:iagree: You answered exactly the way I would have. I think not having time to do things properly is not a good reason for teaching methods that don't work well. I teach Sunday School in a mixed age group class with ps, private school & homeschooled children. The children that are past 3rd and 4th grade still seem to have horrible spelling even after they have formal spelling. These are excellent students who make all A's in school including spelling. They can spell their spelling list words for the week and that's it. Allowing children to write things incorrectly for 3 years and then trying to correct it is not a good teaching methodology. Of course I also think grammar should be correct in writing which is why we do copywork and dictation.

I think the Michael Clay Thompson Island series is similar. The stories in Grammar & Sentence Island are silly and creative and my dd lifkes them just as much as Life of Fred.

Now that Peace Hill Press isn't releasing the new grammar program I'm going to need a new plan. I was planning to use it with dd6 after we finish FLL3. I've been looking at different curriculum and reading reviews but I'm still unsure about what I want to use next. I'll provide a little background so you'll understand what might work. I did FLL1 and then skipped 2 because it was so repetitive and DD seemed bored. I like FLL because it's scripted and easy to use but even in level 3 it's pretty easy for her and more repetitive than needed. For example, when diagramming sentences she asked me to stop asking the questions in the book because it was silly and she already knew where to put the words. She doesn't complain about doing the lessons and actually seems to enjoy them because she likes worksheets and getting answers right. We are also doing MCT Island series. She loves it and read the Grammar and Sentence Island books all the way through the first day we received them. We've been reviewing a chapter at a time together and discussing them while working the Practice Island sentences. We're about 30 sentences in to PI and she gets most of the 4 level analysis correct on her own. I plan to do Building Language and Music of the Hemispheres over the summer. For some reason I just can't talk myself in to doing only MCT. I feel like we should have a little more structure and that she needs to learn traditional diagramming. I would like that "something" to be similar to FLL but a little more advanced or faster paced. Similar in that it doesn't require lots of preparation on my part but faster in the introduction of new concepts. We also do WWE3. I skipped level 2 because she asked for the ability to read the stories herself instead of having me read them. She loves WWE and I think we're on the right level for her now. I know this is lengthy but would appreciate some feedback from those of you who have more experience.

I have a Shark and it works just fine. I probably don't mop as much as I should but it's held up for a couple of years. I don't mop first but I do use a shark vacuum for hardwood and tile first. I also have the handheld steam cleaner. I love both of them because I have terrible allergies and hate the smell of cleaners. I can get just about everything clean with these without any chemicals. The first time I steamed my kitchen floors I realized they weren't the same color I thought they were.:001_huh: We had been in the house for a short time and I just thought they were grey.

That is such a cute idea and your blog is beautiful!

I really don't get the concept of invented spelling. I don't understand how one could possibly see any benefit in letting children write things down incorrectly. I guess if you're teaching 30 kids at a time you can't correct everyone as they go but this idea still seems very stupid to me.

The manipulatives and the way they are used in the program is definately beneficial. As mentioned earlier in the thread we are doing long division. DD doesn't need the blocks to work problems but likes playing with them for fun. As Mr. Demme was teaching problems like 240 divided by 12 he still builds the product with blocks and then shows the factors for the rectangles the blocks form. It's hard to explain in narrative form but I can see how it would greatly benefit a child who wasn't understanding the concepts. One reason I use MUS is that it's clean and simple and teaches the ability to do the problems on paper, in your head and with our without writing your steps out. He also teaches and allows for working problems multiple ways. I hated it when teachers made me to problems a certain way and I could clearly see a better/faster way of doing them. I know people who use MUS for remediation or for working with children who need extra help or hands on learning to get the concepts. It seems to work great for that. We're using it for a totally different reason. With my accelerated/fast learner I need things that are easy to move through quickly so we can get to the spot that challenges her. I felt a strong need to make sure she mastered basic math facts (addition, subtraction, formulas for area, how to multiple fractions, etc) before moving on to problems that would really challenge her. MUS has just enough review on the tests that I can check for retention of previously learned skills while making sure she knows the new concept. There are many weeks where we work through 3 or 4 lessons. We watch dvd, do a few practice problems together and if she seems to get it we test and move on.

We have the boxwave and we use it quite a bit. I use it for taking notes and dd uses it because she always seems to have dirty fingers so we just started her using it and it became a habit. Hopefully that's not an issue for a 13yo. I would have some questions about the Jot Pro. Is your case metal? Otherwise, where would you keep it. I know it's a magnet but my leather case covers all the metal on mine so it wouldn't work. It looks nice but since we bought our first stylus locally for $25 and then lost it in one day because it didn't attach to the ipad I would be hesitant to spend $30 unless I was sure the magnet worked well and it wouldn't be lost.

Sounds like we're on a pretty similar path with math. I'm using MUS to teach dd6 basic math facts and to give her a solid foundation in thinking about math correctly. She is a bit advanced and we're using it a lot faster than the recommended schedule. We're on Delta now and 4 weeks in we've already made it to ch. 22. I plan to go through Zeta and then decide where to go from there. I think most people think the higher levels aren't challenging enough for advanced math students. That may very well be true so we'll cross that bridge when we get to it. I will say that if money were a major deciding factor using MUS for dd would not be ideal because she moves through it so quickly. I have a relative who is homeschooling 4 children with one on the way. The two oldest needed remediation and the other 3 are younger so I pass everything on to her to help with curriculum costs. This helps me feel better about finishing 3 levels per year.

I started year 1 when dd was 4 and it quickly became her favorite subject. She loved the stories and still picks up the first book to read for fun on her own. I think the activity guide is great too. We did the maps and coloring pages and the occassional other activity. I'm not too crafty but we did some things which she enjoyed. We are in year 2 now and she's still loving it. I go to 2 different libraries that are close to us and we're able to find either the books recommended in the activity guide or similar books. I generally looked them up in the online catalog and reserve them to save time For us, SOTW has helped to create a love for history in my dd. She is a mini-expert on Egypt and Roman & Greek mythology. I know others recommend waiting for history until 1st grade but young children love stories about mummies and mythology so much I think it worked well for us to start early. I can't really think of anything we dislike. The only challenge for me has been that if it were up to dd we would do history all day every day. She often reads way ahead so we are reviewing when we do the maps and activities.

It's also pretty big. 136mb I think. I'm going to play with it first to see if it's worth keeping before I let dd look at it.

I only played with it for a few minutes but it does look like the writing is smoother and looks a little better than noterize. My handwriting looks nicer. I'll have to spend some time going through the options and features before I decide which one I like the best.

He doesn't. As the pp mentioned we refer to 111 as 1 hundred, 1 ten & 1 unit. A lot of the sample videos are aimed at people who don't get math which I think makes mus appear to be all about tips and tricks. It isn't. They are thrown in there occasionally but at it's core the program is focused on understanding both the how and why of what you are learning.

My dd tested put of alpha so I started with beta. After a few lessons I realized she could benefit from watching the alpha instruction for her addition facts. I found a VCR tape on eBay of the old version of their curriculum. It was ten dollars and we used it to review the alpha lessons. The old version is formatted differently and has assorted lessons on it from alpha to gamma but I emailed mus and they sent me an outline of which lessons to use to get the alpha material.

The notability iPad app is 99 cents today. I am happy with noterize or paper port notes as it's now called but this app has auto sync with Dropbox so it's worth a try for 99 cents.

I don't have my ipad handy because dh has taken off with it but if you search recent ipad threads you can find all kinds of suggestions for apps to download. I know I've made long lists on several threads recently. In addition to games and other things dd is loving BrainPop videos. We just do the free video of the day but if was in your shoes right now I'd probably spring for it. Hours of free entertainment that is also educational can't be beat.:) Here's a list of the top of my head for apps: Stack the countries Stack the states Rocket Math Math Binto Geo Master Scrabble (we just have the free version) Trivial Pursuit - I think we paid for this doodle pad several art/drawing apps sat vocabulary (she likes it because it pronounces and defines words which she then uses in conversation so she can sound grown up) four in a row tic tac toe I know know there are a lot more but I would have be looking at my ipad to get them.

Because we were talking about counting I probably unintentionally misrepresented the way place value is taught in MUS. The only time that one-ten topic was covered was in reference to the English names for the numbers between 10 & 20. The rest of the time we clearly discussed that every place has a name. We built numbers with blocks and wrote them on paper by discussing how many hundreds, tens & ones were in the number. We also use that naming scheme when doing multiplication & division. For example when attempting to divide 13 into 273 today we discussed that 13 x even 100 would be too large so we didn't need to put anything in the hundreds place and that 13 x 20 is 260 which leaves 13 and 13 times 1 unit is 13 so the answer is 21. 2 tens and 1 unit. This is of course different than how most of us were taught in ps where you said 13x2 is 26 and you subtracted that from 27 which left 1 and you bring down the 3 to make 13...all of which is totally illogical without understanding the place value. I think we're actually talking about the same number scheme I just muddied the water with the way I explained the issue of initially teaching what the number 11 represented.

I responded to a post on here...not sure if it was the networking board or not. Basically someone posted that they were looking for pen pals for their 6 and 8 year olds. We exchanged names & addresses and the girls just started writing each other. I don't think I was the only one who responded. I think this is probably as good of a place as any.

I saw this thread earlier and dd and I couldn't remember the name of the book she loved but this was it. By far, this was her favorite. She even voluntarily did a little written summary of what she read.

Join the club. I think dd could read chapter books before I allowed her to be exposed to singing her A, B, C's.:lol:

It does sound weird. Especially when you type it out. On the video it's just corny which dd seemed to appreciate. Similar to calling the 8 block "chocol-eight" because it's brown like chocolate. Dd certainly didn't need those silly things to remember the math but it seemed to make it more enjoyable for her. The main point is the emphasis on place value. I was a naturally good math student but don't remember much focus on it when learning math in ps. Even now as we are working through long division the concept of place value is covered and reinforced continually. It definately helps with the correct conceptual understanding of what you are doing.

It seems you have stolen my answer. :) we must have been typing together. We didn't count using the math name either but did a lot of practicing building numbers with place value.

Mathusee does something similar to this when teaching counting/numbers. I think it was on the alpha level. When you start making numbers above 10 with the blocks there is a lesson where you discuss place value and how you can only have 9 units before it becomes a ten. Then after 10 instead of saying eleven, twelve, etc the instructed calls them one-ty at first. Explaining that twenty is 2 tens and twenty one is two tens plus one but that in English the numbers between 10 & 20 have illogical names. Apparently in other languages it's more straight-forward. The first several lessons the numbers are called: One T (for the 10) one which we call eleven One t two which we call twelve One t 3 which is thirteen...here the names start making more sense because it's 3 teen or 3 tens I'm not sure that this makes sense typed out like this but it certainly solidified the concept as we went through it and is similar to the Asian concept. I think the teaching and understanding of place value early in math instruction is one of they key differences between the "asian" way and the way it's taught in the u.s.

:iagree: I think a lot of fellow Christians are a little over-confident in their particular interpretation of various doctrinal issues. I like the term "heavily persuaded". In other words, I'm pretty sure this is what is true, it's what I believe but since I'm not omniscient I'm going to refrain from insisting that I can't be wrong or that you're ****ed if you don't agree. There's only one hill I would say I would be willing to die on and that is that Jesus died on the cross for our sins.

I know it wasn't on your list but for a child that young I would consider Mathusee Primer or Alpha if you think he already is starting to add on his fingers. The blocks are great and dd figured out her math facts mostly by playing with them.