Quick! My daughter's turning 9 next week and I wanted to order a few books for her. She's totally cat obsessed, so that is the theme -- DVD of Cats (musical), TS Eliot poetry... What else? She's read Time Cat by Lloyd Alexander and Miranda the Great by Eleanor Estes. She's not (thankfully) into the Warrior cat series. Can you think of cat fiction or cat humor that a 9 yr old would like? She's a super mature girl with a great sense of humor and an amazing reading ability, so appropriate adult novels would be okay too.

If you're happy with Christian materials, you might look into Christian Light Education (CLE) language arts for your older daughter... perhaps started at the 200 or 300 level. It would be independent enough for her to do on her own and would introduce her to the mechanics and grammar and handwriting she'll need to improve her writing. It's also very unambiguous and straightforward and the lesson is self-contained in a three page spread. I wish there was a secular version of this, but I have yet to find anything like it.

You know how it feels when you're a mathematician and your child struggles unsuccessfully with math? Or you're an athlete and your child is awkward and unsuited for sports? That's what I'm dealing with with my 7 year old. I love learning history and science and mythology and archaeology and religion and anything else. My younger daughter just isn't particularly interested. I don't want to give up, because I think it is important... but reading from SOTW is about as interesting to her as if I were to read from the phone book. And she retains about as much. She can't tell me even vaguely what we just read about (as in: "it was about the Greeks"). Even when I pause every paragraph and restate it. The coloring and the activity book have been appealing to her but haven't led to any understanding at all (other than "I like coloring with pink best"). So... For the time being, do you think it would be appropriate to set aside all content areas and simply focus on skills -- reading and math. She's doing a great job with those because she's good at *doing* things. I think she sees them as puzzles for her to figure out and she does them well. And then... for next year... instead of history, I was thinking about simply doing geography... lots of map work (which she loves) and maybe something like this: http://www.borders.com/online/store/TitleDetail?sku=0794512445 where she could put stickers on a map and memorize some simple times and places of historical events. I want for her to be immersed in literature and to appreciate and enjoy learning about the world around her, but for whatever reason, I wonder if she's developmentally just not there yet. But then I worry -- what if she'll never be there? Does anybody else have a child like this?

I've started using it with a pretty advanced third grader who loves history. It's definitely aimed at middle school, though. Getting the quest guide and teacher's manual has been worth it. I believe Hakim's got another science book in the works too. I think it might be about life science? Possibly in the same series, but I don't know really. My daughter sent her an email because she found an error in her book and got back a wonderful email from her and a pdf file of a chapter from a new book with a request for her to look over it and see what she thinks. The new one looks good!

I think if your daughter likes the program and is learning from it, then you ought to totally disregard anything that anyone else says.

If you want free ones, http://www.mhschool.com/languagearts/2001/teacher/teachres/workbooks.html is a good source. If you're looking for downloadable materials that you buy, check out Evan Moor http://www.evan-moor.com/Curriculum.aspx?CurriculumID=3 Also, Scholastic had reproducible books for classroom teachers that were online and I have a few of those, but I don't know how to find them anymore -- maybe poke around: http://shop.scholastic.com

We've been using some of the Fan-Math Process Skills books which teach bar models. I don't know if they're published by the same folks as the singapore.com or if they're just Singaporean math workbooks. Anyway, they're sold on the Singapore website and have been a nice addition to MM and TT. I haven't looked at the CWP or IP or the regular textbooks, so I don't know how they compare.

Yes - we use LL with two kids. I like it, but we're only half-way through the first book, so I'm curious where it's going. So far, they have yet to translate anything (unlike Minimus, which we did last year). I love the way art and history and English vocabulary is tied into the Latin.

I think they're about as opposite as two programs could be. If you want a more workbooky approach with a spiral and you're okay with some religious overtones, choose CLE. It's easy to implement and very straightforward. If you prefer a more relaxed read with a quirky story line, choose MCT. You won't get spelling or directed punctuation exercises. Or really, any exercises at all. But it's good for kids who don't need a lot of reinforcement.

My girls liked the books by Brian Cleary: http://www.amazon.com/Hairy-Scary-Ordinary-Adjective-Categorical/dp/1575055546/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1300944390&sr=8-1 Or the kids books by Lynne Truss: http://www.amazon.com/Eats-Shoots-Leaves-Commas-Difference/dp/0399244913/ref=pd_sim_b_25 You might also just get her MCT Grammar Island and Music of the Hemispheres. If I had known about it when my older was 6, I totally would have read it with her.

I agree -- I'm okay with abridged versions of stories that began in oral cultures - stories that weren't created and written by the same author - like Beowulf or the Iliad or Odyssey. They were abridged long before they ever became a kids' classic book. The story itself is what is particularly cool about these translated and abridged stories. But an abridged version of an author like Dickens or Austen loses too much beautiful language!

Math -- MM (Blue topics: Add&Sub 2B, Geometry, Money, Time, Mult. 2) Language Arts -- Finish ETC 7 & 8, CLE 200 (unless I can find a similar secular option) Science -- Perhaps Galore Park Jr. Science 1 History -- I'm not sure... she doesn't have very good aural comprehension and has trouble focusing - SOTW was a bit of a fail for her. She's good at skills (like math/phonics) but she needs to *do* something to learn, not just listen.

You're just going to tease us like that? :tongue_smilie: What is it? Who wrote it? Can we what's inside?

Math or history

Everyone in my family have been registered for years as potential donors and nobody has ever even been called up for more detailed testing for a potential match. It's great to register, but very few people actually get to be donors.

Math: Not sure -- either continue on to TT6 or return to MM (Blue topics) or maybe try SM. Perhaps with LOF. Writing: Continue with First Steps in Academic Writing (it's really an adult ESL text, but it's working well) or maybe try the Paragraph book or LTOW Science: Continue with Story of Science - Aristotle leads the way w/ Quest Guide History: Oxford's Medieval and Early Modern World w/ Student study guide Latin: Lively Latin II Literature: Lightning Lit 7 or Figuratively Speaking Continuing ballet and electives at PS

Sure -- I didn't buy the entire set though - I had only bought single grade levels (2a and 2b), but found myself wanting some material from 1b and some from 3a. If you're buying the whole set, it's truly the same stuff and both work as supplementary or as a complete curriculum, so it's really just about how you like them divided.

I've used both and prefer the blue -- I like to choose what areas of math my kids are ready for next rather than having to move on from topic to topic. Keep in mind it is the same material, just organized in different ways.

How about Killgallon for writing at a sentence level? I'd supplement with a workbook dealing with sentence mechanics to address problems with capitalization and punctuation. My feeling is that there is little point to working on organizing paragraphs or essays if a child can't articulate their ideas (with good structure and mechanics) at a sentence level.

We have a golden doodle (which is kind of a stupid name...) who is the loveliest dog ever. Her father is a poodle (half standard/half miniature) and her mother is a golden retriever. She's smart like a poodle, but good-natured like golden retriever. She's about 55 pounds and has a wavy golden retriever coat with a curled poodle tail. She only sheds a very little bit. She is the most sociable dog I've ever met. People say she looks like a stuffed animal.

We use just our fitted sheet over the mattress and a duvet cover over the comforter and avoid the sheet placement question and the difficult bed making.

Pre-Algebra is just a title. You can call it Algebra I if you're TT or Math 8/7 if you're Saxon, or New Elementary Math 1 if you're Singapore or Basic College Math if you're Lial's. But ultimately, pre-algebra has two goals: a review of arithmetic (with a focus on the trickier bits) and a gentle introduction to algebra. If you're confident that your child is competent in their arithmetic (and knows the trickier bits of it -- like negative numbers and such), and you feel that they have a high tolerance for frustration and don't need a gentle introduction to a new subject, then I'd go straight for the algebra. Otherwise, I'd spend some time solidifying their mathematical thinking before approaching algebra.

Galore Park Jr. Science is something they could do independently... read the chapter/answer the questions. And it would be perfect for 7 and 9 yr olds. This semester we're using Brain pop for science. It just wasn't getting done... They watch the videos and do the quizzes. I'll focus on science next semester for my older daughter, and my younger one will continue with brainpop/Bill Nye/Magic Schoolbus etc...

Oops - double post...

I tried LOF with my 8 year old last year and found it was too hard. She loved it and happily did the first 10 or 15 lessons, but the further she went, the more help she needed. At that time, she just didn't have a solid enough knowledge of multiplication and long division. We're doing TT5 and I think we'll try it again when we finish. If you want to work on Fractions, how about MM (blue book) Fractions 1?