Ok, I actually managed to read two books this week...Her Mother's Hope, and Her Daughter's Dream, both by Francine Rivers. I really enjoyed them both, enough that I had to read the sequel once I had finished the first one. I can't say that I really identified with any of the characters, but it was interesting to see how the family dynamics played out over multiple generations. I was surprised to read in the back of the first book (less surprised to read it in the back of the second book, lol!) that a considerable amount of the story line was taken from the author's own family. The books made me think about my own upbringing, and my mother and her mother's upbringing, and how each of our relationships with our own mother affected the relationship we each had with our daughter. Overall it was a very engaging read, with an unexpected ending to the second book. 1. Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers 2. Her Daughter's Dream by Francine Rivers After I finished the above books I attempted to read Delivery, by Diana Prusik. I made it 20% of the way through the book and had to delete it from my Kindle. It had no story line, boring characters that did not seem to be remotely authentic, and did not hold my attention. It was just plain boring.

Enchanted Learning has a free booklet that you can print off (one page at a time for non-members) that covers the different coins. My oldest used that booklet for at least a year (beginning in 2nd grade) because she had the hardest time remembering which coin was which. I let her keep the booklet in her math book and whenever she encountered a problem that involved adding money, she was allowed to use the booklet to help her identify all the coins.

This week I decided that I needed something light to read since I am starting school back up with the kids and trying to get back on a regular schedule with my part-time job, so I am reading Her Mother's Hope by Francine Rivers. The book is long, but it seems to be a rather easy read, so chances are I might actually finish it by week's end! :lol: When my life is a little more organized and settled down I might attempt a book that requires some thinking...we will see if that ever happens....:lol:

Ok, I think I am going to be brave and try this. The idea of fitting in a book a week into my busy schedule for the entire year leaves me feeling a little panicked, but since I desperately love to read (and never seem to have the time) perhaps this will give me the motivation and accountability that I need in order to make time to read regularly. Perhaps I need to re-read the quote in my signature! :lol:

The repetition is only there if you need it. Otherwise, if my child shows mastery of the concept we just move on. My 4th grader is flying through the 4th grade book (she should be done some time in January); the way it is set up one concept is introduced each day, which makes it easy to combine lessons. Each lesson includes a lot of review, so I can choose between a number of topics to review, depending on what I think she needs. She is doing approximately one chapter per week (9 lessons covering new concepts, one review, and one test). As far as word problems go, R&S has done an excellent job of teaching my oldest how to do them. I bought her CWP3 at the beginning of the year, and she finds them rather easy to solve. I did have to teach her how to draw a bar graph to set them up, but as far as figuring out what needed to be done to solve the problem and deciphering the important information, she has a very thorough understanding of it. R&S teaches key words, drills discovering which operation(s) is/are needed to solve the problem, and teaches how to tell which important information is missing from a word problem.

If you are going to switch to R&S English, I would recommend just doing the writing exercises in there. You have to apply what is learned elsewhere (i.e. assign the student to write a descriptive paragraph about something in reading or science), but the instruction in the textbook is excellent. And if you do go with R&S, I would not use WWW as well; table of contents and sample exercises on the website are extraordinarily similar to the writing instruction in R&S, so it would be redundant.

My oldest child...some time in her kindergarten year (and she didn't do a math curriculum in kindergarten, so it was something that she picked up on her own). My second child...some time in the last month (and she is in 2nd grade). I think part of learning two digit numbers is a developmental thing, so I wouldn't worry about it too much at this point. FWIW, my oldest child appears to be naturally math-inclined (she is doing as many as 4 lessons per day of math and is holding an A average). My second child is not naturally math-inclined. So I would guess that the children that you hear about that are understanding things like this in kindergarten are probably more mathy (is that a word? :lol:) than the average child.

In this case, I would say that it is the curriculum. I used R&S Reading with my 4th grader 1st-3rd grades, and I am using it with my 2nd grader this year. I have dropped the workbook completely. It is way, way too much for a 2nd grader. With my older child, I crossed out most of the exercises and had her do just a select few with each lesson. When we got to grade 3, I was pretty shocked to see that there were fewer exercises in the 3rd grade reading workbook than there were in the 2nd grade workbook. My current 2nd grader just gives an oral narration after reading the story aloud. She can correctly answer any question about the story that I give her, sequences events perfectly...the workbook was just busywork for her. I am guessing you were referring to your 2nd grader since you have R&S reading listed there...if you were referring to your 4th grader, then disregard the above; I have no experience with R&S Reading at the 4th grade level. :D

I do not know of your reasons for switching from R&S to Saxon, but the sentence up above that I bolded may have been part of the reason to blame if you did not feel that R&S was working. You did not say what level you were using, but from 1st-3rd grade in R&S math the main part of the lesson is in the TM...the student workbook is mainly for extra practice (and can actually be skipped if the entire oral lesson from the TM is done, along with a few choice problems on the whiteboard). The TM provides a scripted lesson that covers way, way more in each lesson than the workbook does. If the student simply does the workbook lesson, they will only encounter about 1/3 of the teaching that is meant to be covered each day. Just a word of caution, in case anyone else was planning on teaching R&S math without the TM. :D

Nope, I am not talking about the sentences that use the words during the spelling test (word, this is a word in a sentence, word). The phonics and 3rd grade sentences are in the instructions in the TM, and the 4th grade sentences are the two sentences given after the 16 spelling words on the test. None of them are studied dictation, the student is expected to write the sentence correctly after hearing it twice. Don't feel bad, I did not realize the dictation sentences were there until partway through last year...and I have been using R&S since the beginning of my homeschool journey. :D

1st grade phonics, 3rd grade spelling, and 4th grade spelling. The phonics sentences are in the TM, the 3rd grade sentences are in the TM, and the 4th grade sentences are in the TM as part of the spelling test. We have only used up to the 4th grade level, so I can't speak for the higher levels. It isn't a huge amount of dictation, 2 sentences a day in phonics, 3 sentences a week in 3rd grade, and 2 sentences on the weekly 4th grade test.

Well, some levels of R&S spelling actually include dictation, so no, it is not overkill to do both. :001_smile:

We spend about 15 minutes each day doing mental math, drilling facts, learning new material, etc. (basically all the stuff in the R&S math TM). I assign her about 30 minutes worth of work from the daily lesson...each lesson is on a 2-page spread, and the number of problems in each lesson varies considerably. I have a pretty good idea of how much my daughter can (should?) accomplish in thirty minutes of focused work, so that is what I assign each day. Now, whether it only takes her thirty minutes is up to her! :lol:

Whoops! I stand corrected. I hadn't realized that there was a difference between free and paid student prime membership. I thought that it was the same thing (and it was when I started the student membership, Amazon started offering video streaming after I continued with the paid student prime membership). But to my knowledge there isn't a difference between the paid student membership and the regular membership. But I could be wrong there, too! :lol:

Prime membership is Prime membership, whether you pay the student rate (free for the first year, 1/2 price for the next three years) or full rate. They include the same benefits/services. There is no such thing as an upgrade; you already have the full version. I am in my second year of student membership, and I have access to all of the same things that someone that pays full price has access to...I can borrow a book from Amazon on my Kindle, I have Cloud storage, I can stream videos from Amazon, I have free 2 day shipping, etc. The only difference between a student membership and the regular membership is that when it comes time to renew, I pay half price. :D

:iagree: Same here at our house.

The best piece of advice I found for gaining speed in reading was in the R&S Phonics TM. Alongside of each daily lesson is a list of words for the student to sound out, but the TM said to flip to the previous day's words at the end of each phonics lesson and see how many the student could sound out correctly in one minute. The words are familiar, having been read the day prior, and there is a bit of self-competition motivating the student. That worked immensely in helping my second child gain speed in reading (at the beginning of first grade she was still slowly sounding out words). Each day we I would circle the last word that she had read in that one minute, and she tried to beat that number the next day. Perhaps you could do something similar with the Sonlight book of wordlists? The second thing I might recommend is the game that is played in 100EZ to teach blending sounds. It is called "Say-it-Fast", and the way it is played is the instructor says a word very s-l-o-w-l-y and drawn out, and the student has to say it the fast way. For example, I would say "paaaaaaannnnnnn", and my child would say (or shout, really, as if loudness made it faster :lol:) "pan!" We did this for weeks on end with just about every CVC word I could come up with. I also did it on the sly...for example, I would sat to them "Could you please hand me that peeeeennnnnn" and wait for them to hand me the pen. It is goofy, but it sure sped up the slow sounding out of individual letters and made it easier to blend the sounds into a word.

When I was in elementary school, it was definitely Bridge to Terabithia. During junior high...I can't believe I am admitting this...it was Singularity, a sci-fi/psychological thriller. I don't know what it was about that book, but I wore out my library's copy of it! :lol:

I have faced the same problem...living in town I never saw a single scorpion, but the house we moved into outside of town has the occasional one. The sight of one makes me scream (as does the red-headed centipede). Here is an article that tells how to get rid of scorpions, and here is the place to buy all the products at the lowest prices that I could find. I have had those places bookmarked for a while, but it is expensive to treat for scorpions so I am saving up for it. Those poor suckers don't know what is in store for them! :D Don't walk barefoot in your house at night, knock your shoes/boots together before putting them on, shake out your pants before putting them on, and inspect both sides of your towel before wrapping it around yourself. And check under your blankets before getting into bed. This is not paranoid behavior; I know people who have been stung by scorpions by not doing each of the above. I really, really hate scorpions. :ack2:

I have not used the first level yet, but it is sitting on my shelf ready to be used in a few weeks when we finish this CLE Reading lightunit. I have looked through the instructor's guide and the student books, and I really, really like it. It looks like everything that I would want in an elementary literature course. Did I mention that I really like the looks of it? :D But it will be a couple months yet before I have any real feedback to give concerning it. This new level looks just as good, and it is on sale through tomorrow...must...not...buy it...yet....:lol:

I have been following this thread very closely today...I could have written the original post word-for-word (except my dd is a 7yo). I googled visual-spatial learner and it describes my dd so well I should probably be paranoid that someone is watching her through our windows and taking notes! :lol: My question is, what curriculum is good for teaching a visual-spatial learner? Obviously R&S Math (very parts-to-whole, drill and repetition) is not a good fit for my dd. Nor is R&S Phonics (although after dragging her through grade 1 and part of grade 2, she is an excellent reader). These two are the most difficult to use with her, and cause most of the problems. I already dropped R&S Reading (her reading comprehension is unbelievable, as is her ability to sequence events), now we just use the readers for practice reading aloud...and she wants me to ask her comprehension questions after she finishes reading, because she knows that she will get the answer right!:D So what do you (or anyone else with experience with a visual-spatial learner) recommend we use? I am very sequential and parts-to-whole, as is my oldest child, which is why we are using R&S. But it is not working with my second child. In fact, I would almost have to say that she is learning well in spite of what we use, not because of it.

I believe that God hears my prayers and knows the desires of my heart, but that does not mean that He will grant everything that I ask. God is not a vending machine. I can't put in a prayer and pull out a <insert whatever I want>. That would put me in control, and that is definitely not the way things work! As far as the question as to why some people have fortune and others have misfortune...we are not blessed/punished in this world because of our sins or our good deeds. It is completely unrelated. No one gets what they deserve. There are orphanages around the world that are full of children who are not getting what they deserve. There are countless murderers roaming free, not getting what they deserve. That just isn't the way things work. It would be nice, but it isn't...it is all chance. Things will be peachy in heaven, but this isn't heaven. This place is meant to make us long for heaven. I had a miscarriage, and it broke my heart. I had already had two healthy babies, so it was very unexpected. I was SO mad at God for taking my baby. Then I realized something. God was not mad at me, He was not trying to teach me a lesson, He wasn't trying to make me mature in some way, there wasn't some grand scheme that I couldn't see that would make it all better in the end...God used the situation for good, but that was not why it happened. Know why it happened? . . . . . . . . . Because everybody dies. Some are old, some are young, some are somewhere in between, but everybody dies at some point. That is why my baby died before I could ever hold it in my arms. That is why my Grandpa died. That is why my sister's friend died in elementary school. None of us are so special that our loved ones will be kept from death. I can't realistically say that if God loved me then He wouldn't let any of my loved ones die...everybody dies at some point. And it always hurts, no matter how young or old they are. Like I said, the point of this world is to make us long for heaven. If I didn't believe in heaven, then I would have to admit that life is pretty dismal and any God that only had this present life for us (and nothing in the future) was a pretty sorry being. But I have faith that the best is yet to come. :001_smile:

So far I only have one curriculum choice that I really regret. Spanish for Children is not what I was hoping for in an elementary Spanish program. I did not buy the DVD set because I understood that the program could be used without it. There is no teacher's manual for the program, which makes it more difficult than I thought it would be...I have been really spoiled by PL/LC1. The grammatical instruction in the student book is really poor...it just seems convoluted and hard to grasp...I end up reading the text to myself and teaching the concept to my daughter in my own words. My daughter is like me in that she needs to-the-point information, not dancing around a topic without explicitly stating the necessary information (like rambling about tables being girls in Spanish and neuter nouns in English, instead of saying that objects are considered to be of one or the other gender in Spanish...my daughter is not dumb, she knows that tables do not have female bits, nor are they animate, so they are not girls). The audio accompanying the program is awful (the person speaking is an exceptionally fast speaker, even for the Spanish language), and since I am not a Spanish speaker I was really relying on it for pronunciation. The conversational Spanish in each lesson isn't even on the audio, which does not make sense to me.:confused: Children are not going to intuitively know how to say "buenos dias". We are taking two weeks for each lesson (which is fine with me), and I am going to trudge through the book since I can't afford to purchase a Spanish curriculum to replace it (and my daughter really, really wants to learn Spanish), but I really wish I had bought pretty much anything but this. On the other hand, LC1 is going quite well, and I am definitely pleased with my choice there...I debated for quite a while whether to go with LC or LFC, and since SFC is supposed to be similar to LFC, I am confident that I made the right decision.

I don't know if this is normal for everybody, but using progesterone cream lengthened my cycles from 26 days to 28 days. It had been 26 days long since it settled into a regular cycle in my teens. I am not going to complain, though, I like having two extra days before my period shows up every month! After I used the cream for the first couple of cycles and realized that my body had switched to a 28 day cycle I began using the cream from days 14-28. I don't know if this helps you, but it could be a possibility. Or else I am just an oddity! :lol:

This was my first thought...but if it involves writing, he really wants to do it himself, he will not let me do it for him. This is why we are still in the middle of ETC 1...every time we reach a page of spelling words, he insists on painstakingly writing each one himself, and his writing is very slow and shaky. Since it looks so poor he gets very frustrated with himself, so until his fine motor skills have developed a little more I am hoping to use materials and activities that don't require much writing on his part, in order to eliminate unnecessary frustration.