I have one like this - does NOT want to be taught. I let him "teach me" (which basically means he reads the section to me and works through the sample problems out loud). If I can see he is getting stuck, I ask leading questions (again, playing the student role). For whatever reason, though he hates me teaching him, he loves teaching me, even though we both know I already know how to do it and he doesn't.

We used the MP lit guide for The Lion, The Witch, and The Wardrobe this summer. It was WONDERFUL! We really dug in and got SO MUCH out of it. I had several other literary analysis books to use alongside, and by halfway through I was just using the MP guide. We read Heidi next, and got the lit guides for that as well. The guide was very similar. We didn't like it nearly as well, perhaps because there isn't nearly as much deep stuff to get out of the book. It felt like overkill for what it is. We have ditched all writing at this point, and are just answering the questions orally. The questions for this one are fine, but nothing I couldn't have easily come up with myself on the fly. In the future, I will definitely get the guides for books that are harder or have a lot of symbolism. I will not get them for books like Heidi, which is a bit long, but otherwise is an easy, sweet little read.

We used Draw Asia by Kristin J. Draeger this summer with great success. We had previously done Draw the USA and Draw Europe by the same author. My one complaint about this books is the lack of gridlines or lines of latitude and longitude. I ended up adding those to each page for reference. I just have my kids work on it for 15-20 minutes a day. They start at the beginning of the book each day, and get as far as they can. They get faster as they learn it, so they get farther and farther each week. When they get to the halfway point in a book, instead of a blank sheet of paper, I give them a piece of paper with the first quarter of the book predrawn. (I drew it once, and just copy on my printer.) They still have to label everything, but they know it by then. When they get to three fourths of the way through, they get a page with the first half predrawn. It is a bit of game to see how far they can get while still being neat & accurate. :) The Olympics opening ceremony was SO MUCH FUN bc they knew so many of the places. They were racing to find the countries on world map placemats as they came in. Big fun!

You are most likely to be successful with Singapore if you use ALL the main pieces - Home Instructor Guide, textbook (we work through that together - that's you teaching), the workbook (my kids do independently, then I check and they correct), and the extra practice book (kids do independently, I check, they correct). Then we use Intensive Practice on a delay to review & see that we didn't miss anything.

FYI - technically it is phased out, but the standards they replaced it with are 99% the same as Common Core. They were just trying to distance themselves from the backlash against CC. I have been very pleased with the Standards edition. We use the HIG, textbook, workbook, and extra practice book. We also use the intensive practice book (which is not Standards), but on a few months delay - I just use that as review.

No need to stress, bc you are starting at the beginning! You will be teaching from a book, and you will be able to understand kindergarten math. I promise. Then next year, you will have a book, and you will learn 1st grade math. Easily, bc it is at a 1st grade level! If you had had a kid in public school for the first 5 years and then needed to bring them home and learn this different way of math, you would have a whole different situation! At this point, though, you are starting at the beginning. There is truly no need to sweat this. We did both Miquon Math and RightStart. One was the kid exploring and figuring out how numbers worked, and the other was the complete opposite - you explaining exactly why everything works. I had my kids "play" with Miquon, then followed with RightStart to be sure they caught it. It was a GREAT foundation, and I wouldn't change a thing!

How much time do you spend in the car? Our "read alouds" are now audiobooks. Having a captive audience has helped us immensely!

The problem I ran into doing that was that sections would "get lost" by the kiddo. I now cut off bindings and scan so that I have a backup!

My kids spent about 4 hours a day last year in 4th grade, not included music and other extras.

We did skip counting songs, then deriving, then memorization.

There is hope! My 4th grader told me not long ago that "you can make me good at math, but you can't make me like it!". Whatever! You are getting good at it, and that's half the battle! We switched to Singapore last year, and it was a hit for my non-mathy kid, believe it or not. We do the Intensive Practice a month or two behind where we are in the textbook so nothing gets lost.

Ditto. I have one kiddo who is REALLY REALLY not mathy. I mean the unmathiest kid you ever heard of. We do math year-round, and I don't mean 10 minutes a day. We work HARD for 1.5 to 2 hours a day on math, and yet my 11 year old just finished Singapore 3B. But she knows that material inside out! Honestly, I don't care if we don't get to algebra on time. I want to get there knowing that she has a very firm foundation and will be able to succeed. Better to know it well and be late than know it halfway and be on the regular schedule. In addition to our regular work, I have this kiddo reviewing math facts for 5 minutes 3 times a day, 7 days a week. I know it sounds like overkill, but seriously, twice a day five days a week didn't make it stick at all. Three times a day 7 days a week seems to finally be the magic amount - I am FINALLY seeing some retention! All that to say - do what you have to do, even if it is somewhat painful short-term because it isn't the societal norm. You can survive anything for a season, especially if it is a season when you do less schoolwork in other subjects.

We spend - 5 minutes every morning on Big Brainz Timez Attack - 5 minutes midday/at quiet time on MobyMax Fact Fluency or XtraMath - 5 minutes at night on the math fact app of their choice - the current fav is Squeebles, but Math Monkeys is not far behind 15 minutes every single day makes a HUGE difference! I like them using MobyMax or XtraMath because I can look in once a week or so and see how they are doing. We also do speed drills from Math-Aids.com once per day. I told them the goal was to finish 100 problems in 10 minutes, which of course they could do easily. When everybody got to 5 minutes, I told them the goal was 7 minutes. When everyone was averaging under 4 minutes, I told them the goal was 5 minutes. So I don't stress them out about it, but they get a little encouragement to hurry, and I get a measure of progress that allows me to see exactly where their weaknesses are.

I joined CC with low expectations. My kids have some learning challenges, and I didn't expect them to be able to hang with the memory work, so we truly just joined for the social / class experience. My kids have really surprised me though. They have done GREAT with it! They have learned WAY more than I ever imagined. I am seeing the memory work really pay off. None of my kids could remember ANYTHING before this. Now, they can remember dance routines, follow instructions with several steps, etc. The practice memorizing has really improved their ability to memorize, if that makes any sense. The other real benefit is that they are SO interested in our history and science when it overlaps something we have learned previously at CC. Even if they can't quote the memory work exactly, they perk up and get all into it when they have been exposed to it before! The campus south of me is extremely fundamental Christian. The one north of us is much more hippie, and doesn't seem religious at all. Ours is somewhere in the middle. One of these campuses has tons of Memory Masters (kids who have learned 100% of the material) every year. Another has never had a Memory Master, and there is no emphasis on it at all. One campus somewhat near us has had 100% turnover several years in a row. 100% - can you believe that? Another has had 100% retention. My point here is that it is REALLY important to visit and check out the other families and the director to decide if the campus is a good fit for you and your family. The curriculum is the same, but it is a vastly different experience depending on the campus. I love ours b/c I fit in well with the director & other families, but would not be happy at all at some of the other locations near me. Our group meets from 9 to 12 for Foundations. 9 - 915 - big group assembly - pledge, prayer requests & prayer, announcements - a different family leads each week915 - break up into classes & walk to classrooms (classes have 7 or so kids who are roughly grouped by grade level / age)30 minutes - new "grammar" - memory work in 7 areas - timeline (high-level), history sentences (details about one event), geography, math (skip counting, conversions, etc.), science, English grammar, and Latin - taught using songs, jumping jacks, etc.30 minutes - fine arts - 1st quarter drawing, 2nd quarter music/tin whistle (which is like a recorder), 3rd quarter art, 4th quarter orchestra/composers/music appreciation30 minutes - science experiment / demonstration - they walk through the scientific method every single time - older kids write up a lab report30 minutes - each child gives a presentation to the class (basically show-and-tell in lower grades, gets more academic as they get older)30 minutes - games reviewing the memory work from prior weeksthere is a snack/bathroom break in there as well, so that gets us to noonWe then go back to the gym where we had assembly, and everyone eats lunch together. At 1:00, kids 4th grade and up go to Essentials. Some of the youngers leave, others stay for either martial arts or a lego class from 1-2. From 2-3, optional enrichments for youngers are art and Playball (sort of like PE). The format from 9-12 should be the same at most campuses. The afternoon programming varies a lot - some campuses have several options, some have none. We also do a fair number of field trips together - we have group children's theater tickets and that kind of thing. Some families from our campus are also planning next year to add a second day each week, patterned after this: http://solagratiamom...ns-week-13.html It will of course be optional for families at our CC - just a way to fill out the memory work a little more, as well as get together with others more. (It will probably be 2-3 hours, not another full day.) I always have great intentions of doing this kind of thing with my kids at home, but don't get around to it as much as I'd like, so my family is definitely participating! As for what you'd need - - Foundations Guide - one tin whistle per child - we primarily review in the car, so for us, the audio CDs with the memory work on them are essential. You could download it all off CC's website (if you pay to subscribe - $6 per month for people who attend a CC campus). Personally, though, I like having the labeled CDs with the box so it is easy to find what we want. - you could get away with not getting the timeline cards, but your kids will be asking you "who is Confucious?" and "what's the Council of Trent?", and it is really nice to be able to just flip that card over and give them a summary rather than having to look it all up! - we used the flashcards to play games a lot last year, but haven't done so this year for some reason - I bought the maps, but HATE them, so we haven't used them at all. They are black & white, and would be SO much easier to use if the water was colored blue. All those tee-tiny black outlines are just impossible to distinguish. - science cards - I have them and haven't even opened the pack yet, so I can't comment on what they are like, but they would be an extra, not a necessity - the resource CD is basically a power point of all the memory work. My kids would never sit for that, but I have a friend who really likes it. - I have not used the Latin trivium tables at all. Maybe someone with older kids would?

I generally plan to school every weekday, year-round. We then take time off randomly as desired - when DH has a day off from work, when we go out of town for dance competitions, etc. School looks different at different times of the year. For example, - We are still finishing up the math book for the year. We should finish in another few weeks. At that point, we will go to "fun" review pages for the rest of the summer. - We struggled some with short answer / comprehension in literature this year, so we are working our way through Memoria Press's guide to The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe. - We did well in grammar this year, and finished what I wanted to for the year, so for the summer, they are independently doing a summer bridge grammar workbook that is very easy for them. - We have finished our history book for the year. Instead of history, we are now practicing blobbing the middle east / western asia, in preparation for starting the ancients in the fall. - I hate teaching science, so I am calling the class they took this year good enough. They do a "green hour" daily (go outside, find something interesting and draw it). We do a lot less school in the summer, but still hit it for a few hours every day. Even when we go to the beach, they will spend a little time in the hottest part of the day inside working. That way I don't ever have to feel guilty about taking time off during the year as suits our schedule! I should mention, though, I have 2 kids with some minor learning challenges. If they take more than a few days off at a time, everything they have ever learned seems to fall out of their heads and have to be re-taught. I might be more comfortable taking more time off if all my kids were more typical learners.

Gotcha - THANKS!

Never fear, we are definitely carrying on with math textbooks, not holding on this! I just wasn't sure what a reasonable expectation was, vs beating the dead horse. Thank you - sounds like one of mine will be excused from daily practice, but the other three need to keep going. They'll be thrilled. :)

At what benchmarks would you consider your child to have truly mastered their math facts and not need to practice them separately anymore? - Three seconds per fact, with 90% accuracy? - Two seconds with 95% accuracy? - One second with 100% accuracy? Also, how far up do you go? 10s? 12s? 15s? 20s? I have four kids in various stages with this, and am wondering for two of them whether their time would better be spent elsewhere. Thanks!

We are going to have to work some this summer on our IEW skills to prep for a class next year. My kids aren't going to be thrilled about it. Which is more FUN for the kids, All Things Fun & Fascinating, or Fables, Myths, and Fairy Tales?

I would start with Handwriting Without Tears. It establishes the correct direction to draw circles, focuses on spacing, size, etc. It's a great base. Then you can transition to something with more pizzazz when the fundamentals are solid. The cursive font I keep thinking I will go to is the one used in French schools - look it up - so pretty!

I'm not the original poster, but wanted to thank you for this. I needed to hear it today! :)

Oh, so glad I hadn't yet pressed the "buy" button on SSL! Thanks, friends!

My son just turned 11, and will be going into 5th grade in the fall. He will be taking a class that uses MP's Latina Christina. He has not had any Latin before (none of the other kids have either), but he is nervous about it and asked me to get him a fun, light, intro Latin program to go through this summer. Are we way too old for Song School Latin? Is there anything else that is light and FUN to serve as an intro to Latin?

I am SO excited that my kids are finally old enough to really enjoy The Lion, The Witch, and the Wardrobe!! I would love to do a fun study out of this, kind of like we did a gazillion years ago with Five in a Row books. Resources? Study guides? Other things that added to your kids' enjoyment / understanding of this book? My crew is finishing 3rd/4th grades. Thanks!

He wants to pick Beast Academy back up this summer instead.