I love the Singapore HIG (I have the US edition). I really only use it as an answer key, for the schedule laid out in the front, and for the mental math. I don't need explanation on how to teach the math concepts. I can follow the text book just fine. I guess I just don't understand what people dislike about the HIG. I looked at the Standards Edition comparison posted on another thread and did not see any AMAZING differences. My mathy kid like Singapore. He gets it, it is quick and easy. We do a lesson, sometimes two in 20 minutes. (Unless he is having a bad day, the it takes an hour for 2 problems!!) With a computerized lesson, we would be stuck with someone else's time frame.

John Williams

My kids have been in dance class since they were 2. DS also does musical theatre and has done gymnastics. We are now in a co-op. So far so good. We practice doing at least some of our schoolwork at a desk each day. (For my son, a lot of content learning is done laying on the floor. ;))

My husband sells his services door to door. It is a VERY real job. He goes door to door to do bids for window cleaning. Before starting his very successful business, my dad was a door to door salesman - to businesses rather than homes. Just pointing out, that there are still jobs that require this skill. Most jobs do require some level of salesmanship, to get the job and to perform well. It is a valuable skill to learn. BUT, there are other ways to learn it. Sometimes they are considered gifts. But it depends on how it is done.

My husband and his brother were homeschooled. After their mom passed away they had a rough time with school for a while. Both ended up taking the GED and then graduating from college. DH did well. He had as good a GPA as I did for the most part and I went to a private college prep high school. He had some trouble with hand exhaustion in the first few weeks because he was not used to taking notes. He also needed some help with math at first. His brother struggled through math, took college algebra a couple of times (or started it a couple of times) but he is just not a mathy person. He avoids math at all cost! My niece has not had the most consistent homeschool experience. She has been behind in math, but was recently accepted into a special program for high school sophmores-seniors. It is math and science intensive to help students be prepared for a college pre-med type program. She is doing very well. She adjusted quickly and has made the highest grades on some of her tests. It is not being able to sit in class at 6, it is discipline and motivation. Teach your child self-discipline by slowly letting them do more and more on their own - in school and life; help them find a career path that motivates them to do well and work hard. With those two things a student will do well as they move into college work. I saw people from my college prep high school fail classes in college and flounder because they had no direction. They were prepared for college level work, but had NO CLUE what they wanted to do with their lives because they had no practical life experience. They had played high school football, but never had a job. They were not going to be pro-football players, but a few did play in college. They all picked a random major, hated their classes and then partied college away. For some, after playing around and finally having to get a job, they found a passion and finished school. I also saw public school grads struggle because they could not take notes. They did not know how to write papers. THE WORST were the 2 public school teachers who were in my master's program who did NOT know how to write a research paper. Both had education degrees and taught theatre. One middle school, one high school. It is not just homeschoolers who struggle. There are people who will struggle no matter what type of education they receive. That is why it is great to have so many options for education. You can find what fits your child and your family. For some, homeschooling in elementary and early middle school is a much better option, but high school credit needs to be done in a school. Nothing wrong with that choice. Others want to homeschool and add co-ops or cc classes. Again, if that is how your child will gain the best education, that is what you should do. The only thing that I can say I do not think should EVER happen is a child sitting at home with mom all day everyday doing school and everything else with mom and never seeing or interacting with other kids or people. Even church for an hour a week is generally not enough. They need to be in the world a bit learning how to interact with people of all ages; not just mom and dad. They need some sort of outside activity: dance, gymnastics, choir, drama, art lessons, 4-h, scouts, sports teams, special interest clubs, debate team, etc.

I don't have that much experience, but here are my thoughts. What makes a good co-op: 1. Well organized. The co-op we are currently a part of is well organized. Enrollment was done online. Payments could be made online, or in person. We arrived the first day and received a map with class assignments marked. It was easy to find a committee member if we had a question. For the first two weeks everything has run very smoothly. 2. It has a purpose/mission and offers classes that meet those goals. The purpose is made clear to all those who wish to participate. *An academic co-op offering classes for credit should list themselves as such and should provide qualified instructors. I would expect this co-op to be more expensive as I would be paying for someone more qualified than myself. *An enrichment or social co-op should definitely be advertised as such. These classes would be more fun or practical - art, cooking, sewing, pe, etc. I would expect these classes to be less expensive. We are attending a co-op like this. There is bow making, candy making, pe, preschool - first grade students are in literature based fun classes (they read a story and do an art project around that story.) They also play and make friends. We pay a facility fee, insurance, and a supply fee. I teach a Shakespeare class, the cost of the class was $25 per student. This is the cost of acquiring scripts for each student for reading aloud in class. 3. Instructors are qualified to teach the subject they are offering. I don't think someone who struggles with math should lead a Calculus tutoring class. BUT as an enrichment class...someone with out extensive biology experience COULD lead a biology lab class where kids would do some basic biology and get to do some dissections as a group. Same for a basic chem lab. These classes would NOT replace a full chemistry or biology curriculum taught at home. They would be meant to enhance that experience. In a situation like this, it should be made clear to parents and students that the class is not intended to replace a full study of the topic. 4. Support for parents. This is one of the aspects I look forward to most, getting to know other homeschool parents and having a support network nearby. I love this forum for support, it has been a great help to me; but I need people to talk to in person sometimes. :D **For me and my children, co-op does not replace what we do at home. It enhances it. I am HORRIBLE at coming up with fun craft ideas. My kids come home each week with fun little projects. They are also making friends. We go to a very large church, it is hard to make friends at their age, when attendance is not consistent. Co-op gives them a consistent group of friends outside of our dance studio.

Mmmm....brownies sound good....My day is good so far, better than yesterday! But I may have to make some brownies....

I did read the whole other thread and am still not convinced. DS does not count. He regroups numbers in his head for mental math: 7+9 He makes 9, 6+3, adds 3+7, adds 10+6, gets 16. He does this fairly quickly. We did not use anything claiming to be c-rods. We used Mortensen Math blocks and the old smiley face series. At 4, in a few short, fun lessons ds was adding 3 digit numbers. AND understanding.

Share. I check his email for him when he is working. He knows all of my password options.

We use Singapore with the IP and CWP. I have the MM geometry to supplement....but we have not tried it yet...I have not quite figured out when to do it. SM fills our math time. Any more than 20 minutes and he starts to zone out and retains little. We are getting ahead in SM. I think we will have a month left in the fall after finishing 2A, we will do more IP and some MM then. I hope to do the same in the spring, finish the main text early and then finish IP and CWP.

This. We watch carefully selected shows and games. We have the tv on a lot. I need the noise. They play legos with Busytown Mysteries or Blues Clues playing. Some days we turn on music instead. My son loves Wordjong on Wii. It has greatly I.creased his spelling abilities. If kids veg out in front of the tv everyday, then it is bad. Do I think my kids watch too much tv....sometimes....but when it is 115 degrees outside and and the ac can't keep up....there is a lot of tv ;)

I have, twice. Threads like this scare me. I know that folllowing the WTM will provide a better education than ps, but these threads make me question my abilities. This can be a good and a bad thing. It makes me work harder, but it also males me think about ps.

We made rapunzel hats for princess.camp thos year. Roll a piece of poster board into a cone shape. Staple and decorate. You can also decorate before rolling. I braided long sections of yarn and stapled it coming out of the point. Use yarn or elastic under the chin. We just colored, but you can use glitter, jewels, glue, paint....whatever you want. Get the Disney Princess Yea Party cd. It has musical chairs and fun party music. It is all about manners. You can have a high tea style party with finger foods.

I am pretty sure that is not what it is ;) I am concerned because we are wanting to have another baby....but if I am this tired now...how tired will I be then...

Lately I have felt exhausted, constantly. Last year, I could get up after 8 hours of sleep and be productive. In the last few weeks I have been waking up, barely making it to the living room chair and sitting watching tv and sleeping for another hour or more. Last week, I decided to start taking some vitamins. I am taking a multivitamin and an iron supplement (I was anemic with DD and for 6 months after). I took the vitamins for 3 days and felt great! I missed one day and I am dragging again....I took them this morning, in hopes of feeling better tomorrow. I eat an iron rich diet - beans, red meat once a week, chicken...We eat veggies daily. I admit, we don't have the best diet; but it is not awful. I do drink soda and have been cutting back on my daily intake, but I am doing it slowly. I have not had headaches from withdrawl. I teach dance, I am very active for 2-4 hours a night. Any ideas on how to boost my energy and feel better?

We had some great discussions in my high school English/Lit and history classes. We did not have AP only honors. The school refused to model theor classes to fit someone else's curricula. I am glad they did it this way. I really learned. I was not prepping for a test. I feel there was a lot I missed, but I did have a few bad teachers and the highly rigorous classes did not start until 11th grade. Bit we had some great classes with enthusiastic teachers. My two kids do three classes each at co-op and it cost me $30 including insurance and facility fees. I teach a Shakespeare class, mainly for reading aloud and discussing what it OS happening, it coat $25. That coverage books. Co-op can be inexpensive.

All communication for our group happens through a yahoo group. You can get a daily or weekly digest or and email for every post. Most people do the last. Yell them that if theu don't have email the need to find a buddy to call them with last minute changes. Sort of a mini-phone tree, but only for those with no email access at home.

If she is not getting what she needs, she should drop the class. It is not worth the stress.

We have been working in IP 2A; is it the little things that have: ________________ 10 ________________ ________________ 4 / ????? _________________ Sorry...that is the best artwork I can do on my computer right now:glare:; but part of it is shaded. We have not really used them at all. I just ask and he works it out in his head....

I would drop it and find another place to take the class. I had a HORRIBLE high school chemistry experience and did not feel confident in my ability to succeed in a college chem class. I might have done okay, but I knew NOTHING going into it. Is this a college class? If she is taking a second level or planing to move into Organic Chem or other premed type classes, she needs a better class. A class with labs. If she just needs the credit, but intends to do nothing further with it, she could just stick it out.

It was fun! I forgot how much I loved red hots on an iced sugar cookie! That was a fall carnival activity every year at school - cookie decorating! Sugar cookie, icing, sprinkles, and red hots! Our cell was not amazing...we needed a few other things like the circus peanut marshmallows and some other icing colors; but he got the general idea and we ate some yummy cookie for a few days ;)

That's great! Congratulations!

My son understands all of these concepts and he did use unit manipulatives. We have an old set of Mortensen Math manipulatives. They are color coded AND they have unit markers. You can demonstrate fractions just as easily. One of the first exercises with the unit pieces was to match the colors to the numbers. There are puzzle trays and an addition/subtraction tray that bases all of the addition and subtraction on how the numbers relate to 10. It really helped his mental math. He really dislikes manipulatives for doing math now, but we had a month or so where he really played with them. He can regroup numbers in his head to make addition and subtraction easier to do without paper. We did also manage to use them long enough to demo addition and subtraction pretty well. I make him look at them for multiplication now. Some people are adamant about not having the lines on them. I would say that most of the reasons given, I saw my kids do with the divided sets as well. They build, they compare, they regroup; if you are unsure, get something you are comfortable using. I never used a C-Rod in my life and made excellent grades in high school and college calculus. Until I got out of college, I could do anything with paper and pencil (no calculator), now I am a bit lazy. ;) Just saying, if you want lines; get something with lines.

We did the ointment and vitamin K for both kids. They don't really give a choice here on the ointment. We did not do the Hep B shot.

Ask her questions. My first grader cannot narrate back to me very well. He is getting better. He can give me 3-4 sentences about a 7 page chapter in a Magic Tree House book. That is a huge improvement over a few months ago. We have worked on it with SOTW. I read, I ask questions, he answers and then fills in everything I did not ask about. :) If I just ask him to tell me what he heard, I get very little.