I dropped off the BaW threads sometime late-spring (again) in 2017. I have great plans to NOT do that this year. My goal is to read 52 books this year, but not necessarily one per week. I just finished (like, half an hour ago) Kingsolver's The Poisonwood Bible for the first time. And, it cries out to be talked about. But, there's no one to talk to IRL except dh who is still in the middle of the audio, and who has already read it once 15+ years ago, so he knows where it's headed, but he doesn't remember all the details. I just have to say...knowing that this space/thread is here, makes me smile every time I think about it. Thank you!

Just about any super cheap (usually older style) smart phone capable of accessing google store can be used easily for audible books and regular mp3s. I've gotten a couple for as low as $10-15. It's cheaper than most dedicated mp3 players. It's easier for my kids to navigate. It allows for audible books. You can pick whatever carrier/locked version is a good deal when you're shopping. You're not going to use the phone service, so it doesn't matter. You can load it up with your own content and then disconnect internet service for younger children. There's usually a camera/video option to play around with. It's like an adroid-cheapo-version of an ipod if you never activate the phone service. It's worked really well at our house. (We do a LOT of audiobooks.)

You're all amazing! Thank you so much!

I've seen this file referenced in several different posts, but the links are all to a 404 File not found. Does anyone (who wouldn't be too put upon to find it and share) still have a copy of this file? I'd be seriously grateful! It's the one linked in the last post of this thread....(and several others, but that's the one I could find when I went back to try again.) http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/489035-how-do-you-use-figuratively-speaking/?hl=figuratively+speaking+short+story&do=findComment&comment=5212549

Me, too! I feel like I half-remember a conversation like this in one of Read 52 Books a Year weekly threads. But, I don't think I can find it. I think I realized that other people saw pictures. But I never really thought about the fact that it might include colors and or movement/video. That's disproportionately fascinating to me. I close my eyes and (after the lights that just imprinted from physically seeing fade) I've got this indistinct grey/black background to accompany my internal narration of all the things/events/people/etc. Every now and then it's like I can see shadows that are formed way behind me projected in front of me. Never colors. Never anything distinct enough to focus on. I could talk myself through the motions of drawing in the air in front of the grey/black background. So, if you say "Imagine a red triangle"....I could sort of get a "thing" moving around to form a clumsy triangle. But, that's more like you can sense movement when it's dark outside, even though you can't actually see it. I can open my eyes and find red (recognition is no problem)....but to imagine it? You guys can all just do that???! This realization seems like a really big deal. Whoa....

Memory palaces have been a puzzle to me because it always seemed like adding a layer of extra work in order to take a short cut. But maybe it actually is a short cut for most people? I wonder if it's (like so many things) a continuum? So maybe if I sometimes get hazy/fog/essence-like when I try visualize it's analogous to being legally blind, but with the ability to distinguish a bit between light and dark and registering blobby shapes moving from time to time?

I don't think I'm at all face blind because I recognize people well. I've played this game all my life (my husband thinks it's both hilarious and odd) where I associate people with other people. Mr. A looks like Friend B. Oh, and Mrs. C reminds me a lot of Aunt D. I think of So-and-so when we talk to Neigbor E. (etc.) So, I recognize people and can do names when I see the faces, but I can't conjure the images of ... anyone, really....without physically seeing them. I can remember lots of visual details. But only as lists of words and ideas in my head. Not as pictures. (Who knew that was an actual thing!!?!) I can remember stories well...but not scenes, unless (again) I explain the scene I'm looking at physically to myself in words. Then I can recall the things that are part of the scene. But, I couldn't close my eyes and picture anything. This is fascinating me today!

I feel like I should have known it was a big deal. Most people don't think in words? All that visualizing verbiage is not primarily metaphor? I may be weirder than I thought I was. https://electricliterature.com/no-i-cant-picture-that-living-without-a-mind-s-eye-f2a5d8c274f0 "The best way to describe how I think is in analogies, or the homework you were assigned when you were seven. A horse is to a car as a [blank] is to a microwave. The city is to a mouth of humid breath as I am to the cockroach roaming inside. Wedged between the teeth. Often my analogies are not analogous so much as associative: the things we learn, growing up, the shorthand we create for ourselves. I think in words, always, all the time. Inside my brain is dark, a noncolor, a nonspace, an echoed running monologue of my own voice. It is difficult to remember the experiences I do not immediately write down. My whole life has been a sieve, like trying to remember a dream after waking. All fog and quiet and I don’t know." "The visual world slinks away from the physically blind; the richness of memory from the mentally blind. But neither is anything more or less than this: a chance to become something new."

What a great reason to celebrate! Congratulations! Well done!

There's a free pdf of a selection of John Muir Law's stuff here. http://www.cnps.org/cnps/education/curriculum/ You might have to give them your email address, though.

Thanks, OhE, for finding the older thread! I think I'm clear that these are not tied in any official way to the Primary Mathematics books. They (this series, at least....) do look similar enough to me to the US edition version of the PM workbooks to be useable....especially if I'm teaching the actual material with the HIG/textbook (I have standard ed. for the HIG/tb) and just finding the right section for my student to do to go along with the lesson. I don't think the Challenge workbooks are really in the same class with Primary Mathematics CWP....but, as I keep looking at them they do seem to be roughly on par with the FAN Math Process skills books, imo....demonstrating standard and alternate strategies that aid in mental math and then giving sections of practice to cement understanding of the method. Extended illustrations of the usefulness of bar diagrams has helped at our house. So...not a replacement for IP or CWP...but, maybe a helpful middle option to help a student get ready for CWP without being completely frustrated by practicing different strategies before putting them to use with harder problems. Has anyone actually used either of these books? I'd love to hear from you, too!

Thanks for the review! I couldn't see much of a preview for that series because it was a print-only option. I appreciate the information. The series that I could see (most of the book) were the Singapore Math and Singapore Challenge Math. I'm wondering if anyone else has compared them to US edition workbooks and FAN Math Process Skills, respectively. And, if they would work comparably well. Any one else? Thanks!

Also...I can't seem to figure out how to edit the title of the thread. I meant Carson-Dellosa.

Here are links: http://www.carsondellosa.com/products/704681--Singapore-Math-704681#/?book media type=f389e45b92884d48844baaf09d49e3c5 http://www.carsondellosa.com/products/704280--Singapore-Math-Challenge-Workbook-704280#/?book media type=f389e45b92884d48844baaf09d49e3c5

Has anyone paired these (pdf, reproducible, $10) workbooks with the HIG/textbook for standards or US edition? Is there a good reason why that wouldn't work. Also, I searched and couldn't find discussion of Frank Shaffer's Challenge workbooks in comparison with either FAN Math Process Skills or Singapore's CWP. It's so much cheaper (and did I mention reuseable...) that I'm wondering what about this "too good to be true" is. TIA Sarah

I'm so sorry. Praying here, too.

Let us know if you do. :)

Anyone willing to buy the mystery bundle and tell what's included?

We really liked A Single Shard (already mentioned...medieval Korea) Shadow Spinner (backstory for Arabian Nights) Where the Mountain Meets the Moon (China...but more like a meta-story incorporating fairy tales/folk tales than anything resembling historical fiction...still a good story; maybe more for your younger student?) more by Grace Lin, too Also, I had my 6th grader read... Chengli and the Silk Road Caravan The Kite Fighters But, because I didn't get my prereading done, I don't know either of these stories well. I think she liked one and wasn't as impressed with the other. But, I don't remember which reaction went with which book.

:lol:

Tin Man Press https://www.tinmanpress.com/

MindBenders? http://www.criticalthinking.com/mind-benders-level-3-ebook.html

Math: Math Mammoth 4 (moving from SM Standards) English: ELTL 4, possibly adding some writing from either Killgallon or Treasuring Conversations Spelling: Phonetic Zoo, Level B Foreign language: Duolingo German History: HO Early Modern, level 1 Science: not certain...Mr. Q, Elementary Physics (?) Art: Mark Kistler? or Artistic Pursuits? This child is self-motivated and loves checklists. I think it should be a good year.

I think I've used the Khan teaching videos on a phone before. I don't know that you could do any math input without getting frustrated. But, probably the topic videos would be good? (It might eat up your data, though, if you're not on wi-fi.)

Kindle books (narrative, not illustration-heavy non-fiction so much) work okay on that size screen. SOTW or CHOW would work for history. Lots of audio books for content subjects, literature, history, pop-science, areas of interest. (I love phones for audiobooks!) Either audible or librivox (if you find narrators you like). Overdrive would work on there, too. Maybe apps like Anki (although, I still haven't figured out how to actually use this) for memory work. Duolingo for foreign language. xtramath ? I've done that on a tablet, but not on a phone. I think it would work, but I don't know that.