I agree that the DVDs really aren't such a huge deal, although I also hate them. lol I just watch one entire DVD at a time and take notes. I won't have to watch them again for #2, thanks to my copious notes this time around. I also make notes in my TG (Foreman's Manual? whatever it's called) whenever a word is supposed to go into a building code. I just pencil in BC9 or whatever next to the word. That way I never forget to add a word to a BC, even if I don't look at my notes closely that day. I would think people would like that reminder in there, if I ever wanted to sell PR. lol

My daughter turned 7 in May and I noticed the same thing happening for her a few months before her birthday. We have had periods where it's gotten worse and periods where it's gotten better, but she was tested for dyslexia around her birthday and they said her reversals are all developmentally normal and she's not dyslexic. So I guess my vote would be not to worry about it. I would think if it were a vision problem, as with dyslexia, he'd have trouble reading also, not just writing, so I would guess there's nothing wrong at all. :) But of course I'm not an expert or anything, so take it with a grain of salt.

We have a Macbook Pro (laptop) and an iMac (desktop) and we absolutely love both of them. The ONLY problems I've had are with Discovery Streaming videos and Adobe. The Discovery Streaming issue is that it won't play videos in the highest resolution setting when I'm using Safari. That is because there's some program that's not allowing it, and we don't know what. The solution is to wipe the computer clean and reinstall everything. This is according to the people at the Apple store, who spent over an hour trying to fix it (FOR FREE, IN PERSON - try getting that from another brand!!!). It's not really a big deal and it's not a normal problem with the computer. It works fine on my desktop, just not the laptop, so we know for sure it's just something we put on this computer somewhere along the way. Plus, I can play everything in any quality I want using Firefox or Google chrome, so I haven't bothered to have it fixed. The Adobe thing is the only thing that really, really, really makes me mad, but that problem is the perfect storm of printer, software, and computer. If I had a different printer or a PC it would print properly. It's just that this particular Canon printer with Adobe on Macs doesn't print properly. You can still print, but you can't print duplex or fast or anything like that. Not a problem with different printers using this computer (I've checked) and not a problem with this printer using a PC (I've checked that, too). Very weird, and it's not really Mac's fault. It's Adobe's fault, IMO. So those are the extent of my problems, and I've had the iMac for almost 2 years and the Macbook for 18 months. I've never had a computer for this long without seeing major problems with things getting slower and slower, but BOTH of the Macs are still perfect. They're pretty awesome. <3

I'm no pro, but I really don't think you'll need to work all through 1b at all - just make sure you touch on subtraction a little more than the few RS lessons on it, unless your kid really does well with it. Some kids wouldn't need that, but I know mine would have if we hadn't also covered it with MEP.

Our soft cover also got very worn in one year. It's much loved, so we got the hardback for vol. 2.

I don't think so, although I would cover subtraction a bit from MM 1B before doing that.

:iagree:

I think you need to use words in order for them to pick them up. :)

LOL! I do not wish to engage in a spanking debate and I didn't mean to start one, so hopefully it didn't come off that way. I just don't see how a book advocating treating teens like adults can also logically advocate corporal punishment for teens who get into trouble. It doesn't make sense. That's good, because I was really interested in reading the book, then read that first review and got turned off of it. Thank you!

Does The Case Against Adolescence really advocate spanking TEENAGERS as a form of punishment? One of the reviews says it does, and I'd rather not waste my money on a book like that. How do you on the one hand claim that we need to treat teens like adults, but on the other hand claim that spanking them like 6-year-olds is a good way to accomplish that? If that's so, the author really just lost his own argument and all credibility.

For me it wasn't about having lots of papers to file. I didn't. It was about having the few papers that I did have all neatly organized for the upcoming year, so that I didn't have to write it out in a planner or go searching and copying at the last minute. It helped me stay on track and not skip over subjects I might otherwise forget about. There weren't lots of papers, though. Just a few.

We've never done that - not even once. DD was a slow starter in reading, but now she's solidly on grade level (we just finished 1st). I don't think it matters or is necessary to do any writing with PP.

We love our Kinect. Kinectimals has lots of obstacle courses and things like that you can do. Beware that there is a GLITCH in Kinectimals that will cause your game to freeze if you put more than one or two collars and pendants on your animals. There is a patch for it, but you have to suscribe to Xbox live to get the patch. We just tell DD not to use more than one or two of the collars and pendants, because once the game freezes for that reason, you have to start all over from the very beginning - you can't unfreeze it. This is just a weird glitch in that particular game and I wouldn't let it turn you off of Kinect. I just thought I'd let you know since it took lots of online searching for us to figure out what the problem was. :) I have some Kinect fitness thing I like - it has yoga and kickboxing, but I can't remember what it's called. Anyway, I like it and the game that comes with the Kinect. :)

I can't decide if I'm going to do weekly files again or not. I did it for the first 12 weeks for this school year, but I didn't cut up any workbooks or anything. I just did it for things that didn't go in a workbook and I included all my supply lists for each week, with notes for what extra books we'd be using and such. It worked pretty well, except that things kept needing to be shuffled because I might not get to something that week. So after the first 12 weeks I separated it out by subject, making sure I still had everything printed and ready to go, but just in its own folder. That didn't keep me as on task. I'd keep forgetting to do things until the end of the week because they were filed away in their own folders that I'd forget all about. (I'm talking about things like geography and Spanish, not the three Rs.) So the weekly files didn't keep me perfectly on track, but apparently they did help quite a bit, which leaves me totally undecided. lol

I'm not there yet, but Singapore also teaches for conceptual understanding, so if you like it better, why not switch? :)

I use it in spurts, mostly at the beginning of the school year, but it's worth its weight in gold during that time. (Of course, only a homeschooling mother would say that. lol) I laminate things I'm going to be using over and over. I printed up word cards to go with our phonics program and I laminated them. I laminated the phonogram cards we have. I laminated a part-whole circle set for Rightstart, the Swim to Ten game, the numbers and chart for workboxes (which we abandoned...anyone need 12 numbers and a chart, all with velcro circles on them? heheh). DD makes bookmarks, which we also laminate. Stuff like that. :)

Thanks for the clarification, NittanyJen. I just don't think it takes a master's degree in a field related to math to determine whether or not a program does a good job of teaching the conceptual basis of regrouping. It's pretty basic. Now if we're getting into the higher maths, that's different. :) Oh, how weird is this: I haven't seen that movie in years, but tonight as I was riding around on the lawnmower cutting grass, that exact song kept running through my head. Okay, actually I was belting it out because no one can hear me over the lawnmower anyway. :lol:

If you took offense, I'm sorry it sounded offensive. lol In my next post I stated that neither was right or wrong. However, given that in his family people say 'uh', it is highly unlikely he will continue to read it as 'ay' as he grows. Right now it's just too much to remember that he normally pronounces it 'uh' in everyday speech. Once he's a better reader, he will almost certainly pronounce it the same way he does in his everyday speech, unless someone tells him not to.

You know, I figured you were thinking of 'the', where you pronounce 'thuh' before a consonant word and 'thee' before a vowel word. I figured that was what you meant, but was hurrying.

Neither of you are right or wrong, and that rule given by LizzyBee is inaccurate. You say 'an' before a word beginning with a vowel. :) The open syllable rule says it would be pronounced 'ay' but we do not speak that way anymore, and haven't for a long time. Let your son read it however he wants. He'll start saying 'uh' when he gets older. lol It's just a developmental thing when they're learning how to read.

If the next sound is a vowel, you are supposed to use the word 'an', not the word 'a'. In American English, the word 'a' is typically pronounced as a short u sound, 'uh', unless you are emphasizing the word for some reason. "You see some cars in the driveway?" "No, I see a car in the driveway." (pronounced as long a). That's how people talk, so that's how I read it. DD reads it as long a because she's still getting used to all that. She reads 'the' with a long e, too, even though we only say it with a long e when the next word begins with a vowel or we're saying it for emphasis.

So based on your own criteria of who should and should not be able to determine the worth of a curriculum, you guys aren't qualified to judge whether or not anything other than a math curriculum is any good. After all, your backgrounds aren't in English or history - they're in math, and you essentially just knocked every home schooling parent who didn't have math credentials for having an opinion about a math curriculum. I thought home schooling parents didn't do this nonsense to each other. It's very disappointing to see it - especially HERE, of all places. SWB and JW don't have math backgrounds either, but they certainly made recommendations in their book.

I agree with MEP and also with SOTW, if you're spreading the cost over multiple children. What about BFSU (Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding). I don't know if that meets your standard for being easy to use. Some say it is, some say it isn't. I don't find it difficult to use. I do think it's teacher intensive, but not difficult to use, although it's definitely unscripted. It's about $25, but you can spread it out over 2 or 3 years in the early grades. The second level is only $5 for the download. These are free grammar workbooks, although they are made for PS and probably wouldn't meet everyone's definition of high quality :tongue_smilie:: http://www.mhschool.com/reading/treasure_workbooks/national.html These are free grammar and reading workbooks, but again, made for public schools so possibly not high quality :tongue_smilie:: http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghb.html'>http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghb.html I would say both of the above are cute, but some of each is busy work. You can pick and choose from them though. Here's another one like those last two: http://www.sfreading.com/resources/ghb.html

The download version of BFSU is the same way, and I don't understand it at all.

I agree. I think it's sad that anyone would make light of kids crying over their education, as if looking for a program that doesn't cause tears is somehow doing a disservice to kids. :( Like a lot of things, this has also been researched, and when kids are crying there's a LOT less learning going on, no matter what program you use. And I say that as the parent of a child who regularly cries over school, so I'm not being judgmental about kids crying. I just hate the idea that it's no biggie and we ought not be so overprotective as to make a concentrated effort to avoid it. That's cruel. I've tried multiple different math and reading curricula. My dd just doesn't want to do school. She cries sometimes. If I found the magic bullet to stop those tears, you bet your behind I would switch. That's my job as her teacher: to assist her in her learning in the most enjoyable way possible for both of us, not to find the program that so-and-so likes and use it no matter what, because it's a "good" one.