... we did this rather a lot when we were using Kumon workbooks. On my organized weeks, I had the pages pulled and in my notebook by day :). At the moment we're not doing much in a workbook, and Button moves at different speeds through material so I can't plan ahead for the workbooks he does use (more than a day or two). I do make worksheets for him sometimes, on graph paper, with particular sets of math problems or drills.

:confused: A lovely friend of DH sent a link to a nearby school for gifted children, the Dunham Academy, and of course it arrived in the middle of a Very Difficult time with Button. He's so mercurial and temperamental and breaking down more than once each day. Sigh. We are definitely _not_ pushing too hard right now; he's outside about 2 hours each day; I'm gentle but firm ... he's just hitting some sort of developmental thing. I am wondering if he might be better served by teachers who specialize in gifted children, who have had time to learn more strategies for dealing with intensities and sensitivities (and who prob. have continuing ed each year or so), &c. We didn't consider this option originally b/c I like the relationship-building aspects of homeschooling so much, and the character development potential, and b/c I don't want him in a school where he's made to feel "special" relative to other people who don't have his particular intellectual gifts. -- please understand he knows that he is very special to us, and that we really value his personality and his various uniquenesses, it is just that I want him to learn that a person's inherent value is not related to their academic, physical, artistic, &c gifts. any thoughts? :bigear::bigear::bigear: ... off for take-out tonight: DH is traveling. !!!

Why not MEP, which is free and excellent? though you'll prob. want to print things out. -- it has a very different approach than MUS. If he just hates Alpha, I bet he'd have so much fun with MEP. Be sure to look at the lesson plans as well as the worksheets ... ETA: I see that SuperDad, who was also interested in CLE, has MEP and SM in his siggie. So he may have insight into the usability & desirability of MEP.

Moving forward in Singapore according at her pace, since she & you seem to like the program, makes good sense; you might want to add daily math fact drill, maybe a set of facts or work up to 5 minutes or something like that, using your preferred modality. We like Calculadder right now but also have used math songs, the Wrap-ups, Kumon workbook pages, homemade pages, etc. I have seen that many people do math with this triad: a main program, drills, and then a fun supplement like Life of Fred, Family Math, Zaccaro's Primary Grade Challenge Math, or livingmath.net resources. Or a combination. ... more off-topic, I'm curious about your first grade start -- is it next fall, and she will still be 4? If you can share your thinking about grade level, even briefly, I would love to hear it; it's been on my mind lately. ETA: now that I've seen the 2nd post on the thread, will second MEP as a possible supplement: we are really enjoying it.

It happens here, too. I think it is perfectly normal -- and related to the fact that IQ tests for such young children can be all over the map -- their processing varies a lot, and some days their brains seem to be working on something completely unrelated to the "task at hand". Though Button's emotional management is even more volatile than his math performance ;) ... this has been quite a week on that front!!!!!

:) I'm so glad your little ones are excelling now! Congratulations on getting them going AND on having children who really enjoy what they're doing. I understand so much about liking open&go, those are my favorite programs right now, esp. with a toddler. -- and I only have _two_ children to manage! PS: so glad to hear you liked MEP for pre- and K. I didn't find it until recently, and am thinking over whether or not to use it with Bot-bot when he's older ...

Well, that makes sense! You've gotten so many good suggestions here. You may want to pick a "spine" or two and work along those as a way to feel organized & relaxed. For example, working along the starfall website is great reading prep. We ourselves used the Phonics Pathways book, but I think you are doing more on the computer than we did and might prefer starfall. For math, several options come to mind that would move you gently and fairly systematically through the important concepts. If you and/or your little ones love books you can use the lists at livingmath.org to read your way through early math. You could also move through the progression of Kumon workbooks (or other workbook programs) if you like workbooks. A nice manipulative-based approach would be to use the Cuisenaire rods: this thread has some resources for preschool math using the rods and Timberdoodle sells an inexpensive set with an activity book. If you prefer structured programs, when the children are ready -- maybe four years old, or three if they just love math -- you could start with the Miquon Math orange book, MEP math year R (for "reception"; MEP has the advantage of being both excellent and free), or MathUSee I suppose. Button just loved math so we started MathUSee Primer when he was three but I don't think it is the easiest early math option nor necessarily the best. Finally, there are many many online number learning videos and sites, of course, and I'm sure if you posted for information about them you'd get a lot of help. Remember to have as much fun with the little ones as you can! ETA: I should have asked what problems were caused by the older children not having done reading & math activities. Because my suggestions are fine for most little ones, I think, but certainly not necessary. For instance, was the transition to a WTM-style first grade difficult? If so, might you consider following just the WTM suggestions for preschool (singing the alphabet song, counting, and so on) and kindergarten (some phonics, I think, and maybe some very simple math, for just a few minutes each day) along with the book Slow and Steady Get Me Ready? Also I can imagine that a first grader might not be ready for the 30-odd minutes of "free reading" suggested in WTM: there's no need to set them down for independent reading until they are older, if they cannot read yet or if they just don't like sitting and reading.

Hello! What a lovely introduction. I'm glad you've found these boards, and that they've been useful ...

:bigear:

You could go ahead through MUS Alpha while you consolidate the addition facts, if you want; the subtraction might reinforce the facts. Also, MUS customer service is great if you want to ask them. We used the MUS songs CD/songbook, which helped a lot; also addition and subtraction Wrap-ups. We would do an oral review of a set of facts a few times each day, until it was learned, then daily for a while after that. At this age, the little ones forget easily! Here and here are two recent threads on facts/drill.

... so encouraged to see this! Button wouldn't let us read to him when he was a _baby_, and by toddlerhood only tolerated a few favorites; in K I had to bribe him with white chocolate to let me read new books; he was a non-reader halfway through K and at 6 still doesn't read nearly as far ahead as many/most accelerated children. In his case I think it was temperament, though. -- the PPs mentioning a deaf child, and one with vision problems, make the excellent point that a child falling way off the curve in the non-performance direction may certainly have a disability. Hearing esp. is so critical. In Button's case (he also spoke late) we knew his hearing was good, his vision was fine, he was picking up grammatical constructions, his receptive vocab. was excellent and, once he spoke, his expressive vocab. was also excellent. But he still resists much reading.

bump.

I think it has to depend on age: one main point of a classic is that it transcends the time it was written in. Cultures are notoriously bad at identifying classic art; often a classic piece seems to sit poorly with the author's contemporaries, or just get overlooked ... My general idea of a classic is a work of art that has seemed important and true to many people of different times and of different cultures. ...:bigear:

I am wondering, too, what you have noticed missing with your older ones ..

:bigear:. I am sure you will get very excellent suggestions for courses suitable for a writer her age, about which I myself know nothing; however, if she's quite advanced in her capabilities she might also like reading, and working through, John Gardner's The Art of Fiction: Notes on Craft for Young Writers and maybe his On Becoming a Novelist. These do not deal with mechanics, but with craft. Really excellent, even for a writer interested in non-fiction, and I have found them to grow with a person. ETA: Since her language arts education hasn't been first-rate, might she want to work through the KISS grammar program? She can start with Level 1 for her grade. Pros: it is excellent and free, and gives just the sort of background an autodidact writer is likely to lack. Cons: the site can be awkward; the author is a grammarian, not a web designer. ... other posters may have a better feel for how useful KISS is likely to be in this situation ... ETA #2: If she wants to study linguistics, it cannot hurt to start developing a reasonably strong math/science background. And naturally languages would be a bonus, if only to have a personal feel for language variability. But if she's interested in linguistics she may be thinking of these things anyhow. Best of luck! feel free to PM me if she/you might like a few linguistics-related resource suggestions. ETA #3: A link to 8FillTheHeart's posts #33 and #34 on this thread popped up on another thread that's running now, and I thought it seemed applicable even though she's starting in elementary. You might pass it on to the child's father ...

... we're in year 2, sort of supplementing MathUSee (but the MUS is on the back burner while we consolidate our long division; I can't figure out if we'll keep doing it). As you move ahead in MEP, if you use the lesson plans the lessons will take longer and make supplementing harder. But if you are willing to pull problems from one of your programs and focus on teaching the other, or maybe alternate days, or if you have a math-loving student and don't have a toddler :) using two full programs could work. I imagine others have made MEP + another whole program work for them, though ... our situation could be due to my very temperamental Button, or my very attention-demanding Bot-bot ;).

We're using Evan Moor K-2 right now, just to keep our toes wet, and it is Just Fine. Mrs. Twain's recs have been so useful to me; knowing what I know now (having read this thread) I'd go with the Complete Maps option :).

I am inspired. :):):) congratulations!

:iagree: One easy way to boost academics: DVDs. IMHO, WTM underestimates the value of good videos, esp. for gifted little ones. We've had good luck with Schlessinger Videos on science, history, math ... science and ancient history are old earth, though. Many children like the Magic School Bus and Eyewitness videos for science, though they weren't hits here (they are also secular). You might like Ambleside Online, esp. the literature book lists. There is a year 0.5 Yahoo Group which has an excellent booklist available; AO readings are meaty, use complex language, and are conservative in outlook. I esp. liked using the recommended Free & Treadwell readers for Button; he much much preferred them to Bob books, they have real stories and are quite interesting. Another great literature source is Sonlight, with lists according to reading ability. The Higher Up Further In curriculum is very similar to Ambleside, with different ordering of history and music and art suggestions many prefer if you want to add those things in sometime. For science, consider Building Foundations of Scientific Understanding as a supplement or a spine. I'm recommending it though it has some things that irk me, so I don't use it -- nobody else has the same irks as I do, though, and it is really excellent. If Apologia fits your worldview, you could look at the samples online and see if they suit (even if Apologia doesn't fit your worldview, you might like it, but that's more challenging). It sounds like this child is also your sensitive one? Are you familiar with the literature on sensitive children? if not, you may like reading The Highly Sensitive Child. Also, do remember that being so bright means that he can maybe take things _easier_, academically, than otherwise. Does he have an intense temperament? such gifted children can have some very difficult phases/stages, and if you feel like they need to be moving forward academically that's a lot of pressure for you both. As the PPs said, as long as he loves learning he'll move ahead just fine; so if there's a period of working more on discipline & family life than on academics, that is fine.

We also found that doing flashcards was like pulling teeth. No fun. We couldn't do games, either, though, Button does not interact normally with most games (he's a super anti-competitive, non-rule-following kind of guy). On the low-tech end: * flashcards -- I can't imagine you'd need more than 5 or so minutes per day. As the PP said, you can do a category of facts each day and that would cover it. * worksheets -- Rainbow Resources has timed math drill workbooks. Or you could make sheets with the facts yourself; not sure how you'd time them, though. Untimed worksheets worked pretty well here but didn't get Button to total fluency. * card games a la "War". * bought games from RightStart. * bought math board games. medium-tech: * Calculadder, which is what we're using right now. You use the software to print out sheets for the student, and as they reach the time and accuracy goals on a set of facts you move to the next level. Eventually this goes right through multiplication, division, etc. There is also a computerized timer, which I think motivates Button more than the kitchen timer ;). The sheets have Bible verses, which is a plus for some folks but I don't think a minus for anybody who otherwise likes the program, they are unobtrusive ... * xtra math: I count this as medium-tech, thought it's online, b/c the user interface is very simple. Button didn't like this at all, maybe because he wasn't fast enough on the easy questions and seems stuck in the +1s forever. But lots of folks like it, and it's FREE! * here's some free mad minutes, too. higher tech: * Reflex Math, which you've obviously heard of :). The games were too fast-paced for Button, who hasn't done many computer games and is only 6. * Timez Attack. The pro, and con, of this is the high-end graphics and games design: very very slick. Button got addicted:glare: and it didn't sit well with him, psychologically: made him cranky. But is very popular with other parents/children. -- that's the list in my mind! You want to think of what will suit the children (are they comfortable with online games? do they LOVE them? do they love card games?) and yourself; with 4 little ones, the online options might be simplest, or a worksheet, or maybe it is easiest for you to get them to sit down with a game, maybe playing math games with each other. Best of luck!

I'm working with a littler one, but we've used MEP as a supplement and now are switching over to it. To supplement I did one program in the AM and one in the PM: I didn't do a full lesson of both, though, just skimmed/picked problems off one and did the other more in-depth. This was working because we are hammering in long division in our other program, so there's not a lot of teaching, just about 10 minutes of problems. It seems like you could * alternate days. This shouldn't slow you down too much, esp. if you throw in one or a few problems from your main math at some point on the MEP days. * cherry-pick MEP problems as you go, maybe only 1 or 2 from each lesson. * bypass the MEP lesson plans, except where you need the explicit teaching, and do the worksheets. Skip every fifth lesson, which are review and less fun I find (they may not be review at your level, though ... we're in 2). * also, I believe that MEP year 1 corresponds to K. Though the concepts are funky; Button can do the third grade level of Singapore, but we put him in Year 2 of MEP b/c of the Roman numerals and combinatorial problems.

oooooh, this is so wonderful! thank you! ETA: is there one for other periods of history? just hoping ...

I am so very grateful to have been born into a country with a more flexible university system. In the European system I'd never have made it into higher education at all. Whenever I have to submit college transcripts for something, it's a mess: some credit for training in the National Guard, community college in Florida (dual enrollment in high school), New College (Florida university system, one semester), community college again (couldn't afford to stay at university), Emory University in Atlanta (one summer, funded by a wealthy aunt who had appeared in my life and taken me on as a project, for which I am ever grateful), Wellesley College (got financial aid, plus extra money from family and my campus job, obtained a bachelor's degree, mediocre GPA due to Family Drama of an extreme sort), courses at MIT where I worked as a technician, and a truncated attempt at a PhD from Boston University (I have a master's from that). The American system may not be perfect but this was possible for me: a master's degree in Neuroscience, and the chance to meet my marvelous husband. Also, I hope to come back for an advanced degree after the littles are older: this is a very American dream to have! AutumnOak put this beautifully. I am so grateful that my boys have a better life than I had but I do want more for them. I have been "upwardly mobile" and my children are being raised in a sphere where college education is virtually assumed, and graduate education in an economically-viable field is very likely. But I am homeschooling them largely because the schools around us are full of spiritually at-risk children. Cheating on high-stakes tests, drug use, general entitledness are all rampant. This is nothing like the risks borne by children in violent or poor neighborhoods, but if I want my little ones to have a chance to be excellent humans I think something extra is required. AutumnOak also touched on the "something better" in one's outlook ... there are effects of a difficult and deprived upbringing deeper than the external, material ones, especially if you are living in connection with family that are still trapped in the life you've moved beyond (or are trying to move beyond). Keeping your higher goals firmly in mind & heart can be such a challenge. Regarding the OP: many homeschoolers are looking at other ways toward an economically viable lifestyle. Milestones Academy, for example, suggests an online bachelor's, a certification in accountancy, or Montessori teacher training instead of the final two years of high school as a way to prepare for financial independence. But of course financial independence is not the only goal of a liberal college education ...

We are combining MUS with MEP. It is true that the MEP lessons contain a lot of good material that would be missed by doing just the problems; on the other hand, I think that doing all the lessons with the MEP worksheets and MathUSee too could be rather a lot of math. I don't see that any harm will come by you figuring it out as you go ;) and erring on the side of too-little math at first. Be careful not to overburden yourself, or them. If the children can do the MEP worksheets with no lesson presentation, fine. When they seem frustrated or confused, pull the lessons up to teach them. You could alternate MUS teaching with MEP teaching; or, for a very math-happy child, them both each day at different times. MUS gets trickier with regrouping in the middle of Beta, and again with multiple-digit multiplication in Gamma: these might be especially good times to pause doing MUS sheets until the children have mastered the skills being taught in MUS, and make up for the drudgery with MEP later in the day. That is to say, have the child work on problems of addition/subtraction/multiplication with regrouping for just 5-10 minutes each day, and then later do some MEP. Once the child has the hang of the regrouping skill being taught in the MUS book, re-incorporate the MUS lessons and scale back on MEP if you want to. Or whatever works for you. good luck!

Really, you might like The Elements of Teaching. One could also start, from a Christian perspective, with Jesus. And Paul. ;) I do not mean that lightly; I know that neither were expert in the subjects we teach, but Jesus was a renowned and complicated teacher, and could be a good start for such reflections. Other traditions have similarly exalted teachers to reflect on ... You seem to have in mind a person who is a great teacher and a great mentor, Sahamamama. A great mentor ought to have great character; and growing in character is something there are many resources for. To teach very well requires understanding where the student's knowledge is accurate and strong, where it is shaky, and being able to meet them where they are and move them forward. Getting a grasp of your student's beliefs and understanding, and correcting or moving or informing them, is tricky. In this I think auto-didacts can have an advantage. Certainly, when I worked in the sciences folks found me to be a very effective teacher, and I think it helped that I came to science late in life and could remember having to figure everything out! Science is generally a great model for being a non-expert teacher, because even the experts are always engaged in learning something new; they are guiding students in waters that are uncharted, and must necessarily be learning with the students as they go. blessings; and my thanks to all the PPs who have brought a great deal of reflection, passion, and conviction to the discussion and helped me refine my own ideas and goals ...