I second (or third :lol:) Costco if you have one nearby. Unfortunately for us ours is a 3 1/2 hour drive into the cities. I am always afraid to stock it too far ahead when we go so I ended up ordering this one from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/dp/B0060JNAE8/ref=rcxsubs_mys2_product_title, I do subscribe and save so it is cheaper. I just cancel the delivery if we have made a recent Costco trip. HTH

I work every weekend, Friday-Sunday 12 hours. We school Monday-Thursday. It works for us, but SO is able to be home with DD full-time so I don't have to worry about childcare.

Is anyone else having problems printing schedules today? I tried early in the morning, and couldn't get it to print. I just tried again and am still not able to print my daily schedule.

I have extended mine to the limit with vitamin and supplement purchases. http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000US07B4/ref=ox_ya_os_product http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000CFMLCS/ref=ox_ya_os_product http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B002KFM9LQ/ref=ox_ya_os_product Sometimes a few other things have qualified, but for the most part it has been the vitamins. Because we don't have a Costco close by, we tend to buy our vitamins on Amazon, with the prime shipping it is cheaper than Costco.com.

I don't think smartphones and online dictionaries will be available to them on standardized tests. I still think it is a worthwhile skill to teach. FWIW DD scored 49% on the ITBS last spring in reference materials, we have added in some alphabetizing, looking up words in the dictionary, using the index to search by topic, ect.

I have DD review the answers after I have corrected them. He explains most answers throughly. If she is still unsure I would have her review the chapter the material was presented in. I don't let her try again until the next day, at the earliest, the next try will just be a variation of the problem she missed on the previous try, and I want to be sure she "gets it". :)

This is 30% off of what you are buying, 48HOURS, it is good for about 8 more hours. HTH :001_smile:

Thanks Melissa, that sounds exactly like what I want it to do.

I am looking at trying these two programs and I would love to hear any feedback or reviews. https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1618&c=1 This is at the Homeschool Buyers Co-op and it looks pretty good. I have downloaded the trial and am going to play with it for a few days to see how user friendly it is. I would also like to know how it integrates into the key to series. I would love to hear any comments for others who are using or trialing the program. When I went to the website to download the trial version, I found this: http://www.keypress.com/x22311.xml We have used the Key to series books on and off for the last couple of years with mixed results. Sometimes it is hard to place DD correctly and she hates it when the work is too easy, but I have a tough time skipping anything. It looks like the Key to Tracker would place her in the appropriate book and starting page. It is relatively cheap for a years access, $5.95. I will probably order this and try it next week. We are currently finishing Fractions Book 2 and looking ahead at book 3 I can already hear the "I already know this, it's so boring." whine starting. I would love the program to test her understanding and tell us where to begin. I also didn't realize the HBC has the Key to books at 30% this month, I'm going to have to stop opening those newsletters. :tongue_smilie:

My baby is 10 :tongue_smilie:, and I have offically maxed out mine. I got an email after I ordered last week which said I had earned the maximum number of months (12), and would not be able to earn any more. I don't order any baby products and have still been able to earn extra months past the free intro offer. I think most of mine have been earned by ordering vitamins and supplements.

I downloaded the pdf from the download page, clicked on file on the toolbar, then save page as, this opens the directory, I choose my scholastic downloads file and clicked save. HTH.

Thanks, I got Instant Map SKills. FREE!!:001_smile:

We are using it once a week instead of GWG, we just started last week, and have not started writing sentences yet. The first couple of exercises were just chunking the sentence parts and we did them verbally. DD likes it so far.:001_smile:

I work three 12 hour shifts every Friday-Sunday, and we have school the other 4 days of the week. I like having a set schedule because my DD needs a routine, but I do get tired of missing the weekend stuff. For the last several years, Christmas and New Years have been on the weekends.:glare: I also think I get burned out quickly. I am always working or doing school. I haven't quilted since we started HS, and the only sewing I ever get done is DD's Halloween costume every year. I love HS but wish I had more time for my projects and interests.

Wow, this really hits home with me. My father could not read and could only sign his name when he needed to for legal purposes. I am so thankful that my mother loved to read, and was able to help with homework. I have really never stopped to think about how this plays out in the next generations. If these kids don't learn at school and never receive the help they need at home, the cycle just grows and grows.

I put in an order on 8/22 and received it on 8/27. I know I paid for faster shipping, (it was a $0.50 difference in price from their regular shipping), and it came by UPS. I was amazed at how fast it arrived. Sorry it's taking so long for your package to arrive.

We are not trying it with sports but with band in 5th grade. My DD is about 1 yr behind in gross motor skills. She stands out in all of the community ed classes that she has done as the most uncoordinated child in the group. I have avoided team sports because of this and try to focus on individual sports to prevent any teasing or peer pressure. I do hope band will work out this year and she will learn an instrument, make some new friends, and become an accepted part of the group. I have butterflies in my stomach just thinking about it.:tongue_smilie:

MM, Key to Fractions, Decimals, Percents, Algebra, LOF, TT. I just ordered CLE 501 and 502 to try and I am trialing Thinkwell 6th grade. I need to decide before tomorrow midnight and the sale ends on HSB Co-op, DD loves it so far. I'm not so sure.:glare:

Thanks for all of the ideas and the pep talk. I think there is a combo of things going on, the largest one is using her whining to avoid doing the work. I think I will use a timer for the next couple of days and assign a set number of problems with the expectation that if they are not completed in the time set during class she will need to complete them after school. I do think I need to get tougher and push her to focus and get used to doing more work.:tongue_smilie: I am still not sure of what to use for next year, perhaps I need to just use a textbook and workbook and present the materials myself. Any suggestions for that approach? Steady pace, with some review but not an overwhelming number of problems each day. I am also leery of changing to another program and leaving gaps. I haven't tried Singapore because the scope and sequence is so different and I think we would have to back up and start in a lower level which would be for her, I think, a confirmation of, "I'm just not good at math." I also have Primary Grade Challenge Math, Life of Fred Fractions, and 2 of the Logic series books already on hand. I could buy some games and try to schedule a fun day occasionally. We only do school Monday-Thursday, so it is hard for me to skip a day of math for games. I work 36 hours on the weekend so it's not an option of adding another day. I could add a 15 minute "brain warm up" period and do selected pages from Logic, Challenge Math, or a game daily. I almost forgot, Khan, looks really good on the website but, I couldn't get it to set her up a Google account so I could link with mine as a coach last time I tried it. We have watched the videos for some topics on Roku and she is tolerant but not enthusiastic. Still thinking and looking at ideas. Keep them coming.

My DD is very resistant to math. She was in public school until the middle of 2nd grade, and did well in K-1st grade math. We had teacher problems in 2nd grade and took her out in January. We unschooled for the rest of 2nd and tried to do fun things for math but did not follow any set plan. We tried K12 for third grade and she placed about half-way through the 2nd grade math program with them, so, that is where we started. I compacted lessons and had her caught up by the end of 3rd grade. She did well on the state exams that year, 62% which exceeded the state standards. In that year I discovered that she did not like the manipulatives, did not memorize well, fought against any kind of drill, and just generally developed a hate for math. Last year was our first year on our own. I carefully selected TT because I thought she was a very visual learner, and it would help to take me out of the "math wars". She made it to lesson 16 but it was a fight every day. She is a perfectionist and would melt down whenever she got something wrong. I did some reading here and decided to try MM. We started with the light blue for just multiplication because she could not pass the 3rd grade end-of-year test and I knew it was a weak area. She did OK but still did not have all of the facts memorized by the time we finished. I started her into the 4th grade level of MM and did it from the beginning through the multiplication chapters, but again it became a fight that spilled over into all of the rest of the day. Then I tried the first couple of Key to books for fractions and decimals. OK in the beginning, then she started to complain because of the amount of problems on the page. "I know this already, why do I have to do it." is a frequent complaint after a few problems. She begged to go back to TT without the computer portion. We go over the printed lesson and examples, do the practice set together, and then she does half the problems. She took the Iowa test in June (before she had done the division portion of TT), and scored a GE of 6 on concepts and estimation, 4.6 on problem solving and data interpretation, 4.5 on computation, her math total was GE 5.0. Since the Iowa we have continued to do TT as above and will finish in a few weeks. I think she is on grade level and I think the Iowa test accurately reflects that she understands concepts well and is able to apply them, but her computation is slow and has frequent errors. She doesn't get the answers by using the same methods I would use and becomes angry if you try to show her another method of solving a problem. I am not happy using TT this way and feel as if it is a waste of money to buy it again for next year. I also want her to use something that will move her into the higher levels of math that I am not qualified to teach, after prealgebra I will be learning right along side of her, I did not even do algebra in high school and had to take a basic algebra course in college to get into chemistry for my nursing classes. I have looked at Chalk Dust Basic Math and watched the sample on-line but I'm not sure if that would be a good fit. I am also going to start the trial of Thinkwell 6th grade with her tomorrow and see how that goes. Are there any other video programs for 5th/6th grade that are secular? I would like to find something to do for the next 2 years that would develop her computation and problem solving skills without boring her and making her hate math any more. I am not in a hurry to get to prealgebra or algebra and am looking to use this time to build her up and make give her confidence. I would love to hear any thought or suggestions you might have for us and thank you for reading through all of this. :tongue_smilie:

I had never heard the term until we moved to MN. My favorite since moving here is Special K Bars. 1 cup white sugar 1 cup corn syrup 1 1/2 cups peanut butter 6 cups Special K cereal 1 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips 1 cup butterscotch chips Bring sugar and corn syrup to boil over medium heat. Add Peanut Butter and stir until blended. Pour mixture over Special K Cereal in large bowl and mix together. Press into 9 x 13 pan. Melt the Chocolate Chips and Butterscotch Chips together in double boiler. Spread over top of cereal. Refrigerate until chocolate is hardened.

:party:I am ordering the dispenser and a couple of bags for a Christmas present for DD!! She'll love it. Thanks for the link.

We left after that first year, I am much happier putting together my own plan and tailoring it to DD. They have some really good cirriculum but doing it with the oversight of the assigned teacher and all of the test prep MNVA required was very wearing on both of us. I loved that it was open-and-go, the lesson tracking software was great, but in the end I felt that we were not using our time as well as we could have, for us it was sucking up the joy in learning.

We used MNVA the Mn version of K12 for 3rd grade. It was our first full year of home schooling and I would say that we spent at least 6 hours a day 4 days a week. There was a bunch of repetition and busy work included, it was difficult for me to weed out what was necessary and productive and what we could have skipped. I ended the year feeling as if I had been jumping through too many hoops. In the younger grades I would say it is very "learning coach" intensive and could not imagine doing it with multiple children across several grades. HTH

You can drag the already scheduled lessons forward. Grab the scheduled lesson (I think it turns red) and drag it to the day you want to move it to, and drop it. If you want to move it up a week drag it to the previous tab on the top of the schedule and drop it there, when you are done dragging the lessons you want to move, go to the previous week and they should all be on Saturday and you can drag them to the day you want them scheduled. It's a little time-consuming but I think it is easier than starting over.