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kandty

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Everything posted by kandty

  1. I was feeling the same way! I went ahead and bought ES over the weekend. I have been through the whole teacher manual and it looks good. I am happy with my purchase!
  2. I was very worried about my 4th graders handwriting and was ready to throw in the towel! I got help from another homeschool mom who use to work in public schools. I first learned that my son's writing was not as bad as I thought. I also learned that I was expecting too much! Most boys at this age still struggle. She gave us exercises to improve his hand strength and just said to keep practicing 5 minutes a day. Boys are slower to learn and struggle with fine motor skills. My suggestion is to have someone else look at it and get a second opinion. If he is not forming letters correctly, work on that. Check to make sure pencil grip is correct. Work on strengthing hands too. HWT manuals have great instruction on pencil grip and correcting. Good luck! I am there with you and it is tough. I wouldn't give up unless it causes tears or hardship on your son and I would only take a small break like a week or two. I let my son choose how to write for dication and he always picks to print . . . . his printing has improved! :001_smile:
  3. I was struggling between those two, and I just decided to buy ES yesterday because I just needed to be done with it! I have looked only through the teachers manual so far and I am pleased. OF course it is always different once you start using it. I think both are equally good resources. I really was going to plan my own biology since I have the college classes and lots of resources, but I am not a "hands on" science person and I was overwhelmed with the logic stage and all the experiments. So, we may just use this an a guideline. I will be making my own lessons with my younger son, but will follow ES so that both boys are doing the same thing. I don't plan to do much if any of the human body as my oldest has spent all this year on that. So, we will spend more times studying animals as a week is not enough for us. Long story, but I too hope that we can stick with this choice for the next few years!
  4. HWT is the easiest, but it always depends on the child. A struggling writer needs to use the easiest without all the decorative stuff. So, that is why we use HWT.
  5. I have added our own science to MFW. This year I used CHH with my boys and their recommended science. Next year we are doing CtG in MFW and will be doing biology all year using Elemental Science for my oldest and my youngest will follow the same, but at his level. I did use MFW to find book recommendations and project that went with what we were doing on our other program. I didn't feel like MFW was enough science for us. In CtG will will use their Pyramids and Archimedes and the Door of Science when it comes, but will continue with our biology. Those science lesson sounded like a lot of fun for my boys! In my opinion the science of MFW looks good and fun for the kids, so I would think it would work great for you, but just add more stuff when there is interest. MFW has great book recommendations to go along with their science.
  6. http://www.mathmammoth.com/complete/placement_tests.php Here is the information on their website about placement. I plan to have him take the end of year 3rd grade test first . . . . if needed the end of year 4th grade.
  7. I have a laser printer . . . . maybe I am over thinking the cost of printing it out. I tend to over think everything and that would be why this post was originally posted. :lol: I may just take the plunge today and buy ES! I may need to buy some paper and ink too!
  8. Thanks everyone for the suggestions. Looks like I have some research to do.
  9. I am doing the same, so looking to see if anyone has any suggestions too. We are using Gamma for the second year in a row as we are stuck trying to learning multiplication facts. My youngest is in Alpha and doing fine. I bought MM to see if it would be of any help and because my school budget was at the end and MM was cheaper. I don't know if it is MUS or just he is slow to mature in math. We all like MUS. I think I will still use MUS for my youngest next year, but I will have MM if needed since I bought the whole light blue series. I plan to give the placement test next month and see where we need to start. I think we will do grade 4, but will need to learn basic division first since that is taught in Delta in MUS. I would think we would skip or move fast through some multipication in 4 since he had a better introduction to that in Gamma of MUS. Hopefuly the placement test will see what we need to work on and where to start.
  10. Thank you 5Wizards! ES was my original pick, but I ran across the other one while waiting for ES to be available in print. I need to physically have a book in my hand so I plan to get the actual book instead of the digital copy. While waiting I thought I would try to compare the two.
  11. Thanks Shifra for the book recommendations!
  12. I am in Missouri too and I believe you can request the MAP test from your school district. I can't remember where I got this information, but maybe from FHE. I was able to take my son to our public school and get his reading level tested. It was easy to do, but that might be because I personally know the teacher in charge and a family member works there too.
  13. I just read the WTM two months ago and have been making small changes to our lesson plans this year and making big changes for next school year. I am wanting to put a small lesson on introduction to geography for my first grader next month and was looking for some suggestions of books or what stuff I should teach. I am hoping just to use the books I have on hand or what I can get at the library.
  14. I don't have any of the books used but I have other good resources. I am wondering if I can get by with only buying 1 or 2 of the books.
  15. I am torn between two science programs for next year. Looking for feedback to help in my decision. I am looking at Elemental Science biology for logic stage and ClassiQuest Science logic stage biology. I like them both! ES-I want the print version and it is not out yet (next month?), trouble finding Encyclopedia of Nature, priced higher than CQS (?? not out yet). With CQS the book list is a lot longer and I can't afford to buy all the books, know nothing about the author, but can buy today and is cheaper (unless I get all the books). I really want to finish my planning! Any "last minute" feedback?
  16. Right now I am torn between this one and elemental science for my 5th grader next school year. If anyone finds a bio on the classiquest writer, please post. Not knowing anything about the author is the only thing stopping me from buying it right now. :001_smile:
  17. We are in level 3 with my struggling speller, but will be switching next year as I am not seeing any improvement. My first grader loves the program and we will finish level 1 this school year and will go to level 2 next school year since he is doing great. I love the program as all the work is done for you and you just have to do the lessons with your child. The titles are a lot of work as we have a big magnetic board to keep them on but then we have to find a place to hide it between lessons. My youngest loves the titles, but my oldest doesn't like the titles. I highly recommend the program, but it really depends on your child too.
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