We add in whatever is on Nova, NatGeo, Animial Planet, or Discovery Channel. :) There are some fascinating shows on these channels! Just check online first, there are several shows that are adult-only in content (ie The Science of S**). I don't try to tie these to our current studies, because most of what they show would never occur to me to teach. Blue watched an entire 2-hour show about epigenomes, which he understood because we studied DNA with RS4K. He loves the shows where they deconstruct large structures, and there was a whole series showing how to build an apartment building (the episode on plumbing was VERY educational!). He has also learned more from AP'S The Most Extreme than any zoology course I could have come up with! :) I have a United Streaming subscription, but I haven't utilized it much (though I want to!). I haven't seen the videos that accompany the series, so I'm not sure what they are. My local middle school principal said I could borrow them, but I haven't done that yet. Well... I'm sort of indifferent about the workbooks themselves. We started out doing them, but they became busy work, and since there was so much writing I had to scribe for Blue, so it became MY busy work. :glare: It was mostly fact recall from what was read, which he didn't really need. Instead, we switched to the Review and Reinforce sheets, which are only 1-2 pages per section and highlight the most important concepts rather than every detail. These go in his science notebook with the activity write-ups, so if he needs to review he has them. I also print off the "Enrich" pages, for each section there is one page of extra information with a couple of questions, and these are optional (but usually pretty interesting). If you are doing the whole series, it may be worthwhile to purchase the Teacher Express CD-Rom. You can buy it at Amazon Marketplace, but BE CAREFUL that you are getting the 4-CD set, as the first one I ordered was just a 2-CD trial version and only covered one text. The right ISBN is 0-13-181274-2. I just did a search and right now they are $80-100, I would wait for the price to come down. I will be using this series several times over the next 12 years, so for me it made sense to buy the disc. It includes: Lesson Planner software -- enter the section you are covering and how much time you have, and it selects which activities and discussion questions are most important (I just enter a really high number, then pick and choose myself). Teacher's Interactive version of all 16 texts (with the info on the wraparound of the page). Soft copies of all worksheets from all 16 books, all lab sheets (including those not in the books), and answer keys. ExamView Test Bank, which lets you choose the number and type of questions, lets you save it for future use, and provides page numbers on the answer key. Hyperlinks to all of the online codes for animations and quizzes. I see you are in VA -- are you in Hampton Roads? If so, you are welcome to borrow it to try out. :) OH! I have the Guided Reading Workbook for the Cells book I could give you, are you going to be at the WTM conference or HEAV?

I think both. :) Forgot to point out above -- Blue had already been exposed to short division using base 10 blocks, so he was only applying a simple concept he was familiar with to a more challenging situation. Actually, his first exposure to division was probably cookies amongst his brothers. Red can already look at how many cookies he has, and how many cookies his brothers have, and know when he's getting short changed. I think cookies must be a great motivational tool for figuring out math.:lol:

I will be there. :) Without kids. :) Please pray for my husband. :D

OK, I'm feeling self-conscious about posting this and want to "defend" myself. :) I know someone is going to read this and think that we just rushed through things, that he isn't solid on his basics, that I'm pushing him, etc (you know those posts I'm talking about... why I rarely share with the public what we are really learning here ha ha). It isn't that he is some great math genius or anything, its just that most of what we encountered in those books was review. I still went through the entire series as another way of solving problems, but since he already understood the *why* of what to do, we didn't have to spend much time on the *how*. (This paragraph is just my random philisophical thoughts about math education... feel free to skip it!) I think the way we teach math in the US is all wrong -- and I am basing that on my huge experience of one semester of internship in a first grade class and one semester of teaching fifth graders :tongue_smilie:. Have you ever been in a first grade classroom? It's amazing. The entire world has opened up to these new readers, and they want to know everything in it -- especially math. Math is fun! Math is exciting! Math is all new! :) Fast forward to fifth grade... Math is boring! Math is the horrible thing you have to suffer through before you get to eat lunch. Math is all about learning one way to do things, and then repeating that one way thirty times for homework. Math is about figuring just how many problems you have to spit out to get your desired grade. WHAT HAPPENED TO MATH?!?! I have a theory based on my own math education. I loved math. I have many fond memories of first grade math, second grade math, and sixth grade math. I remember the textbooks, I remember the discoveries. Why don't I remember a single thing about 3rd - 5th grade math? Surely I must have done it! The difference is that in 1, 2, and 6, my teacher let me do my own thing. In first grade, my teacher ran dittos of higher levels of math and let me complete them on my own, figuring them out using unifix cubes while she taught the rest of the class first grade math. In second grade, the teacher didn't know what to do with me, so she let me go to the third grade classroom for the math lesson and then I went back to my regular room to work on my own. In sixth grade (which was still elementary school then), the teacher let me and two other students sit at a table in the back of the room and figure out pre-algebra for ourselves. What made these years different? I had to figure math out on my own! There wasn't anyone there to hold my hand and spoon feed me algorithms. So I have tried to recreate this with my boys. I also think schools are making a mistake in teaching math concepts to kids on a need-to-know basis, rather than a crave-to-know basis. For example, square numbers are AMAZING to five year olds, but boring homework to fifth graders. Why wait? On the back of the hundred chart there were all these blank squares just BEGGING to be filled in, so I wrote the times tables in (1-9 on first row, 2-18 on the second, etc). I then used a black marker to outline the square of the numbers on the diagonal. Which led to... "Why do those numbers have a square around them? Those are the square numbers. What are square numbers? Well, when you times a number by itself, it is called a square. Why are they called square numbers? If I make a square out of these blocks that has five on this side, and five on this side, how many blocks fill the square? 25. OH!! And 25 IS the SQUARE of 5!! That is so cool! Does it work with 6? How about 7? What about 100? What about negative numbers? Can those be a square? Well, you can square them, but if you want the square root of it, it's called an imaginary number. Sure, right Mom, like there is really something called an IMAGINARY NUMBER! No, really, Blue, there is! Can I google it? No, you aren't allowed on Google (where do they get this stuff??). But here, let me show you a problem where you would use an imaginary number..." Now compare that to one of my fifth graders, who would see that 25 was the square of 5, they would make a mental note of it, and move on. End of story. No connections made. Another thing that bugs me is time. Why only teach the hours to first graders? That isn't useful at all! If you tell a first grader "You can have snack in 16 minutes" or "We are leaving at 2:00, but you can play Legos until then" they will learn in no time (HA!). Like long division... fifth graders are subjected to months upon months of tiny little baby steps that eventually lead to long division -- how boring! Why not throw out something like "There are 2,434 chocolate chips in this bag of cookies, how many chocolate chips would you and your brothers get if you shared the bag of cookies equally?" "Hmmm... I don't know, but what if we made 2,434 out of these base 10 blocks you put out on the table, and then divided them up? Oh, I can't divide the 2 big red ones into 5 piles, can I trade them in for 20 of the flat blue ones? Oh, that would make sense, except now I have 24 so I can use 20 of them to give each boy 4, with 4 left over, to trade in again." "Very good ideas, Blue! Now, let me show you what that whole process looks like on paper. Don't forget that each type of block has to be in its own column when you are trading in the numbers!" (This conversations is known as "How to teach a 5 year old 5 months worth of 5th grade math in 5 minutes). So when we got around to long division in his math book, he already knew *why* you brought down the next number, and *why* you subtract each step, and *why* it is crucial to have the columns lined up just so -- so the *how* was easy. Same thing with subtracting decimals (I used the base 10 blocks for this also -- love those things!), doing conversion factors, or any other "hard" math concept. If presented in a concrete way when they CRAVE to know it, it's no big deal when they NEED to know it. Why wait? So all this to say..... yes, I do feel Blue is ready to jump into DM and LoF Algebra, because I will be there to answer his questions and ask him more. :)

matroyshka -- It was after reading one of your posts about DM that I decided to order and have a look. I had always planned on NEM, and I'm so glad I found DM instead! NEM seems like a great program, and probably would have worked fine for us, but DM is just a better fit. :) Thanks! Kalah -- My son will be 7.75 when we start DM. He will have completed Singapore EarlyBird, a little bit of Miquon, Primary Mathematics 1A-6B, LoF Fractions, LoF Decimals & Percents, Key to Measurement (since PM is so light on US measurement), sections of Russian Mathematics 6, and several reading books about math. I know MOST people say that Algebra should wait until kids hit puberty, including the author of LoF when I e-mailed him to ask what I should do with my son in the 6 years between now and puberty :lol: . He can do things in his head like solve for X if 3x^3+1=25, so waiting 6 years to start Algebra doesn't seem to make much sense to me. I figure we are just going to try it and see what happens. He doesn't get problems wrong in math, so if he starts getting problems wrong it will be a sign that we need to slow down. :) http://www.singaporemath.com/FAQ_Sec...een_the_Series http://www.singaporemath.com/v/vspfiles/assets/images/SSSecMath2008.pdf As best I can tell (having not actually USED any of these!), almost all topics are covered in both NEM and DM, and they each have about the same number of topics missing. I made a list, and it *seems* like the things missing from DM are covered in LoF (which Blue insists we continue, anyway). The NEM reminds me of what I used in school (though not at this age!) -- black and white, LOTS of words on a page, it all sort of runs together. DM isn't annoyingly colorful, but it does have a lot of color. It does have SOME notes in the margin, but not so many that it is distracting. Some are useful (like reminding students that D=RT), but some are random, like the photo of 3 mountain climbers holding a Singapore flag, with one of the cartoon students saying "With perseverance, Singaporeans can scale great heights!". OH!! There are these National Education Messages in the front of the Teacher's Guide that are scheduled to be taught, such as "No one owes Singapore a living" and "We must ourselves defend Singapore" and "We have confidence in our future." Odd.... but easily ignored. :) Though... on page 70, one of the word problems states "In a parade, a group of soldiers are arranged in a rectangular array of 32 rows by 28 columns. Estimate the number of soldiers in the group." Next to this is a photograph of Singapore soldiers, lined up, with one of the cartoon kids saying "These smart soldiers help to defend Singapore." :001_huh: Who are they raising their kids to be so afraid of? Other random thoughts about DM... The long numbers use spaces between each 3 digits, rather than commas. The cartoon kids are more mature looking (Asian and Indian, rather preppy looking in school uniforms :D ), but serve the same function as they did in Primary. The "Notes on Teaching" seem helpful, with a couple of sentences for each section. Are there any specific things you want me to look up? :)

Just to throw another option out there to confuse things... have you looked at Discovering Mathematics from singaporemath.com? There are samples available at singaporemath.com (and a chart comparing scope/sequence). A couple of others here are planning to use it, but I don't know anyone who has actually already used it. I ordered both from Rainbow so I could compare them side by side, and the DM "feels" more like the Primary Mathematics (students with thought bubbles to explain the thinking process, uses the bar diagrams, much more empty space on each page, A & B for each grade level). I also like that the Teacher Guide has all of the answers AND solutions in one place, rather than scattered about like in NEM. DM is in color, has a page "In A Nutshell" at the end of each chapter summarizing the important new concepts, and has a more student-friendly layout, with "Try This" problems directly under each example that follow the same pattern, with different types of problems in the exercises. It uses the Geometer's Sketchpad in later levels, which is kind of cool. OH -- and there is a chart at the front of each Teacher's Guide that breaks it into weeks, including which activities to do, which student pages to do, a bulleted list of key concepts, and a list of related websites (several each week!). The downside to DM is that I haven't found anyone who has actually USED it yet, whereas NEM has a proven track record. Jenny at the SM forums also says that the DM is not as challenging (but since we are using this so young, this was a plus for our family). It is also slightly more expensive than NEM ($80 per year for DM, vs $50 per year for NEM). I do have both books right in front of me for the next few days (I've decided to go with a DM / LoF combo for Blue), if anyone has any specific things they want me to compare. :)

:iagree::iagree:

If she doesn't like Magic Treehouse stories, what about the non-fiction companion books? My boys enjoyed The Fire Cat, Little Bear, Francis, Mouse Tales/Soup, and other Arnold Lobol stories at that stage. Syd Hoff has several stories that you can buy as reader format or as large hardcover. There is a cute series about puppies that fits that in-between gap. http://www.amazon.com/Pugsley-Puppy-Place-Ellen-Miles/dp/0545034558/ref=sr_1_3?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240228612&sr=8-3 The Classic Starts series serves as nice intro to classics she'll read later (words nicely spaced on the page, plenty of white area). Many are only a penny on Amazon Marketplace. http://www.amazon.com/Classic-Starts-Anne-Green-Gables/dp/1402711301/ref=sr_1_4?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1240228794&sr=1-4 I have a friend with an early-reading daughter who enjoyed Mercy Watson. I remember enjoying Ramona and Pippi Longstocking as an early reader, but it has been too many years to remember if they have appropriate content or not. :) Oh -- are Baby Sitter's Little Sister still in print? Certainly not great literature, but can be read in one sitting and geared for the younger crowd.

We are using Prentice Hall Science Explorer for middle school level science. It is schoolish and textbooky, but seems to cover a lot of science SKILLS, not just content. We are adding in higher level videos and online research following his interests. I am still working out the kinks for math, but I *think* we are going to do a combo of Singapore NEM and LoF Algebra for math this coming year (which sounds weird when I type it out... ). As for high school level stuff.... who knows. My official plan at this time is :lurk5:

:hurray: Congrats to DD!!! and :cheers2: to you!!!

I agree -- I should have been more careful in my wording. :) Yes this little boy IS very smart, and can do some neat things. The issue I take with the whole situation is the claim that he is "smarter than Einstein" and that he is an "off the charts genius" (wording from news story). I looked up the definition online of genius, and it states "somebody with exceptional ability, especially somebody whose intellectual or creative achievements gain worldwide recognition". Is saying the alphabet backwards at 6 more of an achievement than developing scientific theories as an adult? And is it truly "gaining worldwide recognition" if his parents put him there for publicity? Just my humble opinion, but the annual family holiday letter or an online gifted forum would be a better place to share his talents, not national news outlets. :) I regret starting this post, to be honest. The news story bugged me, and this was the only place I felt I could discuss it. It went in a direction I didn't anticipate, feelings were hurt, and for that I apologize. I will now go back to my main focus at the moment of reading past posts to help me develop a math plan for my own little genius. :) ;) ;)

Well, we've been stuck in the Ancients forever (I joke that we are studying the eras proportionately to how long they really lasted tee hee). We are not doing a 4 year cycle because there is just too much info to pack into 4 years, and we tend to get "stuck" places for a while (like Mummies). This is our plan, Blue started with Step 2, Green & Yellow are on Step 1, and Red & Orange will start Step 1 when Green & Yellow move on to Step 2. Step 1: Listen in on SOTW and do only the coloring pages, listening to the picture-book type additional books (Blue skipped this step -- the youngers are only doing it because we are doing SOTW for Blue). Step 2: Go through SOTW slowly, reading old Kingfisher (the white one with readable paragraphs), visiting UILEH links, reading many "older" books on each topic, adding in additional map work and doing a timeline. Also adding in Hakim's Story of Science, United Streaming videos, or online research in areas that strike his interest. Step 3: Go through Hakim's History of US, may or may not use the study guide, adding in lots of biographies. We will also focus on US Government during this time. Step 4: Traditional high school sequence (??), location TBD. I would really love to still be homeschooling him at this point, but I will also have boys in grades 1-2-4-5 at the same time (we're considering many options, luckily I have a while to worry about it).

This is our experience as well. This is our plan as well. Sorry I don't have any answers, but it seems we are asking the same questions. :)

:iagree::lol:

Thanks to everyone who replied, it is so helpful to read the experiences of others. Yellow is officially a lefty now that he is writing (I thought he would grow out of it when he started coloring left handed as a toddler :D ). So far he seems to cut right handed, but perhaps because we only have right handed scissors in the house. Perhaps I should buy him lefty ones (sigh... but then they will be the wrong color :tongue_smilie:). My grandmother is left handed, and back in the day the nuns used to tie her left hand to the back of her chair so she would learn to "write normally". :confused:

:lurk5: I believe this is the program that MCT teaches classes through. We have not tried any online classes, but this is one that I have on my "things to consider in the future" list.

I meant to say that Primary Math and Life of Fred Fractions/Decimals complement each other nicely, and it was nice to hear that continues with NEM and higher Fred books. You are correct that the Fred book series is based around stories of a young boy who is a math professor. As he encounters a need for a certain math topic in his daily life, it is taught. For example -- in the beginning of the Decimals book, he needs to make a fence for his pet microscopic bug so he can keep it in the view of his microscope (therefore the fence must be circular). He needs to know pi to determine how long to cut the string, so it discusses pi as a decimal (it was taught as a fraction in the Fractions book) and then teaches how to round decimals to make them easier to work with. I didn't correlate the first 2 Fred books with PM, we just sort of did one for a few days and then the other for a few days. The Fred books are easier if the student knows the basic concept from PM, but we encountered most things in Fred first, which allowed us to use the PM exposure as reinforcement. There were topics in Fred Fractions from PM 4, 5, and 6 -- so it would be hard to align them exactly. I think they make nice complements because neither program has an overwhelming number of exercises or review problems. A topic is introduced, there are a couple of problems to be sure you know what to do, then they move on to a new topic the next day. Blue does well with this -- he likes getting new topics every day and can keep up. By going through both programs, he was exposed to 2 or 3 different ways of thinking about concepts. We were also able to move through each topic a little more quickly, since I knew we'd be coming back to it again in the other program. Like kpupg, I feel that Blue really knows the material after the double exposure (even though it was only discussed briefly in each). Perhaps kids who need a lot of practice or review would not do well with this approach, but for "mathy" kids who get it the first time, and own it the second time, these two programs complement each other perfectly (at least at the levels we've covered).

:D So how much are you selling this data for? Wow, that would save me a lot of time! :D I'm glad to see others have the same LoF/NEM plan, I think the two programs are such complements! I agree that PM5 is a lot of review after Fractions/Decimals, but it also provided Blue with a different way of thinking through the steps of some problems.

:D:D This made me laugh as well!! :D:D

This baffles me... even SIMPLE addition/subtraction? As in -- I give one kid 3 cookies, another kid 5 cookies, and the first kid says "Why did he get 2 more cookies than me?" or... "Grandma A sent me 3 dollars for my birthday and Grandma B sent me 3 dollars for my birthday! Now I have SIX DOLLARS!" Really?!? Only FOUR PERCENT of kids do this before K? That just doesn't seem right.

I am trying to get a long term plan worked out for Blue. He will have completed LoF Fractions, LoF Decimals & Percents, and Singapore Primary Math 1A-6B by the end of this year. Since he has done well with this combo, the logical plan would be to continue with Life of Fred and Singapore NEM. I have looked over the first few chapters of NEM1, and it doesn't look too scary, despite its reputation. :) Has someone worked out a logical sequence for combining these two programs? And... for those who have BTDT with "mathy" kids, is there a different route you can recommend for after Singapore PM?

I just have to share this... and nobody in my "real life" will find this as humorous as I do. :) I was showing Blue how to use his new compass, using a ruler to measure the radius. I then told him to use a regular pencil for the rest of his drawing, saving the included pencil for the parts that needed to look "compassy". He gave me a look to let me know that he knew that compassy wasn't a real word, so to prove that it COULD be a real word, I asked him what part of speech it was. He replied -- "an improper noun." :lol:

YES! This is what was going through my head, but couldn't think of the words to express. Sure, it is cool that he can memorize information, but what can he DO with information? That (to me) is true genius.

:lurk5:

:D OK... Maybe it is just a matter of perspective. The first reply to a YouTube video of his states: Maybe compared to *SOME* people, he IS a genius. :tongue_smilie: Is my view of normal skewed? I know my kids are smart... but I don't really consider them genius level. They are really good at memorizing things, but to me that doesn't make someone a genius. Is this boy really "one in a million"? Or does he just happen to easily remember lists of facts?