If he's easily copying sentences, you might want to try room-to-room copywork. Put a short sentence to copy in the living room and then have him walk to the kitchen to write it. He can go back and forth as much as he wants, but it should help him to start visualizing words in his mind. It gets pretty old walking back and forth. Julie D.

I reply slowly, I didn't realize there were responses after Kate. Where do you buy CPO, and how do you use it? It looked like the experiments were definitely more school oriented. I've looked at TOPS before, but I think I want more reading, less experiments. My kids do a lot of informal investigation (a nice phrase for the huge messes and large contraptions they make!). I often think they get more out of that than most of the experiments we do. Julie D.

Those are some good suggestions. Can I have your earth science spreadsheet? :D It is true the kids don't mind reading it on the computer. That's totally my preference. So how many of the Mr. Q activities do you actually do? Or do you use it more as a WTM spine? How much time on science every week? I get overwhelmed pulling my own things together for science. History is OK. Probably that is because I have a clear goal in mind for history, and it is generally easier to find what I want. Julie D.

First, thanks to everyone who posts here. I lurk often, and I'm always encouraged to keep homeschooling. Background: I spent my first few years homeschooling gathering all my history and science materials myself, mostly from library books. I got really burned out. About that time I found WTM which really helped organize my planning and made things so much easier. But now, I seem to be getting tired; I really want and need to be able to go to the beach, on a hike, or out snowshoeing in the evenings, and I just can't do that and plan properly. I have read numerous science threads, and I still don't what to do. We are finishing Mr. Q Classic Life Science, and I bought the Earth Science for this year. I like the general plan, the experiments and activities, and that it's not religious. While the experiments generally do use things I can easily find, I don't always have them on hand. I'm not crazy about the worksheet activities, either, but both of those things would be OK. My kids are a little on the old side for Mr. Q, 3rd and 5th grades. I wish it had more in depth reading; but the more I look, the more I realize most science materials have very limited reading. I have tried to supplement with library books and encyclopedia readings, but this is more work for me. The biggest problem I have is with the e-book format. I like a book with nice-feeling pages and printing it at home just doesn't do it. Not to mention that incredibly awful font and layout which multiplies the pages I have to print. Currently I type a one page summary of the teacher pages for each chapter (more work) so I can stand to use it. Worse, I have little feel for what I want to accomplish with science. To be honest, I think my aim is chiefly to have them score well on standardized tests. This does not sit well with me. Even when I have trouble finding what I want in other subjects, at least I know what I'm going for. I have BFSU, and I use it informally, primarily as a resource for myself. I'm usually successful at getting the lesson's concepts across over the course of a week or two. We used RS4K Pre-Level 1 Chemistry before Mr. Q. That generally went well, but I had a hard time finding some materials, and I really need something for a whole year. Before that we read lots of science books from the library and did experiments from the Reader's Digest How It Works series. From a teaching standpoint, I would like something secular with daily lesson plans and a materials kit I could just buy and be done with. I would prefer something with more extensive reading and a few well-thought-out activities that truly contribute to the lesson. I'd really like to hit some earth/space science and physical science since we've done a lot of life science and chemistry over the years. For third grade I've looked a lot at McRuffy Science and Nancy Larson Science. Both seem pretty open and go, but they don't have as much reading as I'd like. Also both seem to cover some concepts we've only touched on. For fifth grade Oak Meadow science seems appealing, but there isn't a materials list for it, and large sections are topics we've covered pretty well. The sixth grade is life science again. If he's going to do life science in sixth grade, he needs to get some physical science in this year. There's not much information on the weekly schedule, either, so I'm not sure how much time it would take. I loved the feel of the sample pages, though. None of these programs have a science curriculum available for 4th grade, which would be great for doing together. I looked at NOEO because I thought there would be more reading. However the science encyclopedias and books seem to have too much pictoral information and not enough words. That is fine for browsing, but not what I'm looking for. I would like about one picture for every three to four pages of real text. Less would be OK. I don't want the page to be distracting with several side bars and a couple of diagrams and several pictures. It seemed Sonlight was similar, and WTM uses the same distracting encyclopedia spines. Ugh, I don't know what to do. If anyone has read this far, thank you. Julie D.

Here!

Lots of interesting thoughts. I've been following the other thread on birth control failure, too. Basically, I've come to the conclusion that when I talk to my kids about having children, I want to emphasize there are no guarantees that you will be able to have children when you want to, and that you won't have kids when you don't want to. We have some control over our fertility, but not as much as advertised. Having two fetuses of different gestational age is called superfetation. From what I've read, there is not a lot of agreement on exactly how rare it is. Also, it is true that most days of your cycle you cannot conceive. Seven to ten days is as long a window as the most fertile couples get. During times of peak fertility I've read estimates from 10 to 50 percent for each act. One in three is commonly quoted. This could explain how some people get lulled into thinking it won't happen to them. Thanks for all your thoughts. We haven't experienced birth control failure, either, but we have moderately low fertility, so using birth control may be redundant for us anyway. Julie D.

:iagree: I thought everyone heard the words, too. I guess I also see movies. I would describe it more like living it. So if I'm reading a novel, I'm one of the characters, and I see it from their point of view. When I read a post, I am talking to someone. When I read instructions, I see it happen. Julie D.

:lol: I know you probably don't think it's funny, but of course you're right! I understand the coin analogy. But you can quantify the odds of getting 0 heads out of 10. It is possible of course, but the odds are less than 1 in 1000. Or look at it another way, instead of just telling me how many women out of 100 will get pregnant in a year on this type of birth control, I want to know how many women out of 100 will get pregnant in 25 years on this type of birth control. Maybe that takes the individual variableness out of it. Again, I'm just wondering if we are basically fooled by the statistics into thinking that we have more control than we really have. Julie D.

I like our Corelle dishes, we have wood floors (oak) and a low breakage rate. The plates don't break, but the bowls do about 1/4 of the time, maybe less, and they do shatter. Undecorated Correlle should be lead-free. I like how light the dishes are and they stack very compactly, nice if you have limited cupboard space. If none of your kids is in the habit of throwing their dishes on the floor, I think they would be fine. The lightness seems to make them easier for the kids to handle, too. Julie D.

Actually, I was using perfect-use rates. The pregnancy rate for actual use for the condom is 15 out of 100. If I'm calculating correctly then the 25-year rate of pregnancy would be 98 percent. That doesn't seem right, so maybe redundancy is part of the calculation. I just don't understand that. Yes, but I was thinking of calculating life-time effectiveness, so a person's fertility over the years would start high and continually decrease. They must be using a variety of ages in calculating effectiveness, wouldn't you think? I'm not really thinking teen pregnancy here. I'm just trying to get a handle on how much "control" we really have. Julie D.

So I'm a little rusty at probability. But can effectiveness rates for a year be used to calculate life-long chance of unexpected pregnancy? So, say someone is using condoms OR symptothermal which have a perfect-use failure rate of 2 out of 100 women a year. Does that mean if you choose to use that method over the course of the next 25 years that you'd use .98 to the 25th power to calculate odds of at least one unexpected pregnancy? In which case I get .60. So does that mean if you consistently use one of these methods from youth on you have a 40 percent chance of unplanned pregnancy? It sounds kind of high, but then a lot of people do have unplanned pregnancies so maybe that is right? But every year your future lifetime risk would go down. I would assume they're averaging in a variety of ages there, so the risk would be even lower because you've only lower-fertility years ahead of you. Does this make sense? Julie D.

Twenty years ago I was an A student in high school. I always did my homework on the bus on the way home, and I rarely studied. The only two classes I ever studied for were Biology I and II. The teacher gave tests that were difficult, both for us to take and for him to grade. There were never any multiple choice or matching questions. The easy questions on the test were the fill-in-the-blank ones. Even those required that you really knew the vocabulary, and the teacher made sure none of the answers were somewhere else on the page. He often wanted something sketched and labeled. Sometimes he wanted a list of steps in a process. There were always essay questions. The first test stunned me, but I quickly learned to study. I have a technical degree, and I never worked that hard at college. But when I took my first few state licensing exams, I really studied for them. They were similar in style to my biology teacher's tests, although they also included multi-step math problems. You were expected to know the most-used formulas. I was so happy I had learned to study in biology class. Today if I took those licensing exams they would be multiple choice. Now I'm not saying multiple choice questions can't be tricky, but they don't require you to own a subject. So what's the situation in colleges today? What kind of tests do they give? Do people need to truly understand in order to pass? That's what promotes studying. I agree that our culture and our habit of spreading ourselves too thin contributes to less studying time. Also a lot of people spend more than four years in college now. I'm not exactly sure when that trend started, but I don't think the article compared average course loads. Maybe I just missed it. Julie D.

B actually covers a lot more than A; it just assumes a child hasn't done any math and explains the A concepts at a faster pace. A spends more time covering tens and ones before introducing hundreds. I think B introduces hundreds and thousands pretty quickly. On the other hand, starting B early means you can park for awhile on each new strategy to make sure she really understands how to use it. I don't think I'd want to hit the section on mentally adding two-digit numbers until she's more like 6 so that might give you an idea on pacing. As far as mentally adding two-digit numbers, I really frustrated my son on that and it wasn't necessary. Mentally adding two-digit numbers is practiced all the way through E, so it doesn't have to be mastered in B. Julie D.

Here's a link to level placement with RightStart. http://www.alabacus.com/questions/ Since she learns quickly, it probably comes down to ease of use for you. A moves more slowly; the lessons break into two parts easily so you can go faster or slower as needed. With B you'd need to pace each lesson yourself and review as needed. All of the information in A is covered again in B so you don't need it if you're comfortable knowing when to move on. Julie D.

When I bought the abacus four years ago it came with a tiny, folded pamphlet that gave basic instructions on using it. There is also a book that you can buy separately, Activities for the AL Abacus, that goes into a lot more depth and covers more difficult concepts. Please don't get discouraged. It's great you realize that she's not getting it, and you still have plenty of time to help her. Julie D.

Oh dear, I just replied on one of your other threads. I don't know if RightStart would be a great choice for your daughter. My daughter is more facts-oriented, and while she loves the games and the abacus, the teaching method isn't really her style. I originally bought Level A new so I could return it if I didn't like it. When it worked extremely well for my son, I started watching for the other manuals used, and with patience this worked out. I did buy the manipulatives new. The expense is part of the reason I continue to use this program with my daughter, although I do modify for her somewhat. I had suggested possibly Saxon would be a good fit as I think my daughter would thrive with it. Another possibility someone mentioned was CLE. I don't know if that uses manipulatives much. Perhaps you could get the RS games and abacus to go with that if it doesn't. I really like the abacus as a manipulative. The kids always want to build with tiles and blocks, and they are so easy to lose. The abacus gives you the advantage of 100 little pieces in one easy-to-find piece. Wouldn't it be great if kids just came with a little manual that told us what they needed? Julie D.

I've been trying to reply to OP for a couple of days, but I've been having trouble being clear in my thoughts. I so agree with this post! I'm a concept person, but my best friend has to learn facts and procedures first. Guess what? We're both good at math! We just need to approach it in different ways. The issue here is not whether your daughter likes the program you use; it's whether she learns math. Singapore has color and game-like activities, but it didn't work for her. I'm nervous about you trying to use Horizons 2 which is more often said to be at or above grade level. I would highly recommend listening to the facts-oriented people in this thread and looking at some of the things they have used. I think Saxon might be worth a look, too, although it is expensive with the manipulatives. The manipulatives combined with the repetition may work well for your daughter, and it is more often said to be at or below grade level. Your daughter will like math best if she feels successful at it. Also, with placement tests, I think I get better results with my kids when I start with the level I'm pretty sure they will succeed at. Sometimes if there is a question right at the beginning that they don't know, they'll become flustered and stop thinking. My kids are opposites in the math department. Ds is like me, and dd is like my best friend. So while RightStart has been great for my oldest, I have to modify it for dd. She loves to do pages of problems in dollar store practice books. Then she will finally grasp the concept behind the procedure. I'm so glad I had the experience of growing up with someone who thought about math in a different way from me, because it has really helped me understand my dd. Good luck! Julie D.

If your 7th grader hasn't outlined before, I think I'd take a month or so on each step and work up. It just seems like it would be less overwhelming. Feel free to ignore me if you've already been working on it. Julie D.

What a good idea! I should really try this, too; my son will be in 5th. I think this passage is a bit confusing. The point seems to be that challenges people faced led to the development of city-states, but they don't state that upfront. At the beginning it sounds like city-states faced challenges that needed to be overcome. I only see one main point for these two paragraphs. I don't think the specific list of things traded belongs here, which is why there are two awkward paragraphs instead of one coherent one. I begin to see the challenges in outlining a passage. I think your outline is faithful to the original. I'd have a hard time not reorganizing. And remember, you only need to start with a one-level outline. Julie D.

Have you looked at the My WISE Grammar worksheets for the younger ones? They're not really grammar sheets; they are spelling reinforcement activities. They only go through level O though. Although some of the activities require some input from you, having them all set up really saves time. AAS isn't an independent workbook-type course. The major difference I see with SWR is the organization of the words. AAS is grouped by patterns, and SWR is grouped by frequency. AAS uses tiles instead of markings, but I do not see that to be as big a difference as some people do. I haven't seen the R&S workbooks, but if they're working for your kids I'd give yourself permission to just go that way. Julie D.

I was wondering that, too. I feel like that. I'm also a thread killer. And to top it off, I only submit about a third of the posts I actually write. Julie D.

If you're main concern is standardized tests, try teaching her how to check her work. For instance, if the questions are "Which one of these four choices is punctuated correctly?' have her go through all the problems on the test. Then have her go back and look ONLY at the answer she chose for each one to see if it is truly correct. I think seeing so many incorrect examples does something weird to the brain, and I find this technique helps me sort it all out. It also helps me in the spelling sections that are similar. It's great she does fine in her own work. I really doubt it's a concept problem. Julie D.

:iagree: I'm reading The Shallows: What the Internet Is Doing to Our Brains by Nicholas Carr. One interesting point made is that our brains have no practical limit to the amount of information they can store, so remembering less information doesn't free up our brain for anything. There's also many references to studies that show we remember less when we read hyperlinked articles as compared to straight text. Maybe I'll go finish the book! Julie D.

I'm a fanatic about this, too. It seemed like I was the only one for a long time. I'm so happy now, though. Several of the girls who babysat my babies have kids of their own, and they are quite possibly more fanatic about it than I am! So don't give up, you never know when you'll make a difference. Julie D.

I only use PP for reading. The introduction explains how after your child is reading, you can go back and concentrate on the spelling rules. (Basically going through it twice, but likely in a different order and slower pace for spelling.) It is easier for me to just use a spelling program, but if you're on a budget and like to plan, you could certainly use it to study spelling. Julie D.