Cintinative - Okay, thank you. That matches what I have heard elsewhere, but wasn't clear on. :) It's good to know my 3rd grader isn't the only one struggling to write fast enough. You've given me helpful information to think on. Thanks! :)

I am just starting the Singapore Primary Math 1A U.S. Edition with my youngest child. I've already taught this twice before with my older two children, one of whom is a VERY kinesthetic learner. I have never bought special manipulatives for math. We have used megablocks (large legos) in place of uniblocks. We have used crayons, craft sticks, lego minifigures, action figures, hot wheels vehicles, fruit snacks, m & m's, etc etc. Whatever happened to be on hand. I do own the HIG for this level but I only bought it because I honestly struggled with understanding number bonds at first since I hadn't learned that way in public school. Once I understood the number bond concept, I didn't really *need* the HIG, but it is helpful for ideas for hands on when you are just getting started. I haven't used the HIG since the first time I went through the book with my eldest. I don't own any of the other HIG for any of the other levels and my eldest is in 6th grade this year (although in hindsight I don't recommend 5B-6B, but that's another topic). Our strategy has always been to start with the text book. We read through and practice the textbook problems first with the pictures. Then reinforcing with hands on using manipulatives. We go back and forth between pictures and manipulatives as necessary until I feel they have a strong enough grasp on the lesson to move on to the workbook. With my older children being more independent now (3rd and 6th grade), I let them do a lot on their own and they only come to me with questions, which usually can be traced back to them trying to skip the textbook and go straight to the workbook. In my house doing the textbook work first (whether mentally, orally, or on paper) is mandatory. Anyway, Singapore Primary Math has been great for my kinesthetic learner and as a visual learner myself who is not strong in math, I highly recommend it and encourage you to give it a try. If your student struggles because there are no pictures or blocks explicitly included in the workbook instructions, I would say, just pull them out anyway. I see no reason that if the workbook says "2+6=" and there isn't a picture to go with it, that you can't just grab a box of crayons, and have her work it out that way, then write down her answer. I have also doodled in a several of my son's workbook margins or on scrap pieces of paper when they needed a pictorial representation and I didn't feel like using manipulatives. Also, just a personal tip: I have found my boys respond better if I put it into real life terms like, "If you have 2 pieces of candy and I give you 6 more pieces of candy, how many do you have?" Now, they may still need to count the crayons, but for some reason, they get the concept or goal of the exercise more clearly when I phrase it that way. Hope that is helpful!

Cintinative - Can you elaborate on the difference in pacing between Level A and Level B? I have been watching Level A Lesson 1 with my 3rd grader and we are not really noticing any difference when comparing to Lesson 1 in Level B. My 3rd grader is saying it doesn't seem any easier and that I would still need to pause for them to write. (My third grader also audibly objected to Andrew's instruction to write sloppy, so that is part of the problem. He takes pride in his neat handwriting as opposed to my 6th grader who could care less and still uses capitals in the middle of words.) Is it farther along in the course that the difference is more apparent?

To those with IEW SWI experience: We are seasoned, confident, second generation homeschoolers, but this is our first attempt at using anything by IEW, and I have questions about 2 of my students. One is in 6th grade, the other in 3rd. The former is a voracious speed reader, the latter is a struggling, but perseverant reader. My plan this year (on advice from someone on IEW staff) was to have them both do the SWI Level B videos but have my 3rd grader do the Level A reinforcements while the 6th grader did the Level B reinforcements. However, we are just starting Lesson 2 and it is already abundantly clear this is not going to work. I keep having to pause the video so my 3rd grader can catch up with writing and underlining the key words, meanwhile my 6th grader is racing ahead and completing the entire key word outline before Andrew (the dvd teacher) finishes outlining the 3rd sentence. So it feels like I am push, push, pushing my 3rd grader to keep up, and pull, pull, pulling my 6th grader back to slow him down. While the work is getting done (well, mostly. I ended up having my 3rd grader skip his second reinforcement for Lesson 1, because he ran out of time in the school week and my 6th grader had already finished both of his reinforcements), they are just too far apart in pacing and everyone is winding up frustrated. So.... now I am wondering if I should: 1) just buy a second copy of the SWI Level B videos and have them watch them separately so they can work at their own pace. OR 2) just buy the workbook to go with the SWI Level A videos I bought secondhand and have my 3rd grader do that while my 6th grader continues with SWI Level B My hesitation with option 1 is of course the cost, but also wondering if the Level A would just be a better fit for my 3rd grader. My hesitation with option 2 is wondering how much more work that will create for me as a teacher trying to keep up on what they are learning so that I can support them and also trying to keep up on the grading for 2 different courses. The appeal with my original plan was that it saved teaching time AND grading time. Do you have an alternate suggestion or an opinion on whether option 1 or 2 is more likely to solve the trouble? Thanks! (P.S. Yes, I own & have watched TWSS.)

So I'm going to try my version of a looping schedule for the coming school year and I'm wondering if there is an online planner I can use to help me keep my records. In the past I've used Scholaric and checked out other programs like Homeschool Skedtrack and Homeschool Planet, etc. I'm wondering if there is anything sorta like that but more looping schedule friendly or if anyone has used one of those programs for looping and how it worked. My loops are actually block schedules with loops within loops. For example: Block A is a loop that is allotted 30 minutes and scheduled to be completed after breakfast. It includes the categories Life Skills & Language Arts and looks like this: Language Arts Life Skills Language Arts Life Skills Language Arts If Block A says to do Language Arts, we then look to the Language Arts Loop to decide which subject is up for the day. The Language Arts Loop looks like this: Handwriting Spelling Grammar Vocabulary Handwriting Spelling Grammar Creative Writing If Block A says to do Life Skills we look at the Life Skills Loop to decide which subject is up for the day. So it's more like a looping flow chart combo. (Yes I've done the math to figure out how many days in a school year we will get to each subject and I've adjusted the loops to where I'm comfortable with the results.) Anyway, I won't know more than a day or two in advance which specific assignments we are going to do each day and each day will be different from the previous day (a different combination of categories and subjects) so scheduling each lesson in advance would be pointless. My question is this: Am I stuck with post-recording (tracking everything *after* it has happened) or is there a digital planner somewhere out there that could actually handle this system of scheduling? In my dream world, there is something that will let me create digital loops of categories and subjects and will automatically remind me where we are in the loop - won't rotate the loop unless something is entered to indicate a lesson was completed in that subject - then I just have to add the assignment details and grades after we've done them, but the category and subject will already be there for each day. I have a strong suspicion that what I want doesn't exist, but I figure it doesn't hurt to ask. There are one or two things I don't know after all. ;) Thanks in advance!