Hi All! I'm wondering what your favorite online math drill games are (basic addition mainly). We're familiar with the Math U See drill generator, but I'm looking for something free, and with a bit more pizazz if possible. I remember as a child my grandparents had one where a little astronaut walked along the bottom of the screen and you hand to get him into his rocket by pressing the enter key (or some such) when he was under the rocket with the correct sum printed on it. Something like that! My daughter (7) loves anything if it's computerized :). Thanks!

In response to the original poster. These games are good for ANY age that needs help reviewing ANY kind of phonogram cards. You could even use them for math facts etc. with a wee bit of creativity. Basically, the boards themselves are blank, they just provide enough 'fun' factor just by saying it's a game and throwing in some rules to mix it up a bit from flashcarding it all the way. I'm about to print some phonogram bingo cards on cardstock and laminate so I can use a dry erase pen on them to switch up the short consonant sounds that need review for my 4-year-old (only 2 or 3 I think). She isn't doing AAS (yet, my 7-year-old is though), but she has her own set of flashcards that we're first learning short vowels and consonants with, so we'll just use those for her. Of course this isn't the file folder games, but the concept is the same, it's a blank board and ANYTHING you wanted to drill could be used as the tool to advance across the board, whether AAS phonograms, other phonograms, or...anything else! The games are VERY well designed, and the instructions are very clear if using the AAS provided rules (for game-impaired moms like me!) but they are DEFINITELY flexible!

Have you tried something more hands on for her? We're using Math U See which lets children use manipulatives to form their answers. Most children have some degree of 'hands-on' as a learning style when they are little, so maybe R&S is just too much text-only bookwork for her? MUS IS mastery oriented, and does do a lot of practice and repetition with facts, but only within one fact 'type' at a time - for example, single digit addition, it will do all the one facts, then all the two facts, then all the three facts. Maybe this would be less overwhelming for your girl?

Heh. What a blessing! Sometimes I feel like I'll never be done...but this is only our second year ;).

This is totally normal :). We had to wait awhile for my daughter to be 'ready' for blending, and my four-year-old is trying to blend but is doing very similar things to what you've described. She knows all her short vowel, short consonant sounds (thanks LeapFrog!) and is eager to read but blending is sort of hit or miss at this point in the game! We're playing it by ear. We have some of the little K4 Abeka readers and she likes to read those, the first ones mostly have letter sounds, two-letter blends, and a few simple words. That helps her feel like she's reading without having mastered her blending yet. And she's done this all on her own, never thought I'd have a 4-year-old desperate to blend!

Thanks! No worry about politics either, we're Canadians ;).

Does anyone know of a general grammar scope and sequence about what is generally covered at what age/grade? Of course this will vary by child/ability level, but I'm wondering if there is some sort of generic checklist of grammar concepts that progresses in difficulty somewhere that could be checked off as children gain skills, even if grammar is being taught somewhat informally? Thanks!

We are working on mastering addition facts (MUS Alpha), and I'm supplementing with "addition war". Basically, it's war, I've taken out the jacks, queens, kings, aces are ones, and when we pull a card, we need to add the number we're playing with. So we do 'war plus 1', 'war plus 2' etc. In 'war plus 1' if I pull a three I need to say, "Three plus one equals four." Then she pulls a five and says, "Five plus one equals six." She wins the cards. She loves it. Asks to play every day! Would work the same way for subtraction and multiplication :).

We're another AAS family :). Almost done level 1, love that it is basically phonics in reverse, not just random lists of words. That being said, I do sometimes 'second guess' myself, because my little girl can't yet spell 'typical' first grade sight words, it is all very phonetic in level 1, and rule breakers are only introduced in future levels. :)

Hi All! I am fascinated by the prospect of having help with memory period tasks with the Classical Conversations Foundations program. However, I'm wondering if anyone more familiar with the program could fill me in a bit. As a Christian family we aren't big on the mythological aspects that can often be emphasized in a classical educational model. CC is of course, Christian based as well, but I'm wondering if anyone could chime in as to if CC has a strong emphasis on mythology at any points in their programing, and if so when? Thanks!

Hi! My daughter (7) would love to have a penpal! Her spelling isn't fabulous yet, but I'm hoping this would help :). We live in Canada (I know, not terribly exotic) and would love to have our DD correspond with a girl around her age from a Christian, homeschooling family :).

Oooh, you might have seen my name around Karyn :). I was a Chipman back when I was in high school though (in Edmonton). I do post to some Edmonton-based homeschooling lists so you might have seen my name there?

We're in Alberta, around an hour out from Edmonton and wishing I could find a Classical Conversations community around here to help me with memory work!

I'm just curious Paula - what level in Growing with Grammar did you transition into after you did FLL 1 and 2? Did you hop right into 3 and 4? Thanks!

A Beka's readers. For some reason I was CONVINCED my daughter would just jump right into reading 'real' books. Ahem, how homeschooling teaches us that we don't know it all :). She really needed step by step progression, and books that she could read ALL the words of without getting frustrated :). I love that they are phonetically leveled and not based on lists of sight words!

We like reading the Bolchazy Carducci (sp?) readers for young children together. I translate as we go. My little ones actually ASK me to read them Latin storybooks :).

Wow! Thanks very much! I'm saving this for the great links to the Latin songs. It can be so hard for us moms who aren't actively using Latin to expose our littles to it so they can develop 'ear' familiarity with it before they're ready to read it :).

We're in Canada, so it's not Thanksgiving here - that being said, we aren't big Thanksgiving'ers in any case! We're visiting with my grandparents, the kids are watching Dora (gasp!) and I'm trying to catch up on some blogging. Eldest DD (6) went grocery shopping with Grandpa earlier, read a story in her reader to Grandma, napped baby, done some laundry, reading The Heretic's Daughter - lazy day :).

Hi All! I am new here, and I'm just wondering if there are any signature rules to follow? Forums vary so I wanted to check, didn't see anything posted in the Board Rules/FAQs, but I might be missing something, somewhere :). I have two websites I'd love to link to in my signature (my personal/reviewing/homeschooling blog and my business site) but certainly won't if it's in violation of any policies whether formal or informal! Thanks for any help and advice you can offer.