When my daughter was at her worst with regard to math, I bought teaching textbooks and she did it for a semester. It's not my favorite program, but I think it has a place. It took me out of the equation (ouch, terrible pun) and allowed her to get some math in without our relationship being involved. Because the computer sets and grades the problems, she had no one to get upset with. She just did the math and moved on. After a semester she wanted to go back to a regular book and we did.

If it helps, my daughter who considered herself a math hater throughout elementary school (peaking at around 5th grade) now tolerates math. I tried everything to make it fun, but it just wasn't for her. In the end, I gave up on fun, she matured and stopped procrastinating as much, and she now approaches math without emotion. I hated math as a kid too and actually learned to like it when I landed a job teaching math to middle schoolers. So... They may come around!

I've had similar trouble and am just at the place where we go with whatever. She's currently doing online G3 (though I don't think that an hour once a week plus homework is enough to progress much). But we also do some duo lingo and translation and then she'll do another 2 weeks at concordia language village. Maybe it's fine for middle school language. She's still very much a beginner.

I've got SYRWL science 2 ready to go for my 7th grader when we're finished with what we're doing now. It looks straightforward and comprehensive and age appropriate.

Why does he like them? Verse? Multiple volumes? Christian mythology? I'm sure a devil character features in tons of literature, but all I can think of is: Faust The Mysterious stranger Satanic Verses Good Omens The Stand

I aim to spend an hour per day per subject - so about 6 hours. What really happens is that math takes 2+ hours and sometimes essays in English or history take longer than I expect. I always end up cutting short geography and French and science.

We'll do it. I did last January too and liked the short time commitment. I lost about 10 pounds but gained it back throughout the year. We'll do jan 2-31 on account of a party on the 1st...

We did a year of world history/geography/religion/lit. I organized it by continent and had my daughter write and draw and research and put everything in a "history portfolio". What we did would be a bit too advanced for third grade, but I think you could take the same concept and organize it the way you'd want to.

I've always thought about it like this... When you teach someone how to bake... you might give them something like a simple fail-safe sugar cookie recipe to start with. The five paragraph essay is like a simple recipe. It may not produce great pastries but to a beginning cook it can be a big help. It teaches about combining ingredients and proportions and how to create something. In time, the hope is that the student will leave behind the recipe and begin experimenting and try more complicated dishes. A five paragraph essay will not serve a student well in later academics, but it produces a simple piece of writing that makes a fine starting place. I think five paragraph essays are great for middle school and early high school students to learn how to write an essay. A good teacher will then move them towards more complex techniques and forms of writing. So yes - five paragraph essays are great training wheels, but they are not the be-all and end-all of essay writing techniques.

We're doing a Dickensian Christmas dinner with 19th century recipes from mrs Beetons cookbook. http://pietistschoolman.com/2012/12/18/how-to-serve-a-dickensian-christmas-dinner/

Is it in the outer or inner ear? If it's outer, it's probably swimmers ear which is usually not too hard to fix. A decongestant can help with inner ear stuff. But if it still hurts after trying home remedies and OTC drugs, I'd head to the doctor.

ChrisinVA - We use godly play too and have on the Sunday school room wall the circle of the church year calendar. Recently, however, someone pulled everything off and set the entire thing so that it is now counterclockwise.. I looked it up, and apparently it's a thing... Any idea why??

Yes. And she naturally read everything before telling me. 😳It kind of makes all future attempts at censorship and sheltering your child from adult themes pretty pointless. Nothing to be done now... She survived. Maybe someone else can learn from our mistake!

Here's a tip -- if you get a used kindle, take a look at what is loaded on it already. Or more specifically, when your mom gives your 12 yr old the kindle your 96 yr old grandmother had been using, check to make sure that it is not full of erotica.

I'd second Foersters, but suggest you skip the first few chapters, or whizz through them focusing on the word problems. At the end of the year, you can fit a few months of geometry intro so that the following year won't be so rushed.

We also do a Polish Christmas eve with carp (if possible) and potatoes and things like poppyseed cake and such. We have also had fun doing historical Christmas cooking. Victorian England is a good starting place. We had goose and a Christmas pudding and some other stuff that I can't remember...

Audiences expect the Nutcracker to be the same (or really close to it) year after year. Changing the costumes or ballet choreography to suit the dancers or to keep it fresh is essential, but changing the music or changing it from ballet to hip hop or Jazz is just not right.

I have ordered and also returned items there and had no problems.

If you take the stick-with-what's-working approach... by the same publisher, there is "Beyond the Code" (don't start at book 1 though -- there is some overlap to ETC) and "MegaWords". Beyond the Code has reading and comprehension type activities for early elementary grades. Megawords is basically phonics/spelling aimed at grades 4-12, so she may or may not be ready for the format.

I think that your jealousy will overcome you, so try not to hate me, but... We don't have to do laundry. At all!! A few years ago our tenant who lives in our basement apartment had some trouble paying rent. She's an older lady on a fixed income. We offered to reduce her rent in return for her doing the family laundry. She was quite happy to take us up on it and since we have a laundry chute and the washer and dryer are in the basement too, we've got it really really good. She does about 8 loads per week, usually on one day.

I don't know about this particular book, but I'm pretty sure whatever the standards for algebra 1 students in California were comparable to those in other states.

Think of reading like any developmental skill - sitting up, walking, talking, potty training, drawing a figure, tying a shoe, anything.... This situation is like a mother who wants her young baby to learn to walk... Every time she stands her baby up, the baby plops back down. In time, the baby cries in frustration or tries to crawl away. Rather than recognize that her child just isn't ready to walk yet and her expectations are unrealistic, the mother is instead upset by her baby's lack of cooperation.

I don't know much about MEP, but skipping three years of an incremental math program doesn't sound like a good idea. I mean... going from SM6 to NEM 4 or Saxon 7/6 to Advanced math seems pretty nutty. There is a lot of good, important stuff to learn in 7th-9th grade math!

Wits and wagers (family) and Apples to Apples (junior) have been favorites here.

Looking back, if I could do everything over, I'd have used SOTW in K-3rd grade, Story of US in 4th-5th grade and Human Odyssey in 6-8th grade. That's not exactly what we've done, but it makes a bit more sense... I've been happy using a DIY version of History Portfolios and lots of supplementary materials, so I'd definitely do that again.