My kids broke my ancient ThinkPad-turned-makeshift-Chromebook a few weeks ago and I am in the market for a new laptop. I am drawn to Chromebooks as everything *I* do is web based AND we don't have a ton of money (budget is under $500). However, my oldest will be 8 soon and I think this will be the year that I start teaching her use the computer herself, start learning to type, and play around with a few games. This is the place where I am lost. Can Chromebooks do these things? I literally havent played a computer game since I was a kid, when games were a CD you put in CD drive. I have such great memories of an art computer game geared toward kids that had so many fun options and activities, and a similar writing one that was basically a Word/publisher for kids with kid themed templates etc. I also played typing games and other educational type games. I know there HAVE to be equally good /better games out there for kids now but I don't even know how computer games work "these days". Do I need a windows laptop? Will a Chromebook be suitable? I feel so dumb because I don't even know how to Google these questions and thought I'd turn to you all (I tried to Google and results from years and years ago come up and I don't know how relevant they are) . If you have youngish (under age 10) kids who play educational/creative computer games on a windows or Chromebook laptop, explain it to me like I know nothing.... Because I know nothing. Or point me in the direction of a good resource for understanding "today's" educational/creative computer games. (this makes me feel so old! I am 31... I feel like this shouldn't be as overhwhelming as it seems to me!) Basically I need to know... Windows Laptop or Chromebook for web browsing + educational/creative games for kids (bonus points for recommendations on actual laptops or games)?? Thanks SO much!!!!

so everything is app based on a chrome book... That is so helpful to know! Thanks!!! I'd love to hear from others more specifics if they have any!

My kids broke my ancient ThinkPad-turned-makeshift-Chromebook a few weeks ago and I am in the market for a new laptop. I am drawn to Chromebooks as everything I do is web based AND we don't have a ton of money (budget is under $500). However, my oldest will be 8 soon and I think this will be the year that I start teaching her use the computer herself, start learning to type, and play around with a few games. This is the place where I am lost. Can Chromebooks do these things? I literally havent played a computer game since I was a kid, when games were a CD you put in CD drive. I have such great memories of an art computer game geared toward kids that had so many fun options and activities, and a similar writing one that was basically a Word/publisher for kids with kid themed templates etc. I also played typing games and other educational type games. I know there HAVE to be equally good /better games out there for kids now but I don't even know how computer games work "these days". Do I need a windows laptop? Will a Chromebook be suitable? I feel so dumb because I don't even know how to Google these questions and thought I'd turn to you all (I tried to Google and results from years and years ago come up and I don't know how relevant they are) . If you have youngish (under age 10) kids who play educational/creative computer games on a windows or Chromebook laptop, explain it to me like I know nothing.... Because I know nothing. Or point me in the direction of a good resource for understanding "today's" educational/creative computer games. (this makes me feel so old! I am 31... I feel like this shouldn't be as overhwhelming as it seems to me!) Basically I need to know... Windows Laptop or Chromebook for web browsing + educational/creative games for kids (bonus points for recommendations on actual laptops or games)?? Thanks SO much!!!!

I am going to mull this over because I really think I agree with you for the most part. When it comes right down to it I really do think that even if we just went to the library and got science and history books as interests or holidays come up and watched some videos on interesting science things that it would be "enough" history and science. BUT I find these subjects the most fun to teach and the part of the school day where I feel the most excitement from my kids as well. I know education isn't 100 percent about excitement and believe me, I spend a majority of our school day in exactly what you said...reading, copywork, math and yes tons of play. But I just love how they clamor for history and science and that readaloud time. So I value that a lot (and clearly have been paying a lot for it...). But you have made me stop and think how lopsided it is that I pay the most money for those subjects and do SO much research on curriculum for these, and spend so much less time money on the materials for the 3Rs, when the skill subjects are more important at this age than the content subjects. Hmm. Maybe I COULD read our way through just a few good age appropriate booklists for literature and history and science and not do them officially as "subjects"?! That is a mind blowing thought...

I have the catalog for this and I don't know why I didn't really consider it much. So is it like Sonlight in the sense that the History is wrapped up in the readalouds? I love that about Sonlight. It is so hard without actually seeing it to really understand how it works and what it comes with. Can 2 grades be combined in a level, as in a Sonlight Core? Because that is also important to me with my girls only a grade apart! Literature readalouds I totally could just get a booklist and read a little every day - but its the History and Science that I feel like I truly do need it all laid out for me so I cover an appropriate amount of material and have confidence in what I'm doing each day. How do you think MP is in the History and Literature and Science department for a 1st- 2nd gradeish level? Could a 1st and 2nd grader be combined as they could for a Sonlight "Core"? I honestly had never considered this but I will look into it for sure!!!

This is my second year of homeschooling, we are doing Sonlight Core A with my Kindergartner and 1st grader. I picked Sonlight years ago when my kids were tiny, because I loved the idea of it and it seemed so true that it was "the way I wish I'd been taught!" so while I did do some research here and there and looked at other catalogues, Sonlight was the obvious pick for my first try at this. We use it for History/Bible/Literature/Science. I picked a different LA and Math and supplementary Bible. We don't do electives except a sprinkle here or there and they do an enrichment co-op. Now that I'm starting to think about next year I'm thinking maybe I should make a more intentional choice instead of just moving forward with Sonlight because we mostly like it. Here's what I like 1. All the books (duh) - my kids are obsessed with the readalouds and hang on my every word even on the ones I don't love to read (I'm looking at you Pooh Corner) 2. They tell me what to do and schedule it all out 3. I don't feel pressure to do crafts/projects 4. I feel security in knowing that this was put together by reputable educators 5. The timeline that comes with stickers of all the people 6. Combining my Kindergartener and 1st grader in everything except Math and LA Here's what I don't love 1. The science - my kids love the science books and I like them as well, but it just feels like we just move so quickly through topics with very little depth. And the experiment video doesn't match up with the topics which has been weird, but my kids don't care, they LOVE the videos. I think its cool that my kids will be semi-familiar with a lot of things by the end of the year but I have wondered if it wouldn't have been fun to go more deeply into a smaller number of topics. 2. The instructor guide notes - I rarely use them as discussion starters. I read them but I pretty much only use the schedule 3. The geography - my kids don't retain it. (it's just writing each location on a map as it comes up in literature. I could probably review it more often but since it isn't systematic -- could be norway one day, oklahoma the next -- it feels clunky and half-hearted to me) 4. Expensive!!! 5. If I buy Sonlight's options for Art and Music as well (which I want to add in a more structured way next year), this will be even more expensive. So...is there something else Sonlightish that might not have come across my radar yet? I kind of feel silly paying so much for a schedule of readings and a box of books...or maybe that's what all curriculum is like?? I haven't actually had any other curriculum in my hands to look through, so I really don't know what I'm missing!! I have friends who do Memoria Press and the catalog intrigues me, but don't really feel compelled at this time to teach Latin. I'd love to have language arts woven in with the read alouds or readers (for copywork and narration, etc) and more systematic geography and deeper science. And maybe a simple but solid music and art program to go along with it. I know I could pick and choose and get all this stuff, but part of why I picked Sonlight and another reason I like it, is how I can pick pretty much every subject from all from the things they either produce or "curate" and I don't have to take a deep dive into comparing/contrasting every curriculum for every subject. For the record we also use WWE and I really like it, except I do think my daughter would LOVE to do some creative writing assignments. We tried Sonlight's LA for Kindergarten and I wasn't a big fan because she could read way better than she could write so the reading component was useless. I think it makes more sense for phonics instruction/writing instruction to be split up.

Hi everyone! The parents over on the K-8 board recommended I cross post this over here, I'd appreciate any wisdom! I have been searching around and coming up with some good info already from old threads but thought I'd post my exact situation and see what you all think! I have a 7 year old first grader who is during Math U See Alpha. We made it though approximately lesson 10, which is adding 8. She hasn't "mastered" all the facts before that but she can always do them with the blocks. She has no problem with the blocks in front of her and she's asked to add two numbers. We have gone painfully slowly through this lesson because all along the way I have tried to get her to memorize the facts from each lesson. But, unless it is adding +1 she NEEDS the blocks. She can't add 2 in her mind or memorize the facts. We drilled for a while on the +2 facts to see if she could memorize them and I kind of came to the conclusion that she just couldn't. She would know them with the flashcards after lots of drill, but then the next day it would be on her worksheet, or I'd bring up a "real life" example with a fact I thought she "knew" (like oh look, you have 5 crackers, what if I gave you two more?) and she would have no idea and just guess. Sometimes I say look at your fingers (adding on my fingers was really helpful for me as a kid, I don't know if its bad or not) and I even tried teaching her some methods to add on her fingers, and she could NOT do it. She didn't understand that one hand is ALWAYS five and so the next hand you "count on" from 5. So for example I'd say "5+2. try it on your fingers" she'd hold up 5 and then 2 and then have to start from 1 and count all 7 fingers, even after showing her many many times that you don't need to start from one because you know 5 is a hand. Another thing is when the problems are the "Solve for the Unknown" variety, she chokes. Every time they come up I have to walk her through how to do them. Once I do one (painful) with her, she can do the rest, but whenever she sees ___ + 4 = 10 or whatever, she will inevitably write "14" if I don't point out to her that its different, and then once I do, it's like she's never seen it before and she panics. I am struggling because I know Math U See is "mastery" based but she just is not mastering it. I feel like I'm at the point where I need to decide, AM I trying to get her to master this? Because if I am , I can't move on to the next lesson. And if I don't focus on mastering lessons 1-10, then is she going to not "get" the rest of Alpha? And if I don't need her to master these facts now, then what should I do? Switch to another curriculum? If so, which one? A few other things: 1. I need plans to help me know what to do every day during math time. Saying "work on adding up to 10" is helpful, but I need to know like what do I do each day to know we are making progress in the math she needs to know in 1st grade? my personality is such that I love being told a plan by an "authority", and then putting that plan into action. Not so good at making my own plan. 2. She has serious math anxiety. She complains of stomach aches every day before math and if she has the slightest bump in the road, she cries. She doesn't like it...and sometimes has complete meltdowns. 3. Times we have taken "breaks" from Alpha to play math games (we have the right start math games set and math dice jr.) it is like starting from scratch when we try to go back to Alpha. It doesn't stick. And games are tricky because of the next thing... 4. I have a 5 year old who is in kindergarten and is already "better" at math than her older sister which is really tough. I don't compare them on purpose and obviously don't praise one above the other, but they are both in Math U See and I could see right away the difference in my 5 year old. She just gets it. She can think about numbers in her mind. She has breezed through Primer and I have been trying to slow her down because I haven't wanted her to catch up to or pass her older sister. So that is a factor in curriculum choice...should I switch my 7 year old so she doesn't see her sister passing her by in Alpha? My 5 year old can already do it. She watches her older sister's math lessons and is chomping at the bit with answers she has figured out in her head. I can't help but feel "proud" of her natural math ability and frustrated by her older sister's "lack". I know this is terrible of me to think. No one told me about this particular aspect of homeschooling, where the younger might be better at something than the older...before this I just had complete confidence that all my kids were going to take to all their schoolwork easily, like I did as a kid. I'd love some wisdom about this. I check my attitude every day about this because I really don't want this to become an issue. I am thinking of just starting day 1 of First Grade Math all over with my 7 year old, starting with a new curriculum. But I just don't know which one to try and it REALLY overwhelms me, it can't be anything where I have to figure it out what to do every day, it needs to be easy to figure out how to teach. I am fine spending tons of time teaching it, but not ok with being confused myself on what I'm supposed to teach. I like the videos and teachers book of Math U See a lot. So something along those lines but not geared around memorization? Or maybe its ok to just keep going in Alpha without memorization? That would take a lot of the pressure off of both of us! Math, more than anything, has made me think about sending her to public school. I just feel like I'm failing her! And then I get frustrated, and sad to say, sometimes angry :( I also know I need to make this a matter of prayer and patience and encouragement. Thank you!!!!!!!!!

Thank you all SO very much. This is all very helpful. I will cross post this on the learning challenges board and see what turns up. My inclination is to try Addition Facts that Stick for a while as so many of you recommended that, and then reassess from there if I need to switch up curriculum entirely (in which case I'll look at the ones you all recommended such as CLE, Rod and Staff, Right Start) or if it seems like she is struggling to the degree that I need to seek further help and start looking into Ronit Bird, etc. I also appreciate all the wisdom about ways to approach math with her in an encouraging way and to let her use the manipulatives as long as she needs to. It is indeed SO hard as @fralala pointed out to explain a math concept that (to me!) doesn't seem to need explanation. I have to keep reminding myself that this is what a teacher does. sounds silly and obvious but it's not my strength... and makes me second guess my "calling" to do this homeschool thing!

Hi everyone! I have been searching around and coming up with some good info already from old threads but thought I'd post my exact situation and see what you all think! I have a 7 year old first grader who is during Math U See Alpha. We made it though approximately lesson 10, which is adding 8. She hasn't "mastered" all the facts before that but she can always do them with the blocks. She has no problem with the blocks in front of her and she's asked to add two numbers. We have gone painfully slowly through this lesson because all along the way I have tried to get her to memorize the facts from each lesson. But, unless it is adding +1 she NEEDS the blocks. She can't add 2 in her mind or memorize the facts. We drilled for a while on the +2 facts to see if she could memorize them and I kind of came to the conclusion that she just couldn't. She would know them with the flashcards after lots of drill, but then the next day it would be on her worksheet, or I'd bring up a "real life" example with a fact I thought she "knew" (like oh look, you have 5 crackers, what if I gave you two more?) and she would have no idea and just guess. Sometimes I say look at your fingers (adding on my fingers was really helpful for me as a kid, I don't know if its bad or not) and I even tried teaching her some methods to add on her fingers, and she could NOT do it. She didn't understand that one hand is ALWAYS five and so the next hand you "count on" from 5. So for example I'd say "5+2. try it on your fingers" she'd hold up 5 and then 2 and then have to start from 1 and count all 7 fingers, even after showing her many many times that you don't need to start from one because you know 5 is a hand. Another thing is when the problems are the "Solve for the Unknown" variety, she chokes. Every time they come up I have to walk her through how to do them. Once I do one (painful) with her, she can do the rest, but whenever she sees ___ + 4 = 10 or whatever, she will inevitably write "14" if I don't point out to her that its different, and then once I do, it's like she's never seen it before and she panics. I am struggling because I know Math U See is "mastery" based but she just is not mastering it. I feel like I'm at the point where I need to decide, AM I trying to get her to master this? Because if I am , I can't move on to the next lesson. And if I don't focus on mastering lessons 1-10, then is she going to not "get" the rest of Alpha? And if I don't need her to master these facts now, then what should I do? Switch to another curriculum? If so, which one? A few other things: 1. I need plans to help me know what to do every day during math time. Saying "work on adding up to 10" is helpful, but I need to know like what do I do each day to know we are making progress in the math she needs to know in 1st grade? my personality is such that I love being told a plan by an "authority", and then putting that plan into action. Not so good at making my own plan. 2. She has serious math anxiety. She complains of stomach aches every day before math and if she has the slightest bump in the road, she cries. She doesn't like it...and sometimes has complete meltdowns. 3. Times we have taken "breaks" from Alpha to play math games (we have the right start math games set and math dice jr.) it is like starting from scratch when we try to go back to Alpha. It doesn't stick. And games are tricky because of the next thing... 4. I have a 5 year old who is in kindergarten and is already "better" at math than her older sister which is really tough. I don't compare them on purpose and obviously don't praise one above the other, but they are both in Math U See and I could see right away the difference in my 5 year old. She just gets it. She can think about numbers in her mind. She has breezed through Primer and I have been trying to slow her down because I haven't wanted her to catch up to or pass her older sister. So that is a factor in curriculum choice...should I switch my 7 year old so she doesn't see her sister passing her by in Alpha? My 5 year old can already do it. She watches her older sister's math lessons and is chomping at the bit with answers she has figured out in her head. I can't help but feel "proud" of her natural math ability and frustrated by her older sister's "lack". I know this is terrible of me to think. No one told me about this particular aspect of homeschooling, where the younger might be better at something than the older...before this I just had complete confidence that all my kids were going to take to all their schoolwork easily, like I did as a kid. I'd love some wisdom about this. I check my attitude every day about this because I really don't want this to become an issue. I am thinking of just starting day 1 of First Grade Math all over with my 7 year old, starting with a new curriculum. But I just don't know which one to try and it REALLY overwhelms me, it can't be anything where I have to figure it out what to do every day, it needs to be easy to figure out how to teach. I am fine spending tons of time teaching it, but not ok with being confused myself on what I'm supposed to teach. I like the videos and teachers book of Math U See a lot. So something along those lines but not geared around memorization? Or maybe its ok to just keep going in Alpha without memorization? That would take a lot of the pressure off of both of us! Math, more than anything, has made me think about sending her to public school. I just feel like I'm failing her! And then I get frustrated, and sad to say, sometimes angry :( I also know I need to make this a matter of prayer and patience and encouragement. Thank you!!!!!!!!!

For first grade. I am going to be introducing spelling this year to my oldest child. We have done no work on spelling yet, other than helping her sound out how to spell certain things as she writes. I know there are some involved and complicated spelling programs out there but I really want to just start simple and cheap :) Then if problems come up, I can try something else next year. My thinking is, maybe spelling doesn't need to be complicated for her. I know every kid is different, etc etc...but I grew up with just regular old spelling lists and studying them and doing practice tests at home, etc, and it worked fine. My thought is once she is a better reader I will be able to see if she picks up spelling naturally or not but until then I don't want to spend much money at all on this. I am thinking of "Spelling Workout". I guess I just want someone to tell me its ok! Because I have a voice in my head telling me "you're homeschooling her so you can give her the BEST you can provide. So why not figure out the BEST, most engaging spelling program and start that from square one?" and on the other shoulder "spelling doesn't always need a ton of focus, or to be something fun & wonderful, she just needs to come out of school able to spell". :)

I'll jump in with my plan so far for my rising 1st grader Math - Math U See Alpha and Right Start Math Games from time to time Phonics/Reading - Ordinary Parents Guide to Teaching Reading (we ended kindergarten around lesson 100), leveled readers checked out from the library or I may purchase a set. She is at the level of Frog and Toad type books. Writing- Writing With Ease Spelling- Spelling Workout Handwriting - A Reason For Handwriting A Grammar- First Language Lessons for the Well Trained Mind (I haven't decided if we are going to do this or postpone grammar til 2nd but I am ordering the book to see what I think) History/Bible/Literature/Geography/Science - Sonlight A Bible study- Community Bible Study the book of Acts "specials" will be at Co-op and more informal. We also do a morning time each morning with all the kids (my 1st grader is my oldest) -calendar -devotions "Daily Bread for Girls and Boys", "The Ology", prayer -Hymns - we learn 1 verse a week til we know all the verses, then review the ones we've learned for a couple weeks, then start a new one. -poetry or nursery rhyme -planning on adding in a rotation of things like character training, picture study, fun math read alouds to this. Thanks for sharing guys! so interesting to see what others are doing!

Hi guys, Ok I'm bumping this back up because I looked into these suggestions. And also today we had a major meltdown in math and its just becoming clearer to me that in her brain numbers are sort of just random things we memorize and there is no rhyme or reason to what number comes after another number. I feel kind of embarrassed asking for help to figure out how to teach my child to count in a way that she understands what is happening?! I think it just doesn't come naturally to her, because I have a younger daughter who is almost 5 and she was sitting in on the lesson and just DYING to chime in with the right answers. I know I shouldn't compare them, but its hard not to feel that my 6 1/2 year old is quite "behind" if her not even 5 year old sister grasps the ideas by just sitting in. So the "Addition Facts that Stick" I don't think applies to us, yet! @winterbaby - I think your idea of breaking down numbers is wonderful and is on target with what she needs!! But I need a "plan" to follow...do you have any ideas for resources for this? I have the Math-U-See math blocks..are they good for this or do I need something else? Maybe those stackable little math blocks? Then I could spend 10 minutes a day working on breaking down numbers? Still need to look at Miquon orange and I am also thinking of doing Life With Fred Apples as a math activity once or twice a week with all the kids for something different. We're going to take a couple of weeks completely "off" and then start math back up for the summer. Thanks!!!

Hi! I finished up Math U See Primer with my 6 1/2 year old Kindergartner. She got through almost everything, but was definitely struggling with some of the ideas, like place value, and I could just tell from watching her do her work that she didn't "get" what she was doing intuitively, she had to build and painstakingly count the math blocks even for things we had been working on for a while. For example, adding 1 to any number...she would have to build it ever single time. To me that kind of shows that she didn't really grasp what adding 1 really means, even though we've done "build, say, write" over and over! So...I am thinking of getting something to help with those math thinking skills in the summer, and also to review Kindergarten math concepts before we move on to MUS Alpha. I hear so much about Singapore and how it teaches mathematical thinking, etc. The website overwhelms me. For my purposes, could I buy a kindergarten workbook and work through it with my daughter this summer? Or would I have to buy a textbook and workbook and teachers guide of some kind? Another question, what level do you think would be a good Kindergarten review? She has no problem with numbers through 10 or any of those really "basic" things. And....if not Singapore, does anyone have any good (reasonably inexpensive) ideas for summer math review? Thanks for any wisdom you have to share! Anna