Up to 182! Slow and Steady (...now where did I hear that phrase before... ;-) Seriously - I'm planning on going to Kinkos and printing out the entire year at one time, and having it spiral bound. I figure the cost per page for the pages and the ink will be cheaper there than nickling and dimeing (sp?) ourselves to death by printing it out at home. Plus it'll be neater to have it all bound - no loose papers being turned into crayon projects by toddlers or being lost. And then it'll be easy to pull it out and show the evaluator at the end of the year. Also, no headaches when we run out of ink at home and are unable to get any for a few weeks, or run out of paper, or the printer decides not to work. Anybody else going to Kinko's and having it printed? Or would all veteran HSers say, "You're such a rookie! It's not worth the bother."

I just copied the http address off of the Internet Explorer address bar, and then put it in my status on Facebook. (or click the LINK underneath your status, but the address there, and then write what you wish on your status before posting) If you don't know how or cannot grab the full address off of your browser, here it is to copy: https://www.homeschoolbuyersco-op.org/index.php?option=com_hsbc_epp_order&Itemid=1447 Ahh.. I see that the forum shortened the address when this posted. So what you do, is hover over the address just above this line, right click and select COPY SHORTCUT from the menu. Then you'll have the address in your "clipboard" (which you cannot see). Go to Facebook to where you want to paste it, and hit Ctrl-V to paste the address in. Christie P

167 last I looked. Have ya'll advertised this on FB? maybe we CAN get it to 250! We still have half the month to go!

Maria Miller has a link to Ray's Arithmetic which is so old it's free online. it is ALL word problems from the beginning. This is her blog post where she links to Ray's Arithmetic. She mentions it near the end of the article. http://homeschoolmath.blogspot.com/2011/01/which-operation-should-you-use-in-word.html

Thanks for the reply! I'm not really interested in a scripted curriculum. I read them verbatim, and then I'm a wooden and boring teacher. Math is my strong point and passion, but I'm most versed in upper-math. So I just purchased a used copy of Knowing and Teaching Elementray Mathematics because I so want to know more and be the best math teacher I can be. http://www.amazon.com/Knowing-Teaching-Elementary-Mathematics-Understanding/dp/0805829091 We have tons of manipulatives, but I think DD is already learning to think abstractly and relying too much on manipulatives might hinder her in the long run, like in this blog post: http://homeschoolmath.blogspot.com/2007/04/what-is-real-value-of-manipulatives-in.html Thanks again!

This looks like the place to post my question!!! :) Finished Saxon Math K with DD#1 and received Saxon Math 1 - didn't like the look of it one bit. Looks like "Death by Overwhelming Amounts of Review" Researched Math Mammoth - and I like the looks of it. I like her web page. I like that she's available by email. I even sent in a tip (paint a white line on #5 & #6 bead on Melissa & Doug abacus so you can see the groupings by 5) and within 24 hrs she responded and had posted my tip in her FAQs! (love this lady!) But what I want to know, because I can't find ANY negative reviews of Math Mammoth online, is what ARE the drawbacks? if you supplement with a different curriculum, why? If you use MM as supplement for another curriculum, why do you prefer the other one? I'm hoping to jump in on the group buy of the Light Blue series for 1-6, and I"m the type of gal who likes to make a decision and stick with it for years and years. (I don't like change, unless I paid with a $20.) Money is tight, so I cannot afford to buy curriculum I'm not going to use, and I like to know all the drawbacks up front. So please, respond with any and all drawbacks of Math Mammoth for me to consider. THANKS!!

Purchased More Mudpies to Magnets and never did a single experiment. Too elementary. She's learned more from me explaining boiling while cooking, and evaporation and steam and freezing ice and ice melting, and what happens to our food when we eat, why it's important to drink lots of water, what the heart does, the lungs, the blood, muscles, bones, etc. (And now that I think about it, all these conversations have occurred over lunch - every single one of them! Hmm... now I wonder why that is!!) Plus, if you read the intro to the Mudpies to Magnets books, I'm surprised SWB ever recommended them. Their entire philosophy of education is counter-Classical. I put it down in disgust after reading the introduction.

Just ordered Knowing and Teaching Elementary Mathematics: Teachers' Understanding of Fundamental Mathematics in China and the United States. Glad for this thread and I am excited about reading it! \ Oldest DD is going into 1st grade. Just finished Saxon Math K, received Saxon 1 and was overwhelmed by the amount of review required every day! I can already tell that The Meeting in Saxon K was killing her excitement about math - I was getting rolling eyes and slumped shoulders because, come on Mom - she already has mastered this stuff and was B-O-R-E-D! So I finally listed to my DH who has concerns about Saxon all along, and started researching Math Mammoth. About ready to buy it, but I want to hear from others any negative critiques. All I can find so far are positive reviews online and there HAS to be SOME negative reviews out there somewhere! Any help? Thanks!

We hope that our daughters will choose to be SAHMs and homeschool their children. But I personally am a former Electrical Engineer and very big on math. Please, please do not write off any child, especially daughters on math. If they homeschool THEIR children, you do not want to hamper any of your grandchildren because momma is math-phobic. I hope my daughters are sound enough in math and science to homeschool future mathematicians and physicists. (And if not, then the grandkids can always come to my house!) JK! But seriously, it may not be their forte, but you do hope they'll homeschool the next generation, don't you?

Thank you for asking this question! Although my DD age 5 is doing fine (at lesson 64) I was a bit concerned when I saw two others post that THEIR DDs FINISHED OPGTR before their 5th birthday!! (pass the paper bag please, I must pass out - my daughter is BEHIND! Ack!) ;) With a son learning to crawl - this will be very helpful info to remember: BOYS LEARN TO AT AGE 7 - otherwise I would've had a heart attack! Thanks!

I have been looking at GDI Italics for the past 2-3 days (viewing samples, googling reviews, etc) and I was intrigued at first, but then read several reviews where * their children were unable to read the loopy cursive everyone else uses * one review said her neat children's handwriting WAS very neat and looked like calligraphy, but her two sloppy children's handwriting was still sloppy. So though I was all gung-ho on GD Italics for a few days, now I'm not so sure. Is it significantly faster than the loopy cursive? How is the legibility affected when you go as fast as you possibly can? Mostly interested in how it would look in my journal where I'm struggling to keep up with my thoughts - would it be better than my loopy Dnealian cursive?

I would be interested to hear it too. My dd just turned 5 and ever since I came home full-time six months ago, we've done a sit down school 3 -4 days a week. Before that, we "car-schooled" on the way to and from the sitters. :)

Question: why do you school 45 wks a year? 210 days? Just curious!

So I take it that no one here has used Dettmer's Phonics for Reading and Spelling? How about The Writing Road to Reading? or Riggs?

From what I understand, it's a close cousin to Rigg's as I believe they are both descended from The Writing Road to Reading. I'm a systematic big-picture person, so it attracted me. (I wanted to learn it!) It does dely reading until you can write, but we had already started OPGTR, so we kept on doing that, and already I've learned a lot. (We're ALMOST done with the first 52 phonograms and hopefully will start spelling words after Christmas after 2 week review.) But being so new to this road and my eldest just turned 5 - just thought I'd throw it out there to see if anyone has any cautions or suggestions or potential pitfalls or ways I can make it better! THANKS!

Glad to know I'm not the only one looking at next year's curriculum! :) Here's mine: OPGTR Dettmer's Phonics for Reading & Spelling (this'll be our spelling program) First Language Lessons 1 Writing with Ease 1 Story of the World, Vol 1 Saxon Math 1 still undecided on Science...

Thank you everybody for your replies! From what I have gathered - yes, I need a separate time to work on letter formation. I downloaded the sample ZB pages and printed them and had her try one - and she did it quickly, easily without any problem. We'll continue using the sample pages til they're gone, then we'll probably order the entire K book. My husband also likes that idea because that's the way he learned to write (so he's comfortable with it.) We've continued writing the phonograms, but I've been lightly writing the circle spaces on the page for her to use in help writing her letters, so that enables her to write her phonograms without any frustrations. :) Thanks so much, again, for all the replies. P>S> I asked my husband the other day, "Why don't the other homeschooling moms I know want to talk about curriculum like I do?" ;) So I'm very glad to have found this forum! :)

Thank you, imhim and scrappyhappymama, for your replies! Imhim, that is very helpful to know that you started WWE1 in the 2nd half of first grade. Because she will be 3 months away from being 6 when we start first grade, and because I tend to go overboard... I'm looking for ways to gradually introduce the increase in material and not overwhelm her. She's currently at Lesson 64 in OPGTR, but we've been using it already for about a year and a half. She gets overwhelmed and shuts down if I push her too fast. We've stopped new progress right now, rewound to Lesson 41 and are only going to do review through Christmas, saving the introducing of long vowels until January. (I call this "building speed and confidence" - which it is doing and she's really brightened up at reading since we went back a bit. :) SO - I was concerned that we might not have made enough progress in OPGTR by the time we start First Grade to really bring on the FLL and WWE1 full force. THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU for giving me the idea that WWE1 could wait until the 2nd half of 1st Grade and we can still finish it by the end of the year. :) Christie P 5 yo DD in K Dettmer's Phonics for Reading & Spelling, Saxon K, OPGTR, Bob Books & McGuffy Readers, R&S Preschool ABCDEF workbooks

We are currently working through Bonnie Dettmer's Phonics for Reading and Spelling which introduces the letters using a "circle space" with four stations: the star station, butterfly station, flower station and heart station. The idea is that you dictate to them how to form each letter orally: Start at the star station, go around to the heart station and stop. That would make a C. She does ok but there are no workbooks or pages for practice. We are just dictating the multi-letter phonograms now (ey, ei, etc) and she is very frustrated at her own handwriting. She is like her momma, a perfectionist, and gets down on herself that they don't look perfect - but I'm at a loss as how to help her. Phonics for Reading and Spelling (PRS) says to go over each letter with a red pencil and correct it, but she hates the look of the red on top of the mistake and what do I do if she "corrects" it and it's still not right? With Christmas coming, I think we'll get through Phonogram 52 before then but I won't emphasize the handwriting, and then in January we'll start from the VERY beginning and go over letter formation again. BUT how do I make it different and get her happy with her letters?

My 5yo DD is working through her first year of K and I'm already dreaming / drooling over next year of 1st Grade. (Or, I'm hoping it may be 1st grade - her birthday is in October so she's JUST turned 5 and if she was in public school, she'd be in K-4 this year and K-5 next year....) ANYWAY - I'm going to shoot for a full 1st grade curriculum for next year (ala WTM) and then reduce a bit if it's too much... SO - here's my question: I'm looking at getting * First Language Lessons and * Writing with Ease Do I still need either Handwriting Without Tears or Zaner-Bloser in addition to Writing with Ease? My copy of TWTM is from 2004 and I don't think Writing with Ease was out at that time because she doesn't mention it. (She only mentions Writing Strands and Institute for Excellence in Writing.) Thanks! Christie P