Since this has been bumped, I'm just going to update and say that the more I look at MEP, the more I like it. I forget all the math I learned in high school but even just looking through some of the units at the GCSE level, I can understand what it's talking about. :tongue_smilie: That's more than I can say for some of the other curricula I've looked at for high school math. I think we're going to use this for 7th and up. I guess I'm being somewhat of a guinea pig but I'm ok with that. I like that it's integrated and I love that it's free!

Thank you, Starrbuck. Does this mean that the outlines in WWS move toward using complete sentences? I do have the WTM (with the outlining pages bookmarked!) and yes, she says to use complete sentences. This is what I am having my son do, but I began seeing many examples elsewhere that didn't so I started to wonder.

In SWB's middle grades audio lecture, she said that when students are constructing an outline, they should use complete sentences (right now we're only doing one-level outlines for 5th grade). However, when I look at samples of WWS and some of SWB's newer lecture handouts, the outlines are done in phrases. Which should we be doing? Also, is the main point supposed to be what the paragraph is about AND why it is important? Or just what the paragraph is about? The outlines that just have phrases seem to just list the topic of the paragraph being outlined. I'm a little confused. Thanks for any help.

I'm so glad to read this! This is exactly what I want!! :D

Cat Cornish, DM 1 is for Grade 7. However, apparently a student who completes MEP 6 can go straight to algebra/higher level math. So it doesn't really surprise me that you have covered most of it. Freerange, I am not in UK so my kids wouldn't take the GCSE (I'm in Canada and we have integrated math here, hence the interest in MEP). Do you think GCSE level from MEP would still be a good math course for say, Grades 10-11 or so? And are you saying that I should be looking at the Express route to really learn it well?

Thanks for the links, Stripe. Have you or are you actually using these materials? What do you think of them? I am a member of the MEP yahoo group. I have asked questions and searched their messages endlessly and I still can't decide what to do. :tongue_smilie: It's a good thing I have another year!

I agree, it's hard to get a real feel for Singapore from a few sample pages. The books you are looking for are called Discovering Mathematics 1 (there is also 2, 3 and 4). Primary Math is the elementary grades math. Here's a link to the 1A textbook: http://www.christianbook.com/discovering-mathematics-textbook-1a/9789814176668/pd/176664?product_redirect=1&Ntt=176664&item_code=&Ntk=keywords&event=ESRCP

I have looked many times at Singapore's DM and frankly, it scares me a little. I keep reading things about it being quite challenging. Otherwise I would be excited about it. Maybe once my son is finished 6th grade, I'll give him a placement test and see if he could handle DM based on that. Thanks for the replies!

I took that to mean that, yes, you do correct their spelling, because you aren't testing them on spelling (hence, why this isn't a spelling lesson). You don't let them write words incorrectly. At least, that's what I thought she meant!

Thanks for that reply, HG. I will check out NCERT. I'm not necessarily looking for really rigorous as I think my boys are mostly average in math so maybe MEP would still be ok for them. But it's always nice to have more suggestions. :)

Well... :D Are you using it for 6th or 7th grade? I think in the yahoo group files it says that year 7 is actually 6th grade (maybe it doesn't matter). I guess basically I want to know if it's a good option; are my kids going to know math well if we do it (that sounds like a silly question)? Is it good for the average math kid? Are you planning on continuing with MEP? Have you looked through the higher levels to see how they compare with other math curricula? Maybe I'm paranoid. Thanks so much for the reply, Hedgehog. :)

Does anyone know anything or have experience with the secondary levels of MEP math? I am talking about years 7-9 and the GCSE level. I would prefer integrated math and this is free, but there seem to be very few people who use it so it is hard to get a good feel for what people think of it or how their kids do. Anyone have an opinion, even if you have only looked at it and not actually used it? Figuring out where to go with higher levels of math is such a headache....:tongue_smilie:

Thanks for that info, SaDonna. Sounds like MM really ramps up in the last two levels. I want my son to be solid in math but I also don't want to push concepts on him he's not ready for. I'm still not sure what to do. I'm coming to the conclusion that MM 5 and 6 are best for really "mathy" kids.

I would be interested in hearing the results of that project as well, Halcyon. :)

Soo... I am gathering that MM 6 is basically pre-algebra? Or close to it? Which is why people seem to be skipping it?

For those people whose kids have done MM through levels 5 and 6, how did it go? Did your kids find it pretty challenging? I keep reading that some kids are able to jump from MM 6 into algebra. This makes it sound like MM is ahead or challenging. My 10yo son is bright and hasn't had any previous trouble with math (we've been doing MM since 2nd grade). His mental math is better than mine (and I was always good at math). I would say he might be slightly above average in math. But MM 5 is giving him a pretty hard time. We are repeating lessons and we're only on Chapter 1. I am not opposed to switching to something else but I don't want to wait long if I'm going to do it. So can anyone tell me, does it get better? Or are the last levels of MM this challenging throughout? If your child has completed MM 5 or 6, are they pretty "mathy"? Thanks for any help.

Thank you so much for posting this!!!!

I've been looking at these at Rainbow Resource: http://www.rainbowresource.com/product/sku/020179/e2eb04956afcce9ed459936f There are different sizes too.

I think what you're doing is fine. :) I tend to focus more on the sentence length than anything else. In fact, most of the time, I don't include the grammar elements she recommends. It seems her pace of teaching grammar concepts is faster than mine and my kids don't know what a lot of them are yet. The purpose of dictation is to have kids practice holding thoughts in their head while they write them down. So that's why I pay more attention to the length.

Yes, you might want to try the evaluations. In WWE 3, they are not writing paragraphs by the end of the year. That is what they learn in WWE 4. Level 3 writing consists mostly of dictation. However, if you feel your son is ready for paragraph writing, you can always speed up that portion and have him write some or all of his own narrations. WWE is a fairly flexible program; you can speed up or slow down as you see fit. You need just the workbook, or just the instructor text, depending on how you want to use it. If you go with the workbook, all the passages are selected for you and it's basically open and go. Also, if you don't want to use up the student pages, or copy them yourself, you can buy a PDF download of the student pages from Peace Hill Press.

I second the Usborne World Wars book. My 10yo devoured it and reads it for fun.

I personally don't feel like it's hard at all. I've gone through all the levels with various kids, planning it on my own. Often I just grab our current read-aloud or the nearest science book. Takes me about a minute of scanning to find a passage and then we do it. If I am desperate, I pull out a Pathway reader since they lend themselves very nicely to narration. I must say though, I don't generally follow the guidelines in the text where it says to use passages with certain grammar elements, etc. If you wanted to do that, it would take a bit more time, but not much IMO. I've never used the workbooks so I can't really say if you'd be missing out, but I doubt it.

Are you ordering in Canada? I'm sorry, I'm not sure what KSA is. If you're in Canada, Amazon.ca usually arrives within a week, usually about 5 days to me and I'm rural. Book Depository is more like 2 weeks. But yes, the shipping is free.

I really like the Faber Piano Adventures series. I'm using it with my boys. It's easy to follow and there are workbooks if you want them.

I guess that depends on your definition of experiment. There is some type of experiment or activity with each lesson. Occasionally it's just a worksheet but most of the time it's something to do. For example, today we read the lesson about the composition of sea water in the oceans. The activity is to dissolve a whole pile of salt into water, then paint a picture with it on dark paper. Once it dries, the salt is left behind, demonstrating how the water in the ocean evaporates and leaves the salt behind. For memorization, I'm not quite sure what you are wanting to memorize, but there is a small list of vocabulary words at the beginning of each lesson. We like GD science here. We've done the Life series and now we're just finishing up Heaven & Earth. It's not the most exciting thing out there, but I love combining my kids, we really like the activities and it gets science done.