Singapore Math US edition? Home instructors guide, workbook, textbook. And at this level, to be honest, I almost never bothered using the home instructors guide because it all seemed straightforward to my fairly bright kids and it was easy to implement. Note that there are two workbooks and two textbooks but they correspond with each other -- first half of the year is textbook A/workbook A, second half is textbook B/workbook B.

I haven't seen the movie, but from the description, it's closer to Asimov's later robot books (e.g. "The Caves of Steel", "The Naked Sun"), while still being very far away from them. Except for the concept of the Three Laws of Robotics and the existence of someone named Dr. Susan Calvin, the stories should be entirely new.

The D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths should be accessible to 3rd/4th grader, assuming his English skills are up to it. D'Aulaires' is about as comprehensive a child-friendly guide to Greek Myths as exists.

Peter Spier's Christmas (Spier) How Six Found Christmas (Hyman)

I haven't seen listed in your down the rabbit hole suggestions: Mary Carruthers and Jan M. Ziolkowski's "The Medieval Craft of Memory, An Anthology of Texts and Pictures", which has (with commentary, and translated) the text of a number of medieval writers' works on memorization, and Carruthers's "The Book of Memory: A Study of Memory in Medieval Culture", which is more interpretive.

Some time back, Jessica @ "We Don't Need No Education" made some worksheets for Grammar-Land, available here: https://dontneednoeducation.blogspot.com/2010/01/grammar-land-worksheets.html

I have a vague recollection that the ArtPac books do something like this, but they cover the whole spectrum of art, not just crayon usage. Maybe someone can chime in who has used them more recently (and gone further -- we just used the first three or so).

The old duolingo tree was decent, with detailed grammar notes and explanations for each level. Unfortunately, when they redid the tree, they replaced the grammar notes/explanations with a short list of sentences. And that was it. I think that Duolingo still is an OK supplement -- the gamification they've incorporated is great as a motivator to help put in the practice. I am, in fact, using it myself, as I slowly proceed through a Latin curriculum. (I've completed the Duolingo tree, and am now just finishing up the "challenge" exercises.) But I don't think you can start Duolingo at the same time you start an actual Latin program; you want to be at least a few chapters in before you even start Duolingo-ing, because Duolingo is expecting that you'll be able to just pick up the grammar rules implicitly, and that's not going to happen.

+1 to this series. I've used them for team reading with my kids, and the ones I've found have been excellent. Though it was set up as one page parent, one page child, and not mixed together. Another one-page child, one-page parent is the Ladybird "Puddle Lane" series, but the child pages are not really decodable and they more-or-less recap the parent's page. "Ant And Bee" series does child words sprinkled throughout the text, in color. Non-decodable child words, though. The stories are very enjoyable, but it isn't a good early reader, at least not in the manner in which it is intended.

I have a friend who used it for her extremely dyslexic child. Generally speaking, it's a last ditch effort to remediate dyslexia, because it is so *very* expensive and takes so much time. Intensive tutoring, maybe two hours a day for weeks. She says she could've bought another house with what she spent, but on the other hand, now she has a child who can read - not super well, but enough that he's functional.

Alcumus is an interesting thought. I am trying to keep him very minimal in terms of screens but, well, AoPS. I would like recommendations for #4.

I'm starting this thread to just kick around some ideas. Rising 7th grader will have finished pre-Algebra in May. It seems to be going pretty well. He'll start Algebra in September. So what should I do with the summer? 1. A more intensive pre-Algebra curriculum. Something like AoPS Pre-Algebra, which is deeper and harder than what he's working on now. (I wouldn't expect him to complete this.) 2. A normal pre-Algebra curriculum, but a different one than he'd worked on, which would serve as a review/help solidify the material. Ideally something that wouldn't involve as much teaching time as #1. Math Mammoth's, maybe? R&S 8? Something just to keep in in practice. 3. A lightweight, gentle intro to Algebra, like Key to Algebra, to give him some familiarity before hitting the topic 4. Something oddball, that keeps him in the "math mode". Number theory? Cryptography? Something math puzzle-y? An old vocational math textbook?

I really enjoyed "Grammar-Land: Grammar in Fun for the Children of Schoolroom-shire" , and my kids were willing to read it spontaneously. However, it is mainly focused on parts of speech, so might not really go deep enough into what you need. You can check it out on archive.org: https://archive.org/details/grammarlandorgra00nesb/page/n7/mode/2up If you like it, there are lots of physical copies available for cheap. Try to get one with the illustrations; I didn't, and regret the lack. This lady has turned the chapter questions into worksheets, and made them available for free: http://dontneednoeducation.blogspot.com/2010/01/grammar-land-worksheets.html

Just to follow up, I read through part of Elementary Math for Teachers before I misplaced it, and thought it was quite good - a very detailed guide to elementary math. I certainly learned things, and would like to find it again. Another book well worth looking at is "Step-By-Step Model Drawing: Solving Word Problems the Singapore Way", which *really* made the bar modeling process much more clear. For the first part of the book, you're given set of problems that cover all the ways one might use bar models, walks you through how to solve each problems, and provides a "teaching script" to explain to your students. Second part gives you a similar set of problems to work out on your own, and then you can look in the back to see the author's solution/student explanations. See one, do one, all that's left is to teach one.

Notetaking is a very useful skill and history, with its melange of dates and names, is a good place to start learning it. Handwritten notes are extremely effective -- not just for review purposes, but the simple action of taking notes helps retention. (And if you have attention issues, taking notes can be an effective way to prevent your mind from wandering. Only way I can force myself to pay attention to a zoom call is with a notebook in front of me. Ironically, right now, as I am typing this answer, there's an online conference going in the background to which I should probably instead be paying attention.)

I read Wilfred Jones's "Epic of Kings: Hero Tales of Ancient Persia", a cut back version of the Shahnameh, their national epic. I thought it slow going at first, but once I reached the chapters where the primary hero, Rustam, shows up, I really enjoyed it. My one disclaimer is it is missing parts that I think would be interesting -- Jones ends with the death of Rustam, while the original carries on through the conquest of Persia by the Arabs.

Thanks for the "Elementary Math for Teachers" rec! There's now one fewer cheap copy for sale on the internet. On the topic, I read "Why Before How: Singapore Math Computation Strategies" and was unimpressed. That one's for implementing Singapore Math in a trendy public school.

I have a pretty decent chunk in 401K/403B and IRAs, and tiny pension -- maybe $100/month by retirement age? I'm not very trusting of SS and Medicaid, so am assuming that the self-funded retirement is what's going to need to pay for most of it. My plan is pretty much to retire as soon as the grandkids show up, assuming I can keep on plugging. I was an old parent, so I hope they get started on the younger side.

I wonder if it's just that the other math programs are older and have accumulated more supplementary material over time. Dimensions is pretty new; they've only got to 3rd grade with their home instructor guides.

+1 to that! We've checked those out a lot, over the years. "Life: The First Four Billion Years: The Story of Life from the Big Bang to the Evolution of Humans" is pretty good, partially because there's coverage of pre-Ediacaran times, which usually gets skipped over extremely quickly. Also, Dinosaurs to Dodos: An Encyclopedia of Extinct Animals is well worth it. Terrific illustrations. Encyclopedia really isn't the right term, though - a geologic period per short chapter, with sample animals.

I've heard that live action works better for language acquisition than cartoons, because, among other things, one can see mouth movements. Are there English speaking playgroups and other, similar activities available in your part of the country? I know there are a lot of Americans who are in Israel, either permanently or temporarily. Getting your child to interact with other children who speak the target language is remarkably effective.

I had a super fancy alphanumeric one for work around '00 - '02. It was really awesome - could send messages as well as receive them. Whatever network it used was a lot better / more reliable than the phone network, and its battery life was top notch. The last pager I had -- maybe '08? -- was one that was tied into a fire department alert system, and would sound a brief alarm and display the first 50 characters or so of the call information. "ENG421 ACCA / 123 WIBBLE LANE / ENTRAPMENT / TWO VEHICLES INVOLVED" sort of thing (Engine 421 dispatched for an automobile accident requiring an advanced life support ambulance to 123 Wibble Lane. At least one person is stuck in (or under) a car. Two vehicles reportedly involved in the accident.) The FD pager worked a lot better than the SMS system which replaced it, but SMS was probably enormously cheaper for the county to run.

Are you in an English speaking country? Best general recommendation is for him to interact with other kids that speak English -- take him to playgrounds, gyms, playdates, etc. If you are in Korea, this is going to be more difficult. If you allow him to watch videos, then replace some of them with English language ones. Ones with actual people are better than cartoons -- helps him see mouth movements and so on. There are a lot of "children having fun" videos on youtube, and kids usually like these. When you read to him, make sure you pick one or two English books. Start having days where you try to speak nothing but English to him.

Hardy Boys "The Four-Headed Dragon" Agatha Christie's "Thirteen at Dinner" "The 7½ Deaths of Evelyn Hardcastle" , which I've never read. Not sure if it's suitable for 6th graders, but I'm including it anyway because we're low on fractions. "Life of Pi", same as the above, except for irrational numbers. I was very disappointed to find out that the H. Rider Haggard book is "Allan Quatermain", not "Allan Quartermain".

Those Enid Blytons in turn reminded me of her Five Find-Outers series, as well a few series by other authors: "Three Investigators" (aka "Alfred HItchcock and the Three Investigators"), "Bobbsy Twins", "Sweet Valley Twins". Also the slightly more adult "Two-Minute Mysteries".