Both of my sons loved the "Let's Read Together" books. These are phonics-based early readers with actual plots and the writing is quite good. My husband and I both liked the books a lot, which is important with early readers. My younger DS especially loved the stories, and they were requested as bedtime stories for several years afterwards. There are books for each short and long vowel sound, as well as a few for blending sounds. These books are what I feel really got my boys reading, and were a great gateway to Frog and Toad and other readers. http://www.kanepress.com/lets-read-together/

My DS would love to read it! I sent you a PM.

He is not working intensely in many other subjects. Most of his other subjects are reading heavy, output light, which he loves. He retains information incredibly well, which makes most learning very easy for him. As I said to Arcadia above, his only other intense subject right now is writing, as he has always been a reluctant writer and he needs to catch up. I know that he is enjoying Spanish, literature, and history for sure. We are about to start Physics, which I can't say he is exactly looking forward to, but he loves science, so hopefully that will be fine. He also sings in a choir and really enjoys working on his music. We have tried different things in terms of how much math per day. After a lot of trial and error with AOPS in general, he has said that he can only focus that intensely for about an hour, so I have mostly had him try to work for an hour a day. But there are days where he only solves a single problem in that hour, which tends to upset him greatly. For what it's worth, he rarely has days like that until we get to the Review for each chapter. So I do think a certain amount of it might be performance anxiety. He has mentioned feeling burnt out, and that is definitely not something I want for him. I want math to stay a fascinating subject, as it was always his favorite. He has said that he is very glad that he finished the first two AOPS books, even though they were very hard. He's proud of the work he did and that he completed such challenging books. I know that they deepened both of our understanding of math for sure. I do often scribe for him on the lesson problems, as his preferred way of using the books is for us to solve the lesson problems together. He always completes the Exercises on his own, usually with very little difficulty, but still quite slowly. He does have to erase and rewrite things a lot, as he can't stand for his paper to not look neat. In terms of balance, I think that we are okay. It would certainly be better if math was not quite so much of a time suck and a mental drain. So switching may be the way to go, but I just can't shake the feeling that taking away his only really challenging subject might hurt him later when the next hard thing comes along. I know that when I was in school, math was always easy for me until the second half of Pre-Calculus. And then I just kind of gave up on the whole thing. I never took Calculus, which didn't end up mattering much to an English major, but I always kind of regretted it. But maybe if we plan to use AOPS for the rest of high school math, he could use something else for geometry. Thank you for the advice!

Thanks for replying! He has trouble visualizing things, mostly. Like with parallel lines, he has trouble remembering which angles are congruent, supplementary, etc. because he can't visualize it in his head. If he looks back at the diagram from Chap. 2 where he first learned the concept, he understands it, but it doesn't stick in his mind because he can't "see" it. Also, he has trouble seeing these concepts in the diagram for whatever current diagram he is working on. But what you said about your husband makes sense. We haven't met many chess players that aren't visual, but that sounds a lot like my DS. So we could use the other AOPS books that come next even if we went with a different geometry book? If so, that is really good to know. In terms of his workload, we are in the process of ramping up slowly. His only other really intense subject is writing. He is a very reluctant writer, and we are trying to catch up this year on essay writing. I would not say that he is overworked, but it is certainly possible that he is tired as he often stays up late reading chess books. I have sat with him, and I think that most of the time he legitimately has trouble getting started on a lot of the problems and that his attention tends to wander after a few minutes of intense thinking.

My DS14, who is in ninth grade this year, has been doing AOPS (books only) since 6th grade. He has completed Pre-A and Introduction to Algebra (all chapters, all problems, most challenge problems). AOPS has always been challenging for him, not because he couldn't solve the problems but because he is a slow worker. He calculates very fast but works and writes very slowly. Since we weren't dealing with high school until this year, I didn't really have a problem with him working slowly, even if it meant that a Review section would take 4 or more days. But now that he is in ninth grade, where his credits count, and his workload in general is really picking up, the slow pace is starting to be more of a concern. I have been trying to count the Review sections as chapter tests, where I don't help him with the problems at all, and he gets a grade. This worked okay for the first couple of chapters, but he has been working on the Chapter 3 Review/test this week, and after three very long days, he still has 15 problems to go. Yesterday he accomplished virtually nothing, and today was only marginally better. He said that he couldn't focus at all, no matter how hard he tried. He does have a lot of trouble with visual-spatial stuff in general, and he has said many times that he doesn't think in pictures at all, so I was expecting Geometry to be a bear, but not to this level. So it might seem like an obvious solution to just ditch AOPS and do something easier, but I'm not sure that's the answer. He is capable of major focus if the subject is something interesting to him. He is a competitive chess player, and he studies his chess books and analyzes positions on the chess board constantly. More than anything, he has been saying that he just doesn't feel up to working so hard on something this difficult. In his words, we should "just get an easy Geometry program". What bothers me about this more than anything is that he has admitted that he doesn't like hard work in general, and in many ways, AOPS has been a perfect program to work on this issue. My DH and I feel very strongly that challenging yourself to work hard at difficult things is an important life skill, and we don't want to reinforce the natural tendency to quit things when they are hard or not personally interesting. I have already decided that he does not need to do the Challenge problems for this specific book. The regular problems are plenty challenging enough to call this an honors course. I guess my question is, how much scaffolding can I do with this program and still give him full high school credit. Do I need to have chapter tests or is it possible to just give a comprehensive final at the end? Is it appropriate to give him honors credit if he takes extra time to complete the course? Right now, I think we are looking at going into the summer for sure, but he actually completed the first two chapters this summer, so over the past four weeks he has only completed one chapter, and that is with doing math almost every day. I welcome all advice, commiseration, and hugs. I am not sure what to do, and I am hoping that some of you with more experience can help me figure out which direction to go.

My ds9 has just finished up Singapore 4B, and he is pretty bored with math right now. I would like to try BA to see if it will inspire him to love math again. But I had a couple of concerns with him going into 5th grade next year. Should we start at the beginning with 3A even though it would mean that we might not have time to finish Beast before starting AOPS Pre-A in 6th grade (at least that's the plan)? We tried the assessments, and he places around 4A or so, but there are individual topics he doesn't know from the earlier levels, like area of a triangle and how to multiply big numbers quickly, etc. I would love to have him work on those skills, but I'm just not sure whether we can get through enough books to be worth it! I am looking to switch to BA as our full-time math if he likes it, as I was not a big fan of SM 5 when my older ds went through it. I am hoping for more algebraic thinking to be emphasized sooner, and I have been super impressed with the samples of BA. I had the idea that maybe he could just work through the first few guides and maybe skip the practice books until the later levels, but I am not sure if he would get as much out of the program that way. Has anyone done that? Also, my ds would like to know if the books have a continuing storyline, because he doesn't want to miss anything! :001_smile: Thanks!

:seeya: Just posting really quickly to say hi to my sister, who is putting together this Spanish program! She really is quite a brilliant Spanish teacher, and I am so excited that she wants to adapt her fantastic classroom teaching methods to a homeschool curriculum. (Can I also say that it is completely awesome to have her support our homeschooling! :001_smile:) She is definitely proposing much more of a comprehensive program than anything available, incorporating activities for active vocabulary learning through listening activities, reading Spanish "readers" together, and a variety of games/activities with both audio & visual components. I know that she will do a much better job than I ever could explaining her methods to you guys! Please continue to give her feedback about what you are looking for. I really love several of the ideas that have already been proposed, and I know that this is exactly the kind of specific information she needs to really get her curriculum ideas really going. Thanks again to the Hive! Y'all are awesome as always!

:lol: I actually did think of doing this! I'm not sure I could go through with it, though. The parents are nitwits, but the kids are just clueless!

:lol: Or hollies...or roses...:D

I agree completely. As it is, after they waved at me, I kind of boiled over. I went outside onto the patio and just kind of stared at them. They all (3 adults from 2 families) continued to smile and take pictures, although they definitely looked uncomfortable. When they didn't take the hint, I said, "I'm not really sure why your kids are in my garden. Could you possibly not let them play in my garden?" They all looked completely surprised. The one mom (my next door neighbor) said, "Oh, sorry, sorry! Come on kids, we need to get out of the garden," in her best fake voice. The parents then started to herd the children out of my yard. I did bring up the patio furniture, but they all swore up and down that their children hadn't even been outside today....which I know is a lie because I saw the one family out in the morning, and my husband said he saw all of the kids running circles around our cars in the driveway early this afternoon. As they walked away, the two moms had their heads together, so I know they were probably talking about how "ridiculous" I was being. They both gossip about the other neighborhood moms, their friends, and even each other, so I have no doubt that they do the same to me. It's just so frustrating, because I try really hard to be friendly and it seems like that just encourages people to walk all over me. :glare:

No, this is a fully raised formal garden bed with a two-layer stone edging wall. It runs along the entire front of my house and around the side yard.

Thank you! :tongue_smilie: But the only problem is, these are people who are the parents of my kid's friends. They are not my friends, just neighborly acquaintances at best, but for some reason, they seem to think that because my yard is connected to theirs, and our kids play together sometimes, my yard is an extension of theirs and their kids should be able to play there whenever they want. They've been playing in my front yard for a couple years now, and I admit, it bugs me, but I've never said anything because I want to be a good neighbor and for my kids to have friends in the neighborhood. But I work really hard to make my garden beautiful, and these neighbors do know that. They often comment about the amount of time I spend gardening. I also know that I have asked the children nicely (in front of the parents) not to play in the garden. I used to have a problem with the girls picking the flowers occasionally when they were younger. I explained over and over again that although their mommies let them pick the flowers in their own gardens, I didn't want them to pick my flowers. I have a real problem with their parents telling them that it's okay to go in my garden, especially when I'm not outside. I am also pretty sure that they were playing on my patio furniture today, as it had been dragged out across the porch. :glare: Who encourages their children to go in their neighbor's yard and use their stuff? :001_huh:

It was something in between. They weren't just standing there. The two older ones (both girls) were going in and out of the garden, climbing on the stone edging, sitting and posing, and the two little boys were tromping all along the edging, occasionally stepping dangerously close to the flowers. Also, keep in mind that this wasn't at all the first time these children (4 kids, 2 families) have been in the garden. Last week the two boys were digging with a bucket and shovel in the side flower bed near the shrubs (and I didn't say anything then, because I didn't actually see them digging; I just found their bucket full of dirt and mulch and a small hole in the garden).

Oh I did! :D I'm just wondering if I'm a big ole meanie!

Would it bother you to look out your front window and see your neighbors' children in your flower garden? With their parents in full sight? Oh, and while you're watching, said parents start posing the children for photographs, once again in your garden? And then neighbors look up and see you watching them and they wave and smile happily while continuing to photograph their special snowflakes sitting beside your newly flowering yellow mums? Because it bothers me. :glare:

My 10 year old son just solved it in just under a minute. If it had been on his math assignment for the day, he might have taken a bit longer, but he is very motivated by competition when it comes to academics. :D

If I could send you some of this Texas heat, I would do it in a heartbeat! The high today is supposed to be 102 (F), tomorrow will be 104, and Saturday will be 106! Winter sounds lovely just about now....:tongue_smilie: But I'm sorry you're cold! :grouphug:

Thanks so much for all your ideas! I will definitely tell my dad to ask a lot more questions before he switches. We have stayed with TXU as well. I have heard good things about Reliant in the press, but I don't know anyone who uses them, so it's good to hear feedback from a real person. :001_smile:

:lol:

I know this has absolutely nothing to do with homeschooling, but since this board is the know-all source for every subject known to man ;), I thought I'd ask here. My dad (age 60) just lost his job, and he is looking into any way he and my mom can save money. He asked me if I knew anything about any of the electric companies here in Texas. They have always used TXU Energy, but the rate has gone way up as of late. He was specifically wondering about Cirro Energy and Reliant Energy because of low quoted rates, but I thought I'd throw the question out to the Hive to include any electric company anyone specifically recommends. If you would recommend the company you use, what do you like about it? Obviously, I'm specifically asking about Texas, but I know that many of the companies are national or at least regional. Thanks for any help anyone can give!!

It really is! :D

:001_wub: Jamie :001_wub: My younger ds is named after an Outlander character....but dh wouldn't even discuss the possibility of Jamie as a name. Jamie Fraser is quite possibly the only man dh has ever been truly jealous of....and he's fictional! :lol: (For the record, dh has read and loved all of the Outlander series! :tongue_smilie:)

Bumping for hopefully more sunscreens!:001_smile:

So the Neutrogena is good? That's one of the ones she said she was considering. Thanks so much to both of you! :)

My dh has a coworker who was diagnosed with melanoma last year. She is now cancer-free, but she is looking for information about which sunscreen she should use. She is concerned about the conflicting info she has heard about chemical sunscreens. Now clearly this is a controversial topic on this board, but I was hoping that if anyone here has had melanoma or knows someone who has had it, they might share specifically what sunscreen product they currently use. This is a topic of interest to me as well, because my dh is a high school tennis coach, and spends about 5 hours a day out in the Texas sun! Thanks for any information y'all have! :001_smile: