The crinkling sound of disposable plastic water bottles in the hands of middle schoolers as you are teaching.

Check out jumpstart math to fix holes and create a stronger foundation, but they also need a real curriculum going forward.

One idea is to give the activity a purpose or reason. My fourth graders regularly recorded picture books for the kindergarten and first grade classroom. This was before "audible" existed. Is there a younger cousin or neighbor she could create an audio version of a picture book for? My students had to practice reading the book out loud 3x. Then, they had to read it out load for me before they could record their version. They really enjoyed giving this gift to the younger classes and it improved their fluency!

Hands on algebra teaches this really well in the second and third booklet. It’s also kinesthetic using pawns. I appreciate how it’s concrete, pictorial then abstract.

Is “miner” spelled wrong?? Shouldn’t it be “minor”. Because of the topic, it struck me as funny.

Good questions. My girl loves TGTB it will be hard to switch her. TGTB was easy to accelerate and because my kids know their facts from Kate snows books the lessons are about 30-40 min. I combine lessons when we can. TGTB does an excellent job with place value for the average kid. Beast 2A has a fun unit on place value we did last year. My kids loved it and couldn’t wait to do pirate math, especially my boy. Beast is more his flavor. I would love to get my hands on the upper levels of TGTB so we can see how in depth it is. I want my kids to love math and right now TGtB does that. With right start I swear my kids sat there why I tried to figure out what we were doing. Even after I read ahead. It was not open and go and it was academically too easy. I probably should have started them with B. I love the abacus though. We still pull it out.

I highly suggest TGTB for your 1st grader. We have used it for the last 2 years and loved it. It is fun engaging and quick for all of us. I add in Kate Snow facts that stick book and occasional Beast unit. The lessons are a smidge light, but not at all light like master books. Much much more rigorous with the thinking required. The 1st and second grade books are definitely comparable with Singapore’s 1st and 2nd grade. We are able to work through the books quickly. I read a bit ahead and Often summarized. Our lessons are never long but we never used the math box. I had manipulatives and my kids don’t love games. (They end up arguing). Currently my 2nd graders (twins) are beginning TGTB 3rd grade. I’m bummed though. It doesn’t look as good. It feels really basic without the problem solving skills embedded. I think we can fly through the books before summer. I’ll probably end up switching to Singapore 3 for next fall or just keep adding more beast. Again I LOVE the 1st and 2nd grade books. (FYI. I bought right start for k and it’s was my biggest and most expensive curriculum mistake. I don’t like spiral in a lesson and switching topics each day drove me nuts. I couldn’t see the forest through the trees and couldn’t accelerate because I was afraid to skip something they didn’t know. Everything we did was review. I think they only learned through prodigy that year. I found it very parent intensive, and I like teaching math).

Could you find a more visually engaging curriculum with bright colors? Some visual learners get really overwhelmed with a whole page of problems. Could you use the math u see method and blocks to teach with a different curriculum? The good and the beautiful is really visually engaging you could print off practice pages that correspond with what you want to teach with math u see. My 7 year olds play prodigy for their screen time and Love it!

You are funny! We have a bat that lives every summer on our back porch. Kids named him Bertrand. Some times he has a “friend” with him. Her name is Beatrice. I am super thankful for the bats. They keep the bugs down. We live on some property in a suburb in Indiana. They winter in caves someplace around here. I worry about lots of other creatures way more than bats. (Except we joke we have our own little corona virus on the porch) I’d post a pic, but I can’t figure how to do it.

This is not my only experience with math curriculum. I have taught for over 20 years in private classical schools. They have mostly used Singapore and Saxon. I also dabbled in Right Start and despised how slow it went. A lot of lower levels of math instruction are very basic at the younger grades- I would include Saxon in this. Is TGTB as rigorous as I would like- No. Neither is Saxon or Singapore Math. Is it a solid program similar to Math Mammoth and Singapore in that they don't spiral and cover all the 1st/2nd grade basics- yes! I am especially impressed with the mixed review and some higher level thinking skills sprinkled throughout. Like I said above- I very much adore Beast Academy for brightish kids, but 2B is a bit much for my young 7 year olds. However 2A was perfect. If you want to see TGTB feel free to download their pages. If you don't fine. Where you should place your individual kiddo is up to you. Look at the pages and make a good decision for your family.

I used tgtb this year with my bright 1st graders (twins). I had planned on using Singapore, but it was way too easy. I wanted a curriculum I could move through fast, but was concerned about holes. I found tgtb to be just what we needed. We did 1A 1b and 2A this year. I printed off the pages we needed. They are pretty fun pages and full color. It had just the right amount of mastery and review for my kids. I also supplemented with beast academy 2A. That has been amazing to solidify their understanding of place value and their mental math skills. Beast 2b looks too challenging right now. I plan on doing tgtb 2b, 3a and 3b next year for 2nd grade. We will add beast as they are able. I think tgtb is a solid program very comparable to Singapore or math mammoth. We will see how the older levels shake out. I love the price point and how quickly we can move through concepts. My kids get the review they need with time, money, measurement, and geometry without it being a slog.

Is the handbook the same as the same as the syllabus? Can you purchase items separately? I’m not interested in the dvd but I really want the list of questions.

I have taught W and R for years. It is perfectly fine to jump in the middle if you feel like your older kid can craft a paragraph well with few errors. The real meat and development of thinking skills necessary to continue starts in book 5. Books 1-3 are narrative. 4 is a bit of a bridge to persuasive (it’s not my favorite though and feels odd to people who are more use to traditional writing.) If you have a weak writer or young writer it’s not a bad idea to start at the beginning. However, the beginning books are developmentally appropriate for 3-5. I would not start book 5 with anyone younger than 5 th grade. They just aren’t ready to think in the way necessary to be successful. Good luck.

I have taught W/R for many years. Do not redo fables. She will be bored. If you would like to skip books 2 and 3 you can. They are narrative, basically story writing. If your kid writes well developed stories on their own, I would skip it. You can also speed through them. They don't write a full story until the end of book 3. I think the books move pretty slowly for a 10 year old natural writer. If you have a reluctant writer, they are great! The books really shift and become more thesis/persuasive writing after book 3. Some kids may not enjoy this as much. The skills build slowly and are sprinkled throughout. They can be missed if you aren't careful in what you are skipping. In all of the W/R books (3 on) there are way too many papers. I would only write 3 of each kind of paper (assuming my child did very well with them). Don't skip the exercises and the stories are very good.

I also like oxford university press’ the world in ancient times/ medieval times combined with memoria press’ famous men series for ancients/ medieval. Then I would switch to the k12 books for modern.

I can’t figure out the age of your son. You said pre-teen so I’m guessing 12? I think your expectations are way way to high. There is no way a typical 6 th grader can independently craft a decent 5 paragraph essay in one week. My 7/8 class will take 3 weeks to write an essay on the hobbit. I am spoon feeding it to the 7 th graders. We craft almost all of it together. 1 week for an outline, 1 week for a rough draft, and 1 week for revising and editing. Work on paragraph skills- topic sentences and supporting ideas. Sit with him to brainstorm. Write the topic sentence together. Kids have to be shown what to do. Writing is super overwhelming an a complex process. Give lots of grace, but don’t skip it.

When I taught school my 4 th and 5 th graders regularly wrote short 5 paragraph research papers from 3 sources. You’ll need to do a lot of hand holding and modeling. Besides using choosing an easy topic and using resources below their grade level, I would narrow the research BEFORE you begin note taking. Step one decide on topic and read one book (I like the picture book idea.) step 2: choose your sub topics. For example (an animal report is easy) habitat, physical description, and interesting facts. Step 3: choose 3 excellent sources. Step4 : take notes (iew experience is great for this. They learn to take notes or key word outline early) I like to use 3 different pieces of color paper- one for each source and fold each paper into thirds. Write the bibliographic info at the top of the page. Write one subtopic in each column. Student takes notes from each source and puts the info in the correct column. (This is sooo much easier than notecards!!!) repeat for each source. Step 5: outline/ organize each subtopic. ( I just had my kids number each note in the order they wanted to put the info) With one student you could scribe an outline) I would not expect a 4/5 grader to do this on their own. Step 6: write body paragraphs one at a time. I’d make sure my kid knew how to write a solid paragraph before research writing step 7: write intro and conclusion step 8: revise edit 9: publish. Some kids like pictures. Have fun and choose something the child loves.

We are loving the foundation A level of Logic of English. It has lots of active type of games and really starts at the beginning with phonological/phonemic awareness. The writing is mixed in, but we just do it in shaving cream or skip it if my twins are in the mood. It is definitely Spalding based and if you have experience with Spalding, you will immediately see the similarities. I plan on switching to Spell to Write and Read by second grade, but we will see. I am pleased at how gentle and fun this curriculum is so far. My kiddos turn five tomorrow and we are halfway done with book A. Today my kids played phonogram hopscotch and they acted different animals from me saying the segmented word. (c-ow). Then they segmented an animal for their sibling to guess. Lots and lots of phonogram, segmenting and blending practice.

Definitely to what Hobbes said. It helps a lot. I also found that the books don't lend themselves to a "Charlotte Mason" style narration very well because they are less narrative and more factual. I stopped looking for a narration and focussed more on a summary. In book 4 my (4th grade) students wrote a summary paragraph once or twice a week instead of a narration. We worked on topic sentences and conclusions together. It made a nice book of Centuries for their learning. I also found other more narrative books to supplement with, but that is easier with Ancients and Medieval. For the American portions you could do the Joy Hakim books.

I love the World in Ancient times by Oxford University Press. Lots of pictures and primary sources. We just read, make timelines, and he writes a 1-3 paragraph summary of important people/places/artifacts couple times a week. We also do a map or two for each book. We keep it all together as a book of centuries documenting his work and learning. This year we have done Ancient Mesopotamia, Ancient Egypt and Ancient China. We will finish with Ancient Greece and pick up Ancient Rome next fall. My kid loves reading these and always has to tell me all that he has learned. I wish we had time to do all the other books in the series. Buy a used copy. They are hardback and not workbooks, so they should be fine. https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Near-Eastern-World-Times/dp/0195161599/ref=pd_sim_14_5?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0195161599&pd_rd_r=FNJAF4FBGXHHET3VPKJQ&pd_rd_w=rM9Vo&pd_rd_wg=oGXac&psc=1&refRID=FNJAF4FBGXHHET3VPKJQ

I really like the Oxford university press books. Simple with lots of really great details. https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Egyptian-World-Times/dp/0195173910/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0195173910&pd_rd_r=TZF8D837CKY45ETZ06WX&pd_rd_w=93pqW&pd_rd_wg=1VdtJ&psc=1&refRID=TZF8D837CKY45ETZ06WX

oops sorry you want us history. I would use Hakim.

We love Oxford university press books for the Ancient world. My son completes the readings and writes a few summaries a week on a topic I assign. (It would also work well for narrations, but it does have a lot of detail and is less narrative.) He them attaches a picture of his choosing and compiles of them, including maps in a book of centuries. We will cover three books this year for 6th grade: Ancient Mesopotamia, Egypt, China, and Greece. I wish we had time for more. They are very in depth and have lots of interesting art and pictures. My kid loves them and I feel like they are more in depth than a lot of middle school level books. https://www.amazon.com/Ancient-Egyptian-World-Times/dp/0195173910/ref=pd_sim_14_3?_encoding=UTF8&pd_rd_i=0195173910&pd_rd_r=TZF8D837CKY45ETZ06WX&pd_rd_w=93pqW&pd_rd_wg=1VdtJ&psc=1&refRID=TZF8D837CKY45ETZ06WX

Thanks Laura, I couldn't understand why it was happening and what was going on. Thanks for clearing it up. Should I assume their new product is not as good as their old two? I think we are going to go ahead and do SYRWTL. If any one wants to sell me their old Latin Prep, I'd gladly buy it for a reasonable price!

Looks like Latin Prep 2 is still available for a reasonable price. I would snatch it up before it goes away though. I just don't understand what they are replacing it with. There has been very little information out there. LP1 was just gone and could only be found for high prices.