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kemilie

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Everything posted by kemilie

  1. We purchased some electronics recently that came with a large mp3 credit that will be expiring soon... anyone have any ideas on programs/educational fun programs I might find on there to use the credit it? Lower elementary age children. :) I have Beethoven's Wig #1 and the kids like it, waffling about getting more of them after reading some of the reviews... not really sure what else is out there thought that I might be "missing out" on so thought I'd see what great ideas everyone else has! Thanks in advance for any ideas!
  2. abba - good point, I do understand it's meant as a full curriculum. I (unabashedly) am a curriculum junkie, and am fortunate enough to live in a state that has some great charter schools I can make use of to fund my addiction. Math happens to be my "true love" so I know I go overboard with math resources! I'm not big into workbooks/big textbooks, but I do love the different perspective that different programs give!
  3. Wow, I feel dumb! And I like to think I'm good at math. :) For some reason I was ASSUMING that you got a better deal by buying them all at once, and that free shipping would only work on the large orders. Living in Alaska I always seem to end up running into unforeseen shipping charges anyway... ! If I can order them one at a time and pay them same price, my dilemma is non-existent! I'll start with a couple of them and go from there. Thanks for pointing this option out to me.... Any of you read them to your just barely 5 year olds too, or is it a bit over their heads once you get past the first few of them? I suppose the theory is they'll get SOMETHING out of it even if they don't comprehend it all!
  4. Thank you for all the great input! I'm guessing I'll go for it and then resell them if I hate them for some reason... :) I just like the idea of buying all 10 with free shipping ($160 from Z-Twist), and feel like if I get just one of them and THEN buy the whole set - I'll miss out on that cost savings. I know, I know... bad justification for spending $160 up front instead of $16, but I've spent too long thinking on this already! The spelling errors will irk me, I'm sure... but they're probably not going to have a 2nd edition THAT soon... at least, that's my guess.
  5. Grammar was my "topic of research" last week! And I just ordered GWG this morning, along with the WWW product also sold by the same company. It looks simple to teach, easy to use, and it's cheap. I'm excited to try it!
  6. http://www.officialhomeartstudio.com/ is another fun art one to look at that i was just clued into by this message board! And the price is reasonable :)
  7. I'm considering buying LOF Elementary as a fun supplement for my 6 1/2 year old to read with his Dad in the evenings. He's quick with math, and I've read some good reviews on it. For those of you who have already taken this *plunge* - did your kids enjoy them? Did you feel it was worth the cost after actually getting/seeing/reading the books? I have no experience with the LOF materials so just hesitate to spend $16/each on books that are only 128 pages long! I read a review that stated there are numerous errors in this first edition set too... but only saw that stated in one review/ Anyone agree/disagree with that statement? Thanks for any input!
  8. I know they're not terribly high brow, but my kids get a kick out of the You Wouldn't Want To Series... for anyone else who has kids that enjoy them (think young males in particular!), found them at Costco today packaged as "volumes"! They have four different volumes for $9, and each one has 5 of the You Wouldn't Want to books in it. Awesome deal as normally on Amazon they're $10 each and 4 for 3 so come out to $7.50 through Amazon. And with the sets at Costco you can get 20 of the books for $36, or $1.80 each. :) Just wanted to pass that on!
  9. Why not start with the audio version of SOTW, and play it in the car/at night for the kids? we did that this past year with my 4 year olds and 6 year old, and even if we didn't go all out/do activities, they've enjoyed and remember the stories. And ask to listen to them again!
  10. personally I feel like their 3/4/5/6 all have quite a bit of overlap and don't get into that much new material. I'd place her as high as I could. You can buy just the textbook for $40, you could buy the textbook for 5, have her go through the parts you think she needs to review, and then start full out on 6?
  11. It probably just means they've done some type of state testing, such as a DORA reading test. Some states require them (such as mine for older grades). I use the test(s) to give me a gauge if I'm doing at least a baseline job teaching math and reading. So far so good! :)
  12. I'm trying to decide on a dedicated school machine to buy to use with the kids this fall. I'm torn between the Apple, because I love my iPad/iPhone and am addicted to apples, and an HP Touch Screen. Does anyone have a touch screen computer and is there anything you love/hate about it? Particular programs/applications that it lends itself to with small children? Curious for input from an educational/kid perspective as opposed to the average joe on Amazon. :) Thanks!
  13. Do you have a crockpot? You could use a mini crockpot to throw something on at night and it would be warm/ready to go in the morning. Baked potatoes. The steel cut oats cooked with some apples. A quiche type dish maybe with eggs, ham, cheese... ?
  14. Congrats! I'm having baby #5 in October, and my oldest will also be 6 at the time. :) I haven't heard too much snark, maybe you will get lucky? But if you do get some... just tell people that with kids as cute and smart as your children are it would simply be criminal NOT to have more of them. That should silence them! :) I think sometimes the comments come just because large families are becoming so uncommon that people feel like they have to comment. The same phenomena I noticed with my twins - not that they are all THAT uncommon anymore, but everyone still feels compelled to talk to you about it because it is different!
  15. I agree, find her a series that she loves and maybe it will "hook" her? My new reader was going through the out loud reading time every day with me, doing it but not LOVING it, and then I bought him a set of Usborne books at the local homeschool convention. And he discovered how fun it is to get lost in a world of books! And now we can't tear him away from the books. Which is a problem I won't complain about! Unfortunately I can think of tons of series for little boys but little girl reading books are not yet my area of expertise! Take her to the library? Let her pick a pile of books if your library has them divided out by reading level? Our library does but not sure if all are like that.
  16. I live in Anchorage. :) I liked the Toughest Race one, although most if it is set in winter. And that's not really what you're going to see! But fun background about a bit event in our state that most people have heard of. And my 6 year old found it fascinating (for the first hour or two at least... !). It's streaming on Netflix.
  17. Maybe you could keep the "core" every day (bible/language arts/math) and do some of the other subjects as more of "units" - that rotate on more than a weekly/daily type basis? Art for 3 weeks, history for 3 weeks, science for 3 weeks ... not sure if how your program is set up if it is adaptable that way, but that might make it a little less intense for a 1st grader to wrap their head around. I'd leave out the foreign language if you keep your schedule as it, and try adding it in after maybe a month, see if the schedule is working and has room to grow?
  18. I tried using Skedtrack but didn't love it. It seemed like a lot of work for basic tracking for my 6 year old with how everything had to be put in. I printed 1 page 12 month calendar templates and wrote a subject title at the top of each one. I highlight the day if we did the subject that day. I have a quarterly report I write up that summarizes what we studied in each topic during the past 10 or so weeks. For the age my kids are at that seems to work best!
  19. thanks for the additional info! This was just what I needed to help me "cement" my plans for the school year. Looking forward to looking through AAS when it shows up on Monday, and have Phonics Zoo on my radar for 2013. :)
  20. Monalisa - thanks for your experience. :) Sounds like I should stick it out/give AAS a try through at least Level 3. I will shore up my patience. Or give it my best shot at least!
  21. Maybe you would like Phonics Zoo? They have a free placement test, sounds like age wise (and spelling ability wise) it might work with your children. Just a guess. You can get all the word lists/etc for just $30, if you like it you could then invest in the audio CDs for the different levels. It looks like a fairly parent hands off approach that uses Phonics. I'm at the other end of the road from you - have the young kids and putting the time in, but wishing they were already a bit older/further along so I could "bump them up" to something like Phonics Zoo! :)
  22. I like the idea of the convenience of a "box" approach, but agree with you that it seems counter intuitive to the reason so many of us homeschool - to tailor the best possible education to these bright young minds we're entrusted with! :) I 2nd that everyone else is saying - build your own curriculum, and do it by starting with the basics. If the basics are covered well than that's 80% of what matters, right?! I just wish all my children were from the same mold - but I'm thinking that won't be the case!
  23. I don't know yet if it's my favorite (haven't actually USED it!), but I really like the looks of the LIttle Professor science kits. That's what we're going to be trying this fall with my 1st grader!
  24. you can never have too much math! Just my opinion. :) I'm going to use Life of Fred as a fun evening read with Daddy this next year. I let them do IXL on the computer for their "fun". I use Math on the Level and decide which lessons/concepts to focus on. In the fall I'm going to hand my 6 1/2 year old Teaching Textbooks books and let him work through one or two of them when I'm distracted with the new baby. We started with Horizons, and then Right Start Math. I agree different programs have different strengths, but as long as your child likes math and has fun with it/learns something... I say go for them all! But I'm an admitted commitment phone when it comes to my curriculum. If you were going to skip 1 I'd skip teaching textbooks. I think Singapore is more rigorous as a stand alone program. and I think Fred wouldn't be enough on his own, but would be a fun element to add to Singapore. There's my two cents!
  25. so many! Wanted to love RightStart Math, loved the idea of it, but it moved too slow for us. Phonics Road. Love love love the idea of it, but found that the approach just didn't work with my child. Horizons Math... liked the curriculum but it moved sloooow. I'm just hoping that by the time baby #5 is 5 I'll be a "pro" and know everything! Although given that new programs come out, I love to over research, and what works for one child doesn't necessarily work for the next.... I may be doomed!
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