This. It's really no different from schools being closed on the first day or two of hunting season, in particular regions. It isn't any type of endorsement; it's just facing the reality of high rates of absenteeism. (yes, I grew up in an area where kids routinely brought their hunting rifles to school-- they were just checked in at the school office or left locked up in the pickups in the parking lot. Nobody was ever injured or threatened, and it was not considered any kind of a big deal to bring a gun to school-- you just didn't take it to class, of course :) ).

I grew up in PA; my Mom's relatives were from Iowa and NJ and Dad's were all from PA. On both sides of the family it was assumed that the woman would drop her middle name and take her maiden name as her new middle name. I, however, LOVED my middle name, which was named for my Mom's best friend/college roommate, who also happened to be my Dad's sister :). How could I give up that special tie? Out went the maiden name, and my family remarked quite a while how very "modern" I was. About five years after we married (it has now been a couple of decades) I started to regret the decision-- I wish I had kept BOTH names as middle names, long as my maiden name was, and when I initial things, I do actually use all four initials, and I will sign non-legal documents with all four names. And thanks to Okinawan tradition (the tradition of our martial art, not my genetic heritage, which is European of various flavors) my various martial arts licenses and certificates as a black belt are all and will remain registered in my maiden name only, never in my married name. I will always be "Sensei <maiden name>." I'm glad about that. I'm proud to be married to my husband and to bear his name, but I will always have grown up in my own family, too, and that is not something I should have legally set aside. Just like my Mom followed the tradition of giving my brother HER maiden name as his middle name, I like to see female surnames stay in the family, I don't want my kids or grandkids to not know half of where they came from. Our family is just as important as my husband's family.

Give him the placement/exit tests on the Singapore website. They will tell you quickly if he has them or not. It could be that you started him below his natural level to start with. I would, in your case, at least focus on all of the word problems and the reviews, and be sure you present the lessons in a concrete manner before getting out the textbooks for each lesson. Can he explain the lessons back to you, and articulate how he is accomplishing the mental math? If all that is in place, then let him go at his pace. Some kids are gifted in math, and should not be held back just to satisfy an arbitrary schedule. Some kids write out steps. Others do it mentally/orally. The key is to check the steps; you don't just want correct answers in math-- you want correct logic.

I might pair up MCT Grammar Town, paragraph Town, and Caesar's Englsh. I have a kid with APD and strong visual learning ability who is thriving with MCT and is also a Fred fan. There is some diagramming in the Magic Lens level, but it is much tougher and no storyline. The Latin roots approach to vocabulary in CE will help with a lot os spelling.

I am using SWI-A with DS9. It is pretty open & go.

No major wisdom, since my house will never look like a model home, but the kids do pitch in with basic chores on Wed and Saturday before playing (vacuuming, cleaning bathrooms, strip beds on Saturdays, empty compost, take a turn on dishes beyond just cleaning up after meals, wiping own tables, etc). Daily, they pick up clutter, haul recycling to the garage, scoop kitty litter. As needed they de-stick the yard, weed the garden, and help mow. It's still a pretty light load, but there's time... They're 9 and 11.

APD is not actually an auditory problem, it is a neurological problem of the brain incorrectly filtering and prioritizing input stimuli.it can therefore affect other, seemingly unrelated processes in subtle ways.

See, the below procedure would absolutely creep my son out. He needs to be physically repositioned (and I do care, because he won't even come close to learning the basics without the help, so he can play with the other kids). If he was asked every five minutes, "Can I touch you?" he'd run screaming from the class before it was a third over. I also shudder when I see school districts implementing rules along the lines of "You must request permission before any physical contact with another student." Really? Are we losing that much of our humanity? Physical contact with other humans is pretty much wired into us unless we have suffered a trauma, and is the norm. Getting away from that kind of abnormal indoctrination is one of the reasons I am glad we homeschool.

I do like my eggs and ham, I do like them, Sam-I-Am! I will eat them soft or deviled! I will eat them peeled and beveled! I will eat them whole or cut! I will eat them, eat them up! Sorry, somebody had to do it.

Hugs.

Finally cashed in the coupon a few weeks ago and took a look at them. Completely-- underwhelmed. IMHO, uninspired worksheets you would find as busywork in a public school to keep the kids quiet and occupied with little learning value, just on an ipad. My rating: Don't waste your time, even for free. (and people who have known me for a while on these boards know that I rarely post negatively directly about a curriculum; I usually limit it to why it didn't work for my family specifically, or what I feel may be it's niche market . . . I feel really strongly about this one-- it could be nice for folks who just really love worksheets, or need something to keep littles who want to "do school" busy while working with older kids, if they are willing to turn over an ipad for such a purpose. Many of the worksheets even in the fourth-sixth grade range consist of tracing dotted line answers to questions-- as in the answers are filled in for you and you are just tracing them . . .)

Nathan's

http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2012/10/the-homeschool-diaries/309089/ Nice article-- part of a collection of articles about education in this issue of the "Magazine" section of The Atlantic Monthly online. I really like how he avoids the fallacy that only homeschoolers take their kids on outings, but instead paints a very good picture of what a homeschool family lifestyle can be like. I haven't read the rest of the articles in this section yet, but they look interesting! Off to read more . . .

I think that would be a shame. Unless your gut feelings have been sending you messages, or your kids have been acting "off" after interacting with her, there is no need to be suspicious of every individual who is good at working with kids and works to get them excited about things they are good at. Our instrumental director took us to see Maynard Ferguson and to other places, so we could see the music theory he was teaching us put into action by one of his idols. He gave private lessons at school-- we were in a band room with no windows! But the guy was definitely not a creep. He had other issues, but he was not a creep. He was just a really dedicated musician who was willing to go the extra distance to help inspire talented students. Our school routinely sent an extraordinarily high number of kids to district, regional, and state orchestra and band as a result-- the kids in our school were not pressured; they learned to love music and strive for excellent results by someone who believed kids could do a little more-- and who came with us to concerts and things, to point out aspects of music we might have missed, introduce us to famous musicians, and otherwise make sure it was really enjoyable. I think the message is not "be wary of everyone who tries to help you and your kids." The message is to trust your gut. Pay attention to your kids. Know what is and isn't appropriate behavior (I would have thought it was weird if he had started hosting sleepovers at his house, for example, particularly for individual or pairs of students, as opposed to the entire band-- that would cross a line-- or like Earl Bradley in Delaware, who would take kids off alone "to give them an ice cream" and then was apparently away with them long enough to assault some of them into unconsciousness, resuscitate them, and calm them down enough to return them to unsuspecting parents-- must have been some "ice cream" in the parents' eyes-- I would never let a doctor do that; I would trot along with them!) As yourself what is a sensible and appropriate relationship, and don't go nuts with thinking your kid can't talk to anybody but you. Apparently I used to wander over to the neighbor's house as a toddler and just sit down and tell him EVERYTHING on my mind :) Mom says we were really good buddies for a few years. (what I know now and didn't know then is that he was a retired Methodist minister-- not something that automatically qualifies him as safe, but I bet my little stories were pretty cute after some of the things he heard during his career. What a patient man, though!). I'm so glad she didn't "protect" me by cutting off all contact for me with any adult but her. I had a lot of wonderful adults in my life as I grew up, and my life would have been poorer without them. Keep this in mind as well . . . the overwhelming majority of people are . . . good. Most people you meet are not plotting to harm your children. For me, being vigilant means applying common sense, and not doubting my "radar," but beyond that, not living a life of stress or looking askance at every adult who interacts with my kids. Jerry Sandusky specifically preyed upon kids from stressed families, not kids from families whose parents were communicating well with their kids and doing okay. Life doesn't give guarantees, but it's also too short to live it fearfully.

My boys have loved Little House in the Big Woods and Farmer Boy so far. They're now 9 and 11.

When we redo our kitchen there will be no bumpy tiles and grout. There will be no granite that will absorb spills (even if sealed) if not cleaned up quickly-- not all members of my family are great about mopping things up immediately, and stone will absorb liquids. I probably will do at least one big section as a nice thick butcher block (despite what people think, they sanitize very well). It can be periodically sanded down over and over if it needs a touch-up, and my MIL's, which actually gets used, has been beautiful for decades.

This was an excellent article, and I agree that common sense has to rule the day. What constitutes common sense will vary from parent to parent, but Bill's point is well-taken. Ni have a few good male friends who happen to be gymnastics coaches, because they were gymnasts themselves, they are positive individuals, they are knowlegable about kinesiology and pediatric sports, and they excel at motivating kids, it churns my stomach when I hear snide remarks from others (generally people who have never even met them, but just hear me praise something one of them has accomplished) along the lines of, "Oh come on, do you think there could really be any HEALTHY reason a grown man would hang out with all those little girls?" Ummmm, they're not 'hanging out' and knocking back beers; they're coaching mixed groups of boys and girls, with parents present. Why should boys (or girls) have to learn exclusively from women??? Or maybe only from other kids?

Let him sit on a hippity hop or a therapy ball (small enough to plant his feet on the floor). Set it against a wall or stable piece of furniture so he doesn't topple backwards, and wind a blanket around the base so he doesn't hop away :). Then he can sit and bounce in place while he works (I sometimes set up a TV tray as a desk if he needs to write). Mine is now 9 but has other issues that cause a need to wiggle. We also sit on patio furniture, floor cushions, blankets in the grass... He still knows how to behave as expected in church, Sunday School, at the dinner table, group classes, etc. I wouldn't force him into a seat. Let him think about what you are teaching him and not how uncomfortable he is.

Yes, you can purchase Math Mammoth as workbooks at lulu.com or from Rainbow Resources. And yes, you can skip problems when needed if a concept has been acquired. When I used it for a bit, I found it was flexible; you could cover one idea in a day, or just assign the front and back of one page in a day.

I use the subject... Logic.

This was our first year using MCT, and my younger has some working memory issues. I worried about the short-term, memory dump setup. We jumped in at Town level with DS 8-turned 9 during the six weeks of covering Grammar Town. We did use it 5 days per week. For him, had we just used it one day per week, it would NEVER have stuck. Not in a million years. One short lesson per day, maybe 5-12 minutes, each day. The next week was science/math week, then the following week we'd review for 1-2 minutes and be off and running again. Six language weeks, and we were ready to start Practice Town. Sometimes, he doesn't get it all right. That's okay! That is what practice is for, and that is why there are 100 sentences to work with. We do 1 sentence per day, 5 days per week, every other week. He writes down his best guess at everything, then we sit down and discuss it together. Anything that he missed-- either wrong or just skipped-- I either gently correct, or ask him a probing question to get him to figure it out. "Okay, if that is an AVP, what do you need to check for? A DO or an SC? A DO, great! Do we have a DO? Yes we do, great! Do you see it? That's right! SO, if we have an AVP and a DO, sometimes there is something else found in between them, what is that? Right, an IO! We don't always find one, but let's look; do you see one? No? Okay, that's correct. So we have a Subject, and AVP, and a DO!" As we have done more and more of these, he has gotten better at them and requires less prompting. The two hardest things are the AVP/LVP distinction, and spotting less common prepositions (I don't know if Island level addresses prepositions, but there are buckets of them in Town level). However, as we reinforce these concepts each day, he gets better each time and can explain it back to me more articulately now than at the beginning, so I do believe we will get there presently. I see it kind of a similar way to how SWB presents the way she gives dictation to her kids; she doesn't really expect perfection right out of the cage; there is an expectation that there will be a need to guide and gently correct as she goes with them. If they could already nail it, there would not be a need for 36 weeks of practice on it! Hope that provides some food for thought. That approach seems to be working here.

So They're copying Singapore (making tens)? Though Singapore both estimates and makes tens. Both are quite useful. I teach my kids to do a quick estimate as a means to spot-check that their answers are at least in the ballpark, or for out in the world when the need a ballpark number quickly. Estimation can be quite useful. I started reading the Common Core standards for "social studies/history" and I wanted to cry (not in a good way) because it jumps around so much and so illogically within each year. But that's a different thread. Such a nice idea, theoretically, but....

LOL Hey, careful there, Tara!! We've been in agreement by and large up until that last statement!! :lol: I actually looked at Oberlin, when I was strongly considering a music major. It is a nice place. I still liked Penn State better in the long run. Like math programs though, it's nice we all have choices and different choices work for different folks <grin>. Again, I think my earlier remarks were misconstrued (how unusual, on a message board, when people seem like they are in need of a time out and nobody can hear any tone of voice except their own, which they interject when they read the words of others . . . ). When people (myself included) say they don't see anything special about the ivies, we speak for ourselves, not how we think other people need to feel. I don't purchase $200 designer jeans, as I feel they would be a waste of my money. I don't look down on people who do choose them, because what other people want to do with their fashion choices and disposable income is their own business-- as long as you don't tell me what to wear, I won't tell you what to wear either, KWIM? And if you won't hire me because my jeans aren't expensive enough, I probably wouldn't enjoy working for you, because I think that what I can do is more important than what covers my butt. The same thing goes for colleges. It's what's in your head, not what ink is on your diploma that matters, and going to an Ivy simply is not superior to going to a solid state school in that sense. For some people, that "name brand" is just as important as having an alligator on your shirt was in middle school, and that's cool, if that's something that they need to have. In the end, the student at Penn State and the person at Stanford will both get a great education. Now, I'd say I'm ready for some bean dip, but I don't think it goes well with chai ;). It's late, this conversation has long outlived its usefulness, and it's time for me to curl up out on the porch with a book, some tea, and some peace and quiet before heading off to sleep! Tomorrow is a new, and hopefully much less silly day.

The order of topics presented is different between the two series, and there are a few additional topics in Standards as well, though nothing earth-shattering.

I'm not sure where the sour grapes come in? My experience with knowing that kids are coming in with high scores but ending up in remedial math comes from not only tutoring kids, but from my husband's colleagues (some of whom are at the Ivies, with whom we chat when they come and stay with us) in mathematics departments around the country. These are people from top schools in most cases, not "no name schools." If you have not yet watched the movie "Race to Nowhere," put it on your list. Listen to kids who crammed for AP tests and got nothing from the courses, but got top scores and expected to get into top tier schools to please their parents. As I have said before many times, there is no "one size fits all" solution-- but that includes the idea of acceleration as well as the notion of holding them back. It makes me sad to see kids pushed forward just for a transcript and then see the education shortchanged in exchange. Yes, a kid who is ready for acceleration should be fed anything they are hungry for! But one who is not solid and ready should not be rushed just because Mom has application anxiety.