WOW! I this is really in line with my homeschool philosophy. Too bad they only have 1st grade. :glare:

I started out with A Beka myself and just ditched A Beka math for both dd9 and dd7 3 months ago. My oldest girl did fine with A Beka most of the time. We used the speed drills (some days) but we NEVER timed them. She would get too stressed out. Although when we got to 3rd grade it became non-visual and all numbers. BORING! My oldest and I are very visual and really need them (and manipulatives) to get the concept. Thanks to the ladies here on the boards (and their suggestions) we have moved on to CLE Math. It's taken a little while to get used to but I prefer it tons more than A Beka. Of course, I've had to bridge the gaps between the two curricula but other than that, she is excelling. My advice: I'd give it a couple more weeks (more or less) and continue to see if your girls will continue to reject the A Beka method. I would ditch the speed drills altogether or just not time them if you think the girls need the extra practice. If you think A Beka is beginning to send you in a spiral of mathematical doom then I would suggest studying your girls to find out their learning styles and choose curriculum according to that. During this time of limbo you can use that time to play math games and read plenty of living math books. This will also give you the needed time to decide their learning styles and find curricula to match. Most companies have placement tests in order to place them on the correct level and there are plenty of reviews for just about every math program available to homeschoolers.

Scholastic is having their dollar deals sale again!! This time it's only for three days. Please come back and post what you bought. :) http://teacherexpress.scholastic.com/dollardeals?dir=asc&order=position

That's a great idea!! We just started with CLE and with my dd9 uses CLE 300. Depending on her strengths and weaknesses I change the time limit. Addition- 2 minutes Subtraction- 3 minutes (and still scores the worst of the 3 operations) Multiplication- 2 minutes For now we are having success with the speed drills. She may not have time to answer all the questions but most of the time they are all correct and I think that is the greatest reward. I'll change the time limits as her skills improve but for now, it works for us.

The Ordinary Princess is a wonderful book about a princess who was destined to be as beautiful as her 7 older sisters but a fairy (with a sense of humor) gives her the gift of being ORDINARY, much to her parent's dismay. She no longer has blonde hair and blue eyes and perfectly content baby but now a brown hair and eyes and a fussy baby. She is almost tomboyish and very witty. I will caution that she runs away but for good reason. You will want to read it yourself before reading it to your girls. Most libraries carry a copy of this almost unknown modern fairy tale. I enjoyed this book even as an adult. :lol: http://www.amazon.com/The-Ordinary-Princess-M-Kaye/dp/0142300853/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1378139054&sr=8-1&keywords=the+ordinary+princess

We also use CLE Math and using colored (erasable) pencils to work the problems and stickers to decorate definitely helps with the lack of "pretty".

I just bought it! Looking forward to using it. Thanks for the post!!

We are currently reading Stuart Little. I can't believe I've never read this as a child and never read it to them before this. Next, my dd7 wants me to read SOCKS by Beverly Lewis. Honestly, I'm not really excited about the book but it's her turn.

I have a lifetime membership to NotebookingPages.com which gives me access to the Notebooking Publisher which is awesome. I create copywork pages more than anything and now it's made more user friendly for those who create their own notebooking pages. I create Notebooking pages for our bible lessons, Fiar, reading, science, whatever. It was certainly worth the money and now I won't have to worry about come August and membership being due again and having to use my homeschool budget. My More Starfall membership just lapsed but it was worth the $35.00 a year. My kids are a little too old for the site now but the math section is fantastic. When my 2-year-old is older, I will once again buy the membership. When they are allowed to play on the computer, I only allow them to visit 3 approved sites and Starfall is one of them if they are ages 4-8. The math games were my personal favorite but they always seemed to like other areas of the site. Oh well, I more than got my money's worth out of that deal. I've always wondered if Spelling City was worth the money and at present we only use the free parts of the site.

My dd6 (almost 7) doesn't like the cutesy graphics and colorful look of A Beka Arithmetic. She says that "it's for babies". It's a struggle to get her to do her work because she thinks I am belittling her with the A Beka math workbook even though I've assured her that her big sis also worked through the same workbook at the same age. Oh well, I've been thinking about switching math curriculum anyway. We're going to CLE math. It's still a more traditional math with a spiral approach so it won't be a huge change. The workbooks are printed in only 2-3 colors (I think that's right) and the pages aren't so crowded. Not a lot of white space but no "babyish" illustrations and graphics.

I am a big believer in living math and I have lots of hands-on math activity books in my personal library. Most people who are big advocates of living math praise the Family Math books to the sky. Well, I'm not one of them. I've used it and we've enjoyed some of the activities from the books but I have some issues with it. #1: I'm VERY visual and there seems to be little to no visual on how to do some of the activities. I can't just IMAGINE what you're describing to be an appropriate hands-on math activity for the concept that needs more review. I need to SEE it. Which, IMO, is the biggest strike against the book. Family Math 2 is much more visual than the original. #2: It's not neatly organized. I can't describe how it's disorganized, it's just weird. #3: Agreeing with daijobu on this one. It's all over the place #4: Some of the activities are just lame. There are other hands-on math activities that seem to do a better job and THEY GET DONE.....at least in my house. Hands on Math- Grades K-1 Hands on Math- Grades 2-3 - there is also a book for grades 4-5 but I don't own it YET. Meeting Math Standards with Favorite Picture Books Teaching Math with Favorite Picture Books Teaching Early Math Skills with Favorite Picture Books Loving Living Math ebook -- Great introduction into living math Our Journey Westward blog has great living math ideas from the author of Loving Living Math You can also check out my Living Math Pinterest board We only have lessons on Mondays-Thursdays. At this time we are only have 3 days of formal math lessons and one day of living math. I tried to do the same activity with both of my dc but that never works out so I have a living math lesson with dd6 on Tuesdays and dd9 has her LM lesson on Thursdays. I basically plan around a concept they are currently working on or having trouble or just something that I think they might enjoy. Other times it's just a gentle way to introduce a new concept without it being so formal. We have a graphing paper type notebook for math and they record what they have learned or activity answers in their notebook.

It's a multi-age unit study centered around a particular nature topic. It covers all subjects and includes a fantastic book list and notebooking pages. She also has a Pinterest board dedicated to every unit. Currclick also sells Nature Explorers and has more sample pages.

I haven't used this particular unit but I love Nature Explorer series Shining Dawn Books

YES!!! I found with the Red that cutting everything out and having them labeled in craft baggies before the new school week starts is a HUGE time saver.

This is one of the reasons why I LOVE LLATL. It is written for kids to understand. When you involve lots of rules that include all the language arts jargon.... it makes MY head hurt. :cursing: adjectives, nouns, verbs, root words, suffix, adverbs, etc. Um, I don't know about you but my kids are looking at me like I'm speaking another language. For kids under 5th grade.... I'm not concerned with them knowing the proper names of dissecting the english language. Moving on..... The below list is based only on using LLATL YELLOW: Things I love about LLATL Copywork Lessons involving good literature and using the week's literature passage Some weeks have a fun activity or project (not every week, thank God) Easy, gentle lessons All-in-one program Builds a loving appreciation for good literature Gently improves creative writing Doesn't use Language arts jargon in red and yellow (don't know about higher levels) Large print Student Activity books and gives plenty of room for unskilled writers Things I dislike about LLATl Needs a little more review on concepts Need to add your own extra reading.... not really a dislike since mine love to read and there are TONS of reading lists online Not every week has a spelling lesson.... also not a big deal since my dd is a natural speller ETA: My dd6 that is using LLATL RED says she now loves her school work. We used A Beka in the past and it KILLED any love for learning that she had. LLATL Red was a life saver in our house. No more fighting with her over school work. Math is a different story though.

I am only using LLATL Yellow with dd9 and LLATL Red with dd6. The Yellow book involves some "Discussion with Teacher" sections throughout the book and if I had to estimate the time it takes, I would say (on average) Independent Time: 10 minutes Teacher Directed time: 5-15 minutes. On Day 1 mostly all they do is copy the literature passage, copy the spelling words and doing a spelling activity but not every week. Some activities involve more time and a little more hand-holding than others. For example: We are are on Lesson (week) 24 and on Day 4 they have to re-read the literature passage for the week and learn about adjectives. Then write 3 or more things that God created that they love and then make a new verse (like a second verse for the literature passage) using 3 of the things that they named. It did take a little hand-holding for my dd because she needs a lot of guidance when it comes to "creative writing", It's not every day that mom is needed for the lesson. A quick read through the lesson before starting is a must. I have never used LLATL Blue but I've been told that it is all teacher directed since they are learning to read at this point.

We love FIAR and Using Caldecott Books Across the Curriculum but I also want to throw another suggestion out here, Creating Curriculum Using Children's Picture Books I would recommend it for PreK-2nd grade and most books can be found at the library.

This is exactly what I was going to suggest. Buy Volumes 1 and/or 2 used and borrow the books from the library. Easy-Peasy and affordable. This is a special time with her and you'll want to cherish it and FIAR really offers opportunities to make some wonderful memories. Where to buy new: http://www.rainbowresource.com/searchspring.php?q=five+in+a+row Where to read more about the program: http://fiveinarow.com/ and they have a fantastic forum to help you get started.

The copywork and penmanship books from LightHome Publications are great and they have a large variety for all skill levels. http://www.currclick.com/index.php?manufacturers_id=134 This year my soon to be 2nd grader will be using: A-Z Crawly Critters Cursive BUT if she were still writing in manuscript I would use: Animals We Know and Love Manuscript My kids love the original poems they copy plus the artwork and coloring pages that decorate the pages. I assign it 2-3 times a week depending on the child and any other copywork that is already scheduled in other subjects.

Math: CLE Math 400 series (maybe, I'm not 100%) and Living Math LA: LLATL Orange and Living Literature Grammar and Language Arts Packets Copyork: A Celebration of Christian Character and copywork pages taken from her reading made on the Notebooking Publisher His/Geo: Finish Expedition Earth by COAH Science: NOEO Biology Level 1 Art: Our own mix of art books like: Discovering Artists, Usborne Art Treasury and Drawing with Children or may use Harmony Fine Arts Grade 1 instead. Bible: Foundations 1 Bible Study When we are bored with the above: FIAR Volume 4 -might only use one book every 6-8 weeks: Sewing: Stitches and Pins Beginner Book Piano: Up in the air as far as curriculum but we will start lessons at home Plus: extra reading and read alouds from the library

I have avoided posting on this thread because I haven't fully finalized plans yet but now I have MOST of it outlined. Math: After we finish A Beka Arithmetic 3 we will start CLE Math 400 series (maybe, I'm not 100%) and Living Math LA: LLATL Orange and Living Literature Grammar and Language Arts Packets Copyork: A Celebration of Christian Character and copywork pages taken from her reading made on the Notebooking Publisher His/Geo: Finish Expedition Earth by COAH Science: NOEO Biology Level 1 Art: Our own mix of art books like: Discovering Artists, Usborne Art Treasury and Drawing with Children or we may use Harmony Fine Arts Grade 1 instead. Bible: Foundations 1 Bible Study When we are bored with the above: FIAR Volume 4 -might only use one book every 6-8 weeks: Sewing: Stitches and Pins Beginner Book Piano: Up in the air as far as curriculum but we will start lessons at home Plus: extra reading and read alouds from the library

I found these coloring pages on Pinterest for early american history. http://www.patrioticcoloringpages.com/american-history/

This set of Notebook Pages is a set I bought instead of buying the set from MFW. I bought all my books used and didn't have the student sheet so this set weas a great replacement. It even has the bible memory verse copywork that goes along with MFW Adventures. http://www.currclick.com/product/30950/Early-American-History-Notebooking-Pages-for-Adventures-in-MFW?term=early+american+note&it=1

We haven't used this for long but the Foundations Bible Study series sold on Currclick have been a big hit with us. Foundations 1 There are 3 levels and they are on sale this week!!

Can your provide a link for this?