In honor of this thread, posted by Colleen, I wanted to express my surprise and excitement in finding a teacher's edition for my 60's Dolciani text. I'm crossing my fingers and hoping it's not one of those orders that gets cancelled because it was already sold. (That happens to me sometimes on Amazon.) Anyway, I'm excited, and will be looking forward to the mailman bringing this to me soon!

Thank you! Those illustrations are wonderful. This one would be very nice for printing as a poster for the kitchen. I'm sure there are more like it, but I'll have to spend some time browsing. I wish there was some way to pull up all the full page illustrations at one time for each volume. I clicked on "about this book" and three or four of them came up. The smaller illustrations are fantastic for timelines or notebooking.

Thank you. I guess it is hard for me to let go of going from one worksheet to the next (MEP--I am teaching the lessons on the dry-erase board first). We have been working in another text at night (60's math), and this has been working okay. I really would like to pick up CSMP again, as it was very fun and enjoyable, but I'm trying to figure out how to make all of this work in the way you've described. Editing... I had hoped to have a math-rich environment here as well. That was part of my plan originally. I'm not pulling it off as well as I'd hoped, though.

This is very interesting to me. I'd like to know more. Do you have a particular scope and sequence you are following? We've had to drop a couple of other things we were using for math, as time has been our enemy lately. I'd really like to pick them up again. Are you doing something on some kind of schedule at all? Is it following in a sequence through each program?

I'm sorry, but I think I posted in error about the book I suggested to you. It is more likely a high school level book, due to the subject matter.

Yes, this is absolutely true! We're still doing supplemental work at night with a vintage text I own, but those days of doing MEP and CSMP together are going by the wayside.

Well, we probably should be in Year 5, but we've been moving along a little slower in order to allow certain concepts to *sink in*, so we're in Year 4 here. I probably started using the copymasters daily once we started Year 3, as I do think I remember drawing some of the charts and puzzles on the board prior to that year. No, I don't think they've added anything. Since you're working in Year 1, you probably already know about the work towards the end of the year. Those lessons get kind of taxing after awhile, but do keep going, as you will pass through them and onto more interesting material. (I'm speaking of the numbers strip lessons here.) Those lessons I did print the copymasters for, as it was much easier, and more fun to color the number strips in copymaster size. I only wanted to add my experience, as much of the lesson plan work in the successive years uses the copymasters for the *class* lessons. I teach that part of the lesson from the dry-erase and they are then worked on the copymasters.

I use the copymasters on an almost daily basis. They are used as part of the work that is done in the lesson plans, and become *warm-up* work for us. Sometimes I do recreate the charts or whatever on the dry-erase board, but it is much easier to print the copymaster to work from. They are used as work pages just as the practice pages are used.

We use it here and love it. If you have the time, the best part about MEP are the teacher's notes in the lesson plans. We do all of the warm-up problems on the dry-erase which are included in the lesson plans, then start on the practice page.

You might get more responses over on the high school board. Here is a thread in which Nan in Mass discusses how she uses Ecce.

I've read good reviews of that series, and we own the one about the Alamo.

I voted for unit studies with the books you have listed, such as the Way Things Work, etc.

Here's one more, Harriet Jacobs, Incidents in the Life of a Slave Girl. It can be found free on Google books here. You might want to pre-read a bit ahead. I've read bits of it on and off. Pretty much brutal honesty, but it's first person, and really, that's a perspective you might want to explore. Editing to add... I picked my copy up at a National Park gift shop. It's a Dover Thrift Edition. It is brutally honest, but part of the draw for me was the testimonial in the appendix of the book, in which a friend states his witness to the accuracy of her story. In her preface, the author states that some of the events in the book seem incredible, though they are very true. It seemed so sad to me that the author needed someone to vouch for her story. Amy Post also writes in the appendix of her friendship with the author.

You can find many free e-books at Google books. Here is an example of a nice one. Scroll up or down from the page on that link to find problems you feel they are comfortable with. The one purchase you might think about, if you don't already own one, is a large dry-erase board. (You can get shower board at Lowe's or Home Depot and have them cut it in half for you. Make sure the finish is shiny, not dull, though.) These are great for working word problems. You can simply read the problem from the computer, and let the child write it on the board, working it from there. Cheap!

I have not used this, but it looks great to me.

I hadn't thought of making vocabulary cards for math, but this is a great idea. Thanks for sharing your idea. :001_smile:

I would set it up like this: 3:5 = 17.10:n (multiply outers and inners :), a silly jingle I learned way back when) So, 3 x n = 5 x 17.10 3n = 85.50 n =28.50 So, the total amount is $28.50. Then subtract the $17.10 from the total ($28.50) and get $11.40. When I took algebra many moons ago, I was taught to set those kinds of problems up as ratios and proportions. (Remember, a proportion is a statement that two ratios are equal.) It helped me tremendously to see how the numbers compared to each other that way. In other words, I would see this as 3 is to 5 as 17.10 is to what number (n).

:iagree: This is exactly how I approach mathematics in my home. We work hard to fill up the "toolbox" so that those tools will be handy when the time arises for their use. I really can't see working through a course of mathematics for elementary any other way. The tools need to be in place first, in order to face the challenges later. What we are doing to achieve that end is working through our math program, extending the lessons at times to twist things up a bit, changing the problems to ramp up the difficulty level. That has helped tremendously, and I'm hoping it is paving the road for further travels along our path in mathematics. (for example--looking for patterns, using properties of mathematics, looking for connections, etc.) I can't see why an older Dolciani text, or any algebra text for that matter, wouldn't work for this purpose. There are many vintage texts free on google books, for access to "muscle math" problems. Why not write a problem or so a day on the dry-erase at the beginning of the school day and see if it can be solved independently, based upon the skill set which the child owns at present? It's what we're doing with a 60's Dolciani, and it's working so far. (A sling-it-out-there-and-see-what-happens kind of thing. Let them work as far along as possible.)

We love the Coville books here, too. I'm still in the process of collecting a few titles.

This is exactly what we do for grammar. I write the sentences on the board that we are to analyze, and then they are marked with the colored marker for their function. We do the same on notebook paper using colored pencils. You could do the same on a magnetic dry-erase board, using some magnetic tags for labels.

Just giving this a friendly bump, as I missed it when it was originally posted in December. This is a great thread. :)

:iagree: I was going to suggest the first two years of MEP, too. I would also suggest working with the properties until he is comfortable, using C-rods if you have them.

Oh yes! The bakery across the street from the market is divine! Russian, I think? It's also fun to watch the fish tossing in the market. Heck, I could stay there all day. So many yummy sights and smells to take in, and so little time... The Museum of Flight is great! Don't forget about touring the Concorde across the street while you're there. Editing... The Experience Music Project was kind of "meh" for us, but the Science Fiction museum was really cool!

I finally found it. Hmm, I'm probably wrong on this one. It's definitely one to make you think. I think what I'm trying to express about this is that, the *feeling of* "to win", is the same as "wonderful". I know I'm not making sense here, and I'm only on my first cuppa coffee. Has anyone read anything on the yahoo group? I really need to join.

To me, "wonderful" renames the phrase "to win", so it functions as a predicate noun. Which exercise is this? I'd like to look at it too.