Here it is. The placement test alone is a big hoot-- but heed: the student cannot go back and retake it if they choose to get silly with it (it is more like a game than a test, because it tests reasoning skills rather than mathematical knowledge) so let them goof around with the initial "how to" screen, but then explain to your DC that the placement test is the real deal before they start :) http://www.elementsofmathematics.com/

My older is using LoF as his sole math program (*I have to qualify this: we recently discovered Elements of Mathematics, and he is now doing that for fun, but it is ranging off into oddball topics not covered in a typical program, like base-29 arithmetic and applications to cryptography! Awesome!) He has been using Fred as his math program since Fractions and is now just about finished with Beginning Algebra, and we (my math professor husband and I) are extremely pleased. My son can do some types of math that my husband's incoming students in a top rated math department are sometimes deficient in, thanks to Fred. In the rare cases where he wishes a little more practice (we do NOT have the Zillions of Problems book) there is always Khan Academy or a used copy of Dolciani we picked up. As a math/science person, I am never opposed to a student sometimes seeing material presented from a different point of view, no matter what the program you pick might be. As a point of comparison, we tried AoPS during Pre-Algebra, and found nothing in it he had not previously covered in Fred at the same stage, and in more depth. He works Fred independently, though I will sometimes make him teach me a section to check his understanding to my satisfaction, sometimes that will be a section from Dolciani to see if he *really* understands (ie, he has to teach the concept using a presentation he hasn't seen before; either he gets the idea or he doesn't-- most of the time he demonstrates he really is getting it).

We have gone in stages. I read unabridged versions of Peter Pan, Alice in Wonderland, and the like; McCaughrean's 1001 Arabian Nights, Padric Colum's "Children's Homer," etc to them starting at age 7. My more struggling reader has read some Stepping Stones and Landmark abridged versions to himself or listened to audiobooks (both unabridged and abridged-- we are Jim Weiss fans) and he is now reading unabridged versions of some stories with which he is familiar. My older son, who does not have the same reading issues, was able to just dive right on in at around age 9-10. A few notes you may use for whatever they are worth: 1. My younger has really enjoyed Michael Clay Thompson's editions of some of the classic books. He likes having the vocabulary in footnotes (he knows all about reading footnotes, thanks to Life of Fred!) the typeface, the size of the books in his hands, and the callout boxes that point out poetics and other notes in the sidebars. We don't break down literature and torture it to death with worksheets and character lists and such, but he really likes this additional information and food for thought. MCT also puts out a companion parent guide with a few questions for discussion with the child that may be helpful. 2. Not all classics are really all that enjoyable. My older son, who is a voracious reader with a tremendous vocabulary did not take long to decide he *hated* Treasure Island. There will be a few books that I may insist we struggle through, but that was not one of them (really, there is not a fantastic amount of depth to it anyway. I tried it mostly because I grew up living elbow to elbow among the Wyeth family, and loved showing my kids the original artwork from that book, which hangs in a nearby museum). My younger is actually enjoying the book. Sometimes we must insist our kids do things that are not enjoyable, but when it comes to literature, some respect must be paid to the idea that some books are simply not for everyone . . . and you have to decide whether a particular assignment is a hill to die on . . . and IMHO a few books that are deemed "classics" such as Treasure Island, Moby Dick, and a few others I can think of, are not hills to die on. 3. Sometimes reading a book out loud to all of your kids together is a solution to the "I don't have time to read this" dilemma. I only have two, but I have found that many truly solid books can reach a wide age range, and it's fine that different kids can get different things from it. We read "To Kill A Mockingbird" together, and my older child picked up on more of the serious themes about the attack than my younger; my younger got a lot out of discussing how the different characters talked and treated each other. I was fine with that. Younger can read the book again when he is older, probably reading it to himself. For that matter, my older one will probably read it again in high school, and get new things from it. Pretty much any level of quality literature can reach different levels for different age readers (and for mature themes, I have found that to be pretty self-regulating; my kids just skip over stuff they don't get yet, and ask about what they are ready to ask about, and end the conversation when they have gotten enough information for now). I only have two; I don't know how helpful any of this is when teaching more.

Although we use primarily History Odyssey, for my 4th grader, I finished up Early American History by setting aside HO for a while and pulling out a Hands of a Child unit study-- and to augment each section, I took out a large number of books from the library (plus the recommended reading from History Odyssey, which is quite good-- he loved the Landmark Book "Ben Franklin of Old Philadelphia"). We have been reading some good books on Wild Bill Hickock, Annie Oakley, Sacagewea, Merriwether Lewes, the Pony Express, we watched "1776" (the old version that we all saw in school) and others. We have drawn maps of the original 13 colonies, looked at what states sprouted from the Louisiana Purchase, traced the routes followed by the Pony Express and the 49'ers. We've looked at timelines to put people and event in context and match them up to events happening in different places around the world (some of the books helped with this too-- "Mom! Ben Franklin met Marie Antoinette! This means the American Revolution must have been in the same time period as . . . " We'll go back to HO to start Modern History soon, but this has been a fun diversion from the usual routine :). And my son does remember things better when he has read them in books and taken his time to connect the events to real people he has gotten to know better through books, so it has been time well spent, even if we are "double-timing" the last part of grammar stage history so that he can start logic stage ancients in what would have corresponded to roughly 5th grade (I don't do grade levels; I am thinking ahead to my planned sequence between here and graduation, but that's harder to explain-- there is a method to my madness).

Thank you for posting this! I love using Mr Q's stuff as "additional reading" for whatever I am teaching my younger son-- it's very readable, funny, and has good information packed into it. Seeing some things for a second time, and presented differently really helps him to retain it.

Maybe instead of short, disconnected Bible verses, he s ready to discuss a short passage-- read it and ask him what he hears. Get out of the Psalms and dig into the prophets some. Be open to him wrestling with the controversial figure that Paul truly is, and don't allow yourself to be frightened or defensive when he questions what he hears. Real faith is not afraid of wrestling with things and asking questions, and if he sees you are comfortable saying, "Yeah, I don't get that either, and I can still be a good Christian while wrestling with that" he will notice it and remember. The most important lesson may be that he is still loved and accepted despite his doubts. IMHO, the stronger Christian is the questioning, open-eyed, honest Christian, rather thn the blindly accepting one who fails to question things that make no sense. Many of our youth are being turned off by being asked to just accept and not question, particularly if we teach them well in logic and critical thinking. Kids are so smart. They know the difference between being asked to just swallow something and being able to discuss and think about it in their own terms... We teach them this in history; why would we not do so in religion? After honest reflection, faith still exists and is central, because it was not threatened at all by open examination.

DS11 has used LoF for math for Fractions, Decimals and Percents, two of the PreA books (Biology and Economics) and is now nearly done with Beginning Algebra. I am pleased with his mastery of the subject, as is my math professor husband, and we have had to do very little teaching with the books. As mentioned in other threads, I do keep copies of Dolciani and Tobey on hand to periodically test his comprehension by making him teach me a section 'cold' (no prep time) or by working extra problems that may be worded differently from Fred (to make sure he isn't locked into just being able to answer "Fred Problems."). So far the indication is that he is achieving excellent mastery by working independently in Fred. It's self-correcting for him; if he reads too fast or fails to take notes, he struggles and has to go read again, a lesson I am thrilled for him to learn now rather than in college! It does take some self discipline, and is not super incremental. It does cover everything in a traditional algebra course, and then some, so exams should be no problem, but if a child's learning style requires very linear, every step spelled out in big neon signs, Fred may not be right; it is good for kids who are very detail oriented readers. My son puts it, "Finally! A math book that treats me as if I have a brain!" (I think he means it doesn't spell out the same steps six times and then have you copy an example problem sixty more times, though the author is sneaky... all the fundamentals and tons of practice are in there, just more creatively). I do recommend the Home Companion books to set a good pace after Algebra, and provide a little more practice. Khan Academy is a great website for as much additional practice as anybody could want, if needed. If Fred doesn't work out, the 1980's editions of Dolciani are very good, and there is a soft bound text by Tobey that has a nice, clean layout and end of chapter tests included.

For 6th and up, our biggest success has been Life of Fred (so far, Fractions through Beginning Algebra). For my son, it's a great fit, teaching him not only math, but how to learn and how to study properly-- if he tries to blitz through it it too fast, he quickly learns that he doesn't get much out of it, but if he slows down and really pays attention to what the author is saying, he gets a tremendous amount of math out of these books. As a means of testing his knowledge, I will sometimes have him teach back to me (without time to study or prep the section) a section from a Dolciani text. The 1960's and 70's texts are "classics" in the sense of being very plain and getting the job done, but the 1980's editions are, quite frankly, a little more pleasant to look at on the page, unless you happen to prefer old-book look and feel. We did dabble with AoPS Pre-Algebra for about the first half of the book, but frankly working that concurrently with Life of Fred PreA was pointless, as there was nothing in there that he had not already thoroughly covered in LoF, and his learning style more closely matched LoF, though he will sometimes log in to Alcumus and do a problem or two. I have read through Saxon 5/6 and 6/7, and it would not suit anyone in my family-- it is too much unnecessary drill, not enough beauty of mathematics, more just a "get'er done" approach for our needs. I am also familiar with Foerster, Jacobs, Tobey, and several other texts. Online, there is the resource Elements of Mathematics, which is a phenomenal resource for the mathematically curious, and we do enjoy that one in our house. Khan academy is also popular here. Looking into the future, we have not ruled out AoPS's Number Theory and Probability books. For Trig/Pre-Calc and Calc, we have Stewart on deck as a very clear, uncluttered book with nice examples, clear explanations, and excellent problem sets. Stewart is used in many universities for math major calculus series.

Absolutely get a real diagnosis and not a mommy dx. What looks like dyslexia might not be anything; it might be dyslexia, or it could be something else entirely. You could waste time and cash on unneeded therapies, on the wrong therapies and interventions, or just not find the ones most applicable to your child. Even in a homeschool setting, our kids deserve to have roadblocks removed or properly adjusted, not just band-aided or incompletely dealt with. And as a PP pointed out, a paper trail of official history is important or later if accommodations are needed in college or for testing services. The Mommy Trail won't cut it.

I would work on spelling at your daughter's level and always try to have her do her best to improve, but not sweat it too much in terms of worrying over the existence of any problems. Spelling and reading are simply not always linked. I have a good friend who graduated near the top of her class from an excellent high school in the 80's, near the top of her class at university, and again near the top of a top-rated law school in D.C. and who now works for a highly regarded law firm. She is very well and widely read in a variety of genres, holds a liberal arts undergrad degree and yet is conversant in the sciences and speaks and reads a Latin-related foreign language fluently. Guess what? She can't spell worth a darn. We grew up together all through school and college. In our school days she hated that she knew she studied for hours for spelling and had to sweat bullets over it, while I never bothered to study and barely did the work and scored the extra-credit. There is clearly nothing wrong with her and it has not impeded her career in the least. I would say treat spelling as not that related to reading, and other than ensuring she works as hard as she is able, don't put more importance on it than it deserves. I may personally be one of those snobs who sometimes judges people who write hand-written letters with words spelled incorrectly as being under-educated, even though I know better (which I know is not reassuring) but the reality is that this is a skill that is rapidly becoming less necessary thanks to computers with increasingly sophisticated grammar and context checking. It isn't perfect yet, but who knows where we will be in another 5-10 years-- and in the long scheme of things, none of us will be perfect in every subject area. If I had to be perfect in Physics in order to be considered a success, my parents and I would be miserable. Fortunately, I did well enough to get by (and my husband has a degree in it, luckily for my boys). It could just be that spelling is an area where your daughter's strengths don't lie, so she will get as good as she's going to get. And that may be okay, once she has done her best.

My boys said . . . boorring.

Christmas Eve and Christmas Day are our "days off" to just enjoy being together and focus on the meaning of the season and being with family-- we minimize extra work. We've been prepping a variety of finger foods to have available for those two days for grazing, including a variety from fruits and vegetables, to crab puffs, wrapped hot dog bites, pumpkin pie, salad, biscuits, and the like. There will be plenty for any who are hungry any time for easy grazing, but nobody needs to miss out on family time by being in the kitchen (we do not have a lot of family coming into town, so there won't be a group to participate together in kitchen prep/clean-up). It works well for us :) My kids are not the type to pass up the fruits and veggies to get sick on candy; they will reach for the cucumbers and grapes just as readily as the chocolate, which helps it work, too.

I am so glad somebody else wondered about that too!! I have no answers, but I did also notice that in the movie and wondered about it.

Wow . . . It may be too early to start discussing any spoilers, but this is the first movie I have attended in ages where I did not hear a peep from the audience, and at the end of a Saturday afternoon matinee in a packed theater, the audience sat in complete silence to watch the credits roll. I do think someone in the producer end of things overrode Spielberg-- it looked to me like the ending had been shot, and then some Hollywood type said, "No no no, we need aplashier ending!" so a different ending was tacked on before the final speech. When you watch I think you'll know what I mean whether you agree with my assessment or not. My only regret is that I do think it will be a few years yet before my guys are going to be capable of sitting through and appreciating this movie-- maybe upper logic state/early rhetoric stage. I was pleased by spending my time watching this one-- I enjoyed Argo, too, but this one was even better, IMHO.

I think Audrey has the "unintended consequences" award locked up. I may have a SOLID bid in for the "What were you thinking, or did you even think, you numbskull???" Award. My brother and his family took a placement of two foster kids. I will avoid repeating their stories here for privacy reasons, but I will say that at 3 and 5, these two had already bounced through too many foster homes to count. When invited to come and meet them, all I knew about little girl 3YO was that she loved pink, Hello Kitty, was very 'girly' and I had about 5 minutes in a discount store to shop. Spotting "the perfect gift for a little girl" I snagged it and hit the checkouts then we headed for my brother's. It would be an understatement to say that the pink "Hello Kitty" child-sized rolling backpack for all her belongings did not go over very well with this child who was accustomed to being told to pack up and go live with a new family every couple of weeks. Full scale panic attack was more like it! I felt like the most insensitive bozo on Earth long after the screams had subsided, but I am sure she felt worse than I did. It is now years later and she has long forgiven Aunt Jen.

I am really glad your issue resolved, but I thought I'd add that I recently switched to ZEP carpet and upholstery cleaner, and it has worked some minor miracles here-- with both vomit and urine.

Forbidden Island is $15. Mexican Train is $17, and it may be easier to understand for the younger ones that Forbidden Island, though FI is cool, because it is cooperative rather than competitive-- in Forbidden Island, you all win together or all lose together. Pit is a blast for families, and educational as well. If you can manage $25, a Kiva Gift Card is an interesting idea, and the kids can all learn about the whole micro-loan process, developing countries, and invest and as the loan is repaid, reinvest over and over again, while learning a tremendous amount about economics.

It depends upon how crazy you go :). We got through a whole kit of about 25 samples on one streak plate with no problem. Then again, they shouldn't be very expensive-- if you are going to go on field trips and collect minerals to test all year and thus need a lot, you can a 10-pack for $12 on Amazon: http://www.amazon.com/Glass-Streak-Plates-10-Pack/dp/B007A4J7VM/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1355963175&sr=8-1&keywords=mineral+streak+plate That should last you quite a while. For more advice on mineral testing, The Happy Scientist (Robert Krampf) has a unit study on Rocks and Minerals that we went through.

I would start with time to just play "making tens." Spill out ten crayons or colored pencils or dice or whatever. How can we divide these up to make ten? (or different numbers less than 10). Hey . . . 1 and 9 group to 10. So do 2 and 8. We can also rearrange them into 3 and 7! Cool . . . If you are not using C-Rods yet (Cuisinare Rods) this is a great time to introduce them. Show her how to solve a few problems with them, then sit back and let her goof around with them, come back and pose a few problems. Put a few up on a white board and let her solve-- make it a puzzle game rather than a math assignment if that works. With enough repetition, some of these facts will sink in through sheer repetition. One of my son's favorite games when he knows we need to drill is the "penny game." I bout several sets of those half-size flash cards (I don't need to get upset if any are lost or misplaced). Write the number sentence on one side, the answer on the other-- traditional flash cards. Set them out in a grid on the floor, gather as many siblings or friends as can helpfully participate as well as yourself. Your child starts-- toss the penny. Whichever number sentence the penny lands on is the question she must answer. Correct answer-- she keeps that card. Wrong answer-- it flips back over and stays on the board. LET HER FLIP THE CARD. It reinforces better if she reveals the answer for herself. Once all players have collected their correct cards and the board is clear, everyone except those trying to learn the facts (often just the one kid) place their cards back into the grid. Repeat -- you may have to start excusing the experienced players one by one-- until your DC has captured all of the cards successfully. It's fun, low-pressure, and allows her to repeat questions until she gets them correct. She can also play it herself, no computer required.

Precisely this. Even when the student is placed at the proper level, containing aspects of grammar he does not yet know, it is possible to fill out the workbook without any understanding-- they are pretty formulaic, and the answers are so predictable the student can score 100% on both workbook pages and tests with zero understanding. This was the case with my son, even though he is a generally attentive student who enjoys being challenged. We also switched to MCT, and he can now take apart any sentence, understand why it works well, or how to improve up on it, name the parts of speech, parts of the sentence, point out poetic devices being used, explain how different types of phrases add or detract from the particular sentence in question, and is starting to employ what he has learned in his own writing-- at long last. As an added bonus, the coordination between the grammar, poetics, and vocabulary is fantastic. We'll be trying the literature component in the spring. DS11 has been using the Magic Lens level 1 (following the GWG experiment), and DS9 has been using Town level (following R&S 3) and both are doing very well with it. I'd put MCT in the "great buy" column. It is very teacher intensive, but I don't regret a moment of my time or money investment in this one.

I agree with the above-- why not keep the outline just for yourself instead of handing it to him, but pick and choose more about what gets done. Add in more books to read, and instead of writing summaries, discuss the people and places and connections with him, and make it conversational. I would ask for some papers if you are in logic stage, and I would still do a timeline-- DS11 hates the timeline, but I have him do it anyway; at this stage, we all have to learn to do some tasks that we find disagreeable, and it doesn't take that long. You could do a century book instead of a literal timeline-- maybe make a one-line note or journal entry for each person or major event that takes place in a particular page for that century as you encounter it, if that works better, but it accomplishes a similar goal. A century book could also double as a short form of notetaking. The nice thing about HO is that it is so very flexible. You can still get what you need to from the course without having to feel that you must follow everything exactly as written. Many of us also add in K12's Human Odyssey text as a different reading source; it is well-written and more engaging than vanLoon in some respects. Using a relief globe (where you can physically feel the mountains) can help with the geography aspect of it. Why some of these trade routes or isolation issues or war campaigns happened the way that they did is much more evident when the reality of the geography is taken into account, and seeing the desert and how high the mountains are in different areas can bring this issue into stark well, relief <grin>. That experience can also make the experience more interactive and lead to better retention, particularly if your son is more visual or kinesthetic learner, which may be the case if he is struggling to retain information by writing down the outlines and notes in the course.

This one is free if you have Amazon Prime: 400 Years of the Telescope (Neil deGrasse Tyson) http://www.amazon.com/400-Years-of-the-Telescope/dp/B004D8WOFO/ref=sr_1_1?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1355840355&sr=1-1&keywords=Tyson%2C+astronomy This one is not free: NOVA: Stars, Supernovas, the Big Bang, and More (old production-- 70's?) http://www.amazon.com/NOVA-Stars-Supernovas-Bang-More/dp/B000HEWH14/ref=sr_1_2?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1355840355&sr=1-2&keywords=Tyson%2C+astronomy Another Neil deGrasse Tyson, this one is from The Teaching Company, but I got the link from Amazon: My Favorite Universe http://www.amazon.com/My-Favorite-Universe-Teaching-Company/dp/1565856635/ref=sr_1_3?s=movies-tv&ie=UTF8&qid=1355840355&sr=1-3&keywords=Tyson%2C+astronomy TTC courses are often above the heads of a 4th grader, but taken in small doses, the video is often spectacular enough to hold their attention, and NdGT (Tyson) is a great speaker-- a lot of kids end up liking him.

If you scribble on a doc in Notability can you erase your scribble to use it again later, or would I need to stash a clean copy elsewhere first?

Now that is a very interesting idea . . .

For anywhere from where they start to comprehend it through whoever is interested (my DS9 and DS11 are currently watching it, though I can see watching it older, or a really fascinated/fixated kid enjoying it a little younger-- the parents to whom this applies will know who they are): Neil deGrasse Tyson's "Origins" DVD is a can't-miss. I am so glad we are watching this after having completed several months of astronomy (2 years ago) a year of chemistry, and our first half year of biology-- we are on the second half of the DVD, "Origins of Life." Young Earthers/No evolution types will probably not appreciate this video. It focuses on the science of the origins on the earth and biochemistry of the origins of life. It also has awesome stuff like caving into sulfur caves in Mexico to find "Snot-tites" and Mythbusters style shooting substances at super high velocity to see what happens. At the ages of my kids, we are breaking up the viewing into shorter chunks-- got the video on Netflix.