Thank you!

Thanks, I haven’t heard of iMac and I had forgotten about the Stanford classes - I will give them a look, it is nice to have options! The art of problem-solving courses are very popular on this message board, and I know they are good, but just not gelling right for us at this time!

Hi! I have a 6th grader who just finished up the Counting & Probability & Math Counts “prep†class from Art of Problem solving. He has completed (with book but not online class) first half of the Art of Problem solving Algebra book. I was planning to role right into their Algebra 1B, but... My son is great at math but doesn’t love the Art of Problem solving format. I am looking for suggestions. We did Saxon algebra one last year, and half of the Jacobs algebra book before he told me that he detests Jacobs. That’s when I decided to take a detour to some fun types of math with art of problem-solving, but now we want to get algebra one finished up so we can move on. I’d love a work at your own pace option, with somebody besides me doing the teaching & grading - he is my oldest of five, and I am trying to outsource some! From looking through the forms I have down Derek Owens to research, any other ideas or thoughts on courses you have used and loved? He’s an analytical kid who catches on quick, and I would love to find him a teacher who inspires through their obvious passion for math. :) Thanks!

Thanks, I'll check out Splash Math!

I'll check them out, thanks. :) I haven't updated my sig in a while, kids are a BIT older now - but math does happen to be an area we're ahead of the curve on. It's a favorite subject!

Hi! I was wondering if anyone has seem/used some great websites or apps for teaching their kids fluency and comfort with their decimals/fractions/percents. We used ReflexMath and XtraMath and loved them both for mastering all of the basic four operations, and I would love to find something similiar for the decimals/percents/fractions. Want something that challenges them to be speedy. Not having much luck with google and thought maybe someone here would already know the answer! :) Thanks in advance, Kara

Thanks for all the ideas! Maybe in a year or two I'll give Phonics Zoo another try with my oldest. In the mean time I'll check out Rod & Staff/Apples and Pears/MCP and perhaps even try to "chill"/give him a break. :) I think I'll keep plodding along with AAS with the not so natural speller as long as we can continue to like each other while we do it. :)

Probably a sign of my crazy life that I hadn't even considered the "just quit" road. :) Thank you for the advice. It's not a bad idea.... I guess my hesitation is that I like that the boys LIKE spelling, and think the rules are fascinating. I just don't like the time involved right now, and as you say, there are better ways to use my time.

Hi! I'm looking for some guidance/direction on spelling programs to look at. My experience up until now has been with All About Spelling. My 2nd grader is 1/2 way through Level 4. We finished Level 3 in 1st grade and moved to the Phonics Zoo A in the fall - he didn't love the way the program was structured, and I didn't do well with the looser scripting of the lessons. I was also a stickler for repeating the list (like the book said to!) when he missed any words on the list, and that may have soured him on the program. :/ So we went back to AAS. It works, but he's a natural speller and AAS seems to move a bit slower - we cruise through it without any problems. I feel like I'm putting in time that maybe don't need do. My twins are a year and a half younger and we're just finishing AAS 1. One of them is a natural speller and the other makes me want to pull my hair out. When we don't get back to the lessons for a few days she forgets all the rules and her phonics. I love the idea of phonics and knowing all the rules behind how our language works. I'm a strong fan of spelling programs. I just need to clear up some time in my schedule for other subjects that I do one on one with them, and I would love to find something self directed that I can leave them to do, without as much interaction, that will still teach the rules to help them make sense of English. They are all excellent readers. I've heard maybe Calvert online, but I can't get much of a feel for the program/find an in depth review of it. Also see some posts on the forum about Rod and Staff, wondering if someone who uses it can tell me if there is a large amount of teacher time involved in it? Any thoughts? Thanks in advance!

I agree. I've seen/used both and I think it simply depends on your child. If they are really into the fun colors/readers of Foundations they might think Essentials is a bit dry.

Hmmmm... I have Alpha/Beta/Gamma/Sigma/Delta/Epsilon right now. I've had my kids watching the lessons for a *fun* different approach to some basic math concepts this summer. I like the idea of blasting through using MUS as a spine, I guess I just wonder with the mastery approach how I really KNOW if they've got the concept or if they just got it for a day or two? I suppose the fact they can continue to move through the levels and do the more advanced work *should* indicate they have an understanding of what comes before?! :) It seems like with bright kids they can pick up a concept just like *that*, but you have to review it a few times to make sure it's still there! Also not sure my oldest really likes MUS, I think he finds it a bit boring and is humoring me! Ana, what does your eldest use for math now? I was looking at the first Art of Problem solving books/reading the sample pages, how young have people started their kids with it? I think it would be a bit much for my 7 year old still, just not sure he could conceptually handle all those long equations? Acurtis -> We have the new pre-algebra book so now we've added the honors lessons by having her work a few problems a day on that. ?? What are the honors lessons? TGHealthyMom - wow! You must be even busier than I am with child management. :) How did you get a year free with CTC if you don't mind me asking? I'll have to go see if they have a free trial and give them a look.

I don't know much about CTC - anyone here use it/is it a good/in depth understanding of topics? I"ll look at Math Buddies too, wondering how parent intensive it is. Thank you for those suggestions. Is CTC a core or do you use it to supplement? My main beef with TT is that I don't think it explains concepts in much depth (or always in an extremely intelligent way, for that matter) - I don't care so much that it's a grade level or 2 behind, because you just work ahead. But I want my kids to have a solid understanding of why and HOW math concepts work and play together!

I'm a bit of a math junkie, sadly math mammoth completely escaped my mind when writing this post - I do own math mammoth, I thought it would be a good resource for supplementing problem areas. Do you think it's "solid" enough and does a good job explaining the material, to work as a rigorous spine? To be honest I haven't explored it much yet despite owning it (embarrassing - that's what the toddler and baby have done to my brain!!). I've heard some say it's similar to Singapore math, is that a valid statement?

I need some opinions, please! I feel like I've done too much thinking and am now paralyzed in indecision. :) My 7 1/2 is accelerated in math, but not terribly so? I think I haven't really pushed him much yet though - we coast through easily. I have a 10 month old and a 2 year old so the last two years we've done easy *dumb* math as our spine (dumb in my opinion, but it did ensure math was done daily... !). We started with Right Start Math and I didn't care for it, then did some Math on the Level in areas, and in the last year or so he's done Teaching Textbooks 3, 4, and 5. We've also done book A of Beast Academy, and we read the Life of Fred Elementary series. He has all of his addition/subtraction/multiplication/and division facts through 12 down cold (LOVE reflexmath.com for that!). I'm not sure what to do next. I'm ready to spend more time with him on math and don't love the way Teaching Textbooks explains concepts, so I'm planning to give it "the boot". I own Singapore Math 2B which I purchased last year, but I was overwhelmed by the amount of parent involvement. I still kind of like the idea of it but I don't honestly think it will get done - I have 5 kids and am trying to come to terms with the best curriculum being the one that is manageable! I know Singapore is popular but I'm just not convinced I will make the time to wrap my head around it. I'm considering Saxon. It's solid if boring? Or is it too slow? We'll continue with Beast Academy, but it's more of a fun supplement for us. Some sections he can blaze through, others frustrate him (which is good, in my opinion - I don't want everything to come easy). Looks like year 4 isn't going to be fully available until at least NEXT summer so I'm okay with taking it slow and just using it as a different way of looking at problems. I'm using Math U See with one of my younger children but I don't think it's the right fit for him. Basically we're solid with addition through division of all kinds, but need to spend some more time with fractions and geometry and percents before hitting higher level math. And I'm not even sure that I want my 9 year old doing algebra if we keep up at the same pace? Any thoughts for me? What would you/do you use as a good solid spine? I know this type of question has been asked before so I appreciate your time pondering my specific situation. This website is such a great resource to me - and since I've been wrestling with this choice for a few months now I figured I would just get some more opinions! Thanks in advance!

Thank you for the input. I will look into Dragonbox and maybe go with the hands on kit for Hands-On Equations. The *problem* of these message boards - I always leave for the day with more I want to know more about!!! :)

Hi, I did some searches on the board but most of the posts I see that reference the iPad app for Hands-On Equations seem to be from last year when it first came out. I'm looking for some advice - if I buy the iPad apps do I need the home kits too? Is there separate value/learning they provide, or will the iPad app give me the same thing as the home kit? Anyone who has both/can weigh in? Thanks in advance!

I've recently been reading "The Lost Tools of Learning" and I find the way that Sayers described out the grammar versus logic stage very interesting: "My views about child psychology are, I admit, neither orthodox nor enlightened. Looking back upon myself (since I am the child I know best and the only child I can pretend to know from inside) I recognize three states of development. These, in a rough-and- ready fashion, I will call the Poll-Parrot, the Pert, and the Poetic--the latter coinciding, approximately, with the onset of puberty. The Poll-Parrot stage is the one in which learning by heart is easy and, on the whole, pleasurable; whereas reasoning is difficult and, on the whole, little relished. At this age, one readily memorizes the shapes and appearances of things; one likes to recite the number-plates of cars; one rejoices in the chanting of rhymes and the rumble and thunder of unintelligible polysyllables; one enjoys the mere accumulation of things. The Pert age, which follows upon this (and, naturally, overlaps it to some extent), is characterized by contradicting, answering back, liking to "catch people out" (especially one's elders); and by the propounding of conundrums. Its nuisance-value is extremely high. It usually sets in about the Fourth Form. The Poetic age is popularly known as the "difficult" age. It is self-centered; it yearns to express itself; it rather specializes in being misunderstood; it is restless and tries to achieve independence; and, with good luck and good guidance, it should show the beginnings of creativeness; a reaching out towards a synthesis of what it already knows, and a deliberate eagerness to know and do some one thing in preference to all others. Now it seems to me that the layout of the Trivium adapts itself with a singular appropriateness to these three ages: Grammar to the Poll-Parrot, Dialectic to the Pert, and Rhetoric to the Poetic age. " My thoughts on classical educating up to this point have mostly come from reading I've done by in The WTM and from Leigh Bortin. And I've never really thought much about grammar stage except to box it as "1st to 4th grade"... that being said, when I read the above description of the different stages I recognize my oldest, who is 7 1/2, much more in the description of "the Pert"/logic stage/dialectic stage. So I'm wondering... do gifted children sometimes come into these stages early? I'm not saying my child is EXTREMELY gifted, I don't know! He is bright and a very quick learner though. And I know that sometimes in gifted children what you see earlier is the ability and desire to analyze. Or is the desire of kids to contradict/answer back/catch people out - just something that unfortunately is coming to all children younger due to societal influences? :) Anyone else thought about this/have any random opinions to share? I've been thinking about it for a few days and wondered if others have pondered this same question! Obviously you can't "skip" the grammar stage, but at the same time - do some children seem to be working in both stages at once? Or is that antithesis to the model of classical development? :)

I have a 7 year old and twins who just turned 6. We use the books as a read aloud in the evening, then everyone gets out their paper and they do the problems. We think it's a fun supplement and it helps us start interesting conversations about topics that otherwise might not have come up! :)

It's been months... but I finally placed my orders. End of next week, hopefully, I should have the following sizes of 3:1 pitch coil in lots of lovely colors: 6mm (30 pages) 8mm (52 pages) 10mm (75 pages) 12mm (92 pages) 14mm (115 pages) 16mm (135 pages) 18mm (155 pages) 22mm (190 pages) 25mm (220 pages) 28mm (250 pages) Keep in mind that if you're looking at spiraling some books you've cut the spines off that the actual # of pages is half of the page count of the book. I know, I know... obvious. But someone had to point it out to me!! When they get here I will figure out what I can fit in a flat rate box. If you are interested in some of these sizes, shoot me a note and I can let you know what the cost would be (smaller coils cost less than the larger ones... :)). I have 100 of each of them, so obviously TOO many!

I want to bind some things that are larger than the largest Proclick spines, and I also think the really small coils will be fun for the kids to make/put together all sorts of their own little books. :) I have one size of spiral right now, there was a seller on Amazon that is now gone. I find them no harder than the proclick spines to put, it's just a little bit of quick twirling and you pinch the end so it doesn't come back undone! My coils from Amazon where 4:1 pitch, however, and the proclick is 3:1 (this means 3 holes in an inch as opposed to 4 holes in an inch) You can use the 4:1 pitch spiral in the 3:1 holes, but (my personal opinion) is that the pages don't turn quite as smoothly as the angle/natural spring in the wire is being distorted and a bit off. Arboreal - no handling fee will be necessary, I'd be happy to offset some of the cost of buying these darn things in lots of 100, that's all! :)

I am definitely going to be ordering. I will update this thread if you're subscribed when I place my order and whomever is interested I'm happy to send an assortment on to you for cost plus shipping. :) I am in love with my 3:1 pitch binder and have been busy having spines sliced off of everything around here - you might even say I'm a bit crazy? haha!!

Hi Michelle! I sent you a message but wondered if you might be "subscribed" to this thread so maybe it would be a better way to contact you... I was wondering if you use the proclick spines interchangeably with wire coil spines with your binder? I was looking at it and it looks like it's a "double wire loop" type and has square holes, and *it* says you can't use double wire loop interchangeably with wire coil types - I don't see why you couldn't though and was wondering what your experience has been. Do the square holes on your machine make a difference as far as easily turning the pages that you've noticed?

I just bought these: http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000V74R2E/ref=oh_details_o03_s01_i00?ie=UTF8&psc=1 $23 free shipping on Amazon. They arrive tmrw so I'm not sure yet how sturdy they are, if you want I can let you know! Seemed like a decent price for 100 of them!

I'd love to have a bunch of different sizes of larger spirals to use with my Proclick, bur ordering 100 at a time of 1 size makes that a bit cost prohibitive! I was wondering if anyone else is in the same situation and also *yearns* to stock pile different spiral sizes! :) I could place a large order at mybinding.com, we could split it up, and then I could mail them all out to you - so it would be the cost of the order divided by who wants to participate, then a flat rate postage box... if, for example, we ordered every other size they offer (just a random "cost analysis" I did) - that would be 16 different coil sizes, 1600 of them, for ~$750. So if 5 of you were interested we would each pay $125 for 266 coils in 16 sizes. Or something like that. Preferably more people to split the cost out more! Anyway... perhaps I'm the only person obsessed with coils for everything I'm running through my Proclick, but on the off chance I have good company out here in cyber land - thought I'd write a post!

Thanks for the page link, very helpful. I appreciate it!