We did Paragraph Writing Made Easy after WWE(4 for ds and 2 for dd). It was mostly for ds, but dd was tagging along. It was easy to implement, and a good fit for ds, who is a logical math/science type guy. It helped him understand how to order a piece of writing that was more than one paragraph after doing mostly narration work. WWS wasn't ready yet, so we went on to IEW, but may go back to revisit WWS next year for selected lessons at least. I think Paragraph Writing is a tool that is different from WTM methods, but not incompatible.

You can do the addition in the parenthesis first if you realize that it's -5+1 not 5+1. The expression in the parenthesis then simplifies from (6-5+1) to (6-4), which is also 2. It's easier to just do it left to right, though.

That's pretty normal here, too. I frequently have some kind of small snack along. I used to carry a bit more variety when the kids were younger as I have one who needs to eat fairly often. I realized I may be overboard with the choices once when I asked my son, about 5yrs old at the time, if he wanted something. He said, "Do you have any pasta?" Even I hadn't gone that far!

Also using CPO Life Science here. It's very easy to implement, and both the student book and lab guide are online as ebooks for free. I found the TE on Amazon marketplace. Each chapter has two labs, two to four reading sections with review questions, and a real life connection to read about. There is an assessment at the end of the chapter. We do most of the labs, but you could modify them or do less and still learn quite a bit.

This exactly. The difference is in the way it is taught, not just the problems in the book. I would say 3A is a fairly safe place to start to catch up on most conceptual differences, especially with a strong math student. My son jumped in at 3A on grade level after going through Saxon 1 - 5/4 by 2nd grade. My younger dd did SM from 1A and up. I don't see much difference in the way they approach math. You could definitely move quickly through the material in 3 and 4. Maybe you could make it with just HIGs and textbooks for 3A/3B? Those you could find used possibly. I don't have any experience with MM, so I can't help with comparison, but we have loved SM.

We are using science 5 for dd in 5th this year. It's our first time with k12, and dd is not a fan. She does not like doing the reading online in the slide type format. She prefers an ebook type format or a real book. The last two units of 5th grade are books, so we are looking forward to that. I don't feel like there is significant reading, and the experiments are just ok. My son is using CPO, and we love it, so maybe my opinion isn't the best for you though! Btw, k12 6-8th grades is a slightly different format with one unified topic a year, so we may have had a different experience if we had started with that. As it is, I think we will just fold dd into CPO along with ds next year for physical science.

Does anyone have a recommendation for an online writing class for 6-8th grade? I'm looking for ds and dd. Both kids did WWE in 1st- 4th, then moved into IEW. I like IEW, but this year we have fallen behind schedule. Writing is always the class that gets put off until tomorrow at our house. Also, I think they are ready to move beyon the checklist in IEW, so I'm not really looking at their classes. They have all the dress-ups, openers, etc. I want practice for them in how to put their ideas together into a complete composition, whatever length it may be. I can do this myself, but just cannot seem to teach it! Something they could do over the summer months would be awesome.

I should have clarified that when I combined world history into three years to make room for American history, the years I combined were early modern and modern. It was easier to combine these, because the kids were older for these years during the first cycle and remember much more. That way ancients and Middle Ages each get a year. World history over four years with American history mixed in is another great option. That's what we did the first time around, so I just wanted to change things up a bit. I know, probably not helping!

This exactly. Also, we did quite a bit of American history in years three and four by adding some Sonlight resources to SOTW, so we were ready to jump right back in with ancients. You could partially base your decision on what you have covered so far, as well as what you plan to cover first in high school. Also, do you have a plan for which Am hist resources you want to use? We had the same issue as Luckymama and will be using the American Odyssey text, which fits better later. This way when both kids are ready in high school they can cover the material with an AP level text. If you want your logic stage American history to be more academic and use quite a few primary sources with heavy writing assignments, then I would say put it at the end. If you see yourself choosing a lighter approach, perhaps with more projects, basic map work, and easier biographies and library books, then do it first. Both ways can work well. HTH!

You don't have to have more than one scout to meet with the MB counselor, but when they meet a parent should stay in the room. The scout is the one who should interact with the counselor. The parent should sit at a nearby table or at the other end of the table and just observe. This is the recommendation in our area, anyway.

We are using AoPS pre-A. I wouldn't say I'm non-mathy so idk how that would apply to you. I'm not a math major or anything but I did well in high school through Calc. My son is mathy as far as problem solving. He is ADHD and tends to make careless comp. errors but can always go back and fix them. He knows his facts in and out but goes too fast! I love the explanation aspect of AoPS. Also that it makes ds think about the math before telling him what to do. With a traditional approach, he would start doing before thinking(ADHD at work again). I have him in the online class, but we do the book together before class.

I have a 5th grader this year, but also a 7th grader so we are in year 3 of the cycle. IMO if you want to feel "caught up" your idea of just doing some reading without output is a great way to do that. The output is mainly skill building at this point, so if you find some areas where your dd remembers quite a bit from SOTW or areas that you don't feel like emphasizing as much, do reading only. You can progress pretty quickly this way and won't truly have to skip anything. My first time through with a 5th grader I felt so lost in history. We didn't like outlining from KF because it was already so condensed. This year we found K12 Human Odyssey and love it! I wish we had done it for ancients/middle, but at least we were able to start at 1400. We are doing more summaries than outlines still. We usually do several biography pages per week and maybe a couple of event summaries. I need to work on the outline skills, but that always gets put off somehow. We do KWO outlines through IEW, so they are getting some outlining. I may start assigning my 5th grader the list of facts and my 7th grader a two level outline from each chapter to do on their own just to see how they do. Thanks for reminding me to think about this again!

Is going well for us. I'm not sure I'd say my kids love it, but I think they are learning. They are math/science kids, so that's about all I can ask for! We read a chapter one day(independently), then the next day we pick two or three people or events to make a notebook page summary on. We also pick dates and events to put on their timelines. Periodically I add in some map work if its necessary. We did all four SOTW with activities and student pages. They remember quite a bit, so I'm letting this time around be lighter.

I used it for my oldest because I wanted some outside validation that things were going well. It was a decent assessment especially for the price. I didn't feel it was necessary with my second child because I had more experience to help me judge progress on my own.

I didn't see this thread until after the game, but I'll add a GO CARDS! for the next one!

:iagree: I tend to give people the benefit of the doubt. Everyone has bad days or could be going through a difficult time(serious illness/divorce), etc. However, there is no way that these cases could account for the volume of obnoxious behavior that I witness. Is not only parents or grandparents, but also teachers with groups in public. We just got back from vacation, and during a short movie at an attraction a teacher allowed students to get up and move around all through the film. It was very hard to pay attention with this disruption. Today at the grocery a mother in the produce section allowed her child(around 8ish) to squeeze plums for several minutes while verbally telling him to come along with her. She never told him or tried to stop him from squeezing all the plums! Needless to say we aren't having plums this week.:glare:

I think its weird that the mom got up abruptly while conversing and went over to the child to do this three times. I don't know if the sign had any meaning or not, but the behavior is odd and would freak me out. However, I usually can't contain it when I'm freaked out and probably would have asked her why she kept doing it. Maybe they are doing some math memory thing and it has to be reinforced all through the day? No other ideas, but I don't see any problem with you asking here.

I voted for 9pm, but often that's not possible for us. We have several nights with activities that go until 9pm. Those nights are more like 10pm. I would love to have quiet reading time at 8pm then lights out about 8:50pm, but its not realistic with our activity schedule. But I like to have everyone up and ready for an early start. It all depends on the family situation, so if the new early bedtime is working for you, I would say go with it.

Can't believe some people listed Smurfs! I was never told any of these things from my own family or Church(Catholic), but when I was in Jr. High I babysat for a little five year old girl who told me one day that Smurfs were evil. I think I suggested we watch a rerun of them or something, and she took my face in her hands and said something about Smurfs making people go to Hell. I was sure she had misunderstood something she heard at church, but apparently this is a widespread fear!

I would be "that mom", too! We also opt out of CCD classes. I know some of the teachers and they are good, but ours is a big program, so I'd never be sure who they would have. Also, idk if all the teachers stick to the textbooks they are supposed to use. Is this programming part of the series that your parish uses? I've never heard of anything like that in Catholic books, especially not for 11 year olds. I would definitely expect the DRE to give me a scope and sequence after this. I can't believe they would consider that appropriate. I know it would really scare both my 10 and 12 year old. I'm sorry your dd had to deal with it.

This is pretty much our experience with the exception that we dated in high school and were sure by graduation that we would get married eventually. We got married our senior year of college at 21 and have now been happily married for almost 18 years. Ideally, I hope my dc wait for marriage, but I certainly hope they at least wait for their future spouse. This is a matter of the sanctity of marriage and of respect and love for your future spouse to me. Also, practically speaking, unplanned pregnancy and STDs are a huge concern. Condoms are not 100% effective against either.

I agree with abbeyej about putting times next to each item. If he sees how much time you're expecting each thing to take, he may relax and realize its not that much. It seems totally appropriate for 7th grade. My ds12 is in 7th this year, too. This is the first year I've given him a task list to follow, and it has twelve blocks on it. When he first saw it, he kind of panicked until I pointed out the times. When he realized that three or four things could be done per hour, he calmed down a bit. I also explained to him that it was similar to what we had done before, except I was the only one who could see the list then.

We did stand first, but I had a tall two year old. Also, he wanted to be like Daddy. When I tried to tell him to sit, he said that's for Mommies! He was actually very neat about it. I used to throw a cheerio in for him to aim at.

ENTJ, but the J was the only one with a strong preference.

My family loves steak marinated with fresh lime juice. I can't give a personal opinion on this one,though, as i've been a vegetarian for over 25 years.