Math mammoth

I looked a few months ago and couldn't find anything except an older movie (1960s?) that didn't seem to be what I was looking for.

If she knows everything that is in book 1a, I would just start her in book 1B. You're teaching your child, not teaching a Textbook. So just do what works for her. There's plenty of interesting math out there... You won't run out.

There were few things as exciting as finding out what bits of text the parents association of my Christian jr high school had decided to cover with a sharpie. On the other hand, my finest library research skills were honed on discovering what they felt was so offensive... So it might be an excellent activity in itself.

We'll do the basics at home -- Math: Continue BA 3a, 3b or move to SM 3a/3b LA: MCT Island, Pentime 3, SWS 3 History: Finish SOTW1, start SOTW2, History Portfolio Science: GP Jr. Science 1 And lots of electives at our local HS-Support alternative school

I'm impressed you are getting 4-5 eggs on any days! Our hens used to be great layers but I'm only getting about 1 egg/chicken/week from our 2+ yr olds. We have some pullets (hatched in October) and some chicks (hatched in February ) so it's to the crock pot for our older hens.

I had bacterial pneumonia as an adult and it was * rough *! I think I had to take about 3 weeks off of work and still wasn't back to my regular self for a few months. The pleurisy and out of breath feeling lasted for a long time.

We love Story of Science here. She will be coming out with a biology focused book soon -- my daughter read a few chapters for the author and liked it a lot.

In order for testing to make sense, there would have to be some kind of agreement about what should be taught at different grades. Since every grammar or writing program has a different scope and sequence, I don't see what could be usefully tested.

In your place, I'd look into Lightning literature 7 and Writing with skill

I teach my kids to do basic syntax trees instead of diagramming.

I think the 5-10 years ahead sounds pretty unlikely. And I don't know any countries in which reading is taught to 2-3 yr olds. I taught in Poland, where children started school at 7. They were not expected to know how to read until then.

We're using Beast Academy pretty slowly too. My second grader just finished SM2b and it seems about right for her... but it goes a bit faster than she's used to. Since we're in no hurry, I've been supplementing with other materials too (and finishing up CWP 2) and just taking our time with it... but so far she does enjoy it and wants to pretend she's a beast at the beast academy.

Both my girls love brainpop. I use it in several ways... As busywork -- I let them choose whatever they want to watch if I just need them occupied. They do have to answer the review questions. As a supplement -- I will have the kids use it alongside other materials... For instance, if we're studying about Egypt, they watch the video about King Tut... if we're looking about angles, they watch the video about angles. They answer the review questions and check out the other activities or cartoon. As an actual unit -- I've used the videos on disease and body systems to make a "Health" unit. I made a list of the topics I wanted them to view. After watching the video and doing the review questions, they wrote a few sentences and drew a picture about each topic in their portfolio.

My 10 yr old daughter and her 11 yr old friend went from lively Latin to Latin prep 1. It's been a really good fit.

We have a duet that came with the house. I love how much I can fit in and love that it doesn't use as much water... but the washer does have the tendency to stink if I am not careful. When we first moved in, I was appalled how disgusting the wash smelled. I did some serious research, did a bunch of washes with different products and finally got it under control. It's not a problem now because I'm very careful about running a bleach load as my final load, never leaving anything in it, keeping the door open...

We've really enjoyed Ellen McHenry's stuff. It's not a whole school-year textbook sort of thing, but it's plenty to keep us busy.

I've only looked at them in a bookstore. They look like any other repetitive drill type book -- like Kumon or something. Other than being aligned to Singapore, I don't think they're particularly interesting.

I wouldn't bother. I'm pretty sure the concept is reviewed again in 2a but using larger numbers.

We used to live in New Haven and I remember driving through Naugatuck and thinking it was a little depressing. I think there was a lot of industry there at one time... I remember the Hershey's factory closing down and apparently they used to make naugahyde there. Still, it isn't as crime-ridden as New Haven or Waterbury.

The ITBS is definitely a norm-referenced test. A criterion referenced test is a test like a high school graduation test or a drivers license exam or the National Latin Exam or a final exam that your professor gave you in college or a professional standardized test (like the medical boards)... A criterion referenced test tests for mastery of a topic. How others perform on the test won't change the score of how a single student performs... that student is not being compared with other students, but against mastery of the material itself. A norm referenced test is like the ITBS... the student is being compared to a norming group. The percentile and stanine ranks are a reflection of the "representative sample"... like percentile ranks on a growth chart. It can be confusing though, because I think there's the issue of scoring being norm- or criterion- referenced, but also the interpretation of criterion-referenced scores which can be converted to percentile rankings. Anyway, you can find lots of info online about norm-referenced vs criterion-referenced tests... http://www.fairtest.org/facts/nratests.html

These won't solve all your note-taking problems, but you could try: Take notes with your kids, talk about what you are writing down and why. It'll sound something like this: "this looks like the main idea of this text, so I'm going to write it down... since I want to be able to read it later, I'm going to write it neatly... but I don't have much time, so I'll just abbreviate these words... now, I want to know more reasons why this author thinks this idea is important... okay, lets see if we can find some more information here. This looks too detailed, lets focus on finding the really important points..." Or... You could take good notes on a text and horrible notes on a short text and see if they can figure out which is good and why. Perhaps then have them make horrible and wonderful notes and see if they can identify each others. Or... Be really specific with them. Tell them to take notes especially on certain things. For instance, today I had my daughter take notes on a text about the seven wonders of the ancient world. She had instructions to take notes on who built it, where, when, why it was built, how it was destroyed. or... Listen to a short lecture or read a text and create a quiz based on the main points in the text. Tell your kids that they're going to only have five minutes (or whatever) to read a text and then they'll take a quiz (or play a trivia game) based on the material. But tell them that to make it fair, they can take notes on the material. Hopefully that'll encourage them to take notes only on the most useful bits.

My older girl started in 3b and is now in 5b. I think 3b was a good place to start for her because she didn't know a few topics (like measurement)... plus the word problems start to get a bit harder around that time, so it was good to not jump in at 4 or 5. Her best friend (a fifth grader) started at 2b during last summer in order to solidify her knowledge. At that age, she was able to whip through most of the series. I think she's finishing 4b now and will soon be caught up. I know it's worked out well for them.

I am of the do-what-works-for-your-child/family school of education. What and when I teach a child is influenced by my ultimate goals for them, their potential, their interests, their strengths and weaknesses... What works for one child wouldn't for my other and what works for my family, won't for another. I do like to read TWM and other classical models for homeschooling, but like most of us, I pick and choose based on what works.

We just got our copy today (media mail to Oregon). I'm curious if it'll be successful or not. My older daughter liked the look of it.