Thanks. I better check it out. I received blocks today. Next week I will spend some time exploring concepts using them.

You can use the standard set you have and just cut out some hexagon shapes matching the size of your standard set. If I were you I would not buy a new set just for hexagons.

Hi, My daughter did Primary book when she was 4-5 years old and we zipped through it. We did Building Skills book 1 when she was 6 years old. We did some logic books from Prufrock press and last month she finished Building skills 3 figural easily. My child just turned 11 two days ago and she is an accelerated learner. My son who is 6 is doing book 1 now, we skipped Primary with him at all. It would take him not more than 2 hours to finish Primary. My third child is more normal, so she is doing Primary now( just turned 5 a week ago) and will be done with it by the beginning of the next year or earlier. I can not see it would take you 2 years to go through 1 book. You can start as earlier as 3-4 years old and he will be just fine. I think most time will take to draw/color/rearrange pieces than actually to solve the problem. We really liked these books from Prufrock press: http://www.prufrock.com/Logic-Countdown-P180.aspx http://www.prufrock.com/Logic-Safari-Book-1-P182.aspx http://www.prufrock.com/Lollipop-Logic-Critical-Thinking-Activities-Book-1-P185.aspx

Thanks! I guess I didn't get a joke:). My daughter likes reptiles also but she decided to use the mammal this time.

Hi, I could not find the reference to the fine print? Can you direct me to it? My child is creating her animal but we want to be sure she stays within the guideline of the contest. Thanks.

I am really happy for her. Thanks for sharing such a good news!

Congratulations! I hope the program will meet your expectations:) Your daughter is a remarkable young lady. I wish her the best!

It was still during USSR time and just after it. I recall spending about 1-1.5 hours for math homework in 3rd grade, especially when you get tricky word problems with movement, speed and river current. In high school we were asked to solve about 15-20 problems as homework assignments for algebra class and between 5-10 problems for geometry class including memorizing theorems and proofs. Sometimes I used 3-5 hours just for math in high school, majority of the time was spent on writing down the solution of the problems. Our teacher required no orthographic mistakes in our works. Our school didn't allow anyone with "C" to attend high school classes.

I was thinking about the book,but decided against purchasing it just because my daughter had already been exposed to a lot of geometry concepts and we don't need another review book. She decided to try Math spider II games which are intended for 7-8 grade, which should be about her level in math.

It is odd. It should not be this way. Children with learning disabilities will need an extra help and less intensive workflow in a classroom. When I was growing up the school guideline was to allow a student who has a "D" among his final grades to remain in the same grade one more year. If the results do not improve, the child would be removed from a regular school and send to attend the establishment for children with learning disabilities. I knew a girl from my neighborhood who attended such school. She was a sweet child but her mind was not wired to process a lot of math correctly. Nobody would be holding the rest of the students back just because there was somebody who couldn't keep up with the group. Children who had any "C" as they graduate from middle school were not allowed to attend a high school, because most of high school students would be trying to get into colleges later on.

Sunday was the only day off:), but sometimes it didn't feel that way. In high school I could spend most of the Sunday preparing homework in advance such as math or essay writing because you wouldn't have time during the week to do it. Per day, depending on a subject(algebra, geometry or calculus). Elementary grade student would spent about 2 hours to do math homework. What do you mean under a "collaborative style"? Can you explain, please?

We buy textbooks and some activity books, but borrow the majority of our fiction/non-fiction books from different libraries. Sometimes we have about 200-300 items checked out to 9 library cards we have from different libraries taking into account we have very large book collection of our own. I need to hide books from my oldest child who reads all the time.

When I went to school in Russia (back in 80-90) we had math 6 times per week 45 min each lesson for elementary-middle school pupils. High school math was 5 times per week. Homework would take between 2 and 5 hours just for math to do, depending on the grade. Normally elementary kids would be out of school by 12:15p.m. High school kids will be done around 3 p.m unless you have extra activities to participate in. Usually elementary school teachers would have a college degree in elementary education, middle-high school teachers would have an advance college degree( 5 years college) specializing in a specific field such as math and physics, chemistry, biology, foreign languages, PE etc. Private schools could have some teachers with doctoral degree or something equivalent to it.

Agree:) I thought I would share the links to the foss integrated science curriculum http://lhsfoss.org/fossweb/teachers/parents/extension.html and gems guides: http://lhsgems.org/gemsguides.html

I agree. I found 3 units my kids will be interested in. I really like the one about magnetism and "train". If I convince myself to use any of them, this would be the one we will try out first.

Thanks for posting about it. I just learned there is a guild in our area so I will need to check it out:)

Kiselyov math textbook is a typical example of math book ( middle/high school) when I was growing up. Answers were given at the end of the book and only for every 2-4 problems and no solution manual. We usually were given between 7-10 geometry assignments for homework and it might take us 2-4 hours to do just math alone.

I was using it with my daughter. Explanations are very clear and simple. Negative numbers are tought very well. It offers a good variety of problems, not repetitive and annoying. It covers some geometry not just pre-algebra. Give it a try if you think AOPS pre-algebra will be too much for your child.

I checked Education Unboxed site but couldn't find any worksheets there. Am I missing anything?

Thanks, I read all thread regarding the topic on this board and still not sure which way to go. I was actually thinking about getting old Math-u-see TM for Intermediate/Advance math cheaply and see how close they are to teaching the concept I want my kids to learn earlier. Since Mortensen math is not going to be our core curricula, I don't feel comfortable spending a lot of money on workbooks. The worse case I can design my own workbooks after understanding it. I am still planning getting a set of Mortesen math blocks and may be level 4/5 workbooks for my older child to play with math at her spare time.

Thanks for posting.

I wish they would have some materials targeted to homeschoolers at the fraction of the price they ask schools to pay:(

' You are welcome:) I went to Engineering is Elementary website and downloaded a free unit which is available there. I will try it with my kids. My daughter is kind getting old for it but my 6 years old son will have a blast from "Saving a toad" unit. I will let you know how we liked it. Here is a link to it if you want to try it out yourself. http://www.eie.org/content/engineering-adventures

Here is an old thread regarding engineering resources you might want to look through:) http://forums.welltrainedmind.com/topic/266926-engineering-resources/page__hl__engineering#entry4721427

My daughter was too old to start BA , but she really enjoyed an extra curricular activities with MEP challenging problems. When she was young and was doing MEP2-3 over the summer, SM challenging problems and IP were so trivial for her so she just zipped through them. Don't give up MEP, especially MEP 4/5, where it covers LCD and different base math. SM doesn't even touch those topics until later. My daughter still going to do some problems from MEP 6 and 7 this coming year. My son will be doing MEP selectively with BA and SM.