We live in Canada and our family has been to WDW many times. We consider the Polynesian to be our "home away from home". When we step off the bus into the hotel we always give a big relaxing sigh. We know what to expect and where to find everything. We went to Europe this summer and did stay just outside of Disney Paris. We decided not to go into the actual park. The outside are (small and akin to Downtown Disney) was fun but just not the same. As Disney does not own the area in front of the train station (almost attached to the parks), it was dirty here with sidewalk vendors trying to sell us souvenirs. We really didn't like the feel and we felt that we would be comparing everything to WDW so we stayed away.

Thank you both for the advice. I have been considering Sadier-Oxford and even Excavating English (E McHenry). Do you know if SO includes Latin stems at all?

I am very close to finishing CE 1 and 2 with my sons. The vocabulary provided was excellent and we loved learning the latin roots to words. After reading many posts, I am pretty sure that I do not want to continue into WWW. So, what wisdom can the hive provide with respect to a good program to use?

I used the Standards version and my ds13 is halfway through DM1. We only used the Text, WB and the tests. We didn't have any issues at all and I believe that he has retained most of the concepts taught. I have ds10 who is almost through 4A (moving quickly as mostly review from previous PS) using the same three components. I have been reading this thread with interest and wondering if I should invest in the IP or CWP. I was reluctant to pick up the IP as it was not written to correlate with the Standards Edition. For the 5 level books, I picked up the Extra Practice book which does go with the Standards Edition. Has anyone used this?

We finished the primary Standard series up to 6B and are now working our way through Singapore DM1. I decided to use DM as NEM looked very wordy and my son would baulk at that type of layout. I think he equates crowded pages with more "work". :glare: DM moves quickly and covers most of the Pre-Algebra topics. I ordered AOPS to cover any holes (Pythagorean Theorem is the only glaring one that I found - covered in DM2 I believe). In looking through AOPS, I was satisfied that we would be covering everything by continuing with DM1.

One that I have used that does carry WWW is bluemantle.ca .

Thank you for the suggestions. Yes I do use the activity and the HOTS books. Perhaps it is just a matter of the first subject that we started with not having experiments. I must admit that I am not a very good improvisor when it comes to creating my own. We will be done with ecosystems soon so I may find that it gets better. I was kind of hoping that someone had used another science currciculum alongside Singapore with structured experiments. Do you think that History Odyssey, Elemental Science or RS4K would work alongside Singapore to provide a hands-on component? I don't want to be doing experiments everyday but once a week would be nice.

I have two boys at home (grades 5 and 8). I have been using Singapore Science (Ineractive for the older) and MPH 5,6 for the younger. I like the information provided and the various subjects covered by the Singapore texts. My problems are in the lack of experiments/hand-on models to add interest. My younger son has been working through Food Webs, Adaptations, etc and most of the work has involved reading the text and then answering questions in the workbook. He is bored....I believe my oldest would feel the same as the majority of his ime is also spent reading and writing. We are about to start a study on cells with McHenry which I hope will add more interesting hands-on activities. If this is successful, we may incorporate some of her other books (Elements). I have been looking at the models (blood/body) people have posted with longing. History Odyssey looks like it would provide the kind of hands-on material that I like but I have read from other threads that it is too easy for the age of my boys. Has anyone used Singapore as a spine and incorporated the experiment/model building from another curriculum?

Thank you so much for that.....makes perfect sense and works out to the correct answer. I knew I could count on the hive to help us out! :001_smile:

I am using the Singapore Interactive Science Volume B Theory Workbook doing revision 22. We are on question 20 which has a girl with a metre rule pivoted at its zero marking. A load of 40 N is placed at various positions along stick and we are to measure the effort required to lift the load (from the ending point of the stick). It is hard to draw but I hope this makes sense to someone. This was simple for us when we did not take into account the mass of the rule. We just calculated Moment = distance from pivot to load X load and then we used algebra to ensure the Moment from pivot to the end of the stick was the same. Now, the next step asks what effort would be required taking into account the mass of the rule is 10N. :confused: We are stuck....I've been searching the web but so far have found nothing. Any of you sciency types out there? Thank you for any help you can give us.

My kids ask me every so often whether there are any animals in heaven. I always tell them that heaven is said to be a wonderful place. Do they think that the best place they could imagine would have animals? They do...and I like to think that they are right.

Yeah...uh....mine come frozen.:blushing:

I've been watching Ellen McHenry's website for the release of the Botany curriculum. I plan on purchasing it and the Elements once it releases. This weekend I have not been able to get to her site all all. Anyone out there have any ideas on this one? I hope that she is just updating for the sale of the Botany book. :D

We use Fred here as a fun supplement that the kids do on "Fred Fridays". It has introduced them to concepts that they would not have seen otherwise (sets for example) and there are many interesting extras taught in the biology/economics books. I agree though that I would not use it as my primary source for math.

I had the same scheduling difficulties when I ordered the books. I looked through them and decided to break things up into different subject areas. We have started with Ecosystems/Food Chains/Webs etc... mostly in the Interactions book. I don't have my schedule with me but I believe there were certain sections which dealt with animals, plants, human body systems, physics. I looked at the various sections and grouped them (across books). This is one of the problems with the Singapore Science curriculum for me. I find that the topics are scattered/disjoint.

For those of you who are familiar with both, do you think it would be possible to incorporate both programs? I have used Singapore Standards edition up to DM1 with my older ds and I have another son currently working his way though Singapore 4. I am intrigued with AOPS as I like that it explains the "why" behind how mathematics is done. I would like to be able to use the AOPS (and videos) to explain the why and then continue to use Singapore problems/scheduling.

We tend to mix it into other science programs here. Although I find that it is thorough in some areas, it seems to jump around from subject to subject. I like to find another book for the spine and use Singapore as a supplement.

We use SM here as our primary math instruction and we incorporate Life of Fred Fridays. My boys are grade 5 and 8. We don't try to match things up. The ds5 is doing LOF fractions and ds8 is almost finished pre-alg/economics. They love LOF and have learned all kinds of interesting facts (not only about mathematics). In the summer we drop Singapore and they continue with LOF.

I do follow a very planned and scheduled approach. We use texts and workbooks and we use DVDs, online exercises, books, field trips, experiments etc to solidify the learning. We have somewhat set timeslots in the day and breaks. I am coming at this from a different perspective as both of my children are freshly out of the public school system. One attended to the end of grade 6 and one until grade 4. My reasons for removing them from school were that they were not being taught the important academics (as I see them) to the level that was challenging for them. This is partly a result of overcrowding and partly a result of special interest groups affecting the curriculum (more info regarding how to behave socially than math, english, science, etc.) I have nothing against the elementary school system in general, but at the moment it does not give them the education that I want them to have. My kids will be re-entering the public school system at the high school level. This is the main reason that I am working hard to ensure that they have their bases covered. I do get snide comments from another local home schooler who thinks that it is not right of me to not be "out of the house" more. I think as with general parenting, we all do what works. That is different for everyone.

I was one tooth and have a permanent baby tooth. My brother and my father were also missing teeth. In my case, I did not get braces or anything and I have a bit of a gap between my front teeth and on the right side. My daughter was missing teeth on both sides and the orthodontist choose to space out her teeth and she currently uses a retainer with the two false teeth. She will have the permanent false teeth implants once her mouth start growing. My so is also missing two teeth and the orthodontist has decided to shift all of his teeth forward.

I am a long time family member of a community theatre group where I live. My husband has directed many children's/family musicals and I have also been a music director. He and I run the children's theatre group. Our group is pretty laid back. I would suggest getting in touch with the producer or director and finding out what they expect. Here we are pretty informal. All the candidates come to one big rehearsal room and take turns auditioning. All that we have asked is that they have a prepared song (with or without accompaniement) but with no vocal tracks. Typically they then read a short section from the script and there is often a bit of creative movement to showcase their acting ability and the ability to take instruction. For instance, he might ask them to walk accross the room as if they are....angry, sad, walking through mud, etc. They may also be asked to play a scene with another person just to check on the chemistry between the actors. As a mom who has been on both sides of the casting process, I would make sure that your daughter knows that no matter how well she does, she may not get cast. The director has to do lots of juggling to get the right heights, looks, etc to the cast. They have a vision in their head and it may just be that your look doesn't match that. This does not always result in the person who auditioned really well being cast. Another mistake that I have seen kids/parents make is to fill out a form stating that they will only consider a particular role. The "prima-donna" syndrome or the "Momma Rosa" are frowned upon. In our theatre, it is very common to take the younger ones on as chorus or extra-type roles. It is hard to know how they will actually be on stage. In short, find out what they need, come prepared but with expectations that are not too high and let her have fun. Theatre has been a great experience for my kids and is a great confidence builder. Break a leg! :)

It happens here as well. I will often get suggestions which involve gym or computer time. :001_smile:

I tried to send a private PM as well with the same result. On a side note, I own TSOM and found it very dry. What is your opinion on the K12 text. Is the K12 text (in the areas used for the Ancients) primarily secular? Although we are Christians, I try to keep my academics somewhat secular here. We avoid most curriculum with heavy references to Bible verses for instance. Thank you for all of your work and offering to share! Theresa

Writing from Ottawa....This would really be great! I started homeschooling my ds13 last year (grade 7). As I couldn't find a good Canadian History Curriculum, I ended up using the text recommended by the Ontario curriculum list (Pearson geography/history flip book). I am using the grade 8 text this year. Although we have/will cover everything, I think it was/is a little dry. I supplement with online resources, projects and the dvds (Canada A People's History - (These were a hit!)). I cant help but think that there should be an easier way to present Canada's history in a more interesting way. This year I will have my youngest ds(10) home (grade 5) for the first year and according to PS requirements he would be covering ancient civilizations and not much real Canadian content except for the workings of the Canadian government.

We do Life of Fred Friday's here as well. Many tidbits of information are learned which aren't covered in the regular math curriculum we use (Singapore). My ds(13) likes it so much that he has convinced both his younger brother (ds10-new to HS) and his older sister (dd15-ps) to give them a try over the summer.