Looking for math advice. My 10th grader finished MUS Pre Algebra last year and began MUS Alg I. She really struggled (has always had big problems with math retention and couldn’t do any problems that involved fractions at all, and just seemed to need a review of basic math in general.). So we spent 4th quarter freshman year and 1st quarter this year running through the first few books of Learn Math Fast. She’s now in LMF Pre Alg. However, after using it for a while now I don’t feel it covers things deeply enough to give her Alg I credit if we continue using the series alone. I’m debating about picking MUS back up where we left off, or wondering about using something like No Nonsense Algebra to try to get an Alg I credit for this year. Any advice? I’m starting to panic trying to figure out how to fit all our Math credits into high school! (I think she is likely a college bound student, by the way; right now she wants to be an elementary teacher.). Thanks!

Thank you! Makes sense.

9th World Geography 10th World and US History I 11th World and US History II 12th Govt/Econ or is this better: 9th World Geography 10th World History 11th US History 12th Govt/Econ In the midst of planning curriculum changes beginning our 10th grade year!

I was wondering how detailed you enter your lesson plans on here. There isn't much space for details-do you have a paper planner or computer file somewhere with more specific details? We're bringing our 8th grader back home this year and I'm hoping to have her pretty much independent; will this app do it, or do I need another planner of some sort for her? Also seems like it could get very time consuming to enter too many details in here-do you have tips or examples of how you do this to make it easy to work with (easy for entry, for student use, and for records)?

I've been having some similar issues with my 10 yo son. We decided to have our eval done by a dyslexia consultant (much, much cheaper!)-you can get a list of names from Susan Barton, upon request. I realize this will probably not be an official enough diagnosis for SAT/college accomodations, but qualifications for those accomodations have to be done within 3-5 yrs. of taking the SAT or ACT. This eval has given me an idea of how to best educate him right now. A starting point of our paper trail. But, the biggest thing our recent diagnosis has done for me has been to provide peace of mind. His entire homeschool carreer has been a series of guessing-why isn't he getting this, what am I doing wrong, why isn't he trying harder, what curriculum will spark his interest enough to inspire enough effort to learn something...Now, I know that his difficulties are no one's fault! It's not that he's refusing to try, or just pulling a bad attitude when he's frustrated. It's not because I'm the worst teacher on the planet that my 5th grader still struggles so much with writing, or cannot remember his own phone number, or say the months of the year! Begin with the eval on this child, if that's what you can afford. You can use dyslexic-recommended resources to teach your younger son as well, even before an official dX. In a year, or when you've been able to save enough for another eval, have your second son tested. Trying to do them both at once would be a huge strain on anyone's budget! And, fwiw, it definitely sounds like stealth dyslexia is a real possibility to me. Get that from someone who knows what they're talking about. :)

Son, 10. He's in 5th grade, and reading at a 5th grade level. I well remember the struggle to teach this boy to read, but he's doing well now. His evaluator strongly reccommended that I cut off his outside reading and start him very soon on the Barton system, allowing only controlled readers when we get to that point. He is doing a lot of guessing with his words-using context clues and guessing pretty well in a story or paragraph format, but the guessing becomes apparent when he sees isolated words. I understand her desire to curb the guessing, and that will probably be difficult when he's mastered it so well. :huh: I worry, though that I'm shooting myself in the foot to take away the reading skill that he has finally acquired, and begun to at least tolerate, if not actually like (though he'd not admit that, yet!) For those who have been there, done that, what are your thoughts? I do know that he stalled out for quite awhile around a late 3rd grade level, and only gained this ground through recent Vision Therapy. It's also a concern that he may stall again well before a high school or college reading level if I don't work to diligently get rid of the guessing game. And probably the sooner, the better. What to do? I'm looking at the AAR/AAS combo. He's used the AAS before with some success, so I'm looking at picking that back up and adding in AAR. I'm just really wondering about outside reading! Also, am I wise to ignore our evaluator's advice toward Barton and look at this, instead? She had never heard of AAS/AAR, only had used Barton in tutoring others with success. Someone had mentioned The Write Foundation as a good writing program for dyslexics, but I've not heard of it before. Anyone else use that? And, is writing something I should even be concerned with continuing until we've completed a remediation program of some sort for his spelling, etc? Now that we finally have the official diagnosis, I'm finding that I just don't really know where to start!

My 10 yo is struggling in these areas. His hand hurts when he writes, writing is very slow and laborious, cursive nearly impossible; spelling is...not good :crying: . Copywork is So. Difficult. I. Cannot. Describe it. Math is difficult for him. We progress very slowly as he just can't seem to catch new concepts. Memorizing multiplication facts...I think he has them, and then all of a sudden he just doesn't know it. Really stumped with what columns numbers belong in, which column to carry in, when to regroup with subtraction; will try to figure ridiculous amounts of numbers in his head so that he does not have to write them. Memory-still not solid on knowing his own phone number or address! I have heard the words, "Is it tomorrow today" come from his mouth. He was probably 8 or 9 before he got the meaning of yesterday, today, or tomorrow. Struggled for quite a while to learn the months of the year. He's currently in vision therapy (which is working!) due to poor reading comprehension, extreme fatigue when reading, skipping or guessing at words, lots of headaches, complaining of blurry words, or them looking one way one time and different when he looks back. He says all of this is much better or gone since starting his VT. He's gone from a pretty decent reader to a very strong one. I look for answers to his struggles and dyslexia pops up over and over. I go down lists of warning signs and see red flags flashing all over the place. His vision therapist assures me it's not dyslexia. He's too strong a reader. She tells me her OT friend could help him? Anyone else have suggestions? Does it sound like dyslexia (or related dysgraphia+dyscalculia?) Or is there another explanation? I don't want to fork out thousands of dollars for testing only to be told I'm just being paranoid or making up problems for him. And, since testing is probably the only way we'll know for sure, where do I get it affordably (but not at the ps, since our state law would require them to provide aka force special education services on us if they provide initial evals.

Anyone used any Diane Craft Brain Integration Therapy? I read an article by her that described some of what we're going through, and just wondered if others have used and liked or disliked it?

Has anyone ever scrapped a traditional cursive handwriting approach and started over with Italic Cursive for a boy who really struggles with cursive? He says the hard part is just keeping the pencil on the paper, and having to connect all the letters, but I feel like some of his struggle is in remembering what the letters look like. We've been using copywork to beef up the handwriting skills-sometimes I require cursive, and others let him print it. I set a timer for him (we're currently up to only 8 minutes) and in that time he copied 12 words of cursive, or 25 words of manuscript this week. Does this seem normal for a boy of his age, or like something I need to be concerned with enough to double up our work on it? He often complains of his hand hurting when he's writing; drawing is also a struggle. He just doesn't like putting a pencil to paper! I've recently discovered that he actually enjoys creative writing when I write things down for him; and he's started making up poems of his own that he will recite. I don't want writing to handicap him with these abilities! Last year when we learned cursive, we only made it through about half the book, before having to set it aside to really concentrate on some other areas he was struggling with. Do you recommend continuing with copywork, or going back to a handwriting book that would work more on his cursive skills? And, if so, should I finish the book we had peviously started, or try a different approach that is closer in letter formation to the manuscript-style, and doesn't have so much extra, flowery, motions?:

My daughter's currently at her 3rd day of public school 7th grade. She's been unprepared for the time constraints. Two-minute locker time between classes is tricky for her (partly because she's slow about figuring out how the combination lock works to get into her locker). She says she's not able to use the restroom all day long because of only 2 minutes to get to the next class. She's also having a hard time with time limits in the classroom. On Friday the Grammar teacher asked them to write 2 sentences about something they liked and she only got one down on paper before it was time to turn in the paper. Then, she forgot to write her name on it!

My sister-in-law and I are teaching piano lessons...we teach eachother's children, and then have a few extra students as well. My SIL has just taken on a new student that is a homeschooler, and is having difficulty with her mother. She wants to sit in on the lesson (directly behind the teacher so she can keep tabs on everything she's doing), jump in and correct her daughter when she makes a mistake, also trys to carry on side conversations with my SIL while she's trying to teach. She's talked to the mother about it and gotten the reply that since she's a homeschool mom she isn't used to being hands-off when it comes to teaching her children. Suggesting that my SIL cannot possibly understand that because her children are public schooled. Further complicating the situation is that both of these women have been pastor's wives in the same town for the past 6 yrs, having nothing to do with eachother previously (this other couple has been very cold up until now.) They are just in the process of building a tenuous relationship and my SIL doesn't want to destroy that possibility with a sister in Christ. Any suggestions from other homeschool moms?

Could someone explain the way that SWB /classical methods use dictation. What I'm familiar with is more a CM approach; we've been using studied dictation for spelling purposes. The child looks at the passage, with you pointing out spellings, punctuation, things that may be tricky for them. Then you take the original away and dictate it back to them a few words at a time, gradually building up to reading a sentence at a time. You read only once, they repeat and write it down. They check it themselves, looking for spelling errors, punctuation, capitalization, etc. If there are any errors, they repeat the same passage the next day, until it's all correct. As I was looking at Writing With Ease samples and information this sounds a little different? It sounds like you're reading a much bigger passage at a time, maybe up to twice...are you looking for spelling errors in the finished product? I'm just imagining reading a sentence of 15 words or more, working up to 2 or 3 sentences at a time to a 2nd/3rd grader, it seems like a lot to ask if you're wanting basically perfection in the final product with no spelling errors. It's a lot to keep in their mind when they're thinking about how to spell a new word! Makes me wonder if there are different goals with this type of dictation. Also, is it a passage that they look at beforehand (studied dictation), or are you just reading something that they haven't seen before?

I was really feeling like this recently...well, really all school year. Here are a couple of things that helped me: 1. Take a break from school. We also school year round; a week or so lost is not going to kill anybody. Take the time you need to relook at ways you can adjust your curriculum to make it manageable for this season of your life. 2. Adjust my own expectations. For me, I realized that I was continually feeling stressed out, and that is incredibly wearing emotionally and physically. I was sick with 3 different viruses between Thanksgiving and Christmas...just couldn't seem to get the rest I needed to get fully recuperated and functional again. I finally realized that my stress was because I had all these mental pictures of how perfect our days should look. My children would eagerly look forward to learning, they would all obey completely without whining, my toddler would turn from this terror of a child into a compliant, sweet little boy somehow and our days would be smooth. I'd be able to keep up with housework and get full, homemade, and healthy meals onto the table 3 times a day. After all, that's how homeschooling is supposed to look, right? Well...nope. Not happening here. Ever. I needed to get rid of the mental idea that I could only find joy in those picture perfect moments, and begin to find joy in the messy, chaotic reality that is my life. The 2 year old is going to scream. 500 times a day. School is going to be interruped. The kids are going to whine when I say to do Math. My 6th grader is going to drag her feet and day dream and take 3 hours longer than necessary to get through her work. My 9 yo is going to write like a 1st grader. It's real; and it's okay.

I think this link has some useful topics to give a springboard for discussions or perhaps writing assignments: http://www.welltrainedmind.com/what-is-literary-analysis-and-when-to-teach-it/

I understand your dd's frustrations, as well-it is tough! I well remember my first semester in college as a music major- playing songs I felt like I should have done in Jr High, while everyone else around me was playing impressive, elaborate pieces...it was nearly enough to drive me to change my major.

Thank you for your take on the AG grammar. Sounds intriguing to me; I will set aside some time to take a look at the videos on their website. The price is intimidating, but when you realize that it's not something you will have to buy every year it's really no more expensive than other programs... On the tweaking ideas-I asked above about skipping RTR in preparation for high school, and then spent some time reading some older posts on the HOD message board about high school and found one mom that was using Rev to Rev for 9th and 10th grades, and then MTMM for 11th and 12th grades. Running these two guides at half speed allowed her more time to beef up areas that her son was especially interested in, and add in other courses that he needed to complete his credits. It was an interesting thought...if I weren't feeling pressured to complete a full guide each year, but were running them half paced it might ease up on feeling overwhelmed. Obviously, there would be things you'd have to add in to adaquately prepare your child for college level work, but running lighter guides at half speed would allow time to do that. My dd and I went through her guide last night, deciding which days she was going to complete each activity, according to the recommendations above and she was happy about the idea. Today went well-I think she enjoyed it!

Sometimes the "simple"pieces are deceptive...it sounds like your dd's technique is very well developed, and it's my hunch that your teacher is working to develop the musicality beyond that technical skill. If she's assigning 5 pieces a week and 3 of them are the types that your dd enjoys more (more challenging) and two of them are easier then the teacher is not really out to get her or trying to hold her back. As far as the repeating of the easier ones, I'm guessing that those are not the songs that your dd spends the majority of those hours of practice working on. Your dd does not see the point of them and spends her time on the pieces she enjoys more. Speaking from experience, both as a former student who did the same thing and as a current teacher who sees her students still trying that. I'd encourage you to stick with your dd's teacher. Focus on the abilities your child has already developed. It sounds as though she is very, very advanced for one so young. This obviously is partly due to your dd's hard work, but it also takes a teacher that knows what she is doing to guide your student this far. Trust the process, even when you don't understand it. This teacher did not get to 30 years and oodles of happy students in her profession without understanding different types of students and different levels of motivation. One other thing to think about is that piano lessons have opportunity to develop much more in your daughter than piano proficiency. Use these simple songs that are not so fun to encourage your dd in perseverance, in working just as hard on things that are not fun as things that are. If you are still uncomfortable, try to talk to your dd's teacher when your dd is not present. She may feel hesitant to tell you certain things in front of your dd for fear of discouraging her. For example, (not saying at all that this was the problem, but I will use the example of technique). If your dd's teacher said that her technique needed strengthening, would your dd get home and cry because all these hours of practice were not producing the perfection she demanded of herself? Sometimes...often... highly motivated students are like that! Rather than sending your dd into 3 hours of frenzied, determined practice every day, the teacher may intuitively know that your dd would be best served by reminders that she's doing great and moving in the right direction, while giving these simple pieces to begin to work on any weaknesses. The types of students that I personally do not hesitate to tell the parents that something needs work, with the student present, are the students who either a) do not practice as I have told them to, or b) spend lots of time playing things in the way they deem best, while refusing to address the rhythm or technical, or whatever issues that I've pointed out for several months. In other words, they are the students who are not progressing because they are refusing to do what I've asked them to do. It does not sound at all to me like your dd is in that camp!! Great job, Mama, on raising such a hard working and determined young lady! She will go places some day-likely in music, but also in other areas, because of her strength of character.

Thank you, these are great and workable suggestions! Appreciate your help. :) I noticed both of you are in Rev to Rev...did you find the skills jumped up from CTC to RTR and then RTR to Rev2Rev again, like the younger guides do? Or do they require similar skills to CTC? I'm considering skipping RTR if we stick with HOD. I'd like my dd ready for MTMM in 8th grade, and the Geog guide in 9th. Also, SewHappily, can you compare Analytical Grammar to R&S? Or, if not, just tell me more about AG. I like R&S, but my dd hates it and it doesn't seem to click well with her. I think she may benifit from at least a break, if not a complete switch to something else. How long does AG take you to complete? Thanks so much!

My family has been homeschooling for 4 years now, and we've used HOD from the beginning. This year I'm hitting a wall...I think partly because my dd is moving into more advanced and time-consuming guides, perhaps parly because of the highly distracting toddler in the house... :) (I've tried lots and lots of tips for homeschooling with toddlers, but the fact is this child is just high maintenence!) Anyway, I'm coming to the conclusion that I need to change up our curriculum a bit to make life doable in this house. I was trying to run 3 different guides and gave up on that a few months ago. I've dropped my 1st grader's guide and we're only doing Math and Reading with him. My 4th grader seems to be doing fine with his work, and although he struggles with the heavier writing requirements of this program (Bigger) I feel it's building some writing stamina that he needs. My dd is working largely independently in CTC, but the work is taking up to 6 hours to complete each day, and we've already dropped off a few of the requirements-no History Project, or DITHOR. My problem in trying to tweak CTC is that I don't know where to begin. It's not really as simple as not liking something and subbing it out with something else. I like all of it; it is just overwhelming! I don't feel I can slow it down, since we're already "behind" a guide in order to be ready for the High School stuff in 9th grade. Since I've done HOD from the beginning I have no idea how other programs work. For instance, I've read in an older thread on here that some have used HOD resources in a Sonlight way. How would that work? Would we just do the reading only and drop all the written narrations, etc? I'm not totally comfortable with that idea-I feel the narrating and the writing are important skills to keep up. What else would be important and bring clarity as I try to decide which things are essential and which ones could be dropped or modified in some way? How do other programs incorporate many different subjects and not have homeschooling completely take over their lives? Ideally I'd like for school to take us about 4 hours a day to complete, and I'd like to be able to do some things together as a family-at least Bible, and possibly History and Science as well (although I'm thinking that joint subjects will likely have to wait until next year when my 4th grader is done with his guide.) I want to use the resources I've already bought and finish out my dd's 6th grade year and keep my sanity! :) Can anyone help? Thank you!

Thanks for the insights. The kids I'm referring to are 3rd and 5th grades. I also have a K'er that we're doing Singapore Earlybird math with, or just general math activities-counting, writing numbers, etc. I also have a nearly 2 yo....So, it's a hard thing for me to think about devoting an hour to each kid's math lesson, plus all their other things :). I think you're right with the CLE just being a lot of problems-when we're talking about that much time of actual writing on a worksheet it's a lot different than 30-40 mins of instruction/math activity followed by 20-30 mins wkst. We do faithfully do the flashcards with my 3rd grader, but they don't take much time at all. I can see how that would make the kids not look forward to math class. I think my current plan is to do Life of Fred, along with games, etc. for a bit of a reward for finishing their books. When we get through one or two of the Fred series I'll re-evaluate and see if it seems like they're learning what they need to with that we can keep going with it; if it seems like they need the CLE brought back we can do that, but maybe cross out up to half the problems (if we did odds or evens then we'd still be getting each topic covered.) As far as the grade level thing goes, I'm tempted to just put them ahead into their grades (or maybe only 1 yr behind) if we go back to CLE, knowing that with the amount of review that we're seeing they're going to have plenty of chances to learn anything they may have missed.

I went through a couple of different mastery math programs (Singapore and MM) with my 2 children with little success, finally trying a spiral (CLE) and finding that they finally understood and remembered the things they learned. I'm also finding it takes us about twice as long each day to accomplish our math lesson. I really shied away from Saxon for this reason-I read how long it can take to get through math each day. Is this just a spiral math thing? Do they in general take longer than mastery approaches? We love CLE, except for it taking so long (and I suppose I may just be unreasonable in my expectations, too! We're looking at somewhere around an hour each day. Well, I suppose longer for my older child if we did everything in the lesson as intended.) I appreciate that my kids remember what they learned. We're behind our grade level with math because of the 2 years we fought 2 programs that just didn't click, and I'm not sure CLE is going to allow us to catch up. Ever. We school year round, so I can't use the summer to catch up. We already do math lessons on days that we don't accomplish other things in our school day. We also cut out tests and quiz lessons; and it took us a 10 mos. to go through one year's worth of math. I'm also disappointed in its lack of focus on mental math. It's very "old school" in its approach and I wish they were getting some of the strengths of the MM or Singapore programs in their education as well... After coming off of Singapore and MM that took us 20 to 30 mins each day, the kids are burned out with CLE and still hate math, this time not because the don't undersand it, but now because it takes so long. I hesitate to switch them yet again I really don't want to fall even further behind, but I also want them to learn that math can be fun. I got a Life of Fred book to use once in a while as a break from our CLE, and they loved it. They're begging to switch. I could possibly make it work if I add in flash cards and games and things to reinforce concepts. Just really not sure what to do. I know Fred is classified as more a mastery approach and that already failed us twice. Any feedback would be appreciated. Am I completely dumb for thinking about another switch when CLE really did fix the things I needed to fix (that they remember something). Am I asking too much for a curriculum to take 30 mins for my elementary students?

Mine plays quietly with his normal toys, or sits and listens in sometimes, but when he starts to become disruptive I make him leave the room. I also allow pretty frequent "recess" breaks for the 6-yr old to play with his little brother-that helps keep them both happier!

We're doing American History First. Seems that Ancient History just has some pretty weighty things that are more difficult for me to understand and explain to little ones. Made more sense to me to start with things that are more familiar (just because that's our culture) and easier to grasp.