I'm in the same boat. We're not to dictation-level yet (obviously) but I've been checking up on Spelling Wisdom. The selections are fantastic and it looks like it could be interesting.

I'm tired of hearing about Mark Sanford and his sex-scapades but I am finally getting around to reading the Sunday edition of the Washington Post and in the opinion section there is this (scroll down the page), from: Susan Wise Bauer Author of "The Art of the Public Grovel" I just found it nifty to see her commentary. :)

:iagree: The people of SC must be SOOOOOOO sick of this by now.

Same here. :)

Just thought I'd mention that Brain-athon is having a sale now.

My ballet teacher (not a dance teacher but a former professional ballerina) actually didn't allow some of us in the advance class to go on pointe because she didn't think it would be good for our feet. I have stiff ankles. Anyway, of course dance can progress without pointe! I was one of the leads in the production and our school had over 200 students. The other girl in our class who didn't do pointe joined an Alex-Haley-style dance troupe later, professionally.

My DH and I are both engineers and quite good at math. And we both still count on our fingers. We both knew our math facts during our elementary school years and promptly forgot them. Our brains just don't do well with rote learning. I learned my multiplication tables by using tricks for each number. It's easier for me to remember a pattern than recall rote information. To tell you the truth, most of the people I know who work in fields that require higher maths use their fingers and struggle with math facts. It's a visual-spatial thing. My ex-boyfriend had a doctorate in physics and he used to mumble to himself when working on computation. But mostly we just use calculators and computers. Sometimes I move my fingers or tap rhythmically on the table when doing math because it just helps me think. I also fidget terribly when I'm trying to concentrate. I am good at counting back change but that's because it's very concrete: I'm holding the change.

I second the timeline or a "Book of Centuries". The Book of Centuries are nice because they can flip through it and add drawings/illustrations of their own or include pictures that they've cut out. I second the others: go with the composers. :) That actually seems like a really cool way to learn history. After all, the music is greatly influenced by the climate it was created in. You could also study music from different parts of the world and tie in geography a bit. And, if nothing else, she'll think it cool that you noticed and cared about what she was interested in.

What about CTC's Math Detective? I would just supplement if you're otherwise happy with the curriculum.

It just blows my mind that a governor went AWOL. He could have at least told someone where he was going. Geez. Talk about temporary insanity. :001_huh:

Thanks for the tip about photocopying. I hadn't thought of doing that and it would be fine with the Mind Benders, as they are printed very simply in black & white. And thanks for the info about Brain-athon. I just ordered some great manipulatives from them! Hi! Didn't see your post back then or I would have responded. We really like the Math Reasoning books and prefer them to the more popular curriculums. It's our core. We supplement with AoPS' Kitchen Table Math to make sure we cover all basis and teach the concrete aspects. BTW, KTM goes up to age 8 (they're working on the next book) and goes from baby-simple to VERY advanced. My DH and I (both engineers!) blanched when we checked out the later chapters. Much more advanced thinking skills are required than in the normal workbooks (like Singapore and Saxon). Unfortunately, there are only 4 books to the Reasoning series (don't know if they are planning more). We're planning on continuing on with the AoPS series after that, supplementing with CTC's Math Detective. If you worried about covering topics just make sure you check out this list and teach anything that wasn't covered. Then I'd add in some manipulatives and review worksheets to work on speed and math facts. No problem.

We've got Mind Benders, Building Thinking Skills, and Mathematical Reasoning. All are very nice and the service has been good.

Ugh. We just poured over $300 into our above-ground pool, changed the filter, and repaired the pump. It's still cloudy water. AAAAAGH! We're very frustrated. And it costs a lot of money to run the pump -- electricity.

Not strange at all. I'm one of those people who need the book cart at the library. :-)

We gave up on summer break last week. I was planning on waiting for school to start in September but forget that! The worst part of summer break are the hordes of school kids at the city playgrounds. They arrive with their day-camp leaders and run all over the place like locusts. They actually STEP on the little ones. :mad: