Yeah, basically all that! :001_smile: I get the impression that it takes the teacher/parent a fair amount of work and juggling to be able to "learn how" to do Singapore, and I'm just not up for that right now. And I can't stand juggling lots of books in one program.

Thanks, that helps. Is there a placement test for MEP? Is 4A considered beginning of fourth grade??

Oh, I should have mentioned she is nine and halfway through MUS Delta.

After using MUS for my second child for few years, I'm wondering if it's not a good fit. She is probably gifted, pretty good at math, but does not like a lot of repetition. She's the kind of kid who hates doing workbook exercises, especially when they are all similar. She also does not like to do her work alone, although I know that can't always be helped. She doesn't need "help," she just likes working with me, a la MCT. I've thought of switching her to Singapore, but from what I've heard, I'm afraid I personally wouldn't do well with it. Any suggestions, either for a switch or supplement? Does Life of Fred sound like a better fit? MEP? Any other ideas?

:iagree::iagree: Thank you; I was thinking that same thing a little while ago and had not heard anyone else verbalize it yet.

I saw this blog post on Facebook today, and it has been the closest thing I've read about this issue so far that I actually agree with. I guess I'll let it speak for itself without my personal commentary. Just wanted to share. PS - My apologies if this has been posted here already. I haven't been able to keep up with the numerous posts!!

I started MUS Alpha with my youngest a few weeks ago and remember now why it sometimes drove me crazy. It is boring! The pages and problems are so much the same, and just adding one, adding two ... We both need variety! I dont think i want to dump it for a new math curriuculum (slthough does anyone have suggestions for one that is a little moe ... Fun, with more variety?) Are they are good resources for more "fun" math activities for this age? Im picturing some sort of workbook that covers different first grade math concepts using puzzles, coloring ... Just something with more variety. Thanks!

I seem to be almost the only person who would say this, but ... I'm disappointed by my experience with AAS. I started using it with my very poor speller at the end of her second grade year. I think we used it through the very beginning of fifth grade. She enjoyed it. I thought it was brilliant. We did plenty or review. I think she had very little retention. It just did not transfer over to her real-life writing, no matter how much we reviewed. Plus it hit me as crazy that she was ten and still working on words that seemed like they were at a first or second grade level. Is it my fault for not going faster? Maybe, but why whiz ahead when she still regularly spelling the words wrong that we've worked on?? We switched to Spelling Power, and after a few months she told me, "AAS was fun, but I feel like I'm learning more with SP." She is still a "bad" speller, but is no longer an "absolutely atrocious" one. But everyone else raves about AAS.

We unschooled when my oldest was in kindergarten and first grade. We stopped because my husband was strongly against it and did not believe it was working well. It was good in some ways, at least in my opinion. I spent LOTS of time reading to my two oldest, who were then about 4 and 6. I probably read to them several hours a week -- chapter books, picture books, science and history books, etc. They was no "plan," we would just read books that looked interesting, and if we liked an author, we'd read more books by them. We spent a lot of time going to parks and play places. We baked and did some crafts. The girls both took dance classes. We went to see plays and musicals in town that struck us as interesting. We had lots of toys in the house, probably too many. I was always on the lookout for new puzzles and things. If I had to go back, we would have watched less TV and less computer games during that time. The bad things, to me: 1) Things were kind of chaotic. I read LOTS of unschooling advice, and it all really stressed following whims and immediately dropping things when something else interests you. So we had lots of unfinished paintings or crafts, or impulse purchases, not a lot of follow-through on anything. 2) Like I said, there was too much TV (and we didn't watch nearly as much TV/video games as most unschoolers I've read about). 3) Because there was such a lack of structure and planning (see #1), I feel we wasted a lot of time. 4) My oldest probably would have liked formal reading lessons at that time, but I did not give them. I think she was frustrated, because she wanted to read and did not know how. I felt I was indeed "helping" her by answering questions, helping her dictate stories, being willing to show her stuff, and reading to her a lot. I did ask very specifically about this once on an unschooling group, and was adamently told by every unschooler that I should "leave her alone" and let her figure it out on her own. It was a few months after that that my family stopped unschooling. So I have some minor regrets, but some things were definitely good, especially at that age. I am very glad we did not continue on that path any longer.

If you're "that kind of person," sure! Although if I remember some comments made by the author/publisher, you may not want to tell them about it ...:001_unsure: I don't if it was already mentioned, but the FIAR resources on HomeschoolShare.com were invaluable to us. Also, we got many ideas from the archives on the FIAR message boards. I will say, though, that the FIAR manuals are pretty cheap and IMO are worth getting for a ton of ideas to spring off. Of course, you may be more creative than me. That reminds me of something I'd forgotten ... when I first looked through FIAR years ago, I actually thought, "That's not a curriculum; it's a book of suggested activities." I guess I still feel that way. So in your case, that may be a good thing.

I just wrote a post yesterday about FIAR. To sum up, I think FIAR is a great supplement and better for kindy and first grade than it is for second and third. So it sounds like it would be a really good fit for you. I also think it works well with a certain type of personality. If you're the kind of person that likes to tweak stuff, add your own ideas (or others' ideas you find elsewhere), have no problem skipping something, etc, FIAR should be a good match. People often dislike FIAR because "there are too many choices" or because they "didn't know exactly what to do when" or because they don't like reading the book every day. I think FIAR works best for people who see it as a "pick and choose menu," and who like that kind of thing. Good luck!

Any thoughts about these two -- likes, dislikes, compare/contrast? I need something for my "very average" eleven year old who liked FLL, doesn't take to MCT, and is a terrible speller. Any thoughts? Does one need more teacher involvement than the other?

Where do they say this, exactly? If there is information stating how/what order you're supposed to use all this, I must have missed it, and I would love to see it.

We were doing GT concurrently, so we did several sections worth, but not all of it. But she's struggling to the point of tears with the first few sentences in Practice Town, just naming the parts of speech. All that was in GI, which we did complete before beginning GT.

I used FIAR for about a year and a half. Overall I would say we liked it very much and have good memories of it, and I plan to use it again with my youngest. I was also very impressed with the art lessons. There were definitely some things about it that bugged me, though. 1) Perhaps I made the mistake of using it with a third grader (although they clearly say it's k-3) ... but it was way too light for third grade, especially the LA activities. I'm almost a little embarrassed I did it with my oldest in third grade -- not because she didn't enjoy it, but it seemed way below third grade level. 2) In general, I thought LA was too weak, except for kindy. No spelling, no grammar, no real writing ("write a good title" or "write a story in first person" is not what I would consider a real writing program). The LA assignments for the entire week might be acting out a scene in a story or discussing examples of compound words. Ten minutes of LA for the week seems awfully weak for a second or third grader. 3) I would probably have not enjoyed FIAR that much (I'm not even sure I would have used it for long) had I not used the HSS resources (especially the lapbook components) and the archives from the FIAR boards. This is what really made it interesting for me -- extra books to read, art projects, etc. The activities in the manual tended to be too vague for me, or just not enough. Discussing something for ten minutes, or pointing to something on a map, while definitely enjoyable, didn't feel tangible or "enough" to be considered a school day. 4) After a year and half, I could not stand the jumping around anymore. One week we discussing Russia, the next week WWII in Germany, the next week the American Civil Right Movement. It was driving me crazy and didn't seem like the best way to learn That's actually when I looked into WTM (amusingly, I was told on the FIAR boards that "WTM is the antithesis of FIAR") and decided to jump ship to SOTW. 4) BTW, even though such a big deal is made about reading the books five days in a row, I get the impression that almost everyone using it does NOT do that, or at least does not do it all the time. It seems like FIAR works best with a mindset/personality that likes to pick and choose and be flexible and do it their own way. Overall -- although FIAR people hate it when you say this -- I would say it's a fabulous supplement, but I hesitate to call it much more than that, unless you're beefing it up so much that you're practically writing your own lesson plans.

I just cross-referenced this with this thread.

This is the same situation mentioned in this thread, but with a different angle. My daughter just finished fifth grade and did MCT Island series. I wasn't sure if it would be a good fit for her (she is very methodical and by-the-numbers), but I really liked MCT. Previously she had done FLL 3 and most of FLL 4. She liked MCT okay, not in love with it, but fine. She thought Sentence Island was very babyish so we skipped almost all of it. The sentences in Practice Island were challenging for her, but doable. A couple weeks ago we started the Town series, and she was actually in tears today. We're doing Practice Town, Grammar Town, and Caesar's English I. She says it is too hard -- both the grammar and the vocabulary -- and that CE is boring and is full of words she'll never use. Now here's my problem: Isn't Town supposed to be a fourth grade curriculum?? How come she's in sixth and it's so difficult for her that she's in tears? I don't get it. Plus she already did Island, so there's nowhere to "back up" to. Frankly, although I like CEI, I would never ever have guessed it's a fourth grade program. If I were just flipping through the book, I would put it at eighth grade level, personally -- and I wouldn't be shocked if someone told me a high schol freshman class was using it. So I don't know if I'm out of touch, or have low standards, or what. So ... I'm not sure what to do, especially since I think MCT is a really good program. Should I just tell her to hang it there and not give up? Assume it's not for her and dump it? Take it more slowly? (Although I'm not sure how much more slowly I could take it. We only did the first seven sentences in Practice Town, and the first three lessons in CEI. She burst into tears doing Practice Town, and we've barely started the book.) If you think I should switch programs, do you have any suggestions -- not just for grammar, but also vocab? Thanks for any thoughts!

My eleven year old was in tears today, saying she hated Ceasar's English I and Practice Town, it was too hard, couldn't she go back to FLL 3 and 4? As much as I love MCT, I think it might not be a good fit for her. Does anyone have any suggestions for that might be better? I was thinking Rod and Staff or Growing with Grammar (neither of which I've ever used). But Rod and Staff looks ridiculously dry and Bible-heavy. (Also, do I need all the books, or just the teacher and student manual, or what?) And Growing with Grammar looks too "plug and chug." -- like, fill in the blanks with the right "pattern" without much thinking or learning. And I have no idea what to do for vocabulary, but I know I want to do something, and Caesar's English is making her miserable. (Although she did like Building Language last year.) Any suggestions?

Thanks for sharing. So if you don't wear a wig much, are you typically out and about visibly bald? If how, how do people react to that? I completely agree about the "feeling feminine" aspect. Mine is minor so far, and it already makes me feel like I don't want to fix myself up and dress nicely. Are you married? If so, how has your husband reacted to it?

I remember this coming up often in other homeschooling forums, and I do remember former teachers saying that on a GOOD, efficient day, students in their class would get approximately two hours of work done. I remember another former teacher describing her day and saying that nothing really started happening until well over an hour after the school day "began." There does seem to be a general thought (not so much here) that two hours of homeschooling equals a full public school day. I remember hearing that before I even homeschooled. What I remember about my own school days is that, yes, we were "working," but what we were doing was so pathetic was that it hardly seemed worth counting. For example, I remember spending hours and hours in my years of history copying definitions out of the book's glossary to turn in, or doing "fill in the blank" worksheets with sentences straight from the text. (And yes, these were two "excellent" schools in different parts of the country.) I would think that two hours of good reading, discussion, marking on a timeline, and outlining would be superior to the weeks we spent of doing that nonsense. So I guess it depends on what you mean by "equal." Oh, I will say that another thing I remember about my school days is that there was a LOT of down time. In middle school, we had three days a week where we had a 45-minute "study hall." And I remember doing a lot of reading while I was waiting on something ...

I checked; the medical term is "Androgenetic alopecia," which, in layman's terms, is "male pattern baldness." So it's not stress or thyroid; and vitamins won't help any more than they would help a man who is going bald. Wow, so other people get a wig because of it?? I guess that's better than nothing; but the thought of having to wear a wig for the rest of my life, not to mention people making fun of it (isn't that always in books and things, that people snicker at the lady with a wig?), or it falling off or something, is really depressing. What makes it extra awful is that I've always been a "hair person." I always loved long hair; I used to like to braid my hair, put headbands in my hair, flat-iron my hair ... I just like hair. Not to mention that my husband loves hair, and likes long hair. So nobody out there has been successful with Rogaine?? I kind of feel like that's my only hope.

I've been having problems with hair loss for some time now. We thought it was related to health problems I've had, lack of iron, presciption meds I take, etc. Finally I went to another dermatologist who went ahead and biopsied my scalp, and I just got the results. I foget the medical term, but it showed I am going BALD, the same way some men go bald!! The doctor said if you were to do a biopsy of a bald man's scalp, it would look the same as mine did. I would cry except I am too stunned. He suggested I try Rogaine for several months. Has anyone else ever had this? The doctor suggested that is affects as many as 20% of adult women. Surely I can't be the only one. Has Rogaine worked?? If not, what do you do??

I have no idea, but I live near Atlanta, and the kids that I know and see are very well-mannered.

:iagree: I've always thought that too, although I've never heard anyone else say it.

Oh, also I should have added: If you really love it, or think it's the best vaccuum: Why? What makes it better or different than other vacuums? Thanks again!