My mom had a stomach ache and has been unusually fatigued all week, and just found out this morning that she has ovarian cancer. She knows nothing else, and won't even get to speak with an oncologist til Monday. Has anyone had this? Had any experience with it? What is the prognosis typically like? Also, I know this sounds really dumb, but I'm not sure what to do -- like, what would be helpful. She lives ten minutes away. I offered for us to come all come over and visit, and she told me no; she felt too sick. What does one do when a parent is diagnosed with cancer????

FWIW, I know I learned long division in either fourth or fifth grade, because I remember what school I was in, and we had just moved to a new state the summer before fourth grade. I was in an advanced class (in fact, my fourth grade class was a 4/5 combo class) in what was considered a very good school district.

I don't know exactly, and I would be curious. There was some concern about my oldest child not being "at grade level" at the end of first grade. I was told by a couple people that the criteria was "Could she read 4-letter words," meaning vowel and consonant blends: wash that back trip etc I have no idea, though, how accurate that is. Years later, I still don't understand "reading levels," what they mean exactly, or how to know where your child is.

Within the last couple weeks, I gave what I thought were helpful responses :) to other threads about FIAR, so you can look for them here and here. I know nothing about MFW. I have strong feelings about FIAR both ways, so to speak, but overall I'm glad I used it, and will use it again with my youngest. ETA: I have seen both the cookbook and the Biblical supplement, but personally never felt the need or desire to add either.

After years of unsuccessfully trying science curriculum, we borrowed an Apologia Zoology book from a friend and are really enjoying it. For next year, my kids will be in fourth and sixth grade. Someone on the board is offering to sell me Botony and/or Astronomy. For someone reason I thought Astronomy was "easier" or for younger kids -- is that true?? Also, how is the pacing? Would these books take all year for a fourth and sixth grader, or should I buy both and do one per semester? Thanks! BTW, there has been a lot of talk from me and others about wanting science that is like SOTW. To us, Apologia comes pretty darn close.

:iagree: :iagree: That is exactly how I feel and what I experienced. I plan to use it again for my youngest, but only through first grade, or maybe second.

We purchased The Sentence Family this fall when my third grader made it overwhelmingly clear, very quickly, that she would not tolerate FLL. She absolutely loved it. She loved drawing the pictures. She loved the stories. She loved everything about it. She finished it in about 6-7 weeks. After that we did Grammarland. She liked that as well, but not quite as much. There were no artwork for her to do and the story and characters weren't as "cute." Since then we did MCT Grammar Island and Practice Island, which she zipped through and also liked very much. It's funny; she absolutely hated FLL to the point of mutiny. But now grammar is her favorite subject. Guess you just have to find the right match!

We used FIAR for almost two years. It would definitely be untrue to say we disliked it; however I do have many thoughts about it, both positive and negative. 1) When I used it, my oldest was in 2nd-3rd grade and my younger was in k-1st. They say it's for k-3, but looking back, I am almost embarrassed that I used it with a third grader. The LA activities, while interesting and enjoyable, are NOT enough for a second or third grader. There is no spelling, no grammar, and the "writing" assignments are things like, "First person is when ____ . Try writing your own story written in first person." If you use it as described, you do LA only one day a week, and the LA activities are things like "Discuss personification" or "act out such-and-such scene from the story." Great fun, but ... ten minutes of LA a week? [bTW, I did look through "Beyond Five in a Row," which is supposed to be for middle school, and I felt the same way. The topics jumped around way too much for that age, IMO, and were too open-ended: "Design your own simple machine" or "Write a report about ___."] 2) The "jumping around" started to drive me crazy after a while. One week you're discussing China, the next week Germany during WWII, the next week the Civil RIghts movement. I had no problem with that the first year, but after a while I started to dislike it. 3) I've said this many times, but I would not have enjoyed FIAR nearly as much had it not been for the homeschoolshare.com materials and the FIAR message board archives. 4) I was impressed by the art lessons. 5) It was a very "fun" curriculum. We have lots of great memories. For one story, a suggested activity was to find a Jewish deli and go have lunch there, so we did that. My kids enjoyed the lapbooks with homeschoolshare a lot. (not in the manual) We made an Eiffel Towel with Legos (not in the manual) and igloos with nuddles (again, not in the manual). We read a lot of "go-along" books we enjoyed (not listed in the manual). Ha ha ...see a pattern here? 6) As I'm typing this, I just realized something about FIAR and who would like it. If you like a lot of choices to pick and choose from and enjoy doing some "research" (ie, homeschoolshare) to find extra ideas, and like to tailor things to fit (ie, maybe not reading the book five times), then you will probably like it. But if you like to go down a checklist, or be able to know exactly what comes next, and have a logical sequence to things, it will probably bug you.

I looked through BFIAR but never actually used it. It struck me as dopey and hardly a "curriculum." The activities were things like, "Point to the picture where they are crossing the river holding their shoes and ask, "Why are they holding their shoes." Or, "The story has a section with people playing in the mud, so take your kids outside sometime and have them play in the mud." Really?? :confused: I guess if you had no idea how to read a book to your kids (or, for that matter, do things with them), that might be helpful. But to me it all seemed like either things I would either naturally do anyway, or things I had no desire to do. I have gotten most of the books on the book list for bedtime stories, though. Now, we did use FIAR for about a year and a half. I have mixed feelings about it. I'll probably go on the other thread and post in more detail. I used it for my third grader and I definitely feel like it is NOT "enough" for third grade, especially in the LA/writing/spelling department, no matter what they say. (BTW, I have looked through "Beyond FIAR," and do not feel like that is enough for a middle school student, either.) Also, I've said this before, but I don't know if I would have used FIAR had it not been for the homeschoolshare.com materials and the FIAR message board archives. The manual alone is more about things to discuss rather than tangible things to actually do, and I think I would have gotten bored with it quickly. I will add that I was surprised how much I liked the art lessons.

That is SOO cool! I saw them in concert in Atlanta this summer, and Coco sang "Different Drum" there as well. And Micky explained in detail the history of the song "Randy Scouse Git" and its title. I knew it all already, but it great to hear him personally explain it. [bTW, it is "Micky" ... not spelled like the Mouse! :001_smile:]

WOW ... I'm so impressed. And someone who knows "Save the Texas Prairie Chicken." :001_wub: Can you be my friend?

:001_smile: Ha ha! When I was about six, my friend Sherri and I used to play outside on our roller skates that we helping The Monkees solve crimes (or something) ... I was a huge Monkees fan. Friends have actually been sending me condolence e-mails today ...

I am a huge Monkees fan. I have literally never met anybody who knew more about them than I do. I took my children to see them in concert eight months ago and it was a fabulous night. Of course we didn't realize it would truly be our last chance to see them perform live.

Kinda sorta, and now we're appear to be having good success with Spelling Power. I loved All About Spelling when I first discovered it. I loved the uniqueness of the tiles, and I thought some of the phonics rules were fascinating. I either never learned them (even though I have an M.Ed) or I wasn't paying attention or something. I started AAS when my oldest child when she was almost eight, I believe. She was always an extremely poor speller. Even at that age, her spelling was mostly unreadable to anyone but me. When she takes standardized tests, she is at least two full years below grade level in spelling. She liked AAS, but I'm not sure how helpful it was. She could easily recite the rules and do the "word analysis," but it never seemed to transfer when she was actually writing words. For example, she could quickly and easily tell me that you add "CK" only after a short vowel, and could answer the questions involving ... but in "real life" she constantly wrote "brik" and "thic" and things like, no matter how much we reviewed. We did it for over two years when I began to realize that her spelling was still pretty bad, we were only at the end of level three, and the words were still ridiculously easy (given her age). I was also getting sick of the tiles and cards by this time. What was fun at first was burdensome and annoying two years later. Also, my second child could not stand AAS. So I did some research and decided on Spelling Power. I have been doing SP with both kids for about 4-5 months now, and it seems to be going well. The "rules" in SP are not helpful. I just read it out loud quickly, usually roll my eyes, and then we go ahead. I do not have my kids write them or memorize them. I think the techniques of spelling the word out loud, "writing" it in large letters with your finger, etc, have been more helpful than AAS was. Her spelling seems to have improved the last few months. She is still no prize speller, but it's no longer Shockingly Bad -- which is what it was even after two and a half years of AAS.

Why did you start this thread, exactly? Were you surprised it was third grade math for some reason, and wanted to see if others were also surprised? Were you curious if homeschoolers were aware of "public school standards" were? Something else??

:iagree: I was thinking, "Wow, there must be something wrong with us, because my fifth grader was just doing fraction problems like that last week!" I, too, was in advanced math classes growing up and am very surprised to see so many people calling these third and fourth grade problems. I really wish the OP would not only give us the "answer," but also tell us why she even started this thread in the first place. Obviously something about it must have surprised her. What, and why?? :confused:

Don't know anything about PWB, but we used FIAR for two years. I would highly suggest that anyone using FIAR get some of the free printables on homeschoolshare.com. Also, go to the FIAR message boards and look up the archives for each book -- people have lots of interesting ideas there. We really enjoyed our time doing FIAR, but I think I would have bored with it if all we did was the manual itself. I was also sometimes shocked at how "light" the lesson for the day was, especially if you were using it for a second or third grader! Pantomiming scenes from a picture book and discussing alliteration, while great, is absolutely not enough third grade Language Arts for a week , IMO! (and yes, they claim it's for kindergarten through third grade.) I was always impressed with FIAR's art lessons. And my girls have very fond memories of the books we read together. Good luck!

The scores would be just for us; we do not have to show or report them to anybody at any time. Could you explain to me about bit more what you mean about getting more useful information that way? How so? That is why I'm wondering about doing it a grade higher? Thanks

I'm planning to give the ITBS in May, and I'm trying to decide if I should give my eight year old (third grade) a fourth grade test instead. Does anyone ever do this, and is there an advantage either way? The testing is for our family's own personal usage only. The reason I am considering it is because I'm wondering if a third grade test wouldn't demonstrate her strengths fully, and might not even cover some of things she is doing. She is in MUS, eight lessons into Delta already, and we have twelve weeks of school left for this school year. At the rate we're going, she will have almost finished Delta by test time. In about 2 weeks she will be completely finished with the entire MCT Island series and is eager to begin doing Town right away. She gets it very easily and always want to do extra sentences in Practice Island. I could be wrong, but I wouldn't imagine that Direct and Indirect Objects, etc, would be on a third grade standardized test. Not sure what her reading level is. She is doing WWE 3 and recently has been reading Encyclopedia Brown books on her own. Last spring she scored 93 percentile on the ITBS for second grade. She would have scored higher except she made about 3 careless errors on math problems -- things like adding when the problem said to subtract. Any thoughts? Thanks!

I'm coming to this thread late, so maybe this has already been addressed ... But what does it mean to "shun academic rigor"? Are these people sitting around watching TV all day? What are the common things (or maybe even not-so-common) that you see other homeschoolers do that makes it seem like they have no rigor -- or even blatantly shun it??

What does this mean? Are other people teaching "fake" math and science? What are these other high schoolers doing? I have always been curious what homeschooling a high schooler looks like -- not here, but amongst "most homeschoolers."

I have heard people calmly rationalize their stealing, in different forms, because "they charge too much." One example was in the college dining hall, which was a one-price buffet style: I knew a couple people who would come in with tupperwares and backpacks and load up food to eat at later meals. They were careful not to get caught; but otherwise had no problem with this, since -- they said -- the admission price or a meal was so high. I have heard people say it's okay to duplicate CDs because "I know it's illegal, but musicians already have enough money. They don't need mine." And my father told a story of his office putting out candy bars on the "honor system" that you leave a dollar, or whatever, in the jar. Many (or all) of them were stolen, and a note was left saying, "Whoever took this candy - that's called stealing!" The next day a note was left replying, "Charging a dollar for a candy bar is also stealing!"

FWIW ... at my son's pre-school, if you express interest in reading to the class at the beginning of the year (which pretty much everyone does), they make a calendar with assigned days for everyone to read, and you notify them if that day causes a conflict, and they change it. There are only enough slots for every family to come in twice during the school year. I wish there were more.

My youngest child is five and a half and I will soon be starting to officially teach him how to read. After all these years of homeschooling the other, I can't figure what to use with him. I just know what I DON'T want to use: 1) I've looked at the "100EZ Lessons" book several times and cannot stand the look of it! I know many people here hated it, and I think I would fit into that category--assuming I could even stand to try it. 2) Used Happy Phonics for a while. While I liked a few of the games and liked the concept, the way it was organized drove me nuts. I don't think I could use that except as an occassional supplement. 3) I've looked at Ordinary Parent's Guide several times, and while it seems like a solid program, I have concluded that my kids and I would not like the heavy scripting. It seems very similar to FLL, and that drove us crazy after a short while. 4) AlphaPhonics looks very very dry and boring. 5) My older kids used Explode the Code, which I actually fairly liked, but they did not. I stuck with it because it was cheap, I myself liked it, and at the time I didn't really know what else to try. I might be willing to try it with my youngest, except I recently heard that it often causes problems with guessing words (which my oldest kids have done) because it moves too slowly. So I am concerned about that (and about him disliking it, like the others did.) In case I sound like a grump that just hates everything, some things we have really enjoyed are WWE, SOTW, MUS, and MCT. Any suggestions???

I too have a master's in education. My research class was very challenging and engaging (not hard; just challenging and interesting. And one other class I particularly liked; probably because I liked the teacher and we had to write a paper on a topic I was very interested in. I should also note that the above research class had a reputation of being "dreaded" because it was so hard. The rest of it was mostly worthless. Honestly, 80% of it was sharing classroom ideas and favorite kids' books, or discussing "common problems" with the education system and kids and families today -- drugs, too much TV, etc. I remember one language arts class we watched the entire Jodie Foster movie "Nell" and discussed it for a few minutes. This was a graduate level class. I actually always thought it because the school I went to was an "evening/weekend program" and the program just wasn't that intense. But maybe it is typical?? I also wanted to point out, though, that MANY teachers do not have "education degrees" -- they have another major and an education minor, or a few extra classes to get a teaching certificate. For example, before I got my Master's degree, I was a music major and fully certified to teach k-12. And believe me, that is NOT an easy degree that "just anyone" can do!!