Tammi - your "style" reminds me of a friend of mine. I always enjoy visiting her home & seeing the oodles of books & manipulatives. And if there is a math book I want to see, 9xs out of 10 she has it! I'd like to mimic your style; your kids are getting a great education! Thanks for sharing!

I absolutely couldn't stand Horizons when we used it for 1st & then I attempted it again in 2nd (why?). But I have several friends that use Horizons and it always makes me want to try it again. I wish I enjoyed it the way they do! I didn't like... the lack of mental math, such as MUS, BJU, Singapore, Miquon, Rightstart use. the lack of support in the TM. If I was really stumped on how to teach something, I didn't find the steps in there to teaching it. the pictures. OK, so this is a stupid reason, but the ugly pics drove me nuts. all the problems on the page. Such a busy busy looking page. I like white space:) because it is spiral, I can't really pick and choose what I want to do...and if I did, where would I start? (although I have a friend that successfully uses Horizons & she does pick/choose what she wants to do) the way it spiraled didn't make sense to me. teach something new for the first time and then totally drop it for a week or two. progression didn't make sense to me.

How do you break Math Mammoth into lessons? A little background: we've used BJU Math for a couple years, and I still really like it - however, for a few reasons, we've decided to try Math Mammoth for my 9yo's 4th gr math. I will be buying it off of a friend soon and starting it. I took a good look at it yesterday and it looks like the lessons are broken apart into different page segments. For example, it says - Lesson 1 - Addition Review - 3 pages Lesson 2 - Adding in Columns - 1 page Lesson 3 - Subtraction Review - 3 pages From that, I would determine that 1 day of math would be Lesson 1, 3 pages, and the next day's lesson would be Lesson 2, 1 page. Correct? But then looking at the web site, it said each book contained 156 lesson pages (and there are 2 books for 1 complete year:confused:). If 1 lesson = 1 day, I counted it up and it would be 120 lessons in 1 schoolyear, not counting the test & cumulative review book (so maybe that's where the 156 lessons comes in?) Also, if my 1st assumption is correct, and some days are 3 pages, some days are 1 page, and still other days are 4 pages - do you make your child complete each and every problem? Some days look really lengthy to me, esp if my child gets the concept. I'm looking forward to trying this, but feel a little trepidation, since BJU has a very easy to follow front & back of worksheet format for each lesson:001_smile:

Thanks for advice- She is getting some adult hair growth & I think she may have the start of breasts. I'm starting to 2nd-guess puberty though, as my 7yo just revealed the start of hair:confused: So maybe children get hair young & I'm mistaking it as puberty? I'll be asking the ped soon, as my baby has an appt next week.

DD, age 9, has been having headaches off & on. She saw an ophthamologist & has 20/20 vision, no visual tracking problems, etc. It has 2 triggers: Math (lol!) and Noise. I've since switched to an easier math, working on math fact memorization & she's stopped complaining about math related headaches. But the noise still gets to her. Lil sis (age 7) sings, and baby sister screetches, cries, or squeals, which is met with complaints by the 9yo. She even complained of having headaches during her fav co-op class, choir. What is this? And will we ever progress to harder math without headaches?

You were out-numbered. It wouldn't have gone well. Ask me how I know;) I agree with the others. Sneak attack! lol.

those that use fleece or blanket linings - how do you keep the lining down? I tried this once and it was a disaster! The pig slipped around on the lining, causing the lining to fold up, and then the piggie went poo/pee on the floor of the cage. So how do you keep the lining under the piggie? Also, when mixing bedding with lining, I found that the bedding shifted onto the fleece, and this was a huge mess (bedding was stuck on the fleece and could not be separated - this was after 1 day). I was so frustrated that I gave up fleece altogether. Others make it sound so great, I want it to work too! Any tips to make it work, or is this what you have to deal with?

We have a new baby with us this year, and I'm sorely sleep deprived, so I'm looking for places to cut back a bit... Language Arts Here is where I'll cut back. Dd needs a little work in learning how to capitalize. Also, could use some work on her handwriting and how she spaces her words in her writing. I will slack a bit on reading & grammar. Math learn mult/div facts typical 4th gr math scope/seq, whatever that is! Sci/His Here is where we need to do more - more experiments, more memorizing events in history. I've been really lax on this. More typical sci scope/seq & need to hit American History (haven't studied this yet) Other Dh wanted to choose some subjects - he wants us to work through this college level book about Communication, he has assigned dd to read Shakespeare ("real" shakespeare, not the kid stuff, so this is kind of hard). And we also will continue our reading/copywork from Familiar Quotations (this is another dh assignment that we are continuing from last year). We start mid-year (starting 4th now), but so far, I'm waaay to lax and I'm having trouble finding my groove. Sleep seems more important than school, housework, and paying bills. Ugh.

I use the 3rd ed & seldom use more than just the workbook. Without Reviews and/or the CD practice, BJU (IMO) has less problems than Horizon. That's what I liked about it! I have found, however, that I should've brought in the TM, reviews & CD stuff for facts practice with my 9yo for times & division. She's nearly finished with 3rd but doesn't know her times facts & is still confused with the concept of division. I'm trying to fix that now:) My 7yo does not know her add/subt facts but works the 2nd gr math problems very quickly, without error, so she only does the workbook (& sometimes I cut out some of those problems, too). So I guess it depends on the kid? My 9yo takes forever to do math, so giving her 2 double sided worksheets would be like shooting myself in the foot. Really really painful. My 7yo would complain but then swing thru all the problems quickly - she already understands it, so it doesn't seem necessary. Not sure howto handle the 9yo since she really does need the extra practice.

A nice bump up from Magic Tree House are these 2 series by Kate McMullan: Dragon Slayer Academy (18 or 19 books total) & Myth-o-mania Books (8 total) They are slightly longer, slightly more involved & less repetitious plots than Magic Tree House.

Now I'm re-thinking what we do, and wondering if it was done in good taste:) We've had "no gifts, please" and we've had "gifts optional" on the invitations. Are these statements still in the realm of polite and acceptable? I tend to dread being invited to parties because of the expectation of a gift - I don't want our guests to have that same dread!

We've been using BJU Spelling, which uses word families up until 4th grade. I have the 4th gr on order, but so far, that one doesn't look like word families. So, don't know what the 4th gr is like yet. But so far, I've liked how it teaches all oi/oy words, and then lumps on word endings like -s, ing, ed. BJU Reading & Spelling programs both seem to focus on rules for the first few years (again, no idea what 4th gr does). If you follow the TM, it also has activities that point out these rules, like circling certain letter combination in words. It also has 2 dictation sentences using spelling words. You can use the workbook without the TM, but of course, you gain a lot of rule activities & dictation type activities if you use the TM. Spelling Workout lumps words together by phonics sounds, but we were more confused trying to figure out why one word had -ea, and another word had an -ie, etc (same sounds, but different spellings, and no explanation why). You can flip thru the first few units of BJU Spelling on www.bjupress.com - be sure to check out the TM sample and the workbook sample so you can see if you'd want the TM or not, and to see how the lesson is set up.

Dh has realized that homeschool moms may not be on the same page as homeschool dads (can you imagine the conversations that led him to that conclusion? LOL) So howabout a poll? What is the #1 reason your dh/(or male s.o.) homeschools or entrusts you to homeschool?

Do I need to buy the whole $50 kit, or can I just buy the book & make the cards myself? I'm mostly interested in multiplication/division games, and may not use the whole kit/caboodle. I already own an al-abacus. I have a printer, cardstock, and a laminating machine, so spending $50 for everything seems a bit much. Are there pics or descriptions of the cards in the book so I could make the cards myself?

Dd (age 9) took the IOWA test & did the worst on the computation part of it. Although we are aware of where she needs improvement, and how she makes her mistakes, I think the biggest problem of all is her FEAR and DREAD of math. Now, I know that not all subjects are going to be a big hit, and sometimes you just have to do those things anyway. But I have also seen this same dd overcome a fear and dread of READING which is now her favorite thing to do!!! So, any suggestions on how to change a dread of math into a love of math??? Anyone successfully achieve this in their homeschool? (btw, she loved reading after I dropped phonics and started her on reading real picture books. She has finally liked writing after I dropped writing assignments and we did letter writing & NanoWriMo novel writing month. So now, how do I apply that to math? And how do we learn our math facts besides?)

We are finishing up the IOWA test this weekend. I used Spectrum Test Prep, and we spent 2 weeks going thru the sections and practicing. I noticed that we hadn't covered anything from sci or social studies that was tested in the Spectrum book, so I taught to the test prep book. I'm not sure if that was necessary or not, but I feel like we got a good dose of sci & social studies in a few days time:) These were the important things: 1. how to fill in the answer bubble 2. how to make a good guess if you don't know the answer (look back in the paragraph because the answer might be in the text, decide which answers are NOT correct, skip it and move on because the answer might show up in a future question, etc.) 3. how to do the easy ones first, and come back to the hard ones later (basically, using your time efficiently during the timed test) Although we aren't quite finished with the test, I can say that it has been a positive, mind-relieving experience. I put it off for a long time and my fear level kept rising to unrealistic levels. We aren't required to test, this is just for our own personal benefit, but I sure am glad we are testing!! It has been eye opening for me - I'm not such a bad home teacher afterall, and the things that she didn't score as well on can easily be worked on.

Have taught gr 2 more than once. Here's my picks: BJU Math 2 - love it BJU English - we skip the writing assignments and just do the grammar sections. If we do a writing assignment, I don't make them do all the re-writing, which I think kills all joy. For writing, I think just letting writing happen as the mood strikes is working the best for us. BJU Spelling is so-so. It's easy because it uses word-families. Kids like a workbook format for spelling. Reading - we have been using BJU (notice a trend?) but I think if I could do it over, we'd just skip it and use real books. It's a fine review of phonics and other skills though. But once my current 2nd gr'er finishes the book, I'm going to drop reading.

Do you think a spiral approach might help? (spiral - old concepts consistently reviewed while new concepts are introduced). Just wondering if using a mastery approach (mastery - not moving forward until concept is mastered fully) might be part of the problem? Or - one phenomenon I frequently encounter with my kids is this scenario: masters addition/subtraction facts move on to multi-digit adding/subtracting, but suddenly, dd forgets the easy stuff (goes from knowing all facts to not being able to add 1+1) I find that whenever we tackle something new, the old is temporarily forgotten. I've learned to just keep moving forward with the new stuff, while explaining the old as though she's never seen it before (LOL). About Dev Math - it is a mastery approach, so it will focus on that one topic until the end of the book. It won't really get much review in the next book in the series. I like DM a lot, esp for learning how numbers work and understanding the concept while learning the facts. It will not follow a typical school scope/sequence, so if you plan on standardized testing or keeping up with the school, DM may not be a good choice for that. But DM can help with learning facts and the "why's" of math. Some people use DM all the way thru, and then move into pre-algebra or algebra (seems like the unschoolers/relaxed schoolers do this happily). Some people use DM as a supplement to their main math program. This is what I plan to do because we do standardized testing and I worry about not keeping up to some extent. I wish I could throw my cares to the wind and not worry, but past years have proved that I am not able to do that.

My now 9yo was a later reader and couldn't spell at age 6 or 7. We put it away and then at 7.5, things clicked and she could hold spellings in her head. My 7yo dd read much earlier and is smart as a whip, but spelling comes out really weird sometimes. I mean really weird. Frustratingly weird. LOL. We use BJU spelling which has all word families (so, all words that have oi and oy - easy!) She absolutely struggles with any words that have an ng and nk (seems to be that elusive n sound). Anyhow, it may just be something that gets outgrown eventually. You could try switching programs, putting spelling away for a bit, or changing your goals for spelling. For us, we spent many lists not even having final tests or grading them. And some spelling tests I just gave the answers, lol. Things are a bit smoother now. My 7yo just figured out a way that she likes to study for her tests and this seems to be working magic on our spelling lists. But I still wonder sometimes if the weekly spelling list way of teaching is completely and utterly pointless:)

Anyone find that a certain lingo used in standardized testing affects their student's score? My dd will be taking the IOWA test next week (dh is giving it at home). We're going thru some practice tests (Spectrum Test Prep) and just in a few pages have hit on several words that we *don't use* here. Example: in Science, she didn't understand what an "investigation" was and thought it was a bad thing (i.e., criminal investigation). She never would've guessed that it meant "science experiment". I also noticed wierd questions like what a computer keyboard does - she's very good technically and works on computers with her daddy, but on paper, she just couldn't figure out what on earth they were asking. I'm worried that this isn't a good sign. Are we using the wrong "lingo" here? And is it seriously going to affect the test scores?

Just wondering... Hypothetically, if you happened to have a daughter that began sprouting hair in odd places around age 8 (arm pits and ahem, down there)... Also, let's say you might be seeing the start of breasts now that she's 9... When would you expect the menstrual cycle to start? Is it still years away? Also, when would you expect puberty related behaviors to start and what sort of behaviors would you expect? I'm just wondering if all the emotional drama coming from the 9yo might be explanable:) She is reasonably happy, but then becomes an emotional crying mess over little things. She's frequently and easily offended. I remember having the start of breasts around 10/11, and my 1st cycle around age 12. My mom, however, was age 9 when her 1st cycle hit:(

What is the charter school situation in California? I thought of that because of the acceptance of Singapore Math as a math option in public schools in California. If it makes its way into some classrooms there, perhaps there are also charter schools located there that also use Singapore Math? Just thought I'd lend an idea for your wild goose chase!

My dd wet the bed until age 7. I always sent her off with some Goodnites when she went to sleep overs. Likewise, a friend came over for sleepovers & she wets the bed. I always pulled out my dd's leftover Goodnites & gave her one to put on. I never made a big deal out of it & didn't make a point of it in front of friends, just kind of a gentle, "here ya go!" as she went into the bathroom to change for bed. I don't want to clean up someone's pee mess and I'm sure they don't want the embarrassment of making one at a sleepover, ya know?

Two out of my 3 kids were 2lb preemies due to preeclampsia - with my 1st preemie, I was shocked & surprised by all the "congratulations!" since it didn't feel like a "birth" to me. But it was, and I'm glad that everyone was celebratory about it. I can appreciate what some of the other moms have said about life being celebratory, even if it is just for a short time. And can relate to celebrating every small cc of milk dripped into my baby's tummy. Someone asked about preeclampsia & why so early? As explained to me, once diagnosed with pre-e, you have 1 week or less before it becomes severe & lifethreatening. Sometimes a mom can hang out in the mild pre-e & be fine for several weeks, or more - but the chances are greater that severe pre-e will develop & baby will need to be born within a week diagnosis. Once you are diagnosed as mild pre-e, it's just a waiting game to see when it's going to go severe.

So I know that it's totally normal for a breastfed baby to suddenly STOP pooping for a week at around 2mos old. My breastfed preemie baby stopped pooping daily, and started pooping weekly around 2 mos, and I wasn't worried. But now...she's 7mos (adjusted age 5mos) and has started pooping like a newborn again. Several times a day. A few times at night. Is this normal, too? Crazy question: is there a tie between her sudden regularity and my regularity?