I bought all the Apologia science books along with the accompanying notebooks, but dropped them all and just made a change to BFSU/RSO (Life and Chemistry)/Singapore's My Pals are Here. I'm undecided about MPH, more like leaning against it, but the textbook is fun reading. If it were just a BFSU/RSO combo, I could be happy. I bought Latin for the Millennium, just to see if the other side is greener, and while the pictures are lovely and the stories entertaining, I much prefer Henle.

Just educational apps? I wonder if there are any apps for me, rather than just for homeschooling purposes. And, I'm not even sure what apps I would be looking for. One question for anyone here: Can we listen to audiobooks on the iPad if it's connected to speakers? I don't mean the Kindle voice where it's a robotic voice, but an audiobook in mp3 or mp4 format.

Thank you for this information. I'm really behind on this but are you saying that it's fine for me to buy the $499 this week then? :D

If I were to buy the $499 iPad that only has 16GB, could I transfer some books/curricula and other items to my PC and vice versa whenever I need them again? Is it similar to the way iPod works with iTunes where I can remove some audiobooks from my iPod and leave them in iTunes until needed? Do apps take a lot of space? Basically, I don't want to buy the $499 iPad only to regret in a year that I should have spent an extra $100 to get the extra space, but if it's possible for me to transfer items back and forth, I would rather go with the cheapest iPad.

You all are killing me. I noticed that the cheapest iPad is $499.

I'm just starting to read BFSU1 but what do you think about completing some of the required A lessons from BFSU1 and heading into A-11 in BFSU2, and then going back to the first book? I'm just wondering out loud whether it's possible to weave in lessons from book 2 while working on book 1 or whether the books are intended to be used one after the other. Just at a quick glance with the two books, I feel that DD is at a point between the two books.

Thank you for letting me know. I'm going to try to squeeze 3 books into a month. We've read Ginger Pye, but I'm willing to do it again to have a more meaningful discussion.

So if I place an order, I would get September's and October's immediately, right? Then every month thereafter one Arrow will be emailed to me?

Homeschool Buyers Coop has a 1-year subscription for $39.50. That's quite a good deal!

Thanks for letting us know about the new format. I have a few of the older Arrows from last year and wasn't that happy with them. I agree with you that this new version is an improvement. I may have to see when there is a sale again and subscribe.

:lol: I always have second thoughts, which is why I have a load of books that I may never use. DD reads Pinyin well even if she doesn't know what the words mean :D. I may just try Ma's Level 1 for the CD and find someone to help me with the characters. I like the idea of having DD memorize poems and listen to the narrator recite it. As I mentioned before, I still have the books that we had to purchase for a Chinese class, which look similar to Singapore's, and now I remember why I haven't been using it. The workbook's characters (not the textbook) are small for the parts where the kids are suppose to read. Could you someone let me know if the font size of Ma's and Singapore's workbooks are comfortable for a younger child where reading is required?

This has been very useful! Just one question - does Ma's book provide the Pinyin for each character in the first book? I was unsure about this and thus put off buying her book. I really need the Pinyin to teach since I can't read characters.

I didn't end up ordering Ma's Chinese books, and this is the first I've heard of Singapore Chinese books, which look very similar to ones that we had to buy when DD was in a Chinese class. I think I like the format of Singapore better than what I have now. Did you buy order from singaporemath.com?

I know there could be confusion if it were taught at school while the kids are also trying to learn to read English, but I don't think ps first grade would do this. Our daughters attended a Chinese class together and I noticed that the child could not pronounce the words (eg. mu, ma) because she could not blend at all. The children (about the age of 5 to 6) that could read aloud the Pinyin were all reading English. However, my friend is really worried because the child is about to turn 7 soon. So I think the problem is that while she can sound out individual letters, she cannot blend words in Pinyin or in English or even nonsense words; and apparently there are many words that the teacher tells her to just memorize, and it's really hard for her to do that.

I'm in N. California and will have to look into this. I wonder if it's available to all Californians. Ohh, I just checked, I can get it for free here too!

Thank you Wendy. I've heard of Hooked on Phonics, but never knew it had CDs. Unlike all the subjects, I basically only used Alpha-Phonics with DD, but it's not a book that my friend would feel comfortable using. She borrowed Phonics Pathways and gave up after a few pages into it. She definitely needs a CD or audio file to give her some confidence. It's great that there are many choices for non-native speakers. Thank you everyone for helping me gather this information for her.

I was hoping you would stop by to help out. I just listened to one file, and it's perfect! This is exactly what the mother and child need. Thank you!

The home language is Chinese and the child loves writing characters at school, and Chinese is used about 80% of the time at school. I do know she has a lot of trouble pronouncing the Pinyin. The mother seems to think there's some guessing involved and not true phonics. I'm definitely going to share what you said and recommend Starfall.

Fox and Desertmum, thanks for sharing your experience with Starfall. I bet the child will love using the computer to learn reading.

For $15, I think it's really worth it. I use AAS, but never bought the CD. I'm going to let her know about this too. I like the idea of using this CD and a phonics program that she can find at the library. I'm trying to limit the amount she has to spend to teach reading. Do you know if it has all the phonograms?

The child is American-born and has perfect English, but attends an immersion program (20% English, 80% foreign language). Someone did suggest that the mother pull her daughter out since the immersion language is also the home language and enroll her in a regular program, but I find that a drastic solution. The child seems to have trouble blending, and when she can, she only does it for that particular word without being able to do it again somewhere else.

I think Ordinary Parent's Guide to Teaching Reading has a CD companion.

Wow, ETC is really priced well there. I'm going to let her know about this, but I don't know how computer savvy she is.

Thank you for the recommendation. However, I don't think she can afford ETC online. I think her budget is more like $20, maybe $30. I'm going to suggest audiobooks with text. I should have thought of that. I did suggest last year for her to put on audiobooks for her daughter to listen, but that hasn't worked out at all. I did see those 1-cd audiobooks with accompanying picture books at the library. Thank you for this great idea!

I have a friend from a foreign country who wants to teach her daughter to read. Last year I recommended picking up any phonics book from the library or using Elizabeth's website, but recently she told me that if she has difficulty pronouncing the words correctly, she won't be able to teach it to her daughter. Her daughter is in ps, first grade, and is having some trouble learning to read. There is not enough time for the teacher to teach reading to the class and the school has asked parents to do the rest at home. The daughter is in school from 8 to 6 and both mother and daughter are tired by the time they get home. The phonics program would therefore have to be easy to implement. I was thinking maybe a phonics program that has an accompanying CD would be the best route at this point. Any recommendations of such a program that is also reasonably priced?