I used E for my older son and will use it for my younger son. I did skip some of the drawing portions with ds because he hated doing them and I didn't think some of them were very beneficial for him at the time (he did E in 3rd grade). I also did Singapore 4A and 4B alongside level E. It provided more practice for him. Then, over the summer, he did Life of Fred Fractions. It all flowed very well together.

For those of you who do use this for older kids, could you give an example of what a week would look like? I'm wondering how it would be different from what I'm doing now.

Lizzie in MA Yes, I would love to see what you've done. Here's my email: karieann67@hotmail.com Thanks!!

I'm doing Truthquest this year with my 2nd and 4th graders. I put together my own plan for the year. It really didn't take that much time to do either. I have the whole year planned and it's working really well. History is pretty much reading, History Pockets, videos, mapwork, more reading, narrations, etc. My kids seem to be enjoying it, too. It's not too overwhelming, but they are learning a lot. Well, as my son approaches 5th grade and we begin Ancient history again, I feel like maybe I should do something different. I'm wondering if just reading out loud history books and having them read different books on subjects (along with some writing and craft projects) might not be enough. I'd really like to hear from those of you who use just TQ for your history and how it is going or how it went in the past. I've looked at TOG and it just seems so much for me right now. I do like all the notes, etc. but I'm afraid it could become too much for me. Any help would be appreciated!!!!

It's not a program many people use or are familiar with. I've used this as my only program for both my boys. They are in 2nd and 4th. The problem I noticed in the past was that they could spell the word correctly on the pretest, but then couldn't spell it correctly in context of a sentence. This program has really helped with that. I give them 20 words each week, and then do 15 dictation sentences over the course of 3 days (5 each day), and then they have the final test on Friday. I use only the word book and dictation book. The dictation book is nice so I don't have to come up with so many sentences on my own. It's not a program like Spelling Power that goes on for a long time. We will finish this up this year with my 4th grader. I add in a lot of personal words, too, so that half his words are from the book, and half come from words he's misspelled in writing, etc. It takes about 5 minutes of my time each day with each child to do this spelling. I also give them their words each week and they have to study them. I don't think they learn their words just by writing them a few times-it takes work to remember some of these words!

I just went from RS E to Singapore 5 with Intensive Practice and Challenging Word problems 3 (had to start back a little-these are hard) with my 9 yo son. I found TT pre-algebra at a curric sale for 15.00 (yes, only 15.00), so I bought it for my son to use during the summer. He would have had to go through the first 10 chapters before he got anything new. At first, he liked the independence, but then he tired of it quickly because the TT Pre-Algebra was too easy! After RS, TT is a piece of cake-too easy IMHO. So, all that to say, I'd jump to Singapore, CLE, or BJU 6. Those are all good programs. I've liked Singapore because it is more similar in style to RS.

No, he didn't copy anything. He just wrote that on his own. I think I'll go ahead and talk with him about capitalization when beginning sentences and see if he can figure out a way to say one of the sentences better.

My 7 yo 2nd grade son just wrote this narration. I thought he did a pretty good job, but of course, there are spelling/grammar errors. Do I just let these go and let him get better at narrating, or should I go over corrections with him? I've written this just as he wrote it Robert E. Lee lived with his family. He went to school. Soon he went to the army. But he didn't have a batle for a long time. Surprisingly he lead a army. the battle was against mexico and the united States. the united states won the batle. He was asked if he would lead the confedreat army, he sade no. then he was asked if would lead the united states and he sade no again. But then Vrginy (Virginia :0) went to the confedreat army. was asked a second to join the confedreat army, he couldn't say no so he sade yes.

:lol:

YES!!! That's it, thanks so much!!

I can't find it in my bookmarks!! Help!!

For history, we'll be starting Ancients back up again. I actually own Ancients TOG, but I'm so overwhelmed by it!!!

We've got our curriculum for this year and that should go well. I'm stressing over what to do for the coming fall. I do this every year-I think too far ahead sometimes. But I'd like to know your schedules. Also, if there is a past link to this subject, please include it. He's in 4th grade now, so I'm looking to 5th grade. I'm trying to decide what to do for writing. We'll finish Writing Tales 2 this year. Also, I'm trying to decide what to do for history. I'm doing my own thing with Truthquest and it's working REALLY well! I don't know if I could do that again next year. I'm not sure if it would be enough work for my 5th grader. Also science-I'm doing Apologia and really like it. Is it okay for 5th grade? For geography, we've done mapwork with history and I've used a book from Sam's club called The Complete Book of Maps for the last few years. We'll finish that this year. Any ideas where to go from here? Is history map work enough? What kind of writing projects do you expect out of your 5th grader? I know this is rambling, so just bear with me! If you have any insight, I'd appreciate it!

I knew I could count on you ladies to help me through this. After reading your responses and taking a step back, I realized that I've never sat down with him and went over this. I'm so thankful for your responses and have printed them out. I talked with my son and told him we were going to start doing a paragraph a week and he wants to do his first one on football. Thanks so much. I have a MUCH clearer picture of what I need to do-not what HE needs to do. Thanks!!!!

We just started Writing Tales 2. I think brainstorming with the bubbles may be a good idea. We've been working on outlining, but he hasn't really used it to write, yet. I'm just as frustrated over this as he is!

My son just started 4th grade and HATES to write. We are doing Writing Tales and he is doing okay with that because he just has to rewrite things and put little creative touches in it. Today, we went to the American Experience exhibit about all the presidents-we are in Denver, so the exhibit is here for the DNC, and I thought I'd have my son do a little research on Lincoln. His ability to write paragraphs is atrocious and I'm not quite sure how to teach him to write these better myself. I had him write a little summary of the exhibit, and here's what he wrote initially: What I learned in my field trip about Ronald Reagan that he was in over fifty films during his lifetime that he loved jelly beans that he fed squirrels in the morning. This was his first "paragraph". He wrote 2 more that were a little better. When I try to point out that you can't use "that" in the way he is trying to use it, he gets all mad and upset. I just think he should be able to write more and much better than this. I'm beginning to think I need to make him start writing some weekly papers like this just to have the practice of learning to write better. BUT....I know it will be a huge fight. So, am I pushing too hard too young??

I posted yesterday about a problem I had with one of the CWP 3 problems, and one of you nice ladies was so kind to help me with it. I also sent it out via my blog this morning to see if any of my other homeschooling friends could figure it out. Here is the actual problem: Sandy has 41 coins fewer than Wendy. If Sandy now has 13 coins more, she will have half as many coins as Wendy. How many coins does Wendy have? Here is one of my friends' responses: Answer: Wendy had to many coins to begin with and should be told that the love of money is the root of all evil. Therefore, Wendy should have ZERO coins to teach her contentment. Any more problems, just ask me......I'm here to help. Thought you might like a little humor with these CWP problems!

Grade 3. I'm so frustrated with these that I'm beginning to feel totally inadequate to teach math. My son is in 5A, but we've gone back to 3 because I can't do them.

I think I figured out the first one. The second one, I'm wondering if the answer in the back of the book is correct. I keep coming up with 54, but the back of the book says 56. If the answer is 56, then I'm really screwed up!

Okay, I'm only in book 3, and I can't figure these out. I'm horrible with word problems and I'm feeling like a total moron with these. Please explain these to me if you can, I'd appreciate it: 1> Laura had 24 clips more than Holly. After she gave 5 clips to Holly, Laura had twice as many clips as Holly. How many clips did Laura have left? 2. Sandy has 41 coins fewer than Wendy. If Sandy now has 13 coins more, she will have half as many coins as Wendy. How many coins does Wendy have?

For the month of October, I need to pick a good book for our book club to read. any suggestions would be GREATLY appreciated. Also, are there any websites out there that you can direct me to that would have suggested discussion questions for these books. What I'm thinking of is having some discussion questions handed out ahead of the time we meet, so while we are reading the book, we can be thinking about the questions. Thanks!!

When I lived in Nebraska, the humidity was so high that the AC stayed on through the night. But now that I live in Colorado, we open up the windows. Sometimes in the summer it gets so cool at night (Denver area) you need a blanket. It's awesome!!

So, on the wii controllers, did you just get a 2nd remote controller like the one that came with the Wii? On the internet, I also saw that there was a "classical" remote-but it appears to be with a cord. ARe the remote controllers better than the controllers that are plugged in?

I just finally bought a Wii for my kids for Christmas. I have some questions about controllers that I need info on. I can't ask them or their friends obviously. With the Wii came a remote controller and a nunchuk. My son has mentioned in the past when playing with the Wii at his friends houses that they needed more than one remote. I see several different types of remotes on Walmart.com and am confused about which ones I need to buy. I wanted to make sure I have at least 2 of which ever controller I need for playing the games. We also have a gamecube. I know you can play those in a Wii, but do we need a new controller for that as well? Any info would be greatly appreciated. I'd hate to have them open this for Christmas and then find out they can't play it until the stores open up. I'd rather get everything waaaayyy in advance! Thanks!!

Yep, starting right about now. I'm a little anxious about it because I've enjoyed the summer being less scheduled!