IMO, Growing with Grammar is very easy to get a child to do independently. My oldest who wouldn't do any schoolwork by herself without me close by learned to do GWG3 by herself (after about six weeks of me weaning her off of my close attention). Just takes a few minutes for me to check her work & go over anything she didn't "get." If you want to know where to place your student, email the author. She'd probably be more helpful than me as I don't have any students at your child's level. Good luck & thank you )for giving up your husband so he can serve) & your husband for his service!

www.denverfabrics.com I usually get the oilcloth vs. the vinyl, though. And look for a discount code to knock 5 or 10% off the final price.

:lurk5: My oldest is "pencil-phobic" with a large spelling/reading gap (although it has lessened some this year) who previously tested as "mildly dyslexic" with virtually NO visual memory.

- If you don't have time to teach your kid (lots of others), - if you realize that TT isn't necessarily at the same 'level' as other programs with the same number on the front (Horizons 4 does not equal TT4 which does not equal Saxon 5/4, etc.), - and that if you have a "mathy" kid or if you have a kid who wants to go into something math/sciency then you will probably want to add a more 'rigorous' and possibly 'traditional' program at the end of the high school years, ----> then I don't see any problem with TT. I love the idea of TT. I don't like the (new) price of TT. I doubt I'll use it, but you never know. :tongue_smilie: My dd8 who is almost done with A Beka 3 could probably test into TT6. (I'm a weird mom who has her child take other program's placement tests just for fun at the end of the year. She already passed into TT5, but hasn't started the placement test for TT6 yet.)

:iagree:

I've used A Beka Math 1-3 so far. I've never ordered the charts, games, or flash cards. I do have a set of our own flashcards (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division) from Wal-Mart that I use with the kids. I've also made some of our own months, number, and place value cards that mimic some of A Beka's. I made my own "0-100" chart. I usually order the Curriculum lesson plans, test/speed drill book (& answer key), and student workbook. I would add that above Arithmetic 3, I'd get the answer key (Teacher's Guide) as well because I don't want to take as long to do all the problems myself to check their daily work. I've been able to quickly do the ones up to now (3), but it is getting more time consuming.

:iagree: I find that reading some ahead of time puts things in context better when we get to it. (When we get to it, the kids often go, "Hey! That's so-and-so." or "We read about him!!!") Sometimes there is a book that we can't get right on "time" with a chapter, so when we do get to it, it is weeks later. It serves as another "reminder" of the material. We do read-alouds at night and it sometimes takes awhile to get through the material. Plus, I have to get the majority of our books from a library system that is 1 1/2 hrs away, so I get a few weeks of material at a time. We don't always read it in order. That doesn't seem to be a problem for the kids (just me!) :tongue_smilie:

My fluent reader (dd8) has 30 minutes of "assigned free" reading time after her math/grammar/poem/reading comprehension/spelling is done in the morning. She can read anything she wants although I ask her to look through my 'history stack' of books first. I lightly screen anything she picks up at the library, so nothing is completely trash. She is allowed to read "fluff" books during this time if she likes. (She also reads 30+ minutes at night stuff of her own choosing.) My still-learning-to-read child doesn't have this yet. She "looks" at books all the time. Sometimes she "reads" them aloud to the youngers. (She's simply remembering the story and telling it along with turning the pages.)

I love doing the research, making the pro/con lists, buying, then getting the shiny new thing in the mail. I was so disappointed that things were "easy" for me this (upcoming) year because I knew what I was going to use. Except for the fact that I still have no idea what I'm going to do for science. :confused: :lol:

:iagree: Ditto. We used 'em last summer daily with older dd and I think it helped not to lose any of the ones she already knew. I'm not sure it helped her learn any. We'll use 'em again this summer. I only have addition/multiplication. Not planning on getting any others.

My "3rd grader" is pencil-phobic, although less so than she was at the beginning of the year (& all years prior). If she knows she has to write her own narration, it will be the simplest sentence she can come up with. If she thinks I am going to write it, she comes up with between three sentences and three paragraphs depending on the topic and amount she needs to summarize. Thus, I write her narrations in history because I want her to be thorough. However, she writes her own narrations (1-3 sentences) in our religion class. (She then uses one of these for dictation the following day on a drawing that pertains to the subject.)

I don't have one yet. I'm still :confused: for next year's science. Tried: Apologia Astronomy - it was okay, but we struggled to finish it WTM Science Animals/Human Body/Plants - (see above) My own earth science plans - It was okay, but I don't like making my own plans. God's Design for Chemistry - The text is too boring for my kids at their current ages and the material seems to be "above" them. They like the experiments most of the time. Definite thumbs down for our family. . . . Still looking.

:party: Absolutely awesome! Make sure you celebrate with your son. Seriously. Take him out someplace fun to play. Do something special. Make sure you tell him how proud you are of him at this milestone!

I chose to go to something a couple of weeks ago that would have me out of the house from 9:30 until around 2:30. That's our school day and my husband was going to be home since it was one of his normal days off. I prepared lesson plans specifcally for him and set up everything. When I got home, he'd taken care of everything (except the baby who I had with me) and gotten through all of our "school" stuff except Chemistry. (He tried it but quit when the kids weren't paying attention/couldn't answer his patient questions four times in a row.) I was impressed. I was hoping he'd say, "I don't know how you do this everyday." I know it wasn't all done "my way." That was ok. :) For more than a day, I'd probably just have him do math, listen to the younger one read, and do fun stuff (science experiments, SOTW activities & reading, play games). I find it hard to keep up with things, so I can't imagine trying to figure out how to do it when you aren't used to the routine. I think you are on the right track.

How far are you in A Beka 1? What are the areas she is struggling in? Is it conceptual or more application of the concept? I saw you were supplementing. Is that to try to help with these things? My dd#2 struggled with understanding two-digit numbers all last year and the beginning of this year. She is one of those kids who does a LOT of reversals. (For example, not only does she reverse her 2, 3, 6, 7, & 9s, she also sometimes confuses the tens & the ones places (17/71, 36/69, 52/25, etc.). We have continued to chug along and practice/ practice/ practice. While I bang my head against the wall about some of the newer concepts she's working on, she almost never reverses the numbers anymore. :hurray: (We are right around lesson 100 in A Beka 1.) My older dd grasps the concepts just fine, she just has trouble with application of them. She'll do division fine, but make one little mistake during the "checking" step and think she has to start all over again. She's like her mom in that she _thinks_ she did something right, but upon looking back at it finds out she didn't write down what she thought she wrote down. (Thinks a 5 and writes a 3 because her eyes have zoomed onto the next problem and it starts with a 3.) Good luck!

My oldest is a few months older than your ds and also very writing-phobic. (We say she's allergic to pencils.) We worked through many weeks of WWE2 workbook and we love the literature selections. However, I found that using SOTW 2 & what we are doing for religion, we get plenty of work in narrations & dictation. If you find WWE2 workbook is too much for him in addition to everything else, I'd encourage you to do the narration portion of SOTW aloud and have him work on copying & eventually writing (from his own mental dictation) his narrations (one sentence at a time - working up to two or three sentences). (We write them on the back of the maps for that chapter, but you could easily do it in a separate notebook.) I did finally break down & order the WWE - Strong Fundamentals text when I realized doing WWE2 on top of what we were already doing was overkill for us at this stage. I loved the story! (And hang in there on the handwriting. My oldest had a handwriting revolution this year with cursive.)

:lurk5: Bump

I've noticed that there are several engineers-by-schooling among us Moms here. Plus, of course, lots of us like to encourage science-and-hands-on-stuff. Just wondered if anyone had any special activites planned for Engineer's Week (Feb 14-21)? If so, please share. Here's my link: http://www.eweek.org/EngineersWeek/DiscoverE.aspx?ContentID=123 There are other activites listed on the eweek site. I'm going to try to encorporate one or two this week as we just finished our first God's Design for Chemistry (old version) book & haven't yet started the second one. The kids will like the change of pace (as they don't like GD4Chemistry except for the experiments). :bigear:

I'm not a good (natural?) speller. So far, my first two have not been good(natural) spellers. (My sister is a 'natural' speller. I define that as being able to look at a word and know it is right or wrong.) My oldest dd tested with a very poor "sight" memory. (I can't remember the termonology.) She does very badly the first time through the SWR word list. The next year when we go through, she does much-much better on the review words. Then, she does very, very poorly on the new words. My second dd is doing very, very poorly her first time through the word list in SWR. We're on H-2 and she gets between 3 and 7 correct out of 20 each week. It doesn't matter how many times we go through the list, how we go through the list (on the board, on a flashcard, in her learning log, using a reinforcement activity, out loud, etc.), she frankly doesn't remember how to spell anything that isn't phonetically regular. ("Door" is "dor" every.single.time. I explain that it is "D-O(long O)-R" but it doesn't stick.) If I hadn't seen my older dd improve the second time through the lists, I'd tear my hair out. BTW, my oldest dd reads at least two grade levels above hers, but reading the same word six thousand times still doesn't cement it in her head that she has the correct spelling. She LOVES Trixie Belden books. She must have read "Honey" (Trixie's best friend's name) 300 times in two months, at least. She still missed it on the spelling test the first time through the list. :tongue_smilie:

First, welcome to HSing! I'm glad you have made it this far without losing your head entirely. :D Focusing on the 3 Rs is important - especially when starting out. My answer is to :chillpill: and I officially give you permission to continue with Volume 2 and just keep listening. :001_smile:

We will be starting WT1 this summer and I'm not sure if we'll do WT2 or go to CW, but if we do WT2, I'd be intrested in the 4-day schedule.

There are some really good book selections you can use along with SOTW 2 in the AG if you have a good library system. We do some as read-alouds (for the 6 yr old non-proficient-reader), but most my now 8-yr old reads almost all of them that I can get on her own before I get to them. I wouldn't be too worried about the Classic Starts. They are fine lead-ins to the full editions. Some people rave about supplementing math. I only stray to other things when the topic isn't getting cemented using the main curriculum. (If it ain't yet clickin', get quick fixin'!) You know your kid best. Good luck on the 'independent' front. We love our eccletic approach. :lol:

We are using the older version of God's Design for Chemistry this year with a young 3rd grader & an average ability 1st grader. They LOVE experiments and the older version of the books at least usually have something hands-on every lesson or every other lesson. That is their favorite part of science. We do science twice a week for 30 minutes to an hour, depending on the topic for the day and how many times I have to repeat things, stop to explain further, or stop to change a diaper. Take their grade level recommendations seriously. I thought I'd be okay, but Chemistry really is too hard for my 3rd grader. (Right now, they are both retaining the same amount (not much) & getting the same scores on quizzes. Both are "failing" at the same rate.) I read the lesson aloud, we do the hands-on stuff together, we answer the questions at the end. I take down narrations and notes from the lesson - including new vocab words & their meanings. The kids cheerfully explain the hands-on stuff to their dad that night, but usually can't remember the why or the how of any of it. So, for us, the Chemistry is a bust - mostly because it is too hard for my kids. They do like the hands-on stuff. Just wanted to give you another opinion. (Keep in mind we are using the "older" (non-color) version. But the grade recommendations are the same with Chemistry, if I remember correctly.) Good luck!

We do an activity every 3-5 chapters. We always do the review questions. I have found the literature book list to be wonderful. That has to be one of my favorite aspects. The kids like to do the coloring pages, but they aren't mandatory. We usually do the maps, but not always. I love having the options available. We really liked some of the cooking activites this year and have enjoyed some of the other stuff (small crafts, games, etc.).

:iagree: This is the goal the first time through. My kids amaze me sometimes with what they remember from SOTW 1 (last year). They don't always remember specifics (what was the name of the group that made purple dye from snails), but they remember the stories and the general gist of things. Their eyes light up when they recognize something and they fall all over each other trying to tell me what they remember about it. We'll add more dates next time around. We'll work on remembering more specific names. But, they have a much better grasp of ancient history than I EVER had going through school.