Well I've changed my mind again (I change my mind a lot),and just thought I'd mention it, for what it's worth. Yesterday I spent a whole minute making up a math facts worksheet and he plowed right through it, only using c rods for a couple of the subtraction problems. He did great with it. And it occurred to me that maybe what we've been doing isn't so bad. My thought now is this: to set aside a day or so to present a miquon lesson. No worksheets - just using activities in the book. (planning one lesson a week or so should be doable I think.) Then we can tackle the workbook. And I will also set aside some time to find free worksheets online to reinforce stuff we have done, so that I have days when I can just hand him a worksheet and let him go at it. I'd like to invest in an Abacus just to have around. This plan might free up extra $ for Fred:) I will keep this in mind. The multiplication was hard, but he did really 'get' it, at least to the degree that we used it, and I think he found it satisfying to understand something that he had to struggle with. Although I used an activity from the book Family Math that really helped him get the concept in the beginning, when he just wasn't getting it at first. But maybe practicing math isn't really as complicated as it seems sometimes? Maybe I don't really know what living math with is. I just thought of it as using activities and manipulatives more than worksheets. Everyone says that cooking is great math practice, but I have my kiddos bake with me all the time and I don't feel like it's done much, math wise. I used some of the ideas from livingmath.com for K, because I didn't use a curriculum, and it seemed to work. Maybe I'm just expecting too much in terms of what to expect from my kiddo, which is really what a curriculum heavy approach would give me: the assurance that you should study ABC and if you pass the test, you've got it. Not so bad in some ways, but this approach kinda' failed me when I was in school. So I am going to work on relaxing a little about this and let things soak in as we go along. If they can use the math and make larger connections regarding what they are doing (the connections between adding and multiplying for example, which I could barely grasp in third grade. I didn't know what skip counting was until a couple of years ago. Amazing how that helps.) Then I am doing the job, right? Time will tell I guess.

Thank you so much for all your replies and wonderful ideas.Wow, so much to choose from! But I already know that the time isn't there for piecing together different resources. However, after talking it over with my husband, I think we are going to go with MM. He thinks that more structure would be a good idea for me:) I need low cost and dislike computer programs AND videos. Although I really should look at education unboxed, I've heard so many good things. Tthe rods themselves have not been very difficult for me. I've been amazed at how much the kids can underand using them But I'm hoping a math plan less dependent on me will free up more time and I will be able to plan fun math fridays or something. It occurred to me as well that my son often likes to do things on his own, and he gets much more enjoyment out of something he feels confident and comfortable doing. So it may be that the 'boring' aspect of worksheets and incremental lessons might really fit the bill for him and make math fun. I think we would love Fred - maybe someday. Thank you again for your help.

I have not been on here for a while, but had a little homeschool crisis a week or two ago and started re-evaluating all my choices! Math in particular is giving me trouble. I've been reading tons of old threads but I'm still a little stuck. I have an almost 7 yr old, 5 yr old, 18 month old, (and new baby on the way). I have been using miquon math with my oldest, and finished up the orange book recently. I'm impressed with what my son has learned, but not with my teaching method. In the beginning of the book, most of the material wasn't that hard and I picked up the habit of explaining enough to get him through the worksheet and moving on. Well, that wasn't sufficient for latter parts of the book. Multiplication really slowed us down and I felt like the introduction of new topics after that left me, at least, with a little too much information at one time. My son is not enjoying math very much. (He doesn't really enjoy anything about school, except what comes easy for him, so I'm not expecting a lot of enthusiasm. But neither of us were enjoying the process much.) Now what I should have been doing is adding in games and word problems for review and slowly working through the suggestions in the annotations book - but I've been tired and worn out and just didn't really have it in me. We're taking some time off, just doing some math facts practice and not doing much until I figure myself out. I was revisiting the annotations book today and there is so much good stuff in there, but with a new kiddo coming in May, I just don't see myself really putting together the instruction for relying on Miquon. Still with me? Sorry this is so long. It occurred to me that I should really just get Math Mammoth for my 1st grader, maybe starting in B, or possibly backing up to A, and let that do the extra work for me. BUT, I hated math in school, was poorly taught and am naturally bad at numbers anyway. Those worksheets are depressing to me. The thought of my 7 yr old boy sitting down to a worksheet of problems every day just makes me sad. We had some great moments with the C-rods, and I've enjoyed teaching what I can, but I think I need more hand-holding than Miquon offers. So now for my actual question:) I was looking at the Activities for the AL Abacus book produced by rightstart. It seems much more direct and scripted, but not overwhelming. Perhaps I could comfortably teach from this without a lot of prep and forethought? I realize this doesn't have much drill, which requires more thought from me. My next thought was to combine this with Life of Fred. My son loves stories and learns very well in that format, however we haven't actually tried any of the books so I don't know yet if he will truly learn this way. Do you think this would provide me with enough material to work with: Life of Fred combined with Activities for the AL Abacus for most of our math instruction? I have Family math if I need extra ideas, and I thought of getting MM topical books on things like time and money and measurement as we go along. Or will I just be making a ton of work for myself? Because a ton of work is not going to happen for me. Should I just stick with Math Mammoth and do most of the work orally? Make up word problems to go with the worksheets? Thank you in advance for your help.

My son is in first grade and reading happily to me every day, (hurray! Took us a while for reading to be fun.) I probably pushed too much in the beginning, (he's the first), and I used Phonics Pathways. He came to hate the book, and still really dislikes it. He will read from it if I make him but he quickly grows bored, but yesterday he was reading more than I asked for from the Christian Liberty press reader. He's picking up words very fast, but I've basically dropped phonics and I don't know if this is a good thing. I seem to remember reading somewhere about making a phonics chart, maybe on poster board? Something that would be fun to do a couple times a week to review phonics and make sure he's thinking about them without belaboring the subject, since he's happily reading and I hope to start spelling next year. Anyone done something like this? Do you use word families? Just add a sound and a few sample words? I guess it shouldn't be that hard but my brain is operating a little slowly lately. If anyone knows of photos online somewhere I think that would do the trick for me. Thank you!

There are a couple of games I am aware of that I have NOT tried, my kids are still a little young, but they have rave reviews and sound like fun. Muggins is one, which is $39, and Math Dice, (I guess Think Fun Math Dice is the full name), which is only $6. Both involve trying to reach a target number by using addition, multiplication, etc. There's also Sumoku. Which is a little like scrabble with numbers but you have to use multiples. They sound fun to me. I hated math in school and sometimes just looking over math work pages makes me want to squirm a little, (I'm using Miquon with my 6 year old), so any time I see these types of games, I drool over them and therefore remember them.

Thank you all for this thread. I have Family Math and have been wondering if I should invest in Kitchen Table Math as well. This was very helpful. Right now I'm leaning towards getting it. I've tried a couple of games from Family Math (my oldest is only 6) and we liked them. And for a week or so my son enjoyed looking at the hundred number charts. (but you can always print those from the internet.) It has a lot of ideas that seem fun to me, but it is obviously intended to reinforce concepts that have already been taught.

I learned to play the trombone through school - I know nothing about lessons- so you can take this with a grain of salt. But the nice thing about drums is that the initial learning curve is not very steep. You just beat on them. If I were in your place I would buy him a small conga drum (the kind you play with your hands) or look for an affordable snare drum and let him bang away on his own. Let him practice along with music, learn to clap the beat to a song together and then let him play the beat. There isn't that much technique involved for a while, although I speak as a total non drummer.

BFSU download http://outskirtspress.com/webpage.php?ISBN=9781432706104 I found this thru his pressforlearning.com website. I looked once before and thought that it was no longer available at this price. Nice to know I was wrong:)

I forgot about Alphaboat, by Michael Chesworth. It's full of all kinds of terrible puns on grammar, language, sailing, and so on. The kids liked the story and the pictures:)

Last week we found a version of Rapunzel by Paul O. Zelinsky that had the most beautiful illustrations I've ever seen in a picture book, all done in the style of the italian renaissance (or something like that. I don't know much about art history.) We liked this Little Red Riding Hood, http://www.amazon.com/Little-Red-Riding-Hood-Brothers/dp/0823406539/ref=pd_sim_b_5 , which has similar illustrations to St. George in the Dragon. (I just realized it's the same illustrator -) This might be scary for some. I also really liked a book by Jane Yolen called Elsie's Bird about a girl who travels with her father from Boston to the midwest. And I still love a House is A House For Me. And the Story of Ferdinand. I know there have been others but I can't think of them right now. I have gotten really tired of reading picture books, and I've only been reading them for a couple of years, but some of them I have thoroughly enjoyed and am grateful to have found them.

Yes. I was talking with a homeschool mom once with several children (seven I think at that time) and I explained how I felt like I never got out at all and she said that when her children were my age, she felt the same way, but now that some of hers are older, help with the littles and want to have challenging discussions, she feels that less. Another homeschooling Mom told me how her teenagers wanted to stay up late and talk with her about everything and I thought, that sounds wonderful! I'm an introvert but I love talking to a small number of people about interesting things. Why does that happen so rarely? Anyway, she enjoyed it, but it was a different kind of challenge from the physically demanding younger years. You are definitely normal in my opinion.

So, I have written a novel. I've put a lot of time into it and have had a great deal of fun with it. But now I'm contemplating rewriting the plot and making huge sweeping changes and I'm afraid I am about to take something that already works and mess with it for no reason. So I would like some other eyes on it. My husband has read some of it and says that it is good, which means a lot to me because he's hard to please, but it's a love story, and isn't really his kind of thing and he doesn't seem very motivated to read more of it, so I thought some other opinions would be helpful. As far as genre, I guess maybe it's a christian romance, but I haven't actually read many of these and it may not fit perfectly there. Part of what motivated this story was my own feeling that most chick flick type stories are not as interesting as the stories I've heard from Christians working through relationships that started out with a lot of obstacles, particularly when one follows Christ and the other doesn't. (It is all strictly fiction though.) My own faith is biblically conservative and that is reflected in the story. There is a little mild language, drinking, etc, because of the nature of the characters. I know that this isn't a writing forum or anything, but I've spent more time reading in this forum than anywhere else online and I feel like this is a good place to find thoughtful opinions. I don't really need major editing advice (at least not yet), I just want to know if the story works, or if you are bored to tears, or you find it unbelievable - stuff like that. I have friends I could ask but I'm intimidated by the thought that they might think it stinks, and I thought someone I don't really know might make a better first time reader. I had no idea I would be so insecure about my own writing before I began this! Anyway, if this interests you at all, please let me know. A PM is fine, or you can post and I can send you a sample and you can tell me if you'd like the whole thing emailed to you. Or maybe I could use Google Docs? I don't know. Let me know what you think. Thanks in advance! Below is a brief 'novel blurb' I wrote in five minutes to give you some idea of what it is about. Growing up in a lake house in a tiny town doesn’t give much opportunity for finding love. Charlotte is ready to get a taste of real life, and a chance at love, when her cousin invites her to share her town house in a college town. Her best friend Jane joins her, but Jane grew up as the housekeeper’s daughter, and has confined herself to the modest goal of earning a degree and supporting herself. But if it’s hard to find a future in small town Vermont, finding the right road for a Christian woman with high standards among the young elite of Burlington is full of obstacles that Charlotte and Jane have not anticipated.

I was reading a sample of this online and it was interesting, but I'm concerned the book won't be all that relevant for us, and on a limited budget, I'm trying to decide if it's worth an investment. We live on the Texas Gulf coast, where there are plenty of palm trees, pelicans, crabs, and other cool nature stuff, but no acorns, squirrels, robins, and all the ordinary things a lot of early science programs seem to focus on. I like Ambleside Online a lot and will likely be using a lot of their recommendations, but I'm not sure about this one. My son is a real nature lover, and I would love to have a single purchase to answer some of his questions about flowers, bugs, etc. but I'm afraid to get a book that doesn't apply to what's actually around us. Thoughts?

This page explains how the AL abacus is used to solve some problems. if that's helpful at all. http://www.alabacus.com/pageView.cfm?pageID=315

Veritas press carries them.

Thank you for sharing this. It looks really fun! We've been slowly working on Phonics Pathways, but my son finds the lists of words pretty dreary, but does so well when it becomes a game, and I've just about run out of ideas.

I have not idea what this book is truly like, but I was reading about it the other day. It's called My First Science Notebook from what used to be called Castle Heights Press, but is apparently now called Homeschool science press. I don't think it's intended to be a full curriculum. Here's part of the description: "My First Science Notebook is for the student. In this book the kindergartener through third grader can learn the skills of science as the workbook takes them through observation, data recording, scientific drawings, and experiments." Here's the link: http://www.homeschoolsciencepress.com/shop/my-first-science-notebook

Hopefully others will have some ideas that they have used with their kids. I only know of this one from reading about it. Khan Academy is free videos and tutorials, mostly on math, but also covers some science and economics. My husband and I watched a few together to help me understand fractional reserve banking, and I thought that he was a good teacher. http://www.khanacademy.org/ You might look at Currclick.com as well, and see what they have for free.

I just read a list of books like this on the Circe Institute blog (Andrew Kern). Here's the link. http://circeinstitute.com/2011/02/childrens-books-to-feed-the-moral-imagination/ I found it to be an inspiring article, even though my kids are too young still for most of these books.

This is a helpful discussion. Thanks everyone for sharingyour experiences!

This makes me feel better about boxing up the magic school bus books and hiding them - again. My son loves the pictures, but I just can't stand reading them over again. And it seems like so many elementary science plans depend on books like these. Puzzles me.

My kids are still young - I will start formal school with my son in the fall, after we've gotten used to the new baby:) but money has been very tight this year, which has made me think a little more about how to homeschool on a budget. I'm hoping to have around $200 to spend for next year. (We already have a story Bible and Phonics Pathways - I found an older edition for under ten dollars at Amazon. Too bad my son hates the book, but it's given me a place to start anyway.) Here are some inexpensive options you could consider: I have not read Ruth Beechick's books, but she has one for k-3 called the Three Rs, to help you teach reading, writing and math with whatever is around the house. She has a second book for 4th -8th called You Can Teach Your Child Successfully. I think this is something of a unit study approach - I know sonlight is based on her methods. You could certainly add more rigorous grammar or writing programs to this, but theoretically, these two books could help you create your whole curriculum. Khan Academy has free lessons for math and science, and they are adding subjects I think. This is not from a Christian perspective. There might be some good options there for your oldest though. There are complete lessons for algebra and so on. homeschoolmath.net (which is put together by the lady who created Math Mammoth) has a ton of free resources and links also. A book called Writer's Inc is supposed to be a really good source for teaching writing and grammar. I also read a thread a while back that I can't find now, about a Brother Laser printer from Amazon for less than a hundred dollars, and supposedly this would allow one to print for a penny per page? It would be a great way to save on literature. If our library was better, I would be less inclined to go this route. Also, Abebooks seems to have really low prices on used books. Can't go too far wrong with lots of good books on a variety of topics, notebooks, and art supplies, that's what I'm hoping for at least. There's also the Bluedorn's book and website, triviumpursuit.com. Very different approach to classical ed. than the WTM, but it could be done on a really tight budget. Good luck! I hope you are able to find what you need. If there is a local homeschool group in your area, you might just ask if anyone has materials you can borrow. I've been given some great things from homeschooling families with older kids who just wanted to see there unused stuff get used.

The first pages of Phonics Pathways accomplished this for my four year old son. He's five now, and he can't really do much more actually - he still just reads the sound of each letter to get the word - every single time - just so you know that he's not really advanced or anything. But, what worked for him in PP is really similar to the ladder chart described above, but it's something like this: a m - a ma e m - e me i m - i mi and so on, through all the vowels, for each consonant. When that's done, it goes on to words with the last consonant. a s - a sa - d sad e s - e se - t set That's all. My three year old daughter can sound out words now, just from listening to me doing it with her brother over and over. She begs to read while my son begs to stop. Go figure.

I'm only just beginning to teach my oldest how to read - but the first few pages of Phonics Pathways really worked for us. Sounding out the letters in all those little boxes somehow taught him how to put the sounds together into words. Everything else has been slow going though...but he's still young as well.

I read somewhere on here long ago that the Singapore science books are similar to the European model. There is a middle and high school curriculum that goes through bio, chem and physics over multiple years. I understand the high school chem at least is difficult to do at home - maybe you could use the texts as a supplement or an outline to follow, along with a US text? http://www.singaporemath.com/Science_s/2.htm