I have two kids in duolingo Spanish for last month. They enjoy it but even after getting through with a section and then doing the Strengthen button and seeing a leaf (or whatever each topic is called), the next time they log in it is bumped back to only two or three of the bars blue. They each have their own login that I have to toggle between, and this is on the iPad app. Because of this we can't seem to get past Bascis 1 and 2 and Phrases. What is causing this?

Just because we all need some more laughs..... . And the yell sneeze and scream cough, trying not to laugh too hard next to dh! I hate those!

Oh dear..... poor daughter of mine, seems we might never get to this point. I then remind myself that she will not be thirty and struggling.

All very helpful, thanks. So a bit more info since I didn't have time to give that this morning. DD8 almost nine has had spacing problems since four or so, very tight teeth. Her bottom four adult teeth came in and were quite crowded so last summer had two bottom and two top baby teeth pulled to make room for those to straighten out (same problem was appearing on top). Since then, the squashed bottom four have straigtened somewhat but unfortunately the space that was created is now about an eighth of an inch wide, clearly not room for the adult teeth to move into without causing the same squashing again, and again, etc.... this possibility has been noticed and watched since she was about four. She has a narrow mouth and palate. Today ortho agreed with dentists (two we have had) that options would be to 1. Keep pulling baby teeth to make room for incoming adult teeth or 2. Start anytime with a palate expander to make mouth wider and allow space. Says this is about a twelve month process. He guesses she might need braces in the future anyway but recommends starting with this. DS7 has been noted to have quite an underbite with a "class three occlusion"(?) for a couple years now as well and we have just been waiting to see what pans out. He has no problems with spacing. Ortho today recommended waiting for another year or so and then highly recommended getting a head gear (not quite like what I rmembr from my generation, thankfully) and needing braces on top four teeth to attach device to for nightly sleeping in an attempt to correct offset jaw and underbite at same time. I am fine with getting work done if it is necessary for future comfort and speech ability but unless teeth are really bad visually would lean more on the conservative side of things. Anyone with experience with either of these?

Taking the two oldest (9 and 7) to an ortho consult today based on dentist recommendations. What questions do you wish you would have asked your ortho, or what are you glad you asked? Thanks!

Paraphrasing and it's taken me some time to relax enough to attempt this...... If you have a crazy week and something falls to the wayside, history, music, etc.... don't try to pack it in next week, just MOVE ON!!

So are you all doing full on shaves? Starting in high school I have had light and soft cheek chin upper neck hair with enough bristly dark offenders to be def visible. I pluck the darkies every week or so but it's a pain. I often dream about a solution but am afraid to shave for the above reasons. Do women have this significant amount waxed as well? If so and if it works I ,I gut just want it. How often do you find you need to do it?

I like the ones from halfahundredacrewood.com.

Following.....

All basically confirms what my instinct was telling me. Thanks!

So I guess a few follow up thoughts..... This is somewhat what I have felt like doing - just read! The notebooking pages just bogged me down..... I read voraciously as a child as well, threw myself into literature and majored in it at school. The type A in me likes the idea of lists, however. The sonlight list and corresponding comp questions sounds intriguing, as i feel DD9 reads so fast she might be missing concepts. Also, at what stage do you start formal literary analysis? Do you have any favorite methods? Thank you all for your advice.

I am not sure where to go next. Dd9 and ds7 both read well, easily reading chapter books on levels higher than basic magic treehouse. They both could read a bit more fluidly while reading out loud so I am working on that with them periodically though not as much as I probably should be. We are doing FLL 3 and 1 and WWE 2 and 1. We use ETC and are on levels 6 and 5 respectively. I just don't know where to go next with "reading." I have tried to do WTM reading plan of out loud reading to me and then notebooking but after the first two weeks this year that totally fell so the wayside and I just end up sending them to read throughout the day. Something needs to be more organized but I ma not sure what that looks like. What have people used at this stage? Any direction would be helpful.

It looks like today's freebies are the same as yesterday's. If I sign up for today's and the freebies change can I get the next set too?

Hunter, thanks for the excellent resources and explanation. You are a wealth of information for this newbie.

I remember seeing awhile ago a great thread on new games people are loving. I have a gift card for Barnes and noble to use up and am thinking game...... Nine, seven and five year old but would prefer something that will last and keep us entertained into teenage years. Not too picky on type, I enjoy logic and language and knowledge games but dH is more into ticket to ride type as he is not native English speaking. No settlers of Catan, I just couldn't get into it. Spam me with ideas!

So I have one edition of this sitting on my shelf but have never really looked at it. What ages have you all used it for and what would you say sets it above any other programs floating out there?

We are doing SOTW 2 and while I don't turn to the internet too often to supplement things it would be nice at times. However, I find myself wasting our history time googling around to find something good to match our topic. Does anyone have a website/s you frequently turn to, knowing you will a) likely be able to find something to correspond to your topic and b) it will be well done. Shortish videos are what I would be looking for. The same goes for coloring pages, I search and find one and follow only to find it is only half page or no longer free or...... any good one site sources out there for the occasional (not cartoony) castle, serf, crusader, etc? Thanks!

Not as much now that you are in the thick of things but they aren't going to hurt and will help next time you feel something coming on..... fresh garlic cloves... mince about half a teaspoonful, put on spoon with good quality honey and down. Honey helps it go down. Do this a few times a day. You might smell a bit for awhile😀 Elderberry syrup..... very very very easy to make a seasons supply much cheaper than you can find in stores. Google recipe. Take one tbs day (I break from it on weekends as it is an immune booster and there is wisdom behind not having our bodies at top alert constantly) and if you feel something coming on can take three or so times a day. Use throughout the flu season. Echinacea tea, start drinking ask soon as your u feel something coming on but don't take for more than a week for the same reasons elderberry syrup needs a break. As mentioned above, lots of zinc, vitamin c, good hot fluids, good foods. This is our winter regimen which we stick more closely to at some times than others but we rarely get hammered. And homemade chicken noodle soup😀 Hope you recover soon! No fun!

So to bensonduck (or others), I am assuming it will not be a problem to use the IP which looks to be u.s. edition with the standards we have been using so far?

My DS 7 is in first. Had Saxon level one last year and did fine, tested into 1b for Singapore. Has been doing pretty fine with it, some parts we have taken a bit slower but overall good. We have standards edition, just using HIG, textbook and his workbook. He will be finishing up with this sometime in January I think and I am wondering where to go here for him. I don't really want to push into level two I don't think, that might be too much. I feel like I want to review what he has done so far, esp as this was the first semester with SM methods. Thoughts...... Get the level 1b extra practice book and work though it, without the level 1a. Combine this (or just one or the other on its own) with level 1 challenging word problems (if I did this, not sure which edition would be best). Do something entirely differently? I don't really want to purchase anything completely new again, for my peace of mind I would do best not switching things up too much..... Any other thoughts? How would you fill this interim?

ds7 sits on the toilet for a good ten to fifteen minutes for his daily constitutional. Usually right after his xtramath time. Like clockwork. Seriously boy, get things moving! It's not that he dawdles, I think it actually takes that long. Can't imagine this going over well as an every.day.thing in our ps! Just another reason......

Hi there, I am new to these boards as well and have a husband who gets home around six each evening and am myself a midwife so get called out for births or clinic days once or twice a week. I have one in third and one in first and a sort of pre k (4.5) who I am sad to say doesn't get a ton of "schoool time". I am following WTM to an extent. I think that in first it could work with what you are describing but with intentional effort. DS in first does Singapore math 1B, First Lanugage Lessons 1, Writing With Ease 1, Zaner Bloser handwriting, and a spelling WTM recommended but I can't remember which one right now. Of those, the math probably takes the longest. The rest could be done in a hour or hour and half of directed teaching time. We do alternate history SOTW 2 and science using WTM recommendations every other day for an hour. He reads voraciously and getting him to notebook regularly or have me sit and listen to him is where I drop the ball. He gets a good two hours at least reading in daily though unless we are out of the house. I had plans to do Spanish or Latin but that has t happened and for his age I don't feel too guilty about it. Music and art happen very sporadically. So, all that to say is that yes, I think that with three to four hours which could easily be broken up throughout the day you could definitely get a good WTM foundation laid. Good luck!

So I haven't figured out how to do quotations here yet but where is this Spanish language keyboard app some have spoken of? Just any app would work?

Oh my goodness I am going to have to mull over those above posts daily for quite awhile. Thank you all so much. I think I have seen mentioned a book people recommend for teaching this method but I can't seem to remember the title. Would that be helpful in getting me to understand *why* this is necessary and useful? I do have the HIG and that helps me at least have an idea where I am going but I still feel we are hanging by threads off a cliff. I think we do need to slow down and get solid solid solid on place value and making tens. I think my ds will benefit from it as well as we are just starting to get caught in that in 1b as well. I have been having her vertical problems horizontally, should I not be doing this if it doesn't tell me to? And on the mental math pages in the back of the HIG am I just to allow them to figure out the answer using any technique they can? Number line, fingers, dots on page, or by mental math do they mean no tools like that should be used? I am feeling many posts along these lines coming up over the next months. I guess I just need confidence that 1. I made the right choice in this switch 2. I am not setting them behind in my fumbling attempts at teaching it and 3. Somehow they will (and I will) indeed understand these methods, not to mention understand the why behind them. Sigh. Disclaimer.... I am usually not so morose about things like this! Thanks for understanding!

I am a long time lurker on these boards but recently signed up myself so sorry to jump in with questions before introducing myself! I am really struggling with Singapore, though, and need guidance! History.... dd8 is in third grade and had done Saxon math since level one in K year. Did well with it until the timed tests (which I quickly just turned into no timed practice) at which point we started having at least weekly breakdowns. I think this was end of first grade or so? Things just did into seem to stick and it was such a battle that we both dreaded that this year I tswitched to Singapore. She tested into 2a. I am using standards edition. Fwiw I switched ds7 to Singapore as well, not because he was struggling but because I figured it would be smoother to have them both in same boat and if I ended up liking Singapore I wanted him in it sooner rather than later. Today, we tried doing unit 2 chapter five on subtraction and renaming. And oh.my.gosh, my mind just does not does not wrap easily around the ways they have them learning! I was a Saxon brain myself and this new method is really tough for me to guide them through! The whole making 45 into 35 and 10 and subtracting seven from ten and adding the remainder onto 35 and that just being one way of doing it is frying me. I get it, but it is so foreign to me I feel there is no way I can teach the concept clearly! She did subtraction with borrowing last year with Saxon and did o.k. With it if I recall correctly. So I had her try to show me that method again and I think that would get easier for peer than the whole trying to break numbers into their parts bit. So, question the is, how important is it really for them to get the Singapore concept. From reading reviews, I know that is the whole ide,a but I just don't know how to get her (well them) to that point. Do I just use what she remembers from Saxon? I feel that is missing then whole part of Singapore. I just don't know at all how to teach this and am seeing utter lack of understanding in her eyes which tears me apart. I am feeling helpless with this! Argh. Thanks for any advice!