I was a lit major so I loved history, literature and the philosophy of homeschooling. Math was hard then Singapore came into my life--How did I ever live without this stuff--Math is so much fun! We love science too.

I like Singapore and will use it at least through level 6. At that point we will start Algebra or move onto NEM. The upper levels should look like this: 6th--Algebra or NEM 1 7th--Algebra II or NEM 2 8th--Geometry or NEM3 9th--Pre Calc or NEM 4 10th--Calculus or off to the local community college for math 11th and 12th--off to the local community college for upper level maths. My younger child will take a little more time but I expect her to at least be finished with Pre Calculus before she graduates.

Someone will probably correct me but I believe that LNST is something you can start in 1st grade Minimus is for the 7 to 9 year old Lively Latin is for 3rd to 4th grade Latin for Children is something you can do with as young as 3rd grade. I don't know about Latin Prep. All of this is just what I have picked up as I researched Latin programs. By the way I have a binder of samples of various programs and I keep it on hand so others can look at them and decide what will work best for them. I have actually had LNST on hand and am using Minimus right now with plans to follow it up with Lively Latin.

Curriculumwise: Singapore Math Spell to Write and Read (especially the WISE guide) Some other books that I refer to time and again: TWTM LCC Charlotte Mason Original Homeschooling Series The Rainbow Resource Catalog Teaching Mathematics in Rudolf Steiner Schools by Ron Jarmon (it lines up so well with Singapore and has lots of great enrichment ideas). For the Kids: Rightstart math books by Stuart J. Murphy Biographies by D'Auliare

If you want to do the crafts--I found a system that makes it easy to do them. Every 6 to 9 weeks you pick out what crafts you want to do over the next month or quarter. And you go through your supplies and make a baggie for each craft. Put all the supplies needed in the baggie, label them and put them in order of when you want to do the crafts. At this time, if you do not have some of the supplies on hand, then you get to make a shopping list and go to your local craft store and buy the items and put them in the baggies. When it comes to craft time, you just pull out the baggie and everything is there. I works nicely and we did it for a while but right now we are taking a break from SOTW.

My daily Teacher's book includes: In Front--Write-up of our daily routine First Tab--Our current circle time (we use this to frame our day) Weekly schedules of the written work for each day And any worksheets, copywork sheets or maps that we will use that week Second Tab--A phonics section which has a pocket for the trigger word pictures I have made and a list of my trigger word sentences for the various phonograms Third Tab--A math section where I keep my fun ideas and homemade manipulatives (they are stored in large envelopes that I have 3-hole punched Fourth Tab--An other section which can be anything that I think might be important for that week. I also have a larger binder where I keep the rest of the year's weekly schedules and any sort of enhancers (maps, fun sheets, etc). And in the front of this I have year long schedules for particular curriculums/subjects and a year's calendar. Hope this helps.

What we started 2nd grade with: TOG 2/SOTW 2 combo We tried to do mapwork, vocab and the writing component Anne's School Place Year 1 Bible Easy Grammar Daily Guided Review for 2nd and 3rd alternated with KISS Grammar Workbook 2 Singapore 2b Copywork related to history or grammar SWR organized into lists of words by phonogram or rule to spell. Science with lapbooks and notebooking and had just finished up My Pals are Here Science 3b When we went to Hawaii in October for 2 weeks I had a realization that we were just sort of pushing through everything and I was so tired at the end of the school day and a lot of times we just never really got to bible, history or science. :eek: So we are finishing off the year with::) Singapore Math 3a Fun rhythmic drill of math facts (mainly just tossing a ball around and singing the facts) Fables and writing summaries of them Just the phonograms and rules from SWR (2 a week)--I made trigger word sentences that feature all the sounds and pictures to go with each phonogram. We write the sentences for copywork and the other days copy our summary writing. Minimus Latin McCall-Harby's Test Lessons in Reading 1 time a week We alternate between art, science, and handcrafts to end our school day. Things we are doing include watercolor, clay, felting, knitting, magnets, and other great fun projects to end the day. We are also at bedtime reading the D'Aulaire biographies, Holling C. Holling's books and we read non-fiction and fiction books about a different animal each week.

Have you thought about adding manipulatives to R&S. With regrouping you can make or buy a base 10 kit. You could use small stones for 1's, popcycle sticks for 10's, glue 10 sticks together for 100's and glue 10 of those together for 1000's. I think rod and staff uses a farm idea for place value but I like the idea of a rainbow red is ones, orange is tens, yellow is 100's, green is 1000's etc. And you tell him that you can only fit 9 in each column so if you get anything over that you have to move it over. But for subtraction you have the number act like a family where the smaller child wants to buy or give something away but doesn't have enough so they have to ask the larger number. My dd really likes these sorts of stories and it helps make subtraction with re-grouping fun. For division, I always liked John Holt's idea and I have encountered it elsewhere as well. You give the child a number of small objects and some containers and ask them to divide the objects equally. So like 36 divided by 3 you would give him 36 buttons and 3 large cups and have him divide them equally and then he can find out how many times 3 goes into 36 by counting the buttons in 1 cup. This can work for division problems with remainders as well because you will have a certain number of buttons left over that do not divide equally. I hope this helps and hang in there. I know I struggled a lot with math in school but it is so clear as an adult that it is really lots of fun!

I used Rightstart and it is a great program. My dd and I just don't like scripted programs. We didn't like Saxon and I basically skipped over the scripts in FLL too. But otherwise it is a great program and the manipulatives are wonderful even if you don't use Rightstart.

My dd who hasn't been very interested in animals before now wants to know all about them. So we made a lapbook on invertibrates last fall and currently I pick out an animal each week and check out non-fiction and fiction books on it. We have descovered some delightful picture book writers that way and have learned all about a variety of small mammals. My dd recieved a weather kit for her birthday and so she does a weather report each day about wind direction, temperature, clouds and conditions. We also pick up fun science kits here and there and really have fun in this area. Last summer we did Sinapore Math's My Pals are Here Science 3a/b which is mainly about biology. We plan on finishing up this year with My Pals are Here Science 4a/b. We've really diverged upon our own path and have had a lot of fun. We also like science museums and she has a nice collection of science textbooks and readers to use on her own.

Mine is in my signature line, too. I am also a weekly reporter.:)

You're Welcome. I like to write lesson plans.

I have 2 sets of lesson plans that I wrote. One is for 29 weeks/4 days a week. The other set is 1 chapter a month for 12 months. The 29 week set is up on Lulu.com right now for free. http://www.lulu.com/content/1918291 Hope this helps.

I have 2 dds one in Kindergarten and one in 2nd grade. I have been frequenting the boards for just over 2 years now. We use a mix of Classical, Waldorf, Charlotte Mason, and Montessori materials and ideas. I have come to the point where I am mostly writing my own curriculum because I have spent too much trying to bend it to fit the needs of my child. I do think that Spell to Write and Read and Singapore are the best out there.

I don't post much on the general board but mostly hang out on the K-8 curriculum board. I have 2 dds--Kindergarten and 2nd. We use an eclectic mix of classical (progynasmata & Latin), Charlotte Mason (short intense lessons, living books, and copywork), Waldorf (art, music, visual keys and math enrichment), Montessori (hands-on) and what I call the Singapore influence (math and science). I am a die-hard fan of Spell to Write and Read and Singapore Math. I am also starting a business mentoring other moms and helping people to organize their time, space and lesson plans.

They are so cute. I was going to suggest this for you. It is really a nice site. All the dialogue is scripted. There are quizzes, games, and the real draw money managment. You are given so much money and one room to start with your pet. You have to feed your pet and make sure it stays happy and healthy. You get to dress them up and design the house and furnish the rooms. You can even garden. Lots of fun. We're all addicted to Cow Cash here. I would set a firm time-limit though because it is easy to lose track of time.

I ordered the PL Teacher's guide and showed my dd some samples. She said "no, it looks boring." So since I had the TM for Minimus, I ordered the minimus book and CD. I showed her these materials and she loves it. We are working slowly through Minimus and three weeks in she is using the vocabulary correctly as she plays. We love Minimus here but then again my dd is in 2nd grade. PL seemed to have a lot of busywork writing whereas with Minimus we listen to stories, play latin "go fish", try to figure out the meaning of the words (they are so close to English or Spanish) and have fun getting started in Latin.

I made some lesson plans that I am looking at putting up on Lulu like I did my singapore science plans. I will type these up today and post the link.:)

This sounds like the 7 year change but it could be the 9 year one. There is one they go through around 7. They regress in behavior, become defiant, forget all that they have learned and are just plain difficult. After it is all over with you get a child who is more mature but very concerned about fairness on the other side. Has your child gone through this? If not this is probably what you are dealing with. We just sort of took a break from school, did the minimums, I spent a lot of time talking to her and answering questions and reassuring her. If you have done this then it is probably the 9 year change which is an ushering in of puberty and is there are more issues with authority at this time. I havent' been through this but others may have rode out the rocky 9 to 10's and could give you more advice.

Personally, I would move on. It doesn't really matter if you introduce 1 operation at a time or all 4 at once. What matters is that over time they come to understand the concepts and do well with them. I would start to practice math facts apart from the main math lesson. Take some time at the beginning of the school day or in the afternoon and have them toss a ball or skip or jump rope or some such other rhythmic large motor skill activity. And then start with the math facts. You call out 9 plus 9 is and they shout out the answer. 9 plus 8 is..., 9 plu 7 is... and so on. Then move on to 8 plus 8, etc. I was reading about this recently and have doing it with my own dd and it is a lot of fun for everyone.

Language Arts: SWR phonograms and a few rules Copywork Fairy Tales Math: Singapore 1a/b Everything else she will just be taking her time and hanging out with her big sister.

Copywork is great for anything. Currently we are using copywork on Mondays and Wednesdays to reinforce phonic concepts with sentences like "Green feet sleep free." to remember the sound of "ee." On Tuesdays and Thursdays she copies the sentences she has dictated to me when she created her own version of a fable. We have used copywork for history, science, grammar instruction, just plain penmanship and have heard that others use it for math.

Some yahoo groups: http://groups.yahoo.com/group/BigIslandHomeschoolers/ This is mainly for the Puna/Hilo area. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/KonaHomeschool/?yguid=192906258 This is for the Kona Side. I don't know that there is anything up in Have but they do have a Waldof inspired school. And in Waimea there is a prep school. Moving to Hawaii: http://www.hiloliving.com/Hilo_Move.html This is by a homeschool family who moved to Hilo. We plan on retiring to the Big Island and I would be happy to talk with you more off-list. Hope this helps.

We have a couple versions of the book but you can usually pick it up in the canning section of any store. It is published by the Ball Company and has great recipies. They also have a nice site with recipies and a help line (very nice people there). You need a waterbath pot and you may want a pressure cooker for some. I like my tomato juicer as well. What I do when I plan on doing a big canning year is make a schedule of when things are coming in. So May/June is strawberries, raspberries and cherries. I make jam. Freezer jam is great for strawberries. I make sure I stock up sugar as it goes on sale between now and jam season. You also want the little jars on hand. July is a month of rest unless you like blackberries or have an abundance of asparagus. August to September is the big canning season. I usually make sure I have plenty of towels on hand. Vinegar, lemon juice, canning salt and pickling seasoning are a must depending on what you are making. I usually alternate between juice one year and whole tomatoes the next. They are both messy jobs. You will also want to have one of those pots where you have the smaller insert with the holes in it so that you can easily blanch the tomatoes and just drain the water back into the pot and then dump the tomatoes into the cold water so you can peel off the skins. An old tea pot that whistles when it boils is great too for topping off cans of veggies with hot water. Make sure you have two or three good sets of measuring spoons on hand too so that if one is dirty or lost in the canning mess you have another that you can quickly grab. Good Luck and have fun canning. We've taken a break for the last couple of years but I am getting the urge again and may take time to do tomatoes this year.

Math: Singapore 3b/4a Language Arts: We will read Old Testament Bible Stories to study the parts of speech KISS Grammar Workbook 2 for grammar practice WISE Guide Spelling lists We will be learning about outlining as well as continuing with the progymnasmata. We will be writing direct declarative, slanted, indirect declarative, interrogative, and comparative narrations. Some of these will be written in the forms of letters. She will start learning cursive as well. History: We will take a look at housing and all the different types starting with lean-tos and finishing off with skyscrapers. We will also read Native American Tales and learn about the types of groups that live in different regions of our country. Science: We will work through My Pals are Here 4a/b. And continue to just have fun with kits and books as topics take our interest. We hope to build some small reproductions of some of the houses that we will study. Art: We will work with crayons, watercolor, and clay this year. We will also try our hands at felting, knitting and the recorder. Latin: Minimus/looking at Lively Latin for 2nd half of the year. We have a nice fun year planned that combines the academics of Classical with the beauty and calmness of Waldorf.