bump :) I know someone out there has used Story of Science and Core 6 together!

IMO, there is a big step up in content, but not in presentation. The concepts are still presented in a clear way and could be done with a solid 4th grade math background, or by someone who had completed the PGCM. It seems like there are more problems in the CM than the PGCM. In addition to the 3 levels at the end of each chapter, there are problems in the lesson part of some chapters.

Oh Country Girl, how I wish you were my neighbor! :) You and I could share so many resources. I have the Problemoids IV on my shelf, do you have any specific things you want me to look at (we haven't used it -- I bought it as something to "fill-in" between Primary Math and NEM, but decided to use Discovering Math instead).

It depends how you want to use it... since I don't have a lot of time to plan, I spent about 2 hours looking through all the materials for the year so I knew where we were going. During the year, I only had to open up the book and have DS start reading. So -- no PLANNING time each week for the parent. For the Island level, DS read each lesson to me and we discussed along the way. He also still needed a lot of direct guidance for writing, so the LESSON time for me was the full 20 minutes or so (this is not a program for parents who want to send their child off with a worksheet to fill in). I imagine the writing assignments will be more on his own this year (after we go through the lesson in the book together), but the vocab and grammar lessons will still be 1-on-1. FWIW... I don't think I will be able to use this program with all of my kids because of the amount of direct teaching involved. It is the best program for B, but I am exlploring other alternatives for G (who probably won't do well with this program anyway, as he is a VERY literal, just-the-facts-stay-out-of-my-way-please type of learner). I would not consider MCT to be large family friendly, unless you were using the same level to teach multiple kids. Teaching multiple levels of this program wouldn't be good for me (too many stories to keep straight ha ha), so I am hoping that only a couple of my kids need this kind of presentation.

WWE and SI are so different, you could easily do both on alternating days, or WWE first semester (along with GI), and SI/PI second semester using the sentences for copywork/dictation. For anyone using the Town level, I have a pretty spreadsheet with all of the books broken into 36 weeks. PM me and I can e-mail it to you.

This year I'm using SOTW and Sonlight Core 6/7 as spines, with Usborne ILEWH for G and the 1993 Kingfisher for B. I will also be adding in Story of Science for B, are there any correlation charts that suggest good places to stick in those chapters with any of the things listed above? Or -- if someone owns Core 6 and Story of Science and "loves planning" (grin), are there books that are usually skipped by those using Core 6 secularly that could be replaced with sections of SoS? I know they won't correlate exactly, but if I don't add SoS to my history schedule SOMEWHERE it will be forgotten. And I know some of you reading this are thinking "who cares, just do it whenever," but we have issues with getting history done around here with all the little ones, so I'm hoping that having a written plan for our year will keep me on track. Thanks! :)

I have another suggestion (since you are due any day!!) -- DON'T start a full history course this year. In my house, with a newborn, history was the easiest thing to drop so we usually did. As one possible alternative, do one year of world geography (ie Children Around the World from WP or Trail Guide to World Geo), or even US studies (states, symbols, etc). Then next year, start with Ancients with your oldest using the logic stage recommendations and your second using the grammar stage recommendations (such as SOTW for both, with higher levels of additional reading for your oldest).

:iagree: If you are sending your friend a list of people interested, please include my name. :)

:lurk5: I am still undecided. The thought of sending him off to high school scares me, but so does the idea of trying to teach him high school at home (while also teaching 1st, 2nd, 4th, 5th grades). I look forward to reading the plans of others -- particularly those with larger families.

My oldest is working at an accelerated pace. My goal is not to have him in college early, but rather to lighten the load later, or to allow us to take extra time whenever it is needed. If he gets to high school level and wants/needs to take college classes (at home!) early, that is fine. If he gets to high school level and wants to devote half his day to a certain subject, we will have the flexibility to do that. If we have to stop and spend an extra month on a certain math topic, no problem! For my family, we choose "better early (as long as they are enjoying it and can handle it) than late (and trying to play catch up)". It works for us, but I realize that most families don't agree and I respect their choices for their kids. I will say though -- and this is not directed at anyone in particular, just a general statement -- if you are going to accelerate, I would have clear goals in mind, and honestly look at the motivation behind them. If you ever say to your child "I know this is too hard, but we HAVE to do three lessons today or you won't get to Algebra before our neighbor does" you might want to re-examine. :)

I bought the book. I didn't think I would need it since I've looked at dozens of blogs about it... but there were some great ideas in the book in addition to the system itself. Plus, the free download of the forms saves me the time of doing it myself. FWIW, she also offers the velcro dots on her website now. :) I was only able to find rolls of 1440 or small packages that ended up being 5x the price per set, so I e-mailed asking if there was a better way to purchase them. She now offers them in sets of 300 -- perfect!

:lurk5: Thanks to all who have shared... what a great conversation!

For socks and underwear, I buy alternating brands. They are close enough in size that I can't tell them apart at a glance (without looking at a bunch of tags), so odd kids have Hanes (grey band at top) and even kids have Fruit (white band). Same for socks -- they all wear short white athletic socks, but odd kids have Hanes (Hanes on bottom), and even kids have C9 (grey bottoms). When sorting, I can tell at a glace if they are the larger or smaller of the two. When they are all wearing the same size, I'm hoping to find 5 different brands. :) Hmmm... or maybe they will just all do their OWN laundry!! Won't THAT be something to look forward to! :lol: I was so excited when I realized Hanes uses a different color wording on the bottom of their different sizes, but 3 of mine wear the same size ha ha. Yes, I know they *could* all share, but that is gross to me (would YOU wear your hubby's socks or undies? YUCK!).

Well, I do like MCT overall. It is a great fit for my oldest but I don't think it will be for my second oldest (though its too early to know for certain). It's not so much about a certain level of giftedness, but rather about learning style. What I don't like about the MCT program is that it requires a big leap of faith (for lack of a better term), in the same way that choosing Life of Fred math does. I looked at the samples, read reviews (on both sides!), and gave it a try. You may want to contact RFWP and ask if they will be at a conference near you so you can look through all of the materials (I felt a lot better about the lower levels once I saw where the program was heading). You could also post to a local homeschool group and ask if anyone who lives near you would let you borrow them for a few days.

I've read that the Singapore 7/8 science labs are harder to do at home, has that been your experience? That was one of the main reasons we switched to PHSE, but now I'm wondering why we didn't just stick with MPH longer. :)

And if I may add on a question... for those who used Miquon as your main program and not a supplement, what did you do after?

I think Miquon is a great fit for some kids, and not so much for others. It is a fun book to try out (and cheap), so it's at least worth giving a shot. It was not for me -- it did not align with how I think about math AT ALL (must be all those years of textbook math I had :D ). I had Blue do parts of the books as a fun supplement to Singapore K/1, and the Singapore was a better fit for him (and me :D ) so we dropped the Miquon. Green does not think like Blue and me. Honestly, I think Green would do best with Right Start, but there was too large of a learning curve for me to teach it well (it sat on my shelf for months) so I had him try Singapore. He didn't love it the way Blue did. I pulled out Miquon and he loved it, so he's doing that now (it is important to me for my kids to love math). So... I think Miquon is a great program, but only for the right kid, and you won't know until you try! Side note -- one quick, cute story that I can't share often because only Cuisinnaire lovers would see the cuteness in this! Green was in a co-op class when he turned 4, and they played with rods every week. After learning to make 11 with the rods, Green started writing the number 11 as a tiny line above a much longer line, rather than two 1s the same size next to each other. :D:D

We combined MPH 3A/3B (the old way it was organized) with RS4K Pre-Chem one year. I also have the new 3/4 combo set, and the teacher's manual provides so many web links and additional activities, it worked out to be 80 lessons in the books, so easily a full year of stuff to do (either 2 lessons per week, or spread each lesson into 2 days and do 4 days per week). We switched to PHSE, I like both programs but there is a big step up between programs! In looking at what else you are doing, I'd say you could do PHSE but plan to take 4 years (4 books per year).

FWIW, (since this is SWB's forum I think it is ok to share this) at the WTM conference in May, Jessie Wise shared that she spanked her kids for climbing out of the crib. Her husband had seen many incidents of children in the ER with serious injuries from falling out of the crib, and from accidents while wandering around the house during the night unsupervised. Because of this, she kept her kids in cribs for as long as possible and when the child did climb out she administered a siwft, firm punishment (there were gasps from half the audience when she shared this, and the other half was nodding in agreement :lol: ).

Anyone? :)

I would like to start using one of the home library software options -- there are a few I looked at, but I can't find the one that fits all of my criteria: 1. Easy to enter books -- either ISBN or bar code scanner (I like the one that I can use the bar code scanner for a grocery list!) 2. Great if it works with Mac, but PC would be ok 3. Automatically enters reading level (any of the different types are ok, I have a chart that converts them) 4. I want to be able to enter my own codes for categories of books (ie SOTWA24 or MathPV), with some books having multiple categories. 5. *This is the most important* It must have a way to track which kid has read which book. 6. I want it to come with some categories already associated with it, like genre, or subject. I have Homeschool Tracker Plus (but after 6 months still can't use it properly :glare:), and I know I can enter books in the resources section, but I find it cumbersome to use, and it doesn't track reading level to make books easier to find for various levels. What are my options?

We :001_wub: Timez Attack in this house! I originally downloaded the free version to help Blue increase his speed (he could figure out any of the facts, but you have to be FAST to pass the big ogre). He wanted to add the additional worlds, and I told him that once he mastered 12x12 I would pay for the upgrade. Well -- that motivated Green enough that he finished first! He then wanted to go through all the levels again to see the different worlds (there are only 2 more, but we didn't know). He is now on his 5th or 6th time through the levels because he wants to find all the "secrets" of the game (hubby says these are bugs, but who am I to point out flaws when they encourage my kid to do math?!). For example -- there are a couple of doors you can climb up and over in the ogre levels, you can actually climb down the side of the pillars on the machine level, and if you stand ALMOST at the end of the hinged ramp, it will hide your body when it comes back up so you look like a little guy buried in sand. What can I say... he's a computer geek like his Dad! :tongue_smilie: FYI, you can adjust the length of time to answer the facts and you can change the order they are presented in by going into the adminstrator file (not in the Options, so kids don't have access). You do get several log-ins at a time that can be deleted and re-used, but once a log-in has finished all the levels you can't get back into the worlds -- but you do get a nifty badge! ;) It was well worth the money for the upgrade in this house -- but we have a lot of computer/math geeks. :)

I agree about calling them... such nice, helpful people! I have gone to a conference near me (for teachers, not homeschoolers) for the last 2 years specifically to speak with them and it has really helped. I also agree with those who have a hard time wrapping their brain around the implementation! :D IMO, the reason it isn't laid out in the nice 36 week schedule *we* are used to seeing is because it was designed to be used in a variety of school situations. For example -- Caesar's English is often used in junior high for Honors English 7 & 8, but it is also used in high school SAT-prep classes, 4/5 combo TaG classes, and even in a 2nd grade classroom at a school for super smart kids. Some schools use it school-wide in addition to what the state madates they teach, and some teachers use it as extra work for their gifted kids in regular classrooms. It truly can be used in any of these situations, but obviously each situation would require a different implementation! For my situation, I prefer to work through the books one by one. This worked great for the Island level, but for the Town level I am changing it slightly. The Caesar's English book is ... "meaty" as a poster above mentioned. Wow. I was intimidated at first, but by breaking it up over the year, it is doable. I have spread this out over 30 weeks, then staggered the rest of the books into 36 weeks. It makes a nice, pretty, 180-day spreadsheet and that makes it so much less intimidating to me! :lol: As for what a day looks like, it depends on which book we are currently working in. In Grammar Island, he read a few pages out loud and we would discuss examples. That's it -- but he totally got it. The Practice book is for AFTER finishing the Grammar book, and it contains 100 sentences to choose from. I used these as copywork, then had Blue do the 4 level analysis. In Sentence Island there are a few writing assignments in the back of the book, such as "Write a 10 sentence dialog between 2 characters in which 1 can only speak with action verbs and the other can only speak with linking verbs" (this was a favorite for Blue, though he didn't get it at first). There is a pretty big jump from the Island level to the Town level. I would not have been able to use it with my class full of fifth graders when I was teaching! I know Blue will be very challenged this coming year. I keep having momentary freak outs, but reading the posts above reminded me of *WHY* we chose this program for this child, and *WHY* it doesn't make sense to switch him to a traditional fill-in-the-blank type program. You will need to add a spelling program, as well as something to cover the rules for capitalization and punctuation as they are not covered in this program (MCT shared in a workshop that most gifted kids pick these up naturally through reading or a quick one-time explanation). We are using _The Perfect Punctuation Pop-Up Book_ for this.

Just look at my signature! :D We don't color code everything, only the things that we DON'T want them to share. It started with towels and toothbrushes, but now includes book boxes, folders for printouts, and boxes for supplies (some boys like perfectly sharp crayons, while some boys still chew up their crayons).

:lurk5: