Thanks for the worksheet. It has some good rules on there. What would you do with them? Do I just have my son read them? Anyone else?

What is fast draft?

My son is reading very well, but he needs some help with syllables. Not ones such as rabbit and such but longer ones. If they are in context he can get most of them but sometimes gets them wrong. We went through OPGTR and finished it last year. He did explode the code up to book 6. This year we were doing Primary language lessons and Rod & staff spelling, but they aren't teaching phonics. What can I do to help him in this area?

lol, don't worry, I don't have 8 tricks either. I was referring to the 8's trick with addition. We learned it in RS level B (we did this alongside horizons for mental math) Exp: 48+7= take 2 from the 7 to make the 48 a 50. So then you have 50+5. Horizons taught this in a more traditional way with carrying. Good to know both ways I think. There are other tricks out there for mental math... and I was never taught them so I want a curriculum/supplement that will. Make sense?

When I said Mental Math, I was referring to math strategies mainly. Although I do like the website recommended for free mental math printables. Great idea! I am talking more along the lines of the 8's trick for addition and other math tricks used to just make math easier to be done in your head. I don't think like this since I only learned the traditional way, so I wanted something to help me show him the tricks :) Do you think Math mammoth supplements would do this? Or maybe a book that would teach me the tricks and then I could show them to him and we could stick with horizons.

Just wondering what you used for that 6 months of pre-algebra stuff?

How exactly do you use the websters speller? My son finished OPGTR and is reading great, but could use some more multisyllable practice.

We have been using Horizons math for three years now and are pretty happy with it. However there are a few concerns I have. #1- Doesn't teach any mental math... it is all done by memorization. I had to supplement with other programs to get the mental math I wanted to teach taught. #2- I have heard that it isn't good after grade four. So I am worried that we will have to switch after that and that isn't a good time to switch math programs. So I guess I am wanting to hear from families who have used it and know what it is like all the way through. Is it just a rumor that it isn't good after 4th? Also does anyone have any ideas on how I can get a program like Horizons, only with mental math included? I have been thinking of using Horizons as our core program and then adding in some math mammoth for mental math? Any thoughts? Or experience?

I agree with many of the others. We LOVED RS we did level B. Here comes the BUT ;-) It was too teacher intesive for us. I like the idea of sitting down with my child and the one on one... but it just wasn't a fit for us. Math ended up getting put on the back burner many days because there was too much going on to sit and do a half hour to hour lesson uniterrupted with my son. I suppose if you only had one or maybe two children that you were schooling and didn't have any babies/toddlers it may not be this way.. and I am sure there are those moms who did it even then. But it didn't work for us because of this. I even bought level C and am getting ready to get rid of it now because of this. We are going to go with either Singapore or Horizons instead. Because then I know math will get done. But I am glad we got the basics out of B.

OK, now I am seeing a difference. lol My poor kiddo was in tears yesterday after doing some of the word problems in 2A. It was the review 5 in the workbook. He was supposed to figure out if he needed to add, subtract, divide, or multiply. He kept reading the problem and telling me the answer (the right answer) but he couldn't figure out how he got it. He kept saying I just know Mom I don't know how. Poor guy it was a frustrating hour for us. I am really wondering if this is the right fit for him, as he was flying through horizons and enjoying it. I just don't like the teachers instructions for horizons. Maybe I just need to give him more practice with the word problems. Maybe get the CWP book? I don't know. I am wondering if I wasted the money. I want him to enjoy math not dread it.

I think I posted this same question last year lol. My son is a second grader this year and finished OPGTR in his first grade year too. He still needed practice with multi syllable words too though and also is still occasionally skipping words when reading. So we are continuing with ETC he is on book 7 right now. I think it was book 4 that did syllables and that was a good review for him. Good luck! :)

so, it is really important to supplement with SM's other workbooks or something else? If you do this how do you schedule it? Do they do one worksheet from the extra/intensive practice a day? And, if I am understanding correctly, it is different in the fact that it teaches mental math? Is the mental math portion mainly for addition and subtraction? We did RS B along with horizons so my son has good mental math skills. Would it still be worth the switch? I kind of like the spiral approach of Horizons because he is constantly reviewing what he has learned so he doesn't forget. Will he get this repeated review with SM? It is definately a hard program to get used to (teaching wise) after doing Horizons. I am having a hard time understanding what he is supposed to do on what day... and I have the HIG. We are using US edition. Should we get the standards instead? Is the HIG better for standards? I guess after teaching with horizons from Kindergarten-almost third grade I am a little hesitant to switch and want to make sure it is worth the extra effort of switching and learning how to teach and schedule a new program.

I keep hearing how different Singapore math is in the way it teaches. We are doing 1A with dd5 and 2A with ds7. I am not seeing yet why it is any different than Horizons ( what we just switched from) other than it uses more manipulatives and is mastery vs. spiral. When people say it is so different, what are they referring to?

OK, now I am worried. We were just about to make the switch to Singpore in 2nd grade. I am definately not a mathy person and would know how to explain or even do the mentioned problem myself. If it wasn't in the HIG I would be completely lost. Does this happen often in SM? I got 2A US edition. Should I get the standards edition for 2B? Uh oh!!! I thought I was switching from Horizons for a better guided program. Was I wrong?

We are most likely going to do Singapore as our main math with the RS games book for added practice. In my opinion I think it would be too much to do the full program for both at the same time. Not too much for the child maybe... but it would take a long time to get math done each day. I tried combining RS (the teacher manual and all) with Horizons math workbook and that was taking us about an hour a day for math in 1st grade. That was too much time for my son and me.

We are doing adventures right now, and in my opinion it would be really easy to do as you are saying. I don't think I would do the full SL core 3 with it, but if you just add the readers that would work. Also with the book basket you could have age/grade appropriate reading materials of your choosing from the library to fit the them you are in that week. I have a 7 and 5 yo doing it now and it is a little over the 5yo's head so I add stuff for her in the bookbasket... it takes us from about 9am-12pm to get all of our schooling done if there aren't any interruptions from baby :)

We are big fans of timezattack as well. My son (2nd grd) loves it. Also the RS games book has some really neat tricks to remembering skip counting. You could play card games with him to get him to remember them too. Horizons math has them count out loud by a certain number daily for a week and then switches to the next number for a week and so on. That really helped my son too... although he did have to use a number chart for a short while.

:lurk5: 2nd grade boy as well

Oh no, I just bought SL LA 2 advanced and SL LA 1 regular... UGH!

Curious to know what you all thought of the astronomy?

Much of it depends on how "mathy" you are. Horizons is a great math program and very academic (does well with state testing), but in my opinin you have to have the knowledge of how to explain certain things to a child. For instance I usually tend to overexplain because I have a hard time bringing myself to a childs level. We have been using horizons math for almost three full years now and I have used the teachers guide but I still have a hard time explaining things. So we are switching. We will be using mainly singapore math with games from the RS games book added in. I agree with others on RS though. If I had the time to use it I definately would.... for some reason when we tried using it math was the first subject to get set aside if time limits got cut short. You can find both Singapore and the RS games book very inexpensive used on here sometimes.

I will have a 1st and 3rd grader next year and we plan on using Apologia Zoology 3. We are starting zoology 1 next week. I have not used it yet, but I have been told by people who do, that you don't need the notebooks unless you are using it for older elementary children. I didn't buy the notebooks for our two kiddos just the main book.

I'm in Dallas, OR. Shipping is outrageous though through singapore. Over 11$ WOW! For just UPS ground. Are you in Portland?

Ha, just figured out singapore is in Oregon lol. I feel pretty stupid now. How silly of me not to check them first. I will put my order in with them.

OK now I am really confused I am not close to any of them UGH! I am in Oregon... hmmm