I got a lot from the Miquon First Year Diary.

I would also suggest book 1.

My mom is a huge fan of 'Beano". My family is vegetarian and we eat beans, lentils etc, almost every day. I can honestly say we have no gassy tummies. None of us. I think it is two things: 1. I make sure all the beans we eat are well cooked. Even a little bit of firmness can make a difference for some people 2. eat them more often. I am guessing that part of the issue is that you don't have enough fiber in your diet. Beans do have sugars that don't digest well and can ferment in our system (see Alton Brown segment on beans). But they also have a lot of fiber. If you aren't used to eating a lot of fiber, that can be the real cause of the gassiness. Most people get no where near enough fiber. I belong to spark people and it monitors my fiber intake. On days that I eat a cup of beans I only just make the daily fiber requirements.

My son, at the age of 6, found rosetta stone latin fun. he def. got some vocabulary from it. We used it for a year when it was free online from our local public library. It doesn't teach specific grammar except by contex. But, it did give him a great deal of vocab. I felt that it gave him a head start when we started "real" Latin. He still remembers all the words he learned. Would I pay for it? No. Would I consider it a particularly useful Latin course? No. But it was great for my (then) six year old son, and got him feeling positive about learning Latin.

I learned Spanish from Spain. I even went to spain in college to study more. I looove the sound of Madrid Spain, it is beautiful like nothing else to my ears. But, I will be teaching my own kids Latin American Spanish. It is different enough to make a difference, and I want their Spanish to be practical. Oh, and if you want to hear the most beautiful Madrid accent, check out Gwennyth Paltrow in Glee. She only says a sentence or two but it is with a perfect Madrid accent. I swooned. Really. I kept rewinding, much to my husband's annoyance.

Start with EI. It is free and available to anyone. Our EI therapist was prompt trained but not prompt certified. She was great. And, I have to say that at his young age ANY therapy is important. I would call as soon as possible to get the process started. It is better to get EI therapy with a non-prompt therapist than wait to get a private therapist. I know that some people have had a lot of good luck with prompt and apraxia. My son hasn't ever had a 'real' prompt certified therapist and he has done very, very well with 'typical' speech therapy. I think what has made it go well is that he has always had very experienced therapists. He is about to be 6 and has been getting speech therapy since he was 16 month old. We have had three therapists, all excellent, all free, all very experienced. If you get an evaluation by EI they come to your home. You get input on what services your child will get. You can speak up and say that you want him to have therapy three times a week. You can ask that he have a therapist with experience with oral motor issues. You can request an OT evaluation and the OT can also work on oral motor issues. My son has oral motor speech problems and he gets speech, OT and physical therapy. He was getting them all through EI but now they are covered through our school disctrict. EI provided servies until the September after the child turns three. At the child's third birthday they will ask if you want to continue until September (actually, it might be august 30) . My son's birthday is in January so he got EI services until he was almost 4.

I think a great title would be "The Grammar Book I Had to Write Because I Could Hear Lisa's Whinging All the Way From Upstate NY" Really, I am surprised no one else has suggested it.

My husband and I often eat something different from the boys. We also tend to eat at a later time. My boys are 10 & 5 and between evening activities for my 10 year old (he is a dancer) and food issues for my 5 year old, they tend to eat quick "kid food". Grilled cheese, oatmeal, hummus and bread, eggs and potato, pasta and pesto, a mild chickpea curry, stuff like that. My husband will eat a little bit with them, but I usually take that time to exercise. My husband and I eat our real dinner together at 9pm or so. We tend to have a veg and protein only. So, that might be salmon and broccoli or a tofu and veg stir fry without rice, the same curry with more spice. My husband and I track our calories and portion size and that is in direct oppostion to the food need of two growing boys. They eat more than I do.

yes, NY has changed the titles to algebra geometry algebra 2/trig Math B My husband says that part of geometry and part of trig were always 'Algebra 2" so they haven't changed the courses, just the titles. He looked at the tests and says it is all the same stuff. I think "Math B" sounds ominus. I didn't take math past geometry. I am not kidding that my guidance counselor told me that their had been a request from the math dept. that I not take any more math. :lol: I think it makes me an excellent elementary arithmetic teacher. You cannot lie to me! I can tell if you don't understand something well. There is no trick I cannot spot. However, it has made me a little leery of teaching at that level.

I would consider FLL 4. It is in no way babyish or written down to the child. It is not for independent work, it assumes that there is a teacher around to read the script. I have had at least 5 friends with kids in ps who have used FLL4 to great effect with children older than grade 4. And FLL is just grammar, nothing else. So, you aren't paying to only use half the program. So often, a grammar program is part of a whole language arts program.

Can I just give you all a big logic stage forum kiss? I have a much better idea of what is going on now. Ok, my guess is that my son will need a bit of time to make the jump to algebra. Well, that might be incorrect. I think he will need a gentle start. I think that is a better way of thinking about it. And really thank you for the warning to take time to transition to a different format and the 'little' things to watch for. My son is a 'wordy' kid, not so much a math kid. He's not bad at math, but he has to put in the work. With many other subject, he hardly has to work. I am really hoping I can stay with Singapore. I am thinking that I need to just keep on truckin' with 5th grade math but spend some time this summer doing research. If any one else has insight on the mysterious world of 7th and 8th grade math, please chime in!

My eldest child is a 5th grader. I know we have one more year of Singapore ahead of us. So, if my kid is let's say bright-average in math, is 7th grade pre-algebra? Is it 8th? Is it a seperate subject? I live in NY and we didn't have a specific subject called 'pre-algebra". The NY math cycle looks like this: 9: algebra 10 geometry 11 trig 12 calc. There is a regent's exam for all of these...or there was when I was in high school..a million years ago :001_huh: So, when did I get taught pre-algebra? What is covered? I don't even know enough about this to know what to ask. I don't know how to evaluate a program. I am guessing I will stick with Singapore. That has worked very well for us. I know they have a newish program, discovery math, that is a little easier to teach than NEM. But I am also considering teaching textbooks. So, anyway, any help understanding what comes after 6th grade math and what I need to worry about would be helpful. Did I just ask for advice about what to worry about? Oh brother.

We have both. Umm... I would go with the text book before the audio version if only because it is cheaper. I have the audio book in the car and we use it for reenforcement of what we have already studied. But, you know your child best. If you think the audio would be sufficient then go for it. It is a word for word reading, not dramatazation of the text. I find that my kids pay closer attention for narrations if I sit down and read to them. I can stop easily if they need to go to the bathroom or get distracted. You really only need to read one chapter at a time, and even then, the chapters have parts. You are only listening for a 5 mins and then you do your narration. I like the audio for playing in the car while we run errands.

I would consider Minimus, only the workbook is needed. You don't need the teacher's edition. It is a sort of comic book approach. It doesn't have a grammar component, you learn the words in context. It is brief, you can finish it in 12 weeks and it has lots of possible activities as a tie in. Then, once an interest has been kindled, go to lively latin. It has the grammar component and some interesting history etc. If you think Lively Latin is a good enough place to start, then by all means, skip Minimus. I only suggest it because it is fun. It can also make a great supplement to any Latin program.

I have a vague recollection that the tinsel had lead it in? Is this sounding familiar? I swear I remember being told not to have it in the house with small children due to the lead. Or is this something that was killing wildlife.... It was one or the other. Everything is one of those these days.

Figure out how many calories you would need at 20lbs lighter. Then just eat at that caloric level. Toss in 45 min cardio 5 days a week and 40 mins of weights 2 days a week. You will lose the weight. I lost 40 lbs, 3 years ago, doing just that and it is still off. I like spark people as a way to track my calories. If I had an Iphone I would use the app 'lose it'. My mom swears by lose it.

How about an actual word a day calandar? I can't imagine that there are words in a word a day calandar that a six year old shouldn't know. My 5 year old is currently rockin the word "penultimate."

That. And if Latin is all that is holding you back, we'll hide you from the latin police, ok?

It makes a nice topic all to itself. I have a vague, misty memory that maybe SWB suggests it as an area of specific study in the high school years? I know that is when my state expect it. I figured that when he gets to be old enough to understand more about 'systems' I will take him on visits of our city, county, state and fed gov't offices. My son is on his second trip through the history cycle. When we started with the third book, which covers the begining of US hisory and stops just before the US civil war, he was already making connections between greek/roman history, the enlightement and US history. He continued making those connections all through the fourth book. That tells me that when he gets to high school, he will be ready for a larger discussion about civics and the process of it all. His father and I are political junkies, to put it mildly, so he is primed to find it interesting.

baseplates are faboo. You need one big grey one per child and an extra for friends. You can get buckets of lego at Target and at Lego . com. I have found some good deals buying legos on Ebay. They aren't in boxes but they kids don't seem to care. They like them in a big pile! Check out garage sales as well. YOu can find bins of legos for not much. I agree with you about not wanting the marketing along with the Legos. I tend to stick to the buckets or the ebay bulk for just that reason.

Well, then you will enjoy this: The woman who ran the university library where my husband works got hired by Oxford to run a library there. She was asked to 'modernize' their library system. The first thing she suggested was to allow the patrons to..you know...take some of the (new) books HOME to use. It did not go over well.

Heck, I sometimes read them to my 5th grader if he seems stuck. I always have him read them to me. If he gets stuck on a problem I tell him to read it to me. I cannot believe how many times he solves it as he reads the problem without a word from me. It cracks me up. It's good to see how many other people work with their kids during math. I always worry that I am working with him too much. Up to about this year (5th) I always did math as a one on one venture. I was at elbow and I asked him to verbally process for me with every question. Now as a 5th grader he doesn't seem to need that but it was a very natural transition. I did stuff like underline important words etc. He does it for himself now.

Whoa. Divided among the homeschool students? In NY he gets the same services as if he were in school. There is no difference. I actually think he gets better service because I get a personal check in with the therapists every session. They almost never get to meet parents and seem to really like it. I also find my district school sort of bends over backwards to show me that they 'like' me even though I homeschool.

Husband is asking me to tell you that the most important library skill is 'information literacy'. For example: how to tell if the results of your search are trustworthy primary source vs secondary what a peer reviewed resource looks like Is this an actual source or did someone pay google for the top spot?

Husband the librarian says that most academic libraries use library of congress. He says that some public libraries use dewey but he sounded like it is quaint. I should add that he is a librarian at a large research library so he might have an attitude, lol. Colleges generally have all students take a library class, sometimes within their major. Sister the librarian does one just for students in the health science field. In a couple years I will start having ds1 start finding his own books. Honestly, at this point, every college has so many online resources and different search engines and stuff like worldcat that I get tempted to just let him figure it out when he gets there. It's not like anything I can show him at the public library is going to do him any good.