This is super helpful. I've neglected the whole Audible account and never pay attention to sales. How dumb and how frustrated I am with myself but definitely motivated to turn this around now. Thank you #OhElizabeth, especially!

We participate in a program that allows us the opportunity to get reimbursed for certain curriculum. So in this case, I can get the 2nd ed. simply because I can get the money back for it. Otherwise, I'd probably just use what I already have. Looking at the RSM website, it seems that not only is the layout of the teacher textbook easier to follow, but the way the material is taught has been updated as well and not for the purpose of meeting CC standards, but just as an improvement in general. Of course, I don't have the 2nd edition to compare so I don't know how much has really changed. I'm just going on faith that it's going to be an improvement over the first ed. There is a video for each book and sample pages. So I do like the changes you can see there.

I make my kids carry their own belonging and sometimes a few things we all use to outings like the pond. I try to get the older two to carry their plastic, kid kayaks which are quite small and light using the buddy system. They can and have done this but when I'm meeting up with my friends, they always come help the kids and carry the stuff for them! Apparently, this is seen as some kind of child cruelty.

Can we start a list of not just any book on tape, but specifically, paid Audible.com account books worth getting each month for a elementary age audience. In other words, I think I've been throwing my money away with the Audible account I've been paying for the past two years. I almost never get any titles because I'm paralyzed by the thought of paying for a title that is already available for free as many classics are, or cancelling my account and losing all the book credits I have accumulated! I also constantly throw in the paralysis of --I can't get audible books that would be better experienced by my kids as a book they read themselves. So, within that context, what books are really worth getting with your paid Audible account? (For me, I will probably be using them a lot in the car where K'er, 3rd, and 6th grader will be listening).

Another math curric. question. My oldest went through RightStart Math (RSM) Levels B through E in K through 4th grade. This past year, we went to Singapore Math CC 5th Grade. I'm trying to evaluate what to do for 6th grade in the fall. Should I go to RSM Level G Geometry and do it over two years, or should I just continue with Singapore Math for 6th grade? DD does participate in CC state testing and so far she has done fine. While I don't put that much stock in the tests, it would bother me (and probably her) if she wasn't able to pass next year because she was only doing Geometry the whole time. I also considered trying to do them concurrently somehow, though that might be a bit cost prohibitive. Any thoughts?

I don't know if this was discussed when the 2nd editions of Right Start Math (RSM) started coming out but I couldn't find anything doing a search and I missed the boat at the time since I was in the later levels of RSM. Now, I'm preparing to start my 3rd child. I have Levels B through E 1st edition. I started my other two in K with Level B. I'm just wondering if there is a big difference with Levels A and B in the 2nd edition. I would like to buy the new editions for child #3 but I just want to make sure that I will still be able to start him on Level B like I did with my other two.

Yup. I guess its not available unless I doend $106.00 for the TG. Apparently I didn't think this through well enough. Really missing RSM right now. I guess my next step is to try to find someone that does have the TG in order to get a copy. Anyone? Bueller?

So, we've been doing Singapore Math CC (Common Core) 5A this year. I also bought some extra practice books, etc. I did not buy the $53 per semester Teacher's Guide, which I assume has the answer sheets for the Student Workbook. Now, I'm spending ridiculous amounts of time correcting her work. I need the answers. Is there a way to get the answer sheets without spending $106.00 plus shipping?

RSM A or B

RSO Chemistry

We're trying this as an extra, no stress workbook this year. CAP Reading & Reasoning.

I'm kind of annoyed I even bought the Student Workbook. Had I known that one was only for writing, I wouldn't have. It says Hake Grammar & Writing. So do all the books for that matter. I thought the big Student book was the instruction book. It's lame you can't really write your grammar answers in there. Oh, well. I guess we need to start over in the big book and just write answers on paper which is fine but I tend to save their school work and it's not very usefull to save a bunch of papers with answers when you don't know what the context is.

So we finished FLL4 last year and after some consideration, went on to Hake Grammar for 5th. I bought the Teacher Guide, Student Edition book, and the Student Workbook. We don't need the writing but it was my understanding that we could just skip writing related exercises in the Student Workbook. I wanted this to be fairly self directed. So she has been working in the Student Workbook only which I've only now come to realize is ONLY WRITING exercises. Is all of the grammar content in the big "Student Edition" book? This one doesn't provide anywhere to write answers. Are you just supposed to write answers on your own paper? Is there another workbook for this that I missed? I guess I'm used to the ease of Open And Go curric. I can't handle the complexity of mainstream school curriculum. LOL. Can anyone help me get a clue on how best to use this for grammar only? Thanks.

I feel your pain. Literally. Every day.

Curious about your stellar deal. Would you care to share what it was. Maybe I can be on the look out for next year.

Thank you! Loved waking up to all this help. I don't think I can consider any HP printer. I had one years ago and had so many problems. They finally sent me a new one after hours and hours and hours of time spent on the phone with customer services and I just kept having problems with it. But I can't consider HP because I don't have the emotional fortitude to deal with their Customer Service. It was absolutely the most horrible customer service ever. I think I'm just going to go with the easy pick, the MX 922. It looks about as gigantic as the one that I have that just died so I should be able to deal with that and it's going to have the same functionality plus it looks like it has some kind of CD cover printer. Hopefully, the ink is the same as I what I have. I stopped buying expensive ink and even refilling ink cartridges. I just buy the discount ink from Amazon now. But I don't think that had anything to do with the printer failure.

We're trying Mosdos Press this year with my older. We haven't really done literature before. Kind of excited to see how she'll like it. I got the whole thing including the teacher's guide to make things easier for myself.

So we started school today. In the past, I have made checklists of everything I need to get ready for the first day. I copy and spiral bind workbooks, etc. This year, for some reason, I decided to be much more lax. I changed up some of the curriculum for my older one. I decided to let her write in workbooks rather than copying them. But apparently, I completely forgot I still needed to copy and make workbooks for my younger one! So, this evening, I start copying the math workbook double-sided, while I'm jolted back to frugality and decide to cut up one of the new workbooks for my older one instead of having her write in it. My printer stops with a terminal error that says to unplug it immediately. It smelled overheated. It appears to be through. Now, I'm in the first week of school and I need to copy a BUNCH of stuff. I just want to go out tomorrow and get another one. The printer I have now is the Canon PIXMA MX712. I don't think they make it anymore. Not sure what a comparable one might be. I need it to have a document feeder, 5 ink cartridges (dedicated black ink) , WI-FI, AND auto duplex copying/printing. Any recommendations? That's what I get for trying to be relaxed about homeschooling :glare:

Engino Lego WeDO KNex Erector ZomeTool Snap Circuits Some of these have kits with motors and some (Lego WeDo) you can program on the computer. I have a very inventive one too but he mostly thinks he can make anything out of good ol' fashion paper and scissors! He started making flip cell phones when he was four.

Me too. I'm hoping it will be available through Rainbow Resource at about the same time so I can order curriculum altogether.

Uh. That's a little unsavory. Thanks for the heads up.

This Ladies of Liberty Lesson is available free with $1 shipping including a DVD from . Anyone familiar with this. Don't have time to look at it this morning. Wondering if I should just get it for a dollar and save for later. http://www.freewomenshistory.com/e3.html

Thinking about buying a Zometool kit, possibly the STEM+ Kit. Does anyone have one of these? How do you use it. Would it be useful for Chemistry (RSO in 4-5th grade)? http://www.zometool.com/products/stem-kit.html

What you're saying is sounding very common sense to me today. I think what you explained, coupled with how slowly she processes, just turned into a recipe for a monumentally disappointing outcome (for me). I do need to re-evaluate my expectations and her abilities. It's possible, that looming state testing and friends' feedback such as "Oh, well my (very young) 2nd grader is reading at a sixth grade level and doing fourth grade level math", "Both my kids [one of which is the same age as mine and has ADHD] are getting straight A's", etc. maybe were working against me that day. I must have been thinking, surely she can get somewhere between 70-80% on this test, it will take her a bit longer, but certainly not a million hours. I do appreciate the feedback though, because each piece is helping me get into a more level frame of mind on this. I'm spending time researching different curriculum options for next year which I was all but ready to throw in the towel before. ---- Ironically, she's at the state CC math test right now. I know the session time is almost up so I will be going to pick her up though she hasn't called to say she's done yet. She exhausted the entire test session time yesterday on the writing portion and was supposed to be finishing that today too. The results won't be that telling of course since my teaching hasn't necessarily covered all common core topics and certainly not the writing methodology, but I can't dismiss it altogether either because it still does give an indication of her knowledge and ability to adapt her thinking to answer, write, and solve these questions. From looking at the sample tests, they seem quite well put together to me. It's probably a good thing, results won't be given until the fall though.