As a PP stated, they are just a set of incremental readers. We use them and LOVE them! They were the first set of readers that held my DSs interest.

Thank you for this! I sure wish Alberta and Ohio were closer! I would love to have you over for coffee, Angela. I get so much information from your posts.:001_smile:

I like the idea of modelling logic. I need to work on that with my DD.

I could have written your posts! My DD, who is my oldest, is 12 1/2. We started out 7th grade this year using Fallacy Detective, but I found that even most of that was going over her head. She just didn't seem to grasp the concepts. I have gone to using the Building Thinking Skills books, to work on those skills for the rest of the year, then we will hopefully be able to pick up Fallacy Detective(again) and Thinking Toolbox for 8th. I will probably move into Traditional Logic in 9th. My DD is barely starting into puberty, so I really think that it is a maturity issue, here. I think that I was expecting too much too soon!

Hi, Beth...here is a thread from earlier that discussed SP and AAS. http://www.welltrainedmind.com/forums/showthread.php?t=351027 HTH

I did Saxon Phonics K with my DS last year, and I started after Christmas and we did a week's worth of lessons in one day. I knew my DS knew most of his letters, so it was just to see if there was a gap in his knowledge that we needed to fill. It turns out that there were a couple of letters that he did need to work on, and we resolved those problems. We started Saxon Phonics 1 in the summer, and we were doing the lessons as written, but my DS, who is 'bright', started to get bogged down. Within a couple of months, I switched to doing one lesson every two days. I am very happy that we switched. We are having better retention, and if you look at the TOC at Christianbook, it moves really fast. It will mean that we finish Saxon Phonics 2 sometime in 3rd grade, but I have learned the hard way from my older DC that it is not worth it to rush it. I am going for mastery, and I find that the extra day for each lesson gives us extra time to run through the flashcards, make sure he understands the new concepts, and allows us extra time to work on the spelling lists. We are using the Sonlight lists for Readers and working through them at the same time.

Thank you for your response. I can see where one might use a calculator with exponents and understanding processes. I guess I need to rethink my original plans. It is nice to know the calculator is not used excessively.

Thank you, I didn't think about the fact that we could just skip some of the questions. I really do not want my DC to rely on a calculator. I can see that they would need it in higher levels of math, but I think that right now they need to over-practice their basic computation skills.

Anyone else? :bigear:

I am thinking about switching to MM. I am wondering if those of you who use MM let your children use the calculator on the questions that Maria indicates. I was planning on waiting until Algebra before I let my DC use a calculator, and I am not sure how to handle this if it comes up. I believe the calculator is used in 5A, but I am not sure if it is introduced earlier than that. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Oh, I like the idea of making patterns from finished clothes. I will also look into the McCunn book.

Very cute skirt! I will look into vintage materials. Thanks!

I was googling 'sewing pattern design', so I will spend some time checking out 'flat pattern design'. Thank you for the proper terminology.

Thank you! This is what I am looking for. The bolded is what I want to impart to my DD.

Thanks, Stripe. We will look into those books. Anyone else?

I am wanting to teach my DD12 how to sew, but I am not looking for something to teach the basics, I am more looking for a curriculum or book that would teach a beginner to draft simple patterns. I have looked online, and I have come up with a few pattern drafting books, but I would really like something that has been tried and proven. Our first project will probably be a simple skirt, and I will teach the basics as we go along. I want to teach drafting as a part of it, mainly because patterns are so expensive, and I think it would be a cool skill to have.

We are on Lesson 15, and my DD is really enjoying Mr. Reed's sense of humor. She likes the fact that the lessons are 'short and sweet', and math is not a fight around here anymore.

We have done a four day week for the past few years, and I cannot imagine that we will ever go back to a five day week. I am 'doing school' from about 8am to 4:30pm, on those days, so with evening activities like AWANA, homeschool gym and handbells, we don't have much time for anything else on those days. We leave Fridays for our sleep-in, cleaning, appointments, or just plain fun days. If there is a holiday on a Monday that my DH is home, we just shift our day off to correspond to his day off. My DD12 occasionally does some work on the weekend, but that is not necessarily because she can't get it completed during the week, it is mainly because she doesn't mind doing a little on the weekends. I foresee that she may have to do some work on Fridays or on the weekends, but it will be independent work, I will not be working with her then. We also school approximately 40 weeks a year. I do not like our breaks to be longer than 3 weeks, because I feel that my kids start to forget things.

Thank you, Aime. I will take a look at the Evan Moor book, too.

Thank you, Hunter. These are great tools!

I like this idea, Angie. Maybe we will have to think about doing something like this as well. I like the added component of a storyboard presentation.

Great! I will go ahead as planned and teach them to make up note cards as they go along. Then we will fuse them into a simple 5 paragraph essay.

Thank you! I guess my terminology is incorrect. I called it a research paper, because I like the idea of using 2-3 sources, like you said, but I want them to record the sources and write a report that combines the information that they have gathered. I am not planning on having them invent or defend an argument. So I guess it is a plain report. I haven't had my children do anything more than copywork, narrations and summaries based on notes that we have written together, so I was planning on having them do a report from a few sources, at their level this year. I am not planning on going into the formal essay until they are in 8th or 9th grade. I will look into the IEW method. Thank you for your help. As I stated before, I am always open to more input from people who have BTDT!:bigear:

I would love to hear what you wanted to say, Angela. I respect your opinion and have the 10 categories that you have your students write notecards on, tacked on my bulletin board, as a goal to work towards with my DD12 in the next year or so.

We have done copywork, narrations and summaries as well. I want my DC to do a fun report this year, on a topic of their choice.