Where on earth do I begin?

[AraBoo]

Hi guys, I've just discovered EL and am very excited about it!  I'm a bit stuck on how to proceed though and was after some advice please?

I have an 11 week old daughter, 3.5 year old son and my eldest son will be 6 next month.  From what I can gather, I will be fine to start Little Reader/Maths/Musician with the two youngest (once she turns 4 months) but what do I do with my eldest?  He is currently at a 'normal' level for his age.  I think my best option is to start at the beginning with all three of them and as they progress at different paces, then deal with this and provide material suited to their particular needs?  Am I right with this?  I feela bit lost, .

Thanks

[mybabyian]

For your oldest, start with letters and letter sounds if he doesn't already know them.  You can use starfall:
http://www.starfall.com/

Then once he knows letter sounds check out http://www.readingbear.org/
This is a great free program (by DadDude on this forum) for teaching phonics.  It would be great for your 3.5 year old too.

For all of them read lots of books and engage them in lots of conversation.  This may be the easiest and most important thing you can do.  Check out the book The Read Aloud Handbook which is very likely in your library.

Good luck.  Let us know how it goes!

[Mandabplus3]

Yes do start LR, LM and LMusic with them all. My 6 year old enjoyed LR until she learnt to read and still enjoys files I make and download from the shareing library! Even my 9 year old loves to watch files on more advanced topics ( countries of the world, solar system, periodic table) you will definately get your money's worth from LR!
For little musician their is no real upper age limit. All your children and your self will learn from it. Highly recommended!
Little math is more suited to your younger two. However if you can get your oldest to watch the first 20 days or so it will help solidify his quantity recognition knowledge.
If you give us a bit more info on where your oldest is at now I could give more specific advice. Does he read? Can he decoded words using phonics? Does he know his sight words?
If you want to pay for a reading program them reading eggs is my top pick for your 6 year old. They love it!  ( definately LR for the younger ones!) for the free options them starfall and reading bear and then find some online phonics readers also. If you do use these two ( and there is no reason not to use them ALL) include your younger children too when possible. the faster they learn their phonics the better.
For math I like IXL for online learning and rightstart if you want a full program for at home teaching. If you Want a free option I suggest using the list of skills in IXL as a curriculum guide and teaching each skill in your own way. For all of your children practice counting forwards and backwards at every opportunity. Also add skip counting to your day, fractions, sorting, ordering....into everyday activities. Te book Marshmellow math has some great ideas for this.

[AraBoo]

Thank you for the wonderful advice! 

My almost 6 YO is pretty good with his phonics, can sound out most words unless it's one of the tricky ones...his numeracy is good, hopefully he's taking after me with that!  The  letting him down at the moment is his handwriting but in the grand scheme of things, I consider that to be the least important aspect anyway  IXL is amazing, thank you so much for that link.  My plan with him is to do lots more reading and to work on his maths...

I actually had the read aloud book already!!  Naughty me hadn't read it in 5 years of owning it :/ I have started on that and also with Marshmallow Math which has some fab ideas...I especially like the trampoline idea for my 3.5 YO, although it's far too cold and wet at the moment so will make do with my bed!!

My laptop is completely wrecked so once I've bought a new one, hopefully this week, I will get LR/LMath/LM...it's all very exciting!!

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