. he's 5 and would be in kindergarten. we will be using a unit study called Five In A Row. Has anyone every heard of this or used it? What is your opinion on it?

Also, the unit doesen't really focus on alot of math or phonics skills. What have some of you used for math in the kindergarten year? My son can count and he can do basic addition and subtraction. I'm just not sure what to supplement the unit study with. I ALWAYS hated math and im afraid of unintentionally putting that on my son.

Any advice, comments, questions, etc would be much appreciated!

~Sarah

Mods, feel free to remove if this isn't allowed - just posting a potential program people might be interested in for the summer...

Open School Summer Program

For children ages 5-12*

Fridays 9:30 am – 12:30 pm

July 10-August 28

Brighton Town Park (777 Westfall Rd.)

$160* for 8-week session

Children will engage in outdoor play and a variety of activities.  Students explore their own interests with teacher facilitation, and all children are free to choose their own level of participation.  No grades, no pressure, no compulsion.  Just a fun environment in which to learn and play.

Call 219-8949 or email rochesteropenschool@gmail.com to enroll.  Space is limited!

*Older and younger students may be admitted on a case-by-case basis.  Sibling discount is $140 for second child.

x-posted

Okay, here is some more clarification regarding the response I received from my Senator (see previous post that stirred up a hornet's nest):

news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090622/ap_on_re_us/un_un_children_s_rights

Please look this up through your own means, just to cross-reference to other news references, as I typically do.  If you don't want to open the above link, here is an exerpt:

"But opponents in the U.S. have long argued that it could open the door to outside interference from government and U.N. officials in what they say are parents' rights to raise a child as they see fit. Republicans in Congress also have put forward a measure that has gained limited support but is aimed at blocking such a treaty."

This article was written by the associated press, not a completely biased company like ABC or FOX.  The measure that republicans have been trying to put into place is the constitutional amendment that I asked everyone to read in the previous post, and to write their House of Representatives/Congress representatives for support (if it is in our constitution, the UN treaty would be trumped).

There are other UN treaties that are currently in the works for gun control, gay rights, and a slew of other things.  This is not the place to be getting into these debates, but I do urge you to at least inform yourselves of what is going on beyond the borders of this country that will be affecting us in the future. 

A month or so ago, I urged everyone to write to their Senators/House of Representatives regarding S.J. Res. 16.  This resolution would amend the constitution to make it a fundamental right of the parents to raise their children as they see fit--the HSLDA has even requested that our Senators be contacted regarding this matter--and the HSLDA fights for us homeschooling parents.  The resolution can be found here: www.hslda.org/Legislation/National/2009/S.J.Res.16/default.asp


The troubling thing with my previous post is that many members of this community did not agree with a constitutional amendment--granted, I am not one who wants to fix something that is not broken, but it is my feeling that things are getting out of control.  I did write my representatives.  I received a response back from Claire McCaskill today (and this really troubles me).  The contents of the email are as follows:
__________________________

Thank you for contacting me regarding the Convention on the Rights of the Child. I appreciate hearing from you and welcome the opportunity to respond.

As you know, the goal of the Convention on the Rights of the Child is to ensure that there are standards accepted throughout the whole world regarding the rights of children. World leaders decided that this Convention was necessary in 1989 because they believed that children under 18 years old often need special care and protection that adults do not need. World leaders also wanted everyone across the globe to recognize that children have rights too.

The Convention on the Rights of the Child is not currently before the Senate, but please be assured that I will keep
your concerns in mind should it come to the Senate floor. Thank you again for contacting me and please do not
hesitate to contact me in the future regarding any matter that comes before the Senate.


All best,
Senator Claire McCaskill

P. S. You may sign up for my email newsletter at www.mccaskill.senate.gov .
_________________________________________

The way I interpret this response is that they are wanting to take more parental rights AWAY from us if the amendment I posted about does not pass.  Not only will it be our local, state, and federal governmental figures telling us how to raise our kids, it is quite possible that it will also be the rest of the world...sorry to offend anyone here, but there are certain things that I like about this country, and raising my child the way that I see fit just happens to be one of the few liberties we have left...and now they are trying to take that away from us.  Please, I beg you, do your own research--write your representatives and see how they respond back to you.  We are paying their paychecks, the least they can do is take five minutes to hear your voice and respond to you. 

my 13 year old has gone beyond my math skills and is working on his own in algebra, drafting, English and computers. our local high school has been everything but helpful. (note this school district even choked off funds for the county charter school, closing it) i need on line options for high school. i am in NH.

(x-posted)
Does anyone in here use Singapore Math?  If you do, would you mind sharing how you implement the program?  I'm interested in hearing about how many lessons you go through per week (and if you go year round or otherwise) and how you work in the CWP and IP books--are these things you use daily or weekly?  I'm also curious as to whether Singapore math is based on a 36-week school year; does anyone happen to know?

Thanks for any help!

I feel good about this idea, so I wanted to share.

We're starting a poetry unit, and I ran across a silly Jack Prelutsky poem about food rotting in the refrigerator, so I felt inspired to find poems for my daughter to find in thematically appropriate locations around the house.

I found several kitchen poems, one about the furniture in the living room getting mad at each other, a couple involving windows, one for the back door, one to post by the piano, etc. Some are serious, some are silly. I hope she has fun hunting them down. (They're on bright pink paper, so it won't be difficult!)

There is a new amendment to the constitution floating around out there, and I feel as though it is in every homeschooling parents' best interest to show your own senators that you are in favor of supporting it.  It is called S.J. Resolution 16 (H.J Resolution 42 in the House). 

From HSLDA's webpage:
http://www.hslda.org/Legislation/National/2009/S.J.Res.16/default.asp

And here is the House version of it:
http://frwebgate.access.gpo.gov/cgi-bin/getdoc.cgi?dbname=111_cong_bills&docid=f:hj42ih.txt.pdf

This would make the liberty of the parents to direct upbringing and eduction a fundamental right, and I feel as though it would be a huge step for us homeschool parents if it were to pass.

Has anyone used the Berry Best Preschool Program before? http://www.preschool-program.com/ Any reviews on it?

Thanks.

Cross-posted

We are secular homeschoolers gearing up to do a history co-op with our Christian friends. We will be using Sonlight 6. I'm looking for a list of books in the vein of Sonlight but not quite so religiously oriented. Or, a list telling me which Sonlight books are way over the top religious so I know which ones to skip.

Any ideas?

(crossposted)

Anyone know of some good Hebrew materials for young kids? Modern Hebrew (not Biblical). I'd prefer something like Muzzy, something very young kids can watch on TV to learn kind of pseudo-immersion style or something like that. I found a couple DVDs for the Israeli version of Sesame Street but obviously we'll need more than an hour or two to really start building some vocab.

My oldest is just turning 3 this spring and I'd like to start foreign language gently now while her little brain is such a language sponge.

Do any of your children go to youth theatre, amateur drama groups, etc? And do you find that participation in such activities is beneficial (or otherwise) to thier personal development? 

I'm trying to put something together about folk and fairy tales from around the world. It needs to be a year-long curriculum for a 1st or 2nd grader (roughly ages 6-8), so I need a lot of info to fill that much time! What I'm trying to do right now is just to educate myself.

I know there's a bunch of scholarly literature about folk tales, but a lot of it seems kind of esoteric to reduce to a level that would be interesting for a 6 year old. Does anyone know of any books or other resources that talk about folk tales, preferably from a geographical, historical, and social perspective? Either about folk tales in general, or about a specific subset of them (regional, thematic, etc)

I'm also starting to search out really good collections of them... any favorites from your family? It would also be helpful if you could note the rough reading level: whether it would be appropriate to expect an average 1st or 2nd grader in a public school to be able to read it, or whether it would be better read out loud.

While I'm at it, anyone ever order anything from The Critical Thinking Co? The stuff seems pretty nice for what it is.

I need any and all links you might know of with authoratative literature about the apprropriateness and benefits of homeschooling. Tia