Well, he SAYS he does, but clearly he doesn't. ;) I guess I should continue handing it back until it is all corrected, rather than doing the proofreading for him...

Hmm...I like that! The chocolate chip and notebook ideas just might work! Thank you!!

My fifth grader is driving me batty. He has always been somewhat careless in his work, but this year it seems to be in every subject. Simple things that I KNOW he knows, he will miss. For example in math today, he was doing two and three step word problems with decimals. He knew what to do and when to do it, but made a simple addition error (7+5). In another problem, once again he had the steps down, but made a simple subtraction error. Another problem, he was telling me the step that he was going to do next: "Ok Mom, now I need to subtract, " then he proceeded to add the numbers. Ahh!!! He ended up missing almost every problem and it was ALL careless errors. This happens in his writing as well. He will spell a word two different ways in the same paragraph. I'll point it out and his response is "oops!" and he'll correct it. So if he CAN spell it right, why didn't he just think a little bit and write it correctly the first time?! He almost never remembers end punctuation for a sentence, yet can always tell you the correct one. I've tried making him correct every single error, assigning him extra work for carelessness, rewarding him by decreasing his workload for careful work, giving grades for each assignment.....nothing seems to work. I am at my wits end. Someone please give me some advice!! :willy_nilly:

Still more planning to do but I'm thinking: MATH: MM4 and CWP Maybe RS E since I have it, but RS has been too easy for him this year. GRAMMAR: R&S 4 SPELLING: AAS 5 WRITING: CW Aesop B LITERATURE: List I picked (AO yr 4 plus others), or Sonlight if I go w/ that HISTORY: Modern times...might use Sonlight E....or VP....or AO yr5 GEOGRAPHY: A Child's Geography: Explore His Earth SCIENCE: Apologia Zoo 3 and something else to fill up the rest of the year LATIN: ? LOGIC: Mindbenders ART: ? MUSIC? Plus we use quite a bit of Ambleside Online (poetry selections, artist/composer studies, folksongs, hymns, a lot of the literature, geography etc.) Some of this I try to combine my two boys in so some is yr. 4 and some is yr 5 with his older brother.

Well, just FYI, some of us on pinterest pretty much only pin things, LOL! I have a zillion pins, but have never once taken a picture of anything I've made. Which is probably b/c I pin things....I don't make them. I love pinterest but it is just a time waster for me. Kind of like watching tv. I have made a few things...mainly recipes. And usually only the recipes that start with something like "The Lazy Mom's way to make____" ;) Some people SEEM to do it all, but I think very few people can do everything, all the time, and be pleasant doing it.

How to train your dragon series and Encyclopedia Brown were big hits in trying to get them interested in reading here

Honestly I usually find our school chairs and desks at places like the thrift stores and garage sales. Also free cycle or Craig's list. I've gotten some really nice ones and have never spent more than ten bucks.

That looks good too! Maybe I'll grab one for now and one for summer break...

Thank you!!! Exactly what I was looking for!

At that age I read from the Golden Children's Bible (beautiful realistic pictures and it includes pretty much every bible story that is appropriate for little kids.) I would also (at night) use Leading Little Ones to God. We had the Beginner's Bible that they would read out loud to me during school time when they were at a 1st/2nd grade reading level. After that, we moved into reading the actual bible itself using the Penny Gardner lists. Penny Gardner site ( Old Test and New Test ) has lists that exclude things that might not be appropriate for little kids, either because it is too confusing or if it's adult content. By middle school, we use the entire bible. Kay Arthur also has studies that I like on specific books of the bible. Apologia has a great "worldview" program that I'm using w/ my 5th and 3rd graders this year.

I like the math we're using, but it is a mastery program and my 5th grade ds could benefit from a gentle daily review. I'm looking for something quick (~5 min. or so) per day where they would have for example: 1 long division problem, 1 multidigit subtraction problem, 1 problem w/ fractions etc. He doesn't need timed tests/math facts review like calculadders. Just the concepts.

Thank you! These were the type of books I was needing. :)

Thanks. I think we'll start trying to work more quickly through the steps and not worry quite so much about the sound cards. :)

I have AAS 1-6 for my older ds who is NOT a natural speller and it has been wonderful. However my younger ds is a very good speller and is getting very frustrated with AAS. He says the words are "baby words" that he knew in 1st grade. (He's in book 4.) He usually knows the words each week without any practice. In fact my 5th grader often asks him for spelling help. The funny thing is that the sound are incredibly hard for him, so I haven't tried just flying through the levels b/c I was trying to have him learn those cards... Should I just keep at AAS and try it at a faster pace? Should I not worry if he can't get the sound cards as long as he's spelling the words fine? (I never learned sound cards and survived, after all.) ;) I have a copy of Spelling Power, How to Teach Spelling and the McGuffey speller, and I'm wondering if I should try something else with him.

I agree with the above. I also found the TM helpful with the diagramming since I never learned that in school.

Is there anything out there for practicing these daily or a couple of times a week, but without being a full grammar prog.? We use Rod and Staff and I want to stay with it, but my ds did not score well on his standardized tests in either of these areas. I know there are different things like "Editor in Chief" at Rainbow Res. Would this be what I'm needing or something else?

Can you recommed anything for writing to make sure they are ready? I was looking to use Omnibus in the future but writing is our biggest struggle this year...

For those ages we read small amounts daily, only working 15 or 20 min. at a time. This usually ended up being 2 pgs., I think. We also narrated daily, not just when they suggested it.

This. I think for me it would be more of a case of what books am I not going to assign to my kids as required reading for school. Brave New World was required for my senior year lit. class. I remember being totally shocked that the school would assign it. It was the book that our AP essay test was on that year so apparently a lot of schools were assigning it. The other book that we were required to read in 10th or 11th that really bothered me was Heart of Darkness. I'm not sure why I was SO upset by it b/c I just re-read it this year and actually liked it/saw the point of why it had been assigned. I think the issue was that I was just too young. The only thing I remembered from that book was the heads on the posts, and how horrified I was about that. Books like Stephen King, I read on my own and was able to self censor. When everyone went through a S. King phase during high school, I liked a lot of them (Carrie, Pet Sem., and several others.) But "It" gave me horrible nightmares and I quit reading it. Heart of Darkness actually affected me the same way, but I had to read it all for school. (Once again, re-reading HOD makes me wonder what was the big deal. But I guess kids sometimes view things differently than adults, so I want to keep this in mind for what I assign my kids.) ETA: Lord of the Flies was actually one of my favorite books that we had to read for school....I think I better go re-read that one and see what was in it since I see people listing that on here. :o

Looks good to me. We always do an AO hybrid as well (I'm not totally on board w/ CM or classical. I like to combine them.)

If it's a little cold etc, then no. But if they're sick (fever, stomach issues etc.), then yes. We have to have 180 days and we always end up with more than that anyway, even with taking off for sick days. If they're feeling terrible, what are they really getting out of school that day anyway?

We use the ones by Wiley. I'm not sure what the difference is, b/c I bought the Wiley ones before I had heard of the Mott ones (although I think the Mott ones are suppose to have more christian content.) The Wiley ones have many stories that teach good character (hard work, honesty etc.). I have my boys read out of them 2 or 3 times per week to work on their oral reading. I think they are fairly challenging. The 5th book especially has ramped up quite a bit this year in terms of vocab.

Lori, Thanks for the online game links and the pdf! I think we'll try those out first. They look very helpful.

Thank you! Unfortunately we don't have an ipad (have kindles, laptop, ipods...but no ipad so I don't think I can use the app.) I will definitely get the verbal problems book.

I've looked at this SO many times....but I never bought it due to price. My oldest will be in 6th grade next year and using MM 6. Would this be a good time to use it? Or is it geared for younger kids? It seems like a lot of people on these boards used it with younger kids (3-5th graders) so I don't want to spend the money if it covers really basic stuff.