Like Ellen and Moira said, you can teach your dc to read traditional cursive, but write in cursive-italics. I wrote in cursive on the white board when I taught dd to read using Blend Phonics. So she can read my cursive very well. I don't think she will be able to read the cursive that Moira linked, though. (BTW, Moira, please share how it helps to be able to read cursive written both ways. I am really curious.) Although it is possible to learn italics later in life, imho, it is better to write in italics from the start, because it allows the writer to maintain legibility even when writing fast (like when taking an exam.) Some forms of italic are very similar to roundhand cursive, which (imo) makes them even more beautiful - take a look at the Barchowsky Fluent Handwriting samples, for instance.

Are you asking specifically about homeschooling/education books? If yes, I am eagerly waiting for 'Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics' by Liping Ma. The library has ordered it from the US esp. at my request! I also plan to borrow the following soon: - The Greek & Latin roots of English / Tamara M. Green. - Words come in families / Edward Horowitz But if you are asking in general, I just placed a reservation for this book yesterday: - Borders & boundaries : women in India's partition / Ritu Menon & Kamala Bhasin

I looked at this on Wikipedia. I can't see how it is related to India.

Not sure if this is what you are looking for, but I like: 1. The Discovery of India by Pt Jawaharlal Nehru Also available as a dramatization 'Bharat, Ek Khoj'. 2. Amar Chitra Katha comic books 3. Malgudi Days by R. K. Narayan Also available as a dramatization.

Hi all, Which script do all these sites use? Is it Traditional Chinese (as used in Taiwan & Hong Kong) or Simplified Chinese (as used in China)? TIA

EFI has all the options you need. Take a look at this page.

:iagree: I read just today in Ed Vavra's newly uploaded intro to KISS Grammar that a serious college student can complete all the levels of KISS Grammar in a year (iirc). I am taking a good look at it to refresh my own grammar knowledge. The one thing that I was drawn to is that he uses sentences from classic children's literature for analysis.

Oh, that is a lot of re-work! Is it worth it? Can you copy the text from the HappyScribe PDFs and paste into your StartWrite? (We use StartWrite for the GDI font too.)

Hi, Julie is a member of this forum. Her id is "Julie in GA" and her blog is here.

I really like the books from HappyScribe; so many options that I would not have thought of! The price is good too. I would have gladly used these if they had the GDI font. D'nelian italic doesn't appeal to me.

Penny Gardner's ebook: Italics - Beautiful Handwriting for Children Italics copybooks from DownUnder Literature (available on currclick.com) These include Aesop, Beatrix Potter and one other. Kimberly Garcia's Write From History (available on lulu.com) in the GDI version. This is similar to Writing Tales but has copywork instead of written narration. Also has grammar; it can be your lang arts curric. Search currclick.com and lulu.com for "italics copywork". HTH

Hi, I can't help you with your question, but it has made me curious as to how math can be made Christian (or for that matter, religious). Math is math and none of the religions argue against any rules or theorems of math. Unless there are word problems with a religious slant, I can't see how math can be religious. :-) Just wondering out loud.

You may take a look at Math Mammoth Blue series workbooks or the Key To Fractions that the PP recommended.

I suppose you could do that. If you plan to move to Singapore the next year, then I think you may want to teach numbers upto 100 and introduce multiplication & division on your own at the end of this year. As far as I can see, the MEP Y1 Scheme of Work (S&S) does not include intro to multiplication & division , whereas Singapore does. HTH

Hi Moira, Can Miquon be done orally too? Atleast the Orange & Red books? TIA ~ Nandini

Hi, My dd is now 5.5 yo. I think you can start your dd in Primary 1a from Sept or so, and take it slowly if you think she needs more time. You may get her to do 2 sums (1 page) a day and then provide similar little problems of your own to pad up. But if she's going to do MEP 1a and SM 1a, then there is no need for extra practice, imo. HTH

:bigear:

A 1. Mainly that she is a Young Earth Creationist and she includes Bible teaching in her method. A 2. For secular homeschoolers, I would say that the only books to get are The 3 Rs and You Can Teach Your Child Successfully. Luckily these two are the most easily available (esp used). For Christian homeschoolers, apart from the two above, I have seen recommendations for Adam and his Kin and World History Made Simple. HTH

We read about half a chapter a day at bedtime. We discuss while reading (at critical junctures). I explain difficult words or if dd already knows the word, I ask her the meaning of it. I also ask comprehension-type questions occasionally. If I can find colouring pages online, I print them out for her to colour during the day. If I can't find any, I just ask her to draw a particular scene. I may also type out a sentence for her to copy (at most one sentence a day) or one for her to capitalize and punctuate or ask her to point out the nouns, verbs and articles in one. We have to make sure the work is not too much to kill their joy of reading; at the same time, make sure read aloud does not become mere passive listening. HTH

Thanks, Jackie. That is good to know. I have not looked too closely at the upper levels of MM; I had not seen the bar diagrams where I looked. OP, I think if you are able to do SM successfully, it would be great. If, for any reason, you are not able to do SM, I would recommend MM as being very easy to teach and teaches the concepts well. You may come across some criticism that it does not have enough drill, but, atleast for grade 1, I found that the drill/practice is plenty. Also, unlike SM, if you can get MM on CD or as a download, you can print multiple copies for your dc so it is a cost-saving as well.

Hi, So far we have got Math Mammoth, MEP and Singapore math textbooks/workbooks and so far we like all three. I think very highly of Singapore math's model method (which is introduced from Primary 3A onwards). My dd understands (and can solve) the math problems in the SM books. She does not particularly enjoy the workbook approach, but we still keep at it as this is what she will do in school. Math Mammoth is similar in approach to Singapore math but I dont think it uses the model method. It is very easy to teach as it teaches to the child. My dd is able to read the instructions and solve the worksheets pretty easily, although - at her age - she does not enjoy the workbook approach. Of the three, this is the easiest curric for a busy mom/teacher. MEP uses a different approach; many children call it "puzzle math". It incorporates movement into the math lesson. My dd has enjoyed the lessons we have done so far and if given a choice, she always chooses MEP over the other two. I have recently obtained the Miquon books. We have not yet done any Miquon lab sheet yet, but we have been using the Cuisinaire rods for some momths now. My dd prefers the C-rods to any other math manipulative. We've used the C-rods for solving math word problems and I love this very intuitive way of solving/proving the math equation. We have the RightStart-type 100-bead abacus but my dd finds it tiresome to use. You may want to read up on RightStart though; it is very popular on this forum. We also have many Montessori math materials and I particulary recommend the golden bead material to teach place value and arithmetic upto 4 digits. A cheaper alternative is the place value set from Cuisinaire. You may want to search this forum for more opinions on these Math programs. HTH

Hi, You may want to consider Getty-Dubay italics for a beautiful and legible writing style that makes transition to cursive (later) easy. Here are some recent threads that you may want to read: Handwriting program for a first grader Is there a program like Handwriting Without Tears . . . but prettier? Question about Getty-Dubay Making handwriting fun HTH

I agree. I borrowed Spalding from the library and liked that it included cursive writing and parts of speech. I have made notes from it. However, I did not use it for spelling because the spelling lists did not seem (to me) to be related. Webster's Speller has lists that are related phonetically. The rules are not taught explicitly, but are understood and internalized by reading & spelling the words in each table (list). Also, from what I could see, Spalding covers a smaller number of words than Webster's Speller. The Speller goes upto 5 (and more) syllable words. If we pair a dictionary with it, it may be used as a vocabulary curric as well. Another thing, Spalding seemed (to me) to need pre-prep and involved writing in a notebook, which my 5yo was not quite ready for. Webster's Speller (the version provided by Don Potter) is more open-and-go. With our earlier phonics course (Blend Phonics) I wrote each word on the whiteboard; with the Speller, my dd is old enough to read the printed page directly. She reads all the words in one table, then spells some words - that I dictate - using the movable alphabet (letter tiles) or on the whiteboard. Hope this helps you understand the Speller better.

We use Italics. You may search this forum for "Getty-Dubay" and/or "Italics" for more info.

If enough people say yes, will you do it? :-) People who use MEP (solely or otherwise) all speak highly of it, and those who use it solely have said (on the MEP yahoogroup) that when used properly from yr 1 to yr 6, MEP will get a student ready for a US Algebra 1 text in gr 8/9. Hope this helps you to stay with your first (and good) choice :-)