Hi, If you are using MOH or SOTW you can check this links: http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/files?page=4&csearch=Notebooking&ord=chrono http://www.hslaunch.com/mypage/profile/585

Hi, I don't know much about Gouin method, but it sounds similar to the method which one of my friends used teaching German. He told me to write down commonly used key verbs and find cliche they are used in. He would encourage his students to use those key phrases/cliches in dialogues so many times that they would automatically use the correct one in different situations without really thinking about grammar. Fifteen years ago I was very interested to discover a " Key path" which would make learning foreign languages an easy job:) I would like to learn more about Gouin method:)

Hi, we have plans for few languages too:) My daughter who is 8 wants to speak 5 languages + Latin and Greek. I used to read and speak to her in Japanese. I asked her if she wants to drop any languages out of main 5 but she doesn't want. My oldest wants to be a linguist/scientist. She likes to chat with people and be able to communicate in different languages is important. I think she will be able to improve her "particular" languages by receiving a certificate of technical translator for Japanese or German additionally to her major when she goes to college:) Few years ago I read some research papers regarding studying a foreign language in an early age. So, the research showed that if a child was exposed to a foreign language by the age of 8 he would be able to speak that language without any accent at all.

Hi, I am using Life of Fred Fraction with my 8 years old child as a supplement to Fraction topic she has studied in SM/MEP this year. We just started yesterday and are planing to finish it in 2 months. If my child decides to continue with LoF we will do Decimals this fall. She does 4-5 hours of math daily during "school year" so adding LoF will replace some of her math load for summer studies.

Currclick just had a secret 50% off sale last week. I usually get free stuff, but during special sale I bought Ancient History Interactive units on Egypt, Greece and Rome. My kids are excited about it. I also have gotten Dinosaurs (creation based) Lapbook from A Journey Through Learning. We are looking forward to make it this summer. Last week Simple Schooling had an Open House where you could try some of their interactive units for free. They still have a 30% off subscription sale this week. Here is a link to the website: http://thesimplehomeschool.com/ Here is a link to a bee unit my child enjoyed so much:) http://homeschool-forum.com/bees/player.swf

I used Cursive First with my 6 years old and we loved it. I am going to use it this coming year with my 4.5 years son. My dd learned to use cursive first and then started to print.

Well, I hear you. I have 8 years old daughter who is not that mature and emotionally young too. It makes an extra hard for her to be competitive because she doesn't always want to "fight". She wants us to be proud of her achievements, and we praise her improvements in skating and academics.

I agree!!!!!! I have a 8 years old who is gifted and "lazy" at some point. She doesn't always want to work hard whether it is working on a particular skating element or plowing through her math assignments. How to make my child to pay attention to details? is my everyday question. Details are not important to her:( P.S. When my daughter was 6 years old I had a "point system" where she was earning her points for getting A on tests, working on problems,reading extra curriculum stuff, so by the end of the week she would have around 100 points to redeem. She could exchanged collected points to different "presents" with particular values, but sometimes she would collects them to redeem a grand prize "computer game" or something she really wanted. I am thinking about going back to this system this coming school year so my youngest child can participate in fun of learning.

I feel the same way. If my oldest kids (8 and 4) are not challenged they will get in troubles, especially my son. I do push my 8 years old from time to time because she wouldn't do it herself:( She doesn't always want to work hard. My daughter has between 30-45 hours of study per week depending on her work load. Most of it are academical studies +skating. She decides if she wants to do a double load of LA or history, science or math, instead of spreading it for several days. I was "attacked" once when I mentioned that my child was doing about 3-5 hours of math daily. Some ladies thought it was too much, because their kids would spend 15-30 min on their math assignments. My son is taking it "easy", just doing 15-20 hours of studies per week, half of which are math and logic. He is only 4.5 years old:). I don't need to push him; he likes mazes, puzzles, logic and can spend a lot of time solving a problem. His thinking abilities are much higher than his writing at this time. He is still working on improving his numbers writing.

Hi, If you just want a text without having an actual book, I recommend http://www.mirknig.com I downloaded a lot of russian language materials from them for free.

My child had problems with WP last year. I asked her to diagram the problem writing down all given information and finding relationship between components of the word problem. For example, here is a word problem and the diagram for the problem from her 2nd grade math book she did: " A merchant traveling to India visited 3 cities. He bought 34 lbs of spices in a first city. Two times more spices were bought in the second city comparing to the first. Third city supplied 12 lbs less than first and second cities together. How many lbs. of spices were purchased during merchant's trip? 34 lbs. /--------------------/ city I 68 lbs. /-----------------------------------------/ city II /--------------------//-----------------------------------------/ city I + city II Then you can start filling the information in bar drawings( we used graph paper at the beginning of our studies) /-------------------//-----------------------------------------/ -12 lbs. city III 34 lbs. + 68 lbs.+ 90 lbs. = 192 lbs. spices

We did the same thing with my daughter. She did SM textbooks +IP SM + CWR + MEP. We never used workbooks. She really liked MEP and IP "challenging" problems.

I agree with you. I purchased LOF "Fraction" book to use over the summer with my almost 9 years old. We want to do fun math by reading a book. For formal studies we still use SM/Russian math books. When I was a child I learned a lot of math concepts by reading books similar to LOF. I had been introduced to Pythagoras theorem at age 10 before I formally studied it at age 13. It was fun and educational reading:)

I agree completely! From time to time I forget about it myself. My son who was 3 last year could do 2 hours of math/ logic daily for a month, then switched his interest to mazes/puzzles for few weeks. Now he is 4,5 and will be doing russian math/SM for 1 grade this coming school year. It might take him a year to do so instead of half of the year in the past for his K math. Does your child like mazes/puzzles? Mine likes tangrams, legoes, "shape by shape" and Mastermind games. There are a lot of free on-line resources you can use. Does your child have any interests in foreign languages? They can learn a lot using a computer or CDs without being formally tought by anyone.

Hi, I have 4 years old who has troubles pronouncing some phonograms such as "CH" , "TH" and few others. He also can not roll his RRRRRRR properly. My husband had problems with CH phonogram when he was a young child too. I am trying to use some tongue twisters and nursery rhymes to correct DS pronunciation. Does your child like science? You can do some science projects with him or make a lapbook for a particular topic of his interest. Puzzles, mazes, logic games, lego are the things my son is crazy about. We had been doing math formally for a year and start 1 st grade math curriculum this fall. RS math level A will be a good start for a young kid. I used it with my 3,5 years daughter and will be using it with my son over the summer. Hands-on-primary from Critical Thinking Company was a great hit with my daughter. We used attribute and pattern blocks, linking cubes. My daughter wasn't ready to write until she was 6 years old. We used Cursive First which was great fit for us. She writes in cursive much better than print. My son likes books too. He is mostly looking at pictures, but can read few really simple baby books. Formally nobody was teaching him how to read. We also used Galloping the Globe curriculum.

My first 2 kids are not that close in age so my son is trying to keep up with his older sister. Last summer we did some studies of Rainforests and my kids made 3 lapbooks. We are kind finishing this year trying to grow a pineapple. We are done with our bird studies and making a lap-n-note books. We used Apologia book as a main course textbook and a lot of library/Internet resources. My daughter can identify birds much better than I do. We will be studying Plants and Bugs this summer and are planning to make some lap-n-note books/nature journals. My kids love science too. We are in a process of making our own "Root Beer" using a kit my husband bought a year ago. Chemistry in work! Here are some links to the sites we use to study Rainforests: http://www.squidoo.com/rainforestlapbook http://dynamic2moms.webs.com/rainforestamazon.htm http://www.homeschoolshare.com/great_kapok_tree.php

I started homeschooling from the beginning and I don't have any desire sending my kids to a public school. I was only considering a German Language School on Saturdays but this is still in work. My goal is teaching them how to learn on their own with some encouragement and help from us. So far I am succeeding with my 8 years old daughter and my son is just trying to keep up with his oldest sister. My kids are bright but I haven't tested them for giftness. Since they are homeschooled we just trying to keep them busy which is hard to do. My daughter is working hard on finishing her Basic Skill Program to move on to Figure Skating. All my kids skate and we all love doing it. So PS would not give them any figure skating opportunities.

When my son was almost 2.5 years old he got hold of 3 pennies and was so proud of having his pocket "Money". He was sitting in the middle of the living room and counting them in French: un, deux,trois ( I didn't know he could count in french; usually he would not speak unless it was something he wanted to discuss). Anyway, my crawling baby daughter decided to investigate her brother's activity and got closer. She saw his shiny coins and snapped them withing few seconds. My son was so astonished by her behavior, took his coins back and wanted to be sure she didn't keep any, counted them again in French. First I thought it was a coincidence for him to count in French but I realized he knew what he had been doing and how many coins he had had at the beginning. P.S. My son's coins collection is much bigger but his little sister still trying to downsize it every time she has a chance:)

My daughter started it when she was 7 and went through 2 levels withing 2 months. Then we did some other memorization so we are going back this summer to reinforce what she has learned and continue with level 3. My son was almost 3 when he memorized famous "Ooey Gooey" poem. He just loves train. If your child likes trains, there is another short one for a young child to memorize. Toot! Toot! A peanut sat on a railroad track, His heart was all a-flutter; The five-fifteen came rushing by- Toot!toot! peanut butter! I haven't used CDs myself, but actually thinking of transferring audio CDs into MP3 and let kids listen before they fall asleep. When I was a child I listen to some poetry on old vinyl records and memorized a lot. I still remember all poetry and prose from school years.

Thanks a lot. My kids just love these math games. My daughter likes to play SM computer games also.

My Internet was very " uncooperative" for any streaming video last few days, so I haven't had a chance to check many videos out:(

I agree with you. We are not using workbooks at all. My daughter uses SM textbook and IP as a workbook. MEP had also several "challenges" ahead of SM so when my daughter saw them in IP they were just a piece of cake for her. I have a proposal: What do you think about having a thread "My favourite challenging math/logic problem/s of the week", so everyone can post and our kids might want to work on them. Any comments are welcome. You may PM me instead of "littering" this thread. I will think what problem my child found being very challenging for her this week.

I agree with this statement. I have a similar approach in math. I could rush my child through SM Primary but I decided to think "bigger" and combine three absolutely different curriculum such as SM, MEP and Russian Peterson math(for elementary grades). My daughter studies a lot of math laws/rules and algebra in Russian math earlier than she would be studying in SM at the grade level. When she gets to it in SM she would already knows it. It usually takes her an hour to go through a Lesson/Chapter in SM and 2 hours to do 2-3 Lessons of Russian math. For SM IP it takes a little longer than an hour:) We had been studying "Birds" for almost 2 weeks and finally are ready for our project-Bird Lap-N-Note book, so we take our time to have fun as you all do!

Hi, I just posted a link to the free online courses in another thread but I am copying it here too. I am considering it with my child when she is a little bit older.:) Here is a great site with absolutely FREE on-line courses including Calculus! It is private and I don't know the owner:) It has 2100 videos and 100 self-paced exercises. http://www.khanacademy.org/ Their mission is to deliver a world-class education to anyone anywhere; they consider themselves as a free World Virtual School. Here is the list of courses they are offering: Algebra, Arithmetic, Biology, Banking and Money, Test Preparation, Chemistry, Brain teasers, Economics, Developmental Math, Calculus, Astronomy, Finance, Differential Equations, History, Linear Algebra, Geometry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Pre-Algebra, Pre-calculus, Statistics, Trigonometry, Investing.

For some of you who are looking for a reasonable/ good quality on-line courses you may consider checking this out. Here is a great site with absolutely FREE on-line courses including Calculus! It is private and I don't know the owner:) This site has 2100 videos and 100 self-paced exercises. http://www.khanacademy.org/ Their mission is to deliver a world-class education to anyone anywhere; they consider themselves as a free World Virtual School. Here is the list of courses they are offering: Algebra, Arithmetic, Biology, Banking and Money, Test Preparation, Chemistry, Brain teasers, Economics, Developmental Math, Calculus, Astronomy, Finance, Differential Equations, History, Linear Algebra, Geometry, Organic Chemistry, Physics, Pre-Algebra, Pre-calculus, Statistics, Trigonometry, Investing.