I don’t want to say anything that would discourage him! J&J isn’t available here, unfortunately, just the two mRNA ones.

I don’t think it is based on solid knowledge at all, but I hope it will make a difference to have more possibilities. We don’t have J&J here, I had forgotten about that one. This reason may not be a factor for people in your area. I really hope J&J or Novamax will become available here, and will help him feel comfortable with vaccination and just go get it done.

I have a relative who says they are waiting for Novamax, with the explanation that it is a “traditional” vaccine rather than an experimental mRNA type. AstraZeneca is not available here, and there are only mRNA types. So I do think it will make a difference for a certain group of people who are now hesitant but not absolutely anti-vax. My phone wants to autocorrect anti-vax to anti-vacation and anti-van…

Adele Geras’ Apricots at Midnight, for a novel, and the Boo and Baa series about Swedish sheep, for picture books. ETA: Fog Magic by Julia Sauer, about a girl who has a magical land appear in the fog. And Loiusa May Alcott’s Eight Cousins!

I think we’ll go until they don’t want to anymore. I read to all of them (12,9 &7) before bed and then sing them a good night song and make sure they are settled.

Well done to you both!

To me, not exactly, no. I think both place value and operations definitions could come under a common heading of key mental models, or building blocks, or something like that. But if you think of it as a component of place value rather than it’s own thing, then it should go in the place value series anyway.

This looks good and seems very clear to me. I don’t think that examples would make sense without this. There is one typo I saw where you say “no more and more less.”

Yes, to give more background, the bigger picture, and the more subtle points of how to put a program together. That a question with more trading is quite a bit harder than one with more digits but fewer trades. This can be very similar on the surface, say 68+23 vs 68+33. I watch for these more now, but I still make questions that take me by surprise. Or that 4.5x8 is much more intuitive than 8x4.5.

I think it's less "theory" and more "big picture"? The sort of theory I think would be helpful to people trying to use your ideas is probably not really theory at all, but rather discussion of things like how do you think about subtraction/ multiplication/ equations/ division/ variables etc., and why, and how you talk about them with students. I don’t think all of these would be obvious from just reading examples & transcripts, but they should be combined with examples & transcripts to illustrate what it looks like in practice. It’s not so much a difference in what is logical as that what is logical is more obvious in hindsight rather than in advance, for people without experience. Like where you’ll hit sudden jumps in difficulty.

You don’t need more theory before you can do useful examples, I think. Examples that are then discussed as you come to key points would probably be easier to understand. I think you could do examples next and then mix in the related theory in the same post or after.

I agree that they need some context, an introduction to what the goals of the lesson or group of lessons are. This could be something you don’t tell the kids, but adults would need to know more to be able to write effective questions, and to work through them. Three things that stand out to me from trying a similar approach for the past several months are: 1. Experience is key, both for the kids and for myself. I’ve copied lots of your questions, and lots of examples have been great to explore how it works (and what doesn’t work). The puzzles are great, but I don’t get the impression that they are your everyday questions. To gain that experience, we need examples of math questions of this type to try, and later to adapt ourselves, to give everyone the experience of trying out playing with place value. 2. Alongside place value, specific definitions of operations are used and I think these are just as important. I know this isn’t the main point of the thread, but I don’t think it can actually be separated, and this provides most of the ways to develop exposure to place value. It’s also where people might notice the biggest differences from other methods (that I’ve come across). 3. How to respond with useful, constructive follow-up questions to the various ways kids might react is also a challenge, and for this, transcripts of what everyone said would be so useful, to develop strategies. I’d love to see videos, but I completely understand why you wouldn’t want to video your kids. For me, a mix of theory and questions to try and lesson transcripts would be most helpful, along with a list of what order to develop the concepts in.

I think I would have used Math Mammoth as a fill-in year if I’d needed it. They have Gr. 6 & 7, in blocks rather than spiral, and reportedly pretty well scaffolded. My oldest just finished BA 5D, but the book rather than a class. What is working in strands? Following one topic as needed?

This gave me the idea of making paper or cardboard unit squares, at least 1 sq.in.in size, and then drawing shape outlines that could be perfectly tiled (rectangles to start, then moving to more complex shapes gradually) that he could fill in with the unit squares. I’m wondering if drawing shapes on graph paper could feel like a special case of “graph paper rectangles” being countable by squares rather than having to build up your own tiling pattern tangram-puzzle style, for someone who doesn’t find area intuitive. Perimeter is a bit more obvious because the lengths just stay lengths, whereas with area, the lengths change into areas which have a whole different dimension, look, feel and meaning.

DH did this unit (as with the majority of our homeschool work), and he said that it was manageable to get the materials and get things set up. He got everything for the first 4 chapters for about $60 Canadian on Amazon, though he said he bought cheaper versions than those on the suggested suppliers list, and they weren’t the same quality. He only did those 4 chapters because he does block schedules and that is what fit in the time available. He liked the program, and thought that it was well done. I found it, along with about 6 others I sent him as options, ranging from Waldorf to Ellen McHenry to textbooks. I have a lot more of a chemistry background than he does, and we both thought it was the best fit.

We used this for my Gr. 7 daughter this year and it went really well.

Yes, this seems like the most likely choice for middle school too- I don’t know The Great Divorce, but I can’t really picture Mere Christianity, Screwtape Letters or Till We Have Faces being that relatable for middle schoolers. Out of the Silent Planet seems like it could work, though.

I loved this book when I was around middle school age and recently found it in a little free library and read it again. Just as good! I’d also be interested in hearing more about it.

I also got here looking for info on math options, just way more recently! I hadn’t actually thought of using MUS without the blocks, but it sounds like it can be an effective intro to Algebra while making a transition to books needing more maturity. I will have a look at both this and Foersters.

For adapting to it, I assumed that you did use the blocks and your kids then built everything, so it would take some time for them to get used to the blocks. But if you don’t use those it wouldn’t be as different from what they did before. Thanks for giving some more details on this! It sounds like a useful way to introduce the two topics. What are the biggest advantages you see of the MUS material?

I’m interested in hearing more about this. Is this the only time in your sequence that you use MUS? How easy was it to adapt to and how long did it take your kids (typically) to go through each of the MUS courses?

We haven’t tried Pericles so I don’t know if it would be suitable, but my 12 year old daughter and I have read through two Shakespeare plays in full, splitting the characters between us and then reading all lines by each of “our” characters. It might be possible to simply read the play, if she likes Shakespeare.

No, of course not, I was just intrigued that the GCSE levels (British secondary school, roughly) covered it all!

From counting and place value on up? Or maybe there is something even more beginning-ish than that?

Yes, please do, it seems like the conversations are as important as the questions, and the questions wouldn’t make sense without them.