You say you already have math and history covered (I would have suggested Life of Fred and History Odyssey, but Math Mammoth is a fine choice; I am not familiar with your history choice, but if it is working for you, great!) For science, you would do fine for a year with Plato Science (all on the computer, periodically on sale through Homeschool Buyer's Coop for $50, pick your topic, or for more money, you can pick multiple topics) or for a DVD plus hands-on program he can still do himself, Exploration Education physics would be fine for a fifth grader. You really can skip grammar for a year. You can do foreign language through DuoLingo (inexpensive version of Rosetta Stone) Writing: Unjournaling is great in fifth grade (order the book through Amazon; it's not expensive). He can just pick a random prompt from the book, or work them in order. Logic: work through Fallacy Detective or Mind Benders. Give him access to Horrible Histories on YouTube or Netflix, Discovery Education Streaming, or NOVA videos, the North America series (now in re-runs on Animal Planet) and have him read through the encyclopedia one two-page spread at a time. Fascinating stuff in there. Pick fun topics like how the immune system works and let him read up on "Natural Killer Cells" and come tell you all about them. Get him a subscription to BrainPOP and The Happy Scientist. He can have a wonderful year of exploration-- I tell my kids no more than 90 minutes per day of non-education screen time (all screens) but (nearly) unlimited educational screen time, and they discover the most amazing stuff to watch and interact with. Despite the naysayers who call this "passive learning," they can tell you all about the stuff they saw and read online over a year later. I starting building in this exploration time into my older son's school day. He gets the stuff we do formally (I think of us as primarily classical homeschoolers) but I have to say . . . he really digs in and remembers the stuff he is learning on his own time more; the boy seems to be an unschooler at heart. Best of luck with your health and the upcoming year.

I have never had JR, but regular BrainPOP has issues that are awesome for my 9 and 12YO to be listening to and coming to us with questions about-- WWII, Hitler, reproduction, the atom bomb, Gandhi, MLK Jr, details about puberty, etc. It might be a bit much to just turn some 6YO's loose with, depending upon your family's comfort level.

We alternate weeks between the two, and that plan works well here. DS is 12 and 9YO brother is doing SWI-A, not B. We started Arrow with Harry Potter, and it was brilliant. After week 1 of Phantom Tollbooth, the boys said, "We cannot wait to read this book again." DS9 wants to read it for himself.

My blog is in my signature, and it has chronicled our homeschool journey from the beginning, including how we made the decision, found our goals and philosophy, sample schedules and curriculum choices, some photo journals, and random thoughts on homeschooling. Today's entry is on how we are starting to use journaling-- I call my journal the 'pensieve' after Albus Dumbledore's remarkable storage basin for storing and connecting his thoughts -- in our homeschool, including DS12's big ethical question of the day, which I encouraged him to note in his journal, as I can see him revisiting this question in rhetoric stage and even again in college or as an adult as he gains different tools with which to wrestle with the idea. Medium sized kid, big questions.... Excellent journal material! http://hillandalefarmschool.blogspot.com/2013/07/the-pensieve.html Edited to update... I just passed 10,000 views! Thank you to everyone who has read, supported, and commented on my blog!

I do not judge based upon message board postings (or even blog posts). I assume others may be in my situation -- typing frequently on a small device which uses an autocorrect with a mind of its own, and tapping out responses in stolen moments of time between calls of, "Mom! I need...!" I grew up as the daughter of an English teacher and a fifth grade teacher, and my own grammar is excellent without effort-- when I wish it to be so. However, I read these boards for content and not to critique others or to feel superior to anyone, and I do not have time to put down anyone's grammar or ability to edit on a screen of any size. If I am writing an application essay, a magazine article, an instruction guide for church operations, or some other formal document, I edit, write with care, and take my time. When I post here or even update my blog, I am often "having a quick thought" with 2-7 people clamoring for my attention, and do not make time for grammatical snobbery. Truly awful writing is one thing; less than perfect from my fellow homeschoolers and friends will never register a blip on my radar. There are many who think they are fantastic in the grammar department who still believe myths such as one cannot end a sentence with a preposition, or that you can never, ever justify breaking a grammar rule (you would be amazed at how many sentence fragments intentionally appear in novels). Life is too short to worry excessively, as long as your meaning has been made clear, and you can write formally when the situation calls for it. So my advice is, worry not about perfection on these boards. This is casual, not formal communication, and it is the content of the post that should matter! As to grammar... We just spent two years on it, and will now take a break for a year, addressing grammar only through writing. I have no intention of teaching grammar formally past the logic stage.

My kids are just finishing Digging Into Diagramming. I liked it quite a bit, and found it far more solid than the GWG series by the same publisher in terms of the material sticking and applying widely enough (as in, he should be able to diagram anything now, not just sentences that look like the DID examples). I had to stick GWG on the shelf (though an upper level text makes a convenient quick reference) but DID gets my thumbs-up.

Singapore is only 2-tone from 3rd level on up if you use the US version. That said, the OP already said Primary Math did not work for her kid. *I* may think PM is brilliant and works well for my sensory issues kid, but my kid is not her kid. No one curriculum is the best one for everybody. This is about helping her find out what will work for her kid.

I don't use the HIG myself, but I highly recommend it if you have difficulty seeing ways to create the concrete activities, as they are in there. Even better, on the Singapore website you will find the college textbook (not expensive) used to teach classroom teachers how to teach the Singapore way, and I understand it is loaded with activities; it sounds like an excellent investment to me. We use Singapore and Life of Fred together, but I hear good things about MUS too. Use what works for your family.

Kendall, keep t it. I have one who can look at a daily list and say, "But I don't know which to do NEXT!" or, "Well, this problem was hard..." so he pulled an all-stop while I was helping the other or setting up an experiment, unwilling to move on to anything else! The other guy might get up at 4 am and finish his list by 10am except for group work just so he can play all day-- but he might have rushed things and been sloppy. I figure part of what younger and older need to learn before graduating is sustainable time management and dealing with work flow problems. They are brothers 2.5 years apart... In some ways, very different kids, in other ways, just like I imagine a set of fraternal twins, as they are so close. It's a good frustration; these problems are better than those we dealt with in the brick and mortar school!

"But what about science and history and Latin? Do you find it easy to judge how much they can get done in a day?" Latin: We use Lively Latin. I found what I discovered to be very logical chunks: Do a lesson plus the first related exercise. Do the next related exercise the following day (helps better with retention, even if they were 'capable' of doing it the first day). Group history and word power exercises together. It just works. Most programs books will have some place where you can simply choose to logically break them up-- keep in mind that some kind of second-day repetition will aid retention. Science: I made my own biology curriculum this year. I decided what topics I wished to cover. I decided that we'd do Monday: discussion/lecture with Mom, Tuesday: Assigned reading and outlining, Wednesday, Lab day; Thursday: Additional reading/web searching/other materials, pick an independent inquiry topic; Friday: students read further on a topic of their own choosing, somehow related to the week's topic, and either draw, take notes, do an experiment, and by the end of the day, present their new knowledge to the rest of the family. This lets them explore something that interests them more deeply, and lets them cover more material than we'd otherwise have time to cover. History: Okay, we do use History Odyssey. It has directions to the student on when to outline, when to take notes, when to go write a paper, when to jot something down on a timeline, when to make a note of an important person in the people part of the notebook, etc. I look through the notebook for the 12YO to make sure he is on track and doing a nice job of it, and sit and chat with him about what he is learning, and provide him additional reading as needed. I do history with the 9YO because he needs additional help with the reading and staying organized. Neither requires worksheets or quizzes to remain productive. I also try to avoid doing housework or other stuff during school.

We may not be idea Bravewriter users, but I can't plan my reading to exactly match that guide-- we have too much reading to do! Much of it is stuff we have read before; I may invite the kids to quickly reread it during the month we work on it in The Arrow, or have it available in case they are inspired to reread it on their own.

Here is how I do it, in well under 30 minutes of direct instruction per lesson: (individual lessons may vary some, because of course if he has having a load of fun I don't cut him off!): Concrete-- Anything hands on you can do to introduce the concept in a way that matches the way they are showing it in the textbook. It's okay to extend the idea, but try to avoid reverting back to the way you were taught (unless you were taught the Asian way yourself as a kid, which most users of these boards were not). When introducing my 9YO to angles and compass directions, we had some fun with it-- I used the GPS on my husband's phone to find true north in our kitchen, and laid down painter's tape pointing N, S, E, W, NE, SE, SW, and NW. I made the NW direction clear. For fun I also labeled that as 12:00. I laid out a second set of crosshairs in painter's tape on the floor next to it, just a single X in a perfect 90-degree angle, with one tape line parallel to the N-S line and the other parallel to the E_W line. I had him stand, facing north, and asked him to turn 90 degrees to the west. Okay, now turn 180 degrees clockwise. Now turn 270 degrees counterclockwise. Now turn 45 degrees more counterclockwise. What direction are you facing? If you turn 90 degrees plus 180 degrees more in the same direction, how many degrees will you have turned? How many more degrees will you need to turn in order to complete turning in a circle? It was pretty easy to just stand there and make up questions, and he had a lot of fun with it. We'd play on those tape lines for a couple of weeks, and by the end of it, his sense of time, direction, and angles was excellent (and he always knows which way is north if he's anywhere in our house or yard or nearby in our neighborhood!!). To introduce fractions without purchasing manipulatives: cut a strip of paper 12" long and 1 or 2" wide. Fold it exactly in quarters. Make several of these (say, 4). Have him shade in 1 box, 2 boxes, 3 boxes, and 4 boxes on each respective strip, and write the appropriate fraction on each strip in dark marker. Point out that the bottom number is the same on each strip, because the bottom number, the denominator, shows you how many (equal) pieces you have divided something into. (Accordion the thing up so he can see they are equal). The top number, the numerator, shows you how many pieces you have-- one of the quarters, two of the quarters, three of the quarters, or four of the quarters. If you have all four of the quarters, you must have the whole thing, which is why 4/4 = 1. Does he think this will be a rule? Will something over itself always be 1, then? For more involved fraction math, I personally love fraction stacks, and we have gotten our money's worth from them. Hand him several stacks, and ask him to add 1/4 plus 1/3 plus 1/6 plus 1/8. It will be frustrating for a while . . . until he figures out that he can swap out each of those blocks for an appropriate number of 1/12 blocks, and then add up the 1/12 blocks with ease. You can do something similar with Cuisinaire rods, of course. I believe member Rosie has some brilliant videos on how to show just about anything with Cuisinaire rods. With the fraction stacks, you can again reinforce the fraction concept itself. Why is 1/4 bigger than 1/6? If he remembers the first lesson with the paper, he should stare at the blocks, put the stacks together into whole 1's, and then remember and be able to tell you in his own words that the 6, the denominator, means the whole was divided into 6 pieces, and the 4 means that one was only divided into 4 pieces, so the 1/4 will be bigger. Okay, so now onto pictorial. In Singapore Math, nearly EVERYTHING comes down to bar models. In fractions, this is quite obvious in the easier problem levels-- draw a rod and divide it up as necessary. As you go into harder problems, KEEP USING THE BAR MODELS. There are other pictorial representations-- redistributing tens into ones when you need more ones in order to subtract is done pictorally; obviously much geometry is done pictorally* *Geometry: The geometry lessons in the level 5 books are positively BRILLIANT. Assuming you have stuck with Singapore that long, DO NO SKIMP on the CONCRETE in these lessons! I am writing this from the perspective of having used the US Edition; I can only assume the Standards Edition is similar, given the loyal following it has. When the text shows a triangle with the points folding down to fit into a rectangle--- GO get graph paper, cut out the triangle and have your child actually do this, and PROVE that the area of a triangle is 1/2bh. Particularly wacky shaped triangles where he will have to draw a reference triangle first! This is math that was traditionally never taught until high school, and my 9YO got it instantly once he did it hands-on like this. Similarly with the angle theorems that are taught in these books-- actually cut out triangles and trapezoids and the other shapes and let him prove that the angles add up the way the books suggests. Use a straight edge, use a protractor, use a right-angle. These lessons will be unforgettable. **I know this sounds like quite a lot, but these lessons do NOT need to take a long time. They can be quite short, in fact, if your son gets them. Leave the stuff out so he can play with it in his own way later if he wants to, with no pressure. Be prepared to make a few props beforehand if you don't want to buy stuff you may only use a few times, depending upon his age. We spend about 4-10 minutes on the concrete stuff, depending upon the lesson (geometry got long, because it was so much fun; he loves that stuff). We take a short stretch, then sit down for the pictorial stuff, which is about 2-4 minutes, as it is often just a recap of what we learned in a concrete fashion. If it is tougher, we may take longer. Then we do the abstract (writing it all out in symbols and numbers) as we do the problems together-- maybe 5-10 minutes. That is under 30 minutes at the most for direct instruction, per lesson. Only after we are done everything we are to cover that day will I hand off the workbook. We do absolutely NO "flipping back and forth through books." I hand him the workbook, and he does all the marked exercises independently for that day at once. We save all flipping for gymnastics :).

We alternate weeks between IEW and WWE or WWS. We alternate weeks with most of our subjects (ie science and history; my kids hate bopping back and forth every other day, and they want more time than doing everything every day allows). Why use both? I think good arguments could be made for using them sequentially just as well as using them simultaneously. In our case, we did not begin homeschooling until they were halfway through 2nd and 4th grades, and did not start with any writing program out of the gate, so they were into the following year before we started looking at writing very seriously, as I was still trying to assess where they truly were in ability vs willingness. In our house, we also deal with dysgraphia issues, and I believe WWE is uniquely well suited to addressing dysgraphia as well as writing, as dysgraphia is more than a simple physical problem; it is a neurological issue that affects the ability to hold a sentence in your brain as you get it onto the paper, as well as the issues with forming the letters-- which pretty much sums up the early description of WWE! Although we did the earliest levels at an accelerated pace, both of my boys began WWE right at level 1 and worked right on through until reaching ability level. We saw very good results. Once they hit their respective ability levels, we slowed to the expected pace, and began alternating with IEW. By this time, they had the great exposure to copying and studying the words, style, and punctuation of professional writers (we are now also incorporating Bravewriter for this similar approach, though Bravewriter goes into some more depth in certain areas). We added IEW for more attention to the craft of writing itself, in a very technical sense. WWE builds writing in a very . . . organic manner, while IEW focuses on helping the student to build a toolbox of writer's skills to be able to call upon at will when needed; one at a time, in IEW, they focus upon how to change a sentence out of passive voice; how to make a sentence more precise by choosing the correct verb instead of a nondescript verb; how to brainstorm a list of useful adjectives or adverbs and attach them to the most important words in the paragraph, rather than sticking them in just anywhere. IEW deliberately overbuilds these skills, much as a martial artist overbuilds his reverse punch or a pianist practices his scales to the point of automaticity, not because he expect to do nothing but a reverse punch or because the pianist expect to give a concert of scales, but because this technique and these sounds underpin the skills used in a more fluid manner later in combination with other skills the artist needs to call upon without having to sweat over them. We are actually now adding in Kilgallon to the mix-- starting with the sentence building books, which focus on learning how sentence "chunks" are assembled and manipulated by published authors. Together with the exposure and neurologic training from WWE, the technical toolbox from IEW, the vocabulary and grammar from MCT, and now the awareness of manipulating those phrases and clauses learned in MCT as we work through Kilgallon, I am excited as we look forward to this year of writing with the kids (we are making time for this extra writing focus my lightening up on the formal grammar instruction for a year-- we will just use the practice books from MCT). We started with kids pretty damaged by the public school ("Here are your journals. Now write. No, do NOT stop to think or plan. Writing does not involve thinking. It just means write as much as possible until the bell rings. Spelling, grammar, thought, logic, and content do not count, only quantity." I cannot believe I let my bright, sensitive, older child suffer through that for nearly five years . . . he was actually punished for planning what he wanted to write one year, accused of daydreaming instead of working . . .). They are starting to be able to write again, about 2 1/2 years later. I hope that helps!

I never thought of putting the AV files into OneNote! You guys are awesome! They already use OneNote for completing the Maps in History Odyssey, so they know how to use it.

This week was a week for some serious love for IEW SWI-A (Institute for Excellence in Writing). My younger has formally Dx'd dysgraphia, and though we have noted much improvement over the past couple of years (thank you WWE and HWT and much hard work) it still exists, and when he is concentrating on new material, I still have to scribe for him frequently, if he must write more than a sentence or two and is not using the computer. This week, we were starting SWI-A's story sequence model, where students really pay attention to character, setting, plot, climax, and denouement, rather than a line-by-line outline, brainstorm, and then use their notes to recast the story in their own words. I was so surprised when DS sat himself down with his outline, set to work, and eventually handed me a full sheet of hand-written paper, written in one sitting in a reasonable period of time... and his story was very well-written, for his ability level! Given the difficulty just writing itself poses for him even with copy work, I was really proud of the effort he put into his story. Clearly, IEW is working as a confidence-builder for this kid. He even said he can understand how a writer might sit down and describe his characters, setting, major problem, resolution, how the character changed at the end, and different descriptors before actually starting to write a story, so now he gets why I asked him to start keeping a journal (Bravewriter) of ideas "for someday." At age 9, we have a long road ahead still, and clearly, we can also credit WWE, Bravewriter, MCT, and a few other programs for getting him here (I'd like to thank the Academy, and my Mom, and ...). But tonight, I'm really feeling the love for IEW for helping it all click together!

FYI, I am not ignoring your questions! I had the poor judgement to stand on a spider's nest the other night when bringing in my wash-- short story is that I was bitten at least 21 times! Sadly, I don't react well to Benadryl, but I decided it was better than the ER, so I've been swimming back up from those reactions. Not sure what kind of spider it was, other than they were small, brown, furry, and lived in the ground in mind-blowing numbers-- I couldn't even see my legs from the knee down there were so many of them all over me ::::::shudder::::: Even sadder, even after all those bites, I still cannot spin a web on my own-- bummer. I was hoping for some super powers or something. Anyway, I will get back to you when I'm firing on all cylinders again!

Alison, that is awesome!

I second NOEO Chem II. My son did it for logic stage chemistry, and we were very happy. There is a ton of hands-on, and you can adjust the number of experiments (there are many, many experiments in the books, in addition to the kits; most just use household supplies-- you will wish to be well-stocked with baking soda, vinegar, borax, and at some point, a red cabbage). The coverage of the topic for grade level was also quite good, and he could complete it largely independently, yet if we wanted to discuss it together, we could do that too. NOEO Chem was a great experience. RS4K will only last you about 10 weeks-- you could do all of their sciences in one year without breaking a sweat.

We'll see how this year goes. Older guy used Life of Fred for all of his PreA needs (looked at and ditched AoPS) and did great in Algebra I this year, continuing to do geometry/trig/dabble in calc in his own time for fun (none of that counts for 'credit;' he'll do it for real later). Younger guy (9) loves Fred and is working through Fractions this summer, but I am a fan of "if it isn't broken, don't fix it," and he has just thrived in Singapore so far, so as much as we have loved Fred as a primary program, I am going to have younger try to stick with Singapore as a primary program, starting DM7 this fall, using Fred on the side (still daily, but probably at a slower pace than older brother used it). I really like the integrated approach of Singapore DM, not chopping math up into discrete chunks. We'll see how it goes. I actually own Tobey and Slater, Dolciani, Foerster, Lial, AoPS, and of course Fred Fred Fred, so we have plenty to fall back on if something doesn't click . . . and he's 9, so there's plenty of time :). Who knows, maybe I'll even have this one take a lick at AoPS, though I am not convinced the preA book is a great place to start-- I really do feel they made a pretty basic math level way too complicated. I like the looks of the algebra book a bit more.

Hmmm. I think you did just answer your own question. You said you rushed through Singapore, then mentioned that your son was having trouble retaining information and that the program seemed to be too quick. I think, with respect, that this is a Mom problem, not a kid problem, with Singapore. Remember, the Singapore presentation is concrete-pictorial-abstract; it is that way because it works, and it works very well (I come at this from the perspective of the parent of a pair of highly gifted kids-- my 9YO will be starting the upper level Singapore series this summer, and has already been doing some algebra on his own. He has been through Singapore levels 2--5, and they have been very effective). At the minimum, I hope you are using the text and the workbooks for each level; for an advanced kid, the intensive practice books are a good idea. The other books are good for kids who really need the additional practice, but before you decide that, *slow down* and make sure you are really presenting the information correctly and not racing through-- if your son is not retaining the information, you are moving too quickly. Here is a suggested presentation: *Introduce the material using the concrete, hands-on lessons. *Segue into working on paper or the white board or whatever works for you and get out the textbook, going through the examples and problems in the text together. *Do the related workbook problems either later in the day or the next day, as independent work. This gives the information time to gel before he tries to tackle it on his own, and will provide a better metric of whether or not he really digested it or just did the nod and "Yes I get it" because the presentation of the material in Singapore is so logical and appears so easy-- at first. *Assign any practices and reviews as independent work, helping him with any problems he is stuck on as needed. These are not tests. Make sure your assistance is helping him to store the information in memory though, and isn't just doing the assignment for him. Let him use the manipulatives if needed. I like to only assign some of the workbook exercises, so that if the reviews show any gaps, he can go back and do the workbook pages again on his own another day. If you're using the IP book, you can do this step with the IP book instead-- assign the IP book a week or two behind the main lessons. Neurologically, we need to see material a few times before we build permanent connections. *Don't move on until he has achieved the lesson goal. Do remember that Singapore will repeat the lesson again in the next year (though going into more detail). If it isn't *perfect* that's probably okay. I used to freak out about that in the younger levels, then I realized that with the repetition, he got better. I had to set realistic goals for his accomplishment, that were age-appropriate. Perfect mastery each exposure was not appropriate, even for a highly gifted kid. However, by the time he finished level 5B, he had the information nailed down. So understand the lesson goals, what they are, and what they aren't. Number bonds early on are pretty important. Understanding the relationships between the numerator and denominator is important. Understanding the number line is important. Perfect recall of area and volumetric formulae in the third level book is not essential; it will be repeated. Perfection of all fraction operations in the 3rd level book is not essential; it will be repeated. Measurement will be practiced continuously throughout the books (at least, in the US Edition) in all the word problems after being introduced, and reviewed in each level, and you can reinforce by having him cook with you. *Go at your son's pace. Remember those test scores? Remember that a grade equivalency does not mean your son is working at that grade level. Slow down. If he likes Singapore, give it another shot; it's an excellent program. **A note about Math Mammoth: Yes, all the information needed for instruction is right on those pages. The pages are written directly to the student, and presented in a very logical, incremental fashion. MM is another excellent program. Good luck to you! It can be a shaky feeling to try to find a good match-up for both you and your kiddo! It doesn't help when everyone has an opinion, but in the end yours is the one that counts :)

Try reading any of the many other Fred threads... There is much more to Apples than just things that add to 7, but then you have to do more with it then just sit down and read the book. Pay attention to what you are reading and be prepared to have some serious fun playing the games he shows you how to play with each of Fred's actions and in the photos. Surely if you get the idea for things that add to 7, you can apply the same idea to other numbers. Make a game out of it! This is one reason why these books are "Read in a parent's lap" style. There is also stuff on set theory and little introductory hints to introduce algebra in there as well as time and measures... all stuff you can quite easily play games with and expand along the lines the author demonstrates for you as you read. So, if you want them to, even the earliest books go way beyond 5+2, because the information is right there leaping out of the pages waiting to be noticed. But, it is also just a fun read if you like to move faster and skip the good parts. Or you can start part way through the series, too. Fred is pretty flexible that way-- people here use it many different ways. If you want it to be detailed, the information is there on the pages for the asking. If you want a light supplement... Just read faster :)

I'm unlikely to find much problematic, other than a dogmatic statement that there is no God or that Christians are illogical idiots incapable of intelligent thought. Even those statements I will usually just discuss with my kids rather than hide them-- they live in the real world, so we discuss the world views held by others, and even listen to the people who feel that way to find out how they got there. I have found that my kids have a strong enough foundation that such conversations do not shake their faith, and they become more informed about the real world by understanding its diversity . . . but it's nice to have a heads-up so we can discuss :)

I have not seen any of the word problems in the app. I agree with Bill; HOE is just . . . very different from Dragonbox. Dragonbox is almost "stealth math" in that you can play it and it takes a while before you must acknowledge that you are doing math. Hands on Equations (the actual physical set) takes you from the Pachisi piece manipulatives and dice and translates them directly to writing the equations on paper pretty quickly. In level 3 of HOE, the student gets to discover a proof of why subtracting a negative number is the same as adding a positive number; the set has the student resolve the dilemma with the pieces by making the 'legal move' of adding zero first-- so in the case of 8 - (-3), he would have one #8 die, then in order to have a -3 to remove, he must stick in a zero-- a #3 and a #(-3) together (since you are adding zero, you have not changed anything). Then in order to subtract the (-3) you remove the (-3) die, and you are left with 8 + 3. Watching the lightbulb go off is just brilliant. The app is still fun for on-the-go learning, but you do lose the verbal problems book, and if you have a kiddo who learns from hands-on, you lose that aspect. I bought the set from Homeschool Buyer's Coop, and it came with the pawns and dice, the laminated balance (yes, cheesy!), the books 1--3, the practice book for 1--3, the word problem book, and the DVD. We have not actually watched the DVD yet, just going through the book lessons together instead. Then he can just play with the the practice book and word problem book on his own, with me sitting in now and then to see that he's getting it. Both Dragonbox and Hands On Equations helped him keep his sanity when Mean Mom was making him go back and do a few more drill workbook exercises in Singapore before moving on-- this was something fun, and not just more arithmetic and geometry (though he loves geometry too).

Yes, the stages of learning do not arrive nicely in gift-wrapped packages, precisely on schedule. In gifted kids, the schedule can be a real mess, particularly if you try to stick with "designed for homeschoolers" materials that follow a classical model-- what to do if your child is mentally rhetoric stage ready in some aspects of development, but not necessarily in his writing ability? Or pose the same question, crossing the grammar/logic border? Creating some custom materials becomes necessary. What if the child is ready in terms of depth, but maturity of the material is an issue? Again, this problem can be solved, but will require some work (and you can thank your lucky stars that you ARE homeschooling and can custom-craft a program that will challenge this child). One pitfall to avoid . . . sometimes our gifted kids try to race ahead before they have really gotten what they needed from the prior stage-- it can be a bit like working through the stages of grief at times, where you want the progression to be linear, but it is really a bit of bouncing back and forth across a rather sinuous, curvy line for a year or so. Child-led education does not imply that we abdicate our role as the adults, and make sure they still get what they need, even if they don't agree all the time! My kids are awesome (naturally :D ) but they usually overestimate their mastery of a skill or topic at this age-- they don't distinguish between the "a-ha!" moment and long-term storage. They might remember 2-3 weeks later, but six months later? Probably not if I don't exert some control over what mastery means (and how much mastery is necessary for a given subject-- I don't really care if a 7YO doesn't have perfect recall of the pharoahs of Egypt).

Hmmmm... Should I go re-read these? I missed something... If you have any page numbers or chapters to point me to it might save me some time... I won't censor from DS, but might discuss if it is problematic.