I really like Core Knowledge What Your Preschooler Needs to Know book along with the Activity book. I have BFIAR but I can't find the time to go and find additional material and get all the crafty things together to really do it well. I like the Core Knowledge Activity book because the cut-outs and stickers are already in the back of the Activity book. So you read a story or poem or look at a painting in the Core book and then do an activity from the Activity book. There are two levels of activity books, one for ages 3-4 and one for 4-5. I ordered them from Amazon for 19.99 each activity book and and the core book for 12.99.

My 4 year old completed 100 EL two months ago and we switched to Funnix to continue reading lessons. I didn't like doing the lessons on the computer for several reasons so I bought the reading text books named Horizons Learn to Read Level A books 1-3 and Level B books 1-3, which is where they got the material from Funnix. I bought each book used from Amazon books from around 6 to 12 dollars each. We started on Level A book 3 to review, but if you complete 100 EZ lessons and your child doesn't need any review then you can go right to Level B, which is a second grade level. When you finish the 150 lessons in Level B, your child will be ready for any third grade level textbook.

Go to the girls section, for some reason they make thinner socks for girls. I had to get thin socks for my son to fit a particular shoe. When I cut across the girls section at Target I noticed white thin socks. They sell plain white socks without ruffles or anything "girly" about them. I took them out of the packaging before he saw them and they work well.

Have you looked into the Art of Problem Solving (AOPS). They are coming out with a pre-algebra book at the end of August. They have a more than complete middle school / high school math curriculum through Calculus. When I looked at the high school boards, a lot of the kids who are going to be math or science majors are using AOPS. http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/

I just got Netflix and am so excited because I love documentaries. Please Vote For Me - third grade election for class monitor in China. Fascinating to watch how involved the parents are and how school is run in China. Subtitled Road to The Big Leagues- shows kids 12 to 17 playing baseball in order to try and get noticed by an academy run by the big leagues so the can escape poverty.

I am using RightStart Level A with C-rods in addition to the abacus and tally (popscicle) sticks. This is how the lesson last night went with my 4 year old. Lesson 17, second activity - Build 2 groups of tens with tally sticks. Set out the sticks, cajole him into putting the sticks into one groups of five, then another group of five next to it, repeat underneath with 10 new sticks. without making something else. Point out the 10's and ask him a good name for them. His answer "look I made fences! 4 of them. They would be good for keeping a horse or a cow inside. Let's go get the little horse..." Ugh! So I get out the C-Rods and ask him to find a 10. He picks up an orange rod. I say get another orange, how many is that. His answer (while looking at me like duh, of course), "two-tens!" Then we put them in the C-Rod track and to see what number was written when you line up two tens - (of course 20). Repeat with several orange sticks up to 10 orange stick (100!) I am officially putting the tally (popsicle) sticks away.

I recently bought the book and the two activity guides that go along with them (one for ages 3-4, the second for ages 4-5) for my 2 and 4 year olds. I think they are great. I like that the activity books already have stickers or cardstock cut-outs available so you don't have to search for anything else when you read a story. I ordered BFIAR but I didn't want to have to search around for the materials to go with it, so we read the books but it is a pain to have to go to other websites to find and print out materials. So in the activity book for example, there is an activity page that has an outline of teapot and you read and act out in the core book "I'm a Little Teapot" then look at the art section and find a painting by Matisse to observe. Then you tear pieces of paper and glue little pieces of paper on the teapot outline similar in style to the artwork you saw. Another lesson is reading the Three Little Bears, then you can find cardboard cutouts in the back of the activity book to act out the story, and three sequencing cards so your child can practice telling the story. It is by far the best preschool activity book I have found.

I am afterschooling my 4 1/2 year old who goes to a developmental/ play based preschool/daycare. We just finished 100 Easy Lessons and are about to start Funnix 2. For math we alternate between Right Start Level A, SM Essentials, MEP and and C-Rods. He just missed the cut-off for public school kindergarten this year so his first year of public school kinder will be in the 2012-2013 school year. I am hoping to afterschool until he gets to middle school, then homeschool for 3 years until he starts high school.

I listed age equiv. scores for the Peabody picture vocabulary test - 4th edition. The examiner says a word and the child points to one of 4 colored pictures. Glad that the info was helpful.

I would never recommend the WJ-III cognitive or academic assessment for a three year old because it is not an engaging test. The Peabody tends to be a more engaging test and can be used for very young children to very old (2 1/2 yrs. to 90+). I have the Peabody Manual and will try to answer your question, if I understood correctly. (If you have the raw score, I could tell you the percentile rank but you would also have to know if they used form A or form B ). Age equivalents can be tricky because they are NOT even increments. If you score two years above your peers at age 2 that is impressive. If you score two years above your peers at age 15, you might still be in the average range. So if she took the test and was 3 years 6 months to 3 years 7 months the average (50th percentile rank) raw score ( how many points you earned) was 53 on Form A. A raw score at that age (3 years, 6 months) of 79 converts to a standard score of 120 which is in the 91st percentile rank. The age equivalent for this raw score is 4 years, 11 months. So if they told you her age equivalent was at least 4 years, 11 months then she would have scored higher than or equal to 91 percent of children her same age (3 years, 6 months). Hopefully that made sense to you. If at age 3 year, 6 months you receive a raw score of 92, this equates to a percentile rank of 130 which is in the 98th percentile rank. This is the average score that a child at 5 years, 8 months received. So roughly - a 3 1/2 year old who has the vocabulary skills of a 5 1/2 year old would have be in the top 2 percent of kids her same age on the Peabody. Is that what you were asking?

My 4 1/2 year old just finished 100 EZ a month ago. I wanted something with the same format. I tried opgtr and phonics pathways but he didn't like either. We also tried Funnix 2 but I didn't like that we would have to be on a computer. I ordered from Amazon used books "Horizons Learn To Read" which is also by the author of 100 EZ. Funnix is the computer version of Horizons. The stories are the same. I ordered level A textbook 3 which is a good review. We are almost done so then we will do all three textbooks of Level B. At the end you are supposed to be able to read at a 3rd grade level. Each book was around 10 dollars used.

I haven't met many boys in real life who take ballet or dance. It seems that on these boards that several people have sons who take ballet or dance classes. I was wondering how the reactions have been when people find out that your son(s) dance. Also how your sons feel about participating in an activity where there are often not very many boys. My son is 4 1/2 and has been taking pre-ballet / creative movement class for the past year. He likes it and I think it is a great activity not only to learn how to dance, but it seems like it will help him do better in other sports. So far he hasn't really noticed that primarily girls take dance class, since there is another boy in his class. I have been surprised at some comments that I have heard from friends and family such as - that's great, but aren't you worried that he will be teased and why would want to make his life more difficult. Then a few weeks ago when I picked him up from his play-based preschool a little girl in his class heard me tell the teacher that he was going to his dance recital. The girl (who is really nice, sweet kid ) said, "he is going to dancing like for girls?" He didn't hear her, but I picture those comments might be common. So I am just wondering about your experiences?

We found them at the library. My 4 year old loves them. The only down side is that he goes around singing the Mighty Machine theme song all the time. I am trying very hard right now to get that song out of my mind.

I think it is fun to watch how teachers teach around the world, especially when the educational philosophy is explained. There are several sites that have videos. For example, anyone interested in MEP math should check out this video on how math is taught from kinder to upper elementary in Hungary (all that knocking and clapping makes sense now). http://www.schoolsworld.tv/videos/hungary-primary-maths There was an interesting one on teaching elementary math in Japan. I watched a fourth grade teacher spend 20 minutes on one problem so the students thought of about to solve the problem, instead of just writing down the answer. After about 50 minutes they only finished around three problems, but the students all seemed to have learned a lot. I will try to find the link. Anyone else have links to videos that were helpful?

I am thinking about buying "Teaching Elementary Mathematics" and "Teaching Elementary Geometry" both written by Parker and Baldridge. Are they worth it? Singaporemath.com sells them for 28 dollars each. Is there a cheaper place to buy them? Also it is recommended that one buy the textbooks for levels 3A, 4A, 5A, and 6A textbooks to go along with "Teaching Elementary Mathematics". Is that really necessary to really understand the concepts? I am placing an order on singaporemath.com in the next day or so and can't decide whether or not to buy them.

I bought BFIAR and FIAR for my 2 and 4 year olds. There is not much in BFIAR except the selections of books are nice. My boys liked Jessie Bear and some of the activities. My big complaint is that you then have to take time to go to other websites to get the activities and/or pay additional money for more activities. I would not recommend BFIAR unless you have lots of time to go research more activities to do. I just bought the book "What Your Preschooler Needs to Know" along with the two activity books (one for ages 3-4 and one for 4-5). I really like these books because you can read a poem and look at art in the book and then do a project in the activity book. Or read a story about Goldilocks, then they have stickers and cardstock activities to do that you get from the back of the activity book. It covers art, science, social studies, and language arts.

I always think of that book, "If You Give a Mouse a Cookie" when I come to the WTM forum. If you give me a thought provoking thread, then I will want to buy....then I will realize when I buy that, I will want to go out and get.... I agree that advanced knowledge of math is not enough to be a really effective teacher, so after reading Liping Ma and buying AOPS Alg, I have in my SingaporeMath.com Shopping Cart the books Elementary Math for Teachers and Elementary Geometry for Teachers by Parker and Baldridge. I am looking to see if I can find them somewhere else a bit cheaper. I wouldn't wait for the Pre-Alg. book. I was going to wait, but it won't be out until August so I went ahead and started working through the Alg. book. The first chapter is really a review. I watched a couple of videos on Khan Academy on a couple of concepts and haven't had any difficulties completing the next two chapters (there have been a couple of Challenging problems that left me stumped - make sure you get the solution manual, it has great explanations).

:iagree: I started looking at the high school forum on a whim a couple of months ago even though my oldest child is only 4. I read a post that commented on how silly it was that so many parents spend so much time researching math curriculum for their kindergartener when it would be more beneficial to actually spend time learning more math so they will be able to teach math to their middle school or high school level child. (This, of course, was just after I had purchased three different math curriculums -RS, SM, and Miquon.) That idea really impacted how I now think about curriculum. I stopped worrying so much about kinder math and went and bought the AOPS Algebra book, so I will be better prepared to teach math. I am now working my way through every problem in the book. After reading the thread about Jane helping with math, it has furthered my determination to continue to re-learn high school level math because I want to be able to have that type of math conversation with my kids when they are in middle and high school. I might not get through Calculus, but at a minimum I will get through Alg. and Geometry in the next few years.

MEP math Reception Level is fantastic for this and it is free. http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mepres/primary/default.htm Scroll down and you can find 60 Reception level lessons and the copymasters that you print out. The really emphasize understanding the terms and numerical relationships without using written numbers. The student never reads a number or writes any numbers. Instead you look at pictures, trace or draw objects, and play games. So one lesson might be looking at animals at a pond and you ask questions: are there more turtles or frogs? How many more turtles are there? If three more frogs come along are there more frogs or turtles now? How many are not frogs are not jumping? If two kids are playing with 5 rocks, how could many ways could they share them? Then you play a game with pictures of turtles and since turtles move slowly what ever card you pick up (the cards have dots on them) you move one less than the number of dots on the cards. My 4 year old has gotten a lot better at answering word problems. For example, when we started he knew that "between" meant in the middle but he was seemed surprised that more than one thing could be in between (the lesson used people or objects to explain the concept). I am glad he really understands what "between" means before he is asked in another math lesson "what numbers are between 2 and 5?"

I just decided to re-learn algebra since it has been so long since I took algebra. I bought Art of Problem Solving (AOPS) Intro to Algebra plus the solution manual for 59 dollars for both books. http://www.artofproblemsolving.com/Store/viewitem.php?item=intro:algebra I have a while until my sons will take algebra but I want to get a head start and make sure I will be ready to teach them higher level math. I have only been working through the book for the past couple of weeks, but so far I love it. I love the way the book explains why certain procedures need to be followed. I finally am really understanding instead of plugging in numbers. The solutions manual has explanations of how to solve the problems and sometimes lists common errors that could be made when working through the problems. If I want a further review then I will watch a segment on Khan Academy on the internet, which is free! http://www.khanacademy.org/

Where's the option for after A? I think A is great for my son who is four because he likes numbers, but doesn't like to write or color. I plan on switching him over to Singapore 1A/Miquon/some MEP after finishing RS A (he will be 5 then) for three reasons. 1. I am puzzled as to why subtraction is not introduced until well into level B. I think it would have been better to formally introduce the concept of subtraction in level A with the lessons about decomposing numbers is introduced. 2. RS seems more time intensive than SM. 3. Since I plan on using SM through 5th or 6th grade, I don't want to wait until SM2 to introduce the series because I don't want him to miss anything. I also don't want to have to spend more money on SM1A and/or 1B to review before starting SM2 Since we have only just begun RS A, I might change my mind, but at this point I am pretty sure we will move on after he finishes A.

Some phrases that are important to know are: "Tienes hambre?" the direct translation is "do you have hunger?" but means are you hungry? "Tienes sed?" is "Do you have thirst" is the literal translation for "are you thirsty?" "Quieres mas?" Do you want more? and "No hay mas" there's no more "Donde te duele?" Where does it hurt you?" Te lastimaste? Did you hurt yourself? Tienes sueno? or mimis (pronounced mee-mees) Are you sleepy? Quieres leche? Do you want milk Quieres jugo? Do you want juice. If you can get a CD (Los colores is good) or download some songs by Jose-Luis Orozco. He sings kids songs in Spanish. If you watch TV they have shows like Go, Diego, Go in Spanish and then the phrases they highlight are in English (exactly the opposite of when you watch it in English). Try to find the TV channel for univision or telemundo and let him watch some cartoons in Spanish just so he can keep up listening to Spanish. Ordinarily, I would never recommend TV, but since he is in foster care he might be returned to an primarily Spanish-Speaking household and it is important that he doesn't forget how to speak Spanish. If he is with you in an English speaking home, he will become primarily English speaking within 6 months and will have a hard time understanding and speaking Spanish. Good luck!

It is unfortunate that there are several really good elementary schools and high school programs in LAUSD (Los Angeles Unified School District) , but adequate Middle School options are lacking. I have heard of Portola, one of the problems of Portola and many other middle schools in LAUSD is that it is a huge school. There will be over 600 students in just 6th grade! Then you are looking at class sizes that are 35 to 39 students for core academics like math and language arts in Honors classes. (Don't be fooled if you are told average class sizes are less, since the lowest performing students are placed in classes with fewer students, while the highest performing students are in classes that are packed.) If your looking for schools in LAUSD you should look at this website that lists academic progress over time. So they look at test scores in terms of how much growth occurred in each subject overall compared to where students tested previously. http://portal.battelleforkids.org/bfk/LAUSD/home.html?sflang=en So you can find a higher performing middle school but then realize that the students are not advancing as much as at other schools. The easiest subject to really look at is Algebra. The top math students will take Algebra in 7th grade at some schools in LAUSD, so you can see how those students perform. So much depends on the quality of the teacher, and you can't predict which teacher your child will have. There are some amazing teachers in lower performing schools, and some terrible ones in higher performing schools. I have somewhat of the same situation where I live, elementary schools are great with several options, middle schools are mediocre, and then there are quite a few high school choices. We are saving up so we can either home school the middle school years (first choice) or pay for private school. And I wanted to clarify something another poster said about independent assessments. ALL districts across the country have to consider independent evaluations for special education assessments since it is part of Federal Law in IDEIA, but districts do not have to accept private testing to qualify for Gifted Programs, that is left up to each district. Students with disabilities have extensive rights and protections under federal laws, while gifted students have very few rights. Additionally, LAUSD does not administer IQ tests to students as part of an assessment for special education, instead alternative measures are used, so even if you requested a special education evaluation you wouldn't get the results of an intelligence test like the WISC-IV. The WISC-IV is only administered as part of an evaluation to be designated Gifted, and it is rarely used (the Raven's is usually administered). Good luck in your search. Have you seen the website devoted to getting in and understanding Magnet Schools in LA? http://askamagnetyenta.wordpress.com/middle-schools-help/

I used to work as a school psychologist for LAUSD, so I am quite familiar with gifted testing there. I haven't worked there for 7 years but I don't think much has changed. 1. It is rare to administer the WISC-IV because it is administered individually which takes up a lot of time, it is much quicker to administer the Raven's to a group of children at the same time. I only gave the WISC under really special circumstances, one of them being I liked to occasionally practice administering the WISC with gifted students, so it was only when I had a lot of time. If when I was administering the Raven's I observed a really inattentive or distractible kid, and I felt that the child would better be served by an individual assessment with the Raven's. I would then stop testing that student, send him back to class, continue with the group assessment, then go and get the student and individually administer the test to that student. 2. Under no circumstances are private assessments accepted, which I personally think to be fair considering that most students who attend LAUSD receive free or reduced school lunch, which means their parents are poor. 3. Gifted education does not fall under special education in California. No student in California has an IEP for being gifted, although some special education students are gifted but they are eligible for special education under another category (speech and language, autism, specific learning disability, etc. ) If you requested a special education evaluation, I am quite sure you would be denied since your child is progressing. 4.Try to have the teacher refer him in second grade or third grade if possible, so you have time to plan. The Raven's is scored by age so it doesn't matter if the child is older or younger for his grade. I saw more 2nd graders qualify gifted or highly gifted than older students, but this is probably because the more obviously bright kids get referred early. Some schools like to wait and see how student do on the second grade STAR test and then refer the students who score advanced. 5. When I looked at MEP math I was surprised that a lot of the logic and visual/spatial thinking problems were similar to those on nonverbal intelligence tests or the nonverbal reasoning sections on intelligence tests. If your son is doing well on those types of problem then I would push for testing earlier rather than later. 6. Testing highly gifted is difficult, achieving a score that is in the 99.9th percentile rank is quite a feat compared to scoring at least in the 95th percentile rank (LAUSD's cut off for qualifying under gifted). LAUSD has over 600,000 students so the 99.9th percentile rank means one out of every thousand students or around 600 kids in LAUSD (of course this assumes the test was normed on a population like LAUSD, which of course it was not considering the demographics of the student population). Being merely gifted (which is impressive as well) occurs in every 5 out of 100 students, so that would be 30,000 students. Since the Raven's is multiple choice, there are some students who might be highly gifted but will make a silly mistake or two or just miss a question and just qualify under gifted. Others are gifted but have more focus and will make some good or just plain lucky guesses and will get that highly gifted score. I would tell anyone considering trying to get into a highly gifted magnet to have a realistic plan B, even if I thought the child was really brilliant.

On educational tests one school year is equal to 10 months. If you are in your last month of your school year or finished AND have not yet started the new school year, you should put whatever grade they were in for the 2010-2011 school year and add .9 - for example, if you have a child that just finished fourth grade, you should put 4.9 because there is no such thing as 4.10 it would be converted to 5.0 and your child would be compared to students who had just started fifth grade.