Sounds pretty normal for a 5 (6?) year old boy... DS has been getting "N" in handwriting in school since the beginning of the year which irks me a little bit because seriously? What 5 year old boy can actually write neatly?? In any case, in order to encourage any fine motor writing/drawing, I got DS a blank journal, called his "fun journal" and he does his drawings and scribbles in there. Occasionally he'll label stuff as well. We haven't done this, but I've also read suggestions to exercise the hand muscles by squeezing clothespins and the like.

Books like the Well Trained Mind sanitize the view of "classical education" and don't really portray it for what hard core classicists consider it to be: the transmission of the Western, Judeo-Christian culture. WTM wouldn't have sold nearly as many copies if it were explicitly hard core on this point. As it is, those of a non-western and non-Christian culture as myself can benefit enough from the WTM to utilize its methods in our homeschools. However, we'd be deluding ourselves if we thought this was true classical education. This is why Latin is emphasized and math/science not so much, because these subjects are not as central to the main goals of a "true" classical education. Of course, given that we live in the modern and not medieval world, STEM subjects simply must take a higher priority if part of one's educational goals is competing in the global economy and keeping up with the massive explosion of scientific understanding in our time.

Americans use more manipulatives (even according to Liping Ma), however the strength of the Asian style as she explains it is in how the Chinese teachers explain things conceptually. Yes, they do drill facts from the beginning but they still have a greater emphasis on conceptual understanding along with the facts. Here in the US, it is manipulative heavy and weak on conceptual understanding *and* rote memorization. If you look at the Singapore HIGs, there aren't too many uses of manipulatives per se. Yes, they stress the pictorial understanding and use of the linking cubes but it's not as manipulative heavy as other programs.

Actually, I find Miquon more "open and go" than singapore... with SM there are so many components to juggle--the HIG with the activities and mental math, the text, then the workbook and IP/CWP. With Miquon, we just go through it page by page. I look to the annotations as needed and for ideas, but otherwise we just chug through it. I mix it up by doing some selected MEP exercises some days and some Singapore HIG mental math (learning the techniques specifically taught in SM). We just finished Orange and Red so before moving on my tentative plan is to do some more addition/sub within 100 through SM 1B. The thing with Miquon is that yes, we'll get to those skills but it feels so scattered and less organized than the SM scope and sequence. Hence the SM diversion before we get back to Miquon.

Keep an eye out--I just got a copy of the older edition for $5 and free shipping used on Amazon.

I've been soaking up some inspiration from the thread How does one provide a classical education? Circe Institute lovers? and I'm thinking now about being more prepared for what literature we will tackle in 1st grade. I had been thinking to just "go with the flow" so to speak, but it's probably better to plan ahead. So...any suggestions for good quality literature for 1-student to read to self and 2-read alouds/discussions?

I'm jealous, too... but I keep telling myself that I'm waiting for all the in depth reviews to come in and maybe a 2nd edition before I buy. I've got a 5.5 DS and if I do get impatient and decide to spring for it, my excuse to DH is that I'm remediating my shoddy math education. :tongue_smilie:

Haven't read all the responses, but I wonder if money is not an issue, it can't hurt to get as a supplement (says the crazy lady with too many math books :tongue_smilie: ) OK I have a genuine question for those who don't like the beasts: what's wrong with beasts? Am I missing something? I haven't ordered it and don't plan to yet (kids are still young) but if it was good I don't think I would care if it were beasts or gummy bears, whatever... am I just clueless? :001_huh:

I was in the same boat... I really wanted to love Right Start (mainly to justify to myself the 100+ dollars I convinced dh to drop for it) but just couldn't get with it. I am telling myself that we might take another look at it this summer (mainly because of the adding 4 digit numbers bit) but I'm doubtful... MEP and Miquon have been pretty stellar so far.

I graduated from college at age 18 and never got a proper high school diploma. I started community college as a homeschooler at age 14--they allowed it based on a SAT that I took for CTY in middle school plus a placement exam. I don't consider all community colleges to be inferior; you have to look at your local school and see how it is. In fact, I consider it a great cost savings plus the students get a lot more attention from professors. I had small biology and chemistry classes with interactive discussions versus the 500 student classes that I would have gotten at the local university. I then entered the four year university as a transfer student, so the high school was a non-issue. My university offered most of its classes online and this allowed me to complete my degree faster than usual.

DS is submitting this for a local writing contest: Sunset Over the cool Earth the sun sets and the birds sing and the bees buzz. Under the blue sky where the green leaves tremble and the wind blows roughly. Where the horses neigh and the sheep baa, baa, and it begins to be night. And all the animals sleep.

If you want something to fill the time and don't want to wait on shipping, you could buy the Miquon PDF's from Currclick.com or print out some work from the free MEP curriculum.

It was, thank you! When you refer to spine vs. supplement, so you mean do MEP in its entirety, and then pick and choose from Miquon? MEP's S&S makes it easier to use as a spine, but I find that Miquon is more open-and-go. It's definitely something to think about.

:lurk5: :bigear:

DS is finishing up the 1st year of Miquon and MEP. Miquon is the spine, MEP the supplement. I have SM 1B but we don't use it except for some mental math. Since Miquon ends at 3rd grade, I wonder if I should use SM partially until 4th or just start it at 4th? Because SM does things in it's own unique way, I'm thinking we should keep *some* SM going until we finish with Miquon, so we're used to the "Singapore method." Maybe just use the IP and CWP until Miquon is done? Any ideas, especially from multi-curric users (read: math curriculum addicts)? :lol:

Not much advice but :grouphug: I know the feeling, it's really tough to deal with and I don't have much wisdom myself! The oddest thing has helped a tiny bit-- we saw the movie Meet the Robinsons and the main character Lewis is a prodigy who deals with wanting to give up. There's a bit where some other characters are encouraging him and singing "Keep moving forward, keep moving forward..." so when DS gets in one of those "moods" I try to lighten it up by singing in my best falsetto, "keep moving forward, keep moving forward..." It's a good movie, esp for TAG kids even if the trick doesn't work!

aww, don't go and make my life more complicated now! :tongue_smilie:

Too cute! :001_smile: I'm having a similar issue as we finish up Miquon Red--not sure if I should do MEP 1B first or finish up SM 1B. I'm trying to drag out "1st gr" math until the end of this school year and come at it from a few different angles before moving on.

I just ignore the lesson plans completely, print off the student books and then glance through and highlight the puzzle type problems or any other activities I want DS to do. Not quite open and go, but almost.

Unless you do it the lazy way like I do and only do the practice book. :tongue_smilie: It's a supplement for us, so I suppose if I used it as the main program I'd do it the proper way.

:iagree: this is us, exactly. I give SM the least time, but use it mainly for the scope and sequence, since we will go into SM for subsequent grades. We also use it for the mental math problems from the HIG. Miquon and MEP are much more impressive for this grade IMO.

that's probably an attitude you will have to work on--because if everything came easy, she wouldn't really be learning anything. She's going to have to learn to accept challenge as a learning opportunity, because this is how her brain will get "stretched". It is possible that she's too young for MEP, some of the stuff in there throws *me* for a loop. :001_smile: Or maybe you just need to take time to "camp out" at some of the trickier puzzles. I use MEP with a bunch of other things and my 5 y.o. DS gets really crabby at some of the puzzles when he can't figure them out right away. We just put it away and bring it out another day and do Miquon in the meanwhile.

I'm not Christian, but as a monotheist, I think this is a big problem with getting so deeply enmeshed into greek/roman mythology at such a young age. If you still don't have your own beliefs down, romanticizing other "gods and goddesses" will confuse you.

:iagree: Not only tonight, but I think I'll be reading for a while... Thanks for the great titles and links! I'm really trying to ensure that my children get a much better math education than I did.

I know about Liping Ma and Aharoni--can anyone direct me to similar readings for me, the teacher, to get a deeper, more conceptual understanding of the basic arithmetic functions? In particular, we are getting into multiplication and division now so I'm looking for some good articles for myself to think about arithmetic beyond the basic plug in and solve type education I received in school. Thanks in advance! :001_smile: