Our pages haven't fallen out either, but the workbook covers end up in terrible shape: torn and bent. I am thinking of a file folder type of system, so I may be pulling them out for next year. I don't mind the answers being in the back. Actually, the fact that the answer pages won't be readily accessible is a big reason I keep second-guessing the file folder system. I like being able to flip right to the back to show my son he's doing just fine. He can't stand to struggle with anything, so after a battle, we turn to the back and I show him how he did it just like they did. Well, sometimes he doesn't do it exactly like they do, but he has the same answer, so that's all the matters. :) Angie

Do you schedule the private room for the whole year, or just hope it's available when you get there? There are private meeting rooms at our library, and I've been tempted to ask if we could use one for school. I wasn't sure if they'd allow it. Does it cost you to use it? Angie

We plan on using Notgrass's America the Beautiful next year for my DD12, who will be in 7th next year. http://www.notgrass.com/notgrass/

My DD12 transitioned from MM5B (old version) to JA. She did do the first chapter of MM6A, but decided that she liked JA better. She's about to start the book after JA, Crocodiles and Coconuts. She has done well with JA. She's mostly independent. I only get involved when she doesn't get problems correct.

I will let you all know how we like it. We should receive it in a couple of days. ;) Angie

I just placed my order...Did you know that you can purchase the JA books on Amazon.com? I purchased the Crocodiles and Coconuts book and answer guide both from Amazon. It was Prime too, so I got free shipping. ;)

Thanks! I'm going to purchase the next book in the JA series. That was my original plan, and after hearing what you all have to say, I'm going to stick with it. ;)

My daughter is about to finish Jousting Armadillos. When we started this year, she started doing Dolciani Pre-Algebra along with JA (JA just one day a week). She hated Dolciani, and begged to go back to MM. She did the first couple of chapters in MM6 (old version), and then asked if she could do JA again because she really liked it. She has done JA solely since then, and is on the last chapter. I was going to get the next book after JA, but I'm wondering if I should just get AoPS Pre-Algebra and have her start that. I know she will still be working on it next year, and I'm okay with that. I'm not in any hurry for her to finish Pre-Algebra. I'm just not sure if the books after JA would be a complete Pre-Algebra/Algebra, as I believe the second book is the rest of Pre and then some of regular Algebra. Anyone have some ideas or recommendations? She does real well with JA, and loves the teaching style. Angie

I want to thank all of you for responding. You have me in tears. I do tend to dwell on the negatives, feeling behind and inadequate. We are going to have a family meeting as some of you suggested. I will praise my DD12 more often and more vocally, and we will continue to chug along. One of the habits that I need to break in my boys is video games. When I was working, it was "easier" to let them play between subjects when I was busy with work. The first thing they do when they're done with a subject is get on a laptop and open up minecraft. My youngest, DS8, just finished math and went immediately to a laptop. I wish I had a lockbox or something I could shut them in...These are the things we need to address in our family meeting. ;) I do feel a lot better. We are on par for math, and though we are a bit behind with LA, I know we can get it completed before next fall. As for Science and History, I have started where we left off with history, and I think I'll focus on that right now and wait for Science until the Spring and Summer. We received a telescope for Christmas from my parents, and we cannot wait to use it. It's been so overcast in our area lately. That will be fun to do, and I did plan on reading a book I got last year during the spring. I can't remember the name of it, but it's an old book that talks about nature in the spring and covers an entire month. I think it's April, but I could be wrong. That will be fun to read each day and then go for nature walks. The kids love being outdoors and going on walks. I appreciate all of you taking the time to lift me up and help redirect me so that I can refocus my mind. Thank you! Angie

It has been a long time since I've been able to log on here. I'm in my fourth year of homeschooling, but I had been working full time from home. Work and homeschool had become too hard to do together, so I quit my job, and am now fully able to devote my time to school. Unfortunately, the last 4 months (or around that amount of time) that I worked was extremely busy. I didn't get a lot of work done with the kids in that time. This would be all of the past Fall. We did math almost every day, but we are very behind on History and Science, and we're maybe a quarter of the way through with our LA. I feel like I'm stuck in a pit, and can't seem to find a way out. I'm overwhelmed with all we need to catch up on, and since my kids are used to not doing very much the past few months, they are balking at everything I'm trying to get them to do. We have been consistent since I've quit my job, except for one week due to a death in the family. I feel like I'm failing my kids, yet I know that sending them to school is not an option for us. I keep thinking that next year will be better. Next year we'll start off with a stricter schedule, and they will follow it, but that doesn't help for this year. My DD12 does her work on her own, without my having to nag her to do so, but it's a constant struggle with my boys, DS9 and DS8. We are in our fourth week since I quit, and though we're moving forward, all I see is how far we have to go. I guess I just needed to vent, and if you have any words of encouragement or advice, please respond. Thanks, Angie

I'm waiting to see replies too. I'll probably put my dd into Challenge A in the 2015/2016 school year. I'm curious to see what parents think of the guide too, as they didn't have any at the practicum I went too (they were sold out), and nobody brought one to show.

This is exactly like my DS9. He's not ready for pre-A, but he's doing Beast Academy right now. MM is too easy -- laughable easy in his mind. BA, on the other hand, is challenging, but if he doesn't get something right away, he freaks out. We're working on his confidence too. Once I can get him to calm down, I ask him simple questions to get him to look at the problem piece-by-piece, and then it clicks. But not if he's having a "fit" about it. I sometimes make him lie down next to me, no talking, for a few minutes. That usually works. He gets it when he's calm. LOL Anyway, I'm enjoying reading your thread. My DD is doing Pre-A next year. We have Jousting Armadillos. I let her read the first few pages of Jousting Armadillos and AoPS Pre-A, and she chose JA. We also have Dolciani's Pre-A, from 1985, or whatever year that is -- the one everyone recommends on these boards. Dolciani was very inexpensive. JA was more than AoPS pre-A is. I may actually purchase AoPS too, as I'd like her to try some of it. I think she could do it, but I don't want to push too hard right out of the gate. Maybe let her build up some confidence and basic understanding first.

NM

I also work full time. I try to find independent work as well. I have a son who is 7, and doing 2nd grade work. We use Math Mammoth for math, as it is very easy for them to work through independently. He sometimes has questions, but I answer quickly, or walk through the example with him, and then he's fine. He loves the Explode the Code workbooks. He can open them up and do some pages on his own without even asking anything of me. This is good and bad. I like to talk with him about new concepts, but he "knows what to do, mom". ;) I think Explode the Code is his favorite thing to do. I also do Logic of English with him, but only when I'm not actually working. That's something I save for after work. We sit on the couch and go over the flashcards, and discuss sounds he's having trouble with. As for Science and History, we do all of that together with my other kids. I read to them, and then we discuss. I ask questions, and listen to their answers. I have them tell me back something that they learned/didn't know before. I think the learning comes through the discussion with this. We do our readings when I'm working sometimes, if I have some down time. If I'm real busy, we do them after I'm finished working. I wish I could be of more help to you. I only know what works for us. Oh, I have a little pocket science book that I got from Usborne years ago--before I started homeschooling. My 7-year-old loves to read through this. I think at his level, that in itself is fine for science for him. He loves that book. We do a lot of experiments from it - on-the-fly. Sometimes we won't have something we need, so we'll make a trip to the store, just so he can do his experiment. ;)

I've ordered from RR once. That's it. I won't order from them again. I will look at their site, as I find some interesting things on there, that I don't find anywhere else just from browsing. But when I do find interesting things on their site, I then look for it on Amazon, and I've always found what I'm looking for. My one order from RR was enough to know never to do that again. ;)

Someone correct me if I'm wrong, but from what I've seen, IEW delves into research papers with three sources, and stuff like that, but LToW deals mainly with the persuasive essay. So I think they cover different types of writing...I could be wrong though. I've only looked at LToW, never used it.

I haven't used answer keys for any of the grades so far, but we haven't done grade 6 yet. Even for 5A and 5B, I think it would've taken more time to look the answers up than to just do the problems in my head.

I buy the notebooks every year, and every year my kids end up not using the notebooks. My boys hate to color, so the junior notebook journals didn't work for them either. My DD did Who Is God this year, and she was doing the journal. One day I noticed that she just stopped doing her WiG work, and she said the journal was so tedious, that she understands what it's teaching, and wondered why it was necessary to do all this stuff when she understood. I let her stop the notebook journal and she went right back to WiG without complaint. She's one of those that can learn just from reading. Lucky her. LOL Anyway, I didn't buy the journals for Anatomy for next year, and it's nagging at the back of my mind. Should I buy them just in case they want to use them this time? But then I think of the waste of money when they don't use them...

I bought mini flashcards on a ring, and we write all the roots and vocab words on them. We go through them each day. Each day I tell my son to pick one of his vocab words and he has to use it somehow during the day. I make it like a game, and I do it too, but I try to use as many of the words as possible. He gets so excited when he can use a word he's learned. He usually finds a silly way to use it, which causes a lot of laughter--mostly on his part. He thinks he's funny. For roots, I have him make up words. His favorite word that he's made up is subwear. Instead of underwear, he now wears subwear. He thinks it's the funniest thing.

I'm in the same boat. Back when the production schedule was every 5 months, I thought for sure my now 3rd-grade son would be able to finish through 5, but I'm not so sure now. I think I may have to bring MM back into the fold. He'll be starting 4A in the fall. I think he'll be able to start 5A in the fall of his 5th-grade year (if the production schedule stays on the track it is on), but after that we'll have to move on somehow...Maybe I'll just do filler in order to cement certain concepts, and then finish the series as it's published, and delay Pre-A...

Okay, you all had me worried. I just went online to check out the sample. Maybe I'll feel differently when we get to WWW, but from the sample chapter for WWW1, I liked it. I think we'll skip the history portions if I find they drag on, but it seems more concise and straight forward for me. We love CE1 (we'll be doing Voyage next year, so CE2 at that time as well), but I have to admit that I get bogged down and quite bored with how in depth they go some times. Some times it doesn't bother me, but lately I've found myself skipping things in CE1 because we get the point, and we're just ready to move on. LOL WWW seems to be at our speed. ;)

The support group that I was in did fund raisers. They weren't mandatory, so I didn't do them. For those that did, it just reduced their costs to join for the year. I don't believe the co-op made a lot of money on it. It was really just for people who needed help affording the cost of the support group, which weren't much, but included things like building rental fees and supplies. I'm the kind of person that runs away from any type of fundraiser, but it had nothing to do with why we left the group. That's a whole other story. ;)

I totally agree with this. My DS has a hard time with BA, but even he enjoys doing it more than he did MM. MM was a walk in the park for him. He didn't have to THINK! Now that he has to think, he gets frustrated, and I have to remind him that it's okay to get it wrong, and it's okay to ask for help, and those are lessons that will go a long way in every aspect of his life. I want him to learn how to struggle, and learn how to persevere through hard things/times/etc. BA is teaching my son more than math. ;)

My DS loves Beast, but I wanted to comment upon the graphic novel type of approach to the guide. It seems that there are quite a few people who feel it's too busy. My DS cannot stand comic books. I've tried to get him interested in them, as my DH was big into them at my DS's age, but my DS just hates them. He doesn't like how busy they are, and gets confused on how to follow the words. I wasn't sure how my DS would take the BA guides, but I figured I'd give it a shot. In the beginning of the guides, there are are a few pages that go over how to read the guide. My son spent a lot of time going over those first few pages, and he hasn't had a problem with the guide at all. He still cannot stand comic books or graphic novels at all, but he loves Beast. I just wanted to point out that just because a kid doesn't like comics or graphic novels, it does not mean that they will not be able to learn from BA's comic-style guides.

We've been using the old MM books too, and do not plan to do MM6. I've already bought Dolciani and am planning on purchasing Jousting Armadillos too. I'm so glad to read your post, and see that your DD was well prepared for it. As for the Geometry chapter in 5, we didn't even look at it. After the horrible experience with Geometry in MM4, I wasn't about to go through that again. LOL I bought BA4A for my DD to do over the summer. She'll get her Geometry from that.