I just bought MM7 today before I saw your post. I'd never looked at it before, but I've been pouring over threads and options for a week, and it caught my attention this morning. I'm the tiniest bit sad that we only have one year of it because I love the way it's set up! I have loved all our math programs (Miquon and BA), so I don't regret my previous choices, but this looks like it will suit us very well this year. Better days ahead!

This is helpful! I do get caught up in that thinking. May I ask what your non-AoPS kids did like for pre-A?

Thanks again, everyone. As I said before, I never graded a mastery type subject before, and I'm realizing I need to adjust my thinking, my grading system, and my expectations. Many comments above have been very helpful! We've been doing only Alcumus the last couple weeks, and I retested them with the same questions at the end of the chapter. We weren't thrilled with the results, even though they both did a large number of problems into green or blue for all the topics. It was still silly mistakes, with a couple order of operations type issues, too. I'm on the hunt for something different that is still challenging/advanced, but maybe a little less "find the trick" for every practice problem.

Thank you! Lots for me to think through. I do think my boys should be able to solve the exercises (their “homework”) and review problem set (the test) in chap 1 without too much trouble. I planned to use the challenge questions as extra credit. Chap 1 is all review and they know the operations. They are making silly mistakes, not major issues. And they do work them until corrected. That’s why we’re all frustrated. If we had reached new concepts, it would be a different situation, imo. Also, I taught American History which was writing, essay tests and lots of partial credit. I thought math needed to be more black and white. I’m scared to be too easy and have a phony looking set of grades when they finish high school. Major learning curve going on here as we prepare for high school next year, I guess! Thanks again!

My 7th and 8th grade boys are doing AOPS Prealgebra this year, after finishing Beast Academy 5 last year. I’m keeping grades for the first time, and they are basically failing. The thing is, they are both more than capable of excelling in math, and they do understand the concepts. They just keep getting enough homework and test questions wrong, that they are failing. I’m frustrated, they’re discouraged, and I don’t know what to do! Do I change programs because AOPS is insanely hard? (I thought after Beast, it was a reasonable next step for kids who are good at math, but maybe the presentation is just too “lofty”??) If we change, what is a good program to follow BA? Do I change grading in some way to make it less discouraging? (I was a school teacher and have graded kids before. I award points for completed practice work, points for correct homework problems, and double points for correct test problems, divided by the total possible points. Not too complicated.) Do we restart the chapter? Any help appreciated!

We have used Bible Road Trip by Thinking Kids Press for six years now, and are finishing our second trip all the way through the Bible. It has been our most loved and successful subject to date. It is a multilevel curriculum with reading and questions for each day, along with a book that supplies the background info, additional activities, memorization, and notebooking pages. Currently, we just do the reading together, and discuss the questions. We’ve done other parts of the program at other times, but our discussions can be lengthy, so we just focus on that now. I feel my kids have a fantastic overall understanding of the whole Bible, and it gets better each cycle. I was actually considering looking for something shiny and new next fall, but as I’m thinking about how well we’ve done with it, I’m going to stay the course!

My 7th, 6th and 4th graders are mostly enjoying it. We switched from Classical Writing, though, so this is much more kid and mom friendly, imo. We’re wrapping up Book 5 right now, and I’m seeing some decent fruit. None of us are natural writers, so I appreciate the more gentle progym vs CW or Memoria Press.

Hi, I thought I had found a good fit in SCM years 5 and 6 until I looked at the daily lessons. Too light on historical events and heavy on personalities for my taste. I like how world history was integrated, too. My kids are 4th, 6th and 7th grades. Any suggestions to look at appreciated! Regards, Carrie

I would love to hear more from those using this, too, especially in the upper books! We have used Classical Writing from Primer through Homer A for my rising 6th grader, and Aesop B, for my rising 5th and 3rd graders. I always planned to do CW all the way through, but it’s just too much and wearing us down. We all have come to dread it. I bought W&R 3 just to look at and it seems so easy and writing-light compared to CW. Are we supposed to do writing above the specific exercises in the book? Will it ramp up quickly in later books? My kids will love the change in workload, but are the end results similar between the two programs? Please understand, I am not bragging about how much ahead my kids are AT ALL. I’m actually kicking myself for beating them up with CW when a gentler, kinder option has been there the whole time. I’m kind of in shock about the whole thing. If I do switch us, I was considering Fix-It Grammar to go along with it. Is that enough after finishing all 4 FLL books?

A little late to the 'party', but my 2nd grade ds is loving this reader made up of Aesop's Fables. (Discovered through Don Potter's site) https://books.google.com/books?id=a5YNAAAAQAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=ladder+to+learning&hl=en&ei=18fzTeHGE4aXtwfDqp30Bg&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=9&ved=0CE8Q6AEwCA#v=onepage&q&f=false The language is older and the book is divided into three sections based on syllables. The first group of fables are only one syllable words. The second group have one and two syllable words, and the third group have up to three syllable words. We're doing about one fable a week, reading it daily. I'm very pleased with his response to it. It's quality literature and leads to good discussion of the moral, too! Regards, C.

The sale info came in an email. It ends Friday evening. The sale price is $72, which sounded pretty nice to me. See if this link works: http://notebookingpages.com/memberships-2016winter Thank you for the info, Mama2many4!

Has anyone used NotebookingPages.com? She has a sale going until tomorrow on a "lifetime membership" but I'd like to hear opinions on if the content is worth the price. Thank you! C.

As others have said, I take comfort from this thread! I've got two learning phonics right now. They are about 6 months apart. My third will start this fall. I just dread this part of school! I'm glad to know I'm not alone! Regards, C.

Thank you so much for the head's up! This is wonderful! Regards, C.

We started our first "official" school day today - pre-school and junior kindergarten for my boys. We've been doing phonics for the last few months, but I added some calendar stuff and a more structured Bible time. They each got some new pencils, a binder and a plastic lap desk to celebrate. My main goals for the year are to get my oldest reading and my middle to know his letter sounds and start learning the Syllabary. Regards, C.

Found it! It was Lynita who explained it this way with a 100 chart: Numerals (56), English name (fifty-six) and math name (five tens and six units/ones) are the kinds of terms I was looking for. Regards, C.

Yes, Boscopup, you understood what I was asking - terms more than how-to. I know my kiddos will not completely get this concept at their ages, and I do have several daily activities including straws :) that we will do to help practice it. But, somewhere I saw a blog post where they were practicing saying numbers in different forms, and the mom had a term for each expression. I guess that is not very common since no one had terms for me. I'll have to dig up that blog again if I can find it. Thanks anyway! Regards, C.

I feel silly asking this, but my elementary school days are quite long ago. :tongue_smilie: When working with place value, how do you refer to expressing numbers as "5 tens and 6 units" compared to "fifty-six" and "56"? I'm trying to figure out a clear way to explain the difference in those three ways of stating a number to my 3 and 4 year olds. Regards, C.

Loved reading your blog! My son does the whispering thing. Where do they get these ideas?:lol: Regards, C.

We're in a very similar boat, although I also have a PreK'er too. My dd, the toddler, will often sit at the table with us with her own crayons or puzzle, etc. I feel like I walk circles around my table for school. Would your dd play in a pack n play nearby? If you caught her right after breakfast with something especially fun, you might get 20-30 minutes of good time. I actually put my pnp away, but am thinking I might need to get it back out again. ;) Regards, C.

Reams of paper for this price?? Will you please alert us when this sale occurs? Regards, C.

We really like Super Why and Zaboomafoo on PBS. Regards, C.

Here's a thread with lots of ideas from a couple weeks ago. We got all the books mentioned here through the library and they are great! http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/showthread.php?t=400242 Regards, C.