Now that you say this, Penelope, I think I'll look further into the Coconuts and Crocodiles book that she is in right now. She's doing a lot of work on the coordinate plane...I wonder if it's in there, but I didn't see it at first glance. Angie

There are only two things that I see in the Saxon 8/7 and AoPS PreAlgebra that I was worried about, and they are square roots and the Pythagorean Theorem. AoPS has it at the end of the PreA book. I looked through the Dolciani book we have, and they are at the end of it as well. I guess I freaked out. LOL I do love the Arbor books, as does my DD. I talked with her about it this morning, and she is fine to continue with the Arbor books. The third book is Chuckles the Rocket Dog (or something like that). My DD won't get to it until the fall semester (We do school year-round, but we don't go as strong during the summer), but the first couple of chapters looks to be about square roots, and I really like the way it's all explained. Thank you all for calming me down. I was freaking out--again. I think I see a pattern here... Anyway, my DD loves the arbor books so much that she woke up this morning and started her math while I was still in bed, and then proceeded to teach my DS10 about graphing, and taught him how to play Battleship with graph paper. I love to see the light turn on for them. ;) Thank you all! Angie

I had originally planned to use a combination of Jousting Armadillos and Dolciani with my 6th grader this year. Once we started it was painfully obvious that my DD hated Dolciani, so we decided to only do JA, and have moved into Coconuts and Crocodiles, where my DD is right now. She may finish Coconuts and Crocodiles before the end of the year, but she won't move into the third book of the series, which I was fine with until today. We went to an Open House for Classical Conversation's Challenge A class. They use Saxon 8/7, which I have no desire to use, but as a pre-algebra, I figured they'd be learning the same stuff my DD is currently learning. Unfortunately, that's not the case, and now as I've been searching scope and sequences of AoPS's Pre-A and Saxon 8/7, I realize that there is a lot that the JA/C&C books don't cover, and here I thought the two together was a complete Pre-Algebra. Now I'm stuck. I have no idea of which direction to go in. Should I have my DD do Pre-A all over again, only using AoPS next year? Should I just continue with Arbor Center's next book (square roots are covered in it, which is one of the things that Saxon and AoPs both cover but JA/C&C do not) and hope it will all turn out all right? Or should I move onto AoPS Algebra, and hope that review of the missing concepts will be sufficient (Does it even review things like square roots and the Pythagorean Theorem (Another thing the Arbor books is missing but Saxon and AoPS both include in Pre-A). I feel horrible right now. Anyone have any advice or experience to share with me? Thanks! Angie

My first thought was that it was the DO, and after reading through the posts, I feel more confident about it. We do Magic Lens next year (The OP mentioned Magic Lens). Is this in that level? Oh boy. We've got a fun year ahead of us. LOL

We use Beast alone. I tried supplementing with Beast, using MM3 as the main program, but my DS was sick of MM and loved Beast. He begged to only do BA, so I let him. He's now in BA4, and we only use Beast. He learned how to multiply with Beast, and though I've read that they're supposed to have the multiplication tables memorized before doing Beast, my kid didn't. He learned it in Beast, and has them down just fine. We never focused on multiplication, never did flash cards or anything. Beast has review, it's just not blatant review. Everything is added incrementally, but things you learned in previous chapters show up in problems later on. It's review, just not review the way other curricula do it. It seems I may be one of the few people who use BA as a stand-alone curriculum. The only problem we've had is that we go at a slower pace. I did so because I didn't want to get stuck ahead of production. So my son is about to finish 4A and start 4B, but his 4th grade year is almost over. The problem this caused was with standardized testing last year. He hadn't learned how to divide before the test, or he had just started division. I can't remember exactly, but he wasn't confident in it yet, but there was a lot of division on the test. He told me that he did great in math, but had to guess for a lot of the division problems. He got a low score on his math. The year before he had a very high score in math, so I was a bit disturbed at the end of last year, but at the same time, he learns from Beast very well. He gets it. It's my fault that I let him go slower through the books than normal, and all for my not wanting to get ahead of production. Oh well. Such is life. Angie

I never thought of using Google. Now I feel stupid. LOL Thank you! Angie

Hyacinth, how did the open house go? We are going to an open house for Challenge A on Tuesday. I was going to do Challenge A at home. I even have it all planned out already, but as I got deep into planning, I realized that one of the main aspects of the class is the discussion of topics among their peers. Yes, I can discuss things with my 12-year-old, but will she get the same out of it? That is where I struggle. Luckily, the current Challenge A tutor will be tutoring Challenge A again next year, so I hope I like her. I'm just curious about your open house experience. Angie

My DS8 asks questions about word spellings that I just don't know the answers to. For instance, why is Knight spelled with a Kn when night also spells night? And why can't nite spell night? Why is all spelled that way instead of ol or oll even, since a short O makes the ah sound. Why does live spell live (long I) and live (short I)? Shouldn't live (short I) be spelled l-i-v, without an e? Sometimes I can find a reason based on root words from either Lation or Greek, but sometimes, I just don't know what to say other than, "because it is." He likes to know how things work, and when things don't work the way he expects them to, he needs to know why. It's just the way he is. My other kids are getting sick of his constant questions about this stuff, and I just wish I had answers, but I don't. Ugh. Does anyone on here have answers for odd spellings? I feel like I fail him in so many ways because he thinks so differently than I. Angie

If you choose to enroll in Classical Conversations, you don't have to purchase everything they recommend. You will need the Essentials Guide, but my Gear Pages were included with the guide, so I'm not sure why you have that set as an extra cost. For the IEW portion of CC Essentials, you should only need the History book (next year is Cycle 1, so IEW's Ancient History book). Teaching Writing Structure & Style should be something your CC community has that you could borrow if needed. Also, your Essentials tutor should have an evening or two set aside for all the Essentials parents to get together and watch the TWSS videos together. I wouldn't purchase them. Also, many libraries have the TWSS videos to check out. Mine does, and it's a very small library. As for the rest of the stuff you have listed, I would maybe get the Trivium Tables and maybe Our Mother Tongue, but that's it. I bought some of the stuff on the list you have there, and am very disappointed in most of it. The flashcards were a waste of money. You can buy ANY flashcards if you need them, and you can do any spelling that you want. The actual spelling lists are in the Essentials Guide, so if you want to use their lists, you will already have them. Good luck in your decision.

I have looked at RFWP's problem based learning every single year since I started home schooling my kids. Each year I want to buy one and do it, and have not done so. I think I'm going to this year, but then again, I may chicken out again. Yes, I chicken out. If I could get a group of kids together to do it, I think it would be awesome, but alone, I'm not so sure. That is why I chicken out. I'm curious to see what others have to say too. Angie

Yes, you can use MCT's vocabulary separate from the rest of the curriculum. It's not exactly like a workbook. At least we don't use it as such. We do everything orally, and we skip the word searches, though my kids will go through and do them on their own. We take about a week to do a lesson, but I'm not sure what others do. Every other lesson (This is CE 1&2) is either roots or vocabulary words. We make our own flashcards and go over them every day before reading from the book. There are exercises in the book to do, but again, we do it all orally. If it asks the kids to write sentences, I just let them tell me their sentences. There are also quizzes for each lesson. I sit and read the words for them to define, and they write the answers down on paper. My oldest two have been working at the same level. My DS works a level above his grade, and my DD works a level below her grade. They are in the third level right now. I have found that my DS may be in a bit over his head this year, so am not sure if I will give him a year off before starting the next level. But that's with the level overall. The vocabulary level is just fine for him. Angie

We have used MCT's (Michael Clay Thompson -- These are sold through Royal Fireworks Press) vocabulary books. So far we have completed Building Language and Caesar's English 1. We are almost finished with Caesar's English 2, and then we'll move onto Word Withing a Word (I think that's what it's called). I love the depth of the program, and my two kids who have used these actually use the words they learn. It is awesome to hear some of the words that they use, and even more exciting when they see a new word and can guess what it means based on the roots used in the word. We use these books in conjunction with the entire MCT curriculum, which is why we did Building Language (We did it when we did MCT's Island Level). If I were just using it for vocabulary, I would skip Building Language and start with Caesar's English 1. Angie

I have the same problem. We waste more time dispersing and coming together than anything else!

We do Caesar's English. Love it.

I almost got suckered into being a CC Essentials tutor this year. While I received my training, I kept getting a sick feeling. I don't even like the Essentials manual. I love MCT, and didn't even plan on using the Essentials stuff with my kids. Then I was told that as the Essentials tutor, I would get 70% of the tuition for each of the kids in my class, and that I'd have at least 8 kids in my class, as that was how many they knew were going to sign up. It turned out that there would have only been three kids in my class, two of which were my own kids! I backed out. I feel bad to have done so, but I'm so glad that I did. We do CC Foundations memory work at home. One day I started wondering if my kids were missing out on the other aspects of CC, so we went to an open house. I hated it. Oh man, I'm so glad I'm not a part of it. Everything was so rushed. The science experiment was lame, the kids didn't have time to finish their art projects, there wasn't any time for all of the memory work (we do more memory work at home alone each day), and there was absolutely NO socializing among the kids. There was no time for that. So the community aspect of it went right out the door. Anyway, all of that just to say that yes, the director and tutors get a percentage of the tuition. Only the registration money goes to CC Corporate, and then the facility fee goes to the facility. The rest of tuition (minus supplies) goes straight in the director's and tutor's pockets. Ugh. So glad I escaped! ;) Angie

I hope she feels better soon, and that your teenager doesn't get it too.

The Museum of Science and Industry is my favorite. Love it much more than The Field Museum. The Art Institute is one of the best -- a must see. Those would be my top two. It'll probably be cold here next week, so I'm not sure how much you'd enjoy walking along the lake front, but it is pretty. As for food, Chicago has a lot of good food. I couldn't believe how great the food was when I first moved here. I prefer to stay away from chains that you can get anywhere else in the country. The Berghoff is one of our favorites, as is Lawry's Steakhouse (but expensive). The bean is fun to see, but I still wonder at the spaceship that landed in Millennium Park. I can't help but laugh at the thing. You'll know what I mean when you see it. Go shopping on the Magnificent Mile. At least window shop. ;) Have a great time!

We use BA as a stand-alone program. We started with 3A when my DS started 3rd grade. Though he is good in math, he freaks out when he's challenged. He's the kind of kid who gets overwhelmed if he doesn't know what to do right away. We had a lot of days where he enjoyed it, then a lot of days where he'd cry. His problem wasn't that he couldn't do it, but that he didn't know how to think through it all, as math always came easy to him. I let him go at a slower pace as we struggled through adapting to BA's approach. He now works through BA just fine. We are on 4A right now, and I believe we'll get through 4C by the end of the year. I'd actually be okay if he only gets through 4B, as I don't want to get stuck ahead of production of the books. If he has to finish up 5D, or even 5C and 5D, in his 6th grade year before starting Pre-Algebra, I'll be okay with it. Anyway, I do want to say that he has good retention on his multiplication tables. I learned after we started 3A, that they were supposed to have them memorized, but we never did that. He memorized them while using BA. Even though it's not obvious, there is review within the books, but the review comes up in different ways than a typical math program. We found this to be pretty hard at first, but now he's used to them "sneaking" things into the starred problems (He calls it sneaking. I call it brilliant on BA's part). Angie

I'm a very conservative Christian, and I don't let my kids read Harry Potter, but they have seen the movies due to being at other people's houses when they were on. Anyway, we love Beast Academy here. There is nothing about Satan in the books. We have all the books through 4B in our house, and will be purchasing all of them eventually. I have read through each and every one with my DS, who uses BA, and I have never seen anything satanic or evil in it. As someone else mentioned, it's just like Monsters, Inc. They're cute, characters. They each have their own personality, and they're funny. They aren't representative of evil beasts from folklore, or anything of the such. Nothing I have seen ever raised a red flag, and I'm usually one who sees red flags in so many things out there. Just my 2 cents. Angie

We're a Clash of Clans family here. Everyone except my daughter plays. I like the responses you've received so far. The one thing I'd add is strategy. I have sat down with both of my sons and explained strategy with attacking other people in the game. They usually just drop their troops wherever, or use troops that basically won't help, or diversify too much, etc. So using strategy with Clash of Clans and how they attack could lead into discussing famous battles and the strategies used by both sides, and the outcomes of those battles. Think, Gettysburg. Angie ETA: And now you've got me thinking about doing this too...This would be a lot of fun to do in the summer. We could call it Clash of Clans Summer Camp. ;)

I am totally going to put this on my calendar for next year. I don't live near Boston, but I'm from Mass, and can send my daughter to my parent's house to stay there so that she can do this. Thanks for posting about this! Angie

NM Just realized someone else gave the same info. Angie

Sahamamama, Thanks for reminding me about Wile's Science curriculum. I think we may give that a try. I feel the exact same as you about Apologia. We actually skip all the activities because I got so sick of them disrupting the flow of the material. Otherwise, I love the Apologia books. I've heard some great things about Wile's curriculum, so I think I'll look more into it. I'm going to look at Phonetic Zoo too. I need something like you mentioned. Something that isn't dependent upon me nagging the kids to remember to do. We have been doing words from the McGuffy's Speller, but they are solely dependent upon me to get their list as I have them spell words verbally for me, and I only give them ones they miss. It worked great at first, but right now I need a "get-er-done" curriculum. Thanks for sharing that. Take a look at Mapping the World with Art. It's by Ellen McHenry. I've wanted to do this for a while now, and I'm finally doing it. I can't wait. I'm going to do it too. Is that sad? LOL Angie

My middles child (DS10) will be in 5th next year. This plan is tentative, but here it is: Math: Beast Academy 4C, 4D, 5A, 5B (I've allowed him to work at a slower pace due to release dates. If we kick things up a notch, he may be able to finish 5C as well, and then do 5D over summer break if it's out by then) LA: Magic Lens 1 (We'll be doing the entire set. He started Island a year early because his sister was doing it, and he liked it so much. He does real well with MCT. He's in the middle of Voyage right now and doing great) Along with the 4 papers in the writing portion of Magic Lens 1, he will do short research papers. I'm thinking one per month, but we'll see how that goes and tweak as we go. History: We'll be back to the beginning next year, so Ancients. I'm not a huge fane of SOTW (sorry), but we listen to the CDs by Jim Weiss in the car to supplement. We actually do Classical Conversations memory work (not part of a community). My favorite History to do is Simply Charlotte Mason, so we'll go off of that schedule for readings and books for him to read. Science: I actually don't know yet. That is the one thing I dropped the ball on this year, so I may just do what he should've done this year for Science. Well, there is the CC memory work that we do. Maybe I'll just do the Apologia books coordinating with the memory work. Spelling: I totally dropped the ball this year. I think I need a new system for this because what I wanted to do the last two years has failed miserably. What is it they say? "The best curriculum is the one that gets done."? Yeah, I need to find something that will actually get done. He does vocab through MCT, so that's getting done. It's just the spelling... Geography: Mapping the World with Art. I'm not actually going to require this of him, but his sister is going to do it next year, so I may have him start out doing it too. I'm just not sure if I want to bog his day down with work that isn't necessary at his stage. KWIM? Reading: He's been reading the second book in a series I bought last Spring. Adventures in Reading, or something like that. He does okay, but he has been progressing so slowly. I hope to focus on fun reading this summer (viz: below reading level), and hope that he will pick up speed next year with this. I feel like I'm missing a lot, but I also think that this list is a lot. If only there were more hours in a day. ;) Angie

Now you have my ready to run out to the larger libraries in our area. My library is having a book sale right now, and I scoured every table, looking for something good--nada. I'm so jealous right now. lol Angie