We have a Tripp Trapp and it is a nuisance that my daughter can not scoot the chair in herself. Every time she is out of the chair and then back in, I have to push it in for her. I also must admit that I can't really figure out how to adjust it so that the seat is high enough for her elbows to be the same height as the table and for the foot rest to be properly positioned. She has also complained of neck pain when she does her school work--I think she hunches over too much. I am trying to solve the problem by building a simple slant-top desk for her out of plywood. All the pieces are cut, I just need to screw it together and stain it.

Although it is possible to "teach" books 1a and 1b without the HIG, I think there would be a tendency to fall back on presenting the math the way you learned it as a child, which is not likely to be the Asian method. I understood this better after reading the book by Liping Ma that compares math instruction in the United States and China. I realized I was not fully implemented the Asian methodology, and since this is the point of using Singapore Math, I have been more careful to pay attention to the HIG.

The standards edition has an inexpensive Home Instructor's Guide, which facilitates teaching the Singapore/Asian method. Is the old U.S. edition really the same as the NPM? If not, I would assume that it is somewhat difficult to buy, compared to either the Standards or U.S. edition. We have been very happy with the Standards edition, which still has a somewhat exotic charm to it (i.e., names, foods, etc.)

We began in second grade with Song School Latin, which I consider wasted time. As much as my daughter enjoyed it, it was just vocabulary that was not embedded in Latin sentences (or grammar). Parallel to Song School Latin, we did Minimus. I liked Minimus, as did my daughter. It has rich vocabulary and real Latin sentences, but it is weak on conveying the grammar in any comprehensive manner. We then moved on to I Speak Latin towards the end of second grade. ISL takes a conversational approach in which you drill the grammatical patterns by using them. I find its main weakness is that we don't have enough vocabulary. Fortunately, our previous study of Minimus gives us additional words (especially verbs) to use. We also have a problem in only having one student, and a teacher (me) who is also learning Latin. We compensate for the first problem by about a dozen stuffed animals in tee-shirt "tunics" and giving them Latin names (this faciliates use of the vocative case!) I think the author of ISL recommends his book for third grade and above, but I see no reason not to use it with younger ones., Indeed, I wish I had started using it in first grade. I think younger children are geared to learning languages by imitating patterns orally. I think one could use ISL very successfully with younger children by using the book only orally (although this would take some care on the part of the parent to be careful and consistent with the pronunciation). As it is, even though by daughter is in third grade, we do very little writing. And instead of drawing pictures, we take photos to use as flash cards. We try to do Latin about 4 times a week. Rather than adhering to the very slow schedule suggested by the author for younger students, I would recommend moving through the chapters as soon as the child has absorbed the lesson. We try to use Latin in a variety of situations outside of formal instruction to help consolidate the lessons. I think the author is no ambitious enough in his recommendations for how fast to move with younger children. We do about a chapter a week. The only problem with moving through the book quickly is to decide what to use as a follow-on!

Are Happycc and I the only ones on the forum using I Speak Latin? I would be interested in seeing what other books people move on to after it.

We are nearing completion. I think we are on Chapter 53--we are doing present tense verb conjugations. My daughter (age 8) seems to be absorbing it well, but she is fluent already in both German and English, and I think that helps. The adjective endings went easily at our house. Accusative case was a little harder, but I think she is using that relatively consistently now. Verb conjugations have been a bit slower. It would probably help if we had more students. Our collection of stuffed animals have to stand in, but either my daughter or I have to be the voices. We use more verbs, adjectives and nouns than are introduce in I Speak Latin because we previously did Song School Latin and Minimus. So we have a bit more vocabulary than appears in I Speak Latin. Once you get to clothing, you will have lots of things to identify by color! You might want to skip ahead to clothing and then come back to furniture and rooms. As regards follow on, we are planning to use Familia Romana by Oelberg. This book has an active discussion group and is popular with teachers who use an oral method. I think we will have to take it relatively slowly since that book is meant for middle school and above aged kids.

I second the recommendation for Sequential Spelling. There is no reason why the kids could not be working from the same level. But note that there is pre-test to help with placement. Or if you want to have them use different books, the older kids could lead the spelling lessons for the younger ones. I have not tried the DVDs.

We listen to a wide variety of materials on CDs in German while in the car: novels, science, history, etc. During the school year, I also require my daughter to read out loud to me from a German novel for 15 minutes. We also did a Duden workbook that included some writing exercises. I think this helped a lot.

We did Song School Latin and Minimus both nearly to the end, and started I Speak Latin about a month ago. We are moving very quickly through it (probably more thanks to Minimus than Song School). We enjoy it.

I would recommend getting the Home Instructor's Guide (HIG). Without tips from the HIG, it is easy to teach the text book but not actually use the Singapore method. It also has lots of ideas for using manipulatives to teach the concepts in a way that is consistent with the Singapore approach. It also has suggestions for games and enrichment activities. By the way, you don't need to buy expensive manipulatives. I used egg cartons (cut down from 12 to 10 cups) and foam counting chips when I was teaching addition and subtraction to 20.

We used SM Earlybird for kindergarten and then SM 1A and 1B for first grade. We used only the HIG, the textbook, and the workbook. At that level I really can't imagine what the supplemental books would do. The HIG has suggestions for games, etc. We kept right to the weekly schedule in the HIG and moved along without any problems. For 2nd grade I did buy the Intensive Practice book, but we have scarcely used it. I might use it during the summer in order to keep her from forgetting what she learned, however.

I would also like to emphasize the usefulness of the HIGs, even for the lowest level Singapore math. The presentation of the material is key to teaching math the Asian way. Without the HIG, most American parents will fall back onto the categories, terminology, and methods that were used to teach them. Needless to say, most American parents did not learn the Asian method. Even with the HIG, I occasionally fell back on old patterns. I just started reading the Liping Ma book that contrasts Chinese and American math teaching methods and I am now beginning to understand why a consistent use of the Asian methodology is important. I wish I had read the Ma book before I started Singapore 1A.

I advise against Muzzy. This originated as an English-language course presented as a cartoon. It has been dubbed into multiple languages and is sold as a course for each of those languages. As might be expected, however, the story line illustrates English grammar, rather than the grammar of the dubbed languages. So, for example, in the Spanish edition, there is nothing in the story to highlight the gender identity of nouns as male or female. That being said, my wife and I did use the German edition as a intro for our daughter when we started teaching her German. But we spoke German to her regularly. You can not set your child in front of Muzzy and expect him to learn the foreign language. For what it is, it is very overpriced.

We are doing are second year of SOTW. My daughter is 7. We listen to the CDs in the car multiple times before I attempt to have her answer the review questions or do a narration. I don't think I could bear to read the book out loud to her as often as we listen in the car. In fact our real problem is that she has heard it so often, she can often recite it word for word. Getting her to do a narration in her own words is difficult. If you don't have the CDs, you might consider buying them. Perhaps you can get them from the library or borrow from another family to test to see if multiple listening helps.

We don't do it exactly like that, but close. We do two math sessions a day. I try to keep each one to about 15 minutes. Usually I do the presentations outlined in the home instructor's guide and/or the text book in the first session, and later in the day my daughter does the workbook. (She is not really able to do it completely independently--if I don't sit beside her, she will start to daydream.) I often let the workbook lag a little behind the topic in the textbook so that it is a review. I operate on the theory that by spacing the sessions out, the material is more likely to be remembered. We just started book 2B.

We also use the Standards edition. Some topics were rearranged compared to the original US edition in order to meet California state requirements, but this is not really a big deal. The real advantage to the Standards edition is that there is a relatively inexpensive Home Instructor's Guide (HIG) for it. The US edition only has a very expensive Teacher's Manual. The HIG has lots of good tips and methods for introducing the concepts. Definitely buy the HIG so that you can present the material in the text book using the Singapore methodology as explained in the HIG.

In my eagerness to be creative, I did find one thing that dry erase markers can not be reliably erased from: white china plates. Last year, I used my dessert plates and saucers to illustrate number bonds for our Singapore Math class. It erased without problem. This year, when I repeated this exercise, one of the plates would not come clean. I still can not figure out why that one plate absorbed the marker when the others don't. That dessert plate is now known as "The Math Plate."

Just bumping this. Is this program really unknown?

A friend of mine is interested in trying the First in Math (also seems to be called 24game.com) program to help a child who is struggling with math. Has anyone tried this program? It seems to be a supplementary program using on-line computer games. Here is the link to the web site: http://www.24game.com/p-53-first-in-math-online-individual-subscription.aspx

So, what's in the manual that makes it useful? We are using the book as a stand-alone. (I did, however, buy the CD, which is not very useful.)

Last year when we did books 1A and 1B, I cut down several egg cartons to make containers with ten holders. Then we fill the appropriate spots with counting chips. It made it easy to move the right number of chips over to fill one carton when adding. Without looking it up, I assume this idea came out of the HIG. As others have said, doing the concrete exercises and games suggested in the HIG before moving on to the pictures and abstract numbers in the Textbook and Workbook is a big help.

My daughter and I have been doing the Minimus the Mouse Latin series. I only bought the book, so I can't vouch directly for the CD, but we love the book, which is cartoon style. It is a British publication. Here is a link to the publisher, Cambridge University Press): http://www.minimus-etc.co.uk/# The website includes a variety of supplemental resources that can be download for free. Much of the Minimus materials are available in the United States through Amazon. The only reason I did not get the CD is that we are using ecclesiastical pronunciation, and I suspect the CD is classical pronunciation. The publisher describes the series as being for 7 and up, but I think it would be great for younger kids, too. Although it is not a CD or DVD-based course per se, it is pretty kit friendly. It has inspired a fair amount of basic Latin conversation at our house. We also bought the Song School Latin book and CD, which we have been using as a supplement to Minimus. I am not overly impressed by it, but my daughter has learned the songs.

Yes, the region codes affect computers, as well. If your computer is set to region 1, it will only play region 1 disks. It is possible to change the setting, but you are limited to five changes, and then the machine locks. But there is a software fix to this. The video software VLC will play any region code on your region 1 computer. VLC is freeware and there are both Mac and PC versions. We have been using the Mac version for several years. Do a search on "VLC" and you will find a download page. It is also available through the Apple website. If you load VLC on your computer, disable your normal video-playing software as the default. Otherwise, when you insert a disk, the computer will start up your normal software and tell you the disk can not be played and ask if you want to change region settings. If you get this pop-up window, click cancel and close out of the program. Then open VLC and open the disk from with VLC. Be sure your kids understand which program to use when watching non-region 1 disks, so that they do not inadvertently change region settings. Of course, you can make VLC the default, but I find I like the Mac DVD program better, so I use it for region 1 DVDs. I have found that VLC works pretty well. The first time it reads a new disk, it seems to take a while for it to override the region code, after that it will read the disk more quickly. So be patient when watching a disk for the first time.

You could just go to YouTube and search on "Gregorian Chant credo," and you will get lots of chant recording of the creed (Nicene not Apostles'). Some of them, like the ones posted by jipmas (he has about 24 postings of the creed and other texts) seem to have the words and musical notation with them rather than images of the choir. Here is one link It was posted by jipmas and will help you link to other chants that he posted, but he does not seem to be the only person posting singing with images of the text.

The fundamental problem with Muzzy is that it was created to teach English. The story line and plot developments are designed to teach features of English grammar. The foreign language versions of Muzzy simply dub the videos into the respective language. If a language has features that English does not have (e.g., gender and case endings in German) they will not be illustrated within the story. We did buy Muzzy DVD part 1 for our daughter when she was 18-months old. They tried to get me to buy the 2nd part at the same time, which I did not do. I find it very telling that they never contacted us again about buying the second half. My suspicion is that few parents waste their money on the second half once they have actually used the first half. It later turned out that my father-in-law had bought the video tapes back in the 1990s for my wife's nephew, so my daughter did end up with both halves of the program. Because both my wife and I spoke German with our daughter, Muzzy worked for us, in that it was easy for a young child to understand and gave us something to talk to her in German about. But it is way overpriced. Even on E-bay, the DVDs are overpriced for what it is (but you can't blame parents for trying to recoup their investment). If you want to give it a try, buy old video tapes off of E-bay. Buy a set that comes with no CD-Roms, or other computerized discs. I bought a set of old Spanish tapes for about $15, but the ones with the CD-Roms usually sell at a premium that is not justified by the utility of the discs. Quite frankly, Muzzy should be a free down-load on You-Tube.