We started with Miquon Orange but had to move to a more structured program - mostly for my sanity. I still use it and the rods for supplemental and "fun" math. In the book, they talk about letting kids choose their work, and I think that's the way the program works best. However, I don't mean let them choose from the entire book! Just pull out a few sheets from Orange, and later, maybe Red, that seem about the right level. You can teach one topic and work on a page or a side of a page on that topic... then let the child choose another sheet, anything goes; Same topic or not. That seems to be the closest to how it's done in the book. If you don't have it yet, I recommend the First Grade Diary. And if you find yourself going bananas, remember that it's okay to use another math as the spine and keep miquon as supplemental. :-)

Just curious - is this the first time you've gone against her parenting / schooling advice in a big way? I certainly agree with the advice and good humour of previous posters: - There is no way your kids could be stunted after such a short period of time: it takes YEARS of actual neglect for any type of difference to emerge! (and even - sadly - under circumstances of extreme neglect, some kids seem okay socially) - Watch who you complain to: surround yourself with a circle of homeschoolers and/or supporters and save the REAL concerns for them. - Know that your triplets may have an adjustment while they're "deschooling"; kids are sometimes bored / listless / hostile / "bad" because they're so used to being told what to do at every moment of the day. Having the summer to decompress & take it easy (schooling "lite") will help. If you're real quiet about homeschooling, you may be able to rebuild the closeness with your mother... but it's my guess that she will only feel you're really close if and when you follow her advice, not just listen and thank her respectfully for offering it. :001_huh:

:bigear: Bump? :001_huh: I thought for sure somebody would know... thought this would be an easy find, actually... :-(

:iagree: Learning "art" was nice, growing up in the 70s in the era of anything goes and "Free to be you and me," and we sure worked in a lot of media, but boy, do I wish they had had drawing classes, too. Just sitting down like we do with Draw Write Now, saying, "here are the parts you need to make your picture look like a cat," - "pointy ears, curly tail" vs stubby tail for a dog, long bushy tail for a horse, flat nose for pig, etc. Simple observations about which bits go where. Before starting Draw Write Now with my dd, I hadn't realized that I'd been sold short. I will probably never be a talented ARTIST like my dh, but I will never settle for being a dummy at drawing again. Even at 41, I can learn how to draw - how marvellously affirming! p.s. aomom, thanks! :blush:

It's my understanding that there are some older public-domain versions of this book. Is there anywhere this is available for download? Many thanks!!!

We haven't tried any other art programs, but I bought MTM through HSBC and we're enjoying it very much. We have only done one project so far, and in terms of hand-holding, I was thrilled. I've tried introducing art a couple of different ways and it hadn't taken off. MTM gives me a LOT of support, and I like that. But it doesn't teach DRAWING, as such - for that, we use Draw Write Now. So we're alternating, one week of MTM and one week of DWN. Here's a blog post from the one big MTM hands-on art lesson we've done so far. Here are a few of our Draw Write Now lessons. I'd highly recommend either - or both! Not sure when the HSBC offer will go until - it's already been extended once.

Before age 6, I would keep it VERY light (and did, when dd was 5). Like others, we did phonics, math, and some hands-on science, along with cuddle-up science reading on the sofa. When we started doing math, there was no agenda - we mostly used manipulatives like Cuisenaire Rods, dry split peas, coloured math frogs and a scale, etc. Later, I introduced the Miquon book, and then our current math books. I also started HWT, but we took it VERY slowly - so slowly that she advanced far beyond the first book before we had a chance to get through it, so I chucked it and moved her up in to the next book. Before age 5, I would not have a regularly scheduled time for anything, including reading (except me reading aloud!).

Why not start them all with bio or, if you've done it already this year, chemistry? It won't really HARM the younger one to do chemistry first and she'll get to bio when your older ones do - though at that point you'll have to adapt the logic bio for your younger dd or go with 2 separate curricula. But that's a few years away.

I would say don't try it. If it's more time than is intended to be spent with the curriculum, she may end up hating it. Plus, sadly, you cannot cram in an entire classical education in an entire year. She will not have the knowledge to call upon, and she may just be relieved at the end of the year that the pressure is over. :sad: However, given my own personal biases, if I only had a year left with my kid at home, I would spend it on two things: as much free time outdoors as possible, and as much cuddle-up-reading together (okay, sixth grade, maybe not cuddled, but reading aloud together) as possible. She will get an approximation of everything else at school. They may not teach academics the way you would, but they do try to cover the basics. But I think those are two things you will both look back on fondly if you know how precious they are over the coming year.

I can tell you that Rosetta Stone definitely works with shorter lessons, because that's all I let my dd do - she's 6.5, and I don't want her spending a ton of time on the computer. We're using it for Hebrew, and I like that her experience is completely English-free. I also enjoy the fact that she can make "educated guesses" and end up right most of the time, even if she's not really trying. The program is very intuitive for the person doing the lessons. However, I wasn't able to get the voice recognition working for her - it works fine for me and my husband, but I think her voice is too hesitant and squeaky. Probably with practice we could have got it working, but I just disabled this feature. She practices reading Hebrew at other times, so I'm not worried about that part of it. Overall, I like the program. And I LOVE the fact that our entire family can use a single program for learning the language. (we're planning a move to Israel in 2 years)

My (new this year) copy of the Activity Guide for Volume 1 says Copyright © 2001, 2006. So I'm guessing yours is the 2001 edition. This one doesn't say what's new in this edition, but I'd guess that history is history, so you don't NEED a brand-new one. As long as the information is correct and the activities are relevant and interesting, you're probably fine. I personally wouldn't buy a new one. :-)

We're just reading the Lawrence Anholt books, too. These are a fantastic way for kids to learn about the artists and the children in their lives while seeing their art - similar to the Classical Kids (Beethoven Lives Upstairs) stories.

I'm curious about what other parents are loving, but I went with Meet the Masters because it was cheap through HomeschoolBuyersCo-op and offers a nice mix - some theory but lots of practice. There is a focus on great artists, but the hands-on lets kids learn specific techniques from each artist as they go along. For my kids (3.5 and 6.5) I got the Level 1 3-track option that offers 21 artist units for $45. It's all online, but I can print off as many of the sheets as I want from the lesson PDF. I'm very happy with it so far. (you do have to buy supplies, like pastels, brushes, etc and that cost maybe $30 so far)

Sorry, I forgot to add - there are a few FREE worksheet generators here at abctools / abcteach that might be helpful!

Jennifer, are you an abcteach member? Or is there somewhere else you can buy the font? I have been looking for an HWT font for SO long... I create very specialized Jewish copywork (downloadable at my blog, if anybody's interested!), and I'd love to get a font if there's one out there!!! (and abcteach is SO expensive for just one mama and 2 kids...)

Chantelle: You should probably post your message as a separate, new post within the WTM forums. You submitted it as a reply to an unrelated thread, so probably won't get too many responses. :001_smile:

It's not much, but I do have some math sorting / graphing printables free for download at my blog. I made them for my daughter to go with a museum trip.

Breaking up material: I'd say I generally stick to "chapters." What I mean by this is that the length of the original material is less significant than you might think - what matters is what HAPPENS in the section. If there's a lot happening, I'd probably break it up into shorter sections - if there's a longish bit with nothing happening, you can probably make it a bit longer. The sections in SOTW (ie 2 sections per chapter) seem a bit ambitious right now, as we're just beginning with it, but will probably get easier within a few weeks. We narrate everything: for school, but also for chapter books - before we put away a chapter book, the kids tell back the section we've just read. I don't write it down, but even just saying it helps them remember better next time. I say them because I let the 3.5-yo participate in this as well, and sometimes, he remembers better, or different details, than even the 6.5-yo. The best length, I'm finding, is one where my daughter doesn't start repeating facts. Sometimes, if she thinks I want her to go longer, she'll restate the same thing a few different ways. I try to gently discourage that, when I'm reading it back to her, by pointing out that it's basically the same thing said twice. I don't correct and I try not to lead her while she's narrating. From what I've read, the narrations get shorter for a while once they begin writing them on their own, and then go back to the optimum length. Anyway, if you haven't seen SOTW, I'd look at it, because in terms of SWB's philosophy, the chapters are broken down into what she considers manageable, narrate-able sections. For more of our narration experience including my daughter's first narration practices, almost a year ago, you can visit my blog. Hope this helps!

I'm amazed at how many free classical PDF books are available online - the McGuffey readers alone! - and would love to tap into them via an ereader. Which have worked well for you in your homeschool? I'm assuming I'm looking for large, clear print. What else should I care about? :bigear:

:iagree:I think this goes without saying: they shouldn't be writing it themselves at a 1st grade level. :-o Just wanted to add that a good way to practice for narration is with chapter book reading. Every time I finish a chapter (for example, our Little House book, or A Little Princess), I ask them (6yo dd and 3yo ds - and you'd be surprised what a 3yo picks up!) what happened in that chapter. Sometimes, it's not much ("Laura and Mary waited for Pa and had lunch at the hotel."), but sometimes there are several events in a chapter. "Saying back" the chapter - just verbally - helps them keep the thread of the book until next time. The next time, before we start reading, I ask what happened in the last chapter. Again, just 1-2 sentences, no pressure - either kid can say anything they want, and I cue them if necessary ("why was Laura talking the whole way on the train trip?" "because Mary was blind now") That way, everybody knows what happened. It also helps me pick up on comprehension problems - dd6 missed the dog Jack dying in our current Little House book because she was too tired when we read it, and I didn't make her say it back because she was exhausted, but then the next time, she couldn't tell me what had happened and it turned out she'd missed several key passages... so we re-read them before continuing. Just thought I'd add a bit more from experience. ALSO, Wise/Bauer-style narration (as opposed to pure Charlotte Mason-style narration) as seen in FLL & SOTW seems to favour asking a few general comprehension questions first BEFORE asking the child to narrate. I thought I wouldn't like that... but it turns out, dd and I both love it. :hurray:

My 6-yo tends to overdo her narrations; I'm working on getting her to stop, because she'll say the same thing a few times a few different ways. Today's was better: we're just starting SOTW history, and here's what she "told back": "An archaeologist is a person who finds things in the ground from a long time ago, like houses, clay and wood. People find them and write down all about people from a long time ago and where they find it. They dig it up because that's their job - to dig stuff up and put it in museums." Lots more narrations examples for other subjects - Science, weekly Bible portion, composers, etc, on my blog! Here's a link to her first narration, last fall, for comparison.

Thought I'd jump in here: We have Elemental Science and will be using it when the reading selection books arrive. I like it because it's more of a Charlotte Mason, free-form, casual approach. Still very science-y, but lots of reading, too, and a lapbooking component. I have a few negative thoughts about it, though, and since I seem to get flamed every time I mention them, I'll just point you to another thread here that asked about it. ;-)

Thank you!!! It's a weird one bc it's all over the place... I write a ton and I think most people get overwhelmed quickly, but for me, it's therapeutic. :-) :iagree:Yes! It starts VERY slow. My dd was 5 and she could do most of the beginning-of-the-year stuff. They recommend not skipping anything, but if it's easy, feel free to accelerate it until you reach your child's own level. Now that we're in the 1.2 book, it's more challenging. Happy to share exciting Canadian resources. :-) (wish there was a Canadian emoticon I could add there)

I posted this to the Free Curriculum list, but thought I'd mention it separately in case anybody was looking for a math alternative: This is a nonprofit math program, which I support because it's also local to where I live, but the resources are all free for anyone to use online: http://jumpmath1.org/publications Everything in the program is free EXCEPT the workbooks and you can easily create a full math program without them. (not sure how you'd buy the workbooks online - contact the company if you're interested, as they're pretty affordable) (I believe you can view & print the first 30 pages or so of each workbook online) The philosophy is based on SCAFFOLDING - building carefully, step by step. Breaking everything down. Advanced students can progress as quickly as they want; slower students get the support they need. The program spirals - each topic is covered twice in a given year. Click on Teachers' Guides at any grade level for excellent material that will guide you through teaching math, with examples, etc. There are printable Blackline Masters to go with the lessons. Even if you only teach the classes that are described in the guides, without the workbooks, you will be well ahead of the game. In their seminars (I took one), they say the workbook is the least important part of the program. For Grades 3 and up, you start with the FREE Introductory Unit. It is based on fractions, but it's not a "fractions unit," per se. As long as your child has BASIC multiplication (2s, 3s, 4s) they can do the Grade 3 intro unit. More than teaching fractions, it is a confidence builder that teaches kids that ANYONE can do math if they are given the proper steps. Highly recommended! I don't work for the company, but I discovered it last year and we're loving it. The author also has a book called The Myth of Success that you might want to read before you begin trying to educate your children. :001_smile: To me, this curriculum is slightly reminiscent of Math Mammoth, but I find the layouts cleaner with JUMP Math, and the program seems less segmented - everything's all in one place and there's only one thing to do each day. Please don't confuse this with another Canadian math program called "JUMP at Home" which you can sometimes find at Costco and in big bookstores. JUMP sold the rights to those books to a textbook company and they're quite different. :001_huh:

This is a nonprofit math program, which I support because it's also local to where I live, but the resources are all free online: http://jumpmath1.org/publications Everything in the program is free EXCEPT the workbooks and you can easily create a full math program without them. The philosophy is based on SCAFFOLDING - building carefully, step by step. Breaking everything down. Advanced students can progress as quickly as they want; slower students get the support they need. The program spirals - each topic is covered twice in a given year. Click on Teachers' Guides at any grade level for excellent material that will guide you through teaching math, with examples, etc. There are printable Blackline Masters to go with the lessons. Even if you only teach the classes that are described in the guides, without the workbooks, you will be well ahead of the game. In their seminars (I took one), they say the workbook is the least important part of the program. For Grades 3 and up, you're supposed to start with the FREE Introductory Unit. It is based on fractions, but it's not a "fractions unit," per se. As long as your child has BASIC multiplication (2s, 3s, 4s) they can do the Grade 3 intro unit. More than teaching fractions, it is a confidence builder that teaches kids that ANYONE can do math if they are given the proper steps. Highly recommended! I don't work for JUMP Math, but I discovered it last year and we're loving it. The author also has a book called The Myth of Success that you might want to read before you begin trying to educate your children. :001_smile: But please, don't confuse this with another Canadian math program called "JUMP at Home" which you can sometimes find at Costco and in big bookstores. JUMP sold the rights to those books to a textbook company and they're quite different. :001_huh: