My 7th grader has gotten the catalogue for all of these summer programs he could attend. They are 3 week, live at the college programs. One is at Texas A & M, which isn't too far. I would be more comfortable with that then sending him across the country to Duke. But I digress. He is going to Ethiopia with dh and I this summer, plus is too young in my opinion. But has anyone attended them? They offer things like Algebra I and such. If he did TT Algebra I and II next year, would it be good for him to take the Algebra II course there?? They say not to take something that you already know, but if you are correct and TT isn't enough, would that be a good supplement? It isn intensive. They attend class for 108 contact hours and take a standardized final exam. So would that be a good thing for him to do either after his 8th grade year when he has finished TT Algebra I and II or after 9th grade when he has done a Geometry course? Christine

Thanks, this really makes sense for me. TT explains things so well and my 5th grade boy likes watching my older son and has asked to do TT 7 next year, so I could reuse TT Algebra I and II and get my money's worth out of it. Plus he is sort of ahead. If he finished TT the 1/4 of TT he will have left and then do all of Algebra II, then he will be set for Geometry in 9th and a college level algebra in 10th. Or... what about this. I keep getting these things from Duke showing these math classes in the summer... hmm.. I'm going to do a separate post. Christine

My oldest told my husband that he wants to stay home for high school. So now what would be best... doing TT Algebra I and II next year since this program would be perfect for my non-mathy son. Then go on to Chalkdust geometry? Is their a Chalkdust Algebra II that my son could take after that? Christine

I have only done redesigned year 1, but there are several weeks you could skip or condense if you don't care too much about the Bible stuff. Several weeks in unit 2 and 3 was just light Bible reading and they really wanted you go go into depth into stories my children knew very well. And then do you REALLY need to know all of the different kings, prophets in the 2 kingdoms. That was 3 weeks of in depth charts with information that I didn't think was all that useful. Then I would look at the curriculum and see what your children know well. For example, my children know A LOT about the American Revolution. We read some books a few years ago and they made pages about EVERY battle. We have visited a lot of the major battle sites in person. I gave them the American Revolution PBS SEries as well as the Founding Fathers and Brothers on DVD and they have watched that. We listened to 1776 on a road trip (David McCullough) and they read anything they can get their hands on about that time period. I'm thinking we could just do a cursory review of the major facts in that case. So see what your children know well and just remind them of what they know and go on. Especially since the oldest will be getting American History you could combine weeks and concentrate on world events. Does this make sense? Christine

That isn't what I was saying. I have no idea how people do in the other programs. You just said you had no proof that people in TT did well and mine did. Christine

Well, here is my experience. My son is 7th grade taking TT ALgebra and took the ACT as part of the Duke program and score better than 60 percent of the seniors who took it even though we were only halfway through the program. He really gets it. Christine

I never got a response to this question. Would you use Chalkdust Basic Math or TT7 with an average 6th grader? Christine

I guess my question is how do you know you would be able to sell it before the arm went up?? After seeing my own parents growing up and more people than I can count now getting stuck with houses they cannot sell, I would want something I could afford permenantly. Does that make sense? Even though we knew my dh would finish residency and we would move in 3 years, we still did a traditional mortgage that we knew we could always pay... Does that make any sense? I was scared that yes...we have the 3 percent now but what happens if we are stuck with it in 6 years and it is now 15 percent!!! I would rather just play the flat 5 percent. Christine

Well, Horizons is a lot like Saxon in that it is spiral, but it is much more colorful. My son likes the games and puzzles. However, sometimes he can figure out the answer and doesn't have to do the work.:glare: I wanted spiral because he has always been the one that you teach something to, think he has it and then when you come back to it a month later he has completely forgotten how to do it. So that is why I'm not sure I am completely sold on MUS. I might do that but continue Horizons for the spiral review. There are a couple of things I HATE about Horizons. First of all, it has 180 lessons, 18 tests as well as quarter and semester tests. There is no way for us to EVER finish this in a year. I think 120-140 lessons including tests would be much more reasonable. I hate the varying amount of workload. Some lessons are incredibly easy and take my son 15 minutes. Other lessons would take him 2 hours if I let him do the whole thing. The long division test was a joke. I posted on another board about the fact that it would take him a solid 2 hours to do it (I estimated about how long it would take to do each problem.) We skipped the test. So anyone.. Keys to Fration or Epsilon for this year? Then next year...Chalk Dust or TT7? Christine

I did an American history year using Sonlight core 3 and core 4 when the boys were in 3rd and 5th grade. My 3rd grader typed out his notebook pages just like his brother did. They were not as elaborate, but he did. We travel a ton and so they took some of our old pictures from Fort Clatsop (Lewis and Clark), Plimouth Colony, etc and explained what the pictures were. We took a big trip to Washington DC and Pennsylvania and they made pages about what they had seen. I made a battle page that they filled out by hand for American Revolution and Civil War battles. For copywork/handwriting I had them copy from famous speeches or documents ( Preamble to the Constitution, Give Me Liberty) They also memorized the Gettysburg Address that year and actually recited it at the cemetery on our trip!!! My 3rd grader didn't have any trouble typing his own thoughts or writing them down on paper himself. Christine

There are differences and I think there may be somewhere on their website that tells what they are. Ask on the Sonlight choosing board. I had a used Core 3 and a used Core 4 and they had made several improvements in the newer versions, but not enough for me to pay full price for them:001_smile: Decide what features you must have like my used Core 3 didn't have a map that showed where the things were you were supposed to label. My new Core 5 did. Also with Core 5 I wanted the newest EHE and World Book, but Core 2 doesn't have anything like that. I hope I've helped and not confused you. Christine

I am right there with you. I posted about this very thing not to long agon, but didn't get many responses. I have a very advanced 7th grade boy and a typical 5th grade boy who loves to read and is allergic to math, and a K girl I'm trying to teach how to read. We did TOG redesigned this year and it worked VERY well. But it was trying to keep up with science and math for different grades and phonics for my daughter and speech, etc. Yes, my focus tends to be on my 7th grader as well and then trying to get my K to read and my 5th grader has gotten lost this year. I really need to fix that. Christine

Most of our work is done together in our 30 minute clean-up time. We go room by room and I supervise while they vacuum, dust, whatever. My boys ages 11 and 13 do their own laundry, vacuum, unload dishwasher, clean bathroom, clean their room, wipe walls, etc. I wish it would be done well without my supervision, but it never is. If they do it by themselves, it always has to be redone once I inspect it. Sigh.. My oldest is a great cook as well. His shrimp bisque and cheesburger soup are great and he often makes scrambled eggs for himself for breakfast. He will be fine on his own someday and will make someone a great hubby. Now my middle one...sigh. My dad calls him Pigpen after the character from Charlie Brown. He leave mess in his wake: books, crumbs, etc He wants to cook, but looses concentration and patience with the process and always has me finish wheras I'm not even in the kitchen anymore with my oldest. He does everything himself. My middle one can make corn muffins, however. Christine

Please someone help me decide what to do with math for my middle child: Help me decide what to do for math the rest of the year for my 5th grader and then next year. This week he will be doing his annual standardized testing at a local Christian school. The next week his daddy will be off and we will be on vacation, so I have a couple of weeks to get ready. I need to concentrate on fractions. I noticed Math U See's Epsilon covers fractions. Co-op if over and my responsiblities with children's choir will be over May 4th do I would have the time to concentrate on this with him. Or I could do Key to Fractions. I already have the answer key as I had my oldest do this series with Singapore. I've skanned my Horizons 5 book and what is left: multiplying and diving fractions, ratios(which I "think" he knows), decimals: I know that he can add, subtract and identify them already, but I know we covered multiplying and diving them last year, but I bet he has forgotten what to do with the decimal when you mulitply. I know that I would need to concentrate on the percent as a fraction, percent as a decimal. Once again, there is Math U See Zeta or Keys to Percent that cover this. Temperature and units of measure, which I think he knows, metric which I'm sure he has forgotten, graphs which he knows, and probability. So... do I just drop Horizon where it is and concentrate on fractions and percents? Then change curriculum?? I'm looking at Chalk Dust, possibly as it has a DVD which has a lecturer that is supposed to be interesting. Basic Math??? I need something that is not teacher intensive. TT 7 might also be a possibility. I gave him the placement test for it last year and he could have taken it this year if I had wanted him to. I just need something he can do independently. I do not have the time to teach him myself all year. Christine

Just guess for now, but for April write down where EVERY penny goes. When we were first married, we bought a simple ledger book at Walmart. I wrote down our categories. By groceries, when I went to Winn Dixie I would write down 38.25 when I came home. I still do not carry cash as I learned I don't know where it goes and it is harder to track. Having to write down what you spend as you spend it also helps you to think about if you want to write it down (I spent a dollar for a coke at a vending machine:confused: ) and so you don't spend it. Now I do it on Microsoft Money, but it is a little more complicated now. Writing things down will help A LOT. Make it part of your routine to do every evening or first thing in the morning. Christine

Absolutely true and this is where the church has failed. I know personally that someone at our church's husband had an aneurism (sp?) and was in a coma and died very suddenly and she had no way to pay the mortgage. We anonymously gave some money to help her for a few months. We have a man at our church who knows the pulse of the community and lets us know about needs like this. To me, there isn't enough of this going on in churches. We collect for Annie Armstrong or Lottie Moon, but neglect the people around us.. But that is another topic isn't it.;) But the government is bailing out these banks who chose to make all of these unsafe loans. Christine

Thank you. I will look for it. The cover reminds me of the schoolhouse rock commercials from my childhood! Christine

I was in the middle of posting this when the power went off last night! The files are too big to let me attatch, but I have a check-off list for the morning routine on the fridge. Yet inevitably someone didn't make their bed, or unload the dishwasher or whatever. And I am always saying, do your morning routine when we get up. I also have a two page checklist of things they should get done for school. It never all gets done. Then I have my to do list as well. Part of the problem is that no day is ever the same and emergencies keep popping up...oh, you can fit us in now at the doctor? and so I have trouble actually checking the lists we do have.

Yep, that is what I watched!!! Christine

Oh, yes, I am sure it is. I didn't mean to sound like the teacher's shouldn't use it. As a former English teacher, I have no doubt I would be using it if I were still teaching!!!! It was just amazing to me that kids had access to all of those papers to steal from online. I didn't mean to criticize the teachers!!!:001_huh:

I have made several of the models from this site to go with Ancient History: http://cp.c-ij.com/europe/papercraft/nl/building/index.html I stumbled on this one trying to find the address for that one. Wow!! It looks cool, but I haven't explored it yet. http://www.ss42.com/pt-buildings.html Christine

This is the perfect time to do the bird section. It is only 1/2 the book, so you could JUST do the bird section. That would certainly be doable. You could save the insects , bats and other sections for another time. We have barn swallows that return every year to our back porch as well as cardinals that nest around the house. We enjoyed that!!! Christine

I couldn't sleep one night and watched a special on PBS and it was about technology and high schooler, I think. I was completely floored when I watched it. It was SO incredibly scary. First of all, a lot of the students didn't ever read a book. They just used Sparknotes or other online summary information. The students submitted their papers online and then the teachers submitted them to some site that checked for plagerism from some massive database. All of these students had facebook pages and spent tons of time on the internet. The parents didn't have their password:confused:. I'm sorry, but either you give me the password or you cannot get on!!!! The whole cell phone thing was amazing as well; although I see that a lot where I am as well. Teenagers cannot function without a cell phone in their hands. One thing that made me really scary is how I am going to send my children to college. Somehow I have to expose them to some of these things in a controlled environment so that I can help guide them before they leave for college in a techie world that they have no experience in. Does that make sense? Christine

Out country is in a massive amount of debt...in the trillions, I think. To whom do we owe this money? Other countries?? At what point do the loans get called? Like I said, I never took economics. Last year the children and I read Whatever Happened to Penny Candy and that only confused me more... Christine

It was a pullout program one day a week. It was GREAT!!! If my son could have gone there every day, I would have let him. The had them doing research papers and projects by 2nd grade. They had to do oral reports and lots of critical thinking things, science projects. My oldest did it through 3rd grade until I pulled him out. They taught them how to play chess. One of my favorite things about the program was that all of the work was done IN CLASS. Even the science fair thing they did in 3rd grade. We did help them do the experiment which was plants and watering them with different chemicals to see which grew better. BUT, they had to take the plants, one of those display boards completely blank and then their sheet with their observations. Then they had one day to make it into a science fair display. It was great. The parents could not do it for them!!! Once you get into 6th grade it is honors in the classroom with tons of projects that the parents do. But the elementary program was top notch. He was just bored 4 days a week in the regular classroom. Plus my other son didn't qualify for it. The 1st grade is bigger, but by 2nd grade they pare it down to 20 kids that is it. Only 20 kids can be in this pull-out program in the entire grade. Then they stay together through 5th.