I highly recommend a large sized tablet or a laptop with touch screen. Combine that with a pdf annotation app and you can use PDF curriculum without printing. You could then use MM for 1st-7th math, Progessive Phonics for learning to read, ELTL for English, etc.

Thanks, everyone. I'm going to try just sticking with it for now and see if the next book perks her back up. She really likes when BA has more puzzle like problems, so I'm hoping she'll be happy about it again in 3D.

So if this is the issue, we can just stay the course and things will work themselves out?

I think it's more a problem of being too easy. She easily handles the standard problems with no errors, and often doesn't need help or hints with the starred problems. The reason I switched from MM 3 to BA 3 was that, even with skipping problems, MM was more practice than she needed.

My daughter is in 2nd grade. She was doing MM exclusively, but I added BA as a one day a week supplement when she started MM3, so we were going through BA slowly. About 2-3 months ago, I dropped MM and we do BA exclusively. She's almost done with book 3C and is on track to finish level 3 by the end of 2nd grade. The last few weeks, she been complaining that math is "boring". I'm not sure I can accelerate BA for her without skipping problems. I have Borac. Would supplementing BA with that help math be "less boring" or would it just cause problems by slowing down BA (we'd likely replace BA with Borac o/nce a week)? Is there a way to accelerate BA so she can get to math that challenges her? Is there another option I'm not thinking of here?

I actually don't like colorful printables. I have a black and white printer, and color pages look awful. I prefer line drawings for pages that I'm going to be printing, as it uses less ink and looks nicer. It was a bonus for my middle child, because she liked to use the images as coloring pages when she was done.

My youngest often isn't interested in listening to the books that are beyond her; right now she sits and listens to books like The Wizard of Oz, but won't listen to books like The Phantom Tollbooth. She also goes to bed sooner than my school-aged kids, so my husband and I can read more mature books for bedtime stories to the big kids.

I'm going to have to take some time to look closer at the NaNoWriMo lessons, but that might be what I'm looking for. Thanks!

My daughter loves telling stories. She finds copywork and dictation to be drudgery, narration is tolerable, her love is telling and writing stories. She would like a writing curriculum next year that focuses on creative writing and/or writing stories. I would like it to not be super expensive, since it won't be our main writing program (we'll be using ELTL 4 and MCT Town level, to give an idea of workload/level). Any suggestions?

It's at the back of the book.

It did a lousy job with my oldest--but in the opposite direction you have dealt with. It placed him 3 grades ahead of where he's actually working. One or two grades might have been doable for him, but three was just frustrating. I wound up overriding the placement by stating what grade level he should be in. The problems are a little on the easy side (compared to what he's capable of), but at least they are on topics that he's actually learned about.

Is there a reason you don't want to just use WWE4?

They are still around, but Kathy Jo DeVore (the author) is not spending much time online these days.

I'm pretty sure I'm switching one of my kids from MM as the main curriculum with BA as a supplement to BA as the main curriculum. I'm going to keep MM as a supplement until I'm sure it's working, then I'll probably drop it and just do BA.

I got that one, too. It looks like one of the sponsored emails, which I'm pretty sure get sent out on a schedule, without her input. I did want to say that you can still order the books and receive them. I ordered ELTL 4 on Thanksgiving and received it. But, again, that can happen without her input, because Lulu takes care of it without her having to do anything.

Thanks for all the good info! Knowing that it is a big step up and will take longer helps a lot. So does the color version of CE have different content from the B&W version that RFWP still sells? Or is the difference only the paper quality and photos? Would I be able to combine a language loving 3rd grader and a STEM focused 5th grader in CE? They are currently combined in ELTL and it works well for them. I've been wanting to do a word roots program with the older one, so if I can group them together, that would be great. (The younger one is the one I'm doing Island level with currently.)

I've been doing MCT Island level as a supplement with my daughter. We read through all of Grammar Island and then after that she picks a book to read from once a week and another day we do several sentences in Practice Island. I only bought the teacher book for Sentence Island and Practice Island. But then I found that most of the "assignments" in Sentence Island are weird. We did a few of them, but for the most part, we just read and discussed the book. I'm wondering which books I need the teacher manuals for in the Town level if I plan on continuing as we were (supplemental, snuggled on the couch reading/discussing together). Do I need the implementation manual for CE if I don't plan on doing the quizzes? Are the writing assignments in Paragraph Town better/less weird than the Sentence Island ones? When we've done the Practice Island sentences, I put a boogie board over the answers in the book and we use the boogie board to write the answers on. Then we slide it down and check the answers against the teacher book. Is Practice Town formatted in a similar way, with the sentence to analyze at the top, and we can cover it with a notebook/boogie board/something else while we do the work? The poetry book has been our least favorite in the Island level. Is the town level poetry book better/different? Or is it more of the same, just deeper/more topics? My daughter loves language, and is loving MCT. She inserted herself into her older brother's English curriculum (ELTL) when she was in Kindergarten, and there would be no way that she'd be willing to stop doing that with him. That's why we use MCT as a supplement rather than her only curriculum. Thanks!

bumping this with some more information. https://www.facebook.com/beastacademymath/posts/1121910414572162?comment_id=1129940070435863&reply_comment_id=1143865705709966&comment_tracking=%7B%22tn%22%3A%22R%22%7D

I emailed her two weeks ago to see if she was still in business, and I haven't heard back. That's part of why I posted here. I have gotten some of the ads/sponsor emails from her email group, but I haven't gotten anything that she has actually written in a while. I'm getting concerned, not just about her business closing, but for her. After the post in the facebook group, did anyone confirm that she's still around?

So the facebook page is gone, and the author hasn't posted in her yahoo group since August. The books are still available on Amazon and Lulu.com, but since they are print on demand, that makes sense. Does anyone know if it's still in business? Is she still working on ELTL level 6? EDITED: Yes, Baregoot Ragamuffins is still in business!

My son has enjoyed the books by Jon Woodcock. Coding Projects in Scratch Coding Games in Scratch ETA: don't bother with the workbooks, they are designed to teach concepts without having to use a computer.

My preschooler really wants to be like her big siblings and do school. Some days when she asks, I have time to sit and do an activity with her. But sometimes she asks during a math lesson with one of the big kids. She does like the occasional worksheet as it reminders her of her siblings' school work, so I'm looking for worksheets that she can do while sitting next to me, but without my guiding her step by step. I can take the time to explain the worksheet ("start the maze here, exit here" or "circle all the letter a's"). She can recognize her digits 0-9 and is learning her letters. Fine motor skills are OK for her age, but not advanced enough for things like independent handwriting worksheets or anything. I'd prefer black and white, because we don't have a color printer. I'm willing to pay a small amount for very well done worksheets, but I'm not really looking for a full "curriculum" of worksheets as I only do school when she asks at this age. Thanks!

I wonder if the birth year given for the player makes a difference? I made one player (my kids decided they want to share progress) and sometimes there are pictures of the items that you drag around and sometimes there are digits with no pictures (and you have to actually do the math). I suspect a younger player would usually get only pictures and an older player might only get the numbers. I do agree that it doesn't really "teach" regrouping if you don't already have some idea of what to do. But it isn't entirely mindless. My kids like having a 2nd fisherman so they can play at the same time and both watch/tap on one. As you get more trees, the new ones give more apples per "ripe cycle". So the first few trees give 3 apples each, then 5 apples, and my kids have two trees that give ten apples. The higher yield trees seem to ripen slower, but you can wind up with lots of apples per harvest if you get more trees.

Thanks! Do you find the teacher book necessary for using Word Wisdom?

We're currently using Wordly Wise. I don't dislike it, but I was looking at Word Wisdom and wondered if it might be better. I like how Word Wisdom teaches how to figure out a word from context (something that my son has trouble with at times) and I like how it seems to put more focus on latin roots than wordly wise does (at least at the level we're using now, 4th grade). Has anyone used both? How would you compare them? What are your thoughts/likes and dislikes? Also, if I do get Word Wisdom, do I need the teacher book? Right now I get the answer key for Wordly Wise for quicker grading. But getting the teacher book for Word Wisdom makes it way more expensive than the student workbook + answer key in Wordly Wise. Thanks!