Jump to content

Menu
Giving You and Your Child a Road Map to the Best Possible Education
The Well-Trained Mind Community

Oak Knoll Mom

Members
 View Profile  See their activity

  • Posts

    1,807

  • Joined

  • Last visited

 Content Type 

Posts posted by Oak Knoll Mom

    basic algebra for elementary kids?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    Is HOE a main curriculum or a supplement? The website says there are seven lessons. How long does it last?

     

    Tara

     

    We use it as a supplement. There are seven lessons/level and three levels. You do all the lessons in level one and the worksheets that go with them, then do all the (many!) level one word problems in the Verbal problems book. Repeat the sequence with levels 2 & 3.

     

    I have my son do 1-2 problems out of the Verbal Problems book each day before we do our RightStart lesson. Doing it at this pace will take us several years. I plan to have it finished by the time he starts VideoText Algebra in 7th grade. You can work through the Verbal Problems book at a quicker pace. It's really up to you.

     

    HTH

    How hard are the standardized tests? And did your kids do well?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted

    Your husband is woefully under-educated about standardized testing. There are many, many reasons why testing even once a year is too often, much less 2x/year. I think you need to do some research on testing, what the scores mean, how to use the results, and why standardized testing was invented in the first place. A good article to start you off is this one by Alfie Kohn.

     

    Hopefully with a little education under his belt, he'll realize that standardized testing 2x/year (or even 1x/year) isn't in the best interest of your child. HTH!:001_smile:

     

    (Former education specialist/standardized test giver :D)

    FLL and WWE

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I was just wondering if I could get feed back as to whether you need to use both FLL and WWE. Do you find that it is too much writing?

    I am considering this combo for my 3rd grader. We use IEW now and I could just use FLL and IEW SIW A. Any thoughts?

    Thanks:bigear:

     

    I usually don't have the kids do the extra writing assignments in FLL unless I find it to be an especially useful.

    Rightstart, what do you think of it?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted · Edited by Oak Knoll Mom

    I can't seem to make up my mind which math to stick too. I used Abeka then Saxon with my oldest children now in their teens. While both usually score perfect math scores when tested they hate math. So I want to try to approach this subject differently with my youngest three.

     

    I'm also considering Noble knight,miquion,mus. Currently we are using the waldorf math gnomes stories but I want something a bit more scripted as I'm teaching 5 children. I don't have the time or energy to make up my own story problems etc..

     

    I *love* RightStart. My kids have such a deep and rich understanding of math that comes from understanding math before learning the standard algorithm. This came into clear view over the past two weeks while homeschooling my nieces who use Saxon.

     

    My third grade niece is working through Saxon 5/4 and while she can do (knows the algorithms for) math that is more advanced than what my 4th grade son is doing, she seemed to have less understanding of what she was doing and why. She made lots of careless errors and didn't understand how to fix them because she didn't really understand why she was doing what she was doing.

     

    My first grade niece is working through Saxon 2. One day I taught addition with carrying to my son the RightStart way and to her the Saxon way. (It just so happened that their lessons lined up like that.) I was much more impressed with RightStart. He understood what he was doing; she memorized the algorithm after a short demonstration using dimes and pennies.

     

    This experience reinforced my belief that RightStart is a wonderful choice for us. :D

    Rightstart, what do you think of it?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    We're in C, and I own E, but I don't have D because we will be borrowing it from a friend. Can you explain the RS way of teaching division?

     

    Tara

     

    She uses the parts/whole circle and has the student fill the parts circle with multiples of the same number (so 10/2 is 10=5+5 vs 10=9+1 etc that we used when teaching addition). After a couple of lessons doing that, she introduces division with remainders, so the student has to fill in the part/whole circle with multiples of the same number with a smaller part circle indicating the remainder so 17/3is 17=5+5+5+2. Clear as mud?:lol:

    Rightstart, what do you think of it?

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I know your question wasn't directed at me, so forgive me for butting in.

     

    Butt in, butt in!

     

    Thanks for your advice. I just took a look at those lessons, and it does look like something I would have had a hard time with myself.

     

    I'm homeschooling my nieces for a few weeks while their baby sister has heart surgery. I just finished teaching division with remainders using Saxon and I was really hoping RS had a better way of teaching it. I guess we'll see when we get there!

    Would you do this if you were in my shoes?

    in General Education Discussion Board

    Posted · Edited by Oak Knoll Mom

    I would definitely consider it, but I'd want to talk to other parents of special needs kids to see if what the school *says* is the actual *reality*. I wouldn't send them to Veritas (if that's one you're considering--you can PM me if that is the one you're considering and I'll tell you why I wouldn't send my kids there.)

     

    I have friends who send their child with special medical needs to New Classical. I don't know much about it, but could connect you with them if you're considering it.

    Spelling/Vocab for 5th grader

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    I'm trying to decide between the two recommendations in WTM for Spelling and Vocab in 5th grade.

     

    The options in the book are:

    5th grade: Spelling Workout F & G

    6th grade: Spelling Workout G & H

    7th grade: Vocabulary from Classical Roots A & B

    8th grade: Vocabulary from Classical Roots C & D or

     

    5th grade: Vocabulary from Classical Roots 4 & 5

    6th grade: Vocabulary from Classical Roots 5 & 6

    7th grade: Vocabulary from Classical Roots A & B

    8th grade: Vocabulary from Classical Roots C & D

     

    A little background: my soon to be 5th grader is a natural speller. We ended up dropping Spelling Workout half-way through 3rd grade because he *never* missed any words on the pretests I gave him. We've half-heartedly worked through Spelling Plus some this year.

     

    Should we go back to Spelling Workout for 5th and 6th grades, or just go with the lower level Vocab from Classical Roots books?

    Opinions on Rightstart D...

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    To Oak Knoll Mom:

     

    I'm glad you're here! Let me see if I can remember our difficulty. But if it's okay, I'm going to use a different problem: 100,000 minus 58. So we underline the zero in the tens place (because we can't subtract eight from zero in the ones), but then what? There is no reason to underline the zero in the hundreds place, because there is nothing to subtract from it. And so there is no way to continue the underlining process all the way over to the "1" in "100,000."

     

    There was probably a RS lesson about this, but I couldn't find it. Let me know if you need me to clarify my question.

     

    Julie

     

    Hmm...I can see that being a problem. I might go ask this question on the RS message board. I was having a problem understanding part of their subtraction method when we first started learning it and got a really great and clear answer from someone there.

    Opinions on Rightstart D...

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    The only hiccup we've had is that while we LOVE the "Right Start Math" way of subtracting, it is difficult to use that method when you have a situation like 3,000,000 minus 37,843. Or, for that matter, 5.000004 minus 1.8765. When we began LOF Fractions, this little gap in skill became evident and we stopped to work on it.

     

    I'm a little confused. I just did both of these problems the RightStart way and had no problems and actually found them easier to do than the standard algorithm. What am I missing? We learned the RS way a few months ago and I'm wondering if we need to go back and "fill in". Thanks!

    Opinions on Rightstart D...

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    But shouldn't a level designed for 4th grade thoroughly cover division & fractions? This is what I was getting at when I said that I thought D & E really only have 1 year's worth of material spread over 2 years. To my mind, 3rd grade should cover multi-digit multiplication & "short" division. 4th grade should cover long division & fractions.

     

    Maybe that's why the Singapore scope & sequence appeal to me?

     

    I see where you're coming from. Personally, though, I don't mind a non-traditional scope & sequence as long as the kids end up at the same place and are ready for pre-algebra in 7th grade. I'm more interested in a deep and solid base upon which to build higher level math skills.

    Kindergarten math frustration

    in K-8 Curriculum Board

    Posted

    She could go much faster, but I've run into a wall with the older dd because I moved her too quickly so I refuse to go through that again.

     

    Same here. Don't tell the homeschool police :D, but I use the RightStart levels a grade behind what they recommend. My kids still test at/above grade level on standardized tests and will start pre-algebra in 7th grade.

     

    Disclaimer: I do supplement RS with enrichment type math such as Hands on Equations and Singapore Challenging Word Problems.

×
×
  • Create New...