Wow. You have combined a bunch of resources and discrete elements into what sounds like a smart, straight-forward system for teaching math at your son's level and speed. I can't imagine a scenario where this would ever reach "massive failure" Very impressive. I hope it continues to be successful!

We are on week 3 of SOTW3. I made a notebook page for each section in the book. At the top I put the chapter and section information, then the rest of the top half of the page is taken up with a visual of some kind: portraits, genealogy charts, maps, pictures, or some lapbook element. Google and Wikipedia are my friends! Mine are younger, so I usually give them a few specific things to write in the lined portion of the page (the bottom half). I'm making them as we go, trying to stay a few chapters ahead, but I am finding them pretty quick to put together.

For me, the biggest pro was that it had a list of artist to be covered, and we paid for it, so by gum we were going to keep up. The cons (for me) were: 1) it was scripted for a large group and often had a patronizing tone, 2) there were inconsistencies between what was covered in the lecture part and what was discussed or done in the project part, and 3) there was no apparent rhyme or reason to the order of the artists covered. None of the cons are insurmountable. I wasn't willing to pay for it again. This year we are doing our own thing. The pdfs were not particularly difficult, but they are definitely written to be read by the teacher to the students, they are a bit dry and ask questions (with suggested answers in parentheses). My kids really liked reading the Mike Venezia books about the individual artists. HTH

I enjoy reading about your method of doing science and am incorporating what I feel capable of. I'm interested in the tests you mention from Regentrude. Can you link to a thread? Perhaps it was a personal discussion in which case I don't mean to intrude.

Congratulations! Also for taking the time to notice.

Are there quizzes or tests in light blue that aren't in blue? I won't bore you with the details, suffice it to say,"girls talk, you hear things."

I've done that and just started over with the same stuff (plus the starter) and it came out fine. When milk or yogurt goes bad, you can generally smell it.

What you described sounds like the "Dr. Wright's Kitchen Table Math" books. There are three but you could probably skip book 1 since it is geared for 2-8 y.o.s. They are not particularly sequential. Basically each section introduces a topic to the teacher, talks about any prerequisites the student should have studied, the author's approach to teaching it, ideas for expanding on the topic. They are published by the Art of Problem Solving folks, and there are some reviews and explanation on that sight.

One way to think about teaching Spanish is to mirror how we teach English. Start by building vocabulary, give plenty of opportunities to hear the language, use simple commands, etc. As they get older it will be easier to learn the formal rules, and also easier to find texts for guidance. If they already know the vocabulary and have an "ear" for the language they will be able to progress quickly. One other resource I discovered recently is from Tin Man Press. They have some activity packets in Spanish. Some use cutting -you cut away words that match or rhyme out what have you and you end up holding the answer. Another set gives simple drawing directions. There are two more packets. A nice way to add some variety.

I am bumping in the hope that whatever suggestions you get will provide some food for thought as we get closer. Since you are both fluent, do your dc already speak some Spanish?

I like small projects that travel easily to waiting rooms, swim practice, gymnastics, story time, etc. In between socks I've been working on a little beaded purse called the Tosh Purse from Sock Yarn One Skein Wonders. Unsurprisingly, it is going to take me two skeins, but I was prepared for that. I just checked out Teeny-Tiny Mochimochi from the library. Most of the projects are 1" long. Of course, I'll have to get some more yarn...

We have used once-a-week tutors which I then supplement with a variety of other work. I have found them by asking, asking, asking which is just not easy. I am willing to pay about $20/hour. With someone who is fluent I generally don't want to use a curriculum, I want as much spontaneous conversation as possible. My plan is about 20 minutes of the kids reading and taking dictation, 30 minutes of new vocabulary and game playing, and then finish with the tutor reading them a story. The games are usually familiar games done in Spanish. As my kids get older, and better, I want to have the tutor do things like cook or science projects or art instead of just games. We are in between tutors right now, but I have felt like we made good progress by incorpoating narration and dictation a la WTM. Took my a long time to figure that out. ;-) The language "classes" we've done were too casual, we didn't get much out of them. HTH

I'm a little embarrassed to say that my reading level makes Frog and Toad (Sapo Y Sepo) very enjoyable. :laugh: My kids have been slowly working through them, too, which was my justification for buying them. I have some random short story books I've picked up for myself, the first two are written for grammar study, so after each short story there are vocabulary and comprehension questions (in Spanish). I just picked up Mas Cuentos yesterday at a library sale and I have a copy of Cuentos y Risas (free at that link it looks like) which has more study sections after each story. I also recently found this parallel text book which has Spanish stories on the left hand pages (I think originally written in Spanish?) and english translations on the right hand pages. You also might enjoy News in Slow Spanish. The podcasts are lengthy (and all in Spanish), they have three or four stories from the (current) news, then a grammar dialogue (where the discussion uses the grammar focus of the week), discussion of an idiom, and then sort of a travelogue of a place or a discussion of a legend or something similar for cultural exposure. There are more resources on their website but I have never used them. There is a subscription cost, but there is also a demo episode available. I never took a college-level foreign language, so I hope these are in line with what you are looking for.

Sorry. I updated the link.

I love talking Spanish (although my English is better)! Your kids are young (which is great), are you looking for an all-in-one curriculum, or something more free-flowing, with emphasis on the free part? How lucky that you have studied Spanish AND have easy access to native speakers. In our house we have the best luck doing a little bit every day - maybe 15 minutes of instruction time? Then working it in as it comes up. Do you have a library near by? My kids love to listen to stories. It is OK if they don't get all the words, just hearing it is beneficial. My library has a decent selection of board books and picture books. Maybe discuss some vocabulary and read a book one day, watch Salsa another day, do a worksheet on a third day, have a day of review, play a game one day? There are so many resources available on the web. I'm just going to brain-dump some of my favorite links here... You may want to start at this website where one kind forum user has posted a 12 week immersion plan she put together. Alas, it was too late for us, but might be of interest to you. Somebody on the internet has lesson plans out for Salsa. A friend sent me this link today, it looks very promising with lots of printables, games and stories. If I were getting started I might spend some time printing their beautiful vocabulary cards and posting them around the house. Here is another website to poke around (same friend, also today) that is a blog about teaching Spanish to young children, particularly preschoolers. At this McGraw-Hill site you can print out little booklets for each week with reading and teaching activites in them, under Conexión con el hogar. I'm hoping to incorporate these Oh Noah! PBS videos and activities for a few weeks in the fall. Less educational perhaps, but fun for young kids would be watching Pocoyo - a YouTube search will bring up various episodes. Lots of games for kids can be done in Spanish (Guess Who?, Bingo, Twister, Hide and Seek - good for counting practice, etc.) Most of the traditional curriculum I've seen is for children who are reading and writing comfortably. Buena suerte! ETA: fixed the link in #3

Just Agree With Me (!)

It just means that you may not get the same results as the poster did. Originally it is from car sales ads or stickers and they meant it literally to avoid lawsuits when consumers didn't get the same mileage as was touted in the commercials.

The rice will "hold" much better than the Brussels would, so another vote for cooking them in that order.

Does your dh *want* help fixing this problem? In our house we are both fixers and we work hard to suppress that instinct at home unless it is called on. Sorry I don't have enough kids to be able to give advice on your question about completing the work. Best of luck to you.

I'm glad it went well! I love a culinary success story. The first (and only) time dh tried them he swelled up like a balloon...

No, I think it is rude to miss any without an explanation and preferably advance notice. Even at rec level the kids enjoy it more if they can count on their teammates to follow through on their commitment.

Here is what we do for my 8yos. Day 1 - Dictate the new group of spelling words until the end (rare for us) or until 3 words are missed - student completes 10-step study sheet for missed words (some of these steps are "spell the word out loud" "look to see that you did that correctly", etc.) Day 2 - Write a sentence for words missed Day 3 - Test missed words, continue on in group until the end or until 3 words are missed Day 4 - repeat Day 2, or something more creative (she gives TONS of ideas which I read through a year ago and winnowed down to a few that would work for us) Day 4 and on I use my discretion about how much more we want to do. It is not unusual for them to misspell a part of the word that is not actually being tested. For instance I finally just replaced the word "fairies" with "fairy". I feel comfortable with this because I assume that as they ramp up their writing I can start supplementing or constructing spelling lists from words they misspell. I keep some scratch paper in my binder and track who is on what step and what they need to do next time we do spelling. They don't object to spelling because each day is 5-20 minutes depending on what part of the repeat they are on. Very little of the program is independent for us. Even if your dds are older, I would expect to be involved keeping it moving (unless they are old enough to quiz and check each other). It is not a cheap book, but if you can make the system work for you it should last forever. The lists are associated with rules - if that is helpful for you. I just like that it seems organized. There are no bells or whistles, so no parts to keep track of, no "this has to be done before that". There are Delayed Recall and End of Level Tests, so if somebody struggles with a word I sometimes add it to those tests (if it isn't already there). We are moving slowly, I think in part because we don't do a large quantity of writing at this point in our school. Also because if they miss a word on a review test, you are to go back and review the whole group, which I usually do. We've been using it for a while, and it is such a small portion of our day on something that I think takes some maturing into that I anticipate continuing with it. Hope that helps!

Ha! Maybe when the fiscal new year starts in August he will be confined to pedaling hi s own bicycle.

Yay! My vacuum was doing poorly for so long, I finally ordered a new one after doing some research at the library. While I was awaiting its arrival I decided to use the old, limping one to do what I could to the entry rug. I couldn't remember the last time I changed the bag, so I did, and voila! It was like a new vacuum! Yes, I FAILED the real life class of Vacuum Maintenance 101. Luckily I was able to return the "Vacuum of Shame" locally without having to pay shipping. Shame, shame, shame. My old stand-by vacuum now has a bit of a superior air.

Holy cow, my wedding was so tame. For the first time in my life I'm thinking about renewing my vows. I wonder if they could put Mothra back there or Sigourney Weaver's alien or just Sigourney Weaver...