Thank you all for replying. Still looking for more opinions on the Common Core aligned Dimensions Math.

I purchased Fix-It grammar to use with my homeschoolers this year. We began this morning and already I have a question. This morning's Fix-It sentence (unedited) was: in the olden days of england, king henry the second reigned over the land One of the tasks is to labels the nouns by placing an "n" over the nouns in sentence. In the solution, they had an "n" over days, England, King, Henry, Second and land. I took issue with this because the ordinal number "second" is an adjective. Are they treating "King Henry the Second" as the noun here, but labeling each individual word? I would argue that King Henry the Second is the subject of the sentence. Second should be considered an adjective, right?

I did see the Level 2 workbook on Amazon, the problem is that I still need the Workbook solutions manual and the Teacher's Manual and can't see to find those.

I need some help from someone who is further along in this program than we are. My son is in Discovering Mathematics 1B. I am aware that Singapore changed these books to align them with Common Core. I bought the DM 2A and 2B textbooks ahead of time, but did not buy the teacher's guide or workbook and now I can not find them anywhere. I guess if I want to continue on this path we will need to go into Dimensions Math level 8. Correct? When they made the changes to align with Common Core what changed? Also, after Dimension 8 A/B, do we then go to Discovering Math Levels 3 and 4? This shouldn't be this confusing, but it is! My biggest concern is that the method remains consistent. My son has been using Singapore Math since 1st grade and has been very successful with it. I don't want to switch to a completely new program. Can someone who is further along offer some advice or words of wisdom? The most pressing issue for me is that my son will finish Discovering Math 1B in about a month, so I need to order the next level now.

If you're willing to do an online class, Veritas Press's Latin Transition 1. I kept buying DIY Latin programs and not getting them done as I was intimidated by doing it alone. I have a 13 and 11 year old in VP's Latin Transition 1 and it's been a wonderful experience.

One more question. Does using the program mean that we actually have to "re-map" the letters on our keyboard? Yikes! I don't want to go down that route!

Link: http://www.avko.org/400.html We are Sequential Spelling users. I didn't know that AVKO had supplemental programs to go with SS. Any reviews?

Will this be a Biology program?

My 5th grader just started WWE 4 and we are on Week 1, Day 2. He simply CAN NOT memorize and rewrite the sentence accurately. The instructions tell me that I should only read it three times and then not repeat it to the student. Here is the dictation: "The impostors requested him very courteously to be so good as to come nearer their looms, and then asked him whether the design pleased, and whether the colors were not very beautiful, while at the same time pointing to the empty frames." My son could barely remembering anything past looms. I read the sentence to him at least a dozen times. Is it normal for them to struggle with this in the beginning?

I'm so confused with picking out our 7th grade math.

My son has used Singapore Math for the last 6 years and it's been a very successful choice for us. He does very well in math and I don't want that to change. For those that had great success with Singapore 1-6, what did you use next?

I am considering enrolling my boys in Latin Transitions I through Veritas Press. I'd love to hear opinions from those who have completed an online course through VP.

This is slightly OT as this question does not pertain to curriculum that I want to use with my homeschoolers (right now), but rather a lesson I want to have presented at an upcoming Cub Scout Day camp that I am running. The boys will visit a "simple machines" station for 40 minutes. We are talking about boys from 1st grade - 5th grade. I want each kind of simple machine to be displayed. Hands on is better than lecture style here. I have some ideas, but I don't want to dismiss the wonderful and creative educators that we have here on this board. If any of you have used some quick and easy lessons about simple machines with your homeschoolers, would you mind sharing those ideas with me. I have a budget to buy some supplies if necessary. I figured it was okay to post this here as anything that is posted can be used by all of us in our science plans. ;) Thanks!

Sure! Granted, my 10, almost 11, year old has the entire collection practically memorized and graces us with oral renditions of the comic strip (Calvin) several times a day. Be prepared for that.

My son just completed Lesson 15 in FLL 4. At the end of the lesson, there is an exercise called, Learn to Proofread: Insert an Apostrophe The sentence to be corrected is: this is the First Line from marjorie kinnan rawlingss Novel, the yearling. In the answer key, the sentence reads: This is the first line from Majorie Kinnan Rawlings's novel, The Yearling. My question is about the apostrophe in Rawlings's novel. Can someone tell me the rule on adding an apostrophe to a proper name that ends in "s?" I would have written it this way: Rawlings' novel. Help!!

Please tell me I'm not the only parent who thinks that these dictation exercise are challenging . . . for ME! We are back to homeschooling our 10 year old (5th grade???) after he spent a year in a foreign school. For writing, I assumed that level 4 would be an appropriate level for him. Not happening. The Week 1, Day 1 narration exercise was fairly challenging, but doable. Then we came to Day 2, dictation. WHOA! *I* couldn't remember the sentence let alone my 10 year old. After a near meltdown, I calmed my son down and told him that it's okay if we back the bus up and start with WWE Level 3. I downloaded Level 3 (LOVE e-books) and we worked through Week 1, Days 1 and 2. The exercises were still challenging, but not so much as to bring my son to his knees and make him feel insecure. But am I the only adult here that finds those WWE 4 dictations difficult. While my son was working on his math earlier I sat and tried to perfectly memorize the very long sentence in Dictation exercise Week 1, Day 2 and I could NOT get it perfectly right. I feel like a dunce now!

Love love love that you did Schultüte for your kids! We just moved back to Germany and I plan to do this for my 1st grader when we start in a week and a half. My now 5th grader started the 1st grade in a German public school a few years ago and we made him a Schultüte and participated in the big to-do that they do for new 1st graders. It was so much fun!! My middle child (now 3rd grade) never had the experience so I'm going to make him and my daughter one for the start of this school year.

You guys have been talking about your love of new school supplies a lot lately so I thought some of you might like this idea that I came up with yesterday. Zazzle.com has a feature where you can design your own custom Avery binder with photos and text. Through TODAY they have a coupon to save $8 off every custom binder! Last night I designed three binders - one for each of my children for their Ancient History studies. History is going to be a huge focus for us this year so I am super excited to give each of them their own custom Ancient History binders as a "BTS" gift. We visited Greece earlier this summer so I used photos of my children visiting the ancient sites (Athens, Delphi, Olympia, Mycenae). My hope is that they will get excited about history every time we pull out these customized binders and they see the photos from our trip. The code to get $8 off each binder through today is: BTSRULEAVERY Here is what my 3rd grader's binder (front and back, name blocked out) looks like:

It looks like AAS could be a great solution for you. I decided a few months ago to begin AAS with my 1st grader this coming year. I also have a 5th grader who is really struggling with spelling. DH and I came up with a plan to have our 5th grade DS be a "helper" during my 1st grader's AAS lessons so he can follow along and work with us but not feel like we are doing remedial work with him. I just told him about this idea the other day and he loved the idea! I hope you can resolve your DD's spelling issues. I completely understand how you are feeling at this point.

Thank you!!

I am not familiar with the book/program you posted, but I wanted to share that I am using the books and CD's published by Zeezok publishing to study some of the composers with my children and so far we love them. Perhaps the Zeezok books would be too simple for your 7th grader, but I think your 4th grader would like them.

We are in the middle of moving, so planning is a bit messy right now. I just hope I have a permanent home come September 1st or I will be starting the new school year in a hotel room.

I ordered these books 2 weeks ago and they arrived last week. I love them so far! I know they are expensive, but I want to use them this year with my 5th grader so I just bit the bullet. Someone here posted that the medieval set was on sale at Amazon so I ordered those too. :thumbup: ETA: Grrrrr!! I paid $107 for the medieval and now it's down to $94.90. Amazing price! Grab those while you can.

Based on your requirements, I'd go with a smaller laptop and get the kindle or an ireader program for the laptop. My husband just got me the smaller MacBook pro and I love it!

I've seen the K12 HO program mentioned many times, but I'm confused as to what this is. Is it simply a text book? Is there a teacher's guide with lessons? Or is this an online course through their virtual academy? Or both? If it is an online course, does K12 allow you to take just a single course online or do you have to register for a full program (all subjects taken online)?