My method for deciding this has been, "when they spontaneously start reading silently rather than aloud." But I realize there may be children who don't do this. My daughter was five when this happened for her; my son was seven.

One thing that can give a person a bit of pause is that, if the application doesn't offer a way to restore in-app purchases, the only way to restore them is to go through the steps of buying them again. Then, at the last minute, after you've already pushed the button committing you to pay for the in-app purchase again, it tells you that you don't have to pay after all because you already own it. This only applies to non-consumable in-app purchases, of course. Applications ought to have a restore in-app purchases button, but some older or less-well-written apps don't. I think these days, Apple isn't allowing apps in the App Store that don't have a restore button.

How bizarre. My household has three iPads and four iPhones/iPod touches, and we have never had this kind of problem. The in-app purchases have to be restored after re-installing an app, but I've never had trouble doing that, either. I know quite a few people who never back their devices up to a PC, and have never had trouble re-downloading apps. I'm sorry you're having this issue!

What kind of apps are you having trouble re-downloading? It's always been my experience that once I bought an app, unless the app got pulled from the App Store for some reason, it was always available for re-download.

Thanks everyone. I agree that requiring her to do a fixed amount of time on math instead of working until it's done isn't really the right answer to this. I *like* that my kids have the freedom to schedule their own work when it doesn't require my assistance/involvement, as I think that's an important life skill. I'm just struggling to figure out how to encourage a little more creativity. She disliked Beast Academy when we tried it, and is not interested in trying it again -- she likes math that builds up the skills a little more incrementally, rather than being confronted with puzzles. I think my son's personality will be a better fit for Beast Academy when the time comes. I think I'm going to try instituting a weekly "math lab" experience where there are several choices for things the kids could do, and if that doesn't work out, start assigning a "pick one of these three or four things" into their weekly math work.

My daughter is doing fine in math. She's about to start fourth grade, has finished Singapore Math 3B, does very well in standardized testing, can apply what she's learned in real-life situations, etc. She's an extremely methodical worker, who has always insisted on doing every problem in a workbook, even when the material was something she already had an excellent grasp of. I've generally taken the approach of assigning her an amount of math work each week that ensured she would finish the entirety of what I wanted her to accomplish by the end of the academic year. She has been free to structure her own time on work that didn't require my direct help, such that if she was in the mood to work on math early in the week, she might well finish all of her math work (other than drills) before the end of the week. This year, I'm trying to figure out a way to encourage her to finish her "basic" math work (that is, the stuff I specifically assign), and then choose from several alternatives for math enrichment activities. I can think of two ways to do that: 1) Tell her she needs to spend X amount of time per school day working on math, but that if she finishes her regular work, she can do one of several other things. Possibly to include convincing her to accelerate through sections she thinks she has a good grasp on by doing every other problem or some such. 2) Assigning a weekly block of time to math enrichment, and offering her a choice of activities during that time. I'd appreciate any thoughts you have about these ideas, or other approaches I may not have thought of. It's probably worth noting that I never give her math tests; I simply mark her independent work and require her to correct any errors. So any approach that involved tests would be a new concept for us. Suggestions for math enrichment activities, both for her and for her second-grade brother (a very intuitive math thinker), are also welcome. :) Oh, and I don't need either of my kids to accelerate in math, although I'm sure they both could. I'm more interested in wider-and-deeper.

I think this is a huge advantage the Common Core offers for homeschoolers. Being able to switch from one CC-aligned math program to another without having to deal with placement issues is going to be great. (Though not for me right now, as I'm still using non-CC-aligned math.) I honestly don't see much wrong with the Common Core standards. The testing is a different matter, but I doubt it will affect my kids, since they will never have to take the CC tests. I'll worry about the SAT, etc. when the time comes.

This is the pen both of my children started with. My daughter has moved on to the regular Pelikano. I definitely recommend the Pelikano Junior for beginners.

Book Shark doesn't have levels equivalent to the B&C or the D&E levels, at present. Which I agree is a bummer! I would have considered a B&C equivalent for my kids this year, but am instead doing 3 (SL D).

My kids never went to public school. My husband's involvement is: * To listen to me ramble about plans and problems and to make suggestions if that seems helpful. * To help our kids finish things they didn't get done during the school day because they were unfocused. This came up a fair bit with our son this year, where he'd fritter away his time during the school day and then needed to spend half an hour knuckling down with dad looking over his shoulder in the evening. Maybe twice a month. * To occasionally help out via FaceTime from his office. Mostly this comes up when our daughter isn't up for listening to me explain a math concept, but will gladly let him do it. Perhaps four times a year. * For a couple of years, he taught them piano, but they now have outside piano lessons. * To oversee schoolwork on the rare days when I'm away for some reason. For example, he takes the day off from work so I can go to our twice-annual homeschool reviews without the kids, and he does school with them on those days based on the list of work I leave behind. Kind of like a substitute teacher! :) * To go on some field trips with us. I make all the curriculum decisions, do all the planning, teach almost all of the lessons, etc.

I've had my box for about 3 weeks; we start on August 4th. I have History with Reading 3, with the advanced readers, LA 3, LA 2, and second grade intermediate readers. I'll be combining my second and fourth grade kids. I did not buy science or math through them -- I was put off by the inclusion of a non-secular science textbook (Real Science 4 Kids), and I wasn't entirely sure what I wanted to do for math at the time I ordered. I've been pre-reading some of the books and considering what I might need to add or change, particularly in the way Native Americans are depicted. On the whole, I'm happy with my curriculum choice, and am looking forward to the year. We are doing some work ahead of time on pre-Columbian America, since the program starts with Columbus. I also wish there were a bit more information in the IG about the historical facts around which some of the historical fiction is centered. For example, there is a book on Squanto in History 3, and the IG notes that some customers have complained about historical inaccuracies in the book. It would be nice if they told you what the known facts are, so you didn't have to go look it up in other resources. (The main problem I have with that particular book is the emotions/attitudes Squanto is depicted as having, which seem far-fetched to me.) The LA looks great for my kids. Laid-back yet still covering everything I consider important at this age. I think the schedule will be helpful for me, as I like for my homeschooling to be as routinized as possible.

If you click on the button "Homeschools: Order the Iowa Tests," and then click on the grade level you want at the bottom of the resulting screen, you'll be able to order the tests. I believe you have to send them a copy of your college diploma before they'll consider you an "approved administrator" and sell you the tests. Best wishes!

I don't know for sure why the SAT10 would be more expensive for the lower grades, because we use the ITBS, also from BJU Press. But I can tell you that in the lower grades, the ITBS response sheet is many more pages than it is in the later grades, because the kids fill their answers in directly in the student test booklet. I would assume that it costs more because it's more pages to print and score. I've always been happy with the testing service provided by BJU Press.

My third grader is doing: English -- Evan-Moor Daily 6-Trait Writing, Evan-Moor Daily Language Review. She is a natural speller, so the only spelling we do is correction of her written work. She reads a lot of books, and is taking a journalism class and a drama class at co-op. Math -- Singapore Math 3A. She's about 2/3 of the way through it, as this is a continuation from last year. Science -- She is taking two science classes at co-op. Other than that, we go to museums, watch documentaries, go hiking, and talk about science. Sometimes I pull out science activities on a rainy day. But really, there's no coherent plan for science. Oh, and she's taking my Lego Mindstorms class at co-op. So I guess that's three science classes. History -- Again, nothing coherent going on for history. She does Evan-Moor 7 Continents Geography, and is currently on Asia. Her Anki memory work includes a lot of geography. We watch a German news program for kids daily, which provides for current events discussion and a certain amount of history. We also visit museums and historic sites. German -- She attends a German Saturday school program for native speakers, reads German books (currently, she's reading the seventh Harry Potter book in translation; I'm looking forward to her reading more books that were written in German to begin with once she finishes it.), and watches German podcasts. She gets a lot of grammar at Saturday school and through the homework she does for it, which of course also applies to English. Art -- She's taking an art class and a photography class at co-op, plus we go to the various art museums here and participate in their programs. Music -- She takes piano lessons with dad. She also plays the recorder, though she no longer takes lessons. We also attend kids' programs at the symphony. PE -- Karate

Thank you all. This discussion has been extremely helpful. The only reason I'm not going back to Math Mammoth, which worked well for my child, is because I don't think this issue is so important as to require me to insist on Math Mammoth when she wants to try Singapore. And, frankly, since she is ahead of grade level in math, I'm not terribly concerned that we might "waste time" doing Singapore and need to go back to Math Mammoth in the end. I care more about whether she has a positive experience in math and is adequately intellectually challenged. I'm going to buy the textbook, workbook, and IP books. I'll see how that goes, and adjust from there.

I'm not actually trying to keep her from being confronted with difficult problems. I'm just hoping that Singapore will provide her with a better lead-in to those problems. My feeling is that Beast Academy expects the child to, for example, figure out multiplication in the process of solving problems about area. Which is undoubtedly great for some kids. Whereas the recollection I have of Singapore Math is that the basic concepts are taught and practiced before problems that apply those ideas are introduced.

I have realized that there is an important factor I neglected to mention. My child refuses to skip problems. So if we use the regular workbook, she'll wind up doing *every single problem*, no matter how mind-numbing. Because of this, I need to find a single, core workbook for her to do all of. This is why I was leaning toward the Intensive Practice book. Regarding Beast Academy, she did manage to get all the way to the last few pages of 3A (and she will be finishing it next week). She is definitely capable of doing Beast Academy. It's just that Beast Academy's method doesn't seem to be the most optimal for her right now, because she spends too much time getting herself in emotional knots.

I recently created some for a homeschool math group. Not the most visually elegant ever, but you're welcome to use them. Start in the box with the double border, escape the maze from the box with an open side: http://www.thepurplehouse.net/sek/homeschooling/SkipCountingMazes.pdf

My daughter is just finishing Beast Academy 3A, and we have decided to give Singapore a try after this -- she has fond memories of doing the Singapore Math IP 1A book the summer before last. She has previously used Math Mammoth, and that worked pretty well for her. The reason we are not continuing with Beast Academy is because she gets overwhelmed by how hard some of the problems are, and has trouble calming down enough to determine that she actually does know how to solve it. I think she would do better for now with something else, so I was planning to go back to Math Mammoth when she asked about doing Singapore. I'm OK with letting her have input on this. I am thinking of getting the U.S. Edition Textbook and the Intensive Practice and Challenging Word Problems books. I feel as though the types of problems in the regular workbook would bore her. I know this is something others here do -- should I rethink this? Would it be better if we did use the regular workbook instead of the Intensive Practice book? She did fine on the placement test for Singapore 2A, so I'm planning to have her start in 2B, since that looks like material she doesn't already know inside out and backwards.

Hmm, Karl... I wonder if Karl could do puzzles like that. I may give it a shot.

Sort of like that, except that you aren't told what number to skip count by, and they don't all start with a multiple of the number you're to use. I've attached an example of the kind of puzzle in the Beast Academy 3A book; start at green, finish at red.

My daughter just finished the skip counting mazes in Beast Academy 3A, and loved them. She wants more. Of course I could make some, but I thought I'd ask if there are some similar ones ready-made. Anyone have any pointers? Thanks!

Well, my oldest child is seven, and I just set her computer account up to use e-mail. She wanted to be able to e-mail a friend who had moved away; the friend in question doesn't respond to physical letters but does use e-mail. I did make sure she knew how to touch type first, though. I don't have a clear philosophy on Internet use for my kids, but I model the use of various Internet tools all the time, so I expect they'll pick it up.

I did this with my daughter in Kindergarten. I hung up a big map of the world and let her pick what country/place she wanted to study. During the course of the year, we studied a country on each continent, as well as studying the continents in overview. We used a children's atlas, "Children Just Like Me," "A School Like Mine," and lots of library books. We particularly liked the "True Books" series, because she was able to read them herself. She did art projects related to the different areas we were studying, and we also kept a weekly temperature graph of three places all year. We watched a bunch of documentaries about the various places we studied, too. It was a lot of fun. I definitely don't think you need any kind of formal curriculum to do this with a Kindergartner.

My daughter did well on standardized testing. She is in first grade, and took the ITBS level 7. Her weakest area was "Language," where she scored in the 91st percentile. She got one question wrong in each of "Capitalization in Context," "Punctuation in Context," and "Usage and Expression." She got all of the "Spelling in Context" questions right. I am not terribly concerned that she wasn't entirely confident about where a comma needed to be placed or what needed to be capitalized, particularly since she also reads and writes German, where the rules for both are different. In the LA area, we've been using Evan-Moor's "Daily Six-Trait Writing" for second grade this year, and I feel that's been a good balance for her between writing concepts and other language arts topics. I feel no need to place a huge amount of emphasis on this stuff at her age. She's also done some copywork and dictation, often based on things I noticed in her writing. For example, we recently did a couple of weeks of copywork and dictation highlighting the distinction between their, they're, and there. In math, she got an overall score in the 98th percentile. Her weakest area was "math concepts"; as far as I can tell, this was mainly due to not being able to estimate weights and measurements. She did very well on all the math computation sections, and I credit our use of Math Mammoth this year for that. She's the kind of kid who wants to do every problem, even if she finds it boring, so she got a lot of computational practice. She scored in the 96th percentile in reading; she's currently on the last 20 pages or so of the final Harry Potter book, so I have no concerns about her reading. We are not using any type of reading curriculum. She scored in the 99th percentile on Social Studies, Science, and Sources of Information, which I attribute to the wide range of activities we engage in as a family, rather than to any specific curriculum.