I'm feeling a bit lost with this thread, when I was in school 6th grade was pre-algebra, I was looking at a charter school for 6th next year for my dd and they also list pre-algebra as standard 6th grade math (k12.com school) and based on where she's at with math she should be ready for the class come fall. Am I looking at radically different education standards? I didn't make it to the pre-alg class until I think 8th and was considered one of the dumb kids because that was taught back in 6th and that was in a public school. Doesn't math look like this when a kid is on track? 6th:pre-alg 7th: alg 1 8th:Geometry 9th:alg 2 10th:pre calc/trig 11th:calc 12:depended on where you where in math, usually it was calc for seniors who failed an earlier class and were behind. Thats what the line up was when I was in school, I didn't think it had changed all that much and was what I expect from my own kids. Do I need to readjust that view? dd seems to be doing just fine on the track she's on and it doesn't seem like I'm expecting to much from her.

What is G3?

While I like Discovery Streaming it is not worth the price imo. I'd happily pay say $70 a year or something but not more then that. We have had access over the years and the vids are poor quality and you really need to watch them in the small window to get decent quality, I haven't seen anything in HD. Many of the vids are more old school type stuff and don't really hold the kids attention. Think back to those boring vids we watched in school, same stuff. I have used it on occasion for specific things like magic school bus episodes but general ed stuff? Its not worth it.

Its pricey but http://www.readingplus.com does all that. I've been happy with it, dd 11 gained 2 years in reading in 3 months using it.

Anyone else try it?

I was digging around for info on k12 and how are you guys bypassing math+ and using other materials? We did CAVA 1-4th grade and I hated the old math, dd liked the new math because of the games but it took tons longer and often told you the answer was wrong even when it was right. I have her doing Teaching Textbooks right now and its been wonderful but I would like to try K12 for the science, history and possibly LA and our charter will pay for it but it would eat up a large portion of our funds. Just wondering how to tweak CAVA to work better for us then it did before but I don't want to have to do what I was doing before which was I ended up using it as a guide and had to hunt down materials to teach her the concepts because she didn't "get it" but we had some other major issues going on so that could have been the problem (serious working memory and processing speed issues that turned out to be medically caused and very curable but we didn't find that out until months after leaving CAVA)

We've had this issue, I just touch my dd on the shoulder to get her attention, make sure she's looking at me, then ask her again. The reason I wait until she's looking at me is if anything else is distracting her she will not hear what I have to say. She can not split her attention at all and when when the environment is noisy its hard for her to track conversations.

Try "ABC4EGGS" lots of free 5 week codes floating around on google:)

Reading Eggs came out with something for the older kids in the 7-13 range. Anyone have any feedback on it? I just signed my 11 yr old up for it with a 5 week free trial but this is an area she struggles in.

I'm starting to think about next year and while I'm ok with what were doing now I think dd's getting to the age where its time to start buckling down on things like science and history for which she hasn't had much since were kinda starting from scratch this year and have been working on the LA stuff this year. I love supercharged science but I can't get her to read the text to understand the science behind the experiments so I figured were gonna nix it for now. (she HATES to read, working on that now after finding out about visual processing issues). History has just been netflix on occasion but I want something a little more organized then random vids. Any URL's where someone has already mapped out history/science via netflix/hulu/PBS and the like? or DVD series I can order? Not sure where to go on that. Were in CA with a charter so state standards matter, not even sure what 6th is supposed to learn at this point. Teaching Textbooks has been wonderful so will stick with that, will start TT 7 in about 2 months. LA, no clue, T4W was a bust, hoping to try BraveWriter Kids Write Basic this semester. Need to see if we have enough funds left. Needs a lot of improvement in this area. Not a clue about 6th grade. We only have $800 semester and it sounds lazy but all subjects must be outsourced, dd does not accept me as a teacher and life is a lot more peaceful when I outsource lol:) She also learns a heck of a lot better but that $800 doesn't go far when things like BraveWriter cost $199 for 6 weeks. She reads on grade level but working on comp issues. Just a thought, but is anyone aware of a blog for teaching VSL kids that lays it out? I mean literally, history week 1 watch X vid titles, ask these questions. I loved K12 for that simplicity but I need a video version lol.

Beth, How did it go with Wilostar? I just found out about it and it sounds like something my dd would be interested in. Is it worth the tuition?

I'd be in tears too working out 20 of the same problems if I was struggling with it. If this is the norm with this program for her its past time to switch. We use TT and I LOVE IT. People may complain its too easy but 2 things could be happening, they are buying the wrong level. TT is about a year behind so for a grade level 5th grader you'd want TT6 but use the placement tests to be sure. The 2nd thing that could be happening is, the program makes math easy to understand so the kid flies though it and the parents think its not challenging the kid, math doesn't need to be hard if its taught in a way the child understands. You might find this thread helpful if your worried about your child testing behind if thats an issue (it is for us)

I 2nd this, my 11 yr old loves it. It has over 700 science projects to choose from.

You know, I was that kid too. Last week I actually apologized to my mother for being such a horrid kid. Her responce? Payback is a b**** ain't it? She's still ticked and I'm 35 now! I didn't learn to channel it until well into college. Anyway, you make some good points. She may be 11 but I still think of her as 7-8 and stuck with the attitude of a 3 year old and I'm used to treating her that way because she acts it. This morning it took an HOUR to get her to put away her laundry and a lot of yelling on her part that she was entitled to breakfast FIRST BEFORE CHORES (this was literally a 2 minute job). I'd explained it multiple times she needed to get it done first. Finally I told her point blank "No food until your laundry is done period". She ended up doing it but its frustrating. Guess I should do some reading on the logic stage huh? I honestly forget she's 11, I feel like I am seriously screwing up here:(

I can't, I have no one to leave the little one with and it will just teach her that this behavior gets fun time. We do have a timeline, she's enrolled in a charter so the work must be done period. The work is 3 grades below level because she played fill in the bubble and the computer thinks she can't do it and keeps lowering the level. When I started sitting with her it started bringing up the level but then I make the mistake of letting her work independently for even a few minutes (bathroom, important phone call what ever) and thats all it takes for the program to assume the work is to difficult because of wrong answers. She acts like a teen with severe PMS, if it wasn't for the fact she's just started developing I would wonder if she was about to get her period.

I don't give her the option to do it Saturday, she's never held out this long. Usually she fights a couple hours at most then does it. I don't know whats gotten into her this week but she's the one who dug the hole of "Saturday". She doesn't have a living father so its just me. I wish I could hand it off to someone else.

My 11 yr old 5th grader has refused to do her school work (and chores) all week. I have the rule that if you refuse to do your work you stay in your room with no electronics. She stayed barricaded in her room for 4 days, literally. She came out to eat and use the bathroom. Heaven only knows what she was doing in there since she kept barricading the door to keep her little sister out. (debating if I need to remove the door for that stunt since its a safety issue) Anyway, she would just tell me "I'll just make it up on Saturday." Well, its Saturday... its been a VERY unpleasant week with her. Today I am a horrible mean mom because her friends want to play and I said NO, you have ALL that school work to do. One of the subjects is timed, its 45 minutes per session and something she really needs to work on. If she gets poor scores she gets to do it AGAIN since I know its due to the fact she wasn't paying attention, not that she can't do it. She missed all week so she has 5 sessions to make up. I did one with her this morning and she did poorly as she was busy not paying attention to the screen. (I had to repeatedly correct her and take away toys she kept pulling from from heaven knows where) So she still has 5 sessions to make up as I don't accept substandard work and she knows this. Am I being unreasonable in grounding her until the work is completed and properly? She has messed up my plans for this entire week due her behavior and now I get to spend the day doing her work with her as she has shown repeatedly that she can't work without me by her side. I think she must REALLY ENJOY my company as when she is forced to give me the verbal answer and I click the mouse to answer for her she gets it right 90%+ of the time but on her own we see scores of 30-50%. She blows off her work and just plays "fill in the bubble" and doesn't even read it. Therefore I have to sit with her and today I do not have time to do it. Frankly I think she should just be grounded until I do have time to sit with her and do it. Which I don't really have time to do today or tomorrow for that matter. However punishing her punishes the rest of the house:( I am feeling really frustrated and angry with her behavior right now. She's been doing so well until this past week and has just gone off the deep end in poor behavior choices:(

Thank you!:)

I am going to pull my hair out. I never learned this in school and I am just not grasping it. Where the heck are the verbs? It says there are 15 verbs, they can be Action Verbs, Helping Verbs, Linking Verbs. Kelly is having a boring day. She sits and sulks all day long. Her brother ran into her room. He asked an excellent question. They open the front door and walk out. The weather is gorgeous. Her brother climbs up the tree. She was too scared to climb. They decided to throw the ball. Kelly and her brother have a great day outside.

Actually your dead wrong:) http://www.superchargedscience.com is AWESOME and FUN and kicks butt on every other program out there. Best of all, you basically hand the computer over to the kids and let them have at it. They do the experiment first then learn the science behind it which really gets the kids wanting to learn the "why" of how it happens:)

Dreambox.com does. Covers grades k-3:)

Thats it! Thank you:) The link is http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/projects/mep/default.htm

I know there is a full online program from the UK (I think) that people seem to love. Anyone have a link for it? It was all print outs with the first few pages being color with the rest black and white. Ring any bells?

I tried logging in and it didn't work. I busted up laughing at Tim's voice, I can deal with the British accent but the high pitch? I keep waiting for the flamboyant behavior to start lol.

Did they end up in PI status? That could have triggered it. I know CAVA did and the changes as a result were nuts. I was happy to leave.